Adventurer, author, blogger, and radio host Jim Mattern, better known as “Death Valley Jim” has released another of his popular books on the secret places you can discover in our own back yard. Reporter David Haldane say Death Valley Jim is unapologetic to some critics…
It started as a rumor of survival. During World War II, the story went, a group of Japanese Americans—fearful of internment camps—escaped to the Mojave Desert and hid out for years.
It took Death Valley Jim just hours to find the place: a remote encampment still sporting the remains of a bath house and cabin.
And that’s how a photo of Japanese Camp landed on the cover of Jim’s new book, Secret Places in The Mojave Desert, Volume VII released this week. Like his other books, this one is about, well, secret places in the desert.
“They’re essentially guide books, but guide books for the more extreme adventurer. Sometimes the places that are in the books you have to hike out 20 miles to see.”
To make it easier, the author—Jim Mattern of Joshua Tree—includes photos, GPS coordinates and topographical maps. That’s caused some to accuse him of inviting vandalism, an allegation Mattern rejects.
“I think the biggest thing is education.”
Death Valley Jim’s books are available on Amazon or at his website, www.deathvalleyjim.com
DEATH VALLEY JIM RELEASES 7TH BOOK ON SECRETS IN OUR MOJAVE DESERT
