Borax mining was a big part of the Armagosa Valley and Death Valley areas last century.  The Armagosa Opera House is a part of that legacy.  Built by the mining company in the 1920’s, the opera house was a theatre/community meeting place/church, part of a complex that housed the mining company offices, hotel, dining room, dormitories and store.  Marta Becket, revitalized the theatre as the “Armagosa Opera House” in the 1967, performing one person shows until 2012.

Currently, the complex operates a motel, café, museum, tours, and limited shows.  Death Valley Junction is the name today of this historic site and gateway to many local Mojave Desert Wonders.

It truly has been a “Super Bloom” of wildflowers this year and we are enjoying day two of the Art Show, here in Shoshone “village.”

Sherry’s glass work, in addition to minerals and fossils, includes items that we have collected from nature.  Armagosa Valley was home to Native Americans, later miners, ranchers and farmers.  Now home to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and with much evidence of settlers from the last century.  Before our modern landfills, trash was dumped in shallow pits and burned.  What was left behind was mostly glass bottles and rusting cans.  We found one such area here in Armagosa Valley.  Almost a square mile dotted with old dump sites that date from 60 to 100 years ago.

Above are some of the treasure we found in areas outside of protected lands.

Sherry will use mostly pieces of broken bottles and scraps of rusted metal to create her “repurposed” art that have become popular.  The building in the background is the remains of a water system that pumped ground water for farming, ranching and mining.  lawsuits in the last century have seriously limited any future large scale development in an effort to protect the groundwater and biodiversity of the Armagosa Valley, just outside of Death Valley.

Today is the start of the Art Show here in Shoshone and the wildflowers are still in bloom!

The wildflowers are STILL spectacular in this part of the Mojave Desert that includes Death Valley National Park and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Preserve.   The park service called it a “Super Bloom,” and it brought thousands of visitors to Death Valley.  While visiting Ash Meadows, the docent told us they seen extra visitors as well.   This weekend we are in Shoshone for their Annual Spring Art Show, having been in Death Valley the week before.  So, if you have not seen the flowers, This experience can be done in a day’s drive from the LA area, but is best a full weekend.  Do something spontaneous pack up the car and drive out.  The weather is warm and overnight camping will be comfortable.  Above, Sherry is pictured at one of the springs we visited while in Ash Meadows.

I posted a story last week about the diver that died in 1965 and was never found, in Devil’s Hole, the over 500 foot deep cave system within Ash Meadows that is home to a rare Pup fish.  Above is a park service picture of their diver’s exploring that cave system – the bottom of which has never been found. We visited the site and watched a bat, just outside of the cave catching insects.