The correspondence and photographs in this collection are significant for their volume and detail. The correspondence between Zenobia Lacy (mother) and son Dale Ralston 1904-1918 is voluminous. Their letters document a hard life along the Colorado River whether it was prospecting, building canals, farming, road construction or land speculation. Some of the print material is fragile. There are over 200 photographs, most taken by Dale Ralston from the 1920s to 1930s, of mining and survey sites, canals and levees, the construction of the Phoenix-Yuma Highway, and his friends, pets, cars, colleagues, and wife, Ludmelia. Album fragments dating from 1897 to the 1920s also include early family photographs and images of Quartzsite, Arizona.
