Show 4 P N 0 11 uri it 3 1 A f el F 5 T it N 44 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON EATH VALLEY I 1 what visions of horror those words conjure up in the D mind of one who knows anything about this famous spot in southern california visions of an inferno of heat beat and thirst a narrow valley shut in between black walled mountains and lying below sea level the lowest point on the american continent visions of a white plain across acroca which the heat waves wares shimmer and dance of mirages of cool lakes which appear before the eyes of dying men to mock their thirst then vanish of a desolate barren land whose terrific heat beat literally dries up mens daens blood in their veins and drives them mad before they die a plague spot to b be 0 shunned by all living creatures such was death valley of yesterday but the death valley of today to Is different true the heat and the thirst are still there wit but it Is no longer a place to be shunned by man instead it Is now bow actually being opened to tourist sightseeing traffic and to Is being advertised as a now new playground and the invitation for foi tourists I 1 to visit death valley comes from no less a host than the united states national park service the following was wais recently made by stephen T mother mather director of the park service A hotel for the accommodation of 4 visitors to Is just now being completed on the very edge of the desert a few miles from ryan A magnificent view of the valley with its ito fram of jagged mountains and fascinating colored cliffs may be obtained from the hotel arrangements have also ben oade made for side trips to various points of late interest est one of the most striking of these Is dantes peak where from an elevation of 1000 feet the visitor may look into death valley which at this point lies feet below sea level travelers will be able to get on a train in Us los angeles about 0 op p in and reach the hotel the next rooming morning the new playground has already been opened on february 1 to be exact but if you expect to visit death valley this season you will have to do so before may 15 for on that date the last tourist must be out f the valley hereafter the season will open ia ij the fall but always may ajay IB 16 will be the deadline for death valley pleasant as it Is in the winter becomes an inferno with the return of the summer sun and the temperature runs up as high as degrees or more mom As the familiar saying goes it the heat its the th humidity only in the case of death valley its lt the lack of humidity that kills the average humidity Is only 01 of 1 per cent old timers almera will tell you that it if you souse a blanket in a tub of water and pull one end out dripping it will ha dry thoroughly while you are semb scrubbing bing the other half or dip your handkerchief in water and hold it up it Is dry in a minutes time jump into water fully clothed and you jou will be b bons bone dry to the last thread in half an hour lay an egg on the sand and in ten minutes it will be baked hard bard alfalfa cut in field Is cured and ready for stacking in less than two houm boim desits ye yea sIts lf HOT in death valley 1 death valley got its name during the days of 49 9 in the tpring of 1849 a party of emigrants 10 wagons barong acet out from galesburg ni ill for the california gold fields late that summer the emigrant train reached salt lake city utah there they were told that the regular mountain route to S ban francisco would lie ile beneath twenty feet of sierra nevada snow enow before they could reach the mountain passes they were warned too to oo 00 of the awful fate that hod had overtaken he now famous I 1 donner party most moat of which had pe perished 0 hunger when it was caught in a blizzard near donner lake in northern california but tho the gold seekers were impatient to reach li and coining inan with other argonauts they sn s out under the guidance of john qung who contracted to take them over abe tb old spanish trail to los lbs angeles through san bernardino progress was waa slow and some of the emigrants became dissatisfied having heard of a short cut leading west that would save miles of their journey they decided over hunts protest to make the venture the result was that shortly afterwards they found themselves in what la Is now death valley hemmed lie romed I 1 in by mountains through which there appeared to be no opening there the party split one group 80 36 persons in all young bac bachelors helom from illinois who called themselves the jayhawkers Jay hawkers pressed on toward the mountains to try to find a way out of the trap some of them died of starvation some of thirst and others went mad and wandered away to their deaths in the valley in all 18 of the 80 30 perished before they fought their way through to safety in the meantime the rest of the party ruen men with fa families milles had found a tiny stream and there they camped to rest but their food supplies began to run ran tow low their oxen began to 16 die and their wagons to fall apart in the blistering sun so go tho the lender leader asahel asabel bennett sent two young fellors fello i will manley and john rogers forth to find it vay ray out of this living hell As they departed mrs bennett gave manley a double handful of rice half of all she had and silently pointed to the hunger pinched faces of her children lie ile understood her mean ing upon the success of his and rogers efforts depended the lives of all the emig emigrants mats I 1 then the party sat ant down to wait for the return of the two scouts A week passed two threca and still manley and rogers did not return at the end of the fourth week all except asahel bennetts wife had abandoned hope they will come back she matutat maintained ned steadfastly but they did not and the party resola resolved 20 upon one last desperate attempt to escapa they began stripping the canvas covers from the prairie schooners ners and making pack maddhes upon their emaciated and then manley and rogers return returned edl I 1 they spoke but briefly of the days of horror spent in struggling from one waterhole to the next across the ZO SW miles of the mojave desert of the dead of the Jay jayhawker howker party whom they had found along the trail but they had found food and most vital of au all they hoc hart found a way out of the valley they guided the party on the long climb to the I 1 dummit of the panamint nt range which frowns down upon the valley As the emigrants reached the crest and looked back into the trap from which they had escaped asahel asabel bennetts wife raised mixed her arms in a gesture of farewell good by death Val valley leyl 1 she cried and so BO it was named although this occurred three thru quarters arters of a cent century liry ago echoes of this tragic event have been board beard from froin time to time in recent years yeara As late as 1018 1918 the two survivors of the jay howker party col john B colton of galesburg lesburg Qa and lorenzo dow stephens of san jose calif met once more to talk over their thrilling experience but the lost last living link with the tragic past was snapped on february 12 22 1021 1921 when stephens died in oakland calif at the age I 1 1 of I ninety three years yeara last november however the story of tile the jayhawkers Jay hawkers wail wai recalled again when a crowd of merry makers dined and danced in celebration of the opening of a diw new barrel ar artesian well at stovepipe wells wella in death valley it was wa on oil this spot that stanley manley and rogers the two scouts sent out by asahel asabel bennett on oil november A 23 1840 1849 first sighted the waterhole and members of the party sipped from the tiny depression where now a great volume of water gushes forth the few lifesaving life saving draughts which gave them the strength to struggle on scarcely less dramatic than the story of the naming of death V valley alley Is the story of ile how borax which forma the basis of an industry tha hat helped malie make this spot even more was there in the year 1880 aaron aaroa winters lived with bla bis wife in a frontier home la in aub meadows a tiny oasis east of death valley to their home one day earned caad a wandering pros peeter who told the winters of the borax deposits to in the state of nevada and how a great fortune awaited anyone who could find more roch much deposits winters raked asked many questions including the question of how a person could know borax it if he be discovered it he waa told that the best test teat was to pour certain chemicals over the suppo supposed seh borax deposit and then to fire it it if it w were ere borax the chemicals would bum with a green flame winters had bad made ny many visits into death valley and after talking to the prospector was waa convinced that there was borax there them so he met bet out immediately accompanied by hla him wife and soon afterwards encamped on furnace creek in the marsh which appears on furnace creek in the spring he gathered the most likely looking deposit that night he made the test is as the prospector had told him there was a breathless moment of suspense and then aaron winters cried roke no ale she burns bums greeni green I 1 were rich I 1 the borax industry of death valley had come into existence the next dext problem was waa how to get the rich borax deposits out of the valley out of necessity came the famous 20 mule team wagons which are Ia inseparably associated with the name of death valley for years this unique transport system brought the borax wealth out of death valley then the modern tractor wrote mils ants on another chapter of american transportation one whose like the world has never seen elsewhere that was written last year and it marked the passing of another era in the history of death valley but borax Is not the only wealth which it contains gold was discovered there many years ago and it has been a favorite haunt for the old time prospector the ture lure of its wealth being all the more attractive because of the dangers which guard it remember the picturesque death valley scotty whose find there made him rich and who gained nationwide nation wide notoriety by the freedom with which he blew his wealth even more picturesque was another prospector who became known as the good samaritan of death valley lou westcott beek beck was one of the great number who rushed to death valley at the news new of scottye Scott js find he nearly lost his life on its barren wastes waitea and when he finally escaped he resolved to devote his bis life to saving others from the fate which he had so narrowly escaped in that dread region each summer beck made a trip into the valley of purple mist and great thirst piling up rocks and placing signs on them to guide prospectors pros to wate searching for lost travelers and guiding them to safety for IS 18 years he did this work and during that time he be anahis and his companion a newfoundland dog named rufus saved the lives of between three and four hundred travelers in the great american deserts the colorado and the mojave as well aa death iDeath valley then in 1017 1917 death valley sot got him at ai last during one ona of hla his trips he came to a spring which he had bad always used and drank from it he go offered some water to rufus bufus but the dog dox refused to drink the spring prins bl bad become infected after it a terrible trip to tb bin bl home in pasadena bend where mrs mra beek beck awaited their the samaritan went to bed ill and levei the work inaugurated has been carried on by the united states geological survey until death valley la in now supplied with enough sign alp posts so 80 ehst shat it Is in safe enough to travel for anyone use ordinary common sense and not take foolish chances those who do not soon boon team loam the truth of the prophetic warning of old timers that you cant fool with the desert if you ym do hell bell get you every time and now the latest announcement of the united state rates park seral ro means that even those wb who 0 hol ool o ol with bee ibar have hare batter than id an oven even chance to tc escape the th agern of this nw land of till thirst rit |