Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-07-01
COLOKADO CALLED
RIVER OF MAGIC
Easily Most Dramatic OF
American Waters.

The Colorado is the most dramatic
Of American rivers-perhaps. if you
put prophecy ahead Of history, of all
rivers. Given time, which railroads
and the swift advance of population
have denied, 1t might have produced
a civilization as different from that
Of its neighbor. the Mississippi, as
that of the Mississippi is from the
cultures of the Danube and the Rhine.
From its inception, $4,000 feet above
the sea, through its flaming mile-deep
canyons and along it's swollen delta,
where it has laid down 300 feet of
fabulOusly rich soil, 1t is a stream
with pulse and personality peculiar
to itself. 1t is the product of a region
of abrupt contrasts-of flowing water
In an arid land, of monumental rocks
and plunging chasms, of flashing fu-
turistic colors. 1t has none of the
classicism of the Hudson or the Poto-
mac; it was carved and painted long
ago by some Society of Independent
Artists who did not work by prece-
dent. The magic is not wholly out
OF 1t even now. Even now 1t may be
capable, despite the transcontinental
railways and highways, which send
travel across the river valleys instead
of up and down them; despite, also.
the motion picture, the radio and the
popular magazine, of laying a spell
upon the race Of men. 1t may give a
new rhythm to their dances, new
cadence to their songs, a new bold
ness of line and color to their arts.
For one cannot think of a population
in the valley Of the Colorado as serv-
Ing purely materialistic gods. as SEN
fencing themselves to a dour puritan
ism.
The Colorado is capricious and full
of a wild humor It's average flow,
below the Grand canyon, is about
10000 second-feet, yet there is good
evidence that in time of flood 1t has
sent down as much as 100000 second
feet-an increase of $500 per cent.
When flood of even a third of this
volume energies upon the delta, aug
mented by the waters of the ella, the
ranchers in the Imperial, the Goa
chella and the Palo Verde have cause
TO tremble. Throughout its lower
course the river beAtrides a great hog
back of silt, which it is raising at the
rate of foot year and which is now
nearly so feet above the sea level and
from 100 to 300 feet above the level
of the Imperial valley. In 1905 It
broke through a temporary irrigation
intake and flowed for eighteen months
into the SaltOn sea. Had the deluge
continued, or If 1t were to recur, the
river would drown out. probably for
the life of this generation. 90 per
cent of the Imperial's $4,000 acres
of cultivated land. ut is a great devil
fish," said one Californian. testifying
last year before a congressional COM
mittee, reaching over into the Impe-
rial valley and trying every way to get
there" 1t fiips a jocose tentacle and
wipes out the life work of thousands
OF human ants. In ten. fifteen or
twenty-five years. according to chance
and the temperament of the engineer
who makes the estimate. 1t will again
emerge from its bed and menace the
valley lands. This is one reason. and
the most imminent one. for the pro-
posals now pending in congress for a
comprehensive development of the
whole of the lower basin.-Robert L.
Duffus. in the New Republic.