The herald., 1896-07-22
OUR DESERT LANDS
BY W. c. BOWMAN

There is little conception. even among
Californians themselves, Of the vast ex-
tent and possibilities Of what Is known as
our" desert lands" Having just returned
from two weeks outing on the middle
Mojave desert, in San Bernardino coun-
ty. and the contiguous placer gold fields
OF the upper Holcomb valley amid the
high Sierras. cannot better serve the
interests of our state than by making
public. through q great daily like The
Herald. whatrI saw and thought.
And, first of all, permit me to make the
body of the so-called desert" lands of
California are MT desert at all. in the
strict sense of that term. as understood
IN the physical geography. 1t Is not
desert" as the Sahara Is q desert-a
waste of barren sand, fierce and glaring
with heat that devours all life. On the
contrary, 1t is. in the main, a fine loamy
soil of excellent fertility and covered
with vegetation Of various shrubs and
frequently with grass. 1t Is desert"
only in the technical sense Of our public
land laws, namely that "it will not pro-
duce any agricultural crop or grow tim
per without artificial irrigation" In
short. this desert" land is among the
finest agricultural land in the state-the
same kind of desert" that few decades
ago covered the treeless plains where
now smiles in fertile and fructiferous
beauty our own charming Los Angeles.
with her splendid suburbs of towns. vii
iases and country homes. The Mojave
desert alone contains probably 1000, 900
acres or this land-only waiting for water
which must come from the ground in
stead of the river and the ditch. And
am glad to say in this connection that /
nad the good fortune to see in operation
In that part of the desert which visited
very odd and remarkable pumping ma
cnine, new invention by an old gentle
man In Los Angeles named Van Allen.
me novelty OF this machine is the pc
cul1ar combination of forces by which II
is run, namely, that of the lever and the
penoulum. which enables even the hand
OF child to exert sufficient power to lift
the water from depth Of Tin this in
stance) seventeen feet, with ease and in
remarkable quantities. II am not mis-
taken, that machine has solved the only
serious -, l,,;s problem for settlers on these
niagnlncent government lands. While
contemplating the possibility, could but
inoulge the pleasing vision of a thousand
homes, not in isolation-the somber
drawback of the customary farm life
put IN forty-acre blocks, green as
meadow, with shaded highways, all laid
put as orderly and neighborly as the SUI
midst OF one of the most picturesque and
beautiful regions on the globe. This par
tlcuiar locality Is twenty miles east of
victor, known as Rabbit Springs" So
called from natural spring beneath a
ciump of native cottonwood trees in the
nldst or the desert. and which is no doubt
fashionable watering place for the
natives-the jack rabbits. Some fam
lies are already living here, engaged in
To my surprise. the cli-
mate here. in the hottest DAYS of July.
and unrelieved by the moisture of irri.
cation, forest trees or green fields. ia
bout the same in temperature as that
OF the san Bernardino region south of
the mountains. In fact, 1t Is better in
one respect-that of the brisk wind.
which blows from early in the day till
evening, rising as regularly as the sea
breeze at Los Angeles, and much earlier.
To be sure, 1t is not as cool as the sea
breeze. but is cooler than the blood, max
ing it quite tolerable to work or travel
all day in the blazing sun. The nights
are pleasantly cool, owing to the close
proximity Of the high mountains, and
also to the altitude of the locality itself
$500 feet above sea level.
But let us now ascend the mountain,
fifteen miles by wagon road-not more
than half that distance in balloon-to
the cloud-land gold fields known as
Holcomb valley. why this spot of wierd
wonder. beauty and sublimity is not
more widely known can be explained
only by the fact that California is so
full of wonders that people are dazed
and don't know where to begin. The
word valley" as applied to this region
seems odd, because the very word is
suggestive of low attitudes This val
ley, on the contrary, is 1900 feet above
sea level and swings like a great ham
mock, suspended between the lofty
peaks of the Sierras and near their very
submits. The fascinations here are
almost without number First, the gold
in the gravel-more than twenty square
miles of surface-every shovel full of
which contains gold, but in quantities
insufficient to pay the dry washer miner
more than an average Of six bits or one
dollar a day, except now and then he is
lucky enough to strike "rich pocket"
Numbers of transient prospectors may
always be found panning away for this
slow but sure income, but ever intoxi-
Gated with that charming stimulus of
the human mind-luck, fortune, uncer-
tainty. Just for the variety of having it
to boast of 1 turned the crank of dry
washer for two hoppers full of dirt, re-
quiring about three minutes each. The
first panned out about two cents, the
second. shoveled from another spot five
feet away panned out about thirty
cents-eXtra good luck.
But another sight worth seeing here