The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-14
SALT IN A DESERT WASTE.
Enormous Saline Deposits I'm south
ern California That Are Being
Utilized for Commercial Purposes.

Enormous Saline Deposits In south
ern California That Are Being
Utilized for Commercial Purposes.
From the Detroit Free Press.
Among the natural wonders of Cali
fornia the sea of salt. where the saline
product is plowed and harvested on the
desert plain, is among the most inter
esting The Salton salt fields lie amid
the great Colorado Desert in the ex-
treme southwestern part of California.
The unique manner by which the salt
is gathered there for commercial uses
and the extraordinary manner of the
formation and deposit of the salt on
the sandy waste are matters of inter-
est among people everywhere. What
man does in other parts of the world
in pumping salt from subterranean
springs into watts and then evaporatins
the water, leaving the residuum at the
bottom of the watts is done at Salton
on an enormous scale by nature.
The Colorado Desert comprises thou
sands of square miles in Southern Cal
ifornia. 1t reaches to the Colorado
river on the east and down into Mex
leo. 1t covers a good share of the
enormous counties of San Bernardino,
San Diego and Riverside. The salt
HGiQS are the CChllSI vi NitS OCoOtdbC1
forbidding waste. 1t is in a region of
fantastic mirages. creeping venom
Gus Lizards, deadly rattlesnakes, and
binding, roasting sandstorms. The
mercury there in midsummer fire.
quently climbs to 125 degrees and
sometimes even to 1876 degrees. The
desert is at a depth of 200 to 300 feet
below sea level, and is over $50 miles
| from the Pacific Ocean. Many a min
/ yror ho 1atd dnUFT1 hiS life
on the Colorado Desert sands dying
in agony with burning thirst. and many
! another man has gone crazy there from
| like causes.
The great salt deposits are circum-
| scribed by a sea of yellow shimmering
sand that stretches away to the hort
ION in three directions To the north
west a range of bold sunbaked noun
tains, purple in the arid region, rear
their peaks against a brazen sky. The
! Southern Pacific Railroad Company
main track on the route to Yuma, Ari-
IONA, and thence on to Ell Paso, Tex.
runs close by. Except the Indian work
men who are the only human beings
who can be induced to labor in this
fierce solar heat, and a few work
mules, nothing of life is to be seen
about the salt beds for hours at a
| time.
The salt fields appear strange at any
time. on clear, hot day the scene is
a marvellous one. The broad area of
! glistening white salt crystals in the
| basin amid the yellow sea of sand
looks like a shimmering lake of glass.
| The mirage effects are often startling.
| One sees trees and horses-sometimes
| even the streets and buildings of dis
tant Los Angeles-standing all about
the crystal lake. Sometimes the mirage
adds full-rigged ships. steamboats,,
piers, and waving palm trees as decor
ations to the salt lake and to the cir
cumscribng. hideous desert. In the
! strangely clear atmosphere the salt
lake may be seen from over 100 miles
away. and travellers on the Southern
Pacific overland trains watch the ex-
traordinary scene until the train
moves far into the distance and the
basin and its glistening crystals are
lost 10 view. Even the stolid Indians
are moved by the beautifully spectral
scene OF the Salton region when a mir
age ~ visible.
The saline deposits cover an area OF
about $500 acres altogether. but the
area from which pure white salt may
/ Pee gathered comprises about 400
acres. owing 10 the abundance Of the
salt and 10 rapid formation on the
surface o. the desert waste less than
twenty acres Of n have been worked
| over. There's enough salt there said
/ United states Senator Bard 81 CalifoT-
! uia recently, 70 ship annually from
Halton over 5000 tons. re- a wonder
| ful deposit
4 dozen aiHsTsHt thsoHss obtain IN