The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1920-09-03
NOT DESERT LAND
Lower California Has Much Fer
tile Soil.
Really a Region Of Great Resources
That Only Await Development, Ae-
cordIna to Writer In Los
Angeles Newspaper.

Lower California Is an expansive
region that has never been well
known and has long been mlsunder-
stood. Even we of Upper California,
despite our close proximity know
little OF the peninsula except It's ex-
IRENE northern part, writes Arthur
Berg, In the Los Angeles Times. Few
or us realize that 1t is not an utterly
barren waste; that it is tropical
country with salubrious climate and
many regions of luXuriant vegetation ;
that its northern and southern parts
are utterly unlike one another, and
that rich resources abound that are
only waiting to be developed
Despite its jagged, barren heights
and cactus-clad mesas, which glow in
the fiery rays of an unobscured sun,
1t was a land rich i'm history when
the timbers of the Mayfower were yet
trees in the forest. Once sought and
guarded for her ores and her jewels
this peninsula, which to the Spanish
conquistadores was an island glitter
ing in the azure web of romance, a
lives in fanatic devotion to the cross,
now lies practically unnoticed, its ro-
nance and history forgotten, and its
possibilities, If not overlooked, at least
neglected.
Between 1927 and 1882 fernando
Cortez sent four expeditions on voy-
ages Of discovery up the west coast
of Mexico, but the first three accom-
plished nothing and the fourth failed
to return. Finally, in 1888, Lower
California was discovered by Kline
nez, who anchored in the bay of Santa
Cruz (now La PaZ). Later Cortes
himself visited Santa Cruz and Sc
cured quantity of pearls and Indian
slaves. In 1889 Francisco de Ulloa
sailed up the Gulf Of California and
discovered the mouth of the Colorado
river. In spite Of this discovery,
Lower California was known as an
island for more than 100 years and APP
peared on European maps as an island
up to as late as 174S.
All attempts Of Spain to COLOMBO
the California peninsula ended In dis
astrous failures until the task was del
egated to the Jesuits, or Com
pany of Jesus, in 1867. These Jesuit
missionary priests were possessed Of
the tact of the French explorers the
persistency Of the English colonial set
tIers and the bravery of the American
frontiersman.
Padre Salvatierra made the first
mission settlement in Lower Cali
fornia on October 10, 1907, at the bay
of San Bruno, OH the east coast. For
20 years thereafter the Jesuits con-
trolled the peninsula, and those 20
years represented the era of Lower
CALIFORNIA; greatest activity and
greatest prosperity.
During their sojourn the Jesuits
charted the east coast, explored the
east and west coasts the islands ada
cent thereto and the interior in q
manner that has never been excelled ;
founded % missions, of which IA
proved to be successful; formulated q
system of mission life never thereafter
surpassed not only instructed the In
dams i'm religious matters, but taught |
them many useful arts as well; cul- |
tivated and planted the arabic lands
and inaugurated a system of irrigation
which, had they been given time for
a more northerly advance, would have |
given Upper California marvellous |
agricultural development early in the |
century.
The establishment of the mission In |
Upper California was a much easier |
task than that which the hardy |
Jesuit priests faced and conquered in |
Lower California.