The Springdale news., 1919-03-28
RICH BUT UNKOWN
Lower California Has Never
 Attracted Settlers.
Vast Natural Resources Are Known to Be There-Was Rejected by the United States After the
 War With M.aico.

l.. - tic Lower California again has come into prominence through tlir in. troducti0n ill congress If q bill lookin to the purchase of that unique benin sula.
 Baja' California. rejected by the United States after the war with Mex leo as "the tail-end of an earthquake, :" though recognized as rich in natural resources is least known, according to the few who have made a scientific study of the peninsula, of any area of similar size in the western hemisphere.
 Lower California. romantically styled "the mother of California" has figured in modern history for 400 years. It was in 1927 that the Spanish captain general, Fernando Cortez. sent one of Balboa's veterans, Alvera de Saavedra, from Tehnantepee, on the west coast Of Mexico. with instructions to try to find strait supposed at that time to form link in route from Mexico, or New Spain. as it was then known, to the newly discovered Spice islands, known to later generations as the Phil- ippines.
 From Cortez' time down to the pres ent there have passed in review through the pages of Lower California's $ history Spanish eonquerors, Jesuits. DominIeans and Francscans, and plunderers from many lands; United States troops during the war with Mexico; fillbusters, intent on setting up an independent government and lastly, the contending factions for SUI premacy in MeXico's national admins traitor since the overthrow of Porfirio Diaz as president.
 It was DiaZ who bestowed on Lower California title of .pobre BaJa Cali fornia," descriptive of her condition in recent years and which translated Is Poor Lower California"
 Diaz' description fits the country just as we'll as to its typographical aspect, and In some other respects. for 1t is q jagged peninsula, 76o miles long, vary ing in width from 30 to 150 miles, and trayersed throughout its length by an irregular range of barren mountains of volcanic origin, breaking off abruptly on the gulf side and rambling off in a series of low hills to the Pacific coast
 lt has been described by it's most re- cent explorer as "a land great In its past and lean in its present. A land where the rattlesnake and the side winder, the tarantua and the scorpion multiply, and where sickness is un- known and tiNe-Seore years no uncom- mon span of life. \ land of strange contradictions
 While territorial state of Mexico, it nowhere touches other Mexican soil, being separated from the mainland by the waters of the Colorado river and the Gulf of California. In 1910 the population of the entire peninsula was given at 52,244. There is but one rail road in the country, aside from "wheezya mine tramNays, and that one. from Mexicaii to Yuma, but G miles in length. The "camnos," or roads of the mission days, have fallen into wretched state and in many places have been practically obliter. ated
 The peninsula K rich in mineral wealth, at least one of its silver mines in the southern district, having been operated since l74S Gold silver. cop per, iron coal lead, gypsum and salt are found, and valuable marble for building is everywhere abundant. Min ing experts agree that the mineral re-  sources have hardly been scratched