Ol' Saline's 1972 Travelall winching up Surprise Canyon
falls, Panamint Mountains, in the spring of 1976, long before
Death Valley was made a National Park, and most of the area was
closed to all motorized traffic, in spite of the fact that many
of these trails were over a 100 years old . Please note that at
that time Ol' Saline was just Saline
Yes, it did make it all the way to Panamint City!
Photos by Larry Angier.
Want Specifics About Some Death Valley Trails ?
Choose from the list of trails further down
Pictures of burned out Meyers Ranch in Goler Wash
Meyers Ranch is just
above Barker Ranch in Goler Wash. The ranch house (built of wood ties from the Searles Lake mono-rail), the guest house. and wood shed were completely burned. Spared and still standing are the caretaker's cabin and the garage. In Derek's pictures, you will see the rock swimming pool that sat under the now-burned Cottonwood trees.
These buildings are historic
for a number of reasons besides the fact that they were built
from the mono-rail that hauled Epsom Salts from Searles Lake over
the mountains. The Meyers operated the Wildrose Station (gas and
food) in my early days in Death Valley.Wanda and I ate some of
Mrs. Meyers chili on our first trip to Death Valley. Interestingly
enough, Wildrose Station which the Park Service never thought
belonged there, also burned. I don't remember the year of that
burning.
The above pictures are courtesy of
Derek Cooper of Ridgecrest
Many thanks to Derek for sharing them
with us
While
we're talking about Wildrose Station, here is a picture sent to
me by a Steve Sample who lived there as a boy and young man. He
is sitting by Seldom Seen Slim who had come up from Ballarat because
he was not well, and needed to get out of the heat, and probably
because he knew about Steve's family's cooking. Steve still marvels
at how much food Slim could eat. "Slim" is one of the
Panamint Valley legends and I've seen a lot of pictures of him,
but this one is unique as far as I am concerned. Thanks, Steve.
