Death Valley Conferences on History and Prehistory
The purpose of the conferences is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of original research on the history and prehistory of Death Valley and its surrounding region, and to disseminate that research through published papers.
Volume Titles to date are:
Proceedings: First Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 1987. Jean Johnson ed., (out of print as of 2006). 1st ed. Death Valley, CA: Death Valley Natural History Association.
Proceedings: Second Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 1988. Jean Johnson ed., (out of print as of 2006). 1st ed. Death Valley, CA: Death Valley Natural History Association.
Proceedings: Third Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 1991. James
Pisarowicz ed., (out of print as of 2006). 1st ed. Death Valley, CA: Death Valley Natural History Association.
Proceedings: Fourth Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 1995. Jean Johnson ed., Bishop, CA: Community Printing and Publishing.
Proceedings: Fifth Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 1999. Jean Johnson ed., Bishop, CA: Community Printing and Publishing.
Death Valley History Revealed: Proceedings: Sixth Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 2002. Jean Johnson ed., Bishop, CA: Community Printing and Publishing.
Nuggets and Snippets of Death Valley History: Proceedings: Seventh Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 2005. Jean Johnson ed., Bishop, CA: Community Printing and Publishing.
Proceedings: Eighth Death Valley Conference on History and Prehistory. 2008. Ken Lengner ed., Death Valley, CA: Death Valley ’49ers Inc.
Copies of Vol. 4-7 are available from Community Press at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., (760) 873-3049, 187 W Line St., Bishop CA 93514. Copies of Vol. 4-8 are available from Death Valley Natural History Association (DVNHA) at 1-800-478-8564 ext 10.
General categories: M=Mining, P=people or person, R=railroads, 49rs=DV 1849ers, EH= other early history , NH=natural history, I=Indians, NPS=DV National Park, O=other
*=“Snippets,” very short papers.
(Titles beginning with “A” or “The” are listed by the next word.)
Title Author vol. category
Industrial Archaeology Of Keane Wonder’s Historic Mining Landscape | Archimede, Gianfranco | 6th | M |
Silver Mills And Mining Scams In Death Valley Country: An Archaeological Perspective From Reilly | Barnes, James | 6th | M |
Water, Water Everywhere | Bemis, Lorry | 2nd | NH |
Dangers Of The Land | Bentel, Dwight | 3rd | P |
When Field Studies In Natural History Goes To Death Valley | Bentel, Dwight | 3rd | P |
Published On The Brink Of Hell: Newspapers And Newspapermen Of The Death Valley Area | Brigandi, Phil | 4th | M |
Startling The Uninitiated: The Death Valley Chuck-Walla And Its Editors | Brigandi, Phil | 2nd | M |
Padre Of Death Valley: Father John J. Crowley, 1891-1940 | Brooks, Joan | 5th | |
Death Valley Rambler, The | Brooks, Joan and Judy Palmer | 7th | P |
An Unraveling Mystery: The Chinaman Of China Ranch | Brown, Brian | 6th | P |
China Ranch: Its Place In History | Brown, Brian | 2nd | EH |
Long Man: “Dad” Fairbanks | Brown, Brian | 3rd | P |
Albert Johnson’s Pursuit Of A Death Valley Dominion | Buchel, Susan J. | 1st | P |
Camp, Community, And Village: Three Farewells To Manzanar | Burton, Jeff | 4th | NPS |
Borax Baby Gauge Railroad, The | Chappell, Gordon | 6th | R |
Carson & Colorado Railroad And Proposed Death Valley Extension | Chappell, Gordon | 7th | R |
First Ryan: A Borate Mining Camp Of The Amargosa | Chappell, Gordon | 4th | M |
Mining Camp Of Borate And The Borate & Daggett Railroad 1890-1907, The | Chappell, Gordon | 5th | M |
To Death Valley By Rail: A Brief History Of The Death Valley Railroad | Chappell, Gordon | 3rd | R |
Hauling Potash: Ultimate Fate of DV RailRoad | Chappell, Gordon S. | 8th | R |
Wreck at English’s Switch* | Chappell, Gordon S. | 8th | R |
Looking for Color: a Prospector’s Life in DV | Clapp, Nicholas | 8th | |
Ethnic History Of Death Valley | Coughlin, Kari | 5th | P |
Newspaper Accounts Of Death And Daring* | Coughlin, Kari | 7th | M |
Ralph P. Merritt: Knight Errant In The 21st Century | Coughlin, Kari | 7th | P |
Rhyolite: State Of The Ruins Address | Coughlin, Kari | 4th | M |
Where Is The Confidence Mine? | Crowe, Richard | 2nd | M |
Sourdough Pancakes And Fried Burro Liver: The Myers Of Goler Wash And Carl Mengel Of Butte Valley | Crowe, Richard D. | 4th | P |
Search For The Bullfrog Wild Pea, The | DeDecker, Mary | 1st | NH |
Morality Playing In A National Monument | Dwyer, Richard | 1st | O |
Pioneer Boom: Paradigm For Death Valley’s Twentieth-Century Mining Camps | Earl, Phillip | 7th | M |
C.C. Julian And The Great Leadfield Swindle: Death Valley’s Last Mining Rush | Earl, Phillip I. | 6th | P |
Occupied Goldfield, Dec 1907-April 1908 | Earl, Phillip I. | 8th | |
Bullfrog County: Another Desert Dream | Earl, Phillip L | 1st | M |
Pat Reddy: Defender Of The Downtrodden | Earl, Phillip L. | 4th | P |
Borax: More than Death Valley | Fairchild, James | 8th | M |
Death Valley Memories: What I Learned About Oral Histories For Making Films | Faye, Ted | 4th | P |
Of Myths And Men: Separating Fact From Fiction In The Twenty-Mule Team Story | Faye, Ted | 5th | M |
Diamond Tooth Lil: The Secret Of Her Success | Flinchum, Robin | 7th | P |
Miss Bess Davis In Death Valley Junction: Having The Time Of Her Life | Flinchum, Robin | 6th | P |
Weather In Death Valley, March 7–14, 1861, The | Follansbee, Lewis A. | 1st | EH |
Solid Gold: The Porter Mine | Harder, Emmett | 7th | M |
Death Valley Stage Coach Lines: 1872-1910 | Harding, Shirley | 6th | EH |
Matt Ryan, Dynamic Ranger Of Emigrant Station | Harding, Shirley | 5th | |
Bonanza Days At Resting Spring | Hensher, Alan | 2nd | EH |
Peek Behind The Lace Curtains: The Social Lives Of Death Valleys Boom Towns, A | Hensher, Alan | 1st | O |
Oral History Of George Ishmael: Pioneer Of Death Valley And The Amargosa | Holloway, Winona J. | 4th | P |
Original Walker Pass, The | Horst, Bill | 4th | M |
Richard Harper Stretch: Great Basin Portion Of His Autobiography | Hoshide, Robert | 5th | |
Mississippi Boys: 1849-50, The | Hoshide, Robert Kenn | 4th | 49rs |
Legislative History Of The Future Of California Desert | Johnson, Frederic | 2nd | M |
Origin Of Death Valley’s Lost Wagon Train?* | Johnson, Jean | 7th | 49rs |
J.R.N. Owen: Frontier Doctor And Reconnaissance Leader | Johnson, Jean & LeRoy with Robert Kenn Hoshide | 2nd | P |
Cartographical Confusion –Or– The Case Of The Leaping Landmarks | Johnson, Jean and LeRoy | 1st | NH |
New Manly Map, A | Johnson, Jean and LeRoy | 3rd | 49rs |
Bullfrog Mines: History Conference Tour, The | Johnson, Jean, Editor | 4th | M |
Bennett’s Trail: Jefferson Hunt Monument, Utah To Bennett Pass, Nevada | Johnson, LeRoy | 7th | 49rs |
Hard Bread* | Johnson, LeRoy | 7th | 49rs |
Reverend Brier’s Mountain Of Iron* | Johnson, LeRoy | 7th | 49rs |
Trunk Is Bunk: The Latest, Notorious Death Valley Artifacts, The | Johnson, Leroy | 5th | 49rs |
Bennett-Arcan Long Camp And Manly’s Sulphur Water Well, The | Johnson, LeRoy and Jean | 1st | 49rs |
Discovery Of The 1861 Boundary Reconnaissance Map And Field Notebooks | Johnson, LeRoy and Jean | 2nd | EH |
Where Is Providence Spring? | Johnson, LeRoy and Jean | 4th | 49rs |
Where Is Van Dorn's “Hitchins’ Spring”? | Johnson, LeRoy and Jean | 3rd | EH |
Prehistoric Acquisition And Use Of Obsidian In Death Valley National Park (Abstract only) | Johnson, Lynn | 6th | I |
My Golden Memories: The Journigan Mill | Journigan, Russ | 6th | M |
My Panamint Acquaintances In The 1930s And 1940s | Journigan, Russ | 6th | P |
Tucki Gold Mine In The Panamints, The | Journigan, Russ | 6th | M |
Single Photograph Of The Highest And Lowest Points In The 48 States* | Lally, Eugene | 7th | NH |
Remembering The Early Shoshone And Tecopa Area | Lengner, Ken and George Ross | 7th | M&P |
1834 Rocks* | Lengner, Ken et al | 8th | NH |
Mystery of Death Valley’s Mesozoic Era | Lengner, Kenneth | 8th | NH |
Death Valley Region in 1926 | Lengner, Kenneth E. | 8th | M |
An Introduction To Death Valleys Hidden Legacy | Marcom, Geron | 4th | I |
Good Samaritans of Death Valley | Marnell, John & Barbara | 8th | |
Death Valley Scotty: The Wild West Years 1889–1902 | McKnight, R. Patrick | 1st | P |
Life And Times Of W.D. Clair And His Mines In The Panamints | Mitchell, Roger | 6th | M |
How Des the Charcoal Stack Up? | Mitchell, Roger | 8th | EH/M |
John S. Cook: Mysterious Banker Of The Death Valley Region | Moody, Eric | 6th | P |
Chemistry Of Harmony Borax Works, The | Morgan, Vincent | 2nd | M |
Rise And Fall Of The Saline Valley Indian Ranch | Moyer, Wendell W. | 5th | I |
Nadeau’s Freighting Teams In The Mojave | Nadeau, Remi | 5th | M |
Death Valley ’49ers: The Road To Salt Lake | Nelson, Genne | 6th | 49rs |
Personal Side Of The Jayhawkers: Vignettes From The Jayhawker Collection, The Huntington Library | Nelson, Genne | 5th | 49rs |
Interview With Juliet Brier – 1860 | Nelson,Genne | 7th | 49rs |
Death Valley’s Unlikely Prospectors: Builders Of A College And A Castle | Newell, L. Jackson, Keynote Speaker | 5th | |
When the ’49ers were in Death Valley | Olesen, G. B. | 8th | 49rs |
The Moon Gave Us So Much Light: Astronomical Dating | Olson, Donald & Russell Doescher | 8th | 49rs |
Brief History Of Panamint’s Boom Period, A | Palazzo, Robert P. | 7th | M |
Darwin's Boom Period 1874–1878 | Palazzo, Robert P. | 3rd | M |
Death Valley Roots Of Tombstone’s Lawmen | Palazzo, Robert P. | 5th | P |
New Coso And Adjacent Mining Districts Of The Death Valley Region | Palazzo, Robert P. | 6th | M |
Operations Of Wells’ Fargo & Co.’s Express In Death Valley During The 19th Century | Palazzo, Robert P. | 4th | M |
Relationship Between Darwin, California And Death Valley, The | Palazzo, Robert P. | 3rd | M |
Study Of Violence In The Nineteenth Century In The Death Valley Region, A | Palazzo, Robert P. | 5th | |
She Mines Talc In Death Valley | Palmer, Judy | 7th | P |
Story of a Sign* | Palmer, Judy | 8th | EH |
Wedding of the Waters | Price, John N. | 8th | |
Rock Alignments Of Death Valley | Rondthaler, Jane | 6th | I |
Story of a Southern Paiute Family | Ross, George & Judy Palmer | 8th | |
Tales of Bygone Days | Ross, George & Kenneth Lengner | 8th | |
Field Trip: Dublin Caves And Shoshone And Cemetery | Ross, George, Susan Sorrells, and Friends of Shoshone Museum | 7th | P |
Death Valley Burros | Rothfuss, Edwin L. | 3rd | NH |
Death Valley Entrance Stickers | Rothfuss, Edwin L. | 7th | NPS |
Making Of A National Park, The | Rothfuss, Edwin L. | 4th | NPS |
1866 Blasdel Expedition Into Death Valley, The | Schafer, Leo and Blair Davenport | 7th | EH |
Wage Labor: Survival For The Death Valley Timbisha | Sennett, Beth | 3rd | I |
Symbolism And Mythology Of Death Valley’s Twenty Mule Team Wagon Set | Simpson, Glenn & Emily Donald | 6th | M |
Manly Family History | Sleath, Doris H. | 3rd | 49rs |
Dublin Gulch | Sorrells, Susan | 7th | P |
How Do You Spell Bonnie Clare? And Why Do You Spell It That Way? | Southworth, John | 4th | R |
The Bennett-Arcane Escape Trail Through The Panamint And Slate Ranges, The | Southworth, John | 3rd | 49rs |
Deke And Celesta Lowe: 20th Century Desert Legends | Sprau, David | 7th | P |
Accidents on the T&T RR* | Sprau, David | 8th | R |
Day In The Life Of The Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad | Sprau, David T. | 5th | R |
George Cook Pipkin: Death Valley’s Indigenous Historian | Sprau, David T. | 6th | P |
Life Of Jefferson Hunt, The | Stanger, George | 2nd | P |
General Mining Law Of 1872 Vs Historic Preservation | Stetz, Debie | 3rd | M |
Jefferson Hunt And The Arduous Road | Sutak, Tom & Leo Lyman | 6th | P |
Louis D. Gordon: Man Behind Cerro Gordo’s Zinc Era | Vargo, Cecile Page | 8th | |
Badwater Nessie* | Vargo, Cecile Page | 8th | |
Reilly: The Well Preserved Ruins Of An 1880s Mining Camp | Vredenburgh, Larry M. | 1st | M |
Changing Times: Panamint Shoshone Response To White Development | Walker, Beth Sennett- | 1st | I |
Across the Endless Skies, Story of Stan Jones | Ward, Michael K. | 8th | |
100th Anniversary of Hanging of “Hootch” Simpson* | Ward, Michael K. | 8th | |
Furnace Creek Epitaph | Ward, Mike | 3rd | P |
Natives Viewpoint, A | Ward, Mike | 1st | P |
Death Valley: Strange Characters, Weird Occurrences | Weisser, John | 8th | |
Death Valley Enigmas—Walter Scott | Weisser, John | 8th | |
Bay Area World Of Borax Smith, The | Woo, Cynthia | 3rd | P |
Teel’s Marsh: Birthplace Of A Legend | Woo, Cynthia | 4th | M |
Story Of "Uncle Jeff” Mayfield, The | Wood, Raymund F. | 3rd | P |
Levi Noble: Pioneer Geologist Of The Death Valley Region | Wright, Lauren A. & Bennie W. Troxel | 3rd | P |
Argentos The Horse Thief: A Death Valley Murder Mystery | Zanjani, Sally | 6th | P |
Images From The Last Boomtown: Per Edward Larson's Gold Field Photography | Zanjani, Sally | 4th | P |
Jack Longstreet In The Death Valley Region | Zanjani, Sally | 1st | P |
Love And Death In A Desert Boom Town | Zanjani, Sally | 7th | O |
Women Prospectors In Death Valley: Profiles In Courage | Zanjani, Sally | 5th |
Compilation ©2010 by Jean Johnson; used by permission.