The Arizona sentinel., 1909-06-17
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED
The Soil Simply Marvellous in Its
 ProduCtiyeneSS
And the Climate is lntexicatinely
 SalubriouS
BY GEORGE N. BURTON, In los Angeles Times.

It is very far from & semi-miIlenium sincs thrcc little open boats under the fsax Of Spain first touched the waters or the western hcIni sphere and revealed the new world to the eyes of Europeans. IL Is only little over . century since the United States of Amer,cs sprang, SO to srcak, like Pallss Athene from tbe brain Of love, a completely armed ad ditson 10 the family Of nations. It is but little .ver 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 west began.
 in all the l25 years since the Republic was founded, also in the half century since Call. fbrnia became one or the States Of the Union. and during every year of the last thirty, a re- Rlzation 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 10 the minds of men. One would suppose that by today we knew pretty thoroughly what the undevelop- 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 a 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 cesa- eeit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Greut Southwest last week trip to the Colorado River bottoms. below Yuma mRsie him feel as q tenderrooi who had come tn on the last train. New to him, This wonderful region end sts possibilities gre pretty well known to a great ssany readers of The Times by the stories published. 1T not by the demon stration Of their own eyes.
 Yuma lies on the map just twelve nsjfes from wherc the government is putting in the great laguna dam, a! the confluence of the f3ila and Colorado Rivers. It is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican soundry line on the Arizona side of the river At one point. Just below Yuma, the interBa- rional boundry line rEns up along tho 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 they do now. gains were very freduent and came down in torrcntial volumes all along these mount tain ridges. The Colorado River In these past ages was a mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second Of its flow. The Cobra dD sink was st that time great inland sea, which spread over the country on both stsiesS Of where the river now runs. As the erosion ef winds and storms, landslides and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, the great river carried down a vast amount of silt, erosion from the rocks full Of phos. phates, times and dIsintergrated Granites, as well as the vegetation along its banks; and .his WAS all deposited iu what are now the sinks Of the Colorado.
 As the mountain tops weye woyn down. tbe rains became less frequent and less in volume hut the erosion Of rocks and river banks, the trceS and vegetable mould tom from the banks still came down and settled into tbe bottom of the great inland lake. This Geoxical process went on from age 70 age so our time, 1caving the Cobra io at Yuma a stream about half mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deep ia the deepest portion.
 It is not necessary to remind Californians that the Spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because Of the seddish color of it's waters. It is the Colorado down past The Needles. But at this time Of the year. after passing the mouth Of the Gila, 3nsicad Of the red river it becomes the brown river. It actually looks today as if ten per cent of it's flow was silt and only ninety per cent water.