Finding aid for the Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company records, 1889-1991 LSC.1993
Finding aid prepared by Courtney Dean.
The processing of this collection was generously supported by
Arcadia
funds.
UCLA Library Special Collections
November 30, 2012
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Business Number: 310-825-4988
Fax Number: 310-206-1864
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company records
source:
Wilderness Land Trust
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1993
Physical Description:
23.4 Linear Feet
(4 doc boxes, 2 half doc boxes, 1 flat box, 3 oversize flat boxes, 9 oversize map boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1889-1991
Date (bulk): bulk 1908-1922
Abstract: The Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company was formed by Herman Henry Kerckhoff in Los Angeles in 1912. The company owned 2,450-acres
of mining property in the Avawatz Mountains, located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County. In 2011 the Wilderness
Land Trust, a Colorado non-profit corporation, purchased the Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company and donated the land to the United
States Bureau of Land Management for preservation. The collection contains a rich assortment of corporate document books,
ledgers, and stock books; geologic and economic reports; mining-related government publications and newspaper articles; and
geologic, structural, property, and railroad maps, tracing the history of this early southern California mining enterprise.
Materials date from 1889 to 1991, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1908 to 1922.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue
the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
This collection was donated by the Wilderness Land Trust in 2012.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company records (Collection 1993). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by Courtney Dean in 2012 in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Jillian Cuellar.The
processing of this collection was generously supported by
Arcadia
funds.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating
existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit
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UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
The Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company was formed in June of 1912 by Herman Henry Kerckhoff, a member of the prominent Los Angeles
Kerckhoff family. Avawatz Salt and Gypsum was the final amalgamation of several earlier companies including the Death Valley
Chemical Company (1908-1911), Avawatz Salt Company (1911-1912), and Avawatz Gypsum Company (1910-1912). The company owned
2,450 acres of land on the northeast edge of the Avawatz Mountains, at the southern end of Death Valley. This included, as
of 1917, 50 mining claims and mineral deposits of gypsum, rock salt, and celestite. Kerckhoff intended to transport gypsum,
the main ingredient in cement and wall plaster, from the Avawatz mines to nearby Los Angeles where it could be utilized in
the ongoing building boom. To this end, the Amargosa Valley Railroad Company was formed in 1917 to construct a sixteen mile
line connecting the Avawatz mines to the main railway leading to Los Angeles. Despite the Avawatz Company's large investment
in engineering reports and land surveys, the outbreak of World War I made securing financing for the railroad difficult and
it was never completed. Without the railroad connecting the remote mines to Los Angeles, Avawatz Company activity was for
the most part halted. In 2011 the Wildness Land Trust, a Colorado nonprofit which buys and protects wilderness land, purchased
the Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company from the Kerckhoff family and subsequently donated the land to the U.S. Department of
the Interior Bureau of Land Management. The land is now part of the Death Valley Wilderness Study Area and falls within the
boundaries of land which will be permanently preserved by Senator Diane Feinstein's pending California Desert Protection Act.
Scope and Content
This collection contains an assortment of corporate document books, ledgers, stock books, legal documents, and occasional
correspondence from the Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company and its separate but related corporations - the Death Valley Chemical
Company, Avawatz Salt Company, Avawatz Gypsum Company, Avawatz Sales Company, and the Amargosa Valley Railroad Company. Also
included are mining-related government publications and newspaper articles; and a wealth of large geologic, structural, property,
and railroad maps illustrating Avawatz land and the proposed Amargosa Valley Railroad. Particularly notable are several Avawatz
commissioned economic and geologic reports featuring financial projections, photographs of the land, and detailed maps. Materials
date from 1889 to 1991, with the bulk of the collection dating from ca. 1908 to 1922.
Organization and Arrangement
The collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Business records, 1889-1991
- Series 2: Reports and resource materials, 1908-1989
- Series 3: Maps, 1911-1989
Series 1 is arranged chronologically by creating agency. Series 2 and 3 are arranged alphabetically.
Related Material
Bodie Consolidated Mining Company Collection. California Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento, California.
Mining Companies Miscellany, California State Library. Box Number: 930-933
Patterson Mining Collection- Maps, 1848-1936. The Society of California Pioneers.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Wilderness Land Trust
Series 1: Business records
1889-1991
Scope and Content
Items comprising this series date from 1889-1991, with the bulk of the material dating from before 1922. The series consists
of business records from The Death Valley Chemical Company, Avawatz Salt Company, Avawatz Gypsum Company, Avawatz Sales Company,
and their amalgamation- the Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company. Records primarily take the form of bound volumes and include
by-laws, meeting minutes, stock books, corporation books, ledgers, and journals. Also included are several volumes of legal
abstracts from the San Bernardino Abstract Company, compiled at the request of the Death Valley Chemical Company in 1909.
Additional loose documentation encompasses legal and financial papers such as deeds, location notices, proof of labor notices,
real estate agreements, and correspondence.
box 1, folder 1
Death Valley Chemical Company: By-laws
1908
box 1, folder 2
Death Valley Chemical Company: Copy of by-laws
1908
box 1, folder 3
Death Valley Chemical Company: Legal documents, resolutions, and other material
1908-1911
box 7
Death Valley Chemical Company: Meeting minutes
1908-1911
box 1, folder 4
Death Valley Chemical Company: Stock book
1908-1911
box 8
Death Valley Chemical Company: Stock book
1908-1911
box 1, folder 5
Death Valley Chemical Company: Stock ledger
1908-1911
box 1, folder 6
San Bernardino Abstract Company: Legal document book, Volume 1
1889-1909
box 1, folder 7
San Bernardino Abstract Company: Legal document book, Volume 2
1907-1909
box 2, folder 1
San Bernardino Abstract Company: Legal document book, Volume 3
1907-1909
box 2, folder 2
San Bernardino Abstract Company: Legal document book, Volume 4
1906-1908
box 2, folder 3
Avawatz: Proof of labor
1908-1922
box 2, folder 4
Avawatz: Legal documents and correspondence
1909-1917
box 2, folder 5
Avawatz: Location notices
1909-1917
box 2, folder 6
Avawatz Salt Company: Corporation book
1910-1912
Scope and Content
Contains inserted journal entries from Avawatz Gypsum Company.
box 5, folder 1
Avawatz Salt Company: Letter sent
1911 April 28
box 2, folder 7
Avawatz Sales Company: Corporation book
1912-1913
box 9
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Cash records
1912-1913
box 9
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: General ledger
1912-1991
box 3, folder 1
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Financial records
1913-1914
box 5, folder 2
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Deed to Big Nitre and Gypsum King
1917 August
box 5, folder 3
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Original location notices
1917 August
box 10
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Stock book
1917
box 10
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Stock book
1917-1920
box 10
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Journal 1-A
1917-1921
box 3, folder 2
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: Real estate agreements
1919
box 3, folder 3
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Company: General journal 2
1922-1971
box 3, folder 4
Amargosa Valley Railroad Company: Legal documents and report
1917-1919
Series 2: Reports and resource materials
1909-1975
Scope and Content
This series consists of reports and resource materials dating from ca. 1908-1989, including government-issued bulletins and
mineral reports, a book on mining law, and a magazine on excavation, as well as a collection of mining-related newspaper clippings.
Also included are several early Avawatz commissioned geologic and economic reports which contain financial projections, photographs,
and maps. Of particular note is the Lewis and Johnson Report (Box 8) for which many of the large maps in the collection were
created. Later reproductions of some of these reports are also present and feature slightly different enclosures.
box 3, folder 5
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Geologic and Economic Report 1911 (copy)
circa 1970s
box 3, folder 6
Avawatz Salt and Gypsum Geologic and Economic Report 1911 (copy with different enclosures)
circa 1970s
box 5, folder 5
Department of the Interior: Bulletins
1917-1923
box 5, folder 6
Department of the Interior: Mineral resources
1910-1936
box 5, folder 7
Excavating Engineer magazine
1939 February
box 4, folder 4
Fault map of California
1975
box 5, folder 8
Government publications
1939-1942
box 8
Lewis and Johnson Report
1911
box 5, folder 9
List of Publications of the Bureau of Mines, July 1, 1910-January 1, 1949
1950
box 3, folder 7
Photographs accompanying Avawatz Property Report (1 of 2)
circa 1909
box 3, folder 8
Photographs accompanying Avawatz Property Report (2 of 2)
circa 1909
box 5, folder 10
Report on Avawatz Mountains 1947 (copy)
1980s
box 3, folder 9
Resume of Information and Reports on Properties
circa 1914
box 6, folder 1
Scrapbook of newspaper clippings
1911-1942
box 6, folder 2
State Mineralogist reports
1930-1946
box 3, folder 10
T.L. Henderson Report
1909
Series 3: Maps
1911-1989
Scope and Content
Maps comprising this series were presumably commissioned by the Avawatz Company and include a number of large geologic, structural,
property, and Union Pacific Railroad maps of Avawatz land. Also included are blueprints for proposed alterations to Herman
Henry Kerckhoff's Laguna Niguel home in the 1970s. The majority of the items are in rolls, but a smaller amount of legal and
letter size copies are also present, as are slides of the Union Pacific maps. Maps primarily date from 1911 or 1955, with
reproductions dating into the 1980s. The 1911 maps accompanied the Lewis and Johnson Report (Box 8) of the same year.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Maps appear in several formats including white paper, linen, blueprint, negatives, auto positives, van dyke prints, transparencies,
and photo prints. Some maps contain color.
box 11
31655 Crystal Sands Drive alterations
circa 1972
Scope and Content
Contains annotated blueprints and notes for additions to H.H. Kerckhoff Jr.'s home. 12 items.
box 11
Alteration Laguna Niguel
1970s
Scope and Content
Contains blueprints and notes for H.H. Kerckhoff Jr.'s home. 6 items.
box 12
Avawatz entire property
circa 1942
Scope and Content
10" x 19" small tracing on linen showing claim boundaries. 10" x 19" black negative, transparency copy, copy of positive showing
whole property with section lines. Reductions of full size map including dimensions and section lines. 8 items.
box 12
Avawatz map of Valley and Boston
1942
Scope and Content
Linen. Final revision April 17, 1942. 1 item.
box 3, folder 11
Avawatz maps (assorted copies)
1980s
Scope and Content
Includes copies of drilling logs.
box 4, folder 1
Avawatz maps: Boston-Valley
1970s
Scope and Content
Includes newspaper clippings.
box 4, folder 2
Avawatz maps: Outline
1980s
Scope and Content
Includes draft correspondence and newsletter.
box 4, folder 3
Avawatz property map
undated
Scope and Content
Folded large reproduction. 1 item.
box 15
Avawatz Union Pacific maps
circa 1955
Scope and Content
Colored prints and auto positives. 11 items.
box 11
Cross section structural and geologic map- Lewis and Johnson Report
1911 June
Scope and Content
White paper-blue line and black negative maps as used with the Lewis and Johnson report. Dated June 1911 but most likely reproductions.
3 items.
box 11
Geologic and structural map- Lewis and Johnson Report
1911 June
Scope and Content
Original print 8.5" x 18" from June 1911. Photo print copy 12" x 24", undated. 2 items.
box 19
Lewis and Johnson prints of negatives, entire property and cross sections
1911 June
Scope and Content
Linen and white prints, negative, and transparency. Dated June 1911 but may be reproductions. 15 items.
box 13
Map of entire property showing section lines
undated
Scope and Content
Black and white copies. 2 items.
box 17
Maps of entire Avawatz properties- original and autopositive
undated
Scope and Content
Avawatz properties full size black line on white, auto positive, and van dyke print for wet blue line. 6 items.
box 19
Original tracing structural sections accompanying report of Lewis and Johnson
1911 June
Scope and Content
White paper-blue line. 2 items.
box 13
Print of original map (old)
circa 1931
Scope and Content
Print of Avawatz property with annotations dated through 1980. Contains typed set of notes by Porter T. Kerckhoff. 2 items.
box 6, folder 3
Slides of Union Pacific Railroad map
1979 April
box 16
Survey of proposed railroad
undated
Scope and Content
Linen. 1 item.
box 16
Uncolored map- Lewis and Johnson Report
1911 June
Scope and Content
Structural sections, geologic and structural, and structural sections small with color. Dated June 1911 but most likely reproductions.
3 items.
box 18
Union Pacific Railroad prints of colored drawings and Jumbo Salt Basin
1955
Scope and Content
Railroad, Salt Basin, West End, West End Celestite maps dated 1955. Boston-Valley Salt Claims undated maps. 8 items.
box 14
Union Pacific Report full size prints, no coloring
1955
Scope and Content
Includes D-1 Salt Basin, D-2 Boston-Valley (colored), D-3 Jumbo, D-4 West End, D-5 West End Celestite. Dated 1955 but may
be reproductions. 20 items.
