The oasis. [volume], September 24, 1910, Image 1

About The oasis. [volume] (Arizola, Ariz.) 1893-1920

Image provided by: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

                
"W.''' ft
AN
AUTHORITY
ON MINES AND
MINING.
THE
BEST WEEKL7
NEWSPAPER
IN ARIZONA.
Second Series,
Vol. XV, No. 20
NOGALES, ARIZONA, SATURDAY; SEPTEMBER 24, 19 10. Whole No. 906
ARIZONA'S CONTRIBUTION
To the Material Resource of th
Sisterhood of States.
' From Leslie's Weekly
The importance of the lapful of
wealth, present and prospective,
which Arizona brings into the
sisterhood of States, is not general
ly ' understood. Statistics show
that in copper Arizona has for
some years taken first rank among
the States. A study of her great
mines just now opening indicates
that within half a decade she will
yield twice as much copper as any
other State. In gold production
she haa long ranked close to the
firet file and a new era of develop
ment i3 just now on the ways. It
sounds unreal to declare that her
coal deposits may rank with those
of Alaska or Pennsylvania, yet I
have ridden three days on horse
back in an air line over coal fields.
There are yet millions of acres of
land that may be brought under
irrigation and the irrigated lands
of Arizona yield euch crops as do
do other lands in the nation. The
romances of the future will be
those of production.
Former Senator Clark, of Mon
tana, has a copper mine at Jerome.
For a score of years he has taken
out of that mine the maximum
amount of ore that his smelters
were able to handle five to ten
million dollars' worth a year. He
might have taken out five or ten
times as much, but he built his
plant too small. He is now pre
paring to enlarge it and the pro
duction of the mine will depend
only on the inclination of the
owner, for there is no indication of
a possibility of exhausting the ore.
The same conditions exist at half
a dozen other mines. At Bisbee a
town of fifteen thousand people
has been built about a mining
shaft. Copper has been taken out
in vast quantities for forty years,
yet there is no indication of the
productive ore playing out. The
fame 13 true of the old mines at
Globe and Clifton and Morenci.
There were 300,000,000 pounds of
t wined last year.
l'hen, just at this time, there are
as many more mines in readiness
begin pouring equal production
upon the market. In the Globe
nd Miami mining districts thirty
Pve mining companies are operat
es, with a capitalization of $55,
J00.OOO and an annual output of
uuu.uoo pounds f copper. Pro
minent among these mines are the
we Oak, Black Warrior, Cordova,
Inspiration, Keystone and others,
the Miami Copper Company al
reaty has eleven million dollars'
Jorth of ore blocked out and prac
ically ready for the smelter. Upon
,hese and a score of other mines
Nst ready to begin heavy produc
'oij U )mei the claim that within
fit a .lecade Arizona will surpass
n.v twu Htates combined in her
Jro(u-ion of the most valuable
PNuei of the world's mines.
.Jn fr Arizona has been yield
8'ii;i-thing over ten thousand
Jnds r, year, or enough of the
rMtilovv metal to make four
011 won-loads. Yavapai Coun
ty, in the center of the State, has
long been a strong producer, as has
Yuma County, in the southwest.
But just now Mohave County, the
wild and mountain-broken desert
region in the northwest, is forging
to the front with a score of mines
that are getting into the product
ive stage. The last year has wit
nessed a renewal of activity in
both the old and the new districts.
Improved railroad facilities have
had much to do with this. Three
new railroads have each brought
in respective districts in different
parts of the State. Mines that
could not be worked because of the
dilliculties of transportation are
now coining to the front. The
whole western part of Arizona has
been given new life by the building
of the Arizona and California Rail
road and the new smelter at Need
les. The multiplication of rail
roads and of smelters will constant
ly add to the number of mines that
may be worked profitably. Like
wise will scores of old mines that
have been abandoned be placed on
a basis where profitable operation
will be possible. In no place in
the world is the improvement in
mining methods being felt more
than in Arizona and the economy
of these methods is regularly re
juvenating mines that were long
ago given up as unprofitable. Many
a million is being made in work
ing over the tailings of mines at
which unscientific methods allowed
much of the gold to escape in the
milling.
Coal mining in Arizona has
never received any consideration.
Copper and the precious metals
have always had the call and the
time has probably not yet arrived
when coal mining would natural
ly develop. But a great portion of
the northern half of the new State
is underlaid with it. There are
great possibilities in such condi
toins. The future wealth of them
is a matter of conjecture, as it is
in many of the latent resources of
Arizona.
Arizonais not exclusively a min
ing State. There are already some
five hundred thousand acres of
land under irrigation. The largest
tract of this land is in Salt river
valley of which Phoenix is the cen
ter. This land is now selling: at $200
and $300 an acre and is an excellent
investment at those prices. The
Arizona oranges are the first on
the Eastern market and bring
prices that are far ahead of those
from either Florida or California.
This is not merely because they
are earlier, but because they are
better. Last year Salt River val
ley shipped a hundred and twenty
five car-loads of cantaloupes to the
Eastern markets, these bringing
fancy prices because of quality and
the first call in the early market
Fruits, sugar beets, grain and
many other crops are important to
Arizona, but the crop of them all
is alfalfa. Here is the yield so
prodigious as to be beyond the
belief of the Eastern farmer. When
I say that two tons to the acre are
grown and that six crops are cut
in a year, making a yield of twelve
tons to the acre of the best hay in
the world, the figures sound unreal.
But this estimate is decidedly con
servative. The hay brings from
ten to fifteen dollars a ton. The
returns are such that the land is
cheap at $300 an acre. The result
of thU possibility of large returns
from the land leads to the cutting
up of the tracts into very small
farms and, therefore, a densely
settled community. In the end
these irrigated lands will be cut
up into ten and twenty acre tracts,
with a home on each one, and
these valleys will be almost con
tinuous villages, with all the
advantages that such conditions
carry with them and the elimina
tion of that isolation that is the
bane of farm life. The Roosevelt
Reservoir is just now being com
pleted and will furnish all the
water needed for irrigation in Salt
River valley. The Laguna dam,
at Yuma, is also completed and
brings into production another
region which will yield vast quan
tities of oranges, miscellaneous
fruits and vegetables, which pro
ducts will reach the market earlier
than those of any other section of
the whole country. There are
smaller irrigation projects in other
sections and many others that have
not yet been seriously considered,
but which will some day be added
to reclamation accomplishments.
The ranges of Arizona still con
tinue to yield great numbers of
cattle and sheep and will do so
indefinitely. Ihese are fattened
on the alfalfa fields of the valleys
and make prime meat for the local
market as well as for shipment.
The Mogollon plateau, to the north,
with an elevation of seven thousand
feet, gives other conditions as dif
ferent from those of the lower
lands as is Maine from California.
Here there is rain in plenty and
with settlement farming will be
placed more nearly on tho basis
thit it occupies in the East. The
idea of dry land farming that is
making such progress in the Great
Plains region will find much
chance of application here. In
cidentally the Mogollon plateau is
the region which contains the
greatest stretch of uncut timber
that exists to-dav in the United
States.
In the East it is no uncommon
question to ask an Arizonan where
his children are being educated,
the East not believing that there
is an adequate school system in
Arizona. This question should be
answered by saying that there is
no community in Arizona boasting
six children of school age that has
not an ellicient public school.
There is, in addition, a compulsory
school law well enforced. There is
not a child in the State that does
not, under compulsion, attend these
schools six months in the year.
The children of Mexican parentage
attend the same schools and are
taught only English. There is lit
tle of the foreigner in the Mexican
who grows up in Arizana. All the
important towns have high schools,
and the State University, located at
Tucson, has a curriculum on a
basis with that of Yale or Harvard
and a mining school that is with
out a superior anywhere. I realize
that these things are contrary to
the current opinion of Arizona, yet
they are the facts. We of the new
State are ready to demonstrate
them to any skeptic who will stop
off on his next trip across the con
tinent. RALPH CAMERON,
Delegate in Congress from Arizona.
THE ALTAR ROAD.
Completed and Opened to Traffic
Upon the Centennial Anniversary
of Mexico.
Last Saturday, September 16th,
the great national anniversary of
Mexico, a party of prominent citi
zens of the two towns of Nogales,
went out on the new Altar road,
the guests of the building commit
tee, and with formal ceremony
opened the road to traffic.
Several automobiles conveyed
the party, which consisted of the
following named gentlemen: A.
Clausen, presidente of the munici
pality of Nogales, Sonora; Lie. M.
G. Martinez, judge of the federal
district; Lie. M. Samperio, prose
cuting attorney in the same court;
Lie. M. Mimiaga; Mr. A. V. Dye,
U. S. consul in Nogales, Sonora;
Mr. Daniel E. Montes, consul of
Mexico in Nogales, Arizona; Con
O'Keefe, collector of U. S. customs,
Nogales, Arizona; Ramon Vasquez,
A. Carpena, C. Ramirez, H. J.
Karns, E. D. Miller, editor Border
Vidette; and the road building
committee, M. Escalada, Alberta
Mascarefias, P. Sandoval. Bracev
Curtis, W. W. Carney.
The party went out on the road
as far as the top of the divide at
the head of Torcuatocafion, beyond
Destiladero, where a stay of some
little time was made. Upon behalf
of the building committee and the
contributors to the construction,
Mr. Alberto Mascarenas tendered
the new thoroughfare to the muni
cipality of Nogales, Sonora, and in
response Mr. Alberto Alberto
Clausen, presidente, accepted the
road and guaranteed that it shall
be kept in good repair.
Creature comforts were provided
and discussed, and speeches were
made by severa of the gentlemen
present, after which the party re
turned to Nogales. .
In conclusion it is appropriate
to state that the new thoroughfure,
which is of the very best construc
tion, will work a revolution in the
tratlic of the Altar district. It
places Nogales in direct communi
cation with the valley of the Altar
river, which is a fine agricultural
and horticultural region, and gives
the ranchers and farmers of that
country a good market in the line
city. The very day of the opening
there came from the Arizona
Ranche of the Estate of William
Barnett, deceased, seven six-mule
teams drawing wagons laden with
fruit and produce.
The road gives also direct con
nection with Altar, ninety miles
distant, and much of the traflic of
the Altar district will come to No
gales. Karns Brothers will estab
lish an automobile line which will
convey passengers between Nogales
1
ana Altar on a schedule of about
five hours.
Friday evening Mr. and Mrs. A.
E. Crepin and family came to No
gales from Patagonia, and Satur
day afternoon they went to Tucson
via the Calabasas cut-off train.