DEPAETMENT OF THE INTEEIOE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DiRECTOK WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 224 SOME DESERT WATERING PLACES IN SOUTHEASTEEN CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHWESTERN NEVADA BY WALTER C. MENDENHALL WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1909 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR WATER-SUPPLY PAPEK 224 SOME DESERT WATERING PLACES IN SOUTHEASTEEN CALIFOKNIA AND SOUTHWESTEKN NEVADA BY WALTER C. MENDENHALL WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1909 CONTENTS. Page. Introduction______________________________________ 5 Area considered_________________________________ 5 Mineral resources and industrial developments______________ . 6 Sources of data__________________________________ 7 Physical features__________________________________ 8 General character of the region______________________ 8 Death Valley basin__________________________________ 9 Soda Lake_____________________________________ 30 Salton Sink______________________________________ 10 A great trough_______________________________ 30 Fault lines__________________.____ ______________ 11 Climate______________________. ____ ______________ 11 Water supply_________ _________________________ 13 Origin_________________________________________ 13 Rivers______________________________________ 13 Springs__________________________________________ 15 Finding water_______________________________ 16 Camping places_______________________________ 16 Mountain springs and tanks______________________ 17 Dry lakes____________________________________ 17 Geologic hints_______________________________ 18 Vegetation as a guide________________________________ 20 Hints on desert traveling______________________________ 21 Teams, hay, and grain__________________i___________ 21 Tools_____________________________________________ 22 Clothing, bedding, etc__________________________________ 22 Provisions_____________________________________ 23 Water_________________________________________ 23 Fuel_____________________ . .______________ 24 Getting lost____________________ ______________ 24 Main routes of travel_____________.:__ __ _______________________ 25 Starting points________________-____________________ 25 Fremont's trail___________________________ ___ 25 Old Spanish trail______i__________________________ 26 Mohave-Keeler route_____________________________. _ 26 Death Valley routes_________________________________. _ 26 Bullfrog routes_______ _____________________ __ 27 Searchlight route_______________=_________________ - __ 28 Needles-Pa rker route_________________________. ___ 28 Aniboy-Dale route_________________________ ..__ 28 Mecca-Dale route___________________________ ________ 28 Victorville routes_________________________ _____ 28 Banning-Dale route_________________________ ______ 29 CONTENTS. Irrigating and artesian waters_ 29 Irrigated areas_______ 29 Artesian waters____-___. 29 Description of springs______ 30 Symbols used__________ 30 California________________ 31 Nevada____________. 87 Index________________________ 95 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. PLATE I. Map of southeastern California and southwestern Nevada, show­ ing location of watering places_______________ In pocket. II. A, Death Valley, looking north toward the Black Mountains; B, Out West Well____________________________ 10 III. A, Kane's Wells; B, Coyote Well____________________ 60 IV. A, Providence Wells; B, Box S ranch_________________ 66 SOME DESERT WATERING PLACES IN SOUTHEASTERN CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHWESTERN NEVADA. By WALTER C. MENDENHALL. INTRODUCTION. AREA CONSIDERED. This report relates especially to the southwestern part of the Great Basin the portion of it that is bounded on the west by the Sierra Nevada and Sierra Madre, on the east by Colorado River, on the south by Mexico, and on the north by the parallel between Tps. 4 and 5 S. of the Mount Diablo base line. It includes the arid portions of southeastern California and those adjacent parts of Nevada that are most easily reached from California points. This region is known generally to the dwellers in the less arid districts west of the Sierra as " the desert," but local names are applied to its various subdivi­ sions. Among the more important of the subdivisions are the Colo­ rado and Mohave deserts and the Death Valley region. The Colorado Desert is that definitely limited arid valley which extends from San Gorgonio Pass southward to the Gulf of California, and includes the depression known as the " Salton Sink." The Mo- have Desert lies farther north and its boundaries are not so definite, but it includes much the greater part of San Bernardino County and the eastern portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties. Cal. The Death Valley region, which lies north of the Mohave Desert, stretches eastward from the Sierra Nevada, covering a large part of Inyo County, Cal., and extending into Nevada. It is named from its central feature, Death Valley, the lowest point on the continent. The desert region outlined above and shown on the accompanying map (PL I) covers an area of about 68,000 square miles. The wells and springs within it are few in number and are very irregularly distributed. In some districts watering places occur in groups; in other tracts they are 30 to 50 miles apart. So irregular is their dis­ tribution that it is important that they should be located as definitely as possible and described for the benefit of prospectors and other travelers. The scarcity of water and the importance of a knowledge 5 6 DESEET WATEEING PLACES IN CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA. <. of its whereabouts are indicated by its cost in many of the mining camps and by the frequency with which the press records instances of death from thirst in the more remote parts of the desert. MINERAL RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS. The mineral resources of the region under discussion are being developed with a rapidity that is attracting general attention. The most important of these resources is gold, and the present intense interest in the desert is in large part due to the discovery and develop­ ment within it of mines that are heavy producers of this metal. The resources of the region, however, are not confined to the precious metals, but comprise a wide range of mineral products of economic value. Among these may be mentioned several valuable salts, includ­ ing borax, soda, gypsum, and common salt; building material, includ­ ing marble, onyx, brick clays, and cements; baser metals, like copper, iron, and lead; and gems, among which are turquoise and opal. Just west of the desert proper, in the mountains of San Diego and River­ side counties, precious tourmaline, kunzite, and the rarer garnets have been discovered in connection with the pegmatite dikes there. These products are widely distributed throughout the desert counties. The existence of some of them in commercial quantities and available form is as yet problematic, although their occurrence is known, while important industries are already based on others. The building of railroads in the desert within the last three years and the projection of other lines not yet built indicate for the future a marked increase in the mineral output of this region. The Atchi- son, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, generally known in the West as the Santa Fe, has one branch extending from Goffs, on its main line, northward to Ivanpah, a distance of about 50 miles; another from Ludlow southward 7 miles to Stedman; and a third running north­ ward from Kramer to the mining camps at Randsburg and Johannes­ burg, a distance of 25 miles. A road has also been built from Ludlow to Bullfrog, Nev., with a branch to the Lila C. borax mines. The Santa Fe is also constructing a road from Wickenberg, Ariz., to Parker, on Colorado River, and thence to Bengal, Cal., on the main line. This particular work is intended to correct the alignment of the transcontinental line, and to reduce grades and shorten the distance between Los Angeles and Chicago. The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad has com­ pleted a road from Las Vegas, Nev., to Bullfrog and Goldfield, Nev. Its main line is in operation from Daggett northeastward across the intervening deserts to Ogden, Utah, and is giving active stimulus to gold, silver, and lead mining. The Southern Pacific has a branch on the Colorado Desert, running from Imperial Junction southward INTRODUCTION. 7 to the Imperial Irrigation Colony lands, and across the boundary into Mexico. A line is being built that will unite the Southern Pacific branch at Keeler, on the east side of Owens Lake, with Mohave, near the southern edge of the Mohave Desert. Other lines are also projected which, if constructed, will connect Bullfrog directly with Los Angeles. This unusual activity in railroad work, due in part to recent min­ ing developments, has so stimulated prospecting that there is a large influx of strangers, many of whom do not fully realize the danger of traveling through an arid region in which springs are few and far between. The dissemination of information concerning the loca­ tions of known watering places and the possibilities for locating and developing water at other favorable points is therefore an urgent need. To meet this need the following report has been written and the map that accompanies it has been prepared. SOURCES OF DATA. The larger part of these data was compiled by Gilbert E. Bailey, who for several years has been obliged to traverse repeatedly many of the main desert roads and trails. At the outset of each trip it has been necessary to select, so far as possible,