72 KANSAS AND THE COUNTRY BEYOND.

Arizona—the very kind of country to furnish the largest amount of
local trade in proportion to its area and population, as well as to add
most rapidly to the general wealth of the nation. Would we pay off
our national debt and return to a metallic currency, there is nothing
that we can do to bring about those ends so effective as to open a
highway into this now remote and almost inaccessible national
treasury.

From Prescott to the western boundary of the territory, which is
the Colorado river, the line of the road will probably follow the valley
of the Williams river, one of the principal tributaries of the Colorado,
which has its source a few miles west of that town. Of this river Mr.
McCormick says:

“Ascending the Colorado, the first point of interest is Williams’
Fork. It is the largest tributary of the Colorado, and has its rise in
the interior country almost as far east as Prescott. It is not naviga-
ble, but usually has a good body of water. Some of the richest copper
mines in the territory are on its banks, and have already been exten-
sively and profitably worked.”

Several silver mines are marked on the national maps in the valley
of this river. At its mouth is the town of Aubry, said to be in a fine
location for.a city. This is likely to be the principal city of Arizona.
It is a very important point on the line of this road, for here the first
navigable water on the Pacific side is reached; and from this point a
large trade, both down and up the river, and indeed with the entire
Pacific coast, may be established in advance of the road reaching its
ultimate destination—San Francisco. The most western steamboat
navigation on the Atlantic side of the continent, on this line, is at
Kansas City ; the most eastern on the Pacific side is at Aubry. But,
even after the road shall be completed, Aubry will continue to be an
important commercial centre, and pour upon this road from that great
river a large amount of business; for the entire country above is sur-
passingly rich in mines of gold and silver, especially the latter, and the
river is navigable for hundreds of miles during part of the year.

It is, 1 am informed, the opinion of some of our army officers that
at Fort Mohave, about half a degree north of Aubry, is a better place
for a railroad to cross that river into California. I, however, adhere
to the line here indicated until careful surveys west of the river shall
determine the question between these two points.

I have thus traced the route of the Union Pacific Railway through
the Territory of Arizona, on a line which the company believe to be
the most practicable, and the one which will enable them to render
accessible the best and richest portion of the great region lying be-