Salt Lake Mining Review | 1903-10-15 | Page 1 | Over the "Salt Lake Route" and Santa Fe to Phoenix

over the salt lake route and santa fe to phoenix H written marcus by E jones A H moo it has always been a desire of the writer to take the overland trip from salt lake southward but on account of the difficulty of getting from place to place there are few who ever take such a trip those who used to travel in utah over the san pedro railroad have an idea that south of salt lake and especially south of nephi this line is monotonous and uninteresting te this is true for a comparatively short distance from nephi to below milford for it goes over a country which though not by any means a desert is still less at less highly cultivated than the region around utah lake and in salt lake valley but once we get down to uvada which is on the southern edge of the great basin we strike a region which becomes interesting both because it is new and because the scenery changes rapidly and abruptly we wind in and out among the hills as we go up to the rim of 0 the great basin and pass over a country which is picturesque and interesting in many ways we soon leave uvada where the wagon road branches off for stateline Stat eline one of the progressive and new mining camps which belongs to utah then we pass over a series of rolling hills and gradually drop down to clover creek where the canyon widens and deepens until the scenery becomes co more attractive near the lower end of clover valley there is a very large stream which gushes out from the mountain side on the east supporting a beautiful little vineyard and orchard which makes an ideal place for a fruit ranch and a dairy it is not very far below this before the canyon has nearly precipitous walls which are very lofty and open out into beautiful vistas as we pass along we ve soon come to calientes salientes Cali entes a town which means hot but which is not half as hot as other towns below it this is the place where the railroads had considerable difficulty some time ago which is shown by two grades which parallel one another down the valley at the present time cal lentes is the western terminus of the salt lake and san pedro railroad until recently the oregon short line from here a stage line runs to delamar to the westward and another line goes southward to moapa overton and st thomas the writer took the latter route the drive is an interesting one down the meadow valley wash which is really a pretty canyon through the center of which flows a little stream which ch is fed here and there by others which come out at the base of the canyon walls there are beautiful little ranches scattered along through the canyon twelve 13 miles below we come to quite a little town clustered around the pump house hous e which furnishes water for delamar some ten or of twelve miles away in an airline air line the scenery here is very attractive and beautiful and increases in beauty as we go southward it is about eighty miles before we come out of the canyon then we reach an open sandy country which is very hot in the summer time and dry and has quite high mountains to the eastward and low mesas or table lands on each side of the stream t Z ajl jag r 7 PANORAMIC VIEW OF rn PRESCOTT EsCOTT ARIZONA from arom the mouth of the canyon to moapa there are practically no ranches of any kind but at moapa is the indian reservation here a stream flows down through the panaca country and empties into the meadow valley wash some distance below here also is st bt joe where have begun to raise fine grapes peaches and almonds this will be one of the best places for the production of early vegetables for the salt lake market when the railroad passes through on its way to california A short distance below st joe the railroad will leave the meadow valley wash and go over in the direction of the vegas ranch about twenty miles south of moapa we come to the little settlement of overton which shows abat can be done in a dry and hot country by irrigation there are really a number of beautiful pla places es in this town with fine orchards and hay fields adjoining there is no more accommodating stage line than the one that runs from calientes salientes Cali entes to overton the distance is miles and it is made in a continuous drive without a stop and was quite a surprise to the writer as the fare is low and everything is done for the comfort of the passengers from overton to st thomas is a distance of about seven or eight miles which is not covered by any stage line but the stage driver is always ready to take any passenger down to st thomas who goes from salt lake city through that country st thomas is practically a duplication of overton in every respect from st thomas it is twenty five miles down the virgin river which comes into the muddy just below st thomas to the colorado river at rioville Ri oville it is a complete desert the entire distance until we strike rio ville where one of the most interesting personalities in that entire region lives a man by the name of bonelli who has for many years run a ferry across the river the colorado river is perhaps a quarter of a mile wide at this place and is deep and the current is strong one would expect to find a ferry with a cable and all the modern improvements but instead of that he finds a scow scow and one or two men to row it across the river the ferryman never forgets to inform the passenger when he reaches the further shore that he would like 50 cents to buy him some beans and taking all the circumstances into consideration the passenger readily parts with the fifty cents to supply the old gentleman with beans from the colorado river it is about thirty five miles to the white hills over one of the most desolate roads that any mortal ever traveled it is a wash a stretch of sand for miles and miles the heat in the summer time is terrific and shade there is none at the white hills we find a little town which was once a place of at least 1000 inhabitants but which now is reduced to or less the veins of ore which led to the building of a town run diagonally across the low hills immediately back of the place and have been opened up to the water level having produced large quantities of silver in recent times at present there is practically no ne work being done in t the camp but the miners who still remain are prospecting in the adjacent hills and finding occasionally considerable ore there are extensive hoisting plants and one large mill located in this place all of which are idle now the formation is granite with intruded porphyry dykes the veins are quartz carrying silver and dip sharply into the hills the traveler reaches white hills at midnight and enjoys a brief rest until 7 in the morning when he takes another stage line for chloride a small town located about thirty five miles further south the country is much the same as from rio 54 W ME 4 0 I 1 4 4 i I 1 inner gorge grand canyon of the colorado terminus of the grand canyon railroad with the santa fe at williams arizona ville to the white hills but is somewhat higher though fully as hot as the other region at chloride we find a thriving little town of perhaps 2000 people which is supported by a number of active mines to the eastward and southward the country here is composed of low hills adjoining a rather elevated range 0 to o the east on the western flank of this range of low hills which parallels the main range are the mills and mines which are now in active operation the product of this camp is chiefly silver most of the mines are down to the water wafer level and some of them are producing heavily there is one mill in the camp of large dimensions men and one smelter the latter not at present in operation the formation is the same as at white hills and is loose and open the veins being on the low ground mostly and on the sides of 0 the hills the mineral product of the town is sufficient to support a railroad which runs from chloride to kingman on the santa fe on arriving at kingman which Is the salt lake of northwestern arizona we are surprised to find the thrift and business energy which the place exhibits the town is situated in a region which is naturally as desert and as dry as anything can possibly be there a stream or a spring or anything attractive around it it lies in a depression among low hills capped with black lava and naturally is very hot and very dry but the people haye have sunk wells and erected wind mills that pump sufficient water not only for culinary and domestic purposes but also to water gar gardens denso orchards and fields and the town Is now supplied with plentiful shade of tropical character such as palms umbrella and pepper trees etc until it really is one of the most attractive places to be found in arizona the people are thrifty emigrants from the east mostly from the mississippi valley and being in an overwhelming majority they make a little eastern town in the midst of the arizona desert which is almost wholly different from any other town to be found in the territory the view to be obtained from kingman is often beautiful especially toward the kualapai Hu Hua alapai lapal mountains to the southeastward from kingman to the needles the railroad road passes over an open country part of which is called the huapapi huapap valley but which is nothing more or less than the open country between two ranges of mountains when the writer was there the tha desert had put on the most beautiful garb that it ever has had bad in twenty years in 1884 the writer passed through this country for the first time and then the desert was a garden as far as the eye could reach but this time it was still more beautiful the writer remembers being on oil top of the kualapai Hu Hua alapai lapal mountains and looking down on this region toward the colorado river and seeing a patch perhaps five miles long and several miles wide which looked to him in the distance like a patch of desert without vegetation because of the peculiar color but upon further investigation it proved to be a mass of california poppies brick red in color in traveling from kingman to the needles on the santa fe road a distance of probably seventy five miles or more it was a garden all the way the writer never saw such brilliancy of colors in any place in his life never saw such vast stretches of color going up the mountain sides and the hillsides hill sides as far as the eye could reach as in this beautiful country it seemed like a perfect paradise especially because we never expected anything so beautiful in a region so barren at franconia twenty five miles east of the needles the writer spent a few days studying the vegetation and examining the mines especially in the mountains to the southward along the valley at franconia there is a peculiar tree called the palo verde which is characterized by being as green as grass and having no leaves it has the general shape and appearance of an apple tree it grows forty and fifty feet high at times and is stranger even than the cactus which abounds in this country the road from franconia to the chimi hurvis mountains is as hot as the writer ever traversed it was so hot in passing over it that the air fairly crinkled in every direction such as we sometimes see in the east the stones on the surface of the mesa were smooth and hot and black and you could feel the heat coming from them to your face as you passed over them the mountains themselves consist of a low granite range which has been fissured in all directions and whose fissures have been filled with mineral coming up from below in addition there have been some outcrops of porphyry and even of lava in places the veins are filled with quartz carrying iron pyrites and some gold and have in the past produced large quantities of gold which in the wearing down of the mountains has been carried off by the streams into the gulches and has been extensively mined as placer by prospectors for many years the country is of course without streams and with only two springs in the entire region it contains one good mine and the possibility perhaps of several others the needles is a town lying on the western side of the colorado river several miles above the present crossing of the railroad at one time the santa fe railroad was built straight across the river to the needles and the track was laid on piles driven into the stream but the tremendous current of the river at high water washed out the bridge several times so that the company was compelled to go down below a number of miles where there were rock walls on either side of the stream and there they have built a beautiful cantilever bridge which has relieved them of all trouble since when the writer first visited the needles it was only a few months old in 1884 and of course there were no trees or vegetation of any kind now it is a town of perhaps 1000 people and is embowered empowered ered in shade the inhabitants have run pipe lines in all directions through the town and have established a large pumping plant electric works etc and have set themselves to beautify the place until now it is more attractive than any other town of its size in the interior region it is an ideal place for a consumptive sump tive because of its low elevation above the sea and dryness of atmosphere the air being dryer here even than it is in yuma from the needles the writer took a trip over the desert to goff manvil and ivan pah manvil is the railroad station for the searchlight district which lies along the colorado river to the eastward it is a thriving little town situated pretty high up among the cedars and from manvil the road goes down a pretty steep descent to the northward to the dry valley which lies south of the charleston mountains in the center of which is a little station called ivan pah this is the terminus of the stage line which runs over to the charleston mountains and into the region north and east it is just over on the western side of the low linis hilts which adjoin ivanpah Ivan pah where the san pedro railroad is to go so there is no doubt but that on the completion of the railroad the road from ivanpah will be extended to a connection with it and thus afford easy access from northern arizona to salt lake returning from ivanpah the writer passed through the needles and on eastward through kingman ash fork and wil williams bianas lianas which lie in the midst of a magnificent forest on the san francisco mountain plateau the traveler from salt lake would never imagine it possible that there could be such a region as the great forest around williams in going from the needles he rapidly ascends over the plateau country until it reaches the face of another still higher plateau which adjoins williams and which is covered from one end to the other with lofty pine trees averaging feet in ili height and several feet in diameter the whole country is covered with grass which affords ample pasturage for cattle horses and sheep the forests support very many large lumber mills which supply the entire southern country with lumber this region is without streams but in place of streams are a number of open lakes scattered around through the park like ilke country near williams the bill williams peak rises to an elevation of several thousand feet above the town an and d is simply an old and extinct volcano resting on the flat surface of the plain around it this whole plateau is sprinkled with such peaks from one end to the other the loftiest loft iest of which are the san francisco peaks back of flagstaff some forty miles to the eastward of williams and which rise to an elevation of about feet above the sea and are snow capped most of the year from williams a branch of the santa fes great system has been built northeastward a distance of about miles over the plateau to the brink of the grand canyon of the colorado the railroad runs right up almost to the edge of the grand canyon itis only about yards from the station until you reach the jumping off point in the canyon the country here is covered with