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Rhyolite
Herald, June 30, 1905
“DEATH
VALLEY ITEMS”
Single Blanket Zeke, or the Death
Valley sleuth, has discovered the lost Breyfogle mine but is
unable to take his friends to take his friends [doubled
phrase] to the spot. The other night, after being away for a
week, he came in staggering, weak from the loss of blood, with a
deep gash in his head and with the wild look of a maniac. In his
disheveled hair, mingled with dirt and blood, were flakes of
gold. Zeke is still out of his head and the boys haven’t
been able to get a line on the location of the find, but they
think it is the lost mine, sure, this time, as all Zeke can say
to Mr. Fitz Folgle, proprietor of the thirst Dispensary is, “Dry
Fogle, Dry Folgle.”
Funeral range is having a revival in
the mining line. It has been pretty dead around here for some
years, and this sudden resurrection will be welcomed, you
bet.
Sandy Boosom had the misfortune to fall off from Coffin
Cliff night before last. It laid him out.
There is some talk
of establishing a sanitarium at Brimstone Springs. The water is
hot and will boil an egg in a jiffy. Some folks think it would be
like gettin’ at touch of the hereafter to take a plunge in
one of those bubbling broilers. Might be a good place to start a
reformation.
For the benefit of travelers who may desire to
visit this section without a guide we will say that the best way
to get into Death valley from the east is via Devil’s Gap.
This is a narrow saddle between two prominent hills of solid
rock, known as Pitchfork Peak and Mount Eternity. The road or
path is known as Tarantula Trail. The prominent rock on the left,
about a mile up the gap, is called Judgment Rock, for it is a
fable that whoever passed this point left hope behind, and
hundreds of weary travelers who hit this trail some years ago
left their bones to bleach upon the desert not far beyond. The
Imps’ Cave, where thousands of years ago dwelt the dwarfs,
is an interesting stopping place. There is a fable that these
people were cursed by their Creator and that they retrograted
[sic] instead of advancing, until in these latter days they have
degenerated into Gila monsters. There are thousands of them. Then
you pass over the Bridge of Sighs in crossing Furnace Creek,
which is a steaming, seething stream, but once you dip the water
from the channel it instantly becomes cool and refreshing. Fish
caught from this creek are cooked and ready for lunch. This is
one reason why so many visitors – those who have been here
before – bring no meat with them. Along this stream are
fine fielda grasses, and many who come here find it a good place
to harvest their wild oats which they have sown in days gone by.
Repentance ranch is a favorite road house. The mounrer’s
bench is always in commission.
The air in Death valley is
actually embalming.
PHIL SPACE.
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