Copy for sale here is literally a
museum piece, in good condition!

Book meant the difference between life and death for travelers

Includes two huge separate antique maps in nice condition

Detail of big separate map with book shows Palm Springs as a flyspeck in the middle of nowhere. Red dots are springs and wells. Note that train travelers to Palm Springs still had miles to go once they left train at Palm Springs Station. They had to backtrack up Whitewater–Palm Springs Station Road to reach the "real" Palm Springs.

Without this book in your car or in your horse's saddlebag, you very well could die a horrible death from thirst in California's unforgiving desert wasteland.

Signs are erected in photo from book.

This is absolutely NO exaggeration. Before this unassuming little book, there was no way to know the location of your next reliable water source, literally the difference between life and death. EVERY desert traveler had one, making it one of the most popular government guide books ever printed for California. They literally flew off the shelves; booksellers couldn't keep them in stock.

The copy here is not some cheesy reprint; it is the bonafide REAL first edition, the same version early desert travelers would have bet their lives on. And it's in good shape, except for some minorish water wrinkling and discoloration-stains. But still a nice copy. Most of these are in tatters and missing maps. This one has all four original big maps. (See "The Book" section at ad's end for more details.)

Desert death sentence
Today, it's hard to believe that the area south from Palm Springs to the Mexican border was once a dangerous desert wasteland. This was the first book to pinpoint life-giving water holes. Without these sparse water sources, travelers could — and did — die of thirst.

This 1920 historic report was the first comprehensive guide ever published on water holes in this section of California desert. Much information in this book came from the first reliable maps (surveyed in 1916–1917) of the California desert — at the time, some of America's most-deadly and mysterious wilderness.

Impossible
to find
In 15+ years of buying and selling books on ebay, I have seen three of these for sale, ALL with missing maps, and ALL looked like they had been dragged behind a car for 20 miles. The copy for sale here, a copy that you could own, is in better shape than copies I have seen in world-renowned book collections.

Except for some minor water-damage issues and toning/browning, this one is in good shape. In fact, most of the interior pages are in very good condition. These books were printed to be used and were used until they literally fell apart. Think about the condition of your Thomas Brothers map book, the one with all the pages torn out from years of use; the one stuffed under your car's driver seat. These desert-water-hole books were subjected to that kind of wear and even worse. So finding one in even halfway-decent condition is difficult enough. To find one like this is uncommonly rare.

Wise investment
And don't forget the investment side of buying this report. Fifteen years ago, it was 20 bucks. Now their worth is 20 or 25 TIMES that 20 bucks. Fifteen years from now, I would bet that these are up in the $1000 range or more.

So buy it now or forever hold your peace. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Borego Spring wasn't a tourist hot spot in 1920: It was a cattle trough in a clump of trees. "Good water in barrel buried in the center of the bushes." Yum!!

Death
without
water
When this book was written, there were no Palm Springs resorts, no air-conditioned McDonalds in Indio, and no Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Palm Desert. Matter of fact, there wasn't even a Palm Desert — or Rancho Mirage or Thousand Palms for that matter. This entire area was a place best avoided, not a tourist mecca, but a tourist hell. You didn't go here unless you had to:

"Travel in the remote parts of this region has been a precarious and sometimes dangerous undertaking . . More fatalities and hardships result at present from the failure of automobilists to know the road or to take a little food or an extra supply of water than from any other cause . . . Mining is practically the only business that attracts travel away from the main roads . . . An accident in the midst of a lonely waste may leave a party stranded without help for days or until it is possible to walk to civilization."

Original 1920 edition
Again, this book is not a reprint, but the original 1920 first edition. (Surveyed in 1916–1917, World War I delayed publishing of the report.) The large foldout maps and the book contents are in good condition, considering their age and considering what many of these fragile books went through, taken along on trips across the desert, stuffed in a Model T glovebox or in a burro saddlebag, always within reach, in case a prospector wanted to check which water hole he could reach before sundown, hopefully a water hole that had potable water.

Yes, cheesy illegal Chinese and Indian reprints of some early USGS books are popping up, but they all lack the oversize maps. Without the maps — a key component of these books — the reprints are absolutely worthless. Besides the page printing looking like a 1968 Xerox machine, which probably isn't far from the truth.

Most area roads are nothing more than a set of wheel ruts.

Beautiful maps
The two oversize maps are arguably the real prizes here. They would look great framed. They're handsome examples of vintage cartography with pleasing colors and nicely executed calligraphy; they just don't make 'em like this any more.

They're BIG: One is about 18 by 26 inches; the other is 30 by 18 inches. Besides some slight yellowing and a few VERY minor crease tears, these maps are in very good shape, some of the best I have seen.

Of course, the maps show many features and towns that no longer exist in the Salton Sea area. More importantly, it's what they don't show that's important: There's very little to be seen except undeveloped raw desert. The contrast between these maps and modern Auto Club map is truly amazing.

Covers 10,000 square miles
The report covers the southeast corner of California, about 100 miles square or 10,000 square miles. On the south is the Mexican border, to the east is the Colorado River; northern Riverside County is to the north. In other words it covers the most arid parts of Imperial, San Diego and Riverside counties (see map below).

Not only does the book and maps locate describe many, many major watering places, the book also prepares travelers for the hardships and dangers of a region new to many of them, with a sections on hints on desert traveling: where to find hay and grain.

Map from report show the area covered: Salton Sea near the center; Mexican border to the south. Colorado River is to the east. Palm Springs is in the very upper left.

Clogged with the bodies of dead animals
And when you do get to a spring: "The usual watering places are springs or wells. Springs are frequently clogged with gravel or rubbish or sometimes even with the bodies of dead animals, and it may be necessary to clean them out. For this work a shovel is needed. Wells may or may not be equipped with pumps. Frequently the pumps are broken or useless, and a rope and bucket are then necessary to obtain water. As a rule, the rope and bucket at a well, if they were ever provided, soon disappear, and one should never trust the chance of finding them there."

Many popular routes across desert described
Water — sometimes even more than terrain — dictated the most popular routes of travel across California desert in the early 20th century, and this book describes the most popular (and safest) routes to take, depending on where you were going, of course.

Tiny detail of oversized foldout map from book. Note that no water was available in Thermal!!

Because water holes and springs were as important as the desert routes themselves, the list in the book reads like a crash course in California history. Some watering places spawned boomtowns; famous gunfights and manhunts centered around others. Some springs still exist; some have literally dried up and blown away. Names have changed, or ones that were nameless now have names. The authors often describe what the water hole looked like back in 1920 and what geology contributed to the water being there. Here are just a few of the watering places:

• Mohave Tank — in the canyon on the north edge of the Little Maria Mountains. "When visited in October 1917, a pool of water 12 to 15 feet in diameter and two to three feet deep stood in the little basin. Natives say that it has never been known to be completely dry. The tank is a favorite watering place for mountain sheep and other wild animals."
• San Felipe Creek — about a mile north of Kane Spring, "San Felipe Creek usually has a considerable surface flow. The water is exceedingly bitter, and an analysis indicates that it is unfit for human use."
• Stubby Spring — near the summit of the Little San Bernardino Mountains. "A trail once led south to Indio past a place called Thousand Palms Canyon but is now impassable. The spring is said to yield about a miner's inch of good water and is always reliable."
• Tumco — formerly known as Hedges, "an abandoned mining camp in the west edge of the Cargo Muchacho Range, about four miles north of Ogilby. In 1918, the place was a 'ghost city' and no water was obtainable."
• Palm Springs, Twenty-nine Palms, Warren Ranch, Westmoreland, Whitewater River, Seventeen Palms, Mecca, Shaver Well, Smuggler Spring.
• Agua Dulce — "An artesian spring of the Figtree John and Fish springs variety. It was once an important watering place but is now supplanted by the artesian wells of neighboring ranches."
• Clark well — north side of Clark Dry Lake: "Ground water was obtainable at shallow depth by digging. The water is said to be good."
• Hidden Spring — "An excellent but very little known water hole in the eastern part of the Mecca Hills, reached by following the burro trail to Burnt Palms."
• And many, many more.

The book:
Routes to Desert Watering Places in the Salton Sea Region, California (cover at right), Water Supply Paper 490-A, 1920, by John S. Brown, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 86 pages, first edition, six by nine inches.

Condition is good, except for some slight chipping to the spine (very common in these books); slightly bumped corners; maps are present and in solid good shape, not at all crumbly and chippy, which can be a problem with these books because of brittle cheap paper originally used.

There is some damp staining and rippling throughout, but it sounds worse than it is. I can't stress how uncommon it is to find one literally not in pieces. Toning on maps and some pages (standard). Pages are supple. Binding is holding.

You would be hard pressed to ever find one in better shape with all the maps. Honest. No baloney. You could look for years and never find a better one at a better price.

The large maps (see details throughout the ad) are in good shape -- very very little fold wear with some slight water issues. All maps show some yellowing, which is unavoidable because of the poor-quality paper used. But still, you could search years for a copy with maps in better shape.

As always, I am extremely conservative about rating book condition and very detailed in listing any potential flaw, no matter how slight. You get what you pay for. If you want a book filled with damage that the seller just "somehow forgot" to tell you about in his ad — then look elsewhere on ebay.

Payment methods and domestic shipping
Paypal only. I pride myself on bulletproof packaging and ship in sturdy cardboard boxes.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the item or terms of sale. Do not wait until after you buy the book to ask if it lists Dead Rat Spring in front of Great Aunt Mabel's boarding house in Indio (it doesn't).

I post feedback once a week. Not responsible for typographical errors.

Good luck and thanks for looking!

Larger section of one map shows scarcity of springs (red dots) and lack of roads back in 1920. Most of these roads were not paved, according to the book.

Where are Riverside, San Diego and Imperial counties?
Riverside County is in southeastern California, bounded on the east by Arizona; on the south by San Diego and Imperial counties; on the west by Orange County; and on the north by San Bernardino County. Nearby counties include Santa Barbara, Kern, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Kings, Tulare and Inyo.

Riverside County cities and towns covered include: Aguanga, Anza, Banning, Beaumont, Bermuda Dunes, Blythe, Cathedral City, Coachella, Corona, Desert Center, Desert Hot Springs, Hemet, Highgrove, Idyllwild, Indio, La Quinta, Lake Elsinore, Mecca, Menifee, Menifeey, Mira Loma, Moreno, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Murrietta, Norco, Nuevo, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Perris, Rancho Mirage, Riverside, Romoland, Salton City, San Jacinto, Sunnymead, Temecula, Thermal, Thousand Palms, Wildomar and Winchester.

Cities and towns in Imperial County include: Bard, Imperial, Bombay Beach, Niland, Brawley, Ocotillo, Calexico, Palo Verde, Calipatria, Plaster City, El Centro, Salton City, Felicity, Seeley, Heber, Westmorland, Holtville and Winterhaven.

Towns and cities in San Diego County include (some of these have mines or mining districts nearby): Alpine, Arcata, Bonita, Bonsall, Borrego Springs, Boulevard, Campo, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado Del Mar, Descanso, El Cajon, Encinitas, Escondido, Fallbrook, Imperial Beach, Jacumba, Jamul, Julian, La Jolla, La Mesa, Lakeside, Lemon Grove, National City, Oceanside, Pala, Palomar Mountain, Pauma Valley, Pine Valley, Potrero, Poway, Ramona, Rancho Santa Fe, San Clemente, San Diego, San Marcos, San Ysidro, Santa Ysabel, Santee, Solana Beach, Spring Valley, Tecate, Valley Center, Vista. Warner Spring, Warner Springs.