Bennett-Arcane Long Camp

Bennett-Arcane Long Camp was a 1849er camp set up in December of 1849 in Death Valley as they traveled to the California Gold Rush. They were emigrants crossing the harsh Desert to get to California. The camp was located just west of valley's Badwater Basin in the Death Valley National Park Inyo County, California. Badwater Basin is lowest point in North America and the United States, at a depth of 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. The Bennett-Arcane party became known as the Death Valley '49ers.[2][3][4] The Death Valley '49ers were pioneers from the Eastern United States travelling west to prospect in the Sutter's Fort area of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada in California. The wagon train crossed Utah across the Great Basin Desert in Nevada. They made a wrong turn on got trapped in Death Valley. After exiting they crossed the Mojave Desert into Southern California. Still wanting to go to the California Gold Country. The group used the southern Desert part of the Old Spanish Trail, after hearing about the death of the Donner Party. Some of the party died on the near the camp and the suffering gave the place the name Death Valley.[5] John Haney Rogers was one of the men that departed the valley on foot and came back with help.

Bennett-Arcane Long Camp
Badwater Basin, Bennett-Arcane Long Camp was left center of photo
LocationBadwater Basin, Death Valley
Coordinates36.1634°N 116.863372222222°W / 36.1634; -116.863372222222
Official nameCamBennett-Arcane Long Camp
DesignatedOctober 24, 1949
Reference no.444[1]

John Haney Rogers and John Haney Rogers walked 250 miles across the Mojave Desert to Rancho San Fernando near Los Angeles, California. They found a route out of the valley for those trapped in Death Valley. At Rancho San Fernando received food and horses from Mexican villagers to take backand save the party. The group then traveled to Rancho San Francisco.[6]

The group had slit up in the valley, the other group was the Jayhawkers, stay with their original plan of traveling west out of the valley. Both groups were stuck in the valley for a month and both saved from dying of thirst by a snow storm. They two groups later had a meeting later.[5][7][8][9]


California Historical Landmark

A California Historical Marker was setup in 1965 by the California State Park Commission working with City of Calexico and the John P. Squibob with E Clampus Vitus. The marker is at the 400 Block of East 5th Street, Calexico. The California Historical Landmark number 808.

The California Historical Landmark reads:

NO. 444 BENNETT-ARCANE LONG CAMP - Near this spot the Bennett-Arcane contingent of the Death Valley '49ers, emigrants from the Middle West seeking a shortcut to California gold fields, were stranded for a month and almost perished from starvation. William Lewis Manley and John Rogers, young members of the party, made a heroic journey on foot to San Fernando and, returning with supplies, led the party to the safety of San Francisquito Rancho near Newhall. [10]


See also

References
  1. "Bennett-Arcane Long Camp". Office of Historic Preservation, California State Parks.
  2. [http://www.utahsdixie.info/hs/l03-hunt.html UTAH'S DIXIE HISTORICAL SITES SONS OF THE UTAH PIONEER - COTTON MISSION CHAPTER]
  3. Lyman, Edward Leo (2004). The Overland Journey. Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press. p. 63. ISBN 0874177529.
  4. Lingenfelter, Richard E. (1988). Death Valley and the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion. University of California Press. p. 34. ISBN 9780520908888.
  5. "The Lost '49ers". National Park Service. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  6. Reynolds, Jerry. "Paradise Found". Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2017-10-08. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  8. William Lewis Manly, Death Valley in '49, Library of Congress
  9. "The Death Valley '49ers." Accessed 3 September 2020.
  10. californiahistoricallandmarks.com # 444


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