The posse threw fear into the raiders, but didn't catch them, though the latter lost half of the stolen horses. At Resting Springs, Carrillo found some abandoned clothing, saddles, and cooking utensils. Fifteen hundred horses that had died from thirst or lack of food were counted during the chase.
Later, when Pegleg Smith was chided about the high price he demanded of an emigrant for a horse, he remarked: "Well, the horses cost me plenty. I lost half of them getting out of the country and three of my best squaws...."
The earliest American settler at Resting Springs remembered by old timers was Philander Lee, a rough and somewhat eccentric squaw man. He was big, straight as a ramrod, afraid of nothing, and of an undetermined past. He was there in the early Eighties. He cleared 200 acres, raised alfalfa, stock, and some fruit. He had a way of adding the last part of his first name to his offspring, Leander and Meander are samples. Some of his descendants still live in the country.
It was near Resting Springs Ranch while Phi Lee owned it that Jacob Breyfogle, of lost mine fame, was scalped by Hungry Bill's tribesmen. The story is told in another chapter.
Phi Lee's brother, Cub Lee, who added spicy pages to the annals of Death Valley country, built the first home erected at Shoshone--an adobe which still stands. It was long the home of the squaw, Ann Cowboy. Another brother of Phi Lee was known as "Shoemaker" because he roamed the desert as a cobbler. All were squaw men.
Cub Lee established a reputation for keeping his word and it was said no one ever disputed it and lived. Indians over in Nevada were giving a "heap big" party. His squaw wanted to go. Cub didn't. "You stay home," he ordered. "If you go, I'll kill you." He rode away and upon returning, discovered she was absent. He leaped on his cayuse, went to the party and found her. Whipping out his gun he killed both wife and son, blew the smoke out of his pistol and leisurely rode away.
But the Nevada officials thought Cub Lee was too meticulous about keeping his word and Cub had a brief cooling off period in the pen.
Pegleg Smith made Resting Springs his headquarters for the greatest haul in the history of California horse stealing and reached Cajon Pass before the theft was discovered. These horses were driven into Utah and there sold to emigrants, traders, and ranchers. Smith may be said to be the inventor of the Lost Mine, as a means of getting quick money. The credulous are still looking for mines that existed only in Pegleg's fine imagination.