The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-04-21
LAST OF FAMOUS JAYHAwKERS
OF s49 DIES ON CALIFORNIA

Lorenzo Dow Stephens, the last
survivor of the famous party known
as the Jayhawkers of 1849, died last
week in California at the age of SO
years.
Half a century ago the story of the
JayhaWkers vas well known through
out the west. One man who later
became a fur trapper and trader in
what is today Montana died at Fort
Union, at the mouth of the Yellow
stone, in 1856. His name was Mar
shall G. Edgerton.
Tragic, bitter sufferings borne by
the Jayhawkers in crossing Death
valley were recalled by the death of
Stephens. The experiences of the
party closely ~paralleled those of the
famous Inflated Bonner party, AZ of
whom starved, froze and died in the
SHOWS of Placer county, California,
in the winter of 1846-47.
The Jayhawkers, without chart or
guide, amazed the daring men of
their period by forcing their way
across Death valley by sheer pluck
and perseverance. Four of them
died of thirst, starvation and exhaus-
ton in their three months struggle
across earth baked so hard that the
feet of their oxen made no imprint.
amid rocks that tore at their feet and
forced them to abandon wagons and
in shifting sands hal sucked down
their feet and scorched their bodies.
There were 81 young and vigorous
men in the original Jayhawkers'
party. Driving slow footed oxen to
covered wagons, they started from
Galesburg, ILL.,, April g., 1849, to
scoop tabled riches from the grass
roots.
In the late summer their ponder
Gus oxen drew the creaking wagons
into Salt Lake City, Utah. There
they were called upon to make a mo-
mentous decision, as they were told
the regular mountain route to San
Francisco would lie beneath 20 feet
of Sierra Nevada snow before they
could reach the passes. They were
warned, too, of the awful fate that
had befallen the Bonner party, and
were told to wait in Salt Lake three
or four months, when the trail would
be clear.
Impatient, they sought an alterna-
tive and, joining with other argo-
nauts, 107 wagons started in the late
fall for Los Angeles under guidance
of John Hunt, who contracted to
take them over the old Spanish trail
through San Bernardino. Hunt was
in no hurry, and dissatisfaction be-
came rampant at the slow progress.
Much was said of a short cut leading
west that would eliminate 500 miles
from their journey.
Hunt could not dissuade them and
about the first of November 100 wa
CONS turned from the trail to attempt
the unknown short cut, leaving him
with but seven wagons. Three days
later those taking the short cut came
to a precipice above a plain, and,
discouraged, most of them turned
back to the original trail to follow
Hunt.
But the 81 Jayhawkers pressed on,
not knowing the short cut was to
take them across the region after
ward appropriately named Death val
ley. The record from this point is
one of continuous hardships, suffer-
ings almost beyond imagination AM
of logged determination to live, tenn
pered with self sacrifice for com
rades.
Early on the journey a man, weak
ened by consumption, succumbed.
Once the Jayhawkers were saved by
a snowstorm after six days without
water. Their oxen, weakened by the
lack Of grass and water on the arid,
barren region, became too weak to
draw the wagons up rocky slopes.
Wagons we're abandoned, men and
oxen taking the burdens upon their
backs. Fighting their way through
the sand, they came staggering to a
water hole in the desert and were
Joined by the Rev. j.. w. Brier, his
wife and three children, who had
f.een members of Hunts original
PARTY. They brought their number
up to IS, one having died.
The weeks that followed were
largely repetitions of what had gone