The Arizona sentinel., 1910-09-01
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGI0A UHFATHOMED Tie Soil Simply Marvellous in its
 PrOtgCtiVenesS And the Climate is IntOxiCdtiAgiy
 SaiabriOuS
BY GEORGE N. BURTON. Iu Los Angeles Times

It is very far from a semi-Inilienium sine
 three little open boats under the flag of SpaiI first touched the waters Of the western hemi sphere and revealed the new world to tn eyes of Europeans. IL is only liitie over century since the United States of America sprang so to speak. like Palias Atheue iron the brain Of love, completely armed ad ditioli to the family Of nations. It is bu little -ver half centyry since California be came part os these United States Of America and less than a generation since the settle
 ncEt of the Great south west began.
 1 In all the l25 years since the Republic wa i founded also in the half century since Call { fornia became cne or the States Of the Union and during every year Of the last thirty, a re alzation of the vast riches Or the American continent, Of tue territory of the United States and Of this Great Southwest has been more and more astonishing 10 line minds O men. One would suppose that by today VIC knew pretty thoroughly what the undevelop cd resources of inc Great Southwest might reasonably be expected Co become. We have not reached the depths Of this great ocean oi wealth with our rlummet line yet.
 In a residence Of forty years on inc Coast the writer thought he knew a little about wiai there is on the Coast, and as most oi these years have been spent iH and around los angeles. he naturally had little con- ceit that he was pretty well acquainted with tine Great Southwest. Last week a trip to the Colorado Rlver bottoms. below Yuma made hIm feel as tendcrfoot who had come in on the last train. New to him. this wonderful region and it's possibilities are pretty well known to q great many readers Of The Times by the stories published, if not by the demon stration of their own eyes.
 Yuma lies on the map just twelve mics from where the government Is putting in the great Laguna dam, al the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers. IL is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican boundry line on the Arizona side Of tine river Al one point Just below Yuma, the interna- tional boundry line runs up along the river which there takes a 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 IS high as they do now, rains were very freduent and came down in t0rrcntial volumes ;ll along these Hountlil ridges. Tine Colorado River in these past ages was & mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second of it's flow. Thc Cobra do sink was at that time a great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sides of where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms, landslIdcS and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, the great river carried down a vast amount or silt, erosion from the rocks full Of pbos- phatcs, times and dIsintcTgrated granitcs, as well as theveeetation along its banks; and sinks orthe Colorado.
 AS the mountain tops were worn down, the rains becainc less frequent and less in volume out the erosion or rocks and river banks, the trees and vegetable mould torn from the banks still came down and settled into the bottom Of the great inland lake. Tiiis geoGicai process went on from age to age to our time, leaving the Colorado at Yuma a stream about half a mile wide and being at the present timc about twenty feet deep il the deepest portion.
 It is not necessary to remind Califcrnians that the Spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because Of the reddish color of It's wate.s. It is tic Colorado up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and down past The Needles. But at this time of the year, after passing the mouth Of the Gila, instead of the led river it becomes the brown river. II actually looks today as if ten per cent riis flow was silt and only ninety per cent water.