The Coolidge examiner., 1931-06-26
Ancient Mission of San Xavier del sac, in Arizona


4 savage land, hard to reach. SO, in
stead of our american Egypt" hav-
ing a seaport on its border, it re-
mains a landlocked region of long
rail haulS.
This inaccessibility, the charac-
ter Of the country itself, and its
savage inhabitants kept Arizona for
| decades the most backward of all
our territories.
Buying Arizona was folly, East
ern people said; its arid wastes
were useless. Yet surveys began
to show that, for all it's evil des-
erts, it had big rich spots of much
value; also, now that it belonged
to us. we were free to make roads
across 1t, to tie up Texas with
southern California.
Nearly Isolated for Years.
Yet for twenty years after the
Gadsden purchase Arizona commu-
nicated with the outside world
largely by water. Ships ran from
San Francisco to the mouth of the
Colorado river, via the Mexican
ports of Mazatlan, La Paz and
Guaymas.
A semi-monthly mail and passen-
ger stage was started in 1857 from
San Antonio TO San Diego; but at
times it cost the government $50 TO
carry each letter! A year later the
historic Butterfield stages began
running between st. Louis and
San Francisco. An early writer
says: This was one of the grand
achievements of the age, to span
the continent by a semi-weekly line
of stages, under bonds to perform.
by sole power of horsefiesh, trip
of $500 miles within the schedule
of % days"
1t was the trek of people from
the South to the West after the
Civil war that began to give Ari-
zona population. Previous to that,
white men saw little of it, except
the regions about Tucson. the Gila
Bend. and Yuma, which lay along
the Forty-ninerS' trail.
Today passengers on fast trains
through Arizona complain if the
shower in the club car is not cool,
or if the BARRIERS razor is dull. Get
ting "Iaid out" for two hours at a
pace like Tubac with a broken en-
CINE is called hardship.
Arizona really began to grow
/ 49,, fhn 1auolnnnlnf of hnr
mines by Americans.
Quest for gold first took white
men there. Legendary gold-roofed
temples of Cibola lured Coronado.
He didn't find a golden Cibola. But
for generations Spain helped to
pay the huge cost of her glittering
European armies with gold and sill
yer from Arizona and Sonora
mines.
Along half-forgotten trails, where
swarthy, bearded men in clanking
mail drove Indians to slavery in the
mines, fantastic legends never die.
Credulously, modern Arizona still
repeats tales of lost mines, of faded
maps bequeathed by dying monks,
of heavy brass-bound treasure
chests still hidden somewhere in
ruins of ancient missions.
Not a rocky canyon in this vast
geological kaleidoscope which is
Arizona but echoes now or has
echoed to the whack of the pros
pector's hammer and the hoarse
I evenSonp of his burro.
Future Seems Assured.
Fears that when mines were
worked out Arizona might decline
in wealth and population have been
allayed since the World war. There
are two reasons: First the In
crease of farm settlers under new
irrigation projects; second, discov-
ery of ways to mine and smelt cop
per at lower cost.
When low-grade copper ore oc-
ours in great masses near the top
of the ground, as at Bisbee, miners
simply blast and use steam shovels.
More than 100000 tons of rock
have been broken by one "shot."
! One can grasp the size of Ari-
zona's mining industry when it is
known that the state employs more
than $4,000 men and digs each year
675, 100000 pounds of copper, 1900
600 pounds of lead. 100000 ounces
of silver and $5,000,000 in gold.
The annual mineral output sells for
more than S1OO,000,0O0.
Invariably, mining will decline
but by that day Arizona believes
her increased farm, fruit, live
stock, and other growing indus
tries will preserve her economic
balance.
Today there is the great Yuma
project; the big new dams at Horse
Mesa and Mormon Flat. and the
new multiple-dome Coolidge dam
on the Gila river, near San Carlos
The last named stands in box can
yon, eighty miles above the land il
waters. At present about 4,40C
Pima Indian farmers, with 50,00
acres. are the chief beneficiaries
But, to make the project practical
economically, 1t also waters ar
equal area owned by white farm
ers near Florence and Casa Grande