Death Valley trip begins for new 49ers

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The Palmdale, Calif., residents are retracing the tragic route taken by gold-rush emigrants in 1849 that began in southwestern Utah, crossed the rim of the Great Basin into Nevada and ended at the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at Death Valley.

The famous desert was named by the handful of fortune-seekers who survived four months of starvation, dehydration and exhaustion while traveling the 376-mile route.

"We've been planning this for more than a year," said Allan Smith, one of the five members of the "Footsteps of the Lost 49ers Expedition," which will wind up at Death Valley National Monument on Christmas Day.

Using 49er journals, photographs and research by historians, the group hopes to locate artifacts and pioneer gravesites along the little-used trail. Most of the Lost 49er route lies on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, but due to the remote, rugged locale, few, if any, adventurers have retraced the original trail.

In early November 1849, more than 100 wagons journeyed off the Old Spanish Trail near Enterprise to pursue a shortcut over the mountain ranges bordering Utah and Nevada. After reaching a daunting canyon, most turned back to the original trail, but about 27 wagons continued on.

As the trail grew more treacherous and rations dwindled, the emigrants began tossing off all worldly possessions. Several adults and children who perished were buried where they fell, and some wanderers scratched their names on canyon walls.

Only a handful of such remnants of the past have been located along the trail.

"I don't know of anyone who has conducted an (archaeological) inventory of this route," said Dawna Ferris, a BLM archaeologist from Caliente, who has helped the Californians plan their trip. "Anything that this expedition finds is going to be very useful to us."

Sponsored by outdoor equipment manufacturers, the expedition will photograph and document any signs of the original 49ers' passage, noting the coordinates of the site with a global positioning satellite navigator the BLM has loaned the group.

The five hikers -- Smith, backcountry guide Clay Campbell, archaeologist Jerry Freeman and Freeman's adult daughters Holly and Jennifer -- will walk the entire route with supply drops arranged approximately every five days.

The expedition's start Saturday morning drew a small group of Old West enthusiasts who gathered at a stone monument erected in 1958 to mark the spot where the original wagon train split.

"I've been over many parts of this trail but never the whole thing from end to end," said Lavoid Leavitt of St. George, 72, a Western trails history buff who came to see the expedition off. "Boy, I wish I was going with them."