CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1907-05-23
COL. SRLLERS VISITS LANDS
OF THE FAMOUS sSCOTTY''

ANSssJs "a ANAth V0AA0ys - ~
cd more or less contemptuously as a
"four-nusher" by the mining men of
the Death Valley country, said Colonel
d. K B. Sellers to an Albuquerque
Journal reporter Monday night. Colo
mel Sellers returned from a trip to
California, during which he took a
2OO-mile automobile ride in a bowling
gale from Daggett across the Death
Valley country to the Avawatz and Fu-
neral mountain ranges, in the heart of
the desert mining region.
With M. W. Flournoy, Charles Me-
lini and others, Colonel Sellers is in
terested in mining property in the
"Crackerjack" district in the Avawatz
range. for which they were recently
offered and refused $25,OO0. The prop
erty II surrounded by land owned by
Senator W. A. Clark of Montana, Pat
Clark Of Spokane, Heinz of copper
fame, the Norrises, and other well
known mining men.
I'VE got in a forty-horse power Pope
Toledo automobile at Daggett," said
Colonel Sellers, "and then followed
one of the most remarkable trips I
ever took l have seen the wind blow,
but never as it did in that desert We
were whizzing along sometimes fifty
miles an hour. Ahead of us occasion
ally the sand would rise up before the
wind into dunes which appeared to be
two or three feet high, and by the time
have vanished The wind and the sand
make it impossible to keep a roadway,
SO in the desert they go entirely by
landmarks II is a bowling wilder
ness IL ever there was one-and hot
l rode with my coat and vest on, and
the sun beat down SO fiercely that it
felt as II 1t was taking the top of one's
head on. San Bernardino county has
done great service for travellers by
sinking at intervals Of thirty miles
wells 200 feet deep which have an in
exhausttble supply of very good water,
the taste being slightly brackish. but
better water than you get, for in
stance. when travelling up through the
Navajo Indian reservation.
AT Cave Wells. in the Avawatz
range. near Crackerjack camp, is a
big spring OF the purest water. and
there Is much more water in those
desert mountains than is supposed. In
the Funeral range. only a few miles
northeast of the Avawatz range, there
is big stream. perhaps twenty feet
| wide. of the best. clear mountain wa
ter. the stream of water soon being
swallowed up in the desert after leav-
ing the mountains.
"Crackerjack is a marvel. 1t is
ready they are publishing a live daily
newspaper. the Crackerjack News, and
the camp is growing with the same
mushroom-like rapidly. as Tonopah
and Goldfield, farther up north. The
mineral in those mountains is beyond
the dream of avarice. Ore from our
property runs from 5 per cent to 80
per cent copper. and as high as $500
in gold.
From Crackerjack we went on as
far as Beatty and Bullfrog, New. both
thriving camps with untold riches in
the hills around. and the people are
still pouring in from all quarters of
the country. The way the country is
filling up is really surprising.
Big propositions are being devel-
x-xrha Il
and talks in millions out there Many
act in millions. too. as evidenced by
the fact that one million dollars worth
of claims have changed hands in the
Funeral range alone in the last
month.
"The Tonopah and Tdewater rail-
way when completed will give big
impetus to things in the district The
line, which is Santa Fe proposition,
and being constructed by 'Borax Smith
built as far as Silver Lake, eighteen
miles from Crackerjack. II is a won
derful country and the trip was the
most interesting I have taken for a
long while. The automobile is a great
thing for that desert country, and has
helped greatly to bring It to the front.
But speaking of Scotty--he doesn't
amount to row of frijoles in the es-
timation Of the old-tmers and the
mining men in the Death Valley coun-
try. They all say that he simply gath
cred up some specimens of the best
ore in the district and wildcatted some
with the money. They regard him out