The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-30
A REMARKABLE TALE
Salt Laker Keeps His Wives
Mummified Bodies.
ARE CONSTANTLY IN THE
ROOM WITH HIM.
They Have Been Dead For Over
Seven Years-Neils Ritter Tells
a Singular Story-Claims to Be a
Mormon.

The following strange story ap-
peared in the San Francisco Examiner
of Sunday. Without discrediting it al
all, it may be said that a Herald re-
porter made an effort last night to
find some record of Neils Ritter here
but nothing could be obtained from
those sources where one would natu-
rally look for it if the story is true:
Neils Ritter is a man who lives in
the realm of death.
But he says there is no death-only
change.
His home is one of the most desolate
spots on the earth's surface where
there is nought to cheer and all nature
conspires to cause agony in man. And
yet he is happy-happy to the verge of
ecstasy.
The binding glare of the burning
sunshine, the mysterious darkness of
the night and the awful silence of the
desert are joys to him. For compan-
ionship he has two dead bodies-the
desiccated remains of his wives. Hor-
rible are they to look upon. But he
says they are not dead.
Truly, this man can safely be said to
be the strangest human being in Cali
fornia. His story is weird. mysterious,
unreal, so that one marvels what ply
Geological evolutions could have
brought him into existence. Or per-
haps his may be curious type of
what might be called spiritual path
ology. There is a possibility that Neils
Ritter is insane; but maniacs seldom
study, and Ritter does. Certainly it
is that he sees what other eyes cannot
and feels influences beyond ordinary
SuSceptibilities. He is a mystery, for
he loves that which is horrible to 9TH
ers. 4 more horrid life than his can
hardly be imagined, and yet he would
not exchange it for what would be
called our earthly paradise. Consider
ing him from a purely physical stand
point, he is incomprehensible.
The location of Ritter's home. if such
it can be called, is in that vast stretch
of waste land known, in general way,
as the Colorado desert. To be more
exact, it is in the southwest corner of
Inyo county, in the vicinity of Mount
Darwin. 1t is on the western edge of
the dry lake southwest of Panamint.
The country in this part of California
does not differ materially from Death
Valley. At all seasons of the year the
heat is intolerable, and vegetation
there is none.
Ritter's home is in a small rocky
gulch about 800 feet from a spring that
flows a few quarts of alkali water
every "a hours. The immediate sur
roundings are awful in the extreme.
Death turks everywhere; in the poison
thistle, the murderous winds and the
bite of the rattlesnake. The burning
rocks are strewn with bones. The spir-
it of the place seems to say, Go away;
this is the realm of DEATH
But Ritter remains and seems proof
against the horrors. At least, he has
been for seven years. His cabin is a
rough structure of stone and adobe,
without windows. and only one door.
Hot, suffocating and uninviting at all
times.
Every prospector in that region
knows Ritter, but not many care to
visit him. A few will occasionally
wander to his door, but one look in
side will cause them to fly, for more
horrible sight will be difficult to find.
But the old man is only too glad to
talk to those who will stay and listen
to him.
The interior of Ritter's cabin is
about 10 feet square and contains a
rough bed without mattress, on
which the old man spends most of his
time. He constantly studies book,
which seems to be a com binatiOn of
spiritualism and Mormonism.
On either side of the bed. so that the
old man can reach out and touch
them, there is a rough coffin standing
on end but inclined enough to allow
the top to rest against the wall. Each
of these collins contains a disiccated
body that he says are those of his two
wives, more grinning and horrible than
the oldest of Egyptian mummies.
'TiS in this room that Ritter spends
his days. He seldom goes more than a
few feet from his cabin, and that only
to get water from the spring. He has
a stock of provisions on hand that will
last him for years.
Should anyone enter the room the
old man will stretch out a bony hand
in welcome, and, pointing to the two
introduce them as his wives
as if they were alive. Then he will
turn over the leaves of his large book
and for a long time be lost in study.
1t is useless to speak to him at such
appears not to hear.
Its well you came today" is his
usual form of greeting. He will then
close his eyes and appear to go into
trance. On awakening he will be sure
to tell something most unexpected, and
many who have visited him have been