The Russell Party reached the pinery on 20 June 1858, seven weeks after the departure of Marcy and Loring. Once in the trees, the gold seekers could only marvel at the number of dead animals decomposing in the summer sun. Philander Simmons would remember all his life the dead sheep which were "lying in piles around the camp."{1} His companion, T.C. Dickson, would recall not only the carcasses of several mules, but also two fresh graves. At the head of the second grave he saw a board on which he remembered reading the words: "Michael Fagan, froze to death on the 6th day of May, 1858."(2) This May 6th date was, of course, four days later than the date recorded by Second Lieutenant Dubois, an eyewitness to the burial.
Another recording of the inscription was made by Luke Tierney when, in November of 1858, he found time to edit the joural of his experiences with the Russell Party:
"On the twenty-first we resumed our march at eleven o'clock, A.M. We passed a perpendiculat rock, five hundred feet high, at the base of which was a tomb of recent origin, occupied by some unfortunate itinerant. At its head stood a wooden cross, bearing the insciption, "Charles Michael Fagan - 1858."(3)
The gold seekers from Missouri, led by Captain Doke, passed through Black Forest a few days behind the Russell Party. Unfortunately, no one from this second group seems to have left a written record of his impressions.
The Lawrence Party did not immediately go over the divide, but instead followed Fountain Creek to the base of Pikes Peak. Here they spent a month panning the mountain streams of the region. After a hurried trip south to Fort Garland to check out further reports of gold, they returned north in early September of 1858. William Parsons later described their route up the Cherokee Trail, from Jimmy Camp to what he called "O'Falley's Grave:"
"From Jim's Camp the distance is twelve miles to 'Brush Corral' or the entrance to the 'Pinery.' The corral will be easily found. It was built by Col. Loring of the United States army, who led a detachment destined for Utah over the route in May, 1858. The next cammping place is O'Falley's Grave, twelve miles distant, the whole way being through the pinery, and marked by the various camping places of Colonel Loring - broken wagons and dead animals, all of which attest the difficulties of his march. O'Falley's grave is in an amphitheater of hills and rocks - a peaceful valley, watered by a beautiful stream. O'Falley was one of the vicims of Col. Loring's march."(4)
This corruption of the name "Fagan" into that of "O'Falley" was destined to be immortalized in print. William Parsons returned to Kansas Territory in the late fall of 1858; by December he has issued what was to become the first of the Pikes Peak guidebooks. The publication of other guidebooks followed. As many as seventeen still survive from the year 1859 alone. In most of those which desribe the southern route, the brush corral and Fagan's grave were listed as prominent landmarks along the Cherokee Trail.
The story of the Marcy-Loring disaster was spread among later gold seekers not only through these guidebooks, but also by word of mouth. A Kansas City party of fifty-seven men and one woman heard the story when they reached the old Pueblo on the Arkansas River in late October of 1858. Living near the adobe ruins was one George McDougal. With him were his Mexican woman and several of her countrymen. McDougal himself had come west in the spring of 1858 with the Cherokees of the Russell Party. Remembering the scenes of disaster on the divide, he advised the newcomers to hurry across so as to avoid meeting up with another killer snowstorm. McDougal also repeated a rumor he had heard about a stash of whiskey said to have been hidden somewher near Fagan's grave by members of the Loring Expedition.
The forewarned gold seekers from Kansas City reached the divide on 29 October 1858. Night camp was made near Fagan's grave, where diarist David Kellogg chronicled the day's events:
"October 29th. Kill antelope as we drive toward the bleak hills. Nooned at Black Squirrel Creek. Near our camp are the graves of two men who perished here last May, soldiers of Gen. Marcy's command on their way to fight the Mormons at Salt Lake. Severe storms often visited this region and McDougal advised us to hurry across. Our thirsty boys have been searching for a cache of liquor said to have been left here by Johnson's command. We camped at Point of Rocks close to the grave of another of Marcy's men. A cross over the grave reads: 'Michael Fagan, Died May 10th, 1857.'
"October 30th, 1858. A snow storm last night; got away early; a wolf high up on the 'Point of Rocks' overhead howled most dismally a farewell to us and a requiem to Fagan...."(5)
©1999 2000 Richard Gehling E-mail me.
FOOTNOTES -
(1)- Simmons, Philander. "The Cherokee Expedition of 1858," Pike's Peak Gold Rush Guidebooks of 1859. ed. by LeRoy R. Hafen (Glendale, Calif., The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1941).
(2)- Dickson, T.C. "Early Experiences of Col. T.C. Dickson," related by J.D. Miller. The Trail, Vol. III, (March, 1911), pp. 5-11.
(3)- Tierney, Luke. "Luke Tierney Guidebook," Pike's Peak Gold Rush Guidebooks of 1859, ed. by LeRoy R. Hafen (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1941).
(4)- Parsons, William B. New Gold Mines of Western Kansas. (Cincinnati: George S. Blanchard, 1859).
(5)- Kellogg, David. "Across the Plains in 1858," The Trail, Vol. V, (January, 1913), pp. 5-12.