Yuma is one of the
original counties
into which the Territory of Arizona was divided by the first
legislature of the Territory, which met at 'Prescott in 1864. This
county is bounded on the north by Mojave County; on the east by
Yavapai, Maricopa and Pima Counties; on the south by the Mexican State
of Sonora; on the west by Lower California and California; and contains
an area of 9,783 square miles, or over one-fifth of the area of the
great State of New York.
Yuma County in one
respect may be
styled the "Banner" County of Arizona. Other counties have as much,
maybe some have more, fine land, capable of a high state of cultivation
; climate as fine, and all that; but this county has the land and has
the water which it can not be deprived of, except by a convulsion of
nature. She has the grand Colorado River on her whole western border,
and the Gila River crosses the county from east to west and enters the
Colorado at Yuma City, some twenty miles from the southern boundary,
affording much of the year a supply of water sufficient to irrigate the
bottom lands alongside it. The climate of the whole southern portion of
Yuma County is such that nearly all kinds of fruit which are grown
within the tropics can be produced in abundance. The first settlement
by Europeans made in this county was opposite the old Fort of Yuma, on
the Arizona side of the Colorado River, where the town now is. Two
missions were established in 1778 by the Franciscan fathers. These
missions were destroyed by the Indians, who rose against the priests
three years later, killed several and drove the rest away.
In 1849, so great
was the travel to
California, then the new Eldorado, that a ferry was established across
the river by a discharged soldier from the United States army in
conjunction with, and protected by, the Yuma Indians. A party of
renegades, under one John Glanton, known as "Dr." Glanton, arrived at
the river about this time, having come from Texas through the Mexican
States of Chihuahua and Sonora, committing all sorts of depredations en
route, robbing ranches and churches and leaving desolation in their
track. This band of worthies soon discovered that the ferry across the
Colorado River at Yuma was a steady producer, and determined to have
control of the business; one night they attacked the Indian's boats and
destroyed them, killing the American ferryman and two Indians. For a
short time after this "victory" this party enjoyed a monopoly of the
ferry and were fast getting rich, for, if a party crossed with good
teams rather weak-handed, they were waylaid a few miles from the
crossing and all remorselessly murdered and the property appropriated.
The Indians kept quiet, none were seen around, or to use the
euphonious
expression of " Dr "
Glanton, " The dare not show their faces in the presence of ' honest '
white men." "Lo" bided his time. This precious band of cutthroats had a
hilarious night over a fortunate robbery, but at daybreak, when all
were in drunken slumber, the avenging Indian pounced upon them in force
and slaughtered all of the party but a boy whom, perhaps, the Indians
were willing should escape. Whether the Indians rendered God a service
in exterminating this precious band of worthies is a question, but they
certainly rendered a service to the toiling emigrant who was striking
for California by the Yuma crossing of the Colorado River.
The Yuma City of
today was first laid
out and called Colorado City in 1854, and sometime in the '60's was
changed to Arizona City, and still later to Yuma. Yuma is now the
county-seat, and by census of 1900, had a population of 1,519, but now
it has, probably, fully 2,500.
In 1858 rich
placer diggings were
discovered by Jacob Snively and others at what was, and is yet, known
as Gila City, some eighteen miles east of Yuma, and soon a
heterogeneous population of 3,000 persons gathered there. Something
like $3,000,000 were taken from the ground in about two years. Gila
City is now almost abandoned, but occasionally an Indian will stumble
on a place and get out a few dollars in placer gold. Along the range of
mountains southerly from old Gila City, there have been discovered some
very valuable gold ledges, and one called the "Fortuna" is worked now
by C. D. Lane; it has yielded somewhere near to half a million dollars
net per year for several years.
In the year 1862
Captain Pauline
Weaver made the discovery of gold placers some few miles easterly from
La Paz, and during that year as many as twelve hundred persons were at
work there and it has been estimated that somewhere near a million
dollars in gold was taken out that year. La Paz was the first
county-seat of Yuma County, but in 1871 it was changed to Yuma, where
it is at present and will probably remain.
In 1852 Fort Yuma
was established
upon the right or west bank of the Colorado River, opposite the mouth
of the Gila River in the State of California. The Yuma Indians were
held in check to such an extent that the ferry across the Colorado was
again established, and continued in operation with fair profit to
owners until the river was spanned by the bridge of the Southern
Pacific Railroad. The coming of this railroad into Arizona in 1878
caused new life to enter into the Territory. The lethargy of ages was
shaken off and a new order of events took place. Probably the town of
Yuma since the Southern Pacific Railroad crossed the Colorado, and
continued on up the Gila River and across the Territory, did not for a
number of years enjoy the prominence in comparison to other points of
commercial activity that it had enjoyed before the advent of the
railroad, as it had been for some years for all southwestern Arizona,
and it took some time for the business methods to adjust themselves to
the changed conditions. The act which established the Territorial
Prison at Yuma, was passed by the legislature which convened at Tucson
in
There is
considerable agricultural
land in this county along the Gila River, which runs, in all its
windings, nearly one hundred miles through the county from east to
west, and there also is a large body upon the Colorado which will be
very remunerative when water in sufficiency shall be gotten upon it. At
present, probably, the greatest part of the revenue of this county
comes from mines as in her barren mountains wherever one goes are found
leads of great richness and extent and in the near future Yuma County
will be a great producer of precious metals.
The Gila River
rises in the vast
mountain range west of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, through which runs
the continental divide, with an eastern trend. The Gila River enters
Arizona at north latitude, about 32° 40', and runs nearly a west
course through Graham, Pinal, Maricopa and Yuma Counties and joins the
Colorado in nearly the same latitude on the west, as it crosses the
east line; so its many meanderings north and south have not deflected
its current from a west course. Considerable attention has been paid to
the agricultural lands of the Gila River, which winds its way through
some of the finest agricultural land of the county, maybe the river
with its life-giving moisture causes the adjacent lands to be so
fruitful. This valley is from one to five miles in width, but probably
for the whole distance across the county it would be equivalent to a
valley of two miles wide and one hundred miles long. When once brought
under cultivation, with a sufficient amount of water, what sustenance
for a vast population would so much soil afford.
Until some general
system of building
reservoirs is adopted, whereby the surplus of streams in times of high
waters can be impounded and saved to be distributed over the land
during the dry season, Arizona will remain subject to great droughts
and great floods by turns, and with cultivated land in abundance only a
small fraction of this land can be tilled to a profit.
Fruit culture has
so far been
prosecuted upon a limited scale and in a small way, but it has been
learned from actual experiments that it is possible to produce an
excellent fruit ready for market from four to five weeks earlier than
from the great fruit orchards around Los Angeles in California. The
climate and soil is congenial for the orange, lemon and lime; the
fruits yield in abundance. The fig and pomegranate also do well,
producing fruit of such character as if they were the native fruit of
the country. The pomegranate is not recognized to be of much value in
the United States, though in Mexico it is quite highly esteemed. Of the
fig it is not easy to say which is the more desirable variety. For
eating, as the fruit comes from the tree, perhaps, the blue-black
variety will afford as much satisfaction as any, but for commercial
purposes, to dry and transport long distances, probably the white fig
of Smyrna or the Ionian Islands in the Grecian Archipelago, may be
considered the universal favorite. Its yield would be prodigious as in
the climate of Yuma the tree will produce two and has been known to
produce three crops in a single year. Grapes, when cultivated properly,
become hardy and thrifty and all kinds mature from four to five weeks
earlier than in the vineyards around Los Angeles. Heavy wines and
brandies of a superior character can be manufactured from these grapes.
For refining wines the climate is unsurpassed anywhere. The olive grows
luxuriantly and is a profitable fruit to raise. The mulberry matures
rapidly and when rooted withstands great heat and lack of water. Most
other semi-tropical fruits grow in great abundance when cultivated
properly.
The raising of
cotton has been tried
for some years with satisfactory results. When watered and pruned
properly it grows to a large tree being in flower, ball and cotton
throughout the year. These bushes or trees have in known instances
borne steadily for several years, surpassing the most favored section
in our cotton-growing States, where, on account of frost, it has to be
planted yearly, and tenderly cared for. Hemp grows wild, indigenous to
the country, growing to a great height, in many instances from fifteen
to seventeen feet; it has a long and strong fibre and is worked into
fishing nets and lines by the Yuma Indians. It seeds itself annually
and after the receding of an overflow of the Colorado River, shoots up
in every nook and corner and excludes all else by its rank growth. It
covers not less than one hundred square miles of territory, commencing
near the southern boundary line of the Gadsden Purchase, twenty miles
below Yuma City extending southward following the river to Hardy, where
the tides of the gulf force back the flow of the Colorado, causing a
great tumble of waters. Ramie, a fibrous plant, has also been tried
with success.
Sugar-cane has
been tested with
Sonora cane—the growth was immense and the percentage of juice was much
increased by the transplanting process. The sugar beet yields well; two
crops each year. Wheat produces wonderfully; as an instance, four
hundred and eighty-three pounds were sown upon twenty acres, which lay
some nine miles east of Yuma City on the Gila River, and the yield an
acre was 52,750 pounds, or nearly forty-four bushels of sixty pounds to
the bushel. This crop, which was irrigated three times, was sold in San
Francisco, and on account of its plump appearance, being almost like a
berry, brought fifty cents per hundred over the best wheat in that
market. Barley does well, two crops a year, the first yielding about
thirty bushels to the acre, and the second fully two tons to the acre
of excellent hay. Corn can be raised in quantities and when there is no
frost can be grown the whole year. The Cocopa corn is noted for
sweetness, plumpness, and for its solid grains and the rapidity with
which it matures. In five weeks after the time of planting, roasting
ears are plentiful.
When the land is
sufficiently
irrigated all kinds of grasses grow rapidly. Alfalfa can be cut from
five to seven, and, in instances not rare, eight times each year,
yielding fully two tons per acre at each cutting. A field of eight
acres yielded in one year, with, perhaps, extra care, eighty tons of
hay or ten tons to the acre, and hay that whole year brought not less
than ten dollars per ton, most of it twelve dollars. Perhaps the most
prolific and valuable crop that can be produced is sorghum or Chinese
sugar-cane. This plant is not only valuable for its saccharine
qualities from which a valuable syrup is distilled, but as forage for
mules, horses and cattle, it is much sought after and yields from
fifteen to twenty tons per acre and has a value in the markets of from
twelve to fourteen dollars per ton. Vegetables of all kinds grow in
abundance the year through. From fifteen pounds of potatoes, planted in
bottom land, a Gila farmer gathered seven hundred pounds of fine
potatoes, a yield of forty-six and two-thirds for one. The sweet potato
yields largely and equals the finest grown in South Carolina.
There is some
placer mining done in
the county, but the yield of precious metals is mostly from quartz
mining, though the barren mountains have not been thoroughly gone over,
and there is but little doubt that many a "For- tuna" mine will yet be
brought to light, which for years will throw into the world's markets
every month a million or more dollars of the precious yellow metal.
The large amount
of fertilizing
matter brought down the Colorado will ever be a source of wealth to the
farmers upon those bottom lands along this river in Yuma County. The
River Nile is often called "Father of Egypt," and is known to have
fertilized and supplied for fully fifty centuries the moisture for that
hoary country, yet it is well known that the Colorado River water
carries more than double the fertilizing matter in its bosom than old
Nile does. Perhaps it may be owing to the fact that the water is
continually scouring and eroding fertilizing material from the rocks in
the bottom of the Grand Canon, while the Nile denudes mountains and
washes plains for its material.
Yuma City is upon
the eastern or left
bank of the Colorado River, just below the junction of the Gila and
Colorado Rivers and is the county-seat of Yuma County. The Colorado
River is the dividing line, from the boundary of the county, to the
center of the mouth of the Gila from the Territory of Lower California.
The southeastern
corner of the State
of California is the center of the mouth of the Gila (old mouth), and
from there to the southwest corner of Arizona, which is in the center
of Colorado River is twenty miles below the old mouth of the Gila. The
right, or western bank of the Colorado River, is Mexican territory. I
have said "old mouth" for the reason that the point where the Gila
River now enters the Colorado River is some three miles farther up the
Colorado than it was when the boundary line between the United States
and Mexico was established, as per treaty of 1853.
This county
possesses within itself
great natural advantages, perhaps in one respect ahead of any of the
other counties of Arizona, viz.: she has the Colorado of the West
occupying her whole length upon her western boundary, while along this
river at many points are large bodies of the finest agricultural land
to be found in the world, and sufficient water in the river, even when
at its lowest stage, to irrigate it all.
Below the City of
Yuma the Colorado
River runs nearly west some distance, say ten miles, and the general
course to the boundary line is west of south; and along the river of
the left bank in this county is an extensive bottom, for say fifteen
miles in length by eight miles in width, much of it inundated in very
high water, but of the richest quality of soil, and with such levees as
the Mississippi has, there would be a vast body of fine agricultural
land permanently reclaimed from the turbulent river.
This great body
embraces fully
70,0x30 acres and there are many fine farms now producing. Probably now
there are ten thousand acres that are partially farmed but this is only
a small matter to what will be brought into the producing column when
the great works in process of construction shall have been carried to
completion.
The whole of this
vast bottom land
has been formed from sediment or overflows brought down at different
times through past ages and spread over the land until now, except in
the highest stages, it is above overflow. For farming purposes this
bottom land upon the Colorado River is not surpassed by any in the
world. The farmers now produce wheat, barley, corn, most luxuriantly
and from two to three crops each year as there are no frosts to
interfere with the growth of products the year through. Of hay, alfalfa
produces wonderfully, and in many instances produces eight cuttings in
a year of at least two and a half tons to the acre each cutting.
Judging from the price of hay for several years past, each acre would
net the owner at least seventy-five dollars, if sold. Some farmers
consider it more to their advantage to raise cattle and horses and
particularly mules, thus using up their hay. Hogs are also found to be
very profitable and some farmers are now extensively engaged in that
branch of business.
Of fruits, all
varieties that can be
produced within the tropics are grown here, and of a quality equal to
the best in the world—oranges as fine as those of Sicily, and at all
seasons of the year, as there is no cold weather to contend with, so
that at all times and often upon the same tree oranges may be seen from
flower to full maturity. Figs, equal to those produced in Western Asia,
that are marketed at Smyrna, in Asiatic Turkey. Dates that have
heretofore been considered a product of Mesopotamia and Syria, Western
Asia, are found to do as well here as those to the manor born. Lemons,
equal to those of Sicily, do extremely well and limes grow almost wild.
Olives are produced in great quantities; although not cultivated much
as yet, pineapples will do well. Apricots, of an extra fine quality,
grow so luxuriantly as absolutely to become a drug.
Garden vegetables
grow almost
spontaneously; all that needs to be done is to plant the seeds and they
will fight their way with the weeds and produce well. Of course they do
better when cared for.
Private parties
are making several
attempts to irrigate a small portion of this tract of land, but the
most extensive is a syndicate or corporation from the State of
Washington, under the superintendency of Mr. Ludy, who is an able
engineer. This company takes out of the Colorado River, some five miles
below Yuma City, quite a body of water by means of a canal or aqueduct
which extends already some eight miles to a large reservoir which will
hold millions of gallons of water. When this company shall have
finished their aqueduct with the laterals run, they can irrigate fully
50,000 acres of as fine producing agricultural land as there is in the
world. The reservoir has been constructed and filled with water so that
should any accident happen at the head of the canal to the machinery or
otherwise, adjacent farms can be irrigated until repairs can be made.
There are already
in this valley,
separate from the town of Yuma, two churches, one Methodist and one
Baptist, and there are some six school houses, so religion and
education are not neglected. Crime is unknown among this industrious
and thriving people.
There is another
extensive plan for
irrigating what may be considered second bottom land below Yuma City,
which, if carried out successfully, will open up a large body of land
to cultivation, say 50,000 acres, in fact, some of it is already
through what water can be gotten to the surface by pumps and windmills,
and it is found that with water this land produces equally well with
the bottom lands, especially fruits.
The plan is to
take the water from
the Colorado River, some distance above Yuma City, pass it under the
bed of the Gila River in pipes, so that it will have a sufficient head
to irrigate this land. It may require pumping power to get the volume
of water to the proper altitude to irrigate this second bottom land.
When this is done, Yuma City will have nearly 150,000 acres of the
finest land for agriculture at its very door, which must make Yuma City
one of the first cities of the southwest.
The mining camps
of this county are
numerous, as here generally barren mountain ranges, are filled with
leads of the precious metals. There is the Castle Dome District, that
has been a heavy producer; the Harqua Hala, that is a great gold
region. The "Fortuna" Mine, some twenty- seven miles southeast of Yuma
City, that has paid net for several years some $50,000 per month; the
Old Gila City, never thoroughly prospected, but which yielded largely
as placer ground in the gulches many years ago. Some day an energetic
mining company will drive a tunnel into and through the mountain and
the "find" will astonish the world. The new camp of Picacho, some
thirty miles above Yuma City, is a wonderful producer of gold, but if
the writer is not mistaken, it is in California. Yuma City has now a
population of fully 3,000 people, and is fast increasing, and will, at
no distant day, be one of the large cities of Arizona, as Arizona is
destined to have more than one large city. The Southern Pacific
Railroad crosses the Colorado River from California at this point. Yuma
City is a fine business point and the merchants are apparently doing a
flourishing business. Many costly structures are being erected and the
place wears an air of prosperity.
The Territorial
Penitentiary is
located here upon what is known as the "Hill," on the bank of the
Colorado River, and at this time has about three hundred occupants,
among them five women, under the management of Colonel William
Griffith, and it must be said the prison is well managed. Perfect order
is maintained and all about the place is as neat and tidy as the best
kept hotel.
Of hotels, Yuma
City has several, and
well conducted. Of papers, there are two, weeklies, the Sentinel,
established in 1871, and the Sun, both ably edited.
Of churches, there
are, Catholics and
Methodists. The schools are first-class, with an able corps of
teachers. The city is well lighted by electricity. Total valuation of
property for taxation, $1,277,571.69 for 1903.
Source: The
History of Arizona: From
the Earliest Times Known to the People of Europe to 1903 By Sidney
Randolph De Long, Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society Published by The
Whitaker & Ray company, 1905
