Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1899-09-06
Verde vaner .-CIear Creek


 Arizona, as the soil seems adapted to fruit, especially apples. Messrs. Thompson and Jones have about . l500 fruit trees, from three to seven . years old. just now beginning Co bear, while most most localities ID . northern Arlzons suffered as the re- suit oi the unprecedented freeze oi
 May 2, 1899. This orchard was not touched and is loaded with fruit.
 As their place IS above the surveyed land and only held under squatters
 rights, l will say they have about ZO acres in cultivation, most Of II be- ing in fruit trees. There are per haps 70 acres all told. on the creek thas can be cultivated st their place.
 \ few miles below them Is an Indian settlement of fifty or sixty Mohave
 Indians who have some four or i've small dltches aud perhaps leo acres Of land located. understand Jus
 tine Head, an educated Indian, has dled on l60 acres of land. As this stream empties into the Verde river about s.x miles below Camp Verde and is one of the most prosperous as
 well as best improved lot of land ID
 the valley. l give the number of acres filed ou and also amount ID cultivation. | live near this settlement and have had occasion to notice the water supply closer than either oi . the tributary streams before men, toned. Iu the early sixties when ! Judge F.. w. Wells, Joe Sweatman, ' Peter Eiche. McSoule, Charles . Yates, Henry Dawson Boblett and others, most of whom have long since ceased to roam, took out the ! first irTigatiug ditches that were ever used in northern Arizona since ' the days of the Aztecs, when Clear creek was nearer a lake or seTieF of lakes than the beautiful mountain stream than 1t IS today, for the reason that the water was held ID check by dense growth of unde: brush, large tufts of grass, jules and cat-tail flags, and numerous beaye eT dams. But with the disappearance
 of the beaver, free range Tor stock
 and the eating out of the under
 growth of water grass, weeds and
 water vegetation, causing the creek ! to concentrate and deepen the
 channel until now there IS three or |. four times the amount of water of 25 years ago, when there was
 scarcity of water for only about 2OO
 acres, while there IS now ln actual
 cultivation and irrigated from six individual and two company dltches
 SlO acres. about $50 acres of which is ia alfalfa, Snd there IS more water for this amount of land now than
 there was for the 2JO acres . years ago. This amount does not include
 several small fields and patches of Q
 few acres each belonging to a lot Of
 Apache and Mohave Indians living
 up in the box canyon on the upper
 part of the creek. 1 also find there are 22O acres, exclusive of the land
 held by the Indians, under what IS
 known as sQuatteT's rights, there are 2240 acres either patented or
 filed on m the United Statss land . office at Prescott.
 have now given you the amount
 of land in actual cultivation on Oak, Beaver and Clear creeks, the three , largest tributary streams In what IS . known as Nerdy Salley. Also a care
 fully approximate calculation of the
 amount of land already covered by the various ditches on these streams 3 that is at the present susceptible oi 2 cultivation under the various dltches . already constructed, and will say
 both Beaver and Clear creeks already have under cultivation all the land that the waters of these streams are
 capable of watering, but by Judlc-
 lous and economical use of the water there Is plenty of water to irrigate - all the land now covered by the , various ditches. But on Oak creek there are several thousand acres oi land aud water abundant for same but it requires capital or cO-opera - tion. as all the land now susceptible [ of cultivation, not already located l:
 mesa or upland.
 $ In my next letter 1 will endeavoi l to show up a portion of the Verde |. valley proper, and some of the
 many reasons why we need a rail road aud need 1t bad. Most sn,
 road will do us a great good, but
 taking all in all and for the beueh'
 of old Yavapai, in whose bosom | expect some day my bones will b, e planted we need most of all a rail n road to Prescott, our county seat
 and if is one IS built from Prescott (,
 the Verde valley by any route 1t vii be many long day before theT, r will be any desire by the peopl, l. here 10 have a new county.
 fl \ good route from Mayer to tht
 Verde valley can be selected at
 distance of about thirty miles an' $ twenty to twenty-five miles in tn a valley will reach Jerome, owing {, "a the place selected for the road t
 enter the valley. Sixty miles, al F told. will cover the entire distance Is and since I showed up the wonder
 ful possibilities of those big spring n on Oak creek. through the column 70 of the JoURNAL-MINER, cOmpan \ has been organized and right to tn u springs and right of way obtained { g. put in an electric plant and utillz r. the power for Jerome and Othe ,l near by mining camps, and also | - M. Turner's milL
 g. want to say right here 1 am OF n posed to bonds for a railroad, bu
 any fair minded man who lives l
 the Verde valley. no matter wha e his occupation, must admit he vii e' be baDeftted by a railroad to tn ,e valley. and If l could l would will D. ingly extend the exemption claus 10 Co get any individual, company c
 corporation to build a railroad int 'u the valley for the benefit of tn & agricultural and mining resources 0 e. the valley and mountain foot hills .v which would be the means of moT .l mining towns similar, if not quite : ' large. as Jerome, which would caus a a doubling up of our property i IS value and the bringing into exis' d ence other valuable and assessabl |, property that must lay dormant fo
 many years without railroads an
 the greater portion of which will b it paving property fl cheap trsnspoi ID tarlou Tor machinery and fuel can b l- obtained.
 h Now don't think l am doing a
 thIs writing for buncombe. W 1s need a railroad here and unles Is Prescott gets the terminus Instea ,. -...,.. ,,laga am ina nain line O