The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-20
HORRORS OF DEATH VALLEY.
Tales Of the Terrible SufferingS Experienced in the
ScOrched and Blasted Territory.


in scenery as Death valley, in Invo
county, California. It is close to the
southwestern boundary of Nevada, and
is cut off from California proper by the
Panamint and Funeral mountains. It
is as nearly bit of hades as may be
imagined on this earth. Explorers say
there is nothing so frightful on this
continent. 1t is truly a valley of desc
lation-150 miles long and tapering
from width of seven miles at the
southern end TO q at the northern. It
is some 200 feet below the level of the
sea, and is walled in on three sides by
ghostly white mountains, over 5000 feet
high. of basalt and granite. AS far as
the eye can reach not living thing
may be seen. Even birds do not fly
into that region and the absolute ST.
1ence of the spectral valley pounds in
ones ears. No friendly cloud ever OBJ
scures the sun from spring TO autumn,
and all summer the temperature is
never less than 125 degrees. Otter it
is $50 degrees. The whole valley has
been scorched and blasted through
countless ages. The ground is white for
thousands of acres with boraX and
volcanic formation. Dead bodies never
decompose there. They are mummified
in a few days under the frightful solar
meat anu lI4C lOdoNlll6 Willis Ahc1N SOAA-
tinually sweep through the canyons of
the valley.
A party of three men have just come
to this place after having come
through Death valley. Fortunately for
them, it was in early summer. That
they live to tell their sufferings is a
marvel among the mining prospectors
and cowboys who know something Of
Death valley from excursions into it in
midwinter and along its southern edge
in summer John W. Wescott, formerly
in the employ of the state of California.
as guardian of the forests in the Yo-
semitic valley. was the leader in the
party. The three men went from Los
Angeles to look at some silver and gold
deposits in the San Lorenzo noun
tains, in southern Nevada, last May
and finding prospects of wealth in the
newly found mines, they delayed their
departure until the 1st of June. Min
ers and others. who had traversed
Death valley in the winter, told them
that there would be no danger in trav-
cling through that region in June, if
they could stand hard travelling, extra
heat and had plenty of water. The trip
through Death valley to the Calico
mining region at Daggett would save
the miners a journey of over 500 miles
up through Nevada to Reno, then west
ward over the Sierras at Truckee, and
San Joaquin valleys to Los Angeles.
Mr.. Wescott and his two comrades
decided to risk the journey through
Death valley. The weather had been
comparatively cool for several weeks
previous to their start with mule
wagons from southern Nevada, across
1nyo county, for Daggett. But the sec
ond day they were out Old Sol came
out in blazing glory. The party of
three was six days in crossing the val
ley. In that period each man lost from
Is 10 % pounds of flesh, and one of the
men has been made so weak and ner-
vous that it will be weeks before he
viii be himself. Their dried meats be-
came so hard that they could not use
them; their bags Of potatoes rotted in
three days; their water evaporated fast
and was drunk only when ii was abso-
lutely necessary. The party had
large quantity of canned fruit, and al
though it became very hot, it was the
sole article of diet that saved their
lives. They had three dozen boiled
eggs that shriveled and spoiled in the
shell so as to be unfit to eat even bv
almost starving men. One night thew
killed two rattlesnakes in a CANYON
leading out of the valley and skinned,
cooked and ate the flesh on the rep
tiles
1T was a frightful Journey" said Mr..
WestcoIt to a reporter in San Ber-
nardino. mo one knows the horrors of
thirst and what spectral fantasies come
30 one toiling as We did over that hOr-
rible alkali desert waste for days in a
temperature of never less than 125 de-
erees One day know we Travelled in
solar heat of $50 degrees. There were
the most perfect mtrages of streams of
water and beautiful lakes about us
every dawn and sunset, and had we
not heard all our life how these at
mospheric pictures have lured TO death
many an emigrant through Death val
ley we should surely have left the
trail and gone wandering about the
valley. We had TO be Watchful of one
another, for one can become insane in
a few hours in the horrible solar heat
and poisonous atmosphere of Death
valley We Travelled almost entirely by
night and sat beneath wagons in the
day time. We had provided extra
heavy shoes. and had we reached the
southern end of the valley one day
later each of US would have been shoe
less.
IAN that you have ever heard of
the horrors of thirst on the alkali
plains and under a burning sun,
where evaporation is high, you may
well believe OF course we suffered
only family what scores of men have
known before they staggered forward
10 die in Death valley. However, We
experienced enough TO have some idea
of what agony there is for one who
travels a day, or possibly "A hours, in
fierce, hot sunshine. Our mouths be-
came dry and parched. unless we drank
at least once every hour. One day two
of US became separated from the
mules and driver, where the kegs OF
water were carried, ana we went six
hours without drink. My tongue was
literally as dry as herring, my eyes /
burned, and my knees seemed as if /
they would not carry me another yard |
Both of us knew that these were faint !
symptoms of deliriums from thirst and
we resoluIely kept on back to the
wagon and mules. Several days Of
terrible heat ard the glare of the sun ,
upon ones eyes deaden the mental /
faculties. The last two days we were /
in the valley we were in such pain (
and so weak that none of us spoke 1
more than dozen words a day. Our
nervous systems are still upset.
Did we see any human remains in !
Death valley? Yes. One day We rest /
ed a few hundred yards from four hu- I
man skulls and a lot Of human bones.
1hey were white. and about the hips /
were yellow shreds like tendons. That /
was all there was left of flesh on the (
bones. I believe they must have been
there over 20 years. Under other eli (
Tnatic. conditions the bones would have I
crnmbled to dust long ago. The skele- 4
tons were close together. Twenty feet T
away were bones of animals-pro5abiy /
1pules-and the parts of big wagon ,
The people had evidently drawn close
10 one another in their agonies of
death Over toward the boraX works I
are many human skeletons. Oh, the B.