The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-03
IS CLIMATE OF DIXIE AND SOUTHERN NEVADA
CHANGING AS RESULT Of THE SALTOh SEA ?

Scanlon. New. Feb. z3.-ThOse who
may be curious or in doubt as to the
exact locality OF this new gold field.
should examine the southeast corner OF
the map OF Nevada and they will find the
name -ScdnlOn's Ferry. The place Is
now locally known as Greggs Ferry and
Is principally used as d ferriage for sheep
en- route to Arizona Mike ScanlOn has
gone to parts unknown. but the MEM
DRY of that sturdy old son of Erin should
be perDetGated by retaining his name as
that Of the future postoffice.
From the dump of the Nevada Gold
Butte Mining cOmpany's holdings one
looks out on a six-mile stretch Of the
Colorado river. two TO four miles dis
tant. and when the wind comes in from
the southwest. can hear the faint roar
of the Wallapi rapids at the head OF the
Wallapi canyon
Last October while looking at the
shrunken Missouri at Omaha. the writer
was ready to gamble that the Colorado
river carries more water than the MIS-
souri,. Today that conviction is firmer
than ever. At this point the Colorado is
about zoe yards wide and sweeps on to-
ward its neW-found goal with a current
of fully six miles per hour. High water
will add from 100 yards to 200 yards in
width and fully fifteen feet in depth and
will maintain that added volume during
q period of sixty days or more. And
this immense volume of water IS flowing
into the SaltOn basin. and declines to be
controlled by the enormous resources OF
the Southern Pacific Railroad company
allied with the best engineering ability
that money can command
Fort Yuma on the eastern rim OF the
new. yet ancient. SaltOn sea, is but tWen-
ty-seven feet above sea level, and is re-
ptted to. be the hottest place in the Unit
ed States. With that fact in view it is
easy 10 understand why the area of Salt
on sea is gaining so slightly over evap-
Grafton.
As matter of fact. from 100 miles to
$50 miles in length of the water of the
Colorado river is being daily lifted by the
rays of "Old Sol and converted into
vapor by the aid of the surface Of the
Salton sea The question What be-
comes of that enormous amount of va
por2" is ever seeking a solution A the
oreticel savant over in Cal1fOrnia-one
who is doubtless Interested IN inc LOT,
tunes of the Southern Pacific Railroad
company as against the rest of mankind.
said that the evaporation from the sur
face of the Salton sea has about the
same effect on the desert country con-
tisuous to IT that a saucepan of boiling
water would have on the climate OF
kitchen. But. per contra, there are GER
tain phenomena. cOincidental with the
growth of the Salton sea. that Will not
down even in the face of that learned eX-
pert and his saucepan. During the past
two years precipitation has increased to
q marvellous extent in southern Nevada
and in southern Utah; and it Is slgnifi-
cant fact that the storms have come
from the direction of the Salton sea AS
the sea has grown precipitation has in
creased Along the Muddy valley this
winter. from Moapa southeast to the Rio
Virgin, a distance of some twenty-five
miles IL has been rain succeeding rain
until the valley was veritable quagmire,
often preventing all travel except on
horseback. Hundreds of tons of ore from
the Grand Gulch was corded up or
dumped by the roadside, between the Vir-
gin river and Moapa-
During the last two years and espe-
cially during the past winter, the in
creased precipitation in Utah has been
marked as far north as Marysvale, where
on a conservative estimate, the snow has
an average depth of eight to ten feet
along the Mt. Badly range.
1t is a fact we'll known to local OBJ
servers of weather conditions that storms
from the sound and from the, gulf were
preceded by several days of high winds.
During the past two years In THIS local
ity and we'll up into Utah. high wind. as
a precursor of rain. has been conspicuous
by its absence. Some of the hardest and
most prolonged torrential storms / ever
experienced have occurred in this part
OF Nevada. and they came and went
without the slightest warning by old