The Coolidge examiner., 1931-06-26
(Prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. ID. c.

(Prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. ID. c.
CROSS Arizona automobile
n traffic is setting predomi-
L N nently east now, where it
flowed west a few months ago.
Much of it comes from California,
but TO a gOodly number of the mo-
tOrists who have been in quest of
milder climates Arizona has been
winter home, for it is fast becom-
ing an American Egypt.
Since 1920, AriZOna'S tourist traf-
fic has grown more than 1000 per
cent. Winter playground hunters
are drawn to her ever multiply
ing hotels, auto camps and dude
ranches. In Phoenix on some win
ter nights $500 people sleep in the
auto camp. At Flagstaff, among
81 motor cars parked about a ho-
tel, licenses were counted from %
different states and two from Can
ada. BY train and auto more than
100000 people saw the Grand Can
yon in one recent year.
Ten years ago a dozen tourists a
day. coming from Tucson down TO
NOgaleS were a crowd of sight
seers. Last year close to $1,000
motor car parties visited this bill
ingual town that sprawls astride
the international border. Since the
recent completion of the Southern
Pacific railroad line down the Mex
lean west coast, one may ride from
Los Angeles to Mexico City. This
puts old Nogales, once but camp
ing place for Forty-niners, on one
of the main railways tying up the
two republics-a new channel OF
north and south tourist travel.
New Grand Canyon Bridge.
One of the highest bridges in the
world has been completed recently
across the Grand Canyon. One hun
dred and thirty-fve miles north of
Flagstaff this dizzy structure spans
the Colorado. 1t eliminates the old
river crossing, known as Lees Ferry,
six miles above the site. Until now
the only vehicular way through the
Canyon was down narrow. dan
gerous mountain road that hugged
the face of bluffs, to reach Lees
Ferry, set up long ago by MOrmons
migrating to Arizona from Utah.
Except the MOrmOns, Indians,
traders and trappers, very few
travellers have ever passed this
way.
Yet this path leads through re-
gion of astounding and rugged
beauty. From Flagstaff north it
crosses the flaming Painted Desert;
then, over the bridge hung like a
giant steel spider web spun be-
tween precipitous canyon cliffs,
past Bryce Canyon into the Kai-
bab National Forest and Zion Ma
tional Park.
Through countless centuries, un-
til this bridge was built, the great
gorge barred man from travel north
and south.
AriZOna's white population, not
including Mexicans, has increased
by GOO per cent since the Spanish
American war and its wealth has
multiplied maybe twenty times.
Lonely COW trails are changed to
crowded motor lanes, and million
dollar hotels fiaunt their splendor
where 'dobe huts and desert skies
were long mans only shelter.
High Lights of Arizona's Story.
Now, to see modern Arizona
whole. look hastily at its map spot
and at high lights in its astounding
past.
Under the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in 1S4S, the United States
acquired land only as far south as
the Gila river; by the Gadsden Pur
chase, in 1854. it received the rest
of that terra incognita later called
Arizona territory.
A few studious Americans, delv-
ing in early Spanish chronicles,
learned that explorers like Cabeza
de Vaca and Coronado, and early
missionaries like Father Kino had
found here rivers with banks three
leagues high" and mines rich
enough to yield a silver nugget so
heavy that two mules were lashed
together to carry It! From beaver
trappers. too, who had ventured
down the Colorado, tales of Ari-
zona's scenic wonders, and espe-
cially of Its warlike Apaches, had
been brought back. But to most
Americans practically nothing was
known Of Arizona; it was too hard
of access.
One early delegate to congress
reached Washington by way Of
Panama and is said to have collect
ed $1,000 in mileagel This same
delegate, years later. set up a SUM-
worship cult in Arizona.
To give Arizona a seaport, Mr.
Gadsden's own plan was TO take in
part of Sonora, down to Guaymas.
This would have provided a port on
the Gulf of California, which might
have shifted the whole economic
and immigration history of Ari-
zona and probably of northwest
Mexico, too. But this plan was
not approved; Uncle Sam found
himself with a remote, unexplored