The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-07
CALIFORNIA DESERTS.
They Are Made Extremely productive
After Long Neglect.

San Francisco Chronicle.
II is unsafe to condemn any of the desert
lands of California as worthless oeS aus
the surface is barren of vegetation. oohe
of these desert wastes are proving III
mensely valuable owing TO their Hilheia a.
denosits The barren lands or Kern coun-
ty have been found to cover inexnausupie
reservoirs of crude petroleum, and grouno nos.
which a few years ago no one Woulu 49,
from the government at . cents per 80
are worth at the present time mucn iho t
than the richest agricultural land In the
San Joaquin valley. The discovery OF golu
on the confines of the MoJave uesert az
Randsburg and on the edge OF the CoioIauS4
desert at Hedges and other points opened
new mining fields of great Importance,
which have since added materially TO the
mineral productiveness of the state. COP
per borax salt and inter are among the
mineral products which these deserts anu
their inhospitable and uninviting environ
ments are also yielding for the world en-
rchment.
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 ah mas
ferno," and like the latter, on It's portals
was plainly engraved: He who enters
here leaves hope behind. In later years
this graveyard of emigrants and luckless
mining prospectors who attempted to cross
its parched floor and died of thirst and
the absorption of the moisture in their
bodies by the intense heat and dryness OF
it's atmosphere has proved TO be an in
exhaustible source of mineral wealth. Cow
ering the bottom of the valley are great
beds of borax and the bleak ranges sur
rounding it contain inter deposits which
are destined to outrank the famous beds
of Chill and Bolivia in productiveness and
wealth. Added 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 the valley and its
environments has undergone no change,
but its terrors have almost wholly disap-
peared through the discovery that nature
has made it a great mineral storehouse.
DR.. Gilbert Z. Bailey's account of the
saline deposits of California, which is given
in California State Mining Bureau bull
letin, throws new light on the mineral
resources of the deserts. The known area
of the inter beds in these wastes aggre-
gates $1,000 acres. The minimum thick
ness of the surface deposits is put at six
inches. Rejecting 5000 acres unwork-
able, the remainder of this saline veneer
ing of the mineralized district is estimated
TO contain 22,000OO0 tons of a commercial
nation ranging in thickness from three
to ten feet in which the inter is in places
practically pure. These strata contain,
taken as a whole, from Is to upward of 40
per cent of the precious mineral. Figures
fall to express the aggregate contents of
| these veins. DR.. Bailey shows the wonder
ful similarity between these inter deposits
and the Chilean fields, which are now prac-
tically supplying the world and from which
| the little republic is drawing enormous
revenues For the past ten years they
nave been yielding an average of over
1,OOO,OOO tons a year, valued at $35, 900, 900,
In round numbers. But as the inter in the
California deserts is more extensive, and
than in Chile. we may form some idea of
| the immense wealth which will be finally
drawn from these wastes when their min
erai deposits are intelligently opened.