The Arizona sentinel., 1910-10-13
POSSIBILITIES 0F YUMA
 REGION UHFATR0MED The Soil Simply Marvellous in its
 frOGuCtiVeheSS And the Climate is IntOXiCatingIy
 SaIubriOuS
BY GEORGE N. BURTON. I'm I,oS Angeles Times.

It is very far from a semi-milienlum since three little open boats under the flag Of spain first touched the waters Of the western heml- sphere and revealed the new world To the eyes Of Europeans. II is only little over century since the United States Of America sprang, so to speak, like Pallas Athene from the brain of love, a completely armed ad- dition to the family Of nations. It is but little .ver half a century since California be- came a part oftI.tse United States of America, and less than q generation since the settle ment of the Great south west began.
 In all the I25 years since the Republic was founded, also in the half century since Cali fornia becanle one of the States Of the Union. and during every year of the last thirty, re- aliZation ofthe vast riches Of the American continent, of the 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 the Great Southwest might reasonably be expected to become. We have not reached the depths of this great ocean or wealth with our plummet line yet.
 In a 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 Angeles. he naturally lad a little con- ceit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Great Southwest. Last week trip to the Colorado River bottoms. below Yuma made hin, feel as a tenderfoot who had come in on the last train. New to him. this wonderful region and it's possibilities are pretty well known to a 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 miles from where the government Is putting in the great Laguna dam, at the confluence of tue Gila and Colorado Rivers. It is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican boundry line on the Arizona side Of the river At one point, just below Yuma, the interna tional buundry line runs up along the river which there takes westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is only faw miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago when the mountain ranges O Arizona and California lowered toward th' stars, at least twice as high as they do now | rains were very freduert and came down IT torrcntial volumes all along these mountain ridges. The Colorado River in these past age was mighty stream, sweeping down debn | in tons every second Of it's flow. The Cobra | do sink was at that time great inland sea which spread over the country on both side | of where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms, IandslideS and glacier wore down the mountain ridges year by year the great river carried down a vast amour | of silt erosion from the rocks full Of phos | phates, times and dIsintergrated granites, a we'll as the vegetation along its banks; an this was all deposited in what are now tn sinks of the Colorado.
 As the mountain tops were worn down, th rains became less frequent and less in Volnm but the erosion of rocks and river banks, tn
 trees and vegetable mould torn from th
 banks still came down and settled into tn
 bottom of the great inland lake. This geogicf
 process went on from age to age to our tim
 leaving the Colorado at Yuma a stream aboU
 half mile wide and being at the preseI
 time about twenty feet deep ia the deepe'
 portion.
 It is not necessary to remind Californian
 that the Spanish missionaries and explorer
 called this river the Colorado because of tl
 reddish color of it's waters. 1t is the Colorad
 up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona an
 down past The Needles. But at this time
 the year, after passing the mouth of the Gif Instead of the red river it becomes the brow
 river. It actually looks today as if ten D cent Of it's flow was silt and only ninety p cent water. ~