The Iola register., 1891-07-17
DEATH VALLEY.


Hew 1t Got It's Name and What IL Real
lyis
Since it first came into notic'
through the tragic fate ofthe emigran
train lost In its desert wastes in tht
summer of 1850, probably no region in
the entire West has been the subject
of somuch conjecture and the theme Of
80 many wildly impossible tales as the
mysterious "Valley of Death" in
southeastern California.
For many years there have beer
borne at intervals to the ears of the
civilized world, strange stories,-hal
truth and half fiction, of great sink
s or depression somewhere out i'm the
sun-scorched Mohave desert, in which
after many windings and turnings,
and disappearings and re-appearings,
the briny, poisonous waters of the
Amargosa are lost forever.
ARABIAN Nights" stories of fabu-
lous wealth have caused scores of pros
pectors to loose their lives searching
for the mythical "Sunset Lead" and
Breyfogle Claim.
Away back i'm the days of the Ar
gonauts in 1850, one of the trains of en-
igrants bound for the gold fields at
tempted to shorten the route by strik-
ing southwest from Salt Lake City.
For weeks they toiled onward over
the burning sands and across ranges of
all but impossible mountains until
crazed by thirst and weakened by
hunger they. at last surmounted a
great ridge and saw lying thousands
effect below them the shining white
Of the treacherous salt marshes and
the miles of yellow sand dunes-the
bottom of the Valley of Death. They
were the first white men who had
ever looked into this terrible man-trap
and little they thought of its hidden
dangers.
There was > possibility that water
weofd be found In such a depression,
and Il wac cut Of the question to re-
fExee tneir steps over the miles of
5ursling desert that lay between them
md the last fresh water spring.
So down the rugged, stony wash of
what is now known as Furnace Canon
they went-seventy-two men, women
and children with horses, mules, wag-
ons, cattle and the hundredother things
that go to make up what Caesar called
snspedi1eRtd. And there they are to-
day-all but two men, Bennett and
Stockton, who, after their companions
had perished, wandered for months in
the mountains aud finally reached the
Mexican settlements on the west side
OF the Sierras and brought to the
world the first account of Death VAL
ley other than what had heretofore
heen regarded as mere Indian fables.
Bennett and Stockton have been
dead many years and the fate of the
emigrant train of which they were the
sole survivors, has become one of the
traditions of the "49ers." But little
Is known now Of the details of the
tragedy, except that when the long
procession reached the bottom in the
fierce heat of an August day they
found not grass and springs of fresh
water, but miles of salt marshes and
sand dunes. And they did the only
proper thing under the circumstances,
died like rats in pit.
The two men who lived to tell the
story crossed to the west side of the
Valley and found water in the Pana-
mint mountain. Years afterward a |
small squad of United States cavalry
entered the Valley in the winter and
buried the remains of the lost Argo-
naote. The place where they perish
cd forty years sgo is marked to-day by
old wagon tires and other jewelry that
the shifting sand has not covered up.
In August 1867 Lieut.. Bendise of the
regular army, with small escort,
rode into the Valley in order to ascer-
tain the summer temperature. 1t was
found to be Ia in the shade. giving
this pleasant little locality the distipc-
sion Of being the hottest place ON
earth. Several of Bendise's men
were lost in this expedition. Death
Valley had a rest then for several
years, but in 1871 Lieut.. Wheeler as
certained that its lowest point was 1IO
feet 6eIosc the level Of the sea.
In the early seventies silver was dis
covered in the Panamint mountains
and the stories of immense treasures
IN Death Valley were revived. Pros
psctors willing to risk everything toi
make "stake" turned their attention
10 this new possibility. The majority
Of them liked it so well that they re-
manned there and it is no uncommon
thing to this day to find in some out
7f the way place miners pick and ,
shovel, and old tin canteen, some but ,
tons and pile of bones. /.
In the course of time came this year !,
,f 1881. Some old fellows who befogl !,
heir brains aud worry themselves out I
Il sleep thinking about such things |