“The Mystic Mid-Region” by Arthur J. Burdick is a travelogue about Southwest Deserts including the Great Mojave Desert (Death Valley), the Colorado Desert near Coachella, the Black Rock Desert (Nevada), Salt Lake in Utah, and many more. Excerpt: “Between the lofty ranges of mountains which mark the western boundary of the great Mississippi Valley and the chain of peaks known as the Coast Range, whose western sunny slopes look out over the waters of the placid Pacific, lies a vast stretch of country once known as the “Great American Desert.” A few years ago, before the railroad had pierced the fastness of the great West, explorers told of a vast waste of country devoid of water and useful vegetation, the depository of fields of alkali, beds of niter, mountains of borax, and plains of poison-impregnated sands. The bitter sage, the thorny cacti, and the gnarled mesquite were the tantalizing species of herbs said to abound in the region, and the centipede, the rattlesnake, tarantula, and Gila monster represented the life of this desolate territory.”
