Newspaper List
Beatty Bullfrog Miner – Beatty, Nevada [was called the Bullfrog Miner during first two months of publication – not to be confused with the Bullfrog Miner, of Rhyolite, Nevada]
Inyo Independent – Independence, California
Inyo Register – Bishop, California
Rhyolite Herald – Rhyolite, Nevada

All new additions to this page will be noted by this symbol --

Greenwater, California

Newspaper Articles
1906

Inyo Independent, May 18, 1906
“DEATH VALLEY AGAIN”
H.W. Boyer, a well known mining man of Goldfield, arrived in Rhyolite this week from Death Valley, says the Bullfrog Miner, where he was lost on the desert for three days and two nights, and narrowly escaped death. It is the first experience of the kind this season. That Mr. Boyer lives to tell the tale is perhaps due to his wonderful powers of endurance, and the fact that during the trying ordeal while suffering the tortures of torment, his presence of mind never deserted him.
Mr. Boyer left Greenwater on the morning of April 29th, without taking water or food, to examine the country southwest for a short distance, turn north to the Clark camp, and complete the journey of the day to the Keane camp, the whole distance not more than eight miles. A blinding snow storm, however, came up early in the day, and he lost his bearings in the mountains, following a canyon which opened out into Death Valley, where even at this time of the year the heat is terrific. When he realized his situation, and how far he wandered he had wandered from his destination, his next object was to make Furnace creek ranch, a distance of about 75 miles from his original starting point, with 15 miles of this laying across a salt marsh hitherto considered impassable.
The story is best told by himself: “After coming into the valley from the canyon where I spent the first day and obtained some water from a pool in the rocks, I encountered a salt marsh which to avoid making a long detour, it was necessary to cross. Luckily it had never come to my knowledge that this feat is regarded by prospectors as an impossibility. My first attempt was far from encouraging. I sank to my knees in the mud and water, and it was only with great difficulty that I succeeded in extricating myself. The salt and borax encrustations crack and curl in the sun similar to clay on mud flats, only the jagged edges frequently obtain a height of three or four feet. I soon my saving expedient was to zigzag and to confine my journey to these solid places. Late in the afternoon I reached to within about 300 yards of the further shore of the marsh, when the blocks of salt gave out and the intervening space was filled with mud and water of unknown depth. The choice lay between retracing my steps or braving slough, and I chose rather to die then and there than to perish from thirst. Strapping my boots to my back and holding my leather coat in front of me to avoid sinking as much as possible, I made one desperate plunge and succeeded after the most exhausting efforts to reach the ground. I camped near some mesquite which I had seen in the distance, and which I thought to be in the vicinity of Furnace creek, but I found that another days journey intervened.
“The last day of this eventful journey was attended by torture that no tongue can describe. The heat was terrific and the agonies I suffered from thirst seemed to me now beyond the endurance of mortal man. My feet pained me a great deal, and it was with difficulty that I dragged myself forward. I could see that my strength was fast failing, but I persevered towards where I thought the Furnace ranch lay. Once I came upon a mud puddle some five or six inches deep and three or four feet long. I first tried to drink the water, but it was thick with mud and nauseating. Then, pig-like, I simply wallowed in it. While laying there I went to sleep and slept over an hour. The evaporation of water from my body had a cooling effect and I awoke much refreshed. It was an advantage also to frequently apply the salt water I found in the pools along the way, to my body.
“More dead than alive, about 4 o’clock on the afternoon of the third day, bedraggled, faint and weak, I reached Furnace creek. I drank sparingly of water at first, and then drank some milk. Strange to say I wasn’t hungry, but the overpowering pangs of thirst were above every other form of suffering I experienced, I lost 18 pounds during the time, and I never expect to be so near death’s door again until the final summons come.

Inyo Register, December 27, 1906
Summary: Shooting at Greenwater.

1907

Death Valley Chuck-Walla, January 1, 1907
“TREEING A WILDCAT OUTFIT”
The apprehension and arrest of Dr. J. Grant Lyman, the wildcat mining promoter and alleged confidence man, whose little game with Boston-Greenwater stock has done the Nevada mining companies more arm than any other one man’s dirty work, seems now to be about to revert to the good of the honest and boni fide propositions throughout the state. Let the good work go on. The grafters and confidence men are not wanted, and the sooner they can be decorated with stripes and placed with the other felons n the state “pen,” the better it will be for all concerned. Dr. Layman may be thankful that he got into the clutches of the law and not into the hands of some irate citizen with a gun and a sense of justice stronger than his regard for his future, [punct.] The residents and business men of the mining district owe the dear doctor something which should be handed to him hot from the platter. It is such dirty work as that in which he was mixed that makes the honest men work double time in clearing up the mess left behind and getting things into running order again.
The dear “doctor” put on his long boots, splashed around in a few prospect holes, and having gotten himself properly covered with mud and such, went to the good people of Boston and told them of his wonderful mine in Nevada. The “doctor” is a good talker. He could talk until Hell freezes over if you have him the opportunity. With this ability, and a little real Nevada mud which had stuck to him to give his remarks weight, he manages to pan off about $300,000 worth of worthless stocks on the credulous citizens of Boston. the Union Securities Company of Nevada was formed for the purpose of backing the game, or was drawn into it through the efforts of the wily “doctor,” and together they did business and the Boston public at the same time until someone got next.
The “doctor” got next at the same time and disappeared from his haunts in Goldfield, leaving “for parts unknown.” The Boston public, realizing that all its culture has not made it immune, and that it had been “goldbricked,” as any village hoosier might be, was furious. Officers of the law started out to make the “doctor’s” acquaintance, and after following him around the country, finally succeeded in introducing themselves after much protest on the part of the learned physician. They may have been rude, but the “doctor’s” reception was cold and probably justified their attitude. Now he is “pinched” and awaiting the outcome of his game. Boston people are somewhat pacified but still indignant and nursing a would to their pride which will not heal. Mining people are joyous, and the “doctor’s” condition cannot be described. He is up against it. The Union Securities Company of Nevada has been “balled out,” and properly classified.
The damage which such a fiasco does throughout a growing mining region is great. The only way to prevent the recurrence of such a tangle is to punish the offender. It is now up to the people to see that this is done.
When a wildcat promoter, a crook, a liar and a thief gets busy in a community he can always do some business. When he adversities his business throughout the United States as Dr. J. Grant Lyman did, it attracts some attention, and when it becomes known for the robber it is, the whole community gets a black eye. When Boston people or others who were taken in with the bottomless Boston-Greenwater stock get wise to the bunco they are rightfully sore and naturally distrustful of any other companies. It makes it doubly hard to interest them in the legitimate properties, and so works a hardship on the whole community. It takes time for the honest men to counteract the dirty work of the crooks, and the best way to avoid this necessity is to give the crooks short shrift. Run them out of town. Give them Hell. Clear the country of such carrion and avoid trouble in the future. Dr. J. Grant Lyman has been caught red-handed. Give him what is coming to him, and there will be less similar trouble in the future.

Death Valley Chuck-Walla, January 1, 1907
“THE FURNACE CEMETERY”
The Furnace Creek Cemetery on the brink of Death Valley in the Funeral mountains. Is that not an inviting name? Would it not pay any prospector to tramp a hundred weary miles across the burning desert and at last to die of heat and thirst, digging madly in the parched sands for the water unattainable, just to be buried in a place so appropriate? If any may think the end inviting they may now put it down in their category of the possible for at last a resting place has been selected among the countless unmarked graves of the Funeral range.
The cool shade and tranquil beauty of Cypress Lawn or Evergreen is not for the denizen of the desert. Sagebrush and greasewood, sand and ledges mark the “long home” of the dying prospector. But even so, is it not best? The man of the desert loves his desert home, and even in death the love of a lifetime is not to be disregarded. For decades the wealth of the desert has been sought by wanderers, hundreds of whom went to the great accounting, unwatched, unattended and unknown, victims of the desert, which they thought to rob of her riches, but which, even so, they loved. These hundreds lie unknown and forgotten in the great reaches of the Funeral mountains and the glaring wastes of the terrible Death Valley.
No news returns to their friends, and year by year the loved ones wait until anxiety darkens into despair and all is accounted over. All this is the tragedy of the desert, life, the Funeral mountains and the Valley of Death. It may continue, but with the coming of man there is to be a caring for of those who have gone, a last touch of a friend, a last rite to show that the man was a man, and so to be treated even in death. The desert was his home. The desert claimed him in death, and in the desert which he loved he may still lie, but now with the sign above and around him that he was a man. The Furnace Creek cemetery on the brink of Death Valley in the Funeral mountains. After all, is it not the best?

Skidoo News, February 1, 1907
“LITTLE NEWS NUGGETS”
The sad news arrived Monday of the death of George Hicken in Greenwater. Tom McKennon, his partner, left immediately for Greenwater, walking to Furnace Creek where he expected to secure a horse for the balance of the trip. Just prior to his death, Mr. Hicken was upon the verge of making a sale of his property in Greenwater, which will probably now be closed by Tom McKennon during his stay there.

Inyo Independent, March 22, 1907
“NOTICE TO CREDITORS.”
Notice is hereby given by the undersigned, Charles Wing, executor of the estate of Richard Town, deceased, to the creditors of all persons having claims against the deceased to exhibit them with the necessary vouchers, within four months after the first publication of this notice to said executioner at his residence in Greenwater, County of Inyo, State of California, the same being the place for the transaction of the business of said estate.
Dated March 14, 1907.
CHARLES WING
Executor of the estate of Richard Town.

Inyo Independent, March 22, 1907
“NOTICE TO CREDITORS.”
Notice is hereby given by the undersigned, administrator of the estate of George Higgins, deceased, to the creditors of all persons having claims against the deceased to exhibit them with the necessary vouchers, within four months after the first publication of this notice at the office of W.M. Altar in Greenwater, County of Inyo, State of California, the same being the place for the transaction of the business of said estate.
Dated March 11th, 1907.
THOMAS MCKINNON
Administrator for the estate of George Higgins, deceased.

Inyo Independent, March 29, 1907
“NOTICE TO CREDITORS.”
Notice is hereby given by the undersigned, administrator of the estate of C.J. O’Donnel, deceased, to the creditors of all persons having claims against the deceased, to exhibit them with the necessary vouchers, within four months after the first publication of this notice to said administrator at the office of C.C. McKinney, in Greenwater, County of Inyo, State of California, the same being his place for the transaction of the business of said estate.
Dated March 12th, 1907.
E.E. MATTINSON
Administrator of the estate of C.J. O’Donnel.

Inyo Register, June 7, 1907
Summary: Inyo County board of supervisors carry motion for county clerk to advertise for bids for construction of branch jails at Skidoo, Lee and Greenwater.

Law & Order, Life & Death California Site List

Law & Order, Life & Death Other States List

©2004, 2005, 2006 D.A. Wright
All Rights Reserved

Page Revised: 02/21/2006