The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-12-10

Waterman, who with his Indian wife
and their three children comprise the
whole population Of the valley. Cub
Lee is the Waterman, and it is said he
was a bad man in his early days, de-
serted from the United States army and
went to Death Valley to live because
no one was likely to follow him theres
However, / made my headquarters at
the works, because the only water in
the valley was there. Cubs eldest son
Is called sCne Sock I'M the Wash, Sone
|of his daughters issnamed Peanuts.
|and the other children have titles that
would shock the ordinary Eastern mind
unaccustomed to desert humor.
After / had reached the valley and
taken my bearings I found there We're
practically three valleys-the central
one, where the spring and borax works
were, then northern and southern val
leys separated from the main sink by
hills cutting across the length of the
depression. Altogether these three
valleys aggregate about sixty miles in
length and from six to eight miles in
width. 1 should have said the borax
plant, costing, I was told, $3.50, 900, was
abandoned because no workmen could
live in the valley, not even Chinese,
who are able to endure almost any
thing. 4
During my Explorations 1 came
across skeletons of the immigrants
whose fate gave the valley it's name.
They were Mormons and were headed
Tor. San Bernardino, then a Mormon
settlement. Thinking to make a short
cut across the desert, they left the
main trail, which went around Death
Valley, and went into the place by
Furnace Creek Wash. 1t was never
known exactly how many were in the
party, nor how they were killed, but l
judge from the remains that there must
have been more than a hundred OF
them The skeletons that haveno been
buried by the sandstorrns are clustered
around the salt water. hole in posi-
tons that show they were huddled to-
gether near the water Wagons shaken
to pieces by the heat are scattered
about everywhere, with the bones of
OK teams and mules.
1T was said that two of the party
got out of the valley alive, one of them
named Townsend and the other was
John c. O'Brien. The story of the
Gunsight lead originated with Town
send. He took a piece of ore to a gum
smith and asked him to make sight
for his gun. The smith worked on it a
little and finally told him it was pure
silver. Townsend said he found it
while coming out Of the valley, but the
location was never made plain. O'Brien
claimed to know where the silver had
come from, and started out from Dag
gett to locate it. Everybody thought
he was a little queer as result of his
hardships, and paid no attention to
his trip. He was found dead not long
after he started, and was buried near
the Calico Mountains, where he had
died. Numbers of expeditions have
tried to find the Gunsight lode, but none
has ever been successful.
''Well, to come back to the valley. I
stayed there three weeks, travelling
back and forth. The place was the
kind to inspire Dore in his conception
of the Internal. A great salt marsh
fills the central valley, the product of a
river that sinks there and has never
been known to show water in it's bed
On either side are mountains that rise
to hight of 5000 to 10000 feet. One
range is called the Funeral Mountains,
and one of the. passes is called Bloody
Gulch-probably to cheer the spirit of
the tenderfeet who pass that way. I'M
mense deposits of borax, of sulphur
and nitrate of silver contain enough
wealth to make a nation rich IL Only