Research Catalog

Title

Illustrated sketches of Death Valley and other borax deserts of the Pacific coast / by John Randolph Spears ; edited by Douglas Steeples.

Author

Spears, John Randolph, 1850-1936.

Publication

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Steeples, Douglas W.

Description

viii, 244 p. : ill., 1 map; 19 cm.

Summary

"In 1891, New York Sun reporter and travel writer J. R. Spears accepted an invitation to visit Death Valley to write about the region and explore its borax mines. Spears, the first professional journalist to visit, photograph, and report on the region, provided the American reading public with an engaging and informed account of Death Valley and its surrounding desert country. Through nineteenth chapters, Spears examines the twenty-mule teams used in borax mining, freighting in the rugged desert landscape, and various desert characters - including "desert tramps" and a California bear hunter." "Long considered an important literary and regional history of Death Valley and a primary source of information, Illustrated Sketches of Death Valley and Other Borax Deserts of the Pacific Coast will appeal to enthusiasts of the region and of the American West."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

American land classics

Uniform Title

American land classics.

Subject

• Borax mines and mining > Death Valley (Calif. and Nev.)
• Death Valley (Calif. and Nev.)

Note

• Originally published: Chicago : Rand, McNally, 1892.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-244).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Ch. I. The Story of Death Valley -- Ch. II. Sand-Storms and Sand-Waves -- Ch. III. Once a Citizen of Death Valley -- Ch. IV. Tales of the White Arabs -- Ch. V. Tramps of the Desert -- Ch. VI. Sportsmen in the Desert -- Ch. VII. Freighting on the Desert -- Ch. VIII. A Novel Road -- Ch. IX. Gathering Desert Fuel -- Ch. X. A Nevada Narrow Gauge -- Ch. XI. Told of a Desert Journey -- Ch. XII. Abandoned Desert Mining Camps -- Ch. XIII. A California Bear Hunter -- Ch. XIV. The First American Borax -- Ch. XV. Struck It Rich on the Marsh -- Ch. XVI. Borax in the Marshes and Mines -- Ch. XVII. A Chemical Romance -- Ch. XVIII. Sketches of Borax in Other Countries -- Ch. XIX. Curious Facts about Borax.

ISBN

0801865077 (acid-free paper)

LCCN

^^^00032714^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library