The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1896-07-23

make alfalfa grow on a little plot
the only green place in Death val
ley Back from this there are hills as
white as flour mountains. covered as
cleanly by borax as if it had fallen
like snow.
Around the base of the Funeral
| mountain curves the AmargOsa river.
Nobody has ever seen water flowing
upon the surface of this river bed. but
the ghost Of great river, n lies wide,
Is there between great perpendicular
banks. hundreds Of feet high. No
body has followed the river bed TO its
| source or traced it to its disappear
ance. Somewhere down under the
bed the water flows. the scientists say,
but whether it is a yard or a mile
down even they do not know. Even
| when the skies crack and let the
cloudburst through. no water runs
over the AmargCsa river sands. The
thirsty earth can drink it up foster
than it can fall. Death valley is bea
utiful, but the man who explores it
and the uncanny mountains about 1t
comes back, if he comes back at all,
gaunt ana wasted. In his blistered
eyes are the images of the mirror like
sea Of salt, the blur of the blazing
sun, the heaped up mounds that tell
where somebody has found dead
man and put HIM out of sight. the
l,1l,1hpl ~I-n1,+nr - +har, I l,1
earth on which it lies. and not the gay
colors of the Funeral peaks, the pic
turesque rounded tops of the Mont
BlancO, the quaint crags OF the dead
rivers cliff banks. About the valley
lives almost every yenOmOus thing
that crawls in the West Rattle
snakes, tarantulas, centipedes, scor
pions. even ella mOnsters-those hid
eous slow lizards that every scientist
says are harmless and every frontiers
man says are deadly.
The valley never lacks for victims.
There is gold there gold enough for
many fortunes and year after year
men seek il, eve, where the sun scOr
ches and sets them mad. The gold
has been found, not once. but many
times. This frightful place has more
tales Of lost mines than any other.
The Pegleg, the Breyfogle, the Mans
field claim, the Lost Padre, mine and
many more have tempted prospectors
back to the pit of glaring alkali. These
ifornia towns they will show you ore
brought back by the original discover
er, rock all a glitter with the precious
points, but in the whole list no one
has rewarded It's finder The Pegleg
discoverer the first and richest of all,
could never find his way back to the
boulder that jutted through the white
cap Of bOrax and revealed the wealth
below He tried again and again, un-
til he could no longer tiud credit for
the flour and bacon he must have to
live on while he searched. He left
his ore specimens and his map to an
other man, who has kept up toe search
for twenty years and hasn't found it
yet.
Old Breyfogle trailed his way out of
the desert with more rich rock. He
told of q cave in a canyon where he
crawled to find shelter from a cloud
burst, and found the richest rock that
was ever brought out of the gold
country. He showed the rock when
he came ont, and started back to his
mine with mules ladened with water
and provisions. OF course, he was
followed His find was too big to be
left to one man, but old Brey fO9 le
knew the mountains and the men who
prospect among them, and he doubled
on his trail, made false starts, and at
last shook the followers off the scent
and vanished. He never came back
Man. mules, water barrels, tools. pro
vision all disappeared. This was Il
generation ago, but in that country
there are yet men clambering among
the dead canyons, looking for a cave
with roof studded with gold. 1t is
the same story. with few variations,
all through. The Lost Padre mine IS
the only one with radically different
legend. That tale came from the
Indians. An old Piute came over
from the Nevada side and was rescued
from death from thirst by a prospect
or, and in his gratitude offered to
bring the white man to mine that
had been worked by the Mission faith
ers hundred years before. They
started, but as they went the worth of
the service he had received seemed
less 10 the Indian and the service he
was rendering seemed more. and at
last he refused to proceed unless he
was paid a pony ana a gun. The
miner promised, but the Indian de
manded his price in advance, and
they returned to the edge of civiliza
ton, got the p-ny and the gun and
started again. The prospector re
turned with the usual specimens, but
without the secret. The Indian had
left him one night, and had returned
twenty four hours later with the gold
bearing rock and a silver crucifix with
a Spanish inscription He brought
these to show that he knew where the
oldtime priests had got their gold.
but he had suffered another change
of heart. and now gave back the horse
and gun and refused to show the
mine. Why? They don't ask Indians
for reasons. 1t might have been that
he saw a white deer. snake, quail
and crow may have been on the
trail together. or it may have been,
and probably was-just Injun cussed
ness.