L. Burr Belden

In the early 1920's, Belden wandered Death Valley as a young reporter for the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram. He befriended old-timers and reclusive miners who shared with him their confidences, many told for the first time in this book. Belden made the Death Valley area a field of intense personal study and research.

He loved the desert, an in particular, he loved all that had to do with Death Valley -its history, landscape and its people. Belden spent more than 50 years at the Sun-Telegram and later served on the California History Commission and Conference of Historical Societies, appointed by then California Governors Jerry Brown and Ronald Reagan. Belden also served as chair of the Death Valley Forty Niners.