COLLECTING BORON MINERALS IN 

 DEATH VALLEY 



By W. F. FOSHAG, 



Curator of Mincrahu/y and Petrology, U. S. National Museum 



Borax, before its discovery in California and Nevada, was a rare 

 commo<lity, much of it being brought to Europe from the high 

 Himalayas of Thibet. The Western United States borax districts 

 have produced in great quantities, the industry being famed for the 

 hi'cnfy mule teams employed to haul the raw material from the floor of 

 Death \'alley, over the steep Panamint Mountains and across the 

 inhospitable desert to Mohave, 165 miles away. Recent discoveries 

 having brought about the abandonment of the old mines for richer 

 and more accessible fields, it was deemed desirable to study these old 

 deposits and collect their minerals while the workings are still open. 

 The type of boron deposit found in this region is unique in its 

 occurrence. The chief ore mineral is colemanite, a borate of lime, 

 which is not known from any other locality in the world. Other min- 

 eral species, too, are peculiar to this arid region. 



Early in March, 1929, in company with Mr. F. A. Gonyer, I left 

 Barstow, California, by motor for Death Valley. This desolate 

 region, once so rarely visited by any one but hardy prospectors, is 

 now readily accessible. Our route lay through desert valleys, barren 

 except for sagebrush and joshua trees, and over mountains of granite 

 and lava to Cave Springs. From here we could look into the south 

 end of Death Valley as it lay almost at our feet. Our first camp was 

 at Saratoga Springs, a favorite watering place for the desert pros- 

 pector, and here we found four of these interesting characters domi- 

 ciled in the ruins of an old stone cabin. Here the drifting sands have 

 made a small basin that retains the overflow of the several springs 

 issuing from the foot of the mountain and formed several small 

 ponds, the home of wild ducks, mud hens, and a small desert fish of 

 the genus Cyprinodon. 



From Saratoga Springs we went up the valley by way of Rhodes 

 Wash and Bennett's Wells. On either side are high mountains, be- 

 tween them the narrow valley, often less than ten miles wide. In the 

 bottom of the valley are sun-baked muds and wide stretches of 

 alkali and rock salt, and on the alluvial slopes, rocky wash with scat- 



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