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Show 192 extent of his explorations. Going as far north as it seemed expedient, the Iron County contingent retraced its steps back down the valley and continued exploring south in hopes of linking up with Bean and his company of Beaver City men. It was now nearing the middle of May. George W. Bean's southwest journey is not well documented. Unlike the party from Iron County who surveyed to the northwest of Snake Valley, Bean's contingent left no map which has been found today; although later in the month he wrote to Brigham Young that he hoped to "be able to make a full and complete 26 map of this hitherto unknown country." Many years later, in his autobiography, Bean claimed that after leaving Snake Creek he made his way southwest into 27 the Pahranagat Valley of present-day Lincoln County, Nevada. In his reports to President Young, Bean represented that he "crossed two valleys into the rim of the Great Basin, exploring right and left, for springs which we found at convenient distances, Plenty of grass and wood on the mountains, but the val- 28 lies were barren." "Southwest of the White Mountains," wrote the explorer, "we find but little water and grass a few springs generally in the mountains 29 some in the vallies but not very good, alkali being present." Edson Barney recalled in later years that "Bro. Geo. W. Bean and company returned from the ..30 southwest direction about 100 miles over the rim of the Basin. It would appear from Barney's statement that Bean did indeed penetrate the desert far enough to reach the Pahranagat Valley. Assuming this, Bean would have rounded the south end of the Snake Range and probably headed straight across Lake Valley for the gap between the Fortification Range and the Wilson Creek Range, the only good crossing to the southwest. Once through the gap, the company was now in Lake Valley, a vast, sage-covered plain surrounded by cedar and pinon. From here Bean had a variety of options open to him to the southwest. He undoubtedly would have chosen to skirt the massive Schell Creek |