Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1913-12-24
$50 F.96.I4E. ~ w
DEATH VALLEY FEARED
ANTERIOR 70 PRosPEc;.-S
q TORS AND TRAVELLERS. 2i5s
No Hope for the Man Lost on That a.
Trackless Waste of Sand--Flrst Es
. RI Madness From Thirst, and
51I{ y Then Death. Ne S4ii

Death Valley has lost none OF IL
terrors since 1S49, when many gold
hunters persisted in their attempts TO
reach the bonanza fields in California,
says a Phoenix (Ariz.) letter. The
relics OF that expedition yet remain
on Salt creek to remind passers BY OF
heroic struggle against great odds.
Today Death Valley practically y
unchanged. True. prospectors have
dug for gold and silver and copper In
the hills on: every side; camps have
been made and abandoned here and
there; water holes and stations estao-
lished in times OF cross-valley travel
between Panamints and Funeral
Range; ranch has been developed on !
which figs and melons and vegetables
grow in great sbundance--the mecca
Of hundreds OF desert pilgrims ana and
sightseeing parties. :<5 { +, b
A stamp mill and an aerial railway
have been built and operated with p
telephone line reaching to civilization;
mule teams have been driven into the
depths and hauled out borax; yet
Death Valley, deep between the tower
ing gray hills. sunken, treacherous,5
desolate, isolated, is unaltered by
the coming of man. sf It is still the val.
ley OF death, claiming Its victims one
bySone. and harboring many unmarked
graves. 4 s$ $:t WA.
Earls C.. Clemens. writing OF tho
death OF Peter Busch, a friend, says
that eight years Of desert experience
failed to aid Busch, who was travelling
by automobile. The car stuck. in the
deep sand. s:z5; n II
3 Clemens says: 54s
....One has, no idea of the oppression
Of the. heat: in Death Valley in sum
mer, unless he has personal expert.
ence Of it. The sun rises hot and sets
hot, with a night sky full of strange
lights, like the flashing of fireballs, the
5pbosphoric phenomena of weird,
spookys waste: :5 III: 4, h. Is. "A III
3""The night brings some relief, but
the new day dawns hotter, It seems,
than the day before The water II 8 &
your canteen is nauseating,: as 1t al
most sizzles under the glare Of the
merciless sun. The air pressure, hot
from above and below, almost stag
gers you, while your thick tongue,
swelling rapidly from thirst, all but
strangles you. 5S, IS, s.s II S555
&% The sand dunes, marked only by
mesquite. swallow you without afford
ing refuge from the heat, the wind.
blows as If from a fiery furnace: the
sand shifts with the wind and the.
trail is lost; the burros may stampede
and the last Of your grub may be-
hopelessly scattered. i5ss 5s35s5f Y
Many have suffered horrible deaths
In that far away and lonely place.
gone mad from thirst and hunger.
thrown away scanteen, grub, clothing,
and wandered saimlessly, only, to lie
down and die, the prey Of coyotes and
the grief OF loved ones to whom their
resting place is unknown.
Some day, perhaps. a, more fortu Y:
nate pilgrim has found a skeleton and
dug a grave with an occasional find /
Of 1ewelry and papers by which the
remains could be Identified, ,butfin the
year in which I have been familiar
with the stories Of the lost in Death
Valley, but few missing ones have.
been located The valley had swal-i
lowed them to us, as the sea-"