Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-24
COLORADO DESERT NOTES
HOW THE BIG RIVER Is CHANGING
ITS COURSE.
j. 8. Carter, the Desert Expert, Writes of
His Recent Observatfons-The
Indians Planting the
Sands.

j. s. Carter, the veteran desert man,
writes under date of the 18th, at
Algodones, to the Yuma Sentinel, as fol-
lows:
The Colorado river is constantly
changing it's bed and course from two
miles above, at, and below the great
break made by the food of last year.
The main stream is still taking to the
west, cutting through the great cotton
woods; part of it flows back into the
old river near the easterly end of the
big bend. From there up to the crevasse
the old channels are entirely closed up
with eand and driftwood. All of the
small streams supplying Garter river
near its source ARE nearly closed by drift
and sand, although the late rise cut under
the drift and let more water into Garter
was not more than three inches of
water on the bar. Below the crevasse
there are immense piles of drift, which
stop the flow of water and forces it
over to to the east bank. Only for this
the old channel of the Colorado would
close up entirely. There is not fall
thirty miles to keep it clear from drift,
brush and grass. The west bank, above
the great break in the Colorado, ia COM
posed of very hard clay. Only for this,
| the eriver would cut into the west for
| miles, and the entire stream would 90
off towards Indian Wells. What chance
to irrigate all that country. There
is hardly a square foot in the great
desert that cannot be reached by the
water that even now flows through the
great crevasse in the river. Why not I?
The fall is 100 feet in sixty-fve miles, in
a direct line. Those who say to the
contrary, talk through their chats )" in
fact are ignorant of the fact and know
nothing about what they write or talk.
Isay that every foot, almost, of the
desert can be fully irrigated, and that
too by the Colorado during the year. 1t
carries water enough to water four such
deserts, and then have enough to carry
any steamer ever built at Yuma or the
shipyards, from the Grand Canon to the
gulf.
The Indians are putting in an i'm
mense crop for them, but the rats and
cottontails keep them busy. The In
dians put the entrails of fish (sic), stick
traps, build walls of clay, and then are
upIall night beating tin cans, coal oil
cans, any anything else to make noise.
and yet the pests come and destroy the
corn, which the Indians keep replanting.
Since the flood the Indians are we'll sup
piled with boats, which they picked up.
All the Indians live on fish, which are
very plentiful.
There should be a good we'll dug at
Indian Wells, and well curbed up, as
there was years ago. Then large white
posts twenty feet high, and plank sign
boards, well fastened to them, should
be put up on the highest point near the
springs, wells, water holes and other
places where water can be found, and
the Breedlove tragedy will not be re.
peated. The government should do this
work. | understand that Governor
Torres will cooperate, on the part of the
Mexican government.
never saw such growth of grass.
The old Indans say that they never saw
anything like it. 1t is from four to
seven feet high and thick as it can
stand. The wild hemp which was just
coming up two weeks ago, is from ten
to twelve feet high, and almost as thick
as the grass. All of the barren places
which for years have been like beds ol
ashes, or caked hard as an
adobe, are covered with grass
and calite, even the few sand
hills here and there. in that which was a
desert two years ago, are now hidden by
an immense growth of grass, weeds and
brush in fact the desert is transformed,
and today locks more like garden or
field. So much for water. This shows
what every inch of the great desert will
be when it is once properly irrigated, as
1T will be, not far in the future.