The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-05-08
PEN PICTURE OF DEATH VALLEY
No More Fascinating and Desolate
Region Exists on the Globe.

A recent issue Of the Pacific MI
ner, published in San Francisco, con-
tanned an article on Death Valley,
which will give those who have not
seen the valley some idea of its vast
ness. The article follows:
Over the dead wastes of this al
most foreign and abandoned region
beauty, silence and desolation for
ever hover. Every acre is blighted
Eden of mystery. and nature makes
an alternate play of roaring cloud
bursts and blistering winds. Now
and again sand hills are piled like
temples, only to be plowed into
gorges and channels by torrential
rains of not infrequent occurrence.
The elemental forces of heat and
light, sunshine and storm, have work.
ed wonders and carved weird statu-
airy in the canyons and dunes that
here and there break the monotony
of alkaline sands and virgin waters.
Mirages and arsenic springs fasci-
nate and torture the weary traveller.
Cities and fields, streams and groves
melt in the thin air. Crows walk
ing in the white sands look like
mounted warriors, and rocks are re-
fiected in the fantastic air until they
bear the appearance of temples of
gold such as Columbus and his fol-
lowers hoped to find beyond the mys-
FERROUS Ind, or in far Cathay.
Year after year mans curiosity
leads him closer to the storehouse
of wealth that are supposed to lie
buried in and around this arid reg
ion. Stories of gold in the beds Of
sunken rivers, tales of cowboys, who
know where the winds now and then
expose chimneys filled with nuggets,
and the careers of spectacular char
acters who plunge into the heart of
this sunken furnace, then emerge
with the wealth of Forunatus-all
these infiame the imagination and
add to the haunting silence of the
wonderful pit that is at once the most
errible and the most fascinating area
on the globe. !
Nature has located this guarded
and forbidden spot in Inyo county,
California, near the Nevada line, and
not far south from the Bullfrog min
ing district The death of a number
of emigrants who tried to cross the
deserts in 1849 gave the mysterious
sink it's grewsome name. Its width
is IS miles, its length SO, and on
every acre are parching roads that
lead down to the gates of death.
The United States Geological Sur
vey recently found by spirit level
measurements that the lowest depth
of the valley is 276 feet, it's depres-
sion at Bennets Well, 266 feet AS
Mount Whitney is only rs miles
away, towering 1850 feet into the
clouds, Inyo county has the distinc-
ton of holding within her borders
both the lowest and highest levels
of dry land in the United States. The
great Salton Sink was formerly 10
feet lower than Death Valley, but
the sink Is now lake.
Nowhere else on earth is there so
desolate and, withal, so fascinating
a view of Death Valley from the
elevations as Grapeview range, Fun
eral range, Reveille range, Telescope
peak, or Marble canyon. The color
ings everywhere are weird and bril-
liant, with mingled suggestions Of
the somber and repellant. In one
place the view is like Egypt and the
Nile! in another like chasms and
remarkable. The surrounding coun-
try and valley abound in sedimentary
and volcanic rocks, the predominant
ing colors being black, fiery red.
green. yellow and brown, with long
stretches of white and gray sands and
alkali, making picture of solitude;
but there are elements of grandeur
in the vast distances, the eternal ST.
lence, and the colors that change
every hour from dawn to sunset, and
through the silent watches of moon
lit nights.
The Panamint desert and the Pan.
amint mountains shut off the moist
winds from the ocean that might
otherwise temper the desert air. To
the north is Ralston desert, and the
eastern boundary is another Saharan
furnace of sand. In the summer
months the temperature of the val
ley runs as high as 1877 degrees Fab
renheit in the shade, with less than
one-half of per cent of moisture in
the atmosphere.
Sandstorms often rage with great
violence, and observers from the sur
rounding mountain ranges have esti-
mated that columns of sand are
sometimes forced 1000 feet above
the desert, terminating in bushy
clouds that hang like TRANSPARENT
veil across the face of the sun, and
produce color effect of green that
no artists brush has ever portray
ed
Though desolation abounds in all
directions, there are some forms of
plant and animal life equipped by
nature for the battle with the fierce
conditions that characterize Death
Valley. Here and there are small
gourds. much like the bitter apples
of Sodom, and now and again dwarf
ish. distorted cacti appear, blistered
and writhing. near Furnace creek. A
few odd-looking tame birds some
times venture close to visitors, hav-
ing seen so few of human kind that
n