Tag Archives: “Death Valley in ’49”

    Now is not the time to explore Death Valley landscape. On Sunday August 16, 2020 Death Valley registered a temperature of 130 degrees, Fahrenheit making it the hottest place on earth. But it’s been hotter. In 1913 Death Valley registered a temperature of 134 degrees. William Lewis Manly At times like these, I  Continue Reading »

Building a border wall between Mexico and the United States is a hot subject these days. Some people regard the border as the beginning of the illegal immigrant trail into the U.S. But actually, the border is the end of a long trail for would-be illegal immigrants, I recently discovered. Most have traveled along the  Continue Reading »

The gold came from the California gold fields in 1857 – an accumulation of 30,000 pounds of gold, worth today over 633 million dollars. The gold was owned by many different people, who carried it, individually, in person, down the California and Mexican coasts from San Francisco to Panama. After that, the gold was carried  Continue Reading »

I ate a convicted murderers final meal last week in San Francisco. A final meal if it were 1850. The dish is called a “Hang Town Fry,” and it was demanded by criminals about to be put to death in Hang Town, known today as Placerville, California. Since a man about to be hung was  Continue Reading »

My car’s temperature gauge was heating dangerously as I pulled to the side of the road just outside Death Valley some years ago. Ahead of us was the endless desert to the horizon. There was nothing there but us.

With all the discussion of global warming, a reasonable question to ask is how hot does the world get and where was the record hot spot for all, time. One might  think that the hot spot was in the Middle East or Africa but after some questioning and debate, the World Meteorological Organization has now proclaimed the  Continue Reading »