The Arizona Champion

In a few days some of our citizens will visit Tonto Basin, passing by the tunnel on the M. B. R. R. and through the settlements enroute. Here is an opportunity to do some direct and efficient work toward establishing a mail route from this place to Tonto. We cannot believe that the Department will ignore the matter if properly presented by either our congressional Delegate or the people direct. What we need most to present is the number of people directly interested in the service. The people of Tonto have long suffered in this matter. Instances are related of letters having reached the Basin after being enroute several months. It is true that a revolution might occur, and half the governments of the civilized world be overturned, and a thousand citizens of our own fair land be in ignorance of the facts for lack of mail service. But the current events of the day are insignificant to these people compared to the letter from the old home. It is either never received, or is a year old when it reaches the Basin. Ah! what sad changes may have occurred since it was penned by the loving hand of father, brother, or the still more gentle hand of mother or sister. What sad changes may have occurred since it was confided to the care of the "best government the world ever saw." This brave people deserve better of the nation's bounty, if indeed, bounty it can be termed. We need go back but two years to record one of the bloody struggles these people have made to maintain themselves while opening up to civilization this fair portion of our Territory. This statement is not a western romance. The bereaved and the maimed living, and the graves of the dead, remain to attest its solemn truths. Since the landing of the Mayflower to the present time we have been led by just such spirits as these isolated people of Tonto, who have pushed into the wilderness, driven back the savage and opened up the way for civilization. They should not be slighted or ignored.