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THE 
 
 STORY OF INYO 
 
 By 
 W. A. CHALFANT 
 
 x^ 
 
 1922 
 Published by the Author 
 
F 
 
 c 
 
 Copyright, 1922, 
 
 BY 
 W. A. CHALFANT 
 
 HAMMOND PRESS 
 W. B. CONKCT COMPANY 
 
 MAV -b iij22 
 g)C!.A674.335 
 
To the Pioneers 
 
 and especially to the honored memory of 
 
 PLEASANT ARTHUR CHALFANT 
 
 Forty-Niner 
 
 Pioneer of Inyo and pioneer in endeavor 
 for her moral as well as material growth 
 
 This volume is dedicated 
 
FOREWOED 
 
 CALIFORNIA has furnished probably more 
 themes for books than has any other Ameri- 
 can State. The easy-going romantic years of 
 Mexican rule, the padres, the Argonauts, the 
 golden era, the wonders of this Empire of the 
 West, have had generous attention from both mas- 
 ters and amateurs in prose and poetry, fact and 
 fiction. The flood of writing hardly diminishes, 
 for magazine literature and still more books add 
 to it month by month. Yet few of the writers on 
 California subjects look outside of the boundaries 
 coined by a phrase-making politician, ''from Sis- 
 kiyou to San Diego, from the Sierras to the sea." 
 Even such historians as Bancroft and Hittell 
 deemed it hardly worth their while to inquire into 
 the amials of the borderlands, though the wilds 
 were conquered through many hardships and 
 wars bloodier than some on which volumes have 
 been written. 
 
 Those who ventured into the unknown regions 
 seldom thought it worth while to set down for the 
 future any extended record of their trials and 
 achievements. While they lived history, it all 
 came to them as part of the day's work. Being 
 more familiar with implements of livelihood and 
 of offense and defense than with the pen, they 
 
 V 
 
VI FOREWOED 
 
 wrote little. Before a succeeding generation fully 
 appreciated the closing scenes of a drama of high 
 interest, most of the actors in it had gone on the 
 journey pioneered when time began. Therefore 
 much has been lost. 
 
 This book's purpose is to preserve, particu- 
 larly, the record of Inyo county earlier than 1870, 
 when a printed record began. Gathering data for- 
 some such purpose began more than twenty years 
 ago, while many of the pioneers still lived. It was 
 the author's good fortune to know personally 
 every early-day Inyoite then in the county. Each 
 of them gladly gave his help. Personal interviews 
 when possible, and correspondence with those who 
 had moved to other parts of the country, elicited 
 their recollections. All narratives were checked 
 and rechecked with each other and with other 
 sources of information. Public records were 
 searched, as were also the files of pioneer news- 
 papers in different libraries. 
 
 One of the most valuable sources of informa- 
 tion was an extensive manuscript collection in the 
 private library of Henry G. Hanks, in San Fran- 
 cisco. Mr. Hanks was an assayer in San Carlos 
 and Chrysopolis mining camps, Owens Valley, in 
 1863. In later years he became State Mineralo- 
 gist of California. He was a man of education, 
 and when age caused his retirement from active 
 labors his library received his whole attention. 
 His interest in Owens Valley continuing, he kept 
 and arranged many letters, diaries and other 
 writings relating to this county's history. When 
 the collection was examined for the purpose of 
 
rOKEWOKD Vll 
 
 this compilation, in 1902 or 1903, it had become 
 an almost complete though disconnected history 
 of the more strenuous pioneer years in Inyo. 
 
 Everyone who took any prominent part in the 
 Indian war has passed on. The Hanks library 
 was burned in the fire of 1906. As those sources 
 of information are thus forever lost, there is some 
 justification in believing that a service was done 
 in getting what they had to impart ; and also, that 
 these chronicles, having that advantage, give the 
 only fairly complete record of the county's begin- 
 nings that can be compiled. 
 
 Much of this material has been published in 
 serial form in the Inyo Register. The idea of put- 
 ting it into book form had been virtually aban- 
 doned when in the spring of 1921 the Federation 
 of Women's Chibs of Inyo County, desirous of 
 having the re-^^ i-d preserved and made available, 
 gave the publication their co-operation; and the 
 Board of Supervisors later extended support that 
 made the book a certainty. 
 
 Material has been procured from more sources 
 than can be fully noted here. A general list of 
 those sources follows: 
 
 Personal accounts by T. F. A. Connelly, Alney 
 L. McGee, Barton McGee, S. G. Gregg, J. S. 
 Broder, A. Van Fleet, Milo Page, Thomas W. Hill, 
 John L. Bodle, Thomas E. Jones, Henry G. 
 Hanks, T. H. Goodman, and others. 
 
 Correspondence with L. A. Spitzer, J. A. 
 Hubinger, F. W. Fickert, John C. Willett, Gen. 
 J. H. Soper, Dr. S. G. George, William B. 
 Daugherty, George Otis Smith (Director U. S. 
 
Vlll FOREWOBD 
 
 Geological Survey), the Smithsonian Institution, 
 Willard D. Johnson, Dr. A. L. Kroeber (Curator 
 Department of Ethnology, University of Cali- 
 fornia). 
 
 Many manuscripts in the collection of Henry 
 G. Hanks. 
 
 Articles by P. A. Chalfant, Mrs. J. W. Brier, 
 C. L. Canfield, J. B. Colton, E. C. Atkinson, W. L. 
 (Dad) Moore, and others. 
 
 Files of the San Francisco Alta California, 
 San Francisco Bulletin, San Francisco Call, 
 Sacramento Union, Los Angeles News, Los An- 
 geles Star, in some instances as early as 1852; 
 also of the Inyo Independent, Inyo Eegister, 
 Bakersfield Echo, and other papers of subsequent 
 years containing narratives of pioneers. 
 
 Addresses by Henry G. Hanks in San Fran- 
 cisco in 1864 and by James E. Parker in Lone 
 Pine July 4, 1876. 
 
 Official reports of Warren Wasson and several 
 other Indian agents; field notes of A. W. Von 
 Schmidt's survey of Owens Valley; journals of 
 the California Legislature; records of the Inde- 
 pendence land office and of the Inyo county gov- 
 ernment; and sundry other official documents, 
 
 ''Death Valley in '49," by W. L. Manley; 
 ''Death Valley," by J. R. Spear; "California 
 Men in the War of the Eebellion," by R. H. 
 Orton; "History of Nevada," by Thompson & 
 West; histories of Kern, Tulare and San Ber- 
 nardino counties ; ' ' Official Documents of the 38th 
 Congress;" "The Panamint Indians," a govern- 
 ment report by F. V. Coville; Bancroft's "Native 
 
FOREWORD IX 
 
 Eaces;" Fremont's ''Memoirs;" "Botany of 
 Death Valley." 
 
 And many more not here set down. 
 
 As the reader is to infer from a preceding sen- 
 tence, the aim of this undertaking has been to 
 collect Inyo history that has not been printed. 
 The principal matters since 1870 are presented by 
 subjects, rather than with special regard to their 
 order of occurrence. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS - 
 
 Chapter I 
 SOME GEOLOGICAL FACTS— most diversified 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES — ALABAMA 
 HILLS NOT THE OLDEST AMERICAN MOUNTAINS 
 
 ^A MILLION TEARS THE TIME UNIT — CHANGES 
 
 OF SURFACE — LAKE WAUCOBI — ^VOLCANIC ACTION 
 
 IN DIFFERENT AGES FORMATION OF OWENS RIVER 
 
 GORGE 1 
 
 Chapter II 
 WHO WERE THE FIRST FAMILIES?— no 
 
 TRACES OP ANCIENT MAN — VARIED ANIMAL LIFE 
 
 WHEN OWENS VALLEY WAS WOODED ROCK 
 
 MARKINGS THAT ARE APPARENTLY MEANINGLESS — ■ 
 THEIR ORIGIN UNKNOWN TO PRESENT RACE OF 
 INDIANS— MAY BE COMPARATIVELY RECENT 8 
 
 Chapter III 
 NATIVE CUSTOMS — primitive tribes — bows and 
 
 ARROWS — ARORIGINAL BILL OF FARE — AGRICUL- 
 TURE AN UNKNOWN FACTOR — NATIVE PLANTS AS 
 FOOD — MODE OF PREPARATION — DOMESTIC UTEN- 
 SILS — CLOTHING OF MINOR IMPORTANCE MET- 
 ALLURGY UNKNOWN HABITATIONS 14 
 
 Chapter IV 
 
 MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS— not a popu- 
 lar HONOR — AN EXACTING CODE — WITCHES PUN- 
 ISHED TREATMENT OF THE SICK — THE PENALTY 
 
 xi 
 
xn TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 OF AGE — HOW THE INDIANS HAVE PROGRESSED 
 
 LEGENDS OF THE CREATION — WHY CAT AND DOG 
 ARE ENEMIES — THE LEGEND OF WINNEDUMAH ... 27 
 
 Chapter V 
 
 EARLY EXPLORATIONS— PADRES did not reach 
 INYO — jedediah smith 1825 — gold found at 
 MONO lake — ogden 1831 — captain joe walker 
 1832 — CHILES party 1842 — wagons abandoned 
 
 AT OWENS LAKE^ — RESTING SPRINGS — FREMONT 'S 
 EXPEDITIONS — NAMING OF OWENS RIVER 42 
 
 Chapter VI 
 DEATH VALLEY PARTY OP 1849— a trail 
 
 MABKED BY GRAVES — START OF THE JAYHAWKERS 
 ADDITIONS TO EXPEDITION — BREAK-UP OF CARA- 
 VAN IN UTAH — guide's ADVICE REJECTED — INTO 
 DEATH VALLEY — FORLORN HOPE SENT OUT — THEIR 
 RETURN — FINAL ESCAPE 49 
 
 Chapter VII 
 A DECADE OF EXPLORATION— mormons 
 
 SOUGHT SOUTHERN ROAD — AMARGOSA MINE FOUND 
 
 — ^voN Schmidt's survey 1855-1856 — reserva- 
 tion PROPOSED party CROSSES KEARSARGE PASS 
 
 — RUSS DISTRICT FIRST CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 
 
 ' * WAKOPEE ' ' — COSO AND TELESCOPE MINES 70 
 
 Chapter VIII 
 COMING OF THE STOCKMEN— cattle driven 
 
 through to aurora — VANSICKLE AND VAN 
 FLEET DRIVE IN — CATTLE IN LONG VALLEY — 
 FIRST BUILDINGS ERECTED — PUTNAM 's ^- " NO 
 
 MAS KETCHUM SQUAW " BISHOP 's SAN FRANCIS 
 
 RANCH — AN ELECTION FRAUD 88 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS XIU 
 
 Chapter IX 
 BEGINNING OF INDIAN WAR— cattlemen 
 
 WINTER IN VALLEY — SEVEREST SEASON IN INYO 
 ANNALS — SETTLERS MENACED AT SAN FRANCIS — 
 
 TREATY SIGNED A SCRAP OF PAPER— MARAUDING 
 
 COMMENCED INDIANS KILLED AT PUTNAM 's — 
 
 MURDER OF WHITE MEN — ALABAMA HILLS FIGHT. 96 
 
 Chapter X 
 WHITES DEFEATED AT BISHOP CREEK— 
 
 INDIANS SEEK OUTSIDE HELP INDIAN ELOQUENCE 
 
 RENEGADE RED MEN GATHER IN OWENS VALLEY 
 
 — HELP FROM AURORA — KELLOGG AND MAYFIELD 
 COMMANDS JOINED — DEATHS OF SCOTT, MORRISON 
 AND PLEASANT — WHITES COMPELLED TO ABANDON 
 FIELD 106 
 
 Chapter XI 
 WHITES AGAIN BEATEN— Indian agent was- 
 
 SON COMES TO MAKE PEACE — APPEAL FOR TROOPS 
 A CAUTIOUS GOVERNOR — WASSON ENTERS VAL- 
 LEY AT HOUR OF BATTLE — EVANS ' TROOPERS 
 ARRIVE FROM SOUTH — SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS 
 RETREAT FROM ROUND VALLEY — MAYFIELD KILLED 113 
 
 Chapter XII 
 
 TEMPORARY PEACE— Indians in full posses- 
 sion — MILITARY expedition CAMP INDEPEN- 
 DENCE established PEACE ARRANGED — COSO 
 
 SAN CARLOS MINES FOUND — BILL TO ESTABLISH 
 RESERVATION CREATES CONTROVERSY AND IS FI- 
 NALLY FORGOTTEN 121 
 
xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter XIII 
 FRESH OUTBREAKS — war medicine made — 
 
 LONE travelers MURDERED — MCDONALD KILLED 
 AT BIG PINE — CABINS BROKEN OPEN AND PILLAGED 
 
 WEAK MILITARY DEMONSTRATIONS — ESCAPE OF 
 
 THE MCGEE PARTY FROM INDIANS NEAR BLACK 
 ROCKS — TYLER CAPTURED BY NATIVES 130 
 
 Chapter XIV 
 CONTINUATION OF THE WAR— settlers on 
 
 DEFENSIVE— MORE TROOPS ARRIVE — A SUCCESSFUL 
 MUTINY — FIGHTING ON BIG PINE CREEK — WAR- 
 RIORS FOLLOWED BY CITIZENS TO BATTLEGROUND 
 ON V^TEST SHORE OF OWENS LAKE — INDIAN BAND 
 ALMOST EXTERMINATED 139 
 
 Chapter XV 
 
 RUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS— SOLDIERS mas- 
 sacre INOFFENDING INDIANS ON KERN RIVER 
 
 PRISONERS TAKEN BY TROOPS — DESTRUCTION OP 
 INDIAN STORES — POWWOW WITH CHIEF GEORGE — 
 MANY INDIANS SURRENDER — MURDERS BY WHITES 
 MERRIAM'S thrilling ESCAPE 146 
 
 Chapter XVI 
 PIONEER SETTLEMENTS— MILLS and houses 
 
 put up — SAN CARLOS, BEND CITY, OWENSVILLE — 
 
 PLACES THE SITES OF WHICH ARE UNKNOWN 
 
 A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION IN 1864 A 
 
 SMELTER THAT SMELTED ITSELF — SAWMILL BUILT 
 
 — FARMING IN ROUND VALLEY — OTHER PLACES. . 162 
 
TABLE OP CONTENTS XV 
 
 Chapter XVII 
 
 MORE INDIAN TROUBLES— coso county au- 
 thorized — political convention — piuTES start 
 
 DEPREDATIONS — AFFAIR AT CINDERELLA MINE 
 
 MRS. MCGUIRE AND SON KILLED AT HAIWAI 
 
 VENGEANCE OF CITIZENS AT OWENS LAKE — END 
 
 OF THE INDIAN WAR 174 
 
 Chapter XVIII 
 WHITES IN POSSESSION— TRAVEL in valley 
 
 CONSIDERED SAFE LAND ENTRIES AND SETTLE- 
 MENTS — A REVOLTING CRIME — KEARSARGE MINE 
 DISCOVERED — HARD TIMES — KEARSARGE CAMP DE- 
 STROYED BY AVALANCHE — SOME OF THE RECORDS 
 OF THE MINE 192 
 
 Chapter XIX 
 
 INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED— mormon ef- 
 forts TO SECURE TERRITORY EAST OF SIERRAS 
 
 INYO CREATED NINETY-ONE TOTAL VOTE AT 
 
 FIRST ELECTION FIRST OFFICERS — THREE HUGE 
 
 SCHOOL DISTRICTS — FIRST CHURCH ORGANIZATION 
 
 — BOUNDARY CHANGES 201 
 
 Chapter XX 
 TWO AFFAIRS OF 1871— convicts escaping 
 
 FROM CARSON HEAD TOWARD INYO THEIR 
 
 BLOODY TRAIL TO LONG VALLEY MORRISON 
 
 KILLED AT CONVICT LAKE — SLAYERS CAPTURED, 
 TRIED AND EXECUTED UNEXPLAINED DISAP- 
 PEARANCE OF GUIDES EGAN AND HAHN, WITH 
 WHEELER EXPEDITION 214 
 
 2— Mar. 22. 
 
XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter XXI 
 EL TEMBLOR — the great earthquake of 1872 — 
 
 ALMOST SIMULTANEOUS DISTURBANCES IN MANY 
 LANDS — SOME FACTS AND INCIDENTS OF THE TIME 
 
 — PROF. Whitney's observations — rebuilding 
 
 MONEY BORROW^ED AT EXPENSIVE RATES 
 
 OPPORTUNE LEGISLATION 225 
 
 Chapter XXII 
 YEARS OF RAMPANT CRIME— inyo a refuge 
 
 FOR BAD MEN — LAW^ EXISTENT BUT INEFFECTIVE 
 
 — CERRO GORDO 'S STAINED RECORD JUDGE REED, 
 
 A MAN FOR THE PERIOD — VASQUEZ, MASTER ROAD 
 AGENT — CAUGHT THE WRONG MAN — DEATHS OF 
 SHERIFFS PASSMORE AND MOORE 233 
 
 Chapter XXIII 
 CERRO GORDO — inyo's greatest producer of 
 
 MINERAL WEALTH — DISCOVERY — A BOOMING CAMP 
 
 — TRANSPORTATION — LIBERAL MINING CLAIMS 
 
 SAN FELIPE-UNION LAWSUIT — THROWING GOLD 
 OVER WASTE DUMP — CAMP STAGES A COME-BACK. 248 
 
 Chapter XXIV 
 
 PANAMINT RICH ORES start a new RUSH — SEN- 
 ATORS JONES AND STEWART DROP TWO MILLIONS 
 IN VENTURE — MINE OWNERS OF DOUBTFUL REC- 
 ORDS — PROCESS OF OPENING NEW SALOON — NEWS 
 AS PRESENTED BY CAMP PAPER — SOME OTHER 
 DISTRICTS 257 
 
 Chapter XXV 
 OTHER MINING DISCOVERIES— optimism of 
 
 THE PROSPECTOR — WAUCOBA, LUCKY JIM, UBE- 
 HEBE, BEVERIDGE, POLETA — DARWIN LIVELY — 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS XVll 
 
 GREENWATEE, WHERE MILLIONS WERE SPENT 
 
 SKIDOO — JUDGE LYNCH 's DICTUM — TUNGSTEN, 
 MARBLE, SODA, SALT, BORAX 266 
 
 Chapter XXVI 
 LATER DEATH VALLEY HISTORY— mormons 
 
 FIRST IN THAT REGION — OTHERS IN 1860 AND 
 
 1861 A REFUGE FOR THE LAWLESS "bEL- 
 
 LERIN' TECK" BORAX DISCOVERED 1880 — A DES- 
 ERT HOME — TESTING FOR BORAX " SHE BURNS 
 
 GREEN !" — PACIFIC COAST BORAX COMPANY 278 
 
 Chapter XXVII 
 TRANSPORTATION — railroad talk always 
 
 WITH US AN early-day SURVEY HIGH 
 
 FREIGHTS — CERRO GORDO FREIGHTING COMPANY — 
 STEAMER BESSIE BRADY — ADVENT OF CARSON & 
 
 COLORADO RAILROAD OTHER RAILROAD NOTES 
 
 EL CAMINO SIERRA, OF STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM. 287 
 
 Chapter XXVIII 
 SUNDRY WAYMARKS OF HISTORY— attempt 
 
 TO GRAB OWENS VALLEY AS SWAMP LAND — LATER 
 PLAN TO MAKE MUCH OF IT STOCK RANGE — NO- 
 FENCE ISSUE MT. WHITNEY DISPUTE SLACK 
 
 REQUIREMENTS FOR TEACHING SOCIETY OF 
 
 PIONEERS — RETURNS THROWN OUT — LOCAL OP- 
 TION IN '74 — CAMP INDEPENDENCE ABANDONED, . 295 
 
 Chapter XXIX 
 FURTHER WAYMARKS— FIRST fair— district 
 
 CAUSES A CLASH — INYO ACADEMY ESTABLISHED 
 
 succeeded BY HIGH SCHOOL — OTHER SCHOOL 
 ITEMS — CREAMERY BEGINNINGS — BURNING OF 
 INDEPENDENCE — COUNTY SEAT AGITATIONS — THE 
 
XVm TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 "145" — TONOPAH BRINGS A NEW ERA — BISHOP 
 INCORPORATED — DRY TAX MONEY — NEW COURT- 
 HOUSE — IRRIGATION ENTERPRISES 308 
 
 Chapter XXX 
 
 LOS ANGELES AQUEDUCT— reclamation ser- 
 vice BEGINS ON OWENS VALLEY PROJECT 
 
 Eaton's purchases — aqueduct scheme re- 
 vealed — LIPPINCOTT DOUBLY PAID SERVICE A 
 
 STALKING HORSE — RECLAMATION HEADS DEFEAT 
 RECLAMATION PLANS — SMITH COMPROMISE — A 
 GREAT ENTERPRISE 321 
 
 Chapter XXXI 
 INYO'S GOLD STARS 331 
 
 Chapter XXXII 
 IN CLOSING 332 
 
 Appendices 
 
 APPENDIX A — OFFICERS of inyo county 33-1 
 
 APPENDIX B — inyo's vote at general elections. 333 
 APPENDIX C— altitudes of peaks 340 
 
 APPENDIX D — DEATH VALLEY NOTES 342 
 
THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SOME GEOLOGICAL FACTS 
 
 MOST DIVERSIFIED TOPOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES — 
 ALABAMA HILLS NOT THE OLDEST AMERICAN MOUN- 
 TAINS — A MILLION YEARS THE TIME UNIT — CHANGES OF 
 SURFACE — LAKE WAUCOBI — VOLCANIC ACTION IN DIF- 
 FERENT AGES — FORMATION OF OWENS RIVER GORGE. 
 
 No other equal area on this continent, probably 
 no other on the earth's surface, equals Inyo 
 county in diversified topography; for while Mt. 
 Whitney, elevation 14,501 feet, highest peak of 
 the States, stands on its western border, Death 
 Valley, lowest of American land depressions, 427 
 feet below sea level, is also within its boundaries. 
 Nature has written here, in bold strokes, studies 
 more fascinating than the little affairs of human- 
 ity. It is worth while to glance briefly at what 
 leading American geologists have deduced, and 
 what they say of the making of this county of 
 ours. Because we are doing so, and giving some 
 attention to a few topics not strictly historical, 
 this is ''The Story of Inyo" rather than its his- 
 tory alone. 
 
 An English geologist once declared the Ala- 
 bama hills, near the base of the Sierras in south- 
 
 1 
 
Z THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 ern Owens Valley, to be the oldest mountains on 
 the continent. This has been so often accepted 
 and repeated as fact that it should be set right. 
 George Otis Smith, Director of the Geological 
 Survey, pronounced the assertion to be wholly 
 erroneous. He declared that while presumably 
 some Archaean rocks are exposed in the Alabama 
 hills, their elevation above the water is a com- 
 paratively recent geologic event. 
 
 ^'Eecent" in this connection is a vague term, 
 as we understand time. One geologist writes 
 that ' ' the million of years will remain the time 
 unit." Scientists guess the earth's age all the 
 way from 20,000,000 to 90,000,000 years. So when 
 the elevation of the Alabamas, or any other oc- 
 currence, is credited to the "recent" geologic past 
 it means a period of unknown remoteness. One 
 who has examined this region says its successive 
 events cannot be guessed even by ages. 
 
 At the end of the Paleozoic period of world- 
 building, an immense inland sea, comparable with 
 the Mediterranean of the present, covered what 
 we know as the Great Basin. Probably while 
 other ranges to the eastward were forming, the 
 Inyo Range and White Mountains (now usually 
 considered as one range) arose, with a division 
 between them, east of where Big Pine now is. 
 Westerly, a plain sloped to the Pacific. A later 
 convulsion of nature produced the Sierras; and 
 Mt. Whitney's site and surroundings, previously 
 a region of gentle slopes and lowlands, were ele- 
 vated to their present or greater heights. Intense 
 volcanic activity prevailed, of which abundant 
 
SOME GEOLOGICAL FACTS d 
 
 evidences appear in the Whitney country as well 
 as many other places along the Sierras. 
 
 The inland sea rose and fell many times. 
 Geologist J. E. Spurr traced, in the Death Valley 
 region, seven different changes of surface and pe- 
 riods of volcanic action. The glacial coating came 
 along, and to this at least one investigator defin- 
 itely assigns a time 80,000 years ago. Eemnants 
 of the ice capping, melted in the valleys and fed 
 by streams from the mountains, formed four great 
 lakes between the Eockies and the Sierra Ne- 
 vadas. One of these was Lahontan, remnants of 
 which are Walker Lake and other Nevada waters. 
 Another filled Death Valley, Owens Valley and 
 the Mojave desert. These evaporated in the 
 course of time, leaving beds of precipitated salts 
 in the deserts, and Owens Lake in Owens Valley. 
 
 C. D. AValcott, former Director of the Geolog- 
 ical Survey, gave the name of ''Waucobi" to the 
 Owens Valley lake, apparently taking this title 
 from an Indian word more commonly spelled 
 ''Waucoba." Traces of this lake are found along 
 the White Mountains. Walcott determined, by 
 the character of fossils and shells found along the 
 mountain side up to an altitude of 3,000 feet 
 above the valley's floor, that it was fresh water. 
 He dismissed the theory that the lake was 3,000 
 feet in depth, because there is no indication of any 
 sufficient southern boundary. He believes, as do 
 others who theorize on the matter, that the later 
 rise of land between the two sections now com- 
 bined in the White Mountain range carried the 
 old shore up with it. 
 
4 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Volcanic action in the region is characterized 
 as ''very recent," which in this case may mean 
 not a great many centuries. Two periods of vol- 
 canic activity are indicated. The later of these 
 formed crater and cinder cones along the west 
 side of Owens Valley, from Eed Hill, near Bishop, 
 to the lava beds of the middle part of the valley — 
 possibly at or not far from the time when the mud 
 flowed forth and formed the mesa north of 
 Bishop, and the craters northward as far as Mono 
 Lake Basin were active. 
 
 Proof that the layman can appreciate that vol- 
 canic periods came at widely separated intervals 
 was disclosed in artesian borings near Big Pine. 
 Lava was encountered at more than 100 feet 
 depth, under alluvial soil, while not far away 
 the products of comparatively recent eruptions 
 strewed the present-day surface. Whoever can 
 figure how long it took for the valley to be filled 
 that hundred feet can guess the least time that 
 passed between those two outpourings of molten 
 matter. 
 
 Evidences are that the mountains originally 
 towered far higher above the valleys, Owens par- 
 ticularly, than at present. Whitney's pinnacle 
 was higher above sea level, and has worn and 
 broken away. On the other hand the valley floor 
 was once much below what it now is. Borings to 
 a depth of more than 1,000 feet, south of Owens 
 Lake, penetrated only sedimentary gravels and 
 soils. At the lake, deep borings cut successive 
 layers of gravel, sand, volcanic ash, and gravel. 
 Near Big Pine, a 576-foot well encountered only 
 
SOME GEOLOGICAL FACTS O 
 
 clay and fine sand, in several alternations. It is 
 clear that the valley has been filling for untold 
 ages. Some investigators claim nevertheless that 
 the general level, at some remote period, was some 
 hundreds of feet higher, and that it was dropped 
 by a great earth-change. 
 
 Willard D. Johnson, who spent months exam- 
 ining geologic details of Owens Valley, wrote of 
 it thus: 
 
 "Owens Valley had a lively history in the recent geologic 
 past. The mountain-making forces have been extraordinarily 
 vigorous. For example, the broad embayment in the Inyo 
 Range, opposite Big Pine, has been lifted at least 1800 feet, 
 possibly 3000, since glacial times. The Black Canyon region 
 was lifted nearly as much. This great deformation was local, 
 dying out rapidly from Black Canyon northward, and south- 
 ward from Waucoba canyon. But the Bishop lava field, which 
 had been spread only a little earlier, w'as warped, folded and 
 shattered in an extraordinary manner. The display of fault- 
 ing effects has no parallel elsewhere that I know of. 
 
 "In voleanism, cones are built by explosive eruption of 
 molten lava. The coarser particles fall back vertically, to 
 build the cone: the finer particles are drifted far on the wind, 
 to fall as ash deposits. With excess of water and less heat, 
 the steam-expanded lava is welled out and spreads as 'lava 
 flows.' Owens Valley has record of voleanism of all types. 
 There have been many ash showers; in the Black Canyon 
 section many are preserved and exposed, one of which is five 
 feet thick. There have been many cinder cones. Most of 
 these have been in large part washed away, but several re- 
 main, and some miles south of Big Pine one stands nearly 
 perfect, embraced by glacial moraines, in evidence of post- 
 glacial, or 'recent,' voleanism. Rude cones of built-up lava 
 flows are numerous. The largest is the black mountain im- 
 mediately south of Big Pine, There are at least a dozen 
 others. Flows of molten lava cover large areas." 
 
b THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 In some time of the far past, Owens Valley 
 was larger than at present, for a mighty spread 
 of volcanic matter now deeply covers its northern 
 end, north of Owens River. A mesa of many 
 square miles is full of such evidence. The gorge 
 of Owens River, eroded to more than 800 feet 
 depth, in places, below the general level, with ver- 
 tical cliff walls of over 400 feet, discloses only an 
 unvarying tufa mass. 
 
 Mr. Johnson wrote of the river gorge : 
 
 "For six miles it has a remarkably straight coui-se. Has 
 the river, in cutting its course, followed an earthquake crack 1 
 There is some reason to think so. This long section is not only 
 exceptionally straight, but it runs at a considerable angle 
 across the general slope of the lava plain sui'faoe. That is, 
 fill the canyon and turn the river upon its sui-face above the 
 Mono power intake and it would discharge into Round 
 Valley. Furthermore, the lava plain is extensively faulted, 
 in two systems of breaks approximately parallel. On the 
 other hand, none of the recognizable faults parallel this long 
 stretch of canyon. There are old river courses on the lava 
 surface. There is evidence, finally, that the river took the long 
 six-mile course following a tilting of pronounced grade in 
 that direction. After it had cut down enough of a canyon to 
 hold it, another tilt toward Round Valley occurred. 
 
 "The really striking physiographic fact of this region, 
 however, receives no comment. It is Birehim Canyon. Rock 
 Creek cuts a deep canyon across a rismg slope, in order to 
 become a tributaiy to Owens River. If Birehim Canyon were 
 filled, Rock Creek would pond up, only a few feet deep, and 
 pass easily around the south end of the lava-plain slope. 
 What deflected it in this unnatural way? Early heavy gla- 
 ciation, which, filling Round Valley in large part, crowded 
 Rock Creek aside, up-grade, and then left it permanently 
 intrenched." 
 
SOME GEOLOGICAL. FACTS 7 
 
 Willis T. Lee, of the United States Geological 
 Survey, remarks: 
 
 "The present form of the Owens River system is due 
 largely to change of climate in recent geologic time. Through- 
 out a part, at least, of Quaternary time Owens River flowed 
 southward through Salt Wells Valley, and the portion of 
 Owens Valley north of Bishop probably contained a flowing 
 stream. During the changes toward greater aridity of climate 
 which took place later, the water supply was cut off from the 
 upper part of Owens River and one of its main tributaries 
 was left as the head of the stream. At the time evaporation 
 in the valley equalled or exceeded the inflow, that part of the 
 river south of Owens Lake ceased to flow, and the tributaries 
 from the White Mountains became diy from lack of sufficient 
 rainfall, if indeed they had been permanent sti'eams." 
 
 Johnson concluded that many of the great 
 natural changes here mentioned happened but 
 yesterday, so to speak, in the world's making. He 
 believed that they occurred 
 
 "since man made pictures of the hairy mammoth and other 
 mammals belonging to glacial times on the walls of caverns 
 in southeni France. Wliile, say, the valley of the Euphrates 
 has been standing still, and while on its plains of silt myriads 
 of human beings have time and again busied themselves in 
 erecting brick temj^les on the moulded ruins of uncounted 
 other brick temples, Owens Valley has been in the making." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 WHO WERE THE FIRST FAMILIES? 
 
 NO TRACES OF ANCIENT MAN — VARIED ANIMAL LIFE WHEN 
 OWENS VALLEY WAS WOODED — ROCK MARKINGS THAT 
 ARE APPARENTLY MEANINGLESS — THEIR ORIGIN 
 UNKNOWN TO PRESENT RACE OF INDIANS — MAY BE 
 COMPARATIVELY RECENT. 
 
 Before the white .man, the Piute ; before the 
 Piute, what people, and for what duration of 
 time I 
 
 Geologist Bailey remarks that 
 
 "the remains of spear and arrow heads of obsidian, and the 
 fossil bones of mastodon, horse and camel, mingled together, 
 tell the story that elementaiy man lived along the shores of 
 these ancient lakes." 
 
 Dr. A. L. Kroeber, of the University of Cali- 
 fornia, takes direct issue with this, in writing: 
 
 "The age of most of the animal remains is to be reckoned 
 by tens of thousands of years. The age of the human finds, 
 whether they consist of skeletons or implements, probably does 
 not extend beyond hundreds or perhaps tho^^sands of years. 
 Such at least is the consensus of opinion regarding all prop- 
 erly authenticated human discoveries yet made on this conti- 
 nent. In Europe and Asia the histoiy of man seems to go 
 back nearly half a million years, but he seems to be a very 
 late comer in America." 
 
 He says that in no case yet investigated has 
 there been a certainty that the remains of animals 
 and indications of the presence of human beings 
 were actually associated, without chance of their 
 
 8 
 
WHO WERE THE FIRST FAMHiIES? 9 
 
 having been shifted together by later human or 
 natural intent or accident. The scientific tendency 
 is to be 
 
 "exceedingly skeptical in advance regarding any such dis- 
 coveiy. The opinion of Professor Bailey is matched by even 
 more startling reports of Professor Whitney and Clarence 
 King, but recent examination has led to a general disbelief in 
 their reports." 
 
 That a varied animal population roamed the 
 wilds between these mountain ranges unguessable 
 centuries ago is certain. Near Owens Lake, bones 
 of some unidentified animal were brought up from 
 110 feet depth. Near Independence, men digging 
 a well found, underneath a cedar log, bones of an 
 animal of the horse species. Still nearer to us in 
 point of time was a mastodon, the bones of which 
 were uncovered at a depth of only twelve feet, 
 also near Independence — an animal estimated by 
 the San Francisco Academy of Sciences to have 
 measured twenty-five feet in length and fourteen 
 in height. Near Death Valley, in eastern Inyo, a 
 few crumbling bits of bone and a few teeth were 
 identified as the remains of a paleotherium, an 
 animal of remote ages. 
 
 Not a dependable indication of man's presence 
 in this valley in prehistoric times appears to have 
 been found. The discovery, a few feet under- 
 ground, of arrowheads of flint (not obsidian), and 
 other articles not associated with the Piute tribe 
 has been reported — probably indicating nothing 
 more than the demise of a wandering warrior 
 from some other region. 
 
 Discoveries made in well drilling prove that 
 
10 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 in olden times, and at different periods, Owens 
 Valley was more or less wooded. The cedar log 
 which apparently crushed the life from the 
 ancient horse, already mentioned, probably top- 
 pled over untold years later than the growth of a 
 black willow of which fragments were brought up 
 from 281 feet depth near Big Pine; and many 
 more centuries separated it from the life of a 
 four-foot log, also apparently black willow, bored 
 through 447 feet underground in the same ar- 
 tesian well. In this well fourteen distinct changes 
 of natural conditions were indicated by as many 
 strata of soils. In the clay beds there penetrated, 
 mass after mass of tules was found. 
 
 A hazy Indian tradition reaches back to a time 
 when groves and meadows abounded in these val- 
 leys, instead of the familiar sagebrush and, 
 further eastward, desert and desolation. Fish and 
 game were plentiful, say the story-tellers of the 
 campfire circle. That happy period came to an end 
 when the mountains burned and lakes dried up. 
 While this tallies perfectly with scientific conclu- 
 sions, it is unbelievable as a continuing tradition. 
 It merely does credit to Indian powers of observa- 
 tion, deduction and imagination. 
 
 Those who believe that there once occurred a 
 great aboriginal migration through Owens Valley 
 cite the fact that a chain of petroglyphs, or rock 
 markings, extends from the Columbia river south- 
 ward, into and through Inyo County, and on into 
 Arizona. Examination weakens this evidence, for 
 pictured rocks are found all over the arid West. 
 ' ' The pictures are not the work of any one roam- 
 
WHO WERE THE FIRST FAMHiIES? 11 
 
 ing people," says one authority, ''they have been 
 made by all tribes, everywhere, at all times." 
 While markings can be traced northerly and 
 southerly, so can they be traced easterly, and in 
 other directions. Those of one limited area are 
 so unlike those found in another as to make it 
 improbable that they were made by the same 
 people. There are vague resemblances, but only 
 such as would come from the possibility that dif- 
 ferent tribes, all lacking artistic conceptions, 
 might chance to draw somewhat similar crude and 
 simple designs. 
 
 Such rock markings are found in many places 
 throughout the county, as well as to the north and 
 the south. The largest group of petroglyphs in 
 this part of the State is a few miles north of 
 Bishop. It contains very little, if anything, that 
 appears to be capable of interpretation. The 
 Chief of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smith- 
 sonian Institution writes, after examining photo- 
 graphs of the collection : 
 
 "There is little likelihood that the petroglyphs can be in- 
 terpreted by anyone. The petroglyphs of the Indians north 
 of central Mexico were not drawn in accordance with a recog- 
 nized system of symbols, but to a large extent were arbitrary 
 and were controlled more or less by the personal fancy of 
 the maker or makers." 
 
 In the group mentioned are some delineations 
 of deer, human and animal footprints, sinuous 
 lines which may mean snakes, oval drawings with 
 connecting lines possibly representing waters, up- 
 right lines with others branching as trees rarely 
 do, and many-legged bugs. In general, however, 
 
12 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 the designs are but the crudest of geometrical 
 figures, coils, gridirons, and apparently aimless 
 chippings. It is said that petroglyphs found in 
 the eastern part of the county show greater ef- 
 forts at picturing than do those here described, 
 including better drawn animal figures. 
 
 Present-day Piutes disclaim any knowledge of 
 the meaning of the petroglyphs and of their ori- 
 gin, except as will be told in a later chapter on 
 their legends. Dr. Kroeber, already quoted, con- 
 siders this fact immaterial, remarking: 
 
 "I should be disposed to agree with your eonelusion that 
 the pietographs are comparatively recent, and very likely 
 made by the ancestors of the present Piutes, The ignorance 
 of the present generation would prove veiy little. Since the 
 traditions of most Indians are most fragmentaiy, knowledge 
 of that kind would be almost certain to die out in three or 
 four hundred years, and might be lost in a century." 
 
 The markings are generally found in soft ma- 
 terial such as tufa, and were made by chippings. 
 A few are dim, but may have been only lightly 
 cut. Others are fully a quarter-inch in depth. 
 The bottoms of the carvings are lighter in color 
 than the surface of the stone. This tends to prove 
 their recentness, the cuts not having weathered 
 for long periods. Carvings undoubtedly made by 
 white men show precisely the same differences in 
 coloring, and the investigator who takes the 
 trouble to do some rock-marking on his own ac- 
 count will find that the surface he uncovers 
 corresponds in shade with the bottoms of the un- 
 known characters. 
 
 Corroborative evidence that the work was 
 
WHO WERE THE FIRST FAMH.IES? 13 
 
 done at no far-removed period, and by the Piutes, 
 is offered by bits of slate similarly marked, taken 
 from opened Indian graves in which the bpnes are 
 still fairly well preserved. 
 
 It is claimed that petroglyphs are found at 
 camping places where there are or were springs 
 or streams, and on natural routes of travel. There 
 are exceptions to this, for some of the collections 
 are in mountain nooks. The collections near 
 Bishop are on the course of stream-beds or near 
 ancient springs. 
 
 It may not unreasonably be concluded that the 
 pictured rocks offer no evidence of tribal an- 
 tiquity in the region, and that they have no value 
 except as illustrating the some-time diversion of 
 idle individuals of a primitive people. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 NATIVE CUSTOMS 
 
 PRIMITIVE TRIBES BOWS AND ARROWS — ABORIGINAL BILL 
 
 OF FARE — AGRICULTURE AN UNKNOWN FACTOR — NATIVE 
 PLANTS AS FOOD — MODE OF PREPARATION — DOMESTIC 
 UTENSILS — CLOTHING OF MINOR IMPORTANCE — METAL- 
 LURGY UNKNOWN HABITATIONS. 
 
 The Piutes were probably the overlords of 
 eastern California from the beginning of tribal 
 existence until the white men took possession. 
 Their traditions assert that they were at all times 
 the rightful owners. Wars are narrated, Indians 
 from across the Sierras being the traditional in- 
 vaders. One of the legends told in this book is 
 based on such an invasion. The Owens Valley 
 Indians appear to have returned such visits, for 
 it is said in trans-Sierra counties that they con- 
 quered and held as their own the territory about 
 the upper waters of the San Joaquin and Kings 
 rivers. They are classed with the Monos — a word 
 said by some to mean ''monkey" and by Cali- 
 fornia Blue Book asserted to mean *' good-look- 
 ing." A pioneer writer says the Monos called 
 themselves '*Nut-ha." 
 
 Bancroft's ''Native Races" assigns the west- 
 em part of the Great Basin to two "great na- 
 tions": the Shoshones or Snakes, and the Utahs, 
 both classed as branches of the Shoshonean fam- 
 ily, and related to the Apaches. The Piutes 
 
 14 
 
NATIVE CUSTOMS 15 
 
 (spelled Piutes, Pi Utes, Paiutes, Paiuches, Pah 
 Utes, according to the fancy of the person writing 
 of them) are a subtribe of the Utahs. Bancroft 
 holds that the Piutes and the Pah Utes are two 
 different tribes. The former, split into many 
 small captaincies, have different designations, in- 
 cluding the Toy (Tule) Piutes of the Pyramid, 
 Nevada, region; the Ocki (Trout) Piutes on 
 Walker River; the Monos, extending across the 
 Sierras into Tuolumne county ; the Cozaby Piutes, 
 *'cozaby" being the Indian name of a small worm 
 found in immense numbers on the shores of Mono 
 Lake and formerly, if not now, used as food. 
 
 Eastern Inyo belonged to the Panamints, a 
 subtribe of which the last member is said to have 
 died some years ago. When they were visited by 
 a government representative (F. V. Coville) in 
 1891 there were about twenty-five survivors. The 
 Indian population there, however, came to repre- 
 sent many tribes, for the remote and nearly inac- 
 cessible desert places received renegades, red as 
 well as white, from all directions as the white 
 man's law became enforced. 
 
 The name Olancha, now borne by a locality 
 near Owens Lake, designated a tribe living west 
 of that point and across the Sierra summit. 
 Whether that people ever laid claim to territory 
 on this slope is but surmise. 
 
 Other neighbors of the aboriginal Owens Val- 
 leyans were the Meewocs, in Fresno and the west- 
 ern Sierras; Notonatos, on Kings River; Tula- 
 renos, in Tulare ; Kaweahs, and many others. Ban- 
 croft gives the names of more than two hundred 
 
16 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 different tribes in California, with the remark 
 that in many cases the same people took different 
 names, after chiefs or for some other reason. 
 
 Note is also found in records of the Francis- 
 can monks, in Bancroft's writings, and in a book 
 written by a French priest in 1860, after spending 
 seven years in the West, of a tribe called the 
 Benemes, inhabiting southern Inyo and the Mo- 
 jave desert. The only information about them is 
 given by the French writer, Domenich: "The 
 only prominent trait of this numerous tribe is a 
 character of great effeminacy. These Indians are 
 very kind to strangers. ' ' 
 
 The primitive Piutes were not materially dif- 
 ferent from the average Indians of other parts of 
 the continent. They lacked some of the attain- 
 ments of tribes of the eastern seaboard; on the 
 other hand they were higher in the scale than the 
 squalid Diggers of western California, whom they 
 regarded with contempt. They were not warriors, 
 in individual bravery. Their fighting tactics 
 were similar to those of a certain free-lance leader 
 of the Civil War who believed in "gittin' thar 
 fustest with the most men. ' ' Overwhelming num- 
 bers rather than military skill of any kind seems 
 to have been the chief reliance of Indian combat- 
 ants. 
 
 Spears were known among them, but appear 
 to have been used almost exclusively for fishing. 
 The bow and arrow formed the chief reliance for 
 offense and defense. The Piute bow was com- 
 monly made of a tough wood, backed with sinew 
 from deer or other animals. The best form of bow 
 
NATIVE CUSTOMS 17 
 
 was two and one-half to three feet long, with its 
 ends shaped in short reverse curves. Some bows 
 were simple arcs, four or five feet long. Arrows 
 were made of a species of cane, of the. straight- 
 growing arrow weed when found, or of willow. 
 Arrow material was cut before it fully matured. 
 Bends in it were straightened by bending in con- 
 tact with the groove in a stone shaped for the 
 purpose, and heated. Numerous examples of such 
 stones are found in collections of Indian relics. 
 Obsidian was sometimes used for arrow heads; 
 more often the substance employed was the hard 
 wood of the sagebrush, burned or scraped to a 
 dull point. The heads and the two or three spi- 
 rally placed feathers for guiding the shaft were 
 secured to it by threads of sinew. 
 
 Writers on Indian customs have told how ob- 
 sidian heads for arrow and spear are shaped by 
 being heated, then subjected to the dropping of 
 cold water so as to chip away the stone. Others 
 may have followed this method; the Piute plan 
 was different. The manufacturer selected a chip 
 of obsidian approximating the desired shape and 
 size, and with favorable cleavage lines. This frag- 
 ment was held in one hand, which was protected 
 by a buckskin covering; then a sharp bit of bone 
 was used to laboriously pry off fragment after 
 fragment of obsidian until a satisfactory point 
 was shaped. 
 
 As the food problem took precedence over all 
 others, nearly all Piute manufactures related to 
 it. The bow and arrow, occasionally necessary 
 for fighting, were continually used in hunting. 
 
18 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Another article employed in the chase was the 
 rabbit net. A milkweed known to many as Indian 
 hemp yields a long and fairly strong fiber; this 
 was beaten and stripped from the dried stalks and 
 twisted into cord, with which long nets were made. 
 These nets, less than three feet in height, were 
 stretched across favorite runways of rabbits. On 
 the occasion of a drive, the animals coming to the 
 net found no difficulty in putting their heads 
 through the open meshes, but could neither force 
 their bodies through nor, because of their long 
 ears, withdraw from the entanglement, and be- 
 came easy captives. 
 
 Antelope, deer and mountain sheep were some- 
 times killed by large hunting parties which 
 stealthily surrounded the game; then wherever 
 the hapless animal turned, an arrow awaited it 
 until a lucky shot brought it down. 
 
 There were, besides tiny minnows, but two 
 native species of fishes, chubs and suckers. Low- 
 water periods were the favorite times for their 
 capture. Dams were made across the diminished 
 stream, sometimes by Indians standing in line 
 across the channel to briefly serve as a backing 
 against which to pile sods, l3rush and earth. As 
 the channel immediately below was drained, its 
 fish were scooped out. The trout with which the 
 waters of the eastern slope of the Sierras now 
 teem were planted by the white men. Quail also 
 were unknown on the primitive bill of fare, few 
 or none having existed in this region prior to the 
 coming of the whites. 
 
 In addition to such foods as white people 
 
NATIVE CUSTOMS 19 
 
 would find acceptable, the Indian menu included 
 nearly everything that had life, including some 
 kinds of insects and of worms. A large caterpil- 
 lar known as ''pe-ag-ge" (to spell it phoiletically) 
 was a staple harvest. The hills between Owens 
 Valley and Mono Lake Basin seem to be the spe- 
 cial habitat of this delicacy. It is found in living 
 pine trees, and is not the white worm common in 
 stumps. When gathered it was dried for later 
 consumption. The ''cozaby" of the lake shores, 
 the larvae of a form of fly, was gathered where 
 the waves had piled it in windrows at the water's 
 edge, and similarly dried. 
 
 The sloughs yielded a species of mussel. In 
 the early years of white occupation, piles of such 
 shells were often seen near Indian camps. 
 
 Agriculture was an art unknown to the abo- 
 riginal inhabitants. They knew that to flood fav- 
 orable tracts of ground occasionally would in- 
 crease their yield of plants and grasses, and to 
 that extent only did they pay attention to the fer- 
 tile soil. A visitor in 1859 wrote : 
 
 "Large tracts of land are irrigated by the natives to secure 
 the growth of grass seeds and gTass nuts — a small tuberous 
 root of fine taste and nutritious qualities which grows here in 
 great abundance. Their ditches for irrigation are in some 
 cases caiTied for miles, displaying as much accuracy and judg- 
 ment as if laid out by an engineer, and this, too, without the 
 aid of a single agricultural implement. They are totally ig- 
 norant of agriculture, and depend entirely on the natural 
 resources of the country for food and clothing." 
 
 The grass nut mentioned in the quotation is 
 known as 'Haboose." In appearance it resembles 
 
20 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 a miniature potato. It is firm and solid, pleasant 
 to the taste, and by no means to be despised as a 
 food article. 
 
 The pinon, ''Pimis monophylla," to give the 
 tree its botanical designation, furnished to the 
 natives one of their chief food staples. The pine 
 nut is found on most of the desert mountains of 
 western Nevada and eastern California, and in the 
 eastern Sierran range and foothills. Harvesting 
 the nuts, in early autumn, caused, and still causes, 
 an extensive Piute migration to the hills. Wliole 
 villages sprang up in the pinon forests while the 
 crop was being gathered. The season comes as 
 the seeds mature, but before the cone scales have 
 opened. The cones are beaten from the trees, and 
 spread in the sun until the scales become dry and 
 crack apart. Artificial heat sometimes expedites 
 this process. The seeds are then shaken out or 
 beaten out with sticks. The nuts were formerly 
 roasted by being put into baskets with live coals 
 and stirred or shaken until the cooking was com- 
 pleted; now probably less primitive means are 
 used. If properly prepared, the nuts remain fresh 
 and edible for long periods. They are eaten either 
 in the roasted condition, or ground up and eaten 
 as a dry meal or made into soup. 
 
 Many other plants supplied food, either in 
 Owens Valley or in the desert valleys to the east- 
 ward, or both, according to where they might be 
 found. Sand grass, a plant of many localities of 
 the West, was one of these. The abundant seeds 
 were gathered in baskets by beating the grass 
 with a sort of paddle; then the chatf was win- 
 
NATIVE CUSTOMS 21 
 
 nowed from the seeds. A large round-headed 
 cactus known as ''devil's pincushion," found in 
 some rocky situations, yielded seeds specially 
 valued because of their long period of freshness 
 after being gathered, thus serving when most 
 other supplies had failed. Several other kinds 
 of seeds were gathered and used, commonly in the 
 form of mush. 
 
 A kind of prickly pear was made into food. 
 When, in early summer, the flat, fleshy stems 
 were fully distended with sap, they were broken 
 off with sticks and collected in baskets. Each 
 piece was rubbed with grass to remove the 
 prickles, and exposed to the heat of the sun. When 
 thoroughly dry they kept indefinitely, and were 
 often prepared for eating by boiling. The man- 
 ner of preparation was sometimes varied. In- 
 stead of being dried, the pieces were piled into a 
 thoroughly heated stone-lined cavity, which was 
 first lined with grass. A layer of cactus joints 
 was laid in, then hot stones, then cactus, and so 
 on until the pile was rounded. The whole was 
 covered with a mat of vegetation and lastly with 
 moist earth. The pile was allowed to steam for 
 ten or twelve hours, after which the ''na-vo," as 
 it was called, was ready to be eaten, or to be dried 
 and kept for the future. The dried substance is 
 said to have resembled dried peaches in texture 
 and appearance. This dish was more especially 
 in favor in the eastern part of the county, where 
 the plant is more common. 
 
 Some plants of the form botanically known as 
 cruciferae, having large juicy leaves, and having 
 
22 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 a cabbage-like taste, were gathered and thrown 
 into boiling water for a few minutes, then taken 
 out, washed in cold water and squeezed. This 
 operation was repeated several times, for the pur- 
 pose of removing bitterness and eliminating some 
 substances known to produce effects unpleasant 
 to the eater. Frank Kennedy, an old-timer in the 
 Panamint region, said that when food was very 
 scarce almost any green herbage was eaten after 
 a similar preparation. 
 
 The mesquite furnished for the desert Indians 
 a food not available in Owens Valley. The ripe 
 pods store a small amount of sugary nutritious 
 matter. The same Indians made use of the un- 
 developed buds of the yucca. In gathering this 
 material, the leaves around the bud were grasped 
 by the hand and by a twist and sidewise pull it 
 was broken off. Though as the buds age the stems 
 become very tough, in that early stage they are 
 brittle and easily broken by one who understands 
 how. In preparing this food, the outer leaves and 
 tips are discarded, leaving an egg-shaped, solid 
 and juicy mass. This is roasted, and eaten either 
 hot or cold. 
 
 Indians of Inyo had no such trouble about 
 salt supply as was the rule among eastern aborig- 
 ines, for they had but to gather all they wanted 
 from huge natural beds. 
 
 Sugar substitutes were secured from the com- 
 mon reed, in one of two ways. One was to scrape 
 from the stems and leaves a parasitic covering, 
 which was used in the crude form. White men who 
 saw it say that the "sugar" was filled with small 
 
NATIVE CUSTOMS 23 
 
 green bugs, a detail apparently not objectionable. 
 Another method was to cut the plants, when fully 
 grown, and dry them in the sun. The material 
 was pulverized and the finer portions sifted out, 
 to be worked into a gum-like mass, and finished 
 by being partially roasted. 
 
 Many things were eaten raw; others were 
 dried. The methods of cooking included the 
 simple plan of holding the food on sticks over the 
 fire; roasting by mixing it with live coals in 
 wicker baskets, which were shaken; boiling in 
 water-tight baskets into which hot stones were 
 dropped. 
 
 Domestic utensils were made of wickerwork. 
 They were in various forms, according to pur- 
 pose. Plates and sieves were from nine to twelve 
 inches in diameter, slightly saucer-shaped. Water 
 baskets were so closely woven as to be almost 
 water-tight, and finished off with a coating of 
 pitch or other substance ; these were usually urn- 
 shaped, with a narrow neck and often a rounded 
 or conical bottom. The pot basket was the squaw's 
 most useful utensil. It was bowl-shaped, with 
 curving sides and a flattened bottom, very closely 
 woven. Before white men provided something 
 better — it is to be understood that all these refer- 
 ences to modes of living relate to the early period 
 — the pot basket served as a container in which to 
 boil food, as well as a bowl for dry substances. On 
 occasion, it served the owner as a head covering. 
 Transportation was done in packbaskets, up to 
 two and one-half feet high, funnel shaped, and 
 carried on the back, sometimes by being grasped 
 
24 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 by the rim but more often by means of a 'strap 
 which was passed across the bearer's forehead. 
 Winnowing baskets, used for separating chaff 
 from seeds, were two or three feet long, oval 
 with one end brought to a point, and but a few 
 inches deep. The infant Piute was cradled in a 
 wickerwork contrivance with a Y-shaped tree fork 
 as a base. The back of this receptacle was flat; 
 half of the front was rounded, diminishing to the 
 pointed base; usually a curved framework pro- 
 jected from the top of the contrivance to keep the 
 sun from the infant's face. Into this he was 
 lashed, and either left or carried on the mother's 
 back as circumstances required. Other articles, 
 including bird cages, were likewise made of wick- 
 erwork. 
 
 All these articles were made by the squaws at 
 the cost of much time, care, and often skill. Wil- 
 low was the principal material, though not the 
 invariable one. In this manufacture, the withes 
 were gathered at a certain stage of growth. The 
 bark was stripped off, and protuberances scraped 
 down. The sticks were then split into three or 
 more strands, unless they were to be used for 
 large and coarse baskets or the withes were too 
 small to justify splitting. Each strand was shaped 
 into a thin pliant strip, which was stored until 
 wanted and soaked in water before using. The 
 thread-like effect in some weaving is secured 
 by the use of a fine and tough grass. 
 
 The finer baskets, such as are included in col- 
 lections which white people have made, were or- 
 namented in various ways. Bark was sometimes 
 
NATIVE CUSTOMS 25 
 
 left on for this purpose ; sometimes the work was 
 stained, and on occasion feathers of selected col- 
 ors were worked in. Colored figuring,, usually 
 black in the baskets of Owens Valley Indians, was 
 made by using natural growths of that hue. The 
 Panamints used a plant known as devil horns, 
 having a black fiber several inches long. Natives 
 who could obtain yucca roots sometimes employed 
 the red coloring from that source. 
 
 Clothing was a minor consideration, during 
 most of the year. No attempt was made to manu- 
 facture fabrics of any kind. Eabbit skins sewed 
 together served as robes for the women, and pro- 
 vided a warm covering. Moccasins were made of 
 deer skin, put together in the simplest manner. The 
 purpose of these articles was for comfort only; 
 other reasons hardly figured. Early white visitors 
 to this region found the natives clad in little more 
 than primitive simplicity and bright face paints. 
 
 A form of glue, for fastening sinew backing 
 on bows, was made by boiling the hoofs of moun- 
 tain sheep. A minute parasite found on certain 
 plants was also used for the purpose; the para- 
 sitic masses were scraped off in the fomi of gum, 
 kneaded and worked, and applied hot. 
 
 Stone pipes have been found in some Indian 
 burial grounds, though not often enough to in- 
 dicate that smoking was more than a ceremonial 
 custom. A plant known as Indian tobacco was 
 used. 
 
 Not a single instance has been discovered to 
 indicate that the Piutes had even so much knowl- 
 edge of metallurgy as to fashion ornaments, let 
 
26 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 alone articles of use. They knew, however, where 
 placer gold was to be found. 
 
 The tribes of the region were not nomadic; 
 the general locality of each subdivision appears to 
 have been fixed with considerable definiteness. In 
 consequence, their habitations were built with fair 
 permanence, considering their limitations of skill. 
 Sometimes the camp consisted of nothing more 
 than a curved windbreak of willow sticks, driven 
 into the ground and fastened by horizontally 
 woven withes. The more elaborate structures were 
 conical campoodies of tules and willows, thick- 
 walled and weatherproof except at the small en- 
 trance through which the occupants crouched 
 their way. In the average of these, a person of 
 ordinary height might stand erect in the central 
 part. On occasion, these huts became sweat- 
 houses for the treatment of the sick. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 
 
 NOT A POPULAR HONOR — AN EXACTING CODE — WITCHES 
 
 PUNISHED TREATMENT OP THE SICK — THE PENALTY 
 
 OP AGE — HOW THE INDIANS HAVE PROGRESSED 
 
 LEGENDS OP THE CREATION — WHY CAT AND DOG ARE 
 ENEMIES — THE LEGEND OP WINNEDUMAH. 
 
 The medicine man was an institution of Piute- 
 dom as of probably all other savage tribes. The 
 distinction was not what might be termed a popu- 
 lar honor. Whether the selection was made for 
 some hereditary reason, or because of some event 
 at his birth or in the early life of the doctor, his 
 status was established at an age when he had no 
 chance to object. It does not appear that he was 
 expected to employ his skill until he had reached 
 reasonably mature years, but his status was set- 
 tled, however he might resent it when he came to 
 understand the part cast for him in the drama of 
 life. And resent it he usually did, for as soon as 
 his ministrations had sent a sufficient number — 
 generally three — of his fellows to the happy hunt- 
 ing grounds his own violent and sudden removal 
 from mundane aifairs would come as a matter of 
 custom. 
 
 Among the former Piute residents of Owens 
 Valley, during the early years of white occupa- 
 
 27 
 
28 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 tion, was one Jim, who had been selected by fate 
 for a doctor's career. In consequence, Jim con- 
 stantly carried a ' ' sixteen-shoot gnn," prepared 
 at all times to "heap kill um" if there were at- 
 tempts either to force him to practice or to fasten 
 on him the results of some other person's lack of 
 skill in exorcising evil spirits. At an earlier pe- 
 riod, when less efficient defense was available, Jim 
 probably would have fled to other parts. 
 
 The standard of medical success, if not skill, 
 required of Piute medicos was higher than among 
 civilized peoples ; for while a white doctor is in no 
 danger of violence whatever his (or his patient's) 
 luck, the Piute healer did well to arrange his af- 
 fairs immediately on the demise of his third pa- 
 tient. He was marked for early and unceremo- 
 nious removal, by whatever means might be con- 
 venient for the kin of his last case. Stones, arrows, 
 lassos, in daylight or darkness, regardless of place 
 or anything but opportunity, were used to reduce 
 the number of medicine men in active service. It 
 was approved tribal law. 
 
 It appears that the three-death rule was not 
 always the standard. The doctor might some- 
 times pay the penalty for a bad guess, even if the 
 patient recovered. If when called he predicted 
 death, but the patient got well, it was marked as 
 a failure of prophecy; the medicine man didn't 
 know his business, and it went toward his undo- 
 ing. If the patient's death was predicted and 
 came to pass, accuracy of prophecy counted for 
 nothing; he had to answer for losing the case. His 
 best chance for rounding out his allotted years was 
 
MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 29 
 
 in being fortunate enough to have no professional 
 calls. 
 
 His family was in no happier plight. Relation- 
 ship to an unsuccessful medicine man gave the sis- 
 ters and cousins and aunts and other female 
 relatives a special liability to powers of witch- 
 craft, and they suffered accordingly. Many cold- 
 blooded murders of such alleged witches are said 
 to have been committed. 
 
 Nearly all the threatened clashes between In- 
 dians and whites, after the close of the Indian 
 war, came from the white man's inability to ap- 
 preciate the propriety of killing off unsuccessful 
 medicine men, and a determination to stop mur- 
 ders of that character. As late as 1886 there were 
 instances of the killing of both *' doctors" and 
 * 'witches." But even then the younger genera- 
 tion of Indians rebelled against the barbarous 
 custom. In later years, the sick native usually 
 calls for a white physician. The Indian doctor 
 has become practically non-existent, and it has 
 been long since there has been a known case of 
 one being slain. And yet in 1916 barbaric in- 
 cantation was used to treat one of the belles of 
 the tribe, for some illness, until in the last ex- 
 tremity a physician was called, unavailingly. In 
 another case as recent, a girl's sore eyes were 
 treated by some campfire beldame who rubbed 
 the eyeballs with a piece of stone until the blood 
 started, in order to release the evil spirit that 
 caused the trouble. In spite of vast improvement 
 there is still need of enlightenment among the 
 Indians. 
 
30 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 The chief medical process included dancing 
 and incantations to drive away the demon that 
 possessed the sick individual, if the latter 's com- 
 plaint were fever or some trouble of which the 
 cause was not obvious. The sweathouse was used 
 for some complaints, particularly for those in 
 which a rash appeared on the skin. The victim 
 went into an airtight wickiup with suitable acces- 
 sories for heating. When sufficiently warmed up, 
 and perspiring freely if possible, the invalid ran 
 out and plunged into a pool or stream of cold 
 water. As this system was used for a wide range 
 of ills, the consequences in many cases may be 
 imagined. 
 
 A few infusions were known and used. Pitch 
 or fir balsam served to cover wounds. A white 
 man who spoke Piute fluently stated that a method 
 for closing open wounds was to sew them with the 
 heads of ants. A large black ant found in the 
 hills was used for the purpose, being held in such 
 position that it grasped the lips of the pushed- 
 together wound. The insect was then pinched in 
 two, leaving its head to serve as a stitch. This 
 sounds a bit fanciful, but was given as a fact. 
 
 Ants also figure in a rheumatism cure given 
 by an Indian to a white friend: "Make um sick 
 man sit on ant's nest. Bimeby (by and by) heap 
 holler — purty good. Mebbe so git well." This 
 scheme has a parallel in the white argument that 
 stings of bees help to cure the same complaint; 
 and the parallel is not diminished by the "mebbe 
 so git well." 
 
 Tribal custom disposed of aged Indians in 
 
MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 31 
 
 heartless fashion, but it is said that the individuals 
 in question were at least sometimes willing parties 
 to the arrangement. The one who had become 
 ''old and only in the way" was taken to some lone 
 spot and left with a limited supply of food and 
 water. There he or she starved, if some earlier 
 termination of misery did not give release. Ma- 
 larango, chief of the Coso Piutes, had attained the 
 ripe age of (supposedly) ninety years when with 
 many bodily troubles he supervised preparations 
 for his own removal in this way in 1874. Sup- 
 plied with a small stock of pine nuts with which 
 to gradually '' taper off " on a lifelong habit of eat- 
 ing more or less as circumstances had happened 
 to control, he was located at a spring, with the 
 expectation of going into his last sleep in three 
 days. 
 
 The home of a dead person was burned, to- 
 gether with at least a part of his personal posses- 
 sions. No evidence appears that goods and 
 chattels of any consequence were buried with the 
 body. Numerous Indian graves have been en- 
 countered in excavating, and in one instance the 
 gradual removal of a sand hill uncovered a rather 
 extensive burying ground, in which there were 
 found only bones and occasionally a bit of figured 
 stone. 
 
 These were the things of primitive times. The 
 Owens Valley Indian has advanced marvelously — 
 more so than the white man did in ten times as 
 many years, for the white slowly evolved ad- 
 vantages that were brought ready-made to the 
 Piute. Civilized clothing appealed to the Indian 
 
32 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 for practical reasons. He evoluted from unmoral 
 conditions. He learned how to secure a living 
 from the ground, and became skilled in lines 
 within his comprehension. He grew mentally. 
 There are Piutes who in education excel some 
 of the white men beside whom they work. There 
 are some who have taken up skilled trades. Ad- 
 herents to primitive customs are found only 
 among the ancients of the people ; the newer gen- 
 eration are advancing rapidly. The women often 
 dress neatly, and among them are found numerous 
 competent housekeepers. Descendants of the na- 
 tives who fled at sight of the first wagon own 
 and drive their own automobiles. While the 
 wattled wickiup has not become extinct, the frame 
 cabin is common in the little Piute villages. Sew- 
 ing machine, rugs and carpets are often found 
 inside, and perhaps a talking machine with a sur- 
 prising selection of music. For all the crudeness 
 of the hieroglyphics on pictured rocks, the natives 
 have a degree of artistic ability. A wholly un- 
 taught girl made a recognizable portrait of a 
 white acquaintance, while others of Indian blood 
 have acquired such skill as to make their par- 
 tially trained abilities a source of revenue. In- 
 stead of the pot basket worn as a hat, one is more 
 likely to see the feminine Piute head adorned with 
 decorated millinery from some store. No longer 
 is the camp commissary repulsive in its selection 
 of viands, though the pe-ag-ge is occasionally still 
 gathered. White men's food products are chosen 
 with such fastidiousness, sometimes, that the In- 
 dian buyer insists on his or her special preference 
 
MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 33 
 
 of flour or whatever other commodity may be 
 desired. 
 
 We have written of old-time customs as much 
 because some record of them should be kept as 
 for any other reason, and because of the contrast 
 with present-day conditions. Basketry is becom- 
 ing a lost art among the Indian women ; and other 
 things, often less commendable, are disappearing 
 just as surely. The Piute fills an important place 
 in the economic and industrial life of Inyo County. 
 This evolution is partly the result of association 
 with the whites and recognition of the superiority 
 of their ways. It is also largely due to the ju- 
 dicious labors of conscientious agents and teach- 
 ers who have been placed among them by the 
 national government. The Indian is growing into 
 full, intelligent citizenship. This has come from 
 judicious leading and association. It is a gradual 
 process, and yet ''gradual" seems hardly a fitting 
 term to denote the wonderful advance that has 
 been made in every item of the Indian 's life since 
 some of those around us were carried on their 
 mothers' backs. The outcome can best be left to 
 the people who understand the situation, and who, 
 with full sympathy for the Indian's future, 
 willingly further his interests. It is not a 
 ''problem" to be dealt with at long range by 
 would-be philanthropists (if philanthropy be their 
 purpose) whose theories merely interfere with 
 Indian welfare. 
 
 Securing information about the Piutes, from 
 them, is no easy undertaking. Most of them are 
 reluctant about telling anything of their tribal 
 
34 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 life, and to learn their individual Indian nafiies, 
 or their meaning, is perhaps the most difficult of 
 all. It is hard to explain why this is true. To 
 learn the legends that are, or were, current among 
 them, is an undertaking. 
 
 Indian history, preserved only by narration 
 from one generation to the next, soon becomes 
 merged with tradition and legend. With no such 
 standard of reckoning as we have, their stories 
 of the past are generally dated "long time ago," 
 yet may have been only two or three generations 
 back. Details are lost, or elaborated. A legendary 
 migration may have had its foundation in the 
 movement of but a small band. A flood of purely 
 local magnitude may become all-enveloping, in 
 the narrations of later years. In addition to such 
 embellishments as native story-tellers add to their 
 tales, by the time white writers have taken their 
 turn at rounding out the stories the results are 
 usually far from the first camp-fire telling. 
 
 It is particularly noticeable that all Indian 
 legends have their scenes in the vicinity of the 
 tribes that tell them. The world of each is prac- 
 tically limited to its own horizon. 
 
 Occasionally a legend is secured at first-hand 
 from a native source. Such an instance is the 
 Piute version of the Creation, as told by an Owens 
 Valley Indian to D. L. Maxwell, formerly of the 
 local Indian Service, and by him recorded in the 
 following language: 
 
 "The word 'Piute' signifies 'people who come 
 and go in boats.' These people originally lived 
 along the shores of Lake Lahontan. Their 
 
MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 35 
 
 descendants now live near the mountain lakes of 
 eastern California and Nevada. 
 
 *' According to their legends, at the beginning 
 the world was all water. At that time the Great 
 Wolf God, the God of Creation, with the assistance 
 of his little brother or son, the coyote, planted the 
 rock seeds in the great water, and from them the 
 rocks and land grew. The rock plants were helped 
 in their growth, and cared for while growing, by 
 the Pot-sa-gah-wahs. The Pot-sa-gah-wahs were 
 the ministering spirits of the Wolf God, and were 
 supposed to have the form and physique of a 
 beautiful child about ten years old. They could 
 walk about on land, but lived and hid themselves 
 from human eyes in the water, where their move- 
 ments were rapid — almost instantaneous." 
 
 (Any one who is critical of this legend because 
 of the introduction of human beings at this stage 
 is requested, before he comments on the Indian 
 story, to inform us where Cain got his wife.) 
 
 ''When the earth became habitable, the first 
 man to be created was Hy-nan-nu. His mother 
 was a winged creature, a spirit or bird, perhaps 
 Hai-wai, the dove. 
 
 "The Piutes were created from the rocks. A 
 particular rock which is far up on one of the 
 creeks west of Owens Valley, and having a re- 
 semblance to a human form, w^as the mother rock. 
 
 ''After the Piutes had become numerous in 
 Owens Valley, Hy-nan-nu came from the south- 
 east to teach them better modes of living. He 
 was not a Piute, but came from some other tribe, 
 and remained here for many j^ears. He was not 
 
36 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 only their Adam, but also their Moses, writing 
 laws for them on tables of stone. They believe 
 the picture writings on the rocks of this valley 
 are the work of his hands. They were at one 
 time able to read those writings, but that art has 
 long been lost. They have legends telling what 
 each of the different writings signify. 
 
 ''Hy-nan-nu was also their Methuselah, Enoch, 
 Solomon and Samson. They have legends which 
 tell of his feats of strength and daring. He is 
 to them more than that, for they say of him as 
 was said of the humble Galilean, 'He went about 
 doing good.' 
 
 ''Hy-nan-nu taught the Piutes to be happy; 
 not to worry or be concerned about this world's 
 goods. He would sometimes break a basket in 
 the maker's hands or dig up the growing taboose 
 in order to teach them that work was not of so 
 much importance as a happy disposition. So 
 work took a secondary place in the minds of the 
 Piute forefathers. 
 
 '*He was one day walking through Long Val- 
 ley when he saw several Pot-sa-gah-wahs who 
 had left the waters of Owens River and were 
 walking on the side of the mountain. He desired 
 to catch them, and being between them and the 
 river he chased these little creatures far up the 
 mountain and was about to take them when the 
 "Wolf God sent water up into the mountains to 
 save their lives. A lake was created for their 
 benefit; they plunged into it and were safe. 
 
 **The lake which originated on that memor- 
 able occasion is now rudely called Convict Lake, 
 
MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 37 
 
 instead of its Piute name Wit-so-nali-pah, which 
 means * spring up, ' or perhaps ' spring up to save 
 life.' 
 
 ' * The writing on a rock near Eock -Creek in 
 Eound Valley is the story of a little child and 
 how it was taken by the Pot-sa-gah-wahs into the 
 spirit world and became a Pot-sa-gah-wah. Hy- 
 nan-nu taught that people might be changed at 
 death into those little beings. The qualities essen- 
 tial to winning that reward are strength and 
 bravery. There must be no fears for the future — 
 and here the idea of trust and faith becomes part 
 of their religion. 
 
 " 'That in even savage bosoms 
 
 There are longings, yearnings, strivings, 
 
 For the good they comprehend not; 
 
 That the feeble hand and helpless, 
 
 Groping blindly in the darkness, 
 
 Touches God's right hand in that darkness 
 
 And is lifted up and strengthened.' 
 
 "Hy-nan-nu, while teaching in Inyo County, 
 was always looking for his mother, whom he had 
 never seen or had but glimpsed. Having finished 
 his work here, and being sure his mother was not 
 in this valley, he one day walked up Bishop Creek 
 and passed over the mountains, to renew his work 
 with the people he might find there and to con- 
 tinue his search for his mother. 
 
 ''Thus according to Piute tradition was 
 created the earth and things that dwell therein." 
 
 It is not without interest to compare this with 
 the very different Creation legend of the Western 
 Nevada branches of the same tribe : 
 
38 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 **At first the world was all water and remained 
 so for a long time. Then the water began to go 
 down, and at last Kurangwa (Mt. Grant) came 
 from the water, near the southwest end of Walker 
 Lake. There was fire on its top, and when the 
 wind blew hard the water dashed over the fire 
 and would have extinguished it, but for the sage- 
 hen nestling over it and fanning away the water 
 with its wings. The heat scorched the feathers 
 on the sagehen's breast, and they remain black to 
 this day. Afterwards the Piutes got their first 
 fire from the mountain through the help of the 
 rabbit." (Most Indian legends credit the coyote 
 with having preserved fire.) 
 
 "As the water subsided other mountains ap- 
 peared, until at last the earth was left as it now 
 is. Then the great ancestor of the Piutes came 
 from the south past Mt. Grant, upon which his 
 foot-prints can still be seen, and made his home 
 in the region of Carson Sink. A woman followed 
 him; they met and she became his wife. They 
 dressed themselves in skins and lived on the meat 
 of deer and mountain sheep. They had children, 
 two boys and two girls. The father made bows 
 and arrows for the boys, and the mother taught 
 the girls how to dig roots. 
 
 "When the children grew up each boy mar- 
 ried a sister, but the new families quarreled until 
 the father commanded them to separate. One 
 family went south and became fish-eaters, the 
 Piutes of Walker Lake, and the others went north 
 and became buffalo-eaters, the Bannocks. After 
 the children had left them the parents went into 
 the mountains and from there into the sky." 
 
MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 39 
 
 Where the fish and pine nuts came from is told 
 in another legend: A mountain rocked violently, 
 and a mighty rift appeared in its side. As a 
 dazzling light shone, a gigantic Indian, .dressed 
 in buckskin and decorated with beads and feath- 
 ers, stepped forth. He fired an arrow at the 
 hillside, and on the slope arose many trees laden 
 with pine nuts. A shaft was shot into the water, 
 and the stream swarmed with fish. He pointed to 
 the mountains, and the awe-stricken natives fol- 
 lowed his direction and found a cave floored with 
 silver. 
 
 Man made friends with some of the animals 
 in this wise: A dog had a bear at bay. While 
 bruin sat on his haunches waiting for an op- 
 portunity to slap the dog into oblivion, the first 
 man sneaked up behind the bear and killed it with 
 a club. The man skinned the bear with his strong 
 fingers, and as he ate some of the meat he threw 
 portions to the dog, establishing a lasting friend- 
 ship. A little later the first woman appeared, and 
 while she was eating flesh from the bear a cat ap- 
 peared. She fed it, which accounts for the inti- 
 macy between women and cats ever since. When 
 the dog saw the woman feeding the cat he became 
 jealous and tried to chase pussy away. The 
 woman protected the cat, and the dog and the cat 
 have always been enemies. 
 
 The best known legend of Owens Valley is that 
 of Winnedumah. It is connected with a remark- 
 able monolith of sandstone, on the extreme crest 
 of the White Mountains, directly east of Inde- 
 pendence. This object, commonly known as the 
 
40 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 Piute Monument, is eighty feet high, and f torn its 
 position on the skyline is visible for many miles. 
 It is — or was — considered an enduring monument 
 of faithfulness, according to the legend of which 
 the following appears to be a more accurate nar- 
 ration than most of those which have been pub- 
 lished : 
 
 ''Long, long ago" the great medicine man of 
 the Piutes was Winnedumah, brother of Tinne- 
 maha, war chief of the people. The principal 
 tribal stronghold was in the Black Rocks, a 
 tumbled volcanic mass which is strewn over mid- 
 Owens Valley for several square miles. 
 
 One day hordes of Diggers poured through the 
 passes of the Sierras, Pahbatoya, to raid the 
 Piute hunting grounds. The owners resented this 
 trespass, and a battle such as no Piute has wit- 
 nessed since that event began forthwith. It lasted 
 through days of the fiercest fighting. At last the 
 Piutes were beaten and forced to flee. Many 
 found refuge in the caves and recesses of the 
 Black Eocks — ^which same cavities may be seen to 
 this day by whoever may doubt this tale. Others 
 fled across the rugged mountains to the eastward. 
 Among the fugitives was Winnedumah, whose 
 medicine had been useless against the invaders. 
 Sorely pressed, exhausted, and alone he gained 
 the summit, where he stopped for a final view of 
 the domain which he deemed lost, and to await 
 the coming of his warrior brother. But Tinne- 
 maha had fallen in the fray, and while Winnedu- 
 mah invoked the aid of the Great Spirit for his 
 stricken people, a great convulsion of nature 
 
MEDICINE MEN AND LEGENDS 41 
 
 came, and one of its results was to transform him 
 into a pillar of stone. The same natural mani- 
 festation so frightened the trespassing Diggers 
 that they forthwith went back from whence they 
 came, never again to dispute the ownership of 
 Owens Valley. There to this day stands Win- 
 nedumah, faithful to the end of time. 
 
 A tale told by a Mono Indian, and known also 
 to Owens Valley Indians to whom it was men- 
 tioned, is of a winter of special hardships and 
 trials so severe that it virtually wiped out the 
 population. ''Long time ago — my grandfather 
 say — him grandfather — him grandfather — him 
 grandfather," and so on for many generations, 
 this devastating winter happened. Deep snow 
 came, and kept coming until the whole region 
 bordering the eastern Sierras was under a blanket 
 that in the higher valleys did not melt away until 
 midsummer. All animal life was killed off, or 
 sought pleasanter climes, and the natives, banded 
 at the warm springs, were without food. In this 
 extremity the aged of the tribe sought their own 
 deaths, that the younger ones might thereby be 
 supplied with food. It was a long time after 
 that, the narrator said, before there were any 
 number of Indians along the Sierras, for the sur- 
 vivors went away. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 EARLY EXPLORATIONS 
 
 padres did not reach inyo — jedediah smith, 1825 — 
 
 gold found at mono lake — ogden, 1831 captain 
 
 joe walker, 1832 — chiles party, 1842 — wagons 
 
 abandoned at owens lake — resting springs 
 
 Fremont's expeditions — naming of owens river. 
 
 The Franciscan missionaries, who played so 
 large a part in the history of western California, 
 did not cross or even reach the Sierra Nevada 
 Mountains. According to Fr. Zephyrin, in charge 
 of the Santa Barbara Mission and its historical 
 records when this chapter is written, and himself 
 a coast authority on historical matters, Francisco 
 Hermenegildo Garces journeyed from the mission 
 near Tucson, Arizona, across the Mojave desert 
 in 1775, and came in contact with the Beneme 
 tribe of Indians, whose territory extended into 
 southern Inyo ; he passed on to Tulare County by 
 way of San Fernando. 
 
 Historian Irving B. Eichman's map of early 
 California routes gives that of Captain Joe 
 Walker, 1833, as the first through Owens Valley. 
 Bancroft, however, notes that Jedediah S. Smith 
 and his party of trappers crossed the Sierras at 
 Walker's Pass in 1829 and skirted the Sierras 
 north to Mono Lake. McGroarty's "California" 
 also mentions Smith's journey over the "route 
 mentioned. Important as was Bancroft's work, 
 
 42 
 
EAELY EXPLOBATIONS 43 
 
 most of his delving into the history of the inter- 
 mountain country was done by proxy, and incom- 
 pletely as well. We are justified as accepting 
 as more dependable an account based on Smith's 
 own notes and published in 1881. According to it, 
 Smith and forty companions crossed the country 
 from the Yellowstone River in 1825. He followed, 
 in Nevada, what he called the Mary River, now 
 known as the Humboldt. He and two of his party 
 came south by Walker Lake, and crossed Walker's 
 Pass in July of that year, the rest of the expedi- 
 tion crossing the Sierras farther north. In Octo- 
 ber Smith came back over the same route, 
 traveling closer to the Sierras on the way north. 
 He discovered Mono Lake, and found gold there 
 over twenty-two years before Marshall picked up 
 at Coloma the nugget which started California's 
 rush. Two men, known as Rocky Mountain Jack 
 and Bill Reed, spent the summer of 1860 at Mono 
 Diggings, near Mono Lake. Both declared that 
 they were there in 1825 with Jedediah Smith, and 
 that the party spent a week prospecting during 
 that earlier period. In a volume listing the names 
 of Smith's party, the name of Reed appears, to- 
 gether with several Johns, one of whom may have 
 been identical with Rocky Mountain Jack. 
 
 Peter Ogden, a trapper for the Hudson Bay 
 Company, came through Nevada in 1831, and is 
 said to have followed the route previously taken 
 by Smith. 
 
 Then came Captain Joe AValker — Joseph Rud- 
 deford Walker, to give him the full name appear- 
 ing in the annals of the Missouri town of 
 
44 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Independence. Walker's home was there, as were 
 those of Smith, already mentioned, and Chiles, 
 who was to lead the next expedition this way. It 
 was the westernmost frontier settlement and the 
 starting point of the sunset trails. In 1832 Walker 
 left there as a lieutenant of Capt. Bonneville, in 
 the latter 's company of 110 picked men, with ex- 
 ploration of the country around and beyond Great 
 Salt Lake as their purpose. The party divided at 
 that lake, and Walker with part of the command 
 kept on westward. They finally reached Mon- 
 terey. Richman marks his route as being through 
 Owens Valley; another writer claims that he 
 skirted the eastern base of the White Mountains 
 and crossed Owens Valley southeast of Owens 
 Lake. As his later guiding was unquestionably 
 through the valley, it is probable that the earlier 
 trip followed the same route. 
 
 Joseph B. Chiles organized a company of 
 about fifty, including a few women and children, 
 in Independence, Missouri, in 1843, and started 
 for California. Wagons were substituted for 
 pack trains in this expedition. Walker was met 
 at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and Chiles employed 
 him to guide the party through. On reaching 
 Fort Hall, the two men decided to divide the party 
 and take different routes, Walker selecting the one 
 through Owens Valley. All the families were in 
 his branch. He led them over his old course, via 
 Walker Lake, and southward. Infinite hard- 
 ships, says one of their writers, attended their 
 journey to Owens Valley. They traveled down 
 the east side of Owens River to the lake. Their 
 
EAKLY EXPLORATIONS 45 
 
 livestock was so jaded when that point was 
 reached that it became necessary to abandon the 
 cumbersome wagons. Some sawmill machinery 
 had been brought with the party, and this too 
 was abandoned. The natives were terrorized at 
 sight of the wagons, and fled to the hills. They 
 made trouble but once, when a night guard named 
 Milton Little was wounded with an arrow fired 
 in the darkness. A later search w^as made for the 
 wagons and machinery, but everything had been 
 carried away. 
 
 After abandoning the wagons, portable prop- 
 erty was loaded on the animals able to carry it, 
 and the company proceeded on foot to ''the point 
 of the mountain," Owens Peak and Walker's 
 Pass — the latter, like the lake and river, named 
 for the leader of this expedition. Their hard- 
 ships increased as they passed through the moun- 
 tains, past the later site of Visalia and to the 
 Gilroy rancho, which they reached in January, 
 1844. One of the families in this party was that 
 of George Yount, whose ranch in Napa County 
 became the site of Yountville. 
 
 This was the second wagon train to enter Cali- 
 fornia from the east, though its vehicles did not 
 cross the Sierras. The one before it was that of 
 John Bidwell, traveling much farther north in 
 1841. The Chiles-Walker expedition, landing in 
 the Mexican settlements, strengthened the Mexi- 
 can authorities in their fear of American invasion 
 across the plains. 
 
 There was an "old Spanish trail," of which 
 we find no earlier record, however, into the State 
 
46 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 from the eastward. It became the route adopted 
 by Mormon emigrants to San Bernardino, and was 
 used until after the Mountain Meadows massacre. 
 A branch of the trail reached Resting Springs, in 
 Inyo County. These springs, first known as the 
 Archilette, were given the name they still bear 
 from the use made of them by Mormon travelers 
 who tarried there to recuperate their livestock 
 on journeys across the waste. 
 
 To the Archilette came John C. Fremont, the 
 Pathfinder, on April 19, 1844. He found there a 
 lone survivor of a party of Mexicans who had 
 been attacked by Indians. Fremont rechristened 
 the springs ''Agua de Hernandez," for the 
 rescued man. An old sword, supposed to have 
 been lost by one of Fremont's men, was found in 
 that vicinity more than forty years later. Decay 
 had destroyed its handle, and the blade was firmly 
 nisted into the sheath ; the weapon was of the pat- 
 tern used in Fremont's day. 
 
 Once more the name of Walker, whom some 
 of his contemporaries refer to as one of the best 
 and bravest of mountain men, appears in the local 
 record, and with it, that of Richard Owens. Fre- 
 mont left Bent's Fort, on the Oregon trail in 
 Colorado, in the late summer of 1845, with sixty 
 men, including several Delaware Indians. Some- 
 where on the way he met Walker and Owens and 
 added them to the party, ''with great satisfac- 
 tion," he notes. 
 
 As Fremont gave the name of Owens to the 
 Inyo County river, valley and lake, it is of interest 
 to note the tribute paid in the Pathfinder's 
 
EARLY EXPLORATIONS 47 
 
 Memoirs to that adventurer's capabilities and 
 value. ' ' He was a good mountaineer, good hunter 
 and good shot; cool, brave and of good judg- 
 ment. ' ' He was an officer in the later skirmishing 
 in southern California. When Fremont was haled 
 to Washington to account for some of his actions, 
 Owens went as one of his principal witnesses. 
 Owens did not see the river or valley that bear his 
 name. Fremont did the naming, after the expedi- 
 tion reached the San Joaquin Valley. 
 
 The whole company traveled together until 
 Walker Lake was reached, November 23, 1845. 
 The Indians found there were not friendly, but 
 made no hostile demonstration. A party of Piutes 
 was met as Fremont rode near the lake, the two 
 bands of men passing but a short distance apart. 
 The Indians did not look up, and gave no sign 
 of knowing that the white men were in the neigh- 
 borhood. Fremont's belief was that his party 
 were regarded as intruders, or else that the na- 
 tives had received some recent injury. 
 
 Fremont, Owens, Kit Carson and twelve others 
 went north to cross the Sierras along the Truckee, 
 then called the Salmon Trout Eiver. Theodore 
 Talbot commanded the main party of about fifty, 
 one of whom was Edward M. Kern, artist and 
 topographer, whose name was given to our neigh- 
 boring county. This branch stayed at Walker 
 Lake until December 8th, and reached ''the head 
 of Owens Eiver," (locality not definitely stated) 
 on the 16th. They followed the river to the lake, 
 near which they camped from the 19th to the 21st, 
 then going on southerly and through Walker's 
 Pass. 
 
48 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 For many years a mound of stones some three 
 or four feet high stood beside the road a short 
 distance north of Independence. Popular tradi- 
 tion held that it marked the burial place of one 
 of the Fremont-Talbot expedition who died in 
 this valley. The belief is doubtless erroneous. 
 Evidence indicates that the route of travel was 
 closer to the river; and aside from this, the site 
 of the cairn was on very stony ground, while 
 ground much easier to dig was but a short dis- 
 tance away. An alternative explanation is easier 
 of acceptance ; that the monument was an Indian 
 boundary mark, on a line between the Piute 
 Monument and a Sierra pinnacle which soldiers 
 ascended in 1862, but which stands no longer. 
 Whatever the origin of the mound, it has been de- 
 stroyed. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 DEATH VALLEY PARTY OF 1849 
 
 A TRAIL MARKED BY GRAVES — START OF THE JAYHAWKER3 
 
 ADDITIONS TO EXPEDITION — BREAK-UP OF CARAVAN 
 
 IN UTAH — guide's ADVICE REJECTED — INTO DEATH 
 
 VALLEY — FORLORN HOPE SENT OUT THEIR RETURN 
 
 FINAL ESCAPE. 
 
 Next in Inyo annals comes the tragic story of 
 the pioneers who, seeking a short route to Cali- 
 fornia, marked their way across the deserts with 
 abandoned equipages, lonely graves or unburied 
 corpses, and found in Death Valley the culmina- 
 tion of their miseries and misfortunes. 
 
 A writer of the period said that the overland 
 trail could be traced by the headboards and 
 mounds above the bodies of its victims. Disease 
 and hardships, the arrows of hostile Indians, and 
 sometimes Mormondom's ''destroying angels," 
 all did their shares toward justifying this asser- 
 tion. Hundreds, who set forth in hope, were laid 
 to rest by the wayside, their lonely graves more 
 often visited by pariah coyotes or trampled by bi- 
 son than seen by human beings. The full tale of 
 those journeyings has never been told. Here and 
 there some special tragedy found a place in the 
 blood-stained history of pioneering. None exceed 
 in horror the truth about those who perished at 
 the verge of the promised land, the Donner party 
 
 49 
 
50 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 famishing in Sierra snows and the Death Valley 
 party starving in the desert. 
 
 The record of the Death Valley party is found 
 in the narratives of W. L. Manley, Mrs. Brier, J. 
 B. Colton, Edward Coker and Thomas Shannon, 
 all of whom were of the party ; of P. A. Chalf ant, 
 founder of the Inyo Independent and Inyo Regis- 
 ter, who was with it during part of the journey; 
 and of others having more or less information. 
 There is not always agreement between the 
 stories, and sometimes a rewriting must choose 
 between contradictory statements. 
 
 The nucleus of the expedition was a band of 
 young men from Galesburg, Illinois, who organ- 
 ized to make the trip to the newly discovered land 
 of gold. They were youths of buoyant spirits, 
 and anticipated a journey of pleasure rather than 
 hardships. The name of "Jayhawkers" was 
 adopted, for some reason not explained by any 
 of them. An impromptu initiation ceremony was 
 used to test the fortitude of applicants for the 
 undertaking. The candidate was first carried 
 around the camp on the shoulders of four men. He 
 then bared one leg to the knee and stood upright 
 while he repeated a vow that he would stand by 
 his comrades through all perils. Following this 
 a small bit of flesh was nipped from his bare leg; 
 this was done twice more, and if he showed a lack 
 of fortitude on any of these tests he was deemed 
 unworthy of membership. Little did those care- 
 free young fellows dream the nature of the hard- 
 ships they were to encounter. A few of them 
 failed; most of them proved their worth. 
 
DEATH VALLEY PARTY OF 1849 51 
 
 Some additions to the train had been made by 
 the time Salt Lake City was reached. All such 
 travelers remained in the Mormon capital for 
 some time, recruiting their livestock, securing sup- 
 plies, and otherwise preparing for the unknown 
 journey ahead. The Jayhawkers reached there 
 in July, 1849, and remained until toward the end 
 of September. More emigrants joined the train 
 in Salt Lake, until when the caravan was finally 
 complete, at a rendezvous about 100 miles south 
 of the city, it comprised 107 wagons and about 500 
 head of stock. No account states the number of 
 persons. The original Jayhawkers numbered 
 thirty-six. In the expedition as finally made up 
 there were several times as many, with members 
 from Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and nearly all the 
 western states and territories. 
 
 One of the subdivisions amalgamated into the 
 great caravan was known as 'Hhe San Francisco 
 party," which had started from Omaha with 
 forty-five wagons, June 6th. It was somewhat 
 elaborately organized, with constitution and by- 
 laws, and with some of the characteristics of 
 a military expedition. John Brophy was its 
 "colonel," Judge Haun bore the title of ''major," 
 and Rev. J. W. Brier was designated as ''chap- 
 lain." One of its younger members was P. A. 
 Chalfant, father of the compiler of this record. 
 
 It was decided to divide the expedition into 
 seven different companies. Some of the units 
 already had their organizations; the small com- 
 panies and detached individuals not thus included 
 were formed into new commands. The Jayhawk- 
 
52 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 ers, after long argument, decided against allow- 
 ing any women or children in their division, and 
 the families which had joined them made np a 
 separate party. To this there was one exception. 
 Rev. Brier preferring the Jayhawkers to the party 
 with which he had come and declaring that he 
 and his wife and children would stay with the 
 Illinois men in any case. From the fact that the 
 Brier family traveled apart from the Jayhawkers 
 during parts of the subsequent journey it is prob- 
 able that his welcome in their camps was not 
 cordial. 
 
 All went well until a point about 250 miles from 
 Salt Lake was reached. Some one got hold of a 
 copy of one of Fremont's maps showing the route 
 across Walker's Pass. It indicated that 600 miles 
 of travel would be saved by following Fremont's 
 course, instead of going farther north. Its advo- 
 cates also cited the fate of the Donner party, 
 caught in midwinter in the Sierras. It would 
 seem that this last argument was intended for 
 the San Francisco party, which decided on the 
 northernmost route, and which completed its 
 journey by entering California through Beckwith 
 (or Beckwourth) Pass late in the year, mthout 
 special hardships. 
 
 The guide for the whole expedition was Jef- 
 ferson Hunt, a Mormon leader. The travelers 
 had been urged, in Salt Lake, to take a southerly 
 route, as the Mormons were anxious to have a 
 road established by which they could reach cer- 
 tain Spanish-grant lands in southern California. 
 Hunt was to conduct them to Los Angeles, and 
 to receive $12 per wagon as pay. 
 
DEATH VALLEY PABTY OF 1849 53 
 
 When the order was made excluding families 
 from the Jayhawker train two of the men who left 
 it with their wives and children were Asabel Ben- 
 nett and J. B. Arcane. Manly, who has left the 
 most complete record, chose to go with Bennett, 
 his close friend. This party traveled more or less 
 independently of the Jayhawkers, though taking 
 the same general course and experiencing similar 
 hardships. While the two bands were together at 
 different times, their experiences during much of 
 the journey were separate stories. 
 
 The final disintegration of the big caravan 
 took place at what was then named Poverty Point, 
 in the Wasatch Mountains. The road ended in 
 steep precipices. The Jayhawkers insisted on 
 finding a way down and went on in spite of 
 Hunt's warnings, taking with them twenty-seven 
 wagons, including those of Bennett and Arcane. 
 As already noted, the San Francisco party had 
 previously struck out independently. Those who, 
 at Poverty Point, accepted Hunt's advice were led 
 south and safely into southern California. They 
 have no further place in this story, and our later 
 narration pertains to the Jayhawkers and the off- 
 shoots that took the same general course as they 
 did. 
 
 The last camping place in Utah was beside a 
 playa lake. The desert-wise know such places — 
 absolutely flat spreads of land which after heavy, 
 though rare, storms are covered with a few inches 
 of water. When they dry out to level smoothness, 
 seen from a distance they resemble calm surfaces 
 of water. Each of the '49 parties wasted both 
 
54 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 time and strength in vain deviations to reach such 
 supposed bodies of water. 
 
 Manly drove no team, but acted as a general 
 scout. At the Utah camp he ascended the highest 
 near point, and on returning to camp reported a 
 belief that there was no water ahead for a hun- 
 dred miles. Doty, the Jayhawker captain, ad- 
 mitted discouragement at this, but decided to go 
 ahead on the same course. The next morning his 
 men and their twenty wagons pulled out, leaving 
 Bennett, Arcane, Manly and associates in camp 
 with seven. 
 
 Doty traveled five days without finding water, 
 and by then his party had used all that had been 
 brought from the playa lake. A subdivision 
 headed by a man named Martin struck out on a 
 different route from the one followed by Doty the 
 next day. The latter 's plight, while sorry enough, 
 was less desperate than it was to become. Toward 
 morning of that night's camp, the sky clouded and 
 a little snow fell. Enough of this was caught and 
 melted to satisfy men and animals and to provide 
 a little reserve. 
 
 No more water was found until the Amargosa 
 (meaning bitter) river bed was reached. That 
 stream is on rare occasions a torrent of large 
 volume, but for part of its course is usually lost 
 in the sands. The Doty men found a slight trickle 
 of bitter fluid, and drank it freely. The water, 
 heavily charged with minerals, made them ill, and 
 they left the stream and struck out toward a pass 
 ahead. They were near the eastern base of the 
 Funeral range, later christened for one of the 
 tragedies of this expedition. 
 
DEATH VALiLEY PABTY OF 1849 55 
 
 All the courage the party could muster was 
 needed in reaching the summit. The way grew 
 steeper. Debris and washouts filled the canyons, 
 through which probably no human being, except 
 possibly Indians, had ever passed. Men and oxen 
 were weakened by the chemicals taken at the Am- 
 argosa. One of the oxen died on the way up, and 
 its carcass was the last to be left without being 
 utilized for food. Even that one was not wholly 
 wasted, for a straggler of the expedition cut a 
 steak from it. After two days of struggle the 
 party stood on the summit and looked down into 
 one of nature's freaks — Death Valley. 
 
 The train toiled down the pass, and on the 
 third day reached some springs around which 
 some coarse grass grew. Realizing that the oxen 
 could not take the wagons farther, the party 
 camped and prepared to finish the journey in the 
 lightest possible marching order. Wagons were 
 abandoned, and their woodwork was used to feed 
 the fires over which the stringy flesh of the oxen 
 was dried. Rice, tea and coffee were measured 
 out by the spoonful, with an understanding that 
 thereafter each individual must look out for him- 
 self and expect no help from anyone else. The can- 
 vas of the wagon covers was fashioned into knap- 
 sacks, and powder cans were set in slings to serve 
 as canteens, none of the latter having been in- 
 cluded in the equipment. Moccasins were made 
 from the hides of slain animals, for the men and 
 for the tender-footed among the surviving oxen. 
 
 The Martin party, which had branched off 
 some daj^s before, and the Bennett-Arcane sub- 
 
56 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 division both came into camp while these prepara- 
 tions were under way. 
 
 The Briers, traveling by themselves despite 
 the father's objections, had reached Forty-Mile 
 Canyon, in eastern Nevada, when the storm oc- 
 curred that gave Doty water enough to enable 
 him to reach the Amargosa. They remained there 
 for a week to recuperate, though the oxen suffered 
 much from cold. On leaving, the oxen were laden 
 with necessities and the wagons were burned, to- 
 gether with everything that was not considered 
 necessary for traveling. Mrs. Brier, writing in 
 later years, termed this action a fatal step. Some- 
 where between there and Death Valley the Briers 
 fell in with the Bennett-Manly train. On the way 
 they came upon a number of small squashes, 
 cached by Indians, and took them. In view of the 
 scarcity of provender among the Indians of that 
 dreary region, it is not surprising that the na- 
 tives sought vengeance, to the extent of a night 
 attack on the camp. Arrows were shot into three 
 oxen. 
 
 This party entered Death Valley by rounding 
 the southern end of the Funerals, instead of toil- 
 ing across as the Jayhawkers had. Mrs. Brier's 
 account tells that her oldest boy. Kirk, aged nine 
 years, gave out. She carried him on her back 
 until he said he could walk. He made a manful 
 effort, stumbling along for a while, then sank 
 down and cried that he could go no farther. His 
 heroic mother would then pick him up and carry 
 him again. Though often falling to her knees 
 from weakness, she got her little brood safely 
 into the Death Valley camp. 
 
DEATH VALLEY PABTY OF 1849 57 
 
 The Martin party did not tarry. They were 
 in marching order, and on leaving gave all their 
 oxen to the Bennett-Brier camp, saying they 
 could progress better without them. Martin 
 struck out straight westward, his men carrying 
 on their backs the things they deemed essential. 
 While they were crossing one of the ranges, a 
 man named Ischam, who had left the Doty party, 
 as will be hereafter mentioned, struggled into 
 their camp and died there. They crossed to the 
 south of Saline Valley and reached Owens Lake. 
 Hostile Indians were found at the lake and some 
 skirmishing resulted, without harm to anyone. 
 While they were there a snow fell and no fire 
 could be made. Believing the lake to be of the 
 playa kind, like so many with which they had be- 
 come familiar on the desert, they were about to 
 undertake to wade it, when one of the party found 
 the old trail made by Walker's last party. A 
 friendly Indian advised them to follow it, which 
 they did, through Walker's Pass to safety. 
 
 From the accounts it appears clear that the 
 Jayhawkers under Doty struck out from the 
 Death Valley camp without encouraging Bennett 
 and his party to accompany them. Brier again re- 
 fused to accept dismissal, and forced himself and 
 family in with them. Two days later Doty re- 
 joined Bennett, and the two subdivisions were to- 
 gether at some camps, apart at others. The 
 Jayhawkers' departure was, therefore, not a de- 
 sertion but a following out of the plan of travel 
 all the way. 
 
 Dotv believed that the best way out was to the 
 
58 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 northward. On the way he found good water. He 
 turned westerly from that spring and climbed the 
 Panamint range. They came upon the body of an 
 ox, for which none of the stories account. They 
 cut out what seemed to be the best of the meat, 
 but after making a supper from it the remainder 
 was thrown away. Darkness came on before they 
 found a camping place, and to their astonishment 
 they saw a fire ahead. They found at it a traveler 
 who had wandered from one of the other parties. 
 
 They expected that the next day would reveal 
 the valley of Los Angeles, west of the range they 
 were climbing. Instead, on reaching the summit 
 they beheld another lake, which they concluded to 
 be another saline deposit. This was probably in 
 Panamint Valley. The party divided, and each 
 person made his own way across the valley. Some 
 found good water; others found a supply of mes- 
 quite beans, in which unfortunately they saw no 
 food value. On the west, or probably southwest, 
 side the party reunited and toiled up a canyon. 
 Near its head wet ground gave hope of finding 
 water, but digging produced no results. Here 
 one of the men, named Fish, died, and his body 
 was left lying upon the ground. 
 
 A gentle grade sloped down from the next 
 summit. A large lake was visible far to the left; 
 from the descriptions given, this was probably 
 Searles borax lake. Half way down the slope 
 Ischam gave out, and was left. A little farther on 
 one of the scattered men found a small spring of 
 good water and called the others to it. 
 
 Here there is a contradiction in the accounts. 
 
DEATH VALLEY PAETY OF 1849 59 
 
 The statement has been made that Ischam wan- 
 dered into the Martin camp, and died there, and 
 that this was at a point from which "Owens Lake 
 was reached. Colton's story is that from the 
 spring mentioned in the last paragraph, certainly 
 many miles south of Martin's course, a detach- 
 ment went back to rescue Ischam. They found 
 him alive, but with his tongue and throat so sw^ol- 
 len that he could not swallow the water they gave 
 him. While the rescuers were with him, says 
 Colton, he died, and was buried in a shallow grave 
 in the sand. Wherever this victim of the desert 
 breathed his last, doubtless more than one of 
 those with him wondered how soon his owm turn 
 would come to sink to rest in the desert and see, 
 with scarcely comprehending eyes, his comrades 
 pass on to escape a like fate. 
 
 An ox was killed at this spring, and the party 
 was refreshed by the rest, good water and such 
 poor sustenance as the carcass afforded. Pro- 
 ceeding, the party came upon a trail at a point 
 south of Walker's Pass. Mindful of the Donner 
 party's fate in the winter of 1846-7, Doty feared 
 to undertake to cross the Sierras, the snow- 
 crowned summits of which were visible ahead, so 
 he turned south. At another spring some bunch 
 grass was found, and the emaciated oxen were 
 given a day's rest. One of them was slaughtered. 
 Such were the straits of the men that hardly a 
 part of the animal was wasted. The blood was 
 saved for food. The intestines were cleansed with 
 the fingers; the hair was singed from the hide, 
 and all was roasted and eaten. One man softened 
 
60 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 the end of a liorii in the fire and gnawed the 
 softened part. Many bones of cattle were seen 
 along the trail, evidence that others — possibly 
 the Mexicans who did some journeying into the 
 desert — had come to grief in the same region. A 
 man wandered from this camp, and was supposed 
 to have perished until he was found in an Indian 
 camp, years afterward. 
 
 The Brier family reached this camp before 
 Doty left it, and were given portions of the slain 
 ox. While Mrs. Brier was preparing a piece of 
 liver for her children, a famishing Jayhawker 
 took it from them while her attention was di- 
 verted. Such cases were few ; the ordeals brought 
 out more unselfishness than the reverse. 
 
 No other water supply was found for four or 
 five days, while the worn travelers slowly made 
 their way over the seemingly endless desert. The 
 trail grew fainter and at last was wholly lost. 
 Again small bands branched off to hunt for water. 
 In one of these bands was Thomas Shannon. He 
 started a jackrabbit from a bush and shot it. 
 Drinking its blood he became delirious and was 
 so found by a comrade who had come on a supply 
 of water. A drink of water improved Shannon's 
 condition, and the men made a meal from the first 
 wholesome food they had had for days. All the 
 others rallied to the spot except a man named 
 Robinson, who died before reaching it and was 
 left in his blankets. 
 
 Another day's journey brought them to snow, 
 and on February 4, 1850, they reached running 
 streams and pleasant surroundings. Three wild 
 
DEATH VALLEY PAKTY OF 1849 61 
 
 mustangs were killed, supplying a hearty meal. 
 Going on, the adventurers came to where many 
 cattle ranged. Two animals soon fell before their 
 guns. While they were feasting, two Mexicans 
 approached, and proved friendly enough when 
 they found that the marauders were not Indians 
 as they had thought. From then on the Doty 
 party members were cared for, and scattered to 
 different parts of the State. 
 
 Having seen the Doty party to safety, we re- 
 turn to note the misfortunes of Bennett, Manly, 
 Arcane and associates. Manly scouted far in ad- 
 vance, and while so doing he came on the carcass 
 of an ox, from the thigh of which some meat had 
 been cut. The sun had dried the flesh at the edge 
 of the cut, and Manly made a meal of this raw 
 dried beef. On Christmas Day he returned to the 
 Brier camp, at that time distant from Doty's. He 
 records that Brier was delivering a lecture on 
 education, his family being his sole audience — a 
 strange proceeding, Manly remarks, considering 
 that the sole need at the time seemed to be some- 
 thing to sustain life. 
 
 Brier started on the next morning, and Manly 
 found some scraps of bacon that had been thrown 
 away at the camp. They seemed to him the best 
 morsels he had ever tasted. Bennett's wagons 
 were some miles back, and he rejoined them. 
 Wild geese were heard overhead at night, and this 
 was interpreted to mean that Owens Lake could 
 not be far away. The next day he walked over 
 the salt-crusted floor of Death Valley, and at dusk 
 reached the campfire of the Doty party, then pre- 
 
62 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 paring to abandon their wagons. Meantime Ben- 
 nett's gaunt oxen had dragged the wa-gons to 
 Furnace Creek, to which he returned. The next 
 stopping place was the "last camp," the location 
 of which was much debated in after years. 
 Manly 's record indicates the spot as follows: 
 Camped at a faint stream since named Furnace 
 Creek ; out of the canyon and into the valley ; due 
 south, distance not stated ; across to the west side ; 
 the second night from Furnace Creek at a spring 
 of good water coming from a high mountain 
 which he says is now called Telescope Peak, This 
 was the real "last camp." The party journeyed 
 eight miles farther, reaching a sulphur spring on 
 the top of a curious mound, from which return 
 was made to the good water. 
 
 There was, however, more than one of the 
 "last camps." The Jayhawkers burned their 
 wagons a few miles from Furnace Creek, at a 
 place later called Lost Wagons. The Bennett 
 camp, most prominent of all because of the long 
 stay made there and the prolonged hardships of 
 its occupants, was undoubtedly at Bennett's 
 Wells, on the west side of Death Valley sink, and 
 260 feet below sea level. The water is brackish 
 with salt and sulphate of soda, but is usable. 
 
 Four of the ox-team drivers concluded to 
 strike out for themselves. Two of these were 
 named Helmer and Abbott. It is probable that 
 one of these was the individual whom the Jay- 
 hawkers picked up in the mountains. Two others 
 later came into the Jayhawker camps, without 
 having fared any better than those they had de- 
 serted. 
 
DEATH VALLEY PARTY OF 1849 63 
 
 After Bennett and party had gone back from 
 the sulphur spring to Last Camp, a council de- 
 cided that the only chance of getting any of the 
 expedition through alive was to send out two of 
 the strongest men as a forlorn hope, while the 
 main party remained to await their return. W. L. 
 Manly and John Rogers were selected for the un- 
 dertaking. An ox which had given out was killed ; 
 so scanty was its flesh that seven-eighths of all of 
 it was packed into the knapsacks of the two men. 
 Two spoonfuls of rice and the same amount of tea 
 was added to their stock, and after a parting 
 which might prove to be the last they set out. 
 
 Those remaining in camp were Bennett, wife 
 and three children; Arcane, wife and son; Cap- 
 tain Culverwell; two Earhart brothers; and four 
 other grown persons, besides a Mr. and Mrs. 
 Wade and their three children, who traveled the 
 same course as the others but kept in a camp of 
 their own. The Brier family were traveling in a 
 free-lance fashion, as has been set forth, not ac- 
 ceptable to the Jayhawkers and not choosing to 
 join Bennett and Arcane. 
 
 The second day out Manly and Rogers found 
 the body of Fish on the trail, and saw the holes 
 the Jayhawkers had dug without finding water. 
 Another range of mountains was crossed before 
 Rogers found a little sheet ice, which they melted. 
 The next night they overtook Doty and his men 
 and were supplied with meat and water to relieve 
 their immediate distress. They traveled on ahead, 
 passing the advanced members of the Jayhawkers 
 and noting the skulls of horses by the wayside. 
 
64 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 One day after another the story was much the 
 same until they reached fresh water in the south- 
 ern Sierras. A crow, a hawk and a quail were the 
 first fresh meat they obtained; all three birds 
 were stewed together. On the last day of Decem- 
 ber, 1849, or the first day of January, 1850, the 
 men emerged from a barren valley into a meadow 
 on which cattle were grazing. A rifle shot soon 
 supplied them with food. A traveler named 
 Springer, on his way to the mines to the north, 
 was met, and gave them further necessities. 
 Reaching a ranch near San Fernando Mission 
 they obtained two horses, small sacks of beans, 
 wheat, coarse flour, and some dried meat. From 
 another stockman they bought a mule and a horse, 
 and with this equipment took the back track for 
 Death Valley. The three horses gave out one af- 
 ter another, the mule being the only animal able 
 to stand the hardships of the trip. The body of 
 Captain Culverwell was found as they neared 
 Last Camp. 
 
 Seven wagons had been there when they left; 
 only four were seen as the anxious envoys looked 
 from afar. The canvas covers were gone. Had 
 hostile Indians exterminated the unfortunates, or 
 had they taken three of the wagons and started in 
 some other direction? Manly and Rogers ap- 
 proached within a hundred yards without seeing a 
 sign of life; then Manly fired a shot. All was 
 quiet for a few minutes, until a man crawled from 
 under a wagon and looked around. His shout, 
 ''The boys have come!" electrified the camp, as 
 well may be imagined. Bennett and Arcane caught 
 
DEATH VALLEY PARTY OF 1849 65 
 
 the returned men in their arms, and Mrs. Bennett 
 fell upon her knees and clung to Manly. Not a 
 word was spoken, in the great emotion o-f all, until 
 Mrs. Bennett exclaimed, "I know you have found 
 some place, for you have a mule." It was some 
 time before anyone could say anything without 
 weeping. It had been twenty-six days since the 
 forlorn hope had started out. All but the Bennett 
 and Arcane families had abandoned the camp. 
 Culverwell had set out with the last party before 
 Manly and Eogers returned, but did not get far. 
 
 Wagons were abandoned, and the little proces- 
 sion set out for the land of running water and 
 wholesome food. The children were slung in im- 
 provised "aparejos," made of stout shirts sewn 
 together and thrown across the backs of oxen. The 
 extreme emaciation of the animals did not prevent 
 their bucking because of the unusual burden, and 
 another camp had to be made to straighten out 
 the tangle. The next day the party took its last 
 view of the dreary surroundings, someone utter- 
 ing: ''Good-bye, Death Valley!" This appears 
 to be the correct story of its naming. 
 
 The oxen became reconciled to their loads, and 
 the women walked. In one place it became neces- 
 sary to lower the beasts over a precipice by means 
 of their crude canvas harness. Day by day the 
 party moved along, with the important advantage 
 over former experiences that they now had a bet- 
 ter supply of food and some idea of their course. 
 These facts did not, however, keep some of the 
 weaker members from giving up hope, in spite of 
 the assurances of Manly and Eogers, until dis- 
 
66 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 couragement finally ruled almost as it had before. 
 Men, women and children were wasted, almost 
 barefoot, and in tatters. The little ones cried for 
 water that was not to be had. At last the melan- 
 choly procession passed through Red Eock Can- 
 yon and to a joyous resting place at springs not 
 far from the southern end of that strangely sculp- 
 tured defile. Strengthened and heartened, they 
 pressed on, reaching snow in the Sierras nineteen 
 days after leaving Death Valley. Toll was taken 
 from the first herd of cattle found, and they were 
 soon being cared for by the generous hospitality 
 of the pioneer settlers. 
 
 This is a concentration of the most reliable 
 accounts of that fearful experience. As stated 
 earlier, there are contradictions without any sure 
 indication of the true version ; there are tales dif- 
 fering considerably from and doubtless less cor- 
 rect than this narration. Allowing for the differ- 
 ences mentioned, it is the story of the participants 
 themselves, hence to be accepted beyond any of 
 the distortions and variations which have crept 
 into print at one time or another. J. B. Colton, 
 of the Jayhawkers, wrote that four of his party 
 perished in the Funeral Mountains, and that the 
 range got its name from that fact. All other ac- 
 counts agree that his detachment, commanded by 
 Doty, reached the Panamint Range, west of Death 
 Valley, before any of its members died, and that 
 the death of Robinson, one of the four, occurred 
 not far from the base of the Sierras. Colton stated 
 that a dozen stragglers followed the expedition 
 into Death Valley and that all perished from 
 
DEATH VALLEY PAETY OF 1849 67 
 
 thirst and starvation; and that another train of 
 thirty persons lowered their wagons into Death 
 Valley by means of ropes and that all but two or 
 three died while hunting for water. Having in 
 mind the care with which Manly reviewed all de- 
 tails, his traveling back and forth between the 
 parties, his having been over the ground after 
 Colton and associates had gone on, and the fact 
 that he makes no mention of these occurrences, 
 the Colton account lacks confirmation and seems 
 improbable. 
 
 While the foregoing travel details tell of but 
 three of the seven companies, it is to be remem- 
 bered that (according to Manly) the rest went 
 southward with Hunt and reached Los Angeles 
 safely. There may have been individuals who 
 struck out independently on the Jayhawkers ' trail 
 and fared badly. Some names are mentioned 
 more or less casually in one or another of the ac- 
 counts without statement of what befell them. The 
 Wade family is mentioned as being near Last 
 Camp, without information as to what became of 
 its members; likewise a Mr. To^vne and family 
 (hence Towne's Pass, in the Funeral Range) were 
 connected with the expedition in some way not 
 explained. 
 
 Different accounts say that eleven men left the 
 Jayhawkers far east of Death Valley and that all 
 but two perished. Manly explicitly states that 
 these nine, the four Jayhawkers who died after 
 leaving Death Valley, and Captain Culverwell 
 summed up the death list. Whatever others may 
 have died there later, the evidence is that Culver- 
 
68 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 well was the only one who died in Death" Valley 
 itself. 
 
 Every account of the expedition pays tribute 
 to Mrs. Brier. "She was a better man than her 
 husband," wrote one. Manly says: ''All agreed 
 that she was the best man in the (Brier) party. 
 She was the one who put the packs on the oxen in 
 the morning. She it was who took them off at 
 night, built the fires, helped the children, cooked 
 the food, and did all sorts of work when the father 
 of the family was too tired, which was almost all 
 the time. It seemed almost impossible that one 
 little woman could do so much. It was entirely 
 due to her untiring devotion that her husband and 
 children lived." 
 
 It is to be borne in mind that this grim tragedy 
 occurred in midwinter, at the most favorable time 
 of year for such a journey. The furnace-like heat 
 that means death to travelers lost in that inferno 
 was missing at that season; the dangers were in 
 lack of water and sustenance. East of Death Val- 
 ley lie hundreds of miles of desert, and every 
 resource of the Forty-Niners was dangerously 
 reduced. Had the expedition been undertaken in 
 midsummer, probably few of the members would 
 have survived to reach Death Valley, and none 
 would have passed that formidable barrier. 
 
 Dr. S. G. George and party, visiting Death 
 Valley in 1860, found unmistakable traces of the 
 Death Valley party. Indians had drawn, on a 
 smooth clay bed near one of the camps, a record 
 of the occurrence. Men and women were shown, 
 with children slung in bags across the backs of 
 
DEATH VALLEY PAKTY OF 1849 69 
 
 oxen, in single file, headed in the direction taken 
 by Bennett. No rain had destroyed the .drawings 
 in a decade. Numerous relics were found and 
 given to different collections. Iron work of wag- 
 ons, chains, cooking utensils and other articles 
 were picked up by different visitors, many of the 
 metal objects as free from rust as on the day they 
 were discarded. Most of such finds went to the 
 Society of California Pioneers, and like all else of 
 interest in the society's museum were lost in the 
 great fire of 1906. 
 
 The bones of animals noted by Manly and 
 Doty indicated that earlier travelers had braved 
 the same perils. It is alleged that the Mexicans 
 traveled the wastes, as "the old Spanish trail" 
 goes to show, and probably they were the prin- 
 cipal sufferers. There may have been other ven- 
 turesome souls who, like many in later years on 
 those deserts, simply dropped from human ken. 
 
 The George party found parts of skeletons 
 near one of the springs. In one place a woman's 
 skeleton, partly covered by a ragged calico gar- 
 ment, was found. 
 
 The Jayhawkers, though scattered to many 
 different localities, held occasional reunions for 
 many years. The last of these was at Mrs. Brier's 
 home at Lodi, California, in 1911. Five of the 
 party were living at that time, and three of them 
 attended the reunion. Mrs. Brier died in 1913, 
 at the age of 99 years. Manly died in San Jose in 
 1903, aged 83. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 
 
 MORMONS SOUGHT SOUTHERN ROAD — AMARGOSA MINE 
 
 FOUND — VON Schmidt's survey 1855-1856 — reserva- 
 tion PROPOSED — PARTY CROSSES KEARSARGE PASS — 
 
 Russ district first civil government — "wakopee" 
 — coso and telescope mines. 
 
 After the Forty-Niners had walked in partner- 
 ship with tragedy through Death Valley, a new 
 period of Inyo history began. To call it a decade 
 of exploration seems out of proportion, since we 
 speak of but a single county; but the term seems 
 less inappropriate when it is recalled that the 
 county's borders inclose over ten thousand square 
 miles of diversified surface. 
 
 The Mormons had begun an effort to establish 
 an outpost of their faith at San Bernardino. To 
 reach it, a route was laid out across the ** leagues 
 of cacti and sand and stars," through southern 
 Nevada, entering California at the southeastern 
 corner of the Inyo of today. Part of ''the old 
 Spanish trail" was utilized by the saints. The 
 springs which Fremont, in 1844, named Agua de 
 Hernandez, for a Mexican found there after his 
 companions had been killed by Indians, were not 
 far from the route of travel. A short side trip to 
 the spot afforded a place where grass and water 
 helped to recuperate stock exhausted by the long 
 desert journey. It was renamed Resting Springs, 
 
 70 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 71 
 
 and still bears that title. Philander Lee was to 
 use the flow from the springs, years later, to irri- 
 gate a 200-acre ranch; at that time the water 
 nourished a goodly meadow. 
 
 Mormon emigrants are said to have discov- 
 ered, at a point twenty-five miles south of the 
 springs, the first gold mine found in the desert. 
 This was in 1854. They named the rich quartz 
 ledge the Amargosa. In later prospecting they 
 discovered placer ground, and worked the earth 
 by hauling it three or four miles in wagons, to 
 some salt springs. 
 
 Four years later the Mormons found silver 
 ledges in the Panamints, and built a small furnace 
 which produced some bullion. Its location was at 
 Anvil Spring, some distance south of the later 
 camp of Panamint. The prospectors had been 
 sent out by the heads of the church. Furnace 
 Creek is said to have derived its name from a 
 similar enterprise. 
 
 Occasional adventurers were crossing the Si- 
 erras from the west. In 1853 Harry Edwards, an 
 Indian agent, came into Owens Valley, if credence 
 be placed in the headlines of San Francisco pa- 
 pers; the printed text leaves in doubt whether 
 Edwards actually came beyond Walker's Pass. 
 
 The first official attention to the eastern slope 
 of the Sierras appears to have begun with a con- 
 tract dated May 30, 1855, between John C. Hays 
 — Col. Jack Hays of Texan fame — ^who was then 
 Surveyor of Public Lands of California, and 
 A. W. Von Schmidt. The latter agreed to survey 
 the public lands east of the Sierras and south of 
 
72 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Mono Lake. His work began that summer, and 
 under a supplemental contract was continued and 
 completed the following year. The survey ex- 
 tended from the Mount Diablo base line, a few 
 miles south of Mono Lake, to a point south of 
 Owens Lake, including the townships mapped as 
 1 to 12 south and 31 to 35 east. The party, as 
 enumerated in Von Schmidt's field notes, in- 
 cluded, besides himself, R. E. K. Whiting, com- 
 passman; Joseph Jefferson, E. Ross, E. Maginnis, 
 J. W. Newton, chainmen; Henry Gardenier and 
 E. S. Gersdorff, axmen. 
 
 Von Schmidt's field notes are liberal in com- 
 ments on the region ; his opinions are in many in- 
 stances contradicted by the facts of present 
 knowledge. Writing of Owens Valley he said : 
 
 "Land entirely worthless with few exceptions. The only 
 portion of any value is near the banks of the little streams 
 of water coming from the Sierra Nevada mountains. This 
 valley contains about 1000 Indians of the Mono tribe, and 
 they are a fine looking set of men. They live prmcipally on 
 pine nuts, fish and hares, which are very plenty. On the 
 western edge of this valley I found great quantities of grouse; 
 other game very scarce. On a general average the country 
 forming Owens Valley is worthless to the white man, both in 
 soil and climate." 
 
 This note was dated July 15, 1855. The valley 
 had, of course, no cultivation at that time, and ex- 
 cept for natural meadows in lowland spots and 
 occasional trees on the streams its stretches, gen- 
 erally sagebrush covered, were not inviting to one 
 fresh from the springtime aspect of the grassy 
 and flowered hills of western California. 
 
 Long Valley, with its miles of natural meadow 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 73 
 
 and its delightful summer climate, impressed Mm 
 much more favorably. '^ Splendid land for any 
 purpose," he wrote; "soil first rate; fin'e grass, 
 any quantity." However correct his estimate of 
 the quality of that land may have been, he failed 
 to take into account its 7,000 feet elevation and 
 consequent winter severity. 
 
 He found many Indians in that region. Natural 
 wonders received this mention: 
 
 "Fine pine timber scattered over the township. There are 
 also some of the most remarkable boiling springs and geysers 
 that I have ever met with on the eastern slope of the Sierras. 
 I have no doubt but what these springs will be of great value 
 for medicinal purposes, as I found large deposits of sulphur, 
 iron, soda and alum. In the south portion there is consid- 
 erable fine grass, but its principal value is in its fine pine 
 timber and mineral springs." 
 
 Another reference to the springs (those of 
 Casa Diablo and Hot Creek) definitely asserts 
 that they must have some connection with the or- 
 thodox infernal regions. 
 
 Von Schmidt found in Round Valley 
 
 "land mostly level. Soil in general will average second rate, 
 with fine grass, and also well watered, with but little pine 
 timber on Indian Creek. I found many Indians in this frac- 
 tional township, who live in deep mountain ravines and come 
 down here for grass to eat; also to dig roots called 'sabouse' 
 (taboose), which forms their principal article of food." 
 
 "Laid off today to fight Indians," remarks the 
 surveyor in one place. There was little trouble 
 with the natives, however, and as a rule the party 
 conducted its observations in peace. 
 
 Now and then the field notes record that a 
 township has fine streams of water, or that it is 
 
74 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 well covered with grass. With scarce- an excep- 
 tion, however, the soil is classed as second or third 
 rate. 
 
 The report of Thomas J. Henley, Superinten- 
 dent of Indian Affairs in California, dated San 
 Francisco, September 3, 1856, includes this refer- 
 ence: 
 
 "A. W. Von Schmidt, Deputy United States Surveyor, rela- 
 tive to the Mono Indians living on the east side of the Sierra 
 Nevada, in Mariposa and Ttilare counties (the present Mono 
 and Inyo) says: 'They are a fine looking race, straight and 
 of good height, and appear to be active. They live in fami- 
 lies scattered through the entire valley, and get their living in 
 various ways, such as it is. Game is very scarce; some few 
 antelope are to be found in the valley, but the bow and arrow 
 is not the proper instinment for game of that description, 
 even if it were plenty. Hares ai'e also found in some portions 
 of the valley, which form their principal article of food in 
 the meat line; but their principal article of food consists of 
 clover and grass seeds, also of pine nuts, which I am told 
 fail sometimes. 
 
 " 'They can also get fish, of a small size, in Owens River 
 (the lakes lOwens and Mono are both salt and have no fish). 
 But with all this they are in poor condition. The families 
 being divided off and each having his own hunting ground 
 causes some to go without food for days. ,One chief told me 
 that sometimes he had nothing to eat for six days at a time. 
 I estimated the number to be about 1000 in the entire valley. 
 They are in a state of nudity, with the exception of a small 
 cloth about their loins, and so far as I can see are in want of 
 every article of clothing.' " 
 
 Indian Agent J. R. Vineyard reported from 
 Tejon Agency, California, August 20, 1858, as 
 follows : 
 
 "A delegation of Indians from the region of Owens Lake, 
 east of the Sierra, visited the reservation a short time since. 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 75 
 
 The people of that region, so far as I can learn, number about 
 1500. The delegation asked assistance to put in crops next 
 season, also someone to instruct them in agriculture, etc. I 
 would respectfully invite your attention to the subject, as 
 they seem to be very sincere in their solicitations. I gave 
 them presents of clothing and useful implements, and sent 
 them back to their people, with the promise of transmitting 
 their request to the great chief." 
 
 The Indian population of Owens Valley was 
 augmented in 1859 by fugitive Indians from Tule 
 River, in Tulare County. Deeds of violence had 
 been going on in that region for several years, 
 culminating in a campaign. The temporary advan- 
 tage of the first fighting between the natives and 
 settlers who sallied forth from Visalia was with 
 the Indians. Old settlers, whites, asserted in later 
 years that the white men were the ones at fault; 
 the red warriors acted in a manner supporting 
 this claim, for in their cabin-burnings and other 
 depredations they attacked those who had taken 
 the field against them. The war of a sununer ended 
 when soldiers from Fort Miller assisted the set- 
 tlers in inflicting severe punishment, whether well 
 deserved or not, on the marauding reds. This has 
 properly a place in this history only because it 
 sent into this county numbers of Indians with a 
 ready-made and burning hatred of the white man 
 and prepared to take part in keeping him out of 
 Owens Valley. It appears in fact that the 
 worst elements among the Owens Valley Indians 
 throughout the Indian war were renegades from 
 other regions. 
 
 The events mentioned played a part in causing 
 an order by the national government, in February, 
 
76 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 1859, suspending from settlement township 13 
 south, range 35 east, Mount Diablo base and 
 meridian, this area extending from a point west 
 of Independence to the eastern foothills, and from 
 about three miles north of that point to an almost 
 equal distance south. The order of suspension, 
 which stated that the land was withdrawn pending 
 decision as to making it the location of an Indian 
 reservation, was not revoked until 1864. As will 
 be further disclosed, the idea of making Owens 
 Valley an Indian reservation persisted in official 
 circles almost up to the time of the revocation 
 mentioned. It was the purpose of several agents, 
 and of a bill introduced by Senator Latham in 
 1862. 
 
 During the summer of 1858 a Tulare man 
 named J. H. Johnson and five comrades were 
 piloted across Kearsarge Pass, west of Indepen- 
 dence, by a Digger Indian named Sampson — the 
 latter a chief whose name was given to Sampson's 
 Flats, where many years later Bandits Sontag 
 and Evans held the center of the stage very 
 briefly. When Johnson and his party reached 
 this slope the Piutes were found to be hostile, and 
 two Indians were killed in a skirmish. Their arms 
 were bows and arrows and clubs. 
 
 After the secularization of the California mis- 
 sions, many of the neophytes became renegades 
 and joined the Indians of the southern Sierras on 
 the western slope. They raided the scattered 
 ranchos, driving away horses for food purposes, 
 until the designation of Horsethief Indians was 
 generally used as their tribal name. Owens Valley, 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 77 
 
 known but vaguely, was supposed to be one of 
 their strongholds. In July, 1859, a military ex- 
 pedition was organized at Fort Tejon to 'explore 
 the valley, investigate the character of its inhabi- 
 tants, and recover stolen stock. A correspondent 
 accompanied the detachment, and an article from 
 his pen was published in the Los Angeles Star of 
 August 27, 1859, under the headlines, ''Military 
 Expedition to Owens Lake — No Stock in the Val- 
 ley — Indians Peaceable and Reliable — Discovery 
 of a New Route to Salt Lake." From it we learn 
 that the expedition was commanded by Lieut. Col. 
 Beall, who took a detachment of Co. K, First 
 Dragoons, with Capt. Davidson and Lieut. Chap- 
 man as next in command. They started from Fort 
 Tejon July 21, 1859, with rations for thirty days, 
 a wagon, a howitzer and a pack train. Traveling 
 via Walker's Basin, the Kern River mines, up the 
 south fork of the Kern, and through Walker's 
 Pass they came to Owens Lake. They found a 
 fine meadow of 800 to 1,000 acres at the foot of 
 the lake, and little or no meadow at any other 
 one spot on its shores. The ' ' emphatically saline ' ' 
 character of the lake water received comment ; so 
 also did "myriads of small flies over the water. 
 The winds drive the larvae in large quantities 
 upon the shore of the lake, where they are easily 
 collected by the squaws." 
 
 The correspondent in speaking of Owens River 
 says that the Indians call it "Wakopee." This is 
 so similar in sound to "Waucoba" as to justify 
 a surmise that the latter word may have had a 
 more general application in the original naming 
 
78 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 of this region tlian has been commonly adopted or 
 supposed. 
 
 The expedition found *' beautiful streams of 
 clear, cold water, irrigating beautiful and fertile 
 sections of the valley for the following sixty-two 
 miles from Pine Creek, principal among which 
 are Clark's and Dragon forks, either of which 
 supplies nearly as much water at this season of 
 the year as does the Kern River." "One of the 
 greatest aqueous curiosities of the trip," says the 
 letter, ''was a single spring, to which was given 
 the name of Mammoth, from which runs a stream 
 of water with a fair current fifteen or twenty feet 
 wide and about two and one-half feet deep." Later 
 residents know this as Black Rock Spring. 
 
 The correspondent writes : 
 
 "Although for some distance below the lake we encountered 
 temporaiy abodes of the Indians, yet in no instance were the 
 troops enabled to get sight of a single one, they having fled 
 before our approach (as we afterwards learned), they having 
 been told that they would be killed, until we reached Pine 
 Creek, where the interpreter found a poor woman attempting 
 to escape with her crippled child. She having been assured 
 that the people would not be injured soon became the means 
 of reassuring the Indians, after which there was but little 
 difficulty in communicating with them. 
 
 "To our surprise we saw but veiy few horses among them, 
 and that, too, on the upper waters of Owens River, and these 
 evidently were obtained from the Walker River Indians. They 
 informed Captain Davidson that some four or five Indians, in 
 years past, were in the habit of stealing horses for the purpose 
 of eating them, but esteeming it wrong they some five years 
 since punished some of the party with death and the rest had 
 died from natural causes, since when none had been stolen by 
 their people. They told us where we could find the bones of 
 the animals they destroyed, and most certainly the appear- 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 79 
 
 ance corroborated their statement, for there were no bones of 
 more recent date than four or five years. 
 
 "The Wakopee or Owens River Indians appear to be both 
 morally and physically superior to any of their race in Cali- 
 fornia, for in point of probity and honesty I certainly have 
 never met their equal; and as to their physical condition, I 
 saw none sick or infirm save the child already alluded to, 
 although they will number 1200 or 1500 souls. 
 
 *'Wliilst talking to their head men, who had assembled for 
 that purpose, Captain Davidson informed them that so long 
 as they were peaceful and honest the government would pro- 
 tect them in the enjoyment of their rights. Their reply was 
 that such had always been their conduct and should ever be ; 
 that they had depended on their own unaided resources; that 
 they had at all times treated the whites in a friendly manner, 
 and intended to do so in the future. He further infonned 
 them that should they become dishonest and resort to murder 
 and robbeiy, they would be punished with the sword. The old 
 captain or head man turned with a smile to the interpreter 
 and said: 'Tell him that we fear it not; that what I said, I 
 have said. I have lain my heart at his feet; let him look at 
 it.' " 
 
 An editorial note in the Star said : 
 
 "Within 60 or 80 miles of Owens Lake there is an 
 immigration of about 50 large wagons going to Aurora, 
 Mono County, loaded with valuable goods and machinery, 
 which can reach their destination by no other route than 
 through Owens Valley, besides which there are on the road a 
 great many thousand head of cattle, sheep and hogs for the 
 above destination." 
 
 This indicates that there was probably qnite 
 an amount of Owens Valley travel, of which no 
 record has been found, on the part of people hav- 
 ing Aurora or other points to the north as their 
 objective. 
 
 Notes exhibited in Los Angeles in 1859 claimed 
 that a large deposit of coal existed in the south- 
 
80 
 
 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 eastern part of what is now Inyo county. Stephen 
 Gr. Gregg, James Bell and a man named Eeynolds 
 made a trip into the desert to find the supposed 
 coal, and ascertained that the vein described was 
 a different and useless material. This was the 
 first of the many parties which crossed the Si- 
 erras on prospecting trips in this region, though 
 the Mormons had given attention to the moun- 
 tains of the eastern deserts. 
 
 In the winter of 1859 a company known as the 
 Hill party came, probably from Mono Diggings, 
 and established temporary headquarters near the 
 present situation of Lone Pine. Prospecting was 
 carried on in the foothills to the east and west, and 
 what was called Potosi district grew — or rather 
 started — from discoveries in the eastern range. 
 There is no record of any district organizations. 
 The party moved northward and prospected Ma- 
 zourka Canyon, east of Independence, locating the 
 Iowa and several other claims. 
 
 Lewis A. Spitzer, who was Assessor of San 
 Clara County for many years, later, was one of a 
 party which left Visalia early in 1860, and spent 
 some weeks prospecting in the foothills bordering 
 Owens Valley. The party, which included also 
 Sam Kelsey, Charles and Jerome Smith and 
 Charles Lumro, found nothing important enough 
 to keep it from going on to Mono Diggings, the. 
 original objective. 
 
 About the same time Dr. Darwin French and 
 his men entered the southern part of the county, 
 and in March, 1860, they discovered silver-lead 
 ores at Old Coso. The same expedition named 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 81 
 
 Darwin Canyon and Falls in honor of its leader. 
 The men included Dennis Searles, D. M. Harwood, 
 Robert Bailey, James Kitchens, — . Walweber, 
 Henry Siddons, Montgomery Smith, Sam dinger, 
 Zebe Lashley, and Charles Uhl, with Dr. French 
 as captain. 
 
 This discovery created a considerable amount 
 of interest. The San Francisco Alta of July 24, 
 1860, reported that ''assays of samples from the 
 Coso mines gave, in silver at $1.34 per ounce, 
 $1,226.69; gold, $26.45," these being from claims 
 located by a party headed by M. H. Farley, fol- 
 lowing close after French. These men located on 
 a wholesale scale, taking up ninety claims. They 
 called the immediate locality Silver Mountain. 
 Farley, in giving his report so that it reached the 
 Alta, said that gold had also been found going 
 ''fifty per cent" to the pan. He described the 
 country as sterile and waterless except for boiling 
 springs, and may be further quoted : 
 
 "A few scattered Indians (the Coso tribe) live on herbs, 
 roots and worms. They run swiftly away upon seeing the 
 whites. About 20 miles to the southward of Silver Mountain 
 the party visited an active volcano. On some of the cliffs in 
 the neighborhood of the volcano were found sculptured and 
 painted figures, the latter colored with some pigment — perhaps 
 cinnabar. They were evidently the work of a former race, 
 for the intelligence necessary to produce them does not exist 
 among the squalid creatures now inhabiting that country." 
 
 Farley estimated that there were 500 men on 
 the ground. His guess was probably as inaccurate 
 as his reference to a "volcano," by which he 
 doubtless referred to Coso Hot Springs. The 
 Visalia Delta of the same month reported : 
 
82 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 "Persons are leaving almost daily for the mines. There 
 are now at the mines about 200 men, and about 100 prospect- 
 ing south and east of Owens Lake." 
 
 The Oroville, Butte County, Record of July 21 
 reported, on the strength of statements by re- 
 turned Orovillians, that there were eighty-two 
 men at the mines or in the vicinity, and that the 
 Coso Mining Company had been organized by 
 Oroville people, with William Mclntyre as presi- 
 dent; W. C. Walden, secretary; W. B. Finch, 
 treasurer ; and with $78,000 capital stock, divided 
 into 156 shares. 
 
 Men of the French party organized what they 
 called the Coso Gold and Silver Mining Company, 
 with James Hitchens as president. A report by 
 Hitchens, printed the following January, was en- 
 thusiastic in its claim for the richness of the 
 mines. 
 
 The most important ventures of that season, 
 1860, were the Russ and George parties. An ad- 
 dress by Henry G. Hanks, delivered in the San 
 Francisco Academy of Sciences and reported in 
 the Bulletin of February 1, 1864, stated that the 
 New World Mining and Exploration Company 
 left San Francisco March 4, 1860. Among its 
 twenty or more men were Col. H. P. Russ, the 
 leader; T. H. Goodman, afterward captain of one 
 of the military companies at Camp Independence, 
 and later a high official of the Southern Pacific; 
 0. L. Matthews, who was to become Inyo County's 
 first judge ; and John Searles. 
 
 Dr. S. G. George headed a contingent which 
 included S. G. Gregg, in after years Inyo's Sher- 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 83 
 
 iff; W. T. Henderson, adventurer; Moses Thayer, 
 and others. This detachment met and joined the 
 San Franciscans at Walker's Pass, and the com- 
 bined forces entered Owens Valley. A subdivision 
 went eastward from Owens Lake. 
 
 The north-traveling section established a camp 
 on Owens River, a few miles southeast of the site 
 of Independence. Dr. George observed, through 
 a field glass, the bold outcroppings of the Union 
 lode, and he and Russ went to examine it. Finding 
 the prospect encouraging, camp was moved to the 
 vicinity of the croppings, and the men proceeded 
 to organize Russ mining district, the first sem- 
 blance of any form of civil government in the ter- 
 ritory now included in Inyo County. Russ was 
 chairman of the meeting and George was its sec- 
 retary. Hanks, in his address, gave the date as 
 April 20, 1860. Among the claims located at this 
 time were the Union, Eclipse and Ida, as well as 
 a number which, unlike these, were not afterward 
 worked to any extent. Thayer was made superin- 
 tendent of operations, but was soon succeeded by 
 Gregg. 
 
 Indians began to visit the camp in friendly 
 fashion, and were well treated. The whites 
 sought to learn the names of surrounding objects. 
 Chief George (who became a leader in the Indian 
 war) told them that the name of the mountain 
 range to the eastward was "Inyo," meaning, as 
 near as could be ascertained, ''the dwelling place 
 of a great spirit." This is the origin of the 
 county's name, and the occasion was the first time 
 it had come to the whites' attention. 
 
84 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 The detachment which had gone eastward had 
 not been idle. Ores had been found in the rugged 
 Panamints and other ranges, and Telescope min- 
 ing district had been organized, at a date of 
 which no record is known to exist. W. B. Lilly 
 was its recorder and E. McKinley was his deputy. 
 Henderson was appointed superintendent of the 
 Combination mines. 
 
 The district took its name from Telescope 
 Peak, the highest point of the Panamints and one 
 of the most prominent landmarks of the entire 
 desert region. Henderson had christened the 
 height when he ascended it and noted the mag- 
 nificent view from its lofty and isolated summit. 
 
 Henderson himself was a character of some 
 notoriety. He had been a member of Harry Love's 
 posse of man-hunters who pursued and killed the 
 outlaw Joaquin Murietta, of western California 
 record. Many credited Henderson with having 
 fired the shot that laid that redoubtable murderer 
 low. Henderson himself denied this, and said that 
 Murietta was slain by J. A. White, who was a 
 member of this Telescope party, and who was 
 killed by Indians near those mines soon after the 
 war began. In later years, Henderson became less 
 averse to accepting the distinction of having killed 
 the bandit, and when he died, in Coarse Gold, 
 Fresno County, in December, 1882, his reputed 
 part in that affair was generally accepted as fact. 
 
 Some of the Telescope people went back to 
 San Francisco, taking several sacks of rich ore. 
 An excitement of some consequence was skill- 
 fully worked up by these men, for whom a field 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATION 85 
 
 had been prepared by the rich mines of the Corn- 
 stock lode. Bailey, one of the Telescope locators, 
 was a leader in working the financiers, -and Jack 
 Prouty was another who shared in the game of 
 selling stock in companies formed to work claims 
 or extensions. Many thousands of dollars were 
 picked up by these enterprising parties before 
 they left the city to "develop the properties." 
 They kept going. Prouty got to Mazatlan, Mex- 
 ico, where he was murdered — greatly to the satis- 
 faction of Henderson, who wrote that it was a 
 *' timely end of a miserable humbug." Bailey 
 disappeared also, so far as his dupes were con- 
 cerned, with $25,000 of their money. Stephen G. 
 Gregg saw him afterward on a coast steamer, 
 but was unable to find him when the boat reached 
 San Francisco, or ever after. 
 
 Little work was done on the Telescope mines 
 at that time. The following year Henderson and 
 others started a 150-foot tunnel to tap the Christ- 
 mas Gift ledge. They kept at it for a few months, 
 until the Indian outbreak drove them out. The 
 antimony deposit near Wild Eose Spring, north- 
 erly from Telescope Peak, was found during the 
 first summer's trip to the region, if we accept 
 the evidence of a chiseled ''July 4, 1860" in its 
 tunnel. 
 
 Argus district was not far behind Buss in 
 organization, though there is disagreement as to 
 its date. Hanks gave it as May 21, 1860. James 
 E. Parker, in an address at Lone Pine on the 
 Centennial Fourth of July, said it was July 23, 
 1860. These mines appear to have been found by 
 
86 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 an independent party, for neither the name of S. 
 D. Hassey, chairman of the organization meeting, 
 or of M. Valentine, its secretary, appears on the 
 roster of either the New World or the George 
 company. 
 
 Later in 1860 the George party made another 
 trip from Visalia and penetrated the Death Val- 
 ley country. One of its discoveries, made De- 
 cember 25, 1860, was the Christmas Gift mine, on 
 which Henderson worked the following year. 
 This expedition chose its season to avoid the heat 
 that had been found on the desert the preceding 
 summer, and succeeded so well that snow fell over 
 the whole countryside before a start was made for 
 home. Provisions began to give out, and the last 
 baking of bread was used at what the report calls 
 Granite Springs. A mule and a burro were turned 
 loose to shift for themselves. The next day it was 
 found that the mule had perished in the snow, and 
 the burro was making a meal off of the blanket 
 which had been put on the animal to help to pro- 
 tect it from the cold. No wood was available; 
 the scant sagebrush was too wet to use for fuel. 
 The men were compelled to walk, jump and dance 
 about their camp during the night to keep from 
 freezing. The next day the party reached Coso 
 Springs, and from there got safely home. 
 
 Dr. Darwin French had heard of some place 
 on the desert where the Indians shot golden bul- 
 lets. While there were few guns among the 
 savages for such uses, the story sounded good 
 enough to justify French in organizing another 
 expedition. Among its nine members were John 
 
A DECADE OF EXPLORATIOlSr 87 
 
 and Dennis Searles, T. G-. Beasley and T. F. A. 
 Connelly. The party wandered for eleven months 
 over different sections of Inyo, but failed to find 
 any place where the yellow metal was so common, 
 or where there was enough of it to tempt them to 
 stay. They went back to Visalia satisfied that 
 the story belonged in the same class with that of 
 Ponce de Leon 's fountain of eternal youth. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 COMING OF THE STOCKMEN 
 
 CATTLE DRIVEN THROUGH TO AURORA — VANSICKLE AND 
 
 VAN FLEET DRIVE IN — CATTLE IN LONG VALLEY FIRST 
 
 BUILDINGS ERECTED PUTNAM 's — "NO MAS KETCHUM 
 
 squaw" — bishop's SAN FRANCIS RANCH — AN ELECTION 
 FRAUD. 
 
 Prospecting had been the only purpose of the 
 transient population of Owens Valley prior to 
 1861. Some livestock had been driven through 
 the valley to reach the mining camps to the north- 
 ward, and observant men had noted grazing pos- 
 sibilities which were later used. An extract from 
 a Los Angeles paper, printed on a preceding page, 
 indicates that this route was thus utilized two 
 years earlier. 
 
 The father and mother of McGree brothers, J. 
 N. Summers, Mrs. Summers, Alney, John and 
 Barton McGee, brothers, and A. T. McGee, a 
 cousin, gathered a herd of beef cattle in Tulare 
 County in the spring of 1861 and started for Mono- 
 ville. Mono County, via Walker's Pass. Barton 
 McGee 's account relates that from Eoberts ' ranch 
 on the south fork of Kern River to Adobe 
 Meadows in Mono County, considerably more than 
 100 miles, not a white person or white settlement 
 was seen. They estimated that there were 1,000 
 Indians then in Owens Valley, who were not 
 
 88 
 
COMING OF THE STOCKMEN 89 
 
 friendly to the whites and considered that every 
 one who came through their territory should pay 
 tribute. Their demands on the McGee party were 
 refused. No violence was offered, though efforts 
 were made to stampede the cattle, until threats 
 of death if there were further attempts in that 
 direction put an end to such interference. The 
 journey was finished without further molestation. 
 
 The first stockman to come this way to remain 
 was Henry Vansickle, of Carson (then called 
 Eagle) Valley, Nevada. A. Van Fleet came with 
 him. W. S. Bailey drove his herds into Long Val- 
 ley, just north of the Inyo line, about the same 
 time. 
 
 Van Fleet was accompanied by men named 
 Coverdale and Ethridge. The three went south 
 as far as Lone Pine Creek, seeing no white men 
 except a few scattered prospectors in the White 
 Mountain foothills. Returning to the northern 
 end of the valley. Van Fleet made camp at the 
 river bend near the present site of Laws, and pre- 
 pared for permanent residence. He put up a 
 cabin of sod and stone, completing it in August, 
 1861 — the first white man's habitation in Owens 
 Valley. He cut some wild hay that summer, the 
 first harvest of any kind. 
 
 While Van Fleet was building, a rough stone 
 cabin was begun by Putnam, at Independence, a 
 stone's throw westerly from where the county 
 jail now stands. The building was torn down in 
 1876. During the war period it was as much 
 fortress as residence, and was used as house of 
 refuge, home station and hospital. The neighbor- 
 
90 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 hood took the name of Putnam's, and was so 
 known for some years. Once during the war, 
 when the whites abandoned the valley, they pre- 
 pared a surprise for any marauding natives who 
 might undertake to destroy the cabin. A trench 
 was dug around it and a quantity of blasting 
 powder was poured into the trench, with a train 
 leading to the wooden roof. The expectation was 
 that one of the first acts of wreckage would be 
 to bum the roof, and while the red men stood 
 around enjoying the spectacle more or less of 
 them would be blown into the happy hunting 
 ground. But the close watch kept by the Indians 
 defeated the plan. They carefully dug out the 
 powder, and set a squaw at work with a stone 
 mortar to reduce the large grains to suitable 
 size for rifle use. While this was being done, a 
 spark was struck in the mortar. The conse- 
 quences were laconically explained by an Indian 
 some years afterward; he told of gathering up 
 the powder and putting some of it into the mortar, 
 with the rest piled up close by, then ''No mas (no 
 more) ketchum squaw!" 
 
 Soon after Putnam put up his house, Fred 
 Uhlmeyer and J. F. Wilson came from Visalia 
 and ''squatted" on land near Independence. 
 
 Samuel A, Bishop and his retinue started from 
 Fort Tejon July 3, 1861, for the Owens River 
 country, which had been examined by his scouts. 
 Mrs. Bishop, the first white woman to tarry in 
 the valley, came with her husband; in the party 
 were also Mrs. Bishop's brother, named Sam 
 Young, E. P. ("Stock") Eobinson, Pat Gallagher 
 
COMING OF THE STOCKMEN 91 
 
 and several Indian herders. They drove between 
 500 and 600 head of cattle and 50 horses. On 
 August 22 they reached Bishop Creek, and estab- 
 lished a camp at what Bishop named the San 
 Francis Eanch, at a point where the stream leaves 
 the higher sandy bench lands and gravel foothill 
 slopes and enters the lower level of the valley, 
 about three miles south of west of the present 
 town of Bishop. 
 
 Pines growing near by were felled, and from 
 them slabs were hewn for the construction of the 
 first wooden structures, two small cabins. 
 
 While Bishop's residence in this valley was 
 brief, as his natoe was given to the stream and later 
 to the town we note some details of his career. 
 Samuel Addison Bishop was born in Albemarle 
 County, Virginia, September 2, 1825. He started 
 for California April 15, 1849, and after an ad- 
 venturous journey reached Los Angeles October 
 8th. We next hear of him as an officer in a war 
 with the Mariposa Indians in 1851. By 1853, he 
 was virtually in charge of the Indian reservation 
 at Fort Tejon. That year he and General Beale, 
 later prominent in Kern County affairs, formed 
 a partnership in stockraising and land ownership. 
 During the period he was* the sole judge of what 
 courts there were in the region, and appears to 
 have filled his trust with credit. In 1854 he and 
 Alex Godey, one of Fremont's scouts, contracted 
 to furnish provisions for the troops at Fort Tejon. 
 The government decided to build a military road 
 from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Fort Tejon, and 
 Bishop and Beale took a contract for its construe- 
 
92 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 tion. While Beale began at the Fort Smith end, 
 Bishop started to build easterly from Tejon. The 
 partners were allowed the use of camels which 
 the government had imported for desert work. 
 The undertaking was full of adventures with 
 which this record has no special concern. 
 
 Bishop's next venture was into this valley, 
 after he and Beale had dissolved partnership. 
 Following his stay in Inyo, he took a promi- 
 nent part in affairs in Kern, and became one of 
 that county's first Supervisors when its govern- 
 ment was created in 1866. Two years later he 
 and others secured a franchise for constructing 
 a car line in San Jose, and that city was there- 
 after his home up to his death, June 3, 1893. 
 
 In the fall of 1861 J. S. Broder, Col. L. F. 
 Cralley, Dan Wyman (hence Wyman Creek), 
 Graves brothers and others came from Aurora 
 to seek placer mines said to exist on the east side 
 of the White Mountains. They spent the winter 
 on Cottonwood Creek. Early the following year 
 Indians from farther eastward ordered them to 
 leave, when Chief Joe Bowers interfered, saying 
 it was his territory. He later warned the whites, 
 however, that they had better go, as he might not 
 be able to protect them though he wished to do 
 so. They took his advice, after giving him such 
 provisions as they did not need and caching their 
 mining goods. After the first hostilities of the 
 war had ended, the party went back, accompanied 
 by T. F. A. Connelly. Joe helped them to find 
 the cached goods, which had been raided. One 
 item in the stock was a flask of quicksilver. A 
 
COMING OF THE STOCKMEN 93 
 
 hole had been broken in the iron flask, and the 
 metal spilled. In explaining the occurrence, Joe 
 demonstrated by making motions of picking up 
 something, then showing his empty fingers, with 
 the remark: ''Heap no ketchum." Joe was 
 friendly to the whites throughout the Indian 
 troubles; and as will later appear, one of the 
 men he specially befriended had less of decency 
 and justice in his makeup than did the aboriginal 
 chief. 
 
 The brief tenancy of prospectors in ''White 
 Mountain District" in the fall of 1861 served as 
 a basis for an attempted election fraud which at- 
 tracted much attention in California legislative 
 affairs in 1862 and 1863. That section, now in 
 Inyo County, was then under Mono's jurisdic- 
 tion. The latter county was joined in a legisla- 
 tive district with Tuolumne, for election of State 
 Senator and Assemblyman. 
 
 "Big Springs Precinct" was established by 
 Mono Supervisors, August 26, 1861, with its poll- 
 ing place at what is now known as Deep Springs. 
 This was done by the Mono board on a re- 
 quest bearing one or two signatures. The elec- 
 tion was held September 4th, so the precinct was 
 created less than two weeks in advance. 
 
 The candidates for the State Senate from the 
 district were Leander Quint, Union Democrat, 
 and Joseph M. Cavis, Union; for the Assembly, 
 B. K. Davis, Breckenridge Democrat, and Nelson 
 M. Orr, Republican. Election returns as sub- 
 mitted by the County Clerk gave the vote as fol- 
 lows: For Senator: Cavis 372 in Mono, 1,664 in 
 Tuolumne; total 2,036; Quint 741 in Mono, 1,467 
 
94 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 in Tuolumne, total 2,208. For Assemblyman ; Orr 
 1,728 in Tuolumne, 344 in Mono, total 2,072 ; Davis 
 1,563 in Tuolumne, 657 in Mono, total 2,220. On 
 the face of the returns, therefore, Quint and Davis 
 were elected. 
 
 Orr, of Tuolumne, was convinced that there 
 was something wrong with the figures, so he came 
 over to Mono and made a personal investigation. 
 The returns of that county showed that Big 
 Springs precinct had cast a total of 521 votes. 
 McConnell, for Governor, had received 406 of 
 these. Quint had been given 510, and Davis 298. 
 Not a single Republican vote was noted, and 
 another singular disclosure was that while a full 
 State ticket was being elected no votes were re- 
 turned for any office except Governor, Senator and 
 Assemblyman. Orr visited Big Springs precinct, 
 and was able to find only a handful of men in the 
 region. 
 
 Orr and Cavis applied to the respective Houses 
 of the Legislature to be seated in place of Davis 
 and Quint. The Assembly Committee on Elec- 
 tions held a lengthy hearing, calling many wit- 
 nesses from Mono County. Orr, petitioner, 
 alleged that no election was held in the so-called 
 Big Springs precinct, and produced evidence that 
 there was virtually no population in the precinct. 
 Davis' witnesses (none of whom were from the 
 precinct) testified that they had sold goods to be 
 taken to Big Springs to an amount indicating a 
 large population, and that they believed there 
 were at least 500 voters there. They also testified 
 that one of Orr's witnesses had been paid $250 for 
 
COMING OF THE STOCKMEN 95 
 
 his testimony. E. M. Wilson, County Clerk of 
 Mono, when called on to produce the ballots and 
 poll list, said he had mailed them to Sacramento, 
 but singularly they failed to reach that city. 
 
 A witness testified that he saw the alleged poll 
 list and election returns prepared in a cabin near 
 Mono Lake ; that they were written on torn frac- 
 tional sheets of blue foolscap paper. Others were 
 unable to identify more than two or three names 
 on the alleged poll list, when it had been presented 
 to the Supervisors, as being those of persons 
 known to be in Mono County. A citizen who 
 looked over the list was struck with the familiar 
 appearance of some of the names, and finally 
 ascertained that the list had been copied from 
 the passenger list of the steamer on which he had 
 come from Panama to San Francisco. 
 
 Notwithstanding the palpable fraud, a few in 
 each House were found to support its bene- 
 ficiaries. Orr was declared to have been elected, 
 by vote of the Assembly February 13, 1862, forty- 
 eight for Orr, four for Davis. The Senate, like 
 the Assembly, had a Democratic majority in that 
 session, but proved to be less ready to right the 
 wrong; and it was not until March 28, 1863, well 
 into the session of a year later, that Cavis was 
 seated by a three-fourths Union Senate. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 BEGINNING OF INDIAN WAR 
 
 CATTLEMEN WINTER IN VALLEY — SEVEREST SEASON IN INYO 
 ANNALS — SETTLERS MENACED AT SAN FRANCIS — TREATY 
 
 SIGNED A SCRAP OF PAPER — MARAUDING COMMENCED 
 
 INDIANS KILLED AT PUTNAM 's MURDER OF WHITE 
 
 MEN ALABAMA HILLS FIGHT. 
 
 As the winter of 1861-62 approached, some 
 of the cattlemen who had driven into Owens Val- 
 ley saw no reason for leaving its abundant graz- 
 ing. As late as the first week in November Barton 
 and Alney McGee got together a drove of 1,500 
 head of cattle, and came this way. While they 
 were at Lone Pine, on November 12th, snow fell 
 to a depth of four inches. They went on to 
 George's Creek, then concluded to winter in the 
 valley. Barton McGee reported that there were 
 then settlers on Little Pine Creek (Independence), 
 Bishop Creek and in Round Valley. He went to 
 Aurora for supplies, where he found eight feet 
 of snow. Returning with provender, the party 
 went to Lone Pine and put up a cabin. Fine 
 weather favored them until Christmas Eve, when 
 there came the real beginning of probably the 
 hardest winter that white men ever saw in Inyo. 
 McGee noted that there was not a day of the next 
 fifty-four without a downpour of either rain or 
 snow; ''not continuous," he wrote, "but at no 
 time did it quit for a whole day, snowing to a 
 
 96 
 
BEGINNING OF INDIAN WAR 97 
 
 depth of two feet or more and then raining it off. 
 The whole country was soaked through and all 
 the hills were deeply covered. All the . streams 
 became almost impassable, while the river was 
 from one-fourth to one mile in width, about half 
 ice and half water, and sweeping on to the lake, 
 paying no respect to the crooks and curves of the 
 old channel in its course to the lake, which it 
 raised twelve feet." These reports of severe 
 weather in Inyo are corroborated by official 
 records for other parts of California, for during 
 that January the rainfall at Sacramento was over 
 fifteen inches. A book published two years later 
 refers to the floods of that winter as 'Hhe most 
 overwhelming and disastrous that have visited 
 this State since its occupation by Americans." 
 The first flood submerged the Sacramento Valley 
 about December 10th, the water rising higher than 
 in either of the memorable floods of 1851 and 
 1852. For six weeks thereafter an unusual amount 
 of rain descended. On the 24th of January the 
 second flood attained its greatest height, and the 
 Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys were trans- 
 formed into a broad inland sea stretching from 
 the foothills of the Sierra to the Coast Range, and 
 somewhat similar in extent and shape to Lake 
 Michigan. In that same month of January, a rain 
 of three days' duration fell on the accumulated 
 snow around Aurora, many of the adobe and 
 stone buildings of the camp fell, and loss of life 
 was occasioned by a flood in Bodie creek. The 
 McGee account indicates that Owens Valley 
 shared fully in the great downpour. 
 
98 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 The few white men in the valley had nothing 
 on which to subsist except beef, and much of the 
 time they were without salt to make their 
 monotonous fare more palatable. What must 
 have been the plight of the Indians? Life was a 
 hard struggle for them at the best ; and under the 
 conditions of that severe winter the herds of the 
 whites offered the only means of preventing 
 starvation. Besides, the Piute held that the white 
 men were intruders. That the natives began to 
 gather food from the ranges was only what might 
 have been expected ; it was what most white men 
 would have done under such circumstances. The 
 whites submitted to the loss of many animals be- 
 fore beginning retaliation. 
 
 The first act of revenge by the white men oc- 
 curred when Al Thompson, a herder in Van- 
 sickle's employ, saw an Indian driving away an 
 animal and promptly shot him. This occurred 
 not far southeast of Bishop. A man named Cros- 
 sen, better known as Yank, was then captured and 
 killed by the Indians. He had come from Aurora 
 and had stayed for a few days with Van Fleet. 
 He crossed the river to the west side and was 
 taken not far from where Thompson had done his 
 killing. All that was ever seen of him again was 
 part of his scalp, found at Big Pine. 
 
 It appears to be true, however, that scalping 
 was not a usual practice of the Owens Valley In- 
 dians. Instances of that kind were very few. 
 During the Indian war, a collection of a dozen 
 scalps of white men were found in a cave near 
 Haiwai (now Haiwee). The supposition was that 
 
BEGINNING OF INDIAN WAR 99 
 
 they were evidence of a massacre by some other 
 tribe. 
 
 The principal Indian settlement of tjie north- 
 ern part of the valley was on Bishop Creek, within 
 a short distance of Bishop's camp. Indians from 
 all parts of the valley, and beyond, gathered there 
 in the fall of 1861 and held a big fandango. 
 Among those who were mixing war medicine were 
 the usual sorcerers, who claimed that their magic 
 would make the white men's guns so they could 
 not be fired. The anxious stockmen kept their 
 weakness concealed as well as they could, until re- 
 inforcements happened to arrive. A storm had 
 wet the guns in camp, and to insure their relia- 
 bility when needed they were taken outside and 
 fired. This, disclosing to the tribesmen that the 
 sorcerers ' guarantees were not wholly dependable, 
 helped to prevent the threatened assault, and the 
 gathered Indians moved away. 
 
 The situation caused great alarm among the 
 scattered settlers, and they gladly agreed to a 
 pow-pow with the Indian chieftains. This confer- 
 ence was held at the San Francis ranch on the last 
 day of January, 1862. Chief George defined the 
 Indian view by marking two lines on the ground 
 to show that the score was then even, referring 
 to the Indian killed by Thompson, and the killing 
 of Crossen. A treaty was drawn up and signed, 
 as follows : 
 
 "We the undersigned, citizens of Owens Valley, with In- 
 dian chiefs representing the different tribes and rancherias of 
 said valley, having met together at San Francis ranch, and 
 after talking over all past grievances, have agreed to let what 
 
100 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 is past be buried in oblivion; and as evidence of all things 
 that have transpired having been amicably settled between 
 both Indians and whites, each one of the chiefs and whites 
 present have voluntarily signed their names to this instnament 
 of writing. 
 
 "And it is further agreed that the Indians are not to be 
 molested in their daily avocations by which they gain an 
 honest living. 
 
 "And it is further agreed upon the part of the Indians 
 that they are not to molest the property of the whites, nor to 
 drive off or kill cattle that are running in the valley, and for 
 both parties to live in peace and strive to promote amicably 
 the general interests of both whites and Indians. 
 
 "Given under our hands at San Francis ranch this 31st day 
 of January, 1862." 
 
 Signed for the Indians by Chief George, Chief 
 Dick and Little Chief Dick, each of whom made 
 his mark; for the whites by Samuel A. Bishop, 
 L. J. Cralley, A. Van Fleet, S. E. Graves, W. A. 
 Greenly, T. Everlett, John Welch, J. S. Howell, 
 Daniel Wyman, A. Thomson and E. P. Robinson. 
 
 One of the chiefs missing from the conference 
 was Joaquin Jim, leader of the tribe in southern 
 Mono, which then included the valley as far south 
 as Big Pine Creek. It was probably Joaquin 
 Jim's braves who began renewed depredations. 
 At any rate, the treaty proved to be merely a 
 passing incident. Within two months war was on 
 in earnest. 
 
 During February Jesse Summers came from 
 Aurora for beef for that market. He gathered 
 a few in the southern end of the valley and went 
 back to Aurora, leaving Bart and Alney McGee to 
 drive the band. They got as far as Big Pine 
 Creek, where Jim's camp happened to be at the 
 
BEGINNING OF INDIAN WAR 101 
 
 time. Jim and a few of Ms men visited the Mc- 
 Gee camp, and acted so unfriendly that the broth- 
 ers concluded to move. Alney went to get the 
 horses, and Jim demanded something to eat. Bart 
 poured him a cup of coffee, which he threw, cup 
 and all, into the fire. McGee jumped toward the 
 guns, which the Indians had set to one side. Mc- 
 Gee took the precaution to discharge the weapons, 
 then told Jim to take them and go, which he did. 
 The brothers moved on and spent the night safely 
 though uncomfortably in a wet meadow, with 
 their horses close at hand. Alney went on the 
 next day with Summers, whom he met at Van 
 Fleet's. Bart went to the San Francis ranch. 
 The next day he rode back to Putnam's and re- 
 ported that the northern settlers wanted help. On 
 his way down the speed of his horse got him 
 safely past a band of Indians at Fish Springs, un- 
 touched by the many shots they fired at him. 
 
 Fifteen men came with McGee from Putnam's 
 to help to move the cattle from Bishop Creek. The 
 night they reached the San Francis ranch the 
 Piutes provided a striking exhibition of fireworks, 
 running about and waving burning pitchpine 
 torches secured to long poles. The Indians sur- 
 rounded the cabin and sent in a delegation. 
 Though they claimed to be friendly, they held a 
 war dance around the building, and told the whites 
 that the Piutes had charmed lives and could spit 
 out the bullets that might enter their bodies. The 
 night passed without violence. 
 
 The next morning the drive of stock began, 
 reaching what is now Keough's Hot Springs the 
 
102 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 first night. Though pickets were put out, Indians 
 succeeded in driving off 200 or more head of cat- 
 tle. The next morning three of the men went after 
 the stock, and were met by a line of forty or fifty 
 Indians who ordered them back — an order with 
 which they could do nothing but comply. Indians 
 hovered about the flanks of the drive down the 
 valley, but did not molest it further. 
 
 A few days later Barton and John McGee, 
 Taylor McGee, Allen Van Fleet, James Harness, 
 Tom Hubbard, Tom Passmore, Pete Wilson and 
 Charley Tyler (''Nigger Charley") were near 
 Putnam's when they saw four Indians going 
 toward the cattle. Bart and Taylor McGee, Van 
 Fleet, Harness and Tyler went out to where they 
 were. The Indians when interrogated said they 
 were going after their horses. They were told 
 they could go on, but must leave their weapons 
 until they came back. This they refused to do. 
 The controversy continued for some time. One 
 account is that Van Fleet made the first threaten- 
 ing move by leveling his gun at an Indian; his 
 own story, and that of other whites, was that the 
 Indian first pointed an arrow at him. Whatever 
 the facts of this, Van Fleet turned his body and 
 got the first wound, an arrow in his side, where 
 its obsidian head remained until his death fifty 
 years later. Harness was also wounded before the 
 whites shot. In the melee which ensued all the 
 Indians, one of whom was Chief Shondow, were 
 slain. Hubbard was shot through the arm with 
 an arrow. 
 
 It is fully possible that the whites were to 
 
BEGINNING OF INDIAN WAR 103 
 
 blame in this affair. An account reaching Aurora 
 held them responsible, and Barton McGee, in 
 writing of it, said : ' ' This occurrence created a lit- 
 tle trouble in our ranks, some thinking we were 
 not justified in firing on them and others saying 
 we did exactly right. Be that as it may, it was 
 done. ' ' This does not well accord with the narra- 
 tion of the fight as above printed on the state- 
 ments of McGee and Van Fleet. 
 
 A few more than forty white men were gath- 
 ered at Putnam's, and they began to strengthen 
 their fortification. Rocks, old wagons, boxes and 
 other materials were used to pile up a barricade. 
 Charles Anderson was elected captain, and a con- 
 stant guard was maintained while the company 
 remained there. Sheriff Scott, of Mono, was 
 among the men, and in a letter said : ' ' The Indians 
 appear warlike here, and we expect a battle be- 
 fore many days — possibly tonight. There are 
 forty-two of us, armed with rifles, shotguns and 
 sixshooters. We have fortified ourselves the best 
 we could with wagons, oxbows, yokes, rawhides, 
 etc. I can escape easily, but to do so would be 
 to weaken the force in the fort, and so enable the 
 redskins to wipe out those who would be obliged 
 to remain." 
 
 A band of natives had gone to Van Fleet's 
 cabin on the river, previous to this gathering at 
 Putnam's, and had demanded admission. After 
 some parley he gave them provisions. They set 
 out toward Benton, then known as Hot Springs, 
 where a prospector named E. S. Taylor lived 
 alone. Taylor's cabin was attacked and riddled 
 
104 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 with bullets and he was killed, but not until ten 
 of his assailants had paid with their lives. Van 
 Fleet was the only authority for this statement, 
 except that others wrote of passing and seeing the 
 bullet-riddled building. A report taken to Aurora 
 by Albert Jeffway, an express rider who had been 
 in Owens Valley, told of the death of another 
 Taylor, near Putnam's. Taylor, he said, was hot- 
 headed, and got into a row during which he killed 
 two or three Indians. The Piutes set fire to his 
 cabin, and as he came from it they shot him. It 
 is at least possible that this was a mistaken ver- 
 sion of the Benton affair. 
 
 Two men known as Vance and Shorty were 
 still in the upper end of the valley, or may have 
 gone there from Putnam's, to gather up what 
 stock they could. Seeing Indians after their 
 animals, they went to investigate, were fired on, 
 and killed two natives. 
 
 Whatever of division there may have been in 
 the Putnam camp over the killing of Shondow, 
 there was no dissent when it was proposed to 
 strike a blow that would discourage raids on the 
 cattle. Preparations for a campaign were made, 
 and twenty-three men, led by Anderson, left Put- 
 nam's after dusk masked their movements. Oral- 
 ley was chosen lieutenant. Scott Broder, the Mc- 
 Gees, Tyler, Harness and Shea were among those 
 in the column, which went that night to the sod 
 cabin of Ault and Sadler, not far from the 
 Alabama hills. 
 
 As soon as the east began to gray, three men 
 were left with the horses at the cabin and the 
 
BEGINNING OF INDIAN WAR 105 
 
 others set out in two equal squads. Anderson's 
 detachment went to where the light of campfires 
 could be seen over the Alabama hills; the others 
 went up the stream. The sun was just rising as 
 Anderson came up to where the Indians were 
 breakfasting. Firing commenced at once, a num- 
 ber of Indians being killed at the first volley. 
 They ran to shelter in the rocks, *'and a good 
 shelter it was," wrote Bart McGee, *' cavities 
 where they were out of sight in less than thirty 
 seconds. We could not follow them in, so we did 
 the best we could from the outside, shooting into 
 the mouths of their dens, while the Indians threw 
 arrows among us in showers. It seemed the air 
 was full of arrows all the time. They did not have 
 any guns or they would have made it a hard fight 
 for us. We fought there for about an hour be- 
 fore the other boys, hearing our firing and coming 
 across the rough hill, could reach us. We fought 
 until about 1 o'clock, hitting some 30 or 40 of 
 them, destroying about a ton of dried meat and 
 some of their camp outfits. ' ' The white casualties 
 included another arrow hole in Hubbard's arm, a 
 wound in Harness' forehead made by an arrow 
 which shattered against the skull without pene- 
 trating, and an arrow wound in Scott Broder's 
 shoulder. The last mentioned injury was so 
 troublesome that the citizens withdrew to the fort, 
 leaving the natives in their stronghold. While 
 McGee mentions that 30 or 40 Indians were hit, 
 and another account said that Negro Charley 
 Tyler himself shot four Indians, a report sent 
 to Los Angeles gave the total Indian strength in 
 the fight as 40 and said that their dead numbered 
 eleven. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 WHITES DEFEATED AT BISHOP CREEK 
 
 INDIANS SEEK OUTSIDE HELP — INDIAN ELOQUENCE — RENE- 
 GADE BED MEN GATHER IN OWENS VALLEY HELP 
 
 FROM AURORA — KELLOGG AND MAYFIELD COMMANDS 
 
 JOINED DEATHS OF SCOTT, MORRISON AND PLEASANT 
 
 WHITES COMPELLED TO ABANDON FIELD. 
 
 During this time the Owens Valley Indians had 
 sent calls for aid to all their people. Nevada 
 Piutes had suffered severely in a recent war of 
 their own, and the majority were not inclined to 
 hunt further trouble. They had realized the truth 
 of predictions attributed to Numaga, one of their 
 leaders. While it is a digression from the im- 
 mediate subject, the speech credited to Numaga 
 in trying to keep his braves from the warpath is 
 worth preserving: 
 
 "You would make war upon the whites. I ask you to 
 pause and reflect. The white men are like the stars over your 
 heads. You have wrongs, great wrongs, that rise up like these 
 mountains before you; but can you from the mountain tops 
 reach up and blot out those stars'? Your enemies are like 
 the sands in the beds of your rivers: when taken away they 
 only give place for more to come and settle here. Could you 
 defeat the whites, from over the mountains in California 
 would come to help them an army of white men that would 
 cover your country like a blanket. What hope is there for 
 the Piute? From where is to come your g-uns, your powder, 
 your lead, your dried meats to live upon, and hay to feed 
 your ponies while you carry on this war? Your enemies have 
 
 106 
 
WHITES DEFEATED AT BISHOP CKEEK 107 
 
 all these things, more than they can use. They will come like 
 the sand in a whirlwind, and drive you from your homes. You 
 will be forced among the barren rocks of the north, where 
 your ponies will die, where you will see the women and old 
 men starve, and listen to the cries of your children 'for food. 
 I love my people; let them live; and when their spirits shall 
 be called to the great camp in the southern sky, let their bones 
 rest where their fathers were buried." 
 
 But in spite of advice, some came from the 
 Nevada tribes to venture further in warfare. More 
 came from the west, across the Sierras, from the 
 Kern and Tulare bands that had been but re- 
 cently defeated, and from southern California. 
 Some, like Joaquin Jim who was already an 
 Owens Valley leader, had been outlawed by their 
 own people. Jim was a Fresno renegade, a man 
 of unusual courage and determination, and he was 
 never reconciled to white rule. The gathered In- 
 dian host in Owens Valley was estimated at from 
 1,500 to 2,000 fighting men. 
 
 The Reds found allies in the mining camp of 
 Aurora, in the persons of two merchants named 
 Wingate and Cohn, who were said to have carried 
 on a thriving traffic in supplying ammunition for 
 what guns the western Nevada and Mono Indians 
 had. The same Wingate refused to sell ammuni- 
 tion to a messenger from the settlers, saying that 
 ail the whites in Owens Valley should be killed. 
 
 Al Thompson and a companion were sent to 
 Aurora for help for the threatened settlers. A 
 party of eighteen was organized there, com- 
 manded by Capt. John J. Kellogg, a former army 
 officer. One of its members was Alney L. McGee, 
 who had gone to Aurora from the valley. 
 
108 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 After the Lone Pine battle the citizens at Put- 
 nam's had elected Mayfield their captain. Ac- 
 counts of the expedition next starting from there 
 -do not agree, ranging from twenty-two to thirty- 
 five; the best supported estimate seems to be 
 thirty-three. This force moved northerly to at- 
 tack the Indians. At Big Pine they found the 
 bodies of R. Hanson and Tallman (or Townsend), 
 who had been killed by the Indians a few days be- 
 fore. Both corpses had been torn and mutilated 
 by coyotes, and that of Hanson (a brother of A. C. 
 Hanson, one of the expedition and in later years 
 County Judge) was identified by the teeth. 
 
 Kellogg came down east of the river, the same 
 day. He believed the Mayfield command, which 
 could be seen across the valley, to be hostiles. The 
 mistake was straightened out and the two com- 
 mands united. All night long the hostiles oc- 
 cupied the rock-strewn hillsides near by, and kept 
 up a continuous howling. The next day, as the 
 force moved northward, an Indian scout was killed 
 by Tex Berry. Dr. A. H. Mitchell, who proved 
 to be an abject coward in the later fight, acted 
 consistently with that character by scalping the 
 Indian and tying the bloodj^ trophy to his saddle. 
 He afterward lost horse, saddle and all. About 
 noon of April 6th camp was made at a ditch or ra- 
 vine about two miles southwest of the present 
 town of Bishop. 
 
 The Indians held a line extending from a small 
 black butte in the valley across Bishop Creek and 
 to the foothills south. Their numbers were 
 variously estimated at from 500 to 1,500. Oppos- 
 
WHITES DEFEATED AT BISHOP CREEK 109 
 
 ing them was a white force of from fifty to sixty- 
 three men. 
 
 The Piutes were defiant in their demonstra- 
 tions, and the white men waited only long enough 
 to eat a meal before going into action. Kellogg 's 
 force moved up along the creek; Mayfield took 
 his men more southerly. A deep wash was en- 
 countered, and the pack animals were left there 
 with a man in charge. Mayfield, Morrison and 
 Van Fleet were at the head of the line when the 
 Indians opened fire. Van Fleet dismounted and 
 handed his bridle to Mayfield. A bullet pene- 
 trated Morrison's body, and Mayfield, not seeing 
 his men coming up, became panic-stricken and 
 would have fled leaving Van Fleet afoot if he had 
 not been threatened with summary vengeance. 
 
 Kellogg saw that the Indians were about to 
 move around and either cut off the line of re- 
 treat or separate the two parties of whites. In 
 response to his call for a volunteer to warn May- 
 field, Alney McGee made the ride, during which 
 his horse was kiUed. 
 
 The white men then retreated to the shelter of 
 the ditch. Morrison was put in front of Bart 
 McGee, on the latter 's horse, and with Alney Mc- 
 Gee steadying him was taken to the trench. 
 ''Cage," or James Pleasant, a dairyman who 
 had come from Visalia, was in front of them. 
 They happened to be looking directly at him when 
 a bullet hole appeared in the light gum coat he 
 wore. He did not reply to a question asked, but 
 rose in his stirrups and fell from his horse, dead. 
 The situation was so pressing that for the time 
 the bodv was left where it fell. 
 
110 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Anderson collected some of the men at a small 
 hill and kept the foe back until Morrison could be 
 taken to a safer place. As the men went back, 
 an Indian wearing only some feathers in his hair 
 was seen going toward the pack train. It was 
 suggested to Hanson that there was his chance to 
 get revenge for his brother's death, and Hanson 
 and Tyler rode out and killed the too venturesome 
 red man. The latter 's costume was similar to 
 what a great many of the warriors were wearing 
 at the time. ''The uniforms they wore was 
 nawthin' much before, an' rawther less than 'arf 
 o' that be'ind." 
 
 The whites reached the ditch intrenchment 
 without further casualties, and from there main- 
 tained a defensive battle. One veteran of the 
 fight stated that "Stock" Eobinson killed an In- 
 dian who was crawling through the ditch to get 
 at close quarters with the defenders. One Indian 
 had a point of vantage behind a pile of grass from 
 which he fired several shots. He was killed by 
 Van Fleet, who watched for his rising to shoot. 
 Mitchell, who had distinguished himself by scalp- 
 ing the Indian scout killed on the way up the 
 valley, proposed that all make a run for safety. 
 Anderson, knowing that if that were done the 
 whole party would be exterminated, said he would 
 shoot the first man who left them to run. Mitchell 
 then bravely proclaimed his own intention of tak- 
 ing a shot at any one who would exhibit such mis- 
 erable cowardice. 
 
 The whites had spread out some of their 
 powder to have it handy for loading purposes. 
 
WHITES DEFEATED AT BISHOP CREEK 111 
 
 Some one struck a match which fell into it, and 
 one man was severely burned in the explosion 
 which followed. 
 
 Darkness came on, and firing from th'e Indian 
 lines almost ceased. N. F. Scott, Sheriff of Mono, 
 who had come from Putnam's with the Mayfield 
 party, raised his head above the ditch rim as he 
 undertook to light his pipe. As he did an Indian 
 bullet struck him in the temple, causing instant 
 death. He had come into the valley on official 
 business a short time before. 
 
 The beleaguered whites waited until the moon 
 went down, well along in the night, before making 
 a move. Then they retreated to Big Pine, un- 
 molested. Morrison was taken with them, but 
 died soon after reaching Big Pine Creek. This 
 brought the white dead up to three. The number 
 of Indians who fell was unknown, but was vari- 
 ously estimated at from five to fifteen or more. A 
 report published soon afterward said that eleven 
 Indians were killed. The fatalities in this affair, 
 as in nearly every case during the fighting, re- 
 sulted from bullet wounds. Indian arrows did 
 little harm except at close quarters. Fortunately 
 for their opponents the Indians had but few guns, 
 and were too ignorant of their care and use to 
 make them very effective. Had Piutes possessed 
 any marked degree of courage they could have 
 wiped out the little company of white men, though 
 of course it would have been at a heavy cost to 
 themselves. 
 
 The men, who were in this fight, so far as 
 ascertained from different records, included Har- 
 
112 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 rison Morrison, "Cage" Pleasant and N. F. Scott, 
 who were killed; Captain Mayfield, Charles 
 Anderson, Alney McGee, Barton McGree, A. Van 
 Fleet, A. C. Hanson, Thos. G. Beasley, R. E. 
 Phelps, E. P. Robinson, John Welch, Thomas 
 Hubbard, Thomas Passmore, William L. Moore, 
 A. Graves, James Harness, John Shea, — . Bo- 
 land, Pete Wilson, L. F. Cralley, Tex Berry, 
 James Palmer, A. H. Mitchell, ** Negro" Charley 
 Tyler, a Tejon Indian, and others unrecorded. 
 
 No two of the several accounts of this fight 
 agree in all respects ; the versions having the most 
 corroboration of fact or probability have been ac- 
 cepted. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 WHITES AGAIN BEATEN ' 
 
 INDIAN AGENT WASSON COMES TO MAKE PEACE APPEAL 
 
 FOR TROOPS — A CAUTIOUS GOVERNOR — WASSON ENTERS 
 
 VALLEY AT HOUR OF BATTLE EVANS ' TROOPERS ARRIVE 
 
 FROM SOUTH SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS RETREAT FROM 
 
 BOUND VALLEY — MAYFIELD KILLED. 
 
 Enters now into these chronicles the nation's 
 soldiery, also one Warren Wasson, acting Indian 
 Agent for the Territory of Nevada. 
 
 Through news reaching Carson by way of 
 Aurora, Wasson learned of the beginning of 
 trouble in Owens Valley. Under date of March 
 25, 1862, he telegraphed to James W. Nye, Gov- 
 ernor of Nevada, who was then in San Francisco. 
 
 "Indian diflfieulties on Owens River confirmed. Hostiles 
 advancing this way. I desire to go and if possible prevent the 
 war from reaching this territory. If a few men poorly armed 
 go against those Indians defeat will follow and a long and 
 bloody war will ensue. If the whites on Owens River had 
 prompt and adequate assistance it could be checked there. I 
 have just returned from Walker River. Piutes alarmed. I 
 await reply." 
 
 Governor Nye promptly conferred with Gen- 
 eral Wright, commanding the Department of the 
 Pacific, and on the same day notified Wasson to 
 the following effect: 
 
 "General Wright will order 50 men to go with you to the 
 ecene of action. You may take 50 of my muskets at the fort, 
 and some ammunition with you, and bring them back. Confer 
 with Captain Rowe." 
 
 113 
 
114 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 It will be observed that the Governor was care- 
 ful of the property under his charge. Presumably 
 the guns were for the arming of settlers in the 
 valley. 
 
 Captain E. A. Eowe, of Company A, Second 
 California Cavalry, was ranking officer and com- 
 mander at Fort Churchill, Nevada. AVasson im- 
 mediately visited him, and the result was an order 
 to Lieutenant Herman Noble to take fifty men to 
 ''Aurora and vicinity." ''You will be governed 
 by circumstances, in a great measure," his in- 
 structions read, "but upon all occasions it is de- 
 sirable that you consult the Indian Agent, Mr. 
 W. Wasson, who accompanies the expedition for 
 the purpose of restraining the Indians from hos- 
 tilities. Upon no consideration will you allow 
 your men to engage the Indians without his 
 sanction." 
 
 Wasson came on ahead of the troops. He 
 found the Walker Eiver Indians greatly excited, 
 and apprehensive of general war with the whites. 
 He sent messengers to the different bands of 
 Piutes in that region, with instructions to keep 
 quiet until his return. The mass of the natives 
 were anxious to keep out of trouble, and he found 
 all quiet when he w^ent back. 
 
 A Piute named Robert accompanied him to 
 Mono Lake, where the Indians were congregated 
 and preparing for a war they feared. They were 
 much pleased with his mission, and sent with 
 him one of their number who could speak the 
 Owens River Piute dialect. 
 
 Wasson and his interpreters joined Noble's 
 
WHITES AGAIN BEATEN 115 
 
 column at Adobe Meadows on the night of April 
 4th. The next day he traveled eight or ten miles 
 ahead of the soldiers, and about noon passed the 
 boundary of the Owens Eiver Piute territory. 
 On the night of the 6th camp was made at the 
 northerly crossing of Owens Eiver. At that very 
 hour the Mayfield and Kellogg companies were 
 defending themselves in the trench near Bishop 
 Creek. Wasson saw no Indians, but plenty of 
 fresh signs. On the following morning the Mono 
 Indian said that he knew the Indians were to the 
 right and up the valley. He was sent to inter- 
 view them, with a message that the purpose of 
 the mission was to inquire into the cause of the 
 difficulties and to arrange a fair settlement. 
 
 Wasson and the Walker River Indian went on 
 south. After going twelve miles down the river 
 they saw a body of men at the foot of the Sierras 
 and waited until Noble came up. Lieutenant 
 Noble and Wasson then left the cavalry and went 
 across the valley to learn who the men were. 
 They found the citizens who had retreated from 
 Bishop Creek, together with troopers of the 
 Second California Cavalry under Lieutenant 
 Colonel George S. Evans. Evans had left Los 
 Angeles March 19th, and shortened the trip to 
 Owens Valley by keeping to the east of the Sierras 
 instead of going into the San Joaquin Valley and 
 crossing Walker's Pass, as seems to have been the 
 invariable route before then. This appears to have 
 been the first travel on the route now used south 
 of Walker's Pass. He arrived at Owens Lake 
 April 2d. He found a dozen men and a few 
 
116 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 women and children at Putnam's ''fort." Leav- 
 ing Captain Winne and seven soldiers there, 
 Evans moved on up the valley with seventy-three 
 men and met the Mayfield-Kellogg men near Big 
 Pine. 
 
 Wasson made his mission known, but found 
 little encouragement for peaceful hopes. The 
 larger force wished only to exterminate the hos- 
 tiles. When Mayfield met the cavalry, Evans had 
 induced forty-five of the citizens to turn back 
 northward with his company, the rest being sent 
 on to Putnam's. 
 
 The meeting with the contingent from Nevada 
 occurred about six miles south of Bishop Creek. 
 Evans, being the ranking officer, directed Noble 
 to bring up his company. When this was done the 
 force moved to and camped at the scene of the 
 previous day's fighting. The body of Pleasant, 
 left in the flight of the citizens, was found, shock- 
 ingly mutilated. All his clothing had been taken 
 for Indian use. The body, wrapped in a blanket, 
 was buried. It may be noted that when circum- 
 stances favored the Piutes again dug up the re- 
 mains and took therefrom the blanket shrouding 
 them. Once more the whites made a grave for 
 Pleasant, at a point a little east of the San Francis 
 ranch. Search in later years failed to discover 
 the place of its final interment. Pleasant Valley, 
 a small subdivision of Owens Valley, was named 
 for this victim of the war. The body of Scott, 
 buried in the trench the night of the retreat, was 
 undisturbed. 
 
 Evans started scouting parties in different di- 
 
WHITES AGAIN" BEATEN 117 
 
 rections at daylight of the 8th. Eight or ten men 
 who had gone northwesterly returned about noon 
 and reported having found the enemy in force 
 twelve miles to the northwest, in what is now 
 called Round Valley, A rapid movement in that 
 direction was ordered, and in two hours the 
 soldiers and citizens reached the mouth of the 
 canyon in which the Indians were believed to be. 
 A heavy snowstorm had begun there, and a strong 
 gale swept down from the summits. Evans 
 ordered an advance, sending Lieutenants Noble 
 and Oliver up one ridge with forty men while he 
 and Lieutenant French, with an equal number, 
 took the opposite wall of the canyon. Wasson 
 criticizes the wisdom of this plan, as the gale, all 
 in favor of the Lidians, would have given them a 
 strong advantage. The pursued foes had gone 
 on, however, and no Indians were found. The 
 troops returned to the valley below. 
 
 The storm abating somewhat, Wasson did 
 some investigating for himself, and discovered 
 Indian signs in a canyon a mile to the north of 
 the camp. Following it, he came upon a fresh 
 trail leading northerly. At a point over two miles 
 from the command he turned back. As he started 
 back, he heard a call from rocks a few hundred 
 yards away. He replied, in English, Spanish and 
 Piute, but got no response. This performance was 
 repeated several times as he rode toward camp; 
 he believed it to be an effort to decoy him. That 
 night campfires were visible in the canyon. 
 
 The next morning Evans ordered Lieutenant 
 Noble and nine of his men to reconnoiter the can- 
 
118 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 yon, while the whole command moved in that di- 
 rection. The detail was fired upon after it had 
 advanced some 300 yards into the canyon. 
 Trooper Christopher Grillespie was instantly 
 killed and Corporal John Harries was wounded 
 in the left arm. Gillespie's body was left behind 
 in the retreat, but was afterward recovered. A 
 published report mentioned the killing of a Ser- 
 geant McKenzie, but this is not confirmed by the 
 military report. 
 
 The main command was half a mile below the 
 mouth of the canyon. The cavalrymen were dis- 
 mounted, and Noble and his company were sent 
 to occupy the mountain side at the left, or south, 
 side, Mayfield and four other citizens accompany- 
 ing them. Evans was to take the north side of 
 the canyon, and the citizens not with Noble were 
 to remain at its mouth. Noble reached his 
 designated position, and drew a brisk fire from 
 two directions. Mayfield was wounded, and 
 Noble, seeing that to hold his position would 
 probably mean heavy loss, ordered a retreat. 
 Mayfield was being carried back when a bullet 
 passed between the legs of citizen John Welch 
 and inflicted a fatal wound on the already injured 
 citizen captain. John A. Hubinger, bugler, later 
 a physician in Pasadena, was surrounded by In- 
 dians, and a bullet grazed his ear, but he made 
 good his escape. 
 
 Evans found that the mountain side was too 
 rugged and steep to permit the advance he had 
 planned for his company, and he also ordered a 
 retreat, not only from the immediate vicinity but 
 
WHITES AGAIN BEATEN 119 
 
 back into Owens Valley. Before the soldiers had 
 gone a mile and a half the camp ground they had 
 occupied was dotted with Indian campfires. 
 
 Wasson's report, dated April 20, 18*62, gives 
 little credit to Evans for his management of the 
 affair. He wrote : « 
 
 "During the engagement I selected a high rock at about 
 the center of the operations, where I could observe all parties, 
 and I am satisfied there were not over 25 Indians who had 
 been left behind as a decoy to the whites and to protect 
 the main body and families, who had gone on into the moun- 
 tains to the north to avoid a collision with the troops. . . . 
 Lieutenant Noble confeiTed with me and we agreed as to the 
 course to be pursued, until we met Col. Evans, who then took 
 command. This reinforcement rained all our plans. We 
 might have done better; we certainly could not have done 
 worse. Lieutenant Noble and his men behaved gallantly on 
 the field." 
 
 In referring to the Bishop Creek fight of April 
 6th, Wasson says the citizens had been "shame- 
 fully defeated." That is, after starting a cam- 
 paign against from ten to thirty times their 
 number, the white command had been forced to 
 retreat. If to abandon that undertaking were 
 *' shameful," what shall be said of the result in 
 Round Valley? Evans had under him a force of 
 more than 150 men, of whom more than 100 were 
 soldiers. After a skirmish, he abandoned the 
 whole attempt, without discovering anything 
 about how many or how few foes he had engaged. 
 The sole result of his campaigning was to increase 
 the confidence of the Indians, as Wasson had fore- 
 told, and to add to the probability of other out- 
 breaks. 
 
120 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 Evans camped that night on the Bishop Creek 
 battleground. He had no provisions except what 
 he procured in the valley — a singular condition 
 which he attributed to his having distributed sup- 
 plies to needy settlers — and was compelled to re- 
 turn to Camp Drum. Lieutenant Noble accom- 
 panied him as far as Putnam's, to escort the set- 
 tlers from the valley with their herds and flocks. 
 The latter included 4,000 head of cattle and 2,500 
 sheep. Among the men who left at that time were 
 the McGees, who met Indians, but were not 
 molested. A general exodus took place. 
 
 Wasson appears to have had not only much 
 sympathy with the Indians in their pathetic resist- 
 ance to the inevitable white domination, but a bias 
 that led to occasional overstatement. He assured 
 Governor Nye that they ''had dug ditches and ir- 
 rigated nearly all the arable land in that section 
 of the country, and live by its products." The 
 products were the native plants, irrigated to a 
 limited extent and not cultivated at all. We 
 quote him further: 
 
 "They have been repeatedly told by officers of the govern- 
 ment that they should have exclusive possession of these lands, 
 and they are now fighting to obtain that possession. . . . 
 Having taken up their abode along Owens River as a place 
 of last resort, they will fight to the last extremity in defense 
 of their homes." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 TEMPORARY PEACE 
 
 INDIANS IN FULL POSSESSION MILITARY EXPEDITION 
 
 CAMP INDEPENDENCE ESTABLISHED PEACE ARRANGED 
 
 — COSO — SAN CARLOS MINES FOUND — BILL TO ESTAB- 
 LISH RESERVATION CREATES CONTROVERSY AND 13 
 FINALLY FORGOTTEN. 
 
 By the first of May, 1862, the Indians were in 
 almost undisputed possession of the whole of 
 Owens Valley. Occasional venturesome travelers 
 fared badly. Harvey C. Ladd had left San Ber- 
 nardino two months earlier with his family, 
 wagons and stock, and lost all his possessions, the 
 persons being fortunate enough to escape. Alex- 
 ander Godey, ex-scout and at that time Indian 
 Agent, noted a report that a man named Pete Abel 
 and thirteen or fourteen others had been mas- 
 sacred, one man alone escaping to tell the tale. 
 The party had four wagons loaded with pro- 
 visions, and 45 horses. They were besieged in a 
 corral which they formed with their wagons, and 
 in an attempt to escape all but one lost their 
 lives. Another party of six were all killed. In- 
 formation given in Los Angeles was that the In- 
 dians had acquired a hundred rifles among them; 
 that there were from 1,000 to 1,200 fighting men 
 in the valley ; that a thousand head of cattle had 
 been stolen or killed by them, and that practically 
 
 121 
 
122 THE STOKY OP INYO 
 
 every white habitation on the eastern side of the 
 Sierras north of Walker's Pass had been de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Miners in the Coso region were still at work, 
 nevertheless, but under such dangerous conditions 
 that the miners appealed to the military author- 
 ities at the San Francisco Presidio for protection. 
 Hitchens, of Hitchens & Montgomery, of Coso, 
 made his way out on this mission. His accounts 
 of the condition were far more extreme than what 
 appears in these pages. He stated also that there 
 was a quantity of mill machinery at Walker's Pass 
 to be taken to Coso when it became safe. 
 
 General Andres Pico, in Los Angeles, sought 
 permission to organize an independent expedition 
 against the Indians. Volunteers for his proposed 
 forces were numerous enough, but it appears that 
 the Governor refused him the desired permission. 
 
 A letter purporting to come "from citizens 
 residing in the vicinity of Owens River" reached 
 the authorities, asking that no steps be taken for 
 the establishment of a military post; that if the 
 soldiers would come and clear out the valley, giv- 
 ing the whites possession, the latter would take 
 care of themselves. The communication was be- 
 lieved to have originated with designing plun- 
 derers. A Los Angeles paper said that to send out 
 the expedition for only 60 days would cost $100,- 
 000, and called for a public meeting to urge the 
 establishment of a military post in Owens Valley. 
 
 Whatever the motive for the alleged protest, it 
 was unheeded, and General Wright directed 
 Colonel Evans to prepare for the ''Mono and 
 Owens River Military Expedition." 
 
TEMPORARY PEACE 123 
 
 During May Captain Rowe, from Fort 
 Churchill, Nevada, had a conference with the 
 Mono Lake Indians, after an interpreter had in- 
 duced them to hold a parley. The red men were 
 found to be sullen and not caring whether peace 
 was made or was not. They said as many whites 
 as Indians had been killed and while they were 
 satisfied, they were perfectly willing to continue 
 the war. 
 
 Evans started from Fort Latham, between Los 
 Angeles and Santa Monica, June 12th, with 157 
 men, including Company Gr and detachments from 
 Companies D and I of his regiment, the Second 
 California Cavalry. Captain Winne, who had 
 commanded Gr Company on the first trip into 
 Owens Valley, had committed suicide in a Los 
 Angeles hotel, while mentally deranged, and T. 
 H. Goodman had replaced him in command. The 
 cavalrymen made camp on Oak Creek on July 4, 
 1862; erected a 50-foot flagstaff, raised the flag 
 and fired small-arm salutes, gave three times 
 three cheers, and otherwise departed from the 
 daily routine. Because of the day, the site se- 
 lected by Colonel Evans was named Camp Inde- 
 pendence. The soldiers immediately began to 
 provide shelters for themselves, some building 
 cabins and some digging out caves in the walls 
 of a large ravine near by. 
 
 John C. Willett, for many years a resident 
 near Independence, was a saddler with Company 
 Gr. In a letter written in 1903 he stated that when 
 the soldiers reached the foot of Owens Lake they 
 were instructed to kill all the Indians they saw. 
 One Indian was slain at the lake. 
 
124 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Captain George was met at the Alabama Mils, 
 bearing a flag of truce and a letter from Indian 
 Agent Wasson directing a cessation of hostilities, 
 as he believed that a peace could be arranged. 
 
 During July, Wasson was called from Carson 
 to confer with Governor Stanford, General Wright 
 and J. P. H. Wentworth, Indian Agent for the 
 Southern District of California, regarding the 
 Owens Valley situation. He was directed to col- 
 lect the Indians at Camp Independence, to which 
 point Wentworth was to come with presents and 
 to make a treaty. In the meantime Captain 
 Rowe's command had come into the valley from 
 the north and made camp east of the river, op- 
 posite Camp Independence. A powwow was held 
 there July 5th, and a temporary peace was made 
 with the Indian leaders. No friction was reported 
 during the summer, though a letter written at the 
 time said: ''The Indians feign friendship, but 
 show what they would do but for the troops." 
 
 Wentworth left San Francisco in September, 
 going by steamer to San Pedro. From there he 
 went to Fort Tejon and secured the aid of Alex 
 Godey as interpreter and guide. They brought a 
 quantity of presents and provisions for the na- 
 tives. Runners were sent to the different ranch- 
 erias and bands, and in response many Piutes 
 gathered for a council. The Indians asked only 
 that the government give them protection and 
 means of support. They were assured of the folly 
 of war, and were told that while good conduct 
 would be rewarded, rebellion would insure punish- 
 ment. On October 6th a treaty was made, and 
 
TEMPORARY PEACE 125 
 
 was celebrated by the Indians with a fandango. 
 Chief George remained at the fort as a hostage 
 for the good conduct of his people. While these 
 events were transpiring, other factors • were at 
 work leading to renewed trouble ; but on the sur- 
 face at the time, Owens Valley had passed to 
 the control of the whites within a few months of 
 the time when they had been driven from it. 
 
 Miners had been at work at Coso more or less 
 continuously during all the troubles in the valley. 
 Twenty arrastras were at work, and rich ore was 
 being taken out. A report in a Los Angeles paper 
 in July, in 1862, told of the arrival of a Dr. Bag- 
 ley with twenty-six pounds of gold from the 
 mines. 
 
 During the summer ''Lake City" was laid out 
 near Owens Lake, by T. F. A. Connelly and W. 
 B. Lilly. A few small shanties were erected, and 
 proved to be the full extent of the ''city." Other 
 occurrences of the summer included the beginning 
 of work at the Eclipse mine, under R. S. Whig- 
 ham as superintendent, and the bringing in, via 
 Walker's Pass, of machinery for a quartz mill at 
 Coso. T. F. A. Connelly did this freighting. 
 
 A prospecting soldier found free gold ore in 
 the range east of Independence. It was sent to 
 San Francisco, and immediately caused the organ- 
 ization of the San Carlos Mining and Exploration 
 Company. On September 24th Henry G. Hanks, 
 James Hutchings of Yosemite Valley note, and 
 Captain Corcoran left the city as representatives 
 of the company, to investigate the ledge from 
 which the specimens had come. They outfitted 
 
 10 
 
126 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 in Stockton, and crossed the Sierras at Bloody 
 Canyon, near Mono Lake. In passing through 
 Yosemite they gave to Cathedral Spires the name 
 now borne by that bit of scenic grandenr. Their 
 route was via Monoville and Aurora, and at the 
 latter place they were joined by George K. Phil- 
 lips. Coming southward, they passed Bodie, 
 where some prospecting was going on. At Hot 
 Springs they saw the riddled cabin in which Tay- 
 lor had been killed by the Indians some months be- 
 fore. On October 24th, a month from the day of 
 starting, they made camp three miles northeast 
 of Camp Independence. 
 
 A rich galena vein was found the following 
 day, within a mile of the camp, and the Romelia 
 claim was located on it. Hanks, assayer for the 
 party, tested the ore under difficulties. When the 
 work was nearly done, he related, a dog upset the 
 balances and spilled the small buttons of metal. A 
 long search failed to bring the missing buttons to 
 light, and the prospect was that the laborious 
 process would have to be repeated, when some 
 one suggested that the missing material might 
 have fallen into the dog's fur. The canine was 
 given a combing, the buttons were found, and 
 ascertained to show a richness of ore that highly 
 encouraged the men. 
 
 News of the find created strong interest in 
 San Francisco. Companies and stocks were 
 plentiful, and parties of prospectors headed for 
 the new bonanza. San Carlos camp became a busy 
 little place the following year. 
 
 While these happenings forecasted the ulti- 
 
TEMPORAEY PEACE 127 
 
 mate occupation of Owens Valley by white people, 
 officialdom had, just before, remembered the 
 earlier intention of establishing an Indian reser- 
 vation. Senator Latham introduced his bill to 
 sell the reservation lands in the southern part of 
 the State and move their populations to Owens 
 Valley. Agent Wentworth made strong objec- 
 tions; that his objections served the purpose is 
 sufficient without quibbling at these reasons he 
 set forth in a report dated August 30, 1862 : 
 
 "The scheme is utterly impracticable. In my department 
 there are 16,000 Indians, and Owens River Valley, cultivated 
 in the most skillful manner, with all the modem improve- 
 ments, by intelligent white labor, would not support that popu- 
 lation. How then would it be possible for the numerous 
 tribes, strangers to each other and comparatively ig-norant of 
 the first principles of agricultural pursuits, to sustain them- 
 selves on such a reservation? The narrow valley of Owens 
 River is only, at this time, suiRcient for the very small num- 
 ber of Indians, 1500 by census, who at present occupy and 
 inhabit it, and the cause of the war now waged there is 
 the desperation of the Indians because of the fact that the 
 emigration to the mines has destroyed the grass seed upon 
 which they, in a large measure, had been accustomed to sub- 
 sist. . . . The war there has already cost the Govern- 
 ment more than $90,000. If the Committee on Indian Affairs 
 had responded promptly to the estimate which I made last 
 winter for funds, viz., $59,300, I sincerely believe the whole 
 difficulty would have been avoided." 
 
 Wentworth had, however, laid off a reserva- 
 tion for the Piutes, embracing six townships, ex- 
 tending from foothill to foothill and from Big 
 Pine Creek on the north to George's Creek on 
 the south. He reported that while it seemed large 
 for the number of Indians, about 2,000 (disagree- 
 
128 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 ing with the alleged census of 1,500), "it must be 
 remembered that it is only in small spots that it 
 is susceptible of cultivation, the balance being 
 scarcely fit for grazing purposes, and none of it 
 attractive to settlers." This reservation was 
 recognized and respected by the whites during the 
 brief peace of that summer. 
 The agent further reported; 
 
 "Should the Department agree with me, as I trust it will 
 for I see no other way of keeping these Indians quiet, I hope 
 it will recommend to Congi'ess the immediate appropriation of 
 $30,000 for the purpose of enabling me to establish this reser- 
 vation. That sum, judiciously expended in the purchase of 
 seed, stock cattle, mules, wagons, ploughs, etc., would place 
 these wretched people beyond the necessity of stealing for a 
 livelihood, and would relieve the Goveniment from any 
 further expense for their support, as well as dispense with 
 the necessity of maintaining an expensive military post in a 
 country where everything has to be hauled a distance of 300 
 miles over a sandy road, with water only at long intervals, 
 and every obstacle to surmomit which is objectionable for a 
 military depot. Already the Government has expended many 
 thousands of dollars in sending and keeping troops there to 
 suppress difficulties that would never have occurred had Con- 
 gress appropriated, a year ago, for this reservation. 
 
 "The discoveiy of gold and silver mines in the ranges of 
 the movmtains on the borders of the Great Basin make what 
 was three years ago an unknown region at this time a great 
 thoroughfare; and the importance of averting at this time 
 such a calamity as an Indian war is more pressing, as it would 
 prevent travel and deprive the country of valuable resources 
 made known by the energy of our hardy pioneers. 
 
 "It would be impossible to remove the Indians of the more 
 southerly portion of my district to this proposed reservation, 
 because the rigor of the climate is such that it would be diffi- 
 cult to keep them during the inclement portion of the year, 
 when snow covers the ground, even if the expense of moving 
 
TEMPOKARY PEACE 129 
 
 them were not an insurmountable objection to such a propo- 
 sition. The importance of prompt action by Congress in this 
 matter cannot be presented more strongly than in the fact that 
 it can, by a small appropriation, if made at once, secure per- 
 manent peace with a people who have shown themselves for- 
 midable in war, and save the Government the enormous 
 expense attendant upon an interminable Indian difficulty 
 which will inevitably occur. 
 
 "Aside from this view of the matter, every principle of 
 justice and humanity demands that a portion of what really 
 belongs to them by inheritance should be secured to them, and 
 that a nation as noble as ours should lend a helping hand to 
 these people to raise them from their degradation." 
 
 Wentworth's recommendations went to Wm. 
 P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Dole 
 passed them on to J. P. Usher, Secretary of the 
 Interior, but with a letter of disapproval. He fa- 
 vored finding some other location, large enough 
 to accommodate all the Indians of the District of 
 Southern California. 
 
 Nothing came of either Latham's bill or of 
 Wentworth's recommendations. Congressman 
 Aaron A. Sargent successfully opposed the latter, 
 claiming that the amount asked was too much, 
 and unnecessary, as there were not 500 Indians 
 in the whole Owens River country. Wentworth 
 came back in a later report with evidence that 
 Sargent did not know what he was talking about, 
 and that the original claim of Indian population 
 was correct, but no further action was taken. 
 
 The year closed peacefully in Owens Valley, 
 though the desert regions to the southeast re- 
 mained dangerous for white men. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 FRESH OUTBREAKS 
 
 WAR MEDICINE MADE — LONE TRAVELERS MURDERED 
 
 MCDONALD KILLED AT BIG PINE — CABINS BROKEN OPEN 
 
 AND PILLAGED WEAK MILITARY DEMONSTRATIONS 
 
 ESCAPE OF THE MCGEE PARTY FROM INDIANS NEAR 
 BLACK ROCKS — TYLER CAPTURED BY NATIVES. 
 
 After the ostensible pacification of the Piutes, 
 a part of the military force at Camp Independence 
 had returned to Camp Babbitt, near Visalia, leav- 
 ing Captain Goodman and Company Q at the 
 former post. Goodman resigned January 31, 
 1863, and the command devolved upon James 
 Ropes, promoted to the captaincy. 
 
 While Wentworth and AVasson believed they 
 had made progress in their philanthropic efforts 
 to better conditions for the Owens Valley Piutes, 
 and while Captain George and his followers ap- 
 parently desired the peace for which they had 
 bargained in October, renegades from other re- 
 gions were preparing for the warpath, with Owens 
 Valley as the scene of their contemplated opera- 
 tions. The Indians under Joaquin Jim, north of 
 Big Pine Creek, had taken no part in the Inde- 
 pendence council, and George did not speak for 
 them ; neither did he represent the outlaw element 
 from Kern River, Tehachapi and the eastern 
 desert region. All that faction held a great pow- 
 
 130 
 
FRESH OUTBEEAKS 131 
 
 WOW in September (while Wentworth was at 
 Camp Independence), on an island in the south 
 fork of Kern River, and agreed to a campaign 
 in Owens Valley the following winter and spring. 
 One of those warriors told Weldon, a rancher in 
 that vicinity, that the intention was to keep the 
 Mormons out of Owens Valley. 
 
 John Lee and Jose Grijalva, packing goods to 
 Coso, were murdered at Canebrake, in Walker's 
 Pass, in September. Two teamsters met a like 
 fate not far from Weldon 's. During the next two 
 or three months lone white men were killed in 
 that region whenever safe opportunity offered 
 itself to the Indians. Prospectors Hall, Shepherd, 
 Turner and White, working near the Christmas 
 Gift mine, were among the victims. Five wood- 
 choppers in the hills northeast of Lone Pine went 
 the same way. Five men named McGuire, Mor- 
 rison, Taylor, Cowles and Hall were besieged in 
 a camp near Coso, and escaped by abandoning 
 their horses and camp. 
 
 On the forenoon of March 3, 1863, a meeting 
 was being held at San Carlos for organizing a 
 district. While it was in session, men named 
 Walker, Bellows, Crohn and Badger came in with 
 a young man named Ayres, just escaped from an 
 adventure in which a companion had lost his life 
 at Big Pine. The meeting hastily adjourned, 
 after deciding that until the valley reached a 
 more peaceful state all development work might 
 be suspended without prejudice to the validity of 
 locations already made. 
 
 Three Ayres brothers, Hiram, aged thirty-five, 
 
132 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 Albert, twenty-five, and William, twenty-one, and 
 Hiram McDonald were camped at Big Pine Creek, 
 March 2, 1862. Hiram Ayres had gone to the hills 
 to cut some stakes. Eeturning toward camp, he 
 saw an Indian loading horses with camp property, 
 while none of the white men were in sight. He 
 hid until towards morning, when the moon went 
 down, then started for Camp Independence, where 
 he arrived toward the following midnight. 
 
 William Ayres was the one who was brought 
 in by Walker and associates. He said that he was 
 in camp at dusk when he heard McDonald say: 
 ''Look out, Bill! They're going to shoot!" Then 
 a gun was fired, and William saw an Indian war- 
 rior running toward him with arrow fixed. He 
 ran, and was shot as he did so. He got into thick 
 brush and under a bank washed out by high water. 
 Though the Indians hunted and even poked his 
 body with sticks they did not find him. When all 
 was quiet he stole out and escaped, carrying an 
 arrow in his body. He was taken to Camp Inde- 
 pendence, where after long treatment by the post 
 surgeon, Horn, he recovered. 
 
 Hanks, William Wallace, Oscar Bacon and — . 
 McNamara set out to seek Albert Ayres, whom 
 they found struggling toward camp. He had been 
 with McDonald until the latter had been struck 
 by four arrows and had given up hope of escape. 
 Ayres pulled out the arrows and urged McDonald 
 to try to get away, but he insisted on Ayres leav- 
 ing him and going to warn the miners to the south- 
 ward. When McDonald was last seen the Piutes 
 were pelting him with stones. 
 
FEESH OUTBREAKS 133 
 
 Word came from Captain Ropes that CMef 
 George had disappeared from the fort after re- 
 ceiving his rations on March 1st, and trouble was 
 expected. Several hundred Indians were seen, 
 March 2, passing along the valley across the river 
 from the mining camp. Their women and children 
 were with them, which, the miners afterward con- 
 cluded, was the only reason an attack was not 
 made then. Ten men, well armed, were in the 
 camp, and believed they could have put up a good 
 battle. 
 
 Hanks and partners had returned to their 
 claims and were working when they were told 
 that their cabin had been broken into and ran- 
 sacked. On going to it, they found everything 
 except the laboratory table in a state of wreck- 
 age. Superstitious fears probably accounted for 
 the table and apparatus being undisturbed. All 
 clothing, guns, ammunition, knives, looking- 
 glasses and portable stuff for which the maraud- 
 ers had a fancy had been taken. Mattresses had 
 been cut, emptied, and their cloth taken. The door 
 had been broken open with the camp ax. Hanks 
 wrote, following this: 
 
 "I am beginning to change my mind about Indians. I used 
 to think they were a much-abused race and that the whites 
 were generally to blame in troubles like this, but now I know 
 to the contrary. Those very Indians who had been entertained 
 at our house were the ones to attack it, and would have mur- 
 dered us had we been at home." 
 
 Again he wrote: 
 
 "I want you to use all your influence to have the Indian 
 reservation done away with, and to prevent a treaty until the 
 
134 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 Indians are punished severely. The citizens of this valley are 
 exasperated to that extent that they will not respect any 
 treaty until the Indians are completely conquered and pun- 
 ished. The Indians are a cruel, cowai'dly, treacherous race. 
 The whites have treated them well, paid them faithfully for 
 all services performed by them, and have used the reservation 
 only after gaining the consent of Captain George, their chief. 
 After living on the charity of whites all winter, having 
 gambled away the blankets and beads given them by the Gov- 
 ernment, they now, without giving us the slightest warning, 
 pounce down like vultures, rob those who have treated them 
 best, and murdered where they could without danger to them- 
 selves. They rush upon their prey in great numbers, like a 
 pack of wolves, and not satisfied with filling the bodies of 
 their victims with glass-pointed arrows, beat them into a 
 pumice with stones. Can we be expected to give such inhuman 
 wretches a chance at us again'? We call upon you, the people 
 of Califoniia, State and Federal authorities, to have this 
 reservation and this set of wild savages removed to some 
 other point. This valley is the natural thoroughfare through 
 the mountains, and destined by nature to be the seat of a 
 large population." 
 
 A lone cabin owned by a miner named Ladd, 
 a mile from the San Carlos camp, was broken 
 open and robbed March 6th. On that same day, 
 not far from the Ida Camp, east of the present 
 Manzanar, Curtis Bellows fell a victim to lurk- 
 ing* Indians. The natives, seeking metal with 
 which to make bullets for their guns, had de- 
 stroyed the lead pipe which supplied water for 
 the camp, making it necessary for Bellows and 
 his partner, named Lambert, to visit a spring 
 half a mile distant. Bellows was returning from 
 such a journey when an arrow from ambush en- 
 tered his body. He pulled it out and broke it. 
 Another and more fatal shot struck him, and he 
 
FRESH OUTBREAKS 135 
 
 sank dead upon the trail. His partner, seeing 
 Bellows fall, ran to their cabin, followed by In- 
 dians. By shouting orders, he made the Indians 
 think several men were in the place, and they re- 
 treated. A detail of fifteen soldiers recovered and 
 buried the body of Bellows. 
 
 Another letter from San Carlos said: 
 
 "We hear that 40 men of Co. E, Second Cavalry, under 
 Lieut. Davis, are on the way from Visalia. The force of 
 soldiers here is Co. G, under Capt. Ropes. There is every 
 probability that the Indians will want another treaty very 
 soon, when they find nothing can be gained by fighting. They 
 have been treated well, many of them fed by the United 
 States, and their persons and those of their women protected 
 by stringent militai-y orders. I have yet to hear of the first 
 act of injustice toward them since the treaty." 
 
 Captain Ropes sent Lieutenant James C. 
 Doughty and six men to the Black Rocks, where 
 the Indians were known to be in force. No state- 
 ment of the purpose of this weak expedition is 
 found in any military or other record. Near Black 
 Rock Spring they were attacked by a force of 
 Indians estimated at 200, armed with guns as 
 well as with bows and arrows. Private Jabez 
 T. Love joy was shot through the body and died 
 that evening. Privates George W. Hazen, John 
 W. Armstrong and George Sourwine were all 
 wounded, and Lieutenant Doughty was shot in 
 the hand with an arrow. Sourwine 's horse was 
 killed; he took Lovejoy's, and carried the mortally 
 wounded man in front of him to Camp Inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 An account written at the time gives the name 
 of Henry Bosworth as one of the wounded men, 
 
136 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 but no such name appears on the company roll. 
 
 Three days later Ropes took twenty-seven 
 soldiers, accompanied by Charles Anderson, Dr. 
 Burnham and other citizens, to the Black Rocks. 
 As they neared the tumbled lava masses, a few 
 Indians were seen, throwing sand in the air and 
 yelling like fiends. They opened fire on the 
 whites, but without doing any damage. Hanks 
 wrote: "Ropes retreated slowly to draw the In- 
 dians from the rocks, but they were too wary to 
 be trapped, and stayed in the natural stronghold 
 of the Black Rocks. After a few vain shots the 
 soldiers went back to camp." Local stories al- 
 leged that Ropes made a disgraceful retreat. 
 John C. Willett, writing of it, said the soldiers 
 were short of ammunition. 
 
 One of the most noted events of the war was 
 the escape of the McGee party from the Indians, 
 on March 7, 1863. This story has been printed in 
 different journals, generally with errors and em- 
 bellishments designed to add to its readability. 
 The following is the account given to the author 
 by Alney L. McGee, for many years a citizen of 
 Inyo and with a record of uprightness in keeping 
 with his personal bravery : 
 
 A party composed of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Sum- 
 mers, Alney L. McGee, his mother, a little girl 
 (his niece) and Negro Charley Tyler camped at 
 the soon-to-be site of Owensville on the night of 
 March 6th, during a journey from Aurora to 
 Visalia. Near Big Pine they came upon the body 
 of McDonald, whose murder has been narrated. 
 The corpse had been stripped of every shred of 
 
FRESH OUTBREAKS 137 
 
 clothing. This discovery spurred them to a hasty 
 flight do^vn the valley. Signal smokes were seen 
 as they neared the hills below Fish Springs. As 
 the party moved east of that low range, a band 
 of Indians estimated at 150 was seen blocking the 
 way ahead. The party left the poorly marked 
 road to cross the river. The wagons stuck in the 
 soft mud in the bottom of the stream, then at a 
 low stage, and the horses were cut loose. By the 
 time the whites had crossed the Piutes were at 
 the western bank, sending arrows and bullets 
 among them. This was near a mound ever since 
 known as Charley's Butte, a short distance from 
 the present intake of the Los Angeles aqueduct. 
 On reaching the east bank Summers and Mc- 
 Gee put the women and little girl on the horses' 
 backs, and ran alongside, holding to the manes, 
 and thus drew beyond the Indians' reach. The 
 yelling Indians pursued, but their inferior ponies 
 were unable to overtake the fugitives, who reached 
 Camp Independence that night. Negro Charley 
 was less fortunate. He tried to catch one of the 
 band of loose horses which were being driven with 
 the party, but did not succeed. When last seen 
 he was running and fighting, and without doubt 
 some of the assailants paid with their lives. He 
 had taken part in the valley's Indian fighting, 
 and had accounted for several of the enemy. His 
 fate was never definitely known. Captain George 
 claimed that he was taken alive and was tortured 
 to death on Big Pine Creek. A pioneer told of 
 the finding of a skull and vertebrae of a man, later 
 that year, on a stream west of Charley's Butte. 
 
138 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 The skull had been so crushed that its race could 
 not be determined. It appeared that the victim 
 must have been dead before his body was triced 
 up with withes over a fire. Mr. McGree did not 
 believe that Charley was taken alive. 
 
 When the escapes reached the fort they were 
 halted by John C. Willett, doing sentry duty. 
 "When Mrs. McGee was lifted from her horse she 
 was unable to stand. At their request Willett 
 hunted up citizen acquaintances in the camp, and 
 the matter was reported to Captain Ropes. The 
 latter 's reception of them was not to his credit; 
 however, they remained at the post until May, 
 when they went back to Aurora. 
 
 The party lost twenty-two horses and their 
 wagon mth its load of personal property, in- 
 cluding $640 in money. Unlike many other cases 
 of Indian depredations, this loss was never made 
 good by the Government. 
 
 A San Carlos report said that Captain Ropes 
 was to send men northward to prevent similar 
 attacks on other travelers. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 CONTINUATION OF THE WAR 
 
 SETTLERS ON DEFENSIVE — MORE TROOPS ARRIVE — A SUC- 
 CESSFUL MUTINY — FIGHTING ON BIG PINE CREEK 
 
 WARRIORS FOLLOWED BY CITIZENS TO BATTLEGROUND 
 
 ON WEST SHORE OF OWENS LAKE INDIAN BAND 
 
 ALMOST EXTERMINATED. 
 
 Assayer Hanks, reporting to the president of 
 the San Carlos company in San Francisco on 
 March 8th, wrote that Capt. (Chas.) Anderson 
 and himself had taken six carbines and a lot of 
 cartridges to the Union mill, probably eight miles 
 south of San Carlos. ''I look on the magnificent 
 landscape," he writes, ''and thought that such 
 a valley was well worth fighting for." At Rode- 
 bank's (an error for Coburn's, according to some 
 old residents) on George's Creek, everybody was 
 armed and expecting an attack. Putnam's stone 
 cabin on Little Pine Creek sheltered a number of 
 men, prepared to defy any Indian force. Lone 
 Pine had two camps wherein citizens had gath- 
 ered for defense. Four men were fortified at 
 Clayton's house (locality not stated). Every- 
 where all hands were burning off brush, moving 
 hay, cleaning guns, cutting portholes in cabin 
 walls, and otherwise preparing for battle. Two 
 nights earlier Indians had fired the haystack near 
 the Union mill, and the camp was burned at the 
 
 139 
 
140 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 same time. Hanks remained to help defend the 
 Union mill; he notes that he considered the pres- 
 servation of the mill to be of great importance. 
 
 Troopers Johnson and Potter had left Camp 
 Independence early in March for Aurora, for a 
 purpose not explained but probably to warn in- 
 tending travelers. When they reached Black 
 Rocks, March 12th, on their return trip, they 
 found 300 Indians along the road, with 50 guns. 
 Chief George gave them a pressing invitation to 
 come to his camp, but they preferred not to be 
 the central figures in an Indian holiday. Riding 
 close to him, they put spurs to their horses and 
 dashed through the line, escaping with nothing 
 more serious than a wound in Johnson's hand and 
 a bullet crease across the neck of his horse. 
 
 Hanks' manuscript, March 10th: 
 
 "Today 14 soldiers under Lieut. Doty (Doughty) crossed 
 at the ferry and went up to the ford to put up a 
 notice of warning to any party who may be on the way down, 
 to come down and cross at San Carlos. Last night Indians 
 were all around the mill, as we could see their tracks this 
 morning." 
 
 March 11. — "Today Mr. Summers, one of the men who 
 escaped from the Indians, came down to the mill. He tells 
 a thrilling story. He says the Indians did not go up the river 
 yesterday. They found the ferry boat had been cut loose. 
 Party left the Union mill this morning and went up as far as 
 San Carlos. Found the rope cut and boat gone, and window 
 and door smashed at the house. No other damage was done." 
 
 Hanks' notes of March 12th relate the John- 
 son-Potter incident, with the remark that a large 
 party of soldiers had gone to see if they could find 
 the Indians. 
 
CONTINUATION OF THE WAR 141 
 
 No record of events of the latter half of March 
 is available, though it was in the middle of the 
 busiest season of trouble. On the 4th of April 
 the military force at Camp Independence was aug- 
 mented by the arrival of Company E, Second Cali- 
 fornia Cavalry, under Captain Herman Noble — 
 the same w^ho as Lieutenant of Company A had 
 accompanied Wasson in his wasted peace mission 
 the year before. 
 
 Company E had the unique record of being the 
 only successful mutineers in the United States 
 army. While the incident is aside from the pur- 
 pose of this history, it is worth preservation as 
 well as being a temporary change from the narra- 
 tion of the guerrilla warfare then prevailing. It 
 was told by Chauncey L. Canfield, a private in the 
 company : Company E was made up of Tuolumne 
 County volunteers, and was allowed to choose its 
 own officers. The choice for captain fell upon 
 D. B. Akey, a Mexican War veteran, hard-working 
 miner and good citizen. Like other California 
 volunteers, the members expected to be sent to 
 the battlefields of the Civil War; and like others, 
 the company was held in the West. This started 
 the discontent ; a march to Fort Humboldt during 
 a hard winter increased it; and the climax was 
 reached in Akey's proving to be a veritable tyrant. 
 The company fought Indians in northern Califor- 
 nia until midsummer of 1862. It was then agreed 
 among the men that on a specified date no man 
 should obey any order given by Akey, though ex- 
 pressing" a willingness to act under any other offi- 
 cer. Though under the Articles of War each was 
 
142 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 liable to death for mutiny, it was felt that the 
 circumstances justified desperate measures. Akey 
 got wind of the situation, and went to San Fran- 
 cisco. During his absence the company was moved 
 to Red Bluff, but any hope that some other officer 
 would be sent in his place was shattered by his 
 arrival there. At Akey's direction the orderly 
 sergeant had the company drawn up in line. He 
 then said: ''All those who intend to refuse to 
 obey my commands as their superior officer step 
 two paces to the front." That command, at least, 
 they obeyed, for every man, except two who had 
 joined subsequent to the compact, took the two 
 steps forward. The captain glanced up and down 
 the line, said nothing, and turned and walked to 
 the ferry, passing from his company forever. The 
 company remained there four months, while the 
 War Department was considering its case. The 
 decision w^as to muster it out of service, without 
 pay, and it was marched to Benicia Barracks for 
 that purpose ; but through the intervention of Gov- 
 ernor Stanford the sentence was revoked. Noble 
 was appointed its captain November 21, 1862, and 
 in December the march for Owens Valley began. 
 Akey was transferred to Noble's former company, 
 A, and resigned eleven days later. He went to 
 Nevada, and in after years visited Inyo. 
 
 The two companies at Camp Independence left 
 there April 9, Ropes in command. A soldier of 
 the expedition, writing to the author from Massa- 
 chusetts, stated that the white force included 120 
 soldiers and 35 citizens. The following day a band 
 of 200 Indians was found strongly posted on a 
 
CONTINUATIOISr OF THE WAR 143 
 
 spur of the Sierras north of Big Pine creek. Fir- 
 ing lasted all afternoon, and toward evening the 
 Indians withdrew into the mountains. A number 
 (not definitely stated) of Indians were killed or 
 wounded; white casualties, Private Thomas 
 Spratt, of G Company, dangerously shot in the 
 head, and Private John Burden, of E Company, 
 slightly wounded. Spratt was sent back to the 
 fort for attention, with J. S. Broder as one of the 
 attendants. A large band of Indians pursued 
 them among the Black Rocks, but they made a 
 successful escape. 
 
 Sergeant Huntington, of Company Gr, and half 
 a dozen men had a running fight with Chief 
 George and a large body of Indians in the Black 
 Eocks, and reached the fort safely, after killing 
 several of their pursuers. 
 
 The chief Indian headquarters of the mid- 
 southern part of the valley was at Chief George's 
 rancheria on the creek which still bears his name, 
 and west of the present Manzanar townsite. On 
 the night of April 18 the natives had a feast there, 
 having slain a work ox belonging to the whites. 
 The next morning J. L. Bodle saw them leaving in 
 a southerly direction, and with his companions 
 counted thirty-seven of them strung out in single 
 file. Word was sent to Camp Independence, and 
 thirty or forty soldiers and citizens took their 
 trail. It was followed west of the Alabama hills 
 to a point two miles or so north of Cottonwood 
 Creek, where a bullet through a man's hat gave 
 notice of the nearness of the foe. A running fight 
 ensued, the Indians being driven from one point 
 
144 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 to another until they made a last stand on the 
 west shore of Owens Lake, not far from the mouth 
 of the creek. Their guns were so foul that they 
 could ram bullets into the barrels only by pound- 
 ing the ramrods with stones. Lieut. Doughty was 
 dismounted by accidentally shooting his own horse 
 through the head. It is also said that the only 
 casualty to the white forces resulted from a mis- 
 directed shot from one of their own pistols. When 
 this wounded man fell, an Indian known as Chief 
 Butcherknife dashed up to finish him, but was 
 slain. Completely beaten, the Piutes sought refuge 
 in the lake. A strong wind was blowing from the 
 east and interfered with their making much prog- 
 ress in swimming, and one after another was killed 
 in the light of a full moon just rising over the 
 eastern mountains. The whites established a long 
 line along the lake shore, and remained until the 
 bodies began to wash ashore. A pioneer partici- 
 pant alleged that the next morning a pair of 
 water-soaked moccasins was found near the lake, 
 presumably indicating that an Indian had sur- 
 vived the rain of lead and had emerged when op- 
 portunity offered. One Indian fled westward dur- 
 ing the fight; he headed up the mountain, with 
 derisive signs, and thereafter lived with the Kern 
 Indians. Taking the count made at George's 
 Creek, thirty-five or thirty-six Indians were killed 
 in that affair. Milo Page, a pioneer, asserted that 
 he passed the spot soon afterward and saw thirty- 
 three skulls, from which coyotes had stripped the 
 flesh, piled up in one place. Bancroft's Handbook, 
 1864, said sixteen Indians were killed in the fight ; 
 all evidence is that this was much understated. 
 
CONTINUATION OF THE WAR 145 
 
 The George's Creek white residents joined the 
 soldiers on their way down, leaving only J. L. 
 Bodle and one other man as guards for the prop- 
 erty at that settlement. A. L. McGee, John Kis- 
 pert, W. A. Greenly, Meyer and others well known 
 in later Inyo affairs were among the citizen com- 
 batants. 
 
 From the body of one of the dead Indians was 
 taken the Colt's powder and ball pistol which 
 Negro Charley had carried, and this w^eapon was 
 still in the possession of Mr. McGee at the time of 
 his death a few years ago. Contrary to oft- 
 repeated report, Mr. McGee stated that it was the 
 only bit of property of the Summers-McGee party 
 recovered from the marauding Indians. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 RUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 
 
 SOLDIERS MASSACRE INOFFENDING INDIANS ON KERN RIVER 
 
 PRISONERS TAKEN BY TROOPS — DESTRUCTION OP 
 
 INDIAN STORES — POWWOW WITH CHIEF GEORGE — MANY 
 INDIANS SURRENDER — MURDERS BY WHITES — MER- 
 BIAM's THRILLING ESCAPE. 
 
 Company L, Second California Cavalry, Cap- 
 tain Albert Brown commanding, arrived at 
 Bishop Creek in April, 1863, and remained for a 
 few weeks before going on to Camp Independence. 
 It returned to Fort Churchill, Nevada, in June. 
 
 Company D of the same regiment became 
 more prominent in Owens Valley affairs. With 
 Captain Moses A. McLaughlin in command, it left 
 Camp Babbitt April 12, and reached Keysville, 
 Kern County, six days later. The official report 
 says: 
 
 "Heard that a large party of Indians were camped a few 
 miles above, and at 2 o'clock in the morning of the next day 
 surromided their camp and killed 35 of them. Not a soldier 
 injured." 
 
 Pioneers of both Inyo and Kern Counties 
 speak of this affair as a cold-blooded massacre. 
 The Kern Indians were at peace with the whites. 
 Hearing that troops were approaching, they were 
 much alarmed, but were advised by white acquain- 
 tances to give up their arms and stay close to the 
 
 146 
 
KUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 147 
 
 settlements. They delivered eighteen gnns to the 
 white settlers, and camped near Kernville (then 
 called Whisky Flat) eight miles from Keysville. 
 The soldiers surrounded the camp and told two 
 Kern petty chiefs to pick out the chiefs of their 
 bands. The thirty-five remaining Indians were 
 herded to one side and ruthlessly shot down. This 
 was the account given by J. W. Sumner, a resident 
 there at the time. He said further that no evidence 
 existed to implicate the victims in the Owens Val- 
 ley troubles a hundred miles away. The superin- 
 tendent of Tule River Reservation, the nearest, 
 mentions in a report that year that the Indians 
 under his charge had frequently given informa- 
 tion in regard to the movements of their more 
 hostile neighbors of Owens Valley, and when so- 
 licited to join against the whites had absolutely 
 refused. There were renegades among them, 
 however, who had engineered the Kern River war 
 council the preceding fall. 
 
 McLaughlin's command reached Camp Inde- 
 pendence April 24, and McLaughlin, as senior 
 captain, became ranking officer at the post. The 
 following day his company started on an unsuc- 
 cessful two-day scout after Indians. On the ar- 
 rival of this reinforcement the Summers-McGee 
 party asked for a military escort through the val- 
 ley on their way to Aurora, but the request was 
 refused. In May enough citizens to form a strong 
 party left for Aurora, and the refugees went with 
 them. On the way out Alney McGee and H. Hurley 
 encountered and killed three Indians on Owens 
 River. 
 
148 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 During May the cavalrymen were active. Lieut. 
 George D. French, of McLaughlin's company, and 
 twenty men made a scouting trip, during wliich 
 French and seven of his men attacked an Indian 
 band, killing one and mortally wounding three. 
 About the 10th or 12tli twenty-five or thirty Indian 
 prisoners were taken at Big Pine and sent to the 
 fort, by a detachment of Company E. Four men 
 of Company L, under Sergeant Henry C. Church, 
 came on a party of fourteen Indians on the head- 
 waters of Owens River and killed four, the rest 
 retreating into the rocks. This company was out 
 almost continuously and by its destruction of 
 many caches of Indian stores inflicted more seri- 
 ous punishment on the natives than the killing of 
 a few of their braves would have been. During 
 May it destroyed about 300 bushels of "seed" 
 (pine nuts and taboose) found cached in the 
 vicinity of Bishop Creek. Captain McLaughlin 
 himself was in the field with a detachment, seek- 
 ing Joaquin Jim, leader of the southern Mono In- 
 dians. Jim's camp was found and destroyed, its 
 residents escaping. 
 
 Sergeant McLaughlin (not the cay^tain) suc- 
 ceeded in getting a conference with Captain 
 George, and induced him to visit the fort in peace, 
 arriving there May 22. Subchief Dick also came. 
 The Indians were fed and treated well, and said 
 they had no further wish to fight the white man. 
 Other Indians began coming in, ''clad in native 
 costume, a head of hair, ' ' remarks an unidentified 
 correspondent of a San Francisco paper of that 
 year. Captain George is described as second to 
 
RUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 149 
 
 Joaquin Jim alone in influence over his people. He 
 was about tliirty-six years old, of medium height, 
 wily and shrewd, and manly in bearing. . His face, 
 normally round and full, was wan and pinched 
 from privation when he was brought to the post. 
 Getting enough to eat was an ever-present prob- 
 lem with the Owens Valley Piutes, and was aggra- 
 vated for some of them by the rigid enforcement 
 of strict subtribal boundaries on hunting grounds. 
 The most effective campaigning of the troops was 
 in destruction of the scanty native stores of food. 
 At this time, through con-stant flight and loss of 
 supplies, the Indians were in dire want. 
 
 The soldiers themselves were ready for a rest. 
 Company D 's report for May says : 
 
 "The company during' the month has performed several 
 severe marches in the mountains, suffering much for want of 
 water and rations. These marches have been performed on 
 foot, it being impossible to use horses; but their labors, com- 
 bined with that of other troops in the valley, have been 
 crowned with success, resulting as they have in the subjuga- 
 tion of the Indians, and terminating thus speedily a war 
 which promised to be of much longer duration." 
 
 While such congratulatory reflections seemed 
 justified at the moment, they proved to be pre- 
 mature. 
 
 Four hundred Indians surrendered at Camp 
 Independence June 4. Runners to outlying bands 
 met with fair success, but their work was largely 
 nullified by that of a few white men. Captain 
 Ropes, in a letter published in the Esmeralda 
 Star, of Aurora, July 30, bitterly criticized citi- 
 zens who had lacked the courage to bear their 
 share of fighting and danger. 
 
150 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 "As soon as a cessation of hostilities was proclaimed by 
 the commanding officer these stay-at-home fellows gTew won- 
 drous brave, and boldly declared their animosity to the whole 
 red race. Two Indian messengers that were sent from the 
 post to the White Mountain district to gather these Indians 
 were fired upon by some chivalrous miners, though the mes- 
 sengers were unarmed and bore a white flag. Of course they 
 never i-etumed, and today prospectors are in danger of their 
 lives. Then, again, a Tehachapi Indian who had been for 
 three months in irons was released and sent home to induce 
 his tribe to cease hostilities and come in. With what would 
 have been considered astonishing good faith in even a white 
 man, he seems to have worked faithfully to accomplish his 
 mission, and was returning with a number of his people, men, 
 women and children, when they were fired upon in a most 
 cowardly way while they were sitting in their camp only 15 
 miles from the post. Two men and one little girl were 
 killed, and all were scalped by these brave and chivalrous 
 gentlemen, who rode off and exhibited their bloody trophies 
 of the war. At the Big Lake the recollection of their glorious 
 deeds so stirred their noble souls that they became slightly 
 oblivious, and in that state one of the noble trio, Fl-ank 
 Wliitson, was arrested by Lieutenant French, who had been 
 sent for him. The gentleman is now in our guard house in 
 irons, and awaits an order for trial. Of the Indians who 
 escaped from this attack, most of them made their way to the 
 mountains, where they now are and where they will remain 
 for all that anyone can do to drive them out. Never again 
 can any of them be induced to place any faith in the promises 
 of white men, and if another outbreak occurs it will be far 
 the most desperate we have ever seen. 
 
 "I should have mentioned that the last party of Indians 
 mentioned also bore a white flag, traveled openly in the road 
 in daylight, and that their purpose was known to everyone. 
 But for such ruffians as those who fired upon them, unarmed 
 as they were, there would not today be a hostile Indian in the 
 entire country; and those who may hereafter suffer will have 
 Mr. Wliitson and others of like ilk to thank for it." 
 
 Milo Page, writing many years later, gave a 
 
EUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 151 
 
 version of this affair quite different in details, but 
 not changing the appearance of murderous treach- 
 ery. His statement was that an Indian -known as 
 Thieving Charley was given a white flag by Cap- 
 tain McLaughlin, with a note stating to whoever 
 read it that Charley was on his way to bring the 
 Panamint Indians to Camp Independence to sur- 
 render. This note fell into the hands of W. T. 
 Henderson, in the Panamint region. Charley 
 rounded up eleven Indians, and on his return to 
 Owens Valley he was followed by Henderson, 
 Lyman Martin, John Shipe, Frank Whitson and 
 
 Ringgold. At Charley Johnson's, at Lone 
 
 Pine, Ringgold got drunk and was not in the sub- 
 sequent affair — a procedure which Henderson 
 claimed resulted from cowardice and intention. 
 The Indians camped near the Alabama hills. 
 Henderson and fellow murderers attacked them 
 early the next morning and killed nine of the 
 twelve. The two survivors went on to Camp In- 
 dependence and reported to Captain McLaughlin. 
 A detachment of soldiers was sent to bring in the 
 culprits. At Olancha the commander asked loudly 
 if anyone there had been killing Indians. An- 
 swered in the negative, he told his men they could 
 go in and get a drink. Henderson, Martin and 
 Shipe were visible as they crawled into their 
 brush from their blankets. Whitson ran to catch 
 his mule, and a corporal went, under instructions, 
 to ask if he had been killing Indians. If Whitson 
 had said no (says Page's story) there would have 
 been a report that no guilty men could be found ; 
 instead, Whitson said, "Yes; what are you going 
 
152 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 to do about it?" He was arrested and taken to 
 Camp Independence, where he was kept under 
 guard. Finally word was sent by Page that they 
 were tired of guarding him, and if he would try 
 to escape the boys would shoot at him, but not to 
 hit. Still Whitson refused to escape, and was 
 taken to Fort Tejon, where he was kept for a few 
 months and finally released. 
 
 With such happenings as this and the Kern 
 River massacre in mind, it was not surprising that 
 many of the Indians remained utterly unrecon- 
 ciled, and that as opportunity offered they re- 
 sorted to every primitive method of revenge and 
 reprisal. They could not be more vicious than 
 some whites had proved to be. However, at that 
 time they were completely beaten in the valley of 
 which they had been so recently the complete mas- 
 ters. Chiefs George and Dick knew that resuming 
 the Vv^arpath meant hunger, if not starvation, for 
 their families and people. At the post they were 
 safe and were being fed. 
 
 Indian Agent Wentworth was requested by 
 General Wright to receive the Owens Valley In- 
 dians at San Sebastian Reservation, near Fort 
 Tejon. In a report dated September 1, 1863, he 
 again referred to the $30,000 appropriation for 
 which he had asked with which to care for the Inyo 
 natives. Had Congress granted it, he said, 
 
 "No Indian Avar would have been waged, and the country 
 would have been saved more than $250,000 in its treasury, 
 the lives of many of its valuable citizens, and many of the 
 poor misguided Indians, to whom the Government haa 
 promised protection, would today, instead of being dead, be 
 
RUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 153 
 
 living and tilling the soil of their native valley, and through 
 their own willing hands obtaining an honest and well-earned 
 livelihood Owing to recent and extensive mines dis- 
 covered in the Owens River Valley, and the consequent rush 
 of mmers and settlers there, I deem that locality for an In- 
 dian reserve entirely impracticable, and the present war fully 
 demonstrates that the Indian and white race can never live 
 peacefully in close proximity to each other. I have therefore 
 to recommend the abandonment of that valley, for an Indian 
 reservation. The mines, which are of unsurpassed riches, will 
 cause thousands to permanently settle there during the com- 
 ing year, and as heretofox'e throughout all California, the 
 rights of the Indian will be disregarded, and constant turmoil 
 and war will be a natural result." 
 
 Pursuant to instructions, Captain McLaughlin 
 left Camp Independence July 11, 1863, with 906 
 Indian men, women and children. The escort com- 
 prised seventy men of companies D, E and G, and 
 twenty-two men of the Fourth California Infan- 
 try, of whose presence at the post there is no other 
 record. 
 
 At Hot Springs Valley, near Keyesville, or- 
 ders were received to abandon Camp Indepen- 
 dence, and McLaughlin and Company D returned 
 to make the necessary preparations. McLaughlin 
 sold the Government's property at the post to 
 Warren Matthews. Having no instructions or 
 authority for this proceeding, he was court mar- 
 tialed and dismissed from the service the follow- 
 ing year. President Johnson removed part of his 
 disabilities three years later. 
 
 The band of Piute captives went on to Tejon, 
 arriving there July 22. While it was certain that 
 a large number of Indians had escaped along the 
 way, to return to their native valley, Wentworth 
 
154 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 reported the delivery of 850 at the reservation, 
 and said that twice as many were yet in Owens 
 Valley. When the settlers learned that stragglers 
 were returning from the reservation journey, they 
 made a virtue of necessity and sent an invitation 
 to the exiles to return and live in peace. 
 
 Even while McLaughlin was convoying his cap- 
 tives to Tejon, the valley north of Big Pine Creek 
 was as dangerous as ever to isolated men. While 
 Joaquin Jim's chief stronghold was in Long Val- 
 ley, he constituted himself the overlord of north- 
 ern Owens Valley as well. Two of his warriors 
 were killed in the White Mountains by prospect- 
 ors, who after this amicable preliminary left a 
 white flag as a bid for peace. Jim himself gave 
 the answer, as the next visit of the whites to that 
 locality disclosed, by carrying away the flag, and 
 putting in its place his own war banner, a scarlet 
 cloth bordered with raven feathers — said to have 
 been a handsome piece of work. 
 
 About the first of August nine prospect- 
 ors ventured into Little Round Valley, at the 
 threshold of Jim's stronghold. Part of them war- 
 ily prospected while the others remained as a 
 camp guard. No Indians were seen until the fol- 
 lowing evening, when the camp was attacked in 
 force. Two Lidians were killed. The whites were 
 unhurt, but made their way to Fish Slough that 
 night, and to Owens River the next morning. 
 
 W. L. Moore and Mark Cornish, coming from 
 Aurora, battled with Lidians, killing two near 
 Adobe Meadows. 
 
 In the early part of July there came to the 
 
RUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 155 
 
 valley a company known as the Cliurch party. Its 
 members, named Parker, Long, Ericson, Chase, 
 Evans, Miller and one more, were from San Fran- 
 cisco. They believed that Indian friendship would 
 result from an attitude of generosity and good 
 will. This party made its camp near where Laws 
 now is. Nothing is narrated of the doings of these 
 men prior to the arrival, late in August, of Ezra 
 D. Merriam, a young man who brought letters of 
 introduction from mutual friends in San Fran- 
 cisco. During the weeks reports and warnings of 
 Indian dangers had come to their camp, but noth- 
 ing of those facts was told to Merriam ; it would 
 appear that he did not take strongly to the olive- 
 branch idea. 
 
 On the invitation of Silas Parker, Edmund 
 Long and Edward Ericson, Merriam started with 
 them to locate timber on the mountains northwest 
 of the valley. This trip resulted in the deaths of 
 the first three, and gave Merriam an experience 
 that ranks among the notable incidents of the pe- 
 riod. We narrate it in his own words, as found 
 in the Hanks collection of manuscripts : 
 
 "We left camp in the Keyes district, lOwens River Valley, 
 September 2d, to locate some timber on the headwaters of 
 Owens River. We camped at night twenty miles from the 
 starting point, being unable to reach water. Resumed our 
 journey at daylight on the third. Saw signs of Indians five 
 miles further on. Five miles more brought us to the timber, 
 where the Indians had been gathering pine nuts. We were 
 unable to get a road and concluded to cross the river. We 
 found an Indian trail to the river, half a mile from the top 
 of the bank down the trail, and 600 feet perpendicular. 
 Breakfasted at the river at noon— the first water we had foi 
 
156 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 twenty-three hours. We saddled our horses and started up 
 the other bank, after one and one-half hours rest, with Parker 
 in lead, -Long second, Erieson third and myself last. 
 
 "When we were twenty-five yards from the top, which was 
 covered with large rocks, eight rifle shots were fired, Parker 
 fell, pierced by two balls through the breast, exclaiming- 'My 
 God, I'm shot!' 
 
 "Long" and Erieson left their horses and jumped behind 
 rocks, rifles in hand. Not seeing an enemy I took refuge 
 behind a rock ten feet from Erieson, who had laid down his 
 rifle and was exposing himself, calling to Parker. I saw the 
 crumbling of a rock from the top of the hill, and dodged my 
 head down as a ball whizzed past, a few inches above. 
 
 "The Indians were in front and on both flanks. About the 
 same time a shot was fired from the right. I asked Erieson 
 if he was hit. He said he was. He was clasping his thigh, 
 and raised his hand, from which blood was streaming, I 
 saw nothing of Long after he went behind his rock, 
 
 "I then attemi^ted to get to another rock, but missed ray 
 footing and slid down the bank for twenty feet. Indians on 
 the left started down the trail. I reached the bank at a dif- 
 ferent point from the trail, could not cross, and hid in the 
 chaparral. Heard two more rifle shots, but saw no Indians 
 for two hours; then I saw seven Indians on the opposite bank, 
 motioning to others on my side of the river and pointing to 
 where I was concealed. I worked through the chapaiTal, and 
 saw ten Indians coming there, so I arose and ran down the 
 canyon. Tliey whooped and gave chase. 
 
 "I outran them for a time, then found that they were gain- 
 ing on me. I jumped into the river, but found that I could 
 not cross it on account of the rapid current. Half a mile 
 below I came to a fall fifteen feet high. Tried to reach the 
 bank but could not, and was carried over. The euiTent had 
 carried me faster than the Indians could pursue. I struck 
 bottom and caught between two rocks, and had almost lost 
 breath when a final struggle extricated me. Came to the 
 surface, caught my breath, then dove and came up under 
 chaparral on the bank, hiding me from view. A small rock 
 projected twelve inches from the bank and three inches above 
 the water. I sank my body and raised my nose under the 
 rock. 
 
KUTHLESS SLAUGHTEEINGS 157 
 
 "In a few minutes I heard Indians on the bank and just 
 above my head, and saw two on the opposite bank with rifles, 
 scanning the bank under which I was. Some of the Indians 
 on my side moved part of the chaparral that covered me. My 
 hat had washed ashore, and an Indian took it. I remained 
 there three hours before the Indians left. Half an hour later 
 all was silent; and I floated down stream until I struck a 
 large rock on which I climbed. Jumped for shore, caught a 
 bush, and finally got out. I hid in a canebrake until dark, 
 completely chilled and scarcely able to move. Could see no 
 signs of Indians. Finally I managed to get up motion, 
 reached the top of the hill and ran through the timber. I 
 went to the camp we had left on the 2d, traveling all night 
 and until 10 :00 the next morning without water, until I 
 reached the valley. On my way down I saw several Indian 
 camp-fires." 
 
 Word was sent to San Carlos, Bend City and 
 the Union mill, and from each came men to take a 
 hand in punishing the Indians. George K. Phil- 
 lips was elected captain of the company of thirty 
 well armed men. A letter of the time comments 
 that it was a strangely assorted band, though a 
 determined one. There were Texas rangers and 
 frontiersmen, and there were those but recently 
 from clerkships or to whom for other reasons out- 
 door life was a novelty and who were scarcely 
 browned by exposure. The party rode up Bishop 
 Creek to the foothills, and along the latter to 
 " Greenly 's Valley," (Round Valley). Camp was 
 made, and to insure intent alertness pickets were 
 changed hourly. One of the pickets created an 
 alarm by tiring, harmlessly, at one of his fellows. 
 The next morning Merriam guided the party to 
 the scene of the ambush. Long's body was found, 
 pierced by nine bullets. Ericson had been shot 
 
 12 
 
158 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 through the head. Both bodies had been dragged 
 along the trail, that of Ericson by a willow withe 
 around his neck. The body of Parker was not 
 found, nor was it accounted for, except by the sup- 
 position that he had been captured alive. The fol- 
 lowing paragraphs are from a letter written by 
 one of the men of the expedition : 
 
 "On finding the bodies of Ericson and Long, we dug 
 graves, covered the bodies with pine branches, piled in rocks 
 and earth. One man said : 'Come, boys, let's go ; we can do no 
 more for the poor fellows;' then in a lower and tremulous 
 voice he added : 'God give his soul a better show than this.' I 
 have listened to long prayers in grand cathedrals, where the 
 sunlight poured in through stained glass windows and fell on 
 pews of carved oak, but I never heard so fervent, so touch- 
 ing a prayer as this, far away in this mountain land, among 
 the pines, under the shadow of the giant Sierras, where the 
 river, deep in the wild and rocky canyon below, murmured 
 the requiem of the dead; where the blue sky, widespread, ex- 
 tends from mountain range to mountain range, over mile upon 
 mile of valley land and wooded hills. We left them, sadly 
 and silently, and went up to our comrades on the hill, 
 
 "We examined where the men fell, and saw where the 
 rocks were drenched with their blood. We saw where Mr. 
 Merriam ran down the hill, and wondered how it was possible 
 for a man to accomplish so much. We came to the conclusion 
 that this was not a war party, although we think Joaquin Jim 
 was among them Joaquin Jim has never been con- 
 quered. He has said frequently that he would not let the 
 whites occupy his domain, 
 
 "After we had buried the dead and returned to our horses 
 we commenced a search about the Indian camp. We found 
 baskets, great quantities of pinons cached, the bridle of Mr. 
 Merriam's horse, a pair of shoes which belonged to Mr. Eric- 
 son, and his hat with a bullet hole through it, covered with 
 blood. We each took as many piiions as we could carry. 
 One or two stayed behind and destroyed all that remained by 
 burning them. 
 
KTJTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 159 
 
 "Unless something- is done for us we shall have much 
 trouble. We cannot prospect and watch Indians at the same 
 time. We cannot prospect with a rifle. There is no need of 
 a military force near San Carlos— we can defend it our- 
 selves; but we want stations along the valley so £hat people 
 may safely pass, and prospectors find a refuge from the 
 savage, who is peaceful today and warlike tomorrow." 
 
 The chase seeming to be hopeless, return was 
 made to San Carlos. On the way down, the party 
 met two men named Bell and Slocum at Big Pine, 
 where they had gone with the idea of starting a 
 sawmill. Indians had warned them to leave, and 
 after talking with the Phillips company they con- 
 cluded that it would be wise to comply. 
 
 Henderson and associates, mining in the south- 
 eastern Inyo ranges, had been driven out in March 
 by Indian dangers. They went back after an ab- 
 sence of not more than a month. On reaching the 
 Josephine mill they learned that Chief Bigfoot had 
 the better of a fight with the miners the day before 
 and had gone across to the Panamint Mountains. 
 Henderson w^aited until the arrival of Ringgold 
 from Owens Lake, and the two followed the trail 
 of White and others to their mines in the Pana- 
 mints. After traveling seventy miles the camp of 
 White was found at Mesquite Springs. Going on, 
 Indians were seen in pursuit. Henderson and 
 Ringgold waited until they came near enough to 
 parley. The Indian spokesman said in Spanish 
 that White and his men were up in the mountains. 
 The whites, seeing that a battle was intended, 
 opened fire and killed two of the leaders. A fifteen- 
 mile running fight ensued ; its casualties were the 
 killing of three Indians and Ringgold's being left 
 
160 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 afoot by the killing of his horse. Henderson vis- 
 ited the neighborhood in 1870, and found parts of 
 the skeletons of three men and some bones of a 
 woman in the rnins of a cabin which had been 
 burned at Combination Camp. He gives the date 
 of the killing of his companions as April 13, 1863. 
 
 Work had begun at the Josephine two years 
 earlier. Machineiy for its ten-stamp mill was the 
 first freight brought into Inyo, as freight; this 
 was hauled by T. F. A. Connelly in 1862 via Walk- 
 er's Pass. J. W. Wadleigh was superintendent of 
 the Josephine venture at that time. The mill was 
 built at Granite Springs. It was a crude affair, 
 as would be expected in a remote country where 
 the delivery of each pound of freight involved a 
 cost of twenty-five cents for transportation ; while 
 the shoes and dies of its batteries were iron, wood 
 served for the stems and wherever else possible. 
 Primitive though the plant was, its owners later 
 put a valuation of $250,000 on it when they tried to 
 collect from the Government for its loss as an 
 Indian depredation. It was burned during this 
 year. Its destruction was attributed to Indians, 
 by the owners. Not all the pioneers in the country 
 agreed in this conclusion, however ; some of them 
 said the mill was never profitable, and that its loss 
 was to the advantage of those interested. Cer- 
 tainly they tried to secure ample reimbursement 
 from the nation — an attempt which freighter 
 Connelly's evidence helped to block. 
 
 Slate Range mines had been discovered by 
 Dennis and John Searles and others in 1861, and 
 they had a mill built in time to be burned during 
 
EUTHLESS SLAUGHTERINGS 161 
 
 the troubles ; this was unquestionably done by the 
 Indians. 
 
 Ten or twelve skulls of white men, and other 
 human bones, were found under a shelving pile of 
 rocks near Anvil Springs in 1874. Nothing was 
 known of the identity of the victims or of the time 
 of their deaths. The supposition was that they 
 had there taken refuge from Indians and had all 
 been killed. For this discovery there has been 
 found but one authority. It is certain, however, 
 that an unknown number perished on the lone- 
 some trails of that region. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 PIONEER SETTLEMENTS 
 
 MILLS AND HOUSES PUT UP — SAN CARLOS, BEND CITY, 
 OWENSVILLE — PLACES THE SITES OF WHICH ABE UN- 
 KNOWN — A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION IN 1864 
 
 A SMELTER THAT SMELTED ITSELF — SAWMILL BUILT 
 
 FARMING IN ROUND VALLEY — OTHER PLACES. 
 
 There were no further encounters of conse- 
 quence in Owens Valley during the later months 
 of 1863. In the belief that Indian warfare was at 
 an end, settlers began coming in a steadily in- 
 creasing stream to the little settlements, and new 
 places sprang up. A letter to the Alta California, 
 dated at San Carlos September 4, 1863, reviews 
 a number of ''rushes" to different localities — 
 "White Mountains, Slate Mountain, Keyes District, 
 Head of the Lake, and the Sierra foothills. 
 
 "Mills are going up and houses are being built at San 
 Carlos and elsewhere. The San Carlos company have finished 
 2,700 feet of their ditch and are rapidly progressing with 
 their mill. The Center comj^any are running three tunnels. 
 The Nelson mining company are about to commence work, 
 their teams, with provisions, tools, etc., having arrived. The 
 Monster Hill Tunnel company, Regina Tunnel company, and 
 Clara company are about to commence. The Inyo G. & S. M. 
 company have commenced running a tunnel on the Lucerne 
 and Granada. From Chrysopolis the most flattering accounts 
 and rock full of gold are sent down. In Russ district sev- 
 eral companies are at work. The Eclipse is turning out very 
 rich ore and is of great extent. If it is not the richest mine 
 
 162 
 
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS 163 
 
 in all California we are all mistaken It would be im- 
 possible to name or notice the numerous leads which have 
 
 been recorded in the various districts Our. miners, who 
 
 are generally men of education, vie with each other in select- 
 ing refined names for their mines. Silver Cloud, Norma, 
 Oljrmpic, Golden Era, Welcome, Chrysopolis, Gem, Green 
 Monster, Blue Bird, Red Bird, Evadne, Fleta, Bonnie Blos- 
 som, Calliope, Romelia, Lucerne, Pluto's Pet, Birousa, Proser- 
 pine, Atahualpa, and Ida are among the mines here. 
 
 "San Carlos is progressing rapidly. It now boasts of two 
 stores, two butcher shops, two assay offices, an express of- 
 fice, a saloon, and mechanics of all kinds. 
 
 "Our population is about 200. Yesterday we polled 106 
 votes, 58 of which were Union. Many of our citizens went 
 down to the Union mill to vote, as it was feared there might 
 be a dispute, it not being certain yet whether we are in Mono 
 or Tulare county. Others who claim a residence in Mono 
 went up to Van Fleet's to vote. 
 
 "There is a new express started from San Carlos via 
 Aurora. Perhaps when we grow a little, Messrs. Wells, Fargo 
 & Co. will honor us with an office. We are quite as worthy 
 of it as Fresno City, yet I saw their sign on a house there, 
 which was, at the time, deserted." 
 
 A letter to the Alta from Bend City, December 
 17,1863: 
 
 "The Coso company is running its plant, eight-stamp mill, 
 five amalgamating pans, sawmill and blacksmith shop, at the 
 foot of Big (Owens) Lake. The rock is hauled from the 
 mines, sixteen miles away. J. S. Allen is superintendent. 
 
 "At Owens River, the Union mill is at work; eight-stamp; 
 steam used here and at Ida mill, a mile above. 
 
 "At Bend City, now about thirty houses; adobes. This 
 city has been regularly surveyed. A grand ball is on the 
 tapis for Christmas Eve. The most work has been done by 
 the Clara company. Mt. St. George, in the first range of 
 hills at the foot of the Inyo Range adjoining town, appears 
 to be a complete network of leads of the richest mineral. The 
 Clara company has fourteen claims. With regard to the In- 
 
164 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 dians, all has been quiet on Owens River for months past, 
 and there is no prospect of a renewal of hostilities." 
 
 A San Carlos correspondent mentions the first 
 death in the camp, except those from Indian war- 
 fare, as that of a man named Warner, February 
 11, 1864, his demise resulting from an accidental 
 wound in the arm. The marriage of Mr. Woolsey 
 to Miss Warner (no relative of the deceased) is 
 mentioned in the same epistle — doubtless the first 
 marriage in the valley. This letter predicts great 
 things for Keyes District and the Rubicon mine, 
 somewhere in the later Poleta neighborhood. 
 
 Owensville was for a few years the chief point 
 in the northern part of the valley. A letter from 
 there to the San Francisco Alta California, and 
 published in December, contained the following: 
 
 "I have just an-ived with a party of fifty-six men, one 
 family, eighty-two yoke of oxen and saddle horses innumer- 
 able. The valley contains fifty-two claims of 160 acres each, 
 and Wm. McBride and the Hutchison boys have surveyed the 
 Bishop Creek Valley at the risk of their lives. Just heard 
 of forty men, all fanners, and twelve ox teams, who have 
 arrived." 
 
 Most detailed maps of the time designated as 
 "Bishop Creek Valley" that part of Owens Valley 
 north of Big Pine Creek. 
 
 Another letter, in a later issue of the Alta, 
 said : 
 
 "A few months ago scarce a house could be seen through- 
 out the extent of this valley, but now animation, life and 
 activity greet the eye wherever you look. A fine settlement 
 has been formed at Lone Pine, near the mouth of Owens 
 River. Bend City is a town of sixty or seventy houses. San 
 Carlos is about the same size, and both rapidly improving; 
 
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS 165 
 
 while further up the river Chrysopolis, Galena, Riverside 
 (alias Graham City) and Owensville are raising their voices 
 for recognition." 
 
 Other ambitious camps mentioned in notes of 
 the period were Benton, Partzwick, Yellow Jacket, 
 Camp Enterprise and Montgomery, all in what is 
 now southern Mono County. 
 
 Galena and Riverside, or Graham City, as well 
 as Camp Enterprise, are now so completely buried 
 in oblivion that even their sites cannot be learned 
 by the inquirer. 
 
 Owensville was on the east bank of Owens 
 River, near the present Laws. A circular corral, 
 standing within its townsite, is built of stones that 
 once served as foundations for Owensville build- 
 ings. A little to the northeast, a rough slab of 
 stone marks the grave of Mrs. T. H. Soper, who 
 died there. No other trace of pioneer habitation 
 remains ; the old-time streets are part of the river 
 bottom's level and unbroken meadow. 
 
 John Soper, a resident of the place when his 
 mother died, later went to Hawaii and was com- 
 mander in chief of the military forces of the pro- 
 visional government of Hawaii, which forces de- 
 throned Queen Liluokalani preceding the islands 
 becoming American. In correspondence Gen. 
 Soper narrated the shooting of two members of a 
 gang of ruffians from Montana, by "Pap" Rus- 
 sell; also the unsuccessful attempt of a disrep- 
 utable resident to organize a punitive expedition 
 against the Indians because two old squaws had 
 given him a thrashing, doubtless deservedly. 
 
 John E. and Thomas E. Jones, pioneer settlers 
 
166 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 in Round Valley, came to Owensville in 1864. 
 Notes by T. E. Jones enumerate many of its resi- 
 dents, among them the father and mother of Rev. 
 Andrew Clark, the valley's pioneer minister; their 
 son Thomas ; the Soper, Gill and Hightower fam- 
 ilies ; J. L. Garretson, H. Caleff, J. F. and Thomas 
 K. Hutchison, A. Thomson, W. P. George, William 
 Horton, W. S. Bailey, Reuben Merriman, Frank 
 Powers, William and John McBride, nearly all of 
 whom were well known in Inyo in later years, and 
 most of whom ended their days here. George 
 Hightower and wife were residents, and their 
 daughter Ada was the first white child born in this 
 part of Owens Valley. John B. Wliite, who was 
 murdered at Big Pine twenty-odd years later, had 
 a saloon. John W. McMurry was storekeeper, 
 restaurant man and postmaster. He chanced to 
 become the victim of an accidental shot, getting 
 a bullet from a burning house from which he 
 was saving property. He recovered, to become a 
 leading citizen of Big Pine. Andy Ault and Jesse 
 Spray and their wives were among the arrivals 
 from Bridgeport. Ault took the liberty, at Adobe 
 Meadows on the way down, to kill an Indian whom 
 he suspected of having stolen his pistol. Whether 
 or not he felt mortified over his act when he later 
 found the gun hanging on the wall under a gar- 
 ment is not recorded. 
 
 Milo Page, a participant in many of the hap- 
 penings of the period, told of a Fourth of July 
 celebration in Owensville in 1864. Will Hicks 
 Graham, a capable lawyer who was said to have 
 been Pat Reddy's instructor, was master of cere- 
 
PIONEEB SETTLEMENTS 167 
 
 monies and reader of the declaration; John 
 Evans, superintendent of the Great Eastern min- 
 ing company, chaplain ; W. P. George, orator. Mu- 
 sic and singing by the seven ladies present was 
 much appreciated by the 150 men who attended. 
 The instrument used was a portable melodeon, 
 belonging to and played by Thomas Soper. There 
 were many Southerners among the men, but all 
 joined in the commemoration regardless of the 
 great war then waging between the States. Still 
 earlier than this, on May 1, had occurred probably 
 the first social event of any kind in the northern 
 part of the valley, a dance in a ten by twelve adobe 
 cabin. One of the institutions of the place was 
 a lodge of the Sons of Temperance, of which C. C. 
 Scott was the head. 
 
 Aurora was the nearest source of supplies. 
 Communication was difficult, and stores ran low 
 at times. During such a period, McMurry refused 
 an offer of $20 for a sack of flour, saying that he 
 would not sell it for $40, as he would need it for 
 his family. A pony mail service was started by 
 Daniel Wellington, and W. J. Gill was the rider. 
 This service connected at Benton and Partzwick 
 with a semi-weekly pony express to Aurora. Each 
 letter had to bear the proper postage and to be 
 accompanied by a twenty-five cent payment as 
 recompense to the mail carrier. 
 
 Owensville looked to mines in the White Moun- 
 tains for its upbuilding. The Golden Wedge mine, 
 at last accounts still bearing that same name and 
 now included in a group known as the Southern 
 Belle, was the first find; its discoverers were 
 
168 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Charles Nunn and Eobert Morrison, who was later 
 killed at Convict Lake. Another mine not wholly 
 forgotten was the Yellow Jacket, belonging to a 
 company organized in Gilroy, California. A re- 
 duction plant was built on Swansea Flat (Fish 
 Slough) by an Owensville company with T. H. 
 Soper, president; H. Caleff, metallurgist; John 
 Soper, H. Chambers, Gr. Thomas, Dawson, Snooks, 
 the Round Valley Jones brothers and another 
 Jones as members. An arrastra was built to pul- 
 verize supposedly fireproof material transported 
 to the scene by horse and ox-teams. Even barren 
 quartz was crushed and brick molded from it. Al- 
 leged fireproof stone was hauled from Aurora. 
 Almost daily specimens were brought in by pros- 
 pectors, and Tom Jones records that Judge Caleff 
 usually pronounced them '^very fine conglomera- 
 tions of argentiferous galena. ' ' The furnace was 
 completed, and melted down as quickly as the ore 
 with which it had been charged. Undaunted, the 
 amateur smelters obtained different materials and 
 built another plant. It was crammed full of wood, 
 charcoal, ore and flux, and fired — and in a few 
 hours was, like its predecessor, a seething, plastic 
 pile of ruins. It may be noted that a precisely 
 similar experience befell a furnace undertaking by 
 Greenly, Edwards and others that same year at 
 a site a little east of the present court house at 
 Independence. 
 
 Demands for lumber were met by the erection 
 of a sawmill in the Sierras near Bishop, by John 
 Pugh and Joe Spear, with T. D. Lew^is as its man- 
 ager either from the first or soon after. Machinery 
 
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS 169 
 
 for it was hauled by wagon from Stockton by Jolin 
 Clarke, at a freight rate of twenty-five cents a 
 pound. After the decline of Owensville this lum- 
 ber was taken from its buildings and rafted down 
 the river by A. A. Riddle, to be used in Indepen- 
 dence and Lone Pine, and to a less extent in Big 
 Pine. The latter settlement, when it started, had 
 a mill nearer. Bell and Slocum having returned 
 in 1864 to the project they had abandoned under 
 protest the year before. 
 
 Owensville 's career was brief. Its corner lots 
 were held at $1,000 and even $1,500 each for a 
 short time, but before the end of 1864 some of its 
 buildings were torn down. One of them, the black- 
 smith shop of the Consort mining company, was 
 bought by Clarke and moved, becoming the first 
 structure of any kind on the present Bishop town- 
 site. It stood a little distance to the south of West 
 Line street and near Main. It was put up late in 
 1864. 
 
 During the quieter portion of 1863 a beginning 
 on farm work was made not far from Bishop. W. 
 P. George and associates put in a truck patch a 
 little to the west. Andrew Thomson broke ground 
 in West Bishop, and also established G. W. Norton 
 on a place a mile north of the present townsite. 
 Tom Evans located in Pleasant Valley. It is 
 probable that similar undertakings were begun at 
 Lone Pine that year, though no confirmation of 
 that is available. A little patch of corn was 
 planted at Independence. 
 
 One of the companies operating in the White 
 Mountains bore the name of the San Francisco. 
 
170 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 A ''town," called Graham City, after D. S. 
 Graham, the superintendent, was started ''at the 
 foot of Keyes District, opposite Bishop Creek 
 Valley, ' ' says a letter of the time. No other iden- 
 tification is obtainable, though its prospects were 
 supposed to be so promising that a correspondent 
 of the Alta wrote : "Should the mines (and of this 
 there appears to be no doubt) turn out all right, 
 this town will rival Aurora or Virginia itself for 
 population." If there were other aspiring settle- 
 ments, not herein named, north of Chrysopolis at 
 that time no record of them has been left. 
 
 John E. and Thomas E. Jones decided to un- 
 dertake ranching in Round Valley, and sowed the 
 first wheat there in the spring of 1865. They had 
 been preceded by a man named William Frank, 
 who had built a small stone cabin. The ranching 
 experiment did not do well the first year, for in 
 June the tilled acres were invaded by some of the 
 many hundreds of cattle that were being ranged 
 in that neighborhood, and no crop was grown and 
 harvested until the following season. 
 
 San Carlos miners had provided a free ferry 
 across the river at their camp, a little north of 
 east of Independence. The equipment was rafts, 
 hauled back and forth by rawhide ropes. Bend 
 City, a few miles farther south, was the center of 
 population of the middle part of the valley during 
 the latter part of 1864. There was also a primitive 
 ferry, but for its use a toll was collected. The 
 Bend Cityites, noting the free ferry at San Carlos, 
 tired of paying tolls, especially as circulating me- 
 dium of any kind was scarce. To escape this con- 
 
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS 171 
 
 dition, it was decided to build a bridge across the 
 river. An election to settle its location was held 
 in December, and sixty votes were cast, according 
 to the report of Will Hicks Graham, clerk. 
 
 Mining was in progress for miles up and down 
 that part of the range. The principal mines, from 
 the Chrysopolis on the north to the Union, Ida 
 and New York on the south, were the Green Mon- 
 ster, Clara, Rothschild, Owens River, Gray Eagle, 
 Maid of Erin, White Rover, Drummer Boy, Cen- 
 ter, Concordia and Santa Rita. 
 
 Nearly all of the sixty or more houses at Bend 
 City were adobe. Among them were two hotels, of 
 which the Morrow House was the ** swell" place. 
 Five stores sold goods ; number of saloons not re- 
 corded, but unquestionably ample. A circulating 
 library was a public convenience in that period of 
 scarce reading matter. Even a stock exchange was 
 among the institutions, though a notation of a 
 trade in which a burro was paid for a block of 
 stock does not indicate brisk transactions. 
 
 I. N. Buckwalter and A. C. Robinson, running 
 a tunnel not far from the mouth of Mazourka Can- 
 yon, twice lost their stores of provisions through 
 Indian raids, but escaped personal harm. Mr. 
 Buckwalter tells of paying $2.50 to a cobbler for 
 nailing on a bootheel, using three sixpenny nails 
 and three minutes of time. He made a trip to the 
 valley in August, 1915, revisited those scenes, and 
 unearthed a number of mining tools which he had 
 cached when leaving, decades ago. 
 
 Bend City was stirred by news that a man 
 named William Graves had shot his partner dur- 
 
172 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 ing a row beside their campfire, in Deep Spring 
 Valley. A vigilance committee was formed, but 
 did nothing. Up to that time there was no peace 
 officer of any kind in the valley ; the Tulare County 
 officials then concluded to appoint a Justice of the 
 Peace. They selected John Beveridge, whose name 
 was later given in a mining district easterly from 
 Lone Pine, as Justice, and a man named Kendall 
 as Constable. 
 
 In September, 1863, a second killing nearer 
 home gave the vigilantes occasion to act. Men 
 named Mitchell and Cuddy had disputed, and 
 Cuddy had vowed to kill the other. Knife in hand 
 he crossed the street of San Carlos and was shot 
 and instantly killed by Mitchell, who fired from 
 within John Lentell's store. Mitchell was taken 
 into custody. T. F. A. Connelly acted as prose- 
 cutor, and the Alta's correspondent, Campbell, 
 served as attorney for the accused. A delegation 
 of the vigilantes appeared and demanded to be al- 
 lowed to remain during the hearing; otherwise 
 they would take Mitchell and themselves dispose 
 of the case. Consent being given, they remained, 
 and at its close took a vote among themselves. 
 They were unanimous in declaring it to have been 
 a case of self-defense. The court did not hold the 
 same opinion, however, for he held Mitchell for 
 trial in Visalia. Constable Kendall proposed to 
 make his prisoner walk the whole distance, he him- 
 self riding on horseback. Members of the com- 
 mittee found it necessary to compel more humane 
 treatment. Mitchell was discharged, after remain- 
 ing in the Visalia jail for a few months. 
 
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS 173 
 
 White Mountain City and Roachville were set- 
 tlements just over the White Mountain summit 
 from Owens Valley, in that White Mountain Dis- 
 trict which had been used for fraudulent election 
 purposes in 1861. A writer visiting there early in 
 1864 tells all that we know of these would-be min- 
 ing centers; the ''city" from which he wrote was 
 on Wyman Creek, on the Deep Spring slope; its 
 rival, Roachville, was on Cottonwood Creek, and 
 was named by its proprietor, William Roach, hail- 
 ing from Santa Cruz. Both places had regularly 
 surveyed town plats. S. (no doubt Scott) Broder 
 was the District Recorder. 
 
 13 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 
 
 COSO COUNTY AUTHORIZED POLITICAL CONVENTION 
 
 PIUTES START DEPREDATIONS — AFFAIR AT CINDERELLA 
 MINE — MRS. m'gUIRE AND SON KILLED AT HAIWAI — 
 VENGEANCE OF CITIZENS AT OWENS LAKE — END OP 
 THE INDIAN WAR. 
 
 Formation of new counties in California is 
 now dependent on a comparatively large popula- 
 tion, the idea apparently being that all sections of 
 the State are fairly well supplied with local gov- 
 ernment. Railroads, telegraphs and automobiles 
 have annihilated distance. It was very different 
 in the '60 's. The sparse and widely separated 
 communities were days apart in communication; 
 the latter was limited to horse-flesh as a means 
 of travel ; there were no telegraphs in the outlying 
 regions; and the whole west was lawless enough 
 at the best. Only a liberal policy of county crea- 
 tion could provide any civil control over tens of 
 thousands of square miles of territory. Maps of 
 that period show counties duly outlined, but with- 
 out a single place prominent enough to be noted. 
 
 Mono had been officially created in 1861. It 
 was presumed to include the booming camp of 
 Aurora ; but when a corrected survey proved that 
 Aurora was outside of its borders the county's 
 
 174 
 
MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 175 
 
 population was so small that the first census there- 
 after gave it a total of but 430, Indians included. 
 AVitli this and other examples before them, Owens 
 Valleyans did not hesitate to petition the Legisla- 
 ture, in February, 1864, to create a county on this 
 slope south of Mono. It was proposed to name 
 the county Monache, to make San Carlos its 
 county seat, and to establish the northern bound- 
 ary near Mono Lake. But when the petition 
 reached the Legislature and in accordance with it 
 a bill was introduced, the name given was Coso, 
 Big Pine Creek was designated as the northern 
 line, and Bend City was selected as the seat of 
 government until such time as an election might 
 decide differently. This was to be determined by 
 an election set for June 6, 1864, at which time a 
 full corps of county officers was to be chosen. E. 
 S. Sayles, Gr. J. Slocum, D. C. Owen, John E. 
 Hughes and John Lentell were named as commis- 
 sioners to designate precincts, name election of- 
 ficers, canvass returns, and do other things 
 necessary to start the new machinery, they to co- 
 operate with a county judge to be appointed by 
 Governor Low. The Governor offered the position 
 to Dr. S. G. George, but he declined it. Owens 
 Valleyans favored 0. L. Matthews, but no ap- 
 pointment was made. 
 
 The population of the proposed county was 
 overwhelmingly Eepublican. A convention of that 
 political faith was called, and met in San Carlos 
 about May 24th. Any one who stated himself to 
 be a Republican was admitted and allowed full 
 voice in proceedings. The result of an orderly 
 
176 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 and harmonious session was the nomination of 
 W. A. Greenly for Sheriff, John Thorn for Clerk, 
 Abraham Parker for Treasurer and W. S. Mor- 
 row for Attorney. 
 
 Whether because of neglect or some other rea- 
 son not now known, the election was not held 
 June 6th. As the law gave no authority for hold- 
 ing it at any other time the whole organization 
 went by default. 
 
 Another law passed at the legislative session 
 that sought to establish Coso County chartered a 
 corporation under the name of the Owens River 
 Canal Company, for constructing canals for 
 transportation of passengers and freight and for 
 using Owens River for irrigation and water 
 power. The company was granted the right to 
 improve the river canyon and to collect tolls for 
 a period of fifteen years. Its rates were to be 
 fixed by the Supervisors of Mono County, but 
 were to be such that the estimated revenues would 
 yield 2 per cent per month on the investment. 
 Mono was to have the right to take up the invest- 
 ment after ten years if the county so desired. R. 
 S. Whigham, Speer Riddle, William Fleming, 
 William P. Pratt and Isaac Swain were named as 
 trustees of the company. No more was ever heard 
 of the project. 
 
 These gropings toward local self-government 
 and permanency were broken into by further 
 threats of Indian troubles. The abandonment of 
 Camp Independence the year before had been 
 highly unwelcome to the settlers. Particularly 
 after the Merriam affair the white people avoided 
 
MOEE INDIAN TKOUBLES 177 
 
 the neighborhoods which Joaquin Jim, most 
 dreaded among the Indian leaders, claimed as his 
 own. During the latter part of 1864 depreda- 
 tions began once more, and lone white men were 
 picked off when it could be done safely. One 
 such instance was in the Black Eocks. A Visalian 
 named Watkins brought a band of horses into 
 the valley and located not far from Black Eock 
 Spring. His position was isolated, and he fell an 
 easy prey. This event and others pointing to a 
 fresh outbreak led to the sending of petitions to 
 General McDowell, then commanding at the Pre- 
 sidio. McDowell could not, or at least did not, 
 spare any troops for Owens Valley. Learning this, 
 many residents struck out for safer climes; the 
 remaining inhabitants determined to fight the 
 issue to a finish. They, and not the soldiers, 
 ended the Indian war. The return of a military 
 force after the last killing of natives at Owens 
 Lake, and the maintenance of that force for a 
 dozen years afterward, doubtless had a useful 
 part in preventing subsequent outbreaks. 
 
 The citizens of Owensville organized with Will 
 Hicks Graham as captain, and at Bend City W. L. 
 C'Dad") Moore and W. A. Greenly were selected 
 to lead the volunteer forces. 
 
 Among the miners who ventured into the 
 mountains believing that hostilities were over 
 were three named Crow, Mathews and Byrnes. 
 They located a claim which they called the Cin- 
 derella, at a point about four miles from the Gil- 
 bert ranch, east of the White Mountains. On 
 November 21st, 1864, Mathews was cooking din- 
 
178 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 ner while his partners were at the claim. An 
 Indian and squaw came to the camp and asked 
 for something to eat. As Mathews turned to get 
 them something, the Indian shot him through 
 the jaw. About the same time a shot ended the 
 life of Crow, working at the mine windlass. His 
 body either fell into the shaft or was thrown in 
 by the Indians. Byrnes, 60 or 70 feet below, 
 was kept busy dodging rocks w^ith which the at- 
 tackers tried to kill him, but by dextrous use of 
 liis shovel he managed to fend off the missiles. 
 Believing their purpose accomplished the Indians 
 left. 
 
 Mathews had been wounded, but not enough 
 to prevent his fighting. When he opened fire the 
 two who had attacked him ran away. He was sure 
 his partners had been killed, and determined to 
 strike out for Owens Valley. He had a rifle, a 
 shotgun and a revolver, but soon threw away both 
 of the large weapons. It took him two agonizing 
 days to get over the mountains, his sufferings be- 
 ing intensified by lack of water. Beaching Owens 
 River, he fell into shallow water while trymg to 
 get a drink. This loosened the clotted blood in 
 his mouth and throat — a relief on which he dwelt 
 in narrating the circumstances. The attention of 
 a horseman was attracted, and Mathews was 
 taken to a ranch where Big Pine now is. For 
 many days he was fed through a cowhorn, and at 
 last he recovered his general health. He was 
 never afterward free from some effects of his 
 wound, however ; to the day of his death, in Round 
 Valley twenty-four years later, his speech was 
 
MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 179 
 
 intelligible to only a few. He had been in Cali- 
 fornia since 1831. 
 
 "WTiile Mathews was escaping, Byrnes was 
 prisoned in the shaft with the body of Crow for 
 company. The Indians had taken away the wind- 
 lass rope. Joe Bowers, Indian chieftain, came to 
 the place soon afterward and found means of 
 lowering water to Byrnes, then came across the 
 mountains and told the whites what had occurred. 
 S. Gr. Gregg went as far as Lone Pine and gathered 
 a party of thirty men to rescue Byrnes. The 
 latter had been in the shaft five days when he was 
 hauled out. The body of Crow was buried there. 
 
 Now mark the ingratitude of the man whose 
 life Joe had saved. The Piute leader had his 
 home camp at a place called Antelope Springs. 
 A few years subsequently Byrnes decided that he 
 needed the land and water more than Joe Bowers 
 did, so he drove the latter away. Joe went to 
 Independence and told his loyal white friends, 
 who formed a posse and forced Byrnes to vacate. 
 Fourteen also joined in an agreement to support 
 Joe, as a reward for his friendship and services 
 during the Indian troubles, and thenceforward 
 he was quarterly supplied with provisions and 
 clothing. Capt. MacGowan, a later commandant 
 at Camp Independence, employed him as a scout. 
 The departure of the soldiers from Owens Valley, 
 when the post was finally abandoned, dropped Joe 
 from the payroll, but left him with a claim to a 
 six dollar pension. This was regularly collected 
 by S. G. Gregg and used for the old Piute's wel- 
 fare. Signing the receipt for this (with an X) 
 
180 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 was an important ceremony for the beneficiary. 
 He was taken to San Francisco in 1871 to see the 
 wondrous achievements of the white man, and 
 attracted no little attention. During the early 
 70 's, a reception given to a land officer who had 
 engineered a land steal caused a burlesque of the 
 affair to be given in Joe 's honor, at which he was 
 presented with a hat, a pipe and tobacco, and 
 made a speech admitting his own merits. He died 
 early in this century in Deep Spring Valley. 
 
 It is not to be inferred that Joe was a second 
 Uncas in virtues. He had many of the failings of 
 his people, and one of the chief cares of his white 
 friends was to see that he did not gamble away 
 what they provided for his welfare. He took a 
 moral view of things, and his condemnations of 
 intemperance and other vices were more pic- 
 turesque and forcible than adapted for polite ears. 
 He had foreseen more clearly than his fellows the 
 ultimate success of the whites, and appreciated 
 the advantages they possessed. He was always 
 their friend, sometimes at his own peril, and was 
 respected by his own people as well. 
 
 The murder of Mrs. McGuire and her little son 
 at Haiwai, and the settlers' retribution in Indian 
 lives, were with one exception the last items of 
 Indian warfare. 
 
 The waters of Haiwee reservoir of the Los 
 Angeles aqueduct system now cover lands known 
 in pioneer days, and for years later, as Haiwai 
 Meadows. (Haiwai is the Indian word for dove.) 
 To those meadows, 25 miles south of Owens Lake, 
 came in 1864 a man named McGuire, with his 
 
MOKE INDIAN TROUBLES 181 
 
 wife and six-year-old son. They established a 
 little way station, which received the patronage 
 of the scant travel between Visalia and Owens 
 Valley. The hostess endeared herself to all who 
 came, and her bright little son was a favorite. 
 On the last day of 1864 two men were at the 
 place. Their names as given by H. T. Eeed, 
 whose letter written a few days later is principally 
 followed in the details of which he professed to 
 be well informed, were Newman and Flanigan. 
 Another account calls them O'Dale and Kitt- 
 ridge — which may be remarked to somewhat 
 resemble the names Coverdale and Ethridge, of 
 earlier Inyo record. McGuire had occasion to go 
 to Big Pine for a plow, and asked them to remain 
 until he returned. Before daylight of the follow- 
 ing morning, January 1, 1865, the occupants of 
 the house were awakened by fire, and found that 
 the roof was blazing. The men ran out, but on 
 being fired on ran back into the house. They 
 commenced knocking off shingles from the inside, 
 and by using what water was at hand and the 
 brine from several barrels of corned beef had 
 nearly extinguished the fire when the attack was 
 renewed with firebrands, stones and shots. The 
 heat became so intense that to remain inside was 
 impossible. The men urged Mrs. McGuire to run 
 with them and endeavor to escape; she refused, 
 saying that nothing could save them and it would 
 be no use. Flanigan and Newman, unwilling to 
 share her peril, ran, escaping with a wound in 
 the forehead of one and a shot through the hat 
 of the other. Says Reed's letter: ''They arrived 
 
182 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 here (at Little Lake, 17 miles) at 11 a. m., New- 
 man weak from loss of blood and both nearly 
 exhausted. ' ' 
 
 Walter James and John Harmon, southbound, 
 reached Haiwai that forenoon. Smoke was still 
 rising from the burned dwelling. A hundred feet 
 or more from it was Mrs. McGuire, with fourteen 
 arrows in her body, mercifully insensible and with 
 but a little span of life remaining. The little boy 
 was dead. His tiny hand clasped a stone, indicat- 
 ing a spirit of defense to the last. Six arrows 
 had pierced his body, and had been pulled out by 
 his mother. Quoting Eeed again, ''Both Mr. and 
 Mrs. McGuire had done more for the Indians than 
 they were able, often denying themselves to feed 
 them. Her loss is deeply felt by all, and no one 
 who ever stopped there will fail to remember the 
 hearty welcome and the happy face of bright little 
 Johnny and his noble mother." 
 
 The bodies of the victims were placed in a 
 wagon box and James remained to guard them 
 while Harmon hurried back to Owens Lake. A 
 messenger was sent to Lone Pine, where the 
 bodies were brought that day for burial. 
 
 Some pioneers who were implacable foes of 
 the Indians acquitted the latter of guilt for this 
 atrocity, maintaining that it was the deed of the 
 two white men. Reed's letter indicates no such 
 doubt, however, nor does any other account or 
 reference at the time nor the later story of it 
 written in a letter by W. L. Moore. The arrows 
 found and the trail followed by the avengers sup- 
 ported the white fugitives' story. The unmanly 
 
MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 183 
 
 and selfish cowardice of those men received ample 
 comment in the accounts at that time. 
 
 A dozen or more men, headed by W. L. Moore 
 and W. A. Greenly, immediately started for 
 Haiwai, camping near Olancha that night. The 
 next day they went to Haiwai and took np the 
 trail of a party of fifteen or sixteen Indians until 
 it divided among the sand hills east of the 
 meadows. Some of the natives had started 
 southerly to the Kern River trail, the rest going 
 northerly and east of Owens Lake. From the 
 dividing point the citizens returned to Haiwai, 
 and Moore and Thos. Passmore (each of whom 
 later became Sheriff and each of whom was killed 
 in the discharge of official duty) took up the trail 
 of Newman and Flanigan. On the way they picked 
 up a loaded rifle, a little further on a loaded pistol, 
 and still further along a shotgun with one barrel 
 loaded. The trail was followed to Little Lake, 
 where the two men were found. They told the 
 stor>^ as here written. They were told to leave 
 the country at once and not to return, under 
 penalty of death. 
 
 "When Moore and Passmore returned to Haiwai 
 the party went to Coso, reaching that settlement 
 January 3d. The Mexican miners who composed 
 its population showed no disposition to aid in any 
 way or to accommodate the Americans. The lat- 
 ter wasted scant ceremony in supplying the needs 
 of themselves and their animals. Returning toward 
 the valley, the Lidian trail was again picked 
 up, and followed directly to an Indian camp near 
 the lake shore east of the river's mouth. The 
 party rode on past the camp to Lone Pine. 
 
184 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 Four Piute prisoners were being held in that 
 settlement. Some of the citizens advocated 
 slaughtering them forthwith; others objected. 
 Subsequent proceedings are narrated by a pio- 
 neer: 
 
 "During the discussion one of the Indians saw a chance to 
 run, and did so, escaping at least a score of shots until Dick 
 Mead jumped on a horse and overtook and killed the fugi- 
 tive. Thos. May and John Tilly took the remaining prisoners 
 to Tilly's house for safe keeping during the night. One, out- 
 side with May, made a break for liberty and was shot. Those 
 in the house, hearing the shot, also undertook to escape, when 
 Tilly killed one with a blow from a six-shooter and May shot 
 the other." 
 
 A general council of whites was held at Lone 
 Pine, and it was determined to inflict a crushing 
 blow on the natives by destroying their settle- 
 ment near the mouth of Owens River. A day or 
 two was spent in gathering a force, which left 
 Lone Pine during the night of January 5th to 
 reach the lake camp by daylight of the 6th. 
 Greenly and Moore were selected as commanders ; 
 with them were Passmore, Tilly, Chas. D. Begole, 
 Thos. May, T. F. A. Connelly, Dick Mead, R. M. 
 Shuey, H. Meyer, John Kispert, F. W. Fickert 
 (later a prominent rancher of the Tehachipi re- 
 gion), James Heffner, Haslem, McGuire (husband 
 of the murdered woman), Rogers (whose shocking 
 ending will be presently recorded). Green Hitch- 
 cock and three or four of his brothers, Charles 
 Robinson, and others to a total strength of thirty- 
 two. 
 
 The plan was for Greenly 's detachment to cross 
 
MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 185 
 
 the river and guard against escape to the east- 
 ward, while Moore's party was to attack the camp. 
 Snow covered the ground. The Indians, unsus- 
 picious of danger, had no sentries, and were asleep 
 in their camp when the attack began. Greenly 's 
 three-mile detour was not allowed for, and Moore 
 and his men had practically concluded the bloody 
 work before Grreenly appeared. 
 
 According to the judgment of those who had 
 trailed the Indians from Haiwai, eight or ten of 
 the perpetrators of that atrocity were in the lake 
 camp. For their guilt the whole village popula- 
 tion, of whom at least three-fourths were innocent 
 of any possible participation in the Haiwai deed, 
 were ruthlessly slaughtered — as the whites would 
 have been had circumstances been reversed. 
 Neither age nor sex were spared among the 
 forty-one who died there. Six Indians had taken 
 to the icy waters of the lake. The account by 
 Fickert said that two squaws and two little boys 
 were permitted to come out alive ; that of T. F. A. 
 Connelly said that three, a boy and his two sisters, 
 were spared. McGuire shot two bucks in the 
 water. The boy, aged about fourteen, was shot 
 at, and asked in English why they wanted to kill 
 him. He said he had not hurt any one. Heffner 
 told him that if he would come out he would not 
 be hurt. The boy also said his two sisters were 
 in the lake, and was bidden to tell them to come 
 out. 
 
 By this time the Greenly subdivision had come 
 up. Some in each party were anxious to do away 
 with the young captives. Heffner asked how many 
 
186 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 would stand with him in protecting them, and 
 about half declared in his favor. The wrangle 
 threatened to result in bloodshed among the citi- 
 zens, when Mead requested all who favored spar- 
 ing the children to stand with him. Two-thirds 
 of the company moved to his side, after which 
 there was no further argument. The girls were 
 taken as far as the foot of the lake and there 
 released. Heffner adopted the boy. 
 
 This version faithfully follows accounts given 
 to the author, personally or by letter, by several 
 of the men who were present, and narratives 
 written by others within a few years of the oc- 
 currence. This fact is mentioned because this 
 affair, more than any other occurrence of the In- 
 dian war, was distorted and garbled in California 
 papers at the time. Some of the reports then pub- 
 lished contradict themselves, when read by any 
 one who knows the country. Some other state- 
 ments they contain may or may not have been 
 true, no other light having been obtained. One 
 was that an Indian had Mrs. McGuire's purse, 
 with a few dollars in money ; this is probably false, 
 as the McGuire house was not raided. Another 
 was that one of the slain Indians had a rifle which 
 had belonged to William Jones, a miner, said to 
 have been killed in the White Mountains two weeks 
 before. Large quantities of freshly painted ar- 
 rows were said to have been found in the camp; 
 no account given to the writer mentioned such a 
 find, though it may have been made. 
 
 Apparently a little earlier than the Owens Lake 
 affair, a sortie by a white expedition resulted in 
 
MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 187 
 
 the killing of seventeen Indians near the stream 
 now known as Division Creek, north of Independ- 
 ence. Two prisoners at Camp Independence were 
 shot by a man named McVickers, who said they 
 were attempting to escape. 
 
 January 3d a white force of seventeen men 
 went to the Black Rocks and found that the Piutes 
 had burned the camps and fled to the mountains, 
 killing cattle as they went. 
 
 A little earlier than this, probably in the fall 
 of 1864, an Indian Agent had visited the valley, 
 accompanied by a Lieutenant Daley, who re- 
 ported: 
 
 "The Indian supplies are not good, and most of the In- 
 dians have left for the mountains. The Indian Agent invited 
 them to come in; sixteen came, who said they had been mal- 
 treated. Said the whites would not pay the Indians who 
 worked for them. I learned from Mr. Maloney, one of the 
 present proprietors of Camp Independence, that settlers 
 would go to Tule River reservation for Indians to come and 
 work, and when they got through would decline paying them 
 and drive them away. The Indians said they would retaliate 
 and drive the whites out." 
 
 Reed, heretofore quoted, wrote that Daley's 
 report was not founded on fact, and that he knew 
 of no single instance where the Indians had been 
 treated wrongfully. Nor does it look reasonable, 
 in view of all the trouble that had occurred, that 
 any settler would go as far off as Tule River in 
 order to bring back more Indians with whom 
 he planned to have further difficulty. The migra- 
 tion to the mountains was probably for pine-nut 
 gathering. 
 
 The Union mill was burned during that winter. 
 
188 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 but whether by Indians is not clear. Out in the 
 desert conditions still remained dangerous. While 
 it is possible that a lone prospector now and then 
 paid the penalty of being too venturesome, only 
 one other item of warlike action has been recorded. 
 It was two years later ; though out of chronologi- 
 cal order it is here included to complete the story 
 of warfare. 
 
 A raid was made by Indians on the "Spanish 
 mines," (probably Cerro Gordo, then inhabited by 
 a few Mexicans), on March 4, 1867. One of the 
 miners was killed, and everything portable was 
 taken away. Cattle and horses had been killed at 
 the lake just before. On March 7th a detachment 
 of twelve cavalrymen, under Sergeant F. R. Neil, 
 was sent from Camp Independence, to pursue and 
 if possible chastise the offenders. Owing to the 
 immense amount of snow on the eastern moun- 
 tains the pursuit to the desert, when the Indians 
 had come, could not be made, and the soldiers 
 returned to Thomas Franklin's ranch near Owens 
 Lake. Franklin offered to guide the party, and 
 at 3 o'clock on the morning of March 12th the 
 start was made. It was expected that the Indians 
 would be found at Coso Hot Springs, but they 
 were not there. The route was then to ''Rainy 
 Springs Canyon," twenty miles distant, where 
 *'sign" was found. About 4:30 in the afternoon 
 the rancheria was reached, on a slope surrounded 
 by large pine trees. The troopers dismounted 
 and took a trail made by squaws in carrying water 
 to their camp. As the party reached the summit 
 of the slope each party saw the other, and firing 
 
MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 189 
 
 began. The white men charged while the reds 
 fled to positions behind rocks. The chief, Cap- 
 tain Barbe, handled his men skillfully, and ex- 
 posed himself too bravely, for he was shot and 
 killed. The troopers were formerly of Sheridan 's 
 army, veterans in war, and they drove the enemy 
 from rock to rock, killing four warriors besides 
 the chief, and wounding others. Returning to the 
 rancheria, which was the best appointed and pro- 
 visioned the men had seen, the soldiers found many 
 articles known to have been stolen from whites; 
 among them was a pistol known to have been 
 taken the preceding fall when an attack was made 
 on a mine. After destroying the camp, the ex- 
 pedition started for Owens Lake, where it arrived 
 after a continuous ride of 90 miles. Thomas 
 Franklin, whose account is here given, wrote that 
 although he was a heavy loser from Indian depre- 
 dations, he felt that he had satisfaction. 
 
 During January, 1865, Company C, com- 
 manded by Captain Kelly (who was alleged to 
 have won his commission from Nevada's Gover- 
 nor in a poker game), reached the vicinity of the 
 present town of Bishop and remained until April, 
 when on peremptory orders the company went on 
 to Camp Independence. That post was then con- 
 tinuously garrisoned until its abandonment in 
 1877. The soldiers were sent out against the 
 Piutes but once more, in 1870. A company went 
 to Round Valley; its presence sufficed, and there 
 was no fighting. The Indian attitude was defiant 
 and sullen for some years. The conflict of tribal 
 customs and of white opinions regarding the kill- 
 
 14 
 
190 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 ing of Indian doctors threatened trouble as late 
 as 1877, when the dominant race undertook to 
 punish murders of condemned medicine men. 
 
 It has been noted that one Indian leader never 
 did submit to white rule. Joaquin Jim, while he 
 ceased marauding, remained aloof to the end of 
 his days. The Indian story was he came to his 
 death, some years after the war, from overeating 
 some special tribal delicacy ; the white version was 
 that he was killed by one of his own warriors. 
 Another so-called Joaquin Jim appeared at Tule 
 Eiver reservation in 1863 to be treated for wounds 
 received in Owens Valley. A squad of soldiers 
 from Camp Babbitt went to arrest him, but he 
 saw them coming, fled, and was pursued and 
 killed. ''The body was found with a number of 
 fresh wounds and many scars. Joaquin Jim was 
 known to have murdered two white men in cold 
 blood, and had fought desperately in several bat- 
 tles," said a published report. Nevertheless, that 
 Indian was not the noted leader of the southern 
 Monos. 
 
 Perhaps it is not the business of a record of 
 this character to philosophize on the Indian war 
 subject. The facts as nearly as they can be had 
 have been set down ; the comments of men writing 
 at the time, some for, some against, the natives, 
 have been impartially given. Probably it will 
 lead to a conclusion that the whites were not all 
 free from wrong; that the Indian's resistance to 
 trespassing on the domain that had always been 
 his was but natural; that however pathetic the 
 native's displacement as overlord, the white dom- 
 
MORE INDIAN TROUBLES 191 
 
 ination, here as elsewhere, and its making use of 
 resources which to the Indian meant much less 
 than the comfortable living the conquerors have 
 brought him, were inevitable and necessary. 
 
 Residents of Owensville estimated the total 
 death list of the war, so far as they knew it, to be 
 60 whites and about 250 Indians. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 WHITES IN POSSESSION 
 
 TRAVEL IN VALLEY CONSIDERED SAFE LAND ENTRIES AND 
 
 SETTLEMENTS — A REVOLTING CRIME — KEARSARGE MINE 
 DISCOVERED — HARD TIMES — KEARSARGE CAMP DE- 
 STROYED BY AVALANCHE — SOME OF THE RECORD OF THE 
 MINE. 
 
 Re-establishment of a garrison at Camp In- 
 dependence, together with the severity of lessons 
 given to the Indians on every provocation, justi- 
 fied white settlers in believing that their su- 
 premacy in Owens Valley would not be again dis- 
 puted. Almarin B. Paul, writing from Kearsarge 
 May 5, 1866, said: "It is now fully as safe to 
 travel up and down the valley, as far as Indians 
 go, as it is in the streets of Sacramento or San 
 Francisco. The worst class of Indians who 
 formerly made this valley their hunting ground 
 have moved farther eastward. Those who are in 
 the valley prefer peace and to work, which they 
 do for fifty cents a day and hogadie." Increased 
 activity in prospecting and in settlement began. 
 Grrowth was slow, nevertheless. Visalia and Los 
 Angeles, to the south, and Aurora, to the north, 
 were the nearest places of importance. Each was 
 over 200 miles away, reached by trying roads. 
 Besides, the whole West was yet in the explora- 
 tion period, and the idea of encouraging immi- 
 
 192 
 
WHITES IN POSSESSION 193 
 
 gration had not been evolved. Five years later, 
 the census of 1870 showed a total Inyo population 
 of but 1956, of whom most were Indians. 
 
 Land entries had been made in 1863. Jacob 
 Nash and E. D. French filed on claims near 
 Olancha, March 9th ; John M. George located near 
 Lone Pine, April 2d; James A. Brewer located 
 at Greorge's Creek, May 21st; J. C. White did 
 likewise at Independence, June 5th. None of these 
 claims were perfected. The oldest completed claim 
 in the valley was that of Thos. Edwards, for land 
 on which the townsite of Independence was lo- 
 cated. W. L. Moore, who with Chas. D. Begole as 
 his partner had lived in the vicinity of Lone Pine 
 for some years, filed on land there July 17, 1867. 
 The pioneer claims at Big Pine were made during 
 the last few months of 1869 by Duncan Campbell, 
 Fred Eeinhakel, W. F. Uhlmeyer and S. G. Gregg. 
 Record of the settlement of Bishop lands is not 
 available, beyond the fact that the users of Bishop 
 Creek water in 1870 numbered 34, among them 
 some of the pioneers who had taken part in the 
 exciting events of a few years before. The land 
 filing dates given are from land office records; 
 perhaps in most instances, as in that of Moore, the 
 claimants had previously exercised a squatter 
 right on the tracts to which they sought to estab- 
 lish title. 
 
 Most of the early settlements ''just growed," 
 a la Topsy. Independence townsite plat is the 
 oldest now to be found on the county records. Its 
 survey, made at the instance of Thomas Edwards, 
 was completed February 13, 1866, and recorded 
 
194 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 May 12, 1867. Few other places now existent were 
 platted until they had attained some permanency. 
 Laws, originally Bishop Station, was surveyed on 
 the building of the railroad, some of its lots being 
 where the primitive cabins of Owensville had 
 stood. Keeler was also laid out when the railroad 
 was built; whether its name should be Keeler or 
 Hawley was for some time an unsettled question. 
 Darwin was also one of the earlier surveyed town- 
 sites. 
 
 To go slightly ahead of the story. Bend City 
 faded away, its site ere many years marked by 
 only piles of crumbled adobes through which the 
 road from Independence to its railroad depot 
 passed. San Carlos vanished even more com- 
 pletely, though its mill was not torn down until 
 1876. Long thereafter a lone smokestack stood 
 to show where the camp had been. Owensville, 
 by that name, lost its last inhabitant in 1871. 
 
 An incident unique in its revolting depravity 
 occurred in 1865. E. M. King, who claimed to 
 have been a preacher, had located on a piece of 
 ground near Owens Lake, on the Visalia road, and 
 kept a place at which wayfarers were fed. There 
 came to this place, in June, 1865, J. N., better 
 known as ''Hog," Rogers. His uncomplimentary 
 designation was conferred because of his being 
 in the pork-raising business in western Tulare. He 
 was one of the citizens at the Owens Lake massa- 
 cre that January. When he arrived at King's, 
 he had with him $1,500, the proceeds of selling 
 property at Owensville. 
 
 A little later travelers named Snow and Dear- 
 
WHITES IN POSSESSION 195 
 
 bom tarried with King, who waited on and fed 
 them. During the meal, of which they heartily 
 partook. King asked them if they knew what kind 
 of meat they had been eating. They replied that 
 they supposed it was pork. "Well, that's some 
 of old Rogers" was the startling enlightenment 
 given. It developed that King had killed Rogers, 
 made a razor strop from a strip of his skin, and 
 had cut his flesh into pieces, some of which were 
 then drying on the place. Other portions of the 
 body had been fed to chickens. Snow and Dear- 
 bom hastened to Independence, and after their 
 story had been told a party w^ent to the lake and 
 captured the murderer. He was brought to Inde- 
 pendence, but escaped from there and went to 
 Visalia, where he adopted the name of Butterfield. 
 He was recognized by some one from Owens Val- 
 ley, arrested, tried and found guilty, and was 
 hanged in Visalia by the Sheriff, December 7, 
 1865, the second legal execution in Tulare County. 
 He made a full confession. 
 
 A sawmill was cutting lumber near Big Pine, 
 and another was established northwest of Inde- 
 pendence. Up to that time the lumber used there 
 had been cut by whipsaws. Among those who 
 had been cutting in the primitive way were 
 Thomas W. Hill, G. W. Cornell and A. Kittleson, 
 camped at what was long known as Todd's, now 
 Gray's Meadows, a few miles west of Indepen- 
 dence. Hardships of the period were graphically 
 related by Mr. Hill to the author during the course 
 of a day's railroad journey together. The need 
 for haste in gathering the reminiscences of the 
 
196 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 old-timers was singularly illustrated in his case, 
 for tlie old pioneer died of heart failure before he 
 left the car that evening. 
 
 Cattle ranged all over the valley, Mr. Hill said. 
 Owners knowing that Indians would take the stock 
 as opportunity favored, gave settlers permission 
 to do the same. There being no local agriculture 
 of any consequence, and outside communication 
 being uncertain or worse, the roving cattle were 
 often the sole reliance for food. Even if farming 
 had been seriously undertaken, that was a spe- 
 cially discouraging season, for it is said that the 
 year 1864 was so dry that in midsummer Little 
 Pine Creek was so low that its water did not get 
 down to Independence. 
 
 Hill and his partners had raised a little corn 
 in their mountain nook, and from it ground four 
 sacks of meal, using coffee mills as machinery. 
 It was agreed among them that the chance of get- 
 ting other supplies was so slender that none of 
 the meal should be sold. One day while Hill was 
 alone in the camp, a man came from Bend City 
 with the statement that his wife and children had 
 nothing to eat and he did not know where to get 
 food for them. Finally Hill said: **We agreed 
 not to sell any of this meal, and I'm not going to 
 do it. I'm going to the creek after some water, 
 and if there happens to be a sack missing when I 
 get back I won't do much hunting for it." His 
 back was scarcely turned when he heard his visi- 
 tor's wagon clattering away — and that evening 
 Hill had to account for the meal. 
 
 The men prospected from their camp. In the 
 
WHITES IN POSSESSION 197 
 
 fall of 1864 they with Thomas May and C. McCor- 
 mack discovered promising croppings. Shortly 
 before, sympathizers with the South in- the Civil 
 War had named the Alabama hills, near Lone 
 Pine, in evidence of their gratification at the de- 
 structive career of the Confederate privateer 
 Alabama. Having the ending of that career by 
 the Kearsarge fresh in mind, Hill and his part- 
 ners, staunch Unionists, evened it up by calling 
 their claim after the Union battleship. Other dis- 
 coveries, including the Silver Sprout and Vir- 
 ginia, were made on the slopes of the great peak 
 which took the name of its first mine. Four tons 
 of Kearsarge ore were sent to Ball's mill, near 
 Ophir, Nevada, and netted $900 a ton. The 
 phenomenal find attracted attention, and a con- 
 trolling interest was sold to Charles Tozier, 
 Almarin B. Paul, D. L. Bliss, Chas. Vangorder, 
 I. L. Requa and John Gillig — all men of promi- 
 nence then and later in coast financial and mining 
 circles. Systematic development of the claims 
 began in 1865, and by the end of that year quite 
 a camp had arisen in the canyon at the western 
 base of Kearsarge 's highest rise. 
 
 Though isolated by storms and snows, the little 
 camp passed safely through most of the winter. 
 Came February, 1866, with storms worse than any 
 that had preceded. Snow, whirled by gales, flew 
 in clouds over all the foothills, and still more 
 violently about Kearsarge Peak and the cabins 
 nestling under its shoulder. New-fallen snow 
 massed on the smooth surface of the earlier coat- 
 ings of the winter, and began to shoot down the 
 
198 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 steep declivities. Kearsarge camp escaped dam- 
 age until the afternoon of March 1st, when an 
 avalanche buried the larger part of it, sweeping 
 away a number of cabins and a life with them. 
 
 Messengers went at once from the houses which 
 were undamaged, making hard-won progress to 
 Hill's, Camp Independence and Bend City. Every 
 available man answered the summons. Hill, Kit- 
 tleson and Cornell being the first to reach the 
 scene. Occupants of destroyed cabins were ac- 
 counted for until that occupied by mine foreman 
 C. W. Mills and his wife was reached. The house 
 had been crushed until no trace of it could be 
 seen above the snow. After some digging a part 
 of the rough stone wall was found. Hill was the 
 first to grasp a bit of cloth, part of the dress en- 
 closing the lifeless form of Mrs. Mills. Death 
 had come with so little warning that her stiffened 
 fingers still grasped a needle and the thread that 
 she was about to place in it. Search for the body 
 of Mills was about to be abandoned when a man 
 known as ''Crazy" insisted on keeping up the 
 hunt. Mills was finally found, barely alive, and 
 with a broken leg. He recovered. E. Chaquette 
 and wife occupied a house in the edge of the slide's, 
 path. A dog's barking caused him to look out in 
 time to see the avalanche coming. He caught up 
 his wife and ran, and escaped so narrowly that 
 the edge of the slide caught him and broke his leg. 
 
 The population of Kearsarge moved that night 
 to Hill's, and preparations for safer stopping 
 places were made the next day. Development of 
 the mine went on unchecked. To follow to a con- 
 
WHITES IN POSSESSION 199 
 
 elusion the fortunes of the property : The owners 
 incorporated, and in the summer of 1866 the com- 
 pany built a ten-stamp mill at a cost of $40,000. 
 The Silver Sprout mill, in the same vicinity, was 
 already at work, and some Kearsarge ore was 
 worked in it. Almarin B. Paul, later notable in 
 coast mining affairs, was superintendent. The 
 bullion produced was sent to Gold Hill, with an 
 escort of soldiers. When it was found to net but 
 121/2 cents an ounce Paul quit in disgust, and I. L. 
 Requa became superintendent, with D. P. Pierce 
 in direct charge. Pierce 's first working produced 
 $60 per ton of ore. He had found the company 
 $15,000 in debt when he took hold. After a 
 month's smooth running, and when he began to 
 be hopeful of success, creditors demanded that 
 the bullion be turned over to them. Pierce, in- 
 tending to use the proceeds to settle affairs in his 
 own way, hid it. The matter got into the courts 
 and a receivership was ordered. Finally the prop- 
 erty passed to other owners, with Greorge Stead 
 as manager. One of his first acts was to sell to 
 the miners the ore that was then on the dump and 
 at the mill. Some of this was sorted and sent to 
 San Francisco, where it yielded over $700 a ton. 
 Stead soon left, and his successor, D. P. Low, 
 bought from the creditors what ore remained, pay- 
 ing them $40 a ton. Some of it, specially selected, 
 brought $700 a ton, and the average was $140 a 
 ton. Another change in the scrambled affairs 
 of the company occurred in 1869. The ore con- 
 tinued to prove its value, fifty tons of it averaging 
 $165, while the average of all that was worked 
 
200 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 from the mine was $60. Managements came and 
 went for a number of years ; and for all the rich 
 returns that were reported the old mine showed a 
 balance on the wrong side of the ledger and was 
 virtually abandoned by the company, passing to 
 other hands. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED 
 
 MORMON EFFORTS TO SECURE TERRITORY EAST OF SIERRAS 
 
 INYO CREATED NINETY-ONE TOTAL VOTE AT FIRST 
 
 ELECTION — FIRST OFFICERS — THREE HUGE SCHOOL DIS- 
 TRICTS — FIRST CHURCH ORGANIZATION — BOUNDARY 
 CHANGES. 
 
 Musty records show that for a little time the 
 Mormons had hopes of ruling the Great Basin as 
 far westward as the summit of the Sierra Nevada 
 Mountains, including the area now comprised in 
 Inyo County. In March, 1849, they held a con- 
 vention in Salt Lake City and (so far as they 
 could) organized the '* State of Deseret." It in- 
 cluded the present Utah, Nevada, Arizona, some 
 of Colorado, some of Oregon, southern California 
 as far north as Santa Monica, eastward and north- 
 ward through half of Kern County through 
 Tulare, to and across the summit of the Sierras, 
 and along the latter range. This took in our 
 present county as well as others further north 
 and east of the mountains. This liberal claim of 
 territory was denied, so far as California was con- 
 cerned, by the Act admitting this State into the 
 Union and ratification of its constitution prescrib- 
 ing the boundaries as they now exist. That the 
 Mormons meant business in their claim was indi- 
 cated by an invitation to "the inhabitants of that 
 
 201 
 
202 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 portion of Upper California lying east of the 
 Sierra Nevada Mountains" to participate in their 
 convention. Needless to say that there was no 
 response from any of the country south of Lake 
 Tahoe, at least. What prompted the Californians 
 to ordain their line southeasterly through the 
 desert, including the utterly unknown region be- 
 tween it and the Sierras, is but surmise. 
 
 When people of western Utah held a mass 
 meeting at Genoa, August 8, 1857, and prepared 
 a petition asking Congress to organize a new Ter- 
 ritory, separate from Utah, they looked on the 
 Sierras as their natural boundary and suggested 
 that the range be made the western boundary of 
 their soon-to-be Nevada. This too was disre- 
 garded in defining the lines established by the 
 enabling act. 
 
 The greater part of the present Inyo County 
 was within the lines set in 1852 for Tulare, and 
 that county exercised what little jurisdiction 
 existed, south of Big Pine Creek. Owens Valley 
 north of that stream had been allotted to Mono 
 when, in 1861, it was created from ''those portions 
 of Calaveras, Mariposa and Frezno counties lying 
 east of the summit of the Sierra Nevado Moun- 
 tains." 
 
 The unsuccessful effort to establish Coso 
 County has been set forth. Owens Valley's 
 scattered settlers memorialized the next Legisla- 
 ture, and on February 17, 1866, Assemblyman J. 
 E. Goodall of Mono and Tuolumne, introduced a 
 bill to establish Inyo County. It passed without 
 opposition. It prescribed the boundaries as had 
 
INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED 203 
 
 the Coso County bills, the Sierra summit on the 
 west, State line on the east, the line until then 
 bounding Tulare on the south, and on the north 
 * ' down the middle of Big Pine Creek to its mouth, 
 thence due east to the State line." Bend City 
 had waned, and Independence was named in its 
 stead as the seat of government until the citizens 
 should decide otherwise. Kearsage was the 
 largest precinct. Thomas J. Goodale, L. F. 
 Cooper, W. A. Greenly, W. A. Baker and Lyman 
 Tuttle were designated as commissioners to form 
 precincts, name election officers, canvass returns, 
 and so on. The date of election was set for 
 March 3d. The creating act did not become law 
 until March 22d, so the v/hole proceeding would 
 have been null but for the provision, prompted by 
 the experience in the Coso County effort, that in 
 case the election was not held on the day set it 
 might be called at any time within one year. 
 
 Salaries of the officers of the proposed county 
 and their official bonds were set as follows: 
 County Judge, salary $1,000; District Attorney, 
 $500 salary, $2,000 bond; Supervisors, each $300 
 salary, $1,000 bond. The Sheriff, whose bond was 
 $7,000; Clerk, bond $3,000; Treasurer, bond 
 $10",000; Assessor, bond $1,000; Coroner, bond 
 $2,000 ; and Surveyor, bond $2,000, were all to be 
 paid according to a general State law enacted in 
 1855. That the whole salary and fee schedule was 
 on a modest scale is apparent from the statement 
 that the Assessor's pay was $8 per day during 
 the time he was actually employed in official duties, 
 and the Superintendent's compensation was $150 
 per year. 
 
204 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Inyo was attached to the County of Mono for 
 Assembly district purposes, and to that and a 
 number of other counties in judicial district mat- 
 ters. 
 
 One provision of the Act required the appoint- 
 ment of two commissioners to confer with a like 
 number from Tulare to arrange for the new county 
 to take over its proportion of the Tulare county 
 debt. No record has been found proving that this 
 was ever done. 
 
 The organization election was held some time in 
 May — exact date not ascertainable from records. 
 The officers elected were W. A. Greenly, Sheriff; 
 Thomas Passmore, Clerk; John T. Ryan, As- 
 sessor; John Lentell, Treasurer; Lyman Tuttle, 
 Surveyor; B. D. Blaney, Coroner; Josiah Earl, 
 Superintendent of Schools ; John R. Hughes, John 
 R. Westerville (properly Westervelt) and C. D. 
 Begole, Supervisors. John Beveridge was elected 
 District Attorney but did not qualify, and Thomas 
 P. Slade was appointed to that position. 0. L. 
 Matthews had been appointed County Judge, by 
 Governor Low. 
 
 The Supervisors convened in Independence 
 May 31st, and elected Hughes chairman. An 
 election was ordered to be held June 16th, to 
 choose township officers. The townships then 
 established, the polling places designated and the 
 small vote subsequently cast indicate the limita- 
 tions of population of the new county. 
 
 First township: Polling places, George 
 Shedd's house at Fish Springs, Oro Fino Co. 'a 
 office at Chrysopolis. Election officers J. S. Gill, 
 
INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED 205 
 
 E. M. Goodale and M. Stewart, and E. S. Whig- 
 ham, Wm. Pedlar and Wm. Fleming respectively 
 at the two points. In a total vote of 15, Fleming 
 was elected Justice and Jack Shepherd and P. 
 Green, Constables. 
 
 The Second township had also two polling 
 places: at Kearsarge, where votes were counted 
 at M. J. Byrne's house and the election officers 
 were M. Meagher, Samuel McGee and W. J. Lake ; 
 and the Independence schoolhouse, with S. P. Mof- 
 fatt, R. Hilton and J. G. Payne as officers. The 
 whole vote of the townhip was 56, and the officers 
 elected were J. J. Mankin and S. L. McGee Jus- 
 tices and Wm. J. Lake and Wm. Wallace Con- 
 stables. 
 
 In the Third township voters cast their ballots 
 at Begole and Moore's house, with A. C. Stevens, 
 Lyman Tuttle and Robert Law as election officers. 
 Four of the twenty voters were put into official 
 positions — R. M. Shuey and J. J. Moore as Jus- 
 tices and N. F. Coburn and Peter Peerson as 
 Constables. 
 
 Appointment of George Shedd, J. G. Payne 
 and Reuben Van Dyke as Road Overseers, com- 
 pleted the government of Inyo County. 
 
 While the salary set for the County Judge 
 was small, his duties generally corresponded. His 
 jurisdiction was between that of the Justice and 
 the District Court. The latter corresponded to the 
 present Superior Court, except that its judge had 
 several counties in his district. Judge Matthews ' 
 first case was a murder affair, that of E. H. Rogers 
 for killing Theodore Bayer; the next two were 
 
 15 
 
206 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 of the kind termed ^' civil," and tlie fourth was a 
 bankruptcy proceeding. He went through his term 
 without having occasion to sentence a felon, the 
 first commitment to San Quentin being made by 
 Judge A. C. Hanson in 1869, when a grand lar- 
 cenist "went below" for three years. 
 
 Three school districts were established. One 
 included all the county north of Independence; 
 Independence and vicinity was the second, and the 
 southernmost included all territory "south of the 
 first section line south of J. W. SjTiimes." It 
 would appear that the Supervisors looked on Mr. 
 Symmes as a fixture. 
 
 In the county vaults at Independence is a small 
 morocco-covered book on whose few sheets of 
 foolscap paper are the early records of the Super- 
 visors. A critical reader would find it to be more 
 incomplete in details than would now be sanc- 
 tioned ; for example, public roads were designated 
 as "running from Bend City to Kearsarge," 
 "from Independence to the northern line of the 
 county," "from Cerro Gordo to the summit of the 
 Sierra Nevada Mountains." Those descriptions 
 sufficed to be understood at the time, probably bet- 
 ter than if they had been sprinkled with survey 
 figures and "thences." 
 
 In the winter of 1866-7 A. N. Bell built a flour- 
 ing mill on Oak Creek. It was burned April 12, 
 1870, and rebuilt soon afterward. 
 
 When the election of 1867 came, Chrysopolis 
 was wholly dead, and its voting precinct was 
 abolished; Kearsarge was also dropped from the 
 list. Cerro Gordo had started, and was recognized 
 
INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED 207 
 
 as a precinct. Some growth was indicated by a 
 vote of 31 votes at Fish Springs, 115 at Inde- 
 pendence, 53 at Lone Pine and 7 at Cerro Gordo. 
 The county's vote was close politically,- Phelps, 
 Eepublican, for Congress, receiving 102, Axtell, 
 his Democratic opponent, 104. The vote on county 
 officers was as follows : 
 
 Sherife— Thos. May, 86; W. L. Moore, 123. 
 
 Clerk— C. L. Jackson, 95 ; S. P. Moffatt, 113. 
 
 Treasurer — Isaac Harris, 96 ; A. N. Bell, 108. 
 
 Attorney— F. K. Miller, 103; Thos. P. Slade, 
 107. 
 
 Assessor — A. C. Stevens, 106; S. L. McGee, 
 104. 
 
 Surveyor — ^Lyman Tuttle, 107; Jack Dow, 98. 
 
 Superintendent — C. M. Joslyn, 106; Josiah 
 Earl, 98. 
 
 Coroner — A. Farnsworth, 104; John A. Lank, 
 103. 
 
 Supervisor First District — J. W. McMurry, 
 16; J. W. Westerville, 14. 
 
 Judges were chosen at a separate election, at 
 which A. C. Hanson defeated John Alexander, 102 
 to 84 for County Judge, and the county gave 96 
 votes for Theron Reed for District Judge to 93 for 
 L. F. Cooper. 
 
 Changes in the official corps were frequent dur- 
 ing the first few years. It appears to have been 
 considered courteous and proper for the Sheriff 
 whose term was about to end to resign in order 
 that his elected successor might acquire a little 
 experience. Greenly resigned in November, 1867, 
 and W. L. ('^Dad") Moore was appointed for the 
 
208 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 month between then and his own term by election. 
 Two years later, he in turn resigned just before 
 being succeeded by Elder. The District Attor- 
 ney's office was subject to frequent changes. 
 Beveridge failed to qualify, after the first elec- 
 tion, and Slade was appointed. Slade was re- 
 elected, and resigned. Pat Reddy was appointed, 
 but did not qualify, and Paul W. Bennett was ap- 
 pointed. Beveridge was again elected in 1869, 
 and again failed to qualify, and Bennett was again 
 appointed. Passmore tried the Clerkship for a 
 year before he resigned and Moffatt was ap- 
 pointed. Stevens served as Assessor for a year, 
 quit, and was succeeded by L. A. Talcott. Farns- 
 worth. Coroner, was hardly more than sworn in 
 before he made way for John A. Lank. A brief 
 experience in public office seems to have been suf- 
 ficient for most of the old-timers ; it was no more 
 than an even chance whether any one elected would 
 serve out his term. 
 
 In the election of 1869, the successful candi- 
 dates were A. B. Elder, Sheriff; S. P. Moffatt, 
 Clerk; Greo. W. Brady, Assessor; John Beveridge, 
 Attorney; Isaac Harris, Treasurer; Lyman Tut- 
 tle. Surveyor; J. W. Symmes, Superintendent of 
 Schools; John A. Lank, Coroner; John Shedd and 
 John Shepherd, Supervisors. 
 
 A report of conditions in 1867 said that 2,000 
 acres of land had been enclosed, of which half 
 was cultivated. Barley was the principal crop. 
 Independence had a population of 100. Fourteen 
 quartz mills, ten of them steam driven, were oper- 
 ating in the county, dropping 130 stamps and rep- 
 
INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED 209 
 
 resenting a $350,000 investment. The San Carlos 
 Canal, to be 15 miles long and to cost $30,000, 
 was proposed. Mention of the names of streams 
 included Indian (George's), Sycamore (Alabama 
 hills) and Little Pine creeks. It was estimated 
 that there were 500 voters in the county. A road 
 across Kearsage Pass was advocated. 
 
 Nothing has been unearthed from county rec- 
 ords to show who first served as teachers of the 
 children of Inyo's huge districts. Designation of 
 the schoolhouse at Independence as the polling 
 place for the precinct in the election of 1866 is the 
 only available proof of the existence of a school 
 at that time. In that same year the first school 
 was begun in northern Owens Valley, then part of 
 Mono County. Only one white child was in the 
 Bishop vicinity in the early months of the year, 
 until in March Mr. and Mrs. Joel H. Smith and 
 their six children arrived. The coming of other 
 families led to Mrs. Smith opening a school, sup- 
 ported by subscription. The first public school 
 teacher north of Independence was Milton S. 
 Clark. 
 
 Among the Owensville inhabitants were Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thomas Clark. Their sons came soon 
 afterward; one of them was Rev. Andrew Clark, 
 with his family. That pioneer minister and his 
 brothers had served in the nation's army on Shi- 
 loh's bloody field and elsewhere during the Civil 
 War; and with the coming of peace they looked 
 to the West. Sincere in convictions, Mr. Clark 
 arranged for a church organization; and on Jan- 
 uary 1, 1869, he and six others established the 
 
210 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Baptist Church at Bishop Creek, as the settlement 
 was then called. This was the first religious soci- 
 ety in eastern California. The Methodists sent 
 their first resident minister, Eev. E. H. Orne, to 
 Independence as the central point of the ' ' Owens 
 River Charge" two years later. These pioneer 
 laborers in the cause of Christianity underwent 
 virtually all the hardships of the * ' circuit riders ' ' 
 of the mid-West, for they held services regularly 
 all the way from Cerro Gordo to Benton, and in 
 Deep Springs Valley. 
 
 Temperance societies were first among frater- 
 nities in this field. Existence of the Sons of 
 Temperance at Owensville has been noted. That 
 body's career was brief. Next in secret society 
 pioneering was St. Orme's Lodge of Good Tem- 
 plars, in Round Valley in 1869, soon reinforced 
 by Oasis Lodge of the same order at Bishop. 
 
 Placer gold was found on Big Pine Creek in 
 1869. The first taken was a two-ounce nugget. 
 Some placer mining was done there and some in 
 the foothills west of Bishop during later years. 
 
 During the season of 1869 the valley's esti- 
 mated production of grain was 250 tons ; the lands 
 in cultivation amounted to 5,000 acres. Flour 
 for home consumption was being ground in home 
 mills, and lumber cut in the nearby foothills was 
 being used for buildings. Seven steam and two 
 waterpower quartz mills were dropping 100 
 stamps regularly, and four furnaces and twenty 
 arrastras were helping to swell the mineral pro- 
 duction of the region. 
 
 A bill was introduced in the Legislature, 
 
INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED 211 
 
 passed, and approved by Governor Haiglit, March 
 28, 1870, changing the northern boundary of Inyo 
 County from Big Pine Creek to the line between 
 townships five and six south of Mt. Diablo base 
 line. In consideration of the transfer of territory 
 from Mono to Inyo, provision was made for a 
 payment of $12,000 to the former county. This 
 was payable $3,000 annually, beginning January, 
 1871. The last of the debt was not paid, however, 
 until 1875. i 
 
 The precise location of the boundary between 
 the two counties was in dispute until a survey 
 was made by J. G. Thompson, of' Mono, in 1876. 
 Prior to that the neighbor county had laid claim 
 to a large part of Round Valley, and finding out 
 that the claim was not well founded caused mucJi 
 resentment, particularly in Benton, then a camp 
 of considerable importance and liveliness. 
 
 One other slight change in boundary lines was 
 made in 1872. The southern line, as inherited 
 from Tulare, ran a little south of westerly from 
 the Nevada line. The new code description 
 changed it to a straight east-and-west line. This 
 took a few miles of Sierras from us and in return 
 gave us jurisdiction over a few more square miles 
 of desert inferno at the far southeastern corner 
 of the county. 
 
 While these were the final changes, that fact 
 is not due to lack of agitation. In 1864 the Neva- 
 dans returned to their original idea of jurisdiction 
 to the summit of the Sierras, and memorialized 
 the California Legislature, asking that all the 
 territory in the State east of that range be trans- 
 
212 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 ferred to Nevada. If the whole could not be pre- 
 sented to the Silver State, the petitioners were 
 anxious that Mono and Alpine, at least, should be. 
 John R. Dudleston, then a prominent Monoite, 
 urged that the line be run from Mt. Dana to Mt. 
 McBride, ''the point where the State line crosses 
 the White Mountains. ' ' The effort had no result. 
 Passage by the Nevada Legislature in 1870 of a 
 resolution asking for the proposed cession was as 
 fruitless. The same proposal has been made since, 
 and at times had some support in the area affected. 
 
 In 1873 residents of the northern part of the 
 county started a movement to have the county 
 line re-established at Big Pine Creek, throwing 
 the Bishop vicinity back into Mono. This arose 
 from county dissensions. Three years went by 
 before the subject was seriously renewed. It then 
 grew to such proportions that the Supervisors 
 took official notice of the matter. A protest 
 against any change was adopted by the votes of 
 Curtis, of Independence, and Meysan, of Lone 
 Pine, for the protest and that of Garretson, of 
 Bishop, against it. Next came Assemblyman 
 Matthew Griswold, of Mono, with a bill to create 
 Monache County, to include Olancha, the boom- 
 ing camps of Darwin and Panamint and the desert 
 region generally. This measure died on the files. 
 
 A step forward for the county was made when 
 in June, 1870, a newspaper, the Inyo Independent, 
 was established at Independence by Chalfant & 
 Parker. Among its items were statements that a 
 petition was in circulation to secure a tri-weekly 
 mail between Independence and Aurora. Mines 
 
INYO COUNTY ESTABLISHED 213 
 
 at Fish Springs were paying well. That camp 
 was headquarters for a tough crowd known as 
 ''Morgan Courtney's gang" — characters who 
 later contributed to the criminal records of some 
 of the Nevada towns. A wagon road between In- 
 dependence and Visalia was being discussed. Inyo 
 County's debt was $33,525.52. Bullion to the 
 amount of 1,419,387 pounds had gone out from 
 the Cerro Gordo furnaces. It gave pleasure to an- 
 nounce that two regular mails a week had been 
 arranged for, the government paying for one and 
 the stage company putting on one of its own ac- 
 cord. Henry G. Hanks had refused $30,000 for 
 the Monte Diablo (later Mount Diablo) mine at 
 Candelaria. Isaac Friedlander was making ap- 
 plication for a patent on the Eclipse mine, south- 
 east of Independence. 
 
 The year 1871 was an election year, and devel- 
 oped some of the hottest politics the county ever 
 had. One of its features was a campaign journal 
 largely devoted to personalities, named The Inyo 
 Lancet, of which Thomas J. Goodale was the edi- 
 tor-in-chief. The issues involved were of but tem- 
 porary interest. Winners in the election were 
 Cy Mulkey, Sheriff ; M. W. Hammarstrand, Clerk ; 
 E. H. Van Decar, District Attorney; Henry M. 
 Isaacs, Treasurer; J. F. Dillon, Assessor; John 
 A. Lank, Coroner. Precincts in the territory ac- 
 quired from Mono County cast votes as follows : 
 Deep Spring Valley, 18 ; Round Valley, 40 ; Bishop 
 Creek, 92. Older Inyo precincts cast 77 votes at 
 Fish Springs, 111 at Independence, 95 at Lone 
 Pine, 29 at Swansea, and 124 at Cerro Gordo. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 TWO AFFAIRS OF 1871 
 
 CONVICTS ESCAPING FROM CARSON HEAD TOWARD INYO — 
 THEIR TRAIL TO LONG VALLEY — MORRISON KILLED AT 
 CONVICT LAKE — SLAYERS CAPTURED, TRIED AND EXE- 
 CUTED UNEXPLAINED DISAPPEARANCE OF GUIDES EGAN 
 
 AND HAHN, WITH WHEELER EXPEDITION. 
 
 The most desperate prison break in the history 
 of the West occurred at the Nevada penitentiary 
 at Carson on the evening of Sunday, September 
 17, 1871. Twenty-nine convicts, murderers, train 
 robbers, horse thieves and others of like ilk, gained 
 temporary liberty after killing one man and 
 wounding half a dozen more. The bravery of the 
 handful of prison guards, the action of a life 
 prisoner in opposing the escape and fighting the 
 convicts, and other details make an interesting 
 story, but one outside the field of this history. 
 Inyo's interest in the affair became direct when 
 one of the gangs of desperadoes started with in- 
 tent to recuperate in Owens and Fish Lake val- 
 leys, as a preliminary to raiding a store at Silver 
 Peak and escaping Avith their loot to seek refuge 
 among the renegades, Indians and whites, who had 
 established themselves in the far deserts. 
 
 Billy Poor, a mail rider, was met by the con- 
 victs, who murdered' him in cold blood, took his 
 horse and clothing and dressed the corpse in dis- 
 carded prison garb. When news of the occurrence 
 
 214 
 
TWO AFFAIES OF 1871 215 
 
 reached Aurora, the boy's home, a posse set out 
 ill pursuit of the escapers. The trail was found 
 at Adobe Meadow^s, in southern Mono, and word 
 was sent to Deputy Sheriff George Hightower, at 
 Benton. Hightower and ten others from Benton 
 trailed the fugitives into Long Valley. Eobert 
 Morrison, who came to Owensville in 1863 and was 
 at this time a Benton merchant, first sighted the 
 men, in the evening of Friday, the 23d. The pur- 
 suers went to the McGee place, in southern Long 
 Valley, and spent the night, and the following 
 morning went up the stream then known as Monte 
 Diablo Creek, but now called Convict. 
 
 As the posse neared the narrow at the eastern 
 end of the deep cup in which Convict Lake is 
 situated, a man was seen running down a hill a 
 hundred yards ahead. The pursuers spurred up 
 their horses and soon found themselves within 
 forty feet of the convicts' camp. Three convicts 
 took shelter behind a large pine tree on the south 
 side of the stream, and began firing. Two of 
 the horses of the posse were killed and two others 
 wounded, and one of the posse was shot through 
 the hand. Morrison dismounted, began crawling 
 down the hillside to get nearer, and was shot in 
 the side. The rest of the posse fled. Black, con- 
 vict, went after Morrison, passing him until Mor- 
 rison snapped his gun without its being dis- 
 charged; Black then shot him through the head. 
 
 The convicts w^ent up the canyon to where an 
 Indian known as Mono Jim was keeping some of 
 the citizens' horses. Thinking that the approach- 
 ing men belonged to the posse, Jim announced that 
 
216 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 he had seen three men down the canyon. As he 
 saw his mistake Black shot him. Jim returned 
 the fire, wounding two of the horses the convicts 
 had, and was then killed. Morrison's body re- 
 mained where it fell until Alney McGee went from 
 the house in the valley that evening and recovered 
 it. The convicts had left. Morrison's body was 
 taken to Benton and buried by the Masonic frater- 
 nity. 
 
 '^ Convict" was thenceforward adopted as the 
 name of the beautiful lake and stream near the 
 scene. A mighty peak that towers over the lake 
 bears the name of Mount Morrison. 
 
 Word had been sent from Benton to Bishop, 
 and a posse headed by John Crough and John 
 Clarke left the latter place, after some delay due 
 to failure of the messenger to deliver his letter. 
 The trail was picked up in Round Valley, which 
 the convicts had crossed. The latter had made 
 their way into Pine Creek Canyon, and were so 
 hard pressed that they abandoned one of their 
 horses and lost another over a precipice. News 
 that the men w^ere located, and the fact that they 
 were armed with Henry rifles, superior to the 
 weapons of the citizens, was taken to Indepen- 
 dence by I. P. Yaney. The military post was at 
 that time conmaanded by Major Harry C. Egbert, 
 who afterward became General Egbert and lost 
 his life as a brave soldier in the Philippines. 
 Major Egbert selected five men to accompany him 
 in the hunt, and also provided a supply of arms 
 for any citizens who might wish to use them for 
 the main purpose. They made the trip to Bishop 
 
TWO AFFAIRS OF 1871 217 
 
 in seven liours, which was rapid traveling in those 
 days. 
 
 Convicts Morton and Black were captured in 
 the sandhills five miles southeast of Round Val- 
 ley, on Wednesday night, ten days after their 
 escape. They were taken by J. L. C. Sherwin, 
 Hubbard, Armstead, McLeod and two Indians. A 
 few shots were exchanged before the fugitives 
 threw up their hands in token of surrender. An 
 Indian mistook the motion and fired, the shot 
 striking Black in the temple and passing through 
 his head, but strangely not killing him. The two 
 were taken to Birchim's place in Round Valley. 
 Black was able to talk, and laid the killing of 
 Morrison on Roberts, a nineteen-year old boy. 
 After hearing his story a posse resumed the hunt 
 for Roberts in Pine Creek Canyon. 
 
 This posse was eating lunch in the canyon on 
 Friday when they observed a movement in a clump 
 of wiUows within twenty yards of them. The 
 place was surrounded and Roberts was ordered to 
 come out and surrender. He did so, saying that 
 if they intended to kill him he was ready if he 
 could have a cup of coffee. He had been five and 
 one-half days without food. When he confronted 
 Black at Birchim's, the conduct of the older vil- 
 lain satisfied all that he and not Roberts had slain 
 Morrison. 
 
 The three prisoners were placed in a spring 
 wagon Sunday evening, October 1st, and with 
 a guard of horsemen started from Round Valley 
 for Carson. Near Pinchower's store, where the 
 northern road through West Bishop intersected 
 
218 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 the main drive of that vicinity, the escort and 
 wagon were surrounded by a large body of armed 
 citizens. ''Who is the captain of this guard?" 
 was asked. "I am; turn to the left and go on." 
 But the mob did not turn to the left nor was there 
 any resistance. Morton, who sat with the driver, 
 said: "Give me the reins and I'll drive after 
 them ; I'm a pretty good driver myself. ' ' Roberts, 
 who had been shot in the shoulder and in the foot 
 in the encounter in Long Valley, was lying in 
 the bottom of the wagon. He offered objections 
 to going with the citizens, but without effect, and 
 with Black driving to his own hanging, the wagon 
 and its escort moved across the unfenced meadow 
 to a vacant cabin a])out a mile northeasterly. On 
 arrival there. Black and Roberts were carried into 
 the house, both being wounded. Morton got down 
 from the wagon with little assistance and went in 
 with them. 
 
 Lights were procured, and all present except 
 the guards over the prisoners formed a jury. The 
 convicts were questioned for two hours before 
 votes were taken, separately on each prisoner. It 
 was decreed that Black and Morton should be 
 hanged at once. The vote on Roberts was equally 
 divided for and against execution, and his life was 
 saved by that fact. 
 
 A scaffold was hastily set up at the end of the 
 house, one end of its beam resting on the top of 
 its low chimney, the other supported by a tripod 
 of timbers. Morton hoard the preparations going 
 on, and asked: "Black, are you ready to die?" 
 "No, this is not the crowd that will hang us," 
 
TWO AFFAIRS OF 1871 219 
 
 replied Black. "Yes, it is," said Morton; don't 
 you hear them building the scaffold"?" Morton was 
 asked if he wished to stand nearer the fire which 
 had been made to modify the chill of- the late 
 autumn night. "No, it isn't worth while warm- 
 ing now," he answered; and turning to Roberts 
 he said: "AVe are to swing, and I mean to have 
 you swing with us if we can ; we want company. ' ' 
 Black was carried out and lifted into a wagon 
 which had been driven under the scaffold; after 
 being raised to his feet he stood unsupported. 
 Morton walked out and looked over the arrange- 
 ments calmly, climbed into the wagon, and placed 
 the noose over his own head. He asked that his 
 hands be made fast so that he could not jump up 
 and catch the rope. Black asked for water ; Mor- 
 ton asked him what he wanted with water then. 
 When asked if they had anything to say, Black 
 said no. Morton said that it wasn't well for a 
 man to be taken off without some religious cere- 
 mony, and if there was a minister present he 
 would like to have a prayer. Whether it seems 
 strange or otherwise, there was a minister present 
 by request. He spoke a few words, after which 
 Morton said: "I am prepared to meet my God — 
 but I don't know that there is any God." He 
 shook hands with the men on the wagon, and then 
 the minister prayed. Only his voice and a sigh 
 from Black broke the stillness. As "Amen" was 
 pronounced the wagon moved away. Black was 
 a large and heavy man and died without a strug- 
 gle. Morton, a very small man, sprang into the 
 air as the wagon started, and did not move a 
 muscle after his weight rested on the rope. 
 
220 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 Young Roberts was taken to the county jail 
 at Independence, and after partial recovery from 
 his wounds was returned to the Carson prison. 
 Others among the escapes were believed to have 
 come this way, and hard search was made for 
 them through the mountains. That one named 
 Charley Jones had come to Bishop Creek and had 
 probably received some assistance was a general 
 belief, but what became of him was never known 
 unless to a select circle. Four of the escapes were 
 captured on Walker River while they were feast- 
 ing on baked coyote. Eighteen of the twenty- 
 nine were captured or killed within two months of 
 the prison break. 
 
 One of the Government's parties of explora- 
 tion sent into the Great Basin during the 1870 
 decade was the Wheeler expedition. Its visit to 
 Inyo in 1871 would be worthy of but passing note 
 in this record but for two desert tragedies con- 
 nected with it, to wit : the disappearance of guides 
 Egan and Hahn. 
 
 The expedition comprised sixty men, including 
 soldiers, geologists, botanists, photographers, 
 meteorologists, naturalists, and representatives of 
 other branches of knowledge within the field of 
 government investigation. With them as press 
 correspondent came Fred W. Loring, a talented 
 young Bostonian, whose promising career as a 
 writer was cut short soon afterward by Arizona 
 Apaches. The force was divided into two detach- 
 ments, with Lieutenant George M. Wheeler as 
 commander of one and Lieutenant D. A. Lyle as 
 chief of the other. 
 
TWO AFFAIRS OF 1871 221 
 
 The party left the Central Pacific Eailroad at 
 Carlin, Nevada, and traversed the deserts south- 
 westerly, arriving at Independence in July, 1871. 
 Their investigations had proved very satisfac- 
 tory; the country had been mapped, and each sci- 
 entist had discoveries in his special line later 
 incorporated in the reports that may be found in 
 ofl&cial repositories. 
 
 The detachments left Camp Independence July 
 21st. Lyle was directed to cross the eastern range 
 and to meet Wheeler at the head of the Amargosa. 
 The guide for his party was C. F. R. Hahn, one of 
 the county's pioneers, discoverer of some of the 
 mines of Cerro Gordo, an accomplished linguist 
 and educated man as well as miner and moun- 
 taineer. 
 
 According to the story later told by Lyle and 
 John Koehler, naturalist with this detachment, 
 Hahn left camp two days out from Owens Valley, 
 to go ahead and prospect for water. He did not 
 return, and no Inyo acquaintance ever saw him 
 again. The detachment took no time to hunt for 
 him. The belief was general in the county at 
 that time that he had been basely deserted by the 
 company — equivalent to murder, in that region in 
 midsummer. It was established that Koehler had 
 said that he would make Hahn find water or kill 
 him. A. J. Close, a sometime resident of Inde- 
 pendence, wrote from Colorado in 1875 that he 
 had seen a man who claimed to have known Hahn 
 in Arizona afterward. This man said that the 
 missing man had been killed in that wild terri- 
 tory, but that previous to his death he had told of 
 
 16 
 
222 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 leaving the Lyle party. He had been nnable to 
 find water and was afraid to go back. He stripped 
 the saddle from his mule, and left it, with other 
 personal effects and papers to create the belief 
 that he had perished, and had then ridden bare- 
 back across the desert into Arizona. Hahn's be- 
 longings, or some of them, were found in a canyon 
 near the head of Death Valley a short time after- 
 ward. A pair of field glasses, believed to have 
 been Hahn's, were found at another place, by an 
 Indian. They came into P. A. Chalf ant's posses- 
 sion, and were destroyed in the burning of his 
 home many years later. They had special value 
 because of their associations, and further because 
 of a curious phenomenon in their appearance. The 
 cement uniting the prisms of the object lenses had 
 been formed into miniature representations of 
 sage bushes, though whether this was actually a 
 picturing of those within the lenses' range or 
 merely a form taken by the cement under action 
 of the excessive heat of the desert was only 
 surmise. Notwithstanding, the serviceability of 
 the glasses was unimpaired. 
 
 The Wheeler detachment took a more southerly 
 route on leaving Independence. Its guide was 
 William Egan, a scholarly gentleman well known 
 in many parts of the intermountain region. Being 
 familiar with the Amargosa region, he consented 
 to pilot the party that far. He disappeared even 
 more completely than did Hahn, for not even a 
 rumor of his having been seen alive or dead after 
 leaving the expedition ever reached his friends. 
 Wheeler accounted for him by saying that he had 
 
TWO AFFAIES OF 1871 223 
 
 left camp for Rose Springs, and had gone over 
 Towne's Pass into Death. Valley. Wheeler said 
 that after waiting a day for him, the party left 
 provisions and a note at Rose Springs and went 
 on. Loring, w^riting for Appleton's Journal, then 
 one of the country's leading magazines, said that 
 two men had gone into the Telescope mountains, 
 with Egan as guide. "He did not come back- 
 he never will come back," wrote Loring. Thp 
 two accounts do not agree as to the point of 
 Egan's departure. 
 
 Evidence by members of the party showed that 
 there had been friction between the guides and 
 the commanders in each instance. Wheeler and 
 Lyle were both characterized as brutal and over- 
 bearing, acting on the belief that their military 
 commissions were ample warrant for any attitude 
 they chose to take toward civilians in their em- 
 ploy. 
 
 A blacksmith who accompanied the expedition 
 from Eureka, Nevada, said no inquiries were ever 
 made in the camp concerning Egan's whereabouts. 
 His pack animal and prospecting outfit were taken 
 and used as government property. Lyle gave this 
 blacksmith to understand that Hahn had deserted, 
 and that if time permitted he would return and 
 shoot him. 
 
 Putting the best possible construction on 
 known circumstances, the two guides were virtu- 
 ally abandoned in the desert. Harsh inferences 
 were corroborated by authenticated incidents of 
 the journey. Near Belmont, Nevada, one of the 
 outfit's mules strayed. Men hunting the animal 
 
224 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 came upon a boy herding cattle. He professed to 
 know nothing of the mule, but was brought into 
 camp. Wheeler had him tied up by the thumbs in 
 an effort to extort knowledge that the boy did not 
 have. Again, as Ash Meadows, Wheeler tried to 
 get an Indian to take a note to his brother at a 
 point 70 miles distant. The Indian asked for 
 five dollars, a shirt and a pair of pants as pay. 
 This was refused and he left camp. The next 
 morning he returned, with four others. All were 
 seized and tied up. One broke away, started to 
 run, and was shot and killed. The rest of them 
 set out, under guard, with the note; the corporal 
 reported that they had run away, with shots flying 
 after them. In this dilemma Wheeler concluded 
 to go himself, with an orderly. He was sur- 
 rounded, somewhere during his trip, by a dozen 
 Indians, and would have been killed had it not 
 been for the interposition of a Salt Lake Indian 
 with the crowd. 
 
 The comparative prominence of the missing 
 guides, and the curt information given to those 
 who would have made the hunt the military men 
 failed to make, caused much adverse comment and 
 feeling in Owens Valley. That two men familiar 
 with the country should disappear while the expe- 
 ditions they guided went through without marked 
 difficulty, was a singular fact. The abandonment 
 of the men, the lack of effort to locate them, and 
 the indifference of the commanders to any in- 
 quiries, added to a desert mystery that, at least 
 in the case of Egan, was never solved in any way 
 whatsoever. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 EL TEMBLOR 
 
 THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1872 — ALMOST SIMULTANEOUS 
 DISTURBANCES IN MANY LANDS — SOME FACTS AND 
 INCIDENTS OF THE TIME — PROF. WHITNEY 'S OBSERVA- 
 TIONS — REBUILDING MONEY BORROWED AT EXPENSIVE 
 
 RATES — OPPORTUNE LEGISLATION. 
 
 The great earthquake of March 26, 1872, 
 stands alone in its awe-inspiring magnitude as an 
 item of Inyo County history. Other earthquakes 
 have been known here, but beside them it was as a 
 cyclone to a summer breeze. It was Mother Earth's 
 time for readjustment somewhere in the region — 
 such an occurrence as different parts of the New 
 World and the Old have had, as at New Madrid, 
 Charleston, San Francisco, and in many foreign 
 lands. That the seismic disturbance originated 
 somewhere near Owens Valley was evident; it 
 appears to have been an affair in which we had 
 original and proprietary interest, though the ef- 
 fects were felt nearly simultaneously from Mex- 
 ico to British Columbia and eastward to Utah. 
 
 The shake came at 2:30 on the morning of 
 March 26th. Premonitory symptoms, if such they 
 were, had appeared during many months. A shock 
 of some severity was reported at Lone Pine March 
 17th. The main event came unheralded save by a 
 mighty rumble. The shock was reported by Camp 
 Independence observers to have lasted three 
 
 225 
 
226 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 minutes; its worst effects occurred in the first 
 minute. Next in severity, but still much milder, 
 was one at 6:30 the same morning. The Camp 
 Independence record noted 200 shocks of tremors 
 from the hour of the big shake up to 5 :00 the fol- 
 lowing afternoon. In its issue of April 6, 1872, the 
 Inyo Independent observed that the earth was 
 quieting down, as shocks were from twelve to 
 twenty hours apart. 
 
 One can read, in publications of the time, many 
 tales of the earthquake, nearly all written by non- 
 residents with able imaginations and a belief that 
 the remoteness of the region would permit any 
 sort of story to be accepted. The facts were star- 
 tling enough, without gratuitous additions. 
 
 Fissures opened at different points, generally 
 but not in all cases paralleling the valley axis. In 
 a few instances there were changes in the level of 
 the ground bordering such breaks. The chief of 
 these was at Lone Pine, where a twelve-mile crack 
 opened. Whether the land on the east was lowered 
 or that on the west was raised no scientist ever 
 took the trouble to announce, but a difference of 
 from four to twelve feet was made. Also, the 
 land on the east side was moved northward, or 
 that on the west was moved southward, several 
 feet, as broken fences across the fissure proved. 
 Another large fissure appeared near Big Pine. 
 
 Twenty-four persons were killed at Lone Pine, 
 and about the same number escaped with severe 
 or minor injuries. One person was killed and one 
 injured at Eclipse, on the river southeast of Inde- 
 pendence; one killed at Camp Independence, and 
 
EL TEMBLOR 227 
 
 several injured; one hurt at Bishop. The prop- 
 erty loss was never accurately determined, but was 
 estimated at from $150,000 to $200,000. • 
 
 Every instance of personal harm was due to 
 the character of buildings which had until then 
 been in use. The population of Lone Pine was 
 largely composed of Mexicans, who had exercised 
 their preference for sun-dried bricks, or adobes, 
 as building material. While such construction was 
 more in use there than in other parts of the val- 
 ley, the scarcity and high cost of lumber helped 
 in making the use of adobes quite general in the 
 small settlements. Three-fourths of Lone Pine's 
 buildings were thus made, and about sixty of them 
 toppled down in the shake like piles of children's 
 blocks. The buildings at Eclipse, all adobe, and 
 some others elsewhere shared the same fate. The 
 courthouse at Independence was of burned bricks, 
 and collapsed. Only one frame building in the 
 valley was leveled, and that was an unsubstantial 
 and cheap shed. Many, however, were racked, 
 and all plastering was shattered. Adobes were 
 promptly stricken from the list of favored build- 
 ing materials; probably there was never a more 
 instantaneous and general change of opinion re- 
 garding construction methods. 
 
 Some of the curiosities of the earthquake are 
 worth noting. At George's Creek water burst 
 from the ground up into a floorless cabin, in such 
 volume as to flood out the occupants if they had 
 awaited further notice to vacate. Not far off, a 
 horse's hoof protruding from the ground, where a 
 crack had opened and then closed, gave reasonable 
 
228 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 inference as to where the rest of the animal might 
 be found. Similarly, at Fish Springs a crack 
 swallowed an ox, only his tail being left out in the 
 air as a card indicating that he had not strayed. 
 Near by, another ox was dead on the ground, with 
 not a sign of injury. Of two adobe huts a mile 
 apart, one cruml3led, the other was not damaged 
 at all. 
 
 In an Independence law office, two adjoining 
 rooms contained shelves of books on the north and 
 south walls. In one, the north shelves were com- 
 pletely emptied, every book being thrown to the 
 floor, while those on the opposite shelves remained 
 undisturbed. In the adjoining room, next west, 
 exactly the reverse occurred; the south shelves 
 were emptied while the ones on the north stood 
 as usual. 
 
 At Bishop, a stone chimney fell across a bed 
 which two young ladies would have been occupying 
 had they not been away at a dance at the time. 
 
 The course of Owens River was changed east 
 of Independence, and the site of Bend City was 
 left neighboring an empty ravine instead of the 
 river bank. 
 
 Dust hung over the Sierras for two days after 
 the earthquake, while the White Mountains were 
 obscured by haze and dust for a shorter period. 
 The rolling of stones and the sparks struck in 
 their descents were vividly described by beholders. 
 
 In spite of widespread interest and veritable 
 volumes of printed matter, opportunity for scien- 
 tific investigation was neglected. Prof. J. D. 
 Whitney and Clarence King, two of the most noted 
 
EL TEMBLOB 229 
 
 scientists of the West, made flying trips into the 
 valley, tarrying but briefly. Professor Whitney 
 afterward published two articles on the Inyo 
 earthquake, one of which excited local derision be- 
 cause of its inaccuracy as to facts. The other 
 was a general dissertation on the subject of earth- 
 quakes, and probably entitled to more serious 
 consideration than his hastily gathered Owens 
 Valley notes. 
 
 He mentions a tradition of the Piutes that a 
 similar shake had occurred eighty years earlier — 
 that is, about 1790. He concluded that an earth- 
 quake is a passage of an elastic wave of motion 
 through a portion of the crust of the earth, and 
 that unusual seismic manifestations in one part 
 of the earth are likely to be followed by like dis- 
 turbances elsewhere. He figured that the Inyo 
 earthquake was one of a chain, extending through 
 the winter and spring of that year. He enumer- 
 ated a long list of shocks, during the months of 
 January, February, March and April, in Asia, 
 Australia, Europe, Minnesota, Illinois, Germany, 
 Japan, Mexico, Kentucky, Africa, Ireland, and the 
 Philippine Islands. Our little agitation was of 
 small consequence — except to ourselves — by com- 
 parison with the leveling of a Persian city and 
 death of 30,000 of its inhabitants that January; 
 destruction of cities near the Caucasus Mountains 
 and in Japan ; the killing of a thousand or fifteen 
 hundred persons at historic Antioch ; the greatest 
 eruption of Vesuvius since 1632, and other notable 
 events of that season. 
 
 Whitney concluded that the focus of the Owens 
 
230 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Valley earthquake was somewhere beneath the 
 Sierras, in the belt between Owens Lake and In- 
 dependence, at a depth of at least fifty miles, and 
 extending for probably 100 miles in length. The 
 wave motion traveled, he decided, at a velocity 
 of probably thirty-five miles a minnte. Its great- 
 est velocity effects were manifested where changes 
 in geological formations were f onnd ; for instance, 
 fissures usually occurred where the sandy slope 
 joined alluvial soil, dry abutting against wet mate- 
 rial. At such points the rate of motion is changed 
 and a disturbance ensues. He decided that the 
 force was about uniform from Olancha to Big 
 Pine. In all cases observers said that the shock 
 seemed to come from the Sierran region men- 
 tioned. At Lone Pine it came from the west; 
 farther north, from the southwest. 
 
 Professor Whitney explained further that the 
 earth's crust is, or rather must be, in a condition 
 of tension in places, of compression in others. 
 Sooner or later the material gives way, a fissure 
 forms, and a powerful impulse is communicated to 
 the mass above. This starts the wave of action 
 which when it reaches the surface we know as 
 an earthquake. 
 
 He was undecided as to attributing the wide- 
 spread disturbances of March 26th to the Inyo 
 earthquake. A terrific volcanic eruption occurred 
 in Mexico that day, which he believed might he 
 a wholly separate and detached occurrence. 
 
 Rebuilding began promptly. The national 
 Government set aside $30,000 for reconstructing 
 Camp Independence; most of it was used in put- 
 
EL TEMBLOR 231 
 
 ting up substantial frame buildings. The county 
 was still speedier in its action. The destroyed 
 courthouse, a two-story brick, accepted February 
 1, 1869, had cost $9,832. It had never been satis- 
 factory, and a providential bill had passed the 
 Legislature only two weeks before the earthquake 
 authorizing the county to issue $40,000 bonds for 
 building a new courthouse and new bridges across 
 the river. The latter were to be at Lone Pine, 
 Bend City, and at either Big Pine or Bishop as the 
 Supervisors might decide. So when the earth- 
 quake wrecked the old building more expeditiously 
 than a contractor would have done, no time was 
 lost in moving for its replacement. The bonds 
 were issued, and though bearing 10 per cent in- 
 terest they were sold for 80 cents on the dollar, 
 besides w^hich the county paid something over 
 $2,000 for the expense of making the sale ; conse- 
 quently the $40,000 issue put a little less than 
 $30,000 into the treasury. "The remains of the 
 late courthouse," as the advertisement put it, were 
 offered for sale, and brought $120. Bids for a 
 new building were not opened until September, 
 when a contract was let to E. Chaquette to erect 
 the building for $15,900. Work was under way 
 when an epidemic of the horse disease known as 
 the epizootic swept the country. Animals died by 
 hundreds, and teaming systems were practically 
 put out of business. Most of the lumber in the new 
 building was being ''imported," and Chaquette 
 was unavoidably given an extension of time on his 
 contract. The building was accepted July 3, 1873, 
 and on the following day was used for the exer- 
 
232 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 cises of the greatest celebration the county had 
 ever had. The structure was a far better building 
 than the one which afterward replaced it, as well 
 as an improvement on its predecessor. 
 
 Business buildings and residences were also 
 begun, and in most cases were completed with 
 rather more expedition than attended the county's 
 reconstructive work. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 YEARS OF RAMPANT CRIME 
 
 INYO A EEFUGE FOR BAD MEN — LAW EXISTENT BUT INEF- 
 FECTIVE — CEERO GORDO 'S STAINED RECORD JUDGE 
 
 REED, A MAN FOR THE PERIOD VASQUEZ, MASTER ROAD 
 
 AGENT — CAUGHT THE WRONG MAN — DEATHS OF SHER- 
 IFFS PASSMORE AND MOORE. 
 
 Inyo County was, in those days, essentially and 
 thoroughly a frontier of ''the old West." Many 
 substantial and law-respecting citizens had come, 
 laying the foundation for the later communities; 
 but at that period mitamed tendencies had the up- 
 per hand in many respects. The forms of law 
 were available, but were not appreciated by a 
 large percentage of the inhabitants. Villains from 
 other parts found in this out-of-the-way region a 
 comparatively safe refuge, or tarried here on their 
 way to the still more inaccessible isolation of the 
 southern Nevada deserts. To the new-sprung 
 mining camps came hard characters from every- 
 where, and Colt and Bowie were the authorities 
 usually called in when disputes arose. Eailroads 
 and telegraphs were hundreds of miles distant. 
 To reach any place where conditions were mate- 
 rially different involved an arduous journey. San 
 Francisco was distant three days and three nights 
 of staging — and $60 fare. Arrival of papers four 
 days old from Los Angeles was mentioned by the 
 
 233 
 
234 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 local paper as a notable event, and as being faster 
 service than the mails. Going to any outside point 
 was as costly, and more inconvenient, than is a 
 journey half way across the continent at the pres- 
 ent time. And moreover, hard as conditions were 
 from a moral standpoint, they were not greatly 
 worse than those generally prevalent west of the 
 Rockies at that time. 
 
 Judge Hannah thus charged one of his grand 
 juries : 
 
 "Crime has been exceedingly prevalent, and seems to have 
 run rampant in certain sections of the county, especially at 
 
 Cerro Gordo So far as I am informed the guilty 
 
 parties have never been brought to justice to answer for their 
 
 misdeeds It is your duty that you exhaust, if necessary, 
 
 every means known to the law to protect the peaceful citizen 
 from these lawless ruffians." 
 
 In another charge, to one of the first grand 
 juries called by Judge Hannah, he called attention 
 to the commission of eighty serious and unpun- 
 ished crimes in the few years the county had then 
 been in existence. This was before the notable 
 prominence of Cerro Gordo, with its still bloodier 
 record. Crimes then became of almost weekly 
 frequency, largely committed "up on the hill" — 
 that is, Cerro Gordo. It is safe to say that be- 
 tween the county's organization and the advent 
 of the railroad, in the early '80 's, more men had 
 been killed or wounded in self-defense or in cold 
 blood than the total of white victims of the Indian 
 war. 
 
 Conmients in the Inyo Independent reflected a 
 prevalent sentiment when, after a Cerro Gordo 
 
YEARS OF EAMPANT CRIME 235 
 
 affair in which two toughs were wounded and 
 sent to the county hospital, it remarked : 
 
 "In those rows where the principals are killed outright we 
 have a sort of morbid satisfaction in so reporting it;"but when 
 they are only maimed and become expensive public charges 
 it is a bad go. But frequently innocent parties are the vic- 
 tims; and if there is law to do it these affrays should be 
 stopped on that account, if no other." 
 
 Tribal orgies among the Indians supplied with 
 liquor by unprincipled whites were frequent, and 
 a slit Piute throat was not an unusual result. Once 
 in a while the initial crime would bring its own 
 punishment, as when a keeper of a portable dive 
 at George 's Creek, sharing a grand drunk with his 
 Indian customers, took occasion to shoot two of 
 them and was himself neatly and properly slain. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the machinery of 
 the law was wholly idle. Officers made arrests for 
 crimes, but where there was not real ground of 
 defense others of the criminal's own stripe sup- 
 plied evidence that a jury, however conscientious, 
 had to accept as justification. The public prose- 
 cutor of those days was usually a very weak 
 sister ; and the defender of most of the major cases 
 was Pat Reddy, a specialist in criminal defense, 
 an expert in jury selection, and a lawyer of ability. 
 It was said that he was the means of freeing more 
 than one hundred men charged with murder in this 
 county. Mono County, and adjacent counties in 
 Nevada. 
 
 In probably three cases out of four, the hard 
 cases operated on each other, and society was 
 somewhat improved by the net result. 
 
236 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 Such serious offenses as murder came within 
 the jurisdiction of the District Court, at that time 
 presided over by Theron Y. Reed, a man whose 
 mettle fitted the times. Serving his circuit, Kern, 
 Inyo, Mono and Alpine counties, involved a de- 
 gree of personal hardship. To reach his different 
 county seats. Judge Eeed journeyed from Havilah 
 to Millerton (now forgotten), thence via Sacra- 
 mento and Sonora across the Sierras to Bridge- 
 port and Markleeville, thence to Independence via 
 Aurora and Benton, on horseback or by the some- 
 times but weekly stages. 
 
 An illustrative occurrence was stated to the 
 writer by Paul W. Bennett, an attorney in Inde- 
 pendence when the incident happened. Judge 
 Reed was holding court at Independence when a 
 man from Fish Springs was brought in, whether 
 for rebellion against the Morgan Courtney gang 
 of roughs then dominating that neighborhood or 
 for some other reason there is no evidence. Pat 
 Reddy, then new in his career, Lucius Cooper and 
 Thomas Slade were the attorneys. Each was there 
 to win his case. Abuse and disputing ruled the 
 court the first day, despite Judge Reed's admoni- 
 tions and threats of fines. When court opened the 
 next morning Judge Reed entered the room with 
 a double-barreled shotgun on his arm. He cocked 
 both barrels of the gun and set it by his chair, and 
 remarked: ''Gentlemen, there will be order in 
 this court today." Mr. Bennett, who witnessed 
 the occurrence, said that the judge's prediction 
 was correct ; there was order. 
 
 In another court in the county, an attorney 
 
YEARS OF RAMPANT CRIME 237 
 
 persisted in undertaking to protest a ruling, until 
 the judge's patience tired and he roared ''Sit 
 down or I'll knock you down!" There was no 
 dullness or lack of variety in court sessions those 
 days. 
 
 As a help in picturing conditions, we turn to 
 the local columns of the Inyo Independent. All 
 the following items are from the same issue of 
 that paper. Other issues might show more or less 
 notes of similar nature ; this one was not selected, 
 but was the first one examined in this particular 
 respect. This issue is dated July 13, 1872, and 
 mentions these occurrences : 
 
 A despei-ado named White appeared at Benton on the 4th 
 with a horse to put in the races. A bystander recognized 
 the horse as one stolen from him, whereupon White drew a 
 pistol and would have done some murdering but for inter- 
 ference He was arrested and taken to Bridgeport on 
 
 three charges of horse stealing. As he didn't actually murder 
 anybody his prospect of spending a few summers at the sea- 
 Bide is exceedingly flattering. 
 
 "At the seaside" means San Quentin prison. 
 Note the inference, which we italicize, that he 
 would probably have escaped punishment if his 
 offense had been so petty as murder, instead of 
 horse stealing. Again: 
 
 Some six-shooters got on a drunk in Lida Valley on the 
 night of the 4th, and one of them going off accidentally in- 
 flicted a slight wound in Guadalupe Oehar's arm. On the 
 same day Len Martin gave some sheep-herder's delight to two 
 men he met; a free fight ensued, from which Martin, by the 
 free use of a pick-handle, came off first best. A great future 
 for Lida is now considered certain. 
 
 Justice Pearson's court at Lone Pine is examining George 
 
 17 
 
238 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Lee for shooting George Bireham, because of difficulties grow- 
 ing out of alleged horse-stealing on the part of Lee. 
 
 Pearce, arrested on a charge of horse-stealing, was dis- 
 charged from custody. After an interesting interview the 
 accuser was willing to swear that Pearce wasn't much of a 
 horse-thief after all. 
 
 R. Van Dyke lost forty tons of hay near Lone Pine, 
 through the cussedness of a Piute who attempted to test its 
 dryness with a match. 
 
 This contribution is from another issue of the 
 same paper: 
 
 Cerro Gordo is a prolific source of the "man for break- 
 fast" order of items Four Americans, including Johnny 
 
 Stewart, who recently had occasion to shoot a Mexican in 
 Lone Pine (and who was later hanged at Columbus, Nevada), 
 undertook to run the "Waterfall" place. A Mexican stepped 
 up and put a pistol almost in contact with Walker's head, 
 and fired, but the bullet did not kill him. The firing became 
 general, during which Clark got a dose of lead that knocked 
 him hors du combat. Dui-ing the same night, at another dance 
 house, a Mexican received a shot through the abdomen. The 
 night following the Waterfall affray another shooting match 
 took place between two Mexicans, in which one of them got 
 a ball through his leg and the other through his arm. If such 
 poor shooting as this is unfortunately to be the nale, active 
 measures will have to be adopted by citizens who have a 
 morbid desire to attend funerals Last week two Mexi- 
 cans from Cerro Gordo lifted three horses and riding gear 
 
 from Lone Pine, and are missing, despite a warrant 
 
 At Lida on the night of the 6th Abram Altamarino received a 
 severe knife wound. 
 
 But the greatest reign of terror experienced 
 by the county's people, after the close of the In- 
 dian war, was not caused by the miscellaneous 
 roughs and their festive handling of weapons. It 
 was during the months that the bandit Vasquez 
 
YEARS OP RAMPANT CRIME 239 
 
 and his gang ruled the southern stage road and 
 the highways of southern Inyo, early in 1874, with 
 a return engagement in the spring of 1875. Most 
 of the Vasquez deviltry was committed in other 
 fields than Inyo, but during his sojourn on the 
 eastern slope of the Sierras there were few weeks 
 without their tales of the operations of the ''road 
 agents." 
 
 Tiburcio Vasquez was second only to Joaquin 
 Murietta in notoriety as a California bandit. He 
 was prominent in highwayman circles from 1852 
 to 1875. His own story was that he was hounded 
 by Americans until at the age of seventeen he de- 
 cided to become a robber. He began his career near 
 Salinas, Cal., and soon gathered a band of subor- 
 dinates of his own lawless kind. In 1857 he was 
 caught and was in San Quentin penitentiary until 
 his discharge in 1863. He then took up with other 
 noted bandits of the time, and the combination did 
 a flourishing business until the killing of one of 
 his partners, Soto, some years later. Vasquez be- 
 came the leader of his own gang of cutthroats 
 about 1871, and for three years they committed 
 crime after crime. Their escape from capture 
 was probably due in part to the existence of con- 
 federates in different places, as well as to the 
 readiness with which the outlaws picked up the 
 best horseflesh whenever it was needed. After 
 robbing a store and killing two men at Tres Pinos, 
 Monterey County, they moved into Fresno County, 
 then as thinly populated as Owens Valley. One 
 daring crime after another caused the Legislature 
 to authorize Governor Booth to spend $15,000 in 
 
240 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 capturing or exterminating the gang. On Novem- 
 ber 12tii Vasquez and his men went to the little 
 town of Kingston, and after tying up thirty-five 
 men robbed the place to their hearts' content. 
 They were "hotly pursued," and as usual es- 
 caped. The gang appears to have scattered for a 
 short time, but in February Vasquez called his 
 forces together in Tejon Canyon, twenty men ap- 
 pearing. Inyo County and the highway leading 
 to it were selected as promising abundant loot, 
 and operations on this slope began two weeks 
 later. Their first appearance in the new field was 
 at Coyote Holes, on the southern stage road, Feb- 
 ruary 25, 1874. 
 
 A traveler, who had stayed all night at the 
 station, set out on foot to find a stray horse. A 
 mile from the station he met two Mexicans, one 
 of whom said he was Vasquez. They made the 
 luckless traveler return to the station with them, 
 and on the way met Raymond, the station keeper. 
 Both men were tied up and left on a hillside. The 
 Mexicans went on toward the house, announcing 
 their coming by firing fifteen shots through its 
 walls. Six persons were inside, but had no 
 weapons except a Henry rifle with no cartridges 
 and an unloaded shotgun, and did not think it 
 wise to argue about the irregularity of the pro- 
 ceedings. Under orders, they filed out, Vasquez 
 finding it necessary to stimulate the lagging steps 
 of a man known (as probably some thousands 
 have been) as '*Tex." All were escorted off to 
 one side and made to sit down. Tex had imbibed 
 too freely to display first-class judgment and 
 
YEARS OF RAMPANT CRIME 241 
 
 proved refractory, but became more docile after 
 Vasquez sent a rifle bullet through his thigh. 
 With this exception, the prisoners were treated 
 with obsequious politeness. The group was put on 
 parole to keep their places. Being persons of 
 honor, they kept their promises — the more readily 
 perhaps because Vasquez promised that he would 
 shoot the first one who arose, and they had no 
 reason to disbelieve him. 
 
 The robbers returned to the station and waited 
 two hours for the arrival of the stage from the 
 south. It carried three passengers, including M. 
 W. Belshaw, the Cerro Gordo owner and financier. 
 Under the persuasion of two rifles and four re- 
 volvers, these passengers took seats with the other 
 captives, and contributed to the Vasquez fund. 
 Belshaw gave up a pair of new boots, as well as 
 his money. One of the passengers demurred at 
 giving up a pair of gloves he had. Vasquez of- 
 fered him two dollars for them, and the passenger, 
 being a man of business, closed the deal. The 
 driver smuggled $40 into the sand, then smashed 
 open Wells, Fargo & Company's express box at 
 the direction of the bandits. Two of the Cerro 
 Gordo freight teams came to Coyote Holes about 
 this time, and the drivers were relieved of such 
 possessions as the robbers wanted, and sent to join 
 the little colony on the hillside. The bandits then 
 took six of the stage horses and rode off. 
 
 Vasquez and eight or nine of his gang next 
 went to the Mexican camp of Coso, but did nothing 
 criminal there. The leader, himself, left to look 
 after his southern California interests, leaving the 
 
242 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Inyo field in tlie capable hands of Chavez, one of 
 his lieutenants. A reward of $3,000 was at that 
 time being offered for Chavez, who had made his 
 chief reputation in Monterey County. 
 
 Chavez began business in Inyo in March, 1875, 
 with eight fellow bandits. His first theft was 
 eleven saddle horses. During the next few months 
 no road in the region southeast of Owens Lake 
 was safe for travel, and hold-ups were of very fre- 
 quent occurrence. No murders were committed 
 by that crew, though in one instance Barton Mc- 
 Gee, of Indian war record, who understood 
 Spanish, listened to an argument as whether he 
 should be allowed to live. His captors, an old 
 man and a young one, both Mexicans, asked him 
 if he would forget the whole affair if they released 
 him. His reply was that he would kill both when 
 he got a chance. Nevertheless they feared to sum- 
 marily execute him. During the night he nearly 
 loosened his bonds and the bandits were within a 
 few minutes of their fate when they saw what he 
 was doing and tied him afresh. They had made 
 a bad catch, and after twenty-eight hours of cap- 
 tivity they put him, barefooted and hatless, on a 
 bronco mule, without saddle or bridle, and turned 
 him loose. Guiding the animal by slapping its 
 head with his hands he made his way to Coso. 
 There he outfitted anew, and promptly went to the 
 scene of his misadventure. The tracks were fresh 
 and easily followed. When McGee next appeared 
 in camp he rode his own horse, which the rob- 
 bers had taken. When asked if he had seen the 
 men he merely said: "Well, I got my horse." 
 
YEAKS OF RAMPANT CRIME 243 
 
 The Mexicans may have been the ones in an affair 
 in which an inquest was held, there being one 
 dead man and another having run away. The 
 Coroner's jury reported only that the dead man 
 had been ''buried according to Hoyle." 
 
 The bandits became such a scourge on the 
 roads that Capt. MacGrowan took a detachment of 
 soldiers from Camp Independence and made a 
 25-day pursuit of them, without result. Capt. 
 Carr, with Company I, First Cavalry, was also 
 in the field, equally fruitlessly. 
 
 Vasquez confined his operations thereafter to 
 Los Angeles County. One of his exploits there 
 was to hold up an Italian rancher for $800 ran- 
 som. Once he chanced to meet a deputy Assessor 
 named Mike Madigan, to whom he said: *'Senor 
 Miguel, here is $2 for my poll tax. Let it not be 
 said that Vasquez refuses to support a government 
 which values him so highly as to offer $15,000 for 
 his head." 
 
 He was finally captured through the connivance 
 of one of his men whose wife he had won. Eight 
 officers, being informed that he was then at a 
 house about ten miles west of Los Angeles, took 
 advantage of an opportunity to conceal themselves 
 in the box of a wagon that was being driven to the 
 house. The officers jumped out, and Vasquez, see- 
 ing them, went through a narrow window and ran 
 for his horse. Bullets flew around him so thickly 
 that he saw it was hopeless, and gave up. Chaves 
 had also been in the house, but was not then cap- 
 tured. Vasquez was taken to San Jose, tried for 
 murder, and hanged March 19, 1875. Before his 
 
244 THE STOEY OP INYO 
 
 execution lie said that he had never killed any one. 
 He said that at Coyote Holes he tied up twenty 
 men; that one shot at and wounded him, but was 
 not punished by being killed as he might have 
 been. 
 
 With the leader gone, the capture or killing oi 
 the rest of the gang was an easier matter. Chavez 
 was killed by a citizen of Monterey County, and a 
 reward which had grown to $5,000 was collected 
 for him. The breaking up of the outlaw band was 
 a relief to all the southern part of the State, and 
 was particularly welcome in southern Inyo. 
 
 Minor organizations of criminals did some 
 business in the county at one time or another, but 
 all finally came to grief. One of these was a band 
 of horsethieves, operating from Nevada through 
 this county and far southward. At another time, 
 this in 1875, three men, one aged twenty-five, the 
 others each under twenty, and a girl about the 
 latter age, came over the Sierras to go adventur- 
 ing as bandits in this apparently promising field. 
 Their most important enterprise was in "sticking 
 up" T. J. Graves and family at their little moun- 
 tain ranch on the south fork of Oak Creek, west- 
 erly from Independence. Graves and his wife 
 and little son were tied up for several hours, while 
 the robbers cooked supper and pillaged their 
 meagerly supplied home. Late that night the 
 gang struck out across the mountains with all 
 they chose to take from the place. Graves, bare- 
 footed because the bandits had taken his boots, 
 got loose and made his way into Independence. 
 The next morning a posse took the trail, and after 
 
TEAES OF RAMPANT CEIME 245 
 
 traveling thirty miles into the Sierras found a bit 
 of paper bearing Mrs. Graves's name on an ad- 
 dress label. With this assurance, the posse kept 
 on. The next morning Tom Hill (heretofore men- 
 tioned in this record) happened onto the bandit 
 camp, while the inmates were at breakfast. He 
 pretended to be diligently hunting grouse until 
 out of sight of the camp. The rest of the posse 
 was notified, and the crowd was captured without 
 resistance. The men in due time went to the peni- 
 tentiary, and the woman was discharged by over- 
 gallant officers. 
 
 That was a crime-stained decade in the history 
 of Inyo County. This sketchy outline of it may 
 fittingly conclude, without enumerating other 
 sinister occurrences, with mention of the death of 
 two officers who lost their lives in the discharge 
 of their official duty. These men, Thomas Pass- 
 more and William L. Moore, had been among the 
 earliest residents of the valley; had taken part 
 in the Indian war, and each was a citizen held in 
 high esteem. 
 
 Passmore was elected Sheriff in 1875, and 
 again in 1877. He was in Lone Pine on the night 
 of February 12, 1878. That night an Indian was 
 murdered by a hardened criminal named Palacio. 
 The murderer took refuge in a deadfall run by 
 Frank Dabeeny, another individual of the same 
 stripe, and refused to surrender to local citizens. 
 Passmore, being somewhat ill, had gone to bed 
 early in the evening. He was called, and went 
 to the place and demanded admission. The door 
 did not open, the demand was repeated, and Pass- 
 
246 THE STORY OP INYO 
 
 more attempted to force an entrance. Shots were 
 fired inside of the house; the Sheriff exclaimed 
 ''Boys, I'm shot!" handed his pistol to a by- 
 stander, and fell dead. 
 
 Wild excitement ensued. A fusillade of lead 
 riddled the building. As those within seemed 
 disposed to hold the fort, its destruction by either 
 fire or dynamite was proposed. A messenger was 
 sent to Independence, and the siege was still in 
 progress when citizens from there, eighteen miles 
 away, reached Lone Pine. Dabeeny and Palacio 
 both ran out, and both fell, pierced by many bul- 
 lets. Then others were allowed to come out and 
 surrender. Some of them, of previous good char- 
 acter and guilty of no offense except being in bad 
 company, were released. Two were told to leave 
 Lone Pine and never to return. They left, and 
 the next day their bodies were found beside the 
 road leading southerly. 
 
 W. L. (Dad) Moore was appointed to the office 
 made vacant by Passmore's death. He was said 
 to have received his nickname by reason of having 
 been the ''dad" of the town of Lone Pine, having 
 been one of its first residents. He had filled the 
 Sheriff's office before. 
 
 The town of Independence prepared to cele- 
 brate the Fourth of July, 1879, in fitting style, 
 but the celebration was not to occur. Late on the 
 afternoon of the 3d a drunken row started be- 
 tween men named Welch and Tessier, in what was 
 known as the Aldine saloon on the site now occu- 
 pied by the Inyo County Bank. Moore hearing 
 the disturbance, went in and stepped between them 
 
YEARS OP RAMPANT CRIME 247 
 
 to keep the peace. Welch had his pistol drawn 
 and brought it do^vn opposite the Sheriff's body, 
 and it was discharged immediately. The bullet 
 passed through Moore's watch, then through his 
 body, and he died in a few minutes. Welch was 
 promptly put into jail. Tessier fled, and a fren- 
 zied hunt for him began. Some hours later he 
 was found under a house. Though he was wholly 
 innocent of the Sheriff's murder, popular excite- 
 ment was inflamed, and while Welch reposed in 
 the safety of a cell Tessier would probably have 
 been lynched but for the counsels of Pat Reddy. 
 Welch, who fired the fatal shot, played insanity 
 and ''went up" for ten years; Tessier, who was 
 guilty of nothing worse than brawling, was given 
 a three-year sentence. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 CERRO GORDO 
 
 INYO'S GREATEST PRODUCER OP MINERAL WEALTH — ^DIS- 
 COVERY — A BOOMING CAMP — TRANSPORTATION — LIB- 
 ERAL MINING CLAIMS — SAN FELIPE — UNION LAWSUIT 
 
 THROWING GOLD OVER WASTE DUMP — CAMP STAGES A 
 COMEBACK. 
 
 Cerro Gordo stands undisputedly as the Inyo 
 County camp of greatest production, notwith- 
 standing that no one knows, within some millions, 
 what the total was. About $13,000,000 was the 
 estimate at the close of its first period of life. The 
 boom spirit of mining writers some twenty years 
 ago raised the statement to $28,000,000, appar- 
 ently just for the sound of it. The best available 
 information is that the actual gross production 
 of the camp's best days was approximately 
 $17,000,000. 
 
 Tradition long current in Inyo, and supported 
 by pioneers of the old camp, has it that the first 
 discovery was made by one Pablo Flores and two 
 other Mexicans in 1865; that the companions of 
 Flores were killed by Indians and that he was 
 allowed to go after promising never to return. A 
 letter written from the camp in 1868 said only 
 that Flores had found some very rich float while 
 traveling from the eastward w^ith an Indian guide. 
 
 Another version was current and believed in 
 
 248 
 
CERRO GORDO 249 
 
 Virginia City, Nevada, at the time of Cerro 
 Gordo's prosperity. It ran that a packer named 
 Savariano, employed by a Comstock Mexican mine 
 owner, ran away with a packtrain of forty mules 
 laden with very rich ore. This he was supposed 
 to take to Placerville for reduction, and he started 
 according to program. When out of sight of his 
 employer he headed south with the whole caval- 
 cade. On this trip he was said to have found the 
 Cerro Gordo mines. A Virginia paper said the 
 absconding of Savariano was a matter of common 
 knowledge. Be that as it may, the Flores version 
 was accepted by Inyoites, including those who 
 knew the old Mexican up to the time of his death 
 near Owens Lake. 
 
 Flores and a few companions were on the 
 ground later in 1865 and located the Ygnacio, San 
 Felipe and San Francisco claims. A small amount 
 of ore was worked in the vesos, or crude furnaces. 
 Their success brought a few Americans to the 
 camp ; the latter people made some locations, but 
 did little or no work. 
 
 The first sincere effort at development was 
 made by a Mexican named Ochoa, who began work 
 on a claim known as the San Lucas. He employed 
 a few of his countrymen, and had the ore worked 
 at the Silver Sprout mill, west of Independence. 
 An increased number of miners came, and on 
 April 5, 1866, Lone Pine district, including the 
 new camp, was organized, with J. J. Moore as its 
 Recorder. The first claim offered for record was 
 the Jesus Maria. On January 1, 1870, 999 loca- 
 tions had been filed for record in the district. 
 
250 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Among the early arrivals were M. W. Belshaw 
 and A. B. Elder. After examination they left, but 
 soon returned to begin development. Elder was 
 succeeded by Victor Beaudry. Belshaw & Beaudry 
 remained the bonanza firm of the hill; with them 
 were associated Egbert Judson and others as par- 
 ties in interest. 
 
 To supply the water required for the camp 
 Belshaw & Beaudry laid a pipe line, which froze 
 and bursted the following winter, and was then 
 replaced by a better system. The firm began ac- 
 quiring control of ' ' the hill, ' ' as the camp was gen- 
 erally called throughout the region. Among their 
 purchases was a group of four claims for which 
 they paid John B. White and P. Williams $20,000. 
 Important ground adjoining the Union, one of 
 their chief properties, remained independent, how- 
 ever, and under the same ownership as the Owens 
 Lake Silver-Lead Company later became the basis 
 of the suit which helped to check operations. 
 
 C. F. R. Hahn, the mystery of whose loss has 
 been mentioned in this record, was one of the dis- 
 coverers of wholly new ground to the eastward of 
 the main camp. W. L. Hunter, John Beveridge 
 and others of honored Inyo memory were also 
 among the owners in the eastern section. 
 
 Two slagging furnaces, two blast furnaces, 
 crusher, blower and other equipment were in use 
 in the camp by 1870, all operated by steam and 
 all well housed. In 1871 the use of slagging fur- 
 naces was done away with, decreasing expenses 
 $50 a day at each furnace. Another improvement 
 was the application of the water jacket, first de- 
 vised and used by Belshaw. 
 
CEKRO GORDO 251 
 
 One of the first undertakings was a tollroad up 
 from Owens Valley, a few miles distant. The 
 road was held by Belshaw & Beaudry, though 
 others assisted in its building for the benefit of 
 their own properties. Those others found them- 
 selves on the same footing as strangers when it 
 came to paying tolls. Their objections ended with 
 complaints until 1871, when citizen John Simpson 
 was arrested for misdemeanor in passing the 
 tollgate without paying. To secure a jury used 
 up venires amounting to ninety men ; the Justice 
 court trial filled two days, and ended in a verdict 
 of not guilty. A popular subscription was imme- 
 diately raised and a free road was built to Cerro 
 Gordo. The toll road went out of commission. 
 
 Two stage companies ran daily conveyances 
 from Lone Pine, every vehicle carrying full loads. 
 A through-service line ran between Aurora, 
 Nevada, and Cerro Gordo, charging $39 for the 
 trip. 
 
 When the not always dependable pipe lines 
 were out of order, water was brought in on pack 
 mules and sold at 10 cents per gallon for the 
 small buyer and from 5 to S% cents for the whole- 
 sale consumer. The water bill of the American 
 Hotel was $300 a month, and each furnace and 
 the Union hoist ran at a daily expense of $120 for 
 water. Fifty pack mules were busy in the water 
 service. 
 
 In 1872 Beaudry bought the San Lucia (or 
 San Lucas) and added it to the syndicate's list. 
 Eleven producing mines were being operated. In 
 addition to the furnaces at the camp, ore was being 
 
252 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 smelted at the Owens Lake Silver-Lead company's 
 plant at Swansea, at the lake. 
 
 While the bulk of production came from ores 
 of more moderate grade, values up to $800 or 
 more per ton were too common to attract much 
 attention. One of the mines counted rock carry- 
 ing 180 ounces of silver as its second-class grade. 
 Beaudry reported in 1872 that ''the mine" (prob- 
 ably the Union) was sending up 70 tons of ore 
 each ten hours. He was about to increase his 
 furnace capacity to ten tons of bullion daily. Each 
 furnace was then turning out 100 to 150 83-pound 
 bars each twenty-four hours. 
 
 Transportation of the bullion was a problem, 
 and it was not unusual for the furnaces to shut 
 down because of being too far ahead of the teams. 
 For a while hauling contracts were made with any 
 and all comers, but this proved unsatisfactory, and 
 the mine owners organized the Cerro Gordo 
 Freighting Company. They associated Nadeau, a 
 teamster, with them; he took active charge, and 
 made a fortune from the service. The corporation 
 became the dominant factor in Liyo transporta- 
 tion, and so remained up to the advent of the rail- 
 road. The line was equipped with huge wagons, 
 each hauled by sixteen to twenty animals. Fifty- 
 six of these outfits were on the road, and still could 
 not move the bullion to tidewater half as fast as it 
 rolled from the furnaces. Some relief was given by 
 the building of the small steamer Bessie Brady, a 
 craft of 85 feet length and 16 feet beam. This 
 vessel plying between Swansea, at the north- 
 eastern comer of the lake, Ferguson's Landing, 
 
CERRO GORDO 253 
 
 at the northwestern, and Cartago, at the south- 
 western, took eight days out of the round trips 
 of the teams, yet the increased number of trips 
 of the wagons could not move the bullion fast 
 enough. To see the bullion piled up like cordwood 
 at different points was quite the usual thing. 
 Piled up bars were sometimes used for construct- 
 ing temporary shelters, by those without other 
 resources. "WTiile the bullion was not high grade, 
 those shacks were often worth more money than 
 their occupants ever dreamed of possessing. 
 
 A contemporary estimate stated the bullion 
 output in tons as follows : 1869, 1,000 ; 1870, 1,500 ; 
 1871, 2,500; 1872, 4,000; 1873, 5,000; 1874, 6,000. 
 An authentic record of at least part of the output 
 is afforded by the records of the Los Angeles and 
 San Pedro Railroad, opened November 1, 1869. 
 From that date to the end of 1870 the road car- 
 ried 21,704 bars, 1,589,000 pounds of Cerro Gordo 
 bullion; 1871, 51,000 bars, 4,491,000 pounds; 1872, 
 62,390 bars, 5,303,150 pounds ; 1873, 58,056 bars, 
 4,826,741 pounds; during January, 1874, 9,570 
 bars, 789,961 pounds. During some of the period 
 of greatest production a large part of the bullion 
 did not go over that road. 
 
 Large mining locations were permitted. The 
 Santa Maria, for example, was 3,000 feet in 
 length, though but 150 feet wide. It was 1872 be- 
 fore any change was made in the district; it was 
 then reorganized under the name of Cerro Gordo 
 and regulations were adopted conforming to the 
 newly made Federal requirements. 
 
 The San Felipe claim was one that Belshaw & 
 
 18 
 
254 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Beaudry were unable to secure. Inspection of a 
 map of the district shows that its boundaries 
 crossed Belshaw's ground, outlining an area to 
 which both ownerships laid claim. Ore had been 
 coming up through the Union shaft, near the 
 doubly-claimed ground, for five years, however, 
 before the inevitable litigation began. Suit was 
 started in January, 1873, by the San Felipe com- 
 pany, Galen M. Fisher, Chas. H. Wheeler and 
 Alfred Wheeler, plaintiffs, against Belshaw & 
 Beaudry, to recover possession of 2,100 feet of the 
 San Felipe mine — another illustration of the gen- 
 erous manner in which the locators had helped 
 themselves. The plaintiffs also asked for $20,000 
 damages, and rents and profits amounting to 
 $1,000,000; also for possession of the San Felipe 
 tunnel and $15,000 damages on that account. The 
 suit was tried in Independence in June, 1873, and 
 occupied nine days. Judge Belden of San Jose, 
 presiding, instructed the jury that if it found that 
 the San Felipe and Union veins were separate its 
 verdict should be for the latter company. Ex- 
 perts Goodyear, Price and Henscli swore to the 
 distinct character of the two properties. Reports 
 of the case may have been somewhat prejudiced, 
 but rather favored the Union contention; never- 
 theless the San Felipe people were given posses- 
 sion of the disputed ground. The demands for 
 damages seem to have been dropped, for they do 
 not appear in the judgment. The suit dragged 
 through the courts until in 1876 the warring inter- 
 ests united in forming the Union Consolidated 
 Company, with representatives of each side on 
 
CERBO GORDO 255 
 
 the directorate. Belshaw was one of the directors, 
 but did not thereafter participate in the manage- 
 ment. The Union works were burned August 14, 
 1877; the furnaces closed down the following 
 February. 
 
 Other properties, notably the Ygnacio, had 
 been contributing to the camp's production during 
 all this period; but the stoppage of work on the 
 Union marked the end of that era of Cerro Gordo 's 
 activity. The verdict that the mines were worked 
 out was of course commonly accepted ; the fallacy 
 of this belief was to be amply demonstrated later. 
 
 From December 1, 1873, to November 1, 1874, 
 the Union produced 12,171 tons of ore averaging 
 87 ounces silver and 47 per cent lead per ton. "With 
 silver worth $1.29 per ounce and lead worth 5 
 cents per pound, conditions were more favorable 
 than those which came along later. On the other 
 hand, other conditions were much less favorable. 
 The daily cost of water, already mentioned, was 
 but a small item in the total. Transportation for 
 machinery and supplies in, and bullion out, cost 
 from $55.50 to $120 per ton. Wood had been 
 abundant when the first work was done, but the 
 hillsides near at hand were soon swept bare, and 
 fuel rose to $10 a cord for wood and 321^ cents a 
 bushel for charcoal, the only fuels available for 
 the furnaces. Belshaw stated in 1876 that it cost 
 $19.62 a ton to mine and work the ore. In the 
 earlier days, average recovery of metal was from 
 50 to 65 per cent of the lead and 90 per cent of 
 the silver. 
 
 An incident of the camp was the discovery that 
 
256 THE STOEY OP INYO 
 
 muoh quartz richly laden with gold had gone over 
 the dump as waste. Its value had been hidden by 
 peculiar discoloration. Thousands of dollars of it 
 were stolen by men who became informed sooner 
 than did the mine management. 
 
 One company or lessee after another undertook 
 to work the old mines after the Union Consoli- 
 dated people quit, but for three decades the record 
 was one of failure. Then in 1911 Louis D. Gordon 
 took hold, after discovering that quantities of zinc 
 ores had been thrown away or disregarded by 
 former managements. He proceeded with devel- 
 opment along original lines, under discouraging 
 circumstances, with such results that Cerro Gordo 
 once more made Inyo the leading California 
 county in lead and silver as well as zinc produc- 
 tion. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 PANAMINT 
 
 BICH ORES START A NEW RUSH — SENATORS JONES AND 
 STEWART DROP TWO MILLIONS IN VENTURE — MINE 
 OWNERS OF DOUBTFUL RECORDS — PROCESS OF OPENING 
 NEW SALOON — NEWS AS PRESENTED BY CAMP PAPER — 
 SOME OTHER DISTRICTS. 
 
 Cerro Gordo having passed through the pre- 
 liminary stages of a mining-camp stampede, and 
 being an established and producing camp, the ' * ex- 
 citement" followers were ready for a new field. 
 It soon appeared, in Panamint — a name which 
 divers fiction writers use even to this day as a 
 place for locating some of their imaginings. 
 
 The first discoveries were made in April, 1873, 
 by R. C. Jacobs, R. B. Stewart and W. L. Ken- 
 nedy. By June eighty or more locations had been 
 made. Some of the ore samples showed values 
 running into the thousands of dollars. E. P. 
 Raines, a man of daring character but limited at- 
 tainments, secured a bond on the principal claims, 
 and undertook to finance the camp. No success 
 met his first efforts, and he had to return to Pana- 
 mint for samples of the ore as verification of his 
 highly colored statements. He selected half a ton 
 of rich samples, and sent it to Los Angeles. In 
 the barroom of one of the principal hotels there 
 
 257 
 
258 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 he made a display that was the talk of the town. 
 He made no effort to do business, but gained the 
 confidence of prominent citizens and induced a 
 commercial body to take up the building of a road 
 to the mines. His efforts resulted in much news- 
 paper publicity, which stood him in good stead 
 when he proceeded to San Francisco, his chosen 
 field. ''Colonel" Raines, as he was soon dubbed, 
 went to the metropolis and his display of ores 
 made as much of a furore there as it had in Los 
 Angeles. He approached Senator John P. Jones 
 and secured a loan of $1,000, which vanished in a 
 huge celebration that night. The next morning 
 Eaines was in jail and Senator Jones was on his 
 way to Washington. The "Colonel" found a 
 friend who provided bail and loaned him money 
 enough with which to go to Washington. There 
 he presented the cause of the Panamint mines so 
 plausibly that Jones advanced more money, to the 
 total of $15,000. Then Senators Jones and Stewart 
 organized the Panamint Mining Company, with 
 $2,000,000 capital stock — and it is said that the 
 camp cost those gentlemen just about that much. 
 
 The road to the camp at that time was by way 
 of Little Lake, or Lagunita, as it was then called. 
 The first rush went that way, but ere long a more 
 convenient way was opened and Panamint was 
 brought into closer touch with Owens Valley. 
 
 Senators Jones and Stewart had paid $350,000 
 for some of the more prominent claims. Many 
 other sales were made. Some of the early locators 
 bore unsavory reputations, and perforce had to 
 do business through trusted middlemen. In one 
 
PANAMINT 259 
 
 instance, a sale was made and the owners went to 
 San Francisco to get their money. At this junc- 
 ture representatives of Wells, Fargo- & Co. 
 stepped in and demanded $12,000 to cover losses 
 due to former depredations on the express com- 
 pany's treasure box by some of the parties who 
 were selling the mines. The party chiefly con- 
 cerned was given his choice of making that pay- 
 ment or submitting to arrest. He paid and coolly 
 asked for a receipt in full. 
 
 Many companies were organized, nearly all 
 finally either flickering out or being united in the 
 Surprise Valley Mill & Mining Company. Some 
 of the ore was worked in England; that it could 
 be mined, shipped hundreds of miles over the 
 desert, then to England, and finally worked and 
 return a substantial profit to the mine owners is 
 suflficient evidence of its value. 
 
 The first mill was built on the Jacob's Wonder 
 mine. The ' ' big mill ' ' of twenty stamps was built 
 by the company and began running June 29, 1875. 
 
 In March, 1874, an enthusiastic Panaminter 
 claimed that there were 125 men in the camp. In 
 November the most conservative estimate of popu- 
 lation put it at 1,000. The maximum population 
 was probably 1,500, though a San Francisco writer 
 in January, 1875, said there were 2,000 to 2,500 in 
 camp. As late as 1876 the camp was still ''going 
 strong," for there were 963 votes cast at an elec- 
 tion for Recorder. 
 
 The main camp was laid out — or more properly 
 speaking, laid itself out, along the bottom of a nar- 
 row canyon high up on the western slope of the 
 
260 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Panamint Mountains, which form the western rim 
 of Death Valley. For a while it consisted of a 
 mile of tent-lined street; then stone and frame 
 buildings began to arise. This was after trans- 
 portation had been improved by the building of a 
 road, a process requiring, in some places, the 
 blasting of a way out of solid rock. 
 
 A pioneer resident of the camp writes that few 
 wagons were used after reaching the town, be- 
 cause the canyon and hillsides were so steep that 
 wheels were useless. Nearly all transportation 
 at that period was on the backs of mules and 
 burros. But one wagon was in use in the camp, 
 and it was used by the butcher to move meats 
 from the slaughter house to the market. This 
 outfit served many purposes, including service as 
 a hearse when it was needed. 
 
 Undoubtedly Panamint contained an assort- 
 ment of the worst desperadoes on the coast out- 
 side of the penitentiaries. There was as much 
 violence, in proportion, as in any of the earlier 
 camps. The disappearance of a well known deni- 
 zen of the resorts might be explained to an in- 
 quirer by the terse statement : * * Oh, he 's planted 
 in Sour Dough," the latter being a little canyon 
 in which the burial ground was situated. 
 
 Senator Wm. Stewart and Trenor W. Park, 
 his confidential agent and assistant, visited Pana- 
 mint to look over their properties during the sum- 
 mer of 1875. As they were preparing to take their 
 seats in the stage, on the morning of their de- 
 parture, one of their employees, a man named 
 McKinley, had a dispute with one Jim Bruce. 
 
PANAMINT 261 
 
 With but a few preliminaries the disputants pulled 
 their guns and began firing. The Senator and his 
 comrade hastily took refuge behind a stone wall 
 until the bombardment was over. Both* gunners 
 were laid out and ready for the stretchers kept in 
 the office of the Justice of the Peace for such uses. 
 Bruce recovered with a crippled arm, but McKin- 
 ley died three days later. The local paper casually 
 remarked : 
 
 An Unfortunate Affair. — We are pained to record that 
 during an unfortunate affair which occurred at the express 
 office, previous to the departure of the stage three days ago, 
 one of our esteemed fellow citizens was compelled to resort to 
 violent measures to protect his person. His opponent will be 
 buried tomorrow in the little cemetery in Sour Dough. 
 
 The matter was too inconsequential to justify 
 publishing the victim's name. 
 
 Bruce was put to the inconvenience of arrest 
 and examination by the Justice of the Peace, but 
 was discharged on the usual ground of self-de- 
 fense. 
 
 In all mining camps of that period saloons were 
 among the first establishments to open, and were 
 the most numerous places in the business census. 
 The only absolute requisites for beginning were 
 a barrel or two of alcoholic compound and utensils 
 for dishing it up for customers. Profits soon led 
 to expansion. Panamint had not only this class 
 of deadfalls but also *'gin mills" of much more 
 pretensions. One of these, fitted up at a cost of 
 $10,000, was the property of Dave Nagle, the man 
 who some years later shot and killed Judge Terry, 
 of early California notoriety. The opening of a 
 
262 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 better class saloon in Panamint is thus described 
 by one who saw much of the camp's life : 
 
 The representative men in camp were duly notified and in- 
 vited to be present; they always were duly expected to be 
 there and they always were, if not prevented by a previous 
 drunk or ill luck in a shooting scrape. The leading mining su- 
 perintendent, who represented companies expending a million 
 or more, was counted on for an expenditure of at least $500, 
 and he never disappointed the boys. The festivities usually 
 opened early and mildly, with free drinks to any and all 
 visitors, who were cordially invited to partake often and stay 
 all night. The latter request was usually put in such liberal 
 spirit as to impress all with its honesty, for later on when the 
 fun grew furious each head counted in the score for a drink, 
 which were ordered by men amply able to pay in cash, or by 
 check "good as wheat" on presentation at the company's of- 
 fice. 
 
 As the night grew on and the fun increased there was no 
 limit to the number except as the common guzzlers fell by 
 the wayside. The "tony crowd" were left to indulge in cham- 
 pagne in quantities unlimited. It often resulted in a rivalry 
 of wild pandemonium, for as the barkeeper drank often he 
 became very tired and would expedite his labors in filling an 
 order for a basket of champagne by placing it on the floor, 
 removing the lid and directing the revelers to help themselves. 
 This generally occurred during the early morning hours. 
 Often the roisterers had divested themselves of most of their 
 clothing, and, whooping like Indians, would march around 
 the open basket, each with a bottle in his hand, drinking, and 
 firing their revolvers into the floor or up into the ceiling. Then 
 was the time to look for bad blood, and hostilities opened 
 between rival "bad men," who were in numbers sufficient to 
 rule the camp, and who took such opportunities to even up old 
 scores. On such occasions very often a man would be killed, 
 when the crowd would scatter and the festivities stop. The 
 slayer would be duly arrested, taken to his cabin by a con- 
 stable and allowed to take a nap. Later in the day he would 
 be taken before the Justice, who after hearing evidence would 
 
PANAMINT 263 
 
 invariably, out of deference to the ruling element, discharge 
 the defendant on the ground of self-defense. 
 
 Gambling there, as in other camps, was on a 
 scale corresponding to the general wide-openness. 
 Fortunes changed hands on trivial hazards; a 
 sample poker game opened with an initial bet of 
 $1,000, which was "seen" and ''raised" $4,000 
 more, so that a "pot" of $10,000 was ready for 
 the winner when he "showed down" a pair of 
 aces and a pair of sixes. And there were other 
 games of much larger proportions. 
 
 Mention has been made of the local paper. 
 This was a sheet containing four pages, each 
 measuring a little less than seven by fourteen 
 inches, including generous margins. Its first copy 
 was dated November 26, 1874, and bore the names 
 of D. P. Carr as editor and T. S. Harris as man- 
 ager. Issue No. 2, on the 28th, notified the public 
 that Carr was no longer connected with the paper ; 
 issue No. 3, December 1st, denounced the late part- 
 ner as an unprincipled deadbeat who had col- 
 lected ahead for work in sight and left for other 
 climes. 
 
 The Panamint News, tri-weekly, cost its sub- 
 scribers 50 cents a week, $2 a month by carrier, 
 $1.50 a month by mail. Advertising in it cost $4 a 
 month for four lines, or 75 cents per line per issue. 
 
 Some quotations from its columns will help to 
 depict conditions : 
 
 The town of Panamint now consists of twenty-six frame 
 and board buildings besides a large number of stockades and 
 tents. Within the next month, if lumber can be had, at least 
 one hundred buildings will be erected. 
 
264 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Meals can be had for 75 cents at one restaurant and $1 at 
 others. 
 
 Market prices: Flour per 100 lbs., $8.50 and $9; bacon, 
 per lb., 28c; ham, 30c; meats, 20c and 30c; potatoes, 10c; 
 sugar, 20e and 25c; butter, 75c and $1; apples, 25c; barley, 
 8c and 10c; hay, 6c to 10c; eggs, per dozen, $1 to $2. 
 
 There are now over 600 locations in the district. The ores 
 are mainly copper-silver glance and chloride of silver. Assays 
 and working tests show values of from $100 to $4,000, the 
 average being about $400. 
 
 The Cerro Gordo Freighting Company is running a line 
 of teams from Cerro Gordo to Panamint; freight 5 cents per 
 pound. 
 
 The Fourth of July, 1875, was duly celebrated 
 in Panamint. The same little butcher's cart which 
 had been used impartially for hauling carcasses 
 of beeves and of roughs who had died with their 
 boots on was on this occasion made to do service 
 as a car of state. It was preceded by the **band," 
 consisting (an eye witness states) of a tuba and a 
 bass drum. When the procession reached the 
 point for turning to countermarch, the canyon was 
 so narrow that the outfit had to be lifted around 
 by man-power. In the vehicle was a young lady, 
 representing the Goddess of Liberty and three 
 little girls, all there were in camp. This is 
 the way editor Harris described it : 
 
 The Car of State was decorated by Grand Marshal Paris 
 and Mr. Stebbins, and reflected much credit on those gentle- 
 men for its gorgeous beauty. It was brought into the proces- 
 sion at the proper time, filled with the young ladies and chil- 
 dren of Panamint. 
 
 He avoided contradicting the inferences of his 
 flowery account by ''being unable to obtain for 
 publication the names of the children." 
 
PANAMINT 265 
 
 An incident of the place was the adoption by 
 a miners ' meeting, of a resolution excluding Chi- 
 nese. 
 
 The rich ores were there, but in most cases in 
 such metallurgical combinations as to defy the 
 working processes in vogue. While some money 
 was recovered from them, the yield was not com- 
 mensurate with the cost of recovery. Stewart and 
 Jones tired of spending huge sums in trying to 
 overcome the drawbacks. They persisted, how- 
 ever, for more than two years, but in May, 1877, 
 the end of that regime came in the shutting down 
 of the Surprise Valley mill. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 OTHER MINING DISCOVERIES 
 
 OPTIMISM OF THE PROSPECTOR — WAUCOBA, LUCKY JIM, 
 UBEHEBE, BEVERIDGE, POLETA — DARWIN LIVELY — 
 GREENWATER, WHERE MILLIONS WERE SPENT — SKIDOO 
 
 JUDGE LYNCH 'S DICTUM — TUNGSTEN, MARBLE, SODA, 
 
 SALT, BORAX. 
 
 Most of the Inyo mining districts now known 
 were discovered within a few years of the rise of 
 Cerro Gordo. Some attracting much attention at 
 the time are unknown to the Inyoite of today; 
 others are still on the producing list. 
 
 A fact that impresses the investigator in con- 
 nection with those discoveries was the invariable 
 belief of the finder that he had come upon one of 
 the greatest bonanzas on record. "The biggest 
 mine in the world," **the most important mining 
 discovery ever made in the county," *'a find that 
 will surpass Cerro Gordo," "a perfect Com- 
 stock," are bona fide sample phrases from de- 
 scriptions of prospects which long since have been 
 abandoned. Truly the prospector is ever opti- 
 mistic. Had every find measured up to the claim 
 made for it, gold and silver would have become 
 but common metals. 
 
 Waucoba was one of the first of the new dis- 
 tricts. Its discovery date is unknown. Col. 
 James Brady was actively at work there in 1872, 
 
 266 
 
OTHER MINING DISCOVERIES 267 
 
 and the Waucoba Mining and Smelting Company 
 built, in 1873, a road which is still in use for reach- 
 ing latter-day producing properties in that gen- 
 eral vicinity. 
 
 Pigeon Springs and Log Springs were among 
 the bidders for favor in 1873. Another district of 
 that year was Sylvania, organized June 14th, and 
 situated on the Nevada border line. W. S. Kin- 
 caid was its discoverer. Two later revivals and 
 the expenditure of much money are in its record. 
 
 Some of the other locations of the period was 
 the Lucky Jim property in 1875, which was sold 
 that same year by James Ferguson, who after- 
 ward organized the New Coso Mining Company. 
 Ubehebe, for some time known as Rose Springs 
 district, was found by W. L. Hunter, J. B. Hunter, 
 J. L. Porter and Thomas McDonough in 1875. 
 They sold to M. W. Belshaw, who talked of build- 
 ing reduction works, probably in Saline Valley, 
 but did not carry out the plan. Beveridge dis- 
 trict, named for pioneer John Beveridge, was dis- 
 covered by W. L. Hunter and others in 1877. 
 Poleta provided the mining excitement of 1881. 
 Prospecting had gone on in the White Mountains 
 east of Bishop from the earliest coming of white 
 settlers, with such results that more than one am- 
 bitious ''city" had been staked out, only to be 
 forgotten. In all probability some of the claims 
 which changed hands for thousands during the 
 days of Poleta were on the same ground that made 
 Keyes District the hope of prospectors in the mid- 
 dle '60s. 
 
 These were all discoveries that could be 
 
268 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 matched many times over, in the matter of real 
 results. The finding of Darwin was of more con- 
 sequence. It became the successor of Panamint in 
 public interest, in 1876, and today, over two score 
 years later, still has promise. It had a boom next 
 in importance, in this county, to Cerro Gordo and 
 Panamint. Furnaces were built to smelt its rich 
 ores; water was piped into the camp. Harris 
 moved his printing office from Panamint, and pro- 
 duced a paper of high merit. Hundreds of men 
 were employed in the mines and mills. The usual 
 factor of assisted mortality developed, but while 
 life was held cheaply by a certain class of the 
 population the place was less absolutely wild than 
 its more prominent predecessors. 
 
 Two booming camps that were products of 
 later years were Greenwater and Skidoo. The 
 record of Greenwater has few parallels in its sud- 
 den rise, great outlays, small returns and quick 
 decline. Locations had been made there as early 
 as 1884, and others were made in 1894 by Doctor 
 Trotter, for gold and silver values. Inaccessibility 
 caused all these claims to be abandoned — though 
 that quality seems to contribute to the success of 
 ** excitements, " once they are fairly launched. It 
 was high grade copper ore that caused the final 
 rush, twenty years later than the locations for 
 more precious metals. 
 
 The camp was situated on the sunrise side of 
 the Funeral Mountains, but a short distance 
 across the crest from where the slope into Death 
 Valley begins. It looked out easterly over hun- 
 dreds of miles of barren waste. The Amargosa's 
 
OTHEE MINING DISCOVERIES 269 
 
 bitter flow, twenty-four miles away, was the most 
 easily reached water when the camp began. Ob- 
 taining supplies involved hauling for many miles 
 over roads so trying that the portion traversed in 
 approaching the claims was fittingly named Dead 
 Horse Gulch. 
 
 Contemporary newspaper records credit the 
 first copper discoveries to men named McAllister 
 and Cook, with whom Arthur Kunze soon became 
 associated. The Copper Blue ledge was found in 
 February, 1905, by Fred Bimey and Phil Creaser, 
 who took samples of the outcrop to Independence 
 when they went there to record their claims. 
 While at the county seat they sent specimens of 
 the ore to Patsy Clark, prominent in the copper 
 mining world. Clark was so impressed that he 
 sent engineer Joseph P. Harvey to investigate. 
 Harvey, leaving the railroad at Daggett, Cal., lost 
 his outfit in a cloudburst at Cave Springs, and had 
 to go back for a fresh start. On his second trip 
 he reached the right locality, but owing to faulty 
 directions was unable to find the claims. Birney 
 and Creaser afterward went there and did some 
 development work, and again sought to enlist 
 Clark's interest. This time Clark came to Ehyo- 
 lite, Nevada, and from there sent Cleary, another 
 of his engineers, to make the examination. The 
 report was so favorable that Clark immediately 
 bought the Birney and Creaser holdings. Dennis 
 Clark, brother of Patsy, visited the prospects and 
 confirmed previous reports, as well as sending in 
 men and supplies for real development. Cleary 
 also sent men on his own account, and became the 
 
 19 
 
270 THE STOBY OF INYO 
 
 owner of some of the most prominent locations in 
 the district. Others who promptly invested were 
 Chas. Schwab, Augustus Hei^ze, T. L. Oddiie, 
 F. M. (Borax) Smith and others hardly less prom- 
 inent in financial affairs. 
 
 Within a month the population grew from 70 
 to over 1,000, with at least a hundred newcomers 
 over the desert roads every day. The copper 
 kings who had taken hold began hiring all appli- 
 cants, with the purpose of the speediest possible 
 development. An early estimate of the amount 
 paid for claims was $4,125,000. In four months 
 and twelve days from the camp 's start 2,500 claims 
 had been recorded. Stakes and monuments made 
 a practically continuous string for thirty miles 
 along the range, ground good, bad and indifferent 
 being freely located. The first 50,000 shares of 
 one of the companies were sold at Rhyolite, the 
 nearest settlement. The records of easy and quick 
 fortunes made in Tonopah and Goldfield stocks 
 made marketing of shares easy. Prospectors in 
 many cases wisely sold their claims, for ten, 
 twenty or more thousands of dollars — ^whatever 
 ''pocket money" they could get. And in many 
 instances it was only pocket money, for it was 
 used to ''feed the tiger" in the gambling rooms 
 and for other cash-reducing purposes. 
 
 In one case, an engineer grubstaked a pros- 
 pector, who located a claim and sold it for $3,000, 
 of which the engineer got his part. The buyer 
 asked the same engineer the next morning to visit 
 and report on the property, and was told it was 
 worthless. To be a party to locating a claim, share 
 
OTHEE MINING DISCOVERIES 271 
 
 in the proceeds of its sale, and then get a fee for 
 condemning it was something unique, at least. It 
 was said, however, that the engineer did not know 
 that he was reporting on his own claim; 
 
 Greenwater was a camp "without a lid," but 
 not without law of a kind. It was without peace 
 officers for months, but made its own codes. An 
 instance: One night an elderly man was robbed 
 of $80. The four robbers were found by a select 
 committee, and were instructed to be on the main 
 street at 9 o'clock the next morning. Nearly the 
 whole town was out at that hour to observe pro- 
 ceedings. In brief and pointed remarks the cul- 
 prits were informed that they had thirty minutes 
 in which to adjust their affairs before leaving. 
 One of the accused thought it would take him an 
 hour to get things settled so he could leave, but 
 after further remarks by the committee he found 
 that he could finish his business and get away 
 very handily within the time set. 
 
 The barren hills afforded little fuel. During 
 a storm flurry coal sold at $100 a ton and wood 
 at $60 a cord. Water sold, at first, at $15 a barrel, 
 later at half that figure — and small wonder at 
 either figure since it had to be hauled from twenty- 
 eight to thirty-five miles. Lumber cost $165 for 
 1,000 feet. A frame store 35 by 60 feet, unshin- 
 gled, cost $5,400. Hay was $6 and $7 a bale ; grain 
 $5 and $6 a sack; gasoline a dollar a gallon or $10 
 a case; potatoes and onions 10 to 12iA cents a 
 pound ; ice, brought from Las Vegas, Nevada, the 
 last fifty-five miles by auto, cost $10 for 100 
 pounds. Wages in the mines were $5 to $7 ; car- 
 
272 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 penters got $8 to $10; musicians were paid $8, 
 and such skilled labor as faro dealers drew $8 a 
 shift. 
 
 The postoffice was run on economical lines. 
 The Nasby in charge paid his clerks $5 for eight 
 hours, which was more than his own return from 
 the Government. Mail went into a box, and each 
 individual fished out his own letters. 
 
 On one occasion there was a water famine in 
 camp. An enterprising resident borrowed a team 
 and drove to Furnace Creek, twenty-eight miles, 
 returning with two barrels of water. One was 
 given to the owner of the team ; the other, dished 
 out to pails and canteens, netted about $30. 
 
 Though in the heart of the wilds, Greenwater 
 had two newspapers, a small magazine, a $100,000 
 bank, express and telephone service, professional 
 men of all kinds, and of course all ordinary lines 
 of business. 
 
 When the camp began to show signs of de- 
 pression, a man named McCarty walked into a 
 neighboring saloon and remarked to the owner: 
 * ' Nichols, two saloons on this side of the street are 
 too many; I'll shake you the dice to see whether 
 you take mine or I take yours. ' ' Nichols, without 
 a word, reached back and picked up a dice box, 
 and threw five sixes. McCarty shook and threw 
 five aces. Nichols picked up his hat and started 
 out. ''Hold on," said McCarty; ''take a drink." 
 The transaction was complete. 
 
 The stage to Greenwater burned one afternoon, 
 and with it the mailbags containing $30,000. The 
 driver's first knowledge of the fire was when a bale 
 
OTHEE MINING DISCOVERIES 273 
 
 of hay on the vehicle blazed up. The team was 
 cut loose ; the rest of the outfit was a total loss. 
 
 It was from that locality somewhere that a 
 cheerful wag wrote that he was employed on the 
 ''graveyard shift in the Coffin mine, Tombstone 
 Mountains, Funeral Range, overlooking Death 
 Valley. ' ' The graveyard shift, it may be remarked 
 for the benefit of readers unacquainted with min- 
 ing slang, is the one which includes midnight, when 
 sepulchers traditionally yawn. 
 
 The owning corporations spent much money 
 in trying to prove their mines. The ledges "went 
 down," but values of encouraging degree ended 
 at about 200 feet depth. Workings were con- 
 tinued far underground, while various Greenwater 
 stocks held a place in eastern exchanges, until 
 finally abandonment was necessary. Some of the 
 location monuments were made of high grade ore 
 and were included in the shipments made to smel- 
 ters. The last watchman on the ground, it was 
 said, was a rancher whose home was at Ash Mead- 
 ows, on the Amargosa. He had teams and wagons 
 and time to spare, so more or less of the decadent 
 city may still serve a useful purpose in a changed 
 situation. 
 
 Greenwater 's nearest neighbor was Skidoo, on 
 the mountain summit on the western edge of Death 
 Valley. That camp did not reach Greenwater 's 
 height of fame, nor did it fall as rapidly, for it 
 was a producer for some years after the copper 
 camp had become as deserted as when the Death 
 Valley party of '49 had toiled along within sight 
 of its location. The Skidoovians numbered 700 
 
274 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 or more, at the camp's maximum. A bank and a 
 newspaper were among its institutions. Gold and 
 silver ores were its sources of production. One 
 of its contributions to the records was a lynching 
 affair, the only such instance in Inyo county except 
 the summary vengeance taken on the convicts in 
 1871. The Skidoo affair happened April 22, 1908. 
 The desperado whose career was cut short was 
 named Joe Simpson. Three days earlier he had 
 entered the bank and demanded twenty dollars. 
 Being refused and disarmed, he had gone away 
 and ''heeled himself," returned and shot a clerk. 
 As he had previously declared an intention of kill- 
 ing four other citizens, Skidoo sentiment fully 
 coincided with the paper's page-wide headline 
 "Murderer Lynched with General Approval," 
 and its comment that ' ' the removal of this pest by 
 a feeling so excellent has caused a feeling of re- 
 lief throughout the camp." There was certainly 
 no great squeamishness about it, for when a resi- 
 dent wanted a photograph of the suspended Simp- 
 son's appearance the corpse was again connected 
 with the rope and put into the position occupied 
 in his final moments. The noose was treasured as 
 a souvenir by a morbid-minded bartender. An 
 inquest was held, at which one witness testified 
 to having been awakened twenty-three times dur- 
 ing the night to hear the news, and he had been 
 greatly surprised each time. Another said Joe 
 "was a true Bohemian — he hung around all 
 night. ' ' 
 
 The camp was, however, above the average in 
 law observance, and little crime occurred in it. 
 
OTHER MINING DISCOVERIES 275 
 
 The finest of mountain water was piped many 
 miles from high up on Telescope Peak. Its mining 
 settled to a one-company basis, and in time its 
 deposits were, apparently, worked out. 
 
 A new mineral was added to Inyo 's known list 
 (already pronounced by authorities to be more 
 comprehensive than that of any other county), 
 when in August, 1913, James Powning picked up 
 tungsten float in the hills west of Bishop, at a 
 spot where he had gone to pick up a rabbit he had 
 shot. The claim then located was named the Jack- 
 rabbit. A. W. Nobles and C. C. Cooper were in 
 partnership with him in the find. It was not until 
 the spring of 1916 that sufficient money for devel- 
 oping the claims became available, when F. M. 
 Townsend, A. J, Clark and others bought the 
 original and subsequent locations. Mills were 
 built, one of them the largest tungsten concen- 
 trating plant in the w^orld. Production continued 
 to be important until the fall of prices following 
 the Great War made it impossible to work those 
 and other large properties of the same nature, in 
 that general locality, at a profit. 
 
 During the middle '80s large marble quarries 
 were opened near Keeler, producing a material 
 which tests proved to be stronger in crushing re- 
 sistance than any other known. Much marble was 
 taken out during succeeding years, more or less of 
 it being used for finishing some of the coast's 
 large buildings. This form of production will 
 doubtless continue for years to come. 
 
 The growth of another mineral industry is also 
 to be noted, in the reclamation of soda and other 
 
276 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 salts from the heavily mineralized waters of 
 Owens Lake. Locations on the shore of Owens 
 Lake were made in the early months of 1885, by 
 L. F. J. Wrinkle, for the purpose of constructing 
 vats in which to evaporate the water in order to 
 recover the saline contents. Names of 839 persons 
 were on the original notices, which serves to indi- 
 cate the large area claimed. The Inyo Develop- 
 ment Company was formed by Nevada capitalists, 
 and ever since has continued to gather the residue 
 from those vats. Noah Wrinkle, son of the orig- 
 inal locator, worked out a chemical process by 
 which a wider range of products was obtained, 
 and less dependent on the density of the water 
 used. This was the basis of the Natural Soda 
 Products Company, which Watterson Brothers 
 took up at a critical stage of the company's career, 
 and which has become an enterprise as great in 
 magnitude as it is unique in its processes. Others 
 of similar nature have also been established to 
 reclaim the lake's mineral wealth. 
 
 Saline Valley, containing vast beds of salt, of 
 a grade purer in its natural state than any other 
 known, has been the scene of some development 
 operation, and in time its resources may come to 
 be of extensive importance. Another yield of the 
 burning deserts is borax, which has been to some 
 extent recovered in Saline Valley, but principally 
 mined in the far eastern region of the county as 
 more fully mentioned in a later chapter. 
 
 Ballarat, a central point for miners in the 
 Panamints, and Modock, Ubehebe, Bishop Creek, 
 Bunker Hill and other camps which as a rule have 
 
OTHER MINING DISCOVERIES 277 
 
 been or are single-mine enterprises appear in the 
 county's mining record; however, the purpose of 
 these chapters is not to review details but to note 
 the outstanding facts of mining progress. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 LATER DEATH VALLEY HISTORY 
 
 MORMONS FIRST IN THAT REGION OTHERS IN 1860 AND 
 
 1861 — A REFUGE FOR THE LAWLESS — "bELLERIN' 
 
 TECK" — ^BORAX DISCOVERED 1880 — A DESERT HOME 
 
 TESTING FOR BORAX " SHE BURNS GREEN ! " — PACIFIC 
 
 COAST BORAX COMPANY. 
 
 It is apparently well authenticated that Mor- 
 mon emissaries had been in Death Valley pros- 
 pecting even before Brier, Manly, Doty and their 
 people made their fatal journey, and that the ori- 
 gin of Furnace Creek's naming was in a small 
 roasting plant there for reducing ores. 
 
 The first visit there by scientific observers was 
 by a Dr. Owen and other members of the State 
 boundary commission in 1861. The Wheeler ex- 
 pedition went there in 1871, and in 1875 Lieut. 
 Birney and party crossed Death Valley several 
 times. In the meantime many persons without 
 ofiicial connections had been there. One of these 
 was W. T. Henderson, mentioned in these chron- 
 icles. He failed to find the elusive Grunsight lead 
 — a legacy of the Death Valley party of 1849 — 
 but he did w^hat no other man before him had 
 done, by climbing to the top of the highest of the 
 Panamints. To the west he saw the Slate, Argus 
 and other ranges, and beyond them the blue 
 Sierras. To the south rose the Calico range, Pilot 
 
 278 
 
LATER DEATH VALLEY HISTORY 279 
 
 Butte, and the far-off San Bernardinos. North- 
 west were the White Mountains; to the east, the 
 Funerals, Avawatz, and one unnamed range after 
 another. Two miles below were beds of salt, soda, 
 borax; the black dots of lava buttes; mesquite 
 trees made spots of dark green; apparent stream 
 channels where cloudbursts had ripped open the 
 earth's surface. Telescope Peak he named the 
 commanding mountain, and Telescope Peak it is 
 today. 
 
 Dr. Darwin French visited and named Fur- 
 nace Creek, in 1860. Later in the same year Dr. 
 S. Gr. George and associates were there and found 
 many relics of the emigrants of '49, as well as of 
 later travelers. The latter were accounted for by 
 the finding of skeletons, some of them in the vicin- 
 ity of springs. One of his finds was a slab of 
 marble about an inch thick, about the size of and 
 perfectly grooved like a common washboard. 
 
 Those who went to Death Valley between 1849 
 and the discovery of borax included all elements 
 of society. There were men of education seeking 
 scientific information; there were honest pros- 
 pectors with no reason for avoiding the haunts of 
 men; and, particularly during the early '70 's, 
 there were some about whom it was well not to 
 be too inquisitive. Undue curiosity in such mat- 
 ters has sometimes been an infraction of the so- 
 cial code that met with serious, if not fatal, 
 objection. It was said that the region contained 
 deserters from Civil War armies, draft dodgers, 
 and men who ''had no use for sheriffs nohow." 
 It is certain that when even the free-and-easv at- 
 
280 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 mosphere of early Nevada and Inyo proved too 
 dangerous for certain individuals they headed for 
 the deep desert. There was a resident Indian 
 population of reasonable repute, and there were 
 Indian renegades as well as whites. 
 
 In 1870 one "Bellerin' " Teck appeared upon 
 the scene. ''Bellerin's" characteristics are un- 
 recorded, beyond the fact that he was a ''bad 
 man," as were many who headed for the deep 
 deserts as for a city of refuge. Furnace Creek 
 was the site he chose for a location, and there he 
 is said to have raised "alfalfa, barley and 
 quails." One of his visitors was a Mormon 
 named Jackson, who traded him a yoke of oxen 
 in exchange for part of the ranch. The partner- 
 ship was of brief duration, for "Bellerin' " and 
 a shotgun ran the Saint out of the valley within 
 a week. Teck, together with the voice from which 
 it is presumed he derived his soubriquet, passes 
 from our record. 
 
 The general average improved considerably 
 when borax operations began, and forces of work- 
 ingmen were taken in. About forty men were 
 employed at the works when they were busiest. 
 Later, Greenwater lived its feverish hour just 
 over the summit to the east of Death Valley, and 
 Skidoo's population could look down into the 
 noted spot. A townsite, christened Midway, was 
 staked out on the Death Valley slope of the Fu- 
 nerals during the Greenwater excitement, but it 
 is not recorded that anyone, even the stakers, 
 lived there. 
 
 The industrial history of Death Valley began 
 with the discovery of borax in 1880. 
 
LATER DEATH VALLEY HISTORY 281 
 
 Some time in those lonely years one Aaron 
 Winters and his frail Spanish-American wife, 
 Kosie, located at Ash Meadows, a place eastward 
 across the Funerals from Death Valley, and 200 
 miles from the then nearest railroad station or 
 settlement. A visitor to their home thus described 
 it: 
 
 "Close against the hill, one side half hewn out of rock, 
 stood a low stone building with tule thatched roof. The 
 single room was about 15 feet square. In front was a canvas- 
 covered addition about the same size. The earth served as a 
 floor for both rooms. One side was the lady's boudoir. There 
 was a window with a deep ledge, in the center of which was 
 a starch box supporting a small looking-glass. On each side 
 of the mirror hung old brushes, badly worn bits of ribbon, 
 and some other fixings for the hair. Handy by was a lamp 
 mat, covered with bottles of magnolia balm, complexion 
 powders and Florida water— all, alas, empty, but still 
 cherished by the wife. In place of a library there were a 
 number of copies of the Police Gazette. The sugar, tea and 
 coffee were kept under the bed. The water of the spring ran 
 down the hill and formed a pool in front of the house, and 
 here a number of ducks and chickens, with a pig and a big 
 dog, formed a happy group, a group that wandered about in 
 the house as well as romped beside the waters of the spring," 
 
 One night a strolling prospector tarried at the 
 Winters home. He told about the Nevada borax 
 deposits, and what a great fortune was ready for 
 whoever could find more borax beds. Winters, 
 careful not to indicate any special reason for seek- 
 ing knowledge, asked many questions in a casual 
 way. Among other things he learned that sup- 
 posed borax could be tested by pouring certain 
 chemicals over it and firing the mixture. If it 
 burned green, borax was present. 
 
282 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 When the guest left, Winters made haste to 
 get chemicals from some remote supply point. He 
 had seen stuff in Death Valley answering the gen- 
 eral description of the Nevada borax. Equipped 
 with testing supplies, Winters and his wife jour- 
 neyed across the Funeral summit to Furnace 
 Creek and made camp, then went to the marsh 
 and got samples of the deposit. At night, they 
 mixed their powdered samples, as they had been 
 told, poured alcohol over it, and struck the match 
 that was to tell the story. 
 
 How would it burn I For years they had lived 
 as the Piutes of the desert. Mesquite beans and 
 chuckwalla had served them for food when flour 
 and bacon were missing. The wife had felt the 
 utter loneliness of their situation and the absence 
 of everything dear to the feminine heart. The 
 color of the flame would tell them whether better 
 things were ahead, or if the same dreary existence 
 must continue. 
 
 Winters held a match to the mixture with a 
 trembling hand. After an instant's pause he 
 shouted at the top of his voice : ' ' She burns green, 
 Eosie! We're rich!" 
 
 When the news reached San Francisco W. T. 
 Coleman and F. M. Smith sent agents to the rude 
 habitation in Ash Meadows. When the purpose 
 of the visit was made known, Eosie fished out a 
 bag of pine nuts, and as the party munched them 
 around the campfire the bargain was made. 
 Winters and Eosie received $20,000 for their find. 
 
 Before following the development of the borax 
 fields, let us give a farewell word to Winters. On 
 
LATER DEATH VALLEY HISTORY 283 
 
 getting his money he bought out the Pahrump 
 ranch, giving $15,000 cash and $5,000 in a 
 mortgage. For a little while life held new charms 
 for the couple but desert hardships had sapped 
 the wife's slender vitality and she died ere long. 
 
 It is told that one fall Winters had to go to 
 Belmont, hundreds of miles away, to pay his 
 taxes and do other business. Those were the days 
 of ''road agents," and he prepared for emergen- 
 cies. On the dash of his buckboard was a holster 
 into which he "put a worthless pistol; a serviceable 
 ''navy" was concealed under the cushion on the 
 seat. Nearing Belmont, two men invited him to 
 dismount and turn over his money. Argument 
 was useless and he had to comply. One of the 
 bandits discovered the useless pistol in its holster, 
 and it and the old man's demeanor served to 
 throw the pair completely off their guard. Winters 
 took a favorable opportunity to take the pistol 
 from the seat and shoot one robber, and then to 
 compel the other to put the corpse on the buck- 
 board and go into Belmont with him. Through 
 Winters' intercession the captured man was re- 
 leased and taken by him to the Pahrump ranch to 
 do honest toil. 
 
 The earliest borax corporation in Death Val- 
 ley was the Eagle company, with a plant near 
 Bennett's Wells. The Pacific Coast borax com- 
 pany, producing ' ' Twenty Mule Team ' ' borax, ex- 
 tensively advertised, took the lead in interest and 
 in development, and conferred on F. M. Smith 
 the newspaper title of "Borax King." Securing 
 title necessitated sending a survey party to the 
 
284 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 scene. This party, headed by Engineer McGilli- 
 vray, found that the earlier Grovernment surveys 
 were absolutely unreliable. None of the work of 
 staking out the townships had actually been done, 
 while descriptions were so inaccurate that tracts 
 appearing on field notes as level were really 8,000 
 feet above sea level and stood at a forty-five- 
 degree angle. 
 
 There were no roads worth the name, yet as 
 every item of material had to be hauled great dis- 
 tances, across a little known desert,* that lack had 
 to be supplied. A road more than 160 miles long 
 was made, with watering places more than fifty 
 miles apart in some cases. One section of it 
 crossed the valley on a foundation of solid salt. 
 In many places the surface is only a crust over 
 underlying mud; in others there are solid ridges. 
 On one of these the borax people laid out their 
 route, when it became necessary to cross from the 
 east side, on which the works were built. The 
 marsh was eight miles wide where the crossing 
 was made; level, as a whole, but so pitted and 
 uneven that it is said a man could not stand flat- 
 footed in a single spot on the course. The grading 
 tools were sledgehammers. Day after day the 
 workmen pounded off the little hillocks and finally 
 completed one of the most singular stretches of 
 road in the country. 
 
 How to move the bulky output to the railroad 
 was a problem that had to be met. It was solved 
 by the construction of wagons each of which car- 
 ried ten tons or more. The beds measured sixteen 
 feet in length, six in depth and four in width. They 
 
LATER DEATH VALLEY HISTORY 285 
 
 rested on solid steel axles over six inches in diam- 
 eter, and allowing for a six-foot tread. The rear 
 wheels were seven feet in diameter, and were cov- 
 ered with tires an inch thick and eight inches 
 wide. The woodwork was in proportion. 
 
 As the ''twenty mule teams" traveled only 
 about twenty miles a day, and water holes or 
 springs were sometimes fifty miles apart, pro- 
 vision had to be made for hauling water. This 
 was done by building tank wagons, which hauled 
 water to the dry camps among the ten stopping 
 places established as part of the system. Springs 
 were dug out and improved, and water pipes laid. 
 
 In the hottest weather, mid-day travel was im- 
 possible. Hauling was done at night, or the road 
 was temporarily abandoned. Five teams were 
 kept on the road, each taking twenty days for the 
 round trip to and from the railroad. 
 
 One of the details of recovering borax is cook- 
 ing the crude material in huge vats. Maintaining 
 the fires strips the surrounding country of the 
 sagebrush, which is most convenient for fuel. In 
 Death Valley the fuel problem was of rather more 
 seriousness than in some other places. The drug, 
 once selling by the ounce, lowered in price with 
 the increased supply provided by that and other 
 discoveries. Other deposits more economical in 
 working were found by "Borax" Smith's and 
 Coleman interests. All these things contributed 
 to the closing down of those works. 
 
 Death VaUey has yet a large part to play in 
 affairs, and large contributions to make for the 
 world's welfare. Railroads now penetrate almost 
 
 20 
 
286 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 to the sink itself, and in every direction, not far 
 from its borders, industrial development is push- 
 ing forward. There are probably more men at 
 work in that general region than ever before in 
 its history, except during the Greenwater rush. 
 Exploration goes on and new finds are being 
 made. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 TRANSPORTATION 
 
 RAILROAD TALK ALWAYS WITH US — AN EARLY-DAY SURVEY 
 
 HIGH FREIGHTS— CERRO GORDO FREIGHTING COMPANY 
 
 STEAMER BESSIE BRADY — ADVENT OF CARSON & 
 
 COLORADO RAILROAD OTHER RAILROAD NOTES — EL 
 
 CAMINO SIERRA, OF STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM. 
 
 Almost as early as the establishment of a per- 
 manent population in Inyo County there began to 
 be talk of a railroad connection to the southward. 
 In December, 1870, a company was incorporated 
 to build a road from Wilmington, Los Angeles 
 County, to Wickenburg, Arizona, with a branch 
 to Owens Valley. This line was to be of 30-inch 
 gauge. The project ended as have many later 
 plans, in talk. 
 
 With the growth of Cerro Gordo, the people of 
 Los Angeles began to appreciate that Inyo might 
 become a valuable factor in their affairs. Com- 
 pletion of the railroad betw^een that city and San 
 Pedro, in November, 1869, opened a route which, 
 though distant, was the one utilized for Inyo 
 freights to and from San Francisco for several 
 years. Ores and supplies were hauled by teams 
 between Los Angeles and Owens Valley, and the 
 volume of business done was pleasing to the 
 southern town. The Los Angeles and Indepen- 
 
 287 
 
288 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 dence railroad was promoted by Senator John P. 
 Jones, ex-Governor Downey and others. A fran- 
 chise bill was introduced in the Assembly by 
 James E. Parker, of Inyo, and in the spring of 
 1873 it became law. It granted to the company 
 the right to collect eight cents per mile for fare 
 and ten cents per ton mile for freight. At least 
 $20,000 was to be expended on the project within 
 twelve months. Subscription books were opened 
 in Los Angeles, and half of the $2,200,000 capital 
 stock was subscribed at once. 
 
 The chief engineer of the project made two 
 preliminary surveys. One was via San Bernar- 
 dino, and was the more favorable of the two in 
 grades and expense. Its grading was figured to 
 cost $321,400. The San Fernando route was the 
 shorter. Estimated cost of a standard gauge road, 
 laid with forty-five-pound iron, complete, was put 
 at $11,400 a mile; three-foot gauge, thirty-five- 
 pound iron, $10,000 a mile; strap rail, $5,400 a 
 mile; wooden stringers, no rails, $4,233 a mile. 
 Narrow-gauge railroads were then coming into 
 favor and that suggestion met no opposition. As 
 may rightfully be guessed, however, the idea of 
 strap-iron rails did not commend itself, particu- 
 larly to those acquainted with the fashion in which 
 * ' snakeheads " on early railroads sometimes rose 
 up to punch through car bottoms. The wooden 
 rail idea was the touch that forecasted the proj- 
 ect's finish. Eighteen miles of real track was laid 
 from Los Angeles, but in another direction, and 
 in time became part of the Southern Pacific sys- 
 tem. The company continued to exist and to make 
 
TRANSPORTATION 289 
 
 occasional reports of investigations for several 
 years before its final demise. 
 
 The limited agriculture of Owens Valley fell 
 short of ability to supply demands, and in conse- 
 quence prices were high for all such produce. This 
 was some offset for the enormous freight rates 
 that prevailed ; for while every importation paid a 
 freight tariff of five to seven cents a pound, the 
 producer who contracted his barley in the field at 
 four cents a pound, and his hay sometimes as high 
 as $50 a ton, got some return from the freighting 
 company, which had to buy produce to feed the 
 hundreds of animals used in freighting. 
 
 None of those old-time freight bills are avail- 
 able, but an indication of them is given by a con- 
 tract made between the freighters and Camp 
 Independence authorities for delivery of freight 
 from San Francisco at $5.96 per one hundred 
 pounds during the summer months and $6.96 dur- 
 ing the winter. 
 
 While some teaming was done from Wads- 
 worth, Nevada, on the Central Pacific, the bulk of 
 Inyo shipments came and went the southern way. 
 Ventura, Santa Barbara and Bakersfield all in- 
 terested themselves to become Inyo's shipping 
 point, but Los Angeles secured most of the trade. 
 The most important factor in pioneer transporta- 
 tion, and in fact the first regular and dependable 
 service, was the Cerro Gordo freighting company, 
 organized in 1873 primarily to transport Cerro 
 Gordo bullion and supplies. Nadeau, its chief 
 organizer, secured a three-year contract from 
 Belshaw & Beaudry, and put his business on a 
 
290 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 thorough schedule. The teaming time was regu- 
 lated almost to the hour, on a basis of twenty-one 
 or twenty-two days for the round trip. Stations, 
 watering places and camps were provided as the 
 route demanded. Los Angeles papers stated that 
 eighty wagons had been built for the company; 
 fifty-six were in regular service. They were huge 
 affairs; while there is no available definite state- 
 ment of capacity, each would hold the greater 
 part of the load of a narrow-gauge box car. 
 
 The company acquired the Bessie Brady, a lit- 
 tle steamer that had been launched June 17, 1872, 
 to help in moving bullion. The boat, eighty-five 
 feet long and sixteen feet beam, was propellor- 
 driven by a twenty-horsepower engine. The cost 
 was about $10,000. D. H. Ferguson and James 
 Brady, superintendent of the smelting company 
 operating at Swansea, were the owners. She was 
 named for Brady's little daughter, who broke the 
 regulation wine bottle over the bow at the rather 
 elaborate ceremony attending the vessel's launch- 
 ing. The Bessie Brady appears to have been the 
 first vessel for commercial purposes on western 
 inland lakes. Making a round trip daily from 
 Swansea (three miles north of the present town 
 of Keeler) to Cartago, at the foot of the lake, and 
 carrying seventy tons of freight, the steamer per- 
 formed service cheaper than had previously been 
 incurred in hauling one-tenth of the weight be- 
 tween the same terminals in five days by teams. 
 A 300-foot wharf was built at Swansea, on a site 
 now left high and dry by the lake's recession. 
 Bullion was the bulk of the freight taken south- 
 
TRANSPORTATION 291 
 
 ward, and supplies for the mines and for Owens 
 Valley formed the return cargoes. Valley freights 
 were discharged at Ferguson's Landing, at the 
 northwestern curve of the lake. The steamer bore 
 an honorable share in the business of the time. 
 She was burned some years after her retirement 
 from service. 
 
 Another steamer, the Mollie Stevens, was 
 launched in 1877 for transporting lumber and 
 charcoal across the lake for Cerro Gordo. Her 
 engine was one that had been used on the United 
 States vessel Pensacola. Her part in general 
 transportation matters was small. 
 
 The Cerro Gordo freighting company aban- 
 doned the Inyo field in 1881. In that year the 
 Carson & Colorado railroad was completed to 
 Belleville, Nevada, and that point became the 
 transshipping headquarters for Inyo freight. It 
 so continued until the road was built across the 
 White Mountains to Benton and on into Owens 
 Valley in 1883. D. 0. Mills was the money power 
 behind this railroad. In the belief that its ship- 
 ping advantages would stimulate ore shipments 
 from the many claims along the White Mountains, 
 the base of which it skirted to the terminus at 
 Keeler, the management resisted all inducements 
 to lay its track through the more settled western 
 side of Owens Valley, touching the established 
 towns. It is probable that anticipated greater 
 cost of maintenance on the west side. had some 
 effect in shaping the company's determination. 
 
 Candelaria had then become a Nevada mining 
 camp of importance, and drew on Owens Valley 
 
292 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 for much of its supplies. Tlie railroad brought 
 the Candelaria region nearer, but whether the val- 
 ley materially gained from its building, so far as 
 the Candelaria market was concerned, is de- 
 batable. Previously teams had found occupation 
 in hauling to the mining camps, and Owens Valley 
 had practically a monopoly of the business of fur- 
 nishing many kinds of supplies. The railroad 
 eliminated the teaming, and at the same time ef- 
 fectively bridged the gap between that mining 
 camp and other producing regions. 
 
 But that was only one disadvantage, insofar 
 as it was a disadvantage, against which were to 
 be set many gains. Nevada capital came to Inyo 
 with the railroad, and forthwith began different 
 steps toward developing resources that had been 
 latent or wholly unknown. Among them may be 
 noted the opening of the Inyo marble quarries, 
 the beginning of the soda reclamation industry at 
 Owens Lake, and contributions to land develop- 
 ment. It would be superfluous to enumerate the 
 many advantages from the opening of railroad 
 communication to a section as isolated as this had 
 been up to that time. 
 
 A little more than ten years later the Southern 
 Pacific took over the Carson & Colorado. The 
 ever-present hope of a southern railroad was en- 
 couraged. Collis P. Huntington, head of the 
 Southern Pacific, decided to complete the line 
 through this valley, connecting the transconti- 
 nental systems to the south and the north. Before 
 he proceeded, death claimed him, and his succes- 
 sor held different views regarding the railroad. 
 
TRANSPOKTATION 
 
 293 
 
 When the Los Angeles aqueduct required trans- 
 portation of huge quantities of freight, the long- 
 wanted road was built, and its last spike was 
 driven at Owenyo October 18, 1910. Through that 
 connection, Owens Valley and all of Inyo has 
 been brought into closer connection with the nat- 
 ural marketplace, Los Angeles. 
 
 Of other surveys, of the organization of a com- 
 pany which went to the extent of securing rights 
 of way from Bishop south through the valley, and 
 of fruitless endeavors to secure the location of a 
 line of rails nearer to the valley towns, this record 
 need not speak. In this same connection, a com- 
 pany was organized to build a branch to connect 
 Bishop with the main line at Laws. It obtained 
 rights of way and graded its roadbed, but no rails 
 have been laid on it. 
 
 One of the most important events in the his- 
 tory of Inyo communication will be the completion 
 of El Camino Sierra, that portion of the State 
 highway system lying east of the Sierra Nevada 
 mountains. That work moves but slowly, but the 
 day is not far distant when fine automobile thor- 
 oughfares shall stretch to the north and the south 
 to connections with others of equal merit. So 
 much has been done, when this is written, that the 
 individual can reach Los Angeles to the south, 
 Tahoe or Eeno to the north, or Yosemite Valley, 
 via the magnificent Tioga route, in a day's travel, 
 covering distances which in primitive times were 
 journeys of three or four times as long, or even 
 more. Fostered by the invention and universal 
 use of the automobile, the good road movement 
 
294 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 has grown wondrously everywhere, and it might 
 have been that these advantages would have come 
 to Inyo had it done nothing more aggressive than 
 to merely wait. It is wholly fitting, however, to 
 note that local energy has played a part in ad- 
 vancing the cause of better highways, and that 
 out of Inyo came an organization, the Inyo Good 
 Road Club, which was responsible for the early 
 favor of the State being given to the creation of a 
 north and south highway east of the Sierras. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 SUNDRY WAYMARKS OF HISTORY 
 
 ATTEMPT TO GRAB OWENS VALLEY AS SWAMP LAND — LATER 
 PLAN TO MAKE MUCH OF IT STOCK RANGE — NO-FENCE 
 ISSUE — MT. WHITNEY DISPUTE — SLACK REQUIREMENTS 
 FOR TEACHING — SOCIETY OF PIONEERS — RETURNS 
 THROWN OUT — LOCAL OPTION IN '74 — CAMP INDE- 
 PENDENCE ABANDONED. 
 
 A land-grabbing scheme of the first magnitude 
 threatened to dispossess Owens Valley homestead- 
 ers in 1873. 
 
 California was then having a ran of what were 
 termed ''swamp land steals." Congress had 
 passed a law providing for the survey and segre- 
 gation of swamp and overflowed lands. Each State 
 was permitted to make its own regulations as to 
 the disposition of such lands within its borders. 
 Claimants were unrestricted as to the area they 
 could obtain on a suitable showing as to its phys- 
 ical condition. California was a field ripe for har- 
 vesting by monopolists, and history shows that 
 the opportunity was not neglected. Spanish land 
 grants had provided the original confusion, and 
 railroad subsidies and unwise legislation made 
 matters worse. Legislatures and ofiicers were 
 named in corporation headquarters in many 
 cases. The great central valleys were hardly bet- 
 ter than stock ranges. Concentrated wealth, be- 
 
 295 
 
296 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 sides being in close touch with opportunities, was 
 able to lay claim to great domains and wait for 
 future returns, while the settlers the State needed 
 could not afford to court starvation on the 
 available tracts. An example of how the situation 
 worked out was in Kern County, where the hold- 
 ings of thirteen persons amounted to 488,000 
 acres, and seven others held 65,000 acres or more. 
 
 The United States Land Office was moved from 
 Aurora, Nevada, to Independence in June, 1873. 
 Josiah Earl was nominated to be Register, and 
 P. A. Chalf ant was named as Receiver. The latter 
 appointment was unsought, and when its bene- 
 ficiary learned that he had loeen suggested by po- 
 litical elements with which he was not in accord 
 he promptly resigned. Earl took full charge of 
 the office, though his appointment had not been 
 confirmed by the Senate. 
 
 In July, 1873, several persons, prominent 
 among them Mr. Earl and W. S. Powell, a Tulare 
 County surveyor, filed numerous applications for 
 the survey and purchase of all or parts of 221 
 sections of land in Owens Valley, extending from 
 Round Valley to Owens Lake, and involving 
 133,000 acres. Without going into minor details 
 of description, suffice it to state that practically 
 every township in the valley was touched in some 
 degree or as a whole by the claim. Applicants 
 made oath that the lands were swamp or over- 
 flowed, though most of the land so claimed was 
 covered with sagebrush, and much of it would not 
 come under even the liberal General Land Office 
 ruling that ''land too wet for irrigation at the 
 
SUNDRY WAYMARKS OF HISTORY 297 
 
 usual seeding time, though later requiring irriga- 
 tion" should be subject to sale as swamp. 
 
 Applicants further certified that lands sought 
 were unoccupied, while the fact was that 'on at 
 least ninety-four of the claimed sections homes 
 had been established and the beginnings of farm- 
 ings made. It is probable that the occupants ul- 
 timately would have legally withstood any at- 
 tempts at their eviction; at the time they would 
 have done it by force of arms. Yet with the 
 examples they could cite in which aggregated 
 wealth had overborne justice, some of them were 
 none too sanguine on that point. At the best, the 
 claims promised wearisome legislation and ex- 
 pense which none could afford. 
 
 Proceedings had been so well masked that 
 three months elapsed between the filing of the 
 swamp land claims and knowledge of them reach- 
 ing the people of the valley. The Inyo Indepen- 
 dent, of which Mr. Chalfant, who had refused to 
 serve as Land Office Receiver, was editor, ascer- 
 tained and revealed the facts. Indignation swept 
 the valley. Public meetings were held, and every 
 citizen who had any outside acquaintanceship ex- 
 erted himself to the utmost to upset the sinister 
 plan. The law required that action on such appli- 
 cations should be suspended for six months, dur- 
 ing which time protests might be filed with the 
 land authorities. Half of the period had passed, 
 but three months still remained to the people. The 
 vigorous campaign made caused suspension of ac- 
 tion pending further investigation, and two 
 months later, in March, 1874, the applications 
 were rejected. 
 
298 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 An effort was made to secure the conviction of 
 Powell on a charge of perjury but it did not suc- 
 ceed. A petition for Earl's removal was generally 
 signed throughout the valley. His appointment 
 had not been confirmed by the Senate, though he 
 continued to discharge the duties of the Register- 
 ship. Senators Sargent, of California, and Jones, 
 of Nevada, Governor Newton Booth, of Califor- 
 nia, and others of less prominence took an active 
 part in opposing Earl's confirmation. The matter 
 had not come to a Senate vote when in May, 1874, 
 he settled it by resigning. 
 
 Let us anticipate the passage of nearly a dec- 
 ade to refer to another plan for monopolizing a 
 large part of Owens Valley, though in the later 
 case open purchase was proposed. There would 
 have been, naturally, the accompaniment of many 
 sales forced by circumstances. This was in 1882, 
 when multimillionaires W. S. Hobart and Alvinza 
 Hayward conceived the idea of securing the area 
 noted on maps as Bishop Creek Valley and mak- 
 ing it into a stock range. James Cross, a mining 
 man long connected with Nevada and California 
 affairs, was their representative. George M. Gill, 
 afterward Superior Judge of this county, was 
 their attorney. Theodore T. Cook, a Bishop book- 
 keeper, was sent to Independence to list the as- 
 sessed value of all properties in the area desired, 
 and to investigate titles. Hobart and Hayward 
 planned to offer twenty-five per cent above as- 
 sessed values, and believed that while many resi- 
 dents would be unwilling to sell they would be 
 virtually compelled to if a sufficient proportion of 
 
SUNDRY WAYMARKS OF HISTORY 299 
 
 their neighbors sold. Cook's investigations of 
 different kinds showed that the probable cost of 
 carrying out the enterprise would be $1,500,000. 
 Whether this was larger than the projectors were 
 willing to stand, or whatever the reason, no 
 further steps were taken. 
 
 An important issue of the early 70 's was the 
 '* no-fence law." As in most agricultural com- 
 munities, and particularly those as new as Owens 
 Valley then was, many settlers were without 
 means with which to fence their holdings. Barbed 
 wire, now in common use, was new to this market, 
 and its cost was twenty-five cents a pound, and 
 rough lumber sold at $55 or more per thousand 
 feet. While the ranchers were starting their crops, 
 grazing was also a leading industry. An item of 
 1873 said that there were 200,000 head of cattle, 
 horses and sheep in the mountains around Mount 
 Whitney, and many of them wintered in Owens 
 Valley. The driving of herds through the valley 
 to their summer ranges often meant the destruc- 
 tion of growing crops along the route, where the 
 tracts were usually unfenced. Considerable agi- 
 tation attended the passage of a law that placed 
 responsibility for destruction of crops on the 
 stockmen, whether the land was or was not fenced. 
 Nevertheless, a special act of that kind was passed 
 for Inyo County, and a few other counties re- 
 ceived the same consideration. 
 
 Columns of newspaper space were used in a 
 controversy over the identity of the real Mount 
 Whitney. Scientists were in error until 1873, as 
 the uninformed person w^ould be now if while in 
 
300 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Lone Pine, nearest to the peak, he were asked to 
 point it out. Clarence King climbed ' ' old" Mount 
 Whitney in 1871, and later came all the way from 
 New York to make another ascent, ascertaining 
 that he had been mistaken. John Muir and others 
 of note took a hand in the debate. The first ascent 
 of the real Mount Whitney was made August 18, 
 1873, by A. H. Johnson, J. J. Lucas and C. D. 
 Begole, who built a monument on it. Prof. Brewer 
 had discovered and named the mountain in 1864, 
 and King at that time had climbed to within 300 
 feet of the top. Afterward he and others gave the 
 name to a peak several miles southeast, believing 
 it to be the one he had ascended from the west. 
 *'01d" Mount Whitney bore the name for three 
 or four years, while there were attempts to give 
 the higher summit some other name. *' Fisher- 
 man's Peak," ''Dome of the Continent," and 
 ''Dome of Inyo" all had supporters. An ambitious 
 politician sought to secure permanency for his 
 name by introducing a bill in the Legislature offi- 
 cially naming the mountain "Fowler Peak." It 
 was finally the secondary mountain that received 
 a different name. 
 
 The out-of-the-wayness of Inyo and Mono 
 Counties in those days was illustrated by the en- 
 actment of a law permitting, in these counties, the 
 employment of public school teachers regardless 
 of their possessing certificates of qualification. 
 Being sometimes unable to secure certificated 
 teachers, the districts were permitted to enlist 
 anyone whom they believed to be able to instruct 
 the rising generation. The law was repealed in 
 1876. 
 
SUNDRY WAYMARKS OF HISTORY 301 
 
 In more modem days, ''the big earthquake" 
 seems to mark almost the beginning of history in 
 Inyo. Such an idea would have been scorned by 
 the Benevolent Society of Owens Valley Pioneers, 
 organized in March, 1874, for a brief career. Only 
 those who had been in the county prior to the last 
 battle at Owens Lake, in January, 1865, were 
 eligible to membership. The officers were Patrick 
 Reddy, president ; J. B. Rowley and Thomas Pass- 
 more, vice presidents; J. J. Moore, secretary; 
 R. A. Loomis, corresponding secretary; T. F. A. 
 Connelly, treasurer; John A. Lank, D. D. Gunni- 
 son and John Lubken, directors. Other members 
 included John Lentell, V. Gr. Thompson, James 
 Shepherd, John Shepherd, John B. White, 
 "William J. Lake, C. D. Begole, Joseph Fernbach, 
 Thomas W. Hill, John C. Willett, Thomas May, 
 William L. Moore, George W. Brady, Paul W. 
 Bennett, Jacob Vagt, John R. Hughes, and prob- 
 ably several other ''taboose-eaters" not listed in 
 available records. 
 
 An incident of 1873 was the rejection of elec- 
 tion returns from Round Valley, Bishop Creek, 
 Fish Springs and Lone Pine precincts, for infor- 
 malities too gross for even the easy-going authori- 
 ties of that period. What difference, if any, it 
 made in the result of the county election is not 
 now known, nor does the action appear to have 
 stirred up any special comment. 
 
 A different sort of election was held Septem- 
 ber 18, 1874, in Bishop Creek and Round Valley. 
 The Independent Order of Good Templars had 
 lodges in Bishop Creek, Independence and Camp 
 
 21 
 
302 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Independence — the latter composed entirely of 
 soldiers — and their members had much to do with 
 solidifying sentiment against the absolutely wide- 
 open conditions then general in Inyo as well as 
 elsewhere. Local option was submitted to vote in 
 the precincts named. Bishop Creek voted eighty- 
 two against license, twenty-six for; Eound Valley 
 was nineteen against, six for ; totals, one hundred 
 and one against license ; thirty-two for. This pio- 
 neer housecleaning effort was in vain ; the Super- 
 visors discovered that the election should have 
 been brought in the Supervisor district, and that 
 the Bishop Supervisor district included part of 
 Big Pine precinct, where no election was held. At 
 that election, as often later, the ladies took an 
 active part by serving a feast during the day to 
 voters. 
 
 March 1, 1875, the first six-times-a-week mail 
 service between Owens Valley and Aurora, then 
 the nearest communication, was begun. Up to 
 then the settlers had been fortunate to get word 
 from the outer world, considerably delayed, as 
 often as three times a week, and sometimes no bet- 
 ter than weekly. 
 
 Through all that period county finances were 
 in deplorable condition, scrip selling as low as 
 forty cents on the dollar. Its fluctuations offered 
 a field for some small speculation, and citizens 
 who could spare the money made its buying prof- 
 itable. The county did not profit much from such 
 conditions. An example was a bridge contract on 
 which the bidder's offer was to do the work for 
 $2,000 if paid in gold or $4,866.66 if paid in script. 
 
SUNDRY WAYMAEKS OF HISTORY 303 
 
 Orders for abandonment of Camp Indepen- 
 dence were received by Captain Alexander B. 
 MacGowan on July 9, 1877, and before sunrise the 
 following morning, the garrison, Company D, 12th 
 Infantry, began the long march to the railroad 
 south, later to go to the front as part of General 
 Miles' force in the Nez Perce war in Idaho. 
 
 Departure of the soldiers was witnessed with 
 deep regret. Citizens felt that the Indian situa- 
 tion was not wholly free from possibilities of 
 trouble. Reports occasionally came in of friction 
 in the desert regions. To the credit of Inyo In- 
 dians be it said that as a rule it developed either 
 that the reports were baseless, that white men 
 were chiefly at fault in the matter, or that the 
 troublemakers were renegades, outlawed by Pi- 
 utes as well as whites. 
 
 A movement was started at Bishop for organ- 
 izing a company of the State National Guard, as 
 a precautionary measure. It was found to be 
 barred by reason of an already full list of author- 
 ized companies. Other efforts of the same kind 
 were made in after years, with equal lack of State 
 encouragement. 
 
 D Company had been at the post four years. 
 In the beginning it was made up of a hard lot of 
 individuals. On two different occasions they had 
 clashes with citizens. One of these occurred on 
 the night of December 31, 1873. A party of sol- 
 diers went into Independence, between two and 
 three miles from the barracks, and made a general 
 round of serenading. During the evening their 
 potations at the town's bars were numerous. 
 
304 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 Toward midnight they approached a hall wherein 
 a dance was in progress. The doorkeeper refused 
 to admit them, on account of their intoxicated con- 
 dition. They insisted, and the first comer was 
 ''sent to grass" by the doorkeeper's fist. A gen- 
 eral and wholesale melee ensued. Fence pickets 
 were the worst weapons used, and many bruises 
 were inflicted before the affair ended. 
 
 Those men were but part of the company, how- 
 ever. The more sober element soon afterward or- 
 ganized a lodge of Good Templars at the post, and 
 pridefully sustained it during their stay. The 
 toughs deserted or finished their time, and re- 
 placements improved the general average. When 
 the post was abandoned there were many civilian 
 friends to bid the departing soldiers farewell. 
 How the company improved was shown by a 
 guardhouse average of one man incarcerated each 
 day during 1873, one each four days in 1874, one 
 each thirty days in 1875. 
 
 It was a telegraph operator in the company 
 who promoted the first telegraph line built in the 
 county, in the fall of 1876. It ran between Inde- 
 pendence and the fort. Its construction tried the 
 ingenuity of the builders; its wire ranged from 
 the finest copper to heavy iron; its insulators 
 were mostly bottle necks — of which there was no 
 scarcity. Only the instruments and batteries 
 would have been approved on a regular system, 
 but the line worked. 
 
 Early history and occupation of the post have 
 been detailed in the chapters of Indian War his- 
 tory, up to the arrival of Company C, Nevada Vol- 
 
SUNDEY WAYMARKS OF HISTORY 305 
 
 unteers, in April, 1865. The valley had been with- 
 out military protection during the latter part of 
 the Indian troubles, and it was the citizens, not 
 the soldiers, who inflicted final punishment on the 
 natives. Nevertheless the army uniform always 
 excited lively interest among the Piutes. The ar- 
 rival of a new body of troops at Camp Indepen- 
 dence or a march from there by any considerable 
 detachment invariably caused anxious apprehen- 
 sion and inquiry by Indian residents. 
 
 From the spring of 1865 to the final abandon- 
 ment the place was always garrisoned. When the 
 volunteers were mustered out, Col. John D. Dev- 
 ens' command of one company of cavalry and one 
 of infantry succeeded them. Next came Captain 
 (then Brevet-Major) Harry C. Egbert, with Com- 
 pany B, 12th Infantry. Egbert was in command 
 when the fort's buildings were tumbled over by 
 the earthquake in 1872. When the rebuilt bar- 
 racks were completed the soldiers gave a grand 
 open-house entertainment for the whole country- 
 side. Among the decorations on this occasion 
 were shields bearing the names of Civil War bat- 
 tles in which the company, including many of the 
 veterans who were still under its colors, had par- 
 ticipated. As the list included Gaines ' Mill, Cedar 
 Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancel- 
 lorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Petersburg, 
 Malvern Hill, Cold Harbor, Five Forks, and 
 others of less historic prominence, and the com- 
 pany was also at Appomattox at the closing scene, 
 it will be seen that B Company had a record in 
 which its pride was justified. 
 
306 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 The last of this garrison, led by Lieut. Dove, 
 just promoted to a captaincy, left for San Diego 
 June 30, 1873, and thereafter found occupation 
 protecting Arizona telegraph lines from maraud- 
 ing Apaches. Egbert, who was a lawyer of ability, 
 resigned his commission, for a time engaged in 
 practice as a partner of Patrick Reddy at Inde- 
 pendence, and finally went to New York. On the 
 outbreak of the Spanish War he tendered his ser- 
 vices to the Government, served through the Cu- 
 ban campaign, and was sent to the Philippines 
 wearing the two stars of a major general. He was 
 killed while leading a charge against the enemy. To 
 his widow, doubly stricken by this and the insanity 
 of her son soon after he had received an army com- 
 mission. Congress voted a general's pension. Pio- 
 neer Inyoites felt a special and personal interest 
 in one who had taken much part in local affairs, 
 and who was designated by an appreciative friend 
 as ' ' the gentle, brave and gallant Harry Egbert. ' ' 
 
 MacGowan's command arrived five days be- 
 fore the departure of Dove and his company. Hav- 
 ing no other opportunity for activity, MacGowan 
 was ever ready to go a bit beyond the strictest 
 construction of regulations in making his men a 
 force for law and order. At one time his company 
 was marched into Independence to protect the 
 county jail against an expected lynching attack, 
 which, however, did not materialize. At another, 
 he took the field in pursuit of bandit Vasquez. 
 A detachment was once sent to Round Valley as 
 an object lesson to insolent Indians. Many scouts 
 were made, and many tables of distance measure- 
 ments were compiled by the company. 
 
SUNDRY WAYMAEKS OF HISTORY 307 
 
 On abandonment of the post, settlers in the 
 vicinity were permitted to obtain government title 
 to the farms on which their homes had b6en made 
 for many years. Previously, bills had been in- 
 troduced in Congress at one time or another to 
 meet the case, but no relief had been granted. 
 
 A movement was also inaugurated to make 
 the well planted and beautiful post grounds the 
 site of a county high school. It would be flattery 
 to the California high school system of that day 
 to call it crude ; it was practically non-existent, ex- 
 cept as each community might devise ways and 
 means of its own. It was proposed that the Gov- 
 ernment be asked to deed the Camp Independence 
 grounds to Inyo County, for the purpose men- 
 tioned, and a bill to that effect was introduced in 
 the House of Representatives. Introducing bills 
 in Congress is one of the easiest things that many 
 Representatives do ; the proposition never got be- 
 yond that stage, and was soon forgotten. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 FURTHER WAYMARKS 
 
 FIRST FAIR — DISTRICT CAUSES A CLASH — INYO ACADEMY 
 
 ESTABLISHED SUCCEEDED BY HIGH SCHOOL — OTHER 
 
 SCHOOL ITEMS — CREAMERY BEGINNINGS — BURNING OF 
 
 INDEPENDENCE COUNTY SEAT AGITATIONS THE 
 
 "145" TONOPAH BRINGS NEW ERA — BISHOP INCOR- 
 PORATED DRY TAX MONEY — NEW COURTHOUSE — 
 
 IRRIGATION ENTERPRISES. 
 
 In the spring of 1885 a stock show was given 
 by William Rowan, at Bishop. This led to the 
 formation of an association for giving county 
 fairs, the first of which was a one-day display on 
 October 1, 1885. It was so successful that the 
 county's representative in the State Assembly, 
 A. J. Gould, was asked to further a bill to include 
 the counties of Alpine, Mono and Inyo in a dis- 
 trict to receive State aid for agricultural fair pur- 
 poses. The bill became law, and an appropriation 
 was made for its benefit. The Bishop organiza- 
 tion was ready for business, having incorporated 
 and bought grounds. While its recommendations 
 for the fair directorate were being considered, a 
 representative from Independence secured the 
 Governor's appointments of a board favorable to 
 locating the site of the fair at that place. The 
 Eastern Slope Land and Stock Association, as the 
 Bishop organization was called, maintained its 
 
 308 
 
FURTHER WAYMARKS 309 
 
 stand, while the Eighteenth District Fair Associa- 
 tion was also active. For several years rival fairs 
 were maintained. Finally an adjustment was 
 made, and thereafter fairs were alternated be- 
 tween Bishop, Independence and Big Pine. When 
 State aid was no longer given the district organ- 
 ization languished. Bishop continued to hold fairs 
 on a local subscription basis, a custom which, un- 
 der one name or another, is still maintained. 
 
 The Nevada Mission Conference of 1885 was 
 held in Bishop, the first of a number of such gath- 
 erings convening there or at Big Pine. Its prin- 
 cipal local effect came from the adoption of a reso- 
 lution declaring for the establishment in Bishop 
 of a school of higher education. The institution 
 was erected on a subscription basis, and com- 
 pleted after a term of the school, named the Inyo 
 Academy, had been held in the Methodist Church. 
 The cornerstone was laid September 30, 1886, and 
 the building, at that time ''the largest and finest 
 in the State east of the Sierras," was occupied 
 the following year. Several classes graduated 
 under instruction of the teachers, who were paid 
 by the church. The control of the school was in 
 the hands of a board of local citizens, and it was 
 never a denominational institution in any way. 
 However, the fact of the church's fostering care 
 had caused some of the original subscribers to 
 repudiate their subscriptions, resulting in litiga- 
 tion; and the same objection was used to hold the 
 attendance at an unprofitable level. The Academy 
 ran at a financial loss until the Conference, 
 unable longer to carry it and to care for the debt 
 
310 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 which hung over it, abandoned the effort. It was 
 the beginning of higher education on this slope of 
 the mountains. Its local supporters, principally, 
 were in the lead of advocates of something better 
 for the young people ; and when it became obvious 
 that the Academy could not continue, a plan for 
 a high school under State laws was launched. At 
 an election held February 25, 1899, it was de- 
 feated, 145 to 121. The matter rested thus for 
 two years, during which there was further hope 
 of the Academy reviving. This proving vain, in 
 September, 1901, a public meeting was called and 
 nearly $3,000 was subscribed as a guarantee fund 
 for the payment of a high school teacher. School 
 was opened in a room of the Bishop grammar 
 school, and received a good attendance. A new 
 campaign was begun, and March 29, 1902, the 
 Bishop union high school was established by a 
 vote of 176 to 72. Having set down the real be- 
 ginnings of a higher education in this region, 
 there is small need to detail the subsequent pur- 
 chase of the Academy property and the growth 
 of the school. An effort was made, at one time, 
 to vote bonds for a $40,000 building; the school's 
 backers were disappointed at its defeat, which, in 
 view of the almost metropolitan plant which has 
 since become necessary, they now accept as a 
 providential result. A $200,000 structure is now 
 in use. 
 
 Big Pine was but little later in establishing a 
 high school, and Independence and Lone Pine did 
 likewise. Each district has shown its complete 
 sincerity by voting bonds sufficient to provide 
 
FURTHER WAYMARKS 311 
 
 housing and other facilities in accordance with 
 the advanced development of educational ideas. 
 This is true of grammar schools as of high. 
 
 Another step in accordance with modern find- 
 ings was the consolidation of Warm Springs and 
 Sunland districts with Bishop, at an election June 
 14, 1921. It is probable that the same advanced 
 move will ere long be made in other districts of 
 Owens Valley. 
 
 The beginning of Owens Valley's systematic 
 development as a dairy region dates from 1892, 
 when the Inyo Creamery was incorporated and a 
 plant constructed at Bishop. Of itself, the ven- 
 ture was not a success, due to mistakes of man- 
 agement rather than to any other cause; it was 
 immediately followed, however, by installation of 
 private plants of the same kind, which succeeded. 
 Ultimately the business passed to a re-incorpo- 
 rated company, which under skillful management 
 has won an established and leading place among 
 Inyo enterprises. 
 
 Fire broke out in a vacant building in Inde- 
 pendence on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 
 30, 1886. No fire-fighting apparatus was available, 
 and the flames ran unchecked until thirty-eight 
 buildings in the central part of the county seat 
 had been swept away. Practically all business es- 
 tablishments, some residences and the county 
 buildings were lost. The total damage was esti- 
 mated at $160,000. 
 
 Though the courthouse was burned, nearly all 
 county records were saved through the presence 
 of mind and the energy of two ladies, Mrs. R. L. 
 
312 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 Peeler and Mrs. J. S. McGee, who carried books 
 and documents to safety during the hours that 
 the men of the place were doing what they could 
 to end the damage. 
 
 County officers soon established themselves in 
 whatever locations were available, and county af- 
 fairs went on without interruption. 
 
 An effort to move the county seat to Bishop 
 was started. Petitions for an election were 
 strongly signed and presented to the Board of 
 Supervisors. District Attorney Laird advised 
 the Board that though the headings of the differ- 
 ent signed sheets of paper were identical, the fact 
 that all signatures were not on one and the same 
 sheet would prevent the whole from being consid- 
 ered as ^'a petition" within the meaning of the 
 law. As no single sheet contained anything like 
 enough names to justify an election. Supervisors 
 refused the petitions, and proceedings for rebuild- 
 ing at Independence were begun. On October 7th 
 a contract was let to M. E. Gilmore for erecting 
 the new structure for $11,458, a price afterward 
 reduced, through changes, to $10,000. The build- 
 ing was accepted February 10, 1887. 
 
 County seat removal had come up and had 
 been disposed of before, usually on some question 
 of signatures on petitions. Later, a campaign of 
 that kind was begun by people of Big Pine, and 
 submitted to vote at the general election in 1908. 
 It was lost by a vote of 670 against to 456 for. 
 
 From the coming of the white man, one of the 
 chief sources of trouble with the Piutes was their 
 securing liquor. In two instances at Bishop, this 
 
FURTHER WAYMARKS 313 
 
 evil became so pronounced and so utterly beyond 
 the law's control that citizens organized inde- 
 pendently to cope with the condition. One organi- 
 zation known as the "C. P. S." — Committee of 
 Public Safety — destroyed liquor stocks found in 
 houses occupied by Chinese, and briefly improved 
 the situation. The most thorough step in this di- 
 rection, however, was by an organization known 
 as the "145." This body included nearly all the 
 prominent citizens of Bishop. Its name was in 
 imitation of the famous ''601" of Virginia City 
 fame; as a matter of fact, the assumed numerals 
 more than doubled the actual number of men in 
 the movement. It held meetings and deliberated 
 over the methods to pursue in getting rid of of- 
 fenders. The worst of these was a man named 
 Coronado, who held forth in a cabin arranged so 
 that he passed out his goods to buyers without 
 being seen, and never when more than one was 
 present. He maintained an effective watch by 
 means of a flock of dogs, whose alarm gave warn- 
 ings when necessary. Law officers made repeated 
 attempts to catch him; but while moral certainty 
 could be confirmed, the exacting requirements of 
 legal proof were not available. Coronado was 
 notified by the spokesman of the 145 that he was 
 to wind up his affairs and leave. He asked for 
 and was given more time. Finally patience was 
 exhausted, and the 145 resolved on starting him. 
 Late one night in midsummer of 1901 he was play- 
 ing cards in the saloon where he bought his liquor 
 stock, and was called to the door by a committee- 
 man who spoke Spanish. He was seized by a com- 
 
314 THE STOEY OF IjSTYO 
 
 petent force, and a pistol that he drew was pre- 
 vented from doing damage by a 145 thumb placed 
 beneath its hammer. He was taken to his home, 
 his horse hitched to a buggy in which Coronado 
 was placed and with a guard he started off 
 through the clear starlit night. He went on across 
 the Sierras and did not return. Six other culprits 
 left on notice. No drop of blood was shed by the 
 145, and its action materially lessened the Indian 
 whisky traffic for a long time thereafter. 
 
 This "Land of Little Rain," as styled by a 
 former Inyoite, Mary Austin, expands and de- 
 velops agriculturally as irrigation facilities are 
 extended or better utilized. Earliest settlers found 
 ample room for home-making along natural water- 
 courses. A decade passed before pioneer farmers 
 seriously took up the irrigation of tracts not thus 
 easily watered. A ditch from Fish Slough to 
 reach lands above Laws was one of the earliest 
 of projected and completed smaller private enter- 
 prises. The McNally Ditch, serving the Laws 
 vicinity, the Bishop Creek Ditch, for tracts be- 
 tween Bishop and Owens River, the Owens River 
 and Big Pine Canal, for Big Pine lands, and a 
 ditch for irrigation in the vicinity of Lone Pine 
 were all projected during 1877 and 1878. The 
 first and second were slowly but steadily pushed 
 to completion by the labor of the projectors. The 
 Big Pine enterprise, after the expenditure of con- 
 siderable effort, remained idle until in 1902 it 
 was reinvigorated and finished the following year. 
 That for Lone Pine was never built. Various other 
 enterprises, to the number of about twenty, have 
 
FURTHER WAYMARKS 315 
 
 been begun since those initial undertakings. A 
 map of the whole array shows the Owens River 
 Canal, begun in 1887 and covering the western side 
 of northern Owens Valley, and the Inyo Canal, 
 starting the same year and irrigating tracts east 
 of the river and nearly as far south as Lone Pine, 
 as the most widely separated co-operative enter- 
 prises. The Inyo Canal, however, was obliterated 
 by the Los Angeles purchase of the lands which it 
 was built to irrigate, that purchase closing out 
 a colonization enterprise launched in 1884 and 
 1885, under the name of the AVilliam Penn Colony, 
 to develop lands in the vicinity of Owenyo. 
 
 There were many lean years in Owens Valley. 
 Decline of Cerro Gordo, Panamint and Darwin, 
 and gradual slackening of other mining campa 
 within the territory accessible by teaming from 
 the valley had brought a stagnation not offset in 
 any other way. The building of the railroad in 
 1883 had not greatly bettered the situation, for 
 only a few varieties of products could profitably 
 withstand its long and time-consuming service and 
 high freight charges. A further depressing fac- 
 tor came in the rapid fall of the price of silver, 
 causing the suspension of mining properties 
 which had been operated on a small scale. 
 
 A new era in Inyo began with the growth of the 
 newer mining camps of southwestern Nevada. In 
 the summer of 1900 Mr. and Mrs. James L. Butler 
 discovered the croppings of the Mizpah mine, the 
 beginning of Tonopah. Goldfield's discovery and 
 growth soon followed. The rapid upbuilding of 
 those large camps gave a fresh impetus to mining 
 
316 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 throughout the region, an advance in which Inyo 
 districts shared. Far more important in effect 
 was the creation of nearby cash markets which 
 demanded the best efforts of the agricultural lands 
 of Owens Valley. 
 
 In April, 1902, citizens of Bishop organized the 
 Bishop Light and Power Company to supply local 
 needs — the county's first electric enterprise. Its 
 plant, starting in September of that year, was suc- 
 cessfully managed until absorbed by the Nevada- 
 California Power Company. This latter concern, 
 backed by Colorado capital, saw in the growth of 
 Tonopah and Goldfield a market for power, and 
 in the tumbling torrents of Sierra streams an op- 
 portunity for its cheap production. Power loca- 
 tions on Bishop Creek had long been held by dif- 
 ferent locators, who had merely renewed their 
 filings from time to time. Those sites were se- 
 cured by the new enterprises. Generating plants 
 were built, and transmission lines extended, first 
 into Nevada, then southerly almost to the Mexican 
 line, until now the longest power lines in the world 
 carry the energy of Bishop Creek from Mono 
 County on the north into Arizona and Imperial 
 Valley on the south. 
 
 In addition to buying out the locally organized 
 power company, the Nevada-California Power 
 Company acquired the Hillside Water Company 
 holdings. The latter concern had acquired storage 
 rights on the creek's headwaters, of value to the 
 electric plants. More or less of friction over 
 water matters developed; on the one side, the 
 farmers who had used Bishop Creek water for 
 
rURTHEB WAYMAEKS 317 
 
 decades ; on the other, first the Hillside Company, 
 then its successors, the power interests. Tempo- 
 rary adjustments tided matters over until, unable 
 to secure water enough for their crops, a delega- 
 tion went to South Lake, or Hillside Reservoir 
 as termed by the company, and on June 11, 1919, 
 raised the gates sufficiently to release a reasonable 
 flow. No property was damaged in the proceed- 
 ing. This led to an effort on the company's part 
 to enjoin the water users from interference with 
 the storage. By agreement, the whole controversy 
 was referred to A. E. Chandler, former State Wa- 
 ter Commissioner, both sides agreeing to accept 
 his decree as final. After an extensive hearing, in 
 which practically every water user supplied from 
 Bishop Creek was called to testify, arbitrator 
 Chandler reached findings substantially sustain- 
 ing every contention of the farmers. When this 
 is written the final decree has not been made, but 
 from the findings it will clearly define and settle 
 the issues in dispute. 
 
 The progressive spirit of the people of Bishop, 
 who had bettered their condition as circumstances 
 permitted, brought about the incorporation of the 
 place as a municipality. One of the chief pur- 
 poses in view was the creation of a better water 
 supply for domestic use and fire protection. A 
 census was taken by the Women's Improvement 
 Club to determine that the requisite population 
 of 500 persons lived within the boundaries set. 
 The census-takers managed to list 540. An elec- 
 tion was held, and incorporation of the little city 
 was voted sixty-three to thirty-six, April 24, 1903. 
 
 22 
 
318 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 W. W. Watterson, F. K. Andrews, George A. 
 Clarke, G. L. Albright and J. C. Underwood were 
 chosen as the first Trustees, with W. W. Yandell 
 as Clerk, D. W. Pitman Marshal, and M. Q. Wat- 
 terson Treasurer. Proceeding with the utmost 
 care, the board did not complete its arrangements 
 for a water bond election until the following sum- 
 mer. On September 6, 1904, bonds to the amount 
 of $44,000 were voted for the construction of 
 water and sewer systems, the three propositions 
 receiving from 119 to 125 affirmative votes to 
 6 to 8 negatives. Many other advances have 
 come since — further improvements, the creation 
 of first a local telephone system, then its exten- 
 sion through the valley, then connection with the 
 outside world; the establishment, March, 1902, of 
 the Inyo County Bank, as the first in Owens Val- 
 ley, and subsequently of others; and different 
 items each of importance, but only incidental as 
 compared to the first daring step of assuming 
 municipal responsibilities and heavy outlays by 
 a handful of people. 
 
 How the people of the northern part of the 
 county had voted to close the saloons, under local 
 option laws, in 1874, has already been told. It 
 was not until 1896 that another attempt of the 
 kind was made through election, the entire county 
 being included in the territory which it was pro- 
 posed to make ' ' dry. ' ' The ordinance lost by only 
 56 votes, but the matter was again allowed to rest, 
 until the latter part of 1909. As a result of the 
 later agitation, in which all the older communities 
 of the county had a part, the County Supervisors 
 
FURTHER WAYMARKS 319 
 
 agreed that they would be governed, in the matter 
 of adopting a prohibitory ordinance, by the action 
 taken by the town of Bishop. ''Wet or dry" was 
 the issue in the municipal election in April, 1910, 
 and the dry candidates won by a vote of 200 to 125. 
 In anticipation of the result, and subject to pos- 
 sible repeal, the county had already adopted a 
 similar ordinance, and the adoption of a dry 
 ordinance by the Bishop authorities confirmed the 
 matter. 
 
 Under the provisions of a change made in the 
 State revenue laws of California adopted in 1910, 
 Inyo County was deprived of that part of its in- 
 come which came from the taxation of railroads 
 and other public service property. Certain pro- 
 vision for reimbursement was made by the amend- 
 ment itself. Though this lost revenue was right- 
 fully due to the county from the State, it was a 
 neglected issue until County Auditor Thomas M. 
 Kendrick, knowing the facts thoroughly, made its 
 collection a personal purpose. While attorneys 
 were employed, the writer believes it but just to 
 say here that success in the whole matter was 
 principally due to Mr. Kendrick. A bill reimburs- 
 ing Inyo County to the amount of $100,382 became 
 law, the sum being a large part, but not all, of 
 the total due. 
 
 With this money on hand, and with a surplus 
 in the treasury, the Supervisors felt justified in 
 proceeding with the construction of a new court- 
 house. A contract for $158,700 was let to William 
 McCombs & Son, April 10, 1920. The structure 
 has been accepted, and is now being occupied. 
 
320 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 For the first time, tlie county's records will be 
 safe, and the public business will be done in a 
 building as creditable to the county as to its de- 
 signer and its builder. And — for the future to 
 read — ^note that the undertaking has not called 
 for either a bond issue or for taxes higher than 
 those prevalent in other counties ; in fact the com- 
 parison usually discloses that Inyo's rate is 
 among the State's lowest. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 LOS ANGELES AQUEDUCT 
 
 BECLAMATION SERVICE BEGINS ON OWENS VALLEY PROJECT 
 — EATON'S PURCHASES — ^AQUEDUCT SCHEME REVEALED 
 — LIPPINCOTT DOUBLY PAID — SERVICE A STALKING 
 HORSE — RECLAMATION HEADS DEFEAT RECLAMATION 
 PLANS — SMITH COMPROMISE — ^A GREAT ENTERPRISE. 
 
 Investigation was begun in July, 1903, of the 
 feasibility of a project for reclamation of arid 
 lands in the Owens "River watershed, under di- 
 rection of the National Reclamation Service. The 
 plan announced to be followed, in case of favor- 
 able findings, was to be similar to that employed 
 in other parts of the West, where flood waters 
 were being stored and distributed to promote set- 
 tlement and development. The proposed details in- 
 cluded ''high line" canals skirting the foothills 
 on either side of the valley, with laterals for 
 proper distribution. Drainage of such tracts as 
 might require it was also included in the plan. 
 
 The project was heartily welcomed by the peo- 
 ple of Owens Valley. Some storage locations 
 had previously been made by citizens, who, how- 
 ever, lacked the means requisite to carrying out 
 their purposes. Those claims were willingly sur- 
 rendered at the Government's request, and every 
 co-operation that the service asked was freely 
 given by the large number of people who were 
 
 321 
 
322 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 already deriving the water supplies essential to 
 their farms from sources that would be involved 
 in the project. 
 
 Extensive investigations were made, covering 
 stream measurements, tests of soils, area of farm- 
 ing lands, the duty of water in this climate, sites 
 of proposed storage dams, and other details. 
 Among the reports was a showing that the avail- 
 able volume of water would be sufficient, or nearly 
 so, to reclaim practically all of the untilled land 
 in the valley. Estimates of cost demonstrated 
 that the Owens Valley Project, as it was known, 
 promised greater results for the necessary invest- 
 ments than any other that had been completed or 
 that was then under study. Every detail of the 
 undertaking was favorable, and the people of Inyo, 
 while noting the slowness of definite announce- 
 ment or action, entertained no doubt of the good 
 faith of the work being done. Months went by 
 while the Eeclamation Bureau did little more than 
 mark time. 
 
 In the early days of August, 1905, news came 
 that the city of Los Angeles was planning to 
 utilize Owens Eiver as an additional water sup- 
 ply. The report seemed incredible, for not only 
 was the Eeclamation Project to be reckoned with, 
 but the undertaking would involve construction 
 of an aqueduct over 200 miles in length and cost- 
 ing many million dollars. But developments soon 
 proved the forecast to be correct. 
 
 Fred Eaton, a former Mayor of Los Angeles, 
 during the year preceding had bought extensive 
 land holdings in the southern and central part of 
 
LOS ANGELES AQUEDUCT 323 
 
 Owens Valley, chiefly those bordering on or 
 watered from Owens River. It developed that 
 these purchases fitted into the city's plan, as he 
 in turn deeded the greater part of such lands to 
 Los Angeles. After the revelation of the scheme 
 the buying campaign was carried on openly, until 
 the city had acquired 70,000 or more acres. The 
 natural alarm created by the whole situation was 
 not lessened by declarations of the Los Angeles 
 press. That the county buildings would become 
 the habitations of bats and owls and that grass 
 would grow in the streets of the county seat, were 
 sample predictions. 
 
 It was soon demonstrated that the Reclamation 
 Service, instead of being in any way an inter- 
 ference, was proving itself to be but the city's 
 ally and agent in Owens Valley. This was not 
 with the co-operation, however, of Project 
 Engineer Clausen, in direct local charge. 
 
 The head of the Reclamation Service in Cali- 
 fornia, and the supervising officer of the Owens 
 Valley Project, was J. B. Lippincott, of Los 
 Angeles. A Los Angeles newspaper stated that 
 Eaton, Lippincott, William Mulholland (chief 
 engineer of the aqueduct) and others had for four 
 years investigated all water sources within reach. 
 Lippincott 's employment with the Reclamation 
 Service had begun within that time. The Los 
 Angeles Times remarked: 
 
 "Without Mr. Lippincott's co-operation the plan would 
 never have gone through. Any other government engineer, a 
 non-resident of Los Angeles, undoubtedly would have gone 
 ahead with nothing more than the mere reclamation of arid 
 lands in view." 
 
324 THE STORY OP INYO 
 
 During the time that reclamation project in- 
 vestigations had been under way in Owens Val- 
 ley under Lippincott's supervision, he had been 
 employed by the city of Los Angeles to investi- 
 gate water sources. Lippincott's report to the 
 city on Owens Valley water supply, a payment of 
 $1,000 to him and his partner covering three 
 months of the period of his employment, while he 
 was still in charge of reclamation, and other de- 
 tails relative to the subject are authenticated. In 
 other words, Lippincott had been put in charge of 
 reclamation matters, presumably for advancing 
 them in good faith ; at the same time he was fur- 
 thering a scheme involving the defeat of a promis- 
 ing reclamation project, and was using his official 
 position for that purpose. 
 
 About the time the Los Angeles proposition 
 became publicly known, a Board of Engineers met 
 in San Francisco to consider the reports on the 
 Owens Valley Eeclamation Project and to decide 
 on its feasibility. The chief reports were those 
 of Project Engineer Clausen, who on facts and 
 figures urged that the undertaking be carried out 
 as designed. Lippincott was also present; and 
 while admitting the complete feasibility of the 
 project, he argued for turning the field over to 
 Los Angeles. The Board of Engineers approved 
 Clausen's view, and reported for continuing the 
 original project. 
 
 Lippincott's superior in office was F. H. 
 Newell. He, too, was a party to the city's scheme, 
 as appeared from the following passage in the 
 record of the Los Angeles Water Conomission of 
 June 5, 1905 : 
 
LOS ANGELES AQUEDUCT 325 
 
 "The Superintendent suggested that inasmuch as the de- 
 partment had received valuable assistance from the Reclama- 
 tion department of the United States Government in con- 
 nection with the procurement of a water supply from the 
 Owens River Valley, a letter should be addressed to Mr. F. H. 
 Newell, Chief Engineer, acknowledging such assistance and 
 reporting progi-ess to date, as that department is holding in 
 abeyance some work it had designed in that valley pending our 
 action." 
 
 In tlie course of one of the suits which were 
 brought in Los Angeles during the progress of 
 aqueduct proceedings, an officer testified that the 
 resolution had been communicated to Newell ; that 
 a copy of it had been made, but by direction of a 
 city officer it had been destroyed in order that '*it 
 might not be used to the detriment of the city and 
 those who had aided it. ' ' 
 
 In spite of some dissent in the city itself, an 
 overwhelming majority favored the first great 
 bond issue, $22,500,000, and subsequent support 
 was given as required. Some of the dissent came 
 from interests for business reasons ; no small part 
 of it was from citizens who were acquainted with 
 the character of Owens River flow, or had other 
 sincere grounds. Different investigating parties 
 were sent along the aqueduct route; it was re- 
 marked, however, that such parties were in- 
 variably under the chaperonage of one or more of 
 the chief advocates of the plan. But the bulk of 
 the citizens of Los Angeles took their opinions 
 ready made, and the different elections and dis- 
 cussions of the topic were hardly more than mat- 
 ters of form. 
 
 Additional settlement of vacant lands at that 
 
326 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 period was not desired by the aqueduct promoters, 
 for such development might reduce the water sup- 
 ply available for the scheme. Los Angeles bu- 
 reau, which proved its efficiency in many ways 
 during the period, headed off such possibilities by 
 the simple expedient of having the Forest Service, 
 then under ultra-conservationist Gifford Pinchot, 
 withdraw all vacant land in the Owens Valley 
 watershed on the preposterous pretense of its be- 
 ing ''forest." This included square leagues cov- 
 ered with grass and sagebrush, where the only 
 trees within any reasonable distance were those 
 that had been planted by settlers. It was further 
 directed that all applications for land permitted 
 under forest regulations be referred to the city 
 of Los Angeles for approval. One subordinate 
 after another reported in favor of restoring such 
 lands to entry, during the next several years, but 
 onerous and retarding conditions prevailed until 
 President Taft issued such order February 23, 
 1911 ; and even then it was more than a year later 
 that they were fully removed. 
 
 There were some important phases which not 
 all the strained constructions and special depart- 
 mental orders could be made to cover, and it had 
 been necessary as a preliminary for the city to go 
 to Congress for rights of way. Owens Valley pre- 
 sented its case through Congressman Sylvester C. 
 Smith, at all times the steadfast champion of the 
 rights of the people of Inyo. He submitted, with 
 the complete approval of Inyo representatives, the 
 following basis of agreement : 
 
 First, that the vested rights of the people of 
 Owens Valley be fully recognized; 
 
LOS ANGELES AQUEDUCT 327 
 
 Second, tlie city to be awarded 10,000 inches 
 of the flow of Owens River. It was felt that this 
 was ample, for Los Angeles engineers had re- 
 ported, after making every allowance for growth, 
 that 2,500 inches of supplemental flow would pro- 
 vide an ample water supply in 1925 ; 
 
 Third, Owens Valley lands to be reclaimed ; 
 
 Fourth, any surplus then remaining to belong 
 to the city to use as it might wish. 
 
 It may be well to say here that the people of 
 Owens Valley did not at any time whatsoever ob- 
 ject to Los Angeles taking any amount of water 
 that might be required for the domestic and mu- 
 nicipal uses for which the aqueduct was urged, 
 and there was, and is, no doubt of the supple- 
 mental allotment proposed being ample for those 
 purposes for decades to come. The Owens Val- 
 leyans contended that the real purpose of the 
 whole undertaking was not the alleged city need, 
 put forward as an excuse, but the diverting of 
 Owens River from its natural watershed, and from 
 use on the lands which so much needed it, to areas 
 in the vicinity of Los Angeles for irrigation and 
 speculative purposes. The passing years have 
 proved the correctness of this belief. 
 
 Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock accepted 
 the suggestions of Mr. Smith and incorporated 
 them in his recommendations on the bill. But 
 President Roosevelt was reached through the 
 ultra-conservationists in his ''Tennis Cabinet" — 
 that coterie of the Pinchot school, who stood high 
 in the President's favor. He directed that all re- 
 strictions on the city's grant of water rights be 
 
328 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 stricken out, and Los Angeles was virtually em- 
 powered to go to the limit of its desires and 
 means. 
 
 While there was not the unity of action by 
 Inyo people that the necessity demanded, Inyo 
 did not submit meekly to the program. But the 
 protestants were only a handful ; their despoilers 
 numbered hundreds of thousands. Inyo had no 
 defense money, except as scant individual ad- 
 vances could be secured; Los Angeles had a city 
 treasury wide open for the occasion. Inyo was 
 taken unaware; Los Angeles had shrewdly laid 
 and matured its schemes before their announce- 
 ment. The city had so established its influence 
 in places of power and had so secure a hold on 
 officials where needed that opposing efforts were 
 useless, not only against legislation, but against 
 misuse of reclamation law and departmental pur- 
 poses. The ''Owens Valley Kickers" came to be 
 well known in the bureau-controlled irrigation 
 congresses and in Washington departments hav- 
 ing to do with the issue, and that was the sum 
 of their achievements. 
 
 The city's plans have been further expanded 
 to include a huge power enterprise involving the 
 storage of the waters of Owens River in Long 
 Valley, not many miles below their headwaters. 
 This directly affects all irrigation in Owens Val- 
 ley, from that source, and when this is written 
 negotiations for a clear definition of rights and 
 guarantees are in progress — as they have been 
 for long past. A satisfactory agreement should 
 be the final chapter of a long-standing question. 
 
LOS ANGELES AQUEDUCT 329 
 
 and its consummation will be local history of the 
 first importance. 
 
 This is written as a brief record, necessarily 
 giving only the merest outline of events and af- 
 fairs that in complete details would suffice to fill 
 a volume. Neither the completion of the aqueduct, 
 the passage of time, nor the benefits, along with 
 injuries, that have come to Owens Valley give rea- 
 son for changing the statement that the diversion 
 of Owens River water from appurtenant lands to 
 be used on tracts two hundred miles distant, in 
 a different watershed, was won through perver- 
 sion of the intent of the Reclamation Act. In 
 phrasing more accurately descriptive than elegant, 
 "the government held Owens Valley while Los 
 Angeles skinned it." 
 
 The aqueduct was built, a wonderful enter- 
 prise worthy of an ambitious city. The Los 
 Angeles land buying came to an end without reach- 
 ing deeply into cultivated lands; but the tracts 
 that have passed to the city, be they natural grass 
 areas or productive farms, have been thrown back 
 to primitive neglect by the policy of taking their 
 irrigation water to help to fill the aqueduct. 
 Artesian wells were put down, to add to the water 
 supply; their success, without interference with 
 adjacent areas, seems problematical. Los Angeles 
 acquiesced in a constitutional amendment for the 
 just purpose of insuring the county against some 
 of the loss of revenue from city ownership. South- 
 em railroad connection, when accomplished, was 
 a direct result of the aqueduct work. Some of 
 these things are to be set on the credit side of the 
 
330 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 account. We shall gladly list with them the pro- 
 fessions of amity, whenever by meeting the just 
 and reasonable demands of Owens Valley the city 
 shall show that any consideration it may extend 
 arises from the sense of equity, and not merely 
 as an incident in securing some further conces- 
 sion. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 INYO'S GOLD STARS 
 
 Inyo bore its part in the Great War. Not only 
 did its young men answer as their country called, 
 but some of them did not wait for that call. Some 
 volunteered, waiving exemptions; others, before 
 this nation became an active participant, went 
 across the Canadian line and joined the British 
 forces to help to end the menace of the Kaiser. 
 No complete roll of those who went to fortress 
 or field from this county, or who, belonging here, 
 joined the colors from some other locality, can be 
 had. There were five hundred or more, in all, 
 from our small population. Some we sadly laid 
 away in our own cemeteries, in their uniforms; 
 some sleep in foreign lands. The total roll of 
 Inyo soldier dead, so far as it has been obtained 
 and corrected, includes these : 
 
 Thomas E. Climo Joel Henry Lawrence 
 
 Abraham Diaz, Jr. Fred E. Lewis 
 
 Roy W. Fitchett J. L. Linde 
 
 Arthur W. Fritch Oren E. Morton 
 George Benjamin Hogle Frank Parrish 
 
 Fred A. Humphreys Grayson Wilkerson 
 
 Joseph Konda, Jr. Oliver Wingfield 
 
 Herbert Landin Frank A. Wodicker 
 
 331 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 IN CLOSING 
 
 During the years, Inyo's advance was gradual, 
 but sure, toward better things in every line. 
 Ajnong all the wide-openness of frontier condi- 
 tions there was a leaven of higher aspirations — 
 not only men and women who were with but not 
 of the scenes of an almost lawless period, but those 
 who were for the moment but submerging their 
 better thoughts and who later proved their worth. 
 As has been shown, even while pistols were fre- 
 quently seen and sometimes used, a strong ma- 
 jority had, in one part of the county, voted to 
 abolish the bars whence came most of the blood- 
 thirstiness. 
 
 What progress the settlers made was to their 
 own credit. Strangers were so few that he who 
 did not know practically every one of prominence 
 from Darwin to Round Valley was poorly 
 acquainted. Travel to 'Hhe outside" was almost 
 prohibited by the cost, time and effort required. 
 Mails were infrequent, but they came laden with 
 a total of reading matter surprising considering 
 the small population. This was a self-reliant peo- 
 ple. Labor took the place of non-existent money 
 to build canals, and necessity found the valley 
 equally ready to care for itself in other ways as 
 need arose. 
 
 There were enough of the really progressive 
 
 332 
 
IN CLOSING 333 
 
 to branch out for community and county better- 
 ment ; and though it often happened that a degree 
 of inertia had to be conquered, each issue went 
 forward to final success. Co-operative enterprises 
 played a large part in our welfare; and while it 
 might be justifiable to trace out the beginnings 
 of the various movements for local upbuilding, 
 stock, farms, apiary, fruit, and so on, suffice it to 
 say that those who have come later have carried 
 on the work the pioneers began. Organizations 
 for social, personal and public advancement, fra- 
 ternities, clubs and other bodies for both men 
 and women, have grown in keeping with the spirit 
 that will enable the future writer to dwell more 
 on the details of achievements than on the hard- 
 ships of pioneering. 
 
 23 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 OFFICERS OF INYO COUNTY 
 County Judge 
 
 Oscar L. Matthews appointed by Governor, 
 1866; 1868-1871, A. C. Hanson; 1872-1880, John A. 
 Hannah. Office abolished by new constitution. 
 
 SuPEEiOB Judge 
 1880-1890, John A. Hannah; 1891-1896, George 
 M. Gill; 1897-1908, Walter A. Lamar; 1909 to 
 present, William D. Dehy. 
 
 Sherief 
 1866, W. A. Greenly, resigned December, 1867 ; 
 1868-1869, W. L. Moore, resigned November, 1869; 
 1870-1871, A. B. Elder; 1871-1873, Cyrus Mulkey, 
 resigned May, 1874 ; J. J. Moore appointed, served 
 to end of 1875 ; 1876 to February 10, 1878, Thomas 
 Passmore, killed in discharge of duty; 1878 to 
 July 3, 1879, William L. Moore, killed in discharge 
 of duty; J. J. Moore appointed to serve for 
 remainder of year; 1880-1882, J. W. Smith; 1883- 
 1884, S. G. Gregg; 1885-1886, J. S. McGee; 1887- 
 1888, S. G. Gregg; 1889-1890, J. R. Eldred; 
 1891-1894, J. S. Gorman; 1895-1902, A. M. Given; 
 1903-1906, Charles A. Collins ; 1907-1910, George 
 W. Naylor; 1911-1914, Charles A. Collins; 1915 to 
 present, Frank Logan. 
 
 334 
 
appendices 335 
 
 Clerk, Auditor and Eecorder 
 
 1866, Thomas Passmore, resigned May 6, 1867 ; 
 S. P. Moffatt appointed then elected, serving to 
 end of 1871; 1872-1874, M. W. Hammarstrand ; 
 1875-1877, W. B. Dangherty; 1878, John Crough, 
 who served until March, 1884, when he suicided in 
 the Clerk's office; Thomas Crough appointed for 
 remainder of 1884. 1885-1886, William L. Hunter ; 
 1887-1890, P. H. Mack; 1891-1892, John N. Yan- 
 dell; 1893, D. J. Hession, who served until his 
 death in February, 1900; J. E. Meroney ap- 
 pointed, and served by election to end of 1906; 
 1907-1914, William L. Hunter, Jr. Offices of Clerk, 
 Auditor and Eecorder segregated effective Jan- 
 uary, 1915. Jess Hession served as Clerk, 1915- 
 1918 ; Dan E. Williams, 1919 to present. 
 
 Auditor 
 
 Position segregated from Clerk's duties begin- 
 ning 1915. 1915 to present, Thos. M. Kendrick. 
 
 Recorder 
 
 Position segregated from Clerk's duties be- 
 ginning 1915. 1915, W. L. Hunter Jr., who died 
 February 4, 1920. Mrs. Mamie Reynolds ap- 
 pointed, elected that year, and present incumbent. 
 
 Assessor 
 
 1866-1867, John T. Ryan; 1867, A. C. Stevens, 
 resigned, L. A. Talcott appointed ; 1869-1871, Geo. 
 W. Brady; 1872-1873, J. F. Dillon ; 1873-1874, Wm. 
 J. Lake; 1875-1879, J. F. Dillon; 1880, Thos. May, 
 
336 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 who absconded May 1881, with shortage of 
 $1,279. J. C. Irwin appointed; 1883-1886, John C. 
 Irwin; 1887-1898, P. A. Chalfant; 1899-1914, W. 
 W. Yandell; 1915-1918, Vivian L. Jones; 1919, 
 U. Gr. Clark, present incumbent. 
 
 Treasureb 
 
 1866, John Lentell; 1868-9, Andrew N. Bell; 
 1870-1871, Isaac Harris; 1872-1879, Henry M. 
 Isaacs; 1880-1886, Geo. H. Hardy; 1887-1892, J. J. 
 Moore ; 1893, W. T. Bunney forward to December 
 1902, when he absconded, with some shortage; 
 1903-1906, Irv. H. Mulholland; 1907 forward, A. 
 P. Mairs, present incumbent. 
 
 District Attorney 
 
 1866, John Beveridge, failed to qualify; Thos. 
 P. Slade appointed, resigned August 1868; Pat 
 Reddy appointed, failed to qualify ; P. W. Bennett 
 appointed. Beveridge elected 1869, failed to 
 qualify, Bennett again appointed; 1872-1873, E. 
 H. Van Decar; 1874-1875, R. B. Snelling; 1876- 
 1877, P. W. Bennett; 1878-1879, E. B. Snelling; 
 1880-1886, J. W. P. Laird; 1887-1888, P. W. 
 Forbes; 1889-1890, Geo. M. Gill; 1891-1898, P. W. 
 Forbes; 1899-1910, Wm. D. Dehy; 1911-1914, F. 
 C. Scherrer; 1915-1918, P. W. Forbes; 1919, Jess 
 Hession, present incumbent. 
 
 Superintendent of Schools 
 
 1866, Josiah Earl; 1868-1869, C. M. Joslyn; 
 1870-1873, J. W. Symmes; 1874-1875, Geo. H. 
 Hardy; 1876-1882, J. W. Symmes; 1883-1886, 
 
APPENDICES 337 
 
 Chas. H. Groves; 1886-1894, J. H. Shannon; 1895- 
 1898, S. W. Austin; 1899-1902, H. 0. Hampton; 
 1903 to present, Mrs. M. A. Clarke. 
 
 COKONEE 
 
 1866, B. D. Blaney; 1867, A. Farnsworth, place 
 declared vacant and John A. Lank appointed, 
 serving to end of 1873; 1874-5, A. Wayland; 1876- 
 1877, J. D. Blair; 1877-1878, John A. Lank; 1879- 
 1882, V. G. Thompson; 1883-1884, G. W. Brady; 
 1885-1888, Wm. F. Matlack; 1889-1892, Thos. 
 Parker; 1893-1894, H. H. Howell; 1895-1898, L J. 
 Woodin; 1899-1902, I. P. Yaney; 1903 until his 
 death March 2, 1916, H. H. Eobinson; M. M. Skin- 
 ner appointed; 1918, Milton Levy, resigned, Oris 
 Carrasco appointed, present incumbent. 
 
 Tax Collector 
 
 Position segregated from Sheriff's office, effec- 
 tive with beginning of 1907 ; 1907-1910, J. E. Shep- 
 herd; 1911-1914, C. L MacFarlane; 1915-1918, U. 
 G. Clark; 1919 to present, Mrs. Jessie C. Miller. 
 
 Surveyor 
 
 1866-1872, Lyman Tuttle; 1873-1876, M. H. 
 White; 1877-1886, Joseph Seely; 1887-1894, S. P. 
 McKnight; 1895-1902; W. G. Dixon; 1903-1910, 
 A. M. Strong; 1918 to present, B. E. Sherwin. 
 
338 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 INYO'S VOTE AT GENERAL ELECTIONS 
 
 Inyo's vote has never been heavy enough to 
 be unportant in national or State issues. Though 
 counted as normally Eepublican on national ques- 
 tions, its decisions have been independent in the 
 extreme. In county elections there was but a 
 minimum of ' ' sticking to party lines, ' ' during the 
 days before non-partisanship became the legislated 
 system. It frequently or usually happened that 
 while the vote on the head of the ticket was for 
 one party the majority of elected county officers 
 were of a different political faith. 
 
 The votes at the more important elections have 
 been as follows : 
 
 1867, for Congress — Axtell, Democrat, 104; 
 Phelps, Eepublican, 102. 
 
 1868, President— Grant Electors, 113; Sey- 
 mour Electors, 100. 
 
 1871, Governor — Haight, Democrat, 311; 
 Booth, Republican, 257. 
 
 1872, President— Grant Electors, 206; Greeley 
 Electors, 176. 
 
 1875, Governor — Bidwell, Independent, 248; 
 Phelps, Republican, 179; Irwin, Democrat, 159. 
 
 1876, President— Tilden Electors, 375; Hayes 
 Electors, 343. 
 
 1879, Governor — Perkins, Republican, 295; 
 Glenn, Fusion, 252. 
 
 1880, President— Garfield Electors, 321 ; Han- 
 cock Electors, 294. 
 
 1882, Governor — Stoneman, Democrat, 321; 
 
APPENDICES 339 
 
 Estee, Republican, 300; rest of State ticket Re- 
 publican majority of about 10. 
 
 1884, President — Blaine Electors, 345-; Cleve- 
 land Electors, 283. 
 
 1886, Governor — Swift, Republican, 356 ; Bart- 
 lett. Democrat, 283. 
 
 1888, President — Harrison Electors, 406 
 Cleveland Electors, 274. 
 
 1890, Governor — ^Markham, Republican, 409 
 Pond, Democrat, 305. 
 
 1892, President — Harrison Electors, 406 
 Cleveland Electors 260. 
 
 1894, Governor — Estee, Republican, 476 ; Budd, 
 Democrat, 228. In this campaign the vote was 
 influenced by A. R. Conklin, of Inyo, being the 
 Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 1896, President— Bryan Electors 532; McKin- 
 ley Electors, 236. The free-silver issue strongly 
 appealed to many Inyoites in this campaign. 
 
 1898, Governor — Maguire, Democrat, 508; 
 Gage, Republican, 478. 
 
 1900, President— Bryan Electors, 530 ; McKin- 
 ley Electors, 397. 
 
 1902, Governor — Pardee, Republican, 435 
 Lane, Democrat, 427. 
 
 1904, President — Roosevelt Electors, 452 
 Parker Electors, 230. 
 
 1906, Governor — ^Langdon, Independent, 387 
 Gillett, Republican, 284; Bell, Democrat, 190. 
 
 1908, President— Taft Electors, 574; Bryan 
 Electors, 609. 
 
 1910, Governor — Bell, Democrat, 634 ; Johnson, 
 Republican, 582. 
 
340 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 1912, President— Wilson Electors, 806 ; Roose- 
 velt Electors, 302; Debs Electors, 302; Chafin 
 Electors, 77; Taft Electors, 8. The swing to 
 Wilson in this election was due not only to the 
 Republican split but also to Inyo resentment at 
 the President's attitude toward this valley in the 
 Los Angeles controversy. 
 
 1914, Governor — Johnson, Progressive, 876; 
 Fredericks, Republican, 601; Richardson, Social- 
 ist, 378; Curtin, Democrat, 258; Moore, Prohibi- 
 tion, 73. 
 
 1916, President — ^Wilson Electors, 967; Hughes 
 Electors, 844 ; Benson Electors, 151 ; Hanley Elec- 
 tors, 51. 
 
 1918, Grovernor — Stephens, Republican, 744; 
 Bell, Democrat, 315; Roser, Socialist, 88. 
 
 1920, President— Harding Electors, 1192; Cox 
 Electors, 681 ; Socialist Electors 179 ; Prohibition 
 Electors, 31. 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 ALTITUDES OF PEAKS 
 
 Altitudes of peaks neighboring Owens Valley 
 are sometimes a matter of controversy. In listing 
 for convenient reference a trifle of information, 
 it is found that observers diifer in several cases. 
 Gannett 's Dictionary of Altitudes is a publication 
 of the United States Geological Survey; so are 
 pamphlets giving the results of spirit leveling, and 
 so are the U. S. G. S. quadrangle maps. There 
 
APPENDICES 341 
 
 are instances in which no two of these, all from 
 the same authority, agree in statements. North 
 Palisade, or Mt. Jordan, is given as 14,250, 14,275 
 and 14,282. One puts Mt. Williamson at 14,500, 
 another 14,384 ; Mt. Tyndall, 14,025 in one tabula- 
 tion, is 14,386 in another. In the list below the 
 quadrangle figures are used where available. A 
 few peaks in other States are included to show the 
 relative rank of the highest points of the nation. 
 
 Mt Wliitney 14,501 
 
 Mt. Elbert, Colorado 14,421 
 
 Mt. Blanca, Colorado 14,390 
 
 Mt. Williamson 14,384 
 
 Mt. Shasta, California 14,380 
 
 Mt. Harvard, Colorado 14,375 
 
 Mt. Rainier, Washington 14,363 
 
 According to available figures, these are the 
 seven highest in the continental United States. 
 There are nearly fifty over 14,000 feet. Disre- 
 garding many peaks less known, some other alti- 
 tudes are as follows: 
 
 White Mountain Peak (ranks twentieth) 14,242 
 
 Mt. Sill 14,198 
 
 Pike's Peak, Colorado 14,108 
 
 Middle Palisade 14,049 
 
 Mt. Langley 14,043 
 
 Mt. Muir 14,035 
 
 Mt. Barnard 14,003 
 
 Mt. Humphreys 13,972 
 
 Mt. Morgan 13,739 
 
 Mt. Tom 13,649 
 
 Mt. Montgomery (White Mountains) 13,465 
 
 Basin Mountain 13,229 
 
 Mt. Emerson 13,226 
 
 Kearsarge Peak 12,650 
 
342 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 DEATH VALLEY NOTES 
 
 As indicated in the first chapter of this book, 
 the topographic extremes of the United States 
 proper are both mthin the limits of Inyo county. 
 Mt. Whitney lifts its head nearer to heaven than 
 any other spot. Death Valley sinks further to- 
 ward the orthodox nether regions than any other ; 
 deeper below the sea's level, and is at least not 
 surpassed on earth in its power of torment for 
 the human atoms who may fall within its clutches. 
 
 Possession of the ill-famed sink is not a matter 
 for boastfulness. Neither is it necessarily a re- 
 proach, for aside from the fact that it is a mineral 
 treasure house, it is so far distant from Owens 
 Valley's fertile farms and comfortable homes that 
 if Death Valley and all its neighborhood were 
 taken from our map Inyo would still have a 
 greater area than any one of several of the At- 
 lantic States possesses. Bishop is farther from 
 Death Valley than the width of the State of Con- 
 necticut, and there is plenty of room to outline a 
 new Delaware between the most contiguous points 
 of Owens and Death Valleys. The territory had 
 to be under some jurisdiction, and it was wished 
 upon Inyo. 
 
 A distinction is made: "Death Valley" is a 
 rather broad term taking in a large area of deso- 
 lation; "Death Valley proper" is much smaller. 
 The broader term is applied not only to the more 
 noted central portion but also to arms or branches 
 known as Lost Valley, Saratoga Springs, etc. 
 
APPENDICES 343 
 
 This larger region extends fully 120 miles. 
 ''Death Valley proper" is the region of dread, 
 and is fifty or sixty miles long. This -more re- 
 stricted part is below sea level, and for more than 
 forty miles is floored with a saline marsh from 
 one to eight miles wide. These great beds change 
 their appearance according to the observer's view 
 point and the time of day. In the morning, seen 
 from the east, and in the afternoon, seen from the 
 west, they are gleaming white ; reverse the hours 
 and positions and they become a shady gray. This 
 is due to the shadows of an uneven surface. 
 
 On the west the Panamints, on the east the 
 Funerals, are the valley walls. Telescope Peak, 
 seen from the valley, is majestic indeed, for it 
 stands shoulders above the range to its left and 
 right, and has an elevation of 10,938 feet above 
 sea level. The observer in the valley is some 200 
 to 300 feet lower than where tides ebb and flow, 
 so there is offered the greatest difference in eleva- 
 tion in the country. Whitney stands much higher, 
 but is seen from a valley that approximates 4000 
 feet above the sea, and the contrast is less. The 
 Funerals — also called Grapevine or Amargosa in 
 different places — rise from 5000 to 9000 feet. The 
 Death Valley face presents a varied coloring, 
 white from strata of borax, gray, green, yellow, 
 and other hues. It is a country of striking 
 scenery. 
 
 Geological aspects of that region are interest- 
 ing to the thoughtful layman as well as to the ex- 
 pert. Sydney H. Ball, of the Geological Survey, 
 gives the name of ''Pahute" to the primeval lake 
 
344 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 that once covered the area. This is believed to 
 have covered the country from north of Goldfield 
 to south of Death Valley, and ninety miles east 
 and west. Rugged islands rose in it here and 
 there. 
 
 "The climate must have been moist," says Ball, "and the 
 presence of fossilized wood in the lake beds shows that trees 
 flourished near the shores. The lake was for the most part 
 fresh. The Pahute lake was destroyed in part by the in- 
 creasing aridity of the climate and in part by deformation. 
 "Volcanic flows and explosive eruptions of rhyolitic material 
 occurred at various times during the existence of the lake. 
 The deformation blocked out the mountain ranges as they 
 now appear and formed many of the enclosed valleys by 
 broad folding or warping. Death Valley was at this time 
 first outlined, though it was depressed later. 
 
 "In Tertiary, probably early and middle Miocene time, 
 Death Valley did not exist. Amargosa and Panamint ranges 
 were low, and their southern portions at least were covered 
 by a lake which extended well into the present Death Valley 
 south of Salt Creek. In late Pliocene time, however. Death 
 Valley was probably a closed basin occupied by a sheet of 
 
 water The folding of the Amargosa and Panamint 
 
 ranges does not alone account for the valley, and it appears 
 to be a block dropped down between the bounding ranges by 
 faults." 
 
 A geological survey report claims that Death 
 Valley is one of the best watered parts of the 
 desert. Water — mineralized — is close to the sur- 
 face of the marshes. The Amargosa River, run- 
 ning around the southern end of the Funeral 
 Range, turns toward the southern end of Death 
 Valley, but rarely carries water enough to reach 
 the sink. It is said that it has not carried suffi- 
 cient volume to discharge into the sink since 1850. 
 Grenerally its bed is a dry wash, with water in 
 
APPENDICES 345 
 
 a few places only; but when a cloudburst occurs 
 within its drainage area it may become a raging 
 torrent for a few hours. Willow, Furnace and 
 Honepa creeks are other streams of considerable 
 flows which are lost in the sands within a few 
 miles of the springs from which they start. How- 
 ever pure the waters of these streams at their 
 heads, they soon become impregnated with min- 
 erals. 
 
 The Greological Survey lists forty-eight springs 
 and wells in the area north of Saratoga Springs 
 and between the boundary ranges. Persons fa- 
 miliar with the country say that not more than 
 half the water is listed, and that there must be at 
 leas a hundred such places. Most of the water 
 holes are small, yielding but a few gallons in a 
 day's seepage. Saratoga Springs is a pool twenty- 
 five feet in diameter and four feet deep. While 
 most of the springs are charged with minerals, 
 those above sea level are considered safe for use. 
 The ''poison springs" do not contain arsenic, we 
 are told by a survey authority, but are charged 
 with Epsom salts and Glauber's salts, and are 
 fatal only because the victim, usually weakened 
 in condition, drinks their water without modera- 
 tion. Usually the springs are hard to find, and 
 even old-timers in the vicinity have been known 
 to hunt for two or three days before coming upon 
 the coveted water supply. Indians indicate water 
 holes by placing white rocks conspicuously on 
 larger rocks, in situations where they can be 
 readily seen. 
 
 What Death Valley has cost in human life will 
 
346 THE STOEY OF INYO 
 
 never be known. The starting point, so far as 
 known, was with the unfortunates of 1849, as 
 related in this book. Probably not a year since 
 the white people began coming to this region has 
 passed without adding to the list. In one short 
 period covering a few years the known fatalities 
 numbered twelve. It is said that during 1906 
 thirty-two bodies were found. How many were 
 lost and not counted in such records will never be 
 known; how many started out on a "short cut" 
 and, with no one to inquire as to their safe arrival, 
 got no farther than the bottom of that pit no one 
 can guess. Near the Furnace Creek ranch is a 
 graveyard with thirteen mounds. Generally the 
 dead are buried where found. One writer has 
 maintained that gases from the marshes has had 
 something to do with some of the deaths, but no 
 scientific investigator notes any fact in confirma- 
 tion. 
 
 For all its ill repute, there is much of interest 
 in the noted spot. It is not a place of poisonous 
 atmosphere. Its dangers lie in disregard of the 
 warnings of experience; in foolhardy or ignorant 
 braving of its furnacelike heat at the wrong sea- 
 son. Every nook in it has been explored; trails 
 and roads cross it; mining is done in its moun- 
 tains; gardens produce profusely in the valley 
 itself. But to the end of time it will justify its 
 name, and men, heedless of what is told them, will 
 perish in its burning sunshine. 
 
 It is a place of paradoxes. During some parts 
 of the year it would serve as a veritable health 
 resort. While rain is scanty and seldom falls, the 
 
APPENDICES 347 
 
 skies shed rivers at times. It is the hottest place 
 in America, but is often shaded by snow-capped 
 peaks. Men die there from lack of moisture, but 
 waterfowl tarry in Death Valley on their migra- 
 tions. 
 
 DEATH VALLEY CLIMATOLOGY 
 
 The United States Weather Bureau sent an 
 observer and assistant to Death Valley in 1881. 
 The assistant, E. H. Williams, was unable to 
 stand the terrific heat, and left; John H. Clery, 
 observer, stayed through the five hottest months. 
 
 During May, June, July, August and Septem- 
 ber the average temperature was 94 degrees. The 
 highest in May was but 105; each of the three 
 following months the thermometer reached 122, 
 and in September the top mark was 119. The 
 July average, night and day, was a trifle over 102. 
 These maximum temperatures run about the same 
 as in the hottest places in India, Arabia, Lower 
 California and northern Mexico, but Death Valley 
 keeps it up for a longer period. This is the judg- 
 ment of the Weather Bureau. Reports from other 
 sources seem to indicate that Mr. Clery happened 
 to make his visit in a cool summer. The writer 
 has been informed by a transient Death Valleyan 
 that the mercury in a common thermometer 
 reached the top of the tube, 132 degrees, in the 
 shade at the Death Valley ranch. It is said that 
 a record of 137 was made by a thermometer on the 
 north side of the house at the Furnace Creek 
 ranch. Observations made by common thermom- 
 eters are rightly open to suspicion, so better evi- 
 
348 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 dence is given by a tested thermometer used by 
 a surveyor who ran lines in the valley in 1883. 
 He kept it in the shade and hanging over a stream. 
 It repeatedly registered 130, and for forty-eight 
 hours in one stretch 104 was its lowest. 
 
 The effects of such conditions are striking. 
 Meat killed at night and cooked at 6 in the morn- 
 ing had spoiled at 9 o 'clock. When meat is fresh 
 killed, cut thin and dipped in brine, the sun cures 
 it in an hour. Eggs can be roasted in the sand. 
 Fig trees bloom in the genial air of late winter and 
 early spring, but their fruit never matures. 
 Furniture warps, splits and falls to pieces. 
 Water barrels lost their hoops within an hour 
 after emptied. One end of a blanket that had been 
 washed dried while the other end was in the tub. 
 Near where these tests were made is a flat rock 
 upon which is lettered: "Hell, 8 miles; Nowhere, 
 150 miles." 
 
 A thirty-year resident of that country noted 
 that he had known the mercury to stand at 128 
 and 130 at midnight. He relates that he once 
 thought to take a refreshing bath in water from 
 a pipe in the valley. The stream that fell upon 
 his skin was so near scalding that he gave it up 
 as too hot for even a well-baked ''desert rat." 
 
 The air is not only hot; it is kiln-dried. It is 
 understood, of course, that we write of the ex- 
 treme conditions, at the hottest season. Most of 
 the wind, of which there is enough, comes from the 
 west and south. The Sierras, Owens Valley and 
 the ranges between Death Valley and the coast 
 extract the wind's moisture to nearly the last 
 
APPENDICES 349 
 
 degree. The glaring wastes and sun finish the 
 job. Clery found remarkably low percentages of 
 humidity during his stay. Men who dug a ditch 
 at the Furnace Creek ranch slept in the -running 
 stream with their heads safely pillowed above 
 water. 
 
 It is this extreme dryness of the air that helps 
 to wind up the lost man. The moisture is 
 drawn from his body rapidly ; his drinking supply 
 is drawn upon, the more excessively if he is un- 
 acquainted with the dangers. When the heat 
 overcomes him, and insanity comes, as seems to 
 be usually the case, his first tendency is dig for 
 water if he be desert-wise. One experienced 
 desert habitue who had become lost was picked 
 up just in time to save his life. He had started to 
 tunnel through the Funeral Range to reach Green- 
 water, with only his fingers for tools. In another 
 case — typical of many — if the victim had had the 
 same instinct, he might have lived; for when 
 those found him dug a grave close by in which to 
 lay his body they stmck water within 18 inches of 
 the surface. One rescued man had tied all his 
 clothing into a bimdle and was carrying it on his 
 head, under the impression that he was wading 
 through deep waters. 
 
 Bodies of those lost in the lowlands decompose 
 very rapidly, as a rule, regardless of whether they 
 lie on salt or borax fields or on the sand. In the 
 higher places they are more likely to wither and 
 mummify, to a considerable extent. 
 
 An experienced ''desent rat" tells of hearing 
 a man lecture for an hour on how to avoid the 
 
 24 
 
350 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 perils of the desert; a week later the lecturer was 
 rescued from the fate he had been warning against. 
 One man about to perish cut his palate with his 
 knife so that the blood dropped on his tongue and 
 kept it from swelling. A teamster for the borax 
 company started for a spring, and he and his 
 mules all died on the road. 
 
 While moisture is customarily very much miss- 
 ing, there are times when it comes copiously 
 indeed, in the form of cloudbursts. They are most 
 to be expected in the hottest weather. One who 
 saw such an occurrence thus described it : " Right 
 in the clear sky appears a cloud, black and om- 
 inous, streaked with fire, growing with wonderful 
 rapidity, and eventually sagging down like a great 
 sack. The cloud is always formed above the 
 mountains, and after a time its bulbous, sagging 
 body strikes a peak. Floods of water are released 
 on the instant, and in waves of incredible size 
 they roll down the cliffs and canyons. Precipices 
 and peaks are carried away, gulches are filled with 
 the debris, mesas and foothills are covered. The 
 face of a mountain may be so changed within an 
 hour as to be scarcely recognizable, and even the 
 lighter storms rip the heart out of a canyon, so 
 that only jagged gulches and heaps of broken rock 
 are found where once, perhaps, a good trail 
 existed." 
 
 A Death Valley pioneer tells of sleeping near 
 the mouth of Furnace Creek Canyon with a * ' bug 
 hunter" — desert for entomologist. The scientist, 
 unable to sleep in the hot air, gave his attention to 
 a roaring in the canyon, along toward midnight. 
 
APPENDICES 351 
 
 To his surprise, the space between the canyon 
 walls suddenly grew white. His comrade chanced 
 to waken, and the bug sharp asked him what ailed 
 the sky. One look sufficed to cause the desert 
 denizen to yell ' ' Cloudburst ! Climb ! ' ' And climb 
 they did, just in time to escape a wall of water 
 which was estimated to be not less than a hundred 
 feet high. 
 
 It has been stated herein that winds are plenti- 
 ful. Though generally of but a few hours dura- 
 tion, their velocity is often from thirty to fifty 
 miles an hour. In that country this stirs up sand- 
 storms which must be seen, or experienced, to be 
 fully appreciated. One observer says he awoke 
 one morning to find the air full of a whitish haze. 
 To the west the landscape was blotted out by a 
 dense brown fog — blown particles of earth. A 
 Death Valley sandstorm seen from the mountain 
 top is a strange spectacle. The huge pit of Death 
 Valley is full of tumbling clouds of dust, billows 
 that roll and change with every instant. After 
 such a storm the sky shows generously the evening 
 sky-markings which as children we held to be 
 caused by the sun ^'drawing water." After a 
 sandstorm there are such fan-like shafts, made by 
 suspended dust in the upper air. ' ' Sharp squalls, ' ' 
 says one writer, '^ plunged down the canyons and 
 gulches, and there gathered the dusty forms in 
 their arms and went whirling away in gigantic 
 waltzes. It is no wonder that the Arabs of this 
 desert country, the Piutes, believe in witches and 
 supernatural powers in the air." 
 
 At times the lofty whirligigs become what the 
 
352 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 desert men call sand augers. Slender in form, the 
 sand auger is a column of dust rising thousands 
 of feet into the air with a faint cloud of dust at 
 the top and a slight spread at the base. Wherever 
 it touches as it travels across the land there is a 
 sudden stirring, a commotion of whatever is loose 
 and easily moved, and while it is being watched 
 the sand auger moves on across country and per- 
 haps vanishes completely in a second or two. 
 
 During such storms the dangers of being 
 abroad increase. The scorching blast takes the 
 lives of men even though they have full canteens. 
 
 Sidney H. Ball, of the Geological Survey, re- 
 marks that the Piute name for Death Valley is 
 **Tomesha," meaning ''ground afire." Those 
 Piutes have sometimes graphic descriptive 
 powers. 
 
 Fog is one of the unexpected winter phenomena 
 of the valley. One writing of it tells of being on 
 the mountain when the valley was fog-filled from 
 floor to rim-top. Moving white clouds rolled 
 about, raised, lowered, divided, into vast chasms 
 and reunited, at times disclosing narrow sections 
 of mountain or valley, at times resembling a vast 
 sea. 
 
 DEATH VALLEY FAUNA AND FLORA 
 
 It might be supposed that such forbidding 
 natural conditions as exist in Death Valley would 
 preclude possibility of much variety of animal or 
 vegetable life. It is therefore surprising to learn 
 that at least 136 different varieties of plant life 
 have been listed. Eighty-eight of these are arid 
 
APPENDICES 353 
 
 flora ; the rest are classed as marsh plants. The 
 latter includes two kinds of trees, six shrubs, 
 eight annuals and thirty-two perennials. These 
 are found where there is a fairly abundant water 
 supply. It is of course to be understood that in 
 the saline beds there is no plant life of any kind. 
 
 The standby tree of the desert is the mesquite. 
 It flourishes where water is abundant, and may 
 also be found where water is many feet below the 
 surface. It sometimes attains a trunk thickness 
 of eight inches or more, though its usual appear- 
 ance in Death Valley is that of a great bush. It 
 bears a bean-filled pod, on which animals will 
 'browse and which are not without value as sus- 
 tenace for human beings. It is thorny and spread- 
 ing, and like many other trees when neglected 
 usually grows a closely set mass of stems. About 
 such groups the sandstorms pile up dunes, some- 
 times completely covering and smothering the 
 tree. The roots spread nearly as much as the 
 tops, and make better fuel. When a desert resi- 
 dent wants wood, he may get it with a shovel, by 
 digging instead of chopping. It is said that as 
 much as five or six cords of wood have been dug 
 out of a single mesquite mound. 
 
 The yucca, familiar on western deserts, seldom 
 appears in Death Valley though found in the arid 
 country in every direction from there. 
 
 Arrow^^eed, one of the reliances of the Indians, 
 grows in wet places, to a height of six feet or 
 more. Greasewood, creosote and other desert 
 bushes are found. 
 
 A little round gourd is found in some of the 
 
354 THE STOKY OF INYO 
 
 canyons. ' ' Desert apple " it is called, but its thin 
 meat contains little hint of the fruit for which 
 it was named. 
 
 The plants listed as time arid flora, growing 
 away from any water except the scant and in- 
 frequent rains, include fifty annuals, twenty 
 shrubs, eighteen perennials. The latter include 
 three kinds of grass, retaining some vitality the 
 year round. A very few of these species are not 
 found anywhere except in Death Valley. All are 
 stunted and of a color in keeping with the harsh 
 surroundings, during nearly all of the year. There 
 is a short period in the early part of the year 
 when parts of the surface between the hills and 
 the marshes are golden with flowers, which soon 
 succumb to the increasing heat. Many colors are 
 seen there and on the slopes and hillsides, living 
 their brief span before the sun withers away all 
 evidence of their having been. 
 
 The marshes are not alone in being without 
 vegetation. There are occasional stretches of sand 
 as bare as a floor. In still other places the sur- 
 face is covered with small flat rocks, whose dark 
 colors are believed to be the result of intense heat 
 and light during a long period. The chance for 
 plant life there is much the same as it would be 
 on a sheet of iron. 
 
 The animal kingdom is represented by no less 
 than 150 forms, varieties and species — this with- 
 out counting the jackasses which roam the hills 
 by hundreds. They are the progeny of escaped 
 or abandoned animals. 
 
 Mountain sheep are the largest game in the 
 
APPENDICES 355 
 
 'bordering mountains, which are among the chief 
 habitats of those now rare animals. E'or years 
 they were one of the reliances of the Indians, and 
 annual slaughters were the rule. Thirty are said 
 to have been killed near Furnace Creek in one 
 year, as the culmination of an extensive Indian 
 campaign. They travel well worn trails, across 
 which the Indians build low stone walls as 
 blinds. The sheep do not look up while eating, 
 but when alarmed they run to the highest points, 
 a trait which Lo turns to his advantage. The sheep 
 campaign of 1891, mentioned above, was preceded 
 by such preparations in the way of blind-building 
 that the few whites thereabouts concluded that 
 the walls were for the purpose of guarding min- 
 eral deposits of great value. It developed that 
 feed and not fighting was the purpose. 
 
 Waterfowl, migrating to and from far-off 
 haunts, frequently tarry briefly at the little pools. 
 Geese, swan and ducks are among the visitors. 
 Their rests in the crystallizing vats at the old 
 borax works sometimes brought them to grief, 
 for on cold nights they became so weighted down 
 with crystals that they could not fly. 
 
 "Bellerin" Teck's planting of quail at Furnace 
 Creek throve, and those beautiful birds became 
 acclimated to the conditions of the little oasis, and 
 withstand the fearful summers. 
 
 Bats abound in some sections, and one of the 
 observations of Dr. S. G. George, heretofore 
 quoted, comments on the quantities of bat guano 
 accumulated in such places. Badgers, gophers, 
 skunks, foxes, coyotes, snakes, bugs of different 
 
356 THE STORY OF INYO 
 
 kinds, flies and gnats are among the things found. 
 A special variety of mouse exists there. The trade 
 rat is found in Death Valley as well as elsewhere 
 in the West. This little animal has a certain 
 standard of honesty ; he will carry off articles that 
 he can handle, but will invariably replace them 
 with something else. A camper left a box of 
 dried fniit open during his absence; when next 
 examined, the fruit was gone, and in its place 
 was an assortment of chips. Another found that 
 his collection of matches had been replaced by 
 pebbles. Once a box of cartridges was emptied 
 by rats, and something else substituted; the 
 cartridges had been carried into a temporarily 
 unused stove, where they would have provided a 
 surprise for the owner but for his accidental dis- 
 covery of them. It seems that frequently, as in 
 this case, Mr. Rat had no particular use for the 
 goods ; he merely wanted to keep busy. There is 
 a kangaroo rat, but whether identical with the 
 trade rat is something no desert man has been able 
 to tell us. The kangaroo rat has a body four to 
 six inches long, and with a stout tail serving the 
 same purpose as that of the Australian mammal 
 for which the little beast is named. The animals 
 show little fear of man, sometimes eating from 
 the hand if given the opportunity. 
 
 Tarantulas and rattlesnakes are plentiful 
 enough, and may make themselves disagreeably 
 familiar around camp, getting into bedding or 
 other places where they are not desired. The 
 chief desert rattlesnake, and the most vicious, is 
 the sidewinder, a reptile from twelve to eighteen 
 
APPENDICES 357 
 
 inches long. A former freight driver tells of 
 seeing them in balls ten to twelve inches in 
 diameter. It takes several snakes of whiplash 
 size to make a mass of that size. In traveling the 
 sidewinder goes with the snake motion, but with 
 half their length in the air and weaving from side 
 to side. 
 
 A little desert terrapin is also found. Com- 
 mon lizards reach comparatively huge proportions 
 in those surroundings. Specimens fifteen or six- 
 teen inches long are reported. The most unique 
 form of the family is the chuckwallah — chawalla 
 in Indian. It is a lizard, heavy-bodied, fat and 
 stumpy as to tail, and weighing up to three 
 pounds or more. They are said to be good eat- 
 ing — the writer takes this statement on faith. 
 Casual visitors will no doubt prefer bacon; still 
 many desert people learn to like chuckwallah 
 meat. The Indians are less squeamish about de- 
 tails, and roast the reptiles just as caught, 
 feathers and all. 
 
 The adjacent mountains contain many song 
 birds, and great numbers of mocking birds. A 
 Death Valleyan relates that one year the water 
 holes in a certain part of that country dried up. 
 One morning a miner found a dozen or more 
 young mocking birds helping themselves from his 
 water supply. He filled a tin with water and gave 
 it to them. Every morning thereafter for weeks 
 they came, perched upon the bed or table, and 
 coaxed for water, showing not the least fear. On 
 another occasion a returning miner found a moun- 
 tain swift in his bean pot, making a meal. He 
 
358 THE STOBY OF INYO 
 
 tossed a stone in its direction ; it jumped out and 
 to one side, looked fearlessly at the man, and 
 then back into the pot. It was allowed to finish its 
 dinner. 
 
P" 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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