Lauren Wright
Lauren Wright was a geologist mapping talc deposits in Death Valley
when he ran into me. I was operating a hoist at the Western Talc
Mine in Inyo County CA at the time. That was over a half century
ago. Our encounters were brief, but he took me seriously, a teen-age
miner by trade, dusty dirty and not doubt smelly. He showed me the
maps he was making, how a diabase sill of molten rock intruded into
a formation of dolomite and how the reactions between the two kinds
of rock produced talc. Talc is used for baby powder, ceramic tile
and in a host of other things. I didn't understand the chemistry,
but everything else looked straight forward, if not simple.
Lauren had empathy for me. Our last encounter at the mine, in 1948,
was decisive. He told me about the chaos geologic structure in Death
Valley. When he described it, I wanted to read about it. He said
all I had to do was write to Dr Levi Noble, the author and he would
send me a copy. Here was a man from the big city taking time for
an ignorant desert rat. He sincerity and ability to simplify complex
ideas haunted me for years. He gave me the confidence to try to go
to school, though my high school education was strictly marginal,
even by 1940's standards.
Lauren is still alive. He became a professor at Penn State and never
lost his interest in the desert. Now retired, he winters in Shoshone,
the gateway to Death Valley, leads field trips for the curious and
dabbles in the local museum exhibits
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