24
The Mojave Desert is the state’s greatest secret, all too often missed by travelers who zoom through it on the interstate highway. The desert is a harsh environment – Death Valley is one of the hottest places in the United States. But this dry region supports a surprising amount of plant life and for a few weeks each year, when the wildflowers appear amid the arid rocks, it becomes hauntingly beautiful.
The Mojave Desert was a year-round overland gateway to California for much of the 19th century.
Trappers, traders, and early settlers traveled hundreds of miles along the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe in New Mexico to Los Angeles. Passing through the towns of Barstow and Tecopa, the journey across the vast desert was both demanding and dangerous.
In the 1870s, gold, silver, borax, and various other precious minerals were discovered in the region, attracting large numbers of miners. Instant cities such as Calico sprang up, but when the mines became exhausted, many of the settlements were abandoned. In 1883 commercial mining became more viable when the Santa Fe Railroad was completed. Towns located along the route prospered, and the human population of the Mojave Desert increased.
In the early 20th century a new breed of desert lovers emerged. Jack Mitchell settled in the empty expanses of the East Mojave Desert in the 1930s and turned the spectacular Mitchell Caverns into a popular tourist destination. Death Valley Scotty was another desert enthusiast. He spent much of his life in a castle built in the 1920s by his friend, Albert Johnson, near the hottest and lowest point in the western hemisphere.
Death Valley National Parknow attracts thousands of visitors each year, who come to explore the area’s wealth of historical landmarks and impressive natural sights.
The main draw of the Mojave Desert region today, however, is Nevada’s Las Vegas, a five-hour drive from Los Angeles. This center of entertainment and gambling is proof that people are still trying to strike it rich in the desert.
