The Arizona sentinel., 1911-01-26
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGION tjNFATHOMED The Soil Simply EiarVeIous in it's
 PyOdGCtiVeneSS Ard the Climate is IHtOXiCatingly
 SalubriOuS
BY GEORGE N. BU RTON. In Los Angeles Times.

If is very far from a semi-millenium since three little open boats under the flag of spain fl rst touched tic waters Of the western hemi- sphere and revealed the new world to the eyes Of Europeans. IL is only 6 little over a 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 yer half a century since California be- came Q part ofthese United States Of America, and less than a generation since the settle ment of the Great South west began.
 In all the l25 years since the Republic was founded also in the half century since Cali fornia became one of the States Of the Union |. and during every year of the last thirty, a re- aliZation ofthe vast riches Of the American continent, of the territory oF the United States and of this Great Southwest has been :rcre and more astonishing 10 the minds of men. One would suppose that by today we knew pretty thoroughly what the uDdevelop- ed resources of the Great Southwest might reasonably be expected to become. We have not reached the depths Of this great ocean of wealth with our plummet line yet.
 In a residence Of forty years on the Coast the writer thought he knew a little about what there is on the Coast, and as most of these years have been spent in and around Los Angeles. he naturally had little con- ceit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Great Southwest Last week a trip to the Colorado Rlver bottoms. below Yuma made h.m 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 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 the GiIa and Colorado Rivers. 1t 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 boundry line runs up along the river which there takes westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is only a few miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago when the mountain ranges of Arizona and California lowered toward tEe stars, at least twice as high as they do now, rains were very freduent 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. The Colora- do sink was at that time great inland sCd, which spread over the country on both sides Of where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms, landslides and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, the great river carried down vast amount Of silt, erosicn from the rocks full of phos' phatcs, times and dIsintergrated granites, as well as the vegetation along It's banks; and 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 geogical process went on from age to age to our time, lea ing the Colorado at Yuma a stream about half mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deep in the deepest portion.
 It is not 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. But at this time Of tue 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 of its flow was silt and only ninety per cent water.