At the height of the California gold rush in the late-1840's, a wagon train of men, women, children, and their animals stumbled into a 130-mile-long valley in the Mojave Desert through a "shortcut" to the California coast. What ensued was an ordeal that divided the camp into remnants and struck them with hunger, thirst, and a terrible sense of being lost and beyond hope, until one of their party volunteered to cross the desert to get help.

This young hero was one of the survivors of the tragedy, and he lived to tell the tale in this gripping autobiographical account. In a time of unmarked frontiers and vast, true wilderness, death lurked in every canyon, down every unmarked waterway. After being hit by gold rush fever, many joined the fateful wagon train that would get swallowed up by the barren, arid, hostile valley with its dry and waterless terrain, unearthly surface of white salts, and overwhelming heat. Assaulted and devastated by the elements, members of the camp killed their emaciated oxen for food, ran out of water, split up, and lost and buried their own kin who perished. When the remaining band of ten came across a rare water hole, they and a companion left the rest by the water and crossed the treacherous Panamint Mountains and Mojave Desert by themselves in search of help. In a true act of heroism against all odds, they finally returned twenty-five days later with help, rescuing their compatriots, including four children, even when it seemed all hope was lost.

This compelling and stirring account brings alive to modern-day readers the unimaginable hardships of America’s brave pioneers, and a chapter in California history that should not be forgotten.