The Arizona sentinel., 1908-12-02
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED The SOiI Simply Marvellous iG Its
 Pr0duCtiyeReSS And the Climate is EHt0XiCatiHuIy
 SalubTioHS
BY GEORGE W. BURTON, In Los Angeles Times.

fs fs vcry far from a standardization since three little open boats under the flag Of ssl,,Tin first touched the waters of the western heni- sphere and revealed the new world to tae eyes of Europeans. It is only a little over a century since thr ,;hitcd States of America sprang, so to spes z, like Pallas Athene from tbe brain Of .;ovc a completely armed ad- dition to the family Gf nations It is but lttl.. -ver half a century since California be- came part Of these United Statesof America, and less than generation since the settlcs nent Of the Great SOuth west began.
 In all the I25 years since the Republic was founded, also in the half century since Cali f9rnia became one of Inc States of the Union. and during every year of tue last thirty, a re- alization Of the vast riches of the American continent, Of the territory of the United States and Of this Great Southwest has been more and more astonishing to the minds Of men. One would suppose that by today we knew pretty thoroughly what the undeveop- ed resources of the Great Southwest might reasonably he expected to become. We have not reached the depths of this great ocean of wealth with our plummet line yet.
 In a residence Of forty years on the Coast the writer thought he knew little about what there is on the Coast, and as most Of these years have been spent in and around Los Angeles, he naturally had a 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 hlm feel as a tenderfoot who had come in on the last train. New 10 him, this wonderful region and its possibilities are pretty well known to a great many readers of The Times by the stories published, if not by the demon StIation Of their own eyes.
 Yuma lies on the map just twelve miles from wher. the government Is putting in the great Laguna dam. at the confluence Of the Gila and Colorado Rivers. 1t is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican bouuG-y line on the Arizona side of the river At cue point. just below Yuma. the interna- tionatl boandry line runs up along thc 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, TaifIs were very frcdGent and came down in torTcntial volumes all along these mountain ridges. The Colorado River in these past ugcs WAS q mighty stream sweeping down debris in ions every second of its flew. The Cobra do sink was at that time great inland sea- which spread over the country on b0th sides of where the river ROW runs As the erosion Of winds and storms, laRdslldos and glaciers wore down the riountain ridges year by year the great river carried down vast amount of silt erosion from the rocks full Of phos- piiales, times and dIsjntcrgrated 2raoites, as well as jhe vegetation along It's banks; and 4lIis was alhGvpositsd in what are now the sinks of the Colorado.
 as the mountain tops were worn down, the Tains became less frequent and less in volume l,lt the erosion of rocks and river banks, the trees and vegetable mould torn from the banks still came down and settled into thC bottom ot tbe GTcat inland lake. This gcogical process went on from age to age to oEr tlHlc, leaving the Colorado at Yuma & stream a bout half mile wide and being at thc present time about twenty feet deep il inc deepest portion.
 Ii is moi necessary to remind Californians shat the spanish missionaries and explorers called this river jhe Colorado because of the rrddis5 color Of its waters. It is tho Colorado ul5 ju tbr Grand Canyon in Arizona and down pHsi The %ccdies. Eut at thiS, time oi flie year, after passing the mouth Of The Gila, instehd of the red river t becomes thp brown river. II sctua'ly looks today as if ten per cent Of ifs How was silt and only niEety Der cent water.
 RICHES OF SOIL WONDERFUL
 But thc oojec; Of tlliy story is to call atten.  lion once oaorc. and for pcrhaps the thoJ- ssgdth timc, to the riches of the gpil along