The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-10
CROSSED DEATH VALLEY.
IN '40--HoRRoRS OF THE TRIP
 RECALLED BY 4 PIONEER

Which Craving All Warnings, Left
 aTraiI of Graves Through the Great
 American Desert - But Five of she 1hirty-Fwo survivors Now Left.
 A dispatch to the New York Sun from
 carpenteria, Cal, says: .,-.....s... ......
 This is the fifty-fourth year since fa- nous '49, when California was populat-
 ed by migration across the plains and
 around the Horn. There are few of the pioneers left. With an increasing death rate, 1903 has claimed an unusually large number. The last to go was
 Thomas Shannon, who died November 13 at Los Gates. He was one of the lit tie band of Jayhawkers who in an effort to reach California crossed Death Val | ley in Arizona in 1S49, leaving trail of graves behind them. .ss-.. ea. i A few days before his death shannon told again, as he had many times be- fore, the thrilling story of the Jayhawk- CTS experience in the desert. He re- membered every detail and told them as clearly as though the direful march had been made yesterday. . 1 It was in April of 1S49 that the young men of Galesburg, H., got the gold fever. There were twenty-five or thirty who wanted to go to California, and some one conceived the idea of forming an oath-bound band. Jay hawkers was the name they chose, and
 the strongest young men of the commu- nifty became members. The initiation | n,15 xrI1rs fa lad fn meet its requirements were not allowed | to join the party.
 The candidate was lifted on the shoul- ders of four stout comrades, who car ried him around the circle. He then stood up with trousers rolled to the knees and swore to stand by the com pany through any and all perils. even unto death. As he took the oath a piece of flesh was taken from the calf of his leg with a pair of iron pincers. If he showed the pain by making the slightest sound he was considered url- i worthy of membership.
 Week after week the long wagon trains of the Jayhawkers rolled over the dusty plains, and finally came in safety to Salt Lake. the Mormon stronghold. The story of the sufferings of the Donner party had found it's way back to Salt Lake. They had taken the northern route, and had been overcome by snow and bitter weather in the Ne yada mountains. Some of them man aged to reach mountain lake, where they pulled through the winter with un- l told suffering.
 "It was the beginning of October I xtyta ..x1ya ord ha fo1 rf fhn l ing of the Donner party" said Pioneer shannon. They had taken the north ern route, which was. the usual one | might say the only, route from Salt Lake. We had intended to go by the northern route also but the tales of suf- fering changed our minds The Nor mons, anxious to have a southern trail marked cut. encouraged us to go that way. The die was cast when Captain Juan Hunt, who had commanded the Mormon battalion in the Mexican war, offered to act as guide for twelve dol- lars a wagon.
 We left Salt Lake City on October l 3. skirting the end of the lake and go- | ing southwest. After proceeding some days one of the party produced a Ere l mont map and began to study out short cuts. There was one which looked very easy on the map, and 1t saved no less than 500 miles. Think what 1t meant save 500 miles of trudging alongside a heavy wagon train. The majority of the party favored trying the cutoff. Had they known the suffering it in volved they would have travelled a thousand miles to avoid it
 t,s, TI,,yt +ot5 nF tt,n Ja,,eya,, and tried to keep us from the attempt He gave 1t up finally with the charac- teristic remark, We'll. go to hell if you like; return to Sale Lake
 Tn a few days we came to Poverty Point, in the Wasatch Mountains. It seemed to be the jumping off place for sure. As far as one could see there was nothing but a sheer precipice, and stretching away from its base, as far as the eye could reach, a severe looking plain. +.,... ,@
 Two days searching was rewarded with the discovery of a place of descent It was little more than a ravine, cut by some mountain stream. There was no sign of a trail and the way was strewn with boulders but we managed to get the wagons down. The following day we entered upon the Great American Desert without having the faintest idea of our whereabouts.'
 The survivors have never been able to relate in full the horrors of that trip. It lasted four months. For weeks they were practically without water, and for fifty-two days they subsisted on quar- ter rations. Three of the party died and were buried along the trail after it was discovered that the cattle which they had been herding so carefully were un- fit to eat. The herd had been drinking the water os the desert and it turned their flesh into a mass of slime. Even the marrow in their bones was turned to blood and water. Yet the suffering Jayhawkers devoured hides, entrails and all in their extremity.
 One poor fellow, demented by the heat, his tongue hanging out with thirst and his form emaciated by starvation, wandered off one night. The survivors considered him one oe the victims of the desert for fifteen years. He was finally discovered by a United States surveying party living among the Dig