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Show Lost Valley in California Has j Many Interesting and Un- explained Deceits. Hi PHANTOM CITY IS j SEEN BY PROSPECTORS Lsiiiiim'1 Lone Freight Outfit Has De-ceived De-ceived Many of tlie Most Hardened. The Whito Haze of Lost Valley rises to ihc top of the Grapevines each day when the .sun has not been foiled In Its purpose by rain. Opposite Lost. Valley stands Telescope peak, heavy with the H snow of centuries, and throws down n lonp shadow at an early hour. It is a stranco quartette, this valley, this peak, the Grapevines "and the sun, a quartette of desert wizards who at this place and hour conjuro up a specter from Lost i Valley, the wraith of a lost doscrt and a lost city. Every day in the heat of summer the White Haze from Lost Val-lev Val-lev lifts up from its sand home and l paints the Whito mirage over tho Grapevines. j Dnrinir prospectors enter Lost Valley. Daring prospectors cross the Gmpe-j Gmpe-j vines. The craze for wealth surmounts in men of the desert the fear of death from thirst and these men drive their train of pack animals into the region of the White mirage. A few come back. Others pass over the Grapevines, across 1 Lost Valley, on into the shadows of H Telescope peak, and the shadow of the 1 White mirage. These arc the ones that 1 havo been lured' on" by the lust for gold and the irresistible adventure to seek Hl for the city of the Grapevines which Hf has streets made of gold. These fall 1 victims to the plcturo of the Whito H Ilase. even as unfortunate murincrs fall Hi victims to the grewsonie witchery of the ITJylnfr Dutchman Over the Grapc-H Grapc-H vines on a hot summer day these pros- 1 pectors see tho "While mirage of a city HO In the haze above the mountains and Hl their fate is scaled. Hl The desert has its secret well in hand. .Each day the sunlight slanting obliquely HI over the Panamints touches up a plc- ture that fills with awe the heart of a desert man. Almost each day some lone 1 prospector driving his burro train over 1 the desert in search of hidden wealth stops before the. painted city in the clouds. He sees the 'dobe walls of the 1 crumbling buildings, the long streets of a dead city, the plaza, rows of houses Hj shich once held inhabitants of superior JntelliKcnee. His eyes stare out in won-der won-der The heat has made him uncertain, but he feels sure that the city is the storehouse of great treasure, and then it is a lost city, which alone would be enough to tempt him onward. He watches the mirage. The light glares until it almost blinds him. The picture In the clouds brightens and dims and then fades into the "White Haze, and so fades the secret of Lost Valley. For tills valley, as its companion farther south, has its snooks and its tragedies I and frequently it pictures these on Its canvas above the Grapevines When the sun begins to settle behind Ihe Pan-amints Pan-amints and Telescope peak drops a shadow into the valley, these spooks from Lost Valley come up to play their pranks upon the unwary desert man. The Grapevines that hold the secret of the Lost Breyfoglc and a thousand other secrets take a leading part. The , Lost City glistens like gold clouds, but the secret Is never disclosed, No one has ever found the way that leads Into tho broad street of the town or to the plaza In the city of the While Mirage. Freighters driving from Amargosa to Greenwater across the Amargosa see at some distance from the road a freighting freight-ing outfit that appears to have been stalled there In the sand. This outfit was first observed in April when the warm weather set in. One man stopped one day to investigate. He left his team standing in the desert and hastened has-tened across the desert to the strange outfit. As he walked, however, there was no difference in the apparent nearness of the outfit. He walked until he had almost al-most lost sight of his own team, and finally gave up the attempt 10 see what u.snner of apparition he had been following fol-lowing But whenever the freighter passed the same place on the road he could see the outfit in the distance. It was not a mirage, apparently, for the Image was close to the ground, and it was distinct enough so that he was certain it was not an optical illusion. He pointed the thing out to an automobile man and thus another attempt was made to discover dis-cover the character of the object that remained anchored so definitely in the desert. For a time the automobile was driven straight toward the object. Soon, however, a rugged road was encountered. encoun-tered. Some detours had to be made, ar.d when the party again came Into direct di-rect line with the freighting outfit, or the particular spot where it was visible, the apparition was gone. The party searched the desert thoroughly for some distance, but nothing could "be found of the freighting team and wagon. When the auto got back to the road, however, the specter was there again. It Is there today. Any one passing along the road over the Amargosa desert can seen this outfit at certain hours of the .morning, yet no one can say for a certainty what It la. Upon closer approach it suddenly disappears, but yet It Is always there. Death Valley Chuck-Walla. |