Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-08-20
Lure of Death Valley Told By
Young Americus Travellers,
Back From Long Tour of West

'Of all the wonderful experiences
we encountered in our stay of year
in the west" said Fisher Brown, yes
tcrday, as he came into the office of
the Times Recorder with John Butt,
who was his companion throughout
the tour from which they have both
lust returned. death Valley, Neva,
da, stands out most clearly In our
minds today. Not for worlds would
have missed that visit to the weird
est, loneliest, mast forsaken spot on
the earth's surface, unless that spot
be totally inhabited, and even then
it could not parallel the isolation and
complete aloneness of Death Valley.
'How did we happen to be there?
Oh, well, John and decided to take
trip out West last summer to see
the sights. We left Americus in June
of 1920 and went directly to my
home in Cincinnati, where we remain
ed about two weeks, seeing the sights
Of the city and enjoying the pleasures
of home. From there we went to Chi
cago for several days, and took a
through train for California, Of
course, we saw all the wonders of
that great state, including the movie
realm at Los Angeles, where mil-
/ lionaires' homes are as common as
are cottages in Americus. We did not
care much for that sort of thing, we
wanted to see the real West.
''From Los Angeles, with its thouS-
ands Of people, it wealth, it's abun-
dance, to Death Valley was seeming
a short journey, but what a
change! From a city of millions we
| came to a region with but one inhab-
liant, or rather, two, because the sole
c~onpant of Death Valley possess
/ ed dog, and Bingo and his master
made up the population of the Val
/ no bo~iu with, Death Valley is
! $50 feet below the sea level, with a
| temperature in the winter of ITO de-
grees, often going as high as 100 de-
/ grees, and sometimes even higher.
Into Borax Country
/ eve went 20 miles into the Valley,
which is about 80 miles long by Is or
| 20 miles wide, and visited the Exper-
mental Borax company, or as we
know it. the place where 20-Mule
/ Team Borax is mined and prepared
| for the market A peculiar paradox
we found was that standing in the
center of Death Valley, at its lowest
noint, the top of Mount Whitney, the
| highest mountain in the country
could be seen, with its snow-capped
+, tip, with a temperature many de-
grees below zero. While we were
burning up with heat in Death Val
ley, people might have been freez-
ing on ron of the mountain.
"The sole human inhabitant of that
desert valley is little Austrian by
: the name Of Johnny Sidy. lean, little
end ,ripv as hard as pine knot. and
seemingly impervious to the heat
which withers everything and every
body beneath its fiery influence. He
is called out there "Johnny Behind
the Gun" because he ha S killed
three men for irving to es
tablish themselves on his gold claims
there. That little brown skinned mar
knows more about Death Valley thar
any other being on earth can know
because he has spent his entire lift
in and around it, made his stake il
THE gold mines nearby, and lays ;
moral claim. If not physical claim, t
the place as his.
l"He makes the boast that if a mar
!, will go into Death Valley for ;
, wager. he will 90 Just 100 miles far
! ther than the expicreT J And h