Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-04
CALIFORNIA DESERTS.
They Are Being Made Extremely Pro-
ductive After Long Neglect.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
1t is unsafe to condemn any Of the desert
lands of California as worthless because
the surface is barren of vegetation. Some
of these desert wastes are proving immense
ly valuable owing to their mineral deposits.
The barren lands of Kern county have been
found to cover inexhaustible reservoirs of
crude petroleum, and ground which a few
years ago no one would buy from the gov
eminent at 25 cents per acre Is worth at
the present time much more than the rich
est agricultural land in the San Joaquin
valley. The discovery of gold on the con-
fines of the Mojave desert at Randsburg
and on the edge Of the Colorado desert at
Hedges and other points opened new min
ing fields of great Importance, which have
since added materially to the mineral pro-
ductiveness of the state. Copper, borax
salt and inter are among the mineral pro-
ducts which these deserts and their inhos-
pftable and unnviting environments are
also yielding for the worlds enrichment.
The saline deposits of the California
deserts promise, however, to be the most
valuable of their varied mineral resources.
Death valley figures IN the early annals of
California in the role of Dante's Inferno"
and, like the latter, on Its portals was
leaves hope behind" In later years this
graveyard Of emigrants and luckless mining
prospectors who attempted to cross it's
parched floor and died of thirst and the
absorption Of the moisture in their bodies
by the intense heat and dryness of its at
mosphere has proved to be an inexhaustible
source Of mineral wealth. Covering the
bottom of the valley are great beds Of
boraX and the bleak ranges surrounding 1t
contain inter deposits, which are destined
to outrank the famous beds of Chile and
Bolivia in producttveness and wealth. Add
ed to these are enormous veins Of rock salt
and beds of chlorides capable of supplying
the wants of the world for all time. The
climate of this valley and Its environments
has undergone no change, but Its terrors
have almost wholly disappeared through the
discovery that nature mas made II great
mineral storehouse.
DR.. Gilbert E. Baileys account of the
saline deposits of California, which is given
in California state mining bureau bulletin,
throws new light on the mineral resources
of the deserts The known area Of the
inter beds in these wastes aggregates 30, 600
acres. The minimum thickness OF the sur
face deposits is put at six inches. Reject
ing 5000 acres as unavoidable, the re-
mainder of this saline veneering of the
mineralized Observation-Disclosures to contain
over % 600 600 tons or commercial pro-
duct But there are strata In the forma-
tion ranging In thickness from three to
ten feet, in, which the inter is in places
practically pure. II These strata contain
taken as whole, fr2m 10 to upward Of
40 per cent of the precious mineral. Fig
ures fail to express the aggregate contents
Of these veins. Dr. Bailey shows the won
derful similarity between these inter de-
posts and the Chilean fields, which are
now practically supplying the world and
from which the little republic Is drawing
enormous revenues. For the past ten years
thew have been yielding average of over
/ 600, GOO tons a yeaTrivalued at $4,000, 900,
in round numbers. Bat as the inter In the
California: deserts is more extensive, and
the volume of the mineral infinitely greater
than in Chile we may form some idea Of
the immense wealth which will be finally
drawn from these wastes when their min
eral deposits are intelligently opened.