Death Valley Jim Donation Fund
Donation protected
My name is Jim Mattern, better known as the adventurer, author and photographer - Death Valley Jim.
I have authored the Secret Places in the Mojave Desert, and Hidden Joshua Tree book series, and operate the website, www.deathvalleyjim.com .
Over the past seven years, Death Valley Jim has been a self sustaining operation. I would release new books several times per year, and provide a guide service for those that wanted an adventure in Mojave Desert Region. The Death Valley Jim website was regularly updated with new locations and history that I uncovered along the way.
If you are a regular follower of my work, you have probably noticed that there has been no new content added to the website since October 31st, 2016.
...and there is where the difficulties began.
In early November, I found that my website had been attacked by hackers. The entire website was destroyed in a matter of minutes. This single thing literately sent everything into a death spiral.
While working on restoring content to the website, the bandwidth usage from all of the uploads exploded, and my hosting company cut off the website until I moved it to a dedicated server (at a 300% cost increase). I gave in and made the move.
I spent the entire rest of the month of November, and the first half of December doing nothing more than restoring content to the website.
Mid-December rolled around and I was still restoring articles and photographs to the website. I had the website restored to about 60% of what it once was when the hard drive containing my life's work decided to fail.
The hard drive that failed contained two terabytes of photographs spanning the last seven years. It also contained all of my project files for books, and other projects that I had been working on. Literally everything DVJ related was no longer accessible.
I've been looking into ways to restore the hard drive, but it is a very expensive process that doesn't guarantee anything, but it needs to at least be attempted.
Adding insult to injury at this exact same time my Jeep decided that it was time to start acting up. First it was shocks (not really that big of a deal), then the clutch went (a really big deal), and I've just now learned that the front drive shaft needs to be replaced (another really big deal).
It has been a heck of a ride, one that has caused a lot of emotional and financial stress.
I don't like asking for donations or help, which is why I have appeared so absent lately, it has felt easier to suffer in silence. But I realize that in order to get everything back on track, I have to reach out and ask.
Funds raised will be used to restore the failed hard drive, finish getting the website back in order, hosting fees for the server, and getting my Jeep back in running order.
Those that donate $100 or more will be provided with one year access to the new premium members section of the website, where GPS coordinates, maps, and out of print books are being made available.
Thank you for following my work, and for you consideration.
Jim Mattern
aka. Death Valley Jim
www.deathvalleyjim.com
I have authored the Secret Places in the Mojave Desert, and Hidden Joshua Tree book series, and operate the website, www.deathvalleyjim.com .
Over the past seven years, Death Valley Jim has been a self sustaining operation. I would release new books several times per year, and provide a guide service for those that wanted an adventure in Mojave Desert Region. The Death Valley Jim website was regularly updated with new locations and history that I uncovered along the way.
If you are a regular follower of my work, you have probably noticed that there has been no new content added to the website since October 31st, 2016.
...and there is where the difficulties began.
In early November, I found that my website had been attacked by hackers. The entire website was destroyed in a matter of minutes. This single thing literately sent everything into a death spiral.
While working on restoring content to the website, the bandwidth usage from all of the uploads exploded, and my hosting company cut off the website until I moved it to a dedicated server (at a 300% cost increase). I gave in and made the move.
I spent the entire rest of the month of November, and the first half of December doing nothing more than restoring content to the website.
Mid-December rolled around and I was still restoring articles and photographs to the website. I had the website restored to about 60% of what it once was when the hard drive containing my life's work decided to fail.
The hard drive that failed contained two terabytes of photographs spanning the last seven years. It also contained all of my project files for books, and other projects that I had been working on. Literally everything DVJ related was no longer accessible.
I've been looking into ways to restore the hard drive, but it is a very expensive process that doesn't guarantee anything, but it needs to at least be attempted.
Adding insult to injury at this exact same time my Jeep decided that it was time to start acting up. First it was shocks (not really that big of a deal), then the clutch went (a really big deal), and I've just now learned that the front drive shaft needs to be replaced (another really big deal).
It has been a heck of a ride, one that has caused a lot of emotional and financial stress.
I don't like asking for donations or help, which is why I have appeared so absent lately, it has felt easier to suffer in silence. But I realize that in order to get everything back on track, I have to reach out and ask.
Funds raised will be used to restore the failed hard drive, finish getting the website back in order, hosting fees for the server, and getting my Jeep back in running order.
Those that donate $100 or more will be provided with one year access to the new premium members section of the website, where GPS coordinates, maps, and out of print books are being made available.
Thank you for following my work, and for you consideration.
Jim Mattern
aka. Death Valley Jim
www.deathvalleyjim.com
Organizer
Jim Mattern
Organizer
Joshua Tree, CA
