The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-15

/ the murcery climbed up to III degrees IN
the shade every morning for few sue
cessive days, and descended to 96 degrees
ana 100 degrees at night From June 10 TO
II the daily temperature here ranged from
! lO7 degrees to ia degrees. From June Is
10 June q, inclusive, the temperature on
each afternoon went as high as III degrees
in the shade.
Ever since old Fort Yuma was estab-
ished here, in 1850, the temperature of
Yuma has been prOverbial. All the jokes
and funny stories about high records have
been credited TO Yuma for over forty
years. That ancient, palsied and wealth
er-beaten story about the soldier who liv-
ed and died in the garrison of Yuma and
whose ghost came back one night for his
army blankets for use down in chilly, fros-
~ hell has gone everywhere, and in its
travels throughout the world has given a
| certain fame TO the town. Two genera
| tons of American school children have
| been taught in Biographies that Yuma,
| noted for its high temperature, is situated
on the eastern bank of the Colorado river
and on the western edge of the Arizona
DESERT" Newspaper photographers and hu-
morists have found the summer tempera-
ture records of Yuma a perennial and
fruitful field for their talents.
In the 4Os and j0's Yuman was famous
! among Uncle Sans soldiers as the most
dreaded post on the frontier, and the let
ers and diaries of such military men as
Gems. Albert Sidney Johnston, Edward T..
Beale and Kearney, who served their mil
ltary apprenuceships here, are full of
comments on the hot weather of Fort
Yuma in the summer months John
Phoenix Uieut Derby, the first of the
modern school of American humorists,
was at Fort Yuma for two years, and his
! humor was developed while writing of the
devices of the army boys to avoid the
heat of July and August days in the abode
| buildings at the garrison
There is abundant reason why Yuma Is
the banner hot town OFF the country. 1t is
hot from the very nature of things. The
town is in a sort OF valley where Old Sol
has all the advantages. 1t lies on the east
bank of the Colorado river, which mean
| ders through desert sands and adobe soil
down to the Gulf Of California. Away TO
the west, across the river, and to the
south stretches the Colorado desert, sew
eral thousand square mites in area. 1t is
so merciless, ghOstly and fierce q desert
waste that few dare to cross it by wagon
or on foot in the summer months and in
winter or early spring travellers are care
full to be accompanied by a companion or
two and supplied with an abundance Of
drinking water and food. Every summer
venturesome miners lose their lives in try
| ing to cross the desert by being overtaken
by a sand-stOrm or weakened unto death
| by the dreadful heat. To the north there
| are vast plains and uplands of barren, sun
| baked adobe soil, and peculiar formation
| of lava and soft granite, the remains of
| numerous extinct volcanoes This area
| absorbs the suns heat by day and dis
| tributes il by night. To the east are mil
| lions of acres that are the next thing to
an absolute desert, where nothing grows
except by irrigat ton, and then only scant-
| ly; where no one lives who can exist else
! where. For over 100 miles about Yuma
not tree grows naturally and none Of
| the forest trees that the people of New
| England or the middle states know can be
! grown even artifcially. There is not a
thing in nature anywhere in the region
| to add a degree of GOODNESS to the atmOs-
! phere. There are no balmy breeZes from
! anywhere, no sea or lake air to come once
! in awhile as a relief after hours of steady
! downpouring of solar heat; not a noun
! tain or brook, a canyon or dell, a grove or
beach, throughout a whole country, to
which one may resort for SO much as
moment of GOODNESS. one may gaze in any
| direction from the highest place in Yuma,
! and the only color in nature to be seen is
! a dull reddish brown under a blazing sky.
! Even the sluggish river takes on the hue
| of the surrounding territory.
The total rainfall in Yuma is about
! twelve inches a year; it is twice and
| thrice that in the greater part of the
| eastern states. Rain falls in Yuma and
| the region round about but four or five
/ times III q year, ana only IN the early
winter months. There are, however, some
very heavy floods here in the months of
| February and March, when the water in
! the Colorado river rises and oVeriows
| the banks because of the melting SHOWS
away up in the mountains of Colorado
! and Northern Arizona and of the heavy
! rains in Southern California. When the
! water recedes and leaves bare some thou
! sands of acres of rich bottom lands the
! Indians plant their mesquite beans and
/ melon seeds for their annual crop, just
as the Egyptians do their annual planting
along the banks of the Nile when the
| floods are past. The fertility of these
bottom lands has attracted attention, and
in recent years enterprlsing yankees have
taken up hundreds of acres and are grow
! ing to a small extent fruits and melons,
which are first in the market even in
semi-tropic Southern California and Los
Angeles.
There are about 1900 persons in Yuma,
and in the mining camps and up and down
the river within radius of seventy miles
from the town there are 5000 more. OF
these about $500 are Mexicans. The place
took its name from a tribe of Indians
who have lived in the vicinity for some 200
years. When the Spanish Franciscan
priests came up the Gulf of California
and the Colorado river on their mission
| Of Christianity and civilization in 1917
they found a tribe of 1900 Yuma Indians
living along the river where Yuma has
since grown The Indians were an OFF
shoot from the Apaches. and in those
days were formidable foes Of the Apaches
and Pimas Like all the tribes that have
come In contact with our civilization, the
Yumas have steadily decreased In num-
bers, until to-day there are less than 800
Of them. In 1877 Uncle Sam established a
garrison on the eastern bank Of the river,
on the Arizona side. and gave II the name
of Fort Yuma, after the Indian tribe
there. When gold was discovered in Cal
| lfornia In 1919 Yuma began to grow as
settlement Of white people. During the
extraordinary overland travel by wagons
| and prairie schooners and mule and OK
teams in 1850, 1851 and 1852 thousands OF
people went across Texas and Arizona.
and then, crossing the Colorado river az
Yuma, travelled up the Golden state by
way Of San Bernardlno and Los Angeles.
! Naturally Yuma became a little business
! point. People settled there 20 ferry the
overland passengers across the river. TO
sell provisions ana merchandise 20 the