S1E9: Stories & People from Death Valley

S1E9: Stories & People from Death Valley

​Death Valley… the hottest and lowest place in America reaching temperatures of 100 degrees and more in the summer, while snow caps the mountains in other places.
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Welcome to just a few stories and just one of the people’s to come from Death Valley.

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S1E9: Stories & People from Death Valley

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Transcript:

Bag of Bones Podcast
Season One: Episode Nine
Stories & People from Death Valley



The California Gold Rush called out to many “would-be” minors who thought that all they needed was a little ambition and a sifter to become rich, to give up their homes, pack their lives and families in a wagon and cross the country for a new adventure.

This group of 49ers, so named for the rush of wagon trains headed to California in 1849 in search of gold followed the trails set by those before them from the Oregon Trail until they came to the final opportunity for supplies on the outskirts of Salt Lake City.  They knew that they had to cross the Sierra Nevada safely in order to reach their destination but it was impassible during the winter and here it was, already October.
The group of 107 wagons heard of another option called Old Spanish Trail with a newly discovered “short cut” called Walker Pass.  The lure to follow it was that someone said it to be accessible during the winter months and would shave off 500 miles from their trip.
20 or so wagons made the impetuous decision to follow this path to save time and effort and not have to wait out the winter-  possibly missing out on all the gold that was being mined by the wheelbarrow full.

What they didn’t know, was if wagon trains could make the trip;
the only map they had was unreliable and couldn’t tell them about the hardships and trials that were about to come.
After an additional four months, near starvation, exhaustion, the loss of men, supplies, horses, oxen and wagons, the majority of the travelers made it to San Clarita Valley.  This group of brave men, women and children were forever named the Lost 49ers.
Rumor has it that once they stood at the ridge of the Panamint mountain range one of the minors called back, “So long, Death Valley…” and the name stuck.

Death Valley… the hottest and lowest place in America reaching temperatures of 100 degrees and more in the summer, while snow caps the mountains in other places.
Welcome to just a few stories and just one of the people’s to come from Death Valley.

Introduction

The Paiute tribe, cousins of the Shoshone, have tamed the volatile extremes of Death Valley for centuries.  They wandered in search for food, but were content to live off of seeds, roots and bulbs when game was scarce.

The Paiute religion was made up of sorcery, bodily torture,  Drug induced visions and dreams that the  Paiute medicine men used to  interpret and regulate the actions of the tribe.

Bourke Lee in his book titled Death Valley has done a great deal of research on the people of the Paiute Nation.  He says, quote: “The Great Basin Paiute lived surrounded by unearthly beings.  They lived in the air above him and in the ground beneath him.  They were in the trees, below the surface of the water, in caves and in niches in the rock, on the plains and high in the mountains.”

They believed evil spirits would hide along the cliffs and mountains and would trip or push someone over the edge.  It was never considered an accident or erosion of the path.  The spirits caused it.

Witches would lurk about in forests and along still passageways to distract the hunters and scare away the game.  The witches in this instance are not from a spiritual realm or the animal kingdom, but are former elders of the Paiute people who …overstayed their welcome.  One of the greatest sins of the people and a sure way to remain on earth to suffer and taunt others for all eternity is to become a burden to your tribe.

Elders of a tribe are highly respected.  But women, once they were beyond child bearing years and men were beyond their ability to help provide, they are encouraged to get away and force the hand of death or be doomed to an eternal life walking the earth as a witch having a horrifying appearance of snake skin covering their body.
You heard correctly.  Suicide was encouraged.  If their presence slowed down the movements of the tribe or they were unable to fulfill their duties, they were left behind to starve.   If they chose for themselves, they were rewarded after death.

The springs had their own evil spirits as well.  Yan-tups,  They were said to come up from their deep hiding places in the ground and rest on the water, singing to lure small children close to them.  They would seize the disobedient children and take them away to the deepest part of their underground caves.

But the Yan-tups main purpose was to cause sickness.  She would make the people sick to their stomach causing them to have trouble keeping their food down; bloated stomachs or even  vomit blood until they died.  Today, we know the cause- magnesium sulfate.  While drinking the water from the spring in small doses, it can be beneficial but in large quantities it can be quite dangerous.

The Paiutes interpreted that the people who got sick were either tricked by the water spirit or they were being punished, depending on the medicine man’s interpretation.

Another water creature that preyed on the men, were Pa- O- Hass.  They were half woman and half fish.  They were very beautiful to look upon but had wickedness in their hearts.

Lee says, “The Paiute knew that some of the spirits were mostly friendly, but others he suspected of luring him into danger.  What sign was a warning?  What good portent was a snare?  The poor Paiute was ever in unhappy doubt. He had no confidence in the accuracy of his interpretations”

The Paiutes lived a hard life.  They were nomads and wandered following sources for food.  They were hunters and gatherers and the land they called home was most unforgiving and yet they fought and struggled every day to maintain their way of life.  Direct descendants of the Paiute and Shoshone Tribes still live in a reservation along the edge of Death Valley.
They were an aggressive people not afraid to take life and collect scalps as they went scavenging for food.

So death to them was not a big deal.  They knew that they had one more hard and painful trial to face before they could find rest.  They had to pass through an obstacle course of sorts to reach their heaven which was called Na-gun-tu-wip.

When the native died, his bows and arrows were strapped to his body to use for his challenge in the afterworld, and he was wrapped in the skin of his horse with his possessions buried around him. But on the other side, in his spirit world, he had to face and conquer the obstacle course before his bones and soul could rest.

Witches and spirits would bait him and test his courage along the deep caverns to the land of the dead.  He would struggle along the damp and foul smelling sands, trip and climb over the huge tracks of monstrous animals that he could hear growling and taunting him along his way through the dark cave.  Only the brave reached the bright and beautiful land.  And he could see a glimpse of it at the preface of the final challenge.  The daughters of Na-gun-tu-wip beckoned him forward. And once he passed the final test, he would suffer no more.  The final test was a narrow rock bridge hovering over a bottomless chasm, with birds taunting and screaming, swooping and flapping around him… he must cross.  Waiting for him on the other side was Na-gun-tu-wip, where there was plenty of food and no hard labor.  There was no want, no pain and no sorrow.

For those who pass on but are not brave enough to make the journey into the afterlife: those who turn away from their challenge and run screaming from the tortures within the caverns;  those lost souls are doomed to walk the earth as cowardly ghosts, despised by gods and men.  Terrifying all that see him approach.  The stories of the ghosts of Death Valley are still told, and experienced today.

The Queen City- Rhyolite


It all started with two men and a mountain of ore that looked like a frog’s back. And suddenly the Bullfrog gold rush was on.
Within two weeks the area burst with over 1,200 new residents and a town that built up around them adding another 1,300 residents less than a year later.
The Queen City of Rhyolite boasted 2 churches, 50 saloons, 18 stores, 2 undertakers 8 doctors, 2 dentists, it’s own red light district, 6 barbers, a bath house, a stock exchange, a weekly newspaper and an opera.
Thousands upon thousands of dollars were being mined from Bullfrog Mountain and its neighboring mine, Shoshone Montgomery.


Charles M. Schwab (not THAT Schwab, This is the steel magnet, not the broker) purchased the Montgomery Mine and expanded the operation even further.
He expanded the tunnels, hired more workers had water and electric brought in (from over 100 miles away).  He eventually had three railway lines serving the Queen City.


By 1907 the town’s population jumped to anywhere between 5-7,000 people.  (It’s hard to keep track of folks in a mining town.)  By this time, Rhyolite had sidewalks, and running water.  Electric lights and telephone lines.  A fire department, a public swimming pool, a two- story, eight-room school house, a hospital and up to three publications.
But the feather in the town’s cap was the three story bank on the corner of Golden Street.  It boasted an Italian marble staircase and imported stained glass.  The building housed the brokerage offices, the post office as well as the bank.
In 1906, a minor named Tom Kelley built a house entirely out of beer and liquor bottles (over 50,000 bottles were used
and that building still stands today.

The stock exchange sold shares to the Bullfrog Mine and closed out its first day with 60,000 shares changing hands.  By the end of the second week, that number exploded to 750,000 shares.  In 1907, shares were going for $23 per.

But by 1908, the shares plummeted to only $3.  And then, following an unfavorable engineers inspection of the mines, they dropped down to 75 cents.
By 1909, the mine was considered “dry” and no new ore was produced dropping the shares down to 10 cents.  And when the mines finally closed its doors in 1910, the shares were down to a paltry 4 cents and was operating at a loss for most of the year.
March 14, 1911- the mines were closed and the shares dropped completely off the market.
As you can imagine, the town declined rapidly.  Businesses failed left and right as the minors left the town in search for work elsewhere. By 1910, there were less that 700 people living in the once glorious town called the Queen City.  The banks were closed, most of the businesses closed their doors, the newspapers quit printing and finally gave up a year later.
The post office closed in 1913.
The last train left the train depot in Rhyolite in 1914.
The lights were turned out and disconnected by 1916.
It was all gone.  And just like that, a city was built and abandoned in less than a decade.
It’s a true ghost town now.  Only a few buildings remain. Other mining towns that sprung up in the area scavenged the building materials from Rhyolite to create a new town.  Whole buildings were moved and re-purposed in the neighboring town of Beatty. The Bottle House is still there as well as the infrastructure of the three story bank, but all of it’s elegant details are long gone.
The ghost town has been used for movie sets and is still a popular destination for tourists.
A bit of trivia- Steel mogul, and gold mine investor, Charles M. Schwab was considered a risk taker.  And because of his frivolous spending and rash choices, when he died, he was living in a one-room apartment and $300,000 in debt.  (His $7 million, 75 room home Riverside in NY, that was built by a French architect was razed to the ground and a block of apartment buildings were built.  And his 44 room summer home on 1,000 acres is now part of St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, and if he put Italian marble stairs in a bank, I can only imagine what his homes would have looked like.  Unfortunately, We will never see that piece of history.)





The Haunted Amargosa Hotel and Opera House

In 1907 there was a post office just along the edge of Death Valley. And once you have a post office you officially have a town on your hands. Not sure if this is where the “build it and they will come” had originated, but that seems to have been what happened for this sleepy little town of Death Valley Junction.

In 1914, the Pacific Coast Borax Company brought a narrow railroad into town to be able to transport the borax from the mines to Ryan, CA.
The village grew from a tent town to a booming mining town.  As other mining opportunities were discovered, more permanent buildings and business began to develop.

The Pacific Coast Borax Company invested in a Spanish Colonial designed, U- shaped plaza for their offices and dormitory for their workers.  It also included a theatre, a store, a 23 room hotel and a dining room.  And then a recreation hall was built near the complex to be used for dances, movies, town meeting and it was also used for town’s church and funeral services.

The entire city’s population peaked at around 300 people and lasted only about 3- 5 years.  When the Borax Company moved it’s headquarters elsewhere in 1927, the town quieted down serving as a tourist attraction.


It wasn’t until 1967 when dancer, artist and visionary Marta Becket and her husband had a flat tire in Death Valley.  They were taken to Death Valley Junction, and as they walked around the dilapidated buildings, Marta fell in love with the theatre.

It was decided that she would re-open the theatre… and she did.  Slowly, she brought it back to life and opened it to the public a year later.  Sometimes she had an audience of twelve… sometimes none.  So she started painting an audience on the walls so she would never dance alone.  And she kept painting until the walls and ceiling were covered.  She stayed there offering performances for the rest of her life.  Her last performance was in Feb of 2012 when she released her life’s work over to a non-profit art sanctuary. She was then 82 years old.

The hotel and theatre are still open and welcoming guests, and while you may not be able to view one of Ms. Becket’s original performances, her art work and theatre are open for tours, but there are also many other guests that may grab your attention… or your feet… while you’re trying to sleep… in room 9 of the hotel.

For the complex being around since the 1920’s there has been a lot of guests who have come to stay and decided not to leave.  In the area that housed the dormitory, hospital and morgue that hadn’t been remodeled is referred to as Spooky Hollow because of all the unexplainable, strange things that happen down the long dark corridors.
Rooms 32,24 and 9 claim to be the most haunted.  Guests have noted a crying child in the middle of the night.  A heavy, dark presence watching you, door knobs turning and showers turning on, when no one is there, footsteps running down the hallway, laughing and giggling, plus a high-pitched woman’s voice that stands out in a group of voices in the dining hall, plus shadows of people lurking around the edges of the rooms.
And while I would love to visit this historic location- during the day, I’ll leave the information for the Amargosa Opera House in the show notes, just in case you’re interested too.




And finally, one last story…
A Backdrop for Murder


Vandalism along the north side of the Death Valley Monument, led the Inyo County sheriff’s department, California Highway Patrol, and the National Park Service to raids in October of 1969 leading to the arrest of a group wanderers and one Charles Manson.  About two dozen people were arrested for burning some heavy equipment and stealing vehicles.
They had no idea the significance of the arrest and it wasn’t until later, that they realized the mass murder that Manson and his family were accused of.
It was 1968 when Manson moved his family of followers out to a small mining ranch called Barker’s Ranch with the permission of then owner, Arlene Barker.
Manson and his followers weren’t just hiding out, they were looking for a lost city rumored to be under Death Valley.  They believed that they were to be beneficiaries of the race war and that Manson would be their leader.  They were preparing for a nuclear attack from which Manson’s prophecy has told them they would be safe in the underground world.
Once clan member Susan Atkins confessed to the killings to her bunkmate while in detention allowed police and investigators to put the puzzle pieces together to the Hinman murders, the Tate & LaBianca murders, as well as many other murders, vehicle theft and petty crimes that could now all be traced back to Charles Manson, his followers and their communal life in Death Valley.


Trivia: The search for the Hidden City under Death Valley has been around since the stories of two explorers turned minors in 1931 and their tales of the deep, miles and miles of tunnels, stores of gold artifacts, giant mummies and “natural” green, glowing light.


Thus ends our visit to the legends of Death Valley this trip.  There are many more to be found in this beautiful and harsh terrain, plus the location itself is amazing story all on it’s own.

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