The desert borax wagons are a marvel of themselves. The wagon proper is made to hold ten tons of borax. It has a bed sixteen feet long by four feet wide and sides six feet high. The hind wheels are seven feet, and the front wheels five feet, in diameter. They are fitted with tires eight inches wide and an inch thick, and an empty wagon weighs seventy-eight hundred pounds. In addition to this combined weight of wagon and load, amounting to about fourteen tons, is the trailer, as is called the water wagon, which it is necessary to attach to the train in order that man and beast may not perish of thirst on the journey. Altogether, the plucky teams have to haul through the yielding sands about twenty tons—nearly or quite one ton to the beast.
A traction engine is also employed in hauling the product of the mines. This is a huge concern weighing hundreds of tons and doing the work of several mule teams. This machine has not been found adapted to all features of the work, however, and is not destined to supersede the mule wagons.
A little more than twenty years ago borax was worth, in this country, in the neighborhood of one dollar per pound. It is now being mined,—even under the present disadvantages,—prepared, and marketed at a profit at about ten cents a pound, with a prospect of still lower figures in the near future.
Gold and borax, which have been given chapters in this work, are by no means all the minerals found in the California deserts. The deserts have tempted the prospector ever since California became known as a mineral field. For a time gold was the prime object of his search, but later it became known that other minerals were capable of yielding profits quite as great as the yellow metal, and he has become more critical in his observations. His care has been liberally rewarded.
Borax was one of the first of the mineral products to attract his attention. The discovery of large deposits of this in Death Valley was followed by the discovery of immense beds of niter, of sulphate of soda, nitrate of soda, and other mineral drugs in the same vicinity.
The gold belt of the Mojave Desert has been traced from the town of Mojave to Death Valley, a distance of one hundred and fifteen miles. The belt varies in width from two to ten miles. Death Valley is known to contain rich deposits of gold in other portions of the desert. All along these gold belts, silver is also more or less abundant.
The silver mines of the Calico district have become famous for their yield of silver bullion. These mines are about six miles north of the Santa Fé railroad and near the station of Daggett. The belt extends in an easterly and westerly direction, and has been traced and developed for a distance of ten miles. The rocks of this region are violet or brown rhyolite, often porphyritic; green, yellow, and white tufa; greenish hornblende andesite; yellow and green breccia.
Copper, lead, tin, zinc, iron, manganese, baryta, gypsum, sulphur, onyx, marble, asbestos, and gem stones are also found in the deserts.
The minerals are scattered over the many thousands of square miles of territory. The difficulties of transportation, coupled with the lack of water, have greatly retarded the development of the known mineral fields, as well as prevented the finding of other rich deposits which doubtless exist.
The character of the mineral rocks is multitudinous. In the Waterloo Mines in the Mojave Desert, ore is found in a belt of jasper which yields more than one thousand ounces of silver to the ton.
Twenty-eight miles east of Daggett are large bodies of iron ore—the largest known on the Pacific Coast. These deposits have been practically undisturbed because of the distance from railroad and the lack of water and fuel to mine and smelt the ores. When a railroad is laid to the locality this field will prove a wonderful source of wealth to those who secure possession of it.
Five miles south of Oro Grande are rich veins of copper which are found very near the surface. These deposits were discovered by the Mormons who settled on the Mojave River several years ago.
Variegated marble quarries have been opened twelve miles northeast from Victor, in which are found marbles of wonderful beauty and fineness. Shades of crimson and gray, cream, rose, white, pale blue, black, chocolate, and yellow are mined from these quarries, the ledges of which outcrop and stand above the surrounding lands. Some of these marbles approach in beauty that of the finest onyx.
The Colorado Desert contains numerous valuable gold mines, as well as silver, copper, tin, and other important minerals. Cement and asbestos are found in abundance in certain sections. Rich deposits of the latter mineral are found in the vicinity of Indio and at Palm Springs. Lithia rock and fine clay are mined in certain sections and in 1902 the richest known tourmaline deposits in America were found at Mesa Grande. There is an interesting story connected with the finding of these gems.
Mesa Grande is an elevated plateau or tableland. On the lower adjacent lands water is found, and ranchers—mostly Mexicans—have established themselves. Ever since the valley became settled the tableland has been a favorite playground for the children. A portion of the mesa is scantily covered with loam, where grow cacti and other specimens of dry-weather plants. A large portion of the mesa, however, is barren and the rock lies exposed, gray, mottled, or white beneath the glaring sun which shines ever from a cloudless sky. Here and there the granite and gneiss show a belt of snowy white quartz which gleams in the sunlight, forming a pleasing contrast to the darker rocks in which it is set.
One day, while playing among these rocks, one of the children found a delicately tinted transparent pebble. When held up to the sun it emitted brilliant reflections and sparkled and scintillated like living flame. A cry of delight brought the other children to the spot, and then began a search for more of the pretty stones, with the result of the gathering of a dozen or more of the sparkling stones that afternoon. After this, frequent trips were made to the mesa in search of the pretty pebbles, and scarcely a house in the vicinity but contained collections of the beautiful playthings.
One day a professional gem-cutter chanced to visit the valley under the mesa and in a basket of playthings he saw some of the bright pebbles. He examined the stones and learned where they had been found. Then he prospected the locality and found the gem-bearing ledges and staked claims covering the richer portions of the field. Since then some rare and valuable stones have been taken from the mines, gems equal to those of Ceylon, Brazil, or Siberia, which countries have heretofore supplied the world with these gems. The gem-bearing ledges extend over two or three hundred acres.
Salt is another valuable mineral found in both the Mojave and Colorado deserts. The famous salt-fields of Salton are in the latter desert, but they have a story all their own, which will be told in another chapter.
The most remarkable harvest-field in the United States, if not in the whole world, is located in the heart of the Colorado Desert. The spot is known as Salton, and it lies 265 feet below the level of the sea.
The crop which is harvested is salt. So plentiful is the natural deposit of this necessary article that it is plowed with gang-plows, is scraped into windrows as hay is raked in the field, and, like hay, it is stacked into heaps from the windrows and is then loaded into wagons and later into cars to be carried to the reduction works three miles away.
There are about one thousand acres in this saline field. When one looks upon this glittering, sparkling, and scintillating field, which lies like a great patch of snow dropped down into the midst of the burning sands of the plain, he is reminded of that passage of Scripture which says:
"Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."
This field is literally white to harvest and a most phenomenal harvest it is. Over a briny, oozy marsh lies a crust of salt six to sixteen inches thick. As often as removed, the crust quickly forms again, so that crop after crop is taken from the same ground. In fact, although these harvests have been going on nearly twenty years, and two thousand tons of marketable salt are annually taken from the beds, but ten acres of the one-thousand-acre field have been broken.
The laborers employed in breaking up the salt crust, in loading the salt onto the wagons and taking it to the mills, in cleaning and preparing it for the market, are mostly Japanese and Indians. In the summer season the temperature reaches 130 to 140 degrees at Salton, and white men are unable to endure the work exposed to the burning rays of the sun.
The ease with which the salt is procured in this field makes it a valuable one. At very little expense the salt is made ready for market, and it brings from six to thirty-six dollars per ton, according to the grade.
The Coachella Valley, in which this great field of salt lies, is ninety miles long and from ten to thirty miles wide. Its one thousand six hundred square miles of territory lie wholly below the level of the sea, its greatest depression being 275 feet. The southern portion of the valley is devoid of vegetation, save where irrigation has been introduced, but about the northern portion of the valley the sage and mesquite have obtained a foothold in the sandy soil. Near Indio, in the northern portion of the valley, an artesian well was drilled a few years ago and a copious supply of water was obtained. Now more than two hundred and fifty of those wells are pouring their waters over the thirsty soil, and a large tract of land has been brought into a high state of cultivation. The lands about the salt-fields, however, are too strongly impregnated with salts and alkali to offer any inducements to the rancher now or in the future. The constant harvest of salt, however, is a rich enough return for the lands thus unfitted for agriculture.
This desert salt is remarkable for its fine quality. An analysis made in San Francisco shows its constituents to be as follows: Chloride of sodium, 94.68 per cent.; calcium sulphate, .77 per cent.; water, .75 per cent.; magnesium sulphate, 3.12 per cent.; sodium sulphate, .68 per cent.; total, 100 per cent.
Until 1901, the title to the Salton lands was vested in the Government, and the company which was reaping the harvest had no title to the property and no legal right thereto. There is an interesting story connected with the change of title.
This concern, the Liverpool Salt Company, had a competitor for the salt trade of the Pacific coast in the Standard Salt Company. The Salton fields are reached by means of the Southern Pacific Railway, which road has the handling of all the product of the salt-fields. The Standard Company alleged that the railroad people discriminated against it in the way of freight rates, excluding the Standard people from the coast markets, and thus securing a monopoly of the trade for the Liverpool Company. This led the managers of the Standard Company to look into the titles of the salt-fields. It was then discovered that the company operating was without title, and that the lands were unallotted Government lands.
The attention of the Government officials was called to the fact that the Liverpool people were trespassers, and an order was issued for the company to vacate. A bill was then introduced in Congress providing for filing claims upon saline lands, and the bill passed the Senate January 22, 1901. It yet required the signature of the President to make it a law, however, and it was then that matters became interesting in the desert.
Both companies congregated men on the lands adjoining the salt-fields, prepared to race to the choice portion of the field to stake claims the moment the wire should apprise them of the signing of the bill. Each company had an agent in Washington ready to telegraph the news the instant it became known, and each company had a man at the telegraph station at Salton, three miles from the field, to take the message to the men the moment it came.
The Liverpool Company felt confident of winning the race, for the company owned a spur track from the main line of the railroad to the salt-fields, and upon this line was placed a hand-car, manned ready to pull for the fields the instant the dispatch should arrive. This car could easily outstrip the fleetest horse, the yielding sands making it impossible for a steed to make rapid progress.
The manager of the Standard Company, however, did not depend upon horse speed, mule speed, or car speed. There are in Southern California an average of 316 cloudless days each year. He pinned his faith to the weather, and his confidence was not betrayed.
At 2.45 o'clock, the afternoon of January 31st, two telegrams arrived at Salton at about the same time. One was for the manager of the Liverpool Salt Company and the other was for the manager of the Standard Salt Company. The contents of the telegrams were identical. They told that the President had signed the bill which opened the lands in the salt-field to entry. In a moment the hand-car was off, the men pumping for dear life. Before they had gone a dozen rods there shot from the station a blaze of light—a message flashed by mirrors held in such a manner as to catch and reflect the rays of the sun. To the watchers three miles away, who were waiting for the signal, which had been prearranged, it was as though the station had burst into flame. At the sight of this signal the men rushed to the salt-fields and set the stakes and posted the notices required by law. When the hand-car men arrived it was all over, and there was nothing for them to do but to return and swallow their chagrin.
After the triumph of the Standard Company in this peculiar race, a compromise was effected whereby the Liverpool Company, which owned the mills and apparatus and the spur track, and all other equipments for the operating of the field, resumed the ownership of the field, and the Standard Company was granted concessions which placed them on an equal footing with their competitors in the markets on the coast.
In June, 1891, the laborers at Salton were treated to a surprise. They found the country filling up with water from an unknown source. A great deal of apprehension was felt, as it was thought that the water undoubtedly came from a crevasse which had been opened communicating with the sea. If such were the case it was to be expected that Salton would soon be 265 feet under water, for water seeks its level.
The flow of water continued till an area ten miles wide by thirty miles long was covered to a depth of six feet; then it was ascertained that the water was coming in from the Colorado River, which had risen above its banks and was cutting a channel across the desert, threatening to convert a large section of the Coachella Valley into an inland sea.
This inundation was caused by the co-equal rise of the head waters of the Colorado and Gila rivers. The waters of the lower Colorado rose five feet above high-water mark and continued to pour its waters into the desert till the flood subsided. After the flood had abated, the sands of the desert and the fiery sun soon drank up the lake thus suddenly formed.
Inquiry brought forth the information that a similar inundation had taken place in 1849. At that time, however, the waters subsided before so large a lake had been formed.
It was these inundations which gave birth to the idea of converting a part of the waters of the Colorado into an irrigating canal for the purpose of reclaiming the lands of the valley.
Of the 157,000 square miles of territory which comprise the State of California, 35,000 square miles are desert. Of this area more than two thousand square miles lie below the level of the sea. The lowest point in all this submarine field is found in Death Valley, the most terrifying and forbidding region in the world.
Death Valley has been rightly named. It was christened with blood and has ever lived up to its title. Sixty-eight out of the seventy Mormon emigrants who wandered into that dread region, in 1849, gave their lives to the christening. The story of their terrible death from tortures of thirst and agonies of heat is too horrible to print. They came into a nameless region and their bodies were there consigned to unmarked graves. There lie to-day the remains of all that party save two. These two, when they came away, left behind them a region with a name—Death Valley.
Since then other names have been given to localities within this terrible region, and they have been, for the most part, names in keeping with the awfulness of the place. The mountains which tower above the fearful sink, shutting it off from the great desert outside, have been named "Funeral Mountains." There is "Furnace Creek," whose waters, bitter, poisonous, and unpalatable, flowing through burning sands, become heated as though literally flowing from a glowing furnace. There are "Ash Meadows," a plain strewn with scoriac débris—a Sodom of the Western world. There is the "Devil's Chair," a gigantic and realistic throne worn by erosion from the huge bluffs which form the portals to the valley, a seat appropriate to his Satanic majesty were he to choose a throne upon earth. Indeed, according to a notice posted by a Government surveying party in the pass into the valley, the home of the chief of imps is not far distant. The notice reads thus:
Dry Place
Please Keep Off the Grass
Saratoga Springs
Soda, Borax, and Niter
Mineral Monument
Death Valley, 365 Feet below Sea-Level
05 Miles to Randsburg
85 Miles to Daggett
20 Miles to Evans' Ranch
30 Miles to Resting Springs
10 Miles to Owl Springs
10 Miles to Salt Springs
32 Miles to Coyote Holes
erected by the Bailey Geological Party
Christmas Day, 1900
20 Miles from Wood
20 Miles from Water
40 Feet from Hell
God Bless Our Home
The pool known as Saratoga Springs, where this monument is erected, is one of the wonders of the valley. From the bottom of the circular crater-like basin, which is about thirty feet across, bubble several springs whose tepid waters are strongly impregnated with sulphur. These springs keep the basin full and overflowing, and the waste waters seek a natural depression near and form a lake several acres in extent. The waters are not fit for use, however, being rank with alkali and other mineral substances.
Death Valley has an area of nearly five hundred square miles. It is fifty miles long and varies in width from five to ten miles. Its greatest depression is 480 feet below sea-level. In this limited area more men have perished than upon any other similar area in the world, the great battle-fields excepted. The remarkable mineral wealth of the region has been a glittering bait to lure men to destruction. There are in the valley golden ledges, the ores of which run in value to fabulous sums per ton. There are vast beds of borax, niter, soda, salt, and other mineral drugs. There is a single salt-field in the valley thirty miles long and from two to four miles wide, where salt lies a foot or more deep over the entire field. Turquoises, opals, garnets, onyx, marbles, and other gems and rocks of value exist in abundance. The valley is a storehouse of wealth, the treasure-vault of the nation, the drug-store of the universe, but Death holds the title.
Although Death Valley is the most formidable spot in all the desert region, it is not wanting in beauty. Color effects such as artist never dreamed of are here to be seen. It is not the coloring given by vegetation, however, for verdure is lacking. There are no velvety green meadows, neither are there fields of blooming flowers. The coloring of the mountains and plains of this region are penciled in unfading and unchanging colors. These colors are mineral and chemical and are blended in rare harmony—laid by the Master Hand which carved this remarkable region out of the edge of the Western continent.
Green and blue of copper, ruddiness of niter, yellow of sulphur, red of hematite and cinnabar, white of salt and borax, blend with the black and gray of the barren rocks and the dark carmine and royal purple and pale green of the mineral-stained granites.
Heat and thirst are not wholly responsible for death in this valley, for some have frozen and some have drowned within its confines. Thermometers register as high as 140 degrees in the valley, but towering above the region are snow-clad mountains, and it sometimes happens that the winds, which in the day waft waves of furnace-like heat through the valley, bring down, by night, the frigidity of the upper region, chilling to death the unprotected prospector who may chance to be below.
Again, in this thirst-cursed region, which knows not the blessing of the shower, sometimes occur terrible cloudbursts which send solid walls of water tearing down the mountain-sides, carrying death and destruction in its wake.
Nor are these all of the possible dangers. In this great drug warehouse arise deadly vapors, and the passing winds whirl clouds of poisonous dust through the air, which, if inhaled, will eat the vitals and eventually rob one of life.
Notwithstanding the terrible character of this valley, there is an instance where two persons sought it for the express purpose of cheating death. A Brooklyn lawyer named Whittaker, and his wife, were both stricken with consumption. By advice of their doctors they sought the Pacific coast, going to Los Angeles. Physicians there advised them to seek a drier climate; therefore, in a wagon equipped with a camping outfit and a supply of the necessities of life, they sought the Great Mojave Desert. Here, indeed, was air dry enough for their purpose. They drove from oasis to oasis, and soon found themselves growing better and stronger, notwithstanding the privations they were forced to endure. They determined to make their home somewhere in that vast solitude, but where was a question yet to be decided.
They continued to wander over the barren wastes till one day they came to the gateway to the terrible valley of death. It is not certain that they were aware of the identity of the locality. Be that as it may, the horses were directed valleyward and they passed through the portals which have admitted so many and discharged so few.
Inside the valley they found a man guarding a borax mine which had been closed down because men could not be found to brave the perils of the valley to operate it. Here Whittaker and his wife rested a few days and then they pressed on into the valley. Their host tried to induce them to turn back, but they would not heed him. Onward they journeyed till they found a little cañon in the side of the mountain which formed a portion of one of walls of the valley, and this spot they named home and made there a permanent camp. This was in 1893 or 1894. Seven years later the woman died. Whittaker continued to live in the old home, but the loss of his wife, coupled with the solitude, the heat, and the poisons of the atmosphere, was too much for his reason and he went mad. In this condition he was found by a prospector—mad, but rich, for the floor of his cabin was thickly littered with golden nuggets.
A great railroad, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake road, is now spanning the desert. This line will pass within a few miles of the entrance to the valley, and when it is completed the real conquest of the valley will begin. It is predicted that a branch road will shortly be built into the valley from this road. When this is done, and pure water has been piped into the valley, towns and perhaps cities will spring up in the midst of the dread region, even as they are now springing up in the great submarine region of the Colorado Desert. Then, from a region of terror and death, it may become a valley of life, activity, and prosperity.
"The Volcanoes" is the name given to a most peculiar and terrifying region in the lower Colorado Desert. Its character is such as to lead certain of the Indians who inhabit the desert to believe it to be the gateway to the land of evil spirits. Indeed, it would seem to be the very gateway to Hades, and one is reminded, upon visiting the region, of John Bunyan's description of the "Valley of the Shadow of Death" through which Christian is forced to pass.
"About the midst of this valley I perceived the mouth of hell to be," he writes, "and it stood also hard by the wayside. And ever and anon the flame and smoke would come out in such abundance, with sparks and hideous noises."
One can almost imagine that Bunyan wrote those lines from the Colorado Desert, after viewing the "Volcanoes."
Over an area of more than a mile square are scattered hundreds of cone-like mounds, from one foot to one hundred feet in diameter and of various heights, all of which are busily engaged in spitting forth sulphurous vapors, black ooze, boiling mud and water, and other volcanic matter. Over the region eternally hang dense clouds of steam and hot vapors, and strange sounds emanate from this diabolical region. There are hissings, as of monster serpents; strange and ominous rumblings which come from the bowels of the earth; sharp explosions, singly or in multitudinous concert, like the running fire of armies engaged in battle; moaning noises, as of animals or human beings in distress; thuds and jars, as of heavy bodies falling,—all these and a multitude of other unusual and unnatural sounds are not reassuring to timid hearts.
The region is treeless and herbless. Sulphurous soil and sulphurous air have proven fatal to vegetable life. Not even the cactus or desert sage can survive the poisons of the soil. Animal life is equally scarce, and the very birds of the air avoid the locality.
There is a peculiar sensation experienced upon entering this volcanic region after hours of travel over the desert in the glare of the sun, which here ever shines from a cloudless sky. As one approaches the eruptive cones he passes into a shadow which is almost startling after the brightness so long experienced. The steam-clouds shut out the sun from this mile of gruesome region, but the heat from the numerous craters more than makes up for the absence of the fiery rays of the sun.
In one portion of the volcanic territory is a body of water a quarter of a mile long, which is known as Lake Juala or Black Lake. Its waters, which are extremely warm, are inky-black, and the hands, when dipped therein, are stained. It is not known what minerals or chemicals are held in solution. It is probable that the waters are poisonous. It may be, however, that they have wonderful medicinal properties, and that they are destined to heal the ailments of humanity. However that may be, this somber sea is in keeping with the region—a fitting lake for the suburb of Hades.
Earthquakes are of frequent occurrence in the vicinity of the "Volcanoes." They are in line of the so-called "earthquake belt," which extends up and down the coast, California being the most frequently disturbed of the coast States.
Since 1850, when the record of these disturbances was begun, more than four hundred shocks have been felt in the State. Some of these have been slight and others have been severe. The earthquake, Christmas evening of 1900, destroyed the village of Hemet over against the western side of the desert and caused the death of six persons. In the year 1812, the mission of San Juan Capistrano was destroyed by an earthquake, and half a hundred lives were lost.
Certain changes are taking place in this region. Some portions of the land are slowly sinking and other points are rising. The same subterranean fires which keep active the hundreds of miniature volcanoes heat the waters of the Caliente and Matajala hot springs, and are doubtless responsible for the frequent shiverings of Mother Earth.
There was a time in the history of the earth—long before man was here to record the history—when a chain of volcanoes extended from Alaska on the north to Mexico and beyond, on the south. These monster spouters left their ineffaceable record upon the continent in the way of vast beds of lava and numerous craters, which the centuries have not been able to hide. The region known as the "Volcanoes" may be the remnant of that mighty volcanic period, or it may be the dawning of a new eruptive season. It is, in either case, a locality to be shunned.
There are several localities in the deserts, about which cling stories and traditions of unusual interest. Superstition Mountain, situated in the southwestern portion of the Colorado Desert, is one of these.
This mountain is nearly in the line of the old trail taken by the early overland pioneers on their way to the coast by the way of Yuma. The mountain is remarkable in one respect—it scarcely ever presents the same appearance twice. Its contour is constantly changing, owing to the fact that it is bordered by gigantic sand-hills, which are carved and whittled and shaped by the fierce winds which sweep across the plain. If one notes some point or pinnacle as a landmark to-day, to-morrow he will have lost his bearings, for the outlines will have been changed.
This peculiarity of the mountain has awakened the fears of the Cocopah Indians, who inhabit that region, and who are naturally superstitious, and they shun the locality. Nothing will induce them to mount the eminence, and they even avoid that section of the plain. It is to them the abode of evil spirits.
Among other evil spirits who, they believe, inhabit the mountain, is one which bears a strange resemblance to the Gaelic "banshee."
The old folks of the Irish peasantry to this day tell of the banshee, a little, old weazened woman, who is said to appear to persons, clapping her hands and wailing, as a warning of approaching death. The Cocopahs have precisely the same superstition, save that the banshee is a little old man, "Wah Dindin," who is supposed to come down from Superstition Mountain to bring death to the one to whom he appears.
The Cocopahs are very much averse to being photographed, and the sight of a camera is a signal for them to throw themselves face downward upon the earth. They believe that their pictures, if taken, are transmitted to the evil spirits in the mountain, and that, by means of this picture, the little old man of death—the Cocopah banshee—will be able to trace them and bring them death. Some of the more enlightened and more avaricious, however, upon being bribed with silver, so far overcome their fears as to allow themselves to be photographed.
White men are not so loath to visit the locality. It is believed that this mountain or some of the adjacent hills holds the famous lost "Pegleg" gold mine.
In 1837, a one-legged man named Smith found a mine of wonderful richness in the Colorado Desert. He was piloting a party over the desert from Yuma, when he came to three hills which rose out of the plain. Not being sure of his bearings, he mounted the taller of the hills to get a view of the surrounding country. Upon this hill, which seemed to be composed of black quartz or rock, he found out-cropping ore fairly sparkling with the precious metal. He took specimens away with him and learned, upon reaching his destination, that the metal was really gold. The mine became known as the "Pegleg Mine" from the fact that Smith wore a wooden leg and was known as "Pegleg."[1]
After conducting his party safely to Los Angeles, Smith returned to the desert to investigate his find. He could not locate it. He could not even find the hills which had been the landmark upon which he depended.
In 1861 or 1862, a prospector passed over the trail from Yuma to Los Angeles. In the Colorado Desert he chanced upon three hills, and upon the larger one he discovered gold. He reached Los Angeles with $7000 worth of gold nuggets. He told of his find and described the location. It tallied with the description given by Smith of his find. A party was formed for the exploiting of the mine, and the prospector was preparing to guide his associates to the spot when he was taken ill and died. The mine was again lost and has never been found.
From time to time expeditions have gone forth to look for the lost Pegleg mine, but their searches have been fruitless. Scores of lives have been lost in the quest. To this day skeletons are frequently found in that section of the desert, grewsome reminders of the tortures of that terrible region.
One of the last of these search parties consisted of Tom Clover of Los Angeles and a man named Russell, of San Bernardino. The latter still lives in San Bernardino, but Tom Clover left his bones upon the desert. He ascended Superstition Mountain to take observations while Russell remained upon the plain. They agreed to meet on the opposite side of the mountain. Russell kept the appointment, but Clover was never seen again.
In the midst of the Colorado Desert, where, previous to the bringing in of water by the Imperial canal system, neither man nor beast could find means of subsistence, are found many earthen ollas of Indian make and of ancient pattern. Nearly every settler in the Imperial Valley has one or more of these relics, some chipped and broken, but many in a perfect condition.
These ollas are not found in groups and collections, but in ones and twos at various intervals in the interior of the desert. They have a story to tell of conditions in the dim past and explain how it happened that certain tribes chose so forbidding a region as a dwelling-place.
In ancient times, before the white man—the most formidable foe the redman has known—came to this continent, the various tribes warred with each other. The strong wrested the choice portions of the land from the weaker tribes, and the latter were forced to choose between the desert with possible death or certain annihilation at the hands of their foes. They chose the desert.
As was natural in the case, those who dared the desert made their abiding-place at the oases of the desolate region. Here, after a certain manner, they lived and accumulated more or less of the things which represented, to the savage mind, wealth. But even here they were not yet free from their oppressors, who occasionally bore down upon them to give them battle.
In the very heart of the desert, far from food or water, these persecuted Indians finally found refuge. They learned that their enemies dared not brave the perils of the desert wastes, therefore, in times of peace, they carried deep into the desert supplies of food and water, the latter in the large earthen ollas, and cached them in the sands. Each warrior attended to the supply for himself and family. They did not store the supplies of the tribe together, but purposely scattered them.
When an attack was made upon them, each man sought his own cache, and there he stayed till food and water were exhausted. By that time the zeal of the foe would have cooled off, no doubt, and they could return in safety to their homes.
The Indians thus persecuted have long since passed away, but the story of their tribulations is brought down to us in those ollas scattered over the burning plain.
Before irrigation made habitable a portion of the Colorado Desert, persons who visited the dread region came back to civilization with strange tales of a phantom ship which was seen to sail upon a spectral sea. Sometimes this ship took the form of a full-rigged three-master; again it was a monster war-ship, with conning-towers and turrets, and great guns projecting fore and aft. The phantom vessel always appears in a certain portion of the desert and, instead of sailing slowly into sight and passing steadily on out of range of vision, as a well-regulated ship should do, it has the remarkable faculty of rising suddenly from the mystic sea and as suddenly sinking out of sight again.
When the Imperial settlements were established in the land of mirages the mystery of the phantom ship was solved. About thirty miles south of the international line, in the republic of Mexico, rising out of a level plain, is a triple-peaked mountain known as the Black Buttes. When the atmospheric conditions are favorable, which is frequent, the Buttes, which from the Imperial settlements are below the horizon, are lifted by refraction into view, and under the transforming power of the mirage they appear like a great ship sailing upon a vast sea.
Sometimes the three peaks are elongated and appear to be masts, while the solid granite bulk of the pile takes on the form of sails, seemingly set to catch the winds of the specter sea. Again the peaks are less elongated, and they appear like the heavier masts of a war-ship, and the sails are transformed into turrets and towers. The mirage eats into the sides of the mountains, leaving exposed several projecting points, which look like the heavy guns of a battle-ship. Then, perhaps, while the watcher strains his eye to catch the strange vision, it suddenly disappears from sight.
At times the transformation from three-master to war-ship, or from war-vessel to three-master, takes place before the watcher's eyes, as though some mighty wizard were doing the "Presto, change!" act for the gazer's benefit. Then, very likely, the Buttes lose all resemblance to ocean craft and assume their natural shape, but appear to be surrounded by water—a granite isle in a placid sea. So vivid is this picture that the mountain casts a perfect inverted shadow of itself in the waters which apparently surround it, but which actually do not exist.
There are other peaks and mountains which are worthy of mention among the features of the Colorado Desert. One of these is Pilot Knob, and Signal Mountain is another. These two mountains are landmarks which serve to guide those who have occasion to cross the forbidding region.
Pilot Knob, in the southeastern part of the desert, is the point toward which eastern-bound travelers shape their course. The peak can be seen more than a hundred miles, and it stands out so distinctly from other mountains in that quarter of the desert that its identity is not easily lost.
Signal Mountain rises abruptly from the level plain near the western side of the desert at the international line. It is visible from all points in the desert, and has served to guide many a traveler to safety who otherwise would have perished in the desert wastes. The mountain is pyramidal in form, and is distinctive from all other peaks of that region.
Along the eastern rim of the desert stretches a long line of hills two or three hundred feet in height, which are known as the "Walking Hills." They are gray and barren but not lacking in picturesqueness, for many strange and fantastic shapes may be traced in their outlines.
These hills are constantly changing both shape and position, and that is the reason they have received the name of Walking Hills. East of these hills run the trains of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The road was built a little more than a quarter of a century ago, and at that time the tracks were from one fourth of a mile to two miles west of the hills. Now the latter are encroaching upon the road and threaten to bury it beneath millions of tons of sand.
The tracks of the road must either be moved farther east, or else they must swing in to the west of the hills to escape being engulfed by the sandy billows. The hills are composed of fine particles of sand which have been carried before the winds which sweep a hundred miles across a level and barren plain. What first caused the sand to pile up will never be known, but once a barrier was formed, all the sand which fled before the winds piled up, raising the barrier each year. The winds, which always blow from the west, are continually beating against the base of the hills, lifting the sands there, sliding them up the sloping sides and dropping them over the other side. Thus, as the westward slope is eaten away, the eastern side of the hills is added to and they slowly advance toward the east.