This has nothing to do with washing clothes with a Sperry appliance. Sperry Wash is out on the California desert, beyond the eastern side of Death Valley NP. It was once the route of a mis-planned railroad, long since removed (1942). There is a townsite, barely noticable now, named for Grace Sperry. You'll surely know that name from somewhere. Well, maybe not.

The Amaragosa River runs thru the wash (a kind of canyon, that is generally dry), a strange sight in this arid country. It's called a River here, but it'd be barely a minor creek in Ohio.

Of course this area was for mining. Gold and silver at first, later lead and talc, it was all over by 1950. There was once a paved road on this route, and evidence remains in places. but the desert weather is very unforgiving, and the pavement is just a ghost of what was. Sperry Wash now requires four wheel drive, and some guts.

It's an interesting trip. The south end is near the DuMont Dunes, the north end comes out at the Western Talc mine (and a large dump of rusty cans, old cars - newest in there was an '49 Chevy and other mining residue).

More about the rest of this trip later. Interested? let us know!

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