The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1903-03-26

@S<1fEsa fEsa Ehas'ly ,, tragedy hfty
acted. Yearly, as the white men tray
crse that trapdOor OF the neither re-
gions, they play their lives against the
tales Of yellow lucrc that lie under ii,
and some lose. The next year, says
the San Francisco Chronicle, their
mummificd corpscs are found by 9TH
crs, who may pity them as good
men, they played the limit and lost.
Here's the next that tries.
Fifty-Onc years a%N 4 party of mon,
women and chldrrn-twcnty, all told
left independence Mo-, in two wagons
drawn by oxen, bound for the gold
helds of California. From that day un-
I'll now they have never been heard OF,
ana their fate has always been n mys-
terry. All these years the bare desert
held the secret securely locked, and
only recently have It's restless crawl
ing sands disclosed the kcy-a huge,
rustcd iron hook Of an ancient OK
chain.
Don Pickett is Il prosDcctOr with a
frame Of tempered steel and thcwS and
muscles as tough as whung lea thcr.
He is not well known in San Fran
cisco, but is familiar figure from
Carson to the Mexican line. He has
just returned to San Francisco from
prospecting trip to Tonopah through
the Phnamint country and Death Val
Icy by way of M0.iavc and Kcclcr.
"roI5oN!"
At the foot Of Il spur on the Pann-
mint Mountains, on its northeastern
slope, he, with his partner, Len Gorson.
had stopped to rest themselves and
their burros from the exhaustion at
tcndant upon their trip across Death
valley. Where they stopped spring
or perfectly clear cold water bubbcd
from the ROCKS and lost itself in the
SANDS Il fcW yards further on. They
uld not drink Of the water; they knew
it; so did their burros, and the animals
hardly shifted ut it rs they turned to
nibblc the Scant hcrbagc. 1t was dead
~ poison, and the arsenic contained IN
Il good draught would kill Il drinker
Years ago some Drospcctor had
Scrawlcd the word "poison" on a board
from a packing DoX and had fastened
it to stake by the edge of the spring.
1t was while resting in the shade Of
the rocks and the brush that Pickett
saw, few feet from him, the top Of
Il rust-catcn hook projecting above the
sand. He took hold of it, but it did not
come away easily, and, eXcrting his
strength he uncovered an ancient OK
chain forty feet in length, the kind
that is practically out Of use now.
From its rusty condition he and his
partner estimated that 1t must have
lain buried IN the sand for Mt least
hfty years. and knowing the manner in
which the desert concealed its secrets,
they took their prospecting picks from
their packs. and began drawing them
through the sand.
The points Of the picks turned UP
bone after bone and pieces Of wagon
irons. Some of the bones were of
oxen. and some were OF human beings.
few evidently being those Of women
and children They rcintcrrcd in a
trench in the sand the human bones
they had uncovered, and then packed
on across the drcary waste that
stretched away before them. They told
the story OF their find to Indians and
old white settlers in the Amargosa
country, and from one and another Of
tho old men they gained the follow
ing story:
THE LOST PARTY.
1t was in the fall Of 1851 that party
came down AmargOsa way with two
worn-out OK teams. The party had left
Independence, Mo-, that spring, but
had been delayed by sickness, and had
once lost its way and had left the trail
Consequently they did not approach
the Sierra Nevada Mountains until the
~neQrness Of winter prohibited their
passage. They had turned south from
Humboldt sink and had taken the
Southern route by tho way Of the old
Salt Lake and the Los Angeles trail.
One or two Of the women and several
Of the children had died Oh the way,
and one Of the wagons had broken
down, and the oxen were so thin and
worn that MI were attached to the best
wagon and the other abandoned. as
were some Of the goods. The remain
ing women, children and outfit were
packed in one wagon. and. with the
men on foot the little cavalcade toiled
on toward El Dorado. Nothing more
was seen or heard Of them by the
Amargosa settlers, and 1t was pre-
sumed that they had gone through In
safety. 1t is Il long. thirsty way from
water to water between the sink OF
the Amargosn and Death Valley If one
does not "know''-and the party from
Independence did not. If they had
they would have dug few feet in the
dry sand Of the bed Of the lost Amar-
posa md found water bitter 1t is true.
but it would have preserved life.
Neither did they know that If with
axe or hatchet they had split the huge
"bulr cactus they would have found
an acrid, juicy pulp that would have
!, moisfcned the parchcd throats or their
a oxen and themselves. But all this
they did not know, and struggled on
with staring eyes and parched and
cracking tongues through the hot and
sitting alkal dust, straininG their eyes
across the drcary, dull gray waste for
SPOT cf green that might mark the
presence Of water.