The Arizona sentinel., 1910-09-22
POSSIBILITIES 0F YUMA
 REGl0H UHFATAOMED Inc S0Il Simply MaIYaIOas i1 is
 PrOdaGiiganeSS And the Climate is Iat0XiCatinlly
 SdIESriOgS
BY GEORGE N. RURTCN In Los Angeles Times.

It Is very far from a semi -milIenium sine,
 three little open boats under the flag of Spair f rst touched the waters of the western hemi sphere and revealed the new world to tho eyce of Europeans IL Is only little over : century since the United States Of Americs sprang, So tO speak, like Palias Athenc from the brain of love, 8 completely armed ad dition to the family Of nations Ii Is but ] little -ver half a century since California be. came part of these United States Of America and less than generation since the settle ment Of the Great Southwest began.
 | NJn ail the 9 years since the Republic was founded. also in the half century since Cali f,lrRia became one of the States of the Union, and during every year of the last thirty, a re- alizGtlon of the vast riches of the American continent, of the territory of the United States and of tllis 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 be expected tn become. Wo have not reached the depths Of this great ocean of wealth with our plulnmct llnc yet.
 in a residence of forty years on tue Coast Ihc writer thought he knew q little about what there Is on the Coast, and IS most of these years have been spent In and around Los Angeles. he naturally had a ittle con ceit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Great Southwest Last week trip to the Colorado River bottoms. belcw Yuma made hlm feel as a tcndeIfOot who lad come in on the last traln. New to him, this wonderful region and its possibilities arc pretty well known to a great many renders og The Times by the stories published. f not by the demon stration of their own eyes.
 Yuma lies on tho map Just twelve miles from wher. the government is putting In the great Laguna dam, at the confluence of the Gia and Colorado Rivers. It is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican boundry line on the Arizona side or the river At one point. Just below Yuma. the interna- tional boundry line runs up along tho river which there takes a westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico Is only a fow miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago when the mountain ranges of ArigoIa and California lowered toward the stars, at least twice Rs high as they do now, rains were very frcducnt and came down in torrcntial volumes ell along these mountain ridges. The Colorado River in these past ages was 8 mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second Of It's flow. Thc Cobra do sink was at that time great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sides Of wiiere thc rIVor nOw runs. As the erosion Of winds and storms, landsIides and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, the great river rarrled down vast amount of silt, erosion from the rocks full Of phos. phaies, Hines ard dlsintergrated granites, as wei. us 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 Pains became less frequent and less in volume but the erosion of rocks and river banks, tine trees and vegetable mould torn from the banks still came down and settled into the bottom Of the great ihia4,d lake. This geogieal process went Oil from age to age to our time, half a mile wide and being Gt the present time about twenty feet deep in the deepest portion.
 1t is not necessary to remind Californiaus that the Spanish missionaries and explorers 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 this time of the year. after passing the mouth of the Gila, Instead Of the red river 1t becomes the brown river. It actually looks today as if ten per cent of its flow was silt and only ninety per cent water.