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diff --git a/old/51899-0.txt b/old/51899-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 51dc8be..0000000 --- a/old/51899-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9321 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Loafing Along Death Valley Trails, by William Caruthers - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Loafing Along Death Valley Trails - A Personal Narrative of People and Places - -Author: William Caruthers - -Release Date: April 30, 2016 [EBook #51899] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOAFING ALONG DEATH VALLEY TRAILS *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - LOAFING ALONG - DEATH VALLEY TRAILS - - - By WILLIAM CARUTHERS - - A Personal Narrative of People and Places - - COPYRIGHT 1951 BY WILLIAM CARUTHERS - - Printed in the U.S.A. by P-B Press, Inc., Pomona, Calif. - Published by Death Valley Publishing Co. - Ontario, California - - - - - DEDICATION - - -To one who, without complaint or previous experience with desert -hardships, shared with me the difficult and often dangerous adventures -in part recorded in this book, which but for her persistent urging, -would never have reached the printed page. She is, of course, my -wife—with me in a sense far broader than the words imply: -_always—always_. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - Dedication 5 - This Book 9 - I A Foretaste of Things to Come 11 - II What Caused Death Valley 19 - III Aaron and Rosie Winters 25 - IV John Searles and His Lake of Ooze 30 - V But Where Was God? 35 - VI Death Valley Geology 39 - VII Indians of the Area 43 - VIII Desert Gold. Too Many Fractions 48 - IX Romance Strikes the Parson 53 - X Greenwater—Last of the Boom Towns 60 - XI The Amargosa Country 64 - XII A Hovel That Ought To Be a Shrine 82 - XIII Sex in Death Valley Country 87 - XIV Shoshone Country. Resting Springs 92 - XV The Story of Charles Brown 102 - XVI Long Man, Short Man 109 - XVII Shorty Frank Harris 113 - XVIII A Million Dollar Poker Game 125 - XIX Death Valley Scotty 130 - XX Odd But Interesting Characters 136 - XXI Roads. Cracker Box Signs 144 - XXII Lost Mines. The Breyfogle and Others 154 - XXIII Panamint City. Genial Crooks 164 - XXIV Indian George. Legend of the Panamint 171 - XXV Ballarat. Ghost Town 175 - Index 189 - - - - - THIS BOOK - - -This book is a personal narrative of people and places in Panamint -Valley, the Amargosa Desert, and the Big Sink at the bottom of America. -Most of the places which excited a gold-crazed world in the early part -of the century are now no more, or are going back to sage. Of the actors -who made the history of the period, few remain. - -It was the writer’s good fortune that many of these men were his -friends. Some were or would become tycoons of mining or industry. Some -would lucklessly follow jackasses all their lives, to find no gold but -perhaps a finer treasure—a rainbow in the sky that would never fade. - -It is the romance, the comedy, the often stark tragedy these men left -along the trail which you will find in the pages that follow. - -Necessarily the history of the region, often dull, is given first -because it gives a clearer picture of the background and second, because -that history is little known, being buried in the generally unread -diaries of John C. Fremont, Kit Carson, Lt. Brewerton, Jedediah Smith, -and the stories of early Mormon explorers. - -It is interesting to note that a map popular with adventurers of -Fremont’s time could list only six states west of the Mississippi River. -These were Texas, Indian Territory, Missouri, Oregon, and Mexico’s two -possessions—New Mexico and Upper California. There was no Idaho, Utah, -Nevada, Arizona, Washington, or either of the Dakotas. No Kansas. No -Nebraska. - -Sources of material are given in the text and though careful research -was made, it should be understood that the history of Death Valley -country is argumentative and bold indeed is one who says, “Here are the -facts.” - -With something more than mere formality, the writer wishes to thank -those mentioned below: - -My longtime friend, Senator Charles Brown of Shoshone who has often -given valuable time to make available research material which otherwise -would have been almost impossible to obtain. Of more value, have been -his personal recollections of Greenwater, Goldfield, and Tonopah, in all -of which places he had lived in their hectic days. - -Mrs. Charles Brown, daughter of the noted pioneer, Ralph Jacobus (Dad) -Fairbanks and her sister, Mrs. Bettie Lisle, of Baker, California. The -voluminous scrapbooks of both, including one of their mother, Celestia -Abigail Fairbanks, all containing information of priceless value were -always at my disposal while preparing the manuscript. - -Dad Fairbanks, innumerable times my host, was a walking encyclopedia of -men and events. - -One depository of source material deserves special mention. Nailed to -the wall of Shorty Harris’ Ballarat cabin was a box two feet wide, four -feet long, with four shelves. The box served as a cupboard and its -calico curtains operated on a drawstring. On the top shelf, Shorty would -toss any letter, clipping, record of mine production, map, or bulletin -that the mails had brought, visitors had given, or friends had sent. And -there they gathered the dust of years. - -Wishing to locate the address of Peter B. Kyne, author of The Parson of -Panamint, whose host Shorty had been, I removed these documents and -discovered that the catch-all shelf was a veritable treasure of -little-known facts about the Panamint of earlier days. - -There were maps, reports of geologic surveys, and bulletins now out of -print; newspapers of the early years and scores of letters with valuable -material bearing the names of men internationally known. - -It is with a sense of futility that I attempt to express my indebtedness -to my wife, who with a patience I cannot comprehend, kept me searching -for the facts whenever and wherever the facts were to be found; typing -and re-typing the manuscript in its entirety many times to make it, if -possible, a worthwhile book. - - Ontario, California, December 22, 1950 - - - - - Chapter I - A Foretaste of Things to Come - - -In the newspaper office where the writer worked, was a constant parade -of adventurers. Talented press agents; promoters; moguls of mining and -prospectors who, having struck it rich, now lived grandly in palatial -homes, luxurious hotels or impressive clubs. In their wake, of course, -was an engaging breed of liars, and an occasional adventuress who by -luck or love had left a boom town crib to live thereafter “in marble -halls with vassals” at her command. All brought arresting yarns of Death -Valley. - -For 76 years this Big Sink at the bottom of America had been a land of -mystery and romantic legend, but there had been little travel through it -since the white man’s first crossing. “I would have starved to death on -tourists’ trade,” said the pioneer Ralph (Dad) Fairbanks. - -More than 3,000,000 people lived within a day’s journey in 1925, but -excepting a few, who lived in bordering villages and settlements, those -who had actually been in Death Valley could be counted on one’s fingers -and toes. The reasons were practical. It was the hottest region in -America, with few water holes and these far apart. There were no -roads—only makeshift trails left by the wagons that had hauled borax in -the Eighties. Now they were little more than twisting scars through -brush, over dry washes and dunes, though listed on the maps as roads. -For the novice it was a foolhardy gamble with death. “There are easier -ways of committing suicide,” a seasoned desert man advised. - -I had been up and down the world more perhaps than the average person -and this seemed to be a challenge to one with a vagabond’s foot and a -passion for remote places. So one day I set out for Death Valley. - -At the last outpost of civilization, a two-cabin resort, the sign over a -sand-blasted, false-fronted building stressed: “Free Information. -Cabins. Eats. Gas. Oil. Refreshments.” - -Needing all these items, I parked my car and walked into a foretaste of -things-to-come. The owner, a big, genial fellow, was behind the counter -using his teeth to remove the cork from a bottle labeled “Bourbon”—a -task he deftly accomplished by twisting on the bottle instead of the -cork. “I want a cabin for the night,” I told him, “and when you have -time, all the free information I can get.” - -“You’ve come to headquarters,” he beamed as he set the bottle on the -table, glanced at me, then at the liquor and added: “Don’t know your -drinking sentiments but if you’d like to wet your whistle, take one on -the house.” - -While he was getting glasses from a cabinet behind the counter, a -slender, wiry man with baked skin, coal-black eyes and hair came through -a rear door, removed a knapsack strapped across his shoulders and set it -in the farthest corner of the room. Two or three books rolled out and -were replaced only after he had wiped them carefully with a red bandana -kerchief. A sweat-stained khaki shirt and faded blue overalls did not -affect an impression he gave of some outstanding quality. It may have -been the air of self assurance, the calm of his keen eyes or the majesty -of his stride as he crossed the floor. - -My host glanced at the newcomer and set another glass on the table, -“You’re in luck,” he said to me. “Here comes a man who can tell you -anything you want to know about this country.” A moment later the -newcomer was introduced as “Blackie.” - -“Whatever Blackie tells you is gospel. Knows every trail man or beast -ever made in that hell-hole, from one end to the other. Ain’t that -right, Blackie?” - -Without answering, Blackie focused an eye on the bottle, picked it up, -shook it, watched the beads a moment. “Bourbon hell ... just plain -tongue oil.” - -After the drink my host showed me to one of the cabins—a small, boxlike -structure. Opening the door he waved me in. “One fellow said he couldn’t -whip a cat in this cabin, but you haven’t got a cat.” He set my suitcase -on a sagging bed, brought in a bucket of water, put a clean towel on the -roller and wiped the dust from a water glass with two big fingers. “When -you get settled come down and loaf with us. Just call me Bill. Calico -Bill, I’m known as. Came up here from the Calico Mountains.” - -“Just one question,” I said. “Don’t you get lonesome in all this -desolation?” - -“Lonesome? Mister, there’s something going on every minute. You’d be -surprised. Like what happened this morning. Did you meet a truck on your -way up, with a husky young driver and a girl in a skimpy dress?” - -“Yes,” I said. “At a gas station a hundred miles back, and the girl was -a breath-taker.” - -“You can say that again,” Bill grinned. “Prettiest gal I ever saw—bar -none. She’s just turned eighteen. Married to a fellow fifty-five if he’s -a day. He owns a truck and hauls for a mine near here at so much a load. -Jealous sort. Won’t let her out of his sight. You can’t blame a young -fellow for looking at a pretty girl. But this brute is so crazy jealous -he took to locking her up in his cabin while he was at work. Fact is, -she’s a nice clean kid and if I’d known about it, I’d have chased him -off. I reckon she was too ashamed to tell anybody. - -“Of course the young fellows found it out and just to worry him, two or -three of ’em came over here to play a prank on him and a hell of a prank -it was. They made a lot of tracks around his cabin doors and windows. He -saw the tracks and figured she’d been stepping out on him. So instead of -locking her in as usual, he began to take her to work with him so he -could keep his eyes on her. - -“Yesterday it happened. His truck broke down and this morning he left -early to get parts, but he was smart enough to take her shoes with him. -Then he nailed the doors and windows from the outside. Soon as he was -out of hearing, somehow she busted out and came down to my store -barefooted and asked me if I knew of any way she could get a ride out. -‘I’m leaving, if I have to walk,’ she says. Then she told me her story. -He’d bought her back in Oklahoma for $500. She is one of ten children. -Her folks didn’t have enough to feed ’em all. This old guy, who lived in -their neighborhood and had money, talked her parents into the deal. ‘I -just couldn’t see my little sisters go hungry,’ she said, and like a -fool she married him. - -“I reckon the Lord was with her. We see about three outside trucks a -year around here, but I’d no sooner fixed her up with a pair of shoes -before one pulls up for gas. I asked the driver if he’d give her a ride -to Barstow. He took just one look. ‘I sure will,’ he says and off they -went. - -“You see what I mean,” Bill said, concluding his story. “Things like -that. Of course we don’t watch no parades but we also don’t get pushed -around and run over and tromped on.” - -In the last twelve words Bill expressed what hundreds have failed to -explain in pages of flowered phrase—the appeal of the desert. - -Soon I was back at the store. Bill and Blackie, over a new bottle were -swapping memories of noted desert characters who had highlighted the -towns and camps from Tonopah to the last hell-roarer. The great, the -humble, the odd and eccentric. Through their conversation ran such names -as Fireball Fan; Mike Lane; Mother Featherlegs; Shorty Harris; Tiger -Lil; Hungry Hattie; Cranky Casey; Johnny-Behind-the-Gun; Dad Fairbanks; -Fraction Jack Stewart; the Indian, Hungry Bill; and innumerable Slims -and Shortys featured in yarns of the wasteland. - -Blackie’s chief interest in life, Bill told me was books. “About all he -does is read. Doesn’t have to work. Of course, like everybody in this -country, he’s always going to find $2,000,000,000 this week or next.” - -Though only incidental, history was brought into their conversation when -Bill, giving me “free information” as his sign announced, told me I -would be able to see the place where Manly crossed the Panamint. - -“Manly never knew where he crossed,” Blackie said. “He tried to tell -about it 40 years afterward and all he did was to start an argument -that’s going on yet. That’s why I say you can write the known facts -about Death Valley history on a postage stamp with the end of your -thumb.” - -The tongue oil loosened Calico Bill’s story of Indian George and his -trained mountain sheep. “George had the right idea about gold. Find it, -then take it out as needed. One time an artist came to George’s ranch -and made a picture of the ram. When he had finished it he stepped behind -his easel and was watching George eat a raw gopher snake when the goat -came up. Rams are jealous and mistaking the picture for a rival, he -charged like a thunderbolt. - -“It didn’t hurt the picture, but knocked the painter and George through -both walls of George’s shanty. George picked himself up. ‘Heap good -picture. Me want.’ The fellow gave it to him and for months George would -tease that goat with the picture. One day he left it on a boulder while -he went for his horse. When he got back, the boulder was split wide open -and the picture was on top of a tree 50 feet away. - -“Somebody told George about a steer in the Chicago packing house which -led other steers to the slaughter pen and it gave George an idea. One -day I found him and his goat in a Panamint canyon and asked why he -brought the goat along. ‘Me broke. Need gold.’ Since he didn’t have -pick, shovel, or dynamite, I asked how he expected to get gold. - -“‘Pick, shovel heap work,’ George said. ‘Dynamite maybe kill. Sheep -better. Me show you.’ He told me to move to a safe place and after -scattering some grain around for the goat, George scaled the boulder. It -was big as a house. A moment later I saw him unroll the picture and with -strings attached, let it rest on one corner of the big rock. Then -holding the strings, he disappeared into his blind higher up. Suddenly -he made a hissing noise. The Big Horn stiffened, saw the picture, -lowered his head and never in my life have I seen such a crash. Dust -filled the air and fragments fell for 10 minutes. When I went over -George was gathering nuggets big as goose eggs. ‘White man heap dam’ -fool,’ he grunted. ‘Wants too much gold all same time. Maybe lose. Maybe -somebody steal. No can steal boulder.’” - -The “tongue oil” had been disposed of when Blackie suggested that we -step over to his place, a short distance around the point of a hill. -“Plenty more there.” - -Bill had told me that as a penniless youngster Blackie had walked up -Odessa Canyon one afternoon. Within three days he was rated as a -millionaire. Within three months he was broke again. Later Blackie told -me, “That’s somebody’s dream. I got about $200,000 and decided I -belonged up in the Big Banker group. They welcomed me and skinned me out -of my money in no time.” - -It was Blackie who proved to my satisfaction that money has only a minor -relation to happiness. His house was part dobe, part white tufa blocks. -On his table was a student’s lamp, a pipe, and can of tobacco. A book -held open by a hand axe. Other books were shelved along the wall. He had -an incongruous walnut cabinet with leaded glass doors. Inside, a -well-filled decanter and a dozen whiskey glasses and a pleasant aroma of -bourbon came from a keg covered with a gunny sack and set on a stool in -the corner. - -“This country’s hard on the throat,” he explained. - -Blackie’s kingdom seemed to have extended from the morning star to the -setting sun. He had been in the Yukon, in New Zealand, South Africa, and -the Argentine. Gold, hemp, sugar, and ships had tossed fortunes at him -which were promptly lost or spent. - -For a man who had found compensation for such luck, there is no defeat. -Certainly his philosophy seemed to meet his needs and that is the -function of philosophy. - -It was cool in the late evening and he made a fire, chucked one end of -an eight-foot log into the stove and put a chair under the protruding -end. Bill asked why he didn’t cut the log. “Listen,” Blackie said, -“you’re one of 100 million reasons why this country is misgoverned. Why -should I sweat over that log when a fire will do the job?... That book? -Just some fellow’s plan for a perfect world. I hope I’ll not be around -when they have it. - -“The town of Calico? It was a live one. When John McBryde and Lowery -Silver discovered the white metal there, a lot of us desert rats got in -the big money. In the first seven years of the Eighties it was bonanza -and in the eighth the town was dead.” - -But the stories of fortunes made in Mule and Odessa Canyons were of less -importance to him than a habit of the town judge. “Chewed tobacco all -the time and swallowed the juice, ‘If a fellow’s guts can’t stand it,’ -he would say, ‘he ought to quit,’ and he’d clap a fine on anybody who -spat in his court. - -“Never knew Jack Dent, did you? Englishman. Now there was a drinking -man. Said his only ambition was to die drunk. One pay day he got so -cockeyed he couldn’t stand, so his pals laid him on a pool table and -went on with their drinking. Every time they ordered, Jack hollered for -his and somebody would take it over and pour it down him. ‘Keep ’em -comin’,’ he says. ‘If I doze off, just pry my jaws open and pour it -down.’ - -“The boys took him at his word. Every time they drank, they took a drink -to Jack. When the last round came they took Jack a big one. They tried -to pry his lips open but the lips didn’t give. Jack Dent’s funeral was -the biggest ever held in the town. - -“Bill was telling you I made a million there, and every now and then I -hear of somebody telling somebody else I made a million in Africa. And -another in the Yukon. The truth is, what little I’ve got came out of a -hole in a whiskey barrel instead of a mine shaft. - -“A few years back a strike was made down in the Avawatz that started a -baby gold rush. I joined it. A fellow named Gypsum came in with a barrel -of whiskey, thinking there’d be a town, but it didn’t turn out that way. -Gypsum had no trouble disposing of his liquor and stayed around to do a -little prospecting. One day when I was starting for Johannesburg, he -asked me to deliver a message to a bartender there. Gypsum had a meat -cleaver in his hand and was sharpening it on a butcher’s steel to cut up -a mountain sheep he’d killed. - -“‘Just ask for Klondike and tell him to send my stuff. He’ll understand. -Tell him if he doesn’t send it, I’m coming after it.’ - -“I didn’t know at the time that Gypsum had killed three men in honest -combat and that one of them had been dispatched with a meat cleaver. - -“I delivered the message verbatim. Klondike looked a bit worried. -‘What’s Gypsum doing?’ he asked. ‘When I left,’ I said, ‘he was -sharpening a meat cleaver.’ Klondike turned white. ‘I’ll have it ready -before you go.’ - -“When I called later, he told me he’d put Gypsum’s stuff in the back of -my car. When I got back to camp and Gypsum came to my tent to ask about -it, I told him to get it out of the car, which was parked a few feet -away. Gypsum went for it and in a moment I heard him cussing. I looked -out and he was trying to shoulder a heavy sack. Before I could get out -to help him, the sack got away from him and burst at his feet. The -ground was covered with nickles, dimes, quarters, halves. ‘There’s -another sack.’ Gypsum said. ‘The son of a bitch has sent me $2500 in -chicken feed. Just for spite.’ - -“Because it was a nuisance, Gypsum loaned it to the fellows about, all -of whom were his friends. They didn’t want it but took it just to -accommodate Gypsum. There was nothing to spend it for. Somebody started -a poker game and I let ’em use my tent because it was the largest. I -rigged up a table by sawing Gypsum’s whiskey barrel in two and nailing -planks over the open end. Every night after supper they started playing. -I furnished light and likker and usually I set out grub. It didn’t cost -much but somebody suggested that in order to reimburse me, two bits -should be taken out of every jackpot. A hole was slit in the top. It was -a fast game and the stakes high. It ran for weeks every evening and the -Saturday night session ended Monday morning. - -“Of course some were soon broke and they began to borrow from one -another. Finally everybody was broke and all the money was in my kitty. -I took the top off the barrel and loaned it to the players, taking -I.O.U.’s, I had to take the top off a dozen times and when it was -finally decided there was no pay dirt in the Avawatz, I had a sack full -of I.O.U.’s. - -“Once I tried to figure out how many times that $2500 was loaned, but I -gave up. I learned though, why these bankers pick up a pencil and start -figuring the minute you start talking. They are on the right end of the -pencil.” - -Early the next morning while Bill was servicing my car for the trip -ahead, with some tactful mention of handy gadgets he had for sale, we -noticed Blackie coming with a man who ran largely to whiskers. “That’s -old Cloudburst Pete,” Bill told me. “Another old timer who has shuffled -all over this country.” - -“How did he get that moniker?” I asked. - -“One time Pete came in here and was telling us fellows about a narrow -escape he had from a cloudburst over in the Panamint. Pete said the -cloud was just above him and about to burst and would have filled the -canyon with a wall of water 90 feet high. A city fellow who had stopped -for gas, asked Pete how come he didn’t get drowned. Pete took a notion -the fellow was trying to razz him. ‘Well, Mister, if you must know, I -lassoed the cloud, ground-hitched it and let it bust....’” - -After greeting Pete, Bill asked if he’d been walking all night. - -“Naw,” Pete said. “Started around 11 o’clock, I reckon. Not so bad -before sunup. Be hell going back. But I didn’t come here to growl about -the weather. I want some powder so I can get started. Found color -yesterday. Looks like I’m in the big money.” - -“Fine,” Bill said. “I heard you’ve been laid up.” - -“Oh, I broke a leg awhile back. Fell in a mine shaft. Didn’t amount to -much.” - -“I know about that, but didn’t you get hurt in a blast since then?” - -“Oh that—yeh. Got blowed out of a 20-foot hole. Three-four ribs busted, -the doc said. Come to think of it, believe he mentioned a fractured -collar bone. Wasn’t half as bad as last week.” - -“Good Lord ... what happened last week?” - -“That crazy Cyclone Thompson. You know him ... he pulled a stope gate -and let five-six tons of muck down on me. Nobody knew it—not even -Cyclone. Wore my fingers to the bone scratching out. Look at these -hands....” - -Pete held up his mutilated hands. “They’ll heal but bigod—that pair of -brand new double-stitched overalls won’t.” - -“Well,” Bill chuckled, “you know where the powder is. Go in and get it.” - -Bill and Blackie remained to see me off, each with a friendly word of -advice. “Just follow the wheel tracks,” Bill said, as I climbed into my -car and Blackie added: “Keep your eyes peeled for the cracker box signs -along the edge of the road. You’ll see ’em nailed to a stake and stuck -in the ground.” - -A moment later I was headed into a silence broken only by the whip of -sage against the car. Ahead was the glimmer of a dry lake and in the -distance a great mass of jumbled mountains that notched the pale skies. -Beyond—what? - -I never dreamed then that for twenty-five years I would be poking around -in those deceiving hills. - - - - - Chapter II - What Caused Death Valley? - - -When you travel through the desolation of Death Valley along the Funeral -Range, you may find it difficult to believe that several thousand feet -above the top of your car was once a cool, inviting land with rivers and -forests and lakes, and that hundreds of feet below you are the dry beds -of seas that washed its shores. - -Scientists assert that all life—both animal and vegetable began in these -buried seas—probably two and one-half billion years ago. - -It is certain that no life could have existed on the thin crust of earth -covered as it was with deadly gases. Therefore, your remotest ancestors -must have been sea creatures until they crawled out or were washed -ashore in one of Nature’s convulsions to become land dwellers. - -Since sea water contains more gold than has ever been found on the -earth, it may be said that man on his way up from the lowest form of -life was born in a solution of gold. - -That he survived, is due to two urges—the sex urge and the urge for -food. Without either all life would cease. - -Note. The author’s book, _Life’s Grand Stairway_ soon to be published, -contains a fast moving, factual story of man and his eternal quest for -gold from the beginning of recorded time. - -Camping one night at Mesquite Spring, I heard a prospector cursing his -burro. It wasn’t a casual cursing, but a classic revelation of one who -knew burros—the soul of them, from inquisitive eyes to deadly heels. A -moment later he was feeding lumps of sugar to the beast and the feud -ended on a pleasant note. - -We were sitting around the camp fire later when the prospector showed me -a piece of quartz that glittered at twenty feet. - -“Do you have much?” I asked. - -“I’ve got more than Carter had oats, and I’m pulling out at daylight. Me -and Thieving Jack.” - -“I suppose,” I said aimlessly, “you’ll retire to a life of luxury; have -a palace, a housekeeper, and a French chef.” - -“Nope. Chinaman cook. Friend of mine struck it rich. He had a female -cook. After that he couldn’t call his soul his own. Me? First money I -spend goes for pie. Never had my fill of pie. Next—” He paused and -looked affectionately at Thieving Jack. “I’m going to buy a ranch over -at Lone Pine with a stream running smack through the middle. Snow water. -I aim to build a fence head high all around it and pension that burro -off. As for me—no mansion. Just a cottage with a screen porch all -around. I’m sick of horseflies and mosquitoes.” - -He was off at sunrise and my thought was that God went with him and -Thieving Jack. - -If you encounter scorching heat you will find little comfort in the fact -that icebergs once floated in those ancient seas. It is almost certain -that you will be curious about the disorderly jumble of gutted hills; -the colorful canyons and strange formations and ask yourself what caused -it. - -The answer is found on Black Mountain in the Funeral Range. Here -occurred a convulsion of nature without any known parallel and the tops -of nearby mountains became the bottom of America—an upheaval so violent -that the oldest rocks were squeezed under pressure from the nethermost -stratum of the earth to lie alongside the youngest on the surface. - -The seas and the fish vanished. The forests were buried. The prehistoric -animals, the dinosaurs and elephants were trapped. - -The result, after undetermined ages, is today’s Death Valley. A shorter -explanation was that of my companion on my first trip to Black -Mountain—a noted desert character—Jackass Slim. There we found a -scientist who wished to enlighten us. To his conversation sprinkled with -such words as Paleozoic and pre-Cambrian Slim listened raptly for an -hour. Then the learned man asked Slim if he had made it plain. - -“Sure,” Slim said. “You’ve been trying to say hell broke loose.” - -The Indians, who saw Death Valley first, called it “Tomesha,” which -means Ground Afire, and warned adventurers, explorers, and trappers that -it was a vast sunken region, intolerant of life. - -The first white Americans known to have seen it, belonged to the party -of explorers led by John C. Fremont and guided by Kit Carson. - -Death Valley ends on the south in the narrow opening between the -terminus of the Panamint Range and that of the Black Mountains. Through -this opening, though unaware of it, Fremont saw the dry stream bed of -the Amargosa River, on April 27, 1844, flowing north and in the distance -“a high, snowy mountain.” This mountain was Telescope Peak, 11,045 feet -high. - -Nearly six years later, impatient Forty Niners enroute to California -gold fields, having heard that the shortest way was through this -forbidden sink, demanded that their guide take them across it. - -“I will go to hell with you, but not through Death Valley,” said the -wise Mormon guide, Captain Jefferson Hunt. - -Scoffing Hunt’s warning, the Bennett-Arcane party deserted and with the -Jayhawkers became the first white Americans to cross Death Valley. The -suffering of the deserters, widely advertised, gave the region an evil -reputation that kept it practically untraveled, unexplored, and accursed -for the next 75 years, or until Charles Brown of Shoshone succeeded in -having wheel tracks replaced with roads. - -With the opening of the Eichbaum toll road from Lone Pine to Stovepipe -Wells in 1926-7 a trickle of tourists began, but actually as late as -1932, Death Valley had fewer visitors than the Congo. A few prospectors, -a few daring adventurers and a few ranchers had found in the areas -adjoining, something in the great Wide Open that answered man’s inherent -craving for freedom and peace. “The hills that shut this valley in,” -explained the old timer, “also shut out the mess we left behind.” - -Tales of treasure came in the wake of the Forty Niners but it was not -until 1860 that the first prospecting party was organized by Dr. Darwin -French at Oroville, California. In the fall of that year he set out to -find the Lost Gunsight mine, the story of which is told in another -chapter. - -On this trip Dr. French discovered and gave his name to Darwin Falls and -Darwin Wash in the Panamint range. He named Bennett’s Well on the floor -of Death Valley to honor Asa (or Asabel) Bennett, a member of the -Bennett-Arcane party. He gave the name of another member of that party -to Towne’s Pass, now a thrilling route into Death Valley but then a -breath-taking challenge to death. - -He named Furnace Creek after finding there a crude furnace for reducing -ore. He also named Panamint Valley and Panamint Range, but neither the -origin of the word Panamint nor its significance is known. Indians found -there said their tribe was called Panamint, but those around there are -Shoshones and Piutes. (See note at end of this chapter.) - -Also in 1860 William Lewis Manly who with John Rogers, a brave and husky -Tennessean had rescued the survivors of the Bennett-Arcane party, -returned to the valley he had named, to search for the Gunsight. Manly -found nothing and reported later he was deserted by his companions and -escaped death only when rescued by a wandering Indian. - -In 1861 Lt. Ives on a surveying mission explored a part of the valley in -connection with the California Boundary Commission. He used for pack -animals some of the camels which had been provided by Jefferson Davis, -Secretary of War, for transporting supplies across the western deserts. - -In 1861 Dr. S. G. George, who had been a member of French’s party, -organized one of his own and for the same reason—to find the Lost -Gunsight. He made several locations of silver and gold, explored a -portion of the Panamint Range. The first man ever to scale Telescope -Peak was a member of the George party. He was W. T. Henderson, who had -also been with Dr. French. Henderson named the mountain “because,” he -said, “I could see for 200 miles in all directions as clearly as through -a telescope.” - -The most enduring accomplishment of the party was to bring back a name -for the mountain range east of what is now known as Owens Valley, named -for one of Fremont’s party of explorers. From an Indian chief they -learned this range was called Inyo and meant “the home of a Great -Spirit.” Ultimately the name was given to the county in the southeast -corner of which is Death Valley. - -Tragedy dogged all the early expeditions. July 21, 1871 the Wheeler -expedition left Independence to explore Death Valley. This party of 60 -included geologists, botanists, naturalists, and soldiers. One -detachment was under command of Lt. George Wheeler. Lt. Lyle led the -other. Lyle’s detachment was guided by C. F. R. Hahn and the third day -out Hahn was sent ahead to locate water. John Koehler, a naturalist of -the party is alleged to have said that he would kill Hahn if he didn’t -find water. Failing to return Hahn was abandoned to his fate and he was -never seen again. - -William Eagan, guide of Wheeler’s party was sent to Rose Springs for -water. He also failed to return. What became of him is not known and the -army officers were justly denounced for callous indifference. On the -desert, inexcusable desertion of a companion brands the deserter as an -outcast and has often resulted in his lynching. - -It is interesting to note that apart from a Government Land Survey in -1856, which proved to be utterly worthless, there is no authentic record -of the white man in Death Valley between 1849 and 1860. However, during -this decade the canyons on the west side of the Panamint harbored -numerous renegades who had held up a Wells-Fargo stage or slit a miner’s -throat for his poke of gold. Some were absorbed into the life of the -wasteland when the discovery of silver in Surprise Canyon brought a -hectic mob of adventurers to create hell-roaring Panamint City. - -When, in the middle Seventies Nevada silver kings, John P. Jones and Wm. -R. Stewart, who were Fortune’s children on the Comstock, decided -$2,000,000 was enough to lose at Panamint City, many of the outlaws -wandered over the mountain and down the canyon to cross Death Valley and -settle wherever they thought they could survive on the eastern -approaches. - -Soon Ash Meadows, Furnace Creek Ranch, Stump Springs, the Manse Ranch, -Resting Springs, and Pahrump Ranch became landmarks. - -The first white man known to have settled in Death Valley was a person -of some cunning and no conscience, known as Bellerin’ Teck, Bellowing -Tex Bennett, and Bellowin’ Teck. He settled at Furnace Creek in 1870 and -erected a shanty alongside the water where the Bennett-Arcane party had -camped when driven from Ash Meadows by Indians whose gardens they had -raided and whose squaws they had abused, according to a legend of the -Indians and referred to with scant attention to details, by Manly. -(Panamint Tom, famed Indian of the region, in speaking of this raid by -the whites, told me that the head man of his tribe sent runners to Ash -Meadows for reinforcements and that the recruits were marched in circles -around boulders and in and out of ravines to give the impression of -superior strength. This strategy deceived the whites, who then went on -their way.) - -Teck claimed title to all the country in sight. Little is known of his -past, but whites later understood that he chose the forbidding region to -outsmart a sheriff. He brought water through an open ditch from its -source in the nearby foothills and grew alfalfa and grain. He named his -place Greenland Ranch and it was the beginning of the present Furnace -Creek Ranch. - -There is a tradition that Teck supplemented his meager earnings from the -ranch by selling half interests to wayfarers, subsequently driving them -off. - -There remains a record of one such victim—a Mormon adventurer named -Jackson. In part payment Teck took a pair of oxen, Jackson’s money and -his only weapon, a rifle. Shortly Teck began to show signs of -dissatisfaction. His temper flared more frequently and Jackson became -increasingly alarmed. When finally Teck came bellowing from his cabin, -brandishing his gun, Jackson did the right thing at the right moment. He -fled, glad to escape with his life. - -This became the pattern for the next wayfarer and the next. Teck always -craftily demanded their weapons in the trade, but knowing that sooner or -later some would take their troubles to a sheriff or return for revenge, -Teck sold the ranch, left the country and no trace of his destiny -remains. - -Before Aaron and Rosie Winters or Borax Smith ever saw Death Valley, one -who was to attain fame greater than either listed more than 2000 -different plants that grew in the area. - -Notwithstanding this important contribution to knowledge of the valley’s -flora, only one or two historians have mentioned his name, and these in -books or periodicals long out of print. - -Two decades later he was to become famous as Brigadier General Frederick -Funston of the Spanish-American War—the only major war in America’s -history fought by an army which was composed entirely of volunteers -without a single draftee. - -Of interest to this writer is the fact that he was my brigade commander -and a soldier from the boots up. Not five feet tall, he was every inch a -fighting man. I served with him while he captured Emilio Aguinaldo, -famous _Filipino Insurrecto_. - - - - - Chapter III - Aaron and Rosie Winters - - -While Bellerin’ Teck was selling half interests in the spectacular hills -to the unwary, he actually walked over a treasure of more millions than -his wildest dreams had conjured. - -Teck’s nearest neighbor lived at Ash Meadows about 60 miles east of the -valley. - -Ash Meadows is a flat desert area in Nevada along the California border. -With several water holes, subterranean streams, and abundant wild grass -it was a resting place for early emigrants and a hole-in for -prospectors. It was also an ideal refuge for gentlemen who liked its -distance from sheriffs and the ease with which approaching horsemen -could be seen from nearby hills. - -Lacking was woman. The male needed the female but there wasn’t a white -woman in the country. So he took what the market afforded—a squaw and -not infrequently two or three. “He’s my son all right,” a patriarch once -informed me, “but it’s been so long I don’t exactly recollect which of -them squaws was his mother.” - -Usually the wife was bought. Sometimes for a trinket. Often a horse. -Among the trappers who first blazed the trails to the West, 30 beaver -skins were considered a fair price for an able bodied squaw. She was -capable in rendering domestic service and loyal in love. Too often the -consort’s fidelity was transient. - -“For 20 years,” said the noted trapper, Killbuck, “I packed a squaw -along—not one, but a many. First I had a Blackfoot—the darndest slut as -ever cried for fo-farrow. I lodge-poled her on Coulter’s Creek ... as -good as four packs of beaver I gave for old Bull-tail’s daughter. He was -the head chief of the Ricaree. Thar wan’t enough scarlet cloth nor beads -... in Sublette’s packs for her ... I sold her to Cross-Eagle for one of -Jake Hawkins’ guns.... Then I tried the Sioux, the Shian (Cheyenne) and -a Digger from the other side, who made the best moccasins as ever I -wore.” - -So Aaron Winters chose his mate from the available supply and with -Rosie, part Mexican and Indian, part Spanish, he settled in Ash Meadows -in a dugout. In front and adjoining had been added a shack, part wood, -part stone. The floors were dirt. Rosie dragged in posts, poles, and -brush and made a shed. Aaron found time between hunting and trapping to -add a room of unmortared stone. At times there was no money, but piñon -nuts grew in the mountains, desert tea and squaw cabbage were handy and -the beans of mesquite could be ground into flour. - -Rosie, to whom one must yield admiration, was not the first woman in -Winters’ life. “He liked his women,” Ed Stiles recalled, “and changed -’em often.” But to Rosie, Aaron Winters was always devoted. Her material -reward was little but all who knew her praised her beauty and her -virtues. - -One day when dusk was gathering there was a rap on the sagging slab door -and Rosie Winters opened it on an angel unawares. The Winters invited -the stranger in, shared their meager meal. After supper they sat up -later than usual, listening to the story of the stranger’s travels. He -was looking for borax, he told them. “It’s a white stuff....” At this -time, only two or three unimportant deposits of borax were known to -exist in America and the average prospector knew nothing about it. - -The first borax was mined in Tibet. There in the form of tincal it was -loaded on the backs of sheep, transported across the Himalayas and -shipped to London. It was so rare that it was sold by the ounce. Later -the more intelligent of the western prospectors began to learn that -borax was something to keep in mind. - -To Aaron Winters it was just something bought in a drug store, but Rosie -was interested in the “white stuff.” She wanted to know how one could -tell when the white stuff was borax. Patiently the guest explained how -to make the tests: “Under the torch it will burn green....” - -Finally Rosie made a bed for the wayfarer in the lean-to and long after -he blew out his candle Rosie Winters lay awake, wondering about some -white stuff she’d seen scattered over a flat down in the hellish heat of -Death Valley. She remembered that it whitened the crust of a big area, -stuck to her shoes and clothes and got in her hair when the wind lifted -the silt. - -The next morning Rosie and Aaron bade the guest good luck and goodbye -and he went into the horizon without even leaving his name. Then Rosie -turned to Aaron: “Maybe,” she said ... “maybe that white stuff we see -that time below Furnace Creek—maybe that is borax.” - -“Might be,” Aaron answered. - -“Why don’t we go see?” Rosie asked. “Maybe some Big Horn sheep—” Rosie -knew her man and Aaron Winters got his rifle and Rosie packed the -sow-belly and beans. - -It was a long, gruelling trip down into the valley under a Death Valley -sun but hope sustained them. They made their camp at Furnace Creek, then -Rosie led Aaron over the flats she remembered. She scooped up some of -the white stuff that looked like cotton balls while Aaron prepared for -the test. Then the brief, uncertain moment when the white stuff touched -the flame. Tensely they watched, Aaron grimly curious rather than -hopeful; Rosie with pounding heart and lips whispering a prayer. - -Then, miracle of miracles—the green flame. They looked excitedly into -each other’s eyes, each unable to believe. In that moment, Rosie, always -devout, lifted her eyes to heaven and thanked her God. Neither had any -idea of the worth of their find. Vaguely they knew it meant spending -money. A new what-not for Rosie’s mantel. Perhaps pine boards to cover -the hovel’s dirt floor; maybe a few pieces of golden oak furniture; a -rifle with greater range than Aaron’s old one; silk or satin to make a -dress for Rosie. - -“Writers have had to draw on their imagination for what happened,” a -descendant of the Winters once told me. “They say Uncle Aaron exclaimed, -‘Rosie, she burns green!’ or ‘Rosie, we’re rich!’ but Aunt Rosie said -they were so excited they couldn’t remember, but she knew what they did! -They went over to the ditch that Bellerin’ Teck had dug to water the -ranch and in its warm water soaked their bunioned feet.” - -Returning to Ash Meadows they faced the problem of what to do with the -“white stuff.” Unlike gold, it couldn’t be sold on sight, because it was -a new industry, and little was known about its handling. Finally Aaron -learned that a rich merchant in San Francisco, named Coleman was -interested in borax in a small way and lost no time in sending samples -to Coleman. - -W. T. Coleman was a Kentucky aristocrat who had come to California -during the gold rush and attained both fortune and the affection of the -people of the state. He had been chosen leader of the famed Vigilantes, -who had rescued San Francisco from a gang of the lawless as tough as the -world ever saw. - -Actually Coleman’s interest in borax was a minor incident in the -handling of his large fortune and his passionate devotion to the -development of his adopted state. For that reason alone, Coleman had -become interested in the small deposits of borax discovered by Francis -Smith, first at Columbus Marsh. - -Smith had been a prospector before coming to California, wandering all -over western country, looking for gold and silver. He was one of those -who had heard that borax was worth keeping in mind. - -Reaching Nevada and needing a grubstake, he began to cut wood to supply -mines around Columbus, Aurora, and Candelaria. On Teel’s Marsh he found -a large growth of mesquite, built a shack and claimed all the wood and -the site as his own. Upon a portion of it, some Mexicans had cut and -corded some of the wood and Smith refused to let them haul it off. They -left grudgingly and with threats to return. The Mexicans, of course, had -as much right to the wood as Smith. - -Sensing trouble and having no weapons at his camp, he went twelve miles -to borrow a rifle. But there were no cartridges and he had to ride sixty -miles over the mountains to Aurora where he found only four. Returning -to his shack, he found the Mexicans had also returned with -reinforcements. Twenty-four were now at work and their mood was -murderous. Smith had a companion whose courage he didn’t trust and -ordered him to go out in the brush and keep out of the way. - -The Mexicans told Smith they were going to take the wood. Smith warned -that he would kill the first man who touched the pile. With only four -cartridges to kill 20 men, it was obviously a bluff. One of the Mexicans -went to the pile and picked up a stick. Smith put his rifle to his -shoulder and ordered the fellow to drop it. Unafraid and still holding -the stick the Mexican said: “You may kill me, but my friends will kill -you. Put your rifle down and we will talk it over.” - -They had cut additional wood during his absence and demanded that they -be permitted to take all the wood they had cut. Smith consented and when -the Mexicans had gone he staked out the marsh as a mining claim—which -led to the connection with Coleman. - -Upon receipt of Winters’ letter, Coleman forwarded it to Smith and asked -him to investigate the Winters claim. Smith’s report was enthusiastic. -Coleman then sent two capable men, William Robertson and Rudolph -Neuenschwander to look over the Winters discovery, with credentials to -buy. Again Rosie and Aaron Winters heard the flutter of angel wings at -the hovel door. This time the angels left $20,000. Rarely in this world -has buyer bought so much for so little, but to Aaron and Rosie Winters -it was all the money in the world. - -Despite the troubles of operating in a place so remote from market and -with problems of a product about which too little was known, borax was -soon adding $100,000 a year to Coleman’s already fabulous fortune. - -Francis M. (Borax) Smith was put in charge of operations under the firm -name of Coleman and Smith. - -Freed from the sordid squalor of the Ash Meadows hovel, the Winters -bought the Pahrump Ranch, a landmark of Pahrump Valley, and settled down -to watch the world go by. - -Thus began the Pacific Coast Borax Company, one of the world’s -outstanding corporations. Later Smith was to become president of the -Pacific Coast Borax Company and later still, he was to head a three -hundred million dollar corporation for the development of the San -Francisco and Oakland areas and then face bankruptcy and ruin. - -Overlooking the site where Rosie and Aaron made the discovery, now -stands the magnificent Furnace Creek Inn. - -One day while sitting on the hotel terrace, I noticed a plane discharge -a group of the Company’s English owners and their guests. Meticulously -dressed, they paid scant attention to the desolation about and hastened -to the cooling refuge of their caravansary. At dinner they sat down to -buttered mignon and as they talked casually of the races at Ascot and -the ball at Buckingham Palace, I looked out over that whitehot slab of -hell and thought of Rosie and Aaron Winters trudging with calloused feet -behind a burro—their dinner, sow-belly and beans. - - - - - Chapter IV - John Searles and His Lake of Ooze - - -Actually the first discovery of borax in Death Valley was made by -Isadore Daunet in 1875, five years before Winters’ discovery. Daunet had -left Panamint City when it was apparent that town was through forever -and with six of his friends was en route to new diggings in Arizona. - -He was a seasoned, hardy adventurer and risked a short cut across Death -Valley in mid-summer. Running out of water, his party killed a burro, -drank its blood; but the deadly heat beat them down. Indians came across -one of the thirst-crazed men and learned that Daunet and others were -somewhere about. They found Daunet and two companions. The others -perished. - -When Daunet heard of the Winters sale five years later, like Rosie -Winters he remembered the white stuff about the water, to which the -Indians had taken him. He hurried back and in 1880 filed upon mining -claims amounting to 260 acres. He started at once a refining plant which -he called Eagle Borax Works and began operating one year before Old -Harmony began to boil borax in 1881. Daunet’s product however, was of -inferior grade and unprofitable and work was soon abandoned. The -unpredictable happened and dark days fell upon borax and William T. -Coleman. - -In 1888 the advocates of free trade had a field day when the bill -authored by Roger Q. Mills of Texas became the law of the land and borax -went on the free list. The empire of Coleman tumbled in a financial -scare—attributed by Coleman to a banker who had falsely undervalued -Coleman’s assets after a report by a borax expert who betrayed him. “My -assets,” wrote Coleman, “were $4,400,000. My debts $2,000,000.” No -person but Coleman lost a penny. - -But Borax Smith was never one to surrender without a fight and organized -the Pacific Coast Borax Company to take over the property and the -success of that company justifies the faith and the integrity of -Coleman. - -Marketing the borax presented a problem in transportation even more -difficult than it did in Tibet. At first it was scraped from the flat -surface of the valley where it looked like alkali. It was later -discovered in ledge form in the foothills of the Funeral Mountains. The -sight of this discovery was called Monte Blanco—now almost a forgotten -name. - -The borax was boiled in tanks and after crystallization was hauled by -mule team across one hundred and sixty-five miles of mountainous desert -at a pace of fifteen miles per day—if there were no accidents—or an -average of twenty days for the round trip. The summer temperatures in -the cooler hours of the night were 112 degrees; in the day, 120 to 134 -(the highest ever recorded). There were only four water holes on the -route. Hence, water had to be hauled for the team. - -The borax was hauled to Daggett and Mojave and thence shipped to -Alameda, California, to be refined. Charles Bennett, a rancher from -Pahrump Valley, was among the first to contract the hauling of the raw -product. - -In 1883 J. W. S. Perry, superintendent of the borax company, decided the -company should own its freighting service and under his direction the -famous 20 mule team borax wagons with the enormous wheels were designed. -Orders were given for ten wagons. Each weighed 7800 pounds. Two of these -wagons formed a train, the load being 40,000 pounds. To the second wagon -was attached a smaller one with a tank holding 1200 gallons of water. - -“I’d leave around midnight,” Ed Stiles said. “Generally 110 or 112 -degrees.” - -The first hauls of these wagons were to Mojave, with overnight stations -every sixteen miles. Thirty days were required for the round trip. - -In the Eighties a prospector in the then booming Calico Mountains, -between Barstow and Yermo discovered an ore that puzzled him. He showed -it to others and though the bustling town of Calico was filled with -miners from all parts of the world, none could identify it. Under the -blow torch the crystalline surface crumbled. Out of curiosity he had it -assayed. It proved to be calcium borate and was the world’s first -knowledge of borax in that form. Previously it had been found in the -form of “cotton ball.” The Pacific Coast Borax Company acquired the -deposits; named the ore Colemanite in honor of W. T. Coleman. - -Operations in Death Valley were suspended and transferred to the new -deposit, which saved a ten to fifteen days’ haul besides providing a -superior product. The deposit was exhausted however, in the early part -of the century when Colemanite was discovered in the Black Mountains and -the first mine—the Lila C. began operations. - -It is a bit ironical that during the depression of the Thirties, two -prospectors who neither knew nor cared anything about borax were poking -around Kramer in relatively flat country in sight of the paved highway -between Barstow and Mojave when they found what is believed to be the -world’s largest deposit of borax. - -It was a good time for bargain hunters and was acquired by the Pacific -Coast Borax Company and there in a town named Boron, all its borax is -now produced. - -Even before Aaron Winters or Isadore Daunet, John Searles was shipping -borax out of Death Valley country. With his brother Dennis, member of -the George party of 1861, Searles had returned and was developing gold -and silver claims in the Slate Range overlooking a slimy marsh. They had -a mill ready for operation when the Indians, then making war on the -whites of Inyo county destroyed it with fire. A man of outstanding -courage, Searles remained to recuperate his losses. He had read about -the Trona deposits first found in the Nile Valley and was reminded of it -when he put some of the water from the marsh in a vessel to boil and use -for drinking. Later he noticed the formation of crystals and then -suspecting borax he went to San Francisco with samples and sought -backing. He found a promoter who after examining the samples, told him, -“If the claims are what these samples indicate, I can get all the money -you need....” - -An analysis was made showing borax. - -“But where is this stuff located?” - -Searles told him as definitely as he could. He was invited to remain in -San Francisco while a company could be organized. “It will take but a -few days....” - -Searles explained that he hadn’t filed on the ground and preferred to go -back and protect the claim. - -The suave promoter brushed his excuse aside. “Little chance of anybody’s -going into that God forsaken hole.” He called an associate. “Take Mr. -Searles in charge and show him San Francisco....” - -Not a rounder, Searles bored quickly with night life. His funds ran low. -He asked the loan of $25. - -“Certainly....” His host stepped into an adjacent office, returning -after a moment to say the cashier was out but that he had left -instructions to give Searles whatever he wished. - -Searles made trip after trip to the cashier’s office but never found him -in and becoming suspicious, he pawned his watch and hurried home, -arriving at midnight four days later. - -The next morning a stranger came and something about his attire, his -equipment, and his explanation of his presence didn’t ring true and -Searles was wary even before the fellow, believing that Searles was -still in San Francisco announced that he had been sent to find a man -named Searles to look over some borax claims. “Do you know where they -are?” - -Searles thought quickly. He had not as yet located his monuments nor -filed a notice. He pointed down the valley. “They’re about 20 miles -ahead....” - -The fellow went on his way and before he was out of sight, Searles was -staking out the marsh and with one of the most colorful of Death Valley -characters, Salty Bill Parkinson, began operations in 1872. Incorporated -under the name of San Bernardino Borax Company, the business grew and -was later sold to Borax Smith’s Pacific Coast Borax Company. - -Once while Searles was away hunting grizzlies, the Indians who had -burned his mill, raided his ranch and drove his mules across the range. -Suspecting the Piutes, he got his rifle and two pistols. - -“They’ll kill you,” he was warned. - -“I’m going to get those mules,” Searles snapped and followed their -tracks across the Slate Range and Panamint Valley. High in the -overlooking mountains he came upon the Indians feasting upon one of the -animals and was immediately attacked with bows and arrows. He killed -seven bucks and the rest ran, but an Indian’s arrow was buried in his -eye. He jerked the arrow out, later losing the eye, pushed on and -recovered the rest of his mules. Thereafter the Piutes avoided Searles -and his marsh because, they said, he possessed the “evil eye.” - -On the same lake where Searles began operations, the town of Trona was -established to house the employees and processing plants of the American -Potash and Chemical Company. It was British owned, though this ownership -was successfully concealed in the intricate corporate structure of the -Pacific Coast Borax Company, but later sold for twelve million dollars -to Hollanders who left the management as they found it. During World War -II Uncle Sam discovered that the Hollanders were stooges for German -financiers’ Potash Cartel. - -The Alien Property Custodian took over and ordered the sale of the stock -to Americans. Today it is what its name implies—an American company. - -From the ooze where John Searles first camped to hunt grizzly bears, is -being taken more than 100 commercial products and every day of your life -you use one or more of them if you eat, bathe, or wear clothes, brush -your teeth or deal with druggist, grocer, dentist or doctor. - -Fearing exhaustion of the visible supply (the ooze is 70 feet deep) -tests were made in 1917 to determine what was below. Result, supply one -century; value two billion dollars. - -Here are a few things containing the product of the ooze. Fertilizer for -your flowers, orchards, and fields. Baking soda, dyes, lubricating oils, -paper. Ethyl gasoline, porcelain, medicines, fumigants, leathers, -solvents, cosmetics, textiles, ceramics, chemical and pharmaceutical -preparations. - -About 1300 tons of these products are shipped out every day over a -company-owned railroad and transshipped at Searles’ Station over the -Southern Pacific, to go finally in one form or another into every home -in America and most of those in the entire world. - -The weird valley meanders southward from the lake through blown-up -mountains gorgeously colored and grimly defiant—a trip to thrill the -lover of the wild and rugged. - - - - - Chapter V - But Where Was God? - - -For years, on the edge of the road near Tule Hole, a rough slab marked -Jim Dayton’s grave, on which were piled the bleached bones of Dayton’s -horses. On the board were these words: “Jas. Dayton. Died 1898.” - -The accuracy of the date of Dayton’s death as given on the bronze plaque -on the monument and on the marker which it replaced, has been -challenged. The author of this book wrote the epitaph for the monument -and the date on it is the date which was on the original marker—an old -ironing board that had belonged to Pauline Gower. In a snapshot made by -the writer, the date 1898, burned into the board with a redhot poker -shows clearly. - -The two men who know most about the matter, Wash Cahill and Frank -Hilton, whom he sent to find Dayton or his body, both declared the date -on the marker correct. - -The late Ed Stiles brought Dayton into Death Valley. Stiles was working -for Jim McLaughlin (Stiles called him McGlothlin), who operated a -freighting service with headquarters at Bishop. McLaughlin ordered -Stiles to take a 12 mule team and report to the Eagle Borax Works in -Death Valley. “I can’t give you any directions. You’ll just have to find -the place.” Stiles had never been in Death Valley nor could he find -anyone who had. It was like telling a man to start across the ocean and -find a ship named Sally. - -At Bishop Creek in Owens Valley Stiles decided he needed a helper. There -he found but one person willing to go—a youngster barely out of his -teens—Jim Dayton. - -Dayton remained in Death Valley and somewhat late in life, on one of his -trips out, romance entered. After painting an intriguing picture of the -lotus life a girl would find at Furnace Creek, he asked the lady to -share it with him. She promptly accepted. - -A few months later, the bride suggested that a trip out would make her -love the lotus life even more and so in the summer of 1898 she tearfully -departed. Soon she wrote Jim in effect that it hadn’t turned out as she -had hoped. Instead, she had become reconciled to shade trees, green -lawns, neighbors, and places to go and if he wanted to live with her -again he would just have to abandon the Death Valley paradise. - -Dayton loaded his wagon with all his possessions, called his dog and -started for Daggett. - -Wash Cahill, who was to become vice-president of the borax company, was -then working at its Daggett office. Cahill received from Dayton a letter -which he saw from the date inside and the postmark on the envelope, had -been held somewhere for at least two weeks before it was mailed. - -The letter contained Dayton’s resignation and explained why Dayton was -leaving. He had left a reliable man in temporary charge and was bringing -his household goods; also two horses which had been borrowed at Daggett. - -Knowing that Dayton should have arrived in Daggett at least a week -before the actual arrival of the letter, Cahill was alarmed and -dispatched Frank Hilton, a teamster and handy man, and Dolph Lavares to -see what had happened. - -On the roadside at Tule Hole they found Dayton’s body, his dog patiently -guarding it. Apparently Dayton had become ill, stopped to rest. “Maybe -the sun beat him down. Maybe his ticker jammed,” said Shorty Harris, -“but the horses were fouled in the harness and were standing up dead.” - -There could be no flowers for Jim Dayton nor peal of organ. So they went -to his wagon, loosened the shovel lashed to the coupling pole. They dug -a hole beside the road, rolled Jim Dayton’s body into it. - -The widow later settled in a comfortable house in town with neighbors -close at hand. There she was trapped by fire. While the flames were -consuming the building a man ran up. Someone said, “She’s in that upper -room.” The brave and daring fellow tore his way through the crowd, -leaped through the window into a room red with flames and dragged her -out, her clothing still afire. He laid her down, beat out the flames, -but she succumbed. - -A multitude applauded the hero. A little later over in Nevada another -multitude lynched him. Between heroism and depravity—what? - -Although Tule Hole has long been a landmark of Death Valley, few know -its story and this I believe to be its first publication. - -One day while resting his team, Stiles noticed a patch of tules growing -a short distance off the road and taking a shovel he walked over, -started digging a hole on what he thought was a million to one chance of -finding water, and thus reduce the load that had to be hauled for use -between springs. “I hadn’t dug a foot,” he told me “before I struck -water. I dug a ditch to let it run off and after it cleared I drank -some, found it good and enlarged the hole.” - -He went on to Daggett with his load. Repairs to his wagon train required -a week and by the time he returned five weeks had elapsed. “I stopped -the team opposite the tules, got out and started over to look at the -hole I’d dug. When I got within a few yards three or four naked squaw -hags scurried into the brush. I stopped and looked away toward the -mountains to give ’em a chance to hide. Then I noticed two Indian bucks, -each leading a riderless horse, headed for the Panamints. Then I knew -what had happened.” - -Ed Stiles was a desert man and knew his Indians. Somewhere up in a -Panamint canyon the chief had called a powwow and when it was over the -head men had gone from one wickiup to another and looked over all the -toothless old crones who no longer were able to serve, yet consumed and -were in the way. Then they had brought the horses and with two strong -bucks to guard them, they had ridden down the canyon and out across the -desert to the water hole. There the crones had slid to the ground. The -bucks had dropped a sack of piñon nuts. Of course, the toothless hags -could not crunch the nuts and even if they could, the nuts would not -last long. Then they would have to crawl off into the scrawny brush and -grabble for herbs or slap at grasshoppers, but these are quicker than -palsied hands and in a little while the sun would beat them down. - -The rest was up to God. - -The distinction of driving the first 20 mule team has always been a -matter of controversy. Over a nation-wide hook-up, the National -Broadcasting Co. once presented a playlet based upon these conflicting -claims. A few days afterward, at the annual Death Valley picnic held at -Wilmington, John Delameter, a speaker, announced that he’d made -considerable research and was prepared to name the person actually -entitled to that honor. The crowd, including three claimants of the -title, moved closer, their ears cupped in eager attention as Delameter -began to speak. One of the claimants nudged my arm with a confident -smile, whispered, “Now you’ll know....” A few feet away his rivals, -their pale eyes fixed on the speaker, hunched forward to miss no word. - -Mr. Delameter said: “There were several wagons of 16 mules and who drove -the first of these, I do not know, but I do know who drove the first 20 -mule team.” - -Covertly and with gleams of triumph, the claimants eyed each other as -Delameter paused to turn a page of his manuscript. Then with a loud -voice he said: “I drove it myself!” - -May God have mercy on his soul. - -A few days later I rang the doorbell at the ranch house of Ed Stiles, -almost surrounded by the city of San Bernardino. As no one answered, I -walked to the rear, and across a field of green alfalfa saw a man -pitching hay in a temperature of 120 degrees. It was Stiles who in 1876 -was teaming in Bodie—toughest of the gold towns. - -I sat down in the shade of his hay. He stood in the sun. I said, “Mr. -Stiles, do you know who drove the first 20 mule team in Death Valley?” - -He gave me a kind of _et-tu, Brute_ look and smiled. - -“In the fall of 1882 I was driving a 12 mule team from the Eagle Borax -Works to Daggett. I met a man on a buckboard who asked if the team was -for sale. I told him to write Mr. McLaughlin. It took 15 days to make -the round trip and when I got back I met the same man. He showed me a -bill of sale for the team and hired me to drive it. He had an eight mule -team and a new red wagon, driven by a fellow named Webster. The man in -the buckboard was Borax Smith. - -“Al Maynard, foreman for Smith and Coleman, was at work grubbing out -mesquite to plant alfalfa on what is now Furnace Creek Ranch. Maynard -told me to take the tongue out of the new wagon and put a trailer tongue -in it. ‘In the morning,’ he said, ‘hitch it to your wagon. Put a water -wagon behind your trailer, hook up those eight mules with your team and -go to Daggett.’ - -“That was the first time that a 20 mule team was driven out of Death -Valley. Webster was supposed to swamp for me. But when he saw his new -red wagon and mules hitched up with my outfit, he walked into the office -and quit his job.” - - - - - Chapter VI - Death Valley Geology - - -The pleasure of your trip through the Big Sink will be enhanced if you -know something about the structural features which are sure to arrest -your attention. - -For undetermined ages Death Valley was desert. Then rivers and lakes. -Rivers dried. Lakes evaporated. Again, desert. It is believed that in -thousands of years there have been no changes other than those caused by -earthquakes and erosion. - -It is no abuse of the superlative to say that the foremost authority -upon Death Valley geology is Doctor Levi Noble, who has studied it under -the auspices of the U.S. Geological Survey since 1917. He has ridden -over more of it than anyone and because of his studies, earlier -conclusions of geologists are scrapped today. - -From a pamphlet published by the American Geological Society with the -permission of the U. S. Dept. of Interior, now out of print, I quote a -few passages which Doctor Noble, its author, once described to me as -“dull reading, even for scientists.” - -“The southern Death Valley region contains rocks of at least eight -geologic systems whose aggregate thickness certainly exceeds 45,000 feet -for the stratified rocks alone.” - -“The dissected playa or lake beds in Amargosa Valley between Shoshone -and Tecopa contain elephant remains that are Pleistocene....” - -“Rainbow Mountain is one of the geological show places of the Death -Valley region.... Here the Amargosa river has cut a canyon 1000 feet -deep.... The mountain is made up of thrust slices of Cambrian and -pre-Cambrian rocks alternating with slices of Tertiary rocks, all of -which dip in general about 30 to 40 degrees eastward, but are also -anticlinally arched.” - -“None of the geologic terms in common use appear exactly to fit this -mosaic of large tightly packed individual blocks of different ages -occupying a definite zone above a major thrust fault.” - -The significant feature is that a stratum that began with creation may -lie above one that is an infant in the age of rock—a puzzle that will -engage men of Levi Noble’s talents for years to come. But one doesn’t -have to be a member of the American Geological Society to find thrills -in other gripping features. - -Throughout the area south of Shoshone are many hot springs containing -boron and fluorine—some with traces of radium. The water is believed to -come from a buried river. The source of other hot springs in the Death -Valley area is unknown. - -More startling features were related to Shorty Harris and me at -Bennett’s Well in the bottom of Death Valley where we met one of -Shorty’s friends. Lanky and baked brown, in each wrinkle of his face the -sun had etched a smile. “Shorty,” he said, “yachts will be sailing -around here some day. There’s a passage to the sea, sure as hell.” - -“What makes you think so?” Shorty asked. - -“Those salt pools. Just come from there. I was watching the crystals; -felt the ground move a little. Pool started sloshing. A sea serpent with -eyes big as a wagon wheel and teeth full of kelp stuck his head up. -Where’d he come from? No kelp in this valley. That prove anything?” - -Ubehebe Crater is believed to have resulted from the only major change -in the topography of the valley since its return to desert, but John -Delameter, old time freighter, thought geologists didn’t know what they -were talking about. “When I first saw Saratoga Spring I could straddle -it. Full of fish four inches long. Next time, three springs and a lake. -Fish shrunk to one inch and different shaped head.” - -Actually these fish are the degenerate descendants of the larger fish -that lived in the streams and lakes that once watered Death Valley—an -interesting study in the survival of species. The real name, _Cyprinodon -Macularius_, is too large a mouthful for the natives so they are called -desert sardines, though they are in reality a small killifish. - -Dan Breshnahan, in charge of a road crew working between Furnace Creek -Inn and Stove Pipe Well, ordered some of the men to dig a hole to sink -some piles. Two feet beneath a hard crust they encountered muck. When -they hit the pile with a sledge it would bounce back. Dan put a board -across the top. With a man on each end of the board, the rebound was -prevented and the pile driven into hard earth. “I’m convinced that under -that road is a lake of mire and Lord help the fellow who goes through,” -Dan said. - -A heavily loaded 20 mule team wagon driven by Delameter broke the -surface of this ooze and two days were required to get it out. To test -the depth, he tied an anvil to his bridle rein and let it down. The lead -line of a 20 mule team is 120 feet long. It sank (he said) the length of -the line and reached no bottom. - -On Ash Meadows, a few miles from Death Valley Junction and on the side -of a mountain is what is known as The Devil’s Hole which it is said has -no bottom. True or false, none has ever been found. - -A steep trail leads down to the water which will then be over your head. -Indians will tell you that a squaw fell into this hole within the memory -of the living and that she was sucked to the bottom and came out at Big -Spring several miles distant. The latter is a large hole in the middle -of the desert and from its throat, also bottomless, pours a large volume -of clear, warm water. - -“Explored?” shouted Dad Fairbanks one day when a white-haired prospector -declared every foot of Death Valley had been worked over. “It isn’t -scratched!” - -Only the day before (in 1934), Dr. Levi Noble had been working in the -mountains overlooking the valley on the east rim. Through his field -glasses he saw a formation that looked like a natural bridge. When he -returned to Shoshone he phoned Harry Gower, Pacific Borax Co. official -at Furnace Creek of his discovery and suggested that Gower investigate. - -Since Furnace Creek Inn wanted such attractions for its guests, Gower -went immediately and almost within rifle shot of a road used since the -Seventies, he found the bridge. - -That too is Death Valley—land of continual surprise. - -Death Valley is the hottest spot in North America. The U.S. Army, in a -test of clothing suitable for hot weather made some startling -discoveries. According to records, on one day in every seven years the -temperature reaches 180 on the valley floor. But five feet above ground -where official temperatures are recorded the thermometer drops 55 -degrees to 125. - -The highest temperature ever recorded was 134 at Furnace Creek -Ranch—only two degrees below the world’s record in Morocco. In 1913, the -week of July 7-14, the temperature never got below 127. Official -recording differs little from that of Arabia, India, and lower -California, but the duration is longer. - -Left in the sun, water in a pail of ordinary size will evaporate in an -hour. Bodies decompose two or three hours after rigor mortis begins but -some have been found in certain areas at higher altitudes dried like -leather. A rattlesnake dropped into a bucket and set in the sun will die -in 20 minutes. - -The evaporation of salt from the body is rapid and many prospectors -swallow a mouthful of common salt before going out into a killing sun. - -One of the pitiable features of death on the desert is that bodies are -found with fingers worn to the bone from frantic digging and often -beneath the cadaver is water at two feet. - -There is also legendary weather for outside consumption. Told to see Joe -Ryan as a source of dependable information, a tourist approached Joe and -asked what kind of temperature one would encounter in the valley. - -“Heat is always exaggerated,” said Joe. “Of course it gets a little warm -now and then. Hottest I ever saw was in August when I crossed the valley -with Mike Lane. I was walking ahead when I heard Mike coughing. I looked -around. Seemed to be choking and I went back. Mike held out his palm and -in it was a gold nugget and Mike was madder’n hell. ‘My teeth melted,’ -Mike wailed. ‘I’m going to kill that dentist. He told me they would -stand heat up to 500 degrees.’” - -I met an engaging liar at Bradbury Well one day. He was gloriously drunk -and was telling the group about him that he was a great grand-son of the -fabulous Paul Bunyan. - -“Of course,” he said, “Gramp was a mighty man, but he was dumb at that. -One time I saw him put a handful of pebbles in his mouth and blow ’em -one at a time at a flock of wild geese flying a mile high. He got every -goose, but how did he end up? Not so good. He straddled the Pacific -ocean one day and prowled around in China, and saw a cross-eyed -pigeon-toed midget with buck teeth. Worse, she had a temper that would -melt pig-iron. - -“Gramp went nuts over her. What happened? He married her. She had some -trained fleas. If Gramp got sassy, she put fleas in his ears and ants in -his pants and stood by, laughing at him, while he scratched himself to -death. Hell of an end for Gramp, wasn’t it?” - -In the late fall, winter, and early spring perfect days are the rule and -if you are among those who like uncharted trails, do not hurry. Then -when night comes you will climb a moonbeam and play among the stars. You -will learn too, that life goes on away from box scores, radio puns, and -girls with a flair for Veuve Cliquot. - - - - - Chapter VII - Indians of the Area - - -The Indians of the Death Valley country were dog eaters—both those of -Shoshone and Piute origin. Both had undoubtedly degenerated as a result -of migrations. The Shoshones (Snakes) had originally lived in Idaho, -Oregon, and Washington. The Piutes in Utah, Idaho, and Nevada. - -The true blood connection of coast Indians may well be a matter of -dispute. “Almost every 15 or 20 leagues you’ll find a distinct dialect,” -was said of California Indians. (Boscana in Robinson’s Life in -California, p. 220.) Most of them were hardly above the animal in -intelligence or morality. Though the Death Valley Indians are called -Shoshone and Piutes, to what extent their blood justifies the -classification is the white man’s guess. - -Those whom Dr. French found in the Panamint said they had no tribal -name. Many California tribes were given names by the whites, these names -being the American’s interpretation of a sound uttered by one group to -designate another. “They do not seem to have any names for themselves.” -(Schoolcraft’s Arch., Vol. 3.) - -All seem to agree however, that the farther north the Indian lived, the -more intelligent he was and the better his physique—which would indicate -a relation to the better diet in the lush, well-watered and game-filled -valleys and foothills. Some of the women are described by early writers -as “exceedingly pretty.” Others, “flat-faced and pudgy.” “The Indians in -the northern portion ... are vastly superior in stature and intellect to -those found in the southern part.” (Hubbard, Golden Era, 1856.) - -Certainly those found in Death Valley country reflected in their persons -and in their character the niggardly land and the struggle for survival -upon it. They were treacherous as its terrain. Cruel as its cactus. -Tenacious as its stunted life. - -It is interesting to note the range of opinion and the conclusions drawn -by earlier travelers. - -Of the Shoshones: “Very rigid in their morals.” (Remi and Brenchley’s -Journal, Vol. 1, p. 85.) - -“They of all men are lowest, lying in a state of semi-torpor in holes in -the ground in winter and in spring, crawling forth and eating grass on -their hands and knees until able to regain their feet ... living in -filth ... no bridles on their passions ... surely room for no missing -links between them and brutes.” (Bancroft’s Native Races, Vol. 1, p. -440.) - -“It is common practice ... to gamble away their wives and children.... A -husband will prostitute his wife to a stranger for a trifling present.” -(Ibid. ch. 4, Vol. 1.) - -“Our Piute has a peculiar way of getting a foretaste of connubial -bliss—cohabiting experimentally with his intended for two or three days -previous to the nuptial ceremony, at the end of which time either party -can stay further proceedings to indulge further trials until a companion -more congenial is found.” (S. F. Medical Press, Vol. 3, p. 155. See -also, Lewis and Clark’s Travels, p. 307.) - -“The Piutes are the most degraded and least intellectual Indians known -to trappers.” (Farnham’s Life, p. 336.) - -“Pah-utes are undoubtedly the most docile Indians on the continent.” -(Indian Affairs Report, 1859, p. 374.) - -“Honest and trustworthy, but lazy and dirty,” is said of the Shoshones. -(Remi and Brenchley’s Journal, p. 123.) Some ethnologists declare they -cannot be identified with any other American tribe. - -Wives were purchased, cash or credit. Polygamy prevailed. Unmarried -women belonged to all, but Gibbs says women bewailed their virginity for -three days prior to marriage. “They allow but one wife.” (Prince in -California Farmer, Oct. 18, 1861.) - -Husbands were allowed to kill their mothers-in-law. The heart of a -valiant enemy killed in battle was eaten raw or cut into pieces and made -into soup. Women captives of other tribes were ravished, sold or kept as -slaves. Some Southern California tribes sold their women and -occasionally tribes were found without a single squaw. - -“They are exceedingly virtuous.” (Remi and Brenchley’s Journal, Vol. 1, -pp. 1-23-8.) - -“Given to sensual excesses.” (Farnham’s Travel, p. 62.) - -“The Nevada Shoshones are the most pure and uncorrupted aborigines on -the continent ... scrupulously clean ... chaste.” (Prince, California -Farmer, Oct. 18, 1861.) - -Thus the Indian who came or was driven to this wasteland evoked -conflicting opinions and the real picture is vague. - -The lowest of California Indians is believed to have been the Digger, -so-called because he existed chiefly upon roots and lived in burrows of -his own making, but his isolation by ethnologists is not convincing. He -was found around Shoshone by Fremont and Kit Carson and inhabited -valleys to the north and west, but in the Death Valley region the Piute -and Shoshone were dominant. - -Blood vengeance was deep-rooted. Found with the Indian collection of Dr. -Simeon Lee at Carson City was a revealing manuscript that tells how -swiftly it struck. - -Mudge rode up to another Indian standing on a Carson City street and -without warning shot him dead and galloped away. The dead man had two -cousins working at Lake Tahoe. The murder had occurred at 9:30 a.m. and -by some means of communication unknown to whites, they were on Mudge’s -trail within two hours and had found him. Mudge promptly killed them -both and fled again. Sheriff Ulric engaged Captain Johnnie, a Piute, to -track the slayer. He found Mudge’s lair, but Mudge was a sure shot, well -protected and to rush him meant certain death. The posse decided to keep -watch until thirst or hunger forced him out. “Me fix um,” said Captain -Johnnie. - -He disappeared, but soon returned with an enormous amount of tempting -food which he contrived to place within easy reach of Mudge. “Him see -moppyass (food). Eat bellyful and fall down asleep.” - -That is exactly what happened and old Demi-John, the father of the -murdered boys crawled stealthily through the sage and with his hunting -knife severed the head from the sleeping Mudge’s body. - -In Mono county Piutes killed the Chinese owner of a cafe and fed the -carcass to their dogs. In court they blandly confessed and justified it, -claiming the Chinaman had killed and pickled one of their missing -tribesmen and then sold and served to them portions of the victim as -“corned beef and cabbage.” - -For the desert Indian life was raw to the bone. He was an unemotional, -fatalistic creature as ruthless as the land. In the struggle to live, he -had acquired endurance and cunning. He knew his desert—its moods, its -stingy dole, its chary tolerance of life. He knew where the mountain -sheep hid, the screw-bean grew and the fat lizard crawled. He knew where -the drop of water seeped from the lone hill. He combed the lower levels -of the range for chuckwalla, edible snakes, horned toads—anything with -flesh; stuffed the kill into bags and preserved them for later use. He -made flour from mesquite beans; stored piñons, roots, herbs in his -desperate fight to survive, and anything that crawled, flew, or walked -was food. I have seen a squaw squatted beside the carcass of a dog, -picking out the firmer flesh. - -When the Piute came to a spring, the first thing he did was to look -about for a flat rock which he was sure to find if a member of his tribe -had previously been there. Kneeling, he would skim the water from the -surface and dash it upon this rock. Then he smelled the rock. If there -was an odor of onion or garlic, he knew it contained arsenic and was -deadly. Naturally, he would be concerned about another water hole. He -had only to look about him. He would find partially imbedded in the -earth several stones fixed in the form of a circle not entirely closed. -The opening pointed in the direction of the next water. The distance to -that water was indicated by stones inside the circle. There he would -find for example, three stones pointing toward the opening. He knew that -each of those stones indicated one “sleep.” Therefore he would have to -sleep three times before he got there. In other words, it was three -days’ journey. - -But which of these trails leading to the water should he take? There -might be several trails converging at the water hole. The matter was -decided for him. He walked along each of those trails for a few feet. -Beside one of them he would find an oblong stone. By its shape and -position he knew that was the trail that led to the next water. - -Under such circumstances a man would perhaps wonder if upon arrival at -the next water hole he would find that water also unfit to use. The -information was at hand. If, upon top of that oblong stone he found a -smaller stone placed crosswise and white in color, he knew the water -would be good water. If a piece of black malpai was there instead of the -white stone, he knew the next water would be poison also. - -Not infrequently he would find other information at the water hole if -there were boulders about, or chalky cliffs upon which the Indian could -place his picture writing. If he saw the crude drawing of a lone man, it -indicated that the land about was uninhabited except by hunters, but if -upon the pictured torso were marks indicating the breasts of a woman, he -knew there was a settlement about and he would find squaws and children -and something to eat. - -Frequently other information was left for this wayfaring Indian. Under -conspicuous stones about, he might find a feather with a hole punched -through it or one that was notched. The former indicated that one had -been there who had killed his man. The notch indicated that he had cut a -throat. - -Since there was a difference between the moccasins of Indian tribes, the -dust about would often inform him whether the buck who went before was -friend or enemy. - -Like all American aborigines, the Piute had his medicine man, but the -manner of his choosing is not clear. The one selected had to accept the -role, though the honor never thrilled him, because he knew that when the -score of death was three against him he would join his lost patients in -the happy hereafter. Occasionally he was stoned to death by the -relatives of the first lost patient and with the approval of the rest of -the tribe. Not infrequently it was believed the medicine man’s departed -spirit then entered the medicine man’s kin and they were also butchered -or stoned to death. - - -Note. Early writers refer to Pau Eutahs, Pah Utes, Paiuches, Pyutes, and -Paiutes. The word Piute is believed to mean true Ute. - -Bancroft claimed the Piutes and Pah Utes were separate tribes, the -latter being the Trout or Ochi Indians of Walker River; the former the -Tule (or Toy) Indians of Pyramid Lake. - -There was an undetermined number of branches of the original Utah stock. -Besides the above, there was another tribe called by other Indians, -Cozaby Piutes, Cozaby being the Indian name of a worm that literally -covered the shores of Mono Lake. This worm was a principal food of the -tribe. - -Though “Piute” is the spelling justifiably used throughout the region, -“Pahute” was chosen a few years ago by a group of scholars as the -preferable form. - - - - - Chapter VIII - Desert Gold. Too Many Fractions - - -On the Nevada desert wind-whipped Mount Davidson (or Sun Mountain) -guided the Forty Niners across the flat Washoe waste. At its foot they -rested and cursed it because it impeded their progress to the California -goldfields. Ten years later they rushed back because it had become the -fabulous Comstock, said to have produced more than $880,000,000, though -the Nevada State bureau of mines places the figure at $347,892,336. The -truth lies somewhere between. - -“Pancake” Comstock had acquired, more by bluff and cunning than labor, -title to gold claims others had discovered and cursed a “blue stuff” -that slowed the recovery of visible particles of gold. Later the “blue -stuff” was blessed as incredibly rich silver. A mountain of gold and -silver side by side. It just couldn’t be. - -A new crop of overnight millionaires. New feet feeling for the first -step on the social ladder. The Mackays, the Floods, the Fairs, the -Hearsts. - -All this was more like current than twenty year old history to Jim -Butler on May 18, 1900, when his hungry burro strayed up a hill in -search of grass. Soon a city stood where the burro ate and soon -adventurers were poking around in the canyons of Death Valley, 66 miles -south. - -Jim Butler, more rancher than gold hunter was a likable happy-go-lucky -fellow, who could strum a banjo and sing a song. But when he found the -burro in Sawtooth Pass he saw a ledge which looked as if it might have -values. Born in El Dorado county in California in 1855, Butler was more -or less gold conscious, but unexcited he stuck a few samples in his -pocket and went on after the burro. - -A story survives which states that a half-breed Shoshone Indian known as -Charles Fisherman had told Butler of the existence of the ore without -disclosing its location and that Butler was actually searching for it -when the burro strayed. The preponderance of evidence, however, -indicates that Butler was en route to Belmont to see his friend, Tasker -Oddie, who was batching there in a cabin. He gave Oddie one of the -samples and after his visit, left for home. - -Oddie laid the sample on a window sill and forgot it. - -In Klondike a few days later, Butler showed another sample to Frank -Higgs, an assayer. Half in jest he said: “Frank, I’ve no money to pay -for an assay, but I’ll cut you in on this stuff if it shows anything.” - -Higgs looked at the sample and returned it to Butler: “Just a waste of -time. Forget it.” - -Later in Belmont Henry Broderick, a prospector dropped in for a visit -with Oddie and noticed the sample Butler had given Oddie and looked it -over. “This ore has good values,” he told Oddie. “It’s worth -investigating.” Oddie knew that Broderick’s opinion was not to be -underrated. - -Oddie was a young lawyer with little practice and a salary of $100 a -year as District Attorney. Belmont had a population of 100. Oddie didn’t -have two dollars to risk, but he took the sample to W. C. Gayhart at -Austin and offered Gayhart a fractional interest if he’d assay it. With -few customers, Gayhart took a chance. - -The ore showed values and Oddie was mildly excited. Butler lived 35 -miles away in wild, difficult country and Oddie wrote him, enclosing the -assay. Several weeks passed before Butler received the letter. Then -Butler and his wife returned to Belmont only to find Oddie could not go -with them. Jim and Mrs. Butler now returned home, loaded provisions, -tools, and camp equipment in a wagon and three days later, Aug. 26, -1900, they reached Sawtooth Pass and made camp. - -The Butlers staked out eight claims. Jim took for himself the one he -considered best. He named it The Desert Queen. Mrs. Butler chose another -and called it Mizpah. Jim located another for Oddie and named it Burro. -The best proved to be Mrs. Butler’s Mizpah. - -Returning to Belmont, they found Oddie at home. The matter of recording -the location notices had to be attended to. “That will cost ten or -fifteen dollars,” Butler said. Neither of them had any money. Wils -Brougher was recorder of Nye county and Oddie’s friend, so Oddie made a -proposition to Brougher. “If you’ll pay the recorder’s fees we’ll give -you an eighth.” - -Brougher said, “Nye county is one of the largest counties in the United -States, but there are only 400 people in it and I’m not getting many -fees these days. Leave ’em.” - -After they’d gone Brougher looked at the assay Oddie had left and -decided to take a chance. The setup was now: Butler and his wife -five-eighths, Oddie, Brougher, and Gayhart, one-eighth each. - -They managed to pool resources and obtained $25 in cash to provide -material and provisions. - -Brougher, Oddie, Jim, and Mrs. Butler set out in October, 1900. Mrs. -Butler did the cooking while the men dug, drilled, and blasted two tons -of ore. The ore was sacked and hauled 150 miles to Austin and shipped to -a San Francisco smelter. The returns showed high values but still they -had a major problem—money to develop the claims. Because the country had -been prospected and pronounced worthless, men of millions were not -backing a banjo-picking rancher and a young lawyer with no money and few -clients. The answer was leasing to idle miners willing to gamble muscle -against money. The venture made many of them rich. The others recovered -more than wages. As the leases expired the owners took them over. - -The camp where Mrs. Butler cooked became the site of the Mizpah Hotel -and the City of Tonopah and the hill where the burro strayed produced -many millions. - -There are several versions of the Butler discovery and the writer does -not pretend that his own is the true one. He can only say that he knew -many of those who were first on the scene and some of those who held the -first and best leases, and his conclusions are based on their personal -narratives. - -Oddie became one of the moguls of mining, Nevada’s governor, and a -senator of the United States. - -Twenty-six miles south of Tonopah was a place known as Grandpa, so named -because there were always a few old prospectors camped at the water hole -known as Rabbit Springs. These patriarchs had combed the desert about, -for years without success. - -Al Myers, a prospector working on a hill nearby, came to the Grandpa -Spring to fill a barrel of water and found his friend, Shorty Harris, -who had been camping there, packing his burros to leave. “Better hang -around, Shorty,” Al advised. “I’m getting color.” - -“Luck to you,” Shorty laughed. “But any place where these old grandpas -can’t find color, is no place for me.” - -In six weeks Myers and Tom Murphy made the big strike (1903) and Grandpa -became Goldfield—one of the West’s most spectacular camps. Some of the -more promising claims of Goldfield were leased, the most valuable being -that of Hays and Monette, on the Mohawk. In 106 days the lease produced -$5,000,000. - -Out of the Mohawk one car was shipped which yielded over $579,000 and -ore in all of the better mines was so rich that Goldfield quickly became -the high-grader’s paradise. Though wages at Tonopah were twice those -paid at Goldfield, miners deserted the older camp for the lower wage and -made more than the difference by concealing high-grade in the cuffs of -their overalls or in other ingenious receptacles built into their -clothing. Miners and muckers took the girls of their choice out of -honkies and installed them in cottages. More than one of these gorgeous -creatures, having found her man in her boom-town crib, later ascended -life’s grand stairway to live virtuously and bravely in a Wilshire -mansion or a swank hotel. - -To stop the stealing, a change room was installed but many had already -secured themselves against want. A wealthy resident of California once -told me: “With the proceeds of the high-grade I took home I built -rentals that led to bank connections and more lucky investments. -Everybody was doing it.” - -Tex Rickard, a gambler and saloon man, already known in Alaska and San -Francisco for spectacular adventures, here began his career as a sports -promoter in the ill-advised Jeffries-Johnson fight. - -One morning his Great Northern had more than its usual crowd. Men stood -three deep at the bar, games were busy and Billy Murray, the cashier was -rushed. It was not unusual for desert men to leave their money with -Murray. He would tag and sack it and toss it aside, but today there was -a steady stream being poked at him. Finally it got in his way and he had -it taken through the alley to the bank, but the deluge continued. - -When it again got in his way, his assistant having stepped out, Billy -took it to the bank himself. There he learned the reason for the flood -of money. A run was being made on the John S. Cook bank. He satisfied -himself that the bank was safe and returned to his cage. As fast as the -money came in the front door, it went out the back and Billy Murray thus -saved the bank and the town from collapse. - -A resourceful youngster who knew that wherever men recklessly acquire, -they recklessly spend, dropped in from Oregon, got a job in Tom -Kendall’s Tonopah Club as a dealer. Good looking and likable, he made -friends, took over the gambling concession and was soon taking over -Goldfield and the state of Nevada. He was George Wingfield, who, when -offered a seat in the United States Senate, calmly declined it. - -Goldfield is only 40 miles from the northern boundary of Death Valley -National Monument and was in bonanza when Shorty Harris walked into the -Great Northern saloon. “I’ve been drinking gulch likker,” he told the -bartender. “Give me the best in the house.” - -The bartender reached for a bottle. “This is 100 proof 14 year old -bourbon.” - -Shorty drank it, laid a goldpiece on the bar. “Good stuff. I’ll have -another.” - -“You must be celebrating,” the bartender said. - -“You guessed it,” Shorty said and laid a piece of high-grade beside his -glass. “I’ve got more gold where that came from than Uncle Sam’s got in -the mint.” - -A faro dealer noticed the ore and picked it up. “Good looking rock,” he -said and passed it to a promoter standing by. In a moment a crowd had -gathered. “Looks like Breyfogle quartz,” the promoter said and led -Shorty aside. “I can make you a million on this. Want to sell?” - -“Not on your life,” Shorty said, but after pressure and a few drinks, he -agreed to part with an eighth interest. The deal closed, he left to see -friends around town. He found each of them in a barroom. News of his -strike had preceded him and each time he laid the ore on the bar someone -wanted an interest. Someone called him aside and someone bought the -drinks. - -Within an hour every fortune hunter in Goldfield was looking for Shorty -Harris, each believing Shorty had found the Lost Breyfogle. - -When he left town, weaving in the dust of his burros, sixteen men wished -him well, for each had a piece of paper conveying a one-eighth interest -in Shorty’s claim. - - - - - Chapter IX - Romance Strikes the Parson - - -Scorning Al Myers’s advice to locate a claim on the Goldfield hill, -Shorty Harris headed south, prospecting as he went until he reached -Monte Beatty’s ranch where he camped with Beatty, a squaw man. “I’m -going to look at a rhyolite formation in the hills four miles west. It -looks good—that hill,” Shorty told him. - -“Forget it,” Beatty said, “I’ve combed every inch.” - -With faith in Beatty’s knowledge of the country, he abandoned the trip -and crossed the Amargosa desert to Daylight Springs, found the country -full of amateur prospectors excited by the discoveries at Tonopah and -Goldfield. After a few weeks he decided there was nothing worthwhile to -be found. “I had a hunch Beatty could be wrong about that formation and -decided to go back.” - -He was well outfitted and with five burros and more than enough -provisions, was ready to go when, out of the bush came a cleancut -youngster—a novice who had brought his wife along. - -“Shorty,” he said, “we’re out of grub. Can you spare any?” - -“Sure. But you’d be better off to go with me. I have enough grub for all -of us.” - -Ed Cross had all to gain; nothing to lose by following an experienced -prospector. - -At a water hole known as Buck Springs they made camp. Within an hour -they went up a canyon, each working a side of it. Shorty broke a piece -of quartz from an outcropping; saw shades of turquoise and jade. “Come -a-runnin’ Ed,” he shouted. “We’ve got the world by the tail and a -downhill pull.” - -They staked out the discovery claims. “How many more should we locate?” -Cross asked. - -“None. Give the other fellow a chance. If this is as good as we think, -we’ve got all the money we’ll ever need. If it isn’t and the other -fellow makes a good showing it will help us sell this one.” - -They went to Goldfield. Shorty showed the sample to Bob Montgomery, an -old friend. Bob was skeptical. But in an hour the news was out and -Goldfield en masse headed for the new strike. Those, who couldn’t get -conveyances, walked. Some pulled burro carts across the desert. Some -started out with wheelbarrows. Jack Salsbury began to move lumber. -Others brought merchandise, barrels of liquor. Everything to build a -town. - -“Specimens of my ore,” Shorty said, “were used by Tiffany for ring -settings, lavallieres, bracelets. It went to Paris and London. Ore -broken from the ledge sold for $50 a pound. I must have given away -thousands of dollars’ worth of it for souvenirs.” - -Overnight Rhyolite was born. Shorty bought a barrel of liquor, drove a -row of nails around the barrel, hung tin dippers on the nails and -invited the town to quench its thirst. Two railroads came. One, 114 -miles from Las Vegas. Another, 200 miles from Ludlow. - -“Two things influenced me in naming it Bullfrog,” Shorty said. “Ed had -asked, ‘what’ll we name it?’ As I looked at the green ore in my hand, a -frog bellowed. ‘Bullfrog,’ I said.” (One writer has stated erroneously -that there is not a bullfrog on the desert.) - -The tycoons of mining and their agents appeared as if borne on magic -carpets and in a little while men who would have turned him from their -doors, were fawning around the little man with the golden smile and the -ugly brawl for the Bullfrog was on—a struggle between cheap promoters -who gave him cheap whiskey and moguls who gave him champagne. - -Scores of yarns have been written about the sale of the Bullfrog. It was -one of the few things in Shorty’s life which he discussed with reserve. -In my residence two years before he died and in my presence he told my -wife, to whom he was singularly devoted, the sordid story. “Cross had a -good head,” Shorty said. “He attended to business, sold his interest and -retired to a good ranch. - -“I woke up one morning and judging from the empties, I must have had a -grand evening. I reached for a full pint on the table and under it was a -piece of paper with a note. I read it and learned for the first time -that I’d sold the Bullfrog.” - -“The law would have released you from that contract,” I said. - -“I’d signed it,” he answered quietly. - -I thought of the crumbling adobe on the Ballarat flat and the lean years -that followed. - -“At that, I got good money for a fellow like me,” he added. “I’ve never -wanted for anything.” - -A fortune blown like a bubble meant absolutely nothing—stopped no laugh; -dimmed no hope; quenched no fire in his eager eyes. - -“If I’d got those millions the big boys would have hauled me off to -town, put a white shirt on me. Maybe they would have made me believe -Shorty Harris was important. ‘Mr. Harris this and Mr. Harris that.’ I’ve -got something they can’t take away. I step out of my cabin every morning -and look it over—100 miles of outdoors. All mine.” - -The future of Rhyolite seemed assured when Bob Montgomery sold to -Charles M. Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel Company, his interest in -the claim known as the Montgomery Shoshone for more than $2,000,000. - -The discovery of this claim has been accredited to Shoshone Johnnie and -historians have said that Montgomery bought it from Johnnie for a pair -of overalls, a buggy, and a few dollars. Actually Bob Montgomery was -among the first on the scene following Shorty’s discovery strike and -located the claim himself. Even if Johnnie had located it Montgomery -would have been entitled to one-half interest for the reason that he had -been grubstaking Johnnie for years. - -It never paid as a mine, but America was gold mad and the two railroads -which brought mail for Rhyolite also carried stock certificates out and -the promoters lost nothing. - -The strike at Bullfrog was made in 1904. Rhyolite attained a population -of about 14,000 at its peak—then started downward. On January 1, 1926, I -made a camp fire in its empty streets and beside it tried to sleep -through a biting wind that seemed aptly enough a dirge. The next morning -I poked around in the abandoned stores to marvel at things of value left -behind. Chinaware and silver in hurriedly abandoned houses and in the -leading cafe. The cribs still bore the castoff ribbons and silks of the -girls and for all I know, the satin slipper which I found on a bed may -have been the one that Shorty Harris filled with champagne to toast the -charms of Flaming Jane. - -I walked up to the vacant depot. Across the door, through which -thousands had passed from incoming trains with youth and hope and the -eagerness of life, lay the long-dead carcass of a cow. It fitted, it -seemed to me, the scene about. - -Like Tonopah, Skidoo on top of Tucki Mountain overlooking Death Valley -may be accredited to the straying of a burro in 1905. - -John Ramsey and John Thompson, two prospectors, camped overnight in -Emigrant Canyon which leads into Death Valley. The grass about was lush -and they thought it safe to turn the burros loose. The burros strayed -during the night and because the walls on the east side of the canyon -are perpendicular, search was immediately confined to the sloping west -area. But the burros, always unpredictable, found a way to ascend Tucki -Mountain and there they were found—one of them actually straddling an -outcropping of gold. - -This happened on the 23rd day of the month and because of a popular -current slang expression, “Twenty-three for you—skidoo,” (meaning -phooey, or shut up) the claim and the town were named Skidoo. - -Bob Montgomery bought the claim on sight. A winding road with a -spectacular view of Death Valley was built, a mill installed on the side -of Telephone Canyon and water brought 22 miles from Panamint Canyon. A -long rambling building on top of the mountain served as offices and -living quarters for officials. A broad porch encircled it and afforded a -sweeping and unforgettable view of Death Valley country. - -On the area about this building was the company town. Adjoining was “Our -Town” where the cribs and honkies thrived. - -I first visited it with Shorty Harris, holding my breath most of the way -on the steep, narrow, and winding road. We appropriated the company -building for our temporary home. Shorty had owned claims there and had -helped build the road. - -Montgomery paid $60,000 for the claims and took out $9,000,000 before -production costs exceeded his profits, when work was abandoned. - -During World War I, Montgomery sold the pipe, which had brought the -water to Skidoo, to Standard Oil Company at a price far in excess of its -cost. That was the end of Skidoo. - -More interesting to me than the fate of Skidoo was that of Blonde Betty -and the traveling preacher, of which Shorty was reminded when we -strolled by the crib in which Betty had lived. - -“Skagway Thompson, as fine a chap as ever drew a cork, died right over -there in that shack and we decided he deserved a nice planting. -Everybody liked Skagway. Only women around at that time were crib girls -and they banked his grave with wild flowers and I got this sky pilot to -say a few words. - -“He was a young fellow, good looking and agreeable. I told him Skagway’s -friends thought it would be nice if one of the women in town would sing -Skagway’s favorite song. ‘It’s called “When the Wedding Bells Are -Ringing”’ I said, ‘and I hope you don’t mind if it’s not in the hymn -books.’ I didn’t tell him the girl who was going to sing it was Blonde -Betty—a chippy—figuring he’d be on his way before he found out. That gal -could sing like a flock of larks and after the service the preacher -barged up to me and said he wanted to meet Betty and would I introduce -him. - -“There was no way out and besides, I figured what he didn’t know -wouldn’t hurt him. He told her what a wonderful voice she had, how the -song had touched him and hoped she would sing at one of his meetings. - -“Blonde Betty was pretty as curly ribbon and I was afraid every minute -he was going to ask if he could call on her, so I horned in and said, -‘Parson, excuse me, but I promised I would bring Miss Betty home right -away.’ - -“So I took her arm and pulled her away. - -“‘You big-mouthed bum,’ Betty says when we were out of hearing. ‘Why -don’t you attend to your own business? I know how to act.’” - -Shorty pointed to a riot of wild flowers on the side of a hill across -the gulch. “The next day I saw her and the Parson picking flowers right -over there. Of course he didn’t know then what she was. After that I -reckon he didn’t give a dam’. He chucked the preaching job and ran off -with Betty. But maybe God went along. They got married and live over in -Nevada and you couldn’t find a happier family or a finer brood of -children anywhere. - -“It is no argument for sin, but this was a hell of a country in those -days and you just couldn’t always live by the Book.” - -On July 4, 1905 Shorty Harris made the strike which started the town of -Harrisburg, now only a name on a signboard. A feud due to a partnership -of curious origin, started immediately and is worth mention only because -it confused historians of a later period who, gathering material after -Shorty’s death have given only the story of the feudist who survived -him. - -Here is Shorty’s version: “I was trying to save distance by taking the -Blackwater trail across Death Valley into the Panamint. I had been over -the country and had seen a formation that looked good and was going back -to look it over. The Blackwater trail is a wet trail and one of my -burros sank in the ooze. I had just gotten her out when a fellow I’d -never seen before, came up. He said he was a stranger in the country and -he wanted to get to Emigrant Springs where his two partners were -waiting. He explained that the foreman at Furnace Creek had told him I -had left only a short while before, but he might overtake me by -hurrying, and I would show him the way. Then he asked if he could join -me. - -“I told him it was free country and nobody on the square was barred. -When I reached my destination I showed him the trail to Emigrant -Springs. I reckon I talked too much on the way over—maybe made him think -I had a gold mountain. Anyway, he said he believed he would look around -a little to see what he could find. I didn’t even know his name and -though it was against the unwritten code, he followed me. There wasn’t -anything I could do about it without trouble and I was looking for -gold—not trouble. - -“In 15 minutes I had found gold. He was pecking around a short distance -away and also found rock with color and claimed a half interest. It was -then that I learned his name—Pete Auguerreberry and that his partners -were Flynn and Cavanaugh. Wild Bill Corcoran had grubstaked me. I told -Pete five partners were too many and we should agree upon a division -point—each taking a full claim and he could have his choice. - -“He refused and wanted half interest in both and nothing short of murder -would have budged him. I went to Rhyolite for Bill Corcoran. He went for -his partners. When we met, Corcoran had an offer to buy, sight unseen, -from one of Schwab’s agents. Everyone of us wanted to sell, except Pete -who stood out for a fantastic price. His partners offered to give him a -part of their share if he would accept the offer. Pete refused. He -thought it was worth millions. Wild Bill organized a company and we -started work.” - -For awhile it seemed the Harrisburg claims would prove to be good -producers. In the end it was just another town on the map for Shorty. -Futile years for Pete. - - -Once I asked Shorty Harris how he obtained his grubstakes. “Grubstakes,” -he answered, “like gold, are where you find them. Once I was broke in -Pioche, Nev., and couldn’t find a grubstake anywhere. Somebody told me -that a woman on a ranch a few miles out wanted a man for a few days’ -work. I hoofed it out under a broiling sun, but when I got there, the -lady said she had no job. I reckon she saw my disappointment and when -her cat came up and began to mew, she told me the cat had an even dozen -kittens and she would give me a dollar if I would take ’em down the road -and kill ’em. - -“‘It’s a deal,’ I said. She got ’em in a sack and I started back to -town. I intended to lug ’em a few miles away and turn ’em loose, because -I haven’t got the heart to kill anything. - -“A dozen kittens makes quite a load and I had to sit down pretty often -to rest. A fellow in a two-horse wagon came along and offered me a ride. -I picked up the sack and climbed in. - -“‘Cats, eh?’ the fellow said. ‘They ought to bring a good price. I was -in Colorado once. Rats and mice were taking the town. I had a cat. She -would have a litter every three months. I had no trouble selling them -cats for ten dollars apiece. Beat a gold mine.’ - -“There were plenty rats in Pioche and that sack of kittens went like -hotcakes. One fellow didn’t have any money and offered me a goat. I knew -a fellow who wanted a goat. He lived on the same lot as I did. Name was -Pete Swain. - -“Pete was all lit up when I offered him the goat for fifty dollars. He -peeled the money off his roll and took the goat into his shack. A few -days later Pete came to his door and called me over and shoved a fifty -dollar note into my hands. ‘I just wanted you to see what that goat’s -doing,’ he said. - -“I looked inside. The goat was pulling the cork out of a bottle of -liquor with his teeth. - -“‘That goat’s drunk as a boiled owl,’ Pete said. ‘If I ever needed any -proof that there’s something in this idea of the transmigration of -souls, that goat gives it. He’s Jimmy, my old sidekick, who, I figgered -was dead and buried.’ - -“‘Now listen,’ I said. ‘Do you mean to tell me you actually believe that -goat is your old pal, whom you drank with and played with and saw buried -with your own eyes, right up there on the hill?’ - -“‘Exactly,’ Pete shouted, and he peeled off another fifty and gave it to -me. So, you see, a grubstake, like gold, is where you find it.” - - - - - Chapter X - Greenwater—Last of the Boom Towns - - -Located on Black Mountain in the Funeral Range on the east side of Death -Valley, Greenwater was the last boom town founded in the mad decade -which followed Jim Butler’s strike at Tonopah. Records show locations of -mining claims in the district as early as 1884, but all were abandoned. - -The location notice of a “gold and silver claim” was filed in 1884 by -Doc Trotter, a famous character of the desert, remembered both for his -good fellowship and his burro—Honest John—a habitual thief of incredible -cunning, “Picked locks with baling wire....” - -The first location of a copper claim was made by Frank McAllister who, -with a man named Cooper and Arthur Kunzie, may be credited with one of -the West’s most spectacular mining booms. - -In 1905 Phil Creaser and Fred Birney took samples of the Copper Blue -Ledge and sent them to Patsy Clark, who was so impressed that he -dispatched Joseph P. Harvey, a prominent mining engineer to look at the -property. Harvey started from Daggett and had reached Cave Spring in the -Avawatz Mountains when he was caught in a cloudburst and lost all his -equipment. He returned to Daggett, secured a new outfit and this time -reached Black Mountain, but was unable to locate the claims. - -Again Birney and Creaser contacted Clark and this time the mining -magnate came to Rhyolite, ordered another examination of the property, -giving his agent authority to buy. Upon the assay’s showing, the claims -were bought. Immediately Charles M. Schwab, August Heinze, Tasker L. -Oddie, Borax Smith, W. A. Clark, and many other moguls of mining hurried -to the scene or sent their agents. In their wake came gamblers, -merchants, crib girls, soldiers of fortune, and thugs. - -$4,125,000 was paid for 2500 claims. Result—a hectic town with as many -as 100 people a day pouring out of the canyons onto the barren, windy -slope. - -Noted mining engineers announced that Black Mountain was one huge -deposit of copper with a thin overlay of rock, dirt, and gravel. “It -will make Butte’s ‘Richest Hill on Earth’ look like beggars’ pickings,” -they announced. - -Greenwater stocks sky-rocketed and so many people poured into the new -camp that the town was moved two miles from the mines in order to take -care of the growth which it was believed would soon make it a -metropolis. Before pick and shovel had made more than a dent on the -crust of Black Mountain, two newspapers, a bank, express lines, and a -magazine were in operation. - -Here Shorty Harris missed another fortune only because his partner went -on a drunk. - -Leaving Rhyolite, Shorty had induced Judge Decker, a convivial resident -of Ballarat to furnish a grubstake to look over Black Mountain. He made -several locations, erected his monuments, returned to Ballarat and gave -them to Decker to be recorded. - -When the papers reached Ballarat with the news that the copper barons -were bidding recklessly for Greenwater claims Shorty was broke again. -Bursting into Chris Wicht’s saloon, he shouted, “Where’s the Judge?” - -Chris nodded toward the end of the bar where the Judge, swaying -slightly, was waving his glass in lieu of a baton while leading the -quartet in “Sweet Adeline.” Wedging through the crowd, Shorty touched -the Judge’s elbow: “Lay off that cooking likker, Judge. It’s Mum’s Extra -for us from now on.” - -“Yeh? How come?” the Judge asked thickly. - -“We’re worth a billion dollars,” Shorty said. “I staked out that whole -dam’ mountain. Where’re those location notices?” - -“What location notices?” Decker blinked. - -“The ones I gave you to take to Independence.” - -With one hand the Judge steadied himself on the bar. With the other he -fumbled through his pockets, finally producing a frayed batch of papers, -covered with barroom doodling, but no recorder’s receipt for the -location notices. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he muttered. - -“So’ll I,” Shorty gulped. - -If Decker had recorded the notices both he and Shorty would have become -rich through the sale of those claims. - -When laborers cleared the ground to begin work for Schwab, Patsy Clark, -and others, they tore down the monuments containing the unrecorded -notices. - -In a little cemetery on the gravel flats at Ballarat, lies Decker. - -Pleasantly refreshed with liquor one yawny afternoon he managed to have -the last word in an argument with the constable, Henry Pietsch and went -happily to his room. Later the constable thought of a way to win the -argument and went to the Judge’s cabin. A shot was heard and Pietsch -came through the door with a smoking gun in his hand. Decker, he said, -had started for a pistol in his dresser drawer. But Decker was found -with a hole in his back, his spine severed. At Independence, the -constable was acquitted for lack of evidence and returned to Ballarat to -resume his duties, but was told that he might live longer somewhere -else. Pietsch didn’t argue this time and thus avoided a lynching. He -left Ballarat and, I believe, was hanged for another murder. - -Among those who came early to Greenwater, none was more outstanding than -a gorgeous creature with a wasp waist who stepped from the stage one -day, patted her pompadour with jewelled fingers, gave the bustling town -an approving glance. Then she turned to the bevy of blondes and -brunettes she had brought. “It’s a man’s town, girls....” - -Bystanders were already eyeing the girls; their scarlet lips and the -deep dark danger in their roving eyes. - -So Diamond Tooth Lil was welcomed to Greenwater and became important -both in its business and social economy. - -It was agreed that Lil was a good fellow. Greenwater also learned that -her word was good as her bond. She kept an orderly five dollar house and -if anyone chose to break her rules of conduct, he ran afoul of her -six-gun. Because she could fight like a jungle beast, she was also -called Tiger Lil. Somewhere along the line, four of her upper teeth had -been broken and in each of the replacements was set a diamond of first -quality. As Greenwater prospered so did Diamond Tooth Lil. - -One day an exotic creature with a suggestion of Spanish-Creole and dark, -compelling eyes dropped off the stage. She too had pretty girls and when -the new bagnio had its grand opening, with champagne and imported -orchestra, Diamond Tooth Lil sent a huge floral piece. - -A few nights later Lil was sitting in her parlor wondering where the men -were. The girls were all banked around with folded hands. - -“Maybe there’s a celebration....” A moment later a belated male barged -in. - -“Willie, where’s everybody?” Lil asked. - -Willie flicked a look at the idle girls. “Maybe,” he announced, “they’re -down at that new cut-rate menage.” - -“Cut-rate?” Lil cried. - -“Yeh. Three dollars.” - -A steely glint came into Diamond Tooth Lil’s eyes. - -She tossed her cigarette into the cuspidor, went to her room, picked up -her six-gun, saw that it was loaded and hurried to her rival’s. - -A rap on the door brought the dark beauty to the porch. “Listen dearie,” -Diamond Tooth Lil began. “This is a union town. I hear you’re scabbing.” - -The hot Latin temper flared. “I run my business to suit myself....” - -“And you won’t raise the price?” asked Diamond Tooth Lil. - -“Never!” Suddenly the exotic one looked into hard steel and harder eyes. - -“Okay. You’re through. Start packing,” ordered Lil. - -Something in the eyes behind the six-gun told the madam that surrender -was wiser than a funeral and the scab house closed forever. - -A wayfarer in Greenwater announced that he was so low he could mount -stilts and clear a snake’s belly, but being broke, he could only sniff -the liquor-scented air coming from Bill Waters’s saloon and look -wistfully at the bottles on the shelves. Then he noticed that Bill -Waters was alone, polishing glasses. A sudden inspiration came and he -sauntered in. “Bill,” he said, “gimme a drink....” - -Bill Waters was no meticulous interpreter of English and slid a glass -down the bar. A bottle followed. The drinker filled the glass, poured it -down an arid throat. “Thanks,” he called and started out. - -“Hey—” cried Bill Waters. “You haven’t paid for that drink.” - -“Why, I asked you to give me a drink....” - -“Yeh,” Bill sneered. “Well, brother, you’d better pay.” - -“Horse feathers—” said the fellow and proceeded toward the door. - -Bill Waters picked up a double barrelled shotgun, pointed it at the -departing guest and pulled the trigger. The jester fell, someone called -the undertaker and the porter washed the floor. - -It looked bad for Bill. But lawyers solve such problems. Bill said he -was joking and didn’t know the gun was loaded. The answer satisfied the -court and Bill returned to his glasses. - -For a few years Greenwater prospered. Then it was noticed that the -incoming stages had empty seats. Bartenders had more time to polish -glasses. “The World’s Biggest Copper Deposit” which the world’s greatest -experts had assured the moguls lay under the mountain just wasn’t there. - -Today there is barely a trace of Greenwater. A few bottles gleam in the -sun. The wind sweeps over from Dante’s View or up Dead Man’s Canyon. The -greasewood waves. The rotted leg of a pair of overalls protrudes from -its covering of sand. A sunbaked shoe lies on its side. - -But somewhere under its crust is a case of champagne. Dan Modine, the -freighter, buried it there one dark night over 40 years ago and was -never able to find it. - - - - - Chapter XI - The Amargosa Country - - -In Hellgate Pass I met Slim again, resting on the roadside, his burro -browsing nearby. Slim, I may add here, already had a niche in -Goldfield’s hall of fame. He had walked into a gambling house one day -broke, thirsty, nursing a hangover, and hoping to find a friend who -would buy him a drink. Though it was a holiday and the place crowded, he -saw no familiar face, but while waiting he noticed the cashier was busy -collecting the winnings from the tables. He also noticed that in order -to save the time it required to unlock the door of the cage, the cashier -would dump the gold and silver coins on the shelf at his wicker window, -then for safety’s sake, shove it off to fall on the floor inside. - -Slim watched the procedure awhile and with a sudden bright idea, -sauntered out. A few moments later he returned through an alley with an -auger wrapped in a tow sack, crawled under the house and soon a stream -of gold and silver was cascading into Slim’s hat. - -A lookout at a table nearest the cage, hearing a strange metallic noise, -went outside to investigate and peeking under the floor, saw Slim -without being seen. It was just too good to keep. Stealthily moving -away, he spread the news and half of Goldfield was gathered about when -Slim, his pockets bulging with his loot, crawled out only to face a -jeering, heckling crowd. - -Cornered like a rat in a cage, he couldn’t run; he couldn’t speak. He -could only stand and grin and somehow the grin caught the crowd and -instead of a lynching, Slim was handcuffed and led away and later the -merciful judge who had been in the crowd declared Goldfield out of -bounds for Slim and sent him on his way. - -At no other place in the world except Goldfield, with its craving for -life’s sunny side, could such an incident have occurred. - -After greetings Slim confided that he was en route to a certain canyon, -the location of which he wouldn’t even tell to his mother. There, not a -cent less than $100,000,000 awaited him. No prospector worthy of the -name ever bothers to mention a claim of less value. Not sure of the -roads ahead, I asked him for directions. - -“You’d better go down the valley,” he advised, pointing to a small black -cloud above Funeral Range. “Regular cloudburst hatchery—these -mountains.” - -At a sudden burst of thunder we flinched and at another the earth seemed -to tremble. Forked lightning was stabbing the inky blackness and I -expected to see the mountains fall apart. “Something’s got to give,” -Slim said. “Look at that lightning ... no letup.” Another roar rumbled -and rolled over the valley. “God—” muttered Slim, “I haven’t prayed -since I fell into a mine shaft full of rattlesnakes.” - -As we watched the incessant play of lightning, Slim told me about his -fall into the shaft: “Arkansas Ben Brandt was working about 100 yards -away. Deaf as a lamp post, Ben is, but I kept praying and hollering and -just when I’d given up, here comes a rope. You can argue with me all day -but you can’t make me believe the Lord didn’t unstop old Ben’s ears.” - -Slim gave me a final warning. “Take the road over the mountain when you -come to the Shoshone sign. When you get there be sure to see Charlie -before you go any farther.” - -At every water hole where prospectors were gathered I’d heard someone -tell someone else to see Charlie. At Furnace Creek I’d heard the vice -president of the Borax Company tell an official of the Santa Fe railroad -to see Charlie and only an hour before I met Slim I had stopped to give -a tire patch to a young miner with a flat. While I waited to see that -the patch stuck, I learned he was on his way to consult Charlie. - -“My helper,” he confided, “jumped my claim after he learned I hadn’t -done last year’s assessment work. That’s legal if a fellow’s a skunk but -when he stole my wife and chased me off with my own shotgun, -bigod—that’s different.” I suggested a lawyer. “I’ll see Charlie -first....” - -Naturally I became curious about this Charlie, who seemed to be a -combination of Father Confessor and the Caliph Haroun Alraschid to all -the desert. “Just who is Charlie?” I asked Slim. - -“He runs the store at Shoshone. Tell him I’ll be down soon. I want him -to handle my deal.” He slapped his burro and we parted—he for his -$100,000,000, I to leave the country. Watching the spring in his step a -moment, I got into my car and knew at last the why of those dark -alluring canyons that ran up from the hungry land and hid in the hills. -I knew why there are riches that nothing can take away and why rainbows -swing low in the sky. The good God had made them so that fellows like -Slim could climb one and ride. - -Driving along I found myself trying to appraise the endless waste. Was -it a blunder of creation, hell’s front yard or God’s back stairs? It was -easy to understand the appeal of vast distances, of desert dawns and -desert nights but what was it that made men “go desert”? - -The answer was becoming clearer. Fellows like Slim had found God in a -snake hole, or if you prefer—a way of life patterned with infinite -precision to their needs. It is easy enough to tear into scraps, -another’s formula for happiness and recommend your own but that is an -egotism that only the fool will flaunt and I began to suspect that the -Slims and the Shortys had found a freedom for which millions in the -tired world Outside vainly struggled and slowly died. - - “I wanted the gold, and I got it— - Came out with a fortune last fall— - Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it, - And somehow the gold isn’t all. - - It grips you like some kinds of sinning; - It twists you from foe to a friend; - It seems it’s been since the beginning; - It seems it will be to the end.” - —_Robert W. Service._ - -Rounding a sharp turn in the road that led over and around a hill -jutting out from a mountain of black malpai, I saw a sign: “Shoshone” -and just beyond, a little settlement almost hidden in a thicket of -mesquite. A sign on a weather-beaten ramshackle building read, “Store.” -A few listing shacks on a naked flat. An abandoned tent house, its torn -canvas top whipping the rafters in the wind. Whirlwinds spiraling along -dry washes to vanish in hummocks of sand. - -The presence of three or four prospectors strung along a slab bench -either staring at the ground at their feet or the brown bare mountains, -only emphasized the depressing solitude and I decided if I had to choose -between hell and Shoshone I’d take hell. - -Reaching the store through deep dust, I guessed correctly that the big -fellow giving me an appraising look was Charlie. He was slow in his -movements, slow in his speech and I had the feeling that his keen, calm -eyes had already counted the number of buttons on my shirt and the -eyelets in my shoes. I asked about the road to Baker. - -“Washed out. Won’t be open for two weeks.” - -“Two weeks?” I gasped. “Long enough to kill a fellow, isn’t it?” - -“Well, there’s a little cemetery handy. Just up the gulch.” - -Impulsively I thrust out my hand. “Shake. You win. Now that we -understand each other, have you a cabin for rent for these two weeks?” - -“Yes, but you’d better take it longer,” he chuckled. “In two weeks -you’ll be a native and won’t want to get out.” - -The showing of the cabin was delayed by a lanky individual who was -pawing over a pile of shoes. “Charlie, soles on my shoes are worn -through. These any good?” - -“Not worth a dam’,” Charlie said. He picked up hammer and nails, handed -them to the lanky one. “Some old tires outside. Cut off a piece and tack -it on. I’ll have some good shoes next time you’re in.” - -A miner in an ancient pickup stopped for gas. As Brown filled the tank -he noticed a tire dangerously worn. “Blackie, you need a new casing to -get across Death Valley.” - -“These’ll do,” Blackie answered as he dug into all his pockets, paid for -the gas and got into the car. - -“Wait a minute,” Brown said and in a moment he was rolling a new tire -out, lifting it to the bed of the pickup. He handed Blackie a new tube. -“If you use them, pay me. If you don’t, bring ’em back.” - -Blackie regarded him a moment. “How’d you know I was broke?” he grinned, -and chugged away. - -A man stopped a truck in front of the door, came in and asked how far it -was to Furnace Creek. Charlie looked him over, then glanced at the -truck. “Fifty-eight miles the short way. Nearly 80 the other. You’ll -have to take the long way.” - -“Why?” the fellow bristled. - -“Your load is too high for the underpass on the short route. Road’s -washed out anyway.” - -The man frowned and turned to go. - -“Wait a minute,” Charlie called. He reached for a sack of flour, laid it -on a counter. Then he stood a slab of bacon on its edge and cut off a -chunk. “You’ll stop at Bradbury Well—” - -“I won’t stop nowhere,” the truckman said. - -“You’ll have to. Your radiator will be boiling.” He got a carton, put -the flour and bacon in it and reaching on a shelf behind, got coffee, -sugar, and canned milk and put these in. “Old Dobe Charlie Nels is -camped there. Poor old fellow hasn’t been in for two weeks....” - -The man looked at Charlie, uncertain. “You want me to drop it off, huh?” - -“Yes,” Charlie said and lugging the carton to the truck, he shoved it -in. - -With squinted eyes the driver watched. “Mister, I’ll surely fill up here -on my way back,” and with a friendly wave, climbed into his cab and I -began to understand why all over the desert I’d heard of Charlie. - -The cabin assigned me was the usual box type, shaded by the overhanging -branches of a screwbean mesquite. - -“Cabin’s not much,” Charlie said, “but you’ll have a Beauty Rest -mattress to sleep on. My wife says folks’ll put up with most anything if -they have a good bed.” He looked the room over and I noticed that -nothing escaped him. Wood and kindling. Oil in the lamp. Water in the -pitcher—an ornate vessel with enormous roses edged with gilt. He opened -a closet door, saw that the matching vessel was in place and went out. -After arranging my belongings, with time to kill, I returned to the -store, hoping to learn something about nearby trails. - -A short woman who preceded me slammed a can of coffee on the counter, -removed her long cigarette holder, blew a ring of smoke at the ceiling -and asked Charlie where he got the coffee. He told her that it came in a -shipment. - -“Well bigod, you send it back.” - -Charlie laughed and turned to me: “This is Myra Benson. You want to stay -on the good side of Myra. She has charge of the dining room.” - -My remark that good coffee was my early morning weakness led to an -invitation to sample her brew. “Mine too,” she said. “The pot’s on the -stove before daylight, if you’re up that early.” - -I soon discovered that Myra’s language was just a bit of color Death -Valley imparts to speech, for she was deeply religious if not in all its -forms, in all of its essentials and the occasional use of a two-fisted -phrase did not in the least detract from the eternal feminine of one of -Death Valley’s most remarkable women. - -Guided by the light in her kitchen, I joined her the next morning while -Shoshone still slept, and over a delicious cup learned something about -people and places. - -The man with the wide Stetson was Dan Modine, deputy sheriff. Liked -poker. The quiet, squat fellow with the blue pop eyes was Billy de Von. -“College man. Works on the roads. Taught in the University of Mexico -before he came here. Siberian Red? Oh, that’s Ernie Huhn. No place on -Godamighty’s earth he hasn’t been. As soon bet $1000 as two bits on a -pair of jacks.” - -“The tall thin fellow they called Sam? Must be Sam Flake. Here before -Noah built the ark.” - -Knowing that Mormons had pioneered in the area, I was curious about an -undersized man pushing an oversize baby carriage loaded with infants and -a dozen youngsters trailing him. “Does he happen to be one of the -Faithful who has clung to his wives?” I asked. - -“That’s Eddie Main,” Myra laughed. “Bachelor. Just loves kids. He was -born in San Francisco in the days when a nickel just wasn’t counted -unless it had a dime alongside. His folks sent him to New York to be -educated. Eddie didn’t like it. ‘It’s a nickel town,’ Eddie said. -‘Cheapest hole on earth.’ He came to the desert and the desert took him -over. When he’s not hauling kids around he’s reading. Don’t get out on a -limb in an argument with Eddie. You’ll lose sure. Every now and then -Eddie goes East for a vacation. It’s awful on the mothers. They have to -take care of their own children and the children want Eddie.” - -“Who is Hank, the fellow that came in with the pickup Ford?” I asked. - -“Our bootlegger. Comes Wednesdays and Saturdays. Regular as a bread -route. Always tell when he’s due. Bench is crowded. Didn’t you notice -the tarpaulin over his truck? Always two kegs and a sack of empty pints -and quarts. Rough roads here. Siphons out what you want. Death Valley -Scotty? Around yesterday. Lit up like a barn afire.” The short man with -the black whiskers was Henry Ashford who, with his brothers Harold and -Rudolph owned the Ashford mine. - -“How does such a little store in a place like this make a living for the -Browns?” - -“I wonder myself, at times,” she said. “Everybody around here takes -their troubles to Charlie or Stella. Maybe you noticed their home—the -cottage with the screen porch a few steps from the store. Stella was -telling me yesterday she needed a new carpet for her living room. I -said, ‘I’m not surprised. You’re running a nursery, emergency hospital, -and a domestic relations court.’ Sometimes young couples find their -marriage going on the rocks. The woman goes to Stella to get the kinks -out. As for Charlie, if you’re around long enough you’ll see him most -every morning strolling over to the shacks in the jungle or up to the -dugouts in Dublin Gulch. He thinks nobody knows what he’s doing or maybe -they figure he’s just taking a walk. I know. Some of these old fellows -are always in a bad way. Just last week Charlie came in here and told me -to send something a sick man could eat over to old Jim. ‘I’ll have to -take him to the hospital soon as I can get my car ready,’ he said. Three -hundred miles—that trip. - -“And there’s Phil. You’ll see him around. Fine steady chap. Lost his job -when the mine he worked in shut down. Long as he was working he was the -first in the dining room when I opened the door. He began to miss a -breakfast, then a dinner, and finally he didn’t show up at all. I -supposed he was cooking his own and didn’t mention it. Kept his chin up. -You could hear him laughing loud as anybody on the bench, but Charlie -noticed that once a day Phil would follow his nose over into the -mesquite where somebody was sure to share a mulligan stew. - -“One day when Phil was sitting alone on the woodpile just outside my -kitchen, Charlie sat down beside him. They didn’t know I was there. -‘Phil,’ Charlie says, ‘the ditch that carries the runoff up at the -spring needs widening. Could you spare a few days to put it in shape?’ - -“Phil left that bench running, got a pick and shovel and went singing up -the road and to this day he doesn’t know that Charlie just created that -job so he could eat.” - -I mentioned the fellow with black hair and blue eyes. “He complained of -rheumatism and slapped his knees a lot.” - -“Oh, that’s Dutch Barr. It isn’t rheumatism. Just a sign he’s going on a -drunk.” - -The lanky man with the blond eyebrows and sombre face which lighted so -easily to laugh, was Whitey Bill McGarn. “... Never had a worry in his -life....” - -I learned also that the mountain of malpai which lifts above Shoshone -was a burial place for a race of Indians antedating the Piutes and -Shoshones. “They buried their dead in a crouching position on their -knees, elbows bent, hands at their ears. Old Nancy, who was Sam Yundt’s -squaw wife before he got rich, says they were buried that way so they -would be ready to go quick when the Great Spirit called.” - -The first rose of dawn was in the sky when I left Myra. “You’ll have -time enough to look around before breakfast,” she told me and -recommended a view of the valley from the flat-topped mesa above my -cabin. “You can reach the top by climbing up a gully and holding on to -the greasewood. You can see the dugouts in Dublin Gulch too. Some real -old timers live there.” - -A sweeping view of the little valley rewarded the climb. - -Below, Shoshone lay, tucked away in the mesquite. No honking horns, no -clanging cars. No swollen ankles dragging muted chains to bench or -counter, desk or machine. Soon faint spirals of smoke leaned from the -shanties. Shoshone was awakening. It would wash its face on a slab -bench, eat its bacon and eggs, and somebody would go out to look for two -million dollars. - -After breakfast, I joined the old timers on the bench. “No—nothing -exciting happens around here,” Joe Ryan told me and stopped whittling to -look at a car coming up the road. A moment later the car stopped at the -gas pump and three smartly tailored men stepped out. I heard one say, -“Odd looking lot on that bench, aren’t they?” Then Joe said to the -fellow at his side, “Queer looking birds, ain’t they?” - -“How much is gas?” one of the tourists asked. - -“Thirty cents,” Charlie said. - -“Why, it’s only 18 in the city,” the man flared. “How far is it to the -next gas?” - -Charlie told him, and Big Dan sitting beside me muttered: “Dam’ fool’ll -pay 50 cents up there.” - -The driver climbed into the car and Charlie asked if he had plenty of -water. - -“A gallon can full....” - -“Not enough,” Charlie warned. - -A fellow in the back seat spoke, “Aw, go on. He wants to sell a -canteen....” - -As the car pulled out, Joe called to Charlie: “You’re sold out of -canteens, ain’t you?” - -“Yes. But I was going to give him one of those old five gallon cans on -the dump.” He went inside and Joe Ryan said, “Won’t get far on a gallon -of water.” He waved his knife toward the little cemetery at the mouth of -the gulch. “Lot of smart Alecs like him up there, that Charlie dragged -in offa the desert.” - -It was five days almost to the hour when Ann Cowboy, a Piute squaw came -to the store with an Indian boy who couldn’t speak English; nodded at -the boy and said to Charlie: “Him see....” She pointed to the big black -mountain of malpai above Shoshone, whirled her finger in a circle, shot -it this way and that, then patted the floor. “You savvy?” - -Her dark eyes watched Charlie’s and when she had finished Charlie called -Joe Ryan and together they went across the road, climbed into a pickup -truck and left in a hurry. Even I understood that somebody on the other -side of that mountain was in trouble, but I had no idea that in three or -four hours the pickup would return with a cadaver under a tarpaulin and -a thirst-crazed survivor whose distorted features bore little -resemblance to those of man. - -Big Dan helped lift the victim from the truck. “There were three,” Dan -said. “Where is the other fellow?” - -“We looked all over,” Joe shrugged. - -“The one that’s missing,” Dan said, “is the fellow that griped about the -canteen. I remember his black hair.” - -They carried the still-living man over to Charlie’s house and left him -to the ministrations of the capable Stella. Charlie returned to the -store, got a pick and shovel from a rack, handed one to Ben Brandt and -one to Cranky Casey. Not a word was spoken to them. They took the tools -and started toward the little cemetery at the mouth of Dublin Gulch. - -I joined Dan on the bench. “Well,” Dan said, “they saved the price of a -canteen.” - - -Two spinsters—teachers of zoology in a fashionable eastern school for -girls—came in search of a place they called Metbury Springs. Brown told -them there were no such springs in the Death Valley region. Obviously -disappointed, one produced a map, spread it on the counter, ran her -finger over a maze of notes and looking up asked what sort of rats lived -about Shoshone. Charlie told them that very few rats survived their -natural enemies and were seldom seen. - -“What do they look like?” the teacher asked. - -“Just regular rats,” Charlie told her. - -Again she consulted her notes. “Do you mean to say the only rat you’ve -seen here is _Mus decumanus_?” - -“Mus who?” Charlie asked. “Only rats around here besides the two-legged -kind are just plain everyday rats.” - -The ladies gathered up their papers, went outside, looked over the -hills, consulted their maps, and returned to Brown. “Sir, this is -Metbury Spring,” one announced, “and for your own information we may add -that in no other place in the world is there a rat like the one you have -here.” - -The amazing feature of this incident is that it is true. The rats in -some unexplained way had disappeared. - -The spinsters remained for weeks but failed to find the specimen they -sought, but Charlie learned that the first man known to have settled at -Shoshone was a man named Brown and Shoshone’s first name was Metbury -Spring. - - -Death came to Shoshone that week-end. George Hoagland, prospector, -reached Trail’s End. Charlie announced the news to the bench and asked -for volunteers to dig the grave. Bob Johnson, another prospector, jumped -up. “I’ll help.” - -The others gave Bob a quick look and exchanged slow ones with each -other, because it was known that Bob had not liked Hoagland. “I’ve been -in lots of deals with that bastard,” he had often said. “Came out loser -every time. Always left himself a hole to wiggle out of.” - -Right or wrong, Bob’s opinion was shared by many. Herman Jones glanced -after Bob, now going for a pick and shovel. “That’s sure white of Bob, -forgetting his grudge,” Herman said and all Shoshone approved. - -I joined the little group that filed up to the cemetery at the mouth of -the gulch for the graveside ceremony. We stood about waiting for the box -that contained all there was of George. - -They take death on the desert just as they do any other grim fact of -nature. They talked of George and the hard, chalky earth Bob had to dig -through in the hot sun. There were mild arguments about whose bones lay -under this or that unmarked grave. “Dad Fairbanks brought that fellow -in....” “No such thing. That’s Tillie Younger—member of Jesse James’s -gang. I helped bury him....” - -Presently there was a stir and I saw Charlie over where the women were. -He had another chore and was doing it because there was no one else to -do it. - -“Usually reads a coupla verses,” Joe Ryan told me. “But somebody stole -the only Bible in Shoshone.” - -The box was lowered, the grave filled and Charlie stepped forward. He -held his hat well up in front of his chest and I suspected that he had a -few notes pasted in the hat. Those about were listening intently as -people will to one who has something to say and says it in a few words. - -Suddenly I was conscious of mumbling and the tramping of earth and -seeing Brown flick a glance out of the corner of his eye toward the -disturbing sound, I turned to see Bob Johnson jumping up and down on the -earth that filled the grave—careful to miss no inch of it. When he had -tamped it sufficiently he stepped aside and muttered angrily: “Now dam’ -you—let’s see you wiggle out of this hole!” - -Yet, when the hills are covered with wild flowers one may see on the -unsodded graves of the little cemetery a bottle or a tin can filled with -sun cups or baby blue eyes and in the dust the tracks of a hobnailed -shoe. - -I soon discovered the bench was more than a slab of wood. It was a state -of Hallelujah. For the most part those who gathered there were a silent -lot, but as one unshaven ancient told me, “Too damned much talk in the -world. Two-three words are plenty—like yes, naw, and dam’.” Some of them -had beaten trails from Crede or Cripple Creek, Virginia City or Bodie. -“It’s a clean life and clean money,” was an expression that ran like a -formula through their conversation. - -“Of course, few keep the money they get,” Joe Ryan said. “Jack Morissey -couldn’t read or write. He struck it rich. Bought a diamond-studded -watch and couldn’t even tell the time of day. Went to Europe; hit all -the high spots; came back and died in the poor house. But he had his -fun, which makes more sense than what Nat Crede did. He hit it rich. -Built a town and a palace. Then blew his brains out and left all his -millions to a Los Angeles foundling.” - -One oldster remembered Eilly Orrum of Virginia City. “She had followed -the covered wagons and made a living washing our clothes, but she got -into our hearts. Everybody liked her. Some say she forgot to get a -divorce from her second husband before she married Sandy Bowers. Nobody -blamed her. She and Sandy ran a beanery. Eilly would feed anybody on the -cuff. John Rodgers ran up a board bill and couldn’t pay it. He had a few -shares in a no-count claim and talked Eilly into taking the shares to -settle the bill. - -“Within two weeks Eilly was getting $20,000 a month from that deal. It -wasn’t long before she was giggling happily and telling everybody she -didn’t see how folks could live on less than $100,000 a year.” - -“Julia Bulette? Ran a snooty fancy house. But she taught Virginia City -how to eat and what, and soon the rich fellows wouldn’t stand for -anything except the world’s best foods.” - -“Oh yes, everybody knew Old Virginny. Gave the town its name. Always -drunk. Discovered the Ophir. Swapped it for a mustang pony and a pint of -likker to old Pancake Comstock. When he sobered up he discovered the -pony was blind. Pancake swapped an eighth interest in the Ophir to a -Mexican, Gabriel Maldonado, for two burros. The Mexican took out -$6,000,000. Pancake was quite a lady-killer. Ran away with a miner’s -wife. Fellow was glad to get rid of her, but decided he’d beat hell out -of Pancake. Found him in new diggings nearby and jumped him. ‘You don’t -want her,’ Pancake says. ‘Be reasonable. I’ll buy her.’ - -“They haggled awhile and the fellow agreed to accept $50 and a plug -horse. He took the money and started for the horse. - -“‘Wait a minute,’ Pancake says, ‘I want a bill of sale,’ and wrote it -out on the spot, and made the fellow sign it. Didn’t keep her long -though. She ran away with a tramp fiddler. The Comstock Lode produced -over a billion dollars. He might have had a fifth of that. Just too -smart for his own good. Finally paid the price. Found him on the trail -one day. Brains blowed out. Suicide.” - -Dobe Charlie Nels was at Bodie, rendezvous of the toughest of the bad -men when the United States Hotel rented its rooms in six-hour shifts and -guests were awakened at the end of that period to make places for -others. He recalled Eleanor Dumont, whose deft fingers dealt four kings -to the unwary and four aces to herself. Smitten lovers had shot it out -for her favors on the Mother Lode and on the Comstock, but when life and -love still were fair, fate played a scurvy trick on the beauteous -Eleanor. The shadow of a little down began to show on her lip and -darkened with the years and so she became Madame Moustache. “She just -got tired living and one night she went outside, swallowed a little -pellet and passed the deal to God.” - -But the charmers of Bodie and its bad men and the millions its hills -produced were not so deeply etched on his memory as the job he lost -because he did it well. Hungry and broke when he arrived he took the -first job offered—stacking cord wood. - -“It was a job I really knew. The boss drove stakes 4×8 feet alongside a -mountain of cut wood. I figured I had a long job. He left and I took -pains to make every cord level on top, sides even. When the boss came -back he blew up, kicked over my piles and wanted to know if I was trying -to ruin him. ‘If you’d picked out a few crooked sticks and crossed a few -straight ones, you could have made a cord with half the wood. Get out -and don’t come back.’” Charlie also had a story of a memorable night. - -A bartender in one of Bodie’s better saloons was putting his stock in -order after a busy night when three celebrants in swallow tails and -toppers came unsteadily through the doors. The two on the outside were -gallantly steadying the one in the center as they led him to the bar. -The bartender smiled understandingly when, coming for their orders, he -noticed the center man’s head was pillowed on his arms over the bar, his -topper lying on its side in front of his face. Recalling that the fellow -had consumed often and eagerly but had paid for none in an earlier -session, he nodded at the silent one: “Shall I count him out?” - -“Oh no. Bill’s buying this time.” - -The drinks served, the bartender left to attend another late patron and -moments passed before he returned to find Bill just as he had left him, -but alone—his drink untouched. He tapped Bill’s shoulder and asked -payment for the drinks. When three taps and three demands brought no -answer, he picked up a bung starter; went around the counter, seized -Bill by the shoulder, wheeled him around only to discover that Bill was -dead. Startled and panicky, the bartender now ran to the door, saw -Bill’s friends weaving up the street and ran after them, told them -excitedly that Bill had croaked. - -“Oh,” one said thickly. “Bill’s ticker jammed in our room an hour ago. -His last words were, ‘Fellows, I want you to have a drink on me.’ -Couldn’t refuse old Bill’s last request.” - -When Dobe Charlie had finished this story he turned to a clear-eyed -ancient standing nearby. “Jim, I reckon you’d call me a -Johnny-come-lately since you were a Forty-Niner.” - -“No,” Jim said. “I was 12 when I came to Hangtown. I remember a fellow -they called Wheelbarrow John, because he made a better wheelbarrow than -anyone else. He saved $3000 and went back East. He was John Studebaker. -Made wagons first. Then autos. - -“Young fellow named Phil Armour came. No luck. Pulled out. He did all -right in Chicago though. Founded Armour Company. - -“Did I ever tell you about the Digger Ounce? No? Well, it’s history. The -Digger Indians didn’t know what gold was. Actually they’d been throwing -nuggets at rabbits and couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw miners -exchange the same stuff for food and clothing at the store. The Indians -had been getting it along the stream beds for ages. So they came in with -their buckskin loin bags full of it. The merchant took it all right, but -when he balanced his scales, he used a weight that gave the Digger only -one dollar for every five he was entitled to. Then the Indian had to pay -three prices for everything he bought. One miner loafing around the -store, followed the Diggers one day, learned where they were getting it -and cleaned up $40,000 in no time. That’s history too. - -“Crooked merchants used the same trick on drunken whites and anybody -else who didn’t keep their eyes open. So the Digger Ounce became a -byword all along the Mother Lode.” - -But of all the stories about the Comstock this fine old gentleman told -us, I like best one about Joe Plato. Young, strong, and handsome as -Apollo, Joe craved a fling after months of toil in the gulches with no -sight of woman other than the flat-faced Washoe squaws. - -In San Francisco Joe saw a big red apple and he wanted it. A -breath-taking girl sold him the apple and he wanted her. He acquired the -girl also. His gambols over, Joe handed her five shares of ten he owned -in a Comstock claim. ‘A little token,’ he grinned, never dreaming the -beautiful wanton had a heart and loved him madly. So he forgot her. She -didn’t forget Joe. - -Months later the ten shares were worth on the market $1,000,000. Joe -remembered then. ‘Too much for a girl like that.’ - -To beat the news and retrieve the stock, he braved Sierra storms, found -her. In the battle of wits she played her cards superbly. “Of course,” -she said at last, “... if we were married....” - -So the beaten Joe faced the preacher. - -When Joe Plato died she took her millions to San Francisco, married a -rich merchant, became a social leader and the mother of nabobs. - - -One morning at breakfast Myra informed me that I could get to Bradbury -Well, a famous landmark on the road to Death Valley. To break the -routine, I went. The route leads over Salsbury Pass, named for Jack -Salsbury—a congenital promoter who was forever hunting something to -promote. He had made and lost fortunes in cattle, lumber, and mines and -for a while lived at Shoshone. - -In a ravine near Bradbury Well were two or three dugouts. In one was the -ubiquitous Rocky Mountain George—lean, seamed, and soft voiced. On the -box he used for a table lay a letter mailed in Denver and bearing this -address: “Rocky Mountain George, Nevada.” Known all over the gold belt, -a dozen postmasters had sent it from town to town and now it had caught -up with George. - -Meeting George a few weeks later in Beatty I recalled our meeting. He -hadn’t shaved in a week and his torn overalls were covered with grime. A -well-tailored gentleman came out of the hotel across the street and -stepped into a smart car. “Hey, Jim—” George called. “Come over here a -minute....” The man left his car and walked over. “Jim, I want you to -meet my friend....” Jim and I shook hands. “Jim’s our governor,” George -added and I looked again at Nevada’s Governor James Scrugham, later its -U. S. Senator. For an hour he and George talked of canyons in which, -they decided, somebody would find a billion dollars and I decided -Democracy was safe on the desert. - -Walking up the wash from George’s dugout I was surprised to see a slim -blonde with blue eyes and a nice smile. Obviously she had just left her -stove, for she had a steaming pot of coffee in her hand. I made some -inane remark about the beauty of the morning. - -“It’s nearly always like this,” she said and after a moment I was -sitting on the bench outside the dugout sipping coffee. I learned that -her name was Helen. “Why shouldn’t I try prospecting? I’ve nothing to -lose. I had a job clerking, but I just couldn’t scrimp enough to pay for -medicine and the doctors’ bills.” - -That and the telltale spot on her cheek seemed reason enough for her -presence and, as she explained, “I might make a strike.” - -Later in Beatty, I noticed a small crowd about the office of Judge W. B. -Gray, Beatty’s marrying Justice, who was also interested in mines. -“What’s the riot?” I asked Rocky Mountain George, who was whittling on -the bench beside me. “Helen made a big strike,” he told me and I hurried -over and met her coming out—radiant and excited. - -“I’ve just heard of your strike,” I said. “Where did you make it?” - -“Right in that wash,” she laughed. “He came along one day and—well, we -just got to liking each other and—” She paused to introduce me to a good -looking clean-cut fellow and added: “So we just up and married.” - -The population of Beatty had so changed in one generation that in 1949 -when the town wanted to put on a celebration, not a citizen could be -found who knew Beatty’s first name. Finally a former acquaintance was -located at Long Beach who advised a booster group that the name of its -founder was William Martin Beatty. The gentleman is mistaken. Beatty’s -first name was Montelius and was called Monte by all old timers. - -A feature of social life in Shoshone was the Snake House—an unbelievable -structure made of shook from apple crates, scraps of corrugated iron -found in the dump, tin cut from oil cans, and cardboard from packing -cartons, which because of scant rainfall, served almost as well as wood -or iron. - -A fellow comes in from the hills, craves relaxation and finds it in the -Snake House. Though he never plays poker, Eddie Main who lived a few -yards away was induced to function as a sort of Managing Director, to -see that the game remained a gentleman’s game. - -Inside, swinging from the roof is a Coleman lantern and under it a big -round table covered with a blanket stretched tight and tacked under the -edges. A rack of chips. Chairs for players and kegs and beer crates for -spectators. A stove in the corner furnishes heat when needed. If you -limit your poker to penny ante, the game is not for you. I have seen -more than $1000 in the pots and large bets are the rule. - -One night Sam Flake who has been in Death Valley country longer than any -living man, joined the game. Sam, a student of poker, ran afoul of four -queens and went home broke. The next day as he worked in a mine tunnel, -Sam was holding a post mortem over his disaster. He went over his play -point by point. Like many a desert man used to solitude, Sam -occasionally talked to himself aloud, And unaware that Whitey Bill -McGarn was in a stope just above him, Sam diagnosed his loss: “I opened -right. I anted right. I bet right. I called right. Can’t be but one -answer. I was sitting in the wrong seat.” (Sam Flake died suddenly at -Tecopa Hot Springs in 1949.) - -The village of Tecopa is 11 miles south of Shoshone. When the railroad -was built stations were given names of local significance and this -honors the Indian chief, Cap Tecopa. - -Important discoveries of gold, silver, lead, and talc were made and are -still being worked. In the early days murders of both whites and -Indians, without any clues were of frequent occurrence. Someone recalled -that every killing of an Indian by a white man had been followed by a -white man’s murder. - -The Piute believed in blood atonement and when a young American was -found butchered in the Ibex hills, friends of the deceased went to Cap -Tecopa with evidence which indicated the murder was committed by Cap’s -tribesmen. “We want these killings stopped,” they told him heatedly. - -Cap denied any knowledge of the crime and brushed aside the suggestion -that he produce the assassin. “Too many Indians,” Cap said. “But if you -help, I can stop the killings.” - -“How?” they demanded. - -“You tell hiko no kill Indian. I tell Indian no kill hiko.” - -Cap Tecopa was a good prospector and owned a coveted claim which he -refused to sell. - -Among the fortune seekers was a flashily dressed individual who wore a -tall silk topper. The beegum fascinated Cap and he wanted it. He -followed the wearer about, his eyes never leaving the shiny headgear. At -last the urge to possess was irresistible and he approached the owner. A -lean finger gingerly touched the sacred brim. “How much?” - -All he got was a shake of the head. Failure only stimulated Tecopa’s -desire. His money refused, Cap in his desperation thought of the claim -which the cunning of the promoters, the wiles of gamblers, the pleas of -friends had failed to get. - -The owner of the hat annoyed by Tecopa, decided to get rid of him. “You -take hat. I take claim.” - -The Indian reached for the topper. “Take um,” he grunted and the deal -was made. Several other versions of this story are recalled by old -timers. - -The Tecopa Hot Springs were highly esteemed by the desert Indian, who -always advertised the waters he believed to have medicinal value. In the -Coso Range he used the walls of a canyon approaching the springs for his -message. The crude drawing of a man was pictured, shoulders bent, -leaning heavily on a stick. Another showed the same man leaving the -springs but now walking erect, his stick abandoned. - -The Tecopa Springs are about one and a half miles north of Tecopa and -furnish an astounding example of rumor’s far-reaching power. Originally -there was only one spring and when I first saw it, it was a round pool -about eight feet in diameter, three feet deep and so hidden by tules -that one might pass within a few feet of it unaware of its existence. -The singularly clear water seeped from a barren hill. About, is a -blinding white crust of boron and alkali. There Ann Cowboy used to lead -Mary Shoofly, to stay the blindness that threatened Mary Shoofly’s -failing eyes. When the whites discovered the spring, the Indians -abandoned it. - -Later it became a community bath tub and laundry. Prospectors would -“hoof” it for miles to do their washing because the water was hot—112 -degrees, and the borax content assured easy cleansing. Husbands and -wives began to go for baths and someone hauled in a few pieces of -corrugated iron and made blinds behind which they bathed in the nude. A -garment was hung on the blind as a sign of occupation and it is a -tribute to the chivalry of desert men that they always stopped a few -hundred feet away to look for that garment, and advanced only when it -was removed. - -Today you will see two new structures at the spring and long lines of -bathers living in trailers parked nearby. They are victims of arthritis, -rheumatism, swollen feet, or something that had baffled physicians, -patent medicines, and quacks. They come from every part of the country. -Somebody has told them that somebody else had been cured at a little -spring on the desert between Shoshone and Tecopa. - -Some live under blankets, cook in a tin can over bits of wood hoarded -like gold, for the vicinity is bare of growth. It is government land and -space is free. Some camp on the bare ground without tent, the soft silt -their only bed. “Something ails my blood. Shoulder gets to aching. Neck -stiff. Come here and boil out” ... “Like magic—this water. I’ve been to -every medicinal bath in Europe and America. This beats ’em all.” - -You finally turn away, dazed with stories of elephantine legs, restored -to perfect size and symmetry. Of muscles dead for a decade, moving with -the precision of a motor. Of joints rigid as a steel rail suddenly -pliable as the ankles of a tap dancer. - -Here they sit in the sun—patient, hopeful; their crutches leaning -against their trailer steps. They have the blessed privilege of -discussing their ailments with each other. “Oh, your misery was nothing. -Doctors said I would never reach here alive....” - -An analysis shows traces of radium. - -A few miles below Tecopa is another landmark of the country known as the -China Ranch. To old timers it was known as The Chinaman’s Ranch. One -Quon Sing, who had been a cook at Old Harmony Borax Works quit that job -to serve a Mr. Osborn, wealthy mining man with interests near Tecopa. -His service with Osborn covered a period of many years. - -“I can’t state it as a fact,” Shorty Harris once told me, “but I have -been told by old settlers that Osborn located him on the ranch as a -reward for long and faithful service.” - -The land was in the raw stage, with nothing to appeal to a white man -except water. It was reached through a twisting canyon which filled at -times with the raging torrents dropped by cloudbursts. Erosion has left -spectacular scenery. In places mud walls lift straight up hundreds of -feet. Nobody but a Chinaman or a bandit hiding from the law would have -wanted it. - -There was a spring which the Chinaman developed and soon a little stream -flowed all year. The industrious Chinaman converted it into a profitable -ranch. He planted figs and dates and knowing, as only a Chinaman does, -the value and uses of water the place was soon transformed into a garden -with shade trees spreading over a green meadow—a cooling, restful little -haven hidden away in the heart of the hills. He had cows and raised -chickens and hogs. He planted grapes, dates, and vegetables and soon was -selling his produce to the settlers scattered about the desert. From a -wayfaring guest he would accept no money for food or lodging. - -After the Chinaman had brought the ranch to a high state of production a -white man came along and since there was no law in the country, he made -one of his own—his model the ancient one that “He shall take who has the -might and he shall keep who can.” He chased the Chinaman off with a shot -gun and sat down to enjoy himself, secure in the knowledge that nobody -cared enough for a Chinaman to do anything about it. - -The Chinaman was never again heard of. - -The ranch since has had many owners. Though the roads are rough and the -grades difficult, on the broad verandas that encircle the old ranch -house, one feels he has found a bit of paradise “away from it all.” - -Sitting on the porch once with Big Bill Greer, who owned a life interest -in it until his demise recently, we talked of the various yarns told of -the Chinaman. - -“The best thing he did was that planting over there by the stream.” He -lifted his huge form from the chair. “Just wait a minute. I’ll get you a -specimen.” - -While he was gone I strolled around to see other miracles wrought by the -heathen chased from his home by a Christian’s gun. When I returned Bill -was waiting with two tall glasses, diffusing a tantalizing aroma of -bourbon. Floating on the liquor were bunches of crisp, cooling mint. He -gave me one, lifted the other. “Here’s to Quon Sing. God rest his soul,” -Bill said. - -As we slowly sipped I asked him if he had brought the specimen. - -“It’s the mint,” Bill said. - - - - - Chapter XII - A Hovel That Ought To Be a Shrine - - -An Indian rode up to the bench, leaped from his cayuse and tried to tell -Joe Ryan something about a “hiko.” Joe matched his pantomime and broken -English, finally jerking a thumb over his shoulder and the Indian went -into the store. - -“That’s Indian Johnnie,” Joe said: “Hundred and fifty miles to his -place, other side of the Panamint. Awful country to get at. Shorty -Harris is in a bad way at Ballarat.” - -A few moments later Charlie drove his pickup to the pump, filled the gas -tank and before we realized it, was swallowed in a cloud of dust. “He’s -in for a helluva trip,” Joe said. - -Before the day was over, snow covered the high peaks and a biting wind -drove us from the bench. “Let’s go over to the Mesquite Club,” Joe said. - -We hurried across the road to the sprawling old building hidden in a -thicket and listing in every direction of the compass, but over the -roof, like friendly arms crooked the branches of big mesquite trees. -Among mining men that ramshackle was known around the world. - -Inside was a big pot-bellied stove. Beside it, a huge woodbox. Chairs -held together with baling wire. Two or three old auto seats hauled in -from cars abandoned on the desert. An ancient, moth-eaten sofa on which -the wayfarer out of luck was privileged to sleep. Three or four tables, -each with a dog-eared deck of cards where old timers played solitaire or -a spot of poker. There were books and magazines—high and low-brow, left -by the tourists. But there was a friendliness about the shabby room that -had nothing to gain from mahogany or chandeliers of gold. - -Wind kept us indoors for two days. On the third we were on the bench -again when someone said, “Here comes Charlie....” - -A moment later Joe and Big Dan were helping Charlie take Shorty Harris, -dean of Death Valley prospectors, more dead than alive, into a cabin and -lay him on the bed. “You must have had an awful time,” Joe said to -Charlie. - -“Not too bad ... made it,” Charlie answered as he started a fire in the -stove. He brought in water and wood and turned to Joe. “Wish you’d fill -up that gas tank and see about the oil....” - -Joe looked at him, puzzled. - -“Got to take him to the hospital,” Charlie said. - -We knew that meant another trip of 140 miles. - -“Damned if you do,” Joe said. “I’ll get somebody to go.” - -I supposed after the all night trip under such conditions Brown would go -to bed but an hour later when I went to the store for some small -purchase a woman climbed out of a pickup truck and with three small -children, came in. She lived on her ranch 60 miles away and had come to -buy her month’s supply of provisions—a full load for the truck. When she -paid her bill she nodded toward her brood: “Charlie, those kids look -like brush Indians with all that hair....” - -Charlie got scissors and comb and went to work. Before he had swept out -the shorn locks Ben Brandt came in, holding his jaw. - -“Feels like a stamp mill,” he groaned. “Haven’t slept in a week. Be dead -by the time I get to Barstow.” It was 125 miles to Barstow and Ben was -waiting for a ride with someone going that way. - -Charlie went behind the counter, returned with forceps, opening and -closing the jaws of the instrument two or three times as if in practice -and then he turned to the sufferer: “You understand it’s against the law -for me to use these things. In a pinch—” - -“To hell with the law,” Ben snapped. “Yank it out!” - -Charlie took a chair to the back porch. Ben sat down and with a -vice-like arm about Ben’s head, the forceps went in and the tooth came -out. - -I went outside and sat on the bench with a better understanding of -Shoshone and people and values which come only from friendships closely -knitted and help unselfishly given. - -Why does a man like the desert? As good an answer as any is another -question: Why does he like chicken? Students of human behavior, poets, -writers, gushing debutantes and greying dowagers, humorless scientists, -and bored urbanites have labored mightily to explain it. - -“Something just gets into the blood,” one says, frankly groping for an -answer. Immensities of space. Solitudes that whittle the ego down to -size. Detachment from routine cares. A feel of nearness to whatever it -is that is God. Stars to finger. The muted symphonies of farflung sky -and earth. - -Whatever it is, I was now aware that as between hell and Shoshone, I -would give the nod to Shoshone. I was getting used to Shoshone and -desolation when a few days later Charlie came out of the store and sat -beside me on the bench. “Road’s open,” he said. “I reckon you’re in a -hurry to get away.” - -I didn’t answer at once but conscious of his searching look, finally -stammered that Dan Modine wanted me to go with him to Happy Jack’s -party. “I can spare another day....” Charlie lit a cigarette, took a -puff or two. “You’ve gone desert,” he chuckled and went back into the -store. - -For a week I’d been hearing of Happy Jack’s party and when Dan told me -that everyone within 100 miles would be on hand, I was glad to go. Dan -gave me Jack’s background on the 35 mile trip across dry washes, deep -sands, and hairpin turns on pitching hills. - -Born on the desert, Jack was the son of a Forty Niner and a Piute squaw. -He had grown up as an Indian and had married Mary, a full blood Piute. -Jack’s brother Lem married Anna, another squaw. - -“Lem had worked at odd jobs and in the mines,” Dan said. “Now and then -he and Anna would do a little prospecting. Anna found a claim that -showed a little color. Lem worked alongside his squaw a couple weeks, -but it was a back breaking job and Lem quit it. But Anna kept digging -and one day she came up to their shack with a piece of ore that was -almost pure gold. Anna’s find made them rich. - -“I reckon money does things to people. Anyway, it didn’t take Lem long -to get rid of Anna. He gave her enough so that she could take it easy. -Then he pushed off to the city to live high, wide, and handsome. I see -Anna now and then. She’s not jolly like she used to be. Lem has always -wanted Jack to get rid of Mary and come to the city. In fact, Jack told -me once that Lem offered to give him half of his money if he would do -that. But Jack said, to hell with the city. He’s the happy go lucky -sort. Big, good looking, and lazy. His old dobe under the cottonwood -tree and the water running by with plenty of outdoors—that suits Jack.” - -We found, as Dan had predicted, that everybody in the country had come -to Jack’s party. A long U shaped table was placed outside under the -shade of a tree. From nearby pits came a tantalizing aroma of barbecue. -A keg of bourbon encircled with glasses stood beside a bucket of -dripping mint. Cigars and cigarettes were on top of the keg and Jack saw -that his guests were always supplied. - -There was an orchestra with capable musicians, Jack occasionally pinch -hitting for the bull fiddler when the latter took time out for a drink -or a dance. But when the snare drum player wanted his bourbon, Jack was -like a kid pulling doodads from a Christmas tree. “It will last a week,” -Dan said. “A few may pull out after a day or two, but others will take -their places.” - -“This must have cost Jack a year’s labor,” I said. “I told him that -once,” Dan laughed. “He asked me what else would a fellow work a year -for.” - -Jack’s views of life and things were Mary’s, except that Mary knew lean -years come and if any provisions were to be made for them she would have -to make them. She tended the goats and the sheep, cut the deer and the -mountain sheep into strips and hung them high, where the flies wouldn’t -get them, to cure in the breeze. If Jack wanted to throw a party, so did -Mary. “... Big party ... kill fat steer. Five sheep. Heap good time....” -To Jack’s everlasting credit, be it said that whatever Mary did, suited -Jack. - -“Oh, him fine man,” Mary would say. “Like home. Play with children. No -get mad....” - -There may be somewhere in this world a morsel approaching Mary’s -barbecued mountain sheep, but I’ve never tasted it. - -Jack told me later that the best meat is that from an old ram with no -teeth. “He hasn’t eaten all winter, because his teeth won’t let him cut -the hard, woody sage and being starved when spring comes, he gorges on -the new sacatone. He fattens quickly and his flesh is tender.” - -While Dan and I were walking about, a long limousine came across the -valley and parked behind a screen of mesquite well away from the house -and the guests. Dan and I happened to be nearby as a big, dark man -expensively tailored stepped out. A lady fashionably dressed remained in -the car. - -“That’s Lem,” Dan explained. “When he was a kid he ran around in a gee -string. I reckon his wife doesn’t want to meet the in-laws.” - -We came upon him a moment later and while he and Dan talked of old times -Jack rushed down and embraced Lem. “Come up,” he urged, but Lem’s -interest was lukewarm. Mary was busy and he would see her later. No, he -didn’t wish a drink. He had cigars. Just stopped in to see how Jack was -and if he’d changed his mind. - -Dan and I moved away and sat under a shed along the runoff of the spring -and had no choice about listening to a conversation not intended for our -ears. - -Jack was squatted on his heels and his brother was sitting on a boulder. -Lem was talking, his voice brittle: “Of course, we married squaws ... -but we are more white than Indian. I’ll give you all the money you need. -Let Mary go back to her people. She’ll be happy. Look at Anna ... she’s -contented and better off with her own people and it will be the same -with Mary.” - -Lem lifted his hand, a big diamond ring flashing on his finger as he -pointed to the squalid cabin where Jack’s fat squaw, her face beaming, -was serving the guests. “Look at that hovel. Just a pig sty. If you -prefer that to $10,000 a year, it’s your business. I’ve come out for the -last time....” - -Jack, bareheaded, rose, his hair rumpled in the wind as he glanced at -the things about—the sagging roof, the shade tree beside it and -following his glance I saw Mary smile at him and wave. Then he turned to -Lem: “A pig sty, huh? Ten thousand a year. Mansion in the city.” His -eyes traveled over Lem’s smart tailored suit, the diamond, the malacca -cane pecking the gravel at his feet. I could see Jack’s fingers digging -at his palms, the muscles rippling along his wrists and I sensed that he -was seething inside. - -“Pig sty.... One year I recollect, no crop. No meat. No game. Nothing. I -was down with fever. She was down too, but she got up and walked and -crawled from here to Indian Springs. Through the brush. Over the -mountain to get grub from her people. Why, sometimes I’d feel like going -off by myself and bawling....” Jack turned again to his brother, flint -in his dark eyes. “I ought to brain you. To hell with your money. She -stuck with me and bigod, I’ll stick with her.” - -Then Jack calmly strode back to his party, and somehow it seemed to me -the hovel had suddenly become a holy shrine. - - - - - Chapter XIII - Sex in Death Valley Country - - -Sex, of course, went with the white man to the desert, but because there -were no Freuds, no Kinseys stirring the social sewage, it was considered -merely as a biologic urge and thus its impact on the lives of the early -settlers was a realistic one. It was not good for man to live alone. The -husky young adventurer found a water hole and a cottonwood tree and -built a cabin. But he found it wasn’t a home. The lonely immensity of -space he knew, was no place for a white woman and none were there. He -faced the fundamental problem squarely and looked about for a squaw. - -He paid Hungry Bill or some other Indian head man $10 for the mate of -his choice and that sanctified the relation. She brought a certain -degree of orderliness to the cabin, washed his clothes, cooked his -meals. A child was born and the cabin became a home. The squaw could -sharpen a stick, walk out into the brush and return with herbs and roots -and serve a palatable dinner. She worked his fields, groomed his horses -and relieved him of responsibility for the children. The progeny -followed the rules of breeding. Some good. Some bad. - -Said old Jim Baker, who married a Shoshone, pleading for a “squar” deal -for his son: “There’s only one creature worse than a genuine Indian and -that’s a half breed. He has got two devils in him and is meaner than the -meanest Indian I ever saw. That boy of mine is a half-breed and he ain’t -accountable.” - -Almost all of the first settlers were squaw men and the matings were -tolerated because they were understood. It was often a long journey to -obtain the sanction of a Chief and the squaw was taken without -formality. Many of these matings lasted and the offspring were absorbed -without social embarrassment in the life of the community. Dr. Kinsey -would have had little joy in his search for perversion or infidelities, -though there is the instance of a drunken squaw who aroused the owner of -a saloon at midnight on the Ash Meadows desert and shouted: “I want a -man....” - -Once Shoshone faced the desperate need of a school. There were only -three children of school age in the little settlement and the nearest -school was 28 miles away. Parents complained, but authorities at the -county seat nearly 200 miles away, pointed out that the law required 13 -children or an average attendance of five and a half to form a school -district. - -Like other community problems it was taken to Charlie, though none -believed that even Charlie could solve it. - -The time for the opening of schools was but a few weeks away when one -day Brown headed his car out into the desert. “Hunting trip,” he -explained. - -In a hovel he found Rosie, a Piute squaw with a brood of children. “How -old?” Charlie asked. - -“Him five ... him six now,” she said. “Him seven. Him eight.” - -“How’d you like to live at Shoshone? Plenty work. Good house.” - -“Okay. Me come,” Rosie said. - -With the half breeds, the school was able to open. - -Rosie was a challenging problem. She would have taken no beauty prize -among the Piutes, but when along her desert trails she acquired these -children of assorted parentage, Fate dealt her an ace. - -With the few dollars Rosie wangled from the several fathers for the -support of their children, she lived unworried. She liked to get drunk -and the only nettling problem in her life was the federal law against -selling liquor to Indians. So she established her own medium of -exchange—a bottle of liquor. Unfortunately she spread a social disease -and that was something to worry about. - -“Rosie has Shoshone over a barrel,” Joe Ryan said. “If we run her out, -we won’t have enough children for school.” - -Then there was the economic angle—the loss of wages by afflicted miners -and mines crippled by the absence of the unafflicted who would take time -off to go to Las Vegas for the commodity supplied by Rosie. - -Charlie arranged for Ann Cowboy to look after Rosie’s children and -called up W. H. Brown, deputy sheriff at Death Valley Junction and told -him to come for Rosie. Brownie, as he is known all over the desert, came -and took Rosie into custody. “What’ll I charge her with?” - -“She has a venereal disease,” Charlie said. - -“There’s no law I know of against that....” - -“All right. Charge her with pollution. She got drunk and fell into the -spring.” Then Charlie called up the Judge and suggested Rosie have a -year’s vacation in the county jail. - -The paths that radiated from Rosie’s shack in the brush like spokes from -the hub of a wheel, were soon overgrown with salt grass. She served her -sentence and returned to Shoshone and the paths were soon beaten smooth -again. - -Eventually Brown declared Shoshone out of bounds for Rosie and she moved -over into Nevada. There she found a lover of her tribe and one night -when both were drunk, Rosie decided she’d had enough of him and with a -big, sharp knife she calmly disemboweled him—for which unladylike -incident she was removed to a Nevada prison where the state cured her -syphilis and turned her loose—if not morally reformed, at least -physically fit. - -One of Rosie’s patrons was a man thought to be in his middle fifties. -Always carefully groomed, his white shirts, spotless ties, and tailored -suits were conspicuous in a place where levis were the rule. He was also -a total abstainer. When he died suddenly and it was learned he was 82 -years old, Shoshone gasped. An item in his will read: “To Rosie, $50 to -buy whiskey.” - -Living in a wickiup in the mesquite was the Indian, Tom Weed, who shared -with his squaw a passion for liquor. Sober, Tom was industrious in the -Indian way. He knew the country, when and where the mountain sheep were -fattest; the herbs that cured and the best grasses for the beautiful -baskets woven by his wife. - -Tom filed on a deposit of non-metallic ore near Shoshone and forgot it. -A subsequent locater found a buyer. Considerable capital was to be -invested and the purchaser decided that Tom, if so disposed, could at -least challenge the title. In order to dispose of Tom he sent the -document to Dad Fairbanks together with a check payable to Tom for $1000 -and asked Dad to get a quit claim deed from Tom. - -Since $1000 was more than Tom ever expected to see in his life he was -eager to sign. “You cash check?” he asked Dad. - -“Sure,” Dad told him. - -As Dad was getting the money he said, “Tom, long winter ahead. Hard to -get work. Don’t you think you’d better leave money with me? Might come -in handy.” Dad saw that Tom was impressed and added: “You told me -yesterday you were going over to Las Vegas. That’s another good reason. -Think it over.” - -“Okay. Me think.” Tom stood for a long moment staring at the floor, -studying every angle of the problem. Finally he thrust his palm at Dad -and said gravely: “Might die....” - -Dad gave him the money and Tom went to Las Vegas. In an hour he was -drunk. In three he was broke and in jail. - -One night he and his squaw got blissfully drunk. They were sleeping in a -shed full of combustible junk when it caught fire. Other Indians -attracted by their screams rushed to the scene but both were dead. From -Tom’s wickiup, a few feet from the shed, they took Tom’s guns and -saddles, his squaw’s priceless baskets—all the belongings of both—and -tossed them into the flames. Thus the evil spirits were kept away and -the souls of Tom and his squaw passed happily to the Piute heaven which -is a place where there is a big lake and forests filled with game and -the squaws are strong and plentiful. - - -The Johnnie Mine, an important gold producer, east of Shoshone, was -located by John Tecopa, son of Cap Tecopa, Pahrump Chief. - -Tecopa found the float; gave Ed Metcalf an interest to help him locate -the ledge. Bob and Monte Montgomery bought the claim. They interested -Jerry Langford, who induced the Mormon Church to get behind the project. - -The Potosi was an early discovery on Timber Mountain between the Johnnie -Mine and Good Springs. (It was here that Carole Lombard, wife of Clark -Gable, was killed in an airplane accident in 1941.) From this mine came -the lead which made the bullets used in the Mountain Meadows massacre. -Jeff Grundy, a prospector of early days, said his father molded the -bullets and delivered them to John D. Lee, who after 20 years was -executed for the murder of the 123 victims of the massacre. - -Lee was the owner of Lee’s Ferry, which was the only place where the -Colorado River could be crossed in the Grand Canyon area until the -present suspension bridge 500 feet high was built. - -Near Johnnie are Ash Meadows and the beautiful Pahrump Valley, -overlooked by the Charleston Mountains—the summer sleeping porch of Las -Vegas, 35 miles south. - -At Ash Meadows lived Jack Longstreet, who wore his hair long enough to -cover his ears. He claimed kinship with the distinguished South Carolina -family of that name. Easier to prove is that Mr. Longstreet came from -Texas and as a 14 year old youngster was caught with a band of horse -thieves in Colorado. The older ones were hanged but because of his youth -Longstreet was released after his ears were cropped to brand him for -identification by others. He lived and drank lustily for 96 years and -died with a competency. - -Near Johnnie also lived Mary Scott, who discovered the Confidence Mine, -a landmark in Death Valley. Mary was a squaw who, after consorting with -several white men, chose for her mate a half-breed named Bob Scott. On a -hunting and trapping trip Mary picked up some ore which Scott decided -was silver. Since silver could not be profitably handled because of -transportation costs, Scott filed no notice. - -Years after Scott’s death, Mary showed samples of the ore to her cousin, -an Indian named Bob Black and Bob showed it to Frank Cole, a millwright -at the Johnnie Mine. Cole and Jimmy Ashdown grubstaked Mary and Bob, who -returned to Death Valley and located the property. Samples showed rich -gold. - -For a wagon with a canopy and a spavined horse Cole and Ashdown secured -the interest of Mary and Bob. Cole and Ashdown then sold to the -Montgomery brothers, who through Bishop Cannon secured backing for the -venture from the Mormon Church. - -Dan Driscoll built the road to the mine. Shorty Harris, Bob Warnack, and -Rube Graham dug the well and mine shaft. It produced rich ore to a depth -of 65 feet, where the vein was broken up. - - - - - Chapter XIV - Shoshone Country. Resting Springs - - -The country about Shoshone is identified with the earliest migration of -Americans to California. - -It is a curious fact that prior to the coming of Jedediah Smith who, in -1826 was actually the first American to enter the state from the east, -the contented Spanish believed that the Sierras were insurmountable -barriers to invasion by the hated American or any attacking enemy. - -After Smith the first white American to look upon the Shoshone region so -far as known, was William Wolfskill, a Kentucky trapper who left Santa -Fe in 1830-31 on a trading expedition with stores of cloth, garments, -and gimcracks. - -Having had poor luck in disposing of his cargo, when he reached the -Virgin River he decided to push westward across the Mojave Desert and -entered California by way of Cajon Pass. After resting at San Gabriel he -went north into the San Joaquin Valley. There he disposed of his stock -at fabulous prices, taking in trade mules, horses, silks, and other -items which he took to Taos and Santa Fe, receiving for this merchandise -equally huge profits. - -Wolfskill later settled in Los Angeles, one of the earliest Americans in -the pueblo where he acquired large land holdings. There he established -the citrus industry, planting a grove in what is now the heart of Los -Angeles. - -In 1832 Joseph B. Chiles organized a party at Independence, Missouri, -and started for California. It numbered 50 men, women, and children. -Upon reaching Fort Laramie, Wyoming (which was officially Fort John, but -for some reason was never so called) Chiles met Joseph Reddeford Walker -and employed him as guide. - -Eighteen years before the Bennett-Arcane party came to grief, Walker had -discovered Walker River and Walker Lake in Nevada, afterward named for -him. After reaching the Sierras, his jaded teams were unable to cross -and had to be abandoned, the party narrowly escaping death. Having heard -of the southerly course over the old Spanish Trail, he turned back and -over it guided the Chiles party. - -Early in 1843, John C. Fremont led a party of 39 men from Salt Lake City -northward to Fort Vancouver and in November of that year, started on the -return trip to the East. This trip was interrupted when he found his -party threatened by cold and starvation and he faced about; crossed the -Sierra Nevadas and went to Sutter’s Fort. After resting and outfitting, -he set out for the East by the southerly route over the old Spanish -trail, which leads through the Shoshone region. - -At a spring somewhere north of the Mojave River he made camp. The water -nauseated some of his men and he moved to another. Identification of -these springs has been a matter of dispute and though historians have -honestly tried to identify them, the fact remains that none can say “I -was there.” - -In the vicinity were several springs any of which may have been the one -referred to by Fremont in his account of the journey. Among these were -two water holes indicated on early maps as Agua de Tio Mesa, and another -as Agua de Tomaso. - -There are several springs of nauseating water in the area and some of -the old timers academically inclined, insisted that Fremont probably -camped at Saratoga Springs, which afforded a sight of Telescope Peak or -at Salt Spring, nine miles east on the present Baker-Shoshone Highway at -Rocky Point. - -Kit Carson was Fremont’s guide. Fremont records that two Mexicans rode -into his camp on April 27, 1844, and asked him to recover some horses -which they declared had been stolen from them by Indians at the -Archilette Spring, 13 miles east of Shoshone. - -One of the Mexicans was Andreas Fuentes, the other a boy of 11 -years—Pablo Hernandez. While the Indians were making the raid, the boy -and Fuentes had managed to get away with 30 of the horses and these they -had left for safety at a water hole known to them as Agua de Tomaso. -They reported that they had left Pablo’s father and mother and a man -named Santiago Giacome and his wife at Archilette Spring. - -With Fremont, besides Kit Carson, was another famed scout, Alexander -Godey, a St. Louis Frenchman—a gay, good looking dare devil who later -married Maria Antonia Coronel, daughter of a rich Spanish don and became -prominent in California. - -In answer to the Mexicans’ plea for help, Fremont turned to his men and -asked if any of them wished to aid the victims of the Piute raid. He -told them he would furnish horses for such a purpose if anyone cared to -volunteer. Of the incident Kit Carson, who learned to write after he was -grown, says in his dictated autobiography: “Godey and myself volunteered -with the expectation that some men of our party would join us. They did -not. We two and the Mexicans ... commenced the pursuit.” - -Fuentes’ horse gave out and he returned to Fremont’s camp that night, -but Godey, Carson, and the boy went on. They had good moonlight at first -but upon entering a deep and narrow canyon, utter blackness came, even -shutting out starlight, and Carson says they had to “feel for the -trail.” - -One may with reason surmise that Godey and Carson proceeded through the -gorge that leads to the China Ranch and now known as Rainbow Canyon. -When they could go no farther they slept an hour, resumed the hunt and -shortly after sunrise, saw the Indians feasting on the carcass of one of -the stolen horses. They had slain five others and these were being -boiled. Carson’s and Godey’s horses were too tired to go farther and -were hitched out of sight among the rocks. The hunters took the trail -afoot and made their way into the herd of stolen horses. - -Says Carson: “A young one got frightened. That frightened the rest. The -Indians noticed the commotion ... sprang to their arms. We now -considered it time to charge on the Indians. They were about 30 in -number. We charged. I fired, killing one. Godey fired, missed but -reloaded and fired, killing another. There were only three shots fired -and two were killed. The remainder ran. I ... ascended a hill to keep -guard while Godey scalped the dead Indians. He scalped the one he shot -and was proceeding toward the one I shot. He was not yet dead and was -behind some rocks. As Godey approached he raised, let fly an arrow. It -passed through Godey’s shirt collar. He again fell and Godey finished -him.” - -Subsequently it was discovered that Godey hadn’t missed, but that both -men had fired at the same Indian as proven by two bullets found in one -of the dead Indians. Godey called these Indians “Diggars.” The one with -the two bullets was the one who sent the arrow through Godey’s collar -and when Godey was scalping him, “he sprang to his feet, the blood -streaming from his skinned head and uttered a hideous yowl.” Godey -promptly put him out of his pain. - -They returned to camp. Writes Fremont: “A war whoop was heard such as -Indians make when returning from a victorious enterprise and soon Carson -and Godey appeared, driving before them a band of horses recognized by -Fuentes to be part of those they had lost. Two bloody scalps dangling -from the end of Godey’s gun....” - -Fremont wrote of it later: “The place, object and numbers considered, -this expedition of Carson and Godey may be considered among the boldest -and most disinterested which the annals of Western adventure so full of -daring deeds can present.” It was indeed a gallant response to the plea -of unfortunates whom they’d never seen before and would never see again. - -When Fremont and his party reached the camp of the Mexicans they found -the horribly butchered bodies of Hernandez, Pablo’s father, and Giacome. -The naked bodies of the wives were found somewhat removed and shackled -to stakes. - -Fremont changed the name of the spring from Archilette to Agua de -Hernandez and as such it was known for several years. He took the -Mexican boy, Pablo Hernandez, with him to Missouri where he was placed -with the family of Fremont’s father-in-law, U. S. Senator Thomas H. -Benton. The young Mexican didn’t care for civilization and the American -way of life and in the spring of 1847 begged to be returned to Mexico. -Senator Benton secured transportation for him on the schooner Flirt, by -order of the Navy, and he was landed at Vera Cruz—a record of which is -preserved in the archives of the 30th Congress, 1848. - -Three years later a rumor was circulated that the famed bandit, Joaquin -Murietta was no other than Pablo Hernandez. - -Lieutenant, afterwards Colonel, Brewerton was at Resting Springs in 1848 -with Kit Carson who then was carrying important messages for the -government to New Mexico. He found the ground white with the bleached -bones of other victims of the desert Indians. Brewerton calls them Pau -Eutaws. - -The Mormons began early to look upon this region as a logical part of -the State of Deseret, for the creation of which, Brigham Young -petitioned Congress, setting forth among reasons for the recognition of -such a state that: “... We are so far removed from all civilized society -and organized government and also natural barriers of trackless deserts, -including mountains of snow and savages more bloody than either, so that -we can never be united with any other portion of the country.” - -As early as 1851, the far-seeing Young decided to found a colony of -Saints in San Bernardino, California, to extend Mormon influence. Sam -Brannan, brilliant adherent of that faith, had already come to -California with the nucleus of a Mormon colony in 1846, two years before -Marshall discovered gold. - -Brannan became an outstanding figure among the Argonauts. None exceeded -him in leadership or popularity in the building of San Francisco and the -state. He grew rich and unfortunately began drinking; finally abandoned -Mormonism and died poor. - -The colonizers sent out by Brigham Young were in three divisions. One -under the leadership of Amasa Lyman, who brought his five wives. Another -was headed by Charles C. Rich, who was accompanied by three of his -wives. It is interesting to note that Rich became the father of 51 -children by five wives. - -The third division was under the command of Captain Jefferson Hunt, -guide for the entire party. These leaders were all able men who were -highly regarded by gentiles. They also camped at Agua de Hernandez and -it was the Mormons who junked the previous name and gave one with -significance. They called it “Resting Springs” and this more fitting -name has lasted. - -On May 21, 1851, the Mormon elder, Parley P. Pratt, heading a party of -missionaries en route to the South Sea Islands writes in his diary: “We -encamped at a place called Resting Springs.... This is a fine place for -rest.... Since leaving the Vegas (Las Vegas) we have traveled 75 miles -through the most horrible desert.... Twenty miles from the Vegas we were -assailed ... by a shower of arrows from the savage mountain robbers.... -Leaving Resting Springs the party arrived at Salt Spring gold mines -toward evening....” - -In 1850, Phineas Banning, pioneer resident of Los Angeles and later -owner of Catalina Island, hauled freight from Los Angeles to the gold -mine at Salt Spring opposite Rocky Point just south of the Amargosa -River on the Baker road and in 1854 Mormons discovered gold 25 miles -south of Resting Springs, long before Dr. French searched for the -Gunsight in Death Valley. - -The Amargosa River is one of the world’s most remarkable water courses. -Originating at Springdale, north of Beatty, Nevada, it twists southward -in zigzag pattern until it reaches a point about 34 miles south of -Shoshone. There it turns west, crosses Highway 127, enters Death Valley -at its most southerly point and then turns north to disappear 60 miles -from the place of its origin. - -You may cross and re-cross it many times totally unaware of its -existence, but in the cloudburst season it can and does become a -terrible agent of destruction. - -In 1853 Major George Chorpenning obtained a contract to carry mail -between the Mormon colony of San Bernardino, California, and Salt Lake. -To reach Resting Springs, a station on the route, required five days. -Today it is a journey of four hours. - -Resting Springs was also a relay station for white outlaws and Indian -raiders from Utah, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. Even before Fremont, -Carson, or the Mormons old Bill Williams, for whom Bill Williams River, -Bill Williams Mountain, and the town of Williams, Arizona, are named was -at Resting Springs. - - [Illustration: Map of Death Valley] - - [Illustration: John W. Searles, looking for gold, made a fortune in - borax.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Like Weepah which “Boomed - and Busted” after one day, Gilbert died after a few weeks.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD G. WEIGHT Saratoga Springs] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. The Bottom - of America] - - BAD WATER - 279.6 FEET BELOW SEA LEVEL - LOWEST POINT IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE - - ⇐ SHOSHONE 57 - ⇐ BAKER 93 - FURNACE CREEK 17 ⇒ - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Grave of - Jas. Dayton. - Bones are those of his horses.] - - [Illustration: Dugouts in Dublin Gulch at Shoshone.] - - [Illustration: Mesquite Club, Shoshone. Known throughout the West.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Golden - Canyon] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. One of the - famous Twenty Mule Teams.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Here boomed - and busted the C. C. Julian swindle. Great names and great banks - were shamefully involved.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Yellow Aster Mine - (foreground) made owners rich. Randsburg in the background.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Belle Springs (Agua Tomaso) - on old Salt Lake trail. Camp site of John C. Fremont.] - - [Illustration: Ralph Jacobus Fairbanks, outstanding pioneer, every - man’s friend.] - - [Illustration: Dobe Charlie Nels. - He saw Bodie boom and die.] - - [Illustration: Bodie, hellroarer from cemetery. Now another ghost - town.] - - [Illustration: Seldom-seen Slim, colorful desert character.] - - [Illustration: Senator Charles Brown, benevolent overlord of Death - Valley.] - - [Illustration: Panamint Tom, noted Piute, brother of Hungry Bill, - Indian Chief] - - [Illustration: Where these wickiups were, now stands luxurious - Furnace Creek Inn.] - - [Illustration: Courtesy Frasher’s Photo. Pomona, Calif. Darwin - Falls] - - [Illustration: First House in Shoshone, built by Cub Lee.] - - [Illustration: Shorty Harris and his cabin at Ballarat, Panamint - Valley.] - - [Illustration: Jim Butler, the discoverer of Tonopah Silver.] - - [Illustration: Sir Harry Oakes, booted off a train one day, - discovered one of the world’s richest mines the next.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Beatty, Nevada. Bare - Mountain in distance.] - - [Illustration: “Ma” and “Dad” Fairbanks. - He was known to the Indians as Long Man.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Old Road Sign in Emigrant - Wash.] - - Townsend Pass → - ← Skidoo 7 M. - - [Illustration: Rock resting on gravel, gravel on sand. Here Quon - Sing, heathen, created an oasis, was chased off by Christian’s - guns.] - - [Illustration: Death Valley Scotty on his native heath.] - - [Illustration: Charles and Stella Brown, Shoshone.] - - [Illustration: Station at Rhyolite, Nevada, long a ghost town.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Monument in - Death Valley honors Shorty Harris.] - - BURY ME BESIDE JIM DAYTON IN THE VALLEY WE LOVED. ABOVE ME WRITE: - “HERE LIES SHORTY HARRIS, A SINGLE BLANKET JACKASS - PROSPECTOR.”—EPITAPH REQUESTED BY SHORTY (FRANK) HARRIS BELOVED GOLD - HUNTER. 1856-1834. HERE JAS. DAYTON, PIONEER, PERISHED 1898. - - TO THESE TRAILMAKERS WHOSE COURAGE MATCHES THE FOUNDERS OF THE LAND - THIS BIT OF EARTH IS DEDICATED FOREVER. - - [Illustration: Pete Harmon, prospector. He walked more than 400 - miles in July to visit Shorty Harris when he heard that he was ill.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD. O. WEIGHT Calico, Ghost Town] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Wild Burro - Colt] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Death Valley’s fantastic - rock formations seen from Auguerreberry’s Point.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Old Harmony Borax Works, - opposite Furnace Creek.] - - [Illustration: January 2, 1926. We camped our second night out at - the Phantom City of Rhyolite.] - - [Illustration: Dublin Gulch, Shoshone. In these dugouts lived Joe - Volmer, Dobe Charley and Jack Crowley, prospectors.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Golden Street, Rhyolite] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Bad Water, here the thirsty - drank and died.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Ballarat, once an important - freight station, now sand and sage.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Stables of Tufa Works used - by Twenty Mule Teams, where borax was mined.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY HAROLD O. WEIGHT Zabriskie Ruins. Opals may - be found in the canyon at right.] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Charcoal - Pits] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Typical - Death Valley Canyon] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Death Valley - sand dunes] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Effect of - prehistoric convulsions] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Furnace - Creek wash] - - [Illustration: COURTESY FRASHER’S PHOTO. POMONA, CALIF. Ryan, and an - abandoned borax mine.] - -Williams was a Baptist preacher, turned Mountain Man. He had guided -Fremont through the terrors of the San Juan country and was accused of -cannibalism when hunger threatened one detachment. Of Williams Kit -Carson said: “In starving times, don’t walk ahead of Bill Williams.” - -Williams brought a band of Chaguanosos Indians to Resting Springs and -made it an outpost for a horse stealing raid. With him were Pegleg Smith -and Jim Beckwith, the mulatto who after having been a blacksmith with -Ashley’s Fur Traders in 1821, became a famous guide, Indian Chief, -trader, and scout. (Also called Beckwourth and Beckworth.) - -Leaving Resting Springs, they proceeded through Cajon Pass for their -loot and on May 14, 1840, Juan Perez, administrator at San Gabriel -Mission excited Southern California when he announced that every ranch -between San Gabriel and San Bernardino had been stripped of horses. Two -days later posses from every settlement in the valley started in -pursuit. The raiders made it a running battle, defeated several -detachments, adding the latter’s stock and grub to their plunder. - -Five days later, reinforcements were sent from Los Angeles, Chino, and -other settlements, all under command of Jose Antonio Carrillo—ancestor -of the movie celebrity, Leo Carrillo. He had “225 horses, 75 men, 49 -guns with braces of pistols, 19 spears, 22 swords and sabers, and 400 -cartridges.” - -The posse threw fear into the raiders, but didn’t catch them, though the -latter lost half of the stolen horses. At Resting Springs, Carrillo -found some abandoned clothing, saddles, and cooking utensils. Fifteen -hundred horses that had died from thirst or lack of food were counted -during the chase. - -Later, when Pegleg Smith was chided about the high price he demanded of -an emigrant for a horse, he remarked: “Well, the horses cost me plenty. -I lost half of them getting out of the country and three of my best -squaws....” - -The earliest American settler at Resting Springs remembered by old -timers was Philander Lee, a rough and somewhat eccentric squaw man. He -was big, straight as a ramrod, afraid of nothing, and of an undetermined -past. He was there in the early Eighties. He cleared 200 acres, raised -alfalfa, stock, and some fruit. He had a way of adding the last part of -his first name to his offspring, Leander and Meander are samples. Some -of his descendants still live in the country. - -It was near Resting Springs Ranch while Phi Lee owned it that Jacob -Breyfogle, of lost mine fame, was scalped by Hungry Bill’s tribesmen. -The story is told in another chapter. - -Phi Lee’s brother, Cub Lee, who added spicy pages to the annals of Death -Valley country, built the first home erected at Shoshone—an adobe which -still stands. It was long the home of the squaw, Ann Cowboy. Another -brother of Phi Lee was known as “Shoemaker” because he roamed the desert -as a cobbler. All were squaw men. - -Cub Lee established a reputation for keeping his word and it was said no -one ever disputed it and lived. Indians over in Nevada were giving a -“heap big” party. His squaw wanted to go. Cub didn’t. “You stay home,” -he ordered. “If you go, I’ll kill you.” He rode away and upon returning, -discovered she was absent. He leaped on his cayuse, went to the party -and found her. Whipping out his gun he killed both wife and son, blew -the smoke out of his pistol and leisurely rode away. - -But the Nevada officials thought Cub Lee was too meticulous about -keeping his word and Cub had a brief cooling off period in the pen. - -Pegleg Smith made Resting Springs his headquarters for the greatest haul -in the history of California horse stealing and reached Cajon Pass -before the theft was discovered. These horses were driven into Utah and -there sold to emigrants, traders, and ranchers. Smith may be said to be -the inventor of the Lost Mine, as a means of getting quick money. The -credulous are still looking for mines that existed only in Pegleg’s fine -imagination. - -Thomas L. Smith was born at Crab Orchard, Kentucky, October 10, 1801. -With little schooling, he ran away from home to become a trapper and -hunter, and following the western streams eventually settled in Wyoming. -He married several squaws, choosing these from different tribes, thus -insuring friendly alliance with all. - -He had been a member of Le Grand’s first trapping expedition to Santa Fe -and was an associate of such outstanding men as St. Vrain, Sublette, -Platte, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, the merchant Antoine Rubideaux -(properly Robedoux) of St. Louis. He spoke several Indian languages and -earned the gratitude of the Indians in his area by leading them to -victory in a battle with the Utes. Able and likable, he also had iron -nerves and courage. His morals, he justified on the ground that his were -the morals of the day. - -J. G. Bruff, historian, whose “Gold Rush-Journal and Drawings” is good -material for research, met Smith on Bear River August 6, 1849, and wrote -in his diary: “Pegleg Smith came into camp. He trades whiskey.” Actually -he traded anything he could lay his hands on. - -While trapping for beaver with St. Vrain on the Platte, Smith was shot -by an Indian, the bullet shattering the bones in his leg just above the -ankle. He was talking with St. Vrain at the moment and after a look at -the injury, begged those about to amputate his leg. Having no experience -his companions refused. He then asked the camp cook to bring him a -butcher knife and amputated it himself with minor assistance by the -noted Milton Sublette. - -Smith was then carried on a stretcher to his winter quarters on the -Green River. While the wound was healing he discovered some bones -protruding. Sublette pulled them out with a pair of bullet molds. Indian -remedies procured by his squaws healed the stump and in the following -spring of 1828 he made a rough wooden leg. Thereafter he was called -Pegleg by the whites and We-he-to-ca by all Indians. - -A wooden socket was fitted into the stirrup of his saddle and with this -he could ride as skillfully as before. In the lean, last years of his -life, he could be seen hopping along under an old beaver hat in San -Francisco to and from Biggs and Kibbe’s corner to Martin Horton’s. -Something in his appearance stamped him as a remarkable man. - -Major Horace Bell, noted western ranger, lawyer, author, and editor of -early Los Angeles, relates that he saw Pegleg near a Mother Lode town, -lying drunk on the roadside, straddled by his half-breed son who was -pounding him in an effort to arouse him from his stupor. - -Smith had little success as a prospector, but saw in man’s lust for -gold, ways to get it easier than the pick and shovel method. - -In the pueblo days of Los Angeles, Smith was a frequent visitor at the -Bella Union, the leading hotel. Always surrounded by a spellbound group, -he lived largely. When his money ran out he always had a piece of -high-grade gold quartz to lure investment in his phantom mine. - -And so we have the Lost Pegleg, located anywhere from Shoshone to -Tucson. Nevertheless, no adequate story of the movement of civilization -westward can ignore South Pass and Pegleg Smith. - - -About 25 miles east of Shoshone and set back from the road under willows -and cottonwoods, an old house identifies a landmark of Pahrump -Valley—the Manse Ranch, once owned by the Yundt family. - -The original Yundt was among the first settlers, contemporary with -Philander and Cub Lee and Aaron Winters. Yundt was a squaw man and his -children, Sam, Lee, and John followed the father in taking squaws for -their wives. - -Sam Yundt was operating a small store at Good Springs and making a -precarious living when a sleek and talented promoter secured a mining -claim nearby and induced Sam to enlarge his stock in order to care for -the increased business promised by supplying provisions for the mine’s -employees. Sam, with visions of quick, profitable turnovers, stocked the -empty shelves. For a few months the bills were paid promptly, then -lagged. Sam yielded to plausible excuses and carried the account. -Finally his own credit was jeopardized and wholesalers began to threaten -suits. Then he heard the sheriff had an attachment ready to serve. In -his desperation Sam went to the debtor. “I’m ruined,” he pleaded. “You -fellows will have to raise some money or we’ll all quit eating.” - -The fellow said, “All I can give you is stock in the Yellow Pine. It’s -that or nothing.” - -Sam Yundt had done with next to nothing all his life, took the stock and -waited for the sheriff. Then the miracle—pay dirt and Sam Yundt was -rich, and now he did the natural thing. He decided he would live at a -pace that matched his means. - -George Rose, an old friend, had a mine in the Avawatz and he needed -money. He went to Sam. “Now that you’re rich,” he told Sam, “you’ll be -taking life easy. I’ve got some swamp land on the coast near Long Beach. -Best duck shooting I know of and I’ll sell it cheap.” - -Sam didn’t want it but he bought it just to accommodate his friend. In a -little while the swamp land was an oil field and oil added another -fortune to Yellow Pine’s gold. Sam put his squaw Nancy, away, moved to -the city and married a white woman. Nancy was provided for and for years -she could be seen driving all over the desert in her buggy. - -A later owner of the Manse was one of whom the writer has a revealing -memory. A battered Ford stopped at Shoshone and an unshaven individual -stepped out, went into the store and came out with a loaf of bread and a -chunk of bologna. Dirty underwear showed through a flapping rent in his -patched overalls as he tore off a piece of bread and a chunk of the -bologna and had his meal. The uneaten portions he tossed into the tool -box, wiped his hands on his thighs and his mouth on his hand. - -“Jean Cazaurang,” Brown chuckled, “won’t pay six bits for lunch in the -dining room. Worth $2,000,000.” - -When the dinner gong sounded Cazaurang went to his tool box, retrieved -the rest of the bologna, twisted a hunk from the bread loaf, tossed the -rest back into the tool box. This time he saved a dollar. He curled -himself up in the Ford that night and saved $2.00. Besides the Manse -Ranch he had a 10,000 acre ranch in Mexico, stocked with sheep, cattle, -and horses, and had several mines. - -Jean’s end was not a happy one. One payday at his ranch, the good -looking and likable young Mexican who worked for him, came for his -money. Jean counted out the money from a poke and poured it into the -palm of the Mexican. The Mexican counted it and with a smile looked at -Jean. “Pardon me, Señor ... it’s two bits short.” - -“Be gone,” ordered Jean. - -“But Señor, I have worked hard. My wife is hungry and I am hungry. My -children are hungry.” - -“Be gone,” again shouted Jean and whipped out his gun. - -But the Mexican was young, lean, and lithe and he seized Jean’s wrist -and when he turned the wrist loose Jean Cazaurang was dead. And then the -Mexican made one mistake. Instead of going to the sheriff he became -panic stricken and taking the body to a nearby ravine, he heaved it into -the brush where it was found later, feet up. - -But Jean Cazaurang had saved two bits. - -A big luxuriously appointed hearse came for Jean and people said it was -the first decent ride he’d ever had in his life. - -Sentiment was with the Mexican, but he drew a short term for bungling. - -Because in one will Jean left his property to his wife and in another to -his housekeeper, the estate was tied up in court, where it remained for -11 years—fat pickings for lawyers. Finally the widow was awarded one -half the estate under community property law, but the widow was dead. -The housekeeper got the other half, and so ends the story of Jean -Cazaurang and two bits. - -Rarely did desert ranches show other profits than those which one finds -in doing the thing one likes to do, as in the case of a recent owner of -the Manse—the wealthy Mrs. Lois Kellogg—the soft-voiced eastern lady who -fell in love with the desert, drilled an artesian well, the flow of -which is among the world’s largest. Small, cultured, she yet found -thrills in driving a 20-ton truck and trailer from the Manse to Los -Angeles or to the famed Oasis Ranch 200 miles away in Fish Lake -Valley—another desert landmark which she bought to further gratify her -passion for the Big Wide Open. - -And there you have a slice of life as it is on the desert—one miserably -dying in his lust for money, one fleeing its solitude; another seeking -its solace. - - - - - Chapter XV - The Story of Charles Brown - - -The story of Charles Brown and the Shoshone store begins at Greenwater. -In the transient horde that poured into that town, he was the only one -who hadn’t come for quick, easy money. On his own since he was 11 years -old, when he’d gone to work in a Georgia mine, he wanted only a job and -got it. In the excited, loose-talking mob he was conspicuous because he -was silent, calm, unhurried. - -There were no law enforcement officers in Greenwater. The jail was 130 -miles away and every day was field day for the toughs. Better citizens -decided finally to do something about it. They petitioned George Naylor, -Inyo county’s sheriff at Independence to appoint or send a deputy to -keep some semblance of order. - -Naylor sent a badge over and with it a note: “Pin it on some husky -youngster, unmarried and unafraid and tell him to shoot first.” - -Again the Citizens’ Committee met. “I know a fellow who answers that -description,” one of them said. “Steady sort. Built like a panther. Came -from Georgia. Kinda slow-motioned until he’s ready for the spring. -Name’s Brown.” - -The badge was pinned on Brown. - -Greenwater was a port of call for Death Valley Slim, a character of -western deserts, who normally was a happy-go-lucky likable fellow. But -periodically Slim would fill himself with desert likker, his belt with -six-guns, and terrorize the town. - -Shortly after Brown assumed the duties of his office, Slim sent word to -the deputy sheriff at Death Valley Junction that he was on his way to -that place for a little frolic. “Tell him,” he coached his messenger, -“sheriffs rile me and he’d better take a vacation.” - -After notifying the merchants and the residents, who promptly barricaded -themselves indoors, the officer found shelter for himself in Beatty, -Nevada. - -So Slim saw only empty streets and barred shutters upon arrival and -since there was nothing to shoot at he headed through Dead Man’s Canyon -for Greenwater. There he found the main street crowded to his liking and -the saloons jammed. He made for the nearest, ordered a drink and -whipping out his gun began to pop the bottles on the shelves. At the -first blast, patrons made a break for the exits. At the second, the -doors and windows were smashed and when Slim holstered his gun, the -place was a wreck. - -Messengers were sent for Brown, who was at his cabin a mile away. Brown -stuck a pistol into his pocket and went down. He found Slim in Wandell’s -saloon, the town’s smartest. There Slim had refused to let the patrons -leave and with the bartenders cowed, the patrons cornered, Slim was -amusing himself by shooting alternately at chandeliers, the feet of -customers and the plump breasts of the nude lady featured in the -painting behind the bar. Following Brown at a safe distance, was half -the population, keyed for the massacre. - -Brown walked in. “Hello, Slim,” he said quietly. “Fellows tell me you’re -hogging all the fun. Better let me have that gun, hadn’t you?” - -“Like hell,” Slim sneered. “I’ll let you have it right through the -guts—” - -As he raised his gun for the kill, the panther sprang and the battle was -on. They fought all over the barroom—standing up; lying down; rolling -over—first one then the other on top. Tables toppled, chairs crashed. -For half an hour they battled savagely, finally rolling against the -bar—both mauled and bloody. There with his strong vice-like legs wrapped -around Slim’s and an arm of steel gripping neck and shoulder, Brown -slipped irons over the bad man’s wrists. “Get up,” Brown ordered as he -stood aside, breathing hard. - -Slim rose, leaned against the bar. There was fight in him still and -seeing a bottle in front of him, he seized it with manacled hands, -started to lift it. - -“Slim,” Brown said calmly, “if you lift that bottle you’ll never lift -another.” - -The bad boy instinctively knew the look that pages death and Slim’s -fingers fell from the bottle. - -Greenwater had no jail and Brown took him to his own cabin. Leaving the -manacles on the prisoner he took his shoes, locked them in a closet. No -man drunk or sober he reflected, would tackle barefoot the gravelled -street littered with thousands of broken liquor bottles. Then he went to -bed. - -Waking later, he discovered that Slim had vanished and with him, Brown’s -number 12 shoes. He tried Slim’s shoe but couldn’t get his foot into it. -There was nothing to do but follow barefoot. He left a blood-stained -trail, but at 2 a.m. he found Slim in a blacksmith shop having the -handcuffs removed. Brown retrieved his shoes and on the return trip Slim -went barefoot. After hog-tying his prisoner Brown chained him to the bed -and went to sleep. - -Thereafter, the bad boys scratched Greenwater off their calling list. - -Slim afterwards attained fame with Villa in Mexico, became a good -citizen and later went East, established a sanatorium catering to the -wealthy and acquired a fortune. - -Among the first arrivals in Greenwater was a lanky adventurer known to -the Indians as Long Man and to whites for his ability to make money in -any venture and an even more marvelous inability to keep it. He was -Ralph Jacobus Fairbanks. Broke at the time, he was seeking the quickest -way to a “comeback.” - -Foreseeing that the biggest names in copper meant a rush, he had taken a -look at the little stagnant spring with a green scum that was to give -the town its name. - -“Not enough water in it to do the family washing,” he decided and with -uncanny talent for seeing opportunity where others would starve to -death, he was soon peddling water at a dollar a bucket. He had hauled it -40 miles uphill from Furnace Creek wash. - -A hopeful, but late arrival who expected to find the town crowded with -killers was an undertaker who came with a huge stock of coffins. The -prospect of a quick turnover seemed to guarantee success, but in two -years Greenwater had exactly one funeral and he sold but one coffin. -Disgusted he stacked the caskets in the center of his shop; left and was -never again heard of. - -Fairbanks came into town one day with his sweat-stained 16 mule team, -noticed the abandoned coffins, picked out the largest and best and gave -Greenwater its first watering trough, which was used as long as the town -lasted. - -Fairbanks soon made enough money to acquire a hotel, store, and a bar, -which became a popular rendezvous. Fairbanks was born of well-to-do -parents, in a covered wagon en route to Utah in 1857. Of the thousands -who flocked into Greenwater, only he and Charles Brown were to remain in -Death Valley country and wrest fortunes from America’s most desolate -region. To Greenwater he brought his wife, Celestia Abigail, who shared -his spirit of adventure, but fortunately for him she possessed a caution -which he lacked. Among their children was a beautiful and vivacious -daughter, Stella. - -Fairbanks, who was of the quick, go-getting type, didn’t care for Brown. -Born in the North, he was critical of the slow-moving, silent, young -Georgian and unacquainted with the Deep South’s drawl, he referred to -him as “that damned foreigner.” - -The reputation of the Fairbanks camaraderie spread, and Mrs. Fairbanks, -who understood the longing of a youngster for a home-cooked meal, -invited Brown to dinner. - -There were other young fortune seekers in Greenwater who were also -occasional guests at the Fairbanks dinners—among them a Yankee from -Maine—Harry Oakes, of whom the world was to hear later. Allen Gillman, -known as the Rattlesnake Kid, because of his stalking rattlesnakes to -indulge his hobby of making hat bands and trinkets, later to become -associated with Bernarr McFadden. Wealthy young mining engineers. Bank -clerks with futures. Brown apparently had none. - -“He’ll get out of the country like he came in—afoot and broke,” rivals -told Stella. So when romance came, there was still a long trail ahead. - -Then came Greenwater’s first warning of trouble. A few miners were laid -off; a few padlocks appeared on a few cabins; a few merchants -complained. Soon it was noticed that the tinny pianos from which -slim-fingered “professors” swept the two-step and the waltz were -gathering dust while the girls lolled in empty honkies. But when Diamond -Tooth Lil padlocked her door and joined the rush to a new copper strike -at Crackerjack in the Avawatz Mountains the wiser knew that Greenwater -was through. - -With no guests Fairbanks told off on his fingers, departed patrons, mine -owners, doctors, lawyers. “Just Charlie left. Wonder what’s keeping -him?” Celestia Abigail knew. She knew that the big Georgian was -desperately in love with Stella and didn’t care how many of her suitors -left. - -With mines closing and few official duties, Brown loaded a burro with -supplies and with Joe Yerrin went on a prospecting trip. Their course -led across Death Valley. They were caught in a heat that was a record, -even for the Big Sink, and ran out of water. Fortunately they were -within a few miles of Surveyor’s Well—a stagnant hole north of -Stovepipe. The burros were also suffering and Brown and Yerrin staggered -to water barely in time to escape death. - -The well there is dug on a slant and looking down they saw a prospector -kneeling at the water, filling a canteen and blocking passage. - -“Reckon you fellows are thirsty,” he greeted. “I’ll hand you up a drink. -Have to strain it though. Full of wiggletails.” He pulled his shirt tail -out of his pants, stretched it over a stew pan, strained the water -through it and handed the pan up to Brown. “Now it’s fit to drink,” he -said proudly. - -“It was no time to be finicky,” Charlie said. “We drank.” - -Brown and Yerrin combed hill and canyon but failed to find anything of -value. Yerrin knew of another place. “You can have it,” Brown said. “I -left a good claim.” - -Yerrin eyed him a long moment, then grinned: “Stella, huh?” - -The sage in Greenwater streets was rank now and again Ralph Fairbanks -looked out over the dying town. “Ma, we’re getting out,” he said. He -emptied his pockets on the table; counted the cash. “Ten dollars and -thirty cents. Can’t get far on that—” - -He was interrupted by a knock at the door. There stood a stranger who -wanted dinner and lodging for the night. During the evening the guest -disclosed that he was en route to his mining claim near a place called -Shoshone, 38 miles south. It was near a spring with plenty of water, -warm, but usable. He wanted to put 50 miners to work but first he had to -find someone willing to go there and board them. - -“Maybe we’d go,” Fairbanks said. “What’ll you pay for board?” - -“A dollar and a half a day. Figures around $2250 a month.” - -Ralph looked at Ma. She nodded. “It’s a deal,” he said. - -The next morning the guest left. - -Fairbanks turned to his wife. “I can haul these abandoned shacks down -there in no time. Charlie’s not working, I can get him to help.” - -Ralph Fairbanks had stayed with Greenwater to the bitter end. Now he -hauled it away. - -The road to the new site was over rough desert, gutted with dry washes. -Brown slept in the brush, put the shacks up while Fairbanks went for -others. Both worked night and day to get the place ready. Finally they -had lodging for 50 men, a dining room, and quarters for the family. With -$2250 a month they could afford a chef and Ma could take it easy. Stella -could go Outside to a girl’s school. - -Then like a bolt of lightning came the bad news. The Greenwater guest, -they learned, was just an engaging liar, with no mine, no men. He was -never heard of again. - -Without a dollar they were marooned in one of the world’s most desolate -areas. Stumped, Fairbanks looked at Brown. “I’ve been rich. I’ve been -poor. But this is below the belt. What’ll we do?” - -“I can get a job with the Borax Company,” Brown said. “But you?” - -“We have that canned goods we brought to feed that liar’s hired men. -I’ll figure some way to live in this God-forsaken hole.” - -From the dining room, prepared for the $2250 monthly income, he lugged a -table, set it outside the door facing the road. Then he went to the -pantry, filled a laundry basket with the cans of pork and beans, -tomatoes, corned beef, and milk brought from Greenwater. He arranged -them on the table, wrenched a piece of shook from a packing crate and on -it painted in crude letters the word, “Store.” He propped it on the -table and went inside. “Ma,” he announced, “we’re in business.” - -You could have hauled the entire stock and the table away in a -wheelbarrow and every person in the country for 100 miles in either -direction laid end to end would not have reached as far as a bush league -batter could knock a baseball. - -The wheelbarrow load of canned goods went to the Indians living in the -brush and the prospectors camped at the spring. Another replaced it and -the “store” moved then into the dining room prepared for the -non-existent boarders. Powder, a must on the list of a desert store, was -added. The desert man, they knew, needed only a few items but they must -be good. Overalls honestly stitched. Bacon well cured. Shoes sturdily -built for hard usage. - -“If we sell a shoddy shirt, an inferior pick or shovel to one of our -customers,” they told the wholesaler, “we will never again sell anything -to him nor to any of his friends.” - -Soon the prospectors were telling other prospectors they met on the -trails: “Square shooters—those fellows. Speak our language....” The -squaws and the bucks told other squaws and bucks. Soon new trails cut -across the desert to Shoshone and soon the store outgrew the dining room -in the Fairbanks residence. - -From Zabriskie, now an abandoned borax town a few miles south of -Shoshone, an old saloon and boarding house was cut into sections and -hauled to Shoshone. It had been previously hauled from Greenwater where -it had served as a labor union hall and club house. It was deposited -directly across the road from the original store. - -So began in 1910 an empire of trade that is almost unbelievable. - -Charlie had at last coaxed the right answer from Stella but there wasn’t -enough in the business at the start to support two families, plus the -score of children and grandchildren of Fairbanks. At Greenwater he had -known all the moguls of mining and he had only to ask for a job to get -one. Retaining his interest in the Shoshone store he became -superintendent of the Pacific Borax Company’s important Lila C. mine and -thus formed a connection which grew into valuable friendships with the -executives. The Shoshone business grew and soon required his entire time -and that of Stella. - -Born in Richfield, Utah, Stella Brown grew up in Death Valley country -and a reel of her life would show an exciting story of triumph over life -in the raw; in desolate deserts and in boom towns where bandits and -bawdy women rubbed elbows with the virtuous, millionaire with crook, and -caste was unknown. If a girl went wrong; if an Indian was starving; a -widow in need—there you would find her. Some day somebody will write the -inspiring story of Stella Brown. - -Not all those who were told to see Charlie were seeking directions or -suffering from toothache. When General Electric desperately needed talc, -its agents were so advised. When Harold Ickes came out to promote -President Roosevelt’s conservation ideas and officials of the War -Department sought critical material, they too were given the old -familiar advice and took it, and one day I saw the President of the -Southern Pacific Railroad stand around for an hour while Charlie waited -for a Pahrump Indian to make up his mind about a pair of overalls. - -Today the store that started on a kitchen table requires a large -refrigerating plant and lighting system, three large warehouses, two -tunnels in a hill. About a dozen employees work in shifts from seven in -the morning till ten at night, to take care of the store, cabins, and -cafe. Three big trucks haul oil, gas, powder, and provisions to mines in -the region. Out of canyon, dry wash, and over dunes they come for every -imaginable commodity, and get it. - -A millionaire city man who vacations there sat down on the slab bench -beside Brown, aimlessly whittling. “Listen, Charlie,” he said. “Why -don’t you get out of this desolation and move to the city where you can -enjoy yourself?” - -“Hell—” Charlie muttered, and went on with his whittling. - -The new store stands upon the site where Ma Fairbanks’ kitchen table -displayed the canned goods brought from Greenwater. Modern to the minute -and air-cooled it would be a credit to any city. - - -Again I heard the old familiar, “See Charlie,” and while he was telling -someone how to get to a place no one around had ever heard of, I glanced -over the Chalfant Register, a Bishop paper, and noticed a letter it had -published from a lady in Wisconsin seeking information about a brother -who had gone to Greenwater more than 40 years ago. She had never heard -of him since. - -When Charlie joined me I called his attention to the letter. “I saw it,” -he said. “Nobody answered and the editor sent the letter to me. I have -just written her that the brother who came to find out what happened, -died suddenly at Tonopah, only a few hours by auto from Greenwater. The -other brother was killed in a saloon. I knew him and the man who killed -him.” - - - - - Chapter XVI - Long Man, Short Man - - -Before Tonopah, the first, and Greenwater, the last of the boom camps, -Indians roaming the desert from Utah westward were showing trails to two -hikos, who were to become symbols for the reckless courage needed to -exist in the wasteland. They were known as Long Man and Short Man. - -Previous pages have given part of the story of Long Man. - -Coming into Death Valley country in the late Nineties, Ralph Jacobus -Fairbanks wanted to know its water holes, trails, and landmarks. He -hired Panamint Tom, brother of Hungry Bill, as a guide. Because Tom’s -name was linked with Bill’s in stories of missing men, Fairbanks carried -his six-gun. - -Panamint Tom was also armed. When they reached the rim of Death Valley -and started down, Fairbanks said, “Tom, this is Indian country. You know -it. I don’t. You go first....” - -Taking no chance on a surprise night attack, he directed the layout of -the camp so that their beds were safely apart. Each slept with his gun. -Around the camp fire, Tom nonchalantly confessed that he’d had to kill -five white men. - -The mission accomplished, they started back. When they came out of the -valley Tom said, “Long Man, this is white man’s country. You know it. I -don’t. You go first.” In after years, referring to their trip, Tom said, -“Long Man, you heap ’fraid that time.” “I was,” Fairbanks confessed. “Me -too,” Tom said. - -When the Goldfield strike was made, Fairbanks saw that a supply station -on the main line of travel was a surer way to wealth than the gamble of -digging. He knew of a ranch with good water and luxuriant wild hay at -Ash Meadows. Hay was worth $200 a ton. The owner had abandoned the -ranch, however, and moved into the hills. Fairbanks could get little -information concerning his whereabouts. “Up there somewhere,” he was -told, with a gesture indicating 50 miles of sky line. But he wanted the -hay and started out and by patient inquiry located his man just before -daylight on the second day. “What will you give for it?” the man asked. - -“Well,” Fairbanks parried, “you know it’ll cost me as much as the ranch -is worth to get rid of that wild grass.” Having only a vague idea of its -real worth he had decided to offer $4000, but sensed the man’s eagerness -to sell and started to offer $1000. Suddenly it occurred to him that -someone else might have made an offer. “I’ll go $2000 and not a nickel -more.” - -“You’ve bought a ranch,” the owner said. - -Elated, Fairbanks wrote a contract by candlelight on the spot. Both -signed and they started back to find a notary. “I determined the fellow -should not get out of my sight until the deed was recorded. If he wanted -a drink of water, so did I. If he wished to speak to someone, I wanted a -word with the same man.” - -Finally the deal was closed and Fairbanks started home. Outside, he met -Ed Metcalf, chuckling. - -“What’s so funny, Ed?” - -Metcalf pointed to the departing seller. “He was just telling me about -being worried to death all morning for fear a sucker he’d found would -get out of his sight. He’s been trying to unload his ranch for $500 and -some idiot gave him $2000.” - -Fairbanks also operated a freighting service to the boom towns in the -gold belt as far north as Goldfield and Tonopah. Rates were fantastic -and he made a fortune. He opened Beatty’s first cafe in a tent. - -Money was plentiful and after a trip with a 16 mule team over rough -roads to Goldfield, he was ready for a relaxing change to poker. When -the white chips are $25, the reds $50, and the blues $500 the game is -not for pikers and he would bet $10,000 as calmly as he would 10 cents. - -In such a game one night he found himself sitting beside a player who -had removed his big overcoat with wide patch pockets and hung it on his -chair. Fairbanks noticed the fellow had a habit of gathering in the -discards when he wasn’t betting and his deal would follow. He also -noticed intermittent movements of the fellow’s deft fingers to the big -patch pocket and soon saw that every ace in the deck reposed in the -pocket. - -Later in the game, Fairbanks opened a jackpot. Every man stayed. The -crook raised discreetly and most of the players stayed. Fairbanks bet -$1000. - -“Have to raise you $5000,” the crook said. - -Fairbanks met the raise. “... and it’ll cost you $5000 more,” he said -evenly. - -With the confidence that came from the cached aces, the sharper shoved -out the five, smiled exultantly as he spread four kings and a deuce and -reached for the pot. - -“Not so fast,” Fairbanks said as he laid four aces and a ten on the -table. - -The crook gave him a quick look. Fairbanks’ eyes were steady. Neither -said a word. The crook couldn’t. He knew that Fairbanks’ long fingers -had found the big patch pocket. - -When three men and a jackass no longer made a crowd in Shoshone, Ralph -Fairbanks became restless. With a population of 20—half of it his own -progeny, he felt that civilization was closing in on him. “Charlie, I’ve -been in one place too long....” He had now become “Dad Fairbanks” to all -who knew him. - -The automobile was being increasingly used in desert travel and -transcontinental trips were no longer a daring adventure or the result -of a bet. Sixty miles south of Shoshone there was a wretched road that -pitched down the washboard slope of one range into a basin, then up the -gully-crossed slopes of another. Part of the transcontinental highway, -it was a headache to the traveler. Radiators usually boiled down hill -and up. - -To this desolate spot went Dad Fairbanks. The hot blasts from the dunes -of the Devil’s Playground and the dry bed of Soda Lake made summer a -hell and the freezing winds from Providence Mountains turned it into a -Siberian winter. - -Here in 1928 Dad Fairbanks built cabins and a store and installed a gas -pump. Water was hauled in. “Coming or going,” he said, “when they reach -this place they’ve just got to stop, cool the engine, and fill up for -the hill ahead.” The place is Baker on Highway 91. - -Here, as at Shoshone, sales technique was tossed into the ash can. -Stopping for dinner one day I met Dad coming out of the dining room. -“How’s the fare?” I asked. - -“Are you hungry?” - -“Hungry as a bear....” - -“All right. Go in. A hungry man can stand anything.” Then in an -undertone he added: “Employment agent sent me the world’s worst cook. -Take eggs.” - -Later as we talked in the sheltered driveway a Rolls-Royce limousine -drove up and a well-fed and smartly tailored tourist stepped out and -spoke to Dad: “Do you know me?” he asked. - -Dad looked at him hesitantly. “Face is familiar.” - -“You loaned me $300, 25 years ago.” - -“I loaned a lotta fellows money.” - -“But I never paid it back.” - -“A helluva lot of ’em didn’t,” Dad said. - -The stranger reached into his pocket, pulled $1000 from a roll and -handed it to Dad. “I’m Harry Oakes,” he said. “Where’s Ma?” - -So they went over to Dad’s house and with Ma Fairbanks who had shared -all of Dad’s fortunes, good and bad, they sat down and Oakes talked of -the long trail that led from 300 borrowed dollars to an annual income of -five million. - -Harry Oakes had gone to Canada and learning that the legal title to a -mining claim would expire at midnight on a certain date, he and his -partner W. G. Wright sat up in a temperature of forty below, to relocate -the Lakeshore Mine—Canada’s richest gold property. - -Born in Maine, Harry Oakes became a subject of England and was at this -time Canada’s richest citizen, with an estimated fortune of -$200,000,000. - -It was a long way from the Niagara palace back to Greenwater and -Shoshone and as Ma Fairbanks and Dad and Harry sat in the plain little -desert cottage, I couldn’t keep from wondering why a man with -$200,000,000 would wait 25 years to repay that $300. - -In his native town of Sangerville in Maine, Harry Oakes was criticized -when, as a youngster with every opportunity to pursue a successful -career according to the staid Maine formula, he became excited by gold. -“Quick easy money.” “Just a dreamer.” He talked big, acted big, and was -big. - -But Harry Oakes started out in life to make a fortune by finding a gold -mine and you can’t laugh aside the determination and courage with which -he stuck to his purpose until he succeeded. - -Dad Fairbanks spent nearly 50 years in Death Valley country and it is a -bit ironical that at last, the Baker climate drove him from the desert -to Santa Paula and later, of all places, to Hollywood. - -“I should never have believed it of you,” I kidded. - -“Hell—” Dad retorted, “I wanted solitude. Haven’t you got enough sense -to know that the lonesomest place on Godamighty’s earth is a city?” - -He died in 1943 and at the funeral were the state’s greatest men and its -humblest—bankers, lawyers, doctors, beggarmen, muckers and miners, and -with them, those he loved best—sun-baked fellows from the towns and the -gulches along the burro trails. No man who has lived in Death Valley -country did more to put the region on the must list of the American -tourist and none won more of the regard and affections of the people. - - - - - Chapter XVII - Shorty Frank Harris - - -No history of Death Valley has been written in this century without -mention of the Short Man—Frank (Shorty) Harris—and none can be. Previous -pages have given most of his story. After his death at least two hurried -writers who never saw him have stated that Shorty discovered no mines, -knew little of the country. - -From a page of notes made before I had ever met him, I find this record: -“Stopped at Independence to see George Naylor, early Inyo county sheriff -and now its treasurer. We talked of early prospectors. Naylor said: ‘I -have known all of the old time burro men and have the records. Shorty -Harris has put more towns on the map and more taxable property on the -assessors’ books than any of them.’” - -I first met Shorty at Shoshone. Entering the store one day, Charles -Brown told me there was a fellow outside I ought to know, and in a -moment I was looking into keen steady eyes—blue as water in a canyon -pool—and in another Shorty Harris was telling me how to sneak up on -$10,000,000. Thus began an acquaintance which was to lead me through -many years from one end of Death Valley to the other, with Shorty, -mentor, friend, and guide. - -Of course I had heard of him. Who hadn’t? In the gold country of western -deserts one could find a few who had never heard of Cecil Rhodes or John -Hays Hammond, but none who had not heard of Shorty Harris. Wherever -mining men gathered, the mention of his name evoked the familiar, “That -reminds me,” and the air thickened with history, laughter, and lies. - -He was five feet tall, quick of motion. Hands and feet small. Skin soft -and surprisingly fair. Muscles hard as bull quartz. With a mask of -ignorance he concealed a fine intelligence reserved for intimate friends -in moments of repose. - -It is regrettable that since Shorty’s death, writers who never saw him -have given pictures of him which by no stretch of the imagination can be -recognized by those who had even a slight acquaintance with him. Authors -of books properly examine the material of those who have written other -books. In the case of Shorty this was eagerly done—so eagerly in fact, -that each portrayal is the original picture altered according to the -ability of the one who tailors the tale. All are interesting but few -have any relation to truth. - -Shorty Harris was so widely publicized by writers in the early part of -the century that when the radio was invented, he was a “natural” for -playlets and columnists. It was natural also that the iconoclast appear -to set the world right. He employed Shorty to guide him through Death -Valley. “I want to write a book,” he explained, “and I have only three -weeks to gather material.” - -The trip ended sooner. “What happened?” I asked Shorty when I read the -book and was startled to see in it a statement that Shorty became lost; -had never found a mine; and never even looked for one. - -“Did he say that?” Shorty laughed. - -“And more of the same,” I said. - -“Well, let’s let it go for what it’s worth.... He bellyached from the -minute we set out.” - -Those who knew Shorty best—Dad Fairbanks, Charles Brown, Bob Montgomery, -George Naylor, H. W. Eichbaum, and the old timers on the trails had -entirely different impressions. There was, however, around the barrooms -of Beatty and other border villages a breed of later -comers—“professional” old timers always waiting and often succeeding in -exchanging “history” for free drinks. Though they may have never known -Shorty in person, they were not lacking in yarns about him and rarely -failed to get an audience. - -There were also among Shorty’s friends a few who had another attitude. -“What has he ever done that I haven’t?” the answer being that nothing -had been written about them. - -With variations the original pattern became the pattern for the -succeeding writer. In the interest of accuracy it is not amiss to say -that Shorty Harris was not buried standing up. The writer saw him -buried. It is not true that he ever protested the removal of the road -from the site of the place where he wished to be buried, because he -never knew that he would be buried there. Nor did he have the remotest -idea that a monument would be erected to him, because the idea of the -monument was born after his death, as related elsewhere. - -He did not leave Harrisburg on July 4, 1905 to get drunk at Ballarat. -Instead, he went to Rhyolite to find Wild Bill Corcoran, his grubstaker. - -He did enjoy the yarns attributed to him and their publication in -important periodicals. But he was also painfully shy and ill at ease -away from his home. Even at the annual Death Valley picnics held at -Wilmington, near Los Angeles, he could never be persuaded to face the -crowds. - -One cannot laugh aside the part he played nor the monument that honors -one of God’s humblest. His strike at Rhyolite brought two railroads -across the desert, gave profitable employment to thousands of men, added -extra shifts in steel mills and factories making heavy machinery and -those of tool makers. The building trades felt it, banks, security -exchanges, and scores of other industries over the nation—all because -Shorty Harris went up a canyon. And it is not amiss to ask if these -historians did their jobs as well. - -At my home it was difficult to get Shorty to accept invitations to -dinners to which he was often invited by service clubs, but in the -Ballarat cabin he was as sure of himself as the MacGregor with a foot -upon his native heath and an eye on Ben Lomond. - -His passion for prospecting was fanatical. I asked him once if he would -choose prospecting as a career if he had his life to live over. - -“I wouldn’t change places with the President of the United States. My -only regret is that I didn’t start sooner. When I go out, every time my -foot touches the ground, I think ‘before the sun goes down I’ll be worth -$10,000,000.’” - -“But you don’t get it,” I reminded him. - -He stared at me with a sort of “you’re-too-dumb” look. “Who in the hell -wants $10,000,000? It’s the game, man—the game.” - -Nor is the picture of his profligacy altogether true. Despite Shorty’s -disregard for money he had a canniness that made him cache something -against the rainy day. At Lone Pine Charlie Brown was packing Shorty’s -suit case before taking him to a doctor. “Shorty, what’s this lump in -the lining of your vest?” - -“Oh, there was a hole in it. Poor job of mending I guess,” Shorty -answered guilelessly. - -“I’ll see,” Charlie said and ripping a few stitches removed $600 in -currency. - -Shorty’s last years furnish a story of a man too tough to die. He had -had three major operations, when in 1933 I received the following -telegram: “Wall fell on me. Hurry. Bring doctor. Shorty Harris.” It had -been sent by Fred Gray from Trona, 27 miles from Ballarat, nearest -telegraph station. - -My wife and I hurried through rain, snow, sleet; over washed out desert -and mountain roads. Outside the cabin in the dusk, shivering in a cold -wind, we found two or three of Shorty’s friends and Charles and Mrs. -Brown, who had also made a mad dash of 150 miles over roads—some of -which hadn’t been traveled in 30 years. - -Puttering around his cabin, Shorty had jerked at a wire anchored in the -walls and brought tons of adobe down upon himself. He was literally dug -out, his ribs crushed, face black with abrasions. With rapidly -developing pneumonia he had lain for 60 hours without medical attention -and with nothing to relieve pain. We learned later from Dr. Walter -Johnson, who had preceded us, that if a hospital had been within a block -it would have been fatal to move him. All agreed that Death sat on -Shorty’s bedside. - -“A cat has only nine lives,” Fred Gray said gravely, and outside in the -gathering gloom we planned his funeral. Because of the isolation of -Ballarat and lack of communication we arranged that when the end came, -Fred Gray would notify Brown and bring the body down into Death Valley -for burial. There we would meet the hearse. - -Because bodies decompose quickly in that climate, time was important. -While we planned these details, my wife, who had been at Shorty’s -bedside, joined us. “Shorty’s not going to die,” she said. “He’s -planning that trip up Signal Mountain you and he have been talking -about.” - -I tiptoed into the room. He was staring at the ceiling, seeing faraway -canyons; the yellow fleck in a broken rock. Suddenly he spoke: “I’m -losing a thousand dollars a day lying here. Why, that ledge—” - -A week after returning to our home we received another telegram from -Trona asking that we come for him. He had insisted upon being laid in -the bed of a pickup truck and taken across the Slate Range to Trona, -where we met him. - -At our home he lay on his back for weeks, fed with a spoon. Always -talking of putting another town on the map. Always losing a million -dollars a day. He was miraculously but slowly recovering when an -Associated Press dispatch bearing a Lone Pine date made front page -headlines with an announcement of his death. - -Though the report was quickly corrected, his presence at our house -brought reporters, photographers, old friends, and the merely curious. -At the time the Pacific Coast Borax Company’s N.B.C. program was -featuring stories based on his experiences over a nation-wide hook-up. -Among the callers also were moguls of mining and tycoons of industry who -had stopped at the Ballarat cabin to fall under the spell of his ever -ready yarns. - -Among these guests, one stands out. - -It was a hot summer day when I saw on the lawn what appeared to be a big -bear, because the squat, bulky figure was enclosed in fur. Answering the -door bell I looked into twinkling eyes and an ingratiating smile. “They -told me in Ballarat that Shorty Harris was here.” I invited him in. - -“I’ll just shed this coat,” he said, stripping off the bearskin garment. -“... sorta heavy for a man going on 80.” He laid it aside. “It’s double -lined. Fur inside and out. You see, I sleep in it. Crossed three -mountain ranges in that coat before I got here. May as well take this -other one off too.” He removed another heavy overcoat, revealing a cord -around his waist. “Keep this one tied close. Less bulky....” - -Under a shorter coat was a heavy woolen shirt and his overalls concealed -two pairs of pants. He went on: “I was with Shorty at Leadville. My -name’s Pete Harmon. We ought to be rich—both of us. Why, I sold a hole -for $2500 in 1878. Thought I was smart. They’ve got over $100,000,000 -outa that hole. I was at Bridgeport when I heard Shorty was sick, so I -says, ‘I’ll just step down to Ballarat and see him.’ (The ‘step’ was 298 -miles.) When I got there Bob Warnack tells me he’s in Los Angeles. When -I get there they tell me he’s with you. So I just stepped out here.” - -He had “stepped” 481 miles to see his friend. - -I ushered him in and left them alone. After an hour I noticed Pete -outside, smoking. I went out and urged him to return and smoke inside, -but he refused. “It’s not manners,” he insisted. - -Later I happened to look out the window and saw him empty the contents -of a small canvas sack into his hand. There were a few dimes and nickels -and two bills. He unfolded the currency. One was a twenty. The other, a -one. He put the coins in the sack and came inside. A few moments later, -from an adjacent room I heard his soft, lowered voice: “Shorty, I’m -eatin’ reg’lar now and got a little besides. I reckon you’re kinda shy. -You take this.” - -“No—no, Pete. I’m getting along fine....” - -I fancy there was a scurry among the angels to make that credit for Pete -Harmon. - -Late in the afternoon Pete donned his coats. “I’d better be going. I’ve -got a lotta things on hand. A claim in the Argus. When the money comes -in, well—I always said I was going to build a scenic railroad right on -the crest of Panamint Range. Best view of Death Valley. It’ll pay. How -far is it to San Diego?” - -“A hundred and forty miles....” - -“Well, since I’m this far along I’ll just step down and see my old -partner. Take care of Shorty....” And down the road he went. - -With humility I watched his passage, hoping that the good God would go -with him and somehow I felt that of all those with fame and wealth or of -high degree who had gone from that house, none had left so much in my -heart as Pete. - -During this period of convalescence Shorty was often guest in homes of -luxury and when at last I took him to Ballarat I was curious to see what -his reaction would be to the squalor of the crumbling cabin. - -When we stepped from the car, he noticed Camel, the blind burro drowsing -in the shade of a roofless dobe. “Old fellow,” he said, “it’s dam’ good -to see _you_ again....” I unloaded the car, brought water from the well -and sat down to rest. Shorty sat in a rickety rocker braced with baling -wire. I regarded with amusement the old underwear which he’d stuffed -into broken panes; the bare splintered floor; the cracked iron stove -that served both for cooking and heating. The wood box beside it. The -tin wash pan on a bench at the door. - -Then I noticed Shorty was also appraising the things about—the hole in -the roof; the box nailed to the wall that served as a cupboard. A -half-burned candle by his sagging bed. For a long time he glanced -affectionately from one familiar object to another and finally spoke: -“Will, haven’t I got a dam’ fine home?” - -For ages poets have sung, orators have lauded, but so far as I’m -concerned, Shorty said it better. - -The last orders from the surgeon had been, “Complete rest for three -months.” - -In the late afternoon we moved our chairs outside. The sun still shone -in the canyons and after he had seen that all his peaks were in place, -he turned to me: “I’m losing $5,000,000 a day sitting here. Soon as -you’re rested, we’ll start. You’ll be in shape by day after tomorrow, -won’t you?” - -I restrained a gasp as he pointed to the side of a gorge 8000 feet up on -Signal Mountain. “No trip at all....” - -No argument could convince him that the trip was foolhardy and on the -third day we started through Hall’s Canyon opposite the Indian Ranch. -The ascent from the canyon is so steep that in many places we had to -crawl on hands and knees. The three and a half miles were made in seven -hours, but on the return the inevitable happened. Shorty, exhausted, -staggered from the trail and collapsed. When he rose, he wobbled, but -managed to reach a bush and rolled under it. I ran to his side. It -seemed the end. “You go ahead,” he said weakly. “I’m through.” - -I had given him all my water and exacting a promise that he would remain -under the bush, I started for help at the Indian Ranch, to bring him -out. - -Coming up, I had paid no attention to the trail and was uncertain of my -way—which was further confused by criss-crossed trails of wild burros -and mountain sheep. Coming to a canyon that forked, I was not sure which -to take and panicked with fear took a sudden uncalculated choice and -started up a trail. The desert gods must have guided my feet, for it -proved to be the right one and an hour later I came upon the green -seepage of water. - -I dug a hole; let the scum run off then drank slowly and lay down to -rest. In my last conscious moment a huge rattler passed within a few -inches of my face. But rattlers were unimportant then and I went to -sleep. - -The swish of brush awoke me and I saw Shorty staggering down the trail. -He fell beside the water and was instantly asleep. Time I knew, was the -measure of life and I allowed him twenty minutes to rest, then awoke him -and made him go in front. On a ledge, he slumped again, his body hanging -over the cliff with a 1000 foot fall to rocks below. - -I managed to catch him by the seat of his trousers as he began to slip, -and dragged him back on the trail. Somehow I got him to the bottom. -There the canyon widens upon a level area covered with dense growth. -Walking ahead I suddenly missed him. He had crawled from the trail and -it required an hour to find him and this I did by the noise of his -rattly breathing. - -I half carried, half dragged him to the car and lifted him in. He was -asleep before I could close the door and remained unconscious for the -entire 11 miles of corduroy road to Ballarat. There Fred Gray and Bob -Warnack lifted him from the car and laid him on his bed. None of us -believed that Shorty Harris would ever leave that bed alive. - -The next morning I tiptoed softly out of the room, went over to the old -saloon and had breakfast with Tom, the caretaker. Afterward we sat -outside smoking and talking of Hungry Hattie’s feuding and her sister’s -mining deals, when we heard steady thumping sounds coming from Shorty’s -place. We looked. Bareheaded, Shorty Harris was chopping wood. - -Shorty was born near Providence, Rhode Island, July 2, 1856. He had only -a hazy memory of his parents. His father, a shoemaker, died impoverished -when Shorty was six years old. “... I went to live with my aunt. If she -couldn’t catch me doing something, she figured I’d outsmarted her and -beat me up on general principles.” - -At nine he ran away and obtained work in the textile mills of Governor -William Sprague, dipping calico. The village priest taught him to read -and write and apart from this, his only school was the alley. The -curriculum of the alley is hunger, tears, and pain but somehow in that -alley he found time to play and learned that with play came laughter. -Thenceforth life to Shorty Harris was just one long playday. - -In 1876 he started West and crawled out of a boxcar in Dodge City, -Kansas. About were stacks of buffalo hides, bellowing cattle, -“chippies,” gamblers, cow hands, and a chance for youngsters who had -come out of alleys. - -“... Among those I remember at Dodge City were my friends Wyatt Earp and -a thin fellow with a cough. If he liked you he’d go to hell for you. He -was Doc Holliday—the coldest killer in the West. I had a job in a livery -stable. Job was all right, but too much gunplay. Cowboys shooting up the -town. Gamblers shooting cowboys.” - -Flushed with his pay check, Shorty wandered into a saloon and met one of -the percentage girls—a lovely creature, not altogether bad. They danced -and Shorty suggested a stroll in the moonlight. And soon Shorty was in -love. - -“Shorty,” she asked, “why be a sucker? Why don’t you go to Leadville? -You might find a good claim.” - -“I’m broke,” he told her. - -“I’ve got some money,” she said, and reached into her purse. - -“I’m no mac,” he snapped. - -Finally she thrust the bills into his pocket. - -At Leadville he went up a gulch. Luck was kind. He found a good claim -and going into Leadville sold it for $15,000. Later it produced -millions. Within a week he was penniless. “Why, all I’ve got to do is to -go up another gulch,” he told sympathetic friends. - -On this trip his feet were frozen and he was carried out on the back of -his partner. Taken to the hospital, the surgeon told him that only the -amputation of both feet could save his life. - -Telling a group of friends about it in the Ballarat cabin later, Shorty -of course had to add a few details of his own: “Dan Driscoll came to see -me and I told him what the sawbones said. ‘Why hell,’ Dan says. ‘Won’t -be nothing left of you. You’ve got to get outa here. When that nurse -goes, I’ll take you to a doc who’ll save them feet.’ And the first thing -I knew I was in the other hospital. - -“The doc whetted his meat cleaver, picked up a saw and was about to go -to work, when he found there was nothing to dope me with. ‘I’ll fix it,’ -Doc says, and wham—he slapped me stiff. I don’t know what he did, but -when I came to I was good as new.” - -After selling a second claim to Haw Tabor, Shorty was again in the money -and remembered the girl in Dodge City. Returning, he looked her up, took -her to dinner. They danced and dined and Shorty toasted her in “bubble -water.” “I reckon everybody in Dodge City thought a caliph had come to -town. No little girl suffered for new toggery. No bum lacked a tip. In a -week I was broke again. - -“Going down to the freight yard to steal a ride on the rods I met the -girl and the next I knew, I was begging her to marry me. ‘Shorty, you -don’t know anything about my past, and still you want to marry me?’ - -“‘You don’t know anything about my past either,’ I said. But it was no -go.” - -Years afterward when Shorty and I were camped in Hall Canyon, I asked -him if he would actually have married a girl like her. - -“Who am I to count slips?” he bristled. “I did ask her,” and he swabbed -a tear that had dried fifty years ago. - -In 1898, after working for a grubstake he started on the trip that led -at last to Death Valley, by way of the San Juan country—one of the -world’s roughest regions. “I walked through Arizona, to Northern -Mexico—every mile of it desert. A labor strike in Colonel Green’s mines -threw me out of a job and I started back. Ran out of water and lived -five days on the juice of a bulbous plant—la Flora Morada. Each bulb has -a few drops. - -“On the Mojave I ran out of water again. Finally saw a mangy old camel -drinking at a pool. I had enough sense left to know there were no camels -around and went on till I flopped. A fellow picked me up. I told him I’d -been so goofy I’d seen a camel and water, but I knew it was just a -mirage. ‘You damned fool,’ he said. ‘It was a camel and you saw water. -Hi Jolly turned that camel loose.’” - -Shorty reached Tintic, Utah, and from there walked over a waterless -desert to the Johnnie mine, where he was given shelter, food, and -clothing. - -Bishop Cannon of the Mormon Church sent him into the Panamint to -monument a gold claim. “I was the only fool they could find to cross -Death Valley in mid summer. I found the claim but it proved to be -patented land.” - -Shorty was recuperating from his last operation at my home when he came -into the house one morning with fire in his eyes and a paper in his -hand. “Read that and let’s get going.” (It has been erroneously stated -that Shorty couldn’t read. Though he had little schooling and a cataract -impaired his sight, he could read to the end.) - -The paper announced a strike in Tuba Canyon near Ballarat. “Why, I know -a place nobody ever saw but me and a few eagles....” His losses -increased from a thousand to a million dollars a day because he wasn’t -on the job, and in May we started for Ballarat by the longer route -through Death Valley. - -When we reached Jim Dayton’s grave, he asked me to stop and getting out -of the car, he walked into the brush, returning with a few yellow and -blue wild flowers, laid them on Dayton’s grave. “God bless you, old -fellow. You’ll have to move over soon and make room for me.” - -Then turning to me, he said: “When I die bury me beside old Jim.” -Raising his hand and moving his finger as if he were writing the words, -he added: “Above me write, ‘Here lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket -jackass prospector.’” - -It was his way of saying he had played his game—not by riding over the -desert with a deluxe camping outfit, but the hard way—with beans and a -single blanket. He was also saying, I think, goodbye to the Death Valley -that he loved; its golden dunes, its creeping canyons and pots of gold. - -About one o’clock in the morning, Sunday, November 11, 1934, the phone -awakened me. At the other end of the line was Charles Brown. Shorty -Harris lay dead at Big Pine. “He just went to sleep and didn’t wake up,” -Charlie said. - -Shorty had died Saturday morning, November 10, and Charlie had arranged -for the remains to be brought down into Death Valley and buried beside -James Dayton Sunday afternoon. - -Out of Los Angeles, out of towns and settlements, canyons, and hills -came the largest crowd that had ever assembled in Death Valley, to wait -at Furnace Creek Ranch for the hearse that would come nearly 200 miles -over the mountains from Big Pine. It was delayed at every village and by -burro-men along the road, who wanted a last look upon the face of -Shorty. - -At one o’clock the caravan arrived and then began the procession down -the valley. The sun was setting and the shadows of the Panamint lay -halfway across the valley when the grave was reached. Brown had sent -Ernest Huhn from Shoshone the night previous, a distance of about 60 -miles, to dig the grave. - -On the desert a man dies and gets his measure of earth—often with not so -much as a tarpaulin. With this in mind Ernie had made the hole to fit -the man, but with the coffin it was a foot too short. While waiting for -the grave to be lengthened, the casket was opened and in the fading -twilight Shorty’s friends passed in file about the casket, while the -Indians, silhouetted against the brush paid silent tribute to him whom -their fathers and now their children knew as “Short Man.” - -So began the first funeral ever held in the bottom of Death Valley. -Drama, packed into a few moments of a dying day. No discordant ballyhoo. -No persiflage.... “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want....” A -bugler stepped beside the grave and silvered notes of taps went over the -valley. The casket was lowered into the grave as the stars came out, and -he was covered with the earth he loved. Thoughtful women placed wreaths -of athol and desert holly and, with his face toward his desert stars, -Shorty Harris holed-in forever. - -Going back to Shoshone with the Browns, I told Charlie of the time I had -stopped at Jim Dayton’s grave with Shorty. “I made up my mind then that -I would do something about his last wish. There’s no liar like a -tombstone, but Shorty deserves a marker.” - -“I’ll join you,” Charlie said. - -Charlie consulted Park officials and they approved. Chosen to write the -epitaph, I knew from the moment the task was assigned to me what it -would be. In order to get the reaction of others to the use of the word -“jackass” on the monument, I decided to try it out on the Browns. “This -epitaph,” I said, “may be unconventional, but unless I am mistaken it -will be quoted around the world.” - -I read it. “It’s all right,” Mrs. Brown laughed. Charlie approved. The -epitaph, as predicted has been quoted and pictures of the plaque -published around the world. - -It has been stated that the Pacific Coast Borax Company paid for the -monument. Actually it was provided by the Park Service. I had the bronze -tablet made in Pomona, California, and Charlie Brown insisted that he -pay for it. “Shorty left a little money,” he said. “Whatever is lacking, -I will pay myself.” - -On March 14, 1936, the monument was dedicated. Streamers of dust rolled -along every road that led into the Big Sink trailing cars that were -bringing friends from all walks of life to pay tribute to Shorty. At the -grave the rich and the famous stood beside the tottering prospector, the -husky miner, the silent, stoic Indian. Brown was master of ceremonies. -Telegrams were read from John Hays Hammond and other distinguished -friends. Old timers, whose memories spanned 30 years, one after another -wedged through the crowd to tell a funny story that Shorty had told or -some homely incident of his career. - -One was revealing: “We had the no-’countest, low-downest hooch drinking -loafer on the desert at Ballarat. We called him Tarfinger. He came over -to Shorty’s cabin one day and said he was hungry. Shorty loaned him -$5.00. When I heard about it I went over. I said, ‘You know he’s a -no-good loafing thief.’ I figured I was doing Shorty a favor. Instead, -he blew up. ‘Well, he can get as hungry as an honest man, can’t he?’” - -They understood what O. Henry meant when he sang: - - “Test the man if his heart be - In accord with the ultimate plan, - That he be not to his marring, - Always and utterly man.” - -The epitaph Shorty Harris wanted seemed fitting: “_Above me write, ‘Here -lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector.’_” - -As I turned away I thought of the monuments erected to dead Caesars who -had left trails of blood and ruin. Shorty Harris simply followed a -jackass into far horizons, and by leaving a smile at every water hole, a -pleasant memory on every trail, attained a fame which will last as long -as the annals of Death Valley. - - - - - Chapter XVIII - A Million Dollar Poker Game - - -Herman Jones, young Texan with keen blue eyes and a guileless grin, -dropped off the train at Johnnie, a railroad siding, named for the -nearby Johnnie mine. At the ripe age of 21 he had been through a -shooting war between New Mexico cattle men, and needing money to marry -the prettiest girl in the territory, he had come for gold. - -Finding it lonesome on his first night he sought the diversion of a -poker game in a saloon and gambling house. He bought a stack of chips, -sat down facing the bar and a moment later another stranger entered, -inquired if he could join the game. - -Told that $20 would get a seat, the stranger standing with his back to -the bar was reaching for his purse when Herman saw the bartender pick up -a six-gun. With his elbows on the bar and his pistol in two hands, he -aimed the gun at the back of the stranger’s head and pulled the trigger. - -The victim dropped instantly to the floor, his brains scattered on the -players. The poker session adjourned and Jones was standing outside a -few moments later when he was tapped on the shoulder. “Come on,” he was -told. “We’re giving that fellow a floater.” Herman didn’t know what a -floater was, but decided it was best to obey orders and followed the -leader into the saloon. - -Approaching the bartender, the spokesman pulled out his watch. “Bob,” he -said quietly. “It’s six o’clock. It won’t be healthy around here after -6:30.” He set a canteen on the bar and walked out. - -Without a word, the bartender pulled off his coat, gathered up the cash, -called the painted lady attached to his fortune and said, “Sell out for -what you can get. I’ll let you know where I am.” Picking up his hat he -left. No one ever learned the cause of the murder or the identity of the -dead. - -With no luck in the Johnnie district or at Greenwater, Herman left the -latter place on a prospecting trip in partnership with another luckless -youngster previously mentioned—Harry Oakes. - -On a hill overlooking the dry bed of the Amargosa River about four miles -north of Shoshone, he saw a red outcropping on a hill so steep he -decided nothing that walked had ever reached the summit, and for that -reason he might find treasure overlooked. - -Herman, being lean and agile, climbed up to investigate. Oakes remained -under a bush below. Jones returned with a piece of ore showing color. A -popular song of the period was called “Red Wing” and because he liked -sentimental ballads, Herman named it for the song. Camp was made at the -bottom of the hill. Oakes assumed the dish washing job to offset an -extra hour which Herman agreed to give to work on the trail. Somebody -told Oakes how to bake bread and while Herman was wheeling muck to the -dump, Harry experimented with his cookery. The bread turned out to be -excellent and Oakes took the day off to show it to friends. - -“That’s the sort of fellow Harry was,” Herman says. “You just couldn’t -take him seriously.” - -The Red Wing didn’t pay and when abandoned, all they had to show for -their labor was a stack of bills. On borrowed money, Oakes left the -country. Herman remained to pay the bills. - - -A few miles east of Shoshone is Chicago Valley, which began in a -startling swindle, and ended in fame and fortune for one defrauded -victim. - -A convincing crook from the Windy City found government land open to -entry and called it Chicago Valley. It was a desolate area and the only -living thing to be seen was an occasional coyote skulking across or a -vulture flying over. The promoter needed no capital other than a good -front, glib tongue, and the ability to lie without the flicker of a -lash. - -A few weeks later Chicago widows with meager endowments, scrub women -with savings, and some who coughed too much from long hours in sweat -shops began to receive beautifully illustrated pamphlets that described -a tropical Eden with lush fields, cooling lakes, and more to the point, -riches almost overnight. For $100 anyone concerned would be located. - -Soon people began to swing off The Goose, as the dinky train serving -Shoshone was called, and head for Chicago Valley. Among the victims was -a widow named Holmes with a family of attractive, intelligent children. -One of these was a vivacious, beautiful teen-ager named Helen. - -The Holmes were handicapped because of tuberculosis in the family. This -in fact had induced the widow to invest her savings. - -Herman Jones used to ride by the Holmes’ place en route to the Pahrump -Ranch on hunting trips and owning several burros, he thought the Holmes’ -children would like to have one. Taking the donkey over, he told Helen, -“You can use him to work the ranch too. Better and faster than a -hoe....” He brought a harness and a cultivator, showed her how to use -the implement. - -It was inevitable that investors in Chicago Valley would lose their -time, labor, and money. - -Thus when Helen Holmes returned the burro to Herman one day, Herman was -not surprised when she told him she was on her way to Los Angeles to -look for a job. - -“But what can you do?” - -“I wish I knew. I can get a job washing dishes or waiting on table.” - -Shortly afterward he heard from her—just a little note saying she was a -hello girl on a switchboard. “Knew she’d land on her feet,” Herman -grinned, and having a bottle handy he gurgled a toast to Helen. He had -to tell the news of course and with each telling he produced the bottle. - -So he was in a pleasant mood when somebody suggested a spot of poker. To -mention poker in Shoshone is to have a game and in a little while Dad -Fairbanks, Dan Modine, deputy sheriff, Herman, and two or three others -were shuffling chips over in the Mesquite Club. - -Herman had the luck and quit with $700. “Fellows,” he said as he folded -his money, “take a last look at this roll. You won’t see it again.” - -“Oh, you’ll be back,” Fairbanks said. - -But Herman didn’t come back. Instead he went to Los Angeles, found Helen -at the switchboard. She confided excitedly that she had a chance to get -into the movies as soon as she could get some nice clothes. - -“Fine,” Herman said. “When can I see you?” He made a date for dinner, -had a few more drinks and when he met her he had a comfortable binge and -a grand idea. “... Listen Helen. You wouldn’t get mad at a fool like me -if I meant well, would you?” - -“Why Herman—you know I wouldn’t,” she laughed. - -“I’m a little likkered and it’s kinda personal....” - -“But you’re a gentleman, Herman—drunk or sober....” - -“I’ve been thinking of this picture business. I nicked Dad Fairbanks in -a poker game. You know how I am. Lose it all one way or another. You -take it and buy what you need and it’ll do us both some good.” - -The refusal was quick. “It’s sweet of you Herman, but not that. I just -couldn’t.” - -“You can borrow it, can’t you ... so I won’t drink it up?” - -The argument won and soon theater goers all over the world were -clutching their palms as they watched the hair-raising escapes from -death that pictured “The Perils of Pauline”—the serial that made Helen -Holmes one of the immortals of the silent films. She died at 58, on July -8, 1950. - -When Charlie Brown became Supervisor in charge of Death Valley roads, he -wanted a foreman who knew the country. Herman Jones had hunted game, -treasure, fossils, artifacts of ancient Indians all over Death Valley -and knew the water courses, the location of subterranean ooze, the dry -washes which when filled by cloudbursts were a menace. Brown made him -foreman of the road crew. - -At Shoshone, Herman Jones, grey now, was tinkering with a battered Ford -when a big Rolls-Royce stopped. He looked around at the slam of the -door, stared a moment at the man approaching, dropped his tools, wiped -his hands on a greasy rag. “Well, I’ll be—” he laughed. “Harry -Oakes—where’ve you been all these years?” - -“Oh, knocking around,” grinned Oakes. “Wanted to see this country -again.” - -They sat in the shade of a mesquite, talked over Greenwater days and the -homely memories that leap out of nowhere at such a time. - -Oakes noticed Herman’s Ford. Then he pointed to the $20,000 worth of -long, sleek Rolls-Royce. “Herman, I’m going back to New York in a plane. -I want to make you a present of that car.” - -Herman Jones, dumbfounded for a moment, looked at his Ford, smiled, and -shook his head. “Thanks just the same, Harry. That old jalopy’s plenty -good for me.” No amount of persuasion could make him accept it. - -Knowing that Herman Jones could use any part of $20,000, I marvelled -that he didn’t accept the proffered gift. Then I remembered that the -Redwing had produced only sweat and debts and Jones had paid the debts -through the bitter years. - -In the little town of Swastika in the province of Ontario, Canada, you -will be told that Oakes was booted off the train there because he was -dead-beating his way. The country had been prospected, pronounced -worthless and nobody believed there was pay dirt except a Chinaman. - -Harry Oakes had an ear for anybody’s tale of gold and listened to the -Chinaman. He was 38 years old. Lady Luck had always slammed the door in -his face but this time, (January, 1912) she flung it open. Eleven years -later Oakes was rich. - -He had always talked on a grand scale even when broke at Shoshone. With -a taste for luxury he began to gratify it. He bought a palatial home at -Niagara Falls and served his guests on gold platters. As his fortune -increased he gave largely to charities and welfare projects such as city -parks, playgrounds, hospitals. These gifts lead one to believe that the -belated payment of $300 borrowed from Dad Fairbanks was a calculated -delay so that Harry Oakes could enjoy the little act he put on at Baker. - -During World War I he gave $500,000 to a London hospital, was knighted -by King George V in 1939. He became a friend of the Duke of Windsor and -at his Nassau residence was often the host to the Duke and his Duchess, -the amazing Wallis Warfield, Baltimore girl who went from a boarding -house to wed a British king. - -Sir Harry Oakes was murdered in the palatial Nassau home, July 7, 1943, -allegedly by a titled son-in-law who was later acquitted—a verdict -denounced by many. - -_In connection with the story of Helen Holmes told above, it should be -explained that the original title was “Hazards of Helen” and following -an old Hollywood custom, Pathe produced a new version called “Perils of -Pauline.” In this the heroine’s part was taken by Pearl White._ - - - - - Chapter XIX - Death Valley Scotty - - -A strictly factual thumbnail sketch of Walter Scott would contain the -following incidents: - -He ran away from his Kentucky home to join his brother, Warner, as a cow -hand on the ranch of John Sparks—afterward governor of Nevada. He worked -as a teamster for Borax Smith at Columbus Marsh. He had a similar job at -Old Harmony Borax Works. - -In the Nineties he went to work with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. He -married Josephine Millius, a candy clerk on Broadway, New York, and -brought her to Nevada. - -He became guide, friend, companion, and major domo for Albert -Johnson—Chicago millionaire who had come to the desert for his health. -He did some prospecting in the early part of the century, but never -found a mine of value. - -America was mining-mad following the Tonopah and Goldfield strikes and -Scotty went East in search of a grubstake. He obtained one from Julian -Gerard, Vice President of the Knickerbocker Trust Company and a brother -of James W. Gerard who had married the daughter of Marcus Daly, Montana -copper king and who was later U.S. Ambassador to Germany. - -Scotty staked a claim near Hidden Spring and named it The Knickerbocker. -He gave Gerard glowing reports of a mine so rich its location must be -kept secret. - -Scotty appeared in Los Angeles unheard of, in a ten gallon hat and a -flaming necktie and with the natural showman’s skill, tossed money -around in lavish tips or into the street for urchins to scramble over. - -This was the well-staged prelude to the charter of the famed Scotty -Special for a record-breaking run from Los Angeles to Chicago. Though -Scotty stoutly denies it, he was lifted to fame by a big and talented -sorrel-headed sports editor and reporter on the Los Angeles Examiner, -named Charles Van Loan, and John J. Byrnes, passenger agent of the Santa -Fe railroad. Scotty meant nothing to either of these men, but the -publicity Byrnes saw for the Santa Fe did, and the red necktie, the big -hat, the scattering of coins, and the secret mine made the sort of story -Van Loan liked. - -Here Scotty’s trail is lost in the fantastic stories of writers, press -agents, and promoters. Several years afterward when his yarns began to -backfire, Scotty swore in a Los Angeles court that E. Burt Gaylord, a -New York man, furnished $10,000 for the Scotty Special’s spectacular -dash across the continent—the object being to promote the sale of stock -in the “secret mine.” - -More remarkable than any yarn Scotty ever told is the fact that although -headlines made Scotty, headlines have failed to kill the Scotty legend. - -You may toss our heroes into the ash can, but we dust them off and put -them back. Likable, ingratiating, Scotty will brush aside any attack -with a funny story and let it go at that. - -In a law suit for an accounting against Scotty, Julian Gerard asserted -he was to have 22½% of any treasure Scotty found. Judge Ben Harrison -decided in Gerard’s favor, but the only claim found in Scotty’s name was -the utterly worthless Knickerbocker and Gerard got nothing. The claim -showed little sign of ever having been worked. A few broken rocks. A few -holes which could be filled with a shovel within a few moments. - -Passing the claim once, I stopped to talk with a native: “This is the -scene of the Battle of Wingate Pass,” he told me. “In case you never -heard of it, it was fought for liberty, Scotty’s liberty—that is. Gerard -got suspicious about Scotty’s mine and decided to send his own engineers -out to investigate. He ordered Scotty to meet them at Barstow and show -them something or else. It worried Scotty a little, not long. He’d -learned about Indian fighting with Buffalo Bill and met the fellows as -ordered. When he led them to his wagon waiting behind the depot, the -Easterners took a look at the wagon, another look at Scotty and one at -each other. The wagon had boiler plate on the sides, rifles stacked army -fashion alongside. Outriders with six-guns holstered on their belts and -Winchesters cradled in their arms. - -“‘Don’t let it worry you,’ Scotty said. ‘Piutes on the warpath. Old -Dripping Knife, their Chief claims my gold belongs to them. Dry-gulched -a couple of my best men last week.’ - -“The Easterners turned white and Scotty gave ’em another jolt. -‘Butchered my boys and fed ’em to their pigs. But we are fixed for ’em -this trip. They sent word they aim to exterminate us. Maybe try it, but -I’ve got lookouts planted all along. Let’s go....’ He shunted them -aboard, shaking in their knees and headed out of Barstow. - -“The party had reached that hill you see when suddenly out of the brush -and the gulches and from behind the rocks came a horde of ‘redskins,’ -yelling and shooting. Scotty’s men leaped from their saddles and the -battle was on. The Easterners jumped out of the wagon and hit the ground -running for the nearest dry wash and that was the closest they ever got -to Scotty’s mine. You’ve got to hand it to Scotty.” - -The story made front page from coast to coast and it was several days -before the hoax was revealed. Unexplained though undenied, was the -statement that Albert Johnson was in Scotty’s party listed as “Doctor -Jones.” It is assumed that he had no guilty knowledge of the hoax. - -The most astounding achievement of Scotty’s career was attained when he -interested in an imaginary Death Valley mine, Al Myers, a hard-bitten -prospector and mining man who had made the discovery strike at -Goldfield; Rol King, of Los Angeles, bon vivant and manager of the -popular Hollenbeck Hotel, and Sidney Norman who as mining editor of the -Los Angeles Times knew mines and mining men. - -These were certainly not the gullible type. But with a yarn of gold, -Scotty induced them to hazard a trip into Death Valley in mid-summer -when the temperature was 124 degrees. - -Scotty may have missed the acquisition of a good mine when he failed to -find one lost by Bob Black. While hunting sheep in the Avawatz Range, -Bob found some rich float. “Honest,” Bob said, “I knocked off the quartz -and had pure gold.” He tried to locate the ledge but he couldn’t match -his specimen. Later he returned with Scotty, but a cloudburst had mauled -the country. They found the corners of Bob’s tepee, but not the ledge. -They made several later attempts to find it, but failed. - -Bob always declared that some day he would uncover the ledge and might -have succeeded if he hadn’t met Ash Meadows Jack Longstreet one day when -both were full of desert likker. Bob passed the lie. Jack drew first. -Taps for Bob. - - -All kinds of stories have been told to explain Albert Johnson’s -connection with Scotty. The first and the true one is that Johnson, -coming to the desert for his health, hired Scotty as a guide, liked his -yarns and his camping craft and kept him around to yank a laugh out of -the grim solitude. - -But that version didn’t appeal to the old burro men. They could believe -in the hydrophobic skunks or the Black Bottle kept in the county -hospital to get rid of the old and useless, but not in a Santa Claus -like Albert Johnson. “It just don’t make sense—handing that sort of -money to a potbellied loafer like Scotty....” - -Albert Johnson was able to afford any expenditure to make his life in a -difficult country less lonely. He could have searched the world over and -found no better investment for that purpose than Scotty. - -Genial, resourceful, and never at a loss for a yarn that would fit his -audience, Scotty was cast in a perfect role. As a matter of fact, -whatever it cost Johnson for Scotty’s flings in Hollywood, or alimony -for Scotty’s wife, it probably came back in the dollar admissions that -tourists paid to pass the portals of the Castle for a look at Scotty. Of -course they seldom saw Scotty—never in later years. Mrs. Johnson was an -intensely religious woman and didn’t like liquor and that disqualified -Scotty. - -“This is Scotty’s room,” the attendant would say. “And that’s his bed.” - -“Oh, isn’t he here?” - -“Not today. Scotty’s a little under the weather. Went over to his shack -so he wouldn’t be disturbed....” - -Mrs. Johnson was killed in an auto driven by her husband in Towne’s Pass -when, to avoid going over a precipice, he headed the machine into the -wall of a cut. - -In 1939 Albert Johnson testified that he first met Scotty in Johnson’s -Chicago office when a wealthy friend appeared with Scotty, who was -looking for a grubstake. Johnson said he gave Scotty “something between -$1000 and $5000.” When the attorney asked him to be more definite, -Johnson replied that at the time, his income was between one-half -million and two million dollars a year and the exact amount consequently -was of no importance then. “Since then,” Johnson testified, “I have -given him $117,000 in cash and about the same in grubstakes, mules, -food, and equipment.” - -They went together into the mountains as Johnson explained, “because I -was all hepped up with his ... claims.” Further explaining his -connection with Scotty, he said: “I was crippled in a railroad accident. -My back was broken. I was paralyzed from the hips down. Through the -years I got to have a great fondness for him.” - -Albert Johnson, whose fortune came from the National Insurance Company, -died in 1948, leaving a will that contained no mention of Scotty. - -But one laurel none can deny Walter Scott. He did more to put Death -Valley on the must list of the American tourists than all the histories -and all the millions spent for books, pamphlets, and radio broadcasts. - - -The almost incredible case of Jack and Myra Benson proves that P. T. -Barnum was not wholly wrong in his dictum regarding the birthrate of -suckers. - -Newly married in Montana they loaded their car and set out to seek -fortune in the West. “We didn’t know anything about gold,” Jack -confided. “If anyone had told us to throw a forked stick up a hillside -and dig where it fell, we would have done it.” - -Near Parker, Arizona, they were having supper in camp when another -traveler stopped and asked permission to erect his tent nearby. Myra -invited him to share their supper and during the meal the stranger told -them he was a chemist and that he had prospected over most of the West. -He had found a clay that cured meningitis, he said, and this had led to -fortune. In one town he had found the entire population, including -doctors and nurses down and out. The clay had cured them within a week. -Among the cured, was the son of a rich woman who had given him $5000. - -Grateful for the fate that had brought this man into their lives, the -Bensons confided that they had hoped to reach the California gold -fields, but car trouble had depleted their cash and asked if he knew of -any place where they could pan gold. - -“Go to Silver Lake, in San Bernardino County, California,” he advised -them, “and your troubles will be over. On the edges of the lake is a -thick mud. Get some tanks and boil it. You’ll have a residue of gold.” - -Jack and Myra set out over the Colorado Desert; then climbed the -Providence Mountains to worry through the deep blow sand of the Devil’s -Playground. After three gruelling weeks they reached the lake. There -they boiled the mud. Then an old prospector became curious about their -unusual performance. The world slipped out from under the Bensons when -he told them they were the victims of a liar. - -With $5.00 they headed for Death Valley; found themselves broke and -gasless at Cave Spring. Jack knocked upon the door of a shack he saw -there. The woman who opened the door was Jack’s former school teacher, -Mrs. Ira Sweatman, who was keeping house for her cousin, Adrian -Egbert—there for his health. - -Those who traveled the Death Valley road by way of Yermo and Cave Spring -will remember that every five miles tacked to stake or bush were signs -that read: “Water and oil.” This was Adrian Egbert’s fine and practical -way of aiding the fellow in trouble. - -Myra and Jack later acquired a claim near Rhodes Spring, a short -distance from Salsbury Pass road into Death Valley and moved there to -develop it. I had been away from Shoshone with no contacts and returning -was surprised to find Myra there. I inquired about Jack. - -“Why, haven’t you heard?” she asked, and from the expression in her eyes -I knew that Jack was dead. - -As best I could, I expressed my condolence, knowing how deeply she had -loved. - -She said: “He went up to the tunnel to set off three blasts. I heard -only two. He was to come after the third blast. I knew something was -wrong and went up. Bigod, Mr. Caruthers, Jack’s head was blown off to -hellangone....” - -Myra’s language failed to mask the grief her welling eyes disclosed. - -Only once in her long, helpful life did Myra ever stoop to deception. -The old age pension law was passed and Myra was entitled to and needed -its benefits, but Myra wouldn’t sign the application. She made one -excuse after another, but finally Stella Brown got at the bottom of her -refusal. Myra had been married to Jack for 40 years and just didn’t want -him to find out that she was a year older than he. Mrs. Brown at last -persuaded her to put aside her vanity. - -“Hell—” Jack grinned when told about it. “I knew her age when I married -her.” - -On cold winter nights Myra could always be found in the Snake House -where a chair beside the stove was reserved for her. One night I said -jestingly: “You never play poker. What are you doing here?” - -She whispered: “Wood’s hard to get. I’m saving mine.” - -Then came one of those mornings when one’s soul tingles with the feel of -a perfect desert day and Myra was up early. She came to the store. - -“What got you up at this hour?” Bernice asked. - -“I felt too dam’ good to stay indoors....” - -There were a few old timers in the store and these surrounded -her—because she was the kind who could tell you that it was hotter than -hell, in a thrilling way. She bought a few groceries and started back to -her cabin. Friendly eyes followed her passage along a path across the -playground of the little school. Children sliding down the chute or -riding teeter boards, waved affectionately. Myra was seen to falter in -her step, then sag to the sand. The children ran to her aid and in a -moment Shoshone was gathering about her. Myra Benson was dead. - -Sam Flake, nearing 80, on the fringe of the crowd paid his simple -tribute in a voice a bit shaky, but in language hard as the rock in the -hills: “Dam’ her old hide—us boys are going to miss Myra....” He turned -aside, his hand pulling at the bandana in his hip pocket and Shoshone -understood. - -Though she was buried 500 miles away, every man, woman, and child in -Shoshone wanted a token of love to attend her and about the grave that -received her casket was a wilderness of flowers. - - - - - Chapter XX - Odd But Interesting Characters - - -In these pages the reader has seen familiar names—the favored of Lady -Luck—but what of those who failed—the patient, plodding kind of whom you -hear only on the scene? They too followed jackasses into hidden hills; -made trails that led others to fortunes which built cities, industries, -railroad; endowed colleges and made science function for a better world. -To these humbler actors we owe more than we can repay. - -For nearly half a century John (Cranky) Casey roamed the deserts of -California and Nevada looking for gold. His luck was consistently bad. -Grim, tall, erect, with a deep slow voice, he was noted for picturesque -speech which gained emphasis from an utterly humorless face. -Congenitally he was an autocrat—his speech biting. - -A prospector whom Casey didn’t like died and friends were discussing the -disposition of the remains. “Chop his feet off,” suggested Casey, “and -drive him into the ground with a doublejack....” - -From others one could always hear tales of fortunes made or missed; of -veins of gold wide as a barn door. But no trick of memory ever turned -Casey’s bull quartz into picture rock. “Never found enough gold to fill -a tooth,” he would say. - -Casey’s leisure hours were spent over books and magazines, chiefly -highbrow—particularly books and journals of science. - -A tenderfoot was brought in unconscious from Pahrump Valley. A city -doctor happened to be passing through and after an examination of the -victim, turned to the men in overalls and hobnail shoes, who’d brought -him in: “He’s suffering from a derangement of the hypothalamus.” - -“Why in the hell don’t you say he had a heat stroke?” Casey barked. - -A notorious promoter had a city victim ready for the dotted line. -“Double your money in no time.... Samples show $200 to the ton....” -Assuming all prospectors were crooked he called to Casey sitting nearby: -“Casey, you know the Indian Tom claim?” “Yes, I know it,” Casey -thundered. “Not a fleck of gold in the whole dam’ hill.” - -In the thick silence that followed, the beaten rascal flushed, looked -belligerently at Casey but Casey’s big, hard fists he knew, could almost -dent boiler plate and the long arms wrapped about a barrel, could crush -it flat. - -In time Casey acquired an ancient flivver. Only his genius as a mechanic -kept it going. There were lean years when it bore no license and he kept -to little-traveled roads. The car, like Casey, was cranky and -phlegmatic. One day as he was coming into Shoshone it balked in the -middle of the road, coughed, shivered, and died. Inside the store it was -120 degrees. Out on the road where Casey stopped it was probably 130. -For two hours he patiently but vainly tried to coax it back to life. -Finally he stood aside, wiped the grease from his gnarled hands, calmly -stoked his pipe and shoved the car from the road. Then he gathered an -armful of boulders and with a blasting of cussing that shook Shoshone he -let go with a cannonade of stones that completed its ruin. - -At the age of ten Casey had been taken from the drift of a city’s -backwash and put in an orphanage. Nothing was known of his parentage or -of relatives. He came to the desert after a colorful career as a -conductor on the Santa Fe. The late E. W. Harriman, having gained -control of the Southern Pacific system had his private car attached to a -Santa Fe train for an inspection tour. At a siding on the Mojave Desert, -Harriman wanted the train held a few moments. His messenger went to -Casey, explaining that Harriman was the new boss of the Southern -Pacific. - -“This is the Santa Fe,” Casey bristled, looking at his watch. “I’m due -in Barstow at 11:05 and bigod I’ll be there.” - -Aboard his train he was a despot and a stickler for the rules, demanding -that even his superiors obey them. This finally was his downfall and he -came to the desert. - -Elinor Glyn, who made the best seller list with “Three Weeks” in the -early part of the century, came to Rawhide and Tex Rickard, spectacular -gambler undertook to show her a bit of life a la Rawhide. He took her to -the Stingaree district and later to a reception in his own place. The -state’s notables were presented to the lady along with Nat Goodwin, -Julian Hawthorne, and others internationally known. - -Tex saw Casey standing alone at the end of the bar and knowing he was a -voracious reader he went to Casey: “Come on and meet the author of Three -Weeks....” - -“I’ve read it,” Casey said. “They’ve hung folks for less.” - -Casey’s method of getting a job when his grub ran out was unique and -unfailing. He would storm into the store and turn loose on Charlie, in -charge of the roads and long his friend. “Who’s keeping up these roads? -Chuck holes in ’em big as the Grand Canyon ... disgrace—” - -“Been waiting for you to come in,” Charlie would say with a sober face. -“Get a shovel and fix ’em.” - -A good conscientious worker, Casey would put the road in shape, pay his -debts and again head into the horizon. - -You who spin through Death Valley or along its approaches owe much to -Casey, who made many of the original road beds the hard way—with pick -and shovel. - -At last Casey got the old age pension and his latter years were the -best. His home, a dugout in the bank of a wash near Tecopa. With no -rent, with books and magazines and the solitude he loved, he lived -happily. “When I croak,” he often said, “just put me in my dugout. Toss -a stick of dynamite in after me. Shut the door and cave in the goddam’ -hill.” - -One night he went to Tecopa. Friends were doing a spot of drinking and -far behind in his score with the years, Casey joined them. There was -nothing out of line. Just yarns and memories and Casey had a lot of -these. Tonopah. Goldfield. Rawhide. Ely. Foundling days. - -“... They put me in a religious school. Had no relatives. In those days -they whaled hell outa you just to see you squirm. ‘Casey,’ the teacher -would ask, ‘who swallowed the whale?’ How did I know? Then he’d drag me -off by the ear and blister my bottom. I shoved off one night. Been on -the loose ever since.” - -As he drank from his bottle of beer he suddenly slumped—and died -instantly. Because of the intense heat, Maury Sorrells, now Supervisor -but then Coroner, ordered immediate burial. - -Someone recalled Casey’s wish to be put in the dugout and the hill blown -up and started for the dynamite. But Whitey Bill McGarn warned that it -would violate the law. One-eyed Casey—no relation, but long a friend, -suggested a wake until the grave was dug. “It will be daylight then and -we’ll plant him in the wash right in front of his dugout.” - -This was done as the sun came over the hills and I like to think that -somewhere in the after life, all is well with Casey. - - -Ben Brandt, previously mentioned, was a big blond man with child-like -blue eyes, huge gnarled hands and the strength of an ox. He wore -enormous boots, but when he bought new ones he always complained that -they lacked traction and would go immediately to the dump, salvage an -old tire casing and add two inches of reinforcement to the soles, with -half a pound of hobnails. Ben then was ready for travel—provided he -could find his burros. - -Near remote Quail Springs Ben dug a 4×4 mine shaft 75 feet deep, without -aid. Descending by ladder he would fill a 10 gallon bucket with dirt, -climb out and bring it to the surface. Day after day, month after month -Ben applied the power of two strong arms and two strong legs. “With an -engine you could do it in half the time,” Ben was told. “I’ve got plenty -of time,” Ben drawled. - -Ben disdained gold in quartz formation. “I like placer. It’s a poor -man’s game. If you find gold you put it in your poke and you’ve got -spending money.” - -Ben kept five burros and being industrious, never lacked a grubstake. He -avoided argument except upon one subject, and that was burros versus -Fords in prospecting. “I can get anywhere with my burros. I find stalled -flivvers all over the desert and my burros drag ’em in.” - -Ben believed that a burro had at least some of the intellectual powers -of man. “Read a clock good as you,” he said. “I worked my burro, -Solomon, on a hoist. He didn’t like it. I got up every morning at -daylight, by an alarm clock. Slept out and kept the clock on a boulder -at my head and got up when the alarm went off. One morning I woke up -with the sun shining straight down in my eyes. It was noon. That burro -had sneaked up and taken that clock down the canyon a mile away. Don’t -tell me they can’t think! I sold him. Too smart.” - -I asked Ben once what he would do if he suddenly found a million dollar -claim. “I would build a monument a thousand feet high on top of -Telescope Peak and dedicate it to burros.” - -Such a monument would inadequately express the debt today’s world owes -that little beast. Here are some of the things that link your life to -the burro: - -The springs and the mattress in the bed you were born on. The talc that -powdered you. The soap that bathed you. The ring you slipped on the -finger of the girl you love. The paint on your house. The glass in your -windows. The tile in your bathroom. The enamel ware in your kitchen. The -prescription your druggist fills. The fillings the dentist puts into -your teeth. The coin and the currency you spend. The auto you ride in -and finally the casket in which you leave this world. - -Wars have been won or lost and the credit of nations stabilized because -a burro carried a prospector’s grub into faraway hills. - -Ben’s burros strayed and he’d just returned with them after a two days’ -hunt. He was sitting on the bench mopping his brow when Louise Grantham, -the girl with the mine in the Panamint, came up. She needed pack animals -to get the ore down to the road. She’d tried before, to trade her Ford -pickup for Ben’s burros, but he’d never shown a flicker of interest. In -a voice pitched for Ben’s ears, she said to Ernie Huhn: “If Ben didn’t -waste so much time hunting those jacks, he might find a mine.” - -Ben cocked an ear, but made no comment. - -“Now take that Quail Springs hole,” Louise went on. “If he had my pickup -he could take off a wheel, put on a belt and haul up the muck in one -tenth the time, and instead of hoofing it in the sun he could ride in a -cool cab and haul his supplies in.” - -There comes a weak moment in everyone’s life and this was Ben’s. He -traded the burros for the Ford and one of the best prospectors on the -desert was ruined forever. - -Ben had a mortal fear of women and nothing could convince him that any -unattached woman wasn’t always lying in wait for any loose man. - -Ben went into the Johnnie country to prospect and passing through I -looked him up. He was living in a tin shack in the canyon leading to the -old Johnnie Mine. I asked Ben about his luck. - -“Last prospecting I did was right out there.” He pointed to the slope in -front of his house. “Good placer ground too.” - -“Why did you quit?” - -“Woman,” Ben grumbled. “Don’t know yet what come over me, but I took a -woman for a partner.” He pointed to a boulder a few hundred yards away. -“There’s where I wanted to start digging. It’s rich dirt. She wanted to -start up there near her shack.” - -“Well, what difference did it make?” I asked. - -“I see you don’t know women. I hadn’t been working up there by her house -no time before she called me to get her a bucket of water. Bucket was -half full. Next day she wanted a board in the kitchen floor nailed down. -Didn’t need any nail. ‘There’s some fresh apple pie on the table,’ she -says. I told her I didn’t like pie. I’m crazy about pie but I knew her -game. She calculated if I ate with her two—three times I’d be a dead -pigeon. So I told her she could have the claim and walked off.” - -Ben struck a happier note when he informed me that he didn’t need to -work any more and at last had attained the one ambition of his life. -“Come inside and I’ll show you.” Beaming as only a man can when he sits -on top of the world, he approached a table and it flashed over me that I -would see a certified check for a fortune. - -There was a cloth over the table and he carefully wiped his big hands -before touching it. He wet his big, broad thumb and forefinger and gave -them an extra wipe on the sides of his shirt, a wide smile on his face -and I had a vicarious thrill that a man who could barely read and write -had at last achieved that which he most wanted in life. He started to -remove the cloth, but paused. “Always said if I ever struck it rich, -first money I spent would be for one of these dinkuses.” - -He flipped the cloth aside. I stared incredulous. It was a portable -typewriter. - -He replaced the cover with the gentle care of a mother putting her baby -to bed and I left him, sure that God was in his heaven with an eye on -Ben. - - -Contemporary with Ben was Joe Volmer, who lived in a dugout in Dublin -Gulch. I had seen royalty from afar and once I had dined with a sultan -on horsemeat and fried bananas, but no king ever attained the majesty of -Joe. He was tall, erect, wore a white sailor’s hat and carried a cane. -His mustache was always waxed to a needle point, after the manner of -Kaiser Wilhelm. Though he increased his small pension by selling home -brew, he always managed to give the impression that he was descending to -your level when he accepted the two bits you left on his table. - -He was neat as he was lordly and forever scrubbing his pots and pans. He -kept the dugout immaculate and when I first saw him standing on the -ledge in front of his door, calmly surveying the valley below, he posed -like an Alexander the Great, with the world conquered and trussed at his -feet. - -I had never seen him until one day a tourist came into the store and -asked Charlie for a stop-watch. Charlie told him he didn’t carry -stop-watches. Shortly after the tourist had gone, Joe came in for a -stop-watch. “Don’t keep ’em,” Charlie said. “Helluva store,” Joe barked -and strode out. - -“A curious coincidence,” I said. “Two calls for a stop-watch in the same -day away out here.” - -“It’s no coincidence,” Charlie said. “Just Joe Volmer. He’s in every day -asking for something he knows I haven’t got.” - -After Joe left, Jack Crowley came for his mail. Brown was in the cage -set apart for the post office. He had just received several sheets of -six-cent stamps—twice as many as he needed. “Jack,” he said, “when you -see Joe tell him I’m out of six-cent stamps.” Within an hour Joe shoved -a five dollar bill through the window. “Give me five dollars’ worth of -six-cent stamps,” he ordered. Brown picked up the bill, filled the order -and never again did Joe ask for merchandise not in stock. - -Joe sold a claim and decided he needed a refrigerator to keep the beer -cold. So he picked up a Monkey Ward catalogue and ordered a big white -enamel number large enough for a hotel. Joe thought a refrigerator was -just a refrigerator and he strutted around telling everybody. He had to -widen the dugout door and waiting customers were more than eager to help -him get the machine in place. He loaded the shelves and told them to -come back in a couple of hours and cool their innards. - -They came with their tongues hanging out. Joe set out the glasses and -passed the bottles. Herman Jones picked one up and shook it. The cork -hit the ceiling. “Hotter’n hell,” Herman said. “What sort of cooler is -that?” He went over and looked. “Gas. You dam’ fool. Nearest gas is -Barstow.” - -Until Joe’s death he used the refrigerator to store pots and pans. - -Discovered in his dugout in a serious condition, Joe was rushed to Death -Valley Junction 28 miles away, where the Pacific Coast Borax Company -maintained a hospital which was in charge of Dr. Shrum, who was rather -realistic and somewhat cold blooded. - -Just as they had gotten Joe in the doctor’s office, another patient was -brought in. Dr. Shrum looked at the new comer and then at Joe. “Take Joe -out,” he ordered. “He’s going to die anyway.” - -Joe was wheeled outside and a moment later was dead. - - -George Williams, a Spanish American war veteran, retired to Shoshone on -a pension of $50. Since food was cheap, George had more money than he -knew what to do with. He kept five burros. He never prospected, but -roamed the country and thought nothing of taking a 300 mile trip across -the roughest terrain in the region. After spending his summers in the -high country, he would return to Shoshone in winter. There he had a five -acre ranch fenced in and a neat cabin. - -Every day George would come to the store and buy a pound of chocolates. -“I’ve got a sweet tooth,” he would explain. - -Charlie, sure that no one could eat as much chocolate as George bought, -was a bit curious as to what George did with it and trailed him one day -through the mesquite to find George feeding the candy to his burros. - -George was not a drinker, but on one occasion he joined a party and went -on a bender. He awoke next morning with a horrible hangover and was so -humiliated that he left Shoshone and never returned. He went over to -Sandy and died in the ’30s. - -One day George started to tell me a story as we sat on the bench. His -burros were grazing in the nearby salt grass. Every time he reached the -climax of his yarn, he would jump up to go after a straying burro. When -he retrieved that one, another would wander off and George would leave -me again. - -For one entire summer I listened to the beginning of that yarn and every -morning would remind him of it. - -“Where was I?” he’d say. “Oh, yes, I was telling you about the girl -climbing out of the fellow’s window just before daylight. Well, she -went—” - -Then George would jump up and start for a burro, and I never learned -what happened to the torrid romance after the girl crawled out of her -lover’s window. - - - - - Chapter XXI - Roads. Cracker Box Signs - - -Any resemblance that a Death Valley highway bore to a road was a -coincidence prior to 1926, and few tourists traveled over them unless -two cars were along. “Just follow the wheel tracks and keep your eyes -peeled for the cracker box signs along the road,” was the usual advice -to the novice who didn’t know that tracks left by Mormons’ wagons nearly -a century before may be seen today. - -One of these led me to the bank of a mile-wide gash made by cloudbursts. -To locate the missing link I climbed the nearest mountain and on a -lonely mesa came at last upon a piece of shook nailed to a stake and -stuck into the ground. But it had nothing to do with roads. A crude -inscription read: - - - Montana Jim - July 1888 - A dam good pal - - -Reverently I stepped aside. Never again would I see a finer tribute to -man. A few rocks bleached white in the sun outlined a sunken grave. -Crossed upon it were Jim’s pick and shovel. It was not difficult to -recreate what had happened there. Jim and his friend looking for gold. -Jim’s faltering and the sun beating him down. Jim’s partner knowing that -Jim’s moniker would identify him better than a surname to anyone who -passed that way interested in Jim. Out in the desert 100 miles from -human habitation he couldn’t call an undertaker, so he dug a hole, -wrapped Jim in his canvas, rolled him in and hoped that God would reach -down for Jim. - -At that period it was not an uncommon experience for the early tourist -to lose his way by doing the natural thing at a crossroads and take the -one which showed the sign of most travel. Often he would find later that -he had followed a trail to a mine miles away. Often too, it led to -disaster. - - -The story of roads begins at Shoshone with Brown. In his trips in and -around the valley, he erected signs to prevent the traveler from losing -his way and his life. “I would like to see Death Valley country,” people -would say to him, “but everyone tells me to stay out.” - -Inyo county had little revenue and that was used in the more populous -Owens Valley 150 miles west. The east side (the Shoshone area) was -totally neglected. Letters and petitions protesting the unfair -distribution of county funds were tossed into the waste basket. “Roads -in that cauldron? Who would use ’em? Nobody ever goes there but a few -old prospectors.” - -This was true but it was also true that on Owens Valley’s west side the -lakes and forests of the High Sierras were attracting a paying crop of -vacationists and the supervisors knew it would be political suicide to -divert this traffic from its towns and resorts. The county-wide opinion -as to chance for relief was expressed in the slang of the day by a -loafer on the bench at Shoshone: “About as much as a wax mouse would -have against an asbestos cat in a race through hell. They have the votes -and elect the supervisors.” - -The east side had never had a member on the board. In the Shoshone -precinct were less than 40 voters. In Death Valley a few prospectors who -would have battered down the gates of hell if they thought gold lay -beyond, poked around in its canyons. A few Indians. A few workmen for -the Borax Company. In 1924 Brown put his suitcase in his car, filled the -tank and said to those about: “Fellows, I’m running for Supervisor.” -“You’ll be the mouse,” quipped a friend. - -“I’ll let ’em know somebody lives over here anyway....” - -Skirting the urban strongholds of the gentlemen in office Brown knocked -at every door in the district. He berated none nor claimed he had all -the answers to an obviously difficult problem. “... Roads built there -will lead here. Everybody will gain....” Then to the next cabin and the -next canyon until he’d seen every voter. - -Before the opposition knew he had been around, he was back in Shoshone -selling bacon and beans. - -When the votes were counted the overlords of the west side gasped. “Who -the hell’s this Brown? Didn’t even know he was running....” - -Taking office January 1, 1925, he found that the beaten incumbent had -spent all the money allocated for road maintenance in his own bailiwick -before retiring. Nevertheless, Brown convinced the new board his -election proved that the people of the entire county agreed with him -that the Death Valley area could no longer be neglected and managed to -get a niggardly appropriation which would not have built a mile of -decent mountain road, and his district had three challenging mountain -ranges to cross. - -With this appropriation he was expected to care for a mileage four times -greater than that of the west side and was thus responsible for not only -eastern approaches but maintenance of 150 miles of road from Darwin, all -roads in the valley and those which furnished the north and south -approaches. He managed to get $5000 after two years. With this he -procured road machinery on a rental basis and succeeded in making a fair -desert road. Then he began a one-man crusade to exploit Death Valley as -a tourist attraction. “We need only roads a tourist can travel.” - -He worked just as diligently for all of Inyo’s roads. “We have one of -the world’s best vacation lands,” he told the west-siders. “You have an -abundance of beautiful lakes and streams in a setting of mountains -impressive as any in the world. On our side we offer the appeal of the -Panamint, the Funeral Range, and spectacular Death Valley. Tourists will -come to both of us if we give them a chance and they will be our best -crop.” - -By 1926 his crusade for roads had spread beyond Inyo county lines. San -Bernardino county, through which passes Highway 66, a main -transcontinental artery, joins Inyo on the south. Its board of -supervisors was in session one day when Brown strode in. Most of them he -knew. He wanted their advice, he told them. “Your county and mine need -more roads to bring more people. The easiest way into Death Valley is -through your county from Baker. The distance from Baker to the Inyo -county line is 45 miles. If you will build the road to the Inyo line, I -will build it from that point to Furnace Creek, 71 miles. Such a road -would open Death Valley to the public and the tourists who will travel -will spend enough money in your towns to pay your share of the cost.” - -San Bernardino supervisors agreed to consider it but were not -enthusiastic. One of America’s largest counties, San Bernardino had also -one of its largest road problems. - -Brown kept plugging, arranging meetings, convincing residents that the -county’s portion of the road would be over flat country and over roads -already passable, and its construction inexpensive. - -Finally San Bernardino county supervisors agreed and by April, 1929, he -had 71 miles of passable road. The result was that Death Valley was no -longer remote as the Congo and tourists began to come. - -To Shoshone it meant a few more windshields to wipe; a few more cars to -crawl under. Another soft answer to frame for the sightseer cursing the -desolation. Another shed for the store that started on the kitchen -table. - -In 1932 Brown went before the State Highway Commission and urged that -all the roads he had built in Death Valley be taken over by the state. -The law was passed. - -Death Valley became a National Monument February 11, 1933, by order of -President Franklin Roosevelt. At that time America was groping its way -through depression, worrying about its dinner and its debts as a result -of the stock market crash of 1929. - -In the nation’s hobo jungles the seasoned “bindle stiff” made room for -the newcomer who had always lived on the right side of the tracks. -Freight trains carried a new kind of bum when the adolescent female -crawled into a car alongside an adolescent male, vainly seeking work -anywhere at anything. - -To save them and others like them C.C.C. camps were organized and one of -these recruited largely from New York City’s Bowery, was sent to Death -Valley with headquarters at Cow Creek, a few miles north of Furnace -Creek Inn. - -The new park was under the supervision of Col. John R. White, later -superintendent of the entire National Park System and to Ray Goodwin, -assistant superintendent was assigned the task of building additional -roads and trails to points of interest to connect with the State System -which Brown had built. - -Then began in earnest the flow of tourist traffic to the “God-forsaken -hole” for which Brown had worked for 14 long and difficult years. But he -soon found that to the problems of a small desert community he had added -those of a whole county. They were the aftermath of what has since been -called in a marvelous understatement by Morrow Mayo, historian of Los -Angeles, “The Rape of Owens Valley.” - -In the early part of the century, the city of Los Angeles had secretly -acquired nearly all sources of water in Inyo and Mono counties. An -amazed world applauded the engineering feat by which water was siphoned -over mountain ranges to flow through ditches and tunnels, a distance of -259 miles. - -The enterprise was announced by its promoters as the answer to the -desperate need for water. It is now known that this need was only a mask -to hide a scheme to make Los Angeles pay the cost of bringing water to -108,000 acres of waterless land in San Fernando valley so that the -owners could make a profit of a hundred million dollars through its -subdivision and sale. This they did. - -The shameful story glorifies by comparison the cattle wars of the early -West when one side hired its Billy the Kids to kill off the other—the -only difference being that in the Owens Valley feud the Billy the Kids -were the Big Names of Los Angeles who used unscrupulous politicians and -laws cunningly passed instead of six-guns. - -As a consequence, Los Angeles owns the towns, ranches, and cattle ranges -so that merchants, householders, ranchers, and renters have no title -except in a relatively few instances, to the land upon which they live -or to the house or store they occupy. Los Angeles could sell or lease or -refuse to sell or lease land to cattlemen, homes to residents or stores -to merchants and sell or refuse to sell water to those who had lived all -their lives and would die on the devastated land. - -As a result, the relations between the city and the Displaced Persons of -the two counties were those of victor and vanquished. - -In 1935 the city succeeded in getting an act passed by the legislature -which prevented any town from becoming incorporated without the consent -of 60 per cent of the property owners. The purpose of the act seemed -fair enough when it was announced that it was designed to save the towns -from both political demagogues and crackpots running amuck in California -and it became a law. - -But there was more than the eye could see. Its real object had been to -strengthen the strangle hold of the Los Angeles Water and Power board -upon Owens Valley. Since it owned the towns it could now prevent their -incorporation. There had been some feeling of security under a -resolution of the Water and Power Board which had declared that -merchants, cattlemen, and residents—all of them lessees, would be given -preference in new leases and renewals of old ones. - -In 1942 the resolution became a scrap of paper, and ranchers, cattle men -and householders were advised that their leases would hereafter be -renewed by a method of secret bidding. - -Thus the residents of Owens Valley learned that the labor of years had -brought no security. As one beaten old timer told me, “We’ve been kicked -around so much I’m used to it. I helped blow those ditches two-three -times, to turn that water loose on the desert. I know when I’m licked.” - -Resentment in Mono county, which provided more of the water taken by Los -Angeles than Inyo, was even more aroused and smoldering hatreds were -ready again to blow up a ditch. The two counties constitute the 28th -Senatorial district. - -Brown’s success in the Assembly had not gone unnoticed in the -neighboring county of Mono. “We need that fellow Brown,” a prominent -citizen said, and others repeated it. - -Again Charlie put his suitcase in his car, filled the tank. “We’ve never -had anybody from this side at Sacramento,” he told a friend standing by. -“I’m running for the Senate.” - -“Know anybody up there?” - -“I’m going and get acquainted,” he said and headed across the valley. - -Most of Mono county is isolated by the High Sierras. Again the door to -door technique. No torches. No brass bands. Just the old -eye-to-eye-talk-it-over system. As always he let the voter do the -talking and he listened, but when he slid into his car the voter was -ready to tell his neighbor: “I like that fellow. Doesn’t claim to know -it all.” He told his banker, his grocer, his butcher, baker, and barber. - -Result? I was in the Senate Chamber at Sacramento later, when I heard -one of a group of men huddled nearby say, “This is an important bill -that concerns everybody on the east side of the Sierras. We’d better see -Charlie.” I nudged the man reading a document at my side. “Those fellows -want to see you, Senator.” - -He had received the nomination of both the Democratic and Republican -parties and had secured the passage of an act which denies a -municipality holding more than 50 per cent of the property of another -subdivision of the state, proprietary power over the security and -stability of such subdivision. Moreover he was on the all-powerful Rules -Committee, the Fish and Game, Local Government, Natural Resources, -Social Welfare, and Election Committees, friend and frequent adviser of -Governor Warren. - -Honeymooning Secretary Ickes was combining business with pleasure when -he reached California and wanting to see how his Park System was -functioning, he took his bride to see Death Valley. Besides, he had some -plans affecting the Inyo area. - -The fight was having tough sledding in the legislature despite President -Roosevelt’s approval. Then he talked to people less biased. “You’d -better see Charlie....” - -“Who the hell’s Charlie?” asked Harold. - -“Senator from Death Valley....” - -With Ray Goodwin, Superintendent of the Death Valley Monument to guide -him, he was taken to all the show places. “Now,” said Mr. Ickes, “I want -to see Brown.” - -At Shoshone Charlie’s toggery is strictly for work which includes -tending the gas pump, stove repairing, plumbing, and what-have-you. He -was flat on his back under the dripping oil of a balky car when Mr. -Goodwin stepped from the limousine. - -“Charlie,” Mr. Goodwin called, “Mr. Ickes is here to see you.” Receiving -no answer, he walked over to the car and added that Mr. Ickes was in a -hurry. Still, no answer. “It’s Secretary Ickes, Department of the -Interior. This is important.” - -“So’s this,” Brown grunted. When he’d finished, he crawled out and -wiping the grime from his hands, joined Goodwin at the waiting car. -After being introduced to the bride and the self-styled “Old Curmudgeon” -the latter explained his plan to add certain lands in Charlie’s -district, to the Forest Reserve. “... You’re opposing me. You’re a -Democrat, aren’t you?” - -“I came from Georgia,” Charlie drawled. - -“You’re for Roosevelt, aren’t you?” - -“Within reason,” Charlie answered. - -Then Mr. Ickes, with the assurance of the perfectionist began to sell -his idea. - -“Do you know of any reason why the area designated as Forest Reserve -should not be protected as any other of our natural resources?” he -concluded. - -“Just one,” Charlie said. - -“What’s that?” Ickes snapped. - -“Your forest is nearly all brush land without a tree on it big enough to -shade a lizard.” - -Charlie was similarly dressed when a well tailored and impatient tourist -with a carload of friends whom he was evidently trying to impress, drove -up for gas. - -Always unhurried, Charlie came to the pumps, slowly reached for the hose -and as lazily checked the oil. - -“Say, fellow—” the tourist barked. “Senator Brown is a friend of mine. -Get a move on or you’ll be looking for a job.” - -Without the flicker of an eyelid, Charlie quickened, jumped for a -cleaning rag and briskly polished the windshield. When he brought the -tourist’s change he apologized for his slowness and begged him not to -report it to Senator Brown. “Jobs are hard to get and I have a wife and -ten children to support.” - -Touched with remorse, the tourist looked at the change. “Just give it to -the kids and forget it.” - -When the Pacific Coast Borax Company built its swanky Furnace Creek Inn -on the western slope of the Funeral Range overlooking Death Valley, it -began to look about for places that would give the most spectacular and -comprehensive view of the Big Sink as a means of entertaining guests, -and far enough away to keep them from boredom. - -All the old timers who had wandered over the ranges were called in. Each -suggested the place that had impressed him more than others. Each of -these places was visited and after weeks of deliberation a spot on -Chloride Cliff toward the northern end of Death Valley was chosen and -the bigwigs started back to Los Angeles. - -When they stopped at Shoshone for gas and water, Clarence Rasor, an -engineer of the company was still thinking of the chosen site and asked -Brown, long his friend, if he knew of any view of the valley better than -the one at Chloride Cliff. - -“I don’t pay much attention to scenery,” he told Rasor. “To me it’s all -just desert or mountain. But I know one view that made me stop and look. -Kinda got me. The chances are most folks would rave over it.” - -“Could you find it?” - -“Sure could....” - -Rasor called the others, repeated Charlie’s story and added: “You’re in -a hurry, but knowing Charlie as I do, I believe we’d better turn around -and go back if he’ll guide us.” - -Charlie agreed. It was a long, tortuous climb, even to the base of the -peak. There Charlie went ahead and then beckoned them. Holding to bushes -they walked or crawled to stand beside him; took one look and caught -their breath. A mile below them lay the awesome Sink. White salt beds -spread like a shroud over its silent desolation. Billowed dunes, gold -against the dark of lava rock. Here a pastelled hill. There a brooding -canyon. Beyond, the colorful Panamint under the golden glow of the sun. - -“This is the place,” they said. - -“... You can tell ’em too,” said Charlie pointing, “that right down -there is Copper Canyon. If such stuff interests them, they can see the -footprints of the camels and elephants and a lot of historic junk like -that.” - -So you who thrill at Dante’s View may thank Charles Brown of Shoshone. - -When first elected to the senate, his colleagues were quick to see the -qualities that had appealed to voters when they elected him supervisor. -He had frequently been before that body in his fight for roads and tax -reforms. They knew too that better schools for all rural areas either -wholly or largely were the result of his efforts, and soon he was on the -Rules Committee—a place usually assigned to those who come from the more -populous districts of the state, because its five members through its -power to appoint all standing and special committees, largely decide -what legislation reaches the governor. - -In 1950 Brown announced his candidacy for reelection under the state law -that enables a candidate to seek the nomination of two parties. - -The slot machine had been outlawed in California by the previous -legislature and Brown had been largely instrumental in securing the -passage of the law. Since the slot machine is a three billion dollar -business in the nation, the gamblers opposed him as part of a general -plan to secure repeal of the law and reinstate the one-arm bandits. - -Since Mono county adjoins Nevada, gambling interests of that state -contributed without stint, to retire Brown to private life. He had been -in office for 25 years and opposed by this powerful group, guided by -both brains and cunning, the odds apparently were against him. While the -opposition boasted that he was through, Brown was calling at cabins in -the hills and gulches, meeting friends on busy village streets and again -when the vote was counted, it was discovered that voters have memories. -He had won the nomination of both the Democratic and Republican parties -by almost two to one and under the law, was re-elected. - -Due to his priority standing and the retirement of older senators, the -big fellow who walked 150 miles to get a job at Greenwater in order to -save the fare to eat on, automatically shares with two men the power to -control the legislation of the state. - - -Hell, like gold, is where you find it—either in people or places. A lady -of wealth and aristocratic background in route to Furnace Creek’s luxury -inn, stopped at Shoshone for gas. Worn out by the long drive over the -corduroy road, she looked about her and then at Charlie in greasy -overalls. “How on earth,” she asked in genuine distress, “do you make a -living in this God-forsaken-hole?” - -“It’s hard ma’am,” Charlie said gloomily. “But we get a few pennies from -tourists, a little flour from mesquite beans, and stay alive one way or -another, hoping to get out.” - -The gracious lady opened her purse, thrust a five dollar bill into -Charlie’s hand and went her way. - -“It really made her happy,” Charlie chuckled, “and I just didn’t have -the heart to give it back.” - -What is it that man wants of these “God-forsaken-holes” on the desert? I -sought the answer one day when Shoshone was having a holiday. George -Ishmael, as native as an Indian, was chosen to barbecue the steer. A -well-to-do tourist begged the job of digging the big pit. “Want to flex -my muscles....” Another cut the wood. At a depth of four feet, water was -struck and rose a foot over the bottom. “That’s all right” George said. -He tossed a dozen railroad ties into the hole, floated them into -position, covered them with dirt, built the fire, lowered the carcass of -the steer, covered it with green leaves and filled the hole. “An -unforgettable feast,” agreed the scores who had come from places 100 -miles away. - -Sitting beside me was a prominent Los Angeles attorney, eminent in the -councils of the Democratic party in both state and nation. “Why,” he -asked, “will a man wear himself out in the city when he can really live -in a little place like this?” - -“I thought of suicide at first,” said Patsy, young matron with three -healthy little stairsteps. “My husband said ‘for heaven’s sake, go out -for a month and have a good time.’ I went. Back in a week.” - -A Vermont girl said she had come to escape a straightlaced code that -constantly reminded her sin was everywhere. “Here I’ve got an even break -with the devil....” - -All had found something that clicked with something inside of them which -challenged something in civilization. Maybe it was expressed in the -dogma of the Tennessee judge reared in the hill country of the -Cumberland river. As he stepped from his plane on his annual vacation he -was cornered by a reporter: “Judge, you’re 94 years old. What do you -think of this modern world?” - -“Best one I know about.” - -“No criticism?” - -“None whatever. Maybe a few minor changes. Just now we are being -educated out of common sense into ignorance; lawed out of patriotism; -taxed into poverty; doctored to death and preached to hell....” - - - - - Chapter XXII - Lost Mines. The Breyfogle and Others - - -The most famous lost mine in the Death Valley area is the Lost -Breyfogle. There are many versions of the legend, but all agree that -somewhere in the bowels of those rugged mountains is a colossal mass of -gold, which Jacob Breyfogle found and lost. - -Jacob Breyfogle was a prospector who roamed the country around Pioche -and Austin, Nevada, with infrequent excursions into the Death valley -area. He traveled alone. - -Indian George, Hungry Bill, and Panamint Tom saw Breyfogle several times -in the country around Stovepipe Wells, but they could never trace him to -his claim. When followed, George said, Breyfogle would step off the -trail and completely disappear. Once George told me about trailing him -into the Funeral Range. He pointed to the bare mountain. “Him there, me -see. Pretty quick—” He paused, puckered his lips. “Whoop—no see.” - -Breyfogle left a crude map of his course. All lost mines must have a -map. Conspicuous on this map are the Death Valley Buttes which are -landmarks. Because he was seen so much here, it was assumed that his -operations were in the low foothills. I have seen a rough copy of this -map made from the original in possession of “Wildrose” Frank Kennedy’s -squaw, Lizzie. - -Breyfogle presumably coming from his mine, was accosted near Stovepipe -Wells by Panamint Tom, Hungry Bill, and a young buck related to them, -known as Johnny. Hungry Bill, from habit, begged for food. Breyfogle -refused, explaining that he had but a morsel and several hard days’ -journey before him. On his burro he had a small sack of ore. When -Breyfogle left, Hungry Bill said, “Him no good.” - -Incited by Hungry Bill and possible loot, the Indians followed Breyfogle -for three or four days across the range. Hungry Bill stopped en route, -sent the younger Indians ahead. At Stump Springs east of Shoshone, -Breyfogle was eating his dinner when the Indians sneaked out of the -brush and scalped him, took what they wished of his possessions and left -him for dead. - -Ash Meadows Charlie, a chief of the Indians in that area confided to -Herman Jones that he had witnessed this assault. This happened on the -Yundt Ranch, or as it is better known, the Manse Ranch. Yundt and Aaron -Winters accidentally came upon Breyfogle unconscious on the ground. The -scalp wound was fly-blown. They had a mule team and light wagon and -hurried to San Bernardino with the wounded man. The ore, a chocolate -quartz, was thrown into the wagon. - -“I saw some of it at Phi Lee’s home, the Resting Spring Ranch,” Shorty -Harris said. “It was the richest ore I ever saw. Fifty pounds yielded -nearly $6000.” - -Breyfogle recovered, but thereafter was regarded as slightly “off.” He -returned to Austin, Nevada, and the story followed. - -Wildrose (Frank) Kennedy, an experienced mining man obtained a copy of -Breyfogle’s map and combed the country around the buttes in an effort to -locate the mine. Kennedy had the aid of the Indians and was able to -obtain, through his squaw Lizzie, such information as Indians had about -the going and coming of the elusive Breyfogle. - -“Some believe the ore came from around Daylight Springs,” Shorty said, -“but old Lizzie’s map had no mark to indicate Daylight Springs. But it -does show the buttes and the only buttes in Death Valley are those above -Stovepipe Wells. - -“Kennedy interested Henry E. Findley, an old time Colorado sheriff and -Clarence Nyman, for years a prospector for Coleman and Smith (the -Pacific Borax Company). They induced Mat Cullen, a rich Salt Lake mining -man, to leave his business and come out. They made three trips into the -valley, looking for that gold. It’s there somewhere.” - -At Austin, Breyfogle was outfitted several times to relocate the -property, but when he reached the lower elevation of the valley, he -seemed to suffer some aberration which would end the trip. His last -grubstaker was not so considerate. He told Breyfogle that if he didn’t -find the mine promptly he’d make a sieve of him and was about to do it -when a companion named Atchison intervened and saved his life. Shortly -afterward, Breyfogle died from the old wound. - -Indian George, repeating a story told him by Panamint Tom, once told me -that Tom had traced Breyfogle to the mine and after Breyfogle’s death -went back and secured some of the ore. Tom guarded his secret. He -covered the opening with stone and leaving, walked backwards, -obliterating his tracks with a greasewood brush. Later when Tom returned -prepared to get the gold he found that a cloudburst had filled the -canyon with boulders, gravel and silt, removing every landmark and -Breyfogle’s mine was lost again. - -“Some day maybe,” George said, “big rain come and wash um out.” - -Among the freighters of the early days was John Delameter who believed -the Breyfogle was in the lower Panamint. Delameter operated a 20 mule -team freighting service between Daggett and points in both Death Valley -and Panamint Valley. He told me that he found Breyfogle down in the road -about twenty-eight miles south of Ballarat with a wound in his leg. -Breyfogle had come into the Panamint from Pioche, Nevada, and said he -had been attacked by Indians, his horses stolen, while working on his -claim which he located merely with a gesture toward the mountains. - -Subsequently Delameter made several vain efforts to locate the property, -but like most lost mines it continues to be lost. But for years it was -good bait for a grubstake and served both the convincing liar and the -honest prospector. - -Nearly all old timers had a version of the Lost Breyfogle differing in -details but all agreeing on the chocolate quartz and its richness. - -That Breyfogle really lost a valuable mine there can be little doubt, -but since he is authentically traced from the northern end of Death -Valley to the southern, and since the chocolate quartz is found in many -places of that area, one who cares to look for it must cover a large -territory. - - -One mine that had never been found turned up in a way as amazing as most -of them are lost. - -At Pioche, Nevada, an assayer was suspected of giving greater values to -samples than they merited. It is known as the “come on.” - -In order to trap the suspect, a prospector broke off a piece of old -grindstone and ordered an assay. “If he gives that any value, it’s proof -enough he’s a crook,” he told his friends. - -Proof of guilt came with the assayer’s report. The grindstone was -incredibly rich in silver, it said. - -“We’ve got the goods on him now,” the outraged prospector announced and -it was decided to give the assayer a coat of tar and feathers. Wiser -counsel was accepted, however, and it was decided to give him no more -business. The fellow was faced with the alternative of starving or -leaving the country, when he learned the reason of the boycott. -Conscious of no error in his work, he made another and more careful -assay. This time the samples yielded even higher values. - -It was agreed by all mining engineers of that day that rock like the -samples never carried silver or gold. But the assayer knew his furnace -hadn’t lied and he couldn’t believe grindstone makers were mixing silver -with sand to make the stones. So he traced the grindstone to the quarry -it came from. The result was the Silver King, one of the richest silver -mines. - - -THE LOST GUNSIGHT. The first lost mine in Death Valley, preceding that -of Breyfogle’s by four or five years, was the Gunsight. - -A survivor of the Jayhawkers or the Bennett-Arcane party of ’49 (it is -not clear to which he belonged) after escaping death in the valley, saw -a deer or antelope and on the point of starvation, took his gun from its -strap to shoot the animal. Seeing that the sight had been lost, he -picked up a thin piece of shale and wedged it in the sight slot. Later -he took the weapon to a gunsmith who removed the makeshift sight and -upon examination found it to be almost pure silver. “Where I picked it -up,” said the owner, “there was a mountain of it.” - -So begins the history of the Lost Gunsight and the story spread as -stories will, until ten years later it reached the ears of Dr. Darwin -French of Oroville, previously mentioned. The doctor became excited and -in the spring of 1860 organized a party to locate the fabulous mountain -of silver. Though he searched bravely he failed to find it. However, he -brought back the first authentic account of what others with a flair for -lost mines could expect in the way of weather, topography, Indians, -edible game, vegetation, and water. On this trip, however, he discovered -silver in the Coso Range. - -The following year, 1861, Dr. S. G. George who had been with the French -party, decided he could find the Lost Gunsight and organized an -expedition which crossed Panamint Valley, explored Wild Rose Canyon and -reached the highest spot in Death Valley. But Dr. George’s valiant -efforts were no luckier than those of Dr. French. - -William Manly, author of “Death Valley in Forty-Nine” also tried but -gained only another tragic experience and came nearer losing his life -than he did with the Forty-Niners. Lost and without water and beaten to -his knees, he was deserted by companions and escaped death by a miracle. -How many have lost their lives trying to find the Gunsight no one knows. -There are scores of sunken mounds on lonely mesas which an old timer -will explain tersely: “He was looking for the Gunsight.” - -Dr. French, after his failure, pursued another and even more intriguing -lost mine. With a ready ear for tales of treasure, he heard of a tribe -of Indians in the Death Valley area who were making bullets for their -rifles out of gold. Accordingly he organized another party to find the -gold. - -For eleven months Dr. French and his hand-picked comrades combed the -country. The gold they found would have loaded no gun, but you may add -the Lost Bullet to your list of lost mines. A member of this party was -John Searles, for whom Searles’ Lake is named. - -Because early prospectors searched for Breyfogle’s lost mine throughout -the region where he was found scalped, an interesting digression is not -amiss. - -A few miles east of Shoshone, there is a Gunsight mine named, of course, -by the discoverer in the hope that he’d found the one so long lost. It -adjoins the Noonday and was a valuable property which belonged to Dr. L. -D. Godshall of Victorville. - -The Noonday produced five million dollars and was operated until silver -and lead took a price dive. A 12 mile railroad was built from Tecopa to -haul the ore. The steel rails were later hauled away and the ties went -into construction of desert homes, sheds, fences, and firewood. For -years the two properties could have been bought for what-have-you. - -Then came Pearl Harbor and a young Kentuckian, Buford Davis, looking -around for lead or any essential ores that Uncle Sam could use, dropped -off at Shoshone. Charles Brown told him of the Gunsight and the Noonday. -Davis inspected the properties, bought them for a relatively small down -payment. He chose to begin operations on the Noonday and sent Ernie -Huhn, an experienced miner to deepen the shaft. - -“Honest to God,” Ernie told me, “I hadn’t dug a foot when I turned up -the prettiest vein of lead I’d ever seen.” - -In the next six years the Noonday produced approximately a gross of nine -million dollars and a net of probably six million dollars. - -These figures were given me by Don Kempfer, mining engineer and Shoshone -resident, from estimates which he believed accurate. - -In 1947 with the rich rewards attained but as yet unenjoyed, Buford -Davis made a hurried airplane trip to Salt Lake. Returning, he was only -a few moments from a safe landing when the plane crashed and all aboard -were killed. - -Today, (1950) the property belongs to Anaconda and is considered one of -its most valuable mines. - -For those interested in lost mines I offer the list that follows. (The -names are my own.) - - -THE LOST CHINAMAN: When John Searles was struggling to make a living out -of the ooze that is called Searles’ Lake he had a mule skinner known as -Salty Bill Parkinson—a fearless, hard-bitten individual who was the Paul -Bunyan of Death Valley teamsters. - -While loading a wagon with borax, Salty Bill and Searles noticed a man -staggering down from the Slate Range. They decided he was supercharged -with desert likker and paid scant attention as he wobbled across the -flat from the base of the range. A moment later he fell at their feet. -They saw then that he was a Chinaman; that his tongue was swollen, his -eyes red and sunken; that he clutched at his throat in a vain effort to -speak. He could make no intelligible sound and lapsed into -unconsciousness. They thought he had died and was left on their hands -for burial. - -Salty Bill afterwards stated that he’d said to Searles: “‘Fremont, -Carson, or the Mormons old Bill Williams, for whom Bill Williams River, -Bill Williams Mountain, and the town of Williams, Arizona, are named was -at Resting Springs. He’ll spoil in an hour. I’ll go for a shovel while -you choose a place to plant him.’ I’d actually turned to go when Searles -called me back.” Searles had seen some sign of life and after removing a -canvas bag strapped to his body they took him to a nearby shed, gave him -a few spoonfuls of water and eventually he was restored to -consciousness. He lay in a semi-stupor all the afternoon and was -obsessed with the idea that he was going to die. His chief concern was -to get to Mojave so that he could take a stage for a seaport and die in -China or failing, arrange for the burial of his bones with those of his -ancestors. - -He had been working at Old Harmony Borax Works, picking cotton-ball -borax with other Chinese employed by the company, but tiring of abuse by -a tough boss, he’d asked for his wages and walked out. Some Piutes told -him of a short cut across the Panamint and this he took. - -En route he picked up a piece of rich float, stuck it into his bag. -Farther on his journey he ran out of water and became hopelessly lost. -He managed to reach the Slate Range, however, and from the summit saw -Searles’ Lake. Though in no condition to stand the rough trip to Mojave -he begged to be sent there and yielding finally, Salty Bill, ready to -leave with his load, threw the Chinaman on his wagon and started on his -trip. - -Before reaching Mojave, the Chinaman’s condition became worse and Salty -Bill stopped the team in answer to his yells. The canvas sack lay -alongside the stricken Chinaman and reaching for it, he brought out a -lump of ore. - -“Never in my life,” said Salty Bill, “have I seen ore like that.” - -The Chinaman gave the ore to Salty, thanked him for his friendly -treatment, told him that at a place in the Panamint where “the Big -Timber pitches down into a steep canyon,” he had found the float. Again -he expressed his belief that he was going to die and exacted a promise -from Salty that if death came before reaching Mojave, Salty would see -that his remains be shipped to China, adding that any Chinaman in Mojave -would provide money if needed. “You find the gold and keep it,” he told -Salty. “For me—no good. No can....” - -The journey was completed and Salty learned that the Chinaman did die at -Mojave and that a countryman there saw that the remains were sent to the -Flowery Kingdom. - -Salty Bill showed the ore to John Searles and Searles, usually -indifferent to yarns of hidden ledges, was even more excited than Salty. -For four or five years the two men made trips in search of the place -where Big Timber pitches into a canyon. After these, other tireless -prospectors sought the elusive ledge but the Lost Chinaman is still -lost. - - -THE LOST WAGON. Jim Hurley went to Parker, Arizona. Broke, he wanted -quick money and was looking for placer. The storekeeper was a friend of -Jim and had previously staked him. - -“I’m looking for a place to wash out some gold, but I’ve no money and no -grub....” - -Jim was told of a butte on the Colorado Desert. “It’s good placer ground -and you ought to pan a few dollars without much trouble....” He provided -Jim with bacon and beans and feed for his burros. - -Jim set out, found the butte, but no gold and decided to try a new -location. On the way out he saw behind some bushes an old wagon that -seemed to be half buried in blow sand. Thinking it would be a good -feeding place for his burros, he went over. On the ground nearby he saw -the bleached skeleton of a man. He threw aside a half-rotted tarpaulin -in the wagon bed and discovered fifteen sacks of ore. - -It was obvious that the wagon had stood there for a long time. He -examined the ore and saw that it was rich and of a peculiar color. He -loaded the ore on his burros, returned to Parker and sent it to the -smelter. He received in return, $1800. Losing no time, Jim returned to -find the source of the ore and though for the next five years he looked -at intervals for a quartz to match that found in the wagon, he could -find nothing that even resembled it. Where it came from no prospector on -the desert would even venture an opinion, but all declared they had seen -no quartz of that peculiar color and all of them knew the country from -Mexico to Nevada. - -But Jim added to his store an adventure and a memory and there is no -treasure in this life richer than a memory. - - -THE LOST GOLLER. This, I believe, is a lost mine that really exists and -though the location has been prospected from the days of Dr. Darwin -French in 1860, none have looked for it except the one who lost it in -1850. He was John Goller, who came to California with the Jayhawkers. - -Goller was a blacksmith and wagon maker and was the first American to -establish such a business in the pueblo of Los Angeles. After convincing -the native Californian that his spoke-wheel wagon would function as -effectively as the rounded slabs of wood, the only vehicles then used, -he made a comfortable fortune and no one in the pueblo had a reputation -for better character. - -Crossing the Panamint, Goller, though strong and husky, became separated -from his companions and barely escaped with his life. Coming down a -Panamint canyon he found some gold nuggets and filled his pockets with -them. After crossing Panamint Valley and the Slate Range, he was found -by Mexican vaqueros of Don Ignacio del Valle, owner of the great Camulos -Rancho. After his recovery he proceeded to Los Angeles. In showing the -nuggets to friends he said, “I could have filled a wagon with them.” - -Goller, because of his means was soon able to take vacations which were -devoted to looking for the lost location, and though he searched for -years he found no more nuggets. Finally he found a canyon which he -believed might have been the site, but no wagon load of nuggets. - -John Goller was a solid, clear-thinking man—not the type to chase the -rainbow. Gold is known to exist in the canyon and some mines have been -operated with varying success, but none have been outstanding. It is -quite possible that cloudbursts for which the Panamint is noted washed -Goller’s gold away or buried it under an avalanche of rock, dirt, and -gravel. Manly, with his forgivable inclination to error refers to Goller -as Galler and discounts the story. - -“Some day,” said Dr. Samuel Slocum, a man who made a fortune in gold, -“somebody will find a fabulously rich mine in that canyon.” It is -located about 12 miles south of Ballarat and is called Goler canyon—one -of the l’s in Goller’s name having been dropped. - - -THE LOST SPOOK. A spiritualist with tuberculosis came to Ballarat and -employed an Indian known as Joe Button as packer and guide. He told Joe -to lead him to the driest spot in the country. Joe took him into the -Cottonwood Range and left him. The invalid remained for several weeks, -returned to Ballarat en route to San Bernardino, presumably for -supplies. He was reticent as to his luck but he had several small sacks -filled with ore and in his haste to catch the stage, dropped a piece of -quartz from a loosely tied sack. It was almost solid gold and weighed -eight ounces. - -While in San Bernardino he died. His relatives sold the remaining ore, -which yielded $7200. They tried to find the claim but failed. - -Shorty Harris heard of it months afterward and looked up Joe Button. -With his own burros, Joe’s pack horses, and an Indian known as Ignacio, -he set out. Cloudbursts had washed out the previous trails, filled -gulches, levelled hills and so transformed the country that the Indian -was unable to find any trace of his previous course; gave up the hunt -and turned back. - -Shorty cached his supplies and with the meager description Joe could -give him, searched for weeks. At last he came upon a camp where he -discovered a collection of pamphlets dealing with the occult, but no -trails. It was apparent that these had been destroyed by floods and for -two months Shorty searched for the diggings. A brush pile aroused his -suspicions and removing it, he found the hole. “The ore had Uncle Sam’s -eagle all over it,” Shorty said, “and the world was mine.” - -“I returned to my camp, started spending the money. A million dollars -for a rest home for old worn-out prospectors. Fifty thousand a year for -all my pals....” - -Shorty ate his supper, spread his blankets and went to sleep with his -dream. In the middle of the night he awoke. Something was running over -his blanket. He raised up and in the moonlight recognized the only thing -on earth he was afraid of—the “hydrophobic skunk.” - -“I started packing right now,” Shorty said, “and walked out. There’s a -mine there and whoever wants it can have it. I don’t.” - - -THE LOST CANYON has some evidence of reality. Jack Allen, a miner and -prospector of almost superhuman endurance, got drunk at Skidoo and -filled with remorse and shame the morning after, decided to leave and -seek a job at the Keane Wonder Mine, about 40 miles northeast across -Death Valley. To save distance, Allen took a short cut over Sheep -Mountain and in going through a canyon he picked up a piece of quartz -and seeing a fleck of color, he broke it. Excited by its apparent -richness he filled his pockets, noted his bearings and went on his way. -When he reached the Keane Wonder he took the ore to Joe McGilliland, the -company’s assayer, who became more excited than the finder. “I’ll put it -in the button for half,” Joe said. - -Allen agreed. The assay showed values as high as $20,000 to the ton. He -closed his office and ran out to find Jack working in the mine. “Chuck -this job,” he cried. “Go back to that claim quick as you can. Get your -monuments up and record the notices.” - -Jack Allen bought a burro, loaded his supplies and went back only to -discover that a cloudburst had destroyed all his landmarks. - -Both Shorty Harris and “Bob” Eichbaum, who established Stove Pipe Wells -resort, considered this the best chance among all the legends of lost -mines. It is wild, rough, and largely virgin country and because of that -the hardiest prospectors always passed it by. - - -THE LOST JOHNNIE. An Indian known as Johnnie used to come into York’s -store at Ballarat about once a month with gold in bullion form. He would -sell it to York or trade it for supplies. Frequently he had credits -amounting to a thousand or more dollars. - -Other Indians soon learned of Johnnie’s mine and would trail him when he -left town, but none were able to outsmart him. That it was near Arastre -Spring was generally believed. Upon one occasion Johnnie was seen -leaving the old arastre and disappear in the canyon. Immediately -evidence that the arastre had been used within the hour was discovered. -For years no prospector worked in that region without keeping his eyes -peeled for Johnnie’s bonanza. - - - - - Chapter XXIII - Panamint City. Genial Crooks - - -The first search for gold in Death Valley country was in Panamint -Valley. - -From the summit of the Slate Range on the road from Trona, one comes -suddenly upon an enchanting and unforgettable view of the Panamint. If -you are one who thrills at breath taking scenery you will not speak. You -will stand and look and think. Your thoughts will be of dead worlds; of -the silence spread like a shroud over all that you see. - -Below, a yellow road twists in and out of hidden dry washes, around -jutting hills to end in the green mesquite that hides the ghost town of -Ballarat. There the Panamint lifts two miles—its gored sides a riot of -pastelled colors. - -If you have coached yourself with trivia of history it will require -imagination’s aid to accept the fact that from this wasteland came -fortunes and industries of world-wide fame. From New York to San -Francisco on envied social thrones, sit the children and grandchildren -of those who with pick and shovel, here dug the family fortune in ragged -overalls. - -Only recently a descendant of one of these, living in a city far -removed, informed me her mansion was for sale, “because the neighborhood -is being ruined....” A sheep herder newly rich on war profits, was -moving in. - -Eleven miles north of Ballarat, Surprise Canyon, which leads to Panamint -City, opens on a broad, alluvial fan that tilts sharply to the valley -floor. - -In April, 1873, W. T. Henderson, whose first trip into Death Valley -country was made to find the Lost Gunsight, came again with R. B. -Stewart and R. C. Jacobs. In Surprise Canyon they discovered silver -which ran as high as $4000 a ton and filed more than 80 location -notices. - -Henderson was an adventurer of uncertain character who had roamed -western deserts like a nomad. During the Indian war that threatened -extermination of the white settlers in Inyo county, Thieving Charlie, a -Piute, was induced by outnumbered whites to approach his warring -tribesmen under a flag of truce and succeeded in getting eleven of them -to return with him to Camp Independence for a peace talk. Henderson, -with two companions waylaid and murdered them. - -He had been a member of the posse organized by Harry Love to shoot on -sight California’s most famous bandit—Joaquin Murietta and boasted that -he fired the bullet which killed the glamorous Joaquin. It was he who -cut off and pickled the bandit’s head as evidence to get the reward. At -the same time he pickled the hand of Three Fingered Jack Garcia, -Joaquin’s chief lieutenant, and the bloodiest monster the West ever saw. -Garcia had an odd habit of cutting off the ears of his victims and -stringing them for a saddle ornament. The slaying of Joaquin was not a -pretty adventure and as the details came out, Henderson renounced the -honor. - -The grewsome vouchers which obtained the reward became the attraction -for the morbid on a San Francisco street and there above the din of -traffic one heard a spieler chant the thrills it gave “for only two -measly bits....” The exhibit was destroyed in the San Francisco fire and -earthquake of 1906. - -In his book, “On the Old West Coast” Major Horace Bell states that -Henderson confided to him there was never a day nor night that Joaquin -Murietta did not come to him and though headless, would demand the -return of his head; that Henderson was never frightened by the -apparition, which would vanish after Henderson explained why he couldn’t -return the head and his excuse for cutting it off. - -Bell quotes Henderson: “I would never have cut Joaquin’s head off except -for the excitement of the chase and the orders of Harry Love.” - -To give credence to the ghost story he says of Henderson, “He was for -several years my neighbor and a more genial and generous fellow I never -met....” Major Bell, it is known, was not always strictly factual. - -Following the Surprise Canyon strike, Panamint City was quickly built -and quickly filled with thugs who lived by their guns; gamblers and -painted girls who lived by their wits. - -An engaging sidewalk promoter known as E. P. Raines, who possessed a -good front and gall in abundance, but no money, assured the owners of -the Panamint claims that he could raise the capital necessary for -development. He set out for the city, registered at the leading hotel, -attached the title of Colonel to his name; exchanged a worthless check -for $25 and made for the barroom. It was no mere coincidence that Mr. -Raines before ordering his drink, parked himself alongside a group of -the town’s richest citizens and began to toy with an incredibly rich -sample of ore. It was natural that members of the group should notice -it. Particularly the multimillionaire, Senator John P. Jones, Nevada -silver king. - -Soon the charming crook was the life of the party. His $25 spent, he -actually borrowed $1000 from Jones. Having drunk his guests under the -table, Mr. Raines went forth for further celebration and landed broke in -the hoosegow. Hearing of his misadventure, his new friends promptly went -to his rescue. “... Outrage ... biggest night this town ever had....” - -To make amends for the city’s inhospitable blunder, Raines was taken to -his hostelry, given a champagne bracer and made the honor guest at -breakfast. “Where’s the Senator?” he asked. Informed that Senator Jones -had taken a train for Washington, Raines quickened “Why, he was -expecting me to go with him....” He jumped up, fumbled through his -pockets in a pretended search for money. “Heavens—my purse is gone!” -Instantly a half dozen hands reached for the hip and Mr. Raines was on -his way. - -It required but a few moments to get $15,000 from the Senator and his -partner, Senator William R. Stewart, for the Panamint claims. He also -sold Jones the idea of a railroad from a seaport at Los Angeles to his -mines and this was partially built. The project ended in Cajon Pass. The -scars of the tunnel started may still be seen. - -Jones and Stewart organized the Panamint Mining Company with a capital -of $2,000,000. Other claims were bought but immediate development was -delayed by difficulties in obtaining title because many of the owners -were outlaws, difficult to find. A few were located in the penitentiary -and there received payment. For some of the claims the promoters paid -$350,000. - -On June 29, 1875, the first mill began to crush ore from the Jacobs -Wonder mine. Panamint City became one of the toughest and most colorful -camps of the West. It was strung for a mile up and down narrow Surprise -Canyon. It was believed that here was a mass of silver greater than that -on the Comstock and shares were active on the markets. - -The most pretentious saloon in the town was that of Dave Nagle, who -later as the bodyguard of U. S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field, -killed Judge David Terry, distinguished jurist, but stormy petrel of -California Vigilante days. Judge Terry had represented, then married his -client, the Rose of Sharon—Sarah Althea Hill—in her suit to determine -whether she was wife or mistress of Senator Sharon, Comstock -millionaire. Feuding had resulted with Field, the trial judge. Meeting -in a railroad dining room, Judge Terry slapped Justice Field’s face and -Nagle promptly killed Terry. - -Poker at Panamint City was never a piker’s game. Bets of $10,000 on two -pair attracted but little comment. Gunning was regarded as a minor -nuisance, but funerals worried the town’s butcher. He had the only wagon -that had survived the steep canyon road into the camp. “I bought it,” he -complained, “to haul fresh meat, but since there’s no hearse I never -know when I’ll have to unload a quarter of beef to haul a stiff to -Sourdough Canyon.” - -Panamint City attained an estimated population of 3,000. Harris and -Rhine, merchants, having the only safe in the town permitted patrons to -deposit money for safe keeping and often had large sums. On one occasion -they had the $10,000 payroll of the Hemlock mine. - -A clerk arriving early at the store, suddenly faced two gentlemen who -directed him to open the safe and pass out the money. “Just as well -count it as you fork it over,” one ordered. The clerk had counted $4000 -when he was told to stop. “This’ll do for the present,” the spokesman -said. “We’ll come back and get the rest.” - -“Yeh,” added his partner. “Too damned many thugs in this town.” - -They sallied forth on a spending spree. The down-and-out along the -mile-long street received generous portions of the loot and a widow -whose husband had been killed in a mine explosion, received $500. - -These bandits, Small and McDonald, thereafter became incredibly popular -and the legend follows that what they stole from those who had, they -shared with those who hadn’t. - -Wells-Fargo and Company offered a reward of $1000 for their capture, but -their arrest was never accomplished. Invariably they were apprised of -the approach of pursuers and simply retired to some convenient canyon. -The bandits further endeared themselves to the citizenry when Stewart -and Jones arranged for the importation of a hundred Chinese laborers. - -This aroused the ire of the white miners and a meeting was called to -protest. “This is a white man’s town,” was the cry of labor. - -Small and McDonald agreed. “Just leave it to us,” they told the leaders. -“No use in a lotta fellows getting hurt.” They stationed themselves at -the mouth of the canyon and when the coolies arrived, a sudden volley -from the bandits’ six-guns brought the caravan to a halt. The frightened -Chinamen leaped from the hacks and fled in panic across the desert and -Panamint remained a white man’s town. - -Engaged at work around their hideout, Hungry Bill stopped to beg for -food. They told the Indian to wait until they finished their task. His -sullen impatience angered Small who booted him down the trail. Hungry -Bill left cursing and told a prospector whom he met that he would return -shortly with his tribesmen and assassinate the entire population. - -Panamint City was warned but Small and McDonald declared that since they -had started the trouble, they alone should end it. Accordingly, they set -out for Hungry Bill’s ranch to stop the attack before it started. But -near Hungry Bill’s stone corral they were ambushed by the Indians. The -bandits shot their way into the corral and barricading themselves, -killed and wounded about half of the renegades, after which the -remainder fled. - -Panamint City harbored a hoard of unsung assassins who merely lay in -wait, shot the unwary victim down, took his poke, rolled the body into a -ravine, went up town to spend the money. - -One killer who came decided to dominate the field and with that in view -he set forth to establish himself quickly as a gunman not to be trifled -with. He chose to display his prowess upon an inoffensive, quiet faro -dealer known as Jimmy Bruce, who, it was easy to see, “was just a -chicken-livered punk.” The publicity of a well-done murder in such a -setting would give prestige. - -Armed with two guns, the bully contrived to start an argument with -Bruce. The indoor white of the gambler seemed to grow whiter as the rage -of his towering tormenter reached the climax. The players moved out of -range. The bartenders ducked under the counter. Patrons helpless to -intervene, fled from the kill. - -A shot rang out. Cautiously, the bartenders lifted their heads. On the -floor lay the bad man. Mr. Bruce was calmly lighting a cigar. - -There was consternation among the killers. They swore vengeance. After -five of them had fallen before Bruce’s gun, he was let alone. - -The silent faro dealer, it was learned too late, was surpassingly quick -on the trigger. - -A spot somewhat distant from the regular cemetery was chosen for the -burial place and it became known as Jim Bruce’s private graveyard. - -Remi Nadeau, a French Canadian, was the first to haul freight into -Panamint City. Nadeau was a genius of transportation. There was no -country too rough, too remote, too wild for him. He came to Los Angeles -in 1861 from Utah and teamed as far east as Montana. - -The Cerro Gordo mine, on the eastern side of Owens Lake in Inyo County -began to ship ore in 1869 and Nadeau obtained a contract to haul the ore -to Wilmington where it was shipped by boat to San Francisco. He soon had -to increase his equipment to 32 teams, using more than 500 animals. For -his return trip he bought such commodities as he could peddle or leave -for sale at stations he built along the route. - -In 1872, the contract having expired, Judson and Belshaw, owners of the -mine, received a lower bid and Nadeau was left with 500 horses on his -hands and heavily in debt. He wanted to dispose of his outfit for the -benefit of his creditors but they had confidence in him and persuaded -him to “carry on.” Borax discovered in Nevada saved him. Meanwhile the -lower bidder on the Cerro Gordo job proved unsatisfactory and Judson and -Belshaw asked Nadeau to take the old job back. But now Nadeau informed -them they would have to buy a half interest in his outfit and advance -$150,000 to construct relay stations at Mud Springs, Mojave, Lang’s -Springs, Red Rock, Little Lake, Cartago, and other points. They gladly -agreed. - -Shortly after Nadeau began hauling across the desert, he picked up a man -suffering from gunshot and crazed from thirst. Taking the victim to his -nearest station, he left instructions that he be cared for. - -Sometime afterward, one of Nadeau’s competitors whose trains had been -held up several times by outlaws, wondered why none of Nadeau’s teams or -stations had been molested. At the time, Nadeau himself didn’t know that -the fellow whom he’d picked up on the desert was Tiburcio Vasquez, the -bandit terror. - -Vasquez naively condoned his banditry. It disgusted him at dances he -said, to see the senoritas of his race favor the interloping Americans. -He had a singular power over women. When Sheriff William Rowland -effected his capture, women of Los Angeles filled his cell with flowers. -He was hanged at San Jose. - -Nadeau was now hauling ore from the Minnietta and the Modoc mines in the -Argus Range on the west side of Panamint Valley. The Modoc was the -property of George Hearst, the father of the publisher, William Randolph -Hearst. These mines were directly across the valley from Panamint City -and because of Nadeau’s record for building roads in places no other -dared to go, Jones and Stewart engaged him to haul out of Surprise -Canyon, which was barely wide enough in places for a burro with a pack. - -On a hill, locally known as “Seventeen”—that being the per cent of -grade, located on the old highway between Ballarat and Trona, one may -see the dim outline of a road pitching down precipitously to the valley -floor. This road was built by Nadeau and one marvels that anything short -of steam power could move a load from bottom to top. - -Acquiring a fortune, Nadeau built the first three-story building in Los -Angeles and the Nadeau Hotel, long the city’s finest, retained favor -among many wealthy pioneer patrons long after the more glamorous Angelus -and Alexandria were built in the early 1900’s. - -The first ore from the Panamint mines was shipped to England and because -of its richness showed a profit, but difficulties arose in recovery -processes which they did not know how to overcome. The mines would have -paid fabulously under present day processes. - -Finis was written to the story of Panamint after two hectic years and in -1877 Jones and Stewart had lost $2,000,000 and quit. It would be more -factual to state that since they had received from the public $2,000,000 -to put into it, who lost what is a guess. - - - - - Chapter XXIV - Indian George. Legend of the Panamint - - -The previous chapter records accepted history of the silver discovery at -Panamint City. Indian George Hansen had another version which he told me -at his ranch 11 miles north of Ballarat. It fits the period and the -people then in the country. - -George, when a youngster lived in the Coso Range. East of the Coso there -was no white man for 100 miles and renegades fleeing from their crimes -and deserters from the Union army sought hideouts in the Panamint. Thus -George was employed as a guide by three outlaws to lead them to safe -refuge. - -George, a Shoshone, had both friends and relatives among the Shoshones -and the Piutes and took the bandits into Surprise Canyon where a camp -for the night was chosen. While staking out his pack animals, George -discovered a ledge of silver ore. Breaking off a chunk, he stuck it into -his pocket, saying nothing about it until they were out of the locality. -Then he showed the specimen and to promote a deal, gave one of them a -sample. They wanted to see the ledge but George refused to disclose it. -Then George said the three fellows stepped aside and after talking in -whispers told him they didn’t like the country and returning with him to -the Coso Range, went on their way. Two or three months later they were -back to bargain. - -George had traded with the white man before. They had always given him a -few dollars and a rosy promise. “Now me pretty foxy. So I say, ‘no want -money. Maybe lose.’ Him say, ‘what hell you want?’ - -“‘Heap good job all time I live.’ - -“‘Okay,’ him say. ‘We give you job.’ - -“I show claim.” George paused, a look of smoldering hate in his dark -eyes, then added: “I get job. Two weeks. Him say, ‘you fired.’ I get -$50.” - -All Indians and many of the old timers believe that the ledge George -found was that for which Jones and Stewart paid $2,000,000. - -George made another deal worthy of mention. The town of Trona on -Searles’ Lake needed the water owned by George’s relative, Mabel, who -herded 500 goats and sold them to butchers at Skidoo, Goldfield, and -Rhyolite where they became veal steak or lamb chops. Trona offered $30 a -month for the use of the water. Mabel consulted George as head man of -the Shoshones and advised Trona that the sum would not be considered. It -must pay $27.50 or do without. A superstition regarding numbers -accounted for the price George fixed for the water. - -My acquaintance with Indian George began on my first trip to Ballarat -with Shorty Harris and was the result of a stomach ache Shorty had. I -suggested a trip to a doctor at Trona instead. - -“No, sir. I’ll see old Indian George. If these doctors knew as much as -these old Indians, there wouldn’t be any cemeteries.” - -I asked what evidence he had of George’s skill. - -“Plenty. You know Sparkplug (Michael Sherlock)? He was in a bad way. -Fred Gray put a mattress in his pickup, laid Sparkplug on it and hauled -him over to Trona. Nurses took him inside. Doctor looked him over and -came out and asked Fred if he knew where old Sparkplug wanted to be -buried. ‘Why, Ballarat, I reckon,’ Fred said. - -“Well, you take him back quick. He’ll be dead when you get there. Better -hurry. He’ll spoil on you this hot weather.’ - -“Fred raced back, taking curves on Seventeen with two wheels hanging -over the gorge, but he made it; stopped in front of Sparkplug’s shack, -jumped out and called to me to bring a pick and shovel. Then he ran over -to Bob Warnack’s shack for help to make a coffin. Indian George happened -to ride by the pickup and saw Sparkplug’s feet sticking out. He crawled -off his cayuse, took a look, lifted Sparkplug’s eyelids and leaving his -horse ground-hitched, he went out in the brush and yanked up some roots -here and there. Then he went up to Hungry Hattie’s and came back with a -handful of chicken guts and rabbit pellets; brewed ’em in a tomato can -and when he got through he funneled it down Sparkplug’s throat and in no -time at all Sparkplug was up and packing his flivver to go prospecting. -If you don’t believe me, there’s Sparkplug right over there tinkering -with his car.” - -George’s age has been a favorite topic of writers of Death Valley -history for the last 30 years. - -I stopped for water once at the little stream flumed out of Hall’s -Canyon to supply the ranch. He was irrigating his alfalfa in a -temperature of 122 degrees. I had brought him three or four dozen -oranges and suggested that Mabel would like some of the fruit. - -“Heavy work for a man of your age,” I said. - -He bit into an orange, eating both peeling and pulp. “Me papoose. Me -only 107 years old.” - -There were less than a dozen oranges left when I began to cast about for -a tactful way to preserve a few for Mabel. Seeing her chopping wood in -the scorching sun I said, “I’ll bet Mabel would like an orange just now. -Shall I call her?” - -“No—no—” George grunted. “Oranges heap bad for squaw,” and speeding up -his eating, he removed the last menace to Mabel. - -Once George told me of watching the sufferings of the Jayhawkers and -Bennett-Arcane party: - -“Me little boy, first time I see white man. Whiskers make me think him -devil. I run. I see some of Bennett party die. When all dead, we go -down. First time Indians ever see flour. Squaws think it what make white -men white and put it on their faces.” - -I asked George why he didn’t go down and aid the whites. “Why?” he -asked, “to get shot?” - -“How many Shoshones are left?” I asked George. - -He counted them on his fingers. “Nineteen. Soon, none.” - -George died in 1944 and it is safe I believe, to say that for 110 years -he had baffled every agency of death on America’s worst desert. Because -his ranch was a landmark and the water that came from the mountains was -good, it was a natural stopping place and he was known to thousands. -Following a curious custom of Indians George adopted the Swedish name -Hansen because it had euphony he liked. - - -The Panamint is the locale of the legend of Swamper Ike, first told I -believe by Old Ranger over a nation-wide hookup, while he was M.C. of -the program “Death Valley Days.” - -A daring, but foolhardy youngster, with wife and baby, undertook to -cross the range. Unacquainted with the country and scornful of its -perils, he reached the crest, but there ran out of water. He left his -wife and the baby on the trail, comfortably protected in the shade of a -bluff and started down the Death Valley side of the range to find water. - -After a thorough search of the canyons about, he climbed to a higher -level, scanned the floor of the valley. Seeing a lake that reflected the -peaks of the Funeral Range he made for it under a withering sun. He -learned too late that it was a mirage and exhausted, started back only -to be beaten down and die. - -After waiting through a night of terror, the young mother prepared a -comfortable place for her baby and went in search of her husband. She -too saw the blue lake and made for it, saw it vanish as he had. Then she -discovered his tracks and undertook to follow him, but she also was -beaten down and fell dead within a few feet of his lifeless body. - -A band of wandering Cocopah Indians crossing the range, found the baby. -They took the child to their own habitation on the Colorado river and -named him Joe Salsuepuedes, which is Indian for “Get-out-if-you-can.” - -Joe grew up as Indian, burned dark by the desert sun. But he had an idea -he wasn’t Indian. Learning that he was a foundling, picked up in the -Panamint, he set out for Death Valley, possessed of a singular faith -that somehow he would discover evidence that he was a white man. - -He obtained a job as swamper for the Borax Company. When he gave his -name the boss said, “Too many Joe’s working here. We’ll call you Ike.” - -Early Indians, as you may see in Dead Man’s Canyon, the Valley of Fire, -and numerous canyons in the western desert had a habit of scratching -stories of adventure or signs to inform other Indians of unusual -features of a locality on the canyon walls—often coloring the tracing -with dyes from herbs or roots. Knowing this, Swamper Ike was always -alert for these hieroglyphs on any boulder he passed or in any canyon he -entered. - -One day Swamper Ike went out to look for a piece of onyx that he could -polish and give to the girl he loved. While seeking the onyx he noticed -a flat slab of travertine and on it the picture story of -“Get-out-if-you-can.” - -Swamper Ike had justified his faith. - - - - - Chapter XXV - Ballarat. Ghost Town - - -In the early 1890’s gold discovered on the west side of the Panamint in -Pleasant Canyon caused the rush responsible for Ballarat. For more than -20 years the district had been combed by prospectors holed in at Post -Office Spring, about one half mile south of the site upon which Ballarat -was subsequently built. Here the government had a small army post and -here soldiers, outlaws, and adventurers received their mail from a box -wired in the crotch of a mesquite tree. - -The Radcliffe, which was the discovery mine was a profitable producer. -The timbers and machinery were hauled from Randsburg over the Slate -Range and across Panamint Valley, to the mouth of the canyon. There, -under the direction of Oscar Rogers, it was packed on burros and taken -up the steep grade to the mine site. - -Copperstain Joe, a noted half-breed Indian made the next strike. With a -specimen, he went to Mojave where he showed it to Jim Cooper. For five -dollars and a gallon of whiskey he led Cooper to the site. - -But his deal with Cooper interested me less than the cunning of his -burro, Slick. Copperstain strode into a hardware store and asked for a -lock. “It’s for Slick’s chain. Picks a lock soon as I turn my back—dam’ -him.” - -The merchant showed him a lock of intricate mechanism, “He won’t pick -this. Costs more, but worth it.” - -“I don’t care what it costs,” Copperstain said and bought it. Later he -looped the chain around the burro’s feet, fastened the links with the -lock and tethered Slick to a stake. “That’ll hold you—” he said -defiantly. - -The next morning he was back in the store, belligerent. “Helluva lock -you sold me. Slick picked it in no time.” - -“Impossible.” - -“The burro’s gone, ain’t he?” Copperstain bristled, and reaching into -his pocket, produced the lock. “See that nail in the keyhole? I didn’t -put it there. Slick just found a nail—that’s all.” - -The future of Pleasant Canyon seemed assured and it was decided to move -the two saloons and grocery to the flats below, where a town would have -room to grow. - -When citizens met to choose a name, George Riggins, a young Australian -suggested the new town be given a name identified with gold the world -over. Ballarat in his native country met the requirement and its name -was adopted. - -Shorty Harris discovered The Star, The Elephant, the World Beater, The -St. Patrick. In Tuba, Jail, Surprise, and Goler Canyons more strikes -were made. It is curious that none were made in Happy Canyon. - -The production figures of early mines are rarely dependable and the -yield is often confused with that obtained by swindlers from outright -sale or stock promotion. My friend, Oscar Rogers, superintendent, told -me the Radcliffe produced a net profit of approximately $500,000. Less -authentic are figures attributed to the following: - -The O. B. Joyful in Tuba Canyon, $250,000; The Gem in Jail Canyon, -$150,000; and Shorty Harris’ World Beater, $200,000. - -Among the noted of Ballarat residents was John LeMoyne, a Frenchman. He -discovered a silver mine in Death Valley but the best service he gave -the desert was a recipe for coffee. He walked into Ballarat one day and -had lunch. The lady who owned the cafe asked if everything suited. “All -but the coffee,” John said. - -“How do you make your coffee?” she asked. - -“Madame, there’s no trick about making good coffee. Plenty coffee. Dam’ -little water.” - -From one end of Death Valley country to the other, coffee is judged by -John LeMoyne’s standard. You may not always get it, but mention it and -the waiter will know. - -For years LeMoyne held his silver claim in spite of offers far beyond -its value, which he believed was $5,000,000. But once when the urge to -return to his beloved France was strong and Goldfield, Tonopah, and -Rhyolite excited the nation, he weakened and decided to accept an offer -said to have been $200,000. “But,” he told the buyers, “it must be -cash.” - -After a huddle, John’s demand was met and a check offered. John brushed -it aside. “But this eez not cash,” he complained. No, he wouldn’t go to -town to get the cash. He had work to do. “You get eet.” - -Disgusted, the buyers left and John LeMoyne continued to wear his rags, -eat his beans, and dream of La Belle France. - -A young Shoshone Indian came into Keeler excited as an Indian ever gets, -looked up Shorty Harris and said: “Short Man, your friend go out. No -come back. Maybe him sick.” It was midsummer, but LeMoyne had undertaken -to reach his claim. - -In the bottom of the valley, Shorty identified LeMoyne’s tracks by a -peculiar hobnail which LeMoyne used in his shoes. He followed the tracks -to Cottonwood Spring and there found an old French pistol which he knew -had belonged to LeMoyne. Convinced he was on the right trail, he went on -and after a mile or two met Death Valley Scotty. - -“I know why you’re here,” Scotty said. “I’ve just found his body.” - -LeMoyne was partially eaten by coyotes and nearby were his dead burros. -Though tethered to the mesquite with slender cotton cords which they -could easily have broken, the patient asses had elected to die beside -him. - -And there ended the dream of the glory trail back to the France he -loved. Those who believe in the jinx will find something to sustain -their faith in the record of John LeMoyne’s mine. - -After LeMoyne’s death, Wild Bill Corcoran who had made and lost fortunes -in the lush days of Rhyolite, set out from Owens Valley to relocate it. -Never a ranting prohibitionist, Bill believed that the best remedy for -snake bite was likker in the blood when the snake bit. When he reached -Darwin he was not feeling well and stopped long enough for a nip with -friends and to get a youngster to drive his car and help at the camp. - -It was midsummer, with record temperature but Bill wanted John LeMoyne’s -mine. Becoming worse in the valley he stopped in Emigrant Canyon and -sent the boy back for a doctor. Bill crawled into an old shack under the -hill. When the boy and the doctor came, they found Bill Corcoran on the -floor, his hand stretched toward a bottle of bootleg liquor. His soul -had gone over the hill. - -One after another, five others followed Bill to file on LeMoyne’s claim -and each in turn joined Bill over the hill. - -LeMoyne’s Christian name was Jean. His surname has been spelled both -Lemoigne and Lemoine. The claim from which Indians had formerly taken -lead was filed upon by LeMoyne in 1882. - -Joe Gorsline, a graduate of Columbia, with a background of wealth, came -to Ballarat during the rush, looked over the town. “Wouldn’t spend -another day in this dump for all the gold in the mint,” he announced. He -had a few drinks, heard a few yarns, eyed a few girls in the honkies. It -was all new to Joe, but something about the informalities of life -appealed to him and in a little while he was renamed Joe Goose. - -Then the town’s constable shot its Judge and Ballarat chose him to -succeed the deceased. Not liking the laws of the code, he made a batch -of his own, which were never questioned. While watching the flow of time -and liquor, he “went desert” and put aside the things that might have -been for the more alluring things-as-they-are. - -When Ballarat became a ghost town, Joe Gorsline took his body to the -city, but his soul remained and years afterward when he died, a hearse -came down the mountain and in it was Joe Gorsline, home again. He is -buried in a little cemetery out on the flat and in the spring the golden -sun cups, grow all around and you walk on them to get to his grave. - -Adding a cultural touch to Ballarat was an English nobleman who “going -desert” tossed his title out of the window, donned overalls and brogans -and promptly earned the approving verdict, “An all right guy.” Soon he -was drinking with the toper and dancing with the demimonde. Like others, -he did his own cooking and washing. He lived in a ’dobe cabin which, -because it was on the main street, had its window shades always down. - -But there was one little custom of his British routine he never -abandoned and this was discovered by accident. He stopped in John -Lambert’s saloon one evening before going to his cabin for dinner. He -left his watch on the bar and had gone before Lambert noticed it. An -hour later Lambert, having an opportunity to get away, took the watch to -the cabin. John thus reported what he saw: “He was eating his dinner and -bigod—he had on a white shirt, wing collar, and swallow tail.” - -Ballarat chuckled but no one suggested a lynching party. They knew how -deep grow the roots in the soil one loves. “Maybe,” said Lambert, -“that’s why John Bull always wins the last battle. They give up -nothing.” - -A familiar figure throughout Death Valley country was -Johnny-Behind-the-Gun—small and wiry and as much a part of the land as -the lizard. His moniker was acquired from his habit of settling disputes -without cluttering up the courts. Johnny, whose name was Cyte, accounted -for three or four sizable fortunes. Having sold a claim for $35,000 he -once bought a saloon and gambling hall in Rhyolite, forswearing -prospecting forever. - -Johnny advertised his whiskey by drinking it and the squareness of his -game, by sitting in it. One night the gentleman opposite was overwhelmed -with luck and his pockets bulged with $30,000 of Johnny’s money. Having -lost his last chip, Johnny said, “I’ll put up dis place. Ve play vun -hand and quit.” - -Johnny lost. He got up, reached for his hat. “Vell, my lucky friend, -I’ll take a last drink mit you.” He tossed the liquor, lighted a cigar. -“Goodnight, chentlemen,” he said. “I go find me anudder mine.” - -Johnny had several claims near the Keane Wonder in the Funeral -Mountains, held by a sufferance not uncommon among old timers, who -respected a notice regardless of legal formalities. - -Senator William M. Stewart, Nevada mining magnate, had employed Kyle -Smith, a young mining engineer to go into the locality and see what he -could find. Smith, a capable and likable chap, in working over the -districts, located several claims open for filing by reason of Johnny’s -failure to do his assessment work. - -It is not altogether clear what happened between Johnny and Smith, but -Smith’s body was found after it had lain in the desert sun all day. -There being no witnesses the only fact produced by sheriff and coroner -was that Smith was dead. Johnny went free. Other escapades with -Johnny-Behind-the-Gun occurred with such frequency that he was finally -removed from the desert for awhile as the guest of the state. - -In a deal with Tom Kelly, Johnny was hesitant about signing some papers -according to an understanding. His trigger quickness was explained to -Kelly who was not impressed. He went to Johnny and asked him to sign up. -Johnny refused. Kelly said calmly, “Johnny, do you see that telephone -pole?” - -“Yes, I see. Vot about?” - -“If you don’t sign, you’re going to climb it.” Johnny signed. He put his -gun away when he acquired a lodging house at Beatty, where he died in -1944. - -Reminiscing one day in the old saloon he had owned, Chris Wichts slapped -the bar: “I’ve taken as much as $65,000 over this old bar in one month.” -He had none of it now but in a little cabin in Surprise Canyon with a -stream running by his door, and a memory that retained only the laughs -of his life, he didn’t need $65,000. - -“A city fellow came into the cafe one day. Snooty sort. I told him we -had some nice tender burro steaks. He flew off the handle. Said he -wanted porterhouse or nothing. I served him. When he finished he -apologized for being rude and said his porterhouse was good as he ever -ate. I went into the kitchen and came back with a burro shank, shoved it -in his face and said, ‘Mister, you ate the meat off this burro leg.’ I -thought he’d murder me.” - -One day when Ballarat travel was heavy, a dapper passenger dropped off -the stage, entered the saloon, bought a drink and paid for it with a $20 -gold piece, getting $19.50 in change. When he’d gone, Shorty Harris -standing by said: “Chris, that money doesn’t sound right.” - -Chris examined it. The gold piece had been split, hollowed out and -filled with alloy. Chris worried awhile, then brightened when he noticed -his place was full of loafers playing solitaire; pulling at soggy pipes; -waiting for a “live one.” “Boys,” said Chris, “old Whiskers ain’t -getting much play. Let’s go down and see him.” - -Whiskers was his competitor down the street. - -A few moments later the bat-wing doors of Whiskers’ place flew open and -Chris and his bums swarmed in. Chris laid an arm on the bar. “What’ll it -be fellows?” Then he turned to the loafers along the walk “Line up, you -guys and have a drink.” - -They did and when the drinks were downed, Chris laid the phony gold -piece on the bar, received his change and with his crowd returned to his -bar. An hour later he was still laughing to himself over the trick he’d -played on Whiskers when his own sawed-off doors flapped open and -Whiskers barged in, followed by his own mob of moochers. Whiskers -ordered for the house and laid down the $20. Chris gulped and gave the -change. - -That coin circulated in every store and saloon in Ballarat for more than -a year. Everybody knew it was phony, but accepted it without question -and came to regard it with something akin to affection. Then one day a -gentleman in spats came along and the $20 gold piece left forever. - -Billy Heider, a slim, genial fellow who had been a hat salesman in a -smart toggery shop in Los Angeles came not for gold but to escape -alimony. His easy smile masked a stubbornness that nothing could -conquer. “... she got a smart lawyer and dated the Judge,” Billy said. - -He hung his bench-made suit on a peg, slipped into overalls, cut off one -sleeve of his tuxedo to cover a canteen, spread the rest on the floor -beside his bed to step on in the morning and so—transition. Eventually -he began to prospect, kept at it for 20 years; found nothing, but he -beat alimony. - -Usually mines were “salted” in shaft or tunnel to separate the sucker -from his money, but it remained for a Ballarat woman to find a simpler -way. - -Michael Sherlock, known as Sparkplug, because of continual trouble with -that feature of his automobile, gave me her formula: “She owned a claim -in Pleasant Canyon that had a showing of gold. She wanted $10,000 for -it. A rich auto dealer came along to look at it. He was worth at least -$5,000,000. She told him to take his mining engineer and get his own -samples and when he got back she’d have a chicken dinner waiting. - -“They got the samples, came down, parked the car in front of her house, -got their bellies full of chicken and went back to the city. A couple of -days later the millionaire was back. Couldn’t get his money into her -hands quick enough. Word went out there would be work enough for all -comers and we figured on boom times. But he couldn’t find ore to match -her samples.” - -“What happened?” I asked. - -“While he was eating chicken dinner that night, her Indian hired man -went out to his auto and switched samples.” - -I asked Sparkplug why he didn’t sue her. - -“If you had $5,000,000 would you want the whole dam’ state laughing at -you?” - - -Randsburg, which boomed in the early Eighties as a result of gold -strikes in the Yellow Aster, the King Solomon, and later the Kelly -silver mine, soon became one of the principal eastern gateways to the -Panamint and to Death Valley by way of Granite Wells and Wingate Pass. - -A curious story of a man haunted by his conscience is that of William -Dooley and told to me by Dr. Samuel Slocum, who had come to Randsburg -from Arizona after making a fortune in gold. - -A howling blizzard had driven everyone from the streets and the campers -in Fiddlers’ Gulch into Billy Hevron’s saloon. Dr. Slocum, lost in the -blinding snow and stumbling along the street, felt with his hands for -walls he couldn’t see, while a barroom noise guided him to the door. - -At the bar he saw William Paddock, mining engineer. “Bill, you’re the -man I’m looking for. I can’t find anyone who can tell me how to get to -Goler Canyon in Panamint Valley. You’ve been there and I want you to -draw me a map.” - -Paddock, finishing a drink ordered one for Slocum and introduced him to -a man at his side: “This is Mr. Dooley,” Paddock said, and the doctor -saw a great hulk of a man with black whiskers, small eyes, and an uneasy -look. Before a word was spoken Slocum sensed Dooley’s instant dislike of -him. - -Slocum ordered a round of drinks. Dooley refused and walked to the -farther end of the bar. - -Paddock followed Dooley after a moment, talked with him and returned to -his drink. He said to Slocum: “I’m in a curious situation. I don’t know -much about Dooley, but down in Mexico he saved my life. Now it’s my turn -to save his. He just killed a man in Arizona and came here to hide out. -I’m taking him to Goler Canyon soon as this blizzard is over. He thinks -you are a deputy U. S. Marshal and claims that he has seen you before -and that you are no doctor.” - -“He may have seen me in Arizona at Gold Hill,” Slocum said. - -“The best way I can help you,” Paddock continued, “is to sign the road -as I go and after a day or two you can follow us.” - -On the day following Paddock’s departure Doctor Slocum set out. The next -day he came upon a newly-made grave, outlined with stone. On a redwood -board used for the marker was carved this inscription: - - _“Here lies Bill Dooley who died by giving Wm. Paddock the dam’ lie.”_ - -With no reason to shed tears, the Doctor following Paddock’s signs, -reached Goler Canyon, made camp and knowing that Paddock intended to -occupy a stone cabin farther up the gulch, he started up the trail. He’d -gone only a short distance when he saw Paddock approaching, waving his -arms in a signal for Slocum to go back. The Doctor stopped. - -When Paddock came down he said, “For God’s sake, Doc, get back to your -camp. Dooley is behind that big boulder above us with a Winchester -trained on you.” - -“Why, I thought he was dead....” - -“No,” Paddock smiled grimly. “He worked all night digging that grave. -Said it would throw you off his trail. I can’t get it out of his head -you’re a marshal.” - -Slocum had made a gruelling trip to free and open country and he had no -intention of being driven out. “I’ll go up and talk to him,” he said. -Paddock warned him that it would be useless and might be fatal, but -Slocum insisted and they went up the trail, Paddock going in front to -shield him. - -Dooley was outside the cabin with a rifle in the crook of his arm, his -finger on the trigger. - -Slocum was unarmed. He calmly assured Dooley he was not an officer; that -he had no intention of disclosing Dooley’s whereabouts, “But this is -free country and I intend to stay.” - -Dooley’s reaction was a noncommittal grunt. However, violence was -avoided. When the Doctor returned to his camp, Paddock decided it would -be best to accompany him as a measure of safety. Explaining to Dooley -that he would remain with the Doctor to inspect a claim, he remained as -a body-guard for three days. On the fourth he went up to the stone cabin -and discovered Dooley had loaded his wagon with all the camp equipment -and supplies, including a green water keg and left for parts unknown. - -Just across the range was Hungry Bill’s country. A year or so afterward -Doctor Slocum, crossing the mountains into Death Valley, stopped at -Hungry Bill’s Six Spring Canyon Ranch and noticed a green cask. Hungry -Bill said that he had found the keg floating on the ooze near Badwater. -“Somewhere under that ooze,” Doctor Slocum said, “lies Bill Dooley, his -team, his wagon, and its load.” - - -An interesting character of this area was Toppy Johnson, who scouted for -Senator George Hearst and later had charge of copper claims belonging to -William Randolph Hearst, near Granite Wells. - -While there, Toppy employed Aunt Liza, a negro cook. Aunt Liza came from -Randsburg with an enormous trunk. She was a good cook, but an awful -thief and nearly everything Toppy owned except the furniture disappeared -piece by piece. When his razor vanished he looked through the trunk and -found the loot. He didn’t want to lose Aunt Liza, so he removed a few of -the more needed things, leaving the rest to be recovered by instalments. -Thereafter it was a game of losing and retrieving. - -As strange a coincidence as I’ve ever heard attended the end of Toppy -Johnson. Sent to Mexico when Pancho Villa was overrunning the country, -he fled to Mazatlan when Pancho announced he would shoot on sight both -native and foreigners who were not in sympathy with his marauding. - -All boats were crowded with refugees, both native and alien, but Toppy -was permitted to join the hundreds willing to sleep on deck. Toppy -unwittingly chose a spot over the saloon where drunken celebrants soon -began shooting at the ceiling. - -A shot penetrated the flooring of the craft’s deck and Toppy’s abdomen. -An American physician sleeping alongside was awakened by Toppy’s groans, -attended him, but saw there was no hope. The physician asked his name, -the object being to notify the victim’s relatives. - -“If my doctor were only here,” Toppy moaned, “he could save me.” - -“Who is your doctor?” - -“Dr. Samuel Slocum, of Pasadena,” Toppy said, and died. - -The physician was Dr. Slocum’s nephew. - -Thirty-four miles south of Ballarat at the end of a narrow canyon -leading from Wingate Pass road into Death Valley, one comes upon a -breath-taking riot of color. Pink hills. Blue hills. Hills of dazzling -white, mottled with black and green. Yellow hills. Maroon and jade -hills. - -A gentleman of fine fancy and fluent tongue passed that way, learned -that under the hills was a deposit of epsom salts. Then he went to -Hollywood where salts met money. He talked convincingly of nature’s drug -store. “Just sink a shovel into the ground and up comes two dollars’ -worth of medicine recommended by every doctor in the country. No -educating the public. Everybody knows epsom salts.” - -There was no flaw in that argument and Hollywood dipped into its -pockets. A mono rail was strung from Searles’ Lake over the Slate Range -through Wingate Pass and up the slopes to the pink hills. There rose -Epsom City. For awhile the balanced cars scooted along that gleaming -rail, bearing salts to market—dreams of wealth to Hollywood. - -But the world had enough salts, Epsom City failed. Nothing is left to -remind one of the incredible folly but a few boards and a pile of bones. -The bones are those of wild burros slaughtered by vandals who in a -project as inhuman as ever excited lust for money, went through the -country and killed the helpless animals, to be sold to manufacturers of -chicken and dog food. - -A singular character known as Dad Smith, who had come to California with -John C. Fremont was one of the earliest settlers at Post Office Springs. -Smith had been a scout with Kit Carson in the Apache wars in Arizona and -returned to the lower Panamint in 1860, to hunt gold in Butte Valley, -where, nearing 90 he dug a tunnel 100 feet in length. Found there -delirious, with pneumonia, by Dr. Samuel Slocum, he was removed to the -Doctor’s camp where Mrs. Slocum nursed him through his convalescence. -When he recovered he decided to give Mrs. Slocum a token of his -gratitude. - -At the time, Barstow and Daggett were the most convenient stations for -prospectors in the southerly area. At Daggett they likkered at Mother -Featherlegs’. At Barstow they bought at Judge Gooding’s store or at Aunt -Hannah’s, and drank at Sloan and Hart’s saloon. Dad’s money, as was that -of others, was left with them for safe keeping. So he walked every mile -of a ten days’ round trip to get a box of chocolates for Mrs. Slocum. A -little chore like that made no difference to Dad. He encountered a -desert rain and arrived at the Slocum cabin drenched. They persuaded him -to remain overnight and led him to a tent. - -Seeing that water dripped from Dad’s blankets, Dr. Slocum went for dry -bedding. When he returned, Dad had his own bedding spread on the ground. -“Here, Dad—take this dry bedding....” - -“Not on your life,” Dad said as he crawled into his own. “I’d catch -cold, sure as hell.” - -Two noted athletes of the period went into the Panamint for a vacation. -When they asked for a guide, they were told to get Dad, but after -looking him over they decided he lacked stamina, but engaged him when -they could find no one else. The route was over the Panamint into Death -Valley and back through Redlands Canyon—a trip to test the hardiest. - -On the third day Dad returned alone. Asked about his companions, he -grumbled: “They’re down and out. Now I’ve got to haul ’em in.” - -He took his burros, lashed the victims securely on the beasts and -brought them in. - -Remembered by oldsters, was Archie McDermot, a big fellow of -unbelievable strength who was an all-purpose employee of Dr. Slocum. - -While they were camped at Barstow one night, Archie went up town to pass -a cheerful hour and during the course of the evening a brawl started and -Archie suddenly found himself the object of a mass attack by five burly -miners. Archie knocked them down as they came, threw them out and -returned to his drinking. The constable went in to take Archie. Archie -tossed him through the door. The officer didn’t want to kill him, and -collecting a posse of four brawny helpers, tried again. Archie pitched -them out. - -Being a friend of Slocum, the constable now went to see the Doctor. -“Doc, can’t you come down and do something about Archie? Knowing how you -need him, I don’t want to kill him....” - -Doctor Slocum went, discovered that Archie, after throwing everybody out -of the place, had seized the long heavy bar, turned it on its side and -was sitting on the edge with a bottle in each hand. Doctor Slocum -regarded the wreckage and then Archie. “Good Lord, Archie, what have you -done?” - -“Nothing, Doc,” Archie said. “Just having a nip. Take one on the -house....” - -“What about this fight?” - -“Fight?” repeated Archie. “Oh, that—some fellows tried to start a little -ruckus but I didn’t pay much attention to it.” - -But if Archie had no fear of a dozen live men, he was terrorized by a -dead one. - -Doctor and Mrs. Slocum, with Archie, were leaving their camp in the -Panamint. The thermometer under the canopy of the vehicle registered 135 -degrees—hot for an April day, even in Death Valley country. As they -drove along, the Doctor noticed some clothing on a bush. “Seems -strange,” he said. “Let’s look around.” - -Archie skirmished through the bushes. Presently he returned, his face -white, horror in his eyes. He grabbed the wagon wheel, his quivering -bulk shaking the heavily loaded vehicle. “For God’s sake, Doc. Go and -look!” - -The Doctor saw a sight as pitiable as it is ever man’s lot to see—a -young fellow dying from thirst on the desert. His protruding tongue -split in the middle. Unable to speak, though retaining a spark of life. -The fingers of both hands worn to stubs. - -Kneeling, Doctor Slocum asked the victim where he came from; where he -wished to go. No sign came from the staring eyes. Finally the Doctor -said, “We want to help you. We have water. We’re going to take you -home.” At the mention of home, a feeble smile came, and two tears, the -last two drops in that wasted body, rolled down his cheeks and dried in -the desert sun and then he died. There was nothing to do but bury the -body. - -“You’ll have to help me, Archie,” the Doctor said. - -A look of terror came into Archie’s eyes. “Doc,” he pleaded, “ask me -anything but that....” - -The man who’d cleaned up Barstow, quailed in superstitious fear at the -thought of touching the dead. - -They looked around for a place to dig a grave. But the country was -covered with malpai and lava rock and they couldn’t dig in it. The -Doctor wrapped the body in a piece of canvas and Mrs. Slocum aided in -lifting it into the wagon. She drove the team while the Doctor and -Archie walked along, looking for loose earth and finally found a spot. -Archie dug the grave. The Doctor lowered the body and Archie with shut -eyes, filled the grave. - -A press story of the finding brought a flood of letters from all parts -of the country. Such stories always do. From mothers, wives, -sweethearts—but none from men. It’s always the woman who cares. - -Such deaths are due to inexperience. This boy had no canteen. Just -around the corner of a jutting hill was Lone Willow Spring. - -Though scarcely a vestige remains, there was once a town at Lone Willow. -Saloons and an enormous dance hall lured the Bad Boys and there the -trail ended for scores reported as missing men. - -Cyclone Wilson, a nephew of Shady Myrick who built a sizable export -trade in gem stones, and for whom Myrick Springs is named, was taking a -wagon load of Chinese coolies to work at Old Harmony. All Chinamen -looked alike to Cyclone and he didn’t know that these were newcomers. It -was his custom to discharge his passengers at the foot of a steep hill -near Lone Willow and require them to walk to the top. - -As usual, upon reaching this grade he set his brakes and waited for the -coolies to get out. None moved, then he ordered them out. The Chinamen -sat in stony silence. He repeated the order with no result other than -jabber among themselves. Angered, Cyclone reached for his long -blacksnake whip. It had a “cracker” on the end of which was a buckshot. -With unerring accuracy he aimed the whip at the nearest coolie and -overboard he went. The others leaped out and drawing knives from their -big loose sleeves, massed for assault. - -Cyclone reached for a pistol—always carried on the wagon seat, and -started shooting. His toll was five Chinamen. - -The cause of the murders, it was later learned, was due entirely to the -fact that none of the Chinamen had understood a word Cyclone had spoken. - -A Chinaman at Lone Willow, who spoke English made his countrymen bury -the dead. - - -Today Ballarat is a ghost town and soon every trace of it will be gone. -Roofless walls lift like prayerful arms to gods that are deaf. - -In the late afternoon when the shadows of the Argus Range have crept -across the valley, a few old timers come out of leaning dobes and stand -bareheaded to look about. The afterglow of a sun is upon the peaks and -the afterglow of dreams in their hearts. They people the empty streets -with men long dead, some in unmarked graves in the little cemetery on -the flat just beyond the town. Some on the trails, God only knows where. -These dead they see pass in and out of the old saloons. These dead they -hear again. Glasses tinkle, slippered feet dance again. - -Tomorrow? Their pale eyes lift to the canyons and though dimmed a -little, they see one hundred billion dollars. - - -What of Shoshone? It remains with changes of course. The shanties hauled -from Greenwater have been hauled somewhere else. No longer do I step -from my car as I have so often and call to those on the bench. “Move -over, fellows” and hear their familiar greeting: “Where the hell _you_ -been?” - -Instead, I drive to an air conditioned cabin and stroll back to the -former site of the bench, so long the social center. There I see a sign -over a door which reads, “Crowbar” and I enter a dreamy cavern with -dimmed, rosy lights, hear the music of ice against glass and refuse to -believe the startling sight of an honest-to-goodness old timer tending -bar in a clean white shirt. - -Likewise I balk at the white lines I walk between as I cross the asphalt -road to the store. - -But above Shoshone the same blue skies stretch without end over a world -apart, and under them are the same uncrowded trails; the same far -horizons for the vagabond’s foot and the peace “which passeth all -understanding.” - - - - - INDEX - - - A - Amargosa River, 96 - American Potash and Chemical Co., 33 - Archilette Spring, 95 - Augerreberry, Pete, 58 - - - B - Ballarat, 175 - Ballarat Mines, production figures, 176 - Beatty, Monte, 53, 77 - Benson, Myra, 68, 133-134-135 - Benson, Jack, 133-134-135 - Bennett, Bellerin’ Teck, 23 - Bennett, Charles, freighter, 31 - Bennett’s Well, 21 - Black Mountain, story of, 20, 60-61 - Bodie, toughest of the Gold Towns, 74 - Borax, discovery of, 26 - Bradbury Well, 76 - Bowers, Sandy, gets a fortune for a board bill, 74 - Brannan, Sam, Mormon leader, 95 - Brandt, “Arkansas” Ben, 71, 83, 138 - Breyfogle, Jacob; stories of, 154 - Brown, Charles, Deputy Sheriff at Greenwater; store at Shoshone; - road builder, supervisor, superintendent of Lila C. Mine - at Dale; elected to senate; Chap. XV, 102 - Brown (nee Fairbanks) Stella, 69, 71, 104-105, 107, 116, 135 - Brougher Wils, at Tonopah, 49 - Bruce, Jimmy, private graveyard, 168 - Bullfrog Mine, discovered, 53-54-55 - Butler, James, discoverer of Tonopah silver, 48-49-50, 59 - Bulette, Julia, famed madam of Virginia City, 74 - - - C - Cahill, Washington, Borax Co. official, 35-36 - Calico Mountains, 15 - Calico, stories of, 15, 16 - Carrillo, Jose Antonio, 97 - Carson, Kit, guide and scout in Shoshone country, 20, 93-94-95 - Casey, John “Cranky,” noted desert character, 136, 137-138 - Cave Spring, 134 - Cazaurang, Jean, wealthy miser, death of, 100-101 - China Ranch, stories of, 80, 94 - Clark, W. A., 60 - Clark, “Patsy,” 60 - Coleman, W. T., 27-28, 30 - Comstock, “Pancake,” famous lode named for; buys a woman; suicide, - 48, 74 - Corcoran, “Wild Bill,” famous prospector; death of, 58, 177 - Counterfeit gold piece, 179-180 - Cross, Ed, partner and co-discoverer of Bullfrog Mine, 53 - - - D - Dayton, James, superintendent Furnace Creek Ranch, death of, - 35-36, 122 - Dante’s View, 151 - Davis, Buford, buys Noonday Mine; death of, 158 - Death Valley, cause of; history of, geology, temperatures; first - settlers, 19 - Decker, Judge, convivial Ballarat Justice of Peace, murdered, 62 - Delameter, John, early freighter, 156 - Diamond Tooth Lil, glamorous madam, 62-63 - Dooley, William, bad man, 181-182-183 - Driscoll, Dan, partner of Shorty Harris, 91, 120 - Dublin Gulch, 69 - Dumont, Eleanor, (Madame Moustache), charmer of the Forty Niners, - 74 - - - E - Eichbaum, Bob, toll road, 21 - Egbert, Adrian, at Cave Spring, 134 - Epsom City, salts deposit; mono rail, 184 - - - F - Fairbanks, Ralph Jacobus, at Ash Meadows; at Greenwater; at - Shoshone, stories of; death; Ch. XVI, 104-105, 108, - 110-111 - Fairbanks, Celestia Abigail, 105 - Fennimore, James, “Old Virginny”; named Virginia City; swapped - Ophir Mine for blind pony, 74 - Flake, Sam, old timer, poker student, death, 68, 78 - Fremont, John C., 93 - French, Dr. Darwin, seeks Lost Gunsight, names Darwin Falls and - town of, 21 - Funston, General Frederick, identifies and names Death Valley - flora, 24 - - - G - Gayhart, W. C., assayer, part owner of Tonopah Discovery Mine, - 49-50 - George, “Rocky Mountain,” 76 - Godey, Alex, Fremont scout, fights Indians at Resting Springs, 94 - Goldfield, named, 50 - Goodwin, Ray, park official, 147, 149 - Gorsline, Joe, Ballarat Judge, 177-178 - Gower, Harry, Borax Co. official, mgr. Furnace Creek Ranch, 41 - Grandpa Springs, hole-in for old time prospectors, 50 - Grantham, Louise, girl prospector, 139 - Gray, Fred, Ballarat prospector, 116 - Gray, W. B., 77 - Greenwater, copper strike, stories of, 60, 63 - Gunsight Mine, 21-22, 157-158 - - - H - “Happy Bandits” (Small and McDonald), 164-165, 167-168 - Harris, Frank “Shorty,” Ch. XVII, 113 - Harrisburg, scene of gold strike, 57, 114 - Harmon, Pete, misses millions, 117 - Hellgate Pass, 64 - Heider, Billy, flees alimony, 180 - Heinze, August, Copper King, 60 - Henderson, W. T., names Telescope Peak, kills Joaquin Murietta, - famous bandit, and pickles head; sees victim’s ghost, - 164-165 - Hilton, Frank, finds body of James Dayton, 36 - Hoagland George, burial of, 72-73 - Holmes, Helen, story of thriller, “Perils of Pauline,” 127 - Hungry Hattie, Ballarat character, 119 - Huhn, Ernest (Siberian Red), diligent prospector, 68 - Hungry Bill, Panamint chief, 87 - Hunt, Capt. Jefferson, Mormon guide; prominent in California - culture, 21 - - - I - Ickes, Harold, visits Shoshone, 149-150 - Indians of the desert, conflicting opinions of, Ch. VII, 43 - Indian George Hansen, owner of Indian Ranch, discovered silver at - Panamint City, 154, 155, 171-172-173 - Ishmael, George, 152 - - - J - Johnnie Mine, 90 - Johnson, Albert, owner and builder of Scotty’s Castle, 133 - Johnson, Bob, tamps friend’s grave, 72-73 - Johnson, Toppy, supt. of desert mine of W. R. Hearst, 183 - Jones, Herman, discovered Red Wing Mine, road builder, 72, 142 - Jones, J. P., Nev. silver king at Panamint city, 23, 166, 170 - Johnny-Behind-the-Gun, 178-179 - - - K - Kellogg, Lois, owner of Manse Ranch, 101 - Kempfer, Don, mining engineer, official of Sierra Talc. Co., 158 - - - L - Lee, Philander, owner of Resting Springs Ranch, 97 - Lee, Cub, built first house at Shoshone, slays wife and son, 98 - Lee, John D., established Lee’s Ferry; executed for massacre of - emigrants at Mountain Meadows, 90 - Lee, “Shoemaker,” 98 - Legend of Swamper Ike, 173-174 - Le Moyne, Jean, recipe for coffee, story of mine, death, 176-177 - Lone Willow, murders at, 186 - Longstreet, Jack, Ash Meadows bad man, 90 - Lost Mines, all of Ch. XXII, 154-163 - - - M - Main, Eddie, 69, 78 - McDermot, Archie, Strong Man, 185 - McGarn, “Whitey Bill,” 70, 78, 138 - Manly, William Lewis, 23, 157, 161 - Manse Ranch, 155 - Metbury Spring, first name of Shoshone, 72 - Myers, Al, discoverer of Gold Field, 50 - Modine, Dan, deputy sheriff, early owner of China Ranch, 63, 68, - 84 - Montgomery, Bob, owner of Montgomery Shoshone Mine, buys Skidoo - discovery claim on sight, 54-56 - Murray, Billy, saves John S. Cook Bank and Goldfield from “run,” - 51 - Murietta, Joaquin, 95 - Myrick, Shady, exports gem stones, 186 - - - N - Nadeau, Remi, genius of transportation, 169 - Nagle, Dave, 166 - Naylor, George, sheriff, treasurer, supervisor of Inyo Co., 102 - Nels, Dobe Charlie, at Bodie; at Shoshone, 74-75 - Noble, Levi, geologist, 39-40-41 - - - O - Oakes, Sir Harry; in Alaska; at Greenwater; at Shoshone; makes - strike in Canada; builds palace at Niagara Falls; knighted - by King George V; slain by son-in-law, it is said—a - renegade French count, in Bahamas, 105, 111-112 - Oddie, Tasker, mining tycoon, 49-50, 60 - Owens Valley, rape of, 147-148 - - - P - Pacific Coast Borax Co., organized, 28-29 - Pahrump Ranch, 23 - Panamint City, 166-167-168 - Panamint Tom, story of, 23, 109 - Perry, J. W. S., supt. Borax Co., designer of 20 mule team wagons, - 31 - Pietsch, Henry, shot Ballarat judge, 62 - Plato, Joe, on the Comstock Lode, 76 - Post Office Spring, early army post, 175 - - - R - Radcliffe Mine, 175 - Raines, E. P., genial crook, 165-166 - Randsburg, gold discovered at, 181 - Rasor, Clarence, Borax Co. official, 151 - Resting Springs, named by Mormons, 96 - Rich, Charles, Mormon pioneer, 96 - Rickard, sports promoter, 51 - “Rocky Mountain” George, prospector, 76, 77 - Rogers, John, Bennett-Arcane party, 21 - Rosie, squaw, love life of, 88 - Ryan, Joe, desert philosopher, 70-71, 73, 82 - Rhyolite, discovery of gold, 54-55 - - - S - Saratoga Springs, 93 - Schwab, Charles M., at Rhyolite; at Greenwater, 55, 60 - Scott, Bob, discoverer of Confidence Mine, 91 - Scott, Mary, squaw, 90 - Scott, Walter, “Death Valley Scotty,” 69, Ch. XIX, 130 - Scrugham, James, Governor and U.S. Senator of Nevada, 77 - Searles, John, 32-33, 159 - Sherlock, Michael, “Sparkplug,” 180 - Skidoo, gold strike, 55-56 - Slim, Death Valley, bad man, 102-103 - Slim, Jackass, Ch. II, 20; Ch. XI, 64-65 - Slocum, Dr. Samuel, 181-186 - Smith, Francis M. (“Borax Smith”), 29-33, 38 - Smith, “Dad,” Old Man of the Mountains; came with Kit Carson, 184 - Smith, Pegleg, 97-98-99 - Snake House, 78 - Sorrells, Maury, 138 - Stewart, Wm. R., Nevada Senator, mines at Panamint City, 23, 170 - Stiles, Ed, first driver of 20 mule team, 31, 35, 37 - Stump Springs, 23 - Stovepipe Wells, 21 - - - T - Teck, Bellowin’, 23 - Tecopa Cap, Indian Chief, 78, 79 - Tecopa Hot Spring, 79 - Tecopa, John, discoverer of Johnnie Mine, 90 - Telescope Peak, 22, 93, 139 - Temperature in Death Valley, 41, 42 - Tonopah, discovery of silver, 50, 51 - Towne’s Pass, named, 21 - Trona, 33 - Twenty-mule team, first driver, design of, 31 - Tule Hole, story of, 35, 36-37 - - - V - Vasquez, Tiburcio, bandit terror, 169 - Volmer, Joe, 141 - - - W - Wagons, 20 mule team, design of, 31 - Wamack, Bob, at Confidence Mine, 91 - Weed, Tom, noted Indian, death of, 89-90 - Wichts, Chris, noted Ballarat character, story of, 61, 179 - Williams, George, 142 - Williams, Bill, preacher and plunderer, 96-97 - Wilson, Cyclone, massacre of Chinamen at Lone Willow, 186, 187 - Wingfield, George, famous gambler, luck of, 51 - Winters, Aaron and Rosie, discovered borax in Death Valley, 26 - Wolfskill, 92 - - - Y - Younger, Tillie, member of Jesse James guerrillas, dies at - Shoshone, 73 - Yundt, John, Lee and Sam, owners of Manse Ranch, 99-100 - - - - - _The Author_ - - -Nearly every newspaperman looks forward to the time when he can get away -from the pressure of his journalistic job and retire to a little cottage -by the sea, or a cabin in the mountains, and write a book. - -The only difference between William Caruthers—Bill, to his friends—and a -majority of the others is that he did write his book on the spot, -preserved it and after retiring to his orange grove near Ontario, -California he got around to the job of revision, which resulted in these -pages. - -Born on the banks of the Cumberland River in Tennessee, Caruthers’ -career as a journalist began when he became editor of the local weekly -paper at the age of 16. He took the job, he explains, because no one -else wanted it. - -His family wanted him to be a lawyer, and in compliance with their -wishes he returned to school and was admitted to the bar in Tennessee -when he was 19. But he wanted to be a newspaperman, and vowed that when -he won his first $2,000 fee he would quit law. Successful as a young -lawyer, the time soon came when he won a tough case against a big -insurance company—and that was his chance. He closed his law office -forever. - -For a time he was editor of Illustrated Youth and Age, the largest -monthly in the South. He wrote feature articles for the Nashville -American, Nashville Banner, the old New York World, the Christian -Science Monitor, fiction for Collier’s Weekly and other important -magazines. His writings have appeared in most Western magazines. - -After coming to California he first went to work on the Los Angeles -Examiner, quitting that job to become a publisher and his little -magazine, _The Bystander_ gained nationwide circulation. While editing -this magazine he became editor of Los Angeles’ first theatrical -magazine, _The Rounder_, which was a “must” on the list of early movie -stars and soon discovered that the most lucrative field for a journalist -was in ghost writing. As a “ghost” he addressed big political -conventions, assemblies of governors and mayors and in one instance, a -jury as the prosecutor. One eastern industrialist paid him a fabulous -fee when the address Caruthers wrote for him brought a great ovation. - -Finally his physician warned him to slow down. It was then—in 1926—that -he came to the desert, and, during the intervening 25 years, has spent -much of his time in the Death Valley region. He has witnessed the -transition of Death Valley from a prospector’s hunting ground to a mecca -for winter tourists. This is a book of the old days in Death Valley. - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - -—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - -—Corrected a few palpable typos. - -—Added page numbers to plates (in roman numerals). - -—Included a transcription of the text within some images. - -—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Loafing Along Death Valley Trails, by -William Caruthers - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOAFING ALONG DEATH VALLEY TRAILS *** - -***** This file should be named 51899-0.txt or 51899-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/8/9/51899/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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