Evening journal., 1897-09-08
ReMINoER oF A TRAeEoY.
Tale That the cunstocIs from Death
NnII.... Ia.IIa

Tale That the GunstOcIx from Death
valley Tells.
An old gunstocS, white as n bone,
light as a feather and full of waving
lines, made where the wood gasped in
the excruciating 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. Droal-
lard where train Of emigrants per-
ishe1 AZ years ago, and was presented
to the museum 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 persisted in 1850 and where for
many years the tracks of the wagon
wheels ard the marks Of the fires could
still be seen, 20 deatby is natures still
ness in this remarkable region.
It 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 30 gold seekers, with their
wives and children, who came into the
valley from the east, all unmindful of
the deadly grasp of the country into
which they had so blithely ventured.
After q one-day's 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
they came. 1t was pitiful experience.
Ten years later party of prospectors
came across the camp, with its wagons.
chains, yokes, camp equipments, guns
ana ohildren's toys. to say nothing of
the melancholy skeletons of men, wom-
en- and children and their faithful
horues. Even the tracks made in the
sand by the little ones could still be
traced. OF all the stories told of Cali
fornia 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 party carried
a piece of rock, probably ''black metal
from a spring he found in the Pana-
mints, 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
elcudburst. 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 val
ley travellers used to pass six skeletons
in one day, and near 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. IL 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 fruit dries under the process of evap-
oration, and woe betide the prospeotor
who loses his way or does not know
the location of the nearest water hole.
In such a home the bleached and
cracked gun stock has been lying these
many years. the wood starting and
gasping for the rain that never came
San Francisco Chronicle.