This story won't help anyone find the LDM but you might find it interesting.
In 1959 I was a Boy Scout in troop #33 located in Phoenix. We took one of our camping trips to the Superstition Mountains. I don't recall where we went but the only man made feature there was a concrete box around a spring. the box had a faucet that we could get water out of.
One of the boys that went on this trip was not a member of our troop. I have forgotten his first name but his last name was Maxey. I'll call him Joe. In December of 1958 Joe's sister Nettie Isore Maxey, and here I quote from Barney Barnard's Superstition Mountain book, "A pretty 17 year old Phoenix girl falls, (Or was she pushed) from an 80 foot cliff while hiking over rugged, western slope of Superstitions."
Well, we set up camp, sat around a campfire and told ghost stories, then rolled up in our sleeping bags. The next morning Joe was not in camp. The Scout Master drove back down the road and found Joe several miles away from camp walking back to Phoenix. Evidently Joe got spooked and wanted home. I can't really blame him.
The next morning the spring ran out of water. So the Scout Master took some jugs and went somewhere to get them filled with water. While he was gone we Scouts decided we knew how to get water. We had seen drawings of someone cutting the top off a barrel cactus and dipping water out with a cup to quench their thirst.
We decided to try. We took our Boy Scout hatchets and cut the top off a near by barrel cactus. We were disappointed. There was no water. The inside of the barrel cactus had as much water as a radish. I cut out a piece and chewed on it. I got very little moisture and what I did get was very bitter.
Now maybe in a wet year things might have been different, but I would advise anyone not to depend on a barrel cactus for water.
This comes from a book on cactus by Reg Manning. Very interesting book but maybe not everything in the book is 100% accurate.
In 1959 I was a Boy Scout in troop #33 located in Phoenix. We took one of our camping trips to the Superstition Mountains. I don't recall where we went but the only man made feature there was a concrete box around a spring. the box had a faucet that we could get water out of.
One of the boys that went on this trip was not a member of our troop. I have forgotten his first name but his last name was Maxey. I'll call him Joe. In December of 1958 Joe's sister Nettie Isore Maxey, and here I quote from Barney Barnard's Superstition Mountain book, "A pretty 17 year old Phoenix girl falls, (Or was she pushed) from an 80 foot cliff while hiking over rugged, western slope of Superstitions."
Well, we set up camp, sat around a campfire and told ghost stories, then rolled up in our sleeping bags. The next morning Joe was not in camp. The Scout Master drove back down the road and found Joe several miles away from camp walking back to Phoenix. Evidently Joe got spooked and wanted home. I can't really blame him.
The next morning the spring ran out of water. So the Scout Master took some jugs and went somewhere to get them filled with water. While he was gone we Scouts decided we knew how to get water. We had seen drawings of someone cutting the top off a barrel cactus and dipping water out with a cup to quench their thirst.
We decided to try. We took our Boy Scout hatchets and cut the top off a near by barrel cactus. We were disappointed. There was no water. The inside of the barrel cactus had as much water as a radish. I cut out a piece and chewed on it. I got very little moisture and what I did get was very bitter.
Now maybe in a wet year things might have been different, but I would advise anyone not to depend on a barrel cactus for water.
This comes from a book on cactus by Reg Manning. Very interesting book but maybe not everything in the book is 100% accurate.
