The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-01-09
TREASURE OF
THE DESERT

had thought of substituting machinery
/ for mules as traction power for the
/ laborious hauls of his crude product
1 He developed the courage and capital
/ to build the Tonopah & Tidewater rail
road northerly across San Bernardino
county, from Ludlow, Cal. Skirting
/ the Willow Creek and Greenwater dis
tricts, he progressed his line to Rhyo-
lite and Goldfeld.
The country opened up by this
road is fabulouslv rich in minerals, as
well as precious metals. Vast depos-
/ its of crude soda, as well as borax. are
made accessible. The Craeker-Jaek
/ district finds an outlet for it's ore and
an inlet for its machinery. Smelters
| spring up at convenient points. Freight
rates are reduced and riding hours
shortened.
Nine-tenths of all the new railway
mileage in the southwest laid in the
past half-dozen years has been in Ne
vada and California. Four fifths of
it has been constructed across the
desert. The chief items of trackage
belong to Lincoln county in the one
state and to San Bernardino county in
the other, the two largest counties in
the Union
Until the advent of the Salt Lake
road, San Bernardino county was cross
ed from end to end only, by the over
land route of the Santa Fe Now this
vast territory of over 10000 square
miles boasts two transcontinental
main lines and a number of spurs or
cut-offs, the most important next to
the Borax Smith road, being the
Santa Fe mainline cutoff, which runs
from Bengal station on the main line
to bridge the Colorado river at Parker.
Arizona. Here it connects with the line
built west from Wickenburg.
All of this railroad building has
been the means of stimulating i'm
mensely the activity of desert treasure
hunters. Even as motor cars have
superseded the burro for expeditionary
purposes, so railroads have brought
former prohibitive charges for wagon
freightage within practicable reach.
Popular conceptions of mining are
defective and obscure. 1t is one thing
to locate claims which are pregnant
with wealth, 1t is quite another
thing to develop those claims into pay
ing mines. Ample funds are required
to induce men to forsake civilization
and go hundreds of miles into barren
and desolate regions, and to insure
them against the privation of food and
drink, of medical or surgical aid In
ease of accident, and to provide them
with even the barest necessities of
lodging. Tools and powder must be
packed to them, and timber and ma
chinery, too, if the mine grows to one
j 0f ENracnantIx.
sence of that one essential-water-
has been the irremovable partition be-
tween failure and success.
The marvel of this mapicallv min.
eralized country is not that so MANY
paying mines have been developed
but that they are so few. | venture to
say that for every mine which now is
on a paying basis, there might be nine
more If capital were only forthcoming
IN quantities adequate to drill and pipe
supplies of water, to develop and trans
mt more electric power, to build more
roads OF all kinds, and more mills and
smelters
When Nature looked for safe de.
post vault for her gold and silver and
her beryls and tourmaline, she chose
the ruggedest spots, remotest from the
trails of man or beast. and set the
thorny cactus and Gila monster and
the rattler on guard. But dauntless
man has located these caches of pre-
cious stones and metals at repeated in
tervals in the centuries
dare say that the legendary "lost
mines" of the desert, and MANY of the
seemingly inserutable mysteries of the
desert will be revealed soon by modern
methods. Many an old prospector who
has kept concealed in his bosom the
location of treasure trove, will sell his
secret when he finds other searcbers
getting warm. The dust MUST
give up its hidden wealth The day is
not far distant when the reclamation
of the desert shall follow its irrigation.
and the earth shall bring forth fortunes
for the farmer as it has done now for
the miner.
Then, those broad expanses of black
faced map will be cross hatched with
railroad lines, and dotted with town.
sites. The Desert will have passed in
70 history. The "Lure of GoldD will
have brought about the redemption of
hundreds of thousands of square miles
Of territory hitherto good for nothing
The addition To the worlds wealth
will be prodigious. The process of
developing the latest resources of
Nevada has been exemplifed of late
in the copper districts of Ely, the sill
yer of Phoebe, the gold of Nye and
Esmeralda counties, and the next scene
of development and sweep of excite
ment must inevitably move southeast
erly across San Bernardino and River
side counties, to the Colorado river, and
bayond