The Arizona sentinel., 1910-06-09
POSSIBILITIES 0F YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED The Soil Simply Marvellous in its
 PrOduGtiVeneSS And the Climate is IntOxiCatingIy
 SaIubTiOgS
BY GEORGE N. BUR URTON. In Los Angeles Times.

It Is very far from a semi-nilenium since
 three little open boats under the 1ag of Spsin | first touched the waters of the western hemi-
 sphere and revealed the new world to the eyes Of Europeans. If is only a little over a century since the United States Of America sprang, so to speak, like Palas Athene from the brain Of love, a completely armed ad-
 dition to the family Of nations. It is but
 Httle lver half century since California be- came part of these United States Of America, and less than generation since the settle ment Of the Great South west began.
 In all the 125 years since the Republic wes founded, also in the half century since Cali fornia became one of the States Of the Union, and during every year of the last thirty, a re- aIization 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 to the minds of mon. One would suppose that by today we knew pretty thoroughly what the undevelop- ed resources of inc Great Southwest might reasonably be expected 50 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 q 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 8 little con. ccit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Great Southwest. Last week trip to the Colorado River bottoms. below Yuma made hum feel as a tenderrOot who had come fa on the last train. New 10 him, this wonderful region and it's possibilities are pretty we'll known to a great many readers of The Times by the stories published, if not by the iemon- Stration 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 the Gila and Colorado Rivers. Ii is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican bounGry line on the Arizona side of the river At one point. tt1st below Yuma, the interna- tional boundry line runs np along the rfver which there takes westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is only a few miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago when the mountain ranges of Arizona and California lowered toward the stars at leas; twice as high as they do DOW, rains were very frcduent and came down in torrcntal volumes all along these mountain ridges The Colorado River in these past ages was a mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second of it's flow. The Colora- do sink was at that time great inland sea, which spread over tae country on both sides Of where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms, landslideS and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, the great river carried down a vast aiI,ogznt of silt, erosion from the rocks full of phos. phates, times and disintergrated graMiieS, as well as thcsvegetation along fss banks; ana this was all deposited in what are now tbe sinks of the Colorado.
 As the mountain tops were worn down, the rains became less frequent and less in volume but the erosion Of rocks and riveE banks the trees and vegetable mould torn from the banks still c:Bme down and settled into tire bottom of the great inland lake. This geogcal process went on from age to age to our time, leaving the Colorado at Yuma 8 stream bout half mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deep ia the deepest portion.
 1t is not necessary t0 remind CalifoTnians that the Spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because Of the reddish coler Of it's waters. 1t is the Colorado up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and down past The Needles. Bat at this time Of the year, after passing the month of the Gila, instead of the red river it becomes the brown river. It actually looks today as if ten per cent water.