The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1906-01-05
DEATH VALLEY
Newspaper Man Tells Some Interesting
Things About It

Iu1uSo AboAe ~
So much is being written in the news
papers just now about Death valley
that a little description will not come
amiss. On a recent trip to Los Angeles
on the new "Limited,' in company
with a number of newspaper men from
all over the country, / had an oppor-
tunity to see something of the forma-
tion of the surrounding country IN
the vicinity of Death valley, the new
Clark road boroering it but a few miles
away.
Death valley, as described In the
American Encyclopedia, is a low desert
in Inyo county, California, nesr the
Nevada border. The name of this re-
gion was given by a survivor of an
emigrant party of thirty, who, in 1919
or 1850, lost their way there, and OF
whom, after enduring indescribable SUI
ferings, eighteen persisted in the sands
No other such spot is known, Like all
the great valleys of California, 1t lies
oblong from north to south. Its length
is about fifty miles; width about thirty
five miles; surface about 210 feet lower
thar that of the pecan. The Panamint
mountains shut out from it the moist
winds of the Pacific. In the August at
mosphere there is less than one-haf of
/ per cent of moisture. The surround
ing country is made up of volcanic
ranges-black, yellow, green, red and
brown-which have furnished the val
ley with the borax now found there.
On the north of the valley is Ralston
desert, on the west Panamint desert, on
the south Mojave desert, and Amar-
'gosa desert is on the east. Death val
ley has the lowest depression. Sum-
mer heat here rises to 1877 degrees F.,
far higher than anywhere else in the
western world. Death valley, as seen
from the summit of the Panamint
range, presents a long, gray, waste
desert, in which there are narrow bands
of white made by thin deposits of
borax; and to the south is to be seen
a thin line like a blade of steel-the
Amargosa river, as it dies away upon
entering Death valley sink. 1t is a
sluggish, dead stream, and evaporation
and absorption at last take it all.
The land was evidently a center of a
system of lakes when the Sierra Ne
vada mountains had not yet risen. To-
ward their summit the Panamint noun
tains are of carboniferous limestone,
drifted and worn, with a very slight
growth of pinon, pine, mahogany and
juniper, near the c%rests; and below the
vegetation becomes more scant. N
the gorges and narrow canons are seen
numerous vines and creepers, on which
grow wild gourds resembling oranges,
also similar to the bitter desert apples
that grow near the site of the ancient
Sodom. Here also are the most dis
torted forms of cacti, and an inferior
growth of crossword. The wealth IF
this desert is wholly mineral. 1t is in
this valley that Walter Scott, so famll-
iarly known as "Scotty,' is reported
to have made his fabulous strike il
gold.
A sandstone playing in Death valley
is described as being a wonderful
sight. S~and-augers rise like slender
stems, reaching up into the burning
atmosphere for thousands of feet, and
terminating in a bushy cloud. They
travel hither and thither, and gradually
fade from sight. Here mirages rise up
spectral cities, groves, fields and tree
margined rivers. A low ruin will seem
to be hundreds of feet high; arrow
weeds are magnifed into stately palms;
the crows walking On the ground ap-
pear as men ON horseback. Besides
crows, here are seen a few poor jack
rabbits, NANCY coyotes, horned toads,
red-eyed rattlesnakes, mice and noun
tain rats; and in the Panamint range
there are still a few big-horns, n
Rocky mountain sheep.
At the summit of the Panamint and
Funeral mountains the thermometer at
times, it is said, falls to 80 degrees be-
low zero.
Human society in Death valley IS
confined to a few miners in Funeral,
Calico and Panamint mountains, some
few rowing bands of Piute Indians, and
a few squaw-men owning cattle aud
horses.
An attempt to cross the valley with
out a sufficient supply of water mean
almost certain death by suffocation,
and even with water no being can
withstand one of the terrible sanl-
The trails through the valley
are said to be strewn with the bleaehed
bones of human beings and animals.
One of the officials of the Clark road