234 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
WELLTON TO YUMA, ARIZ. 
In the vicinity of Wellton small areas are irrigated by water pumped 
from wells that draw their supply from the ground water of the Gila 
ne Valley. A 1,120-foot boring at Wellton passed 
eS through 750 feet of sand and clay, regarded as valley 
Population 80.* _—_—‘fill, and 370 feet of harder strata, including sandstone, 
New Orleans 1,713 which probably are Tertiary. About 6 miles south 
1,756 miles). | Of the station are the Wellton Hills, a group of small 
knobs and ridges consisting of mica schist with minor 
amounts of granite, all of pre-Cambrian age. They are in the midst 
of the Lechuguilla Desert (lay-choo-ghee’yah), a broad, flat valley 
extending south into Mexico, the international boundary being about 
40 miles south of Wellton. Near the international boundary are the 
Tinajas Altas, rock tanks containing water. They were a famous 
stopping place on the Camino del Diablo (highway of the devil), a 
cross-country thoroughfare much used in early days and so called 
because of the difficulties of travel and the lack of water, which cause 
many deaths. This road crossed the Gila Mountains 18 miles south 
of Wellton and passed near the Fortuna mine on the way to Yuma, a 
hard journey across the loose sands of the Yuma Desert. The Gila 
Valley route followed by Garcés encountered west of Wellton an 
area subject to inundation from the river. Much later stage-coach 
travel stopped at a place called “Mission Station,” near Adonde 
(ah-dohn’day), a few miles west of Wellton. 
West from Wellton the railroad passes through the sidings of Adonde 
and Ligurta and, following the south bank of the Gila River, enters 
the wide gap by which that stream passes around the north end of the 
Gila Mountains, a very characteristic desert range that consists of 
granite and schist of pre-Cambrian age and that doubtless is, in part 
at least, a fault block. A short distance north of Ligurta fossil bones 
found in the alluvial deposits of the river indicate the presence of not 
only an ancient variety of deer but also of the native horse, which 
became extinct in this country thousands of years before horses were 
introduced by the Spaniards, a few centuries ago. To the north is a 
fine view of Klotho’s Temple, in the Muggins Mountains, which con- 
sists of volcanic rocks. At Granite siding the railroad reaches the 
rocks of the mountain slope, and granite is well exposed in cuts and a 
quarry. From the quarry a large amount of crushed rock is produced 
for railroad ballast on many miles of the Southern Pacific lines. A 
thin mass of marble exposed in the north end of the Gila Mountains 
region are shown in Figure 61. The granite is cut by many dikes of 
dark intrusive rocks and traversed by veins of light-colored pegma- 
tite ‘To the north is the Gila River, now so well controlled by dams 
