Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1913-09-04
Man and Dog Saves Prospectors From
a Horrible Death.

of the September American aMgazine
cnotains an article about Lew West
colt Beck, who is known as the
Good Samaritan of Death Valley"
He and his dog, Rufus, have saved
many prospectors from a horrible
with guide posts showing the way to
water. The following is an extract
from the article:
Time was when Beck was a plain
prospector in the Cripple Creek coun-
try. He was in on the diggings at
Leadyille, and be PANIED around in
Montana awhile. Likewise he rushed
into the Big Horn at the time of the
mineral strike there, but he never
struck lead that made him rich.
Eventually he drifted down through
Nevada and into Death Valley, chas-
ing rainbows. Wild rumors about
Death Valley Scotty's big find in
that section, electrified the country,
and scores of prospectors rushed in
to the desert, expecting to make their
fortune in a few days. Beck was
among those present.
| There were several in Beck's
party. They hiked many miles thru
the mirage land, finding nothing
worth while, and worrying constant
ly lest they exhaust their supply of
water. For two days they sought
water holes; and when out of water
they went for hours with tongues
swollen and lips parched from want
of moisture. Then when death SEEM
ed inevitable they suddenly discov-
cred tiny stream trickling out of a
canyon at the base of the Panamint
mountains.
when Beck returned to civiliza
ton he was a changed man. He had
seen sands that were strewn with
skulls, and that sight had put a big
idea into his head.
Game spring, and Beck made an
other trip through Death Valley. At
his side was a Newfoundland dog.
The prospector carried bundle of
tin strips. They were sign boards
to guide the wanderers steps Alright.
Each summer since then the
prospector and his dog have made a
journey to the land of the purple
mist, piling up rocks and attaching
signs to them, searching for lost
travellers and incidentally keeping a
lookout for a piece of precious met
al. Once or twice Rufus has led his |
master to prospectors, who, after
long suffering from thirst, had fall
len upon the burning sands to die. |
In signboarding the desert Beck |
has saved a number of thirst-mad |
rainbowchasers, and has also, in
remote districts, stumbled upon the
bleaching bones of dead men who |
may have found fortunes in the sill
yer sulphuret district but who did
not live to tell the world about it.
At one time he assisted at the burial
of four men who died of thirst with
In TWO miles OF a spring.
"The country that Beck traverses
is the most arid section of the Am
erican continent-a dreary stretch
of hundreds of miles of desert, dot
ted here and there with foothills,
Duties, dry creek beds, chaparral,
prickly pear, and sagebrush. Springs
are miles upon miles apart. Most OF
them are bitterly alkali, and some
are poison.
In an ordinary summer afternoon
the thermometer runs up to about
LA degrees in the shade out in Death
Valley, and the most unpleasant
thing about it is that there is
1earth of shade. When man ven
lures out upon this trackless expanse,
the shimmering heat dazes him, the
scarcity of water crazes him, the
mirag lying thing of
beauty that it is-looms ever before
him, flashing upon the canvas of
his minds eye verdant valley. gor-
5eously green with growing things,
fresh with flowers, wet with water,
and waiting to welcome him. He can
see grassy hill-slopes just ahead, and
The mirrored lake appears to lie
list beyond some reckoning mead
wv. He follows on and on; and af-
.erward drains the last drop from
his canteen. Then his throat be-
zones parched, his tongue cleaves
% the roof of his mouth, and strange ,
,hings pass before his eyes. The ,
begin to soar over him,
md the coyotes sit upon their hun ,
sers and watch him chase rainbows
Until he pitches forward upon his
ace and closes his eyes upon a world
hat is too mysterious and merciless
or him to linger in longer"