The Nevada County picayune., 1920-06-03
NOT DESERT LAND
Lower California Has Much Fer.
 tile Soil.
Really Region of Great Resources That Only Await Development, Ac- cordng to Writer in Los
 Angeles Newspaper.


 Lower California is an expansive region that has never been we'll known and has long been misunder- stood. Even we of Upper California, despite our close proximity. know little of the peninsula except it's ex- treme northern part. writes Arthur Berg, in the Los Angeles Times. Few of us realize that 1t is not an utterly barren waste; that 1t is a tropical country with a 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 in history when the timbers of the Mayfiower were yet trees in the forest. Once sought and guarded for her ores and her jewels, this peninsula, which to the Spanish conqustadores was an island glitter ing In the azure web of romance land for which the padres gave their lives in fanatic devotion to the cross, now lies practically unnoticed, its TO- nance and history forgotten, and it's possibilities, if not overlooked, at least neglected.
 Between 1527 and 1532 Hernando Cortez sent four expeditions on voy- ages of discovery up the west coast of Mexico, but the first three accom- rlished nothing and the fourth failed to return. Finally, in 1888, Lower California was discovered by Xime- neg, who anchored in the bay of Santa Cruz (now La Paz). Later Cortes himself visited Santa Cruz and se- cured a quantity of pearls and Indian slaves In 1539 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 ap- peared on European maps as an island up to as late as 174s.
 All attempts of Spain to colonize the California peninsula ended in dis astrous failures until the task was del egated to the Jesuits, or Com pany of Jesus, in 1897. 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 15, 1897. at the bay of San Bruno, on the east coast. For 70 years thereafter the Jesuits con trolled the peninsula, and those 70 years represented the era of Lower California's greatest activity and greatest prosperity.
 During their sojourn the Jesuits charted the east coast, explored the east and west coasts the islands adja- cent thereto and the interior in a manner that has never been excelled; founded 23 missions, of which IA proved to be successful; formulated a system of mission life never thereafter surpassed: not only Instructed the ln- dians In religious matters, but taught them many useful arts as we'll 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 nineteenth 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.