Postcard of a baby burro, Tonopah (Nev.), 1905

There was an inscription on the image. "The burro was the principal form of transportation used by prospectors in central Nevada at the turn of the century. The prospectors had a love-hate relationship with the animals, which were dependable and well adapted to the desert region, although they could be stubborn and cunning. As the automobile became the accepted mode of transportation, the burros were turned loose and roamed the streets and local trash dumps of the area's towns. They were one of the principal forms of entertainment for local children until they gradually disappeared from the metropolitan areas in the 1920s. The burros that roam Death Valley and the Marietta area of central Nevada today are descendants of those left behind by the prospectors."