The Arizona sentinel., 1910-08-11
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGI0H UHFATROMED The Soil Simply Marvellous in its
 Pr0duGtivaaGSS Ard the Climate is Ent0xiCatingIy
 SaIubri0uS
BY GEORGE N. BU RTON. In Los Angeles Times.

IL is very far from a Semi-miiienium since three little open boats under the flag Of Spain
 f rSt touched the waters Of the western heni- 1 sphere and revealed the new world to the 1 eyes Of Europeans. It is only a little over a
 century since the United States Of America
 spGanc. SO 10 speak, like Pallas Athene from
 the brain Of Jove, a completely armed ad- dition to the family Of nations. It is but i little .yer balf a century since California be- 1 came rart of hese United States of America, and less than generation since the settle mcnt Of the Great south west began. In all the I25 years since the Republic was founded. also in the half century since Cali Gbrnia became one Of the States Of the Union, and during every year Of the last thirty, a re- aiizaJlon of the vast riches of the American continent, Of fhe 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 inc 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 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 Angairs, he naturally had little con eeit That ha was pretty well acquainted with the Great southwest. Last week trip 10 the Colorado River bottoms. below Yuma made hlm feel as a tcn6erfoot who had come in on the last train. New to him, this wonderful region and its possibilities are pretty well known to great many readers of The Times by the stories published, if not by the demon stratlon Of their own eyes.
 Yuma lies on the map just twelve miles from where the government is putting in the great Laguna dam, at the confluence of tine Gila and Colorado Rivers IL is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican houndry line on the Arizona side Of the river At one point. just below Yuma, the interna- tional boundry line runs up along the river which there takes westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is only few niles. 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, rains were very freduert and came down in sorrcntial volumes all along these mountain
 
 was mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second Of it's flow. Thc ColnTa- 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 cf winds and storms andSlides and glaciers | wore down the mountain ridges year by year, She great river carried down a vast amount of silt, erosion from the rocks full Of phos' phates, times and IsintergratCd graniteS, as
 well as the vegetation along its banks; and | this was all deposited in what are now the
 sinks of the Colorado.
 As the mountain tops were worn down, the
 rains became less frequent and less in volume
 but the erosion or rocks and river banks, the l trees and vegetable mould torn from the banks s;il came down and settled into the
 bottom of the great inland lake. This geogfcal | process went or from age to age to our time, i leaving the Colorado at Yuma a stream about | half rlile vide and being at the present
 time about twenty feet deep ia the deepest portion.
 It is not necessary to remind Ca!ifGEnians that the Spanish missionaries and explorers
 called this river the Colorado because of tEe
 reddish color of it's waters. It is the Colorado
 up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and
 down past The Needles. But at this time oi i the year, afier passing the mouth of the Gila i instead of the red river it becomes the brown
 river IL actually looks today as if ten peI cent Of its flow was silt and only ninety pel
 cent water.