Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 15, 1901, Page 17

Salt Field of the Southwest Left by a Flood NE OF the most curious pieces of clumps of salt and mud in this water, until real estate in existence is now the the earth is dissolved and then the crystal subject of a suit brought by the salt 1s stacked in conical pyramids to awal government to recover the pro tion to the mill erty It is a salt farm—1,000 acres It erystals do not dissolve during of solid salt, which is plowed and hoed and hilled up like so much earth. It lies in a depression, 264 feet below the level of the sea, in the midst of the great Colorado desert, just north of the Mexican line in the state of California, and the town which has grown up on its border tukes its name, Sal- ton, from the crystal deposit For many years salt has been taken from this district, but on a small tle. In 1802 temporary stoppage was put to the local in dustry by the werflow of tone cootado 1l ton sea In time the water receded, evapo ration followed, and there was left a re- siduum of almost pure crystal salt, a vista of unimaginable and almost unbearabl brilliance and beauty. From a distance the effect was that of a sheet of the pure snow, glittering in the sunlight; but when the first explorers ventured upon the newly formed crust they were unable to endure for long the fierce refraction of the light and fled blindly with aching eyeballs from that insufferable radiance. Equipped with colored glasses they returned and soon a company was working the richest salt crystal field in existence All that was necessary was to plow out the salt and grind it up salt plow wa devised and built. It Las four whecls and a heavy and powerful steel beak, or or and the motive power is steam. Then a grinding mill and drying plant was put up, a dummy line run up to connect with the . Southern Pacific railroad, and the work of taking out five and a half tons daily at transno The s the washing, doubtlh quantity of saline already in the water No sooner has the plow gone over the field than the crust begins to form again; therefore it would seem that the salt fiell of Salton are inexhaustible I'he e s allowed to remain in the pyramids unti complete evaporation of all water take place, when it is transferred to the tlatear and carried to the mills at Salton e factory is a structure about 600 feet in fength and cousists of a milling and dryin plant When the salt arrives at the mi It {8 thrown into a bulkhead breaker and reduced to uniform particle which are run through a burrmill and thoroughl sround. There an almost imperceptible portion of carbonate of soda mixed with *h native salt and this stmply aids o the cleansing process. When thoroughly ground the salt s sifted like flour through bolt ing cloth, put through an aspirator, which removes all foreign substances and s then ready to sack Aside from the refined or domestic salt there are tons and tons o hide salt shipped annuelly from Salton, Th grade is only sold for commercial and n dustrial purposes The most delightful thme to visit th crystal lake is upon a moonlight night I'he spectacle I8 magnificent, but weird I'he rows of glistening pyramids, the ot ter of the moonlight from the facets of millions of crystals, the distant back pround of low, black hills, the expanse and stillness of the shadowless plain, strike on on account of the river, forming what was known as the iker from §6 to a ton began., The great dif with awe and wonder that can never be (o ficulty, however, was to get labor. Probably GATHERING THE SALT ON THE GREAT SALT FIELD polten vowhere else on the earth's surface do men Last December the United States land work under such terrific conditions of tem office vnearthed some records which seemaed perature as at the Salton salt farm. The who seem to endure th rigors of the with the darkest of spectacles, and even so from one to eizht inche It forms in a to indicate that the salt furm compiny normal heat of the Colorado desert, which ¢limate without evil efficets, To watch the they are often laid off with optic inflam- crust end the plow breaks thi Ut covering had no right or title to the valuable proy is such that few white men can live in that Steady, stoic performance of the red-skinned matton. In addition to the other discom- by throwing a broad but shallow furrow erty it {8 now working. Owing to the pe reglon, is enormously increased by the re toiler as he hoe ghovels and scrapes the forts of the Ut fields the flying particles of salt lumps up in parallel lges on culiar geographical condition onsequent fracted and reflected rays of the sun. For Held, or operates the engine that propels th generate a poeuliarly freitating and persi cither side of the machine, Here and there upon the overflow of the river formineg the weeks at a time the temperature of the plow, is to appreciate the qualities of th tent thirst I'he workers drink great quan underlying the crystal plain are springs of Salton sea and the " quent subsiden field reaches 140 degrees every day. Under Indian as a worker under the most trying tities of water, and this serves as a safe- water. When the crust is broken the and disappearance of the sea, the lega these conditions, of course, no white man conditions. Some of the Indian laborers guard against sunstroke. as it keeps them springs seep forth thelr dirt brackish points involved are quite intricate. Th can work. The salt plowing is done by ¢ven work without glasscs: but all the Japs perspiring freely ¢ and the Indlan lads follow the plow case will probably come up soon for adin Japanese and Indians, mainly the latter, irotect their eves from the baneful glare The deposit of salt vartes 1 thickness with hoe in hand, knocking to and fro vhe dication SO PORRBE PARTIAL VIEW OF THE GRAND STAND DURING A RACE AT THE STATE FAIR AT LINCOLN--Photographed by a Staff Artlst. How the America’s Cup Has Been Defended (Capyright, 1o, by William E. Simmons) My Ashbury challenged for the following York Yacht club, Commadore “Jack™ Wa modore William 1. Douglas of the New Yacht club built the Atlantic from design N VIEW of the effort and money ex- year, 1871, but objected to the principle of Vice Commodore James D. Smith and Rear York Yacht club. The Puritan, a wooden by “Phil" sworth, who had designed the pended in recent years on the defense (efensc en masse, stipulated for seven Commodore Herman Oclrichs, employed a boat and a radical departure from the ex- schooner Comet and other fase yachts. The of the America’s cup, it seems strange paces instead of one, and insisted on racing rule-of-thumb designer, a oman of skill, but isting type, was built by Edward Burgess, Mayflower completely outelassed its rival that in the earlier contests for the against a single defender. While appar- nvot of scientific training, named Kirby, who then unknown outside of Boston, for Com- and forever relegated the old type racing trophy no one should have deemed it ently acceding to his terms, the committee had built the Madeleine and the fifty-foor modore J. Malcolm Forbes, General Charles models to obscurity expedient to build a yacht for the specific designated four schooners to appear at the sloop Arrow, which beat everything in its J. Paine and others of the Eastern Yacht purpose of beating the challenger line each day, from which a defender could class, to build the Pocahontas on the lines club The Puritan came in for lively The famous schooner America, which so be chozen according to the nature of th» of the latter. But the Pocahontas was a criticism from New York yachtsmen when in the first weather, His objection to that proceeding flat failure. The Gracie and the Miscl it joincd the club's cruise at New London not built was regarded as little short of imperti- beat it on every point of sailing. The latter and the run to Newport next day scemed as a racing yacht Even ¢ as thirty nence; an acrimonious controversy followed Wa chosen to defend the cup, hut the se to show that the Priscilla was the better years ago yachts were not ccially built J_Ah'l he l"‘lv' d from n.m.y.:.n.m..] yach ing |"v"IHll '.}.A‘l critici _”l !wwufllv\v.‘ its j:\\l\ r bhoat. Two days later, however, the »"\lll flc purpose, selected to defend the cup. to defend the cup; vet the Ameriean yachig- forever. His death in London, in com- “as an Englishman .m‘l‘ lhwvl.l.nv«.u- was be- tan showed its heels and proved its fitness The Mayflo was no match for her, nor men of those days were lacking in neither parative obscurity and poverty, was an- lieved to be the better boat. The own for the post of honor. wis that year's challenger, the Thistl enthusiasm, enterprise nor means. Per- nounced on the morning of Neptember 10, Of ‘!"' Gracie, Charles R. Flint and Josenn Mr. Beavor-Webb, the designer of the “: foraitho iast ot Ihl1 first S an: .”“ Thistle haps they rested secure in the convietion 1895, the day of the second race between 1. Farle, put it in the contest. and, sulling Gapesta, and the latter's skipper, Captain cypered about the Hne with the fipat'en of the all-around superiority of Amervican the Defender and Valkyrle 11T; a race that @ leeward race, beat the Mischief hand- oqpter, watched this race from the bridge ‘,‘, a ,,“,,4 horse, while the \,,l,m,',:“,”,”,, yvachts; perhap again, it was ecnfilinee produced another controversy even mor omely in the first encounter, the Atalanta g the flagship At nna af the a ri ) p MOSt €X- Jika a beast of burden. A wail of di - ey bt i a bes ail of disap in numbers, for in the first match for the lengthy and acrimonious being almost out of sight astern citing stages of the contest the e ; : SKIDDET pointment escaped from the anxious specta cup sailed in American water the v In the third and last schooner race for the I'he pitiable failure of the Atalanta war was seen to whisper something to the de- 4,00 “\What's the matter with the Volun York Yacht club pitted its entire fleet of cup in 1876 a single defender was required Fanted the authorities of the New York signer. After the match had been decided teer? asked an alarmed patriot of his schooners against the challenger, Mr. by the terms of the challenge, and the Yacht club in protecting themselves from Mr, Beavor-Webb was asked one night at :um)mnl:m T e vy James Ashbury's “Cambria,” and many of Madeleine was named to meet the Countess ANy further fiascoes from that quarter. The the New York Yacht club by one who had . Im.r' "I’mn'l you see her head ‘H il the twenty-five Yankees beat the Britdsh of Dufferin. Gencral Benjamin Butler sail . Cup was accordingly returned to Mr. George noticed the occurrence what Captain Car are ;rlmln\-ll to windw ll': Wi “l ' boat badly. This race was notable in yaeht- tho America in a leeward race and beat the I« Schuyler, the surviving donor, who re- ter had saild. The designer replied with a start was giver { her l‘il MI« 'I ll-\ : :.l ing annals chiefly for the reappearance of Madeleine to windward, but was beaten on Committed it with an amended deed of gift, faint smile: “He said he wished the tree .rr‘:‘ ‘n-rl : .x |‘4! ; -Ilt |. n‘lll + :".{'I 'l‘I';: ) “the original cup winner, America, which, the run home. WHe, however, beat the chal- Festricting the right of challenge to vacht that furnished the timbers for the Puritan ’]l'l ll.'” i ‘Al ; H’H:.) -‘:l:Al e “I)l 5 after twenty years of a varied carecpr as a lenger by nearly half an hour clubs located on or near the ocean had never grown." Aflv:r "H‘:-l race l;\1 = l!’ 'II \‘:‘l"- A mj‘:', trader, a blockade runner and a tratninz The first boat built for a defender was ‘he The challenge of the Genesta brought General Paine built the Mayflower in 1886 '\ . uf‘ he d’l";nlsv‘lnr‘ ||.£\'~‘X\' ‘{l’“ I“l”n‘.“-‘l.lu.: vessel of the navy, was put in racing trim Slcop Pocahontas. In 1881 the Ray of Quinte forth two new cup defender candidates in trom Burgess' designs to meet the Galatea, ter that he c lll ) t g 't : at & cost of $25.000, and fnished in fourth Yacht club (Canada) challenged for the 1885. The Priscilla, an iron boat, was bullt and another and last attempt was made POT'CT that ho could not account for the place. This was really the first step taken loop Atalanta, about eighty feet on the from A, Cary Smith's designs for Commo- with the rule-of-thumb model. Latham A in the direction of building a cup dcfender. Water line. The flag officers of the New dore James Gordon Bennett and Vice Com- Fish and other members of the Atlantic (Continued on Seventh Page It has been generally supposed that th Volunteer, bullt in 1887, was a distinetively Burgess boat, but Mr. Burgees has told the | Paine’s design as his She was of gleel and the firet metal boat, built for the speci scundly beat the British bog writer that she was as much Gener of the international race