The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1908-04-16
DEATH VALLEY.


Gradually the word ''inacces
siOle" is losing its meaning as APP
piled to the geography OF the earth
a year ago anyone would have
told you. had they known, that
about the most difficult and dan.
geious place for white man to en-
gef was the famous Death Valley.
ia Southern Nevada. Now it
may be reached the same as the
ether common places on the map,
10y the simple process of buying a
ticket and boarding a train. Last
autumn marked the completion of
the Tonopah & Underwater railway,
q line extending from the town OF
Ludlow, on the Santa Fe, in the
Mojave desert, up through the
great Mojave wash, through the
hot length of Amargossa canyon,
across the dry lakes of the Amar-
gossa wash, and, finally, into the
city of Rhyolite, in the outskirts of
Death Valley. There isn't so very
much to Rhyolite but enterprise,
and prospects, but the first train |
over the Il. * L. was welcomed as
if it had been a new arrival in the
promised land. Only a desert min.
ing camp, at the end of desert
railroad. 1t marks the downfall Of
the last desert stronghold; it is all
open to man now, to prospect, and
irrigate, and mine, and develop,
if he can. The railroads have made
possible, the development of most
of our country. And, while the
II. &, I. is not the greatest enter
prise, its construction was no child's
play. Remember that the route
lies throughout across a desert,
hot, mountainous desert, where
water had always to be transported
and where the heat is worse than
any we know. Fifty thousand dol
lars a mile il cost to construct the
line, and little over a year was
CONSUMED in the work from the
time the grading began to that
great day when the first Tonopah
* Tidewater express rolled into
Rhyolite. Death Valley came hon
estly hv its ominous name. as did
the Funeral range of mountains
which skirts it, The valley has
tempted several parties of travellers
because ii offered shorter route,
who have ney succeeded in get. /,
ting across, and the lure of the
yellow metal has tempted many
prospectors into its salty, sun-bak-
ed businesses who have become {,
lost. or persisted for want of water. L
the real value of the section so !,
TAR and the primary cause of the
OF the L. & Il. rail.
-ond, is boraX, that mineral which L
IS at once a soap, and a valuable =
i'll certain smelling pro -
,esses. Several decades ago, when .
,orax was still laboratory product, A.
piecipitate borax was found in
he dry lakes of the Death Valley
ink, But the country wanted DO
ak, and there was plenty of it in all
Death Valley, so, of course. the foi
ountry found men to get it. For ow
number of years the product was
reighted across the desert TO Mo
i've or Dagett, on the Santa Fe. ov,
pecial wagons, with high wheels, sal
eep boxes and wide tires. were IN
instructed at cost of thousand is ,
ollars each. Two of these Wagons,
tank wagon, a twenty mule team 4
motive power. constituted the tim
rst Death Valley trains, and up VIII
ntil last fall the only means of CHI
for the product that the
ade the desert valuable. A week wea
as required for a round trip by the
agon freighters, and the process A
as necessarily expensive; hence day
c demand for railroad. Besides mig
rax, the Death Valley is known said
contain some other mineral The
,alth III the form of gold, silver, said
pper, soda, and nitre, but, in lust thir
lat quantities, remains for the
to learn, The promot. A
! of the country believe il has Can
eat future, which is what promot- year
are for, and, as number of Gals
Ter valuable mines have been ever
ind in the desert, there may be ever
ne in Death Valley. Anyway, GALS
> now possible 10 go there with lowi
ne degree of comfort and safety woul
find out, thanks to the men who wear
Istructed the Tonopah & Tide
ter. n,
..0n.,,xy cO,,.,- A n I