Show EASTERN ARIZONA TOWNS ST JOHNS arizona feb 3rd ard 1897 in almost every town of eastern arizona there is a large lane num berof people who are from utah many ot of the settlers have returned to utah discouraged and ready to give arizona a bad name so that arizona is a name which strikes terror in the breasts of many utopians Uton ians eastern arizona in connection with all the southwest has suffered from drought of late years and the colonists have had a hard time the cause of the discouragement lay originally in the settlers not adapting them selves to the country in arizona the highest mountains are not very preci precipitous i so the snow melts quickly in the e spring and leaves the streams dry or nearly so in june and july the P people eo of utah have living streams and the settlers of arizona failed to grasp the changed conditions there crot crop after crop was lost and the dull thud thu of ex peri ence has driven them to see their needs consequently reservoirs have been and are being built to hold the big streams of spring time and the floods of the rainy season for the summer use when the rains begin early these reservoirs will not be needed but no permanent prosperity will come until the water supply is sure NAVAJO SPRINGS this is a desolate little wayside station of the atlantic and pacific railroad noted as being the first seat of territorial government in arizona HOLBROOK OF NAVAJO this is another railroad station being more important than navajo springs because it is the shipping point for fort apache it is also the county seat of the new county of navajo twenty eight miles away and we are AT SNOWFLAKE snowflake is a town of five hundred people it will never be much larger unless other than agricultural interests make it so snowflake looks more like a utah town because it has many orchards and a great number of brick residences it you want to desolate any town or city the quickest way is to kill its orchards and shade trees for they add more to the beauty of a town than go ehlt good houses at present snowflake is the most prosperous town in this part of arizona CONCHO OR ERASTUS A town with two names looks like rather a tendency to overdo th the thing ething the mormon settlers have usually renamed the towns where the mexicans were the original settlers and where mexican names would have given a pleasing variety so the ecclesiastical ward here is named erastus the post office precinct and usual name is concho to the acquainted the very name signifies sticky day but concho has suffered less from the recent drought and crop failures than many neighboring towns on the road from concho to springerville Spring erville a deserted cattle ranch is passed the ranch was once the home ranch of fifteen thou thousand sandi cattle and could not have been bought tor for but the country is isnow now left to the owners onus of sheep and the once valuable ranches are for sale at avery a very low price SPRING springerville ERVILLE has suffered materially from the draught of past years and many people are to be met in all parts of utah who have been residents of the place it is naturally the best place for far farming mg or raising sheep and cattle in the tee whole hole of arizona but the original settlers were slow to develop the country reservoirs were not thought of by those who first came the people lived on what they bad the money from the sheep and cattle did not reach the hands of tire the real settlers but was owned by big holders whose homes were in the east or other places they invested no money in developing the country because it best sub served their interests to not have it developed but the cattle owners have suffered most from the drought and far met mer settlers are now re stocking the range with the few cattle they have despite the poverty of the people they have built a acre reservoir on one of the branches of salt river ditching it over the divide into the little colorado river they have just purchased the land in the lower end of lee valley a mountain valley eighteen miles above and will soon build a still larger reservoir there the upper canal which has been an expense ex pense for years was this year used to raise several thousand bushels of grain springerville Spring erville is located at the foot of the white mountains and the abundance of feed on these mountains is phenomenal of late the people have been gathering milk stock around them and dairying is is to be carried ou on quite extensively during the coming summer an absence of four years aiom springer ville shows that despite the drought the place has grown considerably while the people were never more encouraged than now NUTRIOSO AND ALPINE are mountain towns of apache county at one time they were inhabited by quite well to do people and were really in a thrifty condition eight years ago alpine was devastated by grasshoppers and has never recovered nutrioso was by far the best built up settlement of eastern arizona and its farming land is fully as productive as any around the town is surrounded by timber and rain min was for many years plentiful of late it has not been so As feed grow grew less plentiful on the grazing land the prairie dogs were driven near the tarnis farms tor for food thus the crops were eaten down and the town suffered greatly THE PRAIRIE DOG is a troublesome animal and the ques tion of its extinction is one of great importance to the people of the territories of arizona and new mexico the prairie dog is not in reality a dog and eats no flesh at all while his meat is is as wholesome as a rabbit the animals usually live close together forming prairie dog towns smoking them to death with sulphur has been quite successfully cess fully tried in many places but not so in holes which have two openings the young dogs are usually born in the summer time when the grass is green it if the rains are heavy enough to flood the country to aej any great extent it will run rua over the mounds and into the holes the older dogs often escape the flood but the younger ones are drowned so during the drought they have increased rapidly another use of this is that the coyotes 9 hawks owls and rattle i Is snakes which once sought subsistence at the dog towns have been quite ruthlessly destroyed the owl used to wait at the mouth of the hole and pounce upon the dop dogs large or small as they came out A hawk would swoop down on them as he would on chickens the rattlesnake rattle snake went into the holes swallowed the young and would come out with two or three great lumps to show where the little dogs were but the prairie dog mustio must go he causes many accidents to riders he eats the feed of horses cat tie and sheep he devastates towns by taking the farmers crops all men are his enemies and his extinction is resolved upon and its accomplishment is a problem that chat territorial legislators know that they must solve ST JOHNS this is the county seat of apache county and flattering as are the prospects of springerville Spring erville st johns has an outlook better than it has ever had before st johns was originally purchased by the mormon settlers from mexican hold ers but the land purchased has been rowing owing more mineral and the crops eave E ve become lighter each year springs spring er r vule and a multitude of farms have the water of the little colorado and the farmers here have been left short but this has done good it is far cheaper to build reservoirs than to tip get the water past all the farms and since the people have found this out they have gone earnestly to work A nine hundred foot dam across the little colorado banks water over six hundred acres ot ol land in the salado valley but a better site for a reservoir is just below A dam one hundred and fifty feet across and forty five leet feet high to be built one hundred and fifty feet thick will bank the water over seventeen hundred acres of land and irrigate an estimated area ot fifteen thousand acres but the better land of st johns is not now under cultivation on the beach south and east of town lie twenty thousand acres of sandy land while in the lower valley that is now cultivated the land is heavy clay A ditch from the mouth of the intended reservoir running with a moderate fall would cover seventeen thousand acres this with the sheep and cattle interests that center in st johns would make the town capable of supporting a population of five thousand people the drawback of good culinary water has made st johns a poor place of residence there is a spring of water four miles from to town wn which the town bought for 1000 that could be brought to town at a cost of 3 n not 0 t counting separating pipes so the future ot of st johns never appeared better than now the people are ready to build the new dam and canal and with them an abundance of cot non mineral water will be supplied to the warm sandy land and st johns will quickly double its population H CROSBY JR |