Death Valley ’49ers Ecampment celebrates area’s past

Death Valley National Park welcomes the 60th annual Death Valley '49ers Encampment Nov. 4-8. During the park's most popular special event, thousands of participants fill Death Valley campgrounds, hotels and resorts, spilling over into nearby desert towns.

The encampment keeps participants busy. The five-day event schedules Western-style music, arts and crafts shows, cowboy poetry readings, golf and horseshoe tournaments, pioneer costume contests, confabs, special 4X4 tours, horseback and wagon train trail rides, community breakfasts and much more. Although many activities are reserved for encampment registrants, others, such as the colorful parade and juried Western art show, are open to the public.

The nonprofit '49ers volunteers remain dedicated to expanding and enhancing public awareness of Death Valley's history and environment. The group sponsors historical conferences, publishes books and organizes the annual encampment, which funds a scholarship program for Death Valley area students. The encampment celebrates the spirit and endurance of the 1849 gold rush era wagon trains sorely tested when crossing Death Valley.

Discovery of gold near Sacramento whipped up a worldwide frenzy. Gold seekers tried to reach California any way they could. Many booked passage or worked their way aboard ships on voyages that took months. Many more set out across largely uncharted territory on foot, by horse or in organized wagon trains. They followed sketchy routes mapped by a handful of Western explorers.

Wagon trains headed for the Mother Lode country used several routes through the fearsome Sierra Nevada range. Trains starting too late in the year to cross before winter snows closed the passes had to wait for snow melt. Two parties stalled east of the mountains in the fall of 1849 acted upon information of a shorter route. They headed southwest to save 500 miles. What they had not anticipated was the driest, deepest, most desolate valley on the continent.

Lost, running out of supplies and without water, the gold seekers killed their oxen for food and burned their wagons to roast the meat. Leaving despairing families behind, two men continued on foot to a ranch in the distant San Fernando Valley. Hastily assembling a rescue party, they returned to lead the emigrants to safety. The departing group looked back to bid goodbye to "Death Valley." Historically accurate or not, the name stuck.

During California's centennial in 1949, about 65,000 people gathered in November in Death Valley to mark the events there a century earlier. Actor Jimmy Stewart stood out among dignitaries and celebrities attending the first and largest Death Valley '49ers Encampment. The annual event still draws upward of 10,000 participants, many using modern RVs in place of the covered wagons of yesteryear. Others retrace part of the original '49ers route on a wagon trek.

Those interested in participating in the 60th annual Death Valley '49ers Encampment should hasten. Consult the group's Web site at www.deathvalley49ers.org for information on registration. Detailed program schedules are included in the registration package. Event locations include sites all over Death Valley, but especially at Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells. Plan on the park's campgrounds and overflow areas to be full of RVs. Many must use RV campgrounds in portal towns such as Beatty, Shoshone, Death Valley Junction and Tecopa and drive into the park for encampment events.

The Web site includes phone numbers for places to stay if you prefer lodgings to campgrounds. The park's hostelries offer discounts during the annual encampment.

Check remaining availability with Furnace Creek Inn, Furnace Creek Ranch and Stovepipe Wells Resort, all park concessions. The privately owned Panamint Springs Resort on the park's western side and the nearby Longstreet Inn in Amargosa Valley also offer options.

Margo Bartlett Pesek's column appears on Sundays.