ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

ask more, until warranted by an increase of population.

“To the appeals of the Territorial of-ficers, which have been frequent and urgent, we add the voice of the people which, speaking through the press, is loud and earnest in demanding that Ari-zona shall no longer be kept without the advantages which are her right and, without which, her advancement must be seriously retarded.
“In answer to repeated inquiries as to whether the Governor intends to auth-orize weekly mails to be carried from here to Tucson and La Paz, as reported, we would say that he has no power to do more than declare the same to be necessary. If, upon his statement to that effect, any parties choose to undertake the scrvice upon their own responsibility, trusting to the late approval of, and remuneration from, the general govern-ment, they will, of course, be at liberty to do so and we learn that there are sev-eral who have expressed an intention of promoting such a service.”

This, then, was the mail situation in Arizona at the time of the inauguration of civil government. Trails and high-ways were few and far between and the main route of travel at that period was the overland route to California, which traversed Southern Arizona from east to west and which connected with the

few military posts, the isolated mining camps and the scattered farming com-munities throughout the sparsely settled region. Upon this southern highway, Maricopa Wells was located.

Not far to the east of Maricopa Wells, was located the Pima and Maricopa In-dian Reservation, where the Pimas and Maricopas raised millions of pounds of grain, the bulk of which was consumed, at that time, by both the civil and mili-tary population of the Territory. The nearness of such places as Maricopa Wells, Sacaton, and Sweetwater, to these Indian wheat farms, which produced a fine quality of grain, induced settlers, at an early day, to start trading-posts and, later, to erect flouring mills in their vi-cinity.

The first trading post to be establish-ed on the Gila, near the Pima Villages, was at Sacaton, by Hiram S. Stevens, in company with John G. Capron, in 1856. After conducting this business for about two years, they sold out and moved to Tucson where, again, they went into the mercantile business. In 1860, Stevens sold out his interest in the business at Tucson to his partner and went back to the States, returning to Tucson in 1862. About a decade later he succeeded Rich-

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

ard C. McCormick as delegate to Con-gress from Arizona.

As nearly as can be ascertained, from available data, Ammi M. White was the pioneer miller of the Gila River area, his location being at Casa Blanca, but a short distance from the Pima Villages. Mr. White had come to the Gila at an early day and was the first resident agent of the Pima and Maricopa Indians, holding that official post until 1865, when he was succeeded by Levi Ruggles, later a prominent resident of the Florence Settlement.

(To Be Continued Next Month)

EDITORIAL

(Continued from Page 12)

porary registration as a condition prece-dent to operation in the state.
“Where the location of metropolitan areas at border points requires special treatment whatever exemption may be necessary should be limited to zones of not more than 25 miles from the limits of such cities or for trips of not more than 25 miles within the borders of the state.
“If political expediency requires the exemption of certain use classes care should be taken in preparing the legal definition of the exempt classes in or-der to avoid unconstitutional discrimina-tion.”

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