Kern County Obituaries

Robert Kurz

Submitted by Don Stowell; 13 Feb 2008

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Source Unknown; 27 Jun 1940

Miner Snuffs Out Life In Desert
Dead last Friday from a dynamite cap which blew off the top or his head was 
George M. Pike, 58-year old Mojave mining man who apparently took his own 
life near his home on the desert, nine miles southwest of Mojave. Pike, a former 
employee of the Cactus Queen mine was found by his sister, Bertha Pike, beside a 
pile of rocks a hundred yards from their home shortly before noon, Friday
Portions of a dynamite cap, a burnt match and a pen knife, with traces of freshly 
cut fuse indicated Pike had set off a dynamite cap on his head investigators said. 
A finger from his right hand also was missing. 
Said to have been a former mental patient, Pike had been melancholy for a 
considerable time, a neighbor Mrs. Benjamin Northrup reported. Miss Pike was 
away from the house at the time of her brother's death said they had intended to 
move to Venice that day. Inquest was held at the Mumaw Funeral Home 
Lancaster, and was followed by funeral services and burial in Pasadena.
Lonely death on the desert also claimed Robert Kurz, 39 year-old native of 
Michigan, who was found dead in his house trailer in Sand Canyon, 45 miles north 
of Mojave. He had been prospecting for X-metal in the Sand Canyon area and was 
found dead in his house trailer on Friday by Charles Owen, Los Angeles aqueduct 
relief patrolman at Sand Canyon. The body was brought by Payne & Son Mortuary 
to Bakersfield, where an inquest was held which revealed that Kurz died from 
poisoning as the result of an insect bite. It could not be determined just what kind 
of insect had bitten him. Kurz is survived by a brother in Michigan. His body will 
be shipped there for burial.