195505 Desert Magazine 1955 May

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~DtHtBL VACA T I O N G U I D EDESERT RESORT S DESERT EVENTS GUIDED DESERT TRIPS

YOUR BIG1955 VACATIONBY BOATHite, Utah, to Lees Ferry, ArizonaColorado River

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Stove Pipe Wells HotelDeath ValleyCaliforniaHome of the Famous AnnualBURRO-FLAPJACKCONTESTStove Pipe Wells Hotel was until hisdeath in 1950owned andoperated byGeorge Palmer Putnam, renownedauthor andexplorer. It continues un-de r the personal management of Mrs.George Palmer Putnam.Season: October 1 to June 1

H E Y A D V E N T U R E R S ! Boat the Modern Way

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SAN JUAN and COLORADORIVER EXPEDITIONSEnjoy exploration, safe adventure andscenic beauty in the gorgeous canyons ofUtah and Arizona. Staunch boats, experi-enced rivermen. For 1955 summer scheduleor charter trips anytime write toI . FRANK WRIGHT

MEXICAN HAT EXPEDITIONSBlanding, Utah

NOGALES-MEXICO CITYROAD IN GOOD REPAIRReports of bad road conditions fromNogales, Arizona, to Mexico City overMexico Highway 15 are not true, theNogales Chamber of Commerce hasannounced.The highway is surfaced from No-gales to Mexico City, according to Lt.Gen. Charles L. Mullins, Jr., Chambermanager, and there are only twopointswhich require fording or ferrying.' 'Ferrying is necessary only occa-sionally during the January-Februaryseason and from the middle of Maythrough September during the longrainy season," Gen. Mullins explained. KEARNY INVASION FETEDBY RATON. NEWMEXICORATONCelebrat ion of the con-quest of NewMexico by Gen. StephenW. Kearny is scheduled for the north-er n New Mexico city of Raton for theweekend of June 18. A sham battle,exhibition Spanish dances, square andround dances, parade featuring his-torical characters and crowning of aqueen comprise the Kearny Entrada,which honors the general who routedthe Spanish from NewMexico in 1846. TULARE BACKS HIGHWAYTHOUGH HIGH SIERRAINDEPENDENCEJoin t ac t i on byChambers of Commerce in TulareCounty favoring the completion ofHighway 190 from Quaking AspenCamp in Tulare County to Lone Pinedefeated another move for a secondtrans-Sierra highway until the first iscompleted. A new Mammoth Passroute in Madera County across the Si-erra had been planned, but membersof theChambers decided to let nothingdisturb the priority of Route 190 proj-ect. Inyo Independent GUIDE LINES PAINTEDON UTAH HIGHWAYSSALT LAKE CITYRight shoul-der guide lines were to be painted onUtah highways this spring as an aidto reducing the number of accidents,the Utah Road Commission has an-nounced. Reflectorized yellow guidelines will result in a sense of security,the Commission believes, and motor-ists will drive closer to the outer edgeof the pavement. About 1000 milesof the guide lines will be painted onhighway widths 28 feet or more. Ver-nal Express

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Share the ExpenseRIVER TRIPSWrite for details on the following:Glen Canyon on the ColoradoSan Juan RiverGrand Canyon on the ColoradoBig Salmo n River of IdahoMiddle Fork Salmon of IdahoHell's Can yon of Snake RiverGEORGIE AND WHITY

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D E S E R T C A L E N D A RMay 1 San Felipe Pueblo CornDance, Santa Fe, NewMexico.May 1-Turtle Races, Joshua Tree,California.May 1,7-8Ramona Pageant, Hemet,California.May 1, 8-15Palo Verde FestivalEvents, State Museum, Universityof Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.May 3 Corn Dance, Taos, NewMexico.May 3Palm Springs Museum, Cali-fornia, film for public, "Tribe ofthe Turquoise Water."May 4-7Las Damas Ride, Round-Up Club, Wickenburg, Arizona.May 4-8Fiestas de Mayo, Nogales,Arizona.May 7-8Phoenix Metropolitan Ten-

nis Tournament, Phoenix, Arizona.May 7-8 Yuma County Sheriff'sPosse, Junior Rodeo and HorseShow, Yuma, Arizona.May 7-8Sierra Club, Los PadresChapter (Santa Barbara) trip toJoshua Tree National Monument.California.May 7-8Lone Pine Stampede, LonePine, California.May 7-8-Newhall-Saugus Rodeo atSaugus, California.May 7-2929th Annual Julian, Cali-fornia, Wildflower Show; 2500 dif-ferent specimens gathered within 10mile radius.May 11-14Junior Livestock Show,Spanish Fork, Utah.May 12-15 Helldorado Days andRodeo, Las Vegas, Nevada.May 13 Palm Springs Museum,California, film for public, "Cali-fornia Heritage."May 20-21Black and White Days,Stock Show, Richmond, Utah.May 21-22Grubstake Days, YuccaValley, California.May 25-26Uintah Basin, Jr. Live-stock Show, Spanish Fork, Utah.May 25-28Elks' Rodeo, Carlsbad,New Mexico.May 28-29 Fiesta San Felipe deNeri, Albuquerque, New Mexico.May 29 Sonoita Quarter HorseShow, Arizona.May 28-29Espanola Valley Rodeo,Espanola, NewMexico.

V o l u m e 18 M A Y , 1955 N u m b e r 5

COVER

CALENDARFIELD TRIPCO NT E S TS P O RT SDESERT QUIZCLOSE-UPSMININGWILDFLOWERSARCH E O L O G YNATUREFICTIONPOETRYP H O T O G R A P H YG ARDE NI NGLETTERSEXPERIENCEMININGN E W SHOBBYLAPIDARYC O M M E N TB O O K S

Desert tortoise in Joshua Tree National Monument.By HAROLD O. WEIGHT, Twentynine Palms,CaliforniaM ay events on the desert 3Bell Rocks that Ring in Big Sandy Valley

By HAROLD O. WEIGHT 4Winners of 1955 Life-on-the-desert Contest . . . 8Trout Streams of the Mojave

By GASTON BURRIDGE 9A test of your desert knowledge 10About those who write for Desert 10They Mine Marble in Apacheland

By NELL MURBARGER 11Flowering predictions for May 15Where Ancients Wrote in Stone

By CHARLES GALLENKAMP 16Hard-Shelled Denizens of the WastelandsBy EDMUND C. JAEGER 19

Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 21The Sing, and other poems 22Pictures of the Month 23When the Palo Verdes Bloom

By RUTH REYNOLDS 24Comment from Desert's readers 26Life on the Desert

By HAL HOFFMAN 27Current news of desert mines 28From here and there on the desert 29Gems and minerals 33Amateur Gem Cutter, by LELANDE QUICK . . 40Just Between You and Me, by the Editor . . . 42Reviews of southwestern literature 43

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 postoffice at Palm Desert,California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office,and contents copyrighted 1955 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contentsmust be secured from the editor in writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, EditorBESS STACY, Business Manager

JACK WHITEHOUSE, Associate EditorEVONNE RIDDELL, Circulation ManagerUnsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledgedunless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility for

damage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub-scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue.SUBSCRIPTION UATES

One Year $3.50 Two Years $6.00Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 30c ExtraSubscriptions to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity With

P. O. D. Order No. 190S7,\(l


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The phonolite ledge, black and shining, stands outfrom all surrounding coun try rock. Size of outcrop isindicated by two figures, just left of center.

that Ring in Big Sandy ValleyGuy Hazen, prospecting for prehistoric animal bones, came upona deposit of strange black rocksand by accident discovered theyring like bells w he n struck with pick or sle dg e hamm er. Here is a ne wkind of field for the rockhoundswhere the ear rather than the eyedetermines the merit of the specimen.

By HAROLD O. WEIGHTPhotographs by the AuthorMap by Norton Allen7WO M ILES SOU TH of Wikieup,Arizona, Guy Hazen swung hispickup from State Highway 93onto wavering ruts which headed upBronco Canyon into the HualpaiMo untains. A high ridge thrown upby road-graders almost blocked theold trail, and the canyon floor seemedchoked with vegetation. But Lucileand I followed. We were on the trailof what promised to be a unique rock-hound experience the collecting ofmusical stones.A few hundred feet farther Guyand Nick Tasertano left the pickupand transferred to our four-wheel-drivestation wagon. "This wash makes afairly good road after a rain," Guyexplained, "but it hasn't rained for along while. Nick and I got stuck inthe pickup trying to make it a few daysago."As I continued cautiously up thecanyon, dodging the mesquite, catsclawand boulders whenever possible, Guy

recalled his discovery of the musicalrocks. He came to Wikieup and thevalley of the Big Sandy early in 1937,a field scout for the American Museumof Natural History, looking for fossils.He found them, tooprehistoric cam-els, horses, deer, carnivores and birdsin greenish sedimentary cliffs, rem-nan ts of a lost Pleistocene lake . Th atsame year, still hunting fossils, he firstheaded up Bronco Canyon.Now Guy has always been willingto hike and scramble miles to deter-mine the geological makeup of an out-crop or peaka trait which explainshis technique in uncovering fossil beds.This trip, he left the canyon bed toinvestigate an odd, towering buttewhich prove d barre n of interest. Butas he looked back across the canyonhe saw a strange slash of black rockwhich had been hidden from the washby a sheer cliff.Battling sliding rock and catsclawto reach the outcrop, Guy found it a

confused interlace of boulders black-ened by oxidatio n. He tried to breaka slab to determine its composition.But at the impact of his prospector'spick, a clear bell-like tone rolled outacross the canyon. A second rock gavea deeper tone. All he tried, large orsmall unless they were flawed ordamped by contact with othersweremusical.The outcrop was of phonolite, therare rock once called clinkstone andgiven its present name from the Greekword meaning "sound, tone, voice."This particular ledge was augite-phono-lite, Guy said. It had intruded throughthe gneiss and cooled slowly beneaththe surface, contracting and breakinginto blocks and slabs as it cooled.Having no commercial value, phono-lite's interest, beyond the fact it hasbeen found in association with someof our most productive gold mines, liesin its rarity and its musical, unrock-like reaction when struck. So Guycontented himself with hauling out afew good pieces as mineralogical curi-osities. Later he found that even whensawed into fairly small pieces, the rockretained its musical quality, with fewexceptions.Since most rocks are collected for

their eye appeal, one picked for its earappea l is indeed a novelty. So whenthe summer's unusually vigorous heatseemed definitely broken last October,Lucile and I headed for Hazen's Fos-sil Museum, a mile north of Kingmanon the Hoover Dam highway.D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E

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Guy and his friend Nick were wait-ikieup . Th e road, after we left U. S.

n good cond ition. In fact a stretch, was now a fenced freeway. It

We wanted to take time to examine

palo de cristo, which looked likeforest trees. Th ere were cholla

num ent. But most astonishing was

The freeway has left old Wikieup

It is an old town, but the reason

The known history of the valley goes

Lt. A. W. Whipple, comman d-

He liked the country. He wro te:

re of fertility. Willow s, alam os,

Benea th the trees, and

To Boulder City ')& Las' ; : T o H o c k b e r ry

a crop of fresh grass, and occasionallya few spring flowers . . ."Antoine Leroux, Whipple's guide,advised him to go straight west, ratherthan down the Big Sandy. But thebroad valley looked like a natural rail-road route to Whipple. So he followedit, and then went down the rough val-ley of the Bill Williams and reachedthe Colorado River near the presentsite of Park er Dam . Across the rivera wall of mo untain s faced him . So hehad to work up the Arizona side,through the spectacularly rugged Need-les Peak area, to the Mojave Valley.On the way he was forced to abandon

all his wagons except one light springcarriage. Leroux had been right. Todaythe Santa Fe goes north of the Hual-pais and down the great SacramentoWash to the Mojave Valley.Like most visitors since then, Whip-

ple was struck by the vegetation of thearea. He described the ocotillo, withits "exceedingly beautiful" blossoms,and the "famed Cereus giganteus." Heespecially noted the tree cholla: "To-day we have found a new species ofcactodendron, called chug. It growsin extensive patches to the height ofeight or ten feet; a confused mass ofangular joints, whose sheathed spinesat a distance glisten beautifully in thesun; but a near approach requires cau-tion. The joints, about three inches inlength, are so fragile that, for somedistance around, the ground is cov-ered with them; and the sharp barbedspines, now difficult to avoid, woundseverely the feet of men and beasts."Whipple also gave what appears tohave been the first description of theJoshua tree for Arizona and possiblyfor the We st: "An othe r beautiful ad -

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Guy Hazen, former field paleontologist for the American Museum ofNatural History an d the man who discovered the hell rocks.dition to thescenery appeared today;groves of tall andbranching Yucca,with shining leaves, radiating like awide-spread fan. They are 20 or 30feet high, with trunks from a foot anda half to twofeet in diameter. Theleaves grow upon the extremities ofthe branches, and each year are foldedback togive place to a new set."

But after we had started upBroncoCanyon, there was little chance for meto speculate upon anybotanical fea-tures except theones I was trying tododge. Beyond the circle of flurriedand heaped gravel which marked theterminus of Guy's recent attempt toreach the bell-rocks, the vegetationseemed toclose ranks even moresol-idly. Thesandy streambed wasfinewhen we could follow it. But itchanged sides frequently and alwaysseemed toselect thethickest availableconglomeration of brush androcks tofilter through when it crossed over.

Guy kept me tothe correct branch-ings of the canyon and advised on theroute. Even so, our progress was slowan d we had toback out of a numberof blind alleys. Wereached thebaseof thecliff below thephonolite ledge3.65 miles from theroad after a par-ticularly difficult crossing over a brushisland caused by thejunction of twocanyon branches. Thephonolite wasjust tothe left of the mouth of the leftbranch. The only place where theledge can beseen from thewash is atthe entrance of a little drainage can-yon just upstream from thecliff. ButGuy considered thebest andmost di-rect route to itwas from the main washjust below thecliff.It wassteep climbing and subjectto much backsliding. But once on topthere was no trouble identifying thephonolite ledge. Appearing midnightblack, itglittered inthe sun, completelyou t of place among the grays and

browns of the country rock. I wasamazed at the size of some of theindividual blocks. Their smoothlyrounded edges made most ofthem looklike water worn boulders rather thanslabs from a ledge eroded right there.At Guy's suggestion, Nick hadbrought along a sledge hammer. At

the phonolite ledge, the rockhoundmust also be a hammerhound if he isto have any notion of what he is col-lecting, and a great many of thebell-rocks are too big to be t ransportedunless they can bebroken up. On thepile, Nick proceeded to strike a fewsolid notes on the bigrocks while wetapped away with our prospectorspicks. Lucile, down inthe canyon be-low, declared that it sounded like axylophone ensemble tuning up, withthe stones ringing from somber bassto high thin soprano.There didseem to beenough of thescale represented so that it would bepossible to hammer out a fewtunes.But my advancing of the publicitypossibilities of a summer musicalfes-tival with brawny single-jack minersbeating out "pop" concerts was greetedwith raised eyebrows.When Guy andNick hadselected

BELL ROCKS LOGWikieup toPhonolite LedgeMile0.0 Wikieup postoffice (58 milessoutheast of Kingman). FollowState 93 south to2.0 Dip where big wash (BroncoCanyo n) crosses road. Headwesterly up bed of wash. Keepto right in wash to5.4Wash divides. Keep in main(left) branch to5.6+ Cliff at left side of wash, justabove branch. Climb out ofwashto left, oneither side of cliff, toreach phonolite ledge.Wikieup toYucca, over the Hualpais00.0 Wikieup postoffice, head nor th,

on State 9300.4 Tur n left (wes t) from 9300.7 Old main road, old Wikieup,right. Swing left, then curveright, following road into foot-hills.05.6 Y. Keep right.06.4 Y. Keep right.06.5 Y. Keep left.10.4 Angle into stra ight ro ad. Keepright.10.9 Left branc h, well traveled, keepahead, right.16.4 Com e into road at right angles.Turn right.19.7 Angling cross road. Keep ahead.27.0 Y. Keep right.27.9 Right branch. Keep ahead.35.4 Cross road s. Keep a head.43.5 Right reverse branc h. Keepahead.45.9 Yucca, onU.S. 66.

DESERT MAGAZINE


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But I was afraid the sample 1

en masse would be bet-. So I carried it.Going back down Bronco Canyon

But this trail is not

hike . Possibly rain and a little

Guy and Nick were heading backKingma n. They suggested that we

were climbing a narrow but good dirtroad to the west of the little settlement.Almost immediately we came uponplants of the palo de cristo and wereable to examine them closely. Theseed capsulesfive-valved with tinywhitish seeds like miniature wheatgrainsand the way they grew showedthat they did not belong to the paloverde family and were not Holacanthaemoryi, the crucifixion thorn withwhich we were familiar. Since thebranching was definitely not that ofthe Koeberlinia, also called crucifixionthorn, we deduced the palo de cristomust be Canotia holacantha, the thirdspiny plant known as crucifixion thorn.

Again we found Joshua trees andthe giant saguaro cacti growing to-gether. As Lyman Benson and RobertDarrow point out in their Manual ofSouthwestern Desert Trees and Shrubs,these two plants are perhaps the mostfamiliar symbols of the desert theJoshua tree for the Mojave, the saguarofor the Sonoran desert of Arizona.Only in a few spots near the Bill Wil-liams River and along the Hualpaishave they been found together.

This road, across a low section ofthe Hualpais, should be passable for

almost any driver experienced in des-ert or moun tain driving. For anyoneinterested in botany and scenery, it isa wonderful trip. Saguaro, Joshua tree,palo de cristo, juniper, ocotillo and no-lina grow in natural gardens along thelower slopes. Higher we found theocotillos and nolinas still blooming,and passed Rhus ovatas the sugarberrygrowing lushly like trees. Thencame mesquitc and scrub oak, and allthroughout were pancake cacti, bar-rel cacti, Bigelow and tree cholla. Welldown on the Sacramento Wash side,we came into forests of Joshuas withscattered Mojave yucca.

We reached the settlement of Yuccaand the broad freeway of U.S. 66 atdusk . It was plea san t, at this stage ofthe trip, to have smooth, wide pavingto follow.But these great fenced freeways

through Sacramento Wash and BigSandy Valley are unhappy evidencethat Arizona, like all the rest of ourdeserts, is becom ing civilized. Th efencing undoubtedly saves lives bykeeping cattle out of the way of highspeed traffic. But there is a questionwhether it will save as many as alreadyhave been lost through excessive speedNick Tasertano "rings" one of the big musical rocks while Guy Haz.en checksit for tone and pitch.

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Easiest way to deliver small pieces of the musical rock to the car was tothrow them jrom the top of the cliff which hides the ledge from thecanyon floor.on the new freeway. Th e long mileswith scarcely a gate must be very dis-concerting to prospectors and rock-hounds and the more adventuroustourists who once were able to takeoff wherever a wandering track orlikely looking bit of scenery called tothem.

Probably there will be a wire fenceacross the mouth of Bronco Canyon,too, when State Highway 93 is com-pleted. After all there is no throug hroad up it. No remarkable scenerythat can be exploited for tourist dol-lars. Nothing, in fact, of commercialvalue.But perhaps in time even the mostmodern minded of highway commis-sioners will come to realize that it isa good thing to have visitors pull offfor an hour or a day or a week onside roads or even where there are noroads, rather than race between fences

from border to border not daring tolift their eyes from the road . Pe rha ps,in time, cattle will be fenced and cat-tle-guarded into their ranges ratherthan having people fenced out of thepublic domain.For it is certain that as time passes,and the West becomes more crowdedand cut by freeways and private fences,the little sideroads and the canyonswith no roads will become more im-portant. Even now more and morepeople from the cities are turning tothe lonely places that are left open tothem.

They may say they are hunting bell-rocks, or scenery to photograph, orstrange plants to study, or unpollutedair to breathe, but many of them arereally seeking something far more im-portant and vital to the nationa fewmoments of peace and quiet wherethey can find themselve s. :

w& 55 gotttettThe true desert philosophy of ShineSmith became the pathway to victoryfor Fred Glimpse of Phoenix, Arizona,

as his story of the great missionary tothe Navajos won first place in DesertMagazine's 1955 Life - on - the - desertcontest. First award was $25 .00.Glimpse's outstanding entry caughtShine Smith's inner spiritual calmnessa calmness which overcomes all ma-terial obstacles through a recognitionof his oneness with the desert.Second prize of $15 went to a mostthrilling story of the Battle of AguaPrieta by Cordelia Brinkerhoff of ElM onte, California. M rs. B rinkerhoff'seye-witness account of Pancho Villa's

attack on the Mexican border townjust south of Douglas, Arizona, is onewhich Desert readers will not soon for-get.Third prize, also $15, went to Capand Olga Smith of Des Moines, Iowa,for "Phantom of the Desert," a storyof their experience with a family ofkit foxes in southern Imperial County,California.From 88 entries, the following wonhonorable mention and will appear infuture issues:"The One Eyed Snake of Betatakin"by Lolita A. Olaine of Palo Alto, Cali-fornia."The Cattle Drive," by Billie Yostof Flagstaff, Arizona."The Healing Interlude" by HelenaRidgway Stone of Glendalc, California."Flash Flood" by Dee Tripp of Tuc-son, Arizona."The Lost Gold of Morgan CityWash" by Palmer C. Ashley of SantaMonica, California."I t Happened on the Colorado Des-ert" by H. E. W. Wilson of Willits,California."Get Juan to Do It for You" byNona B. Mott of Hereford, Arizona."Life on the Desert" by Tom Mayof Wilmington, California."Prayer Stick Vengeance" by D. D.Sharp of Albuquerque, New Mexico."Dreamers of the Mojave" by Ken-neth M. Stewart of Tempe, Arizona."The Bill Williams on the Rampage"by the Rev. Norman Sorensen of Pi-oche, Nevada."A Visit to Cross Canyon" byEditha L. Watson of Window Rock,

Arizona."Trogon Ambiguus Ambiguus" byDorothy W. Allen of Napa, California."A Desert Comedy" by Mrs. JohnE. Plummer of Milo, Oregon."Christmas on the Desert" by KayGregor of Douglas, Arizona.D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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Trout Streams of the Mojave. . . WHERE A MILLION RAINBOWS GROW

It seems unlikely that the fleshyrainbow trout could ever havelived in any but the icy mounta instreams of Southern California. Butthe chances are it got its start in60-degree waters of the MojaveD es er t, p a m p e r e d w i t h t h r e esquare meals a day, plenty of des-ert sunshine and clear fresh air.No wonder f ishermen love them!By GASTON BURRIDGEPhoto by the Author

N THE BOTTOM lands of theMojave River of California isposted a sign which looks for allthe world like something out of a mi-rage: "Mojave River State Fish Ha tch-ery, Vi Mi." I blinked and lookedagain, but it appeared real enough. Ibacked up and turned inthis I mustsee.As I drove up, hatcherymen FrankMcFarland and Eldon Fredrichsenwere seining a long pond . The reason,they told me, was that one of thescreens between this pond and anotherabove it had developed a hole. Someof the small trout had slipped throughthe hole into this pond where old,larger trout lived, and older trout en-joy a trout dinner, too! So the entirepond had to be seined, its fish sepa-rated.This hatchery handles 1,500,000rainbow trout a year. W hat is mostinteresting is that all these trout arenursed and grown on the desert. Des -ert trout with the sunset on their sidesand they are beauties, too!It seems a bit incongruous to have

a fish one associates with ice coldmountain streams and lakes raised onthe desert, but there they are, flashesof steel-blue shadow churning thewaters waiting to be fed.The hatchery part of the name isperhaps a misnomer for the number offish actually hatched from fish eggsare very few. Probab ly a better nam e,at least one more in keeping with thework done, would be "trout nursery."The eggs are hatched into tiny fishin a plant at Fillmore, California, andarrive at their Mojave River home as

"fry." The y are pretty small then,weighing about 300 trout to the ounce.When they leave here, to be plantedin some stream or lake in Los Ange-les, San Diego, Riverside or San Ber-nardino County, they weigh about fourfish to the pound.

Hatcheryman Frank M cFarland spreads food in a desert trout stream.Young trout grow rapidly at the

hatchery, and no wond er. The fry arefed a puree of beef liver three times aday. This puree is made by mincingthe beef liver in huge grinding ma-chines like those the butcher grinds hishamburger in, only these machines areconsiderably larger. The puree is thenshaken into the pool through a finesieve.The trout are raised in pools 12feet wide, 60 feet long and about twofeet deep, with curved bottom s. Thewater in these pools is flowing 24 hoursa day. The hatcheryman walks upstream as he feeds the trout, wadingthe pool's center, spreading food as heslowly steps along.As the trout grow their diet changesand the feedings are cut to two a day.Older fish get a ground-up mixture of

saltwater fish, horse meat and beefliver. This food is forced th roug hgrinding plates with one-quarter inchholes in them. It takes three pound sof food to make one pound of rainbowtrout.

All the meat to be used as fish foodcomes to the hatchery frozen and iskept in large refrigerated storage rooms.The beef liver used here has been con-demned as unfit for human consump-tion by Gov ernm ent inspectors. It ar-rives in boxes about two feet squareand eight inches thick. Th e liver iscovered with charcoal dust. Th e horsemeat is packed in barrels, while thefish comes in 50-pound paper sackswith special paraffin treated liningsall frozen. Th is food arrives in batchesof as much as 40,000 pounds at atime. This is no small operation outhere on the Mojave River.

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Why was this particular spot chosenfor a trou t nursery ? It is becau se ofthe good and abundant water supplywhich occurs at just the right tempera-ture. This water has to be aeratedconstantly to add enough oxygen forthe trout. Goo d clean air, free ofsmog, is essential.The best temperature for growingtrout is approximately 60 degrees. Afemale trout is the most fertile and willproduce the most eggs in water from65 to 66 degrees, but water that warmwould make the young trout grow toofast and they would become suscepti-ble to their many diseases.Rainbow are planted in mountainlakes and streams of Southern Califor-nia counties every month of the year ex-cept February, that month being ex-cluded because roads are snowed indeepest, lakes and streams frozen over

hardest. The hatchery operates on anall year basis, however, with six full-time employees.McFarland told me that while troutare interested in all colors it is his be-lief that red is their favorite. I learnedalso, that the California State Fish,the golden trout, is a variation of therainbow trout.The truck used to transport the troutfrom this nursery to streams or lakesis an especially designed affair, theresult of many years' experiment andexperien ce. Gon e are the days of the

milk can full of fish! Th e large tankholds 500 gallons and is equipped withtwo gasoline engines and two pumps,one for service, one for stand-by. Thisengine and pump keeps the water ae-rated and swiftly moving all duringtrans porta tion. Should it stop for verylong, the trout would die. They m usthave constantly moving water whenconfined in so small a placeand thewater must be provided with plenty ofairair with good oxygen in it. Thesetanks are iced that their temperaturemay remain just right also.When the fish are planted an eight-inch pipe is attached to the tank andrun into the water of the stream orlake. A gate in the tank is opened.Out rush the fish with the water andfrom then the trout are on their own.The hatcheries are always interestedin propagating fish more resistant todisease, having a wider range of livingconditions and food. They are con-tinually experimenting with new foodsand different methods of feeding. Theylike to know how their fish are doingafter they are planted. Ma ny methods

for finding this information have beendevised, but none have proved toosuccessful. No w, fish are being taggedwith a small number at the side oftheir mou ths. Should you catch sucha trout, the hatchery will much appre-

ciate your dropping them a card say-ing where you caught it, its length, itsweight, its general condition and, ifcaught in an extraordinary spot, adescription of that spot. In fact, anyinformation you can give about thesemarked trout will be used to furtherthe Department's work in making bet-ter fishing for you. Ad dress card s toMojave River State Fish Hatchery, P.O. Box 938, Victorville, California.The Mojave River State Fish Hatch-ery is one of the most interesting ofCalifornia's activities. It is a joint des-ert-mountain endeavor, using the des-ert's clear warm climate to produce asuperb mountain trout.

Desert Magazine's press runthis month is 32,500 copies 5,000 more than the circulationa year ago. All printing, includ-ing the 4-color cover is done atDesert's own printing plant inPalm Desert, California.

Anthropogist Charles Gallenkamp,of Houston, Texas, author of thismonth's "Where Ancients Wrote inStone," is writer, lecturer and traveler.Currently he is writing a book on theAmerican Indians which is due to bepublished in the fall by VanguardPress, following which he plans a tripto Mexico to photograph archeologicalsites and to visit some of the little-known tribes in central and southernMexico. Among his recent lecturetours, Gallenkamp spent time in Eu-rope where he found the people fas-cinated with the true picture of Indianlife. Paris at that time was featuringan exhibit of Indian paintings andNavajo silverwork.

T R U E O R F A L S E According to the law of averagesyou should get half of theseright even if you never saw theGrea t Am erican Desert. Regular readers of Desert will do much betterthan that. Fifteen is a fair score, 18 is exceptionally good, and for any-thing over 18 you may go to the head of the class. Ans wers a re on page 2 8.1Indians were living in Death Valley before the white man came tothe West. True Fal se.- .2 Arrastra is a word associated with early day mining. TrueFalse .3 The Yam pa River is a tributary of the Green River. TrueFalse .4Lowell Observatory is near Flagstaff, Arizona. True . False5 Papag o Indians eat the fruit of the Saguaro cactus. TrueFalse6 The Chuckawalla is a poisonous lizard. True ._ . False ... .7Canyon wrens are seen only in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.True . False8The book Death Valley in '49 was written by W. A. Chalfant.True . False .9Uranium is obtained in many places in the Southwest by placermining. True False10The Smoke Tree blooms every year despite the amount of rainfall.True False11T impanogos Cave National Monu men t is in Utah. TrueFalse12 Joshua trees grow only in California. True . False.-.13-The doo r of a Nava jo hogan always faces north . Tru eFalse14Headwaters of the Little Colorado River are in the Wasatch Moun-tains of Utah. True False .15P auline Weaver was a famous stage driver. True . False16 The blossom of the datura is white. Tru e.. . False _ . .17Sunset Crater in Arizona is visible from the Wupatki National Monu-ment. True False18 The M ohs scale is used to classify the pu rity of gold. Tru eFalse19A line drawn east and west through Albuquerque, New Mexico,would pass north of Phoen ix, Arizona . True . False20 Fairy duster is the commo n name of a desert butterfly. TrueFalse

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Nine-ton block of Naretina marble ready for shipment.

They M ine Marblein ApachelandnBy NELL MURBARGERPhotographs by the au thor

Y REGARD for marble , unt i lquite recently, had never beenbeen especially warm . It wasan attractive stone, to be sure; but italways seemed aloof and unfriendly.It reminded me of pale winter sun-shine, and hushed voices, and chillyplaces like mausoleums and morgues.And then, one day last fall, Destinyhad trailed me down to Dragoon, Ari-zona, and a chance meeting with De-Forest Ligier.

DeForestor "Bud," as he is knownover most of Arizonais one of thebest marble men in the business. Byhis own enthusiasm he had helped mesee marble as the first great buildingstone of Man's civilizationthe noblerock of Ancient Rome and the Caesars.He pointed out that it is the stone fromwhich the world's greatest masterpiecesM A Y , 1 9 5 5

of sculpture have been wrought, andthe stateliest temples of Time, created."No," he had declared, shaking hishead, "Marble isn't a cold, unfriendlystone. It's just dignified and queenlyand very proud!"This veneration for marble has beenin the blood of the Ligiers for twogenerations, possibly longer.Leon Remy LigierBud's fatherwas a graduate of the University ofDayton, a geologist and marble pros-pector, a sculptor of some repute andowner of one of the first monumentworks in the frontier city of Phoenix,Arizon a. It is said to have been hewho discovered the white marble moun-tain that launched the 50-years-agomarble boom in Gunnison County,Colo rado . During their many years ofoperation, those western Colorado

Two city folks became fed upwith the noise and congestion ofLos Angeles and decided to go outto the Dragoon Mountains in Ari-zona and "develop Dad's old mar-ble claims." Today their quarriesare yielding some of the finestmarble to be found in this hemi-sphere and the Ligiers have grownto love the wild country whereGeronimo and Cochise and theirApache warriors once l ived andfought.quarries produced stone for municipalbuildings of San Francisco and NewYork, as well as many other notablestructures including the Lincoln Me-morial and the tomb of the UnknownSoldier.

Then Leon Ligier had wandereddown to Cochise County, in the south-eastern corner of Ariz ona. The re, inthe north fringe of the rugged Dra-goons, he had found another marblemountain!Decorative marble, in that year of1909, was in active demand by qualitybuilders, and Ligier had hastened tostake several claims. Du e to his prom -inence in the stone-cutting industry,this implied approval of the new fieldhad the result of luring to that regiona throng of boomers and claim jump-ers. Half the Southwest, it seemed,


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The Ligiers at their Dragoon Mountain home.suddenly had become marble minded,and claims were being staked right andleft and on top of one another.O ut of this flurry of excitement therehad risen an impossible tangle of con-fusion.A s a result of that confusion, thesplendid marble claims staked by Li-gier were still embroiled in litigationand untouched by development whentheir original claimant died in 1922.Upon Mr. Ligier's death his marbleholdingstogether with his law suitsdescended to his five sons, then intheir twenties andearly thirties. Litiga-tion over the ground continued; andnot until the matter had draggedthrough the courts for 20 costly years,was a decision rendered in favor ofthe Ligier heirs.By this time, the national economywas in the doldrums, and with build-ers tightening their purse strings, therewas no market for decorative marble.After the depression came World WarI I , bringing labor shortages and cur-tailment of private construction. Thus,for one reason and another, it was notuntil 1946-nearly 40 years after theclaims had been stakedthat the Li-gier holdings produced their first blockof marketable stone.Since that time those quarries havegiven to the building industry thou-sands of square feet of marble com-parable in quality, color and beauty,with anyproduced in the famous mar-ble districts of the Old World.Yet, all the marble thus far takenfrom these quarries has barelyscratched the surface of that remain-ing. According to surveys by geolo-gists and mining engineers, the Ligierholdings at Dragoon embrace not lessthan 2,000,000,000 cubic feet of mar-ketable stone roughly 186,000,000tonsor what is probably the largestsupply of decorative marble in theWestern Hemisphere!One daylast October I was on Ari-

zona State Highway 86, driving fromBowie to Nogales. About 20 milessouthwest of Willcox this road entersTexas Canyon and for several milesis bordered bystrange rock formations.The morning was warm and lazy. Witha few white clouds drifting over thehills and the smell of autumn in theair, the urge to go exploring was toogreat to resist. At the first branchroad I turned off the highway into therocks.Circling the formations, the littleby-road led down a tree-lined wash,past an old cemetery and a few crum-bling adobes; and, suddenly, it wasentering the outskirts of a small desertstation set astraddle the Southern Pa-cific tracks, on the north apron of theDragoon Mountains.By the federal census of 1950, thetown of Dragoon, Arizona, is creditedwith a population of only 44 persons;yet, it has a store and a postoffice, andit wasn't long before I was visiting withthe storekeeper. The matter of miningconditions crept into the conversation as it generally does, in a miningcountryand the storeman said therewasn't much doing in theDragoon areaexcept at the marble quarries. Thishad invited more questions and 10minutes later, I was sitting under aChina berry tree in the front yard ofthe Ligier home, and Bud and hiswife Mary were telling me the storyof an industry already old in the daysof Pompeii.

In his early fifties, and as brown asany Apache who ever roamed theDragoons, big, good-natured Bud Li-gier fits into the Arizona landscapelike its rust-colored rocks. Lookingat him and his unusually attractivewife, I found it hard to believe thatless than 10 years ago this sort ofthing was almost as foreign to themas life on another planet.Born in the San Fernando Valley,of Southern California, Mary's life

had been centered about her home,her club-work, the theater, music,dancing and drama. Bud,while a na-tive of Mesa, Arizona, had grown upon the Coast and knew virtually noth-ing about the desert." A n d I certainly didn't know any-thing about marble!" he laughed. "Iwas a hardwood floor contractor inLos Angeles; was working about 20hours out of every 24, and makinglots of money."Then, suddenly, the whole pictureseemed to go sour. We were simplyfed up with the noise and congestionand cocktail parties and late hourseverything that contributes to the lifeof a businessman in a large city. Wetold our friends we were going to quitan d get out; that we were going toArizona anddevelop Dad's old marbleclaims. Everyone thought we had lostour minds; but that was our decision."A smile flickered across hisface, andfor a moment hiseyes caught and heldthe amused eyes of Mrs. Ligier."Tha t was eight years ago," Budwent on. "We've learned a whale of alot since then particularly aboutmarble. We've learned that develop-ing a marble quarry is just about thehardest, hottest, heaviest work in theworld. You breathe marble dust , andea t it, andt ramp through it, anddreamabout it at nightand pretty soon itgets into your blood, and you knowyou're in it to stay. You're a 'marbleman ' , and wild horses couldn't dragyou away from it!"Later , Bud suggested we drive upto the quarries. "W e're closed for afew days," he said, "but it'll give youan idea of what we're doing."Heading south out of the little town,we soon began climbing toward a faintwhite smudge on the mountainside, afew miles distant.Springing from the mouse-coloredflat of Sulphur Springs Valley, the darkisland of the Dragoon range risesabruptly to its maximum elevation inMount Glen, 7512 feet. Spread overthose higher levels is a dense thatchof conifers and other shrubbery; butin the lower elevation zone throughwhich we were passingfrom 4600feet at the town of Dragoon, to a milehigh at the quarries the vegetationwas strictly that of thehighland desert.Sprinkled over the dry slopes werecre-osote bushes, and the thin, gray whipsof ocotillo. There were a few yuccasand cactus; and, now and then, thestout flower spike and toothed bladesof an agave. A flock of desert quailsprinted across the road ahead of us,an d a roadrunner cocked his headquizzically as we passed.

"This wasChief Cochise's country,"Bud was saying. "His headquartersDESERT MAGAZINE


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were about five miles down the range,south. He 's buried here in the Dra-goon s. Some say down in the Strong-hold but no White man knows whereand the Apaches don't talk about it."Rattling and bouncing over therocky road, the old sedan had climbedthe last steep pitch and Bud hadbrought it to a halt at the lip of alarge open cut.Wherever a block of marble hadbeen removed from the quarry, thereremained a squared pocket; and overevery inch of that cubistic face werelong, straight, parallel furrows groundout by the drills. In order tha t thegreat block may be removed with aminimum of fracturing and waste, itis necessary that marble be drilled,rather than blasted, explained Bud."Twenty centuries ago, they quar-ried it with slave labor, using ham-

mers and wedges." He grinned. "Westill do it the sam e way. Th e onlydifference, we pay higher wages nowand use pneumatic drills!"The sides by which each block ofmarble is attached to the main massare drilled as closely parallel as possi-ble, with each drill hole separated fromits predecessor by a web of stone aboutan inch wide. With the comp letion ofdrilling, the marble block is thusroughly comparable to a postage stampsurroun ded by its perforations. Theconnecting webs are now cut out, andthe block is split from its base. Hoistedfrom the quarry by means of a largeA-frame, the block is lowered to the

t l

.

Marble chips from this crusher willfor many homes and publicflat bed of a truck and hauled to therailroad at Dragoon, for shipping.Blocks taken from the Ligier quar-ries average about four feet wide, fourfeet high, and five or six feet long, andat 186 pounds per cubic foot, weighbetween seven and nine tons each. Forspecial orders, the Ligiers have cut

Dynamite or powder would shatter the rock so the blocks are cutfrom the moun tain o f marble by tedious drilling operations. This is theGeronimo quarry.

become terrazo flooring or roofingbuildings across the nation.and shipped blocks weighing as muchas thirteen tons each. At presen t it isnecessary that the rough blocks beshipped out of the state for slabbingand polishingmany of them going tothe great marble works of LaconiMarble Co. at Carthage, Missouri .

"As soon as we can finance it we'regoing to put in our own gang saws andpolishing equipment, so we can turnout a finished product at the quarry,"said Bud . "T hat's where the big moneylies. But, so far, we haven't had the$200,000 necessary to that sort ofexpans ion!" Up to this point, Bud andhis brothers figure their investment inactual cash and labor well over $50,-000.While all the Ligier claims em-

bracing some 2000 acresare situatedon the north and northwest slopes ofMarble Mountain, each of the severalquarries produces marble of its owndistinctive color, Bud explained. Eachquarry has been assigned a name typi-cal to that region, and this quarry name,in turn, is applied to the particularcolor of marble there produced.This first quarry we had visited isknown as the Geronimo and from itcomes a beautifully variegated pinkand buff stone nearly identical withthe famous Skyros marble of Egypt.The Dragoon quarry, near the Geron-imo, yields an all-green marble, mostof which is crushed for terrazo chipsand roofing. From the Navajo comesa striking stone whose jet black back-ground is shot through with golden

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In these Dragoon Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona, was discoveredthe largest decorative marble deposit in the Western Hemisphere.threads. Marble from the Apachequarry is a warm, tawny golden; Tontois salmon colored; Numidian a richrose; and Breche Saguaro and Nare-tina are so-called conglomerates. Thusfar, 10 distinct colors and types ofmarble have been taken from the Li-gier quarries.

"As a matter of fact," Bud said, "wecan produce a marble comparable toalmost any marble in the world!"As we walked over the Geronimopit our feet were crunching in a thickcarpeting of marble chips. In theirunpolished state these fragments borelittle resemblance to the finished prod-uct, but by wetting the pieces we couldgain some idea of the rich, warm tonesof this most-highly-colored pink mar-

ble. Geologically speaking, marble isrecrystallized limestone, and thus datesfrom the Devonian age when much ofthe earth's surface was covered bywarm seas, and tropical corals flour-ished where only desert wastes now lie.

"'Mausoleums generally use the moresubdued colors of marble, but in oneCalifornia mausoleum there's a privateroom finished in Geronimo pink," hewent on. "When her husband died,the woman had contracted for the roomat the mausoleum and had said shewanted it re-finished in a warm, pinkmarble, 'Bright and full of promiselike the sunrise,' she had said. Shewas told that such a job would costher $15,000; but that seemed quiteagreeable with her, and the managerof the mausoleum began combing thequarries for pink marble. Every timehe got on the track of a new samplehe would show it to her, but nonesuited her.

"Years passed. It began to look asif the old lady wouldn't live to see hermausoleum room finished as shewanted it. Then we got into produc-tion here at Dragoon, and the mauso-leum folks happened to see a piece of

Geronimo pink. When they showed itto the woman, she was delighted." 'That's it!' she cried. 'That's whatI wanted all the timebright, like thesunrise.'"And so," he concluded, "There'sat least one mausoleum room that'sfinished in Geronimo pink'like the

sunrise.' "Marble from the Ligier quarries hasbeen used in finishing many beautifulbuildings, some of the more notablein the Southwest being St. Mary's hos-pital, at Tucson; the newest threebuildings at the University of Arizona;the new chemistry-geology building atU.C.L.A.; the new hospital at Ven-tura; the gym and armory at Tempe;and store fronts and banks throughoutthe area. In addition, buildings in allsections of the Middle West and East,and as far distant as the Canal Zone,have used this highly colored Arizonaproduct.Turning back toward Dragoon, wedetoured to the Ligier crushing andsacking plant at Manzaro siding onthe railroad, midway between theSouthern Pacific stations of Cochiseand Dragoon.By means of a jaw-type crusher,having a capacity of 50 tons daily,waste marble unsuited to slabbing ishere transformed into marble chipsranging from dust particles to frag-ments the size of an almond. Screened

to uniform size and sacked in 100-pound burlap bags, these chips finduse in a wide variety of wayschieflyas a stone surface coat for roofing,and in terrazo work.Due to its beauty, durability, easeof cleaning and economical mainte-nance, terrazo is becoming one of themost popular types of flooring forpublic buildingsparticularly in areasof heavy foot traffic, such as corridors.Mixed with white or pre-colored ce-ment for a binder, the chips either arecast in slabs about an inch in thicknessor poured directly on the floor, andafter hardening are polished to a soft,velvety gloss. The resulting productis a perfectly smooth, stone-hard slab,more durable than ceramic tile, andwith multi-hued marble chips addingflecks of color to its basic tone.In addition to floors, many buildersof high quality homes now are em-ploying terrazo as a finished materialin bathrooms and kitchens.As Bud turned the old sedan backup the road toward the little town ofDragoon, the sun of late afternoonwas lying warmly golden on the gauntrange to the south. In their gray-greenwhiskering of agaves and yuccas, andtheir eternal cloak of wistful loneliness,it was difficult to imagine those moun-tains as an abiding place of marble

14 DESERT MAGAZINE


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more easily associated with the greatupthrust crag of Carrara, the fiercecold ruggedness of Vermont.Nor was it any easier to visualizethese quiet desert hills as a setting forthe stirring days of Arizona's dark andbloody past. Throug h this tawny dipbetween the main Dragoons and theLittle Dragoons, to the north, Coro-nado's mounted legions had passed intheir fruitless search for the SevenGolden Cities of Cibola. Throu gh herehad rolled the dusty, arrow-piercedcoaches of the Butterfield Stage line;through here had swept the great Co-chise and his Chiricahua warriors. Herewas a land where early-day hold-upsof stage and train had occurred withsuch frequency as to provoke littlecomm ent. Here was a land wheremining for gold and silver once hadflourished and gone its way; where

towns had bloomed and faded; wherecattle barons had come and gone.For more than four centuries manhad penetrated these hills with hope,and briefly had conq uered. With theirharvest gathered, he had moved on toother hills, other harvests, other w orlds.After the plundering conquistadores

of Spain, the pillaging Apache raiders,the murderous bandits of the bordercountry, the seeking prospectors andland-hungry cattlemen, this great silentland of the Dragoons now is enteringupon a new phase, a new era of prod-uctivity.In years to come, history may showthat all those phases gone before werebut poor preliminaries; and after fourcenturies of trial and error, the truetreasure of the Dragoons may at lastbe found to lie in their marble heart.

ittTMeaddie*, Se& t

As nearly two weeks of rain usheredin 1955 in the Southwest, hopes soaredfor an outstanding wildflower display.Since that time rains in most portionsof the area have been disappointingand flower predictions are now some-what spottygood for some areas andaverage in othe rs. Prolong ed coldweather stunted the verbenas whichsprouted in the dunes, and eveningprimrose failed to reach the blossomstage.

Here is the wildflower picture asdescribed by Desert Magazine's cor-respondents:Antelope Valley, California JaneS. Pinheiro reports that the Antelopearea is about two inches behind lastyear's rainfall, which was deficient it-self. This is causing many seedlingswhich the first rains brought out todry up. Some rain in April could bringa bumper crop of flowers, Mrs. Pin-heiro maintains.Phacelia, pepper cress, bird's eyegilia and California poppies came intoMarch bloom and the Joshua treeswere preparing to bloom well. Summertemperatures at the last of Marchbrought flowers to earlier maturity thanexpected, but without April rain therewill be no mass displays.Death Valley National Mon ument,CaliforniaFlowers in this area are

becoming better as May approaches,according to the National Park Service.Desert gold and white evening prim-rose were dense along Highway 190late in March, with good stands of yel-low evening primrose on Jubilee Pass

road and on the road to Daylight Pass.The phacelia were excellent alongHighway 190 and good from FurnaceCreek Inn to Badwater, while goodstands of desert star were noted alongHighway 190 from San Dune Junc-tion to Furna ce Creek Inn. The namawere very numerous along the sameroute. Flowering cacti were expectedin April and May.

Joshua Tree National Monument,CaliforniaMonument SuperintendentSamuel A. King reports that the dis-play of annuals at lower elevations isnil. Bladderpods were blooming in theTwentynine Palms area and in theMonument, while from the mouth ofMorongo Canyon to Highway 60-70and along the Dillon highway the brit-tlebush was due to bloom by mid-April. At the M onum ent's 4000-footlevel the peak blooms, although notin profusion, would be reached justprior to mid-April, Superintendent Kingpredicted, showing desert rock pea,primrose, scarlet astragalus, mentzeliaand alfillaree. Josh ua tree bloom swould be showy during the sameperiod.

April will be the showy month forcactus and ocotillo, too, he added, butthe picture is generally not outstanding.Borrego State Park, CaliforniaBestcactus and ocotillo blooms were seenin the Park in April, according to ParkSupervisor Jam es B. Chaffee. "Fo rthe true desert lover May is a beauti-ful month in this area," he stated, "andthere will be scattered blooms whichwill appeal to them with the possibilityof a desert lily or two (which are just

starting to bloom nowlate March)but I don't think there will be muchappeal to the average person whothinks of wildflowers in the desert interms of fields of massed blooms."Lake Mead National RecreationArea, NevadaStill one of the mostencouraging reports comes from O. L.

Wallis, park naturalist at Lake Mead."Our wildflower display . . . started offwith a bang in mid-March with a spec-tacular array of sundrops, desert pop-pies, chicory, purple phacelia and Ari-zona lupines along the roadway toWillow Beach on Lake Mojave," hestated. Beavertail cactus, creosotebush and brittlebush began to bloomin late March . Form ing an excellentdisplay along the shores of Lake Meadwere desert poppies, suncups and pur-ple mats. Cool weather should extendthe better-than-average flower showmuch longer than usual, NaturalistWallis believes. Best May displayswill be found at higher elevations inthe plateau and mountainous terrain,where such flowers as the desert mari-posa, firecracker flower, Palmer's pen-stemon, Indian paint brush, ocotilloand many forms of cacti will be mostcolorful.Highway 9 5 , Quartzsite to Yuma,ArizonaM argaret Gerk e, who tookthis trip just in time for Desert's sur-vey, reports the desert was lush andgreen in the northern part of the YumaTest Station, where there were occa-sional patches of phacelia and goodencelia flowering with many morebushes budding and green. Miss Gerkesaid the ocotillo should be especiallygood in this area. Goo d patche s ofverbena and desert lily were noted justsouth of the turnoff to Martinez Lake.She also spotted some desert roadsidesunflower.Casa Grande National Monument,ArizonaA verage shows of the nor-mal April and May wildflowers will beseen in this area, according to Monu-ment Superintendent A. T. Bicknell.The mallow and squawberry wereblooming in late March and buds wereforming on the ocotillo and staghorncholla.Saguaro National Mon ument, Ari-zonaNo prospects for a better-than-average wildflower season were insight, according to Monument Super-intendent John G. Lewis. There wereno flowers in bloom in late March, al-though ocotillo, false mesquite and afew others were expected by the firstof April. Brittlebush, yellow paperdaisy, wild mustard, lupine and lark-spur were to be at their best by mid-April, Superintendent Lewis believed.A good show of cactus was predicted,with hedgehog cactus first, followed byprickly pear, cholla and pincushionslate in the month.

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O ne of the finest natural galler-ie s of primitive American art isfound near the ruined city of SanCristobal, in northern New Mexico.Not many people know aboutthese giant panels of pictographsand petroglyphs, and the few whodo know their location are inclinedto keep it secret for fear vandalswil l destroy these valuable ancientchronicles as others have beendestroyed. The editors of Desertoffer this story with confidenceth at t ho s e r e a d e r s i n t e r e s t e denough to seek out San Cristobalwill respect this ancient art gallerya s a heritage to be protected andpreserved.

By CHARLES GALLENKAMPPhotos by the Author7WENTY-FIVE miles south ofSante Fe, New Mexico, theruined pueblo of San Cristoballies hidden in a lifeless, silent valley.Few people know it is there. It is un-marked on state maps, and rarely dothe residents of nearby towns visit it.Except for a few obscure archeologicalreports, this once flourishing center ofIndian life has all but vanished frommemory.It was my friend, John Skolle, whofirst led me to San Cristobal and theamazing gallery of prehistoric art con-cealed in the mesas high above it. Asa painter he was especially interestedin primitive art and had assembled avaluable collection of drawings andphotographs of cave paintings, petro-glyphs and native designs from manyparts of the world. On his first visitto San Cristobal, several years before,he had been greatly impressed by theveritable museum of stone drawingshidden in the rim of mesas surround-ing the ruined village.

Indians had a particular fondnessfor painting andetching on stone, anddiscoveries of this kind are plentiful inthe Southwest. I have photographedclose to 15 similar sites within a fewmiles' radius of Sante Fe alone; but ifthese at SanCristobal were as fantasticas Skolle described, I wanted to seethem for myself. Early one Sundaymorning we loaded the cameras andenough food for the day into the caran d set out for the ruins.

We drove south on a well-paved roadthat gradually dropped down into abroad valley, scarred now and then bycone-shaped mountains and flat, awk-ward looking buttes. The countrysidereflected a myriad of brilliant colors inthe warm morning sun. Finally weturned into a dirt driveway andstoppedbefore a redgate with a sign that read:

S AN C R I S T O B A L R A N C HG A T E 5Left Artist-writer John Skolle, wholed the author to the ruins of SanCristobal, examines one of the pet-roglyph panels.Opposite page Top, a ledge cov-ered with etchings ofanimals, hornedmasks andwhat appears to be a star-scarred bear; bottom, figures repre-senting a turkey hunt in which twomen armed with clubs pursue a flee-ing bird. The crescent-shaped ob-ject above theturkey's head probablydepicts a throwing-stick.

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Where AncientsWrote in Stone


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Ancient artists' chisels added eyes and jagged teeth to a natural pro jectionof stone to create this mammoth rock serpent.

It was a quick walk from there tothe crest of the mesa overlooking theruined pueblo. Far below we couldmake out the dim outline of what hadonce been several sections of the vil-lage joined by plazas or courtyards,and at the west end of the ruin, oneremaining wall of a Spanish missiontowered 20 feet above the piles ofweathered gray stone.No one has seen San Cristobal inits glory since the last of the 17thcentu ry. It had been the largest of 28pueblos in the Galisteo Basinall were

abandoned early in the Spanish con-quest and have long since crumbledto ruins. In 1912 the archeologist NeilsC. Nelson excavated the portion of SanCristobal nearest the mission, but mostof its secrets still lie unearthed beneaththe debris and rubble of almost threecenturies. Only the curious etchingson the rocky ledges above the ruinremain as visible evidence of the In-dians who had dwelled there for 500years.From where Skolle and I stood wecould see nothing in the rocks aheadof us. For ten minutes or more weclimbed higher on the side of the mesa.Then I glanced up and suddenly sawthem: dozens of faces, masks, animalsand figures peered down at us from theblack boulde rs. Everywh ere we looked

were more of the mysterious designsincised in the rocks. Fo r several hun -dred feet along the face of the ledgethere was hardly a smooth surface ofstone that did not bear faces, the im-print of hands, animal effigies, lines,circles, geometric patterns or masks;and at places in the cliffs we foundshallow caves and rock shelters, thewalls of which were covered with spi-rals, bird-like figures and hands withoutstretched fingers.While I set up the cameras, Skollesearched the rocks ahead for new

drawings. Within two hours we hadtaken over 50 photographs, and theimaginative skill of San Cristobal's an-cient artists revealed itself at its finestbefore our cameras.Archeologists draw a subtle line ofdistinction between petroglyphs, whichare designs pecked into the surface ofrocks with stone tools, and pictographs,figures painted on with vegetable ormineral paint. The people of San Cris-tobal employed both methods to con-vey their artistic conc eption s. In cavesand under protective ledges, coloredpictographs are still plainly visible; butthe open faces of the cliffs are coveredwith bold, chiseled petroglyphs whichhave turned white or dull gray withthe passing of time. Only in a fewinstances was it necessary to accentu-

ate badly weathered drawings withchalk.By mid-afternoon we had a fairlycomplete film record of the ancientdrawings, and the disappearing sunplunged the remaining ones into deepshadow. I gathered up our equipmen tand started toward a ridge where Skolie

had located one more group. As Iwas climbing I noticed a narrow pas-sage between two sheer walls of stone.At first I took it to be the entrance ofa rock shelter, but once inside thepassageway I found that it led over aslight ridge and dropped into a basinon the other side. Halfway throughthe pass, I came quite unexpectedlyupon the most exciting discovery ofthe day. A beam of sunlight directedmy attention to a small shelf-like ledgea few feet ahea d. Th e light fell squ are -ly on a natural projection of rockwhich had been carved to resemble amassive serpent's head with wide-seteyes and a row of jagged fangs. It re-minded me of the Feathered Serpenteffigies from Mexico, though this imagewas of crude workmanship by com-parison to the Aztec and Mayan stonemasterpieces. Yet its serpentine fea-tures were unmistakable even in thefading sunlight, and its weathered,grotesque face had looked down onthat narrow pass for centuries.

What it had seen we can only guess.Many changes had come to the valleybelow since it was first sculptured intoform. Th e village of its ma kers flour-ished and fell to decay. Spanish co n-quistadores had come and gone, anda great tide of white settlers had rolledthrough the valley, leaving behindpowerful seeds of a new civilization.

San Cristobal was founded sometimearound 1250 A.D. by pueblo tribes-men migrating from the north. It wasoccupied until the end of the 17thcentury when a series of epidemicsfollowed by the relentless raids of ma-rauding Apaches threatened to extin-guish its inha bitan ts. Spanish mission-aides had established a church in thevillage shortly after the conquest, butthey were powerless to prevent theIndians from abandoning their homesin search of a safer location. By 1692San Cristobal was deserted, and its oc-cupants gradually moved west towardthe Hopi pueblos, settling finally atHano.As displaced people inevitably will,they carried remnants of their formerculture with them . M any of the designs

carved in the rocks at San Cristobalare still seen today in the work of Hopicraftsmen . All that was left behindwere the dead, their deserted homes,and the carved faces of gods and spiritsto watch from the surrounding cliffsas the village crumbled away.18 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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Photo by R ichard L. Cas.seII.ON DESERT TRAILS WITH A NATURALIST - XIVH ard-Shelled D enizensof the W astelands

By EDMUND C. JAEGER, D.Sc.Curator of PlantsRiverside Municipal MuseumW H I L E tr ek ki ngacross country north of theChuckawalla Mountains of Cali-fornia, I came upon two vacationinghigh school-age boys who were en-

gaged in an argument over whether thereptile they'd just found should becalled a desert turtle or a desert tor-toise.Neither had had much to offer byway of scientific authority and as so

often happens in such cases, each wasdoing little else than quoting his father,with mu ch fervor. After listening amoment I volunteered to give somereason why trained scientists have de-cided that the creature they had beforethem should properly be called a landor desert tortoise and not a turtle."The latter name," I said, "is usu-ally reserved for water dwelling crea-tures with comparatively low-arched

This grim-looking monster reallyis a very harmless denizen of thesouthwestern deserts, and a thriftyone at that. In da ys of plen ty itstores water and food inside itsshell for the time when there maybe a famine. And if you w onderhow to distinguish a tortoise froma turtle, here is the answer.

upper shell and webbed toes, or withlimbs, some or all of which are modi-fied as flippers or paddles.""The land tortoises," I said further,"are of robust build and have a high-arched upper shell covered with hornyshields showing prominent growthrings. Toe s at the end of the stubbylimbs are unwebbed and furnished withstrong claw-like nails.""We found this big fellow," said oneM A Y , 1 9 5 5


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of the boys, "by following the trail offootsteps in the sand. Th e strangetractor-like, double, wide-spaced foot-marks were different from any trackswe'd ever seen before. We walked upthis sandy wash, about a quarter of amile before we found him."When we first came near him, hewas eating grass at the base of a bigrock. As we got closer he quicklydrew his head, feet and tail into theshell, making a hissing noise."This desert tortoise, which the boyshad found, was the largest one I hadever seen. It was fully 15]/2 incheslong and 12 inches broad. These werethe measurements I got when I ran aflexible tape over the curvature of itsshell. Although the boys wanted me totell them, I did not venture to estimateits true age for there is no way ofdetermining it either by size or by thegrowth lines on the scales. It haddoubtless spent many decades wander-ing over its desert hom e-land . It mayhave been 30, or even 40 years old.The actual weight at any age israther difficult to determine unless oneknows the quantity of green food thereptile has recently eaten or how muchwater it has drunk. After a summerthunderstorm when free water is foundin rock pools a tortoise may nearlydouble its weight by drinking water.There may also be much stored waterin the large bladder and in the sup-plementary water storage sacs beneaththe shell. All this adds to its varyingweight.The tortoise the boys had corneredwas a male. "How does one know,"they asked."There are several differences be-tween the sexes," I explained. "Firstof all, the under shell, or plastron, issomewhat concave in the male, the tailis longer than in a female of similarsize and the forked projecting hornor gular shield, at the forepart of theshell, is also better developed andlonger in the male."The pugnacious males advantage-ously use this large gular horn in boutswith other males during the breedingseason. Brandishing it as a weapon,they lunge into their rivals or even useit as a kind of prying instrument to tryto turn over the other contestant. Amale tortoise may even make thrustsat the female with this gular horn.The time of courting and matingoccurs in spring and early summer.The male's attentions toward the fe-male are shown by rather rapid, amus-

ing, up and down movements of hisextended head. He also may be seenrepeatedly nipping the edges of theshell of the female, going around heragain and again.The female lays her white, hard-

Dotted portion of map shows distri-bution area of Desert Tortoise.shelled oval eggs in shallow holeswhich she digs in the earth with herrathe r clumsy hind feet. Th e eggs areabout one and a half inches in diam-eter. Th ere may be as few as two andas many as nine of them; but the aver-age is four o r five. Th e eggs hat ch ina little over three mon ths. Septem berand October are the usual months foremergence of the young.

When a young desert tortoise comesfrom its egg it is a small, almost round,replica of its parents, mustard yellowto light brown in color, with soft shelland measures only about one and ahalf inches in diam eter. Ha rden ing ofthe bony plates underneath the brown-ish scales of the shell does not takeplace until about the fifth or sixth year,or even later. Grow th continues veryslowly.The period of greatest activity ofdesert tortoises is in spring and earlysummer when they may be seen wan-dering about in search of green food.As mid-day temperatures become highthey go into their burrows or underrocks where it is cooler, remainingthere until evening when they mayemerge to forage. If no green food isavailable they may take to eating dryvegetation such as grass. Tortois es incaptivity eat many kinds of green food,especially lettuce, of which they mayconsume unbelievable quantities.

When winter approaches, these che-lonians dig underground burrows ofconsiderable size and depth and intothese they retreat. The temporarysummer burrows go under ground onlythree or four feet but the winter tun-nels may be 12 or 15 or even as muchas 30 feet in length. Som etimes sev-eral tortoises "hole-u p" together. Inone instance, Dr. A. M. Woodbury ofthe University of Utah, found 17 inone winter den. Wh ile in hibern ationthey live on the fat stored in the bodyduring the spring and summer feedingseason.

Once a tortoise has made a burrowfor itself it stays rather close to it,seldom traveling farther away than aqu arte r or half mile. I generally findthese reptiles most plentiful in fairlyhigh desert (2500 to 3000 feet eleva-tion) and in the vicinity of large gran-ite rocks such as occur in the JoshuaTree National Monument.Tortoise numbers have never beengreat and now with the encroachmentof man into their natural habitat theyare gradually disappearing in placeswhere once they were quite plentiful.In California it is illegal to removethem from their native habitat, butnumbers of them are picked up bytravelers and taken to their homes intowns and cities to serve as pets wheremany of them die from neglect or meettheir end by being run over by automo-biles.My friend John Laughlin of theCalifornia Fish and Game Commis-sion, tells me that a surprising numberof these gentle creatures found wan-dering in the streets are fortunatelybrought by thoughtful people into thecommission headquarters in Los An-geles. Several times each year wholetruck loads of them are transportedback to the far desert and turned loosein favorable places where natural foodand shelter is available.Man is the animal's greatest enemy.Next probably are the coyotes, ravensand hawk s. All of these prey uponthe young tortoises; the birds especi-ally, during the period when they haveyoung in their nests. Th e soft-shelleddollar-sized babies are particularlytempting morsels for predators; coyoteskill even 1/3 grown tortoises.Frequently I find empty broken tor-toise shells with all the soft parts ofthe body removed, presumably by hun-gry birds or mam mals. Only the hard -shelled older individuals of large sizecan find complete protection withintheir bony armature. The sagacious

resourceful ravens are said to take offinto the air with baby tortoises held intheir beaks and crack them open byletting them fall on rocks . I hav e notconfirmed this by my observations, butknowing these birds as well as I doit seems entirely possible.Should a tortoise by any chancemeet injury to one or more of thebony plates comprising its carapace, orshell, the break is very efficiently, al-though slowly, repa ired. Such a repa irtakes years to com plete. A new hornyscute and new piece of bone is slowlyformed while the old horn and crackedbone is gradually pushed upward andshed. The repair is so neat that nosign of the injury remains.

There are about 40 species of land20 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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w

^ 4 '

Tortoise tracks reveal typical claw-like toes and long tail.Photo by Harold Weight.

tortoises in the world, including thosethat have been exterminated by manwithin the historic period. Am ong liv-ing forms are some of the gigantic tor-toises living on the Galapagas Islands.Fossil remains of more than a dozenland tortoises, some of them with shellsfully six feet long have been obtainedin India, France and North and SouthAmerica. During the 16th and 17thcenturies tortoises of monstrous size ex-isted in large numbers on some of theislands in the Indian Ocean, but sincethey afforded a valuable source of foodand could be kept alive on board shiptheir numbers were rapidly reduced.

Francois Leguat, writing in 1691,observed "there are such plenty ofland-turtles in this isle (of Rodriguez),that sometimes you see a three thou-sand of them in a flock, so that youmay go above a hundred paces on theirbacks."The scientific name of our deserttortoise is Gopherus agassizi. The ge-neric name Gopherus is taken fromthe Latin name for a gopher and wasgiven because of the reptile's gopher-like burrowing habits. The specificname honors the great Swiss-bornAmerican naturalist, Louis Agassiz,who long studied turtles.

H w d R o c k S h o t t yo f

DEATHVALLEY

Hard Rock Shorty leaned backin the rickety chair that adornedthe lean-to porch in front of theInferno store and lighted his an-cient corncob pipe. A cloud ofdust down the road announcedthe approach of a visitor.Shorty struck another matchand held the flame at the bottomof the over-size thermometerwhich hung on the wall over hishead, and watched the mercuryclimb up the tube. The burnedout match dropped to the flooras the stranger got out of thesteaming car."Pretty hot today," the visitor

exclaimed as he approached theporch wiping his brow."Yep," admitted Hard Rockas he glanced up at the thermom-eter.Then the newcomer saw themercury reading, and gasped."But it'l l start coolin' purtysoon," Shorty assured him."Weather changes fast in DeathValley. I remem ber one daywhen Pisgah Bill set a dozen eggsout on the porch in the sun tohatch out a batch o' chickens.Then the weather changed all ofa sudden an' a few days laterwhen them eggs hatched they wuzall penguins."I reckon you'd better havesome o' that anti-freeze stuff inyour radiator," Shorty continued."If you ain't, the clerk in thestore'll sell you a can of it."The stranger looked at Shorty,then at the thermometer again,and then rushed back to his car.All Shorty saw after that was thecloud of dust heading south asfast as the car would travel.

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This photo of theaged Navajo woman and heryoung grandson wasbeside her hogan ajew weeks before the incident told below. taken

Situ?Editor, Desert Magazine:For the past three and a half years,my husband and I have lived at twodifferent trading posts in an isolatedsection of the Navajo Indian Reserva-tion. Thepast year and a half,myhusband wasmanager at InscriptionHouse Trading Post where wewerethe only white persons for 20miles.This did not worry us as we soonmade friends with ourNavajo neigh-bors in spite of thefact that few ofthem spoke theEnglish language.Many of these people were destituteand we often took them food andclothing. One day 1 drove our pickuptruck to take a box of groceries toan old blind Navajo, Millie Luther,whom I had heard was very ill. As Idrove up to her hogan, the placeseemed deserted. When 1 turned offthe motor, I heard a weird chantingfrom the hogan andknew she washaving a "sing." Myexperience thatafternoon, waiting todeliver her gro-ceries to her,prompted me to writethe little poem which is enclosed.INEZ H. GOSS

By INEZ H. G O SSPrescott, ArizonaNo sign of life outside the hutWhich blends with muddy bank andrut;Within, the chant ofweird refrainIs muted by the falling rain.Now comes forth anancient OneLed byher devoted son;Her feet and withered breasts are bare,And March winds toss her grayinghair.&he looks with her unseeing eyesToward sodden hills and weepingskies;Lovelier inher memoryThan they appear tothose who see.The Singer folds hismagic waresAnd gently leaves her with his prayers.The crone sinks down on thewarmdirt floor;Her ills have vanished through canvasdoor.

DESERT ARTBy AMY VIAUSanta Ana, California

Roseate dawnsand winds too strongSpacious silence, fair days belongTo the desert. With moon-drenched sand,Burning suns and unfurrowed land;Whispering smoke trees, mountains tallAnd low-brush shadows. From these, all,Lure beats strong inthe desert-heartMelding its moods into precious art.

RESURRECTIONBy KIT PAXTONTucson, Arizona

It cannot happen just by chanceThat blossoms bloom on horn'd treeAnd Mariposa lilies dance.It cannot happen just by chance:Rebirth, ohdesert, comes totheeIn flower fields, when rain falls free.It cannot happen just by chanceThat blossoms bloom on thorn'd tree.

SILVERSMITHBy LORNA BAKERLos Angeles, CaliforniaA wide and knotted scarf offlaming redIs draped with careless grace, about hishead.His smooth and sinewed hand of copper-brownGuides carefully each tool and then setsdown

Bright symbols ofanartthat knew itsbirthBefore thewhite mancame andfound itsworth;At last the matchless craft isset asideGoal ofperfection reached. Insilent prideHigh tribute isacceptedall the whileAbout his mobile lips, there plays asmileAs fleeting as abreath upon the airThat makes one wonder if ithad been there.I saw him later, etched against the sky.He stood on mountain bluff, his proudhead high.And gazed across aland his fathers ownedBefore thewhite man came. His dark eyesshone,Then, meeting mine, a sleeping hungerblazed.And branded in myheart, there lives thatgaze.For, 1, ashamed, saw inthe sunset glow.A naked souland not a Navajo.

DESERT WONDERLANDBy VIRGINIA L. BRUCEHemet, CaliforniaThe wanderer found the summer's sunReflecting blinding heatAcross the endless rolling sandsThat burned beneath his feet.

The autumn winds blew out the fire;The winter rains were cold.Then once again the wanderer cameTo watch the spring unfold.He looked with wondering awe acrossThe land ofsun and sand . . .It bloomed inwild abandonmentA desert wonderland!

GHOST TOWN HOMESTEADBy GLADYS B. MARSHALLSan Diego, CaliforniaGnawed by the teeth ofvengeful years.Her sagging frame picked clean of paint.The doomed house moans nosaid complaintTo grant winds that steal the tearsNight sheds onher and disappears.She leans on buckling knees, this saint,Who housed herwards without constraint

Whose happy voices still she hears.Though man may cleave her beams topartsHer sanctuary is inmany hearts.

OnBy TANYA SOUTH

The troubles of the heart have sacredright.Our every inner hunger, strife andfightAre stepping stones, andwith fulfill-ment rifeFor anenlightened life.I view man's desperation and histrialAs the important highlights of hisFate.They guide him to thethings that areworth while,The spiritual state.Prescott, Arizona

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D

Bert Tallsalt, of Brigham City, Utah, wonfirst prize in the March Picture-of-the-MonthContest, with this picture of "GrandmotherGraymountain," taken at Navajo Mountain.He caught the age and wisdom of the Navajo,with an Argoflex camera, at f. 4.5, 1/200 sec.

This striking photograph of "The Mittens"in Monument Valley, Utah, won Hulbert Bur-roughs, of Tarzana, California, second prizein the contest. Taken with a 4 x 5 SpeedGraphic, Schneider 90 mm. Angulon lens,Eastm an Infra-red cut-film, 1 sec . f. 32 25Ared filter.


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HOME ON THE DESERTW hen the Palo Verdes BloomBy RUTH REYNOLDSTucson, Ar izona

lEFORE THE end of May ourdesert spring will be on the wayout; departing hastily, perhaps,at summer's insistence but in a blazeof glory. An d not too figurativelyspeaking either. For the sun's blazecan be rather real now, and the desert 'sglory can be very real when it's cactusblossom time on the desertand thepalo verdes bloom.When these two events coincidespec tacular is the word for it. W howould risk missing the show by spend-ing May Sundays cooped up with a

television set?Some cactus blossoms may be alittle reticent as yet if the nights havebeen too cool, and some of them mayclose for the day as the afternoon sungets too hot. Am ong these are thesaguaros' waxy white flowers that soformally crown the regal old giants.The palo verdes, like other desertplants, have their good years and badgrowing not at all some years andblooming much or little according totheir supply of drinking water. Buteven in the drier years the twigs havesome flowering potential reserved fromthe previous season.So these amazing trees are fairlyregular with their exhibition . Fromshrub size to medium-tree size, groupedtogether or scattered widely, the paloverdes with their branches of lovelyyellow bloom transform the desert-side much as the cherry trees, in white,transform areas of Japan or the cityof Washington.This year in Tucson gardens thereshould be many flowering six-year-olds,like the one in my garden that wasplanted in 1949, during a planting pro-gram promoted by the Tucson PaloVerde Festival's sponsors.At that time all Tucson was coachedon palo verde culture. Un der the di-rection of Dr. J. J. Thornber, authorityon desert flora, we learne d to: Soakthe seeds overnight in six inches ofwater poured over them boiling hot,then leave the wet seeds to smotheranother 12 hours on a wet paper towel,covered with a dry towel and a dinnerplate, then plant them several to-getherinch deep in foot-deep, soil-filled holes that measure 12 inchesacross calichi permitting. Thenwater and wait, and after the seedscome up, eliminate all but one plantto a hole.Now after six years of watering and

When it's cactus blossom time on the desert and the palo verdesbloom, it's the month of Maytime to spend Sundays inspecting thespringtime deser t and weekdays coaxing growth in the garden. Per-haps the morning's friendly smile is the secret to successful desertgarde ning. Wh atever it is, here are some id ea s for rad ishes, okra andpalo verde that can ma ke your home on the desert eve n more enjoyable.

waiting, many young trees should beready to bloom for the Palo VerdeFestival, held in Tucson each May.Originated by Mrs. W. A. Jackson20 years ago, the festival has beenobserved ever since. But only withinrecent years has it become a citywideproject, with civic and cultural groupsand individuals all working together tostimulate interest in our golden gownedqueen-tree.On this occasion, the "green stem"in bloom is displayed on canvas, hon-ored in song and verse, concert andlecture. And tours are conducted toits most beautiful show places on thesurrounding desert.All of which takes care of one ormore of my May Sundays. The otherswill find my husband and me on pri-vate expeditions to discover, and revelin, spring-on-the-desertwhile springlasts.

We will drive outabout 40 milesnorthwestto see for ourselves if thepoppies are blooming on Picacho Peak.They have bloomed there in May, andI have seen them spread their flower-fire far up the rising slopescoveringthe ground like a sheet of orange flame.The poppies, though, do not havetheir good years and bad. Either it 'stheir year or it isn'tdepending on theundependable desert rains for whichthe seeds lie waiting, sometimes forseveral years.So we drive out to look for flowersthat are or aren't there. And anotherSunday afternoon is pleasantly spent.But May is not all Sundays. Otherdays dawn and an expedition to thehome garden is in order.If you are one of the gardeningkind you know that the day shouldbegin with a garden inspection tour,and begin quite early, while the out-door air is morning-fresh and as yetonly pleasantly sunny.My husband has a theory that theradishes and tomatoes grow becauseJuan, our part-time yard man, and Ihave planted and watered them prop-erly. Ted insists that it is not nece s-sary to go out and beam ecstaticallyat the garden every morning and meas-ure, as he puts it, the overnight growthof every radish.

I'm afraid my husband just isn't agarde ner at hea rt. But he does likeradishes, and I don't. So 1 suppose heis entitled to a few remarks on theircultureas long as he eats the wholecrop , which he obligingly do es. So farno indigestion has resulteda miracleI attribute to my vigils kept at theradish row.That he eats the whole crop, though,is not the whole truth . 1 help himwith the tops.Have you tried young tender radishtops in your green salads? Or mixeda few with spinach, chard or othergreens to be cooked? There grows nobetter leaf for adding a tangy touch ofof flavor. An d wha t fun to have themfresh from your own garden. An d theradish, until the weather gets reallyhot, is a sure-fire hit there.Radishes are followed by okra. Itlikes hot we ather. An d it is as easy

to grow as the radish. Planted inMay, it will thrive in a desert gardenif given half a chance, and bear abun-dantly from July to frost. How eversince there is much prejudice againstthis fine vegetable, let's leave it forthe present and go on with the gardentour.The last stop is at the palo verdetreethe six-year-old one in my gar-den. It has bloomed three seasons nowand is my pride and joy, though it isby no means a perfect specimen.It belongs to the Mexican variety,Parkinsonia aculeata, said to be fastergrowing and more easily shaped thaneither the blue, Parkinsonia mycro-phylla, or the foothill type, Cersidiumfloridium. Th e latter is a fairly th orn -less tree, armed only with thorn-tippedbranches. This might have somethingto do with the fact that it never quiteachieves the density of the others.

Palo Verde adapts itself readily tocultivation and irrigation. In the siltsoils of the Colorado River basin andin Imperial Valley, California, wherethere is underground moisture it growsa prolific crop of seed pods every year.Many years ago the Women's TenThousand club of El Centro sponsoreda project for planting it in the street-side parkw ays. But palo verde's chiefvirtue is golden blosso ms. It is a wild-

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ling that thrives on sunshine and leavesmuch to be desired as a shade tree.Hence in recent years most of the paloverdes in El Centro have been replacedby ornamental trees with dense foliage.My tree is nice and tallabout 15feet now and almost strong enough to

Documents

195505 Desert Magazine 1955 May