The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-06
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features that would prove advanta-
geous to southern Utah directly, and
to Salt Lake Indirectly. The Herald on
Sunday had an article in relation to
the route, and the great river along the
course of which the road will have to
run. The following particulars will be
interesting TO those who are watching
the tide Of events running in that di-
rection:
Less than half century after Co.
lumbus had set foot on Plymouth Rock
the old Padres, missionaries, explorers
and Spanish soldiers were crossing this
grand old stream from Yuma up and
down even from the mouth of the
Grand canyon to the gulf.
In 1910 Vasquez de Coronado, with
his command. roamed over portions of
this country in search of gold and the
''Planchas de la Plata of the Mono
tezumas." Lieutenant Diaz and his lit
tie band of twenty-five men left Coro-
nado and put off to the westwardd
where they discovered the Colorado,
near Yuma, and followed it to it's
mouth. Captain Cardinas, one of Coro-
nado's party, took twelve men and
travelled to the northward and reached
the pueblos of the NIoquis and the
Grand canyon of the Colorado.
About the same time Captain Fer
nando Alercon sailed up the gulf and
assembled the river in small boats for
some distance. Then for more than two
centuries that whole country was a
cd hno1y - -
tribes that inhabit it and its adjacent
regions.
In 1744 Father Sedelmayer followed
the ella river from its source to its
junction with the Colorado at Yuma.
In 1776 Father Escalante went from
Santa Fe to Salt Lake, and explored
the country south of the Virgin river,
and down to its junction with the Col
orado, to the same point to which
Cardinas had assembled more than 200
years before.
The old missionaries continued to
come and go, and began their arduous
work of trying to Christianize the In
dams along the river, but with little
or varying success for half a century,
suffering all the privations incident to
a frontier life.
In 1S49 came the hordes Of gold hunt
ers. During the period from May, 1S49,
to September, 1850, inclusive, more than
100000 men, women and children
crossed the Colorado at and near Yuma,
on their way to the land of gold, I'M
aware that along the very trail, roads
and rivers over and near which they
travelled were the richest gold and sill
yer mines in the world.
The discovery of gold in California
led the United States government to
begin the great work of a careful and
scientific exploration of the Colorado /
river and the great unknown south |
west.
In 1851 Captain Sitgreaves, U. A. A, !
and party, went from Santa Fe, n.
NJ, via Zani, striking the headwaters |
of Bill Williams Fork, which ne de-
scended to the Colorado, thence down |
that stream to Yuma.
In 1854 Lieutenant Whipple, with 100 |
men, explored the route for a railroad |
on the 35th parallel to the Colorado, |
but 1t was left to Lieutenant J. C. Ives |
and his little party, with their little
steamer, the Explorer, to make the first |
thorough exploration of the Colorado |
river, from its mouth up to the Virgin. |
and the mouth of the Grand Canyon;
this was in 81, more than 300 years
after Diaz and his little party had dis
covered the Colorado.
Little did Lieutenant Ives and his |
party think that within half a cen |
fury the richest and most extensive |
gold and silver belts in the world, and |
that great areas of fine coal and iron
would be found in the very hills and
mountains washed by the Colorado,
and which formed one of the grand OBJ
jects for their explorations, and over
which they were daily passing. Little
did they dream of the millions of gold
hidden, but to be taken out at Piacho,
La PaZ and Pot Hotes; and of the mil
lions of rich silver and lead at Gray
Old Castle Dome in the distance, Eu
reka and Clip, and that grand old
Chimney Peak, weird and sublime as
it stood, was there as the sentinel on
guard of the vast mineral resources
which are now being uncovered, and
that here was the richest free milling
ores in the west, and the most extensive
gold section on the coast; or that Bar
rier Rocks, near Picacho, where their
little steamer could not stem the cur
rent, even at the lowest water Of the
year; that those very rocks would be-
come the foundation for the largest
electric plant ever built, or that the
great plains of Gutenberg would turn
out millions in gold, and that the gray
hills of Silver district and the White
Hills were rock-ribbed with silver; or
that a great line of railroad would be
Quilt along the west bank of the very
river that they were exploring, which
would bring out, open up and develop
he great coal and iron fields of Utah
and supply every railroad and river
point in the southwest with coal, and
llso supply the rich mining districts 4.
n southern Utah, southeastern Neva- .
la, eastern and southern California :
md all of Arizona, as well as the COM
ng seaport of the Pacific coast, San
Diego, and new and connecting line ,
o the east. OF these grand facts the ,
explorers never dreamed. Z
But it matters not what those
worthless anticipated or ignored. The
uestion is shall the resources of that ,