The morning news., 1897-08-16
MUTE REMlNDER OF A TRAGEDY
Tale That the Gunstock From Death
Valley Tells.
From the San Franclsco Chronlcle.

From the San Francisco Chronicle
An old gunstock, white as a bone, light
as a feather ana full Of waving lines
made where the wood gasped in the ex-
cruciating heat of the desert sink we know
as Death Valley, is one of the latest addi-
ions TO the Park museum. The stock was
picked up by j. W. Droalard where a
train of emiglants perished forty-seven
years ago, and was presented to the mu-
scum by jefferson G. James of this city
The carved Old stock, white as a skeleton
tells a good story. 1t was found where a
large emigrant party perished in 1850, and
where for many years the tracks of the
wagon wheels and the marks of the fires
could still be seen, so deathly is nature s
stiffness in this remarkable region.
1t was from the fate OF this very party
to which the old gun stock belonged that
the region was named They had the honor
Of christening the place, but, like many
pioneers, they paid dearly for the privi-
lege. 1t was a party of thirty gold-seek-
ers, with their wives and children, who
came into the valley from the east, all un-
mindful Of the deadly grasp of the country
into which they had so blithely Veutured
After one-day's camp they were so over
come by the heat and still more terrible
aridity that more than half of their num-
Der perished. A few escaped over the
Panamint mountains to the west and the
others returned the way they came. 1t
was a pitiful experience. Ten years later
a party of prospectors came across the
camp, with its wagons, chains, yokes
camp equipments guns and children s
toys, to say nothing of the melancholy
skeletons of men, women aA children
and their faithful horses. Even the tracks
made in the sand by the little ones could
still be traced. OF all the stories told of
California pioneers none is so full of hu-
man interest as this, and yet it is told
only by tradition, though survivors Of the
party still remain.
Then there was the "gunsight lead" One
of the survivors of the other party carried
piece Of rock, probably BLACK metal, >"
from spring he found in the Panamints,
to the settlements. A gunsmith, when
asked to make a gunsight of it, found
it to be silver. Why should the story be
considered incredible? The lead has been
covered by the debris of a cloudburst. It
may never be found, but there seems no
good reason to doubt its existence.
There are hundreds of unknown graves
in the region. Some are marked by lonely
crosses, others not at all. How many men
have wandered from the trail and have
never been found no one knows At the
lower end of the valley travellers used to
pass six skeletons lin one day and near
the greasewood bushes, where men, gone
mad with thirst had dug their fingers 10
the bone in the search for water. 1t is a
terrible region, this country below the sea,
where only the dust storms come, where
the stiffness is everlasting and where il
never rains. Mems bodies dry there, as
fruit dries under the process of evapora-
ton, and woes betide the prospector who
loses his way or does not know the loca-
tion of the nearest water hole.
In such home the bleached and crack
ed gunstock has been lying these many
years, the wood starting and gasping for
the rain that never came.