Becket rented the center for $45 a month, evicted the kangaroo rats that populated it, and rebuilt it into a performance space. That was the beginning of cultural institution that endures to this day. Marta explored the community center, then known as Corkhill Hall, and felt it calling her. In 1967 a flat tire left Marta (nee Martha) Becket and her husband waiting for repairs in Death Valley Junction. Opera, in the middle of the desert? Far away from any population center? When I talk to people about Death Valley Junction the word opera inevitably derails the conversation. The opera didn’t arrive in town until later. A U-shaped building contained a hotel, dining room, dormitories, company offices and a community center. In the early 1920s it was Amargosa, a company town that supported borax mining interests.
Unsurprisingly, low yields in these parched lands meant rapid failure, but remnants of the mine, plus an excellent Borax Museum at the historic Ranch at Death Valley, are a fun find for history aficionados.The Amargosa Opera House stands at the corner of State Line Road and California Route 127, in a place now called Death Valley Junction. After processing the borax, Harmony Borax Works used their famed “20-mule teams” to drag it 165 miles to the nearest railroad stop. In the late 1880s, mining companies sought out borax, “the white gold of Death Valley,” used in laundry detergent and more.
The Artist’s Drive is a 9-mile, one-way, dipping, curving loop highlighting gorgeous mineral deposits from one of the Park’s most explosive volcanic periods. Most importantly, it’s centrally located in this vast, massive park. Constructed hiking trails are rare in Death Valley, but Golden Canyon is a good choice for a pretty, and pretty easy, three-mile stroll.
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