THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 105 
Government was attempting to establish an initial meridian passing 
through the old Naval Observatory at the National Capital. At this 
place the canyon walls show very massive gray sandstone with numer- 
ous shallow caves, alcoves, and buttresses, capped by dark-gray sand- 
stones (probably Dakota). 
The area of Arizona is 112,956 square miles. It comprises wide 
plateaus, in large part from 5,000 to 8,000 feet in height, numerous 
ridges and mountains, and many wide desert valleys. 
Arizona, On account of its great variation in altitudes and its 
great width from north to south, the State presents 
a wide diversity of climate, from that of the hot regions near Fort 
Yuma to that of the cold forested mountains and high plateaus. 
Arizona leads in copper production in the United States, the output 
in 1913 being valued at $63,228,127, or about 90 per cent of the total 
_mineral production of the State. Gold was produced to the value 
of $4,023,911, and silver, which is mostly a by-product obtained in 
reducing copper ore, amounted to $2,384,647. 
Although the agricultural possibilities of the State are not devel- 
oped to their full extent, the cultivated hay crop approached a value 
of $4,000,000 in 1914 and wheat $1,085,000. Wool yielded about 
$939,000. Range cattle growing is a large industry. Fruit of citrus 
and deciduous trees, cotton, and corn are being more and more 
cultivated as new lands are brought under irrigation. 
The word Arizona is taken from the Papago language, in which 
it is said to signify place of small springs. With a population of 
204,354, according to the census of 1910, or 1.8 persons to the square 
mile, it is one of the more thinly populated of our Western States, 
though less so than Wyoming and Nevada. The ratio of males to 
females is 138.2 to 100. Of its 72,000,000 acres only 5,000,000 are 
privately owned, the remainder being public land, Indian reserva- 
tions, or national forests. Originally Arizona was part of New — 
Mexico, and it continued as such under United States dominion until 
1863, when it was made a separate Territory and formally organized 
at Navajo Springs. Later the capital was at Fort Whipple, Prescott, 
Tucson, again at Prescott, and finally at Phoenix. 
_ The settlement of Arizona has progressed slowly, and up to 1886 
the murderous disposition of the Apache Indians greatly retarded its 
development. Mainly for this reason there were no white inhabitants 
in the large area north of Gila River prior to the treaty of 1848. From 
1853 to 1857 several governmental surveys were made across the 
region, mainly to find routes for railways. Most of the earliest 
visitors were prospectors, and from 1847 to 1860 many mines were 
opened under more or less protection by the Government. The with- 
drawal of troops for the Civil War gave the Apaches opportunity to 
