Three Le Beau sisters-
Jennie, 9, Louise, 6, Emma, 3, and Turner Wilson, 3- died from diptheria
and buried here in 1864, or so one story goes. We do know that after
some kind of weather event in the early 1940's uncovered the original graves, two skeletons
were reburied here. Supposedly, there is another grave site roughly
0.5 miles north. Some written records, however, indicate the demise of
the children at places and dates much different. Be that as it may, buried
here or not, the site is a reminder of the trials and tribulations of
pioneer crossings and of the many gravesites that will never be found.
They say father Albert founded Frenchman's Station 10 miles to the east,
but other records name a M. Bermond, hence the earlier name Bermond, Nevada.
Frenchman's does, however, sit on the north end of Labou Flat, according
to USGS maps, and the spelling is quite similar. Before the site was improved,
in 1939 according to reports, there was only a Small marker with "LeB"
So was it a flood, or the wind that uncovered the skeletons?
Three children's desert graves along the north side of the four-mile flat twenty-five miles east of Fallon are now available to S. J. Taylor and William Manley of Fallon who have promised to see they are properly marked with native headstones. It was along the old trail that Taylor and Manley last year found the skeletons of two children where the winds had blown away the sand and earth covering. They were estimated to have been there about ninety years. Time of burial is as yet undetermined, but they say it was probably between seventy and eighty years ago that an emigrant family lost the children along the desert. Mrs. A. M. Greenwood of Stillwater wrote that Taylor and Manley could learn about the burials by writing Mrs. Elmaide Drew of Broderick, Calif. "There were nine children in the Bebeau family," Mrs. Drew replied. "There are Henry Lebeau, also of Broderick, and myself. Albert died a few years ago in Stillwater. "The three little girls died from diphtheria in three days—one every day. The names were: Jennie, age nine; Louise, age six; Emma, age three." Taylor and Manley, however, had reburied but two of the skeletons—all they had found. But Taylor says he believes, from the size of the bones, that the new graves he and Manley made were for Jennie and Emma. That is the way he will have the headstones engraved—and he will try to find the remains of the baby, Emma.
Reno Evening Gazette, May 16, 1941
Who, exactly, is buried here and when they were buried might never be known, except for the fact that they are children.
So it's ironic that there is suddenly some doubt over whose remains really are beneath the alkali mud. It arose after a Los Angeles Times story two years ago repeated what had become local legend — and a LeBeau family genealogist in Utah found out. She disputes the story. Two years ago. L.A. Times reporter Charles Hillinger interviewed the retired Fallon caretaker of the grave — 72-year-old Johnnie Johnson — and perused old clippings from local newspapers. The reporter's story was syndicated across the U.S. and Canada. and came to the attention Ted and Mary LeBeau of Mapleton, Utah. Ted Land is a grandnephew of the three LeBeau sisters. Wife Mary says information copied from an old family Bible shows that daughter "Mary Louise" died at age 3 in 1864. Jennie died at 6 in 1871. and
Emma died at 9 in 1877. That's a span of 13 years — NOT three days, as the grave myth claims. What's more. says Mary LeBeau, Bible entries say that two children. including Jennie. were born in the Sierra foothills town of Placerville. Calif. in the early 1860s. The LeBeaus were heading east, not wagon-training west, says Mariy LeBeau; possibly so patriarch Michael LeBeau , a hotel-keeper, could start an inn on a new stage route.
-Reno Gazette Journal, September 9, 1990
You have to be careful
when visiting the site as there is really no place to pull over, and folks
aren't expecting you to be stopping. However, if you pull too far off
the road, you risk sinking up to your rearview mirrors in slimy muck.
Even though the surface looks dry and crusty, the slipperiest and slimiest
mud you'll ever witness lurks just under the surface. You'll probably
encounter some when you walk out to the grave, particularly in the Spring.
Johnnie Johnson of Fallon, a retired Fish and Wildlife supervisor, encountered a shoe and a bone in 1979 and took it upon himself to build the fence and bring some rock to spruce up the site. Mr. Johnson passed away in 1995, I believe.
The signs are a bit faded, but various visitors have left toys, bit of jewelry, and coins on top of the grave.