The Arizona sentinel., 1895-02-16
Along the Colorado River.

ing on the Colorado river from
 Yuma to the Needles, they are a
 revelation. Some time since,
 while at the San Xavier Tn Tucson,
 Arizona, very prominent mining
 engineer, knowing that I was in terested in mining, asked me if I
 had ever been along the Colorado.
 eff not" said he, 'do not go back
 to New York until you have seen
 that wonderful rich country in
 gold, silver, lead and iron." Tin
 had not then been discovered in
 any quantity, said he. I have
 spent several weeks in careful
 examination of the different min
 ing districts, and as result I can
 say that within the next five years
 the country between Ehrenberg
 and Yuma will surprise the world
 in it's output of gold, silver and
 lead Copper does not amount to
 anything, but iron manganese, zinc
 and other minerals will come in
 time, when cheap transportation
 and living can be had. The great
 cement bed of gold east of Ehren-
 berg, the gold veins nearer the
 river, the great gold veins at Pica-
 cho-the finest free milling belt of gold ores 1 have ever seen, together
 with those farther back from the
 Colorado. will astonisf us all,
 while the rich silver and lead dis
 tricts of Castle Dome, Eureka and Silver districts will open the eyes of our silver producing sections. Just at present but little can be done on account of the high costs of provisions and the exorbit ant
  rates of freight. Think of it! Five cents per pound for beans, potatoes, flour, barley or oats; $23 to $30 per ton for hay; $40 to $50 per thousand feet of lumber; eight cents for onions and ten cents for all other vegetables; twenty to twenty five cents for bacon, ham and lard; fifteen cents for sugar, fifty cents for coffee. In these times the miners cannot stand it and live. But the grand keynote has been struck by company of wealthy capitalists, whose names are pur- poseiy withheld from the public at present, who have at Barrier Rocks on the Colorado river, near Plea cho, a large millsite for water power for the largest electric plant ever constructed. The river at this point is divided into four channels or waterways by great piers of rocks thirty-fve to seventy feet above the river and having a base of from 100 to 500 feet square, being 75 to 125 feet apart and ex- tend out into and down the river far enough to give room for the construction of from 100 to 150 distinct water wheels which can be built so that they will stand in lines or series of three or four each, on one or different shafts in line. At first, one wheel or a series of wheels will be put in and be con- nected to a 1000 kilowatt generator, the largest ever built. Lines will be put up first to the mines and mill which, by the time the wheels are ready, will be in operation. Then, as fast as the demand in- creases, other wheels or series of wheels will be put in. These wheels will be suspended or hung from iron or steel bridges which will rest on the great piers which nature has already constructed. The entire work will be of iron, steel and aluminium. In short, the plan is this: To furnish power and light for running all the mines, mills, furnaces, smelters and reduc- tion works within a radius of 100 miles; to run narrow guage rail- road which will be built to con- meet the mines and mining plants with each other; to run steamers from the Needles to Yuma and the Gulf; to pump water for irrigating all the valleys along the Colorado, and also into the canals that will
 be built to irrigate the great valley