Desert Messenger

May 1, 2013 ARBUCKLE'S FROM PAGE 14 over a flying angel. Bill told me how the miners ground the whole beans without a coffee grinder. They simply put the beans for the morning's coffee into a can and, with a piece of drilling steel pounded the beans for a fresh pot of coffee. Bill had promised his old friend Felipe Gonzales that on one of his delivery trips the two of them would go on a prospecting trip of their own. It was the custom in those days that during warm nights the locals would put buckets of water out on a porch bench so the evening breezes would cool the water during the night. The next morning when Felipe started filling their canteens and ollas (a large bulging red-clay wide mouthed pot with looped handles), all at once the water started sloshing over onto the bench. Felipe became excited and said, "Somewhere there's been a big earthquake". Bill helped Felipe fill their canteens and headed out to make Bill's deliveries and for them to prospect. When they got back that evening, they learned that San Francisco was burning and many people had lost their lives when a giant tremor with a magnitude of over eight on the Richter Scale struck on the San Andreas Fault at 5:13 a.m. on April 18, 1906. Bill wrote about the earthquake in his journal and noted that he didn't want to haul water and grub for the rest of his life. He began to keep an ear out for work that paid better and where he wouldn't have to work such long, hard hours. In the spring of 1907, he had an offer to work near the booming Silverbell copper mine over in Pima County. From Quartzsite he took the stage to Ehrenberg where he boarded the steamboat 'Searchlight'. It had been announced that this was going to be the last steamboat on the Colorado River since work was about to begin on the Laguna Dam, 14-miles upriver from Yuma. The new dam would halt steamboat traffic into Port Yuma and on down to Port Isabel on the Gulf of California. In the early days of Arizona Territory, steamboat travel on the Colorado had been the principle source of transportation that brought the people and supplies needed to open and settle the Southwest. On this final trip of the 'Searchlight', from its deck Bill nostalgically watched as they steamed past the Pothole Placers, proven once to be one of the richest placers ever mined in the 17 www.DesertMessenger.com Southwest. Bill too had worked these tricky placers where gold was very rich at bedrock but, because the area was plagued with quicksand, it was impossible to dig the 15-feet or so all the way to bedrock. Now it was planned that this deep bedrock sand would be used to mix with cement and gravel to build the dam. Later, during construction, night guards were placed on the dam to keep the workers from "prospecting" for gold nuggets. Seems that after the concrete was poured into the forms, the nuggets were exposed as the moonlight reflected off the gold. It had been projected that the dam would cost somewhere around six million dollars. When the dam was completed Bill declared, "The government left more gold in the concrete than it cost them to build that whole damn dam". At the end of its final journey, the 'Searchlight' gently steamed into Yuma at twilight. Bill told me, "It was like a mighty sunset as the last of the steamboats announced its final arrival. I went up to the top deck and sat there until the sky was totally dark, except for the stars". Bill said he was sad that the trip was over and that the now-silenced whistle of the 'Searchlight' and all the steamboats before it, could no longer blast-out their presence along the Colorado". He said he knew that one era had ended but that another even more promising one had just begun. And Bill was right, with each new generation and each new innovation we should embrace each new era with optimism. Recycle... adds up! it all Recycle your empty inket cartridges and used cell phones! NO TONERS, PLEASE DROP OFF LOCATIONS: • Horizon Community Bank • Quartzsite Library • Senior Center Sponsored by Proud • General Store Neighbors of Quartzsite • Business Chamber Council Updates Quartzsite Town Council updates for the month of April, 2013 April 9 • Arbor Day Proclamation -April 26, 2013 is the special day set aside for the planting of trees and is now observed throughout the world. • Crime Victims' Rights Week Proclamation April 21-27, 2013 is designated as the Town of Quartzsite's Crime • Victims' Rights Week. This week reaffirms the Town Council's commitment to respect, and enforce crime victims' rights. The commitment is to help emotionally, physically, financially and spiritually to face new challenges and help find new solutions; to enhance help in rebuilding life for victims and survivors and those who serve them. • Proclamation: Week of the Young Child April14- 20, 2013 Ms. Merritt Beckett, the Regional Director for the La Paz- Mohave Regional Partnership Council with First Things First spoke regarding the their statewide school readiness initiative. • Tabled until next meeting was a discussion of an agreement with Tioga Solar Discussion; with Gila, LLC, for construction, operation and maintenance of a solar powered electric generating project; and to purchase from Tioga Solar Gila, LLC the electric energy produced by the project. (However, this item was not on April 23rd nor April 25th agendas) • Approved of a proposed job description and annual salary for the position of Quartzsite Municipal Court Judge. • Council held two executive sessions 1) for legal advice with Town Attorneys regarding the process to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Patricia Anderson from the Town Council. 2) for legal advice and discussion and consultation with the Town Attorneys regarding the Town's position and to instruct the Town Attorneys regarding possible settlement of the case Prutch v. Quartzsite. April 23rd Approved disbanding of the Arizona Centennial Committee almost one SEE COUNCIL PAGE 22 DEADLINE IS WED. MAY 8 for MAY 15th issue of the Desert Messenger Email: editor@DesertMessenger.com Phone: 928-916-4235 www.DesertMessenger.com Quartzsite Radio KBUX 94.3 FM http://kbuxradio.com • Quartzsite's Favorite "CLASSIC HITS" • Local Information • Weather • 24 Hours Day / 7 Days Week! 928-927-5111 First locally-owned and operated music station in Quartzsite, Arizona. Proudly serving the communities of Quartzsite, Bouse, Brenda, Rainbow Acres, La Paz Valley and beyond, since 1988.

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