L. W. Currey, Inc.

(California; San Luis Obispo County) Carisa Chemical Company). PROSPECTUS OF THE CARISA CHEMICAL COMPANY. 218 CALIFORNIA STREET SAN FRANCISCO CAL [cover title]. [San Francisco]: Eastman & Mitchell, Printers, 28 First Street, n.d. [1905]. 15.9x8.8 cm, pp. [1-16] (not paginated), 1 map (folded), original pictorial gray wrappers printed in brown and blue, stapled. First edition. Rare prospectus for a projected mining operation on the Carrisa Plains, a sparsely settled region now known as the Carrizo Plains. Assets included sodium sulphate (sodium carbonate, commonly known as "soda ash") as well as a "mountain" of limestone. The folded map, 28x21.3 cm, printed in light brown and black, is "Plat of the Property Carisa Chemical Co. San Luis Obispo County, California Combining an Area of 2960 Acres 1905," with a smaller inset map of a portion of California showing the location of the property. "Fifty miles inland from the California Coast the Carrisa Plains are bounded on the west by the Caliente Mountains and by the Temblor Range on the east. The only road running through the valley, largely dirt, connects Highway 166 on the south with Highway 58 on the north. It is a long, empty, and dusty road to 'nowhere.' There are no accidental visitors. Cut off from the rest of California, few people know the geography or history of this place ... In 1990 the federal lands on the Carissa Plains were designated a 'natural area,' but administrative policy was at the discretion of the Bureau of Land Management. In January, 2001, then President Clinton created the present Carrizo Plain National Monument under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Monument was created specifically to preserve a number of natural features, biological, geological, and historical. Visitors are accommodated and welcome with the provision that they do not compromise the conservation of species and habitat. Roads remain primitive, campgrounds have limited facilities, and the Visitor Center maintains restricted hours and these for only six months a year. In exchange for these inconveniences, it is possible to see a part of California much as it was 200 years ago before Europeans arrived and the land was settled" (Craig Deutsche, "A World We Hardly Knew: The Carrisa Plains"). Several mild creases to front cover, small ink stain on the recto of first leaf and another along lower margin of the verso of the second leaf, a very good copy. Yale has a copy of a similar 16-page prospectus with "Printed by the Stanley-Taylor Company, San Francisco" on the front cover. This copy has an "Eastman & Mitchell" imprint. This version not located by OCLC. (#166863).

Price: $1,250.00