Research Catalog

Title

A history of Amargosa Valley, Nevada / Robert D. McCracken.

Author

McCracken, Robert D.

Publication

Tonopah, Nev. : Nye County Press, 1990 [i.e. 1992]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvii, 126 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

The Amargosa Valley, about ninety miles northwest of Las Vegas in Nye County, Nevada, did not yield itself easily to human habitation. Less famous than Death Valley, its neighbor to the west, the Amargosa is formidable enough - arid and mainly treeless. Yet the valley has been inhabited by many peoples since early times: archaic hunters and gatherers, Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute Indians, white explores and settlers, miners and present-day farmers and ranchers. Early explorers were followed by prospectors and miners. Settlers who saw the possibilities for agriculture and ranching in the region were not far behind them. The Ash Meadows area, a true desert oasis, was the home of many people, including early community builder "Dad" Fairbanks and some of dubious reputation, such as the legendary desert frontiersman Jack Longstreet. The discovery of borax, clay deposits, and marble and the arrival of the railroads brought new opportunity to the valley's residents around the turn of the twentieth century. Present-day pioneers, who arrived in the later 1940s and early 1950s, coped without paved roads, telephones, and electric service. Nevertheless, they persevered, and by the 1980s had constructed the basis of a modern unincorporated town. Residents of the Amargosa Valley live in harmony with the land and its beauty.

Subject

Amargosa River Valley (Nev. and Calif.) > History

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-116) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Prologue: The Land and Early Inhabitants. The Physical Setting. Amargosa Valley's Singing Sand Dune. The First Occupants -- 2. Early Exploration. The Death Valley of the Forty-Niners. In the Wake of the Forty-Niners -- 3. Early Settlers. Cattle and Crops. Longstreet: Legendary Settler -- 4. Life in the Amargosa Valley in the 1880s. A Buckboard Journey Across the Amargosa. The Frontier Home of Aaron and Rosie Winters. The Discovery of Borax in Death Valley -- 5. The Railroads Come to the Amargosa Valley. Clark Builds the LV&T. Smith Builds the T&T -- 6. People and Places -- The Early 1900s. "Dad" Fairbanks. Outlaw Country. The Ash Meadows Clay Camps. Life in Clay Camp -- 7. The Amargosa Valley in the 1930s-1950s. Stops on the T&T Railroad. The T&T Ranch -- The Leeland Water & Land Company. Ash Meadows During the 1930s-1950s. Lathrop Wells, 1930-1950. Carrara and the Marble Quarry -- 8. Modern Development of the Amargosa Valley. Gordon and Billie Bettles on the T&T Ranch. Modern Pioneers: The Records Brothers. Modern Pioneer Hardships. Electricity in the Amargosa Valley. Law Enforcement in the Amargosa Valley. Modern Mining of Amargosa Valley Clays. American Borate Company in the Amargosa Valley. Peat Mining the Carson Slough. The Spring Meadows Ranch and the Pupfish Controversy. Atomic Testing at the Nevada Test Site. Adjusting to Life in the Amargosa Valley. Growth of a Community and Its Government. Amargosa Becomes an Unincorporated Town -- 9. The Future.

ISBN

1878138561

LCCN

^^^90060813^

OCLC

25273610

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library