from: Little Water – Many Indians
Disaster at the Colorado — by Charles W. Baley, 2002

. . . After dinner, while making preparations to get underway, it was
discovered that six oxen were missing. Several men were sent back to
look for them. After tracking the missing animals for some distance, the
searchers came upon four carcasses. Two of the carcasses had all the meat
cut away while the other two were partially butchered. A short distance
farther, the other two oxen were found. They were freshly killed and
still warm, the Indians apparently scared off by their pursuers before
they could strip the meat from the animals. Due to approaching darkness
and the possibility of an ambush, the pursuit was called off.

During this phase of the journey, the wagon train was doing
much of its traveling at night, owing to the great daytime heat of the
desert and the long distances between water holes. At regular intervals,
during the night they would stop for a short rest. At one of these rest
stops, eleven-year-old Ellen Baley, a daughter of Gillum and Permelia
Baley, fell asleep and failed to awaken when the wagon train moved on.
Somehow, she was not missed until the train traveled some distance. The
poor girl awoke to find herself alone in the middle of a vast hostile
desert. Filled with fright, she began running to catch up with the
wagon train, but in her confusion, she took off in the opposite direction.
When she was discovered missing, her father and older brother,
George immediately rode back to where they had stopped. To their
horror, she was not there! Captured by the Indians must have been their
conclusion! Nevertheless, they continued their search by calling out the
little girl’s name at the top of their voices as they rode back. Their efforts
were soon rewarded when, far off in the distance, came a faint cry,
“Papa, Papa.” Her father immediately answered and kept calling her
name until he caught up with her. When reunited with her family and
the other members of the wagon train, Ellen had a tale that would
be told and retold by family members until the present day.

Disaster at the Colorado — by Charles W. Baley, 2002