Weekly journal-miner., 1919-08-20

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 made many another region famous;
 we have so much beauty in Arizona
 that we take it as a matter of course and read newspapers or chew gun and sleep through scenery finer than we would pay dollars to see in some other land.
 Out of Humboldt the road winds through the foothills and along the course of the Agua Fria to Mayer, with the deep canyon through which Big Bug creek comes down on the right. Someone asked how that creek was named-and l recalled the curi- ous giant beetle found there, a rare insect greatly prized by collectors and not often seen nowadays, though once it was rather plentiful.
 A few years ago I visited the old placer gold workings of Northern ] California and was reminded of some of the workings along Big Bug creek Nearer Humboldt and in sight from the train is a little gulch in which nuggets have been found for forty years, one of them weighing nearly a thousand dollars having been picked up some years ago.
 i Coming into Mayer my friends eN- claimed that it looked like an old time Eastern village with its tree shaded streets and white houses set in little gardens; the big buildings left by successive mining ventures and the onyx cliffs scared by the workings of Buckley" O'Neill's long forgotten onyx mine seem part ot some other life. Mayer has the best climate and the best water along the road. so they say frankly, and people come and stay and although the mines are active and hopes higher than at any time since the war began there is a home feeling about this spot that is charming.
 As we climbed across the hills be- low Mayer we caught sight of the bucket line which brings in the ore from the Blue Bell mine to Blue Bell siding. and presently we dropped down toward Turkey creek and saw Giant cactus and desert plants ming led with the carpet of wild flowers.
 We saw the camp from whcn workmcn are pushing the Fossil creek power line south toward the Kay and other mining properties where active development calls for electric power. This whole chain of mountains seem ed full of mines ill all stages of open ing, all hopeful to equal the Blue Bell or the De Soto.
 The fame of this region is greater abroad than at home for when a re- turning Italian soldier tried to buy ticket into Yavapai county the two places known were Prescott and Tur- key Creek and although bound for Cherry his soldier ticket routed him through to that point made famous by the old-time glory of the Peck mine.
 l saw the Bradshaws once in com pany with a man who had spent his -boyhood in the Austrian Tyrol, the Dolomites, and the Swiss Alps. When the full sweep of the long range of rugged mountains with its magnih- cent skyline of cliffs and granite lodges came in view he held his breath in awe and finally exclaimed: And you cross the ocean to see mountains with this at home!"
 He was right; we cross the world to see things less beautiful because Inc one has written poems or stories about what we have here at home. Here ill this Bradshaw range a report Ito all early legislature estimated that more than a thousand prospectors had been killed by Indians while looking for mineral and the canyons are dotted with old dumps and work ings each one the romance of some mans hope for fortune.
 When we came to the switch-bacls there was little for anyone to say. We climbed the mountain by zig-zag, just as a cowpony goes up. Some times we could look down and count five or, six tracks below Us and up and see where we had still to go, till we slipped over the last step and into Grown King, perhaps the most pic turesque mining camp in Yayapai as for many years it was one of the richest.
 1 wondered as l looked around why none of our moving picture com panics had fallen upon this spot in which to make up Western plays. Here is a setting perfect ill every de tail beautiful and accurate. The o.Iy reason why tourists do not come up oh every train is that no Bret Harte has told in print the stories that have really been lived heIe, and no Rem iugton has painted the beauty and charm that can be seen every day.
 As the train drew out on the return trip we realized how high we had climbed for the sweep of valley and mountain below was like the Grand Canyon, or like the view from Mt. i Lowe which. is so constantly adyer- tf-aJ r- ,,,rt ,f f,a scenic ,gzsts Ct {