Camino del Diablo: The graves

This is not meant to be morbid but rather a reminder of the extremes of danger for those who traveled this desert trail. 

What I saw were the historic graves, nothing from the pre-Spanish era. The Sonoran Desert has been inhabited for over 10,000 years and archaeologists have limited knowledge of the first people. What little is known consists of trails, trail shrines, petroglyphs/pictographs, mano and metate sites, sleeping circles and geoglyphs (the Blythe geoglyphs being some of the most famous).

Some of these markers were names of people who may have died on their desert crossing or maybe just the fact that they were here.

There is little information even for the historic markers. They are marked with rock piles in the form of a cross.

Many were just rocks piled over the grave.

One documented grave is that of Dave O'Neill, a prospector whose body was found along the trail in 1915. 

The irony of the circumstances of his death is that his body was found face down in a puddle of water. He had drowned in one of the driest places in North America. There is a hill and an accompanying pass named for where his body was found.

These are only the marked graves that I witnessed, there are reports of hundreds of people who died along this trail. Prospectors, immigrants, and hundreds if not thousands of their live stock.

Since my bike trip in 1995 there has been an increase of travelers through this area. Drug traffickers looking for a lucrative profit in the drug trade and immigrants just looking for a better life.

Unfortunately the deaths continue to this day.

In 1992 during a reconnaissance trip to the area, I was riding my bike on a back trail of the monument when a Border Patrol Agent drove up to me in his truck. I told him of my idea of riding the Camino and asked about the dangers involved, especially if I were to meet those people. His answer was unnerving.

"You shouldn't have any problem with the immigrants, they just want to come here for work. If you come across any drug trafficker, they will probably kill you on sight."