CHAPTER XV

DESERT MISCELLANY--UNUSUAL AND PECULIAR FEATURES

There are several localities in the deserts, about which cling stories and traditions of unusual interest. Superst.i.tion Mountain, situated in the southwestern portion of the Colorado Desert, is one of these.

This mountain is nearly in the line of the old trail taken by the early overland pioneers on their way to the coast by the way of Yuma. The mountain is remarkable in one respect--it scarcely ever presents the same appearance twice. Its contour is constantly changing, owing to the fact that it is bordered by gigantic sand-hills, which are carved and whittled and shaped by the fierce winds which sweep across the plain.

If one notes some point or pinnacle as a landmark to-day, to-morrow he will have lost his bearings, for the outlines will have been changed.

This peculiarity of the mountain has awakened the fears of the Cocopah Indians, who inhabit that region, and who are naturally superst.i.tious, and they shun the locality. Nothing will induce them to mount the eminence, and they even avoid that section of the plain. It is to them the abode of evil spirits.

Among other evil spirits who, they believe, inhabit the mountain, is one which bears a strange resemblance to the Gaelic "banshee."

The old folks of the Irish peasantry to this day tell of the banshee, a little, old weazened woman, who is said to appear to persons, clapping her hands and wailing, as a warning of approaching death. The Cocopahs have precisely the same superst.i.tion, save that the banshee is a little old man, "Wah Dindin," who is supposed to come down from Superst.i.tion Mountain to bring death to the one to whom he appears.

The Cocopahs are very much averse to being photographed, and the sight of a camera is a signal for them to throw themselves face downward upon the earth. They believe that their pictures, if taken, are transmitted to the evil spirits in the mountain, and that, by means of this picture, the little old man of death--the Cocopah banshee--will be able to trace them and bring them death. Some of the more enlightened and more avaricious, however, upon being bribed with silver, so far overcome their fears as to allow themselves to be photographed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A DESERT POTTERY FACTORY]

White men are not so loath to visit the locality. It is believed that this mountain or some of the adjacent hills holds the famous lost "Pegleg" gold mine.

In 1837, a one-legged man named Smith found a mine of wonderful richness in the Colorado Desert. He was piloting a party over the desert from Yuma, when he came to three hills which rose out of the plain. Not being sure of his bearings, he mounted the taller of the hills to get a view of the surrounding country. Upon this hill, which seemed to be composed of black quartz or rock, he found out-cropping ore fairly sparkling with the precious metal. He took specimens away with him and learned, upon reaching his destination, that the metal was really gold. The mine became known as the "Pegleg Mine" from the fact that Smith wore a wooden leg and was known as "Pegleg."[1]

After conducting his party safely to Los Angeles, Smith returned to the desert to investigate his find. He could not locate it. He could not even find the hills which had been the landmark upon which he depended.

In 1861 or 1862, a prospector pa.s.sed over the trail from Yuma to Los Angeles. In the Colorado Desert he chanced upon three hills, and upon the larger one he discovered gold. He reached Los Angeles with $7000 worth of gold nuggets. He told of his find and described the location.

It tallied with the description given by Smith of his find. A party was formed for the exploiting of the mine, and the prospector was preparing to guide his a.s.sociates to the spot when he was taken ill and died. The mine was again lost and has never been found.

From time to time expeditions have gone forth to look for the lost Pegleg mine, but their searches have been fruitless. Scores of lives have been lost in the quest. To this day skeletons are frequently found in that section of the desert, grewsome reminders of the tortures of that terrible region.

One of the last of these search parties consisted of Tom Clover of Los Angeles and a man named Russell, of San Bernardino. The latter still lives in San Bernardino, but Tom Clover left his bones upon the desert. He ascended Superst.i.tion Mountain to take observations while Russell remained upon the plain. They agreed to meet on the opposite side of the mountain. Russell kept the appointment, but Clover was never seen again.

In the midst of the Colorado Desert, where, previous to the bringing in of water by the Imperial ca.n.a.l system, neither man nor beast could find means of subsistence, are found many earthen ollas of Indian make and of ancient pattern. Nearly every settler in the Imperial Valley has one or more of these relics, some chipped and broken, but many in a perfect condition.

These ollas are not found in groups and collections, but in ones and twos at various intervals in the interior of the desert. They have a story to tell of conditions in the dim past and explain how it happened that certain tribes chose so forbidding a region as a dwelling-place.

In ancient times, before the white man--the most formidable foe the redman has known--came to this continent, the various tribes warred with each other. The strong wrested the choice portions of the land from the weaker tribes, and the latter were forced to choose between the desert with possible death or certain annihilation at the hands of their foes. They chose the desert.

As was natural in the case, those who dared the desert made their abiding-place at the oases of the desolate region. Here, after a certain manner, they lived and acc.u.mulated more or less of the things which represented, to the savage mind, wealth. But even here they were not yet free from their oppressors, who occasionally bore down upon them to give them battle.

In the very heart of the desert, far from food or water, these persecuted Indians finally found refuge. They learned that their enemies dared not brave the perils of the desert wastes, therefore, in times of peace, they carried deep into the desert supplies of food and water, the latter in the large earthen ollas, and cached them in the sands. Each warrior attended to the supply for himself and family. They did not store the supplies of the tribe together, but purposely scattered them.

When an attack was made upon them, each man sought his own cache, and there he stayed till food and water were exhausted. By that time the zeal of the foe would have cooled off, no doubt, and they could return in safety to their homes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BLACK b.u.t.tES--PHANTOM SHIP OF THE DESERT]

The Indians thus persecuted have long since pa.s.sed away, but the story of their tribulations is brought down to us in those ollas scattered over the burning plain.

Before irrigation made habitable a portion of the Colorado Desert, persons who visited the dread region came back to civilization with strange tales of a phantom ship which was seen to sail upon a spectral sea. Sometimes this ship took the form of a full-rigged three-master; again it was a monster war-ship, with conning-towers and turrets, and great guns projecting fore and aft. The phantom vessel always appears in a certain portion of the desert and, instead of sailing slowly into sight and pa.s.sing steadily on out of range of vision, as a well-regulated ship should do, it has the remarkable faculty of rising suddenly from the mystic sea and as suddenly sinking out of sight again.

When the Imperial settlements were established in the land of mirages the mystery of the phantom ship was solved. About thirty miles south of the international line, in the republic of Mexico, rising out of a level plain, is a triple-peaked mountain known as the Black b.u.t.tes.

When the atmospheric conditions are favorable, which is frequent, the b.u.t.tes, which from the Imperial settlements are below the horizon, are lifted by refraction into view, and under the transforming power of the mirage they appear like a great ship sailing upon a vast sea.

Sometimes the three peaks are elongated and appear to be masts, while the solid granite bulk of the pile takes on the form of sails, seemingly set to catch the winds of the specter sea. Again the peaks are less elongated, and they appear like the heavier masts of a war-ship, and the sails are transformed into turrets and towers. The mirage eats into the sides of the mountains, leaving exposed several projecting points, which look like the heavy guns of a battle-ship.

Then, perhaps, while the watcher strains his eye to catch the strange vision, it suddenly disappears from sight.

At times the transformation from three-master to war-ship, or from war-vessel to three-master, takes place before the watcher's eyes, as though some mighty wizard were doing the "Presto, change!" act for the gazer's benefit. Then, very likely, the b.u.t.tes lose all resemblance to ocean craft and a.s.sume their natural shape, but appear to be surrounded by water--a granite isle in a placid sea. So vivid is this picture that the mountain casts a perfect inverted shadow of itself in the waters which apparently surround it, but which actually do not exist.

There are other peaks and mountains which are worthy of mention among the features of the Colorado Desert. One of these is Pilot k.n.o.b, and Signal Mountain is another. These two mountains are landmarks which serve to guide those who have occasion to cross the forbidding region.

Pilot k.n.o.b, in the southeastern part of the desert, is the point toward which eastern-bound travelers shape their course. The peak can be seen more than a hundred miles, and it stands out so distinctly from other mountains in that quarter of the desert that its ident.i.ty is not easily lost.

Signal Mountain rises abruptly from the level plain near the western side of the desert at the international line. It is visible from all points in the desert, and has served to guide many a traveler to safety who otherwise would have perished in the desert wastes. The mountain is pyramidal in form, and is distinctive from all other peaks of that region.

Along the eastern rim of the desert stretches a long line of hills two or three hundred feet in height, which are known as the "Walking Hills." They are gray and barren but not lacking in picturesqueness, for many strange and fantastic shapes may be traced in their outlines.

These hills are constantly changing both shape and position, and that is the reason they have received the name of Walking Hills. East of these hills run the trains of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The road was built a little more than a quarter of a century ago, and at that time the tracks were from one fourth of a mile to two miles west of the hills. Now the latter are encroaching upon the road and threaten to bury it beneath millions of tons of sand.

The tracks of the road must either be moved farther east, or else they must swing in to the west of the hills to escape being engulfed by the sandy billows. The hills are composed of fine particles of sand which have been carried before the winds which sweep a hundred miles across a level and barren plain. What first caused the sand to pile up will never be known, but once a barrier was formed, all the sand which fled before the winds piled up, raising the barrier each year. The winds, which always blow from the west, are continually beating against the base of the hills, lifting the sands there, sliding them up the sloping sides and dropping them over the other side. Thus, as the westward slope is eaten away, the eastern side of the hills is added to and they slowly advance toward the east.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIGGING THE IMPERIAL Ca.n.a.l]

The range has yet an open field many miles before it comes to the Colorado River. When the hills reach that point they will disappear, for the waters of that mighty stream will bear the shifting sands away toward the sea.

In the southwestern portion of the desert, one hundred miles across the plain from the Walking Hills, nature has dealt in geometrical figures on an extensive scale.

The plain, at this point, is composed of claylike soil, very hard and firm, unlike that of the surrounding desert, which is loose and sandy.

The clay section is smooth as macadam, and is level save for the geometrical figures which are found thereon in relief.

From beyond the clay-paved section the winds have brought the light, loose particles of soil and have piled them up in crescent-shaped hills at various places about the plain. The hills vary in size but not in shape. Each mound is as true a crescent as is the new moon, or as could be constructed by the most skillful landscape gardener. The proportions are carefully preserved in the various mounds.

The horns of the crescents all point eastward. The winds all blow from the west. Like the Walking Hills, they travel slowly across the plain, preserving their shape and proportions but growing a little taller, a little broader, and a little thicker as they go, because of the new material which is continually being brought across the plain by the constructive winds.

There is, no doubt, some good and sufficient natural cause for this peculiar construction. Some unalterable law of nature is probably being followed in the shaping of these sand-heaps, but thus far no one has been able to offer an explanation for this remarkable freak of the winds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IMPERIAL CHURCH--FIRST WOODEN BUILDING IN LOWER COLORADO DESERT]

[Footnote 1: "Pegleg" Smith was a brother of the famous trapper, Jedediah Smith.]

CHAPTER XVI

JOURNALISM BELOW SEA-LEVEL

The printing-press has sought many strange corners in the universe. It has, in these modern times, led rather than followed civilization. In the new West it usually is, first the printing-press, then the town.