Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1906-06-18
n \. Boyer Wandered in Death
Valley for Three
Days.
pE NEARLY DIED OF THIRST.
r.,,mated That He Walked Eighty
AIDE. Through Blazing Canyons and
IN svamps-No Food or Water.

rsrp has pdF'N
''- ,-gbtful experiences in Death
NJ N. mat has ever befallon man. That
W.. MID escape alive and retain rea-
(, lille short Of miracle. The
- his vanderings IS told by Fred
w.. 10 the Spokane Chronicle as
follows:
Rover used 10 make his head
81. around here. and was for a
lua. dime engaged in mining in the
i1nt TAaucs." said Mr. Birney.
,S,',..',, he has been making his home
80. lake He was sent into Death
u 9o ST. san Francisco outfit 10
'e.,r The Kunzle group. near the
,,,o..,,,cs creek property | met him
a., trail going into the Kunzie.
-, The 18TH Of April. Having had
syreriencr I'm that country /
,l.-e5 Kim never 10 90 a quarter Of 4
VIZ. ,g-.r from camp unless ne had
'.'',' -+,o.s and cautcen fun Of water
Rover lust laughed.
',VbT I'm an old desert ,errapin,'
hf retoried. . .,,o. =. ..-...,. a..
Vunlie cam he wandered of 10 look
%, prospect q mile away. and IN
,tose blazing canyons, where not
i'm living thing can grow. he was
.oon helnlessly lost The more he
wandered around the more he was
confused. and, desperate with the
krouleige ~ his condition he struck
IN IN search of water. first UP one
canyon and then UP another
INTO DEATH VALLEY.
The heat was dreadful-l02 to l04.
Thus he kept on All that day and
urh'. and on until 4 o'clock Of the
second afternoon. In that time he
revfr stopped once. but kept aimlessly
rIoddiuC on. The kunzie camp was a
mile above sea level. up In the Funeral
range In his wanderings he went
down % Death valley, and then started
up the range again from which he
came. but Il was all I'm vain. There
was no water anywhere. and his con-
dItion was something too fearful 10 be
described. His tongue had swollen
unit. 10 was so thick that he could
hardly breathe The alkall dust filed
bis uogrils and left them bleeding
Already he was beginning 10 lose
Weight for the blazing sun was drying
him mp.
ron the afternoon Of the second day
he had given up all hope Of coming
og' alive. but Yet he struck doggedly
on In one ~ the canyons he neaped
o monument Of stone. and on the
smooth stretch Of tho CANYON wall he
scratched with a pebble this inscrp-
,io1 which ho believed was 10 be his
only cpitaph
D. a. Boyer. salt Lake, Utah,
Passed Here I o'clock.
April IS, 1906.
he was then down where tho can
500 opened into Death valley. $50 feet
bs5u the level Of the sea--perhaps
no lowest point on the face Of the
Grh.
ALMOST DIED OF THIRST
Hs had searched IN vain over the
Funeral range for water and he decld-
ti that the only way for rescue was to
rach the Panamint mountains on
At other side Of Death valley But
htVeen him and the Panamnts. IN the
bottom o. the valley, was the terrible
Death valley sink, five or six miles
vide. where the Amargosa river dWin-
dies away II isa vile. brackish stream
~ LIQUID poison, whose waters are
Thick with soda and borax and mud.
The sink is nothing but q marshl
death Trap with here and there little
iltS ~ refuse where the soda and the
t1raN have become semi solidIhed.
So human being ever crossed that
sink except Gen. Frederick Funston.
who. While on a government expedition
Win q party Of engineers, travcrsed
% To poutoons years ago.
And yet Boyer struck out across
that slough Of despair. and all that
hig1t and until the next day he waded
ana foundered and leaped onward. in
iha most dreadful and unequal contest
with nature that ever heard Of. From
ono little hummock OF boraX and salt
fe would leap TO another. and n he
n Ssed his footing he held his leather
coat spread out before him and would
light upon II In the marsh as a sort OF
buoy until he could Chamber on 10 the
nearest hummock In that death tran.
He took bis shoes N and swunt
them around bis neck by the strings
lis rect were literally parboiled by
inc not and biting ooze Of the marsh.
BECAME DEMENTEp
How he ever got across there I car,
never guess, but somehow he mauaRes
10 reach ne Panamints on the other
s.ae' sun DC was without water for
NE range was as barren as the Fun.
eral mountains
By that time he was getting de.
mented, and in his fever racke. iuoor.
nation he saw always a great Iake ~
lrysisl clear water far IN on the
mountain sides, and when no would
.lno W there for a drink, the lake
.',u disappear into a glare OF torrid |
.ln-baked clay.
ynce he struck Benefits Wells.
a'l nus hopes mounted high. but In.
.'ie ~ drinkable water. he found a /
.N'l' salty slime that even IN his |
-ss ililon he could not swallow.
He lay down In ii and slept for /
I,' of iour hours. When he awOke. |
Pc hfd barely strength enough 10 tot. 4
IN 'n DIS inal advance along the val
AZ o'clock that night the foreman,
p boraN smiths Death Valley ranch
eN hin wandering aimless and pur-
'n,-.ess through the evening gloom.
me foreman took him 10 tire ranch
'4,' ana the crew SCI themselves 10
,o,A 20 save the breath Of life that
,I remained. II would have been IA
~ 20 give him more than a few drops
wafer. and q Was hours before the
ers would let him alone even for
moment In his delirlous rawlings ne
oll1 have rushed 10 water Ike a Wild
ALWAYS ONWARD.
When Boyer was In shape 10 talk.
iold the rancher his name. The
in.ner. who had seen him when he
,A' INTO the Kunzie camp, a few days
.'pff absolutely refused 10 believe
, i'I The poor fellow had lost 2?
luals IN three days. and was enact
yea 20 mere dry parched sheet Of
cnment tight-streiched over his
ny frame He was quite unrecos.
~ Vas several days before he was
Ions enough 10 start FOR salt Lake