The Arizona sentinel., 1910-08-25
POSSIBILITIES 0F YUMA
 REGIQH tIHFATHONED Fa9 S0iI Simply Hazardous ia its
 PTGGuGiiy6aGSS AGd the Climate is Int9xiCatingIy
 Sa!gbri0GS
BY GEORGE N. BURTON. In Los Angeles Times.

ii is very far from seEl-mileHium since three little open beats under the flag of spain
 first touched tlie waters Of the western heni- sphere and revealed the new world to the eyes of Europeans. Ii i. unly a little over a century since ahe United States Of America sprung, SO to speak. like r9lias Athene from tee brain or love, a completely armed ad- diiior to ;ac family Of nations. It is but Ittl. -ycr haIr a century since California be- came & pa1t qfthcse United States Of America, 5nc less than a generation since thc settle ! r3cIt Of the Great S0UihECat began.
 n a'i th l25 years since the Republic wGs founded, also m thC half ccLtuIy since Cali f0lltia became one CT the States or the Union. and during every year Of tlie las! thirty, a re- aiization of thc vast riches Of tho American continent, of the tciritory Of the United states and of this Great Southwest has been more and more astonishing, 10 the minds Of men. Cne would suppose that by today we knew pretty thoroughly what tie undevClor- cd rc sources of thc Great Southwest might reasonably l'e expected t"become. We have not reached the depths of this great ocean of wealth with our plummct line yet.
 In 9 residence Of forty years on the Coast the writer thought he knew little about what tI:eyc is on the Coast, and as most of these years have been spent in and around LOS Angeles, Ee naturally had a little con ceit that he was pretty woH acquainted with thc ;5rea! Southwest. Last week a trip tC the Colorado R. yer Bottoms below Yuma made hlm feel as tcuderf9ot who had come in On the last rain. New 10 him, this wonderful region and it's possibilities are pretty well known to a great many readers CfThe Times by the stories published, if not by the demon stration of thC.r 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 thc Gila ana Colorado Rivers. It is twelve miles rom Yuma down the river to the Mexican bounG-y line on the Arizona side of the river At one point, just below Yuma, the interna- tioHal boundry line runs Up along the 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 as thcy do now, rains were very freduert and came down in torrcntiaI voumcs all along these mountain ridges. The Colorado River in these past ages was mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second Of it's flow. The Cobra do sim, was at that time great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sides of where the river n0w runs. As the erosion ot 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- phatcs, lines and dIsintcrsrated g.anitcs, as well as the vegetation along It's banks; and tlIis 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 of rocks and river banks, the trees and vegetable mould torn from the banks still came down and settled into the bolton. of the great inland lake. This geogicai process went on from age to age to our time, leaving ilIe Colorado at Yuma a stream about half a mile vide and being at the present time abou: twenty feet deep ia the deepest portion.
 lt is net necessary to remind Californians that the spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because of the reddish color of it's waters. It is the Colorado up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and down past The Needles. Bat at this time Of the year, after passing thc mouth of the Gila, instead 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.