Harrisburg and the Eureka Mine

Pete Aguereberry, 1906

Sparks are bound to fly when two big names find the same gold. This was the case in July of 1905, when Pete Aguereberry and Shorty Harris, two of the largest names in the entire desert (Shorty Harris was responsible for Rhyolite, Skidoo, the Eureka Mine, Keane Wonder, Greenwater, and many others) decided to team up. Of course, there is speculation of the way it started.

Pete's version of the tale goes as such: the two partnered up to escape the summer heat by prospecting up in the Wildrose area of the Panamint Mountains, but Harris wanted to attend the Independence Day party at Ballarat. They arrived in Harrisburg Flats via Blackwater Canyon's Dry Fork, the shortest trail between Furnace Creek and the mountains. Harris was farther ahead, being on horseback, and Pete had time to stop at a ledge of gold. Examining the ore he chipped off, it contained free gold, gold that does not require cyanide or mercury to separate it from ore. They divided up the ridge, Harris taking claims on the north and Aguereberry taking claims on the south. This came to be known as Providence Ridge.

The Racetrack

At 3700 feet nestled between the Cottonwood and Last Chance Mountains is a desolate playa of cracked mud, speckled with rocks and punctuated by a large granitic island, the Grandstand, one hundred seventy feet above the flat expanse. At this north end of the kidney-shaped playa there is little other than this monzonite boulder pile. It makes for good fun and cool pictures but otherwise is of little attraction. This is where most crowds accumulate on busy weekends as well.

At the south end of this lakebed are the bulks of the rocks that pepper the mud. However, something is unusual about these rocks: they lie at the end of tracks in the mud the same size as the rock. These rocks move across the playa when no one is looking. To date no one has seen the rocks move, and countless people believe that magnetic vortexes or some other oogie boogie force is at play here, but the reason is rather simple.

Going Underground in the Salt Creek Watershed

"Curvature Drain"

Orange County is built on arid land, a coastal desert. In the San Joaquin Hills, South Orange County, houses are built on hilltops and roads are built in canyon bottoms. In this land dominated by fog and sun, rain is a rare treat. The mud that makes these hills is oceanic sediment, deposited over ten million years ago when the sea level was much higher. This mud is largely clay, and is filled with sandstone outcrops and rocks. Water does not sink into this mud very well, and when it does, the land slides. Water usually runs off the hills in sheets in heavy rain, and floods the streets and impermeable clay. Because of this, a massive network of storm drains runs under the area, all emptying into the local ditch–er, creek. The drains mentioned here all drain the Salt Creek Basin, which are the most easily accessible of the large drains. I won't disclose entrances because Its fun to find them or search for them. In the following post, three of the largest tunnels are lectured on which I have given names to make them more interesting.

Boulder Pile Habitation Site

At our camping spot one morning, I chose to walk over to my friendly vehicle and aquire a refreshing bottled water. Sitting in my favorite chair, I noticed on the ground a bright red flake of jasper. Of course, jasper is not found in this part of Death Valley or in decomposing granite. The sharp edges and smooth underside proved one thing: it was a flake from tool knapping, an activity performed by natives for thousands of years to make all manner of stone tools. I stared at this, and eventually I realized that there must be more.

Nemo Canyon and the Christmas Gift Mine

The tenth of April in 1908 saw Judge Frank G. Thisse of Skidoo wandering through Nemo Canyon on his way to Harrisburg from Wildrose. In the bottom of this wide valley he encountered silver 1500 feet north of the famed twenty-three mile Skidoo water pipeline. Soon enough, a rustic camp was set up to secure the claim. Silver ore assaying up to $200 per ton (in 1908 dollars) set off a small rush to the area, with neighboring hillsides being marked with claims and developed. Thisse's first claim became titled as the Nemo Mine, and it's eleven claims contained ore assaying up to $3,300 per ton, one of the best silver mines on the country at the time. 

Marble Canyon

In the Southern Cottonwoods is one of the most significant canyons in the Death Valley area. Marble Canyon is a deep canyon that for centuries was the main thoroughfare from the comfortable summer retreats of Hunter Mountain to the sweltering desert below. Marble Canyon shows evidence of use by natives (The Timbsha-Shoshone) and more recent miners. Petroglyphs litter the lower narrows of the canyon and also are marks left by their modern counterparts telling directions and leaving evidence of past existence.
These lowest narrows (said to be the second narrows, which I don't personally agree with. The first narrows start from the time one exits the car just about up to the magnificent bathtub.) are not of Marble, and no marble can be found until the third narrows, much further up canyon. I find this canyon remarkable because it is one of those rare major canyons with no significant dry falls in the canyon bottom, excepting the unclimbable boulder jam just upstream of the bathtub. The third and fourth narrows are both made of marble, striped and banded. In the upper forks of the canyon lies Goldbelt, a gold and talc ghost town dating until as recently as the mid 50s. The story of Goldbelt will be covered in a later post most likely.

Butte Valley: Geologist Cabin

The Geologist's Cabin is one of the most picturesque and popular places in Death Valley. It was built in the 1930's, most believe by Asa Russell (of Russell's Camp Fame) or by a park Geologist. None are quite sure who built it, but the NPS Historic Resource Study tells that Russel built it according to his own word, so that is the law of the land. Russel built it in the 1930s and developed the spring below (Anvil Spring) in a stone-lined cistern and planted grapes there, which he claims to have had much success with. The spring is as flowing as it ever was, and the ground is quite muddy nearly all the way to the base of the cabin. The once-proud cottonwood tree is now dead and no more than a bare log sticking out of the verdant brush, but is quite photogenic when ravens perch on its scraggly limb.

The cabin itself is built of stone with two windows overlooking the expansive valley down below. It appears to have had three doors at different times, one of which contains the water system, another contains shelves and a small window. The cabin is frequented by off-roaders as an overnight stop and as a result the parking area has become dry rutted. In late 2013, the MIB (a cabin maintenance program, not a government agency) built a new outhouse above the cabin without the authority of the park service and of their own accord. Much controversy has been raised by various individuals and groups how in years future the septic plume could pollute the potable water below. Regardless of the outhouse, the Geologist Cabin will likely be a photogenic and comfortable spot for years to come.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Panorama from the outhouse