The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1897-09-16
AWFUL DEATH VALLEY
lHE GHASTLY RELICS OF AN EMIGRANT
TRAIN,
Bleaching Bones of Women and Chill
dren Tell the Tale of Suffering and
Death-Starving for Water Under a
clustering Sun Their Anguish of
Mind and Torture of Body Awful,
(San Francisco Chronicle)

An old gunstock, white as a bone,
light as feather, and full of waving
lines made where the wood gasped in
the excruclating heat of the desert
sink we know as Death Valley, is one
OF the latest additions to the Park
Museum. The stock was picked up
by J. w. Droallard, where a train of
emlgrants perlshed forty seven years
ago, and was presented TO the museum
by Jefferson G. James, of this city.
The carved old stock, white as a skel-
eton, tells good story. 1t was found
where 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 natures stiffness in
this remarkable region.
1t was from the fate of this very
party to which the old gunstock be-
longed that the region was named.
They had the honor of christening the
place, but like many pioneers, they
paid dearly for the privilege. 1t was
party Of thirty goldseekers, 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 blithe-
ly ventured. After one-day camp
they were so overcome by the heat
and still more terrible aridity that
more than half their number perished.
A few escaped over the Panamint
Mountains to the west and the others
returned the way they came. 1t was
a pltlful experience.
Ten years later party of prospec-
tors came across the camp, with its
wagons, chains, yokes, camp equip
ments, guns and children's toys, TO
say nothing of the melancholy skele-
tons of men, women and 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 human interest as
this, and yet it is told only by tradi-
ton, though survivors of the party still
remain.
Then there was the 'gunsight lead"
One of the survivors of the other party
| carried a piece of rock, probably
"black metal" from spring he found
IN the Panamints, to the settlements.
A gunsmlth when asked to make a
gunsight of it, found it to be silver.
Why should the story be considered
| incredible? The lead has been COW
cred by the debris of cloudburst. 1t
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 in one day, and near some
of them were deep holes dug beneath
the greasewood bushes, where men
gone mad with thirst had dug their
fingers to 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 it never
rains. Mems bodies dry there as frnit
dries Under the process of evaporation,
and woe betide the prospector who
loses his way or does not know the
location of the nearest water hole.
In such a place the bleaChed and
cracked gunstock has been lying these
many years, the wood starting and
gaspng for the rain that never came.