Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-03
CBy stnR Correspondent.)


RHYOLITE, New, Feb. 2.-The days
Of the great American desert are num-
bered.
Nevada and Southern California, with
their interminable stretches of sage
brush, sand and cactus, have locked in
struggle with the master-nan.
The battle is not yet over, but the
end is In sight, for nature has proved
traitor to the waste places, and the rise
of the Salton sea is making mans task
an easy one.
Little by little the outposts of civil
ization are being pushed further and
further into the desert.
The prospector, with his burro and his
blankets, marks the first step. Behind
him are the automobile and the stage,
comes the railroad, the silent, square
jawed engineer and capital. Capital"
That is the end of the desert and the
dream of the prospector
This dream is fast being accom-
plished. Already there are three rail-
roads cutting deep into the heart of
Nevada and tapping a country where
five years ago the prospector himself
was rare. Already Death valley, with
it's bleaching bones in mute witness of
the countless tragedies that have taken
place within the shadow of the Funeral
range, has lost in a great measure its
menace to the gold hunter.
Perish Close to Water
Already heavy wagon trains wind
down the painted slopes of the Funeral
mountains and ere they climb the
Panam!nts to descend into the Califor-
MIA mining camps that lie beyond they
stop for water and a nights refresh
ment on the spot where but few years
ago the bodies of rtyeight men and
women We're found.
That was but one of many desert in
cidents. but the pity of that is that
death overlook the party on the only
spot. in all Death valley, where the
digging of a well just three feet deep
always will provide water, even in the
morths of July and August.
The prospector today leaves Rhyolite,
Greenwater Beatty or Las Vegas con-
fident that there will be no death from
thirst awaiting him while crossing
Death valley. He may be equally sure
that there will be no long hours of tor
ture in which half blind, crazed and
with tongue swollen between his blis-
tered lips he staggers in search of the
water hole, which when found may con-
ceal a hidden death from poison.
There is much for man and nature
both to do before the desert is fully
tanned, and Death valley never will be
a residence district but when two such
forces are working hand in hand it is
but a question of time before the re-
demption of the country which lies out
side the Panamints, the Grapevines and
the Funeral ranges Is complete.
The desert must disappear, just as
the sage brush and scrub oak of the
Southern California mesa gave place to
the orange grove and the vineyard.
Desert Rats Start Things
A few years ago a little coterie of en-
gineers watched a certain railroad mag
nate draw across a map of the great
southwest a line from Salt Lake City to
Los Angeles.
The line was straight, almost as
straight as that with which the czar of
all the Russias marked the famous
course of the railway from Moscow TO
ST. Petersburg. Unlike the czar, this
man had in mind tonnage, mileage and
minimum cost of handling transcon-
tinental freight.
His line bisected the heart of the
desert country.
Then a few contracts were signed, a
few checks We're written, a few men
died, but the Salt Lake road was built.
Man had formed his base of supply
and was ready for the battle.
To the north gold had been discovered
at Tonopah and Goldfeld. That was
natures lure, the casus belli. the reason
for the war that now is declared upon
the waste places.
In July, 1904, two prospectors, "desert
rats" as they call them in the mining
country" Shorty Davis and Ed Cross
left Los Vegas on a prospecting trip
up the Amargosa valley, and one night
two weeks later they camped at the
base of a mountain, twelve miles from
water.
The mountain was Original Bull
frog" and in the morning ore blowouts
on the side hill left by some long-dead
volcanic eruption attracted them. For
the hundredth time they climbed a
mountain picking up bits of rock and
searching for the Golconda that was to
make them rich.
Other Strikes Follow
The rock on "Original" looked good
II was good, and the strike that was to
open up the southern desert was made.
"OriginaP was twelve miles from
water. Very well. Water was carried