Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Zane Grey
Chapter 20 -- More Boys Club Serials
Some may uphold Zane Grey as a literary artesian, but others would argue that his works are
Boys Club fodder, just for older boys. Both Gray and Louis L’Amour churned out roughly 100
volumes, generally of the cowboy genre, but as L’Amour came no closer to underground rivers
than Callaghen (1972), advertized to be about following an "underground river of gold," clearly
metaphorical, we'll not count Louis.
Gray, on the other hand, employed a physical underground river in Desert Gold (1913).
The time was near the end of the dry season. Perhaps an underground stream flowed from the
range behind down to the valley floor, and at this point came near to the surface. Cameron had
heard of such desert miracles.
He was just in time to see the last of the water. It seemed to sink as in quicksand. The shape
of the hole had changed. The tremendous force of the blast in the adjoining field had
obstructed or diverted the underground stream of water.
Suddenly he again heard the dull roar of falling water. It seemed to have cleared itself of
muffled vibrations. Yaqui mounted a little ridge and halted. The next instant Gale stood above
a bottomless cleft into which a white stream leaped. His astounded gaze swept backward
along this narrow swift stream to its end in a dark, round, boiling pool. It was a huge spring, a
bubbling well, the outcropping of an underground river coming down from the vast plateau
above.
Following are the pertinent panels from Desert Gold's comic book version. We could have thus
saved Gray for Chapter 24, Underground Rivers in the Comics, but that would truly infuriate Gray
devotees. In deference to Gray's hard-cover credentials, we include an advertisement for his
complete works.
"Desert Gold"
Zane Grey Comics # 467
May-June 1953
DRAFT 1122//66//22001122
1951 Zane Grey Book Offer
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