The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-08-11
DEATH VALLEY.
Some of the Treasures and Terros of
the Desert.

stampede to Death Valley during the
coming autumn. The sudden revival
of interest in that mysterious and for
biding region has been stimulated by
the recent official reports confirming
the existence of mineral deposits of
Questionable value as well as by the
periodical emergence of some venture
some prospector with specimens of the
treasure that lies within the uninvit-
ing waste. Perhaps the individual
who has contributed most literally TO
the present increase of interest in the
valley is the cratic Walter Scott, whose
series of sensational disappearances
and returns, regaining the habitable
world on each occasion with a liberal
supply of the gold hat is hidden from
those who have tried to follow in his
footsteps.
Until a few years ago the borax
mines at Borate, on the edge of the
Mojavc desert, were believed to be the
richest deposits of that useful salt in
the world. About that time it was dis
covered that the borax fields within
Death Valley were so extensive and the
salt itself is 80 pure o quality that all
other known sources of supply were of
little value in comparison. Francis
Marion Smith, known as the ffborax
king" who owned the mines in the
Mojave district, made haste to secure
the borax deposits in Death Valley.
His company built a road into the
hitherto inaccessible region and erect
ell monster works at Daggett for the
reduction of the salts. Soon after this
an immense wagon came out of the
valley and unloaded at Daggett, the
nearest railroad station on the Santa
Fe line, two tons of ore which was
worth from $4,000 to $4,000 a ton.
This was the first important shipment
of auriferous ore from that locality.
The ledge from which this rich ore was
taken had been discovered a short time
before by a poor prospector, Walter
of it's concealment. How Scott man
ages to obtain the golden nuggets with
which he seems to be so plentifully
provided is the unsolved mystery which
| has faced all those who have attempt
ed to follow in his adventurous foot
steps. There is no water within many
miles of all the gold bearing lodges To-
Gated by the government experts, and
it seems little short of superhunan
that this one fortunate ;prospector
should have found a way to surmount
the first difficulty when all Others
have failed.
| Fabulous quantities of gaiena are
piled. up in the recesses of the valley,
one vein recently discovered being
thirty feet in width and containing ore
that runs from 40 to rs per cent in
lead. Many rich hedges of silver have
been. found, and numerous tests have
shown the ore to be worth from $4,000
to $4,000 a ton. The nitre wealth of
Death Valley is also enormous, and it
has been estimated that if these de-
| posits could be marketed at current
prices they would yield $1,000, 600, 000,
One reliable expert who examined the
beds for an American company made
the statement that if the nitre field
could be operated Chile would lose its
supremacy as a producer of this staple.
It is affirmed by those who have in
vestigated the matter that borax is
never found in nature except in the
~craters of extinct volcanoes, II is a
fact that in California all of the de-
POSTS yet discovered lie in the bottom
of those bowl shaped valleys which are
known by geologists to have been out
lets for prehistoric fire mountains. The
presence of borax in Death Valley is
everywhere indicated by the snowy APP
pearance of the bottoms, which to the
newcomer seem precisely like snow
fields. 1t is extremely hazardous TO
attempt to cross these stretches, for
under the thin shell Of salts lie fathom-
less depth of poisonous waters.
Over 10000 acres of borax, n%itre,
soda and salt deposits have been To-
Gated in Death Valley. The entire re-
gion seems to be a vast chemical lab
oratory in which nature has compound
ed and stored millions of tons of crude
drugs It has been called the "drug
store of the universe and the appella-
ton is singularly fit. Borax from
Death Valley first found its way into
the market about a quarter of a cen
fury ago. 1t was mined from deposits
found in the Calico mountains and
from one or two sinks at the edge of
I<ha x~,,lIoy ap1 IL was taken ont In