The oasis., 1894-08-30

Tn ursday, August 30, 1894.
A Rich and Growing Region.

the outside world to one or Ine rlch-
 est regions on the face of the earth,
 which in this day of quick communi- cation has been isolated by distance
 from rail transportation. Now that
 is all changed, and instead of a day s long and weary drive through the dust, the traveller is landed in the val ley in a couple of hours time.
 The road is at present running trains to Solomonville, forty miles from Bowie, but tracklaying will be resumed next Monday, and will then be carried uninterruptedly until Fort Thomas is reached, distance ofabout twenty-iye miles farther. At this point construction will rest until con- gressional legislation is secured giving a right of way over the military and Indian reservations which have to be crossed.
 In the edge of the Indian reserya- tion are extensive coal deposits, which congress will be asked to segregate from the reservation and throw open to entry. Should this be done, of which there can be hardly any doubt, there will be created coal mining in dustry that will make Graham county one of the most populous'and wealthy in Arizona, and give the rich and va- ried products of the Gila valley a very profitable home market right at hand.
 In the Gila mountains not far away from Stafford are extensive deposits Of copper from which very rich ore has been taken. The railroad will give the owners such rate for transporta- tion of the ore from Stafford to the smelters at Fl Paso that it will enable them to mine and ship at a profit. Heretofore the cost of wagon trans portation to Bowie has prevented that and the only work done on the proper ties has been the regular assessment work. Some very promising gold lodges have also been found in the same mountains, and it is anticipated that there will be decided development of the mineral resources of the cOun- try, hand in hand with the other de- velopment going on.
 With the quickening of enterprise brought about by the railroad there are number of projects well under way for new canals, which will bring under cultivation large areas of the fertile and virgin soil of the valley, | and marked improvements are being | made in some of the old ones. Under the head of the former comes the En- | terprise canal, which will head on the | Gila river a short distance above SO- | lomonyille, and convey water q dis tance Of forty miles down the valley, | covering all the land on the south side | of the river to the mesa at the foot of | the Graham mountains, and irrigating | twelve thousand acres back of Safford. | Thatcher and Pima. The Union ditch, | one of the old canals, which covers the | Stafford county, is putting in a new heading, at Solomonyille. Its dam was washed out by the high water. The dam will not be rebuilt. Instead a deep cut is being made, some three quarters of mile in length, which will carry the canal right into the bed of the river some distance above, and which will assure the canal water without dam. The plan of the en- gineer. MT. Samuel Logan, contem- plates laying pipe or pipes in the bed of the river distance of about a half mlle up stream. on q level. This will bring the pipes at their upper end four feet beneath the river bed, tapping the underflow and filling thet