THE SANTA FE ROUTER, 145 
California’s fisheries bring a profit estimated at $3,000,000 a year, 
the canning of the delicious tuna yielding about $2,000,000. Nearly 
11,500,000 pounds of wool was clipped in 1914, estimated to be worth 
$1,852,000. In most parts of the State only a small part of the 
water available for power or irrigation has been utilized, and large 
areas of swamp lands are being reclaimed. Cotton and dates promise 
to be important crops in the southeast corner of the State, and rice 
production is increasing rapidly. 
Sir Francis Drake, who landed on the California coast in 1579, 
named the place New Albion, but later the name California was 
applied, taken from a Spanish romance. From 1769 to 1823 many 
missions were established under the direction of the Franciscan friar 
Junipero Serra and other missionaries of his order, and most of them 
still remain, although some are in ruins. The first overland caravans 
to California began in 1827. The discovery of gold by J. W. Marshall 
at Sutters Mill in 1848 brought a large crowd of gold seekers and 
settlers. 
California was formerly a part of Mexico but in 1848 was ceded to 
the United States and on September 9, 1850, was admitted to the 
Union as a State. 
At the California end of the bridge at Topock there is a conspicuous 
outcrop of red conglomerate in massive ledges which is part of the 
older valley filling. It outcrops at other places farther west, and a 
small mass of the same rock also appears on the east bank of the river 
just north of the bridge. . From the bridge to Needles the railway 
follows the west bank of the river, and owing to the many small gul- 
lies and terraces there are numerous cuts for the railway grade. 
These cuts exhibit materials of the valley filling, which appear to 
comprise a younger, high-level gravel and sand, lying on the some- 
what irregular surface of an older deposit of silt of pale-buff or green- 
ish tint, in large part distinctly bedded. This older material lies 80 
to 100 feet above the present river and was laid down at a period of 
slack current, during a time when there were no notable freshets for 
many years. 
Needles is built on a low terrace or higher flood plain of Colorado 
River, less than a mile from the river bank. It is a railway division 
point with a large hotel at the station, where most 
Needles, Cal. trains stop for meals. This hotel is named El Garces 
Elevation 483 feet. after Francisco Garcés, a Spanish missionary who 
Population 3,067.* f ‘ : 
- KansasCity 1,499 miles, Journeyed through this country in 1771-1774 and 
visited the Hopis in 1776. Needles is becoming a 
winter resort owing to its mild, equable climate and large propor- 
tion of sunny days. Many trees have been cultivated here, includ- 
Ing date palms and the tall, stately palm Neowashingtonia filifera, a 
