The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1890-08-23


and Hardy's Colorado. But be thi:
as it may, any one who goes to it,
mouth can readily see that New
river is a stream of itself.
FOLLOWING NEW RIVER
to its source and you will find thai
all of the maps so far published
are in error, and that the map
makers have put "New river" just
about where they were pleased tC
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 noun
tain, Laguna, Indian Wells, New
River station on the old stage road,
Las Quatitas, Sierra Prietta or
Black Butte, Sulphur Lake, Noun
tain Mejor and into the Colorado
river at Horse Shoe Bend, or just
above it. The west branch rises in
the Sierra Madre, or the main
range, some 30 miles north 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 and
stage road, four miles west of In
dian Wells, where formerly there
was a small, but beautiful lake of
water. Cariso Greek 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
Desert, runs into the New river.
The middle or Alamo branch also
rises on the American side of the
line and after crossing the country
for nearly 200 miles, it empties
into the New river, "a miles south
of the great Volcanoes and Black
Lake. The east branch has it's
head in the Colorado river just be-
low 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. Mendewhall, it is
more than 500 miles in length.
The canal made when, and by
what agency no one knows, is from
so to 200 feet in width and from )
to 20 feet in depth. Outside of the
brush and wood which grow in the
bottom and along it's sides, which
can and should be removed. Col.
Allen estimates that $4,000 will re-
move all Of the sand banks which
abstruct the free movement of the
water from the Colorado river, in
front of Rafael Martinez west to
Coyote Wells, a distance of 100
miles via the canal, and from the
divide in front of Mysterious noun
tain to the Horse Shoe Bend on
the Colorado river. Mysterious
mountain, divide is about Il miles
in width, of pure sand, and in order
to let the water into the great sink
of Indio, from the Colorado river
would require an excavation of
from 5 to 9 feet in depth, Red
Lake 6 miles west of Indian Wells
is 1744 feet below low water mark
at the Yuma railroad bridge.
When once this natural canal sys-
tenn is filled with water, small
stern wheel fiat bottom light
draught steamboats, can run from
Yuma to Indian Wells, on the de-
sert, and if the sink of Indio is
even filled with water, they can run
to Indio on the Southern Pacific
railroad. The water, from where
it leaves the Colorado river at the
lower end Of the Algodones ranch,
runs from 2 to 4 miles per hour, to
Indian Wells and on for 20 miles
beyond, to the base of the Mys-
FERROUS Mountain divide for about
30 miles on the United States side
of the boundary line. When the
water falls into the Colorado River,
the surplus water or that not alb
sorbed by the soil, finds its way
back into the Colorado via. the
west, southwest, Alamo and Will
low Lake branches of the New
River, and through that stream
into the Colorado just above the
Horseshoe Bend. In the great