St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-03
THE FLOODED DESERT.
Continual Rise of Waters
Where Was Recently a
Sandy Waste.
Indians Are Much Excited
and Are Fleeing to the
Mountains.
The Medicine Man Had Fore
told Destruction Of the
Whites.
Mai. Powell Enters Into a
Scientific Explanation OF
the Phenomena.

Los ANGELES, Cal, July 2.-There is
no improvement of affairs in Salton.
The water in the lake is rising, but no
special uneasiness is felt by the rail-
road people. Owing to the almost I'M
bearable heat, it is impossible to get
any white man to venture on the desert
at this time of year. The Indian run
ner sent by the railroad people has not
yet returned, and the boat sent out
from Salton has only been able to get a
short distance. a telegram received at
the railroad Office in this city says: "a
strong wind Tuesday night from the
southeast raised the water on the north
shore. The west water line is moving
westward slowly. l cannot reach the
end of the track. and | fear the track
will go with the next strong wind.
The waters are surely but slowly
rising. The saturation is Is per cent
fresher than Tuesday. That the water
comes from the Colorado river, which
it leaves at a point near Pilot Knob,
there is but little doubt" In answer to
dispatch of inquiry yesterday, Supt.
Muir. OF the Southern Pacific, received
the following from w. II. Blaisdell,
superintendent of mines at Ogilbee,
eighteen miles this side of Yuma: 'In
regard to the water that is
Flowing Into the Desert
from the Colorado river at a point some
fifteen or twenty miles below Pilot
Knob ever since the great overflow in
February, we have been wondering
where it was going to. cannot state
that it is running to-day, but it was a
week ago." A special dispatch says
that the water around Salton is now
within 1000 feet of the main
track. 1t came in 200 feet in
two hours yesterday. If it continues to
come in as it has been doing, it will
wash out the Southern Pacific track in
three days. The deepest water found
was three feet and the shallowest in the
current fourteen inches. Supt. Oar
brow, of the salt works, is alarmed and
wants the railroad company to send
men to fix the break in New river. The
break is thirteen miles, below Ell Rio,
and is about seventy miles from Sal
ton. The Indians are badly scared
and all the desert Indians have fed to
the hills, and even those as high up as
Banning are leaving for the mountains.
A week ago, a medicine man came to
Banning reservation, ana told the In
dianS the Messiah said there would be a
big flood by July 4: that all the whites
will be swept away and only Indians
saved. He said that Indians who
worked up to July 4, would not have
time to get away.
Indians Are Much Excited
and even the most intelligent ones are
going to Grayback mountain with their
families tomorrow. A special dispatch
from SaltOn at II O'Clock last night said
the water was still rising, but not so
rapidly as in the afternoon. Old resi-
dents of this city say that while the
water is higher than ever known be-
fore, the desert lake is not new thing,
and the phenomenon has occurred fire.
quently, but from the fact that the
desert is uninhabited, and no one ever
ventures across it, it has not been
noticed.
SAN Francisco, July 2.-The latest
reports from the Badlands state that the
San Pedro boat, which had been
OF the inflow of water in the
vicinity of Salton station, on the
Southern Pacific railroad, was compelled
to return soon after the sun rose yester-
day morning owing to excessive heat.
Fifteen miles from Salton the water was
found to be fourteen inches deep, and
the current six and a half miles per
hour. Three miles southeast of SaltOn,
where Tuesday the water was only
eight inches deep, it was yesterday
twenty-One inches deep. The boat
started out again last night.
SAN JOSE, Cal, July "A CORES
pendent, who has been camping in the
mountains, says that several gaps were
made in the mountains between the
coast and the Colorado desert by Mon
day mornings earthquake shocks, and
the correspondent claims that the water
now entering the desert comes direct
from the Pacific, and is probably pour
ing through some assure caused by the
earthquake.
Lay of the Land.
SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, July 2.-The
Southern Pacific company sent out to-
day, from Yuma, an engineering party
to investigate the appearance of the
large body of water in dry lake" 70 the
southwest of the SaltOn. The latest
information from Yuma is that the
waters have not only followed along the
old channel into what is called the
''sink," but have broken out a little
to the north Of the point where they
usually overflow that is, nearer to
Yuma. Every year there is a flow of
water in the sink, which travels along
the old channel and then gradually
evaporates and subsidies as the wear
progresses and the waters of the Col
Orado river fall. The old San Diego
and Yuma stage line has a bridge over
the old channel, and ten months in the
year no one would know why such a
bridge had ever been built There is
also ferry there, which has been used
during the annual flood. To the north
OF the lake. and to the southwest of
Salton there is on some maps of the
state long bean-shaped tract marked
"Old Dry Lake" Between it and the
sink there is, however, a high ridge of
clay.
In ''Old Dry lake" there is now water
covering an area of thirty miles in
length and twelve miles wide. 1t is
only twenty-one inches deep, however,
and the ground when dry is thirteen
feet six inches below level of tracts.
Inc theory of the Southern Pacific
engineers is that the water from the
sink has percolated the ground urder
the clay ridge and so has filled I'D Old
Dry lake. There is no fear what
ever. officials say, of the water ever
reaching the tracks, because eYapora-
llon Is very great, ana especially under
the intense heat now existing in the
desert. The stream running into old
dry lake p0urs in at the rate of about
four and half miles an hour, and it is
10 determine the source of this stream
that the engineering party started on a
trip of discovery to-day. On the east
side of the sink the company's tracks
have the additional natural protection of
one of the highest sand mounds in the
United States. 1t extends almost par
allel to the track for many miles, up to
Clay Ridge from Cactus.