The Paper 071014

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Volume 44 - No. 27

July 10, 2014

by lyle e davis

If I were to pick a place to live, Yuma, Arizona, would not be at the top of my list.

However, with air conditioning, it ain’t so bad.

One can’t help but wonder, however, how in tarnation did all those miners, steamboat captains and crew, muleskinners, cowboys, all those folks who either filtered through Yuma or decided to put down roots there, manage to tolerate the heavy duty heat.

Back in 1540, expeditions under Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz visited the area and immediately saw the natural crossing of the Colorado River as an ideal spot for a city.

One can imagine one of the soldados (soldiers) complaining to his commandante (commander) . . . “Mi commandante, es muy caliente!” (Roughly translated: “Commander, it sure is hot here!”

To which the Commandante would likely reply, “Si, pero is muy caliente seco.” Again, roughly translated, “Yes, but it’s a dry heat.”

The situation hasn’t changed much over the years. Except for air conditioning.

In spite of its less than comfortable hot weather, Yuma has had an interesting history.

The Colorado River largely caused Yuma to become an important location in our nation’s early history. The river separates Arizona and California and, at one time, was the hub of commerce and activity in the Southwest.

The once wild and mighty Colorado River (long before upriver dams helped tame its wilder nature) formed a natural crossing point, thus a ferry was built, originally a rope ferry, to help transport passengers and cargo from one side of the river to the other.

Then known as the Yuma Crossing it soon changed from a potential site for settlement The Paper - 760.747.7119

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Above: Main Street, Yuma, ca. 1909. Above right: Colorado River Yuma Crossing via Rope Ferry ca. l885. Right: The pony express route between Los Angeles and Yuma. Background: Horse and plow sculpture made from old scrap metal by Lemmon, South Dakota artist, John Lopez.

to actuality, largely because of its strategic location and relative ease of crossing.

The Spaniards found ancestors of the present-day Quechan and Cocopah tribes - hunting, fishing and growing crops. The explorers called the Indians the Yumas, from the Spanish word for smoke (humo), because smoke from their cooking fires filled the valley as the surveyed the Spaniards Crossing from "Indian Hill," later to become Fort Yuma. Back in 1781 the relationships between the Spaniards and the Quechan Indians deteriorated to the point that a rebellion developed and the Quechan kicked the Spaniards tails and

they retreated, never to return.

War between America and Mexico developed in 1846 and more Americans headed west, one notable occasion being the longest infantry march in history, that of the Mormon Battalion who left Council Bluffs, Iowa, on July 16, 1846, and arriving in San Diego on January 29, 1847. Not incidentally, this Mormon Batallion crossed into California via the Yuma Crossing on Jan. 10th and 11th, 1847.

Some simple arthimetic tells us it took 18 days for the Mormon battalion to travel from the Yuma Crossing to San Diego.

Yuma!

Continued on Page 2

It took us two hours by car at a steady speed of 70 mph this past Saturday.

As we drove back to San Diego we noted the rugged country gold miners and other travelers to San Diego had to endure. Without an air conditoned car, traveling at 70 mph.

Travel back then was at three speeds: slow, slower, bump, and stop.

They would have had to go through the sand dunes in what is now Imperial County. Today, folks head out there in 4-wheel drive vehicles to have jolly good fun amongst the dunes. Way back then, howev-


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