The Dispatch. [volume] (Provo City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1891-07-04

Los ANGELES, Cal, July "A spe-
cial dispatch says the water around
Salton is now within 1000 feet of the
Main street. fit continues to come
in as it has been doing, it will wash
the Southern Pacific track out in three
days. The deepest water found is
three feet and the shallowest current
fourteen inches. Superintendent Oar
row of the salt works is alarmed and
wants the railroad company to send
men to fix the break in the river. The
| Greak is thirteen miles below FL Rio
and about seventy miles from Salton.
The Indians are badly scared. All the
desert Indians have fled to the hills,
and even those as high as the Bon
nong are leaving for the mountains.
SAN FRANCISCO, July From the
| reports of the engineers sent out from
Yuma by the Southern Pacific railroad
| it appears that the flood smear Salton is
even more serious than at first re-
ported.
The heat continues to be unbearable.
Old residents of this city say that
while the water is higher than ever
known before, the desert lake is not
a new thing and the phenomenon has
occurred frequently, but from the fact
that the desert is uninhabited and
few venture across it, it has not been
noticed.
A desert gale blowing from the east
last night piled the water up on the
west shore of the new lake, so that on
this side the water shows no advance
to-day. Where this immense bpdy of
water comes from is The question.
Some believe that one of the late earth
quakes made a fisSure in the mountains
and that the water is from the ocean
100 miles distant. Others account for
1t by a cloudburSt on the west side of
the desert. Slaton is in the bottom of
an ancient ocean, 265 feet below the
level of the sea. Eight miles below
Yuma the Colorado river has overlooked
its west bank for ten miles since Feb
rllary, with a rate from two to five feet
deep.
Tins overflow runs to the northwest
Through the old natural canal system of
the new river for 120 miles, with a cur
rent of five miles per hour, into the |
great laguna region, where the water
has an area of forty miles square, with |
depth OF from three to ten feet. This |
body of water is $50 feet lower than
the Colorado river at the point of over |
flow, but 227 feet higher than Salton. |
Indian Wells lake is l20 miles from the
Colorado, but not more than fifty miles |
from Salton. All that prevents this !
vast body of water from going into the |
desert basin at Salton and filling it il a |
ridge of sand, nine feet high at its
highest point, and about one mile wide.
The theory is that the water in the
Indian Wells lake has found an under
ground passage through this bank of
sand and has broken out west of Sal
ton. If ditch was cut through the
sand in the old river bed, one half of |
the water in Colorado river would be
turned into that ancient sea,
There can be no doubt but that not |
long ago the Colorado turned to the
northwest, just below Yuma, and
poured its volume of water into the
Salton basin, which. if filled, would
make lake 100 miles in length, 40
miles wide aid 200 feet deep If the
basin fills up, the Southern Pacific rail-
road will have to move $50 miles of
main tine. There are but few inhabi-
tants in the desert, outside of the rail
road employees, and the laborers at the
rise every inhabitant for 100 miles will
moved to higher ground The flow of
water on the Colorado river at the pres
ent time is estimated at nearly 1,000,-
600 cubic feet per minute. The current
at the Yuma railroad bridge is nine
miles per hour.
New Lake at Salton has already re-
duced the temperature from III on
to 10l degrees for the past
two days,
There is no danger of loss of life, as
the area of the desert to be filled is so
large that if the whole Colorado was
turned into it everybody would have
time to escape.
Should the basin continue to fill
many of the buildings can be moved {
and most of the property saved.
There is no live stock in the whole
region. 1t is barren waste. A new
idea relative to the water is to the eff
feet that an artesianuwell at Indio, |
twenty-four miles distant, was plugged S
up, and that this caused subterranean
stream to break out at Salton. One
hing is certain, the Salton basin and l
Indian wells region once formed part
Of the gulf OF California, and that both {
have been under water at six different {
periods, three times under salt and {
three times under fresh water. :
The shells tell this story. 1t would I
lot be strange if this is to be the sew /
enth time. The natural canal system /
VI the new river is $50 miles in length.
The canals are from 80 to $50 feet wide l
md from 10 to % deep to carry the t
water of the Colorado river to where it l
S held, above the heads of those who t
i've in the desert basin of Salton. S
There is waste enough at the present |
ime to float one of the river steamers I
If 100 tons burden. S
Should the water break through the /
iand bank on the surface, no power t
;ould stop it, and the desert will be 8
made into the Colorado lake, the pet 5
lream of General Fremont nearly fifty /
years ago. 3
If the water does not find passage l
rom Indian Wells, but does come from /
)ther sources, an inlet can be made for :
t ana the desert irrigated whit, when t
t would become the garden spot, with {
ruit and orange groves of the Pacific {
,oasl. The old Indians say that their {
told them that long ago the !
5alton basin was great sea, and that
when the Colorado was high it flowed
INTO it, that when the same bank form
I'd where it now is.
The Indians went and cut small {
hitch and the water did the rest. and
he latter again filled the lakes. They !
say that the time has come when it
must be lake again. Many of them
nave moved to higher gIound in order I
o be ready for the coming change
Boats and men have been sent from Los
Angeles to Salton to go and explore the
axe to ascertain where the water en-
erS it. I
True Love Never Dies. :