The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-10-30
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF DEATH.
G~oid-seekers Risk Their Lives Searching
for the Precious Metal.

Goid-seekers Risk Their Lives Searching
for the Precious Metal.
No locality In all America Is so lone
ly, so deadly hot and so literally awful
In scenery and climate as Death val
ley i'm Inyo county. California. 1t is
close to the southwestern boundary OF
Nevada. and is cut off from California
roper by the Panamint and Funeral
mountains. 1t is as nearly a bit OF
hades as may be imagined on earth.
Explorers say there is nothing 80
%frightful on this continent. Ii Is truly
a valley of horrid desolation-150 miles
long and tapering from a width OF e
en- miles at the southern end to Fl at
the northern; IL Is some 200 feet below
the level OF the sea. and is walled in
on three sides by ghostly white noun
tains. over 5000 feet high of basalt
and granite. As far as the eye can
reach not a living thing may be seen.
Even birds do not fly into that region,
and the absolute silence of the spectral
valley pounds in ones ears. No friendly
cloud ever obscures the sur there from
spring to autumn. and all summer long
the temperature is never less than 125
degrees. Often IL Is $50 degrees. The
whole valley has been scorched n
blasted through countless ages. The
ground Is white for thousands Of acres
with borax and volcanic formation.
Dead bodies never decompose there.
They are mummined i'm a few days un-
der the %frightful solar heat and the
roasting winds that continually sweep
through the canyons of the valley.
A party of three men rave just come
to this place, after having come through
Death valley. That they live to tell
their suffering Is a marvel among min
ing prospectors and cowboys who know
something OF Death valley from excur-
sions into IL i'm midwinter and along
its southern edge i'm summer John w.
Westcott, formerly In the employ of
the state of California as a guardian
of the forests in the Yosemite valley,
was leade in the party. The three men
went from Los Angeles to look at some
silver n gold deposits i'm the San Lor-
emo mountains in Southern Nevada,
last May, and finding the prospects of
wealth in the newly-found mines, they
delayed their departure until the LIST
of June. Miners m others who had
traversed Death valley in the winter
told them that there would be no dan
ger in travelling through that region in
une IL they could stand hard travel
ing, extra heat and had plenty'of wa
ter along. The trip through Death val
ley to the Calico mining region at Dag
gett would save the miners a journey
OF over 500 miles Through Nevada to
Reno, then over the Sierras at Truckee
and then down through the sacrament
to and San Joaquin Valleys to Los
Angeles.
Mr.. westcott 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 wag-
ons from Southern Nevada. across 1nyo
county for Daggett, but the second dag
49, 80 NJ Gl H. III.
partial blazing glory. The party of
three was six days in crossing the aw-
full valley. In that period each man
lost from Is TO % pounds OF flesh, and
one of the men has been made so weak
n nervous that IL will be weeks be-
fore ne will be himself again. Their
dried meats became so hard that they
could not use them; their bags of po-
tatoes rotted In three days; their wa
ter evaporated fast, and was drunk
only when IL was absolutely necessary.
Then IL was hot i'm spite of all the pro-
lection from the sun that could be Civ
en- II i'm the heavy oaken casks. The
party had a large quantity of canned
fruits. and. although IL became very
hot IL was the sole article OF diet that
saved their lives. They had three doz-
en- boiled eggs that shrivelled and
spoiled in the shell so as to be unfit
To eat even by almost straving men.
one night they killed two rattlesnakes
I'm a canyon leading out of the valley.
and skinned. cooked and ate the mesh
of the reptiles.
1t was a frightfui journey" said
Mr.. Wescott to a reporter in San Ber-
nardino. mo one knows the horrors of
thirst, n what spectral fantasies come
to one toiling as we were over that hor-
rible alkali desert for days in a temper
allure of never less than l25 degrees.
One day l know we travelled in solar
heat OF over $50 degrees. There were
the most perfect mirages of streams
Of water and beautiful lakes about US
every dawn and sunset and a we not
heard all our lives how these atmos-
pheric pictures have lured to death
many an emigrant through Death val
ley. and set our minds lead against
any such allurements in the midst of
our burning thirst. we should surely
have left the trail and gone wander
ing 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 at
mosphere OF Death valley. We Travelled
almost entirely by night N sat be-
meath 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 shoeless. All that you
have ever heard Of the horrors OF thirst
on the alkali plains you may believe.
but We suffered. l suppose. but a small
degree OF what many a man has suf-
fered before he gay up to die in ag-
ony In the Death valley. At n place
We saw seven human skulls and a lot
OF human bones. I believe they must
have been there over 30 years. Under
other climatic conditions they would
have crumbled TO dust long ago. The
skeletons were close together. and 20
feet away were bones OF mules and
parts OF a big wagon. The people had
evidently drawn close 10 one another
I'm their agonies Of death. oh. the pa
thos OF Death valley has never been
adequately told"
One OF the most dreadful stories I'm
the long history of TRAGEDIES in Death