This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Lesikowski Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JW.2ADE/8132 Message Board Post: Marines Find Body of Lost Prospector Sunday, July 28, was one of those blistering hot days when the desert sun assaulted the Mojave Desert with blistering waves of heat, and the sand, already saturated with heat, cast waves of heat back at the sun, and any man unlucky enough to be there, was a burnt victim of the combination. So it was with pleasure that 50 Marines at MCAAS were enjoying the coolness and peacefulness of their barracks. Into this complacency came an officer telling of a prospector lost on the desert, and asking for volunteers to help in the search for him. Over 50 Marines quickly abandoned their leisure, donned their utilities and clambered into jeeps and trucks. Guided by a helicopter, they rode over into the mountains near Tehachapi, and there, on foot started their search under Lt. C. H. Pitman, the officer in charge. Another group was under Capt. H. M. Braydes, and as they climbed the rocky hillsides, one Marine, Corp. Chesire, lost his footing' on a loose boulder and slid down the embankment, the rocks scraping his face. He was promptly taken to the Marine Hospital with two broken ribs and a lacerated face. Capt. Braydes was returning to the search when he met others returning, with news that the prospector had been found. Sgt. Lane had discovered the body on the mountain side, at 7:45 p.m. A deserted pick axe, four feet above the body, bore mute evidence as to where the prospector had been seized either with a heart attack or a sunstroke. He had slid the short distance and was found propped up by a 4 x 4 which had lodged between his legs. He was face down so that the sun had burnt only the back of his neck which was described as "black." The prospector was identified as James Howard Wallace of Los Angeles, 49, who had filed on several uranium claims in the nearby area and was in the habit of making weekend trips to find more possible strikes. Wallace was reported lost by his wife, who had driven out to the desert with him about six that morning and who proceeded to wait in the car while he did his prospecting. He was supposed to return to the car before the sun rose too high, about 10 :30 and when he failed to do so by 2:30 p.m., Mrs. Wallace drove into Mojave and reported the incident to Sheriff's deputy Dewey Jones. The deputy immediately started the search with the co-operation of the M.C.A.A.S. resulting in the discovery of Wallace's body which was carried by six of the Marines who threaded their way down the mountain side to a Marine truck which took it to the O'Donnell Funeral Home in Mojave. But for 6 Marines this was not the end, as about 10:30 that night a deputy interviewed them and obtained depositions for use at the Autopsy which was held the next day at which the cause of death was determined as a heart attack. On Tuesday, the body was taken to the McMillan Funeral Home in Gardena, Calif., where services were held in their chapel with interment in Inglewood Park Cemetery. Mr. Wallace is survived by his wife Selene, one daughter, Mrs. Ila Lesikowski of Downey and a son, Lawrence of Milpitas, Calif. Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society Courtesy Mojave Desert News, California City, Kern, CA. Published: 01 Aug 1957