The Arizona sentinel., 1908-10-28
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
REGION UHFATA0MEB
The Soil Simply Marvellous in Its
PrOdRCtiyeRcSS
And the Climate is IHt0xiCatiEgIy
SaiHhriOUS
BY GEORGE y. BURTON,
In Los Angeles Times.


tits very far from semI-miHenium since
fhree llt;Ie open boats under the flag of Spain
first touched the waters OF the western hemi-
sphere and revealed the new world to tie
eyes of Europeans. il is only little over a
century since the United States Of America
sprang, so TO speak, like Psllas Athene from
the brain OF Jove, a completely armed i'd
dition to the family oT nations. 1t is but
little sver half a century since California be-
came part of these United States Of America,
and less than a generation since the settle
ment of the Great South vest began.
In all the l25 years since the Republic was
founded, also in the half century since Cali
fornia became one of the States of the Union.
and during every year OF the last thirty, re-
aliZation of the vast riches OF the American
continent, OF the territory OF the Unhed
states and Of this Great Southwest hos been
more and more astonishing 20 the minds OF
men. One would SUPPOSE that by today we
Knew pretty thoroughly what the un5erci0p-
ed resources of the Great Southwest might
reasonably he expected to become We have
not reached the }cpths of this great ocean Of
wealth with our plummet line yet.
In residence Of forty years on the Coast
the writer thought he knew a little about
Whist there is on the Coast, and as most of
these years have been spent in and around
Los Angeles, he naturally had little con-
ceit that he was pretty well acquainted with
The Great southwest. Last week a trip to the
Colorado River bottoms. below Yuma made
him feel as a tenderfoot who had come In on
the last train. New TO him, this wonderful
region and its possibilities are pretty well
crrsI,x. IT.,
by the stories published, if not by the demon
stration of their own eyes.
Yuma lies on the map just twelve miles
from where the government is putting in the
great Laguna dam, at the confluence of the
ella and Colorado Rivers. 1t is twelve miles
from Yuma down the river 20 the Mexican
Dound=y line on the Arizona side of the river
At one point. just below Yuma, the interna-
tional boundry line runs up along the river
which there takes westerly trend and from
Yuma to Mexico is only few miles.
ONCE a MIGHTY STREAM.
Ages ago when the mountain ranges of
Arizona and California lowered toward the
stars, at least twice as high as they DO now,
rains were very freduent and came down in
torrcntial volumes all along these mountain
ridges. The Colorado River in these past ages
was mighty stream, sweeping down debris
IN tons every second of its flow. The COlora-
do sink was at that slime great inland sea,
which spread over the country on both sides
of where the river now runs. AS the erosion
Of winds ard storms, landsldeS and glaciers
wore down the mountain ridges year by year,
the great river carried down g vast amount
of silt, erosion from the rocks full of pnos-
ghafes, lines and dIsintergrated GRANTEES, as
well as the vegetation along Its banks; and
This was sll deposited in what are now the
sinks OF the Colorado.
as the mountain tops were worn down, the
rains became less frequent and less i'm volume
bat She erosion OF rocks and river banks, the
frees and vegetable mould torn from the
banks stll came down aud settled into the
bottola of The great inland lake. This geogical
process went on from age 20 age TO our time,
leaving HE Colorado at Yuma a stream about
half a mile wide and being at the present
time about twenty feet deep in the deepest
portion.
II is not necessary 10 remind CGlifoTnians
that the Spanish missionaries and explorers
called this river the Colorado because of the
yeidisb color or its waters. II is The Colorado
up In the Grand Canyon in Arizona and
down past The Needles. But al shis time ot
the year. after passing the mouth OF the ella,
Instead OF he red river IL becomes the brown
river. 1t actually looks today as if ten pei
cent Of lie flow was silt and only ninety pei
cent water.