The Parker post., 1911-09-02
COLORADO DESERT
TO FEED MILLIONS
George Wharton James, Well Known
Magazine Writer, Forecasts Bright
Future For Colorado River coun-
try.
By George Wharton James, in Twen.
tieth Century Magazine.


1t is but yesterday that the world
thrilled as the ''army with banners :"
led by it's band and commanded by
gold-laced officers, passed by. Armies
of power for conquest and invasion
were in order and that nation was
greatest" whose army and navy out
numbered all others
Today a new army is taking the
field. 1t Is not quite so picturesque
to the falsely trained eye; there does
not appear to be much glamor of ro-
nance about it, and no band with
drums and changing cy1nbals accompa-
nies it. Yet it is an army of inva-
sion and conquest, though it's weapons
and methods are peaceable and do
mestic. 1t is not an army of destruc-
ton, or devastation, and death does
not follow in it's path. 1t brings no
sorrow no pain, no wailing, and leaves
my that brings good and only good to
the country it invades. 1t conquers
only the barrenness and converts it
into smiling fields 1t seeks the des-
ert to make it blossom as the rose,
and converts the sandy wastes into
gardens where bloom the pomgranate
and almond
Elsewhere l have written some
thing of the wonders accomplished by
the United states Reclamation Ser
vice. Deserts and waste places have
wish to present somewhat different
phase. During the month of April,
1911, went into the heart of the Col
Orado Desert, into Chucawalla Valley
"a valley that six years or so ago I
tramped with my comrade and our
gentle burros; valley of desert DESC
lation, where the horned toad, liz
ard chucawa1la, rattlesnake and side
winder, with an occasional stray coy
Ote, seemed the only living things;
desert valley that prospectors dread.
ed and teamsters for the mines ours
ed and hated; valley redeemed by
but one thing, and that was that
mining company perforce had bored
we'll which gave forth grudgingly
it's quota of water to the unwilling
traveller over it's desolate miles. Then
it was as silent, as quiet, as deserted
as one expects a desert to be; now it
has become the scene of activity, of
noise, of modern change. Automobiles
"chugged' back and forth over the
sandy roads; laden wagons moved to
and fro; groups of men were busy
here, there, yonder, clearing the sage
brush, cactus, and creosote bush from
thousands of acres; smoke ascended
in a score of places from fires where
the brush was being burned, the white
of tents glistened frequently in the
afternoon sun; and now and again
the odors of cooking reached us from
gang-tents near the roads over which
we passed.
What is the secret of the change?
Why all this abnormal activity?
The West is rapidly waking up to
the fact that there are few or no sir
reclaimable" deserts. Where creo-
sote bush, salt bush and sagebrush
will grow, oranges, apples, pears. april
cots, figs, almonds, and alfalfa will
grow, if mans energy, guided by wis
dom and knowledge, conveys water to
tlesnakes and lizards congregate, it
is just as we'll for hogs, cows, sheep
and horses, provided the water ha3
been properly taken over an alfalfa
patch and where the coyote lifts up
his voice in bowling and barking, it
is more delightful to hear the happy
voices of boys and girls, of men and
women.
Men have been slow to learn. The
Nile has been an object lesson to the
West for thousand years. The fer
grown into proverb, yet here in our
sunny California, on the banks of our
Nile of America the Colorado Riv-
er-men have gazed upon the land
and called it-God-forsaken desert,
irreclaimable, irredeemable, the
"land that God forgot All! fools
and Hind DOaS God ovor for0o+ opy
land? Has He cursed any region?
Has He ever taken back the blessing
He gave when He looked over what
He had made and pronounced it good?
Some men, however, have had faith,
They were not all Christians in the
religious sense They were not all
good" men, in the church sense
(COntfnued on Page 2N