Arizona republican., 1909-02-03
W|CKENBURG NUT AMBITIOUS Nevertheless Il Would Like to
 Be a County Seat THE VILLAGERS ARE FESTIVE They Are Anxious to Know Why the Incorporation Movement Doesn't Move. Hassayampa Water is a Town Asset.
THE VILLAGERS ARE RESTIVE

respondence of The Republican)- When The Republican, a week or so ago. published a rumor to the effect that Representative J. C. Reed con templated introducing a bill in the leg
 islature for the creation of a new county, of which Wickenburg was to be the capital. and followed this an
 nouncement a day later with Mir. Reeds disclaiming of any such inten- tion, it made itself responsible for the revival of a question that has been periodically discussed, with ever in creasing interest. for many moons in the Hassayampa section. The time is not yet fully ripe. but
 One of the early movements to fol- low statehood will be such a re- alignment of county boundaries as will forever eliminate the hoodo num- Der. thirteen, from the map of Ari- zona- And Wickenburg is vitally in terested Tn making it fourteen.
 Let it be understood that this new county proposition is no mere ambi- tious scheme to create an additional county seat. It is merely a movement to secure a square deal for a section of country that has always been de- nied its just dues.
 Wickenburg has the misfortune to be located on the extreme northern border of Maricopa county. while the territory from which her trade Is largely derived is in southern Yavapai and northeastern Yuma counties. So far as Wickenburg herself is concern ed she could manage to put up with the inconvenience Of being fifty odd miles from her county seat. if that were all. But the fact that she hap pens to be a border town subjects her to certain penalties which bear heavily on the people from whom her trade is derived. The big mining districts across the Hassayampa to the east which. embrace such important mines as the Octave, the Interior. the Black Rock Limited. the Unida, the Monarch and a score of other good properties, to say nothing of a hundred promis- ing prospects, are all located in Yava- pal county. But their postoffice ad- dress and their receiving and shipping point is Wickenburg. Maricopa county They buy their supplies here. and in many instances their managers and superintendents reside here. And ev- cry one of them has learned the fu- tility of trying to sit on two stools at once.
 No mining country can be develop ed without good roads, and public highways are supposed to be con structed and maintained at public ex- pense. But this has never been the rule in the Wickenburg region. Mar icopa could not build roads outside her own borders if she wanted to, and Yavapai will not turn a spadeful of earth on any highway terminating at a shipping point just outside her boun- diaries. In the meantime the whole country about Wickenburg is annually overrun with the hundred thousand herds of visiting sheepmen, the ranges are destroyed. the springs and water holes are polluted. and the costly prl- vately-built moutain roads are overrun and seriously damaged, to the end that sheep tax may be collected to be spent in sections of Maricopa and Yavapai counties far removed from the region where the grazing privilege is operative, and where its destructive effects must be borne.
 All of the mining men across the river who have occasion to visit their county seat must go to Prescott eighty-Odd miles and return on a five cents-per-m mile tariff. The western sec ton tributary to Wickenburg, which includes northeastern Yuma county. is even a worse case. The resident of that section who finds it necessary to make a trip to his county capital must first come to Wickenburg; then change cars for Phoenix; then trans fer to another train on another com pany's line; and, before he returns home, he will have paid out the bet ter part of a months wages in travel ing expenses alone.
 And there you are
 The new county discussion in the region has never been based on the ambition of Wickenburg | to become a county seat It is simply | a matter of securing an even chance | for the people of a large and important | section of central Arizona who have | never yet been accorded that right | And when the time comes for the ere | "ti'ii 'i new countries IT VIII be found | that the long suffering citizens on the | are not disposed to take | in the whole country, as intimated in | The Republicans story but only that part of it which from geographical and | business considerations naturally and legitimately belongs to it.
 Hon. J. c. Reed, who came home for the Sunday legislative recess. brought the cheering assurance that the board of supervisors has finally reached the point where action is to be taken on petition for incorpora- ton, which has been reDosing some where iTr the archives of the board for many weeks. As the framing of the the securing of authorized signatures thereto, and all of the other