Bisbee daily review., 1908-01-12
No Sign Of Exhaustion :
In Arizona Copper Mines

- mat Oh the ueiQS Oh A1lLcDd- lueES
seems a general impression abroad
that Arizona raises little save hair
and hides. Yet the greatest dairying
district Of the west is the Salt river
valley. around Phoenix, where on
.Go,O9O acres Of alfalfa. also is fattened
much of the beef that feeds the gour.
nands Of southern California. Literally
the valley Is a land of milk and honey,
with oranges the best. with olives,
dates, figs, nuts and almost every fruit
in widest variety. The productive ca
pacity of the land is limited only By
the supply of water available. and that
supply soon is to be made all thai
could be wished. The name of Roose-
welt has been attached to the storage
project which is to accomplish the task
of watering the desert around Art
zona's capital city. Probably 800, 900
acres viii be reclaimed, acres capable
.of producing almost everything that is
desirable in the vegetable kingdom.
where now only about 10000 acres
are but lily cultivated, owing to the
irregularity CT the water supply. The
Roosevelt dam now is about one-thifd
complete, building across a narrow
gorge of Salt river, eighty miles east
of Phoenix, Just below broad basin
wherein viii be created one of the
largest artificial lakes in the world.
The dam, about 230 feet high, viii;
be monolithic, absolutely safe against
even the power CT the earthquake. the
waste water carried around it in rock
tunnels and over. broad spillways.
Within the plans are included the n.y.
draulic development of 10000 horse
power, to be utilized for pumping wa
ter upon lands around Phoenix, Tempe
and Mesa, Tas well as for Industrial
Uses that win mean much in a land Of
high cost fuel.
Near Yuma, charged parity to Cali
fornia, is the Laguna irrigation project,
the building of dam across the great
Colorado river to irrigate about 100,
900 acres on the Arizona side, and TO-
600 acres along the streams western
bank. AS the flow of the stream is
ample at any stage, no storage will be
provided. TIE land to be reclaimed
is of much the same nature as that
around Phoenix, and the cost of the
project, like that at Phoenix, win be
repaid by the farmers benefited, who
will be taxed tenth year after the
porjects are complete, and the recla-
nation service has moved on to other
tasks.
A valley or plain comparable with
that of the Salt river lies around Flor
ence, where it is hoped that water stor-
age on the ella may accomplish much.
The upper valley OF the CHA already
is intensely farmed and is wonderful
ly productive. Around Tucson are
great stretches of good land that only
await water development, and the same
is true of scores of other localities,
where water yet win be developed for
beneficial uses.
The territory is vast one, with over
100000 square miles of area Within
this are forests, cattle ranges, mining
districts and farming lands, with alti-
tudes that range from the $4,000 feet
of the San Francisco peaks to the
40 feet of Yuma. Within it are to be
found the climate and the industry best
suited to almost every man. There is
plenty of room for growth, but personal
and civic, and with the workings out
of the great plans now afoot, Arizona
viii be appreciated.