Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-08-30

Oull, JLS ClOuug NdttlS HldhS lhSli way.
 BUT ENOUGH OF THE COLORADO RIVER.
 Ninety miles below Yuma, by the course of the river, and just before you enter the great Horse Shoe Bend, which Is really the opening of the mouth of the Colorado, there enters on the west side, stream of water, at times grand, brave, and muddy, and again, small, clear and gentle. This is generally known as Hardy's Colorado. Why? No one can tell, but some say, that when General Hardy came up the Colorado he made a mistake and took this, for the Colorado, as he thought that it contained more water than the Cobra do itself but the old rivermen like Cap tains lager. Wilcox, Johnson, Mellon, Polhamus, Meek, Godfrey, and others knew full well that the stream was New river" and Hardy's Colorado. But be this as it may, any one who goes to its mouth can readily see that New river is a stream of itself
 FOLLOWING NEW RIVER
 to it's source and you will find that all of the maps so far puplished, are in error, and that the map makers have put New river" just about where they were pleased to put it. New river proper has its source in the great sink of Indio, and formerly it ran to the sea in the same channel it now has, via the pass of the mysterious mountain Laguna, Indian Wells, New River station on the old stage road, Las Quatitas, Sierra Prieta or Black Butte. Sulphur Lake, Mountain | Meior and into the Colorado river at Horse Shoe Bend, or just above it. The west branch rises in the Sierra Madre, or l of | the Cantiles. and runs north east past Pinto mountain and empties into the main stream at the Laguna. The Laguna was the famous stage station on the Los ] Angeles stage road, four miles west of IndianWells. where formerly there was q small, but beautiful lake of water. Cariso Creek also empties into the same lake, or Laguna. All of the drainage of the eastern slope of the main range of mountains that form the back bone of the country west of the great Colorado Des- ert, runs into the New river. The middle or Alamo branch also rises on the Ameri- can side of the line; after crossing the country for nearly 200 miles, it empties into the New river, 24 miles south of the great Volcanoes and Black Lake. The east branch has its head in the Colorado
 river just below Hall Hanlon's, and runs west for 105 miles.
 THIS GREAT NATURAL CANAL SYSTEM
 as followed up, explored and measured by Col. D. K. Allen and engineer D. c. Men denhall it is more than 800 miles il
 length. The canal made when, and by
 what agency no one knows, Is from 50 tC
 900 feet in width and from , to 20 feet iI
 depth. Outside of the brush and wood
 which grow in the bottom and along its
 sides, which can and should be removed
 Col. Allen estimates that $50O0 will re
 move all of the sand banks which ob
 struct the free movement of the water
 from the Colorado river, in front of Rafae
 Martinez west to Coyote Wells, a dis
 tance of 130 miles via the canal, and iron
 the divide in front of Mysterious noun
 tain to the Horse Shoe Bend on the Colo
 rado river Mysterious mountain divide
 is about l E miles in width, of pure sand and ill order to let the water into th,
 great sink of Indio, from the Colorado river would require an excavation of iron
 to feet ill depth. Red Lake 6 mile west of Indian Wells is 174l5 feet belov low water marks at the Yuma railroad
 bridge. When once this natural cana / system is filled with water, small sterl wheel flat bottom light draught steam boats can run from Yuma to Indial Wells. on the desert, and if the sink O ', Indio is even filled with water, they cal ! run to Indio on the Southern Pacific rail road. The water, from where 1t leave the Colorado river at the lower end of tn | Algodones ranch, runs from to 4 mile | per hour, to Indian Wells and on for ? miles beyond, to the base of the Myster ious Mountain divide for about 32 mile ci1 Ia T,f tltal flar-
 line. When the water falls into the Colo : rado river, the surplus water or that no | absorbed by the soil finds its way bac
 into the Colorado via. the west, soutI
 west, Alamo and Willow Lake branche
 of the New river and through that streaI ', into the Colorado just above the Horse I shoe Bend. In the great overflow of las a spring nearly all of the country from Ha T HanlOn's south to the Painted Mtns, an f from the Colorado river west to India d Wells was under water, or an area of 1C :, miles in length by from 20 to 40 miles d width. This great overflow was cause ', by the river cutting away the high san ridge or divide in front of Manuel Ma
 tinez. which allowed the water to I'll across the country unobstructed, throug n the natural canal. This high divide nn nn the great flood of ''S4" prevented the WI " |, ter from getting out of the banks of u ,ss Colorado until it reached point some { IJ miles down the river.
 r Leading from these large canals bac ,v into the country, are hundreds of sma w canals, from 10 to 30 feet wide and 215 in , feet in depth, through which the wat, 1r flows until the whole region is well SUI fl. piled and finally completely overflow re The value of this great canal system ca ar not be over-estimated when we take |
 the matter of irrigating this great boo
 of garden land. Colonel Allen and E
 gineer Mendephall estimated that the ii
 wood growing in these canals and ( their banks will more than pay all the e Ut pense of clearing them from the brus 's- stumps, wood and trees. This wood e 'ee, be cut and piled on the banks of the c d, nal, and when they are filled with wat as the wood can be loaded on the flat-bC IT, tom boat or seows and lowed or float ne out to the Colorado, where steambos 'd' can take it to the railroad or up the riy ln to the mines and other points where the us there may be a demand for 1t. This Il; ed ural canal system
 4 WILL SAVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS i'll ill the great work of irrigating the Ian ot on the west side of the Colorado river l It. LOW 1ulla, dS lneSe VIII 10TH une cnd Iat nels through which the water will be e ar- ducted for more than hundred miles k the westward, and thus saving diggi no ditches or building fumes. These canj In. are wonderful. How, when, or by WI mt agency they were made no one knoV ed Upon their sides the deep, well-worn W
 ter marks show that at no less than nj
 different times or periods have they be
 filled with water. Mesquite, willow a
 cottonwood trees 21s to feet in diame
 are fonpd growing there still. Others nd like size have fallen and have lain on t s's ground for years and yeqrs, as shown ,n- their decaying forms. Large willow tTt ir- have been taken from where they gr as and carried to the westward by some 100 the great overfows more than 100 mil es It is generally believed that the wa ee. cut out these canals. but what did it as with the millions and millions of cul
 l lz1-. .-.,l. L.