The Parker post., 1918-04-13
CALL Of THE
WILDERNESS

The following Drlef outline or the
history of Arizan was delivered by
Mrs. F. M. Hall at recent meeting
of the Woman's Club of Parker. 1t is
a vivid portrayal of facts we'll known
to those who have ever lived in Ari-
zona, and will prove of interest to
our readers:
The call of the Wilderness-all
who have been within the borders OF
the Painted Desert region have felt
it, and yet-what is it? At first the
desert of Arizona seems to us but a
vast, dreary wilderness of barren
sand and sky, where not the law, but
the land sets the limit of how far in
to the heart of it man dares to 60
1t is a land full of angers-danger
of sunstroke from the scorching heat
of the midday sun, of chill from the
sudden cool of the nights, danger of
thirst, of fierce thunder storms and
binding sand storms.
Out of this sandy wilderness rise
hills, rounded, blunt, burned,
squeezed up out of chaos, chrome and
vermillion painted. Between the
hills lie high Overlooking plains full
of intolerable sun-glare, or narrow
valleys drowned in a blue haze. At
ter rains water accumulates in the
hOllOws Of small closed valleys and,
evaporating, leaves hard, dry levels
of pure desertness that gets the local
name of dry lakes.
Where the mountains are steep and
the rains heavy, the pool is never
quite dry, but dark and bitter, rim
med about with the effloresence of
alkaline deposits. The sculpture of
the hills here is more wind than
water work, though the quick storms
do sometimes scar them past many
years redeeming.
Since this is hill country, one ex-
poets to find springs. but not to de-
pend upon them; for when found they
are often brackish and unwholesome,
or maddening, slow dribbles in a
thirsty soil.
II one is inclined to wonder at first
how so many dwellers came to be in
the loneliest land that ever came out
of Gods hands, what they do there or
why stay, one does not wonder so
much after having lived there.
Arizona was first visited by the
Spaniards in 1889, but 1t had long
been the seat of race of natives
whose ruins of villages and fortifica-
t1ons still remain. The hostility OF
these natives, the Indians, retarded
settlement, and revolutionary dis
orders in Mexico in the first half of
the nineteenth century led to the
abandonment of most of the mines
and settlements, except Tucson and
Tubac. At the close of the war be-
tween the United States and Mexico
in 1848 the conquering flag was in
possession of California and New
Mexico, but between the rich mis-
sion-set coast state and New Mexico
stretched many uncounted, unvalued
unmapped miles of desert and noun
tain. 1t was part of the United
States, but not dozen Americans
had been beyond it's borders.
There were vague rumors of cop
per, silver and gold in the mountains
but the only certainty seemed to be
the fierceness of the Apaches, whose
frequent uprisings greatly interfered
with the development of the country.
1t was governed as a part of New
Mexico until in 1868 President
Lincoln placed his signature on the
act that made Arizona an independ-
ent territory. Prescott was at that
time made the seat of government.
but it was later removed to Phoenix.
With the extension of railroads into
61AAAOAd CAO SIOWIu OI great mining
centers and the opening up of irri-
gated lands, progress has been rapid.
AS a consequence demands for the
admission of the territory as a state
have been insistent, and in 1910 all
enabling act was passed by congress
and became a law. On February IA.
1912, President Taft issued the
necessary proclamation which form
ally declared Arizona to be a state.
Arizona, a land of lost rivers. with
little in it to love, yet a land that
once visited must be come back to
inevitably. Men who have lived here,
miners and cattle men, will tell the
stranger this, cursing the land but
going back to it.
In one part of the Arizona desert is
that wonder of wonders, the petrified
forest On every side, lying about,