Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1923-04-07
Arizona Wants Slice Of Mexico to
Gain Access to Sea for Its
Huge Shipments of Minerals.

Washington.-"The 'Ararat' of a
strictly American 'Noah,' real COM
munist inhabitants, huge lava flow,
and salt and sand sufficient to cure
most of the worlds fish and to keep
all its builders and glass factories
busy'-these, says bulletin issued
by the National Geographic society,
are some of the by-products, valuable
and otherwise, that the United States
would acquire if it successfully acted
on recently reported resolution of
the Arizona house of representatives.
The resolution seeks to add to the
state small triangle of northern
Mexico.
1T Is for quite different reason,
however" continues the bulletin,
that Arizona desires what might be
called this second Gadsden Purchase
of one of the most desolate and least
known regions of North America
The map shows that while the south
ern boundary of the state extends
due west for space from the south
western corner of New Mexico, it
then strikes northwestward at very
slight angle. The resolution seeks an
arrangement with Mexico by which
this bend in the southern boundary
of the state would be eliminated so
that the line would continue as it
started, In due east and west direc-
ton. The triangular area that would
be added to the state would be about
240 miles long by about 80 miles wide
at the point of greatest breadth.
Bottled Up by Narrow strip.
"The important consideration is
that this long narrow triangle is all
that separates Arizona from the sea-
the Gulf of California, huge arm Of
the Pacific. Add it to Arizona. and
overnight the state would desert the
q inland commonwealth and join
the 81 that border on salt water. With
its hundreds of thousands f tons of
minerals to ship, the state is now
bottled up by narrow region unde-
veloped and little likely to be devel-
oped by its present owner. 1t Is felt
that even the desoate practically
trailless desert, and the lack of nat
ural harbors on the gulf would not
deter Yankee enterprise and Yankee
engineering ability from laying down
a trail of steel and constructing quays
or piers at which ocean steamers
would soon be loading, furnishing the
cheap transportation that bulky, prod
ucts demand.
1.-THE areas of most states are well
T.
lated 1t Is hard for dwellers in many
other portions of the United States to
realize. therefore, that not only is this
triangle of Mexico a terra incognita
but that the portion of Arizona which
adjoins it is almost equally so. Most
of the region south of the Southern
Pacific railroad may he thought of as
a desert on which small broken rocky
ranges of mountains have been super
imposed.
"Both north and south of the Dor
der, this region Is given over almost
wholly to handful of Papago Indians
with communistic customs who range
as freely as did their remote ances-
tors, needing to give In their desolate
der-lines or to the governmental ma
chinery of states and nations. The
region-both American and Mexican
is known roughly as 'Papagueria.' and
is seldom traversed by white men.
''Through it the international boun-
dairy extends, the ultimate in arbi-
trary lines. Swerving neither to the
right nor to the left it extends, a
straight, geometrical line, running up
sheer cliffs and over craggy peaks,
hurdling great valleys and tiny arrovos,
crossing deserts, lava flows, and sand
dunes, until it strikes the Colorado
river some fifteen miles below Yuma.
Indian "Noah" Saved Wolf and Beetle.
'The Mexican triangle Of Papa
guerra, which it is proposed to add to
Arizona, Is even a more inhospitable
country than the border region. In