The Arizona sentinel., 1899-05-13
Colorado River Country.

! uc CoIOI quo IlVSr, GHe NIIe Ol the west, IS the grandest stream in the great southwest, draining south eastern Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, sontheastern Idaho eastern Utah and California, north. ern Sonora and all of Arizona; an area of more than 5C0,000 square miles; water shed of more than 300,000,0O0 acres, and carries their drainage into the gulf of California, xty-fve miles by lard and 160 by the river below Yuma, Arizona.
 While the lower portions of the river were among the first sections of America explored, yet little is known of that vast almost impene- trable region, hemmed in by the wonderful and magnificent canyon of the Colorado, and in its environs, the wonderland of the American continent Less than half century after Columbus had set foot on American soil, the old padres, mis- sionaries and Spanish soldiers were crossing the river from Yuma, the point where they first saw it, down to it's mouth, and up to the Grand canyon, upon which they gazed in wonder and astonishment.
 Then for more than three cen- turies, that section was closed book, except to the warlike tribes that inhabited it and the country adjacent. In 1540, Vasques de Coronado, young and valiant Spanish officer, with a small body of men, roamed over this same re- zion in search of gold. A little after he was followed by Captain Fer nando Alacen, who came for the same purpose. One of his officers, Lieut.. Cardinas, also reached the Grand canyon. In 1744 the mis. sion padres came again and in 1776 they began the great work of chris tianizing the Indians along the river, but with varying success, some of the missions being burned by the IDdians and all the occup. ants, padres, teachers, christian Indians, men, women and children murdered in cold blood by the sav- ages living in the adjacent territory Tn 1849 came the gold hunters bound for California. During the period from May '49 to September 50 more than 100000 men. women and children crossed the Colorado at Yuma, Arizona. on their way to the land of gold, u1awares that along the very trails and roads over which they passed, were the richest gold, silver and copper mines Tn the world. This rush to the west led the United States government to begin the work, lengthy and tedious, of 8 careful, reliable and scientific exploration of the unknown south west. In 1851, Captain Sitgreaves of the United States army, travelled from Santa Fe, New Mexico, via the Santa Maria ard Bill Williams Fork and Ehrenberg to Yuma, Arl- zona. portion of the line now oc- cupied by the Santa Fe railway compan
 In 1851 Lieut.. Whipple of the United States army with 100 men, explored the route for railroad on or near the thirty fifth parallel, but it was left for Lieut.. J. c. Ives, who with Prof. J. $. Newberry as topo- grapher, Messrs. P H Taylor and c. H. Brooker, as astronomer and meteorologist and Prot. Mollhausen as the artist and collector of spec imens, to make the first scientific exploration O. the Colorado river. Little did the party know or even think that within the next half 8 century. the richest and most ex- tsnsive gold, silver and copper mines in the west would be discoV- cred in the very hills and noun tains washed by the Colorado river and which even at that time fur 1 nished them subjects for thought. study and careful examination
 Little did they think that Ploacho, wierd and sublime as it stood, held in it's sands at it's feet the millions Of Plcacho gold which, since then has been taken cut, and that the grand old peak today would over look the most extensive and richest free milling gold ore region in the world; or that the great copper basin of the Colorado lay just below