The Story Of William L. Manly Poem by Carole Moran

A place in the desert where date palm trees grow
And peopled with folks from afar.
The Furnace Creek story bears telling e'en now;
As years pass, the mem’ries continue to flow.

A hero both manly and brave to a flaw
Was born on the wastes of this land;
In saving a party of families from death,
He followed his conscience, and safe all them saw.

While women and children were gripped with the heat,
And thirsting for water in vain;
The men were so stricken with hunger, that meat
From oxen that died they ate raw and complete.

The pioneer families remained in the sand
Alone they were stranded by fate.
But manly and brave walked the hero afar
To find them the succor their lives would demand.

He found the way out of this desert of death
And brought them to port in the end
And never forgot what he'd done for his friends
Nor got over the hell of the Valley of Death.