The Saint Paul globe., 1901-06-23

also destined to lose the name of Desert
because of this same river.
At one time the Gulf of California ex-
tended nearly UP to banning, where rise
those two sentinels Of the plain, Mount
San Jacinto and Grizzley Peak, towering
nearly two miles above the surrounding
plain. This was before the Colorado
river had cut its way through the noun
tains to the sea, forming that magnificent
chasm known as the Grand Canyon.
When this mighty river had carved its
channel through the opposing mountains
1t emptled its silt-ladened waters into the
California sea and doomed a portion Of
1t to isolation and extinction. All that
vast mass of rock and earth eaten out
of the heart Of the continent was ground
and pulveriZed and brought down to the
Gulf. part Of it was spread several
hundred feet thick over the northern por-
ton of the Gulf and down south Of the
Mexican line it was piled still higher for
distance of sixty miles Along the right
side Of the current was also formed a
lateral embankment which eventually di-
rected the river to it's present junction
with the Gulf, and, with the sixty-mile
embankment in Mexico, severed that por.
ton of the Gulf north of the embaul1-
ment from the main sea. Then the
thirsty sun drank up the waters OF the
A NATIONS TREASURE HELD IN
TRUST.
How many centuries ago all this hap
pened no one knows, but all this time
the desert has held in trust a treasure
for the nation. At various places along
the line of the Southern Pacific railway
water stations have been established.
Here irrigation has been practiced upon
small patches of ground about the sta
ton, and the luXuriant vegetation there
to be seen demonstrates that but water
is needed to cause the soil to bring forth
fruits in abundance. Now great river
] is to be led across the barren waste and
the desert Is to be redeemed and this
river, as fitting recompense for the
havoc It wrought ages ago, is none other
than the Colorado.
The California Development company
has undertaken a great work, which IS
a gigantic irrigating ditch or caral
which will bring portion of the Colo
rado river through the midst of this
sandy waste waking the sleepy soil to
Is not equaled in any valley in the land
1t lies from thirty to 600 feet deep over
a vast tract, and needs but the waters Of
the river to spring into fertility.
At Hanlon's, near the Mexican line, the
river hugs a huge bluff on one side, the
other side being of g. nature to make a
heading at that point practicable and
safe. Here the company has begun the
entic1ng away Of the great river. Great
dredges have eaten out a channel of suf-
steamboats, plying up and down its
length. Two and one-half miles of the
canal are already completed, and work
is being rapidly pushed. Soon will be
encountered a natural channel sixty miles
long, dipping down into Old Mexico and
back across the International line. The
first ten miles of this channel will re-
quire deepening, but the remaining fifty
miles is ready made. This will permit
of the reclaiming of thousands Of acres
of land, but this is but the beginning.
Hundreds of miles of bitches are to be
made, and 1t will require years Of work
to complete the system mapped out.
When the work is finished the Colorado