The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-15
NoMADs OF THE DESERT
Death Valley Population Composed
of Wanderers From All Parts
of the World

Hugging the rim of the HOTTEST
place on earth, living i'm many cases
on the poor products OF the wild land
over which they roam the greater na ~
of their time there has arss,,,aI,,,
grown I'd on the California coast the
strangest clan of nomads the world
knows
some OF them have been in this re-
glon for from twenty 20 forty wears
w mere they came from and why are
not polite questions. There is q strict
social secrecy maintained BIZ those
people OF the American Sahara, and
they have been known to reprove in
discreet inquirers with Winchester
ana they are. as rule. infinitely more
accurate with such replies than with
the average line of talk they give out
10 the stranger in their midst. saws the
Albuquerque Journal
Around no part OF the Desert have
they gathered as in the regions irnne-
oiately adjacent to Death valley. The
reasons Tor this are n mystery. but
probably the strongest is the inacces-
sibil1ty of the country and the fact
mat no officer OF the law viii go into
the great sink for any ordinary crime
or on the impulse of an old warrant
from some eastern state. or even from
across the seas
Most of them are men of education.
men Who have seen decidedly better
days, but there is, of course, a gradu-
ally increasing proportion of them
VINO are trampS and buns of the
worst sort. The old nomads the In
dams accepted with glad hands. but
the fresh tide of "immigration'' they
both hate and fear
Inc writer we'll remembers meeting
an Old man out some distance from
Death valley a few years ago, and
mating him for a chat of a few min
utes- He was clothed in overalls and
coarse shirt with heavy desert shoes.
the common garb of the white Arab
In one hand he carried a muzzie-load-
ing rifle of the days befo' the wah"
type. The horse he bestrode Twas
scarcely less dilapidated.
In one pocket the writer habituaIly
carries cupy of Omar Khayam
whenever travelling on the desert.
This the old man spied, seized upon.
FELL TO reading. All his shortness of
speech all the crafty shifting of his
eye was gone. At last we had met on
common ground. We talked on the
literature of the past-to him there
was no present. 1t had long ago been
buried in that mysterious some
where" whence he came.
He knew Virgil. could recite most
of the Odyssey in some of it's many
rhyr1ing translations, but among all
of them his fayorite was Omar 7 Of
fered to send him a COPY when 7
reached civilization again if he would
tell me his address
Not a word more could 4 get out of
the old chap and he was gone down
the road before I could get him back
10 line of talk on books and the men
who have made them
Just as there are two classes of
Laps dwelling amid the eternal Desc
lation OF their circumpolar lands. so
there are two classes of these white
Ara bs.
One of these is the clan OF the wan
derers. those, who like this old man.
1--we around among the Indians, often
leaving behind them I'm their moves a
heterogeneous line of half-breed chill
dren in everys village.
Quite the opposite of this clan.
which, by the way, is not united in
any manners the clan of those that
settle down and till some bit of land.
picking up a squaw, sometimes two or
three of them, as wife. and providing
for their families in good style, as
style goes on the desert
Of this latter class is old Cub Lee
much honored resident of Death
valley, who has quite ranch at Rest
ing Springs. and who is raising up a
family of some six or seven half breed
boys and quite as many girls He is
an Engltshman, one of three brothers.
who came to the desert for cause
many years ago. A fourth member
of the family is i'm business I'm Los
Angeles
Their names. strangely as they may
sound. were Philander Salamander
Leander and Meander. Philander is
the one who owns the ranch at Rest
ing Springs Here. too. he controls
the old Sunlight silver mine, well
known throughout the whole west
when the white metal was worth good
money.
The other two brothers who live on
the desert have nothing. nor has the
desire of property possession ever
taken hold of them. Both wander
around among the Indians, killing a
little game here, doing a little work
there, just living. waiting for death to
relieve their exile, yet enjoying thor
oughly every moment of their lives on
the great plain.
But the strangest of all these wan
derers on the desert i'm and around
Death valley is, or rather was, All
Foo, a Chinaman who was crowded
out of the mining camp of Tonopah,
onto the desert to live as best he
might. He located the now famous
China ranch on the road from Daggett
over into the right Nevada mining
country. and made a lot of money out
of wood and hay. which he sold TO
travellers through the pit
When the slump in silver came All
Foo sold out to two men, getting $500
from one and $500 from the other as
parts of the price he was to receive for
the ranch, and skipped out for China
in the interval between two days. Evil
IDENTIFY he has found his native soil
much to his liking; in any event he has
never returned to Death valley
1t costs these desert tribes practical
ly nothing to live. Even the nomads
can pan enough gold out of the can
yons of their lava buttes to buy their
ammunition, and when absolutely nee
essary they can usually get a few days
work on one of the desert ranches. Per-
force they are sober. All are good
shots: most of them are excellent hunt
ers. But they would one and all rather
lie i'm the shade of a mesquite tree on
the hottest day in July in the heart of
the Death valley than walk few hun
dred yards to cool and shaded
spring little way across the valley.
They are the best guides in the world