Category: Vintage

Death Valley Vintage Photos

C.C. Pierce

Photograph of the 55 foot high natural bridge in Death Valley, ca.1900-1950. Two men stand to the left of center underneath a rock formation in the shape of an arch, while an automobile is visible from the side towards the background between vertical canyon walls. A barrel can be seen to the right of the automobile and in front of a pile of rocks. Rocky soil can be seen from the foreground towards the background.
Photograph of an automobile in the bottom of Titus Canyon in Death Valley, ca.1900-1950. An automobile is visible to the left of center on rocky soil, while a man stands to the left of it. Tall, vertical canyon walls can be seen to the left and right, which have cuts in the sides that cause the appearance of rectangular shapes in the rock. Another canyon wall is visible in the background.
Photograph of Odessa Canyon on the way to Death Valley from Barstow in Calico, ca.1900-1950. An automobile is visible at center on a dirt road curving towards the left around a canyon wall. The road runs from bottom right towards center and is lined by rocky canyon walls. Mountains are visible in the background above the walls. Photoprint reads: “On the road to the mining camp of Bismark”.
Photograph of automobiles and cattle in Imperior (Imperial?) Valley, owned by Mr. Yates, Death Valley, ca.1900-1950. Five men and women are visible standing at center around two parked automobiles with cloth tops. A heard of cattle can be seen behind the cars at right in a fenced enclosure on flat desert land. Mountains are visible in the background.
Photograph of four people standing near a salt pool in Death Valley, ca.1900-1950. Three men are standing at center near the rocky edge of a wide salt pool. A fourth man is seated on a rock at right. The pool is in the foreground at left and is roughly circular in shape. The liquid in the pool is a frothy light color. The desert behind the men is rough and rocky, and there is a steep mountain range running across the image in the distance.
Photograph of five people stopping for water at Granite Wells, Death Valley, ca.1900-1950. The people are gathered around a large wooden watering trough at center. Three men are filling a large canteen at center, while a man and another person, possibly a woman, are washing their hands in the foreground at right. There are three early-model automobiles parked in the background at right. In the distance, a large, flat portion of the desert rises up into a tall plateau. The desert ground is covered with small bushes.
Photograph of the dirt road into Death Valley from the southern end, ca.1900-1950. The heavily traveled road runs from the foreground at center into the distance. There is a single automobile parked near the side of the rutted road at right. Several people are standing near the car. The desert around the road is sparsely covered with low bushes. A tall mountain range is visible in the distance. Picture file card reads “From Puck negative #4”.
Photograph of a small graveyard in Death Valley, ca.1900-1950. Three crude graves are in the foreground at center. They all consist of dirt mounds with wooden crosses. Lines of small rocks decorate the mounds. The area around the graves is cleared of brush, but many bushes are visible in the distance. A tall mountain is in the background at center. The cross at left reads “1896-1936 Martin Zapata Nedisdo en Leo Gto. Mexico”; the middle cross is illegible; and the third cross reads “Died Feb. 27 1935 Amado Santacruz Age 54”. Picture file card reads “From Puck negative #22”.

Borate Gallery

Borax mining in the United States started with the production of borax from Borax lake in Tehama County in 1864. The discovery of cotton ball ulexite in the playa of Teel’s Marsh by Frances Marion (Borax) Smith in 1872 ushered in the first major production of Borax in the United States. The center of cotton ball production then moved to Death Valley in 1880. The most famous operation was the Harmony borax works run by William Tell Coleman. This is the operation that becomes associated with the twenty-mule team wagons. With the discovery of colemanite, the Playa period started to decline.

The mines at Borate ushered in the Colemanite period of borax production. W. T. Coleman initiated the mining operations at Borate in 1884, but actual production did not commence until 1890. Several factors contributed to this delay. The first was the obvious need to provide transportation to the area and develop the mines. The second was the bankruptcy of the “House of Coleman.” In 1890 Borax Smith acquired the property from Coleman’s creditors. He then formed the Pacific Coast Borax Company and commenced shipping ore to the recently updated refinery in Alameda, California.

The two major problems plaguing production at Borate were the transportation and concentration of the ore. Initially, the ore was hand sorted at the mine and hauled to Daggett using the 20 mule teams and wagons once used in Death Valley. Smith was unhappy with this method, so in 1894 he experimented with a steam tractor locally called “Old Dinah.” Unfortunately, this experiment was a failure due to the nature of the road from the mines to Daggett. A narrow gauge railroad was then constructed in 1898 allowing the unprocessed ore to be shipped to a Calcining plant located at Marion, just North of Daggett. The ore was heated until the colemanite decrepitated and could be separated from the gangue. This allowed a better grade of ore to be shipped to Alameda and solved both problems.

By 1907 it was obvious to Smith that the days of Borate were numbered and the main operations were shifted to the Lila C mine at old Ryan, near Death Valley. All of the equipment, including the buildings, were removed and sent to the Lila C, leaving Borate completely bare. The Lila C lasted for only seven years and colemanite mining shifted to various mines in the Death Valley region. In 1927 the mines at Boron opened ushering in the Kernite period. Lessees and small miners continued operations at Borate until the opening of the mines at Boron.

text: http://wikimapia.org/1783734/Borate-CA-site