218 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
Five miles from Goldfield is Apache Junction, where the highway 
from Florence and Tucson joins the Apache Trail, and from this point 
a nearly due west course is taken to Phoenix. On the way are passed 
several hills and ridges, consisting of granite or schist, rising abruptly 
out of the desert, which here is a wide plain of alluvium irrigated by 
water from the Salt River. 
MAIN LINE, PHOENIX TO WELLTON, ARIZ. 
West from Phoenix the railroad follows the wide Salt River, with 
its highly cultivated district of irrigated fields, through Fowler, 
Cowden, and Cashion sidings and the town of Tolle- 
son. At Cashion is a large power plant made 
ou ae feet conspicuous by its high stacks. In this district 
ew Orleans 1,631 alfalfa, cantaloupes, head lettuce, and cotton are 
pst the principal products, and many cattle are pastured. 
Near Litchfield the route crosses the Agua Fria River (ah’gwa 
free’ah, Spanish for cold water), a stream that drains a mountain 
Litchfield region of volcanic rocks, schists, etc., to the north 
: in which considerable mining is dons: Southeast of 
eck ne Litchfield is the junction of the Salt and Gila Rivers 
New Orleans 1,636 near the north end of the Sierra Estrella (es-tray’ya), 
eas a high and exceptionally rugged range of schist that 
extends far southward. A short distance farther east, the Santa 
Cruz River, when flowing, empties into the Gila River. Litchfield, 
Norton, and Liberty are small settlements where a considerable 
area of desert land has been reclaimed by irrigation. (Turn to sheet 
24.) West of Liberty, however, there is a zone about 4 miles wide 
in which the soil appears to be too much mineralized for agriculture. 
At Buckeye, on the north side of the Gila River, wide fields of 
alfalfa, cotton, grains, and other crops are irrigated by a canal from 
thaaice the Gila near the mouth of the Agua Fria. Alfalfa 
ye. : : : , 
seed is an important product. The canal is 20 miles 
Population 1077, long and provides water for nearly 20,000 acres. 
pacts Orleans 1,651 Considerable water also is pumped from the under- 
flow from the Gila River, some of the wells yielding 
200 gallons a minute. An irrigation district on the south side of 
the valley uses water pumped from the Gila River. North of Buckeye 
are the rocky slopes of the White Tank Mountains, which consist of 
light-colored massive schists and granite cut by small dikes of pegma- 
bie , diabase, and other igneous rocks. A few remnants of lava have 
* 
Tolleson. 
in this range. 
The Buckeye Hills, south of Buckeye, are irregular buttes and hills 
= of granite and schist, part of a wide area of pre-Cambrian rocks 
oe an extensive land surface that probably persisted 
1 in 1929; named for Na Gitolerm ene of the original settlers. 
