The Arizona sentinel., 1910-09-08
POSSIBILITIES 0F YUMA
 REGI0H UEFATHOMED The Soil Simply Marvellous in its
 PrOfuGtiyGnGSS kEd the Climate is InI0xiCatiHgIy
 SalabriGuS
BY GEORGE N. BURTON. In isOS Angeles Times.

1t is very far from semi-milleaium since
 shrce little open boats under the flag Of spain rst touched the waters Of the western hemi- sphere ana revealed inc new world to the eyes Of Europeans. II is only little over 8 Ecentury since the United States of America sprang, so 10 speak, like Pallas Athenc from ; thc brain Of love, completely armed ad- di;ion t0 the family Of nations. It is but 1 Etilc .ver half a ceatTTy since California be- camo part these United States Of America, and less than a gepemtion since tic settle,
 ncHt of tbc Great South Gest began. 2 In all the l2j years since the Republic was founded, also in the half century since Cali f,rnia became one of the States of Inc Union. and during every year Of the last thirty a re- alizaIion Of line vast riches Of the American continent, of the territory Of the United States and of lh;s Great Southwest has been more and more astonishing to 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 Ie expected to become. We have not reached the depths of this great ocean Of wealth with our pIumnct line yet.
 In 9 residence of forty years on the Coast tic writer thought he know a little about
 
 these years have been speni in and around Los Angeles. he naturally had a little con ceit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Great Southwest Last week a trip 10 the Colorado Rivcr bottoms. below YIma made hlm feel aS a tendcrfOot who had come in on the last train New to him, this wonderful region and it's possibilities are pretty veil known to great many readers of The Times by the stories published. if not by the demon stratiou of their own eyes,
 Yuma lies on the map Just twelve miles from where the government is putting in the great Laguna dam, aJ the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers. II is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican boGDd:y line on the Arizona siGe Of the river Al one point. just below Yuma, the interna- tional boundry line runs up along She river which there takes a westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is cnly few miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago when tie mountain ranges Of Arizona and California lowered toward the stars, at least twice as high as they Go now, rains were very freducpt and came down in torrcntial 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. Thc COlora- do sink was at that lime great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sides of where the river now runs. As tlI2 erosion of winds and storms, landslidcS 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. plates, times and disintcrgrated granites, as 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 Of 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 This geog;cal 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 time about twenty feet deep fI tlfe deepest portion.
 Ii is not necessary 60 rerGind CalifoTaians that the Spanish missionaries and ex ploreTs called this river the Colorado because of the reddish color of its waters. 1t is the Colorado up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and down past The Needles. But at ths time Of the year, after passing the mouth of the Gila, instead of the red river it becomes the brown river. It actually looks today as if ten per cent fits flow was silt and only ninety per cent water.