195002 desert magazine 1950 february

8/14/2019 195002 Desert Magazine 1950 February

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FEBRUARY, 1950 35 CENTS


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A M o d e r n M o u n t i n g S e t W i t h S p a r k l i n g G e n s oiR U T I L E R A IN B O W D I A M O N D S

Is the answer to your gift problem. One of these magnificent gems set in alov ely g old or pallad ium ring will be a gift that will be worn an d cherishedfor years to come.

BUTILE IS THE GEM OF THf HOUR IT IS NOW A REALITYAfter years of experiments, synthetic RUTILE is now available in cut gemsof breath taking beaut y. This magnificent subs tance ha s been given thename of "TITANIA".

"TITANIA IS QUEEN OF ALL KNO WN GEMS"Titania gems have more fire than the diamond.

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Our new SUPERCATALOG described below gives you all the facts aboutTITANIA GEMS and ILLUSTRATES mountings especially selected for them.An article tells the story behind this amazing discovery.T h e 1 9 5 0 R e v is e d E d i t i o n of G r i e g e r ' s " E n c y c l o p e d i a a n d

S u p e r C a t a l o g of t h e L a p i d a r y a n d J e w e l r y A r t s "$ 1 . 0 0 Per C o p yThis is a 192-page book 9"x l2" in size. There are at leas t 60 pa ge s of in-structive articles by autho rs of national fame. There are new articles by EMILKRONQUIST an d LOUIS WIENER on jewelry makin g. The 15-page articleon jewelry casting by the LOST WAX METHOD using the new KERR HOBBY-CRAFT CASTING UNIT is alo ne worth $1.00. "ROCK DETERMINATIONSIMPLIFIED" by Mr. E. V. Van Amringe with illustrations and charts helpsyou to identify your field trip disco veries . Two excellent field trips are m app ed .

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D E S E R T C A L E N D A RFeb. 2Ceremonial dances at threeIndian pueblos: San Felipe, Cochitiand Santo Domingo, north of Al-buquerque, New Mexico.Feb. 4-5Sierra club weekend camp-ing trip to Corn Springs in theChuckawalla mountains.Feb. 4-5Tenth annual Palm SpringsRodeoparade and rodeo events,Palm Springs, California.Feb. 4-5llano Indian dances at Taospueblo, New Mexico.Feb. 5Don's Club Travelcade toMiami mines, from Phoenix. Ari-zona.Feb. 11-12Fifth Annual Silver SpurRodeo, sponsored by Junior cham-ber of commerce, Yuma, Arizona.Feb. 11-12Arizona Snow Bowl car-nival. Flagstaff, Arizona.Feb. 11-12Paradise Valley Horse

Rodeo, Scottsdale, Arizona.Feb. 11-13Annual ski carnival, Wil-liams, Arizona.Feb. 14-15Missionary district of Ari-zona of Episcopal church. Flagstaff,Arizona.Feb. 15Turtle dance at Taos pueblo.New Mexico.Feb. 15-16Mobilgas Grand Canyoneconomy run, starting from LosAngeles, California.Feb. 17-22 Riverside County Fairand National Date Festival. Ara-bian Nights Pageant free every

night. Horse show each afternoon.At fairgrounds, Indio, California.Feb. 18-19Rodeo and Gila Monsterderby, Glendale. Arizona.Feb. 18-26Maricopa County Fairand Citrus show. Mesa, Arizona.Feb. 19Bandollero trek to Wellton-Mohawk project. Starting fromYuma, Arizona.Feb. 23-25Arizona Cattle Growersconvention, Globe.Feb. 23-26 La Fiesta de los Va-queros, annual Rodeo, parade morn-ing of February 23, Tucson, Ari-Feb. 25-26 Sierra club weekendcamping trip to Cat Canyon inSanta Rosa mountains.Feb. 25-Mar. 5California Mid-Win-ter fair, at Imperial fairgrounds,four miles north of El Centro, Cali-fornia.Feb. 26Rodeo at Remuda. Wicken-burg, Arizona.Feb. 26Thunderbird Meet, ArizonaSnow Bowl, Flagstaff.FebruaryOil portraits of Nez PerceIndians, by Mrs. Rowena LungAlcorn, will be exhibited at South-west Museum, Los Angeles, dailyfrom 1:00 to 5:00 p. m. duringmonth.

V o l u m e 13 FEBRUARY, 1950 N u m b e r 4C O V E RC A L E N D A RPOETRYRECREATIO NFIELD TRIPQUIZEXP LO RATIO NLETTERSLOST MINE

M I N I N GTALL TALESC O N T E S TCLO SE-UP SN E W SFICTIONB O T A N YLAP IDARYH O BBYC O M M E N TB O O K S

HOOVER DAM AT NIGHTPhoto courtesy of U. S. Reclamation Bureau

February events on the desert 3Awesome Sentinels, and other poems . . . . 4Desert Playground

By GENE SEGERBLOM 5We Followed the Lure of CarnotiteBy JAY ELLIS RANSOM 12

Test your desert knowledge 16He Explored the Unknown Colorado

By AL HAWORTH 17Comment by Desert le ade rs 22Lost Gold of Salt Spring

By JOHN L. VON BLON 23Current news of deser t mines 28New Champions Selected at Annual Pegleg

Liar's Contest 29Announcement of February photo contest . . 29About those who write for Desert 30From here and there on the deser t 31Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 38Lupine Once Had a Bad Reputation

By MARY BEAL 39Amateur Gem Cutter, by LELANDE QUICK . 40Gems and Minerals 41Just Between You and Me, by the Editor . . . 46Reviews of Southwest Literature 47The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert,California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert,California, under the Act of March 3, 1879.Title registered No.358865 in U. S. Patent Office,and contents copyrighted 1050 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contentsmust be secured from the editor in writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor AL HAWORTH, Associate EditorBESS STACY, Business Manager MARTIN MORAN, Circulation ManagerE. H. VANNOSTRAND, Advertising ManagerLos Angeles Office (Advertising Only): 2635 Adelbert Ave., Phone NOrmandy 3-1509.Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledgedunless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility fordamage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub-scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue.SUBSCRIPTION RATESOne Year $3.50 Two Years S6.00Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c ExtraSubscription to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity WithP. 0. D. Order No.19687Address C orrespondence to Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, California

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Saguaro Photograph by S. Paul LindauSOURDOUGH'S LAST CAMP

By HAROLD RAMSLIELos Angeles, CaliforniaThe snows are a-restin', fair and frail,This night on the Great Divide,And I'll take the long, long trail,To camp on the other side.The re I will meet the friends 1 knewIn the years that are past and gone:Stray Dog Smith and Faro Sue,And Casey, the widow's son;Timberline Bob will sure be thereAnd the boys from Bonanza Hill;Alongside my pardner, Rawhide Bill,I'll look for the Parson, St. Clair;And with Johnson, who struck it richCarried nuggets around in his purseThe Homestake Twins, you couldn't tellwhich,And lovely Jennie, the nurse.Aye, tonight, while the flowers smell sweetIn the dells by the moon-white road,I'll leave my camp, all snug and neat,And.track to my new abode.

I REACH A STARBy BESSIE GLEN BUCHANANLos Angeles, California

You cannot hurt meit is strange you try.I think, perhaps, you do not even knowThe blessedness of living cleanBeyond small meanness.Once I came upon a hillhigh reachingInto white fleeced cloudsSharp jutted rocksprecarious the climb,Yet there , 1 found serenityAmong the forest pines.Look up, oh heart, seek beauty in the hills,And peace of mind in stones and runningrills.

There, in a heavenly, better clime,My friends they'll welcome meFor to wash the sands of the streamtimeAnd camp for eternity.of

By TANYA SOUTHHow dim the faring! Oh, we seeSo briefly and so sparingly.Seldom the full, close step ahead.So frailly is our spirit bredIn good intentions. Let us thenBe ever wary of our going.Our every thought or joy or painShould be for uplift. Thus bestowingAll strength and purpose, and all ruthFor righteousness, we shall gain Truth.

By OR A K E H NArvada, ColoradoCould it be, they're living tombstonesOf a race that's long been gone,Guarding with sharp thorns the buriedPeople of an ancient throng?Queer, grotesque, these living markersWith their upraised suppliant arms,Weave their weird and mystic shadows,In this place of witchcraft charms.Seen in noontime sun they're brazen,Warning all to keep away;In the eerie dawn, they're spectersIn a cemetery grey!Through the moonlight haze they're ghostlyAwesome watchers, strangely cast,Sentinels well armed for duty,Keeping secrets of their past!Like some prehistoric monstersYet, they live and bloom instead;And they bear such gorgeous blossoms,Royal crown for royal head!

THE PLACE FOR A LIZARDBy HENRY C. MORRISWashington, D. C.If I were a lizard, I tell you what,I'd go to Nevada and there I'd squat.Under the sage-brushfine and hotI'd lay out a nice little garden spot.I'd sell to the horn-toads, blue-bottle fliesWith sagebrush dressing and cactus pies.Also, the bones of tenderfeet,Who migrated there and died from theheat.For the burning sun is a friend of mine,And the scorching wind is to me sublime.Alkali dust I fondly love.Better than ought in heaven above.So, Ho! for Nevada! And a home in the dust,It's the place for a lizard, who is strongand robust,To build up a fortune and live in ease,Under the shade of the Joshua trees.

A DESERT RETURNING!By GRACE PARSONS HARMONDesert Hot Springs, CaliforniaI'm back again! Th e hills take up thesong!The length'ning shadows carry it along!The desert, my own desert, has me back-Back from the busy mart, the madd'ningpack!The mesquite nods a welcome from thetrail;I hear the lonely whistle of the quail;The glory of the sunset gleams for me;The wind across the desert rushes free!This paean in my heart has one refrain:O, desert, I am back! I'm back again!

LOST IN THE DESERTBy EMILY I. ALLEMANSanta Ana, California

The buzzards circle in the skyI see the shadows of their wings,Passing passing, passing by;On my brow a damp chill clings,As they go passing, passing by.Oh, God, it's hard for a man to die.With buzzards circling in the sky,Passing, passing, passing by!THE DESERT MAGAZINE


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77ze Par/: service has provided ample beach and bathing facilities forsummer vacation visitors.

Desert Playground. . .Folks come from all over the world to boat and fish and play in the greatrecreational area which Uncle Sam maintains on and around the shores of LakeMead in Nev ada and Arizona. The Lake Mead playground ha s becom e apopular rendezvous for campers and trailer vacationistsfor those who cannotafford or do not care for the luxury of expe nsiv e resort hotels. Here is a glimpseof some of the recreational facilities of the areaand of the problems of thePark rangers who are in charge.

By GENE SEGERBLOMPhotos by W illiam Belknap , Jr., an d Cliff Segerblom

three young men at-tempted to row their old leakyboat across Lake Mead to itsin lower Grand Canyon. Theyroad knowing that the Park

A wind came up and the waves ran

to the nearest habitation. Some

hours later the Park rangers foundthem, wet and chilled, hovering arounda little fire trying to keep warm in al-most freezing weather. It was nearmidnight when the rangers reachedthem, and three hours later the boyswere back in their car and headed forhome.Such rescues are all part of the day'swork in the Lake Mead Recreationalarea where Superintendent G eorge Bag-gley and a small crew of rangers havethe responsibility for protecting bothwildlife and thoughtless human beingsin a domain that spreads over 2,655square miles of land and water.

The Park service was assigned thetask of administering recreational ac-tivities in the Lake Mead desert play-ground soon after the dam was com-pleted in 1935. Thousands of Ameri-can tourists and sportsmen flocked tothe area to see Hoover dam and enjoythe boating and fishing opportunitiesprovided by the new lake.The Reclamation bureau, which builtthe dam, is an engineering and con-struction organization, with neither thetime nor the facilities to entertain suchgreat numbers of visiting tourists.Since both the Reclamation bureauand the Park service are under the jur-


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m ;/)e lower basin of Lake Mead. Here craft may be rentedor chartered for fishing or pleasure cruising.

isdiction of the Department of Interior,it was a comparatively simple matterto bring the two services together andassign to the Park office the supervisionof all recreational facilities in the area.Above the dam, the water backs up115 miles into the lower gorges ofGrand Canyon. The entire 550-mileshoreline for a distance of several milesinland was withdrawn from publicentry to protect the purity of thewater and provide space for roads andstructural work which may becomenecessary in future yea rs. It is thisarea, plus the lake itself, that has beendesignated as the Lake Mead Recrea-tional area and hundreds of thousandsof visitors boat, swim, fish, camp andotherwise enjoy this playground an-nually.Superintendent Baggley's desk is ina deserted army hospital which servesas the Park administration's headquar-ters, but he spends much of his time inthe field with Chief Ranger DonalJolley and his 41 rangers, naturalistsand workmen.Three kinds of travelers find theirway to the area. First there are thosewho are m igrating' to or emigratingfrom California and choose Highway466 which crosses over the top of thedam connecting Nevada and Arizona.Next are the tourists who come hereto see the dam and take a fleeting lookat the lake and surrounding country.Then comes the motor gypsy with histrailer or tent. He settles down on theshores of Lake Mead at the Park serv-ice's free public campground to stayindefinitely.The camp has the only shade treeson the entire lake shoreline. Jus t get-F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 0

ting the trees and shrubs to grow was aproject. Th e soil is salty. W ater hadto be piped from the lake to irrigate thetrees and plants daily to keep the 115-degree summer temperature from burn-ing up the transplanted vegetation.Rest rooms, electric stoves, garbagecans, etc., have to be kept clean. Manycampers are not concerned over leav-ing a place as clean as it was found.Optimistically, the Park service askstheir cooperation with this lyrical re-minder:"Let no one say, and say it to yourshame,That all was beauty here until youcame."The big problem is not keeping thecamper happy so he'll come back, buttaking care of the crowds that do come.Th e cam p is full almost all year. Attimes, overflow campers in trailers andtents spread out in the brush on theedge of the camp trying to get close

enough to avail themselves of the campfacilities."At one time last year," Baggleysaid, "there were 120 families at thecampground which has sanitary facili-ties for only 75."In order that a few people may notmonopolize the camp, the Park servicehas put a 30-day limit on camping inone season.The swimming beaches at Boulderbeach, Las Vegas wash and Overtonpresen t a difficult problem . They haveto be mo vable. Th e lake fluctuates inheight with the spring runoff and thedry summer. The water's edge is neverin the same place. All spring and sum-mer the rangers must pull up the divingrafts, buoys, lifeguard chairs and rest

rooms. Then as the water goes downthey have to pull them out into the lakeagain.The lifeguards, also Park service em-ployees, have plenty of busines s. Th ediving rafts always look closer to shorethan they are and about once a daysome over-eager swimmer has to bepulled out. Besides saving lives, theyhelp with swimming campaigns, keepone eye on stray youngsters, and act ascaretakers of the beach.Many picnic-swimmers ignore thegarbage cans placed every 100 feet onthe beach. To keep the beach clean,one man would have to work 24 hoursa day picking up the picnic scraps,cans, bottles and gum wrapp ers. It isnot unusual to find broken pop bottlesthrown into the swimming water.According to Chief Ranger DonalJolley, who has had 30 years of prac-tical experience with the Park service,the visitors even run off with the trashcans occasionally.Fishing! Th e rangers work in con-junction with Arizona and Nevada statefish and game wardens enforcing laws.Two of the rangers are deputy war-dens. Fishing is not overplayed inpublicity given the area. It is good!And it is open season on hapless large-mouth bass, crappies, catfish, blue-gill, perch and carp 12 months of theyear. The same fishing regulations ap-ply to the trout found in abundance inthe river below the dam.The fisherman also gets into trouble.Although the lake is calm most of thetime, winds come up quickly bringingwh itecaps. Sportsm en are forced toseek shelter wherever they happen to be.If they are out too long, the Park serv-


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Motor launches take visitors up the lake and into thelower gorge of Grand Canyon.ice sends a boa t to the rescue. It is acheering sight to a wet chilled anglerhuddled in a cove to see the Park serv-ice cruiser Major J. W. Powell cominghis way. A ranger, at that mom ent,is man's best friend."Boating is our biggest headache,"confirmed Chief Ran ger Jolley. "Pe o-ple won't even inspect their own boatsmo ored on the lake. They insist onputting six into boats meant for two.And they never worry about the leakseven though there isn't a life preserveron board ."Rental of small craft and charterboat trips are well handled by the LakeMead Boat company, a concession

owned and operated by A. L. "Doc"Deatrick and Edi Juan . They run fivetrips daily to the upstream face of thedam and charter fishing or sight-seeingtrips to any spot on the lake. Thre etimes a week there is a cruiser trip upthe lake as far as the entrance to GrandCanyon.Deatrick and Juan have inaugurateda fisherman's shuttle service. At 7:0 0in the morning a large cruiser takesanglers to Boulder canyon where theytransfer to row boats to spend the dayfishing. At 5:00 they are picked upand returned to the boat dock.All rescue work on the water is doneby the rangers, usually in the Major

J. W. Powell, a converted navy craft.Th e lake is patrolled regularly. Tokeep everything under close surveil-lance, the rangers sometimes are forcedto take to the air. They usually flyto inspect outlying fishing camps, toDavis dam and to Eldorado canyon onthe river below Hoover dam.On May 18 Superintendent Baggley

had been with the National Park serv-ice 21 years. He came to Lak e Meadin November, 1946, from Isle Royalein Michigan. Isle Roya le, a NationalPark, is the farthest north you can goand still be in the United States."It was quite a contrast to comefrom an area of dense forest and snow-bound winters," Baggley said, "to thebarren shores of Lake Mead. The onlyresemblance between the two is thevolume of water. But I do feel thatthis is one of the most important placesin the Park system. Its accessibility,

if developed, could make it the mostimportant."Even the natural features here areabove par. There are more than 200varieties of birds in the wild life refugewith its closed gam e reserve. Mo remountain sheep inhabit the area thanany other reserve except Mt. McKinley.Desert kit foxes, deer, cougars, coyotesand wild burros are plentiful."The animals don't give us anytrouble," Chief Ranger Jolley said, "al-though there are too many wild burrosat the mom ent. We do have to watch

for bird poachers on the reserve, how-ever."Although the flowering season isshort, blossoms take over the desertfrom February until June. Naturalistshave a never-ending job of seeking andclassifying the highly specialized plantlife and protecting the lovely blooms,which may not be picked."It wouldn't be so serious," Jolleyexplained, "if flower lovers would justpick the flowers, but they insist on go-ing off with the whole plant. Wh en Ifirst came here in 1943, there was

plenty of desert holly. Now it's almostextinc t. If we didn 't restrict the pick-ing of flowers, there wouldn't be abush left along the highways at the endof a year."Baggley has several pet projects he'dlike to get enough money to push. Firstthere's the proposed public camp-ground at Overton, on the north arm ofthe lake.At one time last year, rangers count-ed 80 families camped on the shoredespite the lack of camping facilities.They have a museum and keep a ranger

there, but judging from the number oftourists1806 cars in April of lastyearthey could use more help and acampground.8 T HE D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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Above Five-passenger Cessna plane flying over the area gives the passengers afine view of the dam and the lower lake. Mark Swain photo.

Below Hoover dam puts on a water display for a little group of visitors suspendedbelow the dam from an overhead cable.

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It is open season for fishermen the year 'round in Lake Mead.Here is a morning's catch of bass.

Near Overton is Valley of Fire, alost world of unusual shapes carved inthe bright red sandstone by wind andwater . It is an area that could be thePalm Springs of Nevada, if there waswater. But, as Baggley pointed ou t,there isn't "enough water there for oneho rse." Eventually they hop e to digwells or pipe water from th e lake. Ifwater can be obtained, there is no limitto the possibilities of the place as a va-cation spot.

Another unpublicized spot is Shiv-wits plateau. Only a jeep or a pickuptruck could make the trip and very fewof the thousands of sightseers ever visitthe plateau.Shivwits plateau is in the northeast-ern portion of the Recreational area,

bordering on the Grand Canyon. Itis a level plain covering 133,000 acres,approximately 6,500 feet above sealevel. Ab out half of the area is for-10

ested with ponderosa and pinyon pines,junipers, mountain mahogany and othershrub s and trees. Th e rest is sage-brush, manzanita and similar chaparralgrowth and grass. It is acclaimed as ascenic wonderland by those who havebeen there."One thing is certain," Jolley warn-ed, "if you try to get out there andsomething happens to your car, no-body's coming along very soon to helpyou outyou're on your own."He also suggested that persons at-tempting to reach Shivwits carry plentyof water and food for their own protec-tion.Baggley places this lonely spot highon his list of desirable areas for im-

provem ent. The only road is nowlittle more than a trail.The Pa rk service has to maintain 200miles of desert road and 60 miles of

major highway. Because of limitedfunds, there has been no new road con-struction since 1943.Just outside of the recreational area,

five miles off the road to Kingman, Ari-zona, is the ghost mining camp ofWhite Hills. (Desert Magazine, Jan.'47.) Once a boom settlement of 1500claim-stakers, little remains at the oldcamp today except crumbling shacks, aneglected cemetery and deserted streets.Some of the richest ore mined in Ari-zona is said to have come from here.Twenty-seven miles of tunnels honey-comb ed the area. It is reported tha tmore than $12,000,000 in silver andgold was mined here.Today there are no restrictions onprospecting on public lands, but beforeore can be mined from the recreationalarea permission must be granted by thePark service. The Park administra-tion merely is interested in protectingT H E D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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This cormorant from Lake Mead bit off more than itcould chew. The bony-tail carp proved too big to beswallowed and too spiny to be disgorged. Bird and fishwere found floating on Lake Mead by a party of fisher-men and turned over to Maurice Sullivan, park naturalist.

George Baggley, superintendent of the Lake Mead Rec-reational area for the Nationa l Pa rk service. With a staffof 41 rangers, naturalists and workm en he is the Parkcustodian of 2,655 square miles of land and water pro-viding a wide range of recreational facilities.

the beauty of the landscape againstneedless destruction.Superintendent Baggley likes peo-ple but there are times when he wishesfewer of them would come to his play-grou nd. "I wish we had facilities forunlimited numbers," he said, "but un-

til such facilities are provided we arereluctant to urge that the numbers beincreased."Baggley is a Rotarian and a memberof the Boulder City chamber of com-merce. He works untiringly for hisplayg roun d. His responsibilities will

be increased in the near future, forwater is now backing up behind Davisdam and when it is filled the new lakewill almost reach the tow of Hooverdam and then there will be more waterto lure more boatmen and fishermenand sight-seers.

Ancient Indian petroglyphs on Atlatl Rock in the Valleyof Fire state park near the shores of Lake Mead. Visitors often leave the beaten paths to camp among theJoshua trees found near the lake shore.


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'm J By JAY ELLIS RANSOMPhotos by the Author

Charlie Cato (right) and son Owen Cato at the Yellow C at uranium minein Utah, five miles west of the Cactus Rat mine.

We Followed theL ure of C arnotiteAlong the Navajo Trail of northeastern Arizona and eas te rn Utah aconfirmed rockhound and his scientist-author son went in search of thehighly-prized carnotite ore spec im ens. They obtained the cabinet speci-mens they soughtand morebut in addition explored some of themost wild and remote country in the Southwest as they went from ura-nium mine to uranium mine in a region that is now experiencing a greatnew mining and prospecting boom.

12

IN AUGUST my father,Jay G. Ransom, and I decided totake off in our jeep station wag-on for a two-week trip through theuranium boom country to secure thehighly-prized ore specimens of carno-tite, metahuatite, corasite and covel-lite.We especially wanted to obtain therare petrified wood known as carnotitewood, streaked with bright yellow ura-nium oxide. Usually carnotite is abrilliant canary although it may be dis-colored by iron and organic matter.Essentially it is a hydrous potassium-uranium vanadate with a hardnessranging from 2 to 2Vi.In the last few months the quest foruranium has mounted to boom propor-tions in western Colorado and easternUtah. Here lies a great red-ochrebelt of sandstone known as the Mor-rison formation. Trap ped in a vastseries of rolls or lenses are heretoforeunknown sources of atomically stra-tegic uranium occurring in canary-yel-low clay lumps and veins of carnotite,usually associated with considerablequantities of vanad ium. These lensesfrequently show on the surface of theMorrison formation which outcropsall over the Utah-Colorado borderregion.

Along much of the 2700-mile jour-ney the landscape was arid and unpro-ductive and yet this region has a rug-ged beauty of great fascination forthose who like to explore the remoteareas.Starting in Los Angeles, our routetook us into Arizona by way of thenorth rim of Grand Canyon, thence toKayenta in the heart of the Navajocountry, Monument Valley and alongthe famous Navajo trail through Mon-ticello and Moab in Utah to the richMorrison formation and Dakota sand-stone country northeast of the ArchesNational Monument on the centralUtah-Colorado border. Here the rich-est outcrops of carnotite are beingmined today. Then ce back over atro-cious dirt roads across the states ofUtah, Nevada and California to SanFrancisco and home to Los Angeles.We did not attempt to prospect vir-gin territory. W e knew that carnotiteis found in a number of localities inthe United States outside the well-known deposits of Colorado and Utah.We wanted to visit the latter regionbecause the mines there have beencommercially worked since radiumcame into prominence shortly after theturn of the century. Prior to the dis-covery of rich radio-active ores else-where, these deposits in 1913 hadyielded about 2,700 tons of carnotite

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Here is a carnotite mine 15 miles north of Kayen ta, Arizona. Because of newn essof the industry and remoteness of the region, method s a re still crude. Location ofthis mine is a few miles south of Harry Goulding 's famed TradingPost in the Navajo country.ore with a value of more than $1,000,-00 0 in radium alone. Over 4,000 tonsof the ore were mined in 1914.Dusty from days of travel, our jeepsplattered with cloudburst-mud andbattered with storm and hail over theKaibab plateau and the Grand Can-yon, we pulled at last into the Navajotrading center of Kayenta.

A score of gaily decked Navajowomen loitered about the trading post.Inside a dozen Indian men palaveredwith the trader. Several children gazedunwinking at us. Presently the traderapproached and we asked him if heknew anything about the uraniummines to the north."Know anything about it!" he laugh-ed. "I should say I do. Ther e's noth -ing secret around here about themining activities of the Atomic Energycommission and the Vanadium Cor-poration of Am erica. A new mine'sjust been opened 15-18 miles northof here on the road to Mexican Hat.They've been operating about 30 daysnow with Navajos doing the mining,

and shipping the ore to Naturita, Col-orado."He described the route to this mine.His directions, he admitted, werevague. "I know that coun try," hesaid, "but darned if I can draw you ama p of it. Th ere's a ridge of lowbluffs running northwestward a mileback of the roa d. At the junctionwhere a dirt road swings sharply backand then around in a big U is a Geo-detic Survey marke r. You w on'tmiss it."It was no wonder then that we tookthe wrong road at a junction a fewmiles east of Kayen ta. Fo r two hourswe ground ahead in second and lowgears over the worst road ever tra-versed by modern machines until wereached the Indian trading post ofDinne hotso. There were so manywashouts following the cloudburst ofthe day before that we spent most ofour time bulldozing ourselves aroundthem through cab-high sagebrush.At this remote outpost where Nava-jos come for trading, we purchasedtwo pounds of fine garnets gathered on

ant hills in that region. The se semi-precious gems formerly were a sourceof private income to the Indians butsince the tribal authority had issued adecree that all natural resources couldbe sold only in behalf of the tribalfund, the Indians had ceased gatheringthem."The Indians won't work if theycan't realize anything on it," the traderexplained a bit sadly. "I used to beable to sell all the garnets they couldbring in and get a good price too. Icould pay the Indians enough to sat-isfy them . Bu t now all the moneyhas to be turned over to the tribaltreasury."The sun was nearing the westernmountains when we pulled out of Din-nehotso. We crawled around the samewashouts in the same low gear andeventually reached our junction. Thelast rays of the descending sun werehighlighting the tall monoliths of Mon-ument Valley with an unearthly glowwhen we turned north on the flood-damaged road to Mexican Hat. Da rk-ness had fallen save for the luminous

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!?*! KARCHES ifefc$&0\ '

l ^ i : CARNOTITE KMINES,

U.S. Geodetic 'Bench Morker '. B L A N D I N GQ3O/I933Elev 5291

. HOVENWEEP

twilight that touched the red-ochremesas all about us when we reachedthe carnotite mine described by theKayenta trader . There wemade campfor the night.Early in the morning we exploredthe open-cut workings before the sev-en Navajo Indian miners arrived tobegin operations. Later, from HarryGoulding at his trading post on thenearby Utah border , we learned thatthese deposits had been discovered bythe late John Wetherill, famous traderand guide who led the first white partyto Rainbow bridge and is credited withthe discovery of the Mesa Verde pre-historic Indian ruins. Since the strikelay on theNavajo reservation, Wether-ill made no attempt to stake it outor claim title to it. But high on the14

to p of the bluff to the north he set aniron stake and built a low cairn ofstones, both of which are still there.We made several interesting discov-eries incidental to ourpicking over themine dum p. Although the length ofthe bluff is scarcely 200 yards and itssummit barely 200 feet wide, wefound a small petrified forest of wholetree trunks and innumerable sectionson its top. Brief explorations to theeast showed that the forest did not ex-tend beyond the bluff. The wood isdull and not of gem quality, but thefind has interesting implications. Alsoon top of the sandstone bluff weremany natural bathtubs, or potholes,filled with wate r. Thes e ranged fromthree feet in diameter and a few inchesdeep to the largest which was easily

20 feet long by 15 wide with enoughwater in it to permit a shallow swim.All were filled with fresh rain waterThese natural rain-catchers serve thedesert-wise Navajos as a source ofwater during dry periods. Later, whenthe Indians came up to the mine fromtheir nearby hogans, one of them filleda five-gallon water can from one ofthe basins.With the sun well up in the skyan d the purple shadows of MonumentValley giving way to red sandstonereality we pushed on past the base ofon e of the monoliths that constitutethe "monuments" unti l we reachedthe Utah state line. The road wasrough, dusty and washed out. AtGoulding's trading post we stopped torefresh ourselves and make inquiries.Goulding wasvery busy with a moviecompany on location shooting Indianscenes, but in his generous way hetook time out to talk about uranium

mining and the old-timers who firstopened up the southwestern Indiancountry.His trading post is not on the mainroad, but his hospitality has becomeso well known that fewmotorists evercome this way without stopping for afew hours or days at Gouldings. A fewmiles away inMonument Valley standsthe movie set of OldTombstone. I in-quired about the strange city in thedesert that is not on my map of north-ern Arizona.Harry laughed. "Th at's the settingwhere Fort Apache was filmed, fol-lowed by Clementine. You'll find itboarded up with maybe a few Navajosliving in the unused shacks."On our way out we stopped to visitthe town. Even today this solidlybuilt set looks like an early-day town.The Bird Cage theater is an exact rep-lica of the original Old Tombstoneopera house.Two miles south of Mexican Hat,where a suspension bridge crosses themuddy waters of the San Juan river,a dirt road beaten andbattered to bed-rock by ore trucks leads southeastward28 miles to what isbecoming the great-est uranium deposit ever located in theUnited States. Harry Goulding foundit on his two-month search of Wether-ill's original discovery when the Atom-ic Energy commission advertised itsneed for the bomb-blast element.Mexican Hat has a trading post withcanned goods for Navajos and them enwho work the uranium mine down onth e San Juan . Navajo blankets werefor sale at prices that varied accordingto weave and texture. We boughtsoft drinks and pushed on, climbinga steep grade to the summit of the pla-teau above the river.That night we camped 7,500 feet

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!

Jay G. Ransom , father of the author, is here shown ho lding a piece of petri-fied wood found near the Kayenta, Arizona, carnotite deposit.high on the wooded flanks of theAbajo mountains a few miles south ofM ontice llo, Uta h. He re in this littleMormon town that faces 200 milesinto western Colorado, 200 milesacross rugged terrain into northw est-ern New Mexico, and 150 miles southinto Arizona is a war-spawned vana-dium processing plant. It is now be-ing converted into a uranium plant forhandling the Utah and Arizona oresof uranium and vanadiu m. At pres-ent nearly all the ore mined in theregion has to be trucked to distantNaturi ta , Colorado, where the Vana-dium Corporation of America has itsheadquarte rs .From Monticello we followed thepaved highway to Moab and thenceto its junction with U. S. Highway 50and turned east to a point five milesbeyond Thompson where unmappedroads lead into another area whererich uranium claims are being worked.We lost our way in the wilderness ofbreaks and faults and finally arrivedat a remote cow camp.

Eventually we reached the CactusRat uranium mine and were invitedto dinner by George Gallent, the fore-man, who proved to be as fine andhospitable a host as one would en-counter anywhere.Gallent showed us over the open-pitworkings. "Th e uranium is found inthe Morrison formation," he explained,a wave of his hand indicating all thebroken and faulted sandstone bluffsand cliffs that stretched toward theColorado mountains to the east."About 40 mines in this district wereworked all through the war for vana-dium . Th at's the lightweight metalused in alloying steel into armor plate.Uranium wasn't worth ten cents a tonthen, but when the government beganto buy it after Hiroshima, the oldmine dum ps began to pay off. Tak ethe Cactus Rat, for example. We camehere several months ago and the Min-erals Engineering company under thepresidency of Blair Burwellhe's oneof the most prominent mining engin-

eers in the Westbought the CactusRat . "Six men help George operate themine. He told us about the work."The Cactus Rat produces mainly cor-asite, metahuatite and carnotite, andcovellite. Th e ore bod ies are found inthe form of rolls, or lenses, scatteredall through the top layer of the Morri-son formation where they frequentlybreak through the surface. I knowjust about where to drill to hit goodore. We're shipping 25 tons a dayit'll soon be 50 tonsto the Naturita,Colorado, plant 140 miles from here."He went on to explain that althoughthe present boom is for uranium, thevanadium was not being tossed asidein the new mad scramble for atomicenergy. Und er the impetus of theUranium Incentive Plan the workingsof the old mines are becoming doublyproductive, although the emphasis isplaced on uranium oxide."High grade ore runs about 1 per-cent U3O8," he went on to say as hehelped us pick out some colorful speci-mens from ore piles being made readyfor shipment. "Th e low grade scarce-ly reaches 0.2 percent vanadium, inthe oxide V2O5, runs from a high of15 percent to a low of 2 percent."

After a fine dinner prepared andserved in the semi-underground cookhouse, we roamed over the adjacenthills. The Cactus Rat mine is situatedin a flat bowl surrounded by steepbluffs immediately to the north andeast. Fro m the talus slopes petrifieddinosaur bone fragments continuallyweather loose to be scattered over theflats by rain storms. We gathered nu-merous samples of the deep red, jas-perized bone and noted the countlessfragments of fine jasper float that lit-tered the gravels. Altho ugh we didnot find any jasper large enough tobe worth keeping, we discovered thatall over the hills and nearby flats werequantities of moss agate and pseudo-morphs after wood containing redcrystallizations.We had at last almost everything wehad come for. Only carnotite woodremained somewhere in the region tocom plete our collection. W e askedGeorge Gallent about it ."Carnoti te wood?" he repeated."Sure. There's plenty of it down atthe Yellow Cat mine about four mileswest of here . Charlie Cato and hisson, Owen, are shacked up there, pros-pecting around for the owners. They'llprobably have a crew in there miningbefore long when the Monticello plantgets started."We thanked our host and in thebright morning sunlight headed for theYellow Cat. There we found the Catosbusy sacking up ore samples.

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"Sure, there's carnotite wood aroundhere," Charlie told us with a wide grin."Out there in the brea ks." He indi-cated by a wave of his hand the red-dish sandstone of the eroded and frac-tured Mo rrison formation. Owen , talland rugged, with eyes and mouth for-ever creasing themselves in quicksmiles, nodded."You won't find it yourselves," hesaid. "Co me on with us. We 'll takeyou to whole trees of carnotite wood.It's noon anyway, and we could use arest ourselve s." Tha t's how we gotour carnotite wood.

On the way Charlie showed us a six-foot lizard tail he had found in a ledge."Must have been lots of queer dino-saurs around here once," he said. Asa token of our appreciation, I suggest-ed we help him carry the broken sec-tions of the 500-pound stone tail backto the car."Why not lay it out in front of yourcabin ?" I suggested. "Oth er visitorscan see it, then, and save you a tripway out here to show it." Both Catosthought that a good idea and we allbuckled down to lug the pieces backto the pick-up.

T R U E O R F A L S E Here are 20 new headaches forthe desert fans who like to testtheir knowledge of the South-westits history, geography, botany, geology, Indians and general lore ofthe arid country. Even those who do not know anything about the desertshould get 10 of these right. A score of 15 is good, 16 to 18 is exce ptional,and if you score mo re than 18 you are either very smart o r very lucky.The answers are on page 30.

1It is easier to drive your car over sandy roads when they are wet thanwhen they are dry. True False.,2Furnace Creek Inn in Death valley is operated by Death ValleyScotty. True .. False3It is against the law to use dead ironwood for campfires on the desert.True False4 Th e ghost mining camp of Rhyolite is in Nevad a. True.. False5Navajo Indians were breaking and riding wild horses before the whiteman discovered Am erica. True.. False6According to geologists there are three general types of rocks: igneous,sedimentary and metam orphis. Sandstone belongs to the igneous

group. True False7Historian who contributed most to present day knowledge of JuanBautista de Anza and his historic trek to California in 1775 and 1776is Herb ert E. Bolton. True False8Juniper, growing in its natural habitat, is never found growing belowsea level. Tru e False9The Indians were mining turquoise in New Mexico and Nevada beforeColum bus discovered Am erica. True False10 Elephant Butte dam is in Arizona. True False11Joshua trees are believed to have been given their name by the earlyMorm on settlers who came to California. True False12 Kaiparo witz is the nam e of a plateau in Uta h. Tru e False13Ubehebe, one of the most famous craters in the Southwest, was activewhen the Jayhawkers crossed Death valley in the winter of 1849-50.True False14Carlsbad caverns in New Mexico are maintained and supervised by theU. S. Park Service. True False15Indians generally used a bone tool for the flaking of obsidian to makearrowheads. True False16 Smok e trees on the desert often live to be 250 or 300 years old.True False17 The flower of the wild desert Da tura is white. True False18The state university of Arizona is at Phoenix.True False

19The Bill Williams river in Arizona is a tributary of the Colorado.True False20Desert Indians still use the roots of certain species of Yucca for soap.True False

16

"You never know what you'll findnext out in these hills," Owen laughed."And they haven't all been prospectedyet." Charlie, who's been roaming theWest since he was a boy, chipped in:'Gold and silver in those La Sal moun-tains, and no doubt plenty of uraniumdeposits, too. Nobody's been up there,really, to find out."At last we had everything we camefor: uranium ore in big gleaming yel-low chunks of the raw oxide; slateblack vanadium ore streaked with thecanary yellow traces of associated ura-nium; and now a gunny sack full ofcarnotite wood. One chunk, thanksto Charlie's generosity, weighed morethan 30 pounds.We headed west toward our Cali-fornia hom e. Ha d more time beenavailable we surely would have donesome prospecting on our own. The LaSal mountains looked inviting. Andthe Uranium Plan, as drawn up by theAtomic Energy commission, is de-signed to make prospecting for thisvital element profitable.The commission guarantees for tenyears a minimum price of $3.50 perpound for uranium oxide, U3O 8. Inaddition to the minimum price guar-antee, the commission will pay for thesame period a bonus of $10,000 fordelivery of the first 20 short tons ofuranium - bearing ores or mechanicalconcentrates assaying 0.20 percent ormore of uranium oxide by weight fromany single mining location, lode orplacer which has not previously beenworked for uranium.Here's a hint to those who mightwish to follow the uranium trail aftercabinet specimens. In general, theowners of the carnotite deposits do notlike collectors to remove the rich ca-nary yellow ore. The Atomic Energycommission raised many restrictionsduring and following the war, mostof which are not today enforced, butdo not expect to be able to go in witha truck and cart away this high-valuemineral. Nevertheless, there are scoresof abandoned mine dumps scatteredover the lonely hills waiting for thecollector who has time to pick themover. In the frenzy for van adiu m, thecarnotite ore was thrown away andnearly every abandoned mine has adump rich in carnotite.

Roads to the carnotite mines are notimproved. We traversed hundre ds ofmiles of desert trails in second and lowgear. It is no place for a shiny newpassenger car. But it has become avery important region not only to theUnited States but to the whole world,for the energy locked in these sand-stone hills, now that men have learnedhow to release it, may play a criticalrole in human affairs in the yearsahead.

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Fort Yuma in the 1850s. Photographic reproduction from the C. C. Piercecollection, taken from an old lithograph.

He Explored th eUnknown ColoradoHere is concluding ins ta lment of the story of Lieut. Joseph C. Ives'adventurous steamboat trip up the unexplored Colorado river in 1857-58,under orders from the U. S. secretary of war to "determine navigabilityof the Co lorad o." After as sem bli ng their boat under difficult c ond itionsnear m outh of the river, the explorers m ad e their w ay to Fort Yum a, thenon into unknow n country abov e. They left behind the valle ys occupiedby the Yuma Indians, and each day their difficulties increased as theriver became wilder and their suppl ies be ga n to run short. But Iveswo uld not giv e up. And he finally did reach what he had to admit wa sthe head of navigation.

By AL HAWORTHS the explorers proceeded labor-iously upstream , each successiverange of mountains presentedmore striking varieties and combina-tions of color. Th e men were begin-ning to believe there might be some

truth in the wild tales told by trappersabout the fantastic Grand Canyon saidto be many miles above, which wasalready a legend.

Many of the mountains examined byDr. Newberry showed the presence ofgold, silver, lead, iron and copper ore.And the amazing fact that LieutenantIves still considered the Colorado anavigable streameven after all thedifficulties encounteredis proven bythis entry in his report:"A careful search might develop am-ple stores of treasure, which the close

prox i mi t y o f wa t e r t r anspor t a t i onwould greatly enhance in value." Thelieutenant never did change his mind.Passing through Monument canyon,the most colorful yet discovered, withits fantastic shapes and outlines, thelittle party came out into an open valleyand began to look for the mouth of theBill Williams tribu tary. In 1853 Iveshad accompanied the Whipple expedi-tion, exploring for a railroad routealong the 35th parallel, and had de-scended the Bill Williams to its conflu-ence with the Colo rado. Mo uth of thestream had been at that timein themonth of Februaryabout 30 feetwide and several feet deep.

But now there was no Bill Williams.Ives was "confounded", and his com-panions accused him of making a greattopographical blunder. He w as sure ofhis location, however, ordered the boatto head for the left bank, and closeexamination revealed "a very narrowgulley, through which a feeble streamwas trickling. This was all that wasleft of Bill Williams Fo rk ." Th e for-mer mouth had been filled up and over-grown. Th e explorers had been intro-duced to a western river.They learned, too, how the Southwestdesert can erase signs of man's inva-sion. Lieutenant W hipple's party had

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Before entering the country of the gigantic Mojaves, the exploring party for severaldays traveled through the valley of the Chemehuevis Indians, came to know themas "complete rogues." They were small, shrewd, inveterate thieves, but traded freelywith the Ives party.river in a steamboat and go directlyback again, nor why they kept in com-municat ion with Yuma by runners.Ives must have been a good and con-vincing actor and orator. Comb iningpantomime and the services of his in-terpreters, the lieutenant apparentlysucceeded, for the chief agreed to havehis people bring in provisions and saidhe would send guides to conduct Lieu-tenant Tipton and his pack train up theriver. He detailed an Indian to carrya package to Fort Yum a. He also ac-cepted Ives' invariable ruling that noIndians should be about his camp aftersunset.Chief Jose was invited aboard thesteamboat, but declined. "His friends,"wrote Ives, "appeared to think that hehad done a prudent thing."How did the lieutenant carry on con-versation with the Indians? It was acomplicated process. Here 's the wayit went:"I deliver my message to Mr. Bie-lawski, who puts it into indifferentSpanish for Mariano, whose knowledgeof that language is slight; when Mari-ano has caught the idea he imparts itin the Yuma tongue, with which he is

not altogether conversant, to Capitan,who, in turn, puts it into the Mojavevernacular."What changes his remarks underwentduring these stages the lieutenant couldnever know, but he observed that theywere "sometimes received by the Mo-javes with an astonishment and bewil-derment that the original sense doesnot at all warrant."A near clash with the Mojaves wasavoided on this first occasion only bythe intervention of Capitan, who washighly respected as a warrior. Nextday things had smoothed over and Iveswas much relieved. As he well knew,the little party of 24 men in an openboat, half the time stuck upon a bar,would be virtually at the mercy ofseveral hundred men concealed in thethickets that lined the banks of theColora do. So a break in amicable re-lations had to be avoided if at all possi-ble.It was two days later when the lieu-tenant met an old friend. He wasIreteba, a sub-chief who had been aguide for Lieutenant Whipple when hepassed through the valley in 1853, ac-companying him through the country

west of the Colorado as far as theMorm on road to Los Angeles. Ivesimmediately proposed that Iretebacome aboard and continue the trip, toact as guide on the overland journeyeastward after leaving the river. Iretebawas willing, brought with him a 16-year-old lad named Nah-vah-roo-pa.Friendly relations had now been es-tablished with the Mojaves, an ade-quate supply of beans and corn was onhand, and many zoological specimenshad been added to the collection.The Mojaves themselves greatly in-terested Ives and he regretted the lackof time to study their habits and cus-toms . He made one observation which,although true of Indians to this day, isnot generally understood by the whites."In most respects," he reported,"they think us their inferiors. I had alarge crowd about me one day andexhibited a marine r's comp ass. Theysoon learned its use, and thought wemust be very stupid to be obliged tohave recourse to artificial aid in orderto find our way."Navigation through pleasant Mojavevalley, where in February winter hadgiven place to spring, had no t been dif-

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For? Mojave in the 1860s. Photograph from the collection of ArthurWoodward, curator of history in the Los Angeles Museum.ficult. Two rapids, several trouble-some shoals, had impeded progress,but as a rule the going had been betterthan, at any other place above FortYuma. Lieutenant Ives made his us-ual excuse for the river, declared thatwith a boat of lighter draft than theExplorer regular navigation "wouldpresent no difficulty."

By now the voyagers could see arange to the east of the Mojave valleythat they called the Black mountains.The range crossed the Colorado.Where the river breaks through thischain "there is doubtless a stupendouscanyon," Ives wrote on February 17.

Entering the foothills of the Blackmountains, the Explorer was in trouble.Rapid followed rapid, each more vi-cious than the last. At one the boat waslightened, a line taken out ahead, andafter hours of hard labor the steamerwas pulled through. At this instantthe line broke and the helpless Ex-plorer swept back down through therapid, bumping upon the rocks, andwas in imminent danger of having herhull stove in. The day's work was un-done, and it took half of the next dayto extric .e the boat from where shehad we .ged between some rocks. Halfof anr .her day was spent in a secondatteir jt to surmount the rapid.

T y top it off, another sand stormca' .e up and throughout the followingd / the. men "ate, drank, breathed and- iw littie but sand." By this time someof them, at least, must have repentedtheir presence with the expedition.And still Lieutenant Ives defended

his river. "As has been the case atplaces in the lower portions of theColorado, the bar that has here de-20

tained us three days would not havestopped a boat of six inches lessdraught, with a smooth bottom, asmany hours."And again: "It is probable that thereis not one season in 10 when even theExplorer would encounter one-fourthof the difficulty that she has during thepresent unprecedentedly low stage ofwater."Success thus far in ascending the

rapids raised hopes that the expeditionmight in some way actually reach themouth of the Virgin river and theGreat Bend of the Colorado. Alreadythe party was in country seen by butfew white men before. And the mys-terious river beckoned them on.Ireteba, the Mojave, was becominginfected with the enthusiasm. But hisknowledge of the river tempered hishopes. There were yet four difficultrapids below the Great Bend, he knew.The last of these occurred in an im-mense canyon, where the channel wasfilled with huge rocks and the waterrushed in a furious white-capped tor-rent. He passed his knowledge on toLieutenant Ives, who recorded on Feb-ruary 24:"Here, Ireteba informs me in em-phatic pantomime, we shall come to adead stop."As the steamer progressed, walls ofthe entrance to the gorge through theBlack mountains became plainly visi-ble. Was this Black canyon to be, asIreteba said, the head of navigation?The river flowed now for a short sixmiles through Cottonwood valley, sur-

rounded by mountains not quite ashigh as those ahead, and entered aregion that had never, as far as records

showed, been visited by whites. Tense-ness in the party increased as they ap-proached the locality where some sup-posed that the famous "Big Canyon",reported by earliest Spanish explorersand later confirmed by infrequent trap-pers, commenced. Tales of this BigCanyon staggered the imagination, butthere appeared to be enough evidenceto indicate the reports were not exag-gerated.Whether the Black canyon aheadwas the legendary Big Canyon was aquestion uppermost in the explorers'minds, but in any event they could al-ready see that it far surpassed anythingthey had yet encountered.

Meanwhile word had been receivedby runner that Lieutenant Tipton hadstarted with his pack train from FortYuma the middle of February. Itwasn't a day too soon, and arrival ofthe train was looked forward to eager-ly during the early days of March.Diet for the past two or three weekshad been limited to the corn and beansobtained from the Indians. "This diet,"wrote Ives, "agrees wonderfully withthe Mojaves; but either our stomachsare not sufficiently trained to it, or itis not wholesome fare for whites, forsome of the men suffer a great deal."Lack of food combined with the hardphysical labor involved in snaking thesteamer up treacherous stretches of theriver had reduced some of the men toactual weakness. The want of coffeeand the absence of salt were severeprivations.

Leaving Cottonwood valley on thelast leg of the run to Black canyon,Ireteba showed increasing uneasiness.He had heard reports that the "badPaiutes" were on the prowl, that someof them on a recent visit to the Mo-javes said they intended to destroy theexploring party as soon as it enteredtheir territory. So care was exercisedin selecting camp sites that could beguarded against attack.The last 20 miles before reaching themouth of Black canyon required fivefull days. There were at least a dozen

rapids. But still the stubborn Ives con-tended:"The last 70 miles will, perhaps, bethe best part of the Colorado to navi-gate when the water is not at so ex-ceedingly low a stage."Nearing the Black mountains the riverflowed between gravel bluffs which cutoff the view in all directions. Thus itwas that as the Explorer negotiated aturn around the base of a conical peak,the southern portal of the Black can-yon was suddenly directly in front."The Black mountains were piledoverhead in grand confusion," Iveswrote, "and through a narrow gatewayflanked by walls many hundreds of feetin height, rising perpendicularly out ofTHE DESERT MAG AZI NE


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the water, the Colorado emerged fromthe bowels of the range."This was the feared Black canyon.Negotiating a rapid just below itsmouth, the Explorer glided swiftly intoits mysterious depths on water that wassmoo th. Spirits were high and all at-tention was focused ahead when thes t e a m e r , w i t h a s t u n n i n g c r a s h ,' 'brought up abrutly and instantane-

ously against a sunken rock." The menthought walls of the canyon had fallenin. Those in bow of the boat werethrown overboard; the fireman, whowas pitching a log into the fire, wenthalf-way in with it; the boiler was tornout of place, the wheelhouse rippedloose, steam pipes double d. Everyon ethought the ship was doomed.She was towed to shore, however,and examination disclosed the hull hadno holes and that other damages couldbe repaired in probab ly two days. Ittook three.During the delay scientific investi-gations were not neglected, and Dr.Newberry and Mr. Egloffstein had dis-covered that the region was a rock-hound's paradise. Along the bottomof ravines in the surrounding moun-tains, they reported, "are found crys-tals of quartz, in curiously groupedclusters, and great numbers of opals.Some of the latter are of considerablesize, and promise to prove, when pol-ished, valuable gems."Deeming it imprudent to proceedwith exploration of the canyon in the

steamboat, for should the boat be sunkthere would have been no way for themen aboard to escape nothing toswim to except perpendicular walls 500or 1000 feet highLieutenant Ives de-termined to make a reconnaissance ofthe canyon with Captain Robinson inth e skiff. Taking a supply of corn andbeans, blankets , a compass, sextantand chronometer, the captain, mateand the lieutenant started early on themorning of March 10.It was well that they decided on thiscourse. The y threade d the mazes of a

canyon awe-inspiring and almost ter-rifying. In plac e of the brilliant colorsthat tinted the sides of previous can-yons, this one had walls of naked rockuniformly somber in hue . Rap ids cameone after the other, and even in theskiff the men were forced to get outand haul the little boat to quieterwater.Eight miles from mouth of the can-yon they heard a loud sullen roaring,came soon to a rapid that Ives con-cluded must be the one Ireteba hadwarned would be impassable. Thechannel was filled with masses of rock,

against which the torrent dashed withtreme ndou s force. The doughty lead-er admitted it would be hazardous to

Progress was slow when the steamer hit rapids and shoals. Here the crewhas gone ashore, taking a line to pull the boat over a sand bar. This was afrequent occurrence , afforded great amusem ent to watching Indians. Mou ntDavis in the background.attempt to run that rapid with hissteamer, but only because their ropeswere nearly worn out. He still in-sisted that "during a higher stage of theriver the difficulty of the place wouldbe much diminished."

Darkness caught the trio in the for-bidding gorge and they spent the nighton a little gravel bar. Next m orningthey were on their way and late in theday emerged at last from Black can-yon. Finding a camping place beforedark, Lieutenant Ives and CaptainRobinson climbed a 1000-foot hillfrom which they could survey the sur-rounding country. They could tracethe course of the river as it woundtoward the east, forming w hat was call-ed the Great Bend.

Looking in the direction of the Mor-mon road to Utah they observed thatthe country was less mountainous andbroken. They concluded that therewould be no difficulty in opening awagon communication between theroad and the river.After a night's rest Ives insisted ongoing upstream another two miles.There they finally located the mouthof a brackish stream, about the sizeof the defunct Bill Williams fork. Ap-pearance of the bed and bank indicat-ed that it was at times a large river, andits location led Lieutenant Ives to sup-pose that they had reached the mouthof the Virgin river.There he made what must have beenfor him a hard decision. The youngarmy officer had started out with spe-

cific instructions to "ascertain the navi-gability of the Co lorad o." Now , 500miles upstream, 102 days and 57camps later, after surviving roaringrapids, heat, cold, hunger, physicalexhaustion, heart-breaking set-backs,Lieutenant Ives wrote almost laconi-cally :"I now de termined not to try to ascendthe Colo rado any further. It appe ar-ed that the foot of Black canyon shouldbe considered the practical head ofnavigation."Next step would be a reconnaissanceto locate a connection with the Mor-mon road.It was long weary weeks beforeLieutenant Ives and his men, after be-ing joined by the pack train, reachedcivilization again. But the par t of hismission on which his heart had been

set had been accomplished. He hadexplored the unknown Colorado. Anddespite the buffeting he took at itshands, he still stood up for the river.His formal report to Capt. A. A. Hum-phreys, in charge of the office of ex-plorations and surveys for the war de-partment, was this confident statement:"I would again state my belief thatthe Colorado would be found an eco-nomical avenue for the transportationof supplies to various military posts inNew Mexico and Utah. The amountof land transportation saved by adopt-ing this route would be: to the Great

Salt Lake, 700 miles; to Fort Defiance,600 miles; and to Fort Buch anan, 1100

F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 0 21


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"And We're 2500 Miles Away . . .Milford Center, OhioDesert:You and your Desert Magazine staffought to be crucified for cruelty todum b hum an beings. I 've been read-ing all your back issues with the storiesabout the lost mines inthe Southwest,and about that bigpow-wow onNewYear 's evewhen you all get togetheraround a big campfire inBorrego val-ley and swap lies, and then go outlooking forthe Lost Peglegand hereI am stranded inthe prosaic prairiesofOhio 2500 miles away.Sooner orlater my partner and I ar eheading outthat wayso please savea few of these lost gold nuggets for usto find. L . CA RL D A V ISInvaders oft h e D e s e r t . . .Fullerton, CaliforniaDesert:I like thedesert backroads, and re-cently made the trip from Niland, Cali-fornia, toWiley's well near the famousHau ser geode beds. Along the waywere many signs posting the area as abombing range. Thesigns were oldand some of them mutilated. But Imet several motorists along theway.Is this still an active bombing range,or didsome one forget to take downthe signs when thewar was ended?My former home wasNew Jerseyan d I am a comparative newcomer inCalifornia. I amsurprised, unpleas-antly so, that so much ofthe Californiadesert area has been swallowed up bythe military.The idea that these deserts belongto thepeople and are in constant useas arecreational area seems to be quiteforeign to thethinking of themilitaryauthorities. I amespecially interest-ed in theNiland-Blythe road bywayof Wiley's well. Isn 't there somethingwe can do to keep this road open?

CARL R. ENGLUNDMany ofus who live on the des-ert share your resentm ent that somuch ofthe desert has been mark-ed off with warning signboards.You will find theanswer to yourquestion regarding the status ofthe Niland-Wiley's well road in theCalifornia news items inthis issueof Desert. Thecompromise be-tween the navy and Imperial coun-ty supervisors is only a tentativearrangement we hope. R.H.

Lapidary for Convalescents . . .Knight's Ferry, CaliforniaDesert:Many months ago you published myrequest that rock collectors sendcut-ting material for use of convalescentveterans at Livermore hospital. Theresponse was fine. Ma terial came infrom allthe western states.I was released from the hospital

nearly a year ago, butrecently I re-turned there for a visit. Perhaps thosewho contributed minerals will be in-terested toknow that the hospital lapi-dary now has all' mo dern tools and re -cently installed a faceting machine. Itis asfine ashop as I have seen and themen aregetting both enjoyment andvaluable training there.C L A U D E E. N A P I E R

Forgotten Pioneer ofN e v a d a . . .Las Vegas, NevadaDesert:I am interested inlearning the back-ground history of Bonelli's Landing,formerly onthe Colorado river, now afishing camp on Lake Mead. Who wasBonelli? Wh ere and what did he land,and why? There must besome historyconnected with thename as I have amap showing Bonelli peak also. I findnothing about him in the Nevada his-toriesapparently he is a forgottenman. But theplace which bears hisname is never to be forgotten. It ison e of the most beautiful spots in thisarea, and easily accessible. I shall begrateful for anyinformation you cangive. D O RIS V. H A N CO CK

Daniel Bonelli was a Mormon,an d a leader in thecolony whichattempted toestablish anagricul-tural industry insouthern Nevadaabout 1863-64. He came from theMuddy, andbuilt a home alongthe Colorado sixmiles from themouth of the Virgin river. Heestablished aferry across the riverwith a flatboat pulled by man-power. The fee was $10.00 forteam and wagon and two persons.Each additional passenger wascharged 50 cents. At low waterthe river could be forded but itwasa dangerous undertaking. Laterthe crossing became known asStone's ferry.R.H.

Discoverer of the Colorado . . .Garden Grove, CaliforniaDesert:In his excellent article "He Ex-plored the Unknown Colorado" in thecurrent issue of Desert Magazine the

author states the RioColorado wasdiscovered "in1540 by a detachmentof 25men who hadleft Vasques deCoronado's exploring party and fol-lowed the stream to itsmouth."I believe there is a slight discrepancyhere. Hernando Cortez commission-ed Francisco de Ulloa, who sailed withthree ships in September, 1539, tothe head of the Gulf ofCalifornia. He

reached themouth of the river, buthis three caravals were turned back bythe tidal bores.Hernando de Alarcon sailed fromAcapulco on May 9th, 1540, withthree ships, with supplies intended toreinforce Coronado, who was on hisway seeking the fabled Cities ofCibola.Alarcon had difficulty navigatingthrough the bores and shoals and sandbars, andleft thesailing fleet at thedelta, proceeding in small boats, eachmanned with ten men. They finallyreached the point near where the pres-ent city ofYuma islocated, where theyreceived reports that Esteban theNegro hadbeen killed. Theexpedi-tion returned to the delta for rein-forcements and pulled up theriver asecond time with three boats, but failedto contact Coronado or anyone con-nected with his expedition. After leav-ing a note in a tree, they returned totheir ships.

His note waslater found by Mel-chior Diaz, who with 25soldiers hadleft Corazones in search of Alarcon.Diaz did some exploratory work ofhisown, and apparently reached VolcanoLak e. On his return trip toCorazonesDiaz was impaled on hisown lance,dying later from hiswounds.

F RA N K S CH ILLIN GReader Schilling is of courseright. Use of theword "discov-

ered" was an unfortunate choiceon the part of the author. What hemeant was that the detachment of25 men, sent byCoronado underleadership of Diaz to scout fornews of Alarcon, did find theriver coming to it after anover-land journey from Sonora.

This was in the fall of 1540,only a short time after Alarconarrived at head of the Gulf ofCalifornia on August 26, 1540,with his three vessels. Alarconsent small boats up theriver, isentitled to becalled thereal dis-coverer of the Colorado. Ulloa in1539 had reached head of theGulf, but some historians doubtthat he knew or realized he wasat the mouth of ariver. R. H.

22 THE DESERT MAGAZINE


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Jack Moore of Los Angeles, present owner of the old mine. His daughter, 12, was"acting superintendent" when photographed.Lost G o l d of Salt Spring . . .Life is an exorbitant price topa y for a c han ce in the lost goldlottery. But do wn through theyears men have been wi l l ing topay that price, and the fabulousAmargosa mine at the edge ofCalifornia 's Death Valley is noexception. How it w as discov-ered a century ago, its colorfuland sometimes bloody historysince then, and the high hopesthat still center around Amar-gosa are told here by the firstman ever to piece together thefamed mine's story.

By JOHN L. VON BLONPhotos by the AuthorN the faint blue light of a midsum-mer dawn, under myriad glisteringstars, the solitary building loomedphantom-like on the mountain beforeus."Reminds me of an ancient lamaseryin bleak Tibet that I've been readingabout," my son Phil said.Having seen it before I said noth-ing; but when the sun blazed over the

ridge beyond and limned it in red fire itimpressed me as a rare study for anartist. Th e setting at the fringe ofDeath Valley is bizarre.F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 0

The scene was the Amargosa mine,conspicuous landmark on the historicOld Spanish trail from Santa Fe to LosAngeles and first gold strike on thedesert, per hap s in all California. Itmay, indeed, be the Breyfogle "lostbonanza" which countless eager soulshave hunted since '67.Its locale is Salt Spring, 30 milesnorth of Baker, on State Highway 127and a mile off the pavement, with theunique Amargosa river intervening.The river is rated the world's longestunderground stream and the most

23


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TO SHOSHONE 3 DEATH VALLEY

5PRING &RMFIRGD5R MINE

down-in-the-mouth in this hemisphere,flowing to Bad Water on the floor ofDeath Valley 279.8 feet below sealevel.H emmed in by granite outposts ofthe Avawatz mountains, the mine cen-ters about a narrow rocky canyon halfa mile long, cut through ages ago by aformer expansive lake. At its head isthe bitter spring, an ugly stagnant poolfour feet across and three deep, shadedby two scraggly mesquites. And thereis Salt creek, seldom trickling.The vicious water was a cruel dis-appointment to thousands of wearytravelers over the most forbidding por-

. : \ TO B'ARSTOW BT L.A.

tion of the desert, entailing awful suf-ferings for humans and the sacrifice offamished beasts. I saw no signs of itsuse by birds or wild animals.Although w orked intermittently a fullcentury the mine's past is obscure. Ithas been strangely neglected by chron-iclers and given space on few maps .Judge Dix Van Dyke of Daggett hastaken pains through many years to as-semble its fragmentary annals. Someare tragic, written in blood; nine or tenmen perished there at the hands ofmerciless savages. Most of the basicdata in this article are from the VanDyke files.

I encountered a persistent traditionthat precious dust was gleaned from theSalt creek sands by Mexicans as farback as 1830. This was told me in1898 by an aged prospector namedSparkuhle, who was familiar with theregion, and I heard it repeated recently."Spark," as wecalled him, was basedat Mojave. When in thecity he haunt-ed the Los Angeles Times newsroom,where his fabulous tales served aslegal tender for grubstakes. As cannyand husky a character as ever roamedthe wastelands, he often plodded farwithout burros, packing heavy burdenson his own back. Older desert ratswill remember him.The tradition cannot be given cred-ence. In the vast, silent, distorted reach-es of the Mojave fact and fiction mayblend like liquids. My ths andmirageslinger. Authentic record credits theAmargosa discovery to Sheldon Stod-dard, Mormon and member of Cap-

tain Hunt's party, in March 1849; butit is established that Mexicans passedthat wayfrom 1826.It was Stoddard's first glimpse of na-tive unmined gold and he secreted thebits taken from a ledge until Chinaranch was reached andshowed them toColonel Williams. The latter fitted outa pack train and set Stoddard andothers to work with arrastres. Thispaid well but Paiute Ind ians soon d rovethem out.Then a San Francisco companytransported a mill there at considerable

cost but the Indians killed two crewmembers and the others fled for theirlives. George Crismon had the ma-chinery hauled to the San Bernardinomountains and sawed lumber for thatvalley.Beale's west-bound expedition halt-ed at Salt Spring August 15, 1853. Hewas greatly surprised to find the re -mains of nouses and arrastres where"a fortune had been sunk by men suf-ficiently deluded or sanguine to aban-do n the rich mines of California,travel across 150miles of desert, and

live upwards of 12months in a spot sodesolate and forlorn that there is notenough vegetation to keep a goat fromstarvation." Hismules would notdrinkfrom the sulphurous and nauseatingspring.In 1861 the Marysville Express an-nounced that themine, abandoned nineyears previously, wascurrently operat-ed by a Los Angeles concern withMexican labor and arrastres. Againthe Indians raided and expelled them.The following year McF adden , Stuartand Bennett set up a mill and built

some adobe houses and the granite-and-adobe cabin to which I have re -ferred andwhich remains, though dou-24 THE DESERT MAGAZINE


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5!?*P5!b.% . Perched high on the south brink of the canyon wall the rock cabin lendsmedieval aspect to the landscape.

Below Built of granite and adobe over 80 years ago the mine headquarters cabinis well preserved and has just been reroofed.F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 0 25


26/48

bled in size since. Threatened by theIndians they improvised a rock fort,kept a barrel of water there and an-other in the longest tunnel, and postedguard day and night.One morning when the workers weregoing on shift the crafty redskins at-tacked from ambush and massacredfive of them, riddling their bodies withbullets. The survivors hid in the tun-

nel until night and escaped to maketheir way to Mojave. An armed possewas organized to bury the victims.Their graves and others were reportedvisible until 1900. My efforts to findthem were not successful. Time hasobliterated all traces. If the dead sleepin the canyon sands, as is plausible, itmay well be that their lost sepulchersare lined with flecks of virgin gold.Fremont, who had camped at thespring in 1844, arrived again in De-cember, 1864, and saw the destructionwrought by the hostile Indians. The

same month Mrs. Rousseau, diarist ofDr. J. A. Rousseau's party from SaltLake City to San Bernardino, describ-ed the ruins as she saw them, statingthat three men left to care for theproperty had been slain eight weeksbefore.Undaunted, a new company, with thelate George Rose as superintendent,took over in the middle '60s with ade-quate facilities and operated success-fully a number of months. Extraordi-nary values were produced in pocketsand attracted outside attention.Just then Anton Breyfogle stirred themining world with his alluring and sen-sational find. He had spent an after-noon and evening at the Amargosa,rambling all over the property, andRose stoutly maintained during the re-mainder of his life that the stuff theeccentric adventurer carried came fromthere and nowhere else.The late Frank Denning, an ore ex-pert who lived at Demming Spring andoperated the Ibex mine, saw the Brey-fogle rock and declared himself willingto take oath that it was Amargosa

highgrade. That free-milling quartz isa distinctive rose-pink color with oc-casional brown deposits such as Brey-fogle had. These men knew mineralsand could not readily have been de-ceived. This may shed new light onthe Breyfogle puzzle.Adrian Egbert of Daggett, which wasthe mining center of an immense ter-ritory, met an aged Mexican in LosAngeles in the late '90s who boastedof having taken "plenty gold" from theAmargosa in 1853 until the Indiansousted his group. Egbert became soenthused that he and associates wentto the mine with a force of men and setup and operated a five-stamp mill.

The plant was transported from Cres-cent, east of the Vanderbilt camp nearIvanpah, by Adolph Nevares and JamesChristian with two eight-horse teams,the job requiring two months. Nevaresrecalls having been shown bullet holesin an Amargosa shack where a deadlybrawl had been finished. He lives onhis ranch in Death Valley and is amongthe very last of the pioneerscontinu-ing active.When Egbert converted his gold intobars, several thousand dollars worth,and started to drive to Daggett with theavowed intention of shipping it to themint and meeting the payroll, the min-ers, left behind with scanty food, atonce became panicky. John Tonnies,employed there, volunteered to walkthe 80 or 90 miles to Daggett, his hometown, and head off the boss. Egbertstopped overnight at Cave Springs andTonnies beat him in. To avert at-tachment proceedings immediate set-tlement was arranged. It was an amaz-ing foot feat. Both Egbert and Tonnieshave passed on.

Egbert's last activities were unusualand beneficial mainly to others. Hewent to Cave Springs, between Barstowand Death Valley, in the middle 1920s,made the water available to the public,set up a small store of provisions, andprovided overnight accommodationsfor travelers by hewing out severalchambers in the canyon wall. TheseSleeping rooms were used for a numberof years. And to aid persons in pos-sible need along lonely roads he main-tained water supplies in glass demi-johns under wooden shelters for a de-cade or longer. (Desert Magazine, Nov.'39.) A beautiful little spring annualplant growing in that region was namedegbertia in his honor.

Interested also in that novel enter-prise was Mrs. Ira Sweetman, formerDaggett postmaster, and a belovedpioneer desert woman. She now residesin Barstow. Though on a paved high-way Cave Springs is deserted, a fav-orite rendezvous of birds, especiallydoves.Thirty years ago another outfit tack-led the Amargosa and abandoned theenterprise after making heavy expendi-tures. Its mill was sold in 1939.

In my three explorations the pic-turesque cabin standing on the southrim of the gulch proved the most inter-esting relic. Weathered but well pre-served after eight decades it supposed-ly is the oldest of all desert buildings.It is 60 x 12 feet, divided into threesections by low rock walls, and has twofireplaces. Several years ago the ori-ginal thatch was shattered by a wildgale and has been replaced with a greencomposition roof barely visible from

the highway. Beneath the cliff is thespring.Principal workings comprise a mileand a half of tunnels in solid rock, fiveshafts, two of them vertical and theothers inclined. The deepest is 180feet and half filled with water. In an-other, hot water was struck and boilsnoisily 30 feet below the surface. Onwintry days a column of steam almost

a hundred feet tall has been observed.Volcanic commotion down there!Along the west wall there has beenextensive stoping, and chambers sug-gesting cathedral interiors are the re-sult. On the slope is a large mill foun-dation. Lying at its base is a huge bel-lows from a vanished blacksmith shop.Scattered throughout are endless im-pediments of former valueodds andends eloquent of blasted ambitions,broken hearts and financial ruin. Inthe sand lies a heavy boiler and a tonflywheel carried 200 yards by a violent

flash flood rises vertically half buried.It appears that the original minersreaped rewards in the gulch whichtheir successors have been unable toduplicate in the upper ledges; thatmuch more capital has been poured inthan has been returned.My youthful companion passed ten-derfoot snap judgment in this wise:"Mine's no good. I looked all aroundfor gold a whole afternoon and didn'tfind a single nugget!"But there remains a lot of unex-ploited ground. Jack Moore of LosAngeles, present owner, believes theproperty has a promising future andis preparing to go ahead with develop-ment. He and his daughter Maureen,12 , were taking ore from the glory holeon one of my visits. She informed methat she was acting superintendent andhe concurred. They were comfortablyquartered in the antiquated citadel.My Amargosa mine research dis-closed the discovery in that mysteriousarea 75 years ago of an apparent treas-ure that is lost to this day and of whichno account ever has been published.It is a story of heroic courage and in-credible endurance and hardship.About 1872 Johnny McCloskey ofBishop went to his birthplace in Texasto be married. A few years later heand his wife, with their small daugh-ter, decided to return to Owens Valley.With true western fortitude they set outon the far and hazardous journey in alight wagon drawn by two good horses.In pleasant early springtime theydrove into the Golden State via the oldGovernment road, but at Marl Spring

misfortune befell them, one of thehorses died suddenly. Their only re-course was to abandon the vehicle withmost of their possessions, pack abso-26 THE DESERT MA GA ZI NE


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lute essentials on the remaining horse,which also carried the child, and setout afoot. Fortunately McCloskeywas sure of his bearings. They turnednorthwestward toward Ash Meadows,where he knew his friend Jim Butlerafterward discoverer of Tonopahwas prospecting and amply provision-ed. The distance is 140 miles.One evening they camped on theAmargosa river 30 or 40 miles abovethe mine. There was a natural em-bankment of black boulders, and clearwater flowing from beneath on a broad,lengthy sand flat. Sensing gold thetired man took a milk pan, the onlyutensil available, and was astounded toextract an ounce and a half in an hourfrom various parts of the wash!Supplies were critically low, the heatbecoming intense, and they dared nottarry for anything. But Johnny wouldbe back for their fortune. High hopesbuoyed them henceforth.Finally arrived at the Inyo home,McCloskey hastened to backtrack tobegin placering operations and recoverhis wagon and contents.George W. Golden, Daggett miningman who was born in Bishop, relatesthat his father, Steve Golden, accom-panied the supposedly lucky Johnny onthat and two other trips. They cameupon different places strewn with blackboulders but devoid of sand and neverfound the placer gold. Presumably de-vastating cloudbursts to which the re-gion is subject had completely changedthe river channel. Thieves had madeaway with the wagon at Marl Spring.As a young man George Golden ac-companied his father, George Rose andothers, in futile quests for the placerand he plans to continue looking.Steve Golden died at the age of 90 fiveyears ago in Kern county with his sightsset to the end for that lost gold!That's not a greenhorn country.None but seasoned desert men shouldventure in. It is perilous for amateurargonauts. Life is an exorbitant priceto offer for a lost gold lottery chance.

AboveSalt Spring's bitter andundrinkable water was a cruel dis-appointment to early travelers onthe Old Spanish trail.

CenterFoundation and timbersof the 5-stamp mill operated ahalf century ago by Egbert andassociates.

BelowPhil Von Blon beside thehuge bellows used in the mineblacksmith shop a half century ago.FEBRUARY 1950


28/48

Randsburg, California . . .Reactivation ofplacer claims locatednear theBlack Hawk mine two milessouth ofRandsburg was scheduled forearly this year utilizing anew recoverymethod perfected byVirgil Murray ofVan Nuys. Owner of the claimstheBalatine. Silverton and Blue Bird goldclaimsis J. J.Neito, Los Angeles. Aninitial crew of four men was to startoperations with a one-yard steamshovel. Murray is in charge. Rands-burg Times-Herald. Albuquerque, New Mexico . . .High quality coal that may run tomore than a billion tons has been dis-covered in theSan Juan basin ofNewMexico andColorado. The new re-sources were reported toInterior Sec-retary Oscar L.Chapman bythe U. S.geological survey after studies on north-western rim of the basin. Thecoaldeposits aresaid to beless than 1000feet below the surface, are estimated tobe present inbeds more than 28 inchesthick. Aconsiderable proportion of thecoal inthe area is ofcoking quality, thegovernm ent repo rt states. The coal issaid to lie in theMenefee andFruit-land formations. Gallup Independent. Tonopah, Nevada . . .

Tonopah again has an assay office.This famed Nevada town has forsometime been without this service, but anoffice isnow open at the former siteofthe West End Mining company's mill.Ore samples may now behandled lo-cally. Tonopah Times-Bonanza. Beatty, Nevada . . .The copper prospect located severalyears ago by theLooney brothers ofBeatty is reported to be developinggood showings. Fou r men are nowemployed on theground under direc-tion ofTom Beard. Larger equipmentis being moved in since ore running17 percent copper has been foundto be notunusual .Tonopah Times-Bonanza. Battle Mountain, Nevada . . .Construction of new facilities at theGetchell mine near Winnemucca hasprogressed rapidly and by first of thismonth the mill was scheduled to be inproduction. Equipm ent being addedincludes a newcrushing plant, new8 x 12 rodmill, new flotation sectionand new classifiers. Anauxiliary wellhas been drilled tosupply water for themill and fordomestic purposes. Bat-tle Mountain Scout.

Winnemucca, Nevada . . .Ranked among the leading tungstenproducers in thenation, theNevada-Massachusetts company has resumedoperations at its Tungsten property,Pershing county, with a full-scale min-ing and milling schedule. The companybegan operations atstart ofWorld WarI and had never closed until last Junewhen general economic conditions andlow prices fortungsten forced a shut-down. From 150 to160 men willbeemployed andmore than 300peoplewill be living on the property when full-scale operation isreached, according toW . G.Emminger, general superintend-ent. Humboldt Star.

Salt Lake City, Utah . . .*The 1950 Metal Mining conventionand exposition ofthe American M iningcongress is to be held in Salt LakeCity, Utah, August 28 to 3 1 , it hasbeen announced. Roy A. Hardy, con-sulting engineer in charge, GetchellMine, Inc. , Reno, has been named pr o-gram chairman, according to D. D.Moffat, chairman of thewestern divi-sion of the American Mining congress.The exposition ofmining equipm

195002 desert magazine 1950 february

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