| Show TiEr GREAT AMERICAN DESERT Fate of the Sooner and Hastings Parties Doctor Doc-tor Fausts Personal Experiences Wrlten for the New ovllg cred thn crest AmerIcan deem I oa often as oIly Otleeelanneer lea In the ant forty yer I thought a few lIne would not como amls to the renders of the New A nan travelIng team Sni Lobe 10 California would pronounce It 1 a desert from tho Wasutch to the Sierra Nevada mountains The gieut desert commences on the north at tho Idaho line and extends to Old Mexico This expanse ot sterility la I at least CO miles wide Tills 1 gnat space Is I dotted with mountain that must have been Ulandt In 1kw gieat water age These moun tnln and 00 C mountain man lain mineral ot ball hOnda I I here that the mining camps are located These mountains me 1 surrounded by valId s from ten to sixty miles wide lIce water Is I situated In the mountains consequently It Is I Just that dietnnco > to water There I once In a great while an oasts water Is I not of the best at any time nnd 1 grows poorer the father touth one goen I and others that have traveled this sterile country almost doubt that little geography Ior about able Iundan sphero at our containing onethird land and two third waler I Is all hand here The Deert and htobidreadcd spot llng wst C the Oroat Salt Lake t I hat I want to si eak of Juit now The greatest length la I about ItO mllos Tho width varies from GO to too mie exceltne the riih Spring lat on the rnmema south nd TIc eroore only alout tour mie Thl slreer t Is I n level a a 100r ecptng a few eared bible Ic emelan 1 there and two mountln NwCoundland and Oranlt wih WIld cat j000rod nbc Into It lke a Iromontor AU there ot Iheo pluce contln mineri The GranIte wi rneake a Iret camp with Its lead l rapPer rap-per gold and some sliver bane I soavega tatlluco on ho rmr0z2rr Drt excrpt 1 small salt weed that rrowa her and there The Islands or moelnlctbns 01 they aro now called have neoero it b springs ot pure water that Wt unknown In iteration days flrenlte having seven Newfoundland ha nlnelcen The first account we have of anyone any-one race lIce across this nevertobc fogotten desert was In 18IC by tho Ill fitcd Ponncr part They passed to tin south of Iart Rait Lake and through when GmntstIlle now stands Into bkull Vale her they camped far n tee das at no ht Is I knwn 05 thc Innaka mnch I wns here Ihat a nbec sengemocer look them tram Im llrldger beggIng Ihem nut to attempt to gn across thee Desert but go around to the north This message they heeded not > 01 started I neo to tho round mountain known as Pilots Peak The tmphere t seclrarad d deep live hoC It looked 10 them a It Ioes dana only a Cew toie to the olher sIde I am not eotaln but tleay may have see ll 0 ot Ihoe benuuul mirage lakes that lire po otter ceenonmlror bright elope At all events they had mosily no teams und It being ninety miles lee yleert on the rotel lItany dciH nnd nights Tho teams were un hllchett about twentjmo mIles from Ilboto Peak and drIven Into water Piot The people that went with them were m exhausted that they lay down to sleep and the Indians stole their stock Othermen came to see whit h had be come lt their comradeS awoke them and they went In I search of the stock Some of them they got back but enough were lost to ictard their travels The rest of the history of the Illfated Donncr party Is I gIven In their being h > belated nnd perishing In the Sierra Neda mountain 1nr Inco 181G people going to Cal torll he avemensee d thIs deert mora or less I Many years ago there was tho northern route ellored kDown as the Goose Creek and Humbolt road about on i the lino of the Central Pacific rail road but the India being so bad many ot the mal Ibrtlee have fron 11 > no to time hozardmd their lives going TOSS nt various points of this valley of death The bond noted was the IUngs pry of which the he I n tltory left to tel the tale ot 1llr out firing I oeems that In the rlcly Ills a mountlneer hy th name ot IMllngs was the gulii ot an mlgmnt traIn that went souin of the Great Sat Lake They camped ol > oat the Kanaka ranch some tlmo recruiting their stock This dno they started across the Desert to Pilots Peak to the same point as the Donner party and so close to the Donner road It Is I a wonder that they could not hua seen It lee only reason that could be give Is that both started aeo In the Ileht In place the road ore stIll vllble The tock giving out for the want of water had to be unhitched un-hitched and drlten to Pilots Peak Here the Indians filed on them killing many but the emigrants haMng good guns clrote the Indians ntyay Hotnu of the emigrants went back utter some of their wagons > others left theirs Thy still stand where they wee left still In good preseroo lion except the spokes neir the ground have been wor narly off by the and blowing around them continually The Iron Is I almost all rusted oft by the salt action The okcs and chains still lay where i they weie dropped I hate tried lee Indians on several occasions to tell mo all about the fight hut none a > f tlet old ercnes that coulU tel will do K believing that they would be punished pat A ounger one < told mo lbs Indians held the emigrants emi-grants for many dope When the feed was all gone and some of the stock wag stolen I and the rest suffering the miolgmaots aoved 10 the m0000Olae about twenty miles from Pilots Pe alc to a little spring In a pass now known as Hasting Pass on the Deep Cieek und Tonno road Hero they built atone a-tone wall or toed against the gralite mOlnlalllnd mad a delerate lIght Cut the Indians had them surrounded > and In the night stampeded and stole nil their stock From day to day the Indians had nothing to do but to kill any one that showed himself In sight Item were left to bUr the rest how long they did live n one now living 1Ie know Whnt Ihce tOt > wIt fered no one can een Imagne much lens tell cod It 500001 for Iod Fred Iarh told me when he cro1 many yeare 00 mnny ot lichno traInee perished for the wont ot wte ha and some oth crerac leg themselves by killing an ox and drinking his blood There Is I a road now by Granite mnuntaln In lIds mountain Is I motel making the drIve forty miles on one tIde und thirtyset on the other without water Nothing > but light rigor rig-or horse backs can travel that with eifety and that only In the sumrnei There Is I leo place on earth where man and beast want so much us they do here J he air Is I full of salt and alkali Thee odd the het make Iravel undo OoIn d Imot Intolernble We are oren nsked why l people do not go around Howard lOgos flaIl ICobcrts the Huntlngtons mself and a few others In the Interest of the Oterland Mail company did exploie and mlko a rod around leo outh ot the disci I but In wet times It Is I had to drove I In one placet the road Is IlfI meneolles around amI only toot mi onrooa On the round read In wet wrollecr the ground has UK aI icarance of bread before It Is I baked The Irish Spring sloughs as the hrough rod Is I called Is I thee best be anse It I ehertrt to water by Ireen mIles nnd about as good l i the other Thlo Is I a case when a man that takes med III wish he had taken the other The mud will take the paint off your rngon the color out of toe clothing nnd It will male a solid wheel so lou cannot see the are > kee I crossed It croet once with a light wagon and four mulen leach except my wife child ONt a kk mn 1r I mlno oct when I got nr thee sloughs the mules stuck In l the mud I the Wllon setlNI h down to the bd ant I had to Inhltch the ntltme to rove their hIve The WI hit Itlo on the road thon Irebrusry 1019 W ado whnt lunoheon we had and went to bed to keep from treezlnr Ira Iho morlnl I Ftarted back I tn the mal station four miles and5 whel I renche lbs sheolcl5 t fnlld Ihe I c000terrangenoog h 10 hold me They wr too whIr to label so I took my clothing on ant put It nn my head crossed dressed went to the station got my coffee sal cr010 bread and hon got I little wood and welt back > by the same ferry that I had elIte With tho > wood I warmed up the scanty meal I fed my people and went to led to keep from fretting On that clay ei frlendlv Indian saw our wagon stationary and came to us We btemnenc Ii otho end we Were so gild to see him that wo could not ex roes It We gave him our meager nnd ho took note tn far nll tok a Simpson Pprlngs fortyfive miles for help During the three days that I was stuck thiee times I had to rcneat my trip 10 thn Ialnn ivlth Ice mme 10 > hu operndi to get back before rome sucor With that experience on my mini I h uvenooee fur lCbanhlloe Vhat people peo-ple have suffered on thot barren and bleak spot no one cal ever knoY or ever attempt to wrlle lIsle moms have perished and been lost on that d meoero Ill nfvw bf known When the time 1 comes that the nil speaks of when the sea shall give up Its dead I holo It wi Incilde 111000 that he been lel on that wicked deerl H J JUST cii cu |
