The Holly chieftain., 1924-04-17
w 0NDERS OF THE
SALTON SEA
interior Department Bulletin Tells
Facts and Freaks of Americas
Most Fascinating and Terri
tying Desert Country

The Department of the Interior
has issued bulletin which tells of
the mystiiying wonders of Death
Valley. located in the Salton Sea
Country of the Southwest. The
sketch is full of interesting infor-
nation and also serves as warn.
ing to those who are inexperienced
in desert travel who might plan to
visit the country without proper
equipment for the trip
A Desert Region OF Unusual
Interest
The solitude and silence of the
desert region OF the southwestern
United States have peculiar fas-
'cination to the man who comes to
It from a busy life full of varied
human contact. The visitor to the
desert may travel all day without
meeting human being and almost
without hearing sound except
that made by his own vehicle as he
journeys across almost or entirely
uninhabited areas as large as some
of the smaller Eastern States Here
and grand paUoramas. which he
may see not only from the mountain
tops but from the broad alluvial
slopes that stretch down from them
Here he Is in land of bright
sunshine, of pure, bracing air, free
from debilitating sultriness, where
the nights are invigOratingly cold
and the sky is so intensely starry
that it inspires hm with awe and
reverence,
Dangers of the Desert
When all goes well the desert
seems so wholesome and cOngenial
that the visitor almost laughs at
his preconceived fears But If at
the end of a long day he and his
tired. thirsty team of horses come
to an isolated watering place that
has gone dry, or If his automobile
breaks down miles from the near
est water or human aid, or, worse
still, ii he loses his bearings, the
panorama that had inspressed him
so upliftingly becomes strange and
| beWildering, and the inspiring
scenery and CHEEKY sunshine seem
| to become monstrous mOckery
for the desert at once reveals it,
self to him as stern and awful
reality. He realizes then why Death
Valley received Its gruesome name
Old-Timer is Always Cautious
To the man who has lived long In
the desert region the features that
| impress the tenderfoot so strongly
sem commonplace, and fear of the
OF desert seems absurd, yet the
experienced traveller In the desert
habitually takes precautions that
would not occur to the inexper
fenced, and II the tenderfoot In
tends to make n trip into the de
sert without adequate information
and equipment the old-timer will
be quick to warn him of its dan
| gers.
Appeal to tfe Imagination
The desert region appeals SO
1
strongly to the imagination OF peo
pie in all parts of the country that
it has been made the subject OF
numerous stories and popular de
scriptive. articles, Some of these
portray the region faithfully and
accurately: others either magnify
its perils or go to the opposite ey
treme and give the erroneous INF
preston that the desert Is rapidly
disappearing and will soon be large
ly under irrigation. The result has
been somewhat confusing to those
who have attempted to gain con,
ception of the desert region by
reading about it.
Vast Stretches of Desert In the
United States
The desert areas of the United
States are included within a great
triangle whose base, 500 miles long,
rests upon the. Mexican border in
California, Arizona, and New Mex
leo, and Texas. and whose apex is
in north-central Oregon.
For many years the Department