Arizona republican., 1905-12-21

aginary boundary line between Utal
 and this part of Arizona.
 Tt fatigues one merely to contem
 plate in imagination the difficultie.
 and distance to be overcome by a citi-
 zen of Fredonia, the only town on the
 strip, in going to his county seat
 Flagstaff. on the other side of the Grand Canyon, to transact necessary
 business.
 "When we were there the deputy
 sheriff was just about to start for
 Flagstaff with a man charged with some crime; he told us he would have to travel nearly 300 miles by team this at terrible expense to the terri tory, before he finally reached home. The witness fees with mileage, in such a long-distance affair as this would soon run into money"
 'The people resident on the strip are closely united socially with the people of Kanab, from whom they are separated by q paltry eight nlilcs-an- other reason in favor Of annexation. Besides this the timber. the grazing. and the game exist only for the few people of the strip" and those of 1 southern Utah; these things are quite | inaccessible to the balance of Arizo-
 
 passable barrier-the Grand Canyon. The opposition to annexation comes from the people of Arizona-that is, from all but those on the strip" and when the matter was before congress, Arizonas delegate would not consent to the proposition, and so the passage of the bill was not urged by our own delegation. It was represented that Arizona did not like to part with such a considerable slice of her territory without some compensation; and that therc were valuable deposits of miner al on the strip" which were about to Ee opened up and from which the state would derive considerable prestige as well as some population and indirectly some revenue.
 "The idea that there were consider able deposits of valuable minerals seems now to have been exploded. l venture the assertion that there are certain stockholders in Chicago and in England and possibly in Utah who would stoutly deny the presence of any mineral in the strip" One has only to visit the abandoned mine workings, the ruins of concentrating mills, the deserted city of Ryan, and the scarce ly operated COconino smelter now and for some time entirely idle and ap- parently abandoned, to realize the failure of fond expectations. Two mining companies, the PetOslIy and the l COconinO, have each spent fortune the one in the erection of a mill pip ! ing of water and development work: | and the other in similar way coupled , with the building of a smelter-only to find that the ore, which was supposed i to cover the whole of Buckskin moun- ! tain, as a blanket formation, was not i continuous. It would be difficult to i estimate the money sunk in these en- ! terprises, as their scene of operations | is so far removed from the main trav- eled roads" and the difficulties en- cOuntered there were so multitudinOus. | It must have been much. It will proba- | bly be no longer maintained that Ari- zona will gain either prestige, popula- i tiOn or revenue from the mineral de- posits on the strip"
 This strip" can never support a much greater population than at pres ent as it is, there is hardly enough . water now to support the scant popu- latiOn. The little water that passes down the Kanab wash from the towns above is all that the people of Fredonia
 
 supply is of a rather doubtful charac- ter. Even in the canyons of Buckskin, where there is some rainfall in summer and considerable snow in winter, one sees no running water. What there is in small lakes with no visible outlets seemingly the accdmalations of rainfalls, and serves only for watering stock.
 "The latest proposition to be agitat- ed with reference to the strip or that portion known as Buckskin mountain and which Overlooks the Grand Can yOn of the Colorado, is to create there a new national park and game pre- serve. This is surely a haPpy thought for if ever there was an area adapted ; to such a purpose it is to be found here. Everything seems to be favor able except possibly its transportation | facilities, and these are sure to be inn proved. This region is rich in natu- al scenery, chief among which is, of course, that eighth wonder of the world, the Grand Canyon of the Col OradO. It is safe to say that this is ab- solutely unique-there is nothing quite like it or equal 10 it anywhere Al ready tourists have begun to make to it by the thousands but from the Arizona side. The north | ern, or Utah, side, if I may so term it, Is much lOftier than the southern, and therefore the view much more mag lificent. This is the side from which It should be viewed.
 "As a game preserve it is ideally adapted, and already plentifulIy stock with deer, mountain sheep, timber wolves, coyotes, mountain lions and pine chickens. Elk and other varieties 'f big and small game could be brought there, and should thrive equally well with what is there now IE To keep the game from migrating, if here were any tendency to do so, would require not a great deal Of encing, as the Kanab Wash on the vest and the Grand COnYon on the E