Saturday, January 16, 2010

Hot Tea at Teakettle Junction


January is National Hot Tea Month, and of course a post in its honor is in order. Named thus by the Tea Association of the USA, its purpose is to promote the value of a hot cup of tea. The claimed health benefits of tea are many, ranging from an increased immune response to the reduction of heart disease and cancer. Thus, I am sipping on a hot cup of Snow Sprout tea as I write. To research the benefits of this herb, check out the Tea Association website.

Seeking to draw attention to this designated month, my mind skipped through a variety of things I could write about. Teapots, teacups, gawan porcelain bowls, and three-tiered trays all came to mind. But finding the obscure or unusual to celebrate this cozy past-time seemed important.

I decided to share with readers about a very interesting and out-of-the-way place in Death Valley, California. Located twenty miles from Ubehebe Crater, eighteen miles from Hunter Mountain, and six miles from Racetrack on a remote and rugged road is a junction named Teakettle. A hundred years ago, miners in search of wealth and adventure would pass this way and mark the junction by placing a teakettle in its spot. First one, then more teakettles have been added until it's become quite famous as a place to leave one's mark by adding a teakettle of one's own to the stash. Visitors leave a teakettle, signed and dated for others to see at this remote junction. It appears that teakettles serve a serious place in American history, even in remote desert places! If you decide to drive there and add a teakettle of your own, be sure to take a spare tire or two with you. The road is very rough and scattered with sharp and jagged rocks! A Death Valley mule might be a better, albeit slower mode of transportation!

A visit to this historic spot allows the imagination to travel back in time, wondering who passed this way before and what type of delicious hot tea they served around a campfire and with whom it was shared.


Happy National Hot Tea Month!
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4 comments:

  1. Tea Kettle Junction seems like a unique place on the globe. I'd never ever know about it if it weren't for you, La Tea Dah! Have a great Sunday! Sincerely, Susan from writingstraightfromtheheart.blogspot.com

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  2. Now that sign post would make me slam on the brakes for sure! Happy Tea drinking to you...

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  3. Did you leave a teapot there? What a fun tradition and too would brake for this junction in the road. Happy Hot Tea Month.

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  4. That was a great post!
    Valerie

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