Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1909-05-03
WILL RECLAIM
THE EVERGLADES
Santa Fe Attorney
Interested in Big
Scheme
WILL DIG SIX BIG CANALS,
Colorado Capital Will Re-
claim Lands in the Far
South.

more looked to the West when It
was decided that great dishful Of
water which constitutes the southern
end of Florida might be emptied in
to the sea, and that thousands of
acres of what Is now nothing but
swamp land might be converted into
farm land, perhaps the richest on
the globe. And Colorado capital is
likely to prove the salvation of the
enterprise undertaken by the state
of Florida, assisted by the federal
government, to drain the Everglades.
State Senator Drake of Fort Col
Inns has typified the faith of the West
in things that look logical by pouring
large part of his wealth into the
scheme to create land in region
whose climate Is such that land there
would be of immense value II the
scheme should fail he would lose
thousands; If it succeeds he will GER
tainly make hundreds of thousands,
possibly up to a million He has TAX
en- what he considers a safe chance.
and other monied men of Fort Collins
and of Colorado have done likewise.
Senator Drake has purchased eight
sections of Everglade swamp F. G.
Avery president of the First Nation
al bank of Fort Collins. and George
p. Avery, his brother, each have in
UnCt Qd in kil n vrhfpI
will become land when the great can
ais now projected have been complet-
ed; c. r. Welch, one of the wealth.
lest citizens Of northern Colorado.
has also bought a large tract of the
land of the future" The negotia-
tions were carried through by Attor-
ney Duval of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In order to get the money quickly
for the purpose of draining the lower
end of the peninsula, i the state of
Florida decided to sell the swamp
land of the Everglades at SIS an acre.
But the East, displaying its usual
hesitancy and suspicion of whatsoev-
er things are new, was too slow about
subscribing the capital and the echoes
of the plan were heard in the far
West. Colorado men, accustomed to
facing the apparently impossible, in
the line of reclamation of idle land,
were instantly caught by the scheme
and for them it's difficulties had no
terror AS result, it is said, when
the canals have been dug fortunes
will come to men of Colorado.
Senator Drake recently returned
from trip of personal investigation
of the enterprise. He passed through
Denver on his way to Fort Collins
where he displayed to his friends a
glass jar full of the soil that he had
fished up from the waters at whose
bottom he declares there lies the land
that is to be. In his graphic way he
tells how the thing had impressed
him:
'In the middle of the lower end OF
! Florida he said there is a lake.
| Around the edge of the lower end OF
Florida is a wall of coral reef. Into
the lake pour rivers and when the riv-
ers have filled the lake they overflow,
and in seeking their way to the sea
they strike the wall of coral. Against
that wall the waters rise until the floor
of the peninsula is drowned under a
! few feet of water. Grasses push their
way up through the water to the sun
light, and here and there little island
| lifts its head. But the vast acres OF
| that rich soil lie buried and useless. It
is a painful OF water and the scheme is
simply to empty the pan. Then in It's
bottom, where hundreds of years have
accumulated their fertility, where
grasses have grown and rotted only to
give back with interest the vitality
they have taken from the black SOIL 1t
will be possible to raise such crops
as astonish people"
Sain another Of those who have
placed their faith in the scheme.
1T is amazing that the thing was
never undertaken before. 1t is so
simple. The lake is 20 feet higher than
the sea at full tide. Only the wall
of the basin has kept the land idle for
centuries. Had such an opportunity
existed in Colorado 1t would have been
grasped in the infancy Of the state.
For it is a curious comment on this
Western country where land is abund-
ant that its value is realized infinitely
quicker than in the East where land Is
difficult to get. Colorado brains have
conquered the intricate engineering
problems Of mountains for smaller re-S
turns than were offered in Florida to
him who had only to cut hole in q
coral wall to make himself and his
great-grandchildren wealthy Colo.
Continued On Page Eight.) N