Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-02-25
THE LAND OF THIRST.
A Feature Of the Great American
Desert in California.

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 forbidding, more
desolate, more deadly. 1t is conoen-
tration of the horrors Of that whole
hideous area; and it has bitter history.
One of the most interesting and
graphic stories | ever listened to was
that related to me, several years ago, by
one of the survivors of the famous Death
Valley party of 1849-the Rev. j. w.
Brier. an aged Methodist clergyman now
living in California. A party of five
hundred emigrants started on the last day
OF September, 1849, from the southern
end of Utah to cross the desert to the,
then new, mines of California. There
were one hundred and five canvas-topped
wagons, drawn by sturdy oxen, beside
which truddged the shaggy men,
rifle in hand. while under the
canvas awnings rode the women and
children. In short time there was
division 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 An
geles), and the rest plunged boldly into
the desert. The party which went by
way OF Sante 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 furrowed
with canons; so they soon abandoned
their vehicles, packing what they could
upon the backs of the oxen. They
struggled on TO glittering lakes, only to
lind them deadly poison, or but mirage
on barren sands. Now and then a wee
| spring in the 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 stalwart and unencumbered with
families, reached Death Valley ahead Of
the others, and were lost Their bones
were found many years later by Govern
or Blaisdell and his surveyors, who gave
Death Valley its name.
The valley lies in Inyo County, and
is about one hundred and fifty miles
long. In width it tapers from three
miles at its southern end to thirty at the
northern. 1t is over two hundred feet
below the level of the sea. The main
party crossed it at about the middle,
where it is but few miles wide, but suf-
fered frightfully there Day by day
some of their number sank upon the
burning sands never to rise The sur
vivors 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
years of age that indescribable tramp of
nine hundred miles. For the last three
weeks she had to lift her athletic husband
from the ground every morning and
steady him for few moments before be
could stand. She gave help to wasted
giants any one of whom, a 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 hacienda, or ranch house, of court
ly Spaniard. Mr.. Brier had lost one
hundred pounds in weight, and the others
were thin in proportion. When l saw
him last he was hale man of seventy
five, cheerful and active, but with strange
burrows in his face to tell of those by
gone sufferings. His heroic little wife
was still living, and the boys who had
such bitter experience as perhaps nc
other boys ever survived, are now stall
wart'men.-lSt. Nicholas.