Arizona in 1873

APRIL, 1936 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 5 Arizona in 1873

Arizona in 1873! What was it like? Who lived here? These questions and scores of others equally as interesting are answered in the following manuscript. retrieved from the archives of 1873-the revised edition of the American Cyclopedia of that date. Editor.

ARIZONA, a territory of the United States, situated between lat. 31° and 37° N. and on lon. 109° and 114° 40' W., bounded N. by Utah, E. by New Mexico, S. by Mexico, and W. by California and Nevada; area estimated at 113,000 square miles. No complete survey of the territory has been made. It is divided into five counties: Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Yavapai, and Yuma. Tucson, in Pima county (pop. 3,224), is the capital and largest town in the territory. Arizona City, in Yuma county (pop. 1,144), is a prosperous business place, situated at the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers. Prescott, the former capital (pop. 668), is situated in central Arizona, and is the headquarters of the military department of Arizona. In 187( the population of the territory, exclusive of Indians, was 9,658, of whom 3,849 were native and 5,809 foreign born; 1,240 were born in the territory.. The total number of Indians was 32,083; of these 4,352 were on reservations and at agencies, and 27,700 were nomadic. Many of these Indians are friendly to the hites, but the greater number are hostile. Of the friendly Indians, the Pimas and the Maricopas rank first in numbers and civilization. They occupy a reservation on the Gila river, about 200 miles East of Arizona City. The Papagos live South of the Gila, along the line et Sonora. The Mohaves and the Yumas live along the Colorado, the Utes on the upper Colorado, and the Moquis and Navajos in North-East Arizona. These tribes are engaged in agriculture and stock-raising. Of the hostile Indians the Apaches are the most powerful and warlike. They comprise several tribes distributed over the greater portion of middle and Eastern Arizona; their raids extend all over the territory, with the exception of a narrow strip along the Colorado river and a portion of the lower Gila. Besides the Apaches, the Hualpais or Wallapis, living in the Cerbat range near the Diamond river, and in part of the Aquarius range, are the only dangerous Indians.

The middle and North East portions of the territory consist of elevated plateaus from 3,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea level, with occasional bluffs and volcanic cones rising from 500 to 2,500 feet above the plateau. The elevation of the town of Prescott is over 6,000 feet above the sea, while the Tonto and San Francisco plateaus, East and North East of Prescott, reach an altitude of from 2,000 to 9,000 feet. The San Francisco, a grand volcanic cone, is the highest mountain in Arizona, its summit being over 11,000 feet above the sea. North and North East of the San Francisco mountains, an immense mesa, increasing in altitude toward the Utah line, extends for hundreds of miles.

The largest river of the territory is the Colorado, which is formed by the junction of the Green and Grand rivers in the South part of Utah, and has a southerly course along the West boundary of Arizona. It has a very rapid current, and is navigable as far as Callville, 612 miles above its mouth. The canyons formed by the passage of the river through the lofty table lands are unequalled in grandeur. In the Grand Canyon of the Colorado the deep and narrow current flows between massive walls that rise to a perpendicular height of nearly 7,000 feet above the water. The principal tributaries of the Colorado are the Colorado Chiquito, which flows North West through the North part of the territory, the Diamond river, and Bill William's Fork, into which flows the Santa Maria. The Gila rises in New Mexico, flows West through the South part of Arizona, and joins the Colorado about 180 miles above the gulf of California. It is a very narrow stream with a swift current, shallow during most of the year, but in rainy season vastly increasing its volume. Its principal tributaries in Arizona are the Salado or

A "Good Wagon Road" Crossed the Colorado at Arizona City

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