The Arizona sentinel., 1910-09-29
POSSIBILITIES 0F YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED The Soil Simply Marvellous in it's
 PrOduGtiVaneSS And the Climate is IntOxiCatingIy
 Salgbri0uS
BY GEORGE Y. BURTON. In Los Angeles Times.


 1t is very far from a semi-miHenum since three little open boats under the flag of spain first touched the waters Of the western hemi- sphere and revealed the new world to the eyes Of Europeans Ii is only little over a century since the United States of America spraug, so to speak. like P;lllas Athene from the brain of love, a completely armed ad- diton to the family Of nations IL is but little -ver haira century since California be- came a part ofthese United States of America, and less than generation since the settle nent Of the Great south vest began.
 In all the l2j years since the Republic was founded. also in the half century since Cali fDrnia became one of the States of the Union. and during every year of the last thirty, a re- sslizaJion of the vast riches Of the American continent, of the territory of the United States and of tEiS Great Southwest has been alore and more astonishing to the minds of men. One would suppose that by today we knew pretty thoroughly what the undevelop- ed rc sources of inc Great Southwest might reasonably he expected to become We have not reached the depths Of this great ocean Of wealth with our plummct line yet.
 In residence of forty years on the Coast the writer thought he knew a little about what tliere is on the Coast, and as most of these years have been spent in and around Los Angeles. he naturally had li.tle con coit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Great Southwest. Last week a trip to the Colorado River bottoms. below Yuma made hlnl feel as a tenderfoot who had come in on the last train. New Go hn, this wonderful region and it's possibilities are pretty well of 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 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, Just below Yuma, the interBa- tiOn;,! boundry line runs up along the river which there takes q westerly trend and from Yuma tc 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 they do now, rains were very freduent and came down in torrcutial volumes 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. Tic Cobra do sink was at that time a great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sides Of where the river now runs. As the erosion Of winds and storms, lindslideS and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, the great river carried down vast amount of silt, erosion from the rocks full of phos. phates, times and dIsintergTated graHites, as well as the vegetation along it's banks; and this was all deposited in what gre now the sinks of the Colorado.
 As the mountain tops were worn down, the rains became less frequent and less in volume bat the erosion of rocks and river banks, the trees and vegetable mould torn from tho banks still came down and settled into the bottom of the great inland lake. This geoSical 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 lime about twenty feet deep il the deepest portion.
 It is not necessary to remind Californigns 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. But at this time Of the year. after passing the mouth Of the Gfl2, instead of the red river it becomes the brown river. It actually looks today as if ten per cent water.