Legends
Legends, dramatic but untrue of these lost pioneers has often focused only on the Death Valley experiences, when other Nevada and California desert regions were also traversed.
- All of the pioneers died which is why they call it Death Valley. Actually only one person died in Death Valley, an elderly man named Culverwell, who was half dead from the ordeals he met with in the two months these pioneers traveled across the Nevada desert before arriving at Death Valley.)
- It was very hot when the pioneers crossed Death Valley. Actually they arrived there in December, the winter. During this time of the year, it was extremely cold in the higher elevations of the Nevada Great Basin Desert and the pioneers were saved from dying of thirst by a snow storm and by sheets of ice on puddles of water. The most comfortable temperatures they encountered on their journey were in Death Valley, which that make it a popular winter resort and tourist destination.
- There was no water in Death Valley. Actually the pioneers found a large spring, Travertine Springs, with an output of 2,000 gallons of water per minute. They also found water at Salt Creek and Wildrose Canyon as well as snow on Pinto Peak.
Read more about this topic: Death Valley '49ers
Famous quotes containing the word legends:
“Therefore our legends always come around to seeming legendary,
A path decorated with our comings and goings. Or so I’ve been told.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)
“Farm boys wild to couple
With anything with soft-wooded trees
With mounds of earthmounds
Of pine straw will keep themselves off
Animals by legends of their own:”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)