Arizona republican., 1914-08-11
|S
 MAKING STRIDES
Development of Vast Re zion Lying West and North of Grand Canyon Going on Rapidly-Big Future Predicted.

river new towns being laid out, and rlans for the construction of an in terstate automobile highway practi cally completed, development work ill Acizona's trans canyon hinterand is going forward rapidly. New farms are being opened up, settlers are coming in, and with the coming of the Southwestern Pacific, which will serve to further open up that little
 known section of the state, the vast region lying north and west of the Grand Canyon will at last come to it's own. These facts have been brought out in investigations made recently by the state land commits sion and the agricultural department of the state university.
 A short time ago Chairman Win sor, of the commission, visited the Virgin river country, which may be easiest located on the map by find | ing where the Utah and Nevada lines converge. So far from Phoenix is 1 this locality. and so many hundred miles of travel are required to reach there, that it was difficult to realize
 that the settlers he found were resi-
 dents of Arizona, but the interest in
 and loyalty for the state disclosed by
 their conversations supplied ample
 proof of citizenship.
 An irrigation enterprise, designed
 to reclaim about 15,000 acres of Ari-
 zona's table land of semi-a char 1 acte-', is in course of construction on
 the Virgin river The project though
 possessed of difficult engineering problems. has every appearance of feasibility, water in abundance and
 good land under it. If the plans of
 the company receive no setbacks the enterprise will be completed during
 the coming winter. MT Winsor se- lected several thousand acres of land | under the project, for the state. His investigations extended some distance to the eastward, and he found splendid country, at present entirely l given over to grazing, but the land
 being unsurveyed no selections could
 be made, and a more careful inves- tigation was reserved for another | time
 l Still more recently, Prof. A. NJ. l McOmle, representing both the agri- cultural department of the Universi- ty of Arizona and the state land
 commission. accompanied by Dr. O. c.
 Bartlett, assistant state entomolo- giSt, and c. c. Jacobs, assistant en-
 gineer U. $. c. S., water resources
 branch, made an extended trip, by
 way of Lees Ferry, to Fredonia, and | examined the country for many miles
 on all sides of that trans canyon
 metropolis. They report not only a
 prosperous farming country at Ere
 donia, but a number of outlying
 farms where first class crops-of
 which they brought back photograph
 ic evidence-are raised by strictly
 dryfarming methods What is more
 interesting still. they report much
 activity on the part of new settlers opening up farms, laying out and
 improving roads and actively pre-
 pairing, in at least one instance. for
 the establishment of a town They
 think very highly of the country. and
 estimate that there is in that par
 ticular part of the state, at least a
 million acres of land susceptible oi successful agriculture The state land commission has announced that i'm mediate steps will be taken looking
 to the survey of this land, the ac-
 qulrement of data upon which pros , pective settlers can rely, and the opening of the area to home makers Messrs. McOmie, Bartlett and Ja cobs attended an enthusiastic meet ing of the Utah State and Grand Canyon Highway Commission, al Hurricane, Utah, and assisted in the promotion of plans for the construc- tion of an automobile road from the
 Utah state highway to the Grand ! Canyon at the western terminus ot the Bright Angel Trail, by way ot F'redonia. Utah. of course, will take care of the work to the Arizona line, and steps will be taken to in- duce the state of Arizona, the coun- ties of Mohave and Coconino, the United States postoffice department Indian bureau and national fores service to cooperate in pushing the road through Arizona to the canyon { over a highly scenic route which, il addition to advancing settlement vii attract many sight-seers from Utah Plans already have been laid, in fact for tour of fifty automobiles f.on {1 Salt Lake City to the canyon, tt ent month.