Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-01-19
A MYSTERY SOLVED.
ONLY A STRAW lN TAs. PAIbYa.y
OF THE AVALANCHE.

Loss Of the Toe llalncs Party twenty tn re-,
Men, Ninety fTorscs and Huiss, wit.
$4,000 Worth of Goods, Wiped Out OF
the New Routo Over the Mountains.
The route was fro!l Marysville alon.
the right alk Of the Yuba river, ovcl
The Sierra Nevada mountains and dowr
to Washes CITY and Cold Hill, hau,
OF nearly 200 miles. Except ia the dead
of winter there wore always freighter.
hgoi0g and coming There had been talL
OF cutoff roItc over the Inou' tain7-a
roylte which would save many miles o.
heavy hauling and of unloading and re.
loading the great wagons--but the
treighters still stuck to the old trail.
Eycly mile of it was rough and ragged.
and many miles Of it dangerous to man
and horse as we'll ~ vehicle, but there
might be lnorn danger in the new route.
In the spring of 1863 word was sent
cat that Captain Joe HGines was load
ing his ii Wagons for tho Gold Hill
| country and would be the frht to try the
cutoff. Sono men Eagrly shook their
heads and recalled the stories Of emf
grants lost in the grim Siorras; others
applauded the captains nerve and
wished him good luck. Six heavy
horses or mules to a wagon, IA drivers,
two bosses, two cooks, five men giving
their services free to get out to the Ne
vada mines. Twenty three men and 90
head of live stock, and the value Of the
goods in the wagons was $50, 900.
One spring day the caravan took the
road. Word came back from it almost
every day until it left the trail leading
up to the pass through which the rail
road track afterward found its way. At
certain point IS miles short of the
bend in the trail the caravan turned
sharp to the east to try the cutoff route.
trapper saw the wagons among the
foothills, and Indian hunters saw them
two days later, After that no man saw
them and lived to tell of it. Days and
weeks passed by, and the weeks had run
into months before it came to be gem
orally believed that the Haines outfit
had met with some disaster. That never
a man had returned to Marysville and
never man had reached tho eastern
slope meant moro than disaster. 1t
meant q terrible tragedy.
One searching party followed the
wagons into the foothills and lost all
trace of them. A second traced them up
one valley and down another, but at &
certain point time had obliterated all
further evidences. Winter came, and
they were forgotten. Spring returned,
and the hunters and Indians sent ont
reports that the disappearance of the
outfit was mystery beyond them. Thcp
the runlor gave out that Captain Haincs
had safely reached his destination, bu,
would return no more to Marysville. Il
was wartime then. and people scarcely
thought of aught else but war. In an
other year all was forgotten. save per-
haps by the shippers who had had no re-
turns and were hoping against hope.
Two, three, five, ten years passed
away. Old men died; boys grew 10
manhood. The railroad caIne. and the
wagons disappeared from the trail. Ono
summers day hunter who had become
separated from his companions sat
down on a rock in the heart of the
mountain range to rest To the west Of
him there was only narrow trail; to
the east and north there was more room.
As the hunter rested he scanned tie
hillsides TO the east and north The po-
sition Of the bowlders, the size of the
trees, the queer confgnration of tho
slopes--a dozen signs gavo him 10 under
stand, for he was something of II gcolo.
gist, that the spot was not as nature
left It, He clAmbered up the northern
slope and uttered an "Ah" OF surprise
Once upon time the ground below him
had been valley rich Ia grass aud
howera
II was a narrow, tortuous valley not
over 10 rods wide--a valley connecting
two larger valleys TO the east u noun
tain reared It's head y, 900 feet high--a
Of many mountains, Two
thousand feet above him had been the
starting point OF landslip Millions Oi
tons Of earth and rock had been ret IN
motion by the rolling over Of stone
which might not hayeweighed a hundred
pounds, The discharge 0f rifle, the
neigh Of q horse, tho shout ~ man,
even ths feet Of a bird resting after q
hight, might have eausod tlle eyalanohp
after long spell Of wot weather Il
had rushed down into that narrow val
10y 10 all II up as dirt ILLS ditch, e.
bury tho gToen gFaSe abad ihe tondeF Ylo
lets N, 20. 80 feet deep Tho rush, and
the ToaF, apd the crash must have baail
teTTiho,
Ths mAA looked sad dasoendea a. ihp |
Trail. 10 him u sAs only = p0inl oi |
geology With Als 0gg eyes he bad seip |
sls VI fbo tfsmepdoas changes nature N /
CONSTANTLY making in tho mountains
Az. whsls lhisi hs has bsen al,seni
less tlAn ball ap heal, Aad yel during |
ihat ilnle iAp wpiegE nom hlaaep |
iprins hAYe gpsbed fqgih frop lhe hlll |
slde And faIuled . oIaek, which % lNltl I
Ing alid tngRiag slaas ths lgail Tho /
AapteF knsels down % aHpk, Rng hlf
fyas rrai ppQp . rusty HpR balgel AZ he |
pulls u Opl n lhe plil hs sess llle llQQi /
n hoFsa silh shoe yel hs'nly hela
.u.s A.. IA