Mohave County miner., 1902-05-10
Our Northern Strip,

of all that portion of Arizona lyInl
north of The Grand Canyon of the
Colorado, their claim for such action
being that il is of no value to AriZona
and is the breeding grounds and habit
alton of all the bad men of both Utah
and Arizona, and that owing to the
fact of its inaccessibility to the law
officers of Arizona and the lack of
peradoes are allowed to commit all
sorts of depredations without fear of
punishment. And they also hold up
the fact that the whole country is prac
tically ;erra incognito to the world,
but that where it has been explored is
little less than desert waste. Why
Utah representatives, if they believe
such to be a fact. should desire the
annexation of such land passes com.
prehension.
The fact of the matter is that all the
talk put up by Utah's representatives
is pure bo>h. The region in question is
nearly 100 miles in width from north
to south aud nearly the full width of
the territory. 1t em braces some of the
best grazing and timber lands in Ari-
zona. The great Kaibab plateau
| (Buckskin mountains) is admitted the
finest stock range anywhere in either
] Afiz nh hn
plateau, in Mohave county, is almost
as good These two great mesas, cut
by the great gorge of the Colorado
river on their southern walls, rise to an
altitude of 5000 feet. Their surfaces
are nearly level, and are covered with a
heavy growth of massive pine trees,
such as are being sawed into lum Der at
the mills of Flagstaff and Williams.
After the SHOWS of winter disappear a
luxiurient growth of nutritious grasses
spring up all over the ranges aud 1t is
from these ranges that the best and
earliest of the range fattened beef is
sent to the Salt Lake City market. In
the great grass-covered valleys. be.
tween these plateaus thousands of
sheep are graZed. These flocks are
all owned by residents of southern
Utah. These people range their sheep
in the counties of Coconno and Mo
have, Arizona, during the greater part
of the year, but when spring time
comes they drive them into the south
ern counties of Utah, shear them there
aud there pay the tax, paying no tri-
butte whatever to the Arizona counties
for the time they have been within
their border. 1t is great incon-
venience to these sheep men to be com
PEELED to go to all this trouble to dodge
the Arizona assessor each year and in
consequence they are anxious for the
annexation to Utah of this strip. An
other reason for the desire is the fact
that southern Utah has little if any
lumber fit for the saw mills and the
law proscribes the shipment of lumber
from the territory. The Mormons
have two saw mills in this northern
strip of ours, where they used to saw
lum ber and tim bers for the southern
tier of Utah counties. The lumber
prescription law has closed down these
mills and now the Uthans are anxious
to get this lum Der where they can han
die it, which cannot be done until an-
nexation is assured.
There are copper mines in this
region, from the Virgin canyon on the
west to the Buckskin mountains on
the east. For several years copper ore
was hauled from Arizona to st. George
and smelted there Now the copper
deposits of Grand Gulch are worked |
on large scale and the ores are
hauled to the railroad and shipped TO |
Salt Lake for treatment. This deposit
of copper, the richest in Arizona, lies
in bed of sandstone.
Where the Grand Gulch cuts the strata
carrying this copper ore, great deposits
have been and are being quarried out
that run from 65 to 70 per cent. The
ore carries its own fiuxing material
and the great forests of tim Der on the
mesas above provide all the wood and
timber necessary for all mining pur.
poses. In the same mesa, in another
thirty miles distant, at Hidden
Spring, the same deposit shows and is
being worked, showing that practically
the entire mesa, 45 by 80 miles, is
lnderlaid with this denosit of connar