The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-02-12
FAMOUS DEATH VALLEY.
A Feature of the Great American Desert

&c, f. Lummis, in February ST. Methodist
The most fatally famous part of the
Great American desert is Death Valley,
in California. There is on all the globe
no other spot more forbidden, more des-
olate, more deadly. 1t is a concentration
of the horrors of that whole. hideous
area; and it has bitter history.
One of the most interesting and graphic
stories I ever listened to was that related
to me, several years ago, by one of the
survivors of the famous Death Valley
party of 1649-the Rev. j. w. Brier, an
aged Methodist clergyman now living in
California. A party of five hundred emf
grants started on the last day of Septem-
Der, 1S49, from the southern end of Utah
to cross the desert to the, then new, mines
of California. There were one hundred
and fifty canvas-topped wagons, drawn
by sturdy oxen, beside which trudged the
shaggy men, rifle in hand, while under
the canvas awning rode the women and
children. In short time there was di-
vision of opinion as to the proper route
across that painless waste in front; and
next day five wagons and their people
went east to reach Santa Fe, whence
there were dim Mexican trails to Los
Angeles, and the rest plunged boldly in
to the desert. The party which went by
way of Santa Fe reached California in
December, after vast sufferings. The
larger company travelled in comfort for a
few DAYS until they reached about where
Phoebe now is. Then they entered the
Land of Thirst; and for more than three
months wandered lost in that realm of
horror. 1t was almost impossible to get
wagons through country burrowed with
canons; packing what they could upon
the backs of the oxen. They struggled
on to glittering lakes, only to find them
deadly poison, or but mirage on barren
sands Now and then a wee spring in
mountains gave them new life. One by
one the oxen dropped, day by day the
scanty flour ran lower. Nine young men
who separated from the rest, being stall
wart and unencumbered with families,
reached Death Valley ahead of the Others
and were lost. Their bones were found
many years later by Governor Blaisdell
and his surveyors, who gave Death Val
ley lIS ndIue.
The valley lies in Inyo county and is
about $50 miles long. In width it tapers
from three miles at its southern end to
30 at it's northern. 1t is over 200 feet be-
low the level of the sea. The main party
crossed it at about the middle, where il
is but few miles wide, but suffered
frightfully there. Day by day some of
their number sank upon the burning
sands never to rise. The survivors were
too weak to help the fallen.
The strongest of the whole party was
nervous little Mrs. Brier, who had come
to Colorado an invalid, and who shared
with her boys of four, seven and nine
wears of age that indescribable tramp Of
900 miles. For the last three weeks she
had to lift her athletic husband from the
ground every morning and steady him q
few moments before he could stand She
gave help to wasted giants any one OF
whom few months before, could have
lifted her with one hand.
At last the few survivors crossed the
range which shuts off that most dreadful
of deserts from the garden of the world
and were tenderly nursed to health at the
the hacienda or ranch house, OF courtlJ
Spaniard. Mr.. Brier had lost 100 pounds
in weight, and the others were thin IL
proportion. When | saw him last he was
a hale old man of 75 cheerful and active.
but with strange burrows in his face te
tell of those bygone sufferings. His he
roic little wife was still living, and the
boys, who had had such bitter expert
ence, as perhaps no other boys ever sur
! Vived, are stalwart men.