194911 Desert Magazine 1949 November

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T h i s is a 1 9 2 - p a g e b o o k9"xl2" in size. There are at least 60pages of instructive articles by authorsof national fame. There are new articlesby Emil Kronquist andLouis Wieneron jewelry making. The 15-page articleon jewelry casting by theLOST WAXMETHOD using the NEW KERRHOBBYCRAFT CASTING UNIT isalone worth $1. "ROCK DETERMINA-TION SIMPLIFIED" byMr. E. V. VanAmringe with illustrations and chartshelps you to identify your field tripdiscoveries. Twoexcellent field tripsare mapped.Everything you need in MACHINERY,TOOLS, SUPPL IES, andMATERIALSis illustrated, described, andpriced foryour convenience. VISIT OURSHOPAND SECURE YOUR COPY OFTHISUNIQUE BOOK.

IN U.S.A., ITSCANADA FORONLY $1.00.READ THESE REMARKS BY THOSE WHO PUR-CHASED THE FIRST EDITION."I would still buy it at $3.00 to $5.00 as it contains asmuch if notmore meaty information for the lapidaryand jeweler than anyof the books on themarket sellingin that price range." "It is better than most lapidaryhandbooks." "It is theonly satisfactory catalog of lapi-dary supplies and materials that I have ever seen. It issuperbly illustrated and superbly printed."The SUPERCATALOG contains many bargains that willmore than save you the $1.00paid for it.Here are a fewoutstanding offers:PURE TINOXIDE $2.00 per lb., 3lbs. for$5.00, 5 lbs.for $7.50.COMPLETE STERLING CHAINS $2.95 perdozen.

RUTILE RAINBOW DIAMONDSAfter years of experiments, synthetic Rutile is nowavailable in cutgems of unbelievable beauty. This mag-nificent substance isknown as"TITANIA."

"TITANIA" IS INDEED "QUEEN OF ALLGEMS"TITANIA LOOKS LIK E WHA T MOST PEOPL E THINKA DIAMOND SHOULD LOOK LIKE. It is a warm,colorful, exciting, anddesirable gem. This gem is farmore beautiful than the diamond. When viewed withproper lighting every facet will reflect all thecolors ofthe spectrum. Because of this, one of our customerswrote totell ushow pleased they were with their beauti-ful new RAINBOW DIAMOND. WE AREVERY PROUDOF THEFINE QUALITY GEMS produced by ourcutters . Wewill mount TITANIA GEMS in any typemounting and GUARANTEE A P ER F EC T JOB.Our new SUPERCATALOG listed above gives youall thefacts about TITANIA GEMS and ILLUSTRATESMOUNTINGS ESPECIALLY SELECTED for them. Anarticle tells thestory behind this AMAZING DISCOVERY.BE THEFIRST INYOUR COMMUNITY TO OWN ONEOF THESE BEAUTIFUL NEWRAINBOW DIAMONDS.

E X C I T I ^ jO N S E P T E M B E R . 1 5 W E R E L E A S E D "

*74e A/eiu 1950 dUio*i ajjOut&HC4fclof*edia audGaicdcHj, aj tlte JlofudaSuf. and flewebuf Alii

NECKLACE CLASPS 50c per dozen; LOCKETLOOPS 50cperdozen.BRACELET CLASPS $2.00 per dozen; CLIP EAR-W IR ES $1.75 per dozen.SCREW EARWIRES $1.50perdozen (AllSterling).BEGINNERS BONANZA BARGAIN African TigerE y e , Chilean Lapis, Brazilian Agate, Assorted Jas-pers , Agates andPetrified Woods. Total of 5 lbs.cutting material for$2.00 plus postage on 7 bs.BEGINNERS SLAB COLLECTION Slabs of Rhodo-nite, Tiger Eye, Brazilian Agate, etc. 25 sq. inches,assorted slabs of cutting material, $2.50 plus postageon 1 lb.BE SURE TOVISIT OUR COMPLETELYNEWOUTDOOR MINERAL AND ROUGHGEMDEPARTMENT

R U T I L E I S T H E G E M O F T H E H O U RI T I S N O W A R E A L I T Y

DEALERS INQUIRIES SOLICITEDEveryone tow h o m you show this new gem will wishto purchase one of them. Our SUPERCATALOG tellsy o u ofour discount plan that will permit you toownon e ofthese new g e m s at nocost toyourself.OUR RAINBOW DIAMONDS ARE CUT FROMSELECT NATIONAL LEAD COMPANY TITANIABOULES.

TITANIA GEMS are priced at $12.50 ior small sizes oi V*carat or less$15.00 per stone ior gems oi 85/100 carats to 1 1/5carats$12.50 per carat for gems of IVt carats to3V4 carats$40.00 ior any stone of3V4 carats to 4 carats$10.00 per carat ior any gem oi 4 carats or larger

Above prices are ior round brilliant cut gemsAdd Federal &State Taxes and Shipping Costs to allabove prices.

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D E S E R T C A L E N D A ROct. 31Nevada Day, parade, eve-ning celebration, Carson City, Ne-vada.Nov. 1All Saints Day, dances,Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.Nov. 1Opening of first Wickenburggolf course, Wickenburg, Arizona.Nov. 4 -1 3 Arizona State fair,Phoenix.Nov. 6United Miners National con-ference, Reno, Nevada.Nov. 8-9 Arizona State Bankersconvention, Phoenix.Nov. 10-11-12 American Wom en'sMedical association convention,Tucson, Arizona.Nov. 10-21Open season on deerand wild turkey in most sectionsof New Mexico.Nov. 11-12State-wide square dancefestival, Globe, Arizona.Nov. 11-12-13Clark C ounty GemCollectors Mineral and Gem show,U. S. Naval Reserve armory, Las

Vegas, Nevada.Nov. 12Harvest dance at Jem ezIndian pueblo, 45 miles north ofAubuquerque, New Mexico.Nov. 12Fiesta at Tesuque pueblo,Indian village seven miles north ofSanta Fe, New Mexico.Nov. 12Arizona E ngineering con-vention, Phoenix.Nov. 12-13 Old Tucson days, inTucson Mountain park, sponsoredby Junior chamber of commerce.Includes reenactment of early-daylife in Tucson, Arizona.Nov. 12-16-Ogden Livestock show,Ogden, Utah.Nov. 22Season opens for huntingbear in New Mexico, with or with-out dogs. Season ends December1 0 .Nov. 24F irst of weekly rodeosstaged by Desert Sun ranches,Wickenburg, Arizona.Nov. 28 - 29 Twenty - ninth annualconvention of New Mexico Farmand Livestock association, Albu-querque, New Mexico.NovemberNavajo dances after thefirst frost, in various communitiesat unspecified dates. Arizo na andNew Mexico.NovemberWinter guest ranch andresort season in Arizona desertopens.

DAT E OF DE AT H VAL L E YCE NT E NNI AL I S CHANGE D . . .Because of conflict with other south-ern California events, date of theDeath Valley Centennial pageant to bepresented in Desolation canyon of theFuneral range has been changed fromNovember 19 to December 3a two-week postponement.Officials announced the shift in datesfollowing a meeting of directors ofDeath Valley '49ers, Inc., sponsoringorganization. Th e page ant will depictdramatic incidents in the journey ofthe Manly-Jayhawker part ies throughCalifornia's Death Valley just 100years ago.

Volume 13 Novem ber, 1949 Num ber 1COVERCALENDARTRAVELWILDLIFEQUIZFIELD TRIPEXPLORATIONPOETRYPHOTOGRAPHYMININGLETTERSTRAGEDYHUMORCLOSE-UPSNEWSHOBBYLAPIDARYCOMMENTBOOKS

DEATH VALLEY MEMORIES, by Don MohrLos An ge les , Ca l i forn iaNov emb er even ts on the dese r t 3Ne w Ga t e wa y t o De a t h Va l l e yB y P AT a n d G E OR G E S TU RT EV AN T . . . 4Lure for Wildlife

By ROBERT M. RIDDELL 9Tes t your dese r t kno wle dge 12Grey Jewels of BagdadBy HAROLD O. WEIGH T 1319 D ay s on Utah Trai ls

By RANDALL HENDERSON 19Cal ico , an d o the r po em s 26Contes t win ners in Septem ber 27Current new s of dese r t mine s 28Com ment by Dese r t rea der s 29He Conquered the Rive r

an d Died in an Ai rp lane 31Ha rd Rock Shorty of* De ath Va lley 32Ab out tho se w ho wri te for Desert 32From here an d the re on the dese r t 33Ge m s a n d Mi ne ra l s 41A ma teu r Ge m Cutter, b y LELANDE QUICK . 45J us t B e tw e e n Y o u a n d M e , b y t h e E di to r . . . 4 6Rev iew s of Sou thwe st l i tera ture 47

The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert,California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert,California, un der t he Act of March 3, 1879. Title re gist ered No. 358865 in U. S. Pa ten t Office,and contents copyrighted 1949 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce conten tsmust be secured from the editor in writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, Edito r AL HAWORT H, Associate Edito rBESS STACY, Business Manager MARTIN MORAN, Circulation ManagerE. H. VAN NOSTRAND, Advertising ManagerUnsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledgedunless full retur n postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility fordamage or loss of man uscripts or photog raphs a lthough due care will be exercised. Sub-scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue.SUBSCRIPTION BATESOne Year $3.50 Two Years $6.00Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c ExtraSubscription to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity WithP . O. D. Order No. 19687Address Correspondence to Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, California

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New Gateway to Death ValleyThose who enter the Death Valley National Monument from thesouth this season will have the option of taking a new and moredirect route over a recently completed highway from Trona through

Wildrose canyon. The new road offers easier acc ess to many ofth e old ghost towns and historical landmarks in Panamint valleyand the Panamint range and it is for the purpose of making DesertMagazine readers better acquainted w ith the area traversed b y thishighway that Pat and George Sturtevant of the Trona Argonauthave prepared this story.By PAT AND GEORGE STURTEVANT

J ? % ^

To RANO S BVRS

NE HUNDRED YEARS ago this month^ tattered caravan of ox-drawnwagons carrying men, womenand children from east of the Rockymountains trudged across the floor ofDeath Valley with the California goldfields as their destination.The story of the hardship, and theultimate survival of most of the mem-bers of this courageous little band ofemigrants, was written by Lewis Man-ly, who played a heroic role in theDeath Valley journey. Manly's book,D eath V alley in '49, has long been outof print, but it remains one of theclassics of western literature.This month, on the 100th annivers-ary of the original episode, the storyis to be reenacted in pageantry in agreat ampitheater-like canyon in theFuneral range in the Death ValleyMonument. Sponsored by a non-profitorganization, the Death Valley 49ers,a group of writers, players and cos-tume designers have been engaged formonths preparing for the presentationof this great outdoor drama, sched-uled for December 3.Since many thousands of those whowill witness the spectacle will enterDeath Valley from Southern Califor-nia, the completion of a new all-wea-ther highway into the Monument isof much more than passing interest.Known as. the Tro na- D eat h Valleyroad, the new highway will reduce thedriving distance from Southern Cali-fornia coastal areas by 50 miles.As residents of Trona, we seldomventured out on the old road acrossPanam int valley. It was rocky andtortuou s. But the new highway fol-lowing approximately the same routehas a fine hard surface and no gradeexceeding six percent.For those impatient to reach DeathValley the new route will save consid-erable time. But for the leisurelymotorist like ourselves, it offers manyopportunities for side-trips of greatinterest to those who like to delveinto the relics of the past.Last summer, as full-fledged mem-bers of the 49ers, we began devotingour weekends to the exploration of theold ghost towns which may be reachedfrom the new highway. One of themost interesting of the places to bevisited in this area is Trona itself.The d e s e r t , full of beauty andwealth for those who understand her,held tightly to the hidden treasure ofSearles lake for centuries before manunlocked its secret and developed aunique process for extracting usefulchemicals and salts from the lake

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brine. The American Potash & Chem-ical corporation, which operates thegreat plant now engaged in reclaimingthe wealth of Searles lake, makes pro-vision for visitors but it is well tomake advance inquiry to ascertain thetime when guide service will be avail-able for a tour of the plant. It is afascinating and educational experience.Approaching Trona, the Pinnacles,conspicuous tufa crags rising to aheight of 100 feet or more, may beseen at the south end of the laketothe right of the county road leadinginto town. We took a ragged dirtpath to more closely examine these im-pressive crags that scientists say wereprobably formed from lime underneaththe lake that once flooded Searlesvalley.Hot tips for rockhounds were givenus by collectors Roy Bailey, M. L.Leonardi, and Newell Merill, who dis-closed that halite, mirabilite, thenar-dite, trona borax, hanksite, northupite,pirssonite, gaylussite, sulphohalite andtychite are found frequently out on thelake. Gypsum, anhydrite, glauberiteand searlesite have been discovered inlesser quantities.Happiest hunting ground in Searlesbasin is one mile east on a dirt roadleading to the lake from the countyroad north out of Tron a. Most of thematerial dug from the depths of thedry lake and examined by the re-searchers is dumped at the only forkof this road.

One of the oldest lead and zincmines in the valley was next on ouritinerary. A mile and a half past theentrance to Valley Wellsa cool oasisfive m iles no rth of Tro na a sign,"Engr. Ophir Mines", caught our at-tention. Two and a half miles to theeast is the mine, one of the best loca-tions in the country for hydrozinciteand red phosphorous calcite, if you'reinterested in collector's items.Back to the highway again, this timechoosing the road left of Valley Wells,we approached Slate Range crossing,anticipating the Panamint valley pan-orama we were soon to see. Morethan 60 miles long and five or sixmiles wide for the greater part of itslength, Panamint stretched below us,a comparatively deep, narrow basin,the abrupt rock wall of the east con-trasting with the broad alluvial slopesreaching the valley from the west.Gem and mineral collectors, if theycan draw themselves away from an in-comparable view, will find lavishamounts of hyalite opal "most any-where on the Slate Range crossing,"according to our friend Bailey. Mostof the hyalite may be found east andnorth of the summit on the old roadinto Panamint valley.

D eath V alley from Aguereberry Point.

One of the most accessible ghosttowns is Panamintand the only onethat can boast a part-time residentisBallarat, which was established about1897 as a supply point for miners whowere working in the adjacent moun-tains. To visit Ballarat we turned tothe right at the foot of Slate range anddrove six miles over a fair dirt roaduntil we spotted remnants of the oldsupply town, huddled on the floor ofthe valley against the base of the east-ern Panam int range, near the mouth ofPleasant canyon.Ballarat, namesake for a famousAustralian mining camp, sprang upovernight when gold was discovered inPleasant canyon in 1895. From then

until the end of World War I brief goldflurries kept the town active and, attimes, booming.Exploring the site, we found it hardto believe that 2000 persons had livedhere at one time, helping to supportseven saloons, a stage depot (Ballaratwas also the junction for the stage andfreight lines leading into the Pana-mints), postoffice, meat market andgeneral store, in addition to what wasconsidered an elegant two-story hotel.Building material was mostly adobe,although some lumber was broughtinto the town from Johannesburg.During the fall, winter and springseasons, Seldom Seen Slim welcomesvisitors to Ballarat, showing them the

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Air view of Trona taken 10 years ago. Photo copyrighted by SpenceAir Photos.old graveyard with its wooden mark-e r s , the jailhouse, and what remainsof many adobe buildings. His sign,"Free Parking," framed by a backdropof vast desert, typifies the sly humorof oldtime prospectors.

Panamint Cityone of the wildestmining camps despite its two-year lifespanw as our next goal. Situated 10miles northeast of Ballarat, up Surprisecanyon, it offers a fine opportunity fora pack or hiking trip. Otherwise, onlythose with jeeps or trucks shouldattempt the journey beyond Chris

Wicht's place, which you'll come to sixmiles past the turnoff from Ballarat.Wicht, who died in 1944, was an-other of those desert personalities whomake city dwellers pallid by contrast.Born in the Bowery, he came west tomake his fortune and established oneof the Ballarat saloons. Tree-shaded,with a large swimming pool and drink-ing water available, Wicht's homeserves as a good camping ground forovernight travelers, or as an excellentplace to park the car before takingthe hike to view Panamint City.

And it is a hikemake no mistake.The incline increases by 1000 feet amile. However, there is water all alongthe canyon road for refreshing stops.The Panamint City ore any rock-hound may now freely gather was firstdiscovered by fugitives from Nevadamining camps, although it was NevadaSenators Robert Stewart and JohnJones who largely developed the minesand prom oted the city. Illustrating therugged nature of the city during itsheydays of 1874 and 1875, we weretold that even Wells Fargo officialshad declined to send their express ser-vice into Panamint City, in view ofthat town's large number of despera-does. Senators Stewart and Joneswere up to that challenge, however,and had the silver bullion cast intocannonballs weighing nearly a quarterof a ton each. This move thwartedwould-be highwaymen to such an ex-tent that the bullion was shipped tothe mint in unguarded open wagons.

In present-day Panamint City, tallbrick smokestacks and the old smelt-ing vats are all that remain of the gi-gantic 20-stamp mill erected in June,1 8 7 5 , which turned out silver bullionworth $30,000 a ton. An exceedinglynarrow town about a mile in length,Panamint City has many smaller can-yons which branch out from the mainstreet, and of these several were desig-nated for special purpo ses. Sourdoughcanyon, for instance, has a cemeterythat came into being when two menfatally wounded each other in a fight.A few of the canyon street signs stillstand.Although there was much to see, In-dian ranch beckoned, seven milesnorth of Ballarat on the road we hadturned from to make our way to Pana-mint City. Here, too, at the mouth of

Crumbling walls today mark the site of the once booming mining camp at Ballarat.



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Hall canyon is an excellent place tocamp overnight. Now deserted, In-dian ranch was the former home ofthe Indian boy (later named IndianGeorge) who saw the Jayhawker partyas it moved into the valley in '49.Indian George was the head of a largefamily of Indians for whom the gov-ernment set aside this grant. A limitedamount of farming was done here un-til recently.The site of Indian ranch is markedwith a large group of cottonwoodtrees. A ditch and quadrangle arelandmarks where much of the farmingof corn, figs and berries was carriedon. Refreshingly cool falls and a veryattractive meadow can be seen a shortdistance up Hall canyon.

Then we drove 12 miles to Wildrosecanyon and our overnight stop atWildrose station, graciously hosted byAnne and George Pipkin. Both knowthe country well, and upon requestwill arrange an all-day jeep tour toPanamint City and other spots of in-terest not easily reached by touring car.Anne has assembled a unique collec-tion of desert rocks and gems andshe has a fund of knowledge about lo-cations of mineral deposits, such asthe stibnite mines up in Wildrosecanyon.During the coming winter and springseasons, we were cautioned to makeadvance reservations for overnightstops and meals at Wildrose as well asthe hotels in Dea th Valley. Fo r thosewho rely on the hospitality of MotherNature, water and good camping sitesare nearby in the canyon and the Pip-kins will be happy to point them out.Two miles above the station thereis a fork in the road. A left turnhere leads into Death Valley, but wedecided to make one of the most inter-esting side trips of our entire tour byfollowing the road straight ahead. Wepassed through the summer headquar-ters of the National Park Service andcontinued on to the charcoal kilns,big bee-hive shaped ovens built byIndian labor in 1870. Charcoal, pro -duced from pinyon and juniper in thekilns, was used to reduce silver minedin the area. An interesting problemfor photographers is presented by thekilns. Made of native rock and lime,they blend in so well-with the land-scape that it is entirely possible to missthem altogether.

An ideal camping site is MahoganyFlat, with a beautiful view of DeathValley, two miles further up the road.Here is a dense growth of pinyon pinealternating with cleared level ground.We stopped at the summer home ofMr. and Mrs. John Thorndyke for afresh supply of water a mile beforereaching the crest.Leading south from Mahogany Flat

Seldom Seen Slim, lone resident of the old ghost town of Ballarat,wh o provides "free parking" for visitors. Ph oto by L. H. Bales.

is a six-mile leg-stretching tra il to T ele-scope peak, highest point in the Pana-mints at 11,045 feet. Regular tripsto the summit are scheduled by theNational Park Service, we learned.Retracing our trip to the fork in the

road, we turned right (facing Wildrosestation) across a high plateau towardEmigrant canyon. At a point 10.5miles from the junction there is a well-marked dirt road leading to the right,past the site of some old mine work-N O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9


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Anne Pipkin sings Stan Jones' "Riders in th e Sky " for summ er guests at Wildrosestation on new h ighway .ings that once supported the town ofHarrisburg.Harrisburg sprang up overnight fol-lowing a rich strike in that area onJuly 5, 1906, by Pete Aguereberryand Shorty Harris. Ambroise Aguere-berry, Pete's nephew, makes a fascin-ating guide through the mine, when heis at home in the adjoining cabin.It was Pete who with pick andshovel built the way to AguereberryPoint, a narrow twisting canyon pathjust car-wide that took us to one ofthe most inspiring scenic experienceswe ever had. The Point poses a realchallenge to the photographer since itaffords a vista of more than 180 de-grees, much of which is so starkly ma-jestic that our first reaction was tounload and set up our three cameras.But our first flush of enthusiasmwas tempered by our sudden realiza-tion that here was a panorama ofmountain ranges and ragged canyonsand desert sink that defied snapshotphotography. We had to be patient,to wait until late afternoon for shadowpattern, because when the sun is highthere is no detail or contrast to help

convey the awesome beauty to film.

Because of the distances and depthsNevada can be seen 80 miles to theeastblue haze was a major problemand infra-red film became a must.Even so, only small segments of thelandscape can be taken at a time, anda truly comprehensive photo of theview from Aguereberry Point awaitssomeone with the imagination, equip-ment, skill and patience to create avast montage.Once again past the site of old Har-risburg, red-gold in the light of sunset,and on the highway we had turnedfrom, we drove a few miles north untilwe reached a dirt road to the right.Here, five miles to Skidoo, we cameupon the remnants of the mining townfamous for the l y n c h i n g of Joe"Ho otch" Simpson in 1908. Enter-prising citizens of that town hastilyresurrected Hootch's body a day laterto reenact the scene of the hangingwhen out-of-town reporters arrived.With a last look at the frame build-ings and interesting signs of Skidoo,we headed on the last lap of our tripalong the highway leading into DeathValley by way of Emigrant pass, pastthe National Monument checking sta-

tion, and from there eight miles away,to Stovepipe Wells hotel. But beforewe pulled in at Stovepipe, the lure ofa dirt road tempted us, and we turnedright to Mosaic canyon, a delightfullynarrow canyon carved out of solidcream and chocolate marble. It pro -vides an entertaining hike and a doublesurprise awaits the seasoned hiker, fortwo miles beyond the exit from thefirst canyon we came across a replicaof Mosaic canyonevery bit as indi-vidualistic and beautiful.Death Valley is rich in historicaldram a. Since that winter 100 yearsago when the Jayhawkers and the Ben-nett-Arcane party, of which LewisManly was a member, came this way,the Death Valley region has been thescene of many rich strikes. Boomtowns have sprung up almost over-night and then disappeared.Perhaps there is still hidden wealthin the hills that rim the Valley, butmost of those who visit this regiontoday are lured there by good roads,mild winter climate, the color and maj-esty of the desert landscape, and thehistorical landmarks scattered over theregion.



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This picture was taken by flash exposure at eight o'clock in the evening. If youlook closely y ou can find eleven deer drinking, or waiting to drink. Th ere w ere atotal of twenty-five deer in this group that came to water. They are all does butthree in the center of th e picture. These are bucks, but too young torealize their importance.

Lure for Wildlife . . .By ROBERT M. RIDDELLPhotographs by Land MartinY WAS DAWNING. A thrashersuddenly broke the stillness withits lively "Bobwhite" call. Thesaguaro, or giant cacti, slowly loomedout of the grey dawn like a silentarmy, while the pale moon graduallywithdrew toward the rugged mountainpeaks in the distance. A family of fox

scurried down a beaten path. Theywere heading for some secluded group

Wild animals of the Arizona desert have learned that they may drinkwithout being molested in the little cement pond built by Bob Riddell onhis homestead west of Tucson and so w hen the summ ers are dryand the usual w aterholes empty th ey come deer, lion, javelina andwildcat, and scores of smaller animals and birds. And here are some ofthe interesting observations made by the writer as he watches thisdaily wildlife pa rade.of rocks which served as their deserthome. Overhead, a flock of white-wings swished by. In a few secondsthey would be atop a saguaro cactus,where they would coo back and forthto each other.

This is a typical beginning of a dayin summer on the Arizona desert. Ihave a vivid and first-hand chance towatch desert life pass in review be-cause I live on a homestead that nestlesin the hills a few miles west of Tucson.

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After much patient waiting on th e part of the ph otographer this close-up picture oftwo does, a fawn, and a buck w as finally taken. T h e deer got close to the camera,then w ould leap away . But th e call of th irst was so great th at th ey finally gave in toth e photographer.Th is picture was taken at six o'clock in th e evening.Here a few miles from the busy cityI live in an entirely different world,and can observe and study Nature'swildlife from morning until night.Because water is scarce at times onthe desert during the hot summermonths when rainfall is long overdue,I found out that game could be at-tracted to my front yard when I con-structed a large cement water basin.At first I kept the basin filled withwater by using a bucket, but there wereso many visitors daily that before longit was necessary to run a length ofpipe to the cement drinking hole. Atthe end of the pipe I attached a float-valve which controls the amount ofwater, and automatically keeps thepond filled with water.Game will travel long distances forwater, and nearly every summer thereis a period of drouth on the desert.

Occasionally the newspapers will printreports that deer are making pests ofthemselves on one of the local golfcourses, where they come to drinkfrom the lake. Deer come from severalmiles around to drink from my privatepond.Wild animals seem to have definitetimes for drinking. The coyote will trotup to the water before sunup. Aftertaking a quick but careful view of thesituation, he will take several laps ofwater, then disappear as quickly andsilently as he came. From my experi-ence the coyote is a hard animal tophotograph. I could never get him tocome close enough to the pond for aclear picture. He seems to sense thecamera. Of course there have beenmany pictures taken of them in otherlocations! But it wasn't my luck.Deer come to water anytime from

dawn until around ten o'clock in themorning. If the summer is unusuallydry and hot a few may stray back dur-ing the day. Otherwise they returnagain in the evening just before sun-set, and they keep coming in groupsof from two to 20 and 30 until afterten o'clock at night.These deer are quiet, shy, andspeedy. The type of deer at my home-stead are the Blacktail, or the DesertMule deer. The latter implies that theyget to be quite large in stature. Theircolor blends with the desert floor, thevegetation. They seem to appear fromnowhere one moment, and are drink-ing water the next. The Mule Deer israther curious. He will often lingeraround the water hole behind trees tostudy unusual noises, and peoplearound the house.I have counted 150 deer that have10 T H E D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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A

An unusual close-up sh ot of th ree y oung bucks drinking togeth er. A yo ung doestands in the background waiting impatiently to get h er ch ance to water. She knowsby the law of N ature that sh e h as last call for water. Th is picture was snapped atseven o'clock in the morning.come to water from dawn until nineo'clock in the evening. Toward the endof July the does bring their fawns downinto the lower country when they arebut a few days old. Thus the numberof deer coming to water is greatly in-creased.

It seems that each doe takes particu-lar pride in showing off her offspringto me. Very often they will drink to-gether, but when a buck is in thevicinity, the does will stand to oneside on guard. As is the case with mostwild game the male is king at all times.Most of the time no doe or fawn willever try to stop a buck from taking adrink. Nor will they come up to waterwith him. At times a thirsty fawn willrefuse to relinquish its place at thepond. Then the buck will rear backon his hind legs and pounce forwardupon the back of the fawn, or any doenot quick enough to get out of the way.I have seen fawns crippled when theyN O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9

were too thirsty to acknowledge thepresence of a buck, perhaps their ownfather.One may make pets out of deer,especially the fawns. My method is toplace a bucket of water on the paththat leads to the pond. The mothereyes me constantly. When she is satis-fied that I will not harm her young sheallows the fawn to approach thebucket. The fawn moves slowly, itslarge brown eyes trained on me. Thatlook is so serious, and yet so gentleand wistful I have almost laughedaloud. The slightest move on my partwould start the fawn bouncing off inquick, long leaps, and would bring anoisy snort from the doe. The Black-tail is very patient. The fawn may takefive minutes before reaching thebucket.When one is taken into their confi-dence the fawn can become a nuisance.They love salt. They love to travel their

velvet-like tongues over my bare armsfor the salt on my skin. At times theyfollow like dogs until I give in andstop to allow them to lick.It is interesting to see how themother instinct operates in the protec-tion of her young. Once an ant stungme while the fawn was licking my arm.Naturally I raised my voice. Thisbrought the doe in a few quick leapsbetween the fawn and me. She brushedme lightly, then pushed the fawn away.The two then were gone from my sideand sight like magic.When the summer is exceptionallydry, my water hole is visited occasion-ally by animals which normally shunthe scent of human beings. The bob-cat, the mountain lion have at one timeor another been to my pond. It is fas-cinating to watch the lion, long, tawnyand slim, creep up carefully to thewater, ears back, its long tail quiet andstretched close to the ground. It drinks

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just as any other type of cat. It is withmuch regret that I found myself with-out a camera on the late afternoon thelarge cat paid me a visit.It is fascinating to watch the wildcatstroll nonchalantly to the pond, drinkslowly and even with daintiness and de-liberation, then stretch under a nearbytree, bathe quickly, and saunter off.The javelina, or wild pig, for manymonths was seen near the water. Butof late, band s of five, ten and fifteencome to drink in the evenings andearly mornings. I have been told byauthorities that as a rule javelina re-ceive sufficient moisture from the rootsof cactus and shrubbery, thereby notrequiring as much water as other game.No doubt unusually dry weather ac-counts for their visits to my ranch.A few years ago several large picnicareas were established by the countyin the Tucson mountains. Even withthis additional space for human be-

ings to roam, laugh and talk, the wildlife has not retreated. On Sundays andholidays when people visit the openspaces the deer sneak quietly aroundin search of food. They have a senseof smell that is overwhelming anda bearing of confidence. Since 1931the entire area known as TucsonMountain park has been closed tohunting and the deer seem to sensethe fact that they are protected.Deer will take fondling and pettingas long as there is food for reward.When the food is gone, the deer m oveson to another area of new people,more food.There are still a great many peoplewho live in and around Tucson, orwho are winter visitors, who are stillunaware that just a few miles from thecity there are vast spaces of desertfilled with beautiful vegetations andan abundance of wildlife.A short time ago the state wildlifeofficials placed some antelope in theTucson Mountain park. This adds onemore type of game to the large list.These fast and graceful animals werebrought down from the higher, colderpart of northern Arizona. In the nearfuture it is the hope of the officialsthat there will be several herds ofantelope roaming the desert with therest of the wild game.

Just as fast and silent as the dawnappears, so does the dusk and the spellof the night. Off in the distance, atop ahill, the sharp bark of a coyote breaksthe evening's stillness. From atop an-other hill the cry is answered by thelong, mournful howl of its mate. Thescream of the mountain lion echoesfarther up in the hills. These are fa-miliar calls on my desert homestead.They tell me that night has fallen onthe Arizona desert.

D e s e r t Q u i z Here are 20 quiz questions for those who liketo test their knowledge of the Southwestorwho perhaps would like to add to their fund ofknowledge. This is not an easy list. It includes geography, history,Indian lore, botany, mineralogyand you'll have to mix some commonsense with other ingredients to get a high score. Twelve correct answ ersis a fair score, 13 to 15 is good, 16 to 18 excellent, and 19 or 20 veryexceptional. The answers are on page 40 .1California's Salton Sea was formed in 1905-6-7 by waters from:Cloud bursts in the adjacent mo untains Flood waters from theColorad o river Overflow from the Gulf of CaliforniaChanges in subterranean channels caused by earthquake shocks2B orrego State Park is located in: Nevada Arizona NewMexico California3White Mountain Indian reservation in Arizona belongs to the:Apaches Navajos Maricopas Hualapai4 J os hu a tre e is a : Y ucc a A gave P alm . N olin a.5First wagon train was brought across the Southwest Desert by: But-terfield Morm on Battalion Lieut. Beale De Anz a6The famous Paiute Indian chief for whom a town in Nevada is named,w a s : Winemucca Winnemuca Winemuca Win-nemucca7Scottsdale, Arizona, is famed for its: Copper mines Indianruins Arts and Crafts colony Ho t mineral springs8Prehistoric Indians who occupied the Salt river valley of Arizona areknown as: Hoh okam Cliff Dwellers Cave Dw ellersLegucharie9Director of the National Park Service is: William E. WarneFrank Albright John Collier Newton Drury

10The legendary home of the Hopi Katchinas is: Grand CanyonPetrified Forest San Francisco peaks Navajo mountain11Phillip Bailey's book G olden Mirages is written about: Lost minesof the Southwest Com stock lode Seven Cities of CibolaDesert landscapes12If you wanted to climb the Sandia mountains you would go to: NewMexico California Arizona Utah13 Turquoise derives its blue-green coloring from: Iron Copp erManganese Zinc14Phantom ranch is located in: Death Valley Zion CanyonGrand Canyon Canyon de Chelly15The name Moqui used by early writers, referred to the Indian tribenow known as: Zuni Acoma Hopi Paiute16If you wanted to get a glimpse of the peccaries which still run wild in

the Southwest you would go to : Kaibab forest Painted des-ert Mojave desert Southern Arizona17 Heard Museum is located in: Phoenix Flagstaff TucsonCasa Grande18The name Herbert Bolton is best known to Southwestemers throughh i s : Books Mining activities Exploration of the GrandCanyon country Archeological discoveries19To see the prehistoric cliff dwellings known as the White House ruinsyou would go to: Bandelier National Monum ents Navajo Na-tional Monum ent Chiracahua National Monument Canyonde Chelly National Monument20The blossom of the agave or wild century plant is: BlueRed Snow Wh ite Yellow

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Rough obsidian nodule or "tear" from the Bagdad field and a caboch on cut from the material.

G r e y J e w e l s o f B a g d a dBy HAROLD O. WEIGHTPhotographs by the Author

ROCKHOUNDS acquaintedwith Yermo, California, be-fore World War II will re-member Bertha Frisby and the littlerock stand she operated south of High-way 91 and nearly opposite Calico drylake. When the big military depotswere established in that area, the gov-ernment purchased her property andshe moved southwest, beyond Hodge,and out of the rock business I believe.

In those days she had a varied arrayof cutting rocks and mineral speci-mens on display, and I liked to huntamong them for prizes. Some she ob-tained through trade, but most of themwere the result of her own desertdelving.She had no car of her own at that

In Arizona they are calledApache tears, and in otherplaces they are labelled "blackdiamonds." Harold Weight sug-gests that " volcanic tea rs"would be a more romanticname for the little obsidianiteswhich are found near Bagdadon California's arid Mojavedesert, and in other places.Here is the data for an interest-ing field tripand some inform-ative notes on the geology ofan area where several volcaniccraters are found.time. But she knew many collectingareas and in return for the privilege ofbringing back material for her stock

and sometimes for the pure pleasureof rockhuntingshe would guide col-lectors to these fields. These circum-stances led to several interesting ex-peditionsand not a little exercisefor me. Mrs. Frisby was not a youngwoman, but when she took to thedesert hills with a pick and collectingsack many a healthy young man washard-put to keep up with her, bothin digging and hauling.On my first trip with her we drovefrom Lavic to Bagdad, and at Mrs.Frisby's direction I turned north ona little used mining road. About twomiles from the highway Mrs. Frisbysuggested that we stop the car andhunt for "black diamonds" in the grav-els of the wash we had just crossed.Despite the heat of the afternoon, weneeded no urging. Dad and I hoppedfrom the car and started an eagercriss-cross search. Soon I spied whatN O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9 13


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I:'. BRISTOL :-:':%..- -~"" :

appeared to be a small black pebblein the gravel.As soon as I picked it up and heldit against the sun, I knew that it wasa chunk of obsidian or volcanic glass..Then it dawned upon me that obsidiannodules and black diamonds must beone and the same thing. Later Ilearned the name is used in a numberof localities in describing the littlestones.I wasn't indignant about it, nor didI feel cheated. After all, I really hadn'texpected to find black diamondsorany other colorbroadcast on the Mo-jave desert. And these little obsidian-ites do cut into beautiful limpid cabo-chons, while obsidian itself is a mightyinteresting rock and one of my fa-vorites.The encyclopedia probably will tellyou that the invention of glass is cred-ited to the ancient Egyptians butthat's just Man bragging. MotherNature has been manufacturing glassat least since the first volcano blew itstop and that was eons before she em-barked on the doubtful experimentcalled Homo sapiens. And we humanbeings have been using her glass sincethe first savage cut his finger on a pieceand grasped the significance of whatit could do to an enemy's hide.

The Indians of our hemisphere haveworked it into their religions andlegends. It was known and used bythem from the west coast to the east,from Alaska to Chile. In California

alone they are known to have worked24 major obsidian quarries. Theychipped and flaked and fashioned it,making knives and arrowpoints andspearheads, mirrors, ornaments andceremonial swords.In some placessuch as the Ob-sidian Cliff of Yellowstone Nationalpark the quarries were neutralground where any tribe could seekmun itions. In others, the Sugar Hilldeposit in northeastern California, forexample, wars were fought over dis-puted ownership. Peoples unfortunateenough to live far from any volcanicarea have traded and journeyed acrosshalf a continent to obtain the beautifulstone which flaked so easily and form-ed such viciously sharp weapons. InMexico the Aztecs, who used enor-mous amounts, even had a specialobsidian cult and goddess (D esert,July, 1945).No, I wasn't in the least disanpoint-ed over having been shown a field ofalmost transparent, cutting duality vol-canic glass. But I did feeland dotodaythat a stone as rich in historyand pretty in its own right as obsidianshould not be forced to masaueradeunde r a misleading nam e. In Arizonathese little hunks of volcanic glass areknown as Apache tears, with a charm-ing legend attached (D esert, August,1939) but that necessarily is localin its application. Perhaps "volcanictears" could be used by those whowant a more romant'c term than ob-

sidian. After all, they were formedby liquid rock expelled from vents,and perhaps even volcanoes feel likecrying sometimes.On that first trip the car was hot,the road rough and we had a longdrive ahead. So we contented our-selves with gathering a few obsidian-ites, and made no attempt to see howfar the field extended. I planned toreturn that winter and explore thoselava hills and the slopes between themand the highway. But world eventsthat winter changed my plans.In the years that passed the obsidianfield near Bagdad slipped completelyfrom my mind until, quite recently,the sight of some beautiful grey-tonedstones my father had cut and polishedfrom those tears recalled it. Then Iremembered it was located on the val-ley slopes above Amboy crater. Tha tcombination a collecting spot forvolcanic gems and a striking exampleof recent vulcanismseemed to holdpossibilities for a field trip for DesertMagazine readers who are interestedin the geological side of the desert.

The question was: Could I relocatethat field? I had taken no mileageson the trip. All I remembered aboutthe turnoff was that it was near Bag-dad and within sight of Amboy crater.Also, I thought I recollected a saggingwooden sign beside the road which in-dicated in a dispirited sort of way thata mine called the Orange Blossom



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Th e little nodules or "volcanic tears" wh ich cut into transparent greyish cabochonsare found in desert paving such as this. Amboy crater left center.was or had been in operationsomewhere out yonder.On the mid-July day we arrived atBagdad to attempt relocation of theobsidian area, Amboy, a few milesfarther east and a little lower, reporteda top temperature of 120 in the shade.But such temperatures are not un-bearable in the dry Mojave. And wehad timed the trip to arrive at theturnoff late in the afternoon, stoppingduring the hottest part of the day atDaggett to visit Mary Beal and DixVan Dyke. Mary was at home in herlittle cottage under the shade trees, andreported enthusiastically on the resultsof her early summer botanizing in theProvidence mountains above Mitchell'scaverns. Dix was out somewhere ina jeep, following forgotten pioneertrails.When we reached Bagdad, I foundthat the war had made changes, eventhere . A whole new set of sidingsbulged out from the main railroad lineand the road we had followed towardthe hills seemed to have vanished. Icouldn't even locate the remains of thewooden sign I remem bered. But acourteous Mexican employe of the rail-road explained that if I followed thosetracks I would come onto the old roadwhich once had led to the now-idleOrange Blossom.We drove back out to Highway 66and followed it .6 of a mile eastwardN O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9

from Bagdad to a point just beyondhighway bridge 148.85. There weturned north on a dirt road and crossedthe tracks of the Santa Fe. Even afterwe were over the tracks and headingon a poor road toward the Lava hills,I was not certain this was the samepair of ruts I had followed eight yearsbefore when Mrs. Frisby led us to the"black diam onds." No single thingabout the area looked familiar.

Sometimes when I tell city friendstales of lost mines, they raise a col-lective eyebrow and ask: "How is itpossible to lose something as obviousand substantial as a mine or ledge?"But should I take these same peopleonto the little-traveled desert by-waysto look for that mine, the questionchanges.

LOG0.0 U. S. 66 at Bagdad. Head east.0.6 Tur n north on dirt road, aftercrossing highway bridge 148.85.0.8 Cross Santa Fe Railroad track,continue west of north.1.5 Join old Orange Blossom mineroad. Head slightly east ofnorth.2.1 Soft road for .1 mile .3.4 Enter edge of obsidian area.4.5 Pass marking far edge of ob-sidian area.

"How in blazes did they find thefool thing in the first place?" they de-mand.That was what I was beginning towonder as we made hurried investiga-tions of the washes in the gatheringdusk. We found bits of chalcedonyroses and jasper, but not a trace ofobsidian. Ab out 1.5 miles from Bag-dad, the track we were followingjoined what obviously was a mucholder road which seemed to be aimingfor the southeastern tip of the Lavahills. That was more nearly the di-rection I remembered from my earliertrip, but we still were unable to findany volcanic tears as we jounced upthe bajada.

The sun was behind the mountainsand the afterlight was dimming whenwe neared the pass through the tip ofthe hills. Knowing that I had not gonethat far before, we decided to campfor the night and give up the huntuntil morning. At this point, 4.5 milesfrom Bagdad, several almost level me-sitas offered ideal campsites, at leastin summ er. In winter the lack ofnearby firewood and vegetation to giveshelter from the wind might makethem a little cold.

It was dark before we had campestablished, and we ate by lanternlight.Afterwards, as our flashlight beamsflickered over the rocky mesa, we15


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made a discovery. Literally underfootand scattered thinly through the desertpaving we saw small, black rathershiny pebbles. I picked one up andheld it over the flashlight bulb. As thelight filtered through it the stonelooked greyish-tan. Yes, these werethe obsidian nodules we had beenseeking.A strange sort of rockhunt followedas we criss-crossed the mesa, bentdouble and peering along the probingflashlight beam. In summer, night col-lecting had one distinct advantagethe volcanic tears were cool enoughto pick up . And a flashlight proveda handy gadget to check whether ornot the specimens we found were trans-parent enough to cut. Some blackstones which looked like the obsidian-ites externally proved to be perfectlyopaque.The hunt continued until we began

to worry about the condition of theflashlight batteries. Although the daytemperatures had been scorching, theevening perhaps by comparison seemed pleasant. And when a softwind drifted up the valley it becamea perfect night to sleep under the des-ert moon and stars. That moon waslong past full and only a thin segmentremained. But when it rose the amountof illumination it gave was surprising.It and the vast concourse of distantsuns and whirling nebulae so lightedthe night that the jagged scraps ofmountains, the sweeping bajadas andthe white sinks which characterize thethe Mojave were visible to the hori-zon's rim. And below us Amboycrater and its surrounding flows werepure ebony under the ethereal light.

There seemed to be an amazingnumber of lights at Bagdad, consider-ing the size of the town. Once , when

the Bagdad-Chase mines were operat-ing and when the Orange Blossom,across the Bristol mountains, was haul-ing supplies in and ore and concen-trates out, Bagdad, their railroad ship-ping point, was quite a place. Re -portedly much of the settlement wasdestroyed by fire in 1918, and thenumber of buildings we had seen thatday could not account for the longstrings of light. We concluded it mustbe an emergency landing field, possiblyplaced there because of Bagdad's cli-matic reputation.

Although Bagdad may be small, ithas made its mark in the meteorologi-cal world. Throughout the whole Mo -jave desert region during a 20-yearperiod, only the bottom of Death Val-ley had a lower mean annual rainfallthan this siding on the Santa Fe . Theaverage was 2.3 inches, but in fourout of the 20 years, when no rain fell,it was dryer than Death Valley. AndCamp at the base of th e Lava hills. Obsidian nodules are found on the black flat,left center and center, and on similar mesas and in the washes which cut them.



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Amboy crater from the west, showing vent wh ere the western wall h as brokendown. Obsidian nodules wh ich cut and polish beautifully are found on flats andin wash es above and bey ond th e crater.once, for a period of 32 months therewas not a drop of moisture from thesky.Bagdad also has the somewhatdoubtful honor of having the next tohighest mean annual temperature dur-ing the same 20 years, Death Valleynear Furnace Creek leading again.This spot is credited with one of the

longest frost-free seasons in Califor-nia, averaging 345 days annually.We did not find the volcanic tearsin great quantity anywhere, but theywere scattered over a wide area, andmost of them were of a grade of ob-sidian which would cut. The greatestconcentration seemed to occur on themesas which lay to the east of the

sandy trail we had followed, andwhich stretched in long dark fingersfrom the isolated buttes at the end ofthe ridge down toward the highway.Rockhounds who visit this field willhave to do some hiking, but those whoare willing to walk should be able tofind enough tears to cut all the cabo-chons and drops they desire.Inside the crater of Amboy cinder cone, show ing th e small inner cone. D esigns onthe wh ite flats are made by visitors wh o feel th ey h ave to leave th eir initialsbehind.

N O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9 17


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While prospecting to the Lava hills,we found bits of jaspermostly redand yellow, but some fine moss. Thenodules appeared to be non-existentin the hills themselves. In the washeswere a few chalcedony roses and oneor two broken geodes. The jasperseemed to be scattered more thicklyon the rocky slopes to the west of ourcamp and where the nodules were fewin num ber. It is possible that collect-ors who come in cooler seasons andare able to hunt farther from basewithout heat discomfort will find jas-per w hich will cut into beautiful stones.

As to why the obsidian nodules donot occur in the hills or down in theAmboy basalt flows, I have no expla-nation, but so far I have not foundthem in either place.I have yet to hear an explanationfor the little obsidian nodules whichapplies satisfactorily to all the variedconditions under which they seem tooccur. Obviously they are not floatfrom great flows or masses of obsidian,or it would be possible to trace themto that source. They have an oddlysculptured surface which makes themrather easy to identify after you areaccustomed to it, and which make's itappear that they were formed in verynearly the same shape and size inwhich they are found. In some casesthey have been traced to a matrix ofpumice or volcanic ash.The stone most closely resemblingthese nodules, for which geologistshave offered an explanation, is the so-called "Pele's Hair," formed whendrops from the lava lake of Kilaueavolcano in Hawaii splatter upward andare blown to threads by the wind.These threads are blown ashore, hard-ened into glass. In the case of thevolcanic tears, it seems possible theymight be blobs of lava thrown into theair and cooled swiftly into glass with-out being blown by the wind. Or per-haps they fell into pumice, volcanicash, sand or mud and hardened there.The generally accepted theory of ob-sidian itself is that it is a molten rockwhich hardened too swiftly to formcrystals, or that it was too viscous toform crystals as it hardened. Had sometypes of volcanic glass hardened moreslowly, they would have formed gran-ite or even pegmatite.Looking down into the Amboytrough from the vantage of the obsid-ian field, nearly 800 feet above thebed of Bristol dry lake, the crater andits surrounding flows, like some vastink blot, dominate the scene. It isalmost frightening, so savagely harshin appearance, so obviously an in-truder in the valley floor where it hasburst through the grey-green-brown ofthe desert. And it looks so recent that

you cannot help picturing what mighthappen today if such an eruptionblasted its way upward from the sup-posedly trustworthy earth through oneof our modern cities.Probably there is little chance ofthat. Volcanoes seem to follow whatgeologists consider their proper modeof occurrence. There are a numb er ofremnants of them in this section ofthe Mojave. One of the most reason-able explanations for their appearancein this region is that they have comeup from molten magmas along faultlines, somewhat like the series of ex-plosion cones known as the Monocraters.Faults are weak areas or fracturesin the outer crust of the earth alongwhich vertical and horizontal move-ment takes place when pressure else-where becomes too severe. We knowthat such movements cause our mostdevastating earthquakes, but not manypersons are acquainted with the partthey have played in designing our west-ern landscape. The precipice of SanJacinto is a fault scarp and so is thesheer eastern face of the Sierra Ne-vadas and the western face of Utah'sWasatch mountains. The Coloradodesert and Imperial Valley are believedto have been formed when the blockbetween two faults either droppedlower or remained as it was while theland on the outer sides of the faultswas thrust upward.Cadiz and Newberry faults havebeen suggested as those responsible forthe Mojave volcanoes, and Amboycrater has been mapped by H. T. Hillin a survey of Southern California ge-ology as almost on the Cadiz fault.These two faults have a northwest-southeast trend and are about 30 milesapart. The line of valleys betweenthem, culminating in Amboy trough,are believed to have been caused bydown-sags of the fault block betweenthe two.Amboy itself is a cinder cone, anda Johnny-come-lately to the geologicalscene. Some observers estimate itseruption as recent as 500 years ago.

One of the principal reasons for thisbelief is that the twisting black lavaflows from the crater followed approx-imately the present drainage lines ofthe valley.A cinder cone is composed entirelyof fragments blasted out during vol-canic explosions. Sometimes it isformed during the closing stages of avolcanic eruption, when gases gatherand explode through lava which al-ready has hardened over a vent. Cin-der conesAmboy is 200 feet highusually are very symmetrical and havecircular craters. And they are diffi-cult to climb because they are made

of layers of loose material piled assteeply as is possible without sliding.Amboy is the most approachablevolcano I know and its comparativenewness only adds to its interest since,so far as appearances goes, it wouldseem that the flows had just congealed.In fact, if we can judge by the heatwe felt when we visited it that mid-July day, it is possible that they arestill cooling. The auto-trail cuts southfrom Highway 66 a shade less thanfive miles east of Bagdad and 1.9miles west of the town of Amboy.This track is an irritating combinationof soft sand and sharp lava, but shortlyafter taking it we entered a strangeworld of black and white and bluebasalt, sand and sky. It is a fascinatingwilderness of jagged, twisted rock toexplore in pleasant weather, and agood driver can go within about halfa mile of the base of the cinder cone.We had intended to climb Amboy.I had been inside the crater previously,and found it an interesting spot, witha smaller cone withinapparently theresult of the volcano's final burpand a great break through the westernwall. There is a trail up the outsideof Amboy and over the rim which canbe negotiated without too much back-sliding.But when we stopped for lunch, therocks burned our feet through thicksoles, the light reflecting from whitesand stung our eyes, and perspirationleft salt caked on our faces. We de-cided that if we must climb mountains,

some of the cooler, higher desert oneswould be more appropriate to thattime of year.In the winter months, however, theclimate among Amboy's lava flows canbe delightful. No one who wishes toknow the desert in all its phases shouldfail to make a trip to Amboy's rim.And perhaps if you pause there a mo-ment you will experience the strangesensation that I did. It looked so new so somehow unfinished. You feelthat although you have missed theopening of the showif you hangaround too long the curtain will goup for the third act, and perhaps youwill go up with it.Airport for Mo num ent? . . .MONUMENT VALLEY Legis-lation to permit construction of an air-port in Monument valley in south-eastern Utah, near the Harry Gouldingtrading post, is being prepared byUtah's Senator Thomas. The state issupporting the proposal. The landingfield would be of value in reachingnorthern section of the reservation incase of an emergency such as last win-ter's record snow.



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Just inside the entrance of an almost inaccessiblecave the riders found this grotesque life-size figurepainted in blue and white and red obviously putthere by prehistoric artists.Th e N ational Park service restored the ancient lad-ders to these ancient cliff dwellings, located inBridges N ational Monum ent, so visitors couldclimb up and explore th e ruins.19 Days on Utah Trails . . .

For 19 days, Ross Musselman of the 4M ranch of Monticello, Utah,led a pack train with 12 riders along remote trails through the colorfulsandstone country of southeastern Utah. The party explored little knowncanyons, visited prehistoric Indian dwellings, and camped each nightat springs and waterholes alon g the trail. Randall Henderson's storyof this wilderness adventure was told in part last month, and is con-cluded in this issue of Desert M agazine.B y R A N D A L L H E N D E R S O N

into

Eighth Da yFTER CAMPING three nights onthe slick rock at Squaw spring,we were eager to be riding offthe unknown country that layahead. In a region so vast and sovaried there is no monotony. We hadadjusted ourselves to the routine ofcamp chores, and found increased en-joyment in the ever-changing land-scape as the days-passed.

We were up at daybreak this morn-ing, and while the packers were out

rounding up the animals, sleeping bagswere rolled and breakfast prepared.We departed at 8:45.For three miles we back-trackedalong the trail by which we had cometo Squaw spring, and then spent therest of the day following the upstreamcourse of Salt creek. I do not knowthe origin of its nam e. There weresome salt cedars on the bars along thefirst mile or two, but the channel wasdry. Further up we found waterbut it carried no taint of salt.

Once when the creek made a greatloop the trail took a shortcut over aridge. There was a natural archwaythrough the sandstone dike at the topof the ridge, and the walls were cov-ered with Indian pictographs in whiteand red paint. One unusual featureof these picture writings somethingI had never seen beforew as the pres-ence of numerous imprints of a humanhand, as if the primitive artist haddipped his hand in a vessel of paintand then pressed it on the wall. Hehad well-shaped hands, and the im-print was sharp and clear. Marvinfound a beautiful arrowhead at thebase of the wall.

Our noon stop was at a spring thatgushed from the sandy bank of thecreek. Ross told us he had neverheard a name for this springbut ithas one now. To mem bers of ourN O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9 19


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N I G H T C A M PT R A I L

0 3MILES

O. . . . . . .

6

Sh owing the route of th e 19-day trek. Th e numbers along the h eavy dotted lineindicate th e consecutive night camps 18 of th em.party it will always be Yellow-Jacketspring.We tied our horses in a thicket ofoak and went to fill our canteens. Amoment later the horses started paw-ing and snorting. Obviously somethingwas wrong. We rushed back to theanimals and found ourselves in aswarm of angry yellow-jackets. Sev-eral of us were stung before we couldmove the stock to safer ground. Forthe information of those who have notbeen stung by a yellow-jacket, it is like

being punctured with a red-hot darningneedle. The swelling in my ear didnot go down for three days.The canyon narrowed as we climbedhigher, and the sandstone walls be-came more precipitous. Once Rosstook us off the trail a short distanceto an overhung sidewall where werepainted four larger-than-life-size headsin brown and white pigment. Thefaces had distinctly oriental features,and were so skilfully done I was un-willing to believe until I made a care-

ful examination that they had beenput there by primitive savages. I haveexamined thousands of petroglyphs(incised in the rock) and pictographs(painted on the rock) in my years inthe Southwest, but never before hadseen anything approaching the artistrywith which these heads were sketched.Ross said they were there, just aboutas we saw them, 20 years ago when hefirst came this way.Occasionally, far up on the side-walls, we could glimpse the ruins of20 T H E D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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ancien t cliff dw ellings. We had notime to climb up to them, even whenthey were accessible. Some of themappeared to have no way of approach.In a cliff that faced a little meadowfar up toward the headwaters of thecreek Ross detoured to a wide verticalcrevice in the sidewall, and back inthe semi-darkness of the cavern wecould see the mud and stone of ancientwalls. By careful hand and toe climb-ing some of us were able to gain en-trance, and there on the wall just in-side the crevice was the life-size paint-ing of a fat Indian with a feather inhis headband. The pictograph wasdone in blue and white and brown,and while the figure was grotesque, itwas well preserved.

It was almost dusk when we reach-ed our night camp at the edge of ameadow fringed with oaks. Our watercame from a spring in the clay bankof the creek, and we had to cut stepsto get down to it. The water wasicy cold.Today our supply of fresh bread wasgone, and Ross got out the dutchovens and gave Marvin his first lessonin the art of making camp biscuits.As in most other camp cooking, theregulation of the fire is the all-import-ant factor in making good biscuits, es-pecially in these days when preparedbiscuit mix can be bought in boxes.Ross, however, clings to the good oldflour and water and baking powderrecipe, with a spoonful of grease anda pinch of salt and sugar. They weregood biscuits.

Today we rode 24 miles.Ninth Day-There was good pasture at thisupper Salt Creek camp, and we letthe horses graze while we spent theday exploring old Indian ruins in thevicinity. Some of us hiked two milesand climbed to a great natural archwhich was discovered by Ross and hisdaughter, Nancy, in August 1940.Rough measurements indicated thatarch had a span of 175 feet and aheight about the same.

From beneath the arch we could seein the distance another that appearedto be equally large. The arches andbridges so common in this region, arethe wprk of erosion through manyages.Around our oak wood fire tonightwe ate pinto beans, tamales, cheese,biscuits and jelly, with coffee. Therewere two nights on the trip when itwas too warm to crawl inside the sleep-ing bags when we first went to bedbut we were always in them beforemorning.Tenth D ay

We left our upper Salt creek camp

Sandstone buttes and palisades in a setting of piny on and juniper thispicture is typical of much of th e area through wh ich the trail led.at 8:00 a. m. after a breakfast of oat-meal and raisins, and hotcakes withhoney syrup.We followed the creek two milesand then climbed a steep ridge andhad rough going up and down gradethrough pinyon forests until mid-daywhen the trail led down into BeefBasin, a great meadowland of tumble-weeds.

Once we made a short detour to thesite of an old Indian pueblo where theground was covered with broken pot-tery. Ross told us that prehistoricpueblo sites are scattered over muchof this area. Whether or not thesemud and stone dwellings were built bycliff dwellers, or represent an earlieror later culture I do not know. Manyof them have never been excavatedby archeologists. There is nothing left.except the foundations, and in someinstances these are covered with sand.

The sites can be identified by pot-shards and loose stones.Our night camp was at South springwhere we spread our bedrolls onsmooth sandstone ledges. A trickleof good water seeped from a creviceand our engineering department tookan old tin can and made a serviceablefaucet.We have been out ten days, andhave had at least a sprinkle of rainduring seven of them. But today thesky was cloudless and Beef Basin washot. It is good country for cattle, butlacks the scenic horizons to which wehad become accustomed. But we hada clean campsite and a cooling breezecame up during the evening. Marvin'sbiscuits, cooked over a pinyon fire,were extra good tonight.Today we rode 23 miles.

Eleventh D ayBeef Basin creek tumbles over aN O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9 21


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77ze rate pawstf /or a res? m a /7f/e cove surrounded by red and whitesandstone buttes.75-foot waterfall just below our Southspring campsite, and from that pointto its junction with the Colorado riveris known as Gypsum canyon. We leftcamp at 8:30 this morning and climb-ed a precipitous trail to a pinyon-cov-ered mesa from which we could lookdown on the colorful Gypsum canyongorge. It is a Grand Canyon in mini-ature, in both color and form.From the mesa we led our horsesdown a rocky trail into Fable valleywhere the cattlemen bring their stockfor winter pasture. Here, as in manyother valleys in this highly eroded land,flood waters are gouging deep gulliesacross the bottom pasture landsandcarrying the rich soil down to the Colo-rado and thence to Lake Mead. Be-fore Hoover dam was built this areacontributed millions of tons of silt tothe building of Palo Verde and Yumaand Imperial valleys on the lowerColora do. As these gullies eat theirway across the pasture lands the ero-sion takes place verticallythat is thebanks cave off to form vertical walls10 or 20 or 30 feet high. Ross toldus that during the 20 years he hasbeen following these trails a tremen-dous amount of rich soil has beenwashed away.We camped tonight beside a littlegrove of Gambel oaks, and carried ourwater from a fine spring pouring intothe creek a hundred yards away.Across a 30-foot-deep gully in thepasture, on the opposite skyline of thecanyon, was a high butte with the ruinsof what appeared to be an Indianwatch tower at the top and the re-mains of a mud and stone fortress-likestructure on a ledge half way up.These ancient ruins are inaccessible to-day, but several arrowheads werepicked up by members of our partyat the base of the cliff.

Many theories have been advancedas to why the prehistoric savages inthis region abandoned their homeshundreds of years ago. They left longbefore the white man moved in. Theymay have been forced to leave by pro-longed drouth, by epidemic or by thedepredations of warring tribesmen.None of us can be sure of the answer.Ross MuSselman has a theory of hisown that these Indians may havebeen carried off as slave laborers byraiding Aztecs at the time when Mon-tezuma was building his great templesin central Mexico. Many archeologistsprobably would argue this point.Generally we left camp ahead of thepack animals in the morning, but Donand Val with their train usually caughtup with us before night. They arrivedthis evening without OF Jim . Jimwas a big white horse, the veteran ofthe pack train. Soon after leavingcamp in the morning he appeared sud-denly to go loco, and raced off the trailwith his load. When the packers triedto head him back he ran into badrocks, fell off a huge boulder andbroke a leg. In accordance with theunwritten law of the range, they endedhis misery with a bullet. His pack

saddle and load were shifted to theother animals.Today we rode 12 miles.

Twelfth DayWe left camp at 9:15 this morning,heading up Fable valley. We saw awell-preserved cliff dwelling beneathan overhang high up on the sandstonewall. Marvin climbed up to it, butreported no artifacts were to be found.Then we ascended a steep trail tothe top of Dark Canyon mesa, con-toured around the buttes known asSweet Alice Hills, and took a well-worn cattle trail down Trail canyon

to its junction with Dark canyon.Trail canyon is used by the cowboysto take their herds out of Dark canyonfor winter pasture. It is a drop soprecipitous we did not even try to leadthe horses. We let them pick theirway down over the rocks for a 1500-foot descent, while we were doing thesame. Horses accustomed to the trailsin this country follow well. Most ofthe time the smart rider will let themhave a free head.

As far as I am concerned Dark can-yon is the daddy of all the gorges inthis region. I spent a week in 1946packing down this creek to its junc-tion with the Colorado river (D esertMagazine, Dec. '46.) It is an im-mense chasm bordered by serratedridges in cream and tan and red sand-stone. When the late afternoon sunstrikes the sidewalls it brings out ahundred variations of exquisite shad-ing. Against these brilliant walls thedeep green of the pine trees whichgrow on the ledges and in cavitieswhich pock the precipice provides thecontrast for a picture beyond descrip-tion.It was 7:45 when we reached a logcabin near the head of the canyon, andhere we camped by a noisy little water-fall, with a cool spring close by.Today we rode 25 m iles.

Thirteenth D ayFor breakfast this morning we hadoatmeal with raisins and creamedchipped beef with hotcakes. Rossuses dried milk for everything exceptcoffee, and canned milk for that. F o rcereals and cooking the dried milk,was very satisfactory.There was an easy ride ahead today,and we did not leave camp until 9:50.Then we rode down Dark canyon toits junction with Peavine canyon, andup Peavine nearly to the top of Elkridge where the cattlemen had pipedwater from a good spring.

Nancy Musselman met us here withthe jeep, loaded with provisions forour commissary and grain for thehorses. For nine days we had beenliving out of the packs carried by thehorses, but Ross Musselman is an oldhand at this business and we sufferedfrom no shortages.We were again above 8000 feetinthe land of aspens and big pines, col-umbines and Mariposa tulips. Th eForestry service maintains a rangerstation at Kigalia on Elk ridge, anda good road leads down to Blanding.Deer are plentiful in this area. In factnearly all of San Juan county is deercountry. We saw literally hundredsof antlers along the trails the relicsof the annual shedding period.

Both Nancy and Don Thomas play22 T H E D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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the guitar, and she brought the instru-ments with her. Val Leavitt sings allthe western songs. Thanks to Nancyand the wranglers we had a campfireprogram of music that was one of thehighlights of the trip.The sky was overcast when we wentto bed, and we trenched our sleepingbags for a showerbut it did notcome.Today we rode 14 miles.

Fourteenth DayFresh eggs and fresh bread forbreakfast this morning.We left camp at 9:00 a. m. and anhour later reached the saddle betweenthe Bear's Ears where our trail con-nected with the road that goes fromBlanding to the Natural Bridges Na-tional Monument.The B ear's Ears are two well knownlandmarks which rise several hundredfeet above Elk ridge. They are shapedlike volcanic craters with one side ofeach cone broken away. Actuallythey are sandstone buttes formed bysome strange freak of erosion. Theyare covered with aspen and sprucetrees.From the saddle between them wecould look far out across the pinyonflat which lay between us and theNatural B ridges Monument, w hich wasour goal that day.Part way down the grade we stoppedat Maverick spring and then until lateafternoon jogged along the road whichmotorists take into the Monument.Riding a smooth road became a littlemonotonous after the exciting trailsof previous days.Mile after mile we rode along analmost level lane bordered by juniperand pinyon. We saw two Navajo ho-gans, used during the pinyon harvestwhen many of the Indians come northto gather nuts.Late in the afternoon we reachedthe Monument headquarters where J.Wyley Redd, the custodian, and hiswife live in a tent house and haulwater from Maverick spring. Wyleyhas been custodian here for eightyears. Al Scorup and his cowboy as-sociates are credited with the original

To p Owachomo bridge in theN atural Bridges N ational M onu-ment in South eastern Utah .Center Katchina bridge, underwhich the riders camped twonights.Bottom Sipapu bridge, reached

only by a foot trail.


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discovery of these bridges. Laterthrough the efforts of Zeke Johnson,they were set aside as a National Mon-ument.Owachomo bridge, formerly calledEdwin, is in Armstrong canyon oppo-site Monument headquarters. Thisbridge may be seen by motorists at theend of the road. Katchina bridge(formerly Caroline) is three milesaway at the junction of Armstrong andWhite canyons, and may be reachedonly by foot trail. It is another threemiles up White canyon to Sipapubridge (formerly Augusta).Mrs. Redd told us Wyley was outsearching for some Indian ruins, andwe met him later along the trail. Sheserved us ice water from the kerosene-burning Servel, and we took the trailfor Katchina bridge where we were tocamp for the night.It was a rugged three-mile ride downthe canyon, and we arrived at ourcampsite on a sandbar beneath themassive arch of Katchina just at dusk.There were no springs here, but wefound drinkable water in holes alongthe creekbed.White canyon would delight theheart of a rockhoun d. There werefine specimens of jasper in many col-ors, and chunks of what appeared tobe black petrified wood. Ross toldus this wood came down from Wood-enshoe mountain where there are logsof it on the slopes.There were old Indian ruins underan overhang near the bridge and many

grinding holes in the rocks.Today we rode 24 miles.Fifteenth DayDuring the night the horses wander-ed far up the canyon, and it was near-ly noon when Don had rounded themup for the day's ride.At 1:30 we took the trail for Sip-

apu bridge. We arrived there 45 min-utes later, and then continued up thecanyon to cliff dwellings reached bya 50-foot ladder the park service hasmaintained for visitors. No effort hasbeen made to restore these dwellings,but the stick-in-the-mud granaries farback in the cave were well-preservedand of interesting composition, differ-ing from the usual mud and rock con-struction of the cliff people.White c a n y o n is good huntinggrounds for botanists as well as rockcollectors and photograp hers. I sawsquaw tea (ephedra) as high as myhead. Indian paint brush was the pre-dominant flower, and I counted 43flower stalks on one root system. Thetrees included the usual pinyon andjuniper plus maple, cottonwood, oakand boxelder.Today we rode eight miles.

Sixteenth DayPete Spang and I left camp at 6:30to hike up the canyon ahead of theothers to take some pictures of petro-glyphs we had seen on an overheadledge previously. At eight o'clock theothers caught up with us and we ar-rived back at Monument headquartersat 8:40.Today we merely back-tracked overthe road t hat broug ht us in to. theNatural Bridges, and arrived at ourprevious camp in Peavine canyon inmid-afternoon.Today we rode 24 miles.Seventeenth DayIt rained intermittently during thenight but we were well waterproofed.After one has lived much of his lifeon the desert it is a novel and pleasantsensation to lie out on the ground ina snug bag and hear the rain patteringon the tarpaulin that covers you.After breakfast we headed out alongthe road past Kigalia ranger station to-

Imitation, 7* Ve&ent 1/teito>u . . .Palm Desert Art Gallery in the foyer of the Desert Magazine onHighw ay 111 betw een Indio and Palm Springs wa s opene d for theseason October 15.The Gallery, exhibiting the work of 40 of the top-ranking paintersof the desert scene, is open to visitors seven days a week from eightuntil five.When visiting the Desert Magazine pueblo there is also the oppor-tunity to browse in the book and crafts shop a nd inspect the p ublishingplant. W e extend a cordial welcom e to Desert's read ers an d theirfriends.

ward a saddle at the head of Dark can-yon known as The Notch.Along the road we met JulianThomas, forest ranger at this station.He told us they had been experiment-ing with aerial reseeding of the range.They had found the "pellet" method,seeding 1 Vz pounds to the acre, muchless effective than the distributionfrom the air of 10 pounds of untreatedseed. In places where cattle can bekept off the range for a period of twoor three years, the aerial reseeding isbringing back a fine stand of grassand edible shrubs.We passed over many sections ofthe range on this trip which obviouslyhave been over-grazed. The main de-struction caused by excessive feedingis not in the current loss of the grass,but in the destruction of flowers andseeds which would enable the rangeto reseed itself. Permanent damageis done by erosion which immediatelystarts when the grass dies. Our trail

led along mile after mile where prac-tically the only surviving plants weresage and tumbleweed. In the higherlevels of Elk ridge snowberry replacedthe usual sage.I had seen the tiny plants of theOregon grape, with leaves resemblingmountain holly, many times along thetrail, and finally discovered one withfruit. It grows a delicious lookingpurple berry which is very verybitter.In mid - afternoon we arrived atGooseberry ranger station where wefound a comfortable camp with a fine

spring for ourselves, and good pasturefor the horses.Today we rode 22 miles.Eighteenth Day

Gooseberry station was well named.Great patches of wild gooseberriesgrow here, and the fruit was ripe atthis season. They are more palatablein pies than eaten raw, and we pickedonly a few of them.Deer were grazing in the pasturewhen we awakened at five in themorning. The packers rounded up thehorses and we were away at 8:30.Our trail today was an endless suc-cession of ups and downs. We werecrossing the great canyon systems ofSan Juan county at right angles. Onehour we would be following a trailamong the pines at the top of a ridge,and the next we would be crossing acreek hundreds of feet below. I oftenwalked on the downgrades, partly tomake it easy on my horse, and partlyfor the exercise. I wore hiking shoes,rather than riding boots, for that pur-pose.

In mid-afternoon we rode across the24 T H E D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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Bayles ranch, where several hundredacres of grain were watered from astream that comes down from theAbajo mountains. This was the sec-ond cultivated ranch we had seen in18 days.Near the ranch we passed thicketsof choke-berries just ripening. It isluscious appearing fruit, but mostlyseed, and not very appetizing. In theAbajo mountains we had seen wildstrawberry and raspberry but theywere not in fruit at this time.On one of the ridges today we sawmore Indian sites, and above theBayles ranch was a great outcroppingof chalcedony in many shades.Just before dark we reached ournight stop in the Red Bluff forestrycamp on the side of Abajo mountain.The 4-H clubs of San Juan and Grantscounties were having a camping fieldtrip here, and 160 young people andtheir leaders were having a grand time.The noise of so many voices was instrange contrast with the stillness ofthe wilderness through which we hadbeen riding. Abo ut the only soundswe had heard along the trail were thecalls of the canyon wren and the pin-yon jay, the swish of the wind in thetrees, and the occasional jingle jangleof the pans and buckets tied on topof Kewpie's pack . Kewpie was sucha little mule she had to trot to keepup with the long legged horses, andwe always knew when the pack trainwas approaching by the rhythmic rat-tle of Kewpie's load.

We camped tonight on the edge ofa little meadow of wild iris, now inseed, and cooked our biscuits on dryoak wood. This was our last nightin camp.Today we rode 28 miles.Nineteenth Da yWe were up at daybreak this morn-ing, for we were rather glad after 18days to be heading back to the landof milk shakes and hot baths.We followed the Abajo mountainroad two miles and then took offthrough a forest of aspen trees for thesteep climb to Dickson pass, betweenAbajo peak and South peak.From the summit we could lookdown again on the sage plain whereMonticello stands. There were oldmines near the summitmines thatnever had produced much goldanda good trail led down past them alongSouth creek to the floor of the plateaubelow.

It was 18 miles to Monticello andthere we completed our circuit, rodethe last eight miles back to the ranchin cars that were waiting for us.One of the members of the party

In th e sh adow of the overhang at the top of the picture is one of the manycliff dwellings seen on th e 19-day trek.expressed what I believe were the feel-ings of all of us: "I wouldn't do itagain for a thousand dollars, and Iwouldn't take ten thousand dollars forthe experience."

For it was rugged. It was espec-ially hard for folks who are not ac-customed to riding regularly. RossMusselman is one of those who believethat our civilization is having a soft-ening effect on the human species. Histrips are planned to make the ridershard and fit.We rode on two meals a day. Gen-erally breakfast was served before sev-en in the morning, and on two oc-casions it was nine in the evening be-fore dinner was ready. Each ridercared for his own horse, except thatthe women's mounts were saddled forthem. All of us lost weight on the

tripbut that was good for most ofus .Ross told me that not all his tripsare as strenuous as this one. This fallhis headquarters will be moved to an-other ranch near Moab, Utah, andnext season he plans eight or ten-daypack trips with shorter rides for thosewho do not fancy the gruelling 19-dayschedule.San Juan county is a gorgeouscoun try. It is comparatively poor inmineral and agricultural resources.But no region in the United States isricher in the intangible values ofbeauty and natu ral history. Its limitedeconomic resources and sparse pop-ulation may become an asset as moreand more Americans seek the relaxa-tion to be found only in the great silentspaces of the desert wilderness.

N O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9 25


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Ph otograph of C alico's main street by D on Ollis.CALL of the DESERT

By EILEE N L. ALDERAzusa, CaliforniaDesert painted rainbow hues;Poppy yellows, lupin blues,Yucca's white against the sky.Purple mountains reach on high.Brilliant, twinkling stars at nightVie with moonglow's cold, clear light.Sagebrush dots a gold-brown hill.Stand saguaros stately still.Date palms toss aloft their heads.Torrents carve broad river beds.Breezes ripple dunes of sandFormed by nature's magic hand.Gifts the desert has for all.Who sees beauty heeds her call.

LET ME CALL HER MOTHERBy HARRIET MARKHAM G ILLWashougal, Washington

Let me call the desert mother,And know her mystic ways.Let me revel in her colors,In reds, and browns and grays.Let me know her every secret,Know her moods of light and shade;Let me linger in the vastnessUntil my spirit is new-made.Let me call the desert mother,Let her clean winds sweep away All the dust my soul has gathered,Then on the desert let me stay.

By MYRTLE M. PE PPERLos Angeles, CaliforniaThe sun of Calico beats downOn hills of varied reds and brownOn crumbling walls now in decayThe homes of the men of yesterday.Careless winds toss bits of sandAcross the now deserted land;Over a strangely quiet townThat once knew fortune and renown.One little narrow, dusty street,Teeming with men and the static beatOf horses hoofs and wagon wheels,Womanly chatter and childish squeals.Today heart-beats echo on canyon

walls,Where dusk and moonlight softlyfallsAcross the ravaged and wrinkled faceOf this historic mining place.

AT THE MISSIONBy M ABEL LUCE YORK

The shriveled old potter turns his wheelUpon the desert clay;His bony old fingers form and sealVessels of yesterday:Pots and kettles and flasks.Some perfect, some broken, all in a heap."Is it not like life?" he asks,"Some to throw out and some to keep,We are pots and kettles and flasks."

WHISPERING WIND OF MEMORYBy MARY PERDEWSanta Ana, CaliforniaLast night a little desert wind camerustling by,It carried haunting memories of itsearth and sky.It whispered low of silence andof space,Of peace and healing in a quiet place.It told of brilliant skies and vividbloom,Of jagged peaks and canyonswhere deep shadows loom,The radiant glory of its stars and moon;The soft night winds that sigh awistful tune.With scenes both glad and sad,the little wind was fraught,And my heart lives againthe memories it brought.

By TANYA SOUTHGive all you have, and ask for noreward.You will be paid, and amply,by the Lord.So just are Life's Decrees, so straighta courseIs run from cause unto effect, thatforceIs never needed in repayment just.We earn each crust!And what we earn we get withoutreserve,As we deserve.


Calico

Justice


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Mojave...First prize in Desert's September pho-tograph contest was won by Jim Her-vey of Palm Springs, California, withthe above picture taken in the Joshua

tree region of the Mojave desert. Thep ic tu re was pho tographed wi th aCrown Graphic camera, V 2 second atf.22 at 3:00 p. m. with an "A" filter,6-inch Ektar len s.

A b s t r a c t in S h a d o w s . . .John R. Hamilton of Los Angeles,California, was the winner of secondplace in the September contest withhis dune picture taken in Death Val-ley. Photograph was m ad e with a 4x5Graphic, 1/25 second at f.32 with Super

XX film.N O V E M B E R , 1 9 4 9


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Rand District, California . . .A veteran prospector whose gold,silver and platinum finds in the Mojavedesert are said to have been worth mil-lions, believes he has discovered asouthern extension of the silver veinthat made the California Rand minethe state's biggest silver producer.He is P. J. "Pete" Osdick, and thenew Osdick find isfor a changeon Pete's own property, located on theoutskirts of the little desert commun-ity of Red Mountain . Osdick operatedthe pioneer stamp mill in the Randdistrict which long bore his name. Nowhe says he is

Documents

194911 Desert Magazine 1949 November