Death Valley

As my hobby is collecting Lost ships in the Colorado desert legends,
tales etc.
& writing a background to how the legends grew and changed with each
decade.

I'd like to add in my two bits.
on why there are people who believe

drake traveled up the pacific coast
he never went up the sea of cortez/gulf of california.

the area was never well surveyed by the spanish. until the 1700's
when Father kino explored the primavera area (colorado river, east side
of the gulf of california) The spanish were debating if california
was an Island or attached to the mainland.
The Camino del Diablo or devil's road
only existed on the arizona side of the river.
Kino also never crossed the river into california. the lake is
thought to have evaporated by the time he was in yuma anyway.

Later Anza led two expeditions to open the california land route to
missionaries but Hostile Indians were sucessful in closing them.
Until the age of automobiles
travelers were very limited to the distance between watering holes.
most of the desert is not a flat plain.
esp near signal mountain
which the spanish named
Cerro del Imposible because although it could be seen from a long
distance it
was almost impossible to go to.

as an example of how difficult the river itself was to map.
the last british explorer of the colorado before The americans arrival
was Lt. Hardy. Of his map of the Colorado and Gila rivers he got it
wrong. what he thought was the Gila was the Colorado
and his Colorado was in fact the azule river (Azule spanish for blue)
the Azule is now named the Hardy.

The americans after mapping the river
abandoned their steamship. it was found again in the 1930s some thirty
miles from the current location of the colorado. this ship certainly
could be the source of some of the stories.

the americans didn't map very well either. when the Imperial valley
area of california was being settled circa 1900
the first so called goverment surveyors
apparently did most of their work from a bar in the coastal city of san
diego.
it caused a decade or more of land wars in the area.

part of the legend has the ship on or near the land of a pioneer
rancher who cut up the wood to build fences with.
(the rest was said to have been used as firewood)


The problem with that theory is the area was rather well surveyed
and explored by both the original Spanish settlers and the later
Anglos as well as Drake on his trip up the coast.[/color]




The early Spanish missionary route was El Camino del Diablo,
across southern Arizona from Tucson fairly close to what is now
the border to Yuma and then west to San Diego and north to
Whiteriver.

The river was also rather well charted as it was the main
access to southern california and Arizona with steamer
service throughout the latter half of the 19th century.

Now the current Salton sea has been around for a century,
which indicates any earlier precursor could have lasted
at least as long.

To be fair, here, the Salton Sea survives because it is
replenished by irrigation runoff and sumpage.

I see no reason to assume that ALL of these folks failed
to spot an evaporating sea or a stranded ship.

There's that.

Oh, and California had a lot of cameras. E.g., Edwaerd Muybridge.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * [/b]


--
isayhello2u
------------------------------------------------------------------------
isayhello2u's Profile: 566
View this thread: 143627

As my hobby is collecting Lost ships in the Colorado desert legends,
tales etc.
& writing a background to how the legends grew and changed with each
decade.

I'd like to add in my two bits.
on why there are people who believe

drake traveled up the pacific coast
he never went up the sea of cortez/gulf of california.

the area was never well surveyed by the spanish. until the 1700's
when Father kino explored the primavera area (colorado river, east side
of the gulf of california) The spanish were debating if california
was an Island or attached to the mainland.
The Camino del Diablo or devil's road
only existed on the arizona side of the river.
Kino also never crossed the river into california. the lake is
thought to have evaporated by the time he was in yuma anyway.

Later Anza led two expeditions to open the california land route to
missionaries but Hostile Indians were sucessful in closing them.
Until the age of automobiles
travelers were very limited to the distance between watering holes.
most of the desert is not a flat plain.
esp near signal mountain
which the spanish named
Cerro del Imposible because although it could be seen from a long
distance it
was almost impossible to go to.

as an example of how difficult the river itself was to map.
the last british explorer of the colorado before The americans arrival
was Lt. Hardy. Of his map of the Colorado and Gila rivers he got it
wrong. what he thought was the Gila was the Colorado
and his Colorado was in fact the azule river (Azule spanish for blue)
the Azule is now named the Hardy.

The americans after mapping the river
abandoned their steamship. it was found again in the 1930s some thirty
miles from the current location of the colorado. this ship certainly
could be the source of some of the stories.

the americans didn't map very well either. when the Imperial valley
area of california was being settled circa 1900
the first so called goverment surveyors
apparently did most of their work from a bar in the coastal city of san
diego.
it caused a decade or more of land wars in the area.

part of the legend has the ship on or near the land of a pioneer
rancher who cut up the wood to build fences with.
(the rest was said to have been used as firewood)


The problem with that theory is the area was rather well surveyed
and explored by both the original Spanish settlers and the later
Anglos as well as Drake on his trip up the coast.[/color]




The early Spanish missionary route was El Camino del Diablo,
across southern Arizona from Tucson fairly close to what is now
the border to Yuma and then west to San Diego and north to
Whiteriver.

The river was also rather well charted as it was the main
access to southern california and Arizona with steamer
service throughout the latter half of the 19th century.

Now the current Salton sea has been around for a century,
which indicates any earlier precursor could have lasted
at least as long.

To be fair, here, the Salton Sea survives because it is
replenished by irrigation runoff and sumpage.

I see no reason to assume that ALL of these folks failed
to spot an evaporating sea or a stranded ship.

There's that.

Oh, and California had a lot of cameras. E.g., Edwaerd Muybridge.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * [/b]


--
isayhello2u
------------------------------------------------------------------------
isayhello2u's Profile: 566
View this thread: 143627