For the next 23 years, after the 49ers had passed through Ash Meadows and met their disaster in Death Valley, the Amargosa Valley was forgotten and left to the natives. And they continued along in their secret paradise as they had always continued for at least a millennia prior.

But then along came two men, named George Wheeler and Charles King. George Wheeler was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, stationed in California. From1869 to 1871, he headed expeditions into Nevada, performing reconnaissance work. And his work must have impressed someone, because in 1872 he was appointed to head what became known as the Wheeler Survey.
The Wheeler Survey was a government plan to map the portion of the United States west of the 100th meridian. The mapping was to be topographical, at a scale of 8 miles to the inch. And along with this, Wheeler was tasked to discover the numbers, habits, and disposition of Indians, select sites for future military installations, note mineral resources, climate, geology, vegetation, water sources, and agricultural potential.
This survey, along with the surveys of Hayden, Powell, and Clarence King, helped open up the American West. In the wake of these surveys, mining, agriculture, and other industries were able to expand into the heretofore mysterious byways and alcoves of the West’s interior lands. And many Native Americans who had remained mostly undisturbed since the invasion of Europeans, found themselves pushed aside, and onto reservations.
Wheeler worked at his survey until 1879, when an act of Congress terminated his work, and that of Hayden, Powell, and Clarence King, which was also ongoing at the time. This act of Congress created the United States Geological Survey, which consolidated all the data from the different surveys.
But George Wheeler’s legacy lives on in the West. Wheeler Peak, in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park, was named after him. And so was Wheeler Peak, in New Mexico, which is the state’s highest point.
In 1871, shortly before Wheeler began his survey, he met and hired a man named Charles King. King had migrated to California in 1850, nursing a bad case of gold fever. He apparently didn’t find any gold, though, so he had to settle for odd jobs. He worked as a miner, merchant, lumberman, and sheriff, among other things.
Then in 1871, George Wheeler hired him to help out with the survey he was about to begin. This survey took King through the Ash Meadows area, and he was very impressed with all the springs, and vast acres of virgin grassland. He realized this would be a prime spot for ranching and farming.
He spread the word, and the secret of Ash Meadows got out. People seeking to make a living off the land, investigated this area, and between 1872 and 1879 several ranches and farms sprang up in the Amargosa Valley. Such agricultural endeavors require water, and this put the first major strains on the wetlands of Ash Meadows.
In the 1880s, lucrative minerals were being discovered in Death Valley and the surrounding area, and the mines that began pockmarking the landscape put additional strain on Ash Meadows. The mines had to transport their ore, and they needed supplies transported to them. Freight was moved along routes that stopped at every water hole, including Ash Meadows. And so merchants and other entrepreneurs established businesses at these water holes.
The Native Americans who had lived at Ash Meadows for at least a thousand years, soon found themselves crowded out by this new civilization. No longer could they live their old lifestyle. They either had to move onto a distant reservation, or go to work at a nearby mine, ranch, or farm. Some left and some stayed. But to this day, many of the descendants of those who stayed still reside in the area.
In 1890, a town named Lathrop Wells sprang up at a crossroads, about 15 miles north of Ash Meadows. Its name was later changed to Amargosa Valley, and it sits today at the junction of US Highway 95 and State Highway 373. There’s not much in Amargosa Valley; mainly just a gas station, restaurant, and the Cherry Patch II brothel, with a casino down the road at the California border. The population today is several hundred, and likely it’s never been much higher than that.
During the early 1900s, as the automobile began replacing the horse, the demand for oil and gasoline skyrocketed. Oil was discovered in Southern California, and with that came a need for clay. That’s because clay was used for filtering oil.
A huge deposit of clay was discovered in the Amargosa Valley, and a clay boom began. The first clay claim was staked in 1916. Within a year, six square miles of this desert valley was being dug up for the filtering substance. And by the late 1920s, 30,000 pounds of clay per year were being extracted from the desert floor, and shipped off to Southern California.
The clay boom lasted until 1940, when the last quarry was shut down. But the clay miners returned in the 1970s, with the founding of Industrial Mineral Ventures (IMV Nevada) in 1972. Since that time, the IMV has been mining and processing specialty clays on 10,000 acres of an approximate 46,000 acres of clay deposits.
This is the latest installation of my series, The Amazing Amargosa. Come on back in a few days for the next installation, entitled, Chapter 7, Part 1: The Gunslinger . Click here to read the previous installation. Click here, to start at the beginning.
Categories: History, Series (History): The Amazing Amargosa
makes you wonder if progress is worth it…
LikeLiked by 3 people
It does, but I think we’re stuck with it now. If we got rid of our modern infrastructure most of us would probably die.
LikeLiked by 4 people
as long as I could still have my iphone… 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s a must-have.
LikeLiked by 2 people
👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
It really is amazing how we survived so long without cell phones, isn’t it! 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
We were such a primitive people back then.
LikeLike
Still, if I have a chance, I’ll exchange my smartphone to go back and live in the past, not so far but maybe the 80s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You spelt Android wrong
LikeLiked by 2 people
But then my wife would agree with you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good point.
LikeLike
😄
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Smart choice to name it Armagosa Valley. Sounds better to me than Lathrop Well. 🙂
It is sad how the Native Americans had no say in their land being taken over. We were so greedy! I never had heard of a Clay Boom before!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Amargosa sounds poetic.
No the natives had no say. They should have hired a good lawyer. Perhaps a real estate attorney.
Yeah a clay boom is kind of unusual. And not nearly as exciting as a gold or silver boom.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It does. Oh yes, a real estate attorney may have made a difference!
I definitely would take gold or silver over clay. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s because you’re high maintenance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wrong!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah. Tell him to hush.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I did! He is in a deep hole now! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Throw me a rope, Vic!
LikeLike
With a rubber ducky! 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
I need a rope, Vic. Throw me a rope.
LikeLike
I can’t. I don’t have a rope and there are no females in the story. Plead your mercy to the writer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She has no mercy.
LikeLike
Talk nice to her.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I always do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL!😄
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh, boy…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Compelled a look on Google Maps’ satellite and topographic views. It’s possible to see the drainage into the Peterson Reservoir, with a nearby Christian camp. Crystal Reservoir just southeast… not clear on its drainage. A bit of agriculture to the northwest. And of course, there’s the usual settlement that pops up around a gambling establishment (and bar or brothel, depending upon one’s fortunes I guess), just over the state line. “Devil’s Hole”… interesting.
I also noticed that the “Welcome to Nevada” sign is noted as “Temporarily Closed”. Sounds about right.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I visited both reservoirs. You can easily see and reach water at the Crystal Reservoir, but all I could see at the Peterson Reservoir was a whole bunch of reeds.
When we were there in 2007, there was a brothel in Amargosa Valley called “Cherry Patch II.” I think it’s still there, but if so it’s no doubt shut down, due to Covid. I understand that Nevada’s sex workers are rather upset with the governor over this.
Devils Hole is part of Death Valley National Park, and home to the Devils Hole pupfish, a very rare and endangered piscine.
They’d better not shut down Nevada. It’s one of my favorite states.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m kind of partial to the state myself. Something satisfying about being able to thumb my nose at the border with the Homeless People’s Bureaucratic Republic of California.
I’ve never really explored that area… not even Death Valley. I know the Panamint Valley pretty well… but with the exception of Mount Charleston, that’s it for that far south and east.
I was wondering how much business a brothel someplace like Amargosa would get. They’re only legal in rural counties, very regulated, often just glorified trailer parks with security, and I understand there’s a tremendous amount of unofficial competition in tourist areas… Vegas, Reno, Tahoe… The nearest brothels to here are east about 50-miles, just past Carson City in Mound House. But everybody knows the local sex-workers here in town… even the police.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve lived out of state several times, but I always miss California and return to it. Lately, I’ve been reassessing such sentiment and have been looking a little more longingly to the borders of Nevada and Arizona. But we’re well settled here, so we’ll probably stay.
I’ve never been to Mount Charleston, but it’s on my bucket list. I hear it’s beautiful.
Some men will travel many miles for a piece of ass, even if they have to pay for it. I guess it’s just the nature of our gender. I read that there’s a controversy about the brothels being closed, because the sex workers are complaining of a double-standard. They point out that massage parlors are allowed to be open.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I like a lot of California as well, and it was a good place to grow up. But it’s nice to be able to leave when I’m done with the visits.
Nevada’s run by a rather entrenched and blatant, if somewhat amateurish good-‘ol-boy-system of kick-backs, favors, and guaranteed cushy jobs with benefits. Massage is a good example… A “legit” massage therapist has to be licensed by taking a bunch of courses with some state-approved (connected) school. Prostitutes, however, are exempt. (Maybe a more direct route to training and licensing?)
Regardless, unless you run afoul of someone important (or impotent?), nobody really seems to care.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nevada is mostly rural, too. I like the small-town mentality of self-reliance and responsibility.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I started an article on just that. With the recent deluge of urban California refugees, it’s made me realize how much living in such an environment requires some degree of common sense and self-sufficiency. And I’d consider this place a relative “suburb”.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That should be an interesting article. Some urbanites don’t do too well when trying to transplant to the sticks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Where’s my coffee shop?! There’s not enough restaurants! Wherever will I find Jimmy Chu shoes?!!!”
😆
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah, it’s so inconvenient living out here. How can anyone stand it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They leave their tyranny only to bring the same attitude to their new homes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Which hopefully they’ll get over, when nobody pays attention to them.
LikeLike
That hasn’t worked out well so far.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s too many sheep willing to be herded.
LikeLike
Amen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You just described every state in the union…though Nevada may still have some mob holdovers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Blasted governor – those workers ARE essential.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Damn straight.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m surprised the tyrant govs haven’t demanded people stop having sex altogether.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They allow it, but they recommend masks, and no heavy breathing.
LikeLike
With masks, there will be very little breathing. They never get to second base before they pass out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And then they are judged to have Covid-like symptoms, and must quarantine for two weeks.
LikeLike
The evil plan is complete. No more sex.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The ultimate population control.
LikeLike
Yep.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m enjoying your series. I’m a history buff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. I like history too. And it’s a resource we never seem to run out of.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow, I’m getting addicted to this story! Are you ever planning to compile the chapter and release it as a complete book? I’d love to read this in my kindle (or a paperback)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe one day. But it will be a short book. Only about 10,000 words.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, it’s not a matter of lenght. It’s how fun it is to read. I think made this fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. I agree.
LikeLiked by 1 person