Weekly journal-miner., 1915-04-21
SOLE SURVIVOR OF WALKER PARTY AT ELSINORE
iFrom Fridays Daily.l

l survivor of the Walker party, whicI t explored the wilds of Arizona in tn 6Os Perhaps this is due to the fac that D. E. Conner does not care t get into the limelight, says the Lak
 Elsinore Valley Press in its las issue. He possesses enough knowl edge of the early days of the West . gained from practical experience anc , observation, to fill several books O no mean size.
 "Mr. Conner came to Elsinorc about two years ago, and has beer
 doing little surveying for a liveli
 hood. Recently he was appointed
 city engineer, and is now busily en
 gagged in setting grade stakes for
 sidewalks. He is very capable en-
 gineer and man with a kind heart
 making friends of all with whom he
 comes in contact. Below we give an
 interview which will throw a little
 light upon the interesting informa-
 tion he possesses:
 The Walker Party, organized to
 explore Central and Northern Ari-
 zona, had its beginning at KeySvillc,
 Calif., in 1861, with only nineteen
 members. To that date, Joseph R.
 Walker, Pauline Weaver and Kit
 Carson, were the only white men
 who had ever ventured into Central
 Arizona previously and barely escap-
 ed with their lives some 30 years
 previous to this last Walker expedi-
 ton.
 Pauline Weaver appears subse-
 qucntly to have made friends with
 the Apache tribes, Kit Carson never
 tried again, and Capt Walker or ganized this later expedition to, Gas .ne expressed iD puncture the Apache stronghold of Central and Northern Arizona, for the first time known to modern attempts.
 These nineteen men being too weak for such task it moved on by the Zuni Indian Village to Albuquer que, N M, and failing to get addi- tional recruits, moved on to the new mines of Colorado, and still failing to get sufficient force, engaged in mining on the upper Arkansas river until the spring of 1862 when Capt. | Walker decided to go with his slight | ly increased force back through New Mexico and by the early fall found | his party upon the Old Prehistoric l Trail at Santa Fe
 Thence on to Pulvidaro on the Rio | Grande, and down that stream several | hundred miles to the battlefield of | Val Verde and Fort Craig, and here having the first serious battle with the Apaches in the night and within five miles of Fort Craig. Thence upon a northwest course entering vast des- crt where no one knew any land marks hence all the camps thereafter were lost camps.
 "The old prehistoric trail takes direct westerly course along the south edges of New Mexico and Arizona with the chaparral mountainous re- gions on the north extending hun lreds of miles northeTly to the Little Colorado and the Colorado rivers, and cn the south by comparatively level 1esert sage brush plains. The Walk cr expedition used the Old Trail as a oase-line from which to operate north the savage strongholds, the haven of Apache insolence for gener- stions.
 "We followed the Old Trail, say ten niles, and then turned at right angles loTtherly, ten, twenty, fifty or hun lred miles dependent upon water, turned at right angles again and trav- Jed westerly for a day or a week lependent upon finding water. Four lays without finding water usually started us back to the Old Trail.
 The harsh cry of the night-hawk, he hoot of the owl, howl of the coy ( ote and plaintive note of the whip ,oor-will made us sure of water being somewhere in their vicinity, when hey were silent for two days at inc it usually started us in the di- ection of the Old Trail, and occas- onally suffered awfully before finding ( water.
 We thus continued during the ( winter and spring back and forth to md from the, Old Trail until we cached the beautiful woodland and Apache stronghold at the present site i # Prescott city, in the month of June s 863, and decided it to be our first and { ast headquarters. We, therefore, ( achcd our surplus tools, etc., and re { turned to the Pima village 150 miles g nd there replenished our food supply ( with penole alone, and left letters ( with the Pimas to go east and west ' describing our new headquarters and . tow to get there, then finding a piece { 'f waste paper telling us the date of (