196101 Desert Magazine 1961 January

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Maga zine of the



D e s e r t M a g a z i n e

B A C K I S S U E

S A L EDESERT is one of the few magazines people save and have bound—andthere's a good reason for it: ACCURATE INFORMATION on the fascinatingDesert Southwest's places of interest, flora and fauna, human inhabitants,history, back-country trails and modern highways, gem fields, and losttreasure areas. These back issues are complete and in good condition.

Orders pr omptly filled and mailed postage-paid.

— ORDER BYSETS —

FIELD TRIPS I

Mar 55—Gems of Monle Cristo Mts.(Nev)*May 55-Bell Rocks of Big Sandy Valley (Ariz.)*Jul 55—Gems in Trinity Range (Nev.)*Aug 55—Opal Miner of Rainbow Ridge (Nev.)*Sep 55-Trilobite Fossils Near Amboy (Calif.)*Oct. 55—Day in Greenwater Canyon (Calif.)*

FIELD TRIPS II

Nov 55—Rock Trails in Chemehuevi-Land (Calif.)*Dec 55—Saddle Mountain Chalcedony (Ariz.)*Feb 56—Red Rock Canyon GemTrails (Calif.)*

Apr 56—Serpentine Miners of Salt Creek Canyon (Ariz.)*Jul 56—Petrified Palm Near Ogilby (Calif.)*Mar 57—Jasper in Barstow Badlands (Calif.)*

DESERT PERSONALITIES

Jun 55—Ace Gardner on the TrailNov 55-Charles Kelly of Capitol ReefMar 56—Saga of Frying PanEbbensJan 57—The Huntingtons of Saw Tooth Ridge (Nev.)*Mar 57—Prospector Ed Smith of Marietta (Nev.)*May 57-The Mantles of Castle Park (Utah)*

GHOST TOWNS

Oct 55-They Found New Wealth in Fairview (Nev.)*Apr 56—Jerome—Mingus Mountain Ghost (Ariz.)Jan 57—Boom and Bust at Leadfield (Calif.)*Apr 57-Old Dale and New Dale (Calif.)*

Oct. 57-Va nderbilt and Manvel (Calif.)*Nov 58—Chinese Ghost Town in the Humboldt Range (Nev.)*

WILDLIFE

Jun 55—Diving Owls of Borrego ValleyJun 56—Wild Burros on the DesertOct 56—Midgets of the Desert WorldMar 57—The Busy World of Desert AntsJun 57—King Snake Is Immune to PoisonSep 57—1 WasBitten by a Gila Monster

LOST TREASURE I

Apr 55-Lost Hardin Silver (Nev.)*Jun 55-Hid den Gold of Bicuner (Calif.)*Jul 55-Dark Gold on the Tabaseca Trail (Calif.)*Sep 55 -W e Lost a Gold Ledge in the Panamints (Calif.)*Oct 55—Lost Gold of the Algodones (Calif.)*Nov. 55-Lost Gold of Jarbidge (Nev.)*

LOST TREASURE II

Feb 56—Treasure Canyon of the Coso Ancients (Calif.)*Mar 56—Lost Gold in the Chocolate Mts. (Calif.)*Oct 56—Lost Jesuit Mine with the Iron Door (Ariz.)

Jan 57—Lost Apache Gold in the Little Horns (Ariz.)*Mar 57-Pegleg Mine-Fact or Fable? (Calif.)May 57—Lost Silver in the Trigos (Ariz.)*

TRAVEL

Mar 55—Camper's Tour of Mexico (Murbarger)*Aug 55—Devil's Canyon, Baja Calif. (Henderson)*Jul 56—Boat Trip in Canyon of lodore, Utah (Henderson)*Nov 56—Utah's Rugged Needles Country (Carroll)*Jun 57—Vacation in Baja California (Appleby)*Jul 57—New Mexico's Back Country (Murbarger)*

DESERT GARDENING, BOTANY I

May 55-When the Palo Verdes BloomJun 55—My Bamboo Was the Traveling KindJul 55—When the Rains Fail to ComeAug 55—Flowers That Blossom in August

Sep 55—What Grass for the Desert Lawn?Oct 55—Planning a Winter Garden

DESERT GARDENING, BOTANY II

Nov 55—Tamarisk in the Back YardDec 55—Valiant Is the IronwoodMar 56—Olive Trees for Shade and BeautyApr 56—It's Perennial Planting TimeJune 56—Summer Garden Zinnias, MarigoldsJul 56—Landscaping with Native Plants

*stories with detailed maps

Supplies are limited, and we reserve the

right to make appropriate substitutions.Single copies may be purchased from the

above lists at 25c — minimum order: $1

Each Set of 6 Magazines $ I

All 10 Sets (26 different magazines)

MAIL YOUR ORDER TODAY TO: DEPT. J-l

DESERT MAGAZINE

PALM DESERT, CALI



POEM OF THE MONTH

A r t i s t 's L a m e n t

Once in a blue moon

The desert has snow.

Once in a blue moon!

How, then, could I know

It would cover the ground

While I was away?Since my return

I have watched every day

For a glimpse of the falling,

Feathery fluff,

Patting the ground

Like a powder puff . . .

They tell me the desert

Was candlewick white—

I could weep to have missed

Such a paintable sight!

—Helena Ridgway Stone

PHOTO and ART credits(Unless otherwise specified below or in tex t ,photographs and art work are by authors offeatures in which they appear.)

Page 3: Burton S. Turney. 7: R. C. Mid-dletown. 8: Map by Norton A l len. 9:Bureau of Reclamation. 10: Adr ian At-water (second from top); C. C. PierceCollection (third); Charley Mitchell (bot-tom). 11: New Mexico State Tourist

Bureau. 14: Map by Norton A l len. 16:Hulbert Burroughs (valley). 22: Map byNorton A l len. 22-25: Vermil ion Sea FieldStation. 31 : Harold O. Weight . 34:Southwest Museum. 43: paint ing by BillBender. Back Cover: i l lustrated by MonteOrr.

Volume « ^ ^ « I B » ^ ^ B B B W . Number

DuvtL- m a g a z i n e

ofthe O u t d o o r S o u t h w e s t -

CHARLES E. SHELTONpublisher

EUGENE L. CONROTTOeditor

EVONNE RIDDELLcirculation manager

Contents fo r January 1961C O V E R

T O U R 7

ATTIRE 10

E X P L O R A T I O N 12

H O M E M A K I N G 15

PERSONALITY 16

R E C L A M A T I O N 20

SCIENCE 22

PERSONALITY 26

HIKING 28

TRAVEL 31

A R C H E O L O G Y 33

N A T U R E 34P H O T O G R A P H Y 35

BACK COVER

Photographer Darwin Van Campen of Phoenixcalls this chilly scene, "Stream Through Winter-land." Cover picture was taken in Oak Creek

Canyon, Arizona.Davis and Parker DamsWestern HatsArizona Desert Stream"Second Chance" CabinFriend of the CahuillaWater from the Sea

Vermilion Sea Field StationCowboy Shorty BoydAfoot with a CompassCalifornia's SaguarolandAncient Sanctuary

Indian Uses of Native PlantsCactus Blossom's LifeHats that Won the West

— also —

I. D. Earl

Harrison DoyleElizabeth Rigby

Margaret ArensbergNina Paul Shumway

William E. WarneJohn W. HiltonBeulah Meeks

Charles R. Ege

Lucile Weightlames Tallon

Edmund JaegerHiram ParentArtist: Monte Orr

Poem of the Month: 3

Letters: 4 32: Hard Rock ShortyNew Desertland Books: 6 39. Trading Post ClassifiedsSouthwest News Briefs: 30 42: Editorial

The Desert Magazine, founded in 1937 by Randall Henderson, is published monthlyby Desert Magazine, Inc., Palm Desert, Ca liforn ia. Re-entered as second classmatter July 17, 1948, at the postoffice at Palm Desert, California, under the Actof March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U.S. Patent Office, and contents

copyrighted 1961 by Desert Magazine, Inc. Permission to reproduce contents mustbe secured from the editor in writ ing.

Unsolicited manuscripts andphotographs submitted can-no t be returned or acknowl-edged unless full returnpostage is enclosed. DesertMagazine assumes no re-sponsibility for damage orloss of manuscripts or pho-tographs although due carewill be exercised. Subscribersshould send notice of changeof address by the f irst ofthe month preceding issue.

Address all editor ia l andcirculation correspondence toDesert Magazine, Palm Des-

ert, California.

Address all advertis ingcorrespondence to James D.Going Associates, 560 N.Larcnmont, Los Angeles.4 , Calif. Phone HO 6-2854.

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(city, state)If this is a gift, indicate how gift card should be s igned:

Mail this information and your remittance to: Desert Magazine,Palm Desert, Cali fornia.

January, 1961 / Desert Magazine / 3



L E T T E R SFROM OUR READERS

dusty, rough ride" to reach Bodie. Fewtrue ghost towns are found alongside high-ways. They are tucked-away in off-the-beaten path locales.

THOMAS C. RATICANLos Angeles

R i g h t M a n F o r t h e J o b . . .

To the Editor: Professor Lister's article inthe December issue ("Plugging the CulturalGap" ) is quite a feather in Desert Maga-zine's cap. Such a clarification was neededfor a long time, and Lister was the man todo it.

PAUL HULDERMANNScottsdale, Ariz.

Confirming a Prediction . . .

To the Editor: In appreciation of your ex-cellent article about the young artist BillBender appearing in your November issue,

I am taking the liberty of sending to youa photo I made in Death Valley eight yearsago.

I was attending the annual encampmentof the 49ers and was camped at TexasSprings, when along came a young man

had with him a picture for the art exhibit

at Furnace CreekInn.

I appreciate your story on Bill as it con-firms my predictions made at the time ofour meeting. I have seen him only oncesince. The photo I made was taken with-ou t his knowledge at a time he wasshaving.

I thank you for your support of this verypromising artist.

HENRY M. FORDYucaipa, Calif

The Desert Revisited . . .

To the Editor: At 86 I can no longer goto our beloved desert, but can relive itwith Dr. Jaeger's articles in your publica-tion.

Formerly, if time permitted, it was acamel trip in North Africa, an elephantjaunt in the Hindustan desert, or a visitto Peru.

Dr. Jaeger's November article, "Deer onthe Desert," recalls tracks on the Mojaveafter a rain: the big pad of a mountainlion . . . the hoof marks of a doe . . . thena blur which must have been the death . . .beyond—only lion trail.

C. M. GOETHESacramento, Calif.

BENDER'S CLOSE SHAVE ATTEXAS SPRINGS Bodie Is NOT a Gyp

in a station wagon looking for a campsite.I motioned him to the spot next to mewhich was rather secluded, and there wespent the better part of three days andnights using a common campfire.

We were both alone and as we seemedto enjoy the company of one another, Ilearned enough about Bill to assure myselfthat this fellow was an artist at heart,although he did not confess to me until the

second day that he was then painting and

To the Editor: First thing I read in theDecember issue was Merwin K. Warner'sletter calling Bodie "a gyp."

What did he expect a real ghost townto look like? Bright lights and a drugstore on every corner? Bodie is the bestpreserved ghost town in California becauseit is boarded-up. Without such protection,it would have been carted-off piece by pieceby souvenir hunters long ago

To the Editor: May the 18 miles to Bodienever be paved, and the curio shop interestsnever find it.

ANNA MAY RATHBUNArcadia, Calif.

Moving A Saguaro . . .

To the Editor: In the November magazineyo u had a story about a giant saguaro cac-tus being transplanted from the wilds tothe front yard of a residence. I have readthat it is unlawful to remove desert plants.

A. JONESSouth San Gabriel, Calif

(The saguaro was removed from privateland. The law in question protects theflora on public land.— Ed.)

The Subject Comes Alive . . .

To the Editor: Your magazine is a ray ofSouthwest sunshine which we all look for-ward to each month. My young sons,Eaton and Gayland, peruse it from coverto cover, and their father and I read many

of the articles to them.Gayland's third grade class is studying

Am erican Indian s. Several weeks ago weboxed every issue of Desert we had andGayland took them to school. Your manybeautiful and colorful articles on Indianscome alive in a real way to the children.The third grade is greatly enjoying a happyeducation through your magazine.

MRS. A . W. COOK, Jr.Cooksburg, Penn.

Mr. Warner complained aboutthe

"long They Sti l l Don't Work. . .

" H A D t B Y M A C "

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M c N AM E E C O A C H C O R P O R A T I O N2501 NO. ROSEMEAD BLVD. Dept. D-l EL MONTE, CALIF.

To the Editor: Some of your readers mayremember my letter of October, 1957,wherein I stated "doodle bugs do not work."After three years I still say these so-calledprecious-metal locators do not work.

In response to that letter in the maga-zine, I got replies from all over the UnitedStates extolling the virtues of variousdoodle bugs. I was even taken to task bysome for calling these devices "doodle bugs"rather than "locators."

Prices of sure-fire locators quoted to meranged from nothing to several thousanddollars. All manufacturers were willing toprove to me—generally at my expense—that their doodle bugs did work; but dur-

ing these three years all they have provenis that the instruments do not work.

I will grant that most operators I hadcontact with seemed to be smart enoughto keep up their business or profession, andtherefore are able to make a living. By

4 / Desert Magazine / January, 1961



if honest with themselves,are a failure.

may tell of what richesor can find, these

to work for a living. Why?

successful. They may be alright toas a hobby—but don't

any plans of becoming a millionaire

HOLLIS J. GORDON

Independence, Mo.

Big Bang . . .

the Editor: Being a railfan, I enjoyedin the November Desert on Jesus

However, there is one point that needsyou say Garcia's body wasthe wreckage of the dynamite-an earlier report 1 read said no

of the body was found after theific explosion. Remem ber what one

of dynamite did to Roseburg,JOHN W. MAXON

Upland, Calif

. . .

the Editor: I note that your July edi-for the prohibition of all pros-

in Death Valley. Sounds like goodon the face of it, but let us look

the matter. I can see no reason

or any other place, for the landscapenot be defaced if we had proper

I prospected in South Africa where theya mining inspector who visits your

the work done,the names of those whohold

No one is alloweda hundred claims and hold a jobor turn in assessment work papers

not a tap of work wasdone.

In Africa you get a diamond claim justand when you get worked

t you report this fact to the miningwho then comes out to inspect

You don't get another claim

you get that ground worked out.the ground has to be leveled off just

it was when you found it.

In America you can go out and stakeand keep your job in

at the recorder's books in anyif you don't believe it. One

an I know hasover a hundred claims andday in town. If an honest

to stake and work onehe would be called a "claim

and ordered off by the "paper

I have written to our senators about this

I have several uranium claims in DeathI made my headquarters in Balla-

and I wish you could just see some ofwho love the

whocome out from LosAngeles onand camp near our old adobe.

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F I S H E R R E S E A R C H L A B . I N C .Dept2,C,Pal° Alto, Calif.

. . . . Of

un iver sa l in t eres t . .

The Classified Ads in the

DESERT MAGAZINE'S

T R A D I N G P O S TDirect l ine merchandising, seller to buyer ,in the Trading Post (see pages 39, 40, 41)

They throw out garbage and beer cans anddon't even have the decency to cover theirown filth. We had to get farther away from"civilization" in order to live decent. Ifthat is the kind of people youwant to takethe place of us prospectors, you will haveDeath Valley all to yourself.

The prospector is the most conservativeof any man on earth. He has to be. Helives next to nature and loves the desert.Not so with your city beatnik. Just visit

a prospector's camp and you will see whatI mean. In our African camp we buried allgarbage, and do the same at our DeathValley camp.

There are all sorts of minerals in DeathValley, free to all good Americans; but thecity beatniks lack the guts to get out andprospect.

Up on Telescope Peak and in that areathere is gold, and 1 have got good readingsof uranium in several places. It is lowgrade, but will be good enough to workwhen the high-grade is gone.

You should plug for decent mining laws.Prohibit anyone from holding ground they

can not work or do not work; have a min-ing inspector (civil service) to inspect everyclaim, and report those who are delinquentin the papers—then youwill see few "holesin the ground."

Every prospector should be required tohave a license, the same as hunters andfishermen. In South Africa the miners'license costs about $4.80. No one is allowedto dig up ground on the public domainwithout this license. The license fee paysthe mining inspector's salary and expenses.

We can work to make America beautifulwith the right laws; not by driving theprospector off the public domain. Rather,let us regulate the casual city weekenderand beatnik whoscatter their garbage aboutthe desert.

These same city slickers shot up the littleburros in Death Valley and left them tosuffer and die. The burros don't botheranyone. They get their sustenance up inthe canyons and only come out to thesprings to drink at night. I cannot imaginethe mentality of the man who would wantto shoot one of these creatures, and thenlet it lay.

I have spoken to dozens of prospectorsin Death Valley about the little burros. Ididn't find one man among them who hasever shot one of these creatures.

BARNEY LEEGentry, Arkansas

The War Is Won . . .

To the Editor: I was deeply interested tolearn from Melissa Branson Stedman's letterpublished in the December issue of yourmagazine that our cold war adversaries arenow carrying out their nefarious missionsby means of peyote buttons instead ofdouble martinis. It is most heartening. Thethought of a foreign spy approaching oneof our governmental eggheads with a candy-

sack full of peyote is intriguing, but notfrightening. If what Mrs. Stedman says istrue, I am sure we have the cold war wonright now, with no further effort needed.I want to thank her for the good news.

ROBERT H. T R E G OUnionville, Nev.




BOOKS of the SOUTHWESTA PRACTICAL GUIDE

TO FLUORESCENCE

Fluorescence fascinates the rockhound.Nothing in his collection brings forth suchexclamations of awe and wonder as the

gorgeous glow awakened in a drab-lookingrock when the ultraviolet light is turned onit.

Most hobbyists are not content to stopat seeing fluorescence—they want to knowwhat it is. Ultraviolet Guide to Mineralsis designed to aid them in this search forthe basic knowledge of fluorescence. Th efirst part of this recently published bookdeals with the art of identifying mineralsby their fluorescence under ultraviolet light.This leads to a unique set of charts for

quick and simple identification of minerals.There also are chapters and charts on: rareminerals, industrial minerals, surveys ofores, fine points of prospecting, and radio-active minerals.

Ultraviolet Guide to Minerals was writtenby Sterling Gleason; 244 pages; index; il-lustrations (color, and black-and-white);$6.95 from Desert Magazine Book Store(see footnote below).

PAST A ND PRESENT

OF TOMBSTONE. ARIZONA

Fine contemporary photographs with afeeling for the old, highlight a paperbacksquare-format (11x11") book entitledTombstone Picture Gallery. Tombstone, of

course, is the souvenir town in southernArizona which survived the Earps, Clan-tons and McLaurys, and is now strugglingto live through the Tourist Age.

All in all, Lloyd and Rose Hamill,husband-and-wife photo/journalism team,do a creditable job with their "Photographsand Drawings Plus Elegant and MovingProse." The book also parades some good-looking old type faces.

Tombstone Picture Gallery sells for $2which, the authors point out, is "less thanthe price of a good supply of snuff." 24pages. Can be purchased by mail fromDesert Magazine Book Store (see detailsbelow).

Books reviewed on this page can be purchasedby mail from Desert Magazine Book Store,Palm Dese rt, California. Please add 15c forpostage and hand ling per book. Californiaresidents also add 4% sales tax. Write for freebook catalog.

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Los Angeles 4, California




J« V* fcARLf administrative officer, Parker-Davis Project*

D o - l t - Y o u r s e l f T o u r s

A T P A R K E R A N D D A V I S D A M S

r

N M 5

PARKER AND DAVIS dams—unlike their "big broth-

er" upstream on the Colorado River, Hoover Dam—are not "show dams." Hundreds of thousands of persons

visit Hoover every year, and uniformed guides are neededto handle the crowds . But Parker and Davis are muchsmaller than the spectacular concrete plug in Black Can-yon, and they are off the beaten path of the "typical"tourist (although Parker and Davis are right in the middleof heaven for the fisherman, boatman, water skier anddesert back-country explorer).

In recent years more and more people have discoveredthe beautiful blue lakes in mid-desert—Havasu Lake be-

* J. D. Earl w as b orn in Bunkerville, Nev ad a, ona tr ibutary of the Colorado River, and was raisedon an irr igated farm. He h as a d eg ree in Busi-

ness Administ ra t ion f rom The George Washing-ton University, and is currently working toward aMaster 's Degree in Public Administration at Ari-zona S tate University. His wife, Jeann e, is anative of Lakeside, Arizona, and they have fourchildren.

hind Parker Dam, and Lake Mohave behind Davis—which provide some of the best fresh-water recreation inthe nation. It was natural that these folks would be

curious about the two facilities that back-up these largebodies of water.

But years ago, when the Bureau of Reclamation wasplanning these dams, no one anticipated this interest, andno provision was made to let the taxpayers tour theirdams. Needless to say, many disappointed persons wereturned away.

All this was changed a few seasons ago when the damswere thrown open to the public on a do-it-yourself basis.

A great deal of preparation went into this project, un-der the general direction of Project Manager E. A. Ben-son, who first suggested the idea in the Bureau of Recla-mation. Assistant Project Ma nager F. G. Scussel wasassigned the job of overall coordination, particularly withregard to the layout, and the electrical and mechanicalcontrols necessary to safeguard both the public and pow-erplants.

Transmission Division Chief Otto Mangum was charged




with obtaining and installing the necessary communica-tions equipment so that a push-button tour could be de-veloped, for no Bureau of Reclamation personnel wouldbe available at either dam to accompany visitors, answerquestions or make sure people emerged safely from theconcrete caverns inside the powerplants.

I worked with Bill Williams of our Regional Office inthe writing of the necessary scripts for the automatic mag-netic repeating tape recordings that were installed at strate-gic points along the tour routes. An d our imaginativedraftsman, "Buz" Bacon, came up with schematic draw-ings, cross sections and illustrated maps—all designed tomake the tour educational as well as entertaining.

In all this work, we were guided by four overriding con-siderations :

1. The tours had to be interesting.

2. They could not interfere with the day-to-day oper-ation and maintenance of the two dams and powerplants.

3. There could be no measurable continuing expenseinvolved, so that no charge would have to be made tothose taking the tours.

and 4. The tours could be brief or extended, dependingupon the spectator. (W ho hasn't lost patience on a guidedtour with the inquisitive amateur engineer who attemptsto rebuild the whole dam and powerplant every time theguide asks: "Are there any questions?")

The actual physical work involved the preparation andplacing of directional signs both inside and outside thepowerplants; changing elevator controls to facilitate auto-matic operation; the placement of barriers at points dan-gerous to the public; and the installation of tape recordersand loud speakers.

Otto Mangum and I went into seclusion to cut the tapes.The play-back sounded beautiful in Phoenix, but at thepowerplants the roar of the generators and turbines mademush out of my best modu lated tones. After con siderableexperimenting with amplifiers, loud-speakers and squawkdeadeners, visitors can now follow what I have to sayabout the various powe rplant opera tions. If a person

doesn't understand how the generators, turbines, rotorsand governors combine to produce power for an electriclight in some far distant city, they have but to give the re-corder button another push to hear my voice repeat whatthe electrical engineers told me to say. Frankly , I don 'tunderstand all of it myself. Another good point: the tapesshut-off autom atically. The re's no need to wait aroundfor the entire lecture, though all of them are very short.

Davis Dam is an earth- and rock-fill embankment witha concrete spillway, intake structure and powe rplant. Itwas completed in 1950. The Davis Pow erplant, with aninstalled capacity of 225,000 kilowatts, generated its firstpower early in 1951 . Electrical energy goes to Southern

California, Arizona and southern Nevada.To reach Davis from Southern California, drive east on

Highway 66 through Barstow and Amboy; or take High-way 60-70 to Desert Center where an unnumbered high-way takes-off northeast to Vidal Junction . Either routewill intersect Highway 95, which is followed north to apoint where Nevada Highway 77 heads east to Davis Dam.The trip takes about five or six hours from the Los An-geles metropolitan area. From Arizon a take either High-way 66 from Flagstaff, or 93 from Phoen ix. Both willpick-up Arizona Highway 68 at Kingman, which leads toDavis Dam . It is a four or five hour drive from P hoen ixto Davis Dam.

Parker Dam, constructed by the Bureau of Reclamationwith funds advanced by the Metropolitan Water District ofSouthern California, provides a forebay and desilting basinfor the District's Colorado River Aqueduct, which suppliesmunicipal and industrial water to the Los Angeles andSan Diego coastal areas. The dam is a concrete barrelarch structure, completed in 193 8. Its powe rplant, withan installed capacity of 120,000 kilowatts, first generatedpow er in 1942. Pa rt of this energy is used for pum pingwater along the aqueduct.

Parker Dam is more remote than Davis. From Califor-nia you leave U.S. 95 at Vidal Junction, head east to Earp,and then north where an unnumbered road dead-ends atParker Dam . From Arizona a new partially-paved road

north from Parker parallels the Colorado River on theArizona side, and leads to Park er Dam . It takes betweenfour and five hours from metropolitan Los Angeles andthree to four hours from Phoenix to reach Parker Dam.

At both powerplants we have clean rest rooms, comfor-table lounges and plenty of cool drinkin g wate r. Soda




pop is available from machines—but no food or gasolineare sold at the dams. If visitors are hungry, or need gas or

a bed, or want to fish or put a boat into the water, theycan be accommodated at nearby facilities.

At Havasu Springs Resort on the Bill Williams arm ofHavasu Lake is located a concessionaire under license tothe Fish and Wildlife Service, v/hich administers all suchfacilities on the lake as part of its responsibilities in con-nection with the Havasu Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

A concessionaire of the National Park Service, adminis-trator of facilities within the Lake Mead National Recrea-tion Area, is located at the Lake Mohave Resort on Kath-erine Wash behind Davis Dam.

Both powerplants are open from 8 a.m. every day of

the year. Someone is always there because water runs and

THE DOWNSTREAM FACE OF PARKER DAM, AT RIGHT; PARKERPOWERPLANT, LEFT, IS ON CALIFORNIA SIDE OF THE RIVER

DAVIS DAM, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE NEVADA SIDE. CONCRETESPILLWAY AND DAVIS POWERPLANT ARE IN CENTER OF PHOTO.

turbines turn and generators spin and people flip on lightswitches 365 days a year.

W e're enthusiastic about the do-it-yourself tours. Andfrom the many favorable comments received, it is obviousthat the public likes them too. Today pow erplant per-sonnel can devote all of their time to the important businessof generating and transmitting power and energy through-out the Southw est. At the same time visitors are able topoke around in the dams and powerplants (so long as theykeep on the prescribed routes) without bothering us a bit.

The tours are becoming increasingly popular. Las tEaster week, some 3000 persons went through ParkerPow erplan t. In a period of five mo nths , visitors from 33

states, eight foreign countries and four provinces of Canadasigned the register at Park er Dam. Quite a contrast toa few years ago, when someone likened the two dams to"gray fortresses on the lower Colo rado Rive r." / / /




LIKE EARS, the "beaver" you wearis an extension of your personality.And because of this facet, no two

men or women ever crease or wear ahat alike—or at least shouldn't.

In the Southwest, the primary con-sideration for wearing a hat was andis to obtain shade or warm th. Afterthis is achieved comes the instinctiveurge for variation and self-expression.

We are all familiar with the clown-ish hats worn at county fairs, or onNew Year 's Eve; the "cocky" hat pull-ed down over one eye; the jaunty or"sporty" hat worn on the back of thehead; and the flamboyant adventuroushat turned up in front. Bu t all these,wrapped in one, cannot approach the

midget-brim monstrosity that style-happy men are wearing today. Howthe Shade of Bat Masterson mustwince! Bu t even old Bat would bethe first to admit that there are asmany hat shapes and styles extant asthere are human personalities, and thatchange in hat style is inevitable.

Few give any great thought to theextreme roles hats can play in people's

lives; that one hat can be worn infun only at a sporty angle, and thesame hat, shaped a little differently,can complement a square jaw and apair of deadly serious eyes.

Hats have saved lives; and hats havetriggered deaths. With joy, hats arethrown into the air; upon challenge,

tossed into the ring.The hat had a major role in the

building of the West, and the South-west in particular. Both were createdby virile young-in-heart men and wo-men (and young people are fond offlaunting their personalities throughtheir he adg ea r). The angle at whicha man wore his hat, or the shape ofthat hat, could stir up an instant fight.And the bolt of controlled lightninga dark-eyed blonde, sitting demurelyon the seat of a covered wagon, couldpour on some young unsuspecting male

wayfarer from under the brim of apert (black) sunbonnet, was some-thing to tell your grandchildren about!

Rationally, you would never expectto see a college boy—who should bewearing a beanie—stroll to his classesin a homburg; or a statesman instriped pants and a claw-hammer coatwearing a turned-up floppy-brimmedfelt a la Errol Flynn just in from theAustralian Bush.

Frederick Remington depicted theSpanish-American War and Western

soldier wearing a gray felt, crowncreased fore and aft, pinched a bitin front, with both back and frontbrims turned up to a 45-degree angle.This was authentic Western for al-most a century, with many civiliansaffecting the style.

The hat type worn by mining andcivil engineers, geologists, mineralo-gists, surveyors and forest rangersseems to have originated with thecavalry officer. Ge neral Joh n J. Per -shing wore it in M exico in 191 6. Ithas a fairly flat brim, comes in black,

pearl-gray or dark green, with a mod-erate four-dented crown.

Younger men on the Western desertsand cow country wore, in general,brims pulied down in front to shadetheir eyes from the brilliant light.

Wm. F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody in hisyounger days wore a hat with the brimup on front and a little to one side,




held in place with a pinned ornament.He changed styles as he grew older.

Many Southwestern hat types, espec-ially those of the Navajos, had bandsof braided vari-colored horse hairwith silver, beads, or polished tur-quiose ornamen ts. The Navajo, in-herently conservative and deeply re-ligious, generally wear flat brims and

undented crowns.Wyatt Earp wore a flat-topped "tele-

scoped" "toughnut" type dark fel t ,with a fairly flat brim . Th is ha t stillhas a wide vogue over the desert andcow country, and dates back to longbefore the turn of the century.

Billy the Kid wore a characteristi-cally nondescript black slouch felt,pulled down in front, with a careless-ly pointed high crown. Dud es andthose who were inclined to be "tony"wore derbies or small felts, sometimeswith the brims curled up all the wayaround, with uncreased crowns. Real"dressers," even in the mining andcow towns, wore silky velours inwinter, and "sailor" straws in summer;women wore "sai lor" or Leghornstraws, both held in place with longhat pins with which, if needed, theycould quickly trim a "badman" downto size.

Like Will Rogers, Death ValleyScotty wore a standard slouch typeStetson pulled down in front. M anyWesterners habitually wore rattlesnake

skins for hat bands.Hats can have a utilitarian use also,

as was illustrated by a story that wentthe rounds in the early days about theArizona range rider who got a bulletthrough the crown of his hat in asaloon gun fight. Un concern ed at hisown close call, he yelled at his op-ponent , "Now how am I a-goin' towater my horse out in the sticks!"

Mexican vaqueros were addicted towide-brimmed small-crowned sombre-r o s , with chin straps. The bigger thehat, the more shade for their noon

siestas.The Panama in all shapes came into

general use about the first decade ofthe present century.

Some men even today go so far asto wear a rainbow-colored feather un-der their hatbands, imitating in smallfashion the Indian's ornate headdress—which, after all, is just a hat with alot of feathers stuck in it!

But be that as it may, one thing you

S e e I l l u s t r a t i o n s O n B a c k C o v e r

could be sure of in the rich old days—no man or woman would ever think

of appearing in public without a hat!Sporadic attempts have been made

to introduce "pith" helmets to theSouthwestern deserts, especially whenmovies were made in such locales asthe rolling Algodones west of Yuma,but somehow the style doesn't seemto catch on, probably not fitting theAm erican personality. One thing thatdoes last though, is the "peaked" capof the rockhounds, which is comforta-ble to wear in a car and in the field.

The vogue of the high crowned "ten

gallon" hat was ushered in by TomMix, Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson andother Western movie stars shortly afterthe First Wo rld W ar. This hat had awide low-curled taped brim, and wasgenerally worn turned down slightly infront. It came in many colors, includ-ing snow-white.

None of the old timers ever worethe brim of their hats rolled up on eachside as we see so much in evidence to-day at rodeos, and which, apparently,originated in recent years with theriders of the King Ranch in Texas. The

style is prevalent throughout the PanHandle of Texas and Oklahoma, andhas been for some years. Go to anyroundup today, and you will observeheadgear atop both male and femaleas alike as the rows of peas in a pod.

A study of hundreds of hat picturesof old-timers throughout the Southwestshowed but one (and a feminine one atthat) wearing this side-brim roll. Thisone exception was Annie Oakley, "Lit-tle Sure Shot" of the Buffalo Bill WildWest Show in the 1890s. On her,with a little chin strap, it looked real

cute.Many present day movie and TV

stars affect the modern side roll style,even when depicting Old West charac-ters, in which, of course they are inerror. They are as "ou t of char acter"as their galluping horses are when pull-ing vehicles. (A galluping horse is arun-away ho rse ). Most of the old-timers spent quite a bit of their timekeeping their hat brims flat. Like the"ten gallon" crown, the rolled effect

a t W o n T h e W e s t

THE WAY BILLY THE KID-HAT AND ALL-REALLYLOOKED. COPIED FROM OLD DAGUERREOTYPE.

can be carried to an extreme where i tbecomes a caricature.

Y e s , I think you will agree, hats domake the man, as many old-t imerslearned the hard way to their greatregret, trying to live up to the shapeand angle they sometimes so innocent-ly chose . / / /

B y H A R R I S O N D O Y L E




D e s e r t S t r e a mA marvelous springab ove the ghost town of

Bum blebee, Arizona,feeds the thirsty sandsof a desert wash

BY ELIZABETH RIGBY

N o w Y o u S e e I t . .. N o w Y o u D o n ' t

THE DRY WASH—a wide s t reambed wi th not a drop

of water in sight—is a hallmark of American South-west desert and semi-desert areas. Yet every desert

rat worth his alkali cocktail knows better than to pitch

his tent in an arroyo during the cloudburst season lest hebe drowned by a flash flood in that same dry wa sh. Heknows also that if his canteen is empty he is likely to findthe wherewithal to quench his thirst by digging into thefloor of the wash where the sand shows signs of beingdamp.

Plant roots know this secret too. Th at the water table

is frequently very close to the surface in a desert washis attested by the surprisingly lush growth of trees, shrubsand other vegetation on its ban ks. It is not often, ho wever,that the phenomenon is as clearly demonstrated as it isat Government Springs in the foothills of the ore-richBradshaw Mountains near the ghost town of Bumblebee,Arizona, some 60 miles north of Phoenix.

This remarkable spot (not to be confused with anotherGovernment Springs farther north, near Prescott) is lo-cated at the head of a small box canyon at an altitude of2500 feet, and can be reached only by four-wheel-drivevehicle, on horseback or afoot from the takeoff point,which is 3Vi miles north of Bumblebee at the edge of thegraded dirt road between that settlement and the once-

active sheep-shipping center of Cordes.

On our last visit to Bumblebee we prevailed uponCharles Penn, present owner of the town who moved fromthe East Coast to find his destiny and happiness in a wildSouthwestern desert valley, to take us on a grand tour ofthe history-haunted hills. It didn't take much prevailing,since Charley likes nothing better than guiding interestedvisitors through the rugged country he now calls home.Government Springs is a must on his roster of places toshow visitors, and he had told us something of its story inadvance. Yet as it turned ou t he had w ithheld its moststartling feature for a bizarre grand finale.

It was a raw and windy day, and only the saguaros,

ocotillos, paloverdes and stunted mesquite which attemptedto obstruct our progress, suggested a desert climate—andthey were belied by the gray sky and the chill blow.

Charley knew all the roads, trails and burro paths—and it seems he drove the four-wheel-drive vehicle overconsiderable stretches of the latter. After we descendeda washed-out track winding down the steep flanks of adeep gully, we hit the broad level bed of GovernmentSprings Wash which seemed a true King's Highway com-pared to the high road.

We had had a comparatively wet rainy season for thispart of the world, yet the wash was bone dry As werounded the final turn I was completely unprepared forthe sight which greeted us—there, from an imposing wallof granite, issued forth a tiny sinuous stream.

This was Charley's O'Henry punch line to the tour.

"Th e Springs," he announced succinctly. "A s I 've toldyou, cavalry troops from Fort Whipple near Prescott




camp ed here in the old days. Before them the Indians .Now ranchers drive their cattle in here sometimes becauseof the water, and because the critters can't go beyond thebox . The Springs are in the public domain, thoug h, asyou 'll see if you look for them on a map . An yon e's wel-come to come here. Th at is, if they can find the pla ce."And Charley Penn chuckled with the gleeful triumph ofthe successful explorer.

Leaving the car at our guide's suggestion, we startedclambering up the step-like boulders at the foot of thegranite wall.

"Something up there might surprise you," Charley mur-mured.

It didn' t take long to discover what he meant . Indianshad once used this place as a campground, no doubt ofthat. We could see the smoke-blackened walls and roofof the natural rock enclosure where they had done theircookin g. M ore interesting yet were the shallow g rindingpits, th e metates, they had scraped out of the flat-surfacedgranite. An d when we leaned over the edge of the boulderwe found ourselves looking down on a deep limpid pool.

It was the water from this spring-fed source which,spilling over the rim of its narrow stone basin, fed theephemeral little stream which had so astonished us upon

our arrival.Charley scooped up a cupful for us to sample. It was

cold and delicious.

With its ample supply of pure water and its shieldingrampart of rock, what a perfect hideout this spot must havemade for Apaches avoiding white Americans, for prospect-ors fleeing Apaches, for horse thieves in fear of the law

(a glen high on the mountain above still bears the nameHorse Thief Basin), for high-stepping horsemen of theUnited States Cavalry on the trail of red warriors or side-winding bandits alike—unless, of course, all should havehappened on the refuge simultaneously.

Then Charles Penn, who had implanted the seeds ofsuch retrospective reverie in our minds, brought us backto the eternal verities. Th ere were mo re springs, he toldus, around the corner on the far side of the granite wall,and so far as he knew they had never failed to flow copi-ously. This made it the more amazing that the snakelike

rivulet which owed its life to their bounty should, withina few hundred feet, vanish abruptly, swallowed up withouta trace, by the thirsty sand.

"Strange , isn't it?" said Charley . "B ut then that 's th eway with many a desert stream. Now y ou see it, now y oudon't . Just another of nature 's marv els."

The early history of these Yavapai County places iswritten into their nam es. Yo u need only know how todecipher the code. In Territorial days it was custom aryto apply the word "Government" to any local i ty used byFederal troops, and the use of the springs near Bumble-bee by cavalry detachments sent out from Prescott toprotect miners, pioneer settlers and stagecoaches travelingthe risky route from Prescott to Phoenix over the original

Black Canyon Highway, is affirmed in an old manuscriptdiscovered recently by Charley.

According to this document the first known use of theSprings by the military was in 1863. In that year a groupof United States soldiers under a Colonel Powers wasstationed there on outpost duty against the Indians wholived in the valley; and until the redmen had finally been

Oldtimer Bill Black an dhis horse Sugarknow all about

Government Springs.Often, prospecting in the

hills, they've stoppedtheir thirst at the cool

pool at the head of thedisappearing stream.

Here Bill, looking north,recalls an early

adventure for CharleyPenn's benefit. "Yes," he

says, "hadn't been forthose springs, we'd

like to've died that day,

hot as you know what.But here we are.Got a Coke in there at

the store?"




the southern Arizona mines, and was more easily pro-

tected against marauding Indians.

Yet Indians roamed Yavapai County in considerablenumbers, and Bumblebee Valley, because of its creek andits springs of clear cool water, as well as because of itsmountain fastness, was one of their favored haunts. Asdid Indians elsewhere the Yavapai Apaches resented thecoming of the miners and white settlers, and did what theycould to dissuade the freight and passenger coaches from

passing through their homeland.The town of Bumblebee, once a bustling way-stop on

the only north-south route through this part of the state,is now privately owned by the Penns . It has fewer than20 inhabitants, most of them friends or relatives or em-ployees of the Penns . It has a postoffice which serves awide surrounding area, in which live ranchers, miners andprospectors. The store is operated (at a loss) by thePenns for the accommodation of travelers and neighbors.It is possible to buy the basic foods in limited amounts(canned goods, bread, dairy products, some meat, softdrinks and candy) , but anyone planning an extended stayin the area would be wise to stock-up ahead of time. Gas-oline, oil and air for tires are available.

A visit to Bumblebee may be conveniently made byanyone planning a trip to the recreational areas in theBradshaw Mountains beyond Crown King and Horse ThiefBasin. It is sometimes possible to rent one of the oldminer's cottages (which have been moderately modernized,an d are housekeeping units) at Bumblebee, but arrange-ments for this should be made in advance. In the absenceof the Penns, or if none of the cottages are available (theirrental, like the store, is simply a matter of accommodation,since the Penns are not in the motel business) campingou t is the order of the day. / / /

Shallow grinding pits scraped out of granite showGovernment Springs was once a favored Indian haunt

subdued, this place continued to serve as intermittent head-quarters for the U.S.Cavalry.

It was in 1863, also, that a party of venturesome pros-pectors attempted to rob a honey-filled beehive in thecliffs above the creek which runs through the valley. Innormal bumblebee fashion, the bees objected; and thebadly stung prospectors magnanimously decided to mem-orialize the occasion by naming the creek in honor of theirdetermined winged attackers.

A s it happens, 1863 was a banner year in the historyof mining in Arizona's Yavapai County. It was in thatyear that the fabulous strikes at Weaver Gulch, AntelopeHill, Richmond Hill and Wickenburg were made . Threeyears later, after visiting the region, the celebrated mineral-ogist Hermann Ehrenberg wrote that the country contained"a continuous range of gold-bearing rock . . . embracingan area of at least 1000 square miles." And of one districtin the general vicinity of Bumblebee another early accountstated, "every hill is . . . mineral-bearing."

By 1876 the Bradshaw Mountains and Bumblebee Val-ley were literally honeycombed with mines and with pros-pectors' hopeful diggings, while mines throughout YavapaiCounty as a whole, both gold and silver, were more num-

erous than in all other parts of Arizona Territory com-bined. Richard J. Hinton, whose Handbook to Arizonaappeared in 1878, declared this was largely because theregion was not vulnerable to Mexican depredations as were

o MAYER L PRESCOTT ToCAMPVERD£ E FLAGSTAFF




Desert Cabin

led "S econd Ch ance

M A R G A R E T A R E N S B E R G

HE OLD MINE was abandonedbecau se it did n't pay off. Nestledin the nearby rocks was an old

But, to our city-weary eyes,

a dream come true. We bought

The house was built of rocks andt. It had but two small rooms ,

g fireplace of red brick. Th e

on hinges. Each d oor had two trickand the windows had one-inch

ew of Palom ar Mo untain. Holders

The old prospector who built this

and mining in his old age. Th e

signer appeared in iron trimming onthe windows, and fancy designs wereon corners of the house and on arch-

ways. This was not the typical desertminer's cabin.

First thing my husband did was tocut and clear away the undergrowththat swarmed around the cabin. Thiswas our "fire insura nce policy ." Nex the repaired the mile of dirt road thatled from the paved highway to ourplace. I took over the task of makin gthe cabin clean and livable. This wasthe only time I was glad the place wasso small.

For furnishings I resorted to pieces

unwanted by other people — an oldoffice desk cut in half served as a table,a camp butane stove became my kit-chen, and an old ice box kept foodsafe from rodents (although it didn'tdo much to keep it co ld) . I paintedthe inside walls a cheery yellow, andmy discarded blue checked ginghamhouse-coat was converted into ruffledcurtains and cushion covers. For footstools I used a pair of wooden bucketsrescued from a painter.

It seemed significant to us that theseold discarded furnishings were beinggiven a second chance to be useful—a "place in the sun." The old cabinitself was receiving its second chance,too. It was a natura l. We named o urdesert place, "Second Chance."

The years have brought manychanges to Second Cha nce. The or-iginal 40 acres of canyons and hill-sides have been increased to 120. Weadded three rooms and a bath, cementpatios for outdoor living. Kn otty pinewalls left in natural tones are a con-genial background for the second-hand

furnishings. The marble top from abureau of Gay '90s vintage has a sec-ond chance to show its beauty as adesk top. An old clock now chimesaway in a pleasant homey manner,glad again to show its face after years

spent in a dark attic. A handmadewooden potato masher and butter pat-ters, over a hundred years old, arekitchen decorations. A stone fruit jar,the kind used before glass jars wereinvented is now a prized flower vase.The vinegar jug of the past, a candle-holder, a coffee grinder and iron teakettle have been restored to usefulness.

The point is this: the cabin hascharacter. Our desert home exudesdesert atmosphere.

This is Indian country. The tribes-men here believed that a person re-turning to his wickiup would have goodluck if he brought something in hand

to enhance the premises . For thatreason, each guest who wanders overSecond Chance's desert grounds is en-couraged to return to the cabin witha rock—small or large—for my friend-ship wall. Th e rock fence grows longerand higher each year—and each rockin it brings to mind a friend or a happyincident.

But, life in this yucca-studded landis not all peaceful an d serene. Wehave had our thrills and dangerousexperiences. Once a glass of coldwater saved my husband from being

crushed to death. He was digging forwater and had climbed out of the wellfor a drink. No soo ner was he out ofthe hole when a boulder caved in ourprecious spring. A heavy downpourof rain—three inches in an hour—senta wild thundering wall of water downa nearby "dry" wash, tumbling bould-ers over young trees, washing outbridges and road, breaking water pipe.A big night-prowling cat left his five-inch paw track by the bird bath.

The evening silence brings a special

peace of mind that is good for citynerves which have been under tensionand pressure . N o tranquilizer pills areneeded after working all day as aplumber's helper or a very amateurishs tone mason. / / /




4

•

M

•

ftr-«

THE CAHUILLA VALLEY NEAR AN ZA. INSERT: GEN. DA VID BARROWS.

Frienc

The story of adistinguished man and his

life-long interestin a band of

native Southern Californians

By NINA PAUL SHUMWAY

OF THE CAHUILLA16 / Desert Magazine / January, 1961



CAREER of the distinguished scholar, educatorand military authority, the late General David Pres-cott Barrows, was a sequence of exciting and illustri-

But when I knew him, during the closing

ns. The remarkable adaptation to a hostile environment

The Ethno-Botanyf the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, publishedn 1900, the first authoritative study of the Cahuillas and

still the definitive work in its field.

His acquaintance with the Cahuillas began in 1891 ataui—a little Indian settlement near a warm spring inahuilla Valley not far from the present site of Anza

hrough which the motorist now passes as he drives overhe paved link between the Palms-to-Pines highway (state

74) and the coast.

On that long-ago August day, some 275 Cahuillas andas many Indians from neighboring tribes had gathered tocelebrate the annual fiesta of San Luis Rey. Am ong thenatives were a few white settlers—all wearing guns on theirhips.

About mid-afternoon David Barrows, a tall youth of17 and one of the first two students to enroll at newlyfounded Pomona College, arrived driving a team of finehorses to a light Conc ord wagon . With him was Fran kBrack ett, a professor at Pom ona. Having learned throughthe grapevine of the fiesta, the two had driven over fromtheir summer camp at Strawberry Valley (subsequentlynamed Idyllwild) to gain first-hand knowledge of whatpromised to be an interesting and novel event.

The center of festivities was a grassy swale where boothsand a large ramada of poles covered with leafy brancheshad been built near the hot spring. In some of the boothsmeals were served at 25c a plate, and these rustic cafes

were popular with both Indians and whites. After pitchingcamp nearby, the newcomers mingled with the crowd,young Barrows raptly absorbing every detail of the nativegames and sports which made up the afternoon's entertain-ment.

At night came the big campfire, the tribal songs anddances—the Whirling Eagle dance, the Fire dance, theWar dance, He-no-tera-toma and others—in some of whichDavid took part with enthusiasm.

The interest of the lad who entered so zestfully intothe celebration that August night must have been com-pletely captured by his initial experience, for in the follow-ing years he came back again and again to camp among

the Cahuillas, observe their way of life, learn many wordsof their language, widen his acquaintance and make newfriends. Forem ost among the latter were members of theCosto family—Juan Maria, the eldest, Gabriel, Ignacio,Isidore and Martin; also a daughter, Rosa.

In 1895, after graduating from college, he brought hisbride, Anna, into the Indian country on their honeymoonjourney. Fo r six weeks they camped at various Indianrancherias. Then as the time for the annual fiesta of SanLuis Rey approached, they drove to Cahuilla to witness theevent and enjoy a visit with their friends there.

During their stay they tried to promote a horsebacktrip to the Cabezon (now Coachella) Valley—home ofthe Desert Cahuillas; but none of the mountain Indianswas willing to take a white woman on such a hazardousjourney. The newlyweds had to be content with the trailsof Santa Rosa Mountain and Torres (T oro) Peak. Overthese primitive routes they were guided by the youngestof the Costo brothers, Martin.

This lad, described in General Barrows' memoirs as "abeautiful boy," they found to be not only an excellent guidebut a young man of fine chara cter. M artin's qualities soappealed to the esteem and affection of Anna and DavidBarrows that when asked by his family to take the ladback with them, that he might gain more education thanwas provided by the little Indian school of the district, theygladly consented.

Thereafter the young Cahuilla became a loved member

of the Barrows household. He remained with them severalyears, first in Claremont, then in San Diego where Dr.Barrows was professor of history at San Diego State Teach-ers College.

Meantime, scholarly interests had not superceded thecherished project of a trip to the rancherias of the DesertCahuillas. In August, 18 97, while vacationing in CahuillaValley, Dr. Barrows learned that an acquaintance, Celes-tino Torte, who lived in old Santa Rosa village, had beenover the trail earlier that summer.

Dr. Barrows went at once to see him and they discussedthe matter for some time. Finally, Celestino agreed toprovide horses that "savvied" the desert, and to guide the

expedition.Next day the two men met at the foot of Torres Moun-

tain, and their adventure began. As if in salute, a summ erthunderstorm sent out crashing volleys as it broke on thepeak high above them. But no rain fell on the lower slopes.

The black broncos Celestino furnished were small andtough—desert-wise and inured to the hardships of the trail.Their ridgepole backs were scarred by many a saddle gall;their unshod hoofs were hard as flint.

The route they followed across Pinyon Flat from Van-deventer Flat and thence down the steep and rocky easternface of the Santa Rosa Mountains below Asbestos Peak,was not actually a peet ( trail) , but simply a tortuous way

through rocks and gulches.As they went they botanized, Celestino discovering

every few rods a specimen of fresh interest, the native usesof which he described.

Toward sundown they crossed Pinyon Flat and campedthat first night above a gorge which held a spring. He reon the mountainside had been a Cahuilla village calledKu-a-le-ke, occupied, Celestino explained, in the days whenthe Cahuillas were a strong people . Now their nu mb erswere diminishing, the old trails had grown dim with disuse,and a few grinding holes and cooking stones were all thatwas left of the village.

At dawn the two men were mounted and on their way.

An hour's ride brought them within full view of Cabezon(Coachella) Valley. From their perch on Cawish Wa-wat-acha (Mighty Mountains) Celestino pointed out on theopposite range the Cawish Po-po-hu-ut (Mountains of Tuleand Mesquite Bushes—today known as the Litt le SanBernardinos) , hunting terrain of the Chemehuevi Indians

Nina Paul Shumway of Palm Desert (in winter) and"The Tors," her mountain hom estead (in summ er), is amember of a prominent pioneer family who came to theCoachella Valley of California in 1909. In 1925, follow-ing a seven-year absence from the desert, she gave up asecretarial position at Stanford University and returnedto the Valley to devote herself to writing. After severalmodestly successful years in her chosen field, her father'sdeath left a date garden and mail-order business which

required most of her energies. But, early readers ofDesert Magazine may remember her occasional contribu-tions to these pages. Her book, "Your Desert and Mine,"the revealing first-person account of the victorious strugglewhich made a blazing wilderness one of the richest valleysin the world, recently was published. ($6.75, DesertMagazine Book Store).




FRANCISCO NOMBRE, A DESERT CAHUILLA

] OLD PHOTO SHOWS A CAHUILLA WOMAN, CINCIONALUBO, DISPLAYING ACORNS GATHERED IN MOUNTAINS

from the Colorado River, friends of the Cahuillas whocame to the range for mountain sheep.

Far below lay the blazing expanse of the desert floor,its quivering gray barrenness broken only by dark splashesof distant mesquite clumps. A few of these marked thesites of Indian villages—Indio, Cabezon, La Mesa, Torres,Augustine, Martinez and other habitations still more dis-tant.

By the middle of the afternoon they were on the desertand pushing forward with all the strength under the scarredhides of their tough little bro nco s. After crossing the wideoutwash apron of what is now called Deep Canyon, th epresent site of Palm Desert, they camped for the night atIndian Wells where there remained of the deserted ran-cheria only a few blackened posts and one of the Cahuilla's

unique walk-down wells.Concerning these wells, Dr. Barrows wrote in his Ethno-

Botany: "The Cahuillas call these wells temal-ka-wo-mal-em , a pretty figure. Ka-wo-mal is the word for a tinajaor water olla, and temal is the word for the earth or ground.There is no question but that the Cahuillas learned ofthemselves to dig these wells, and this practice cannotperhaps be paralleled elsewhere among American Indians."

During their stay on the desert floor, the travelerscrossed the valley twice, visiting all but the two farthestrancherias—Agua Dulce and Alamo. The crop of mesquitebeans had been unusually abundant that year and thewomen in all the villages were busy gathering, grindingand storing in huge basket granaries the rich harvest which

furnished a large part of the food of the Desert Cahuilla.In every home by day and far into the night could beheard the thump of stone pestles in the wooden mortarsas the dried beans were being pounded into flour.

The bean s were also an excellent livestock food. Yet

for all this plentiful supply of provender, the Indians'livestock was in sorry straits. A long period of drouth wasdrying up wells and waterholes. Fou r horses died at M ar-tinez the day the travelers arrived, and the previous dayfive head of cattle had perished of thirst.

The prolonged drouth meant trouble for Barrows andCelestino, too. They suffered from thirst as they painfullyworked their way back across the last stretch of desert andup the rocky flanks of the "Mighty M ou ntain s." By darkthey were exhausted and still half a day's ride from water.

Remem bering the thunderstorm which had broken abovethem the day of their start, Celestino, wise in these matters,explored a ravine, found a damp spo t, and dug. Into thesmall pits a little water slowly seeped. Beside thes e tiny

pools they made their camp and that night they ate almostthe last of their provisions.

But, the only real misfortune suffered on the tripoccurred the next day. Celestino's horse had developeda cruel saddle gall. Its mas ter bathed and ru bbed the s ore,hunted strange plants and applied native remedies includ-ing a poultice of pounded datura leaves, known to bestrong medicine. But nothing availed. By noon the poorbeast was in a terrible plight, his withers swollen as largeas a man's head.

At the foot of Torre s trail Celestino stopped. Fea ringhis horse would die, he decided not to go on to Cahuillabut to head directly for Santa Ro sa village. So there

where the journey had begun, the two men said good-by— neve r to meet again. The dema nds for his remarka bleabilities in many wide-flung fields of service, soon separatedDr. Barrows from his Cahuilla friends and except for abrief visit when he took young Martin Costo to CahuillaValley so the boy could see his mother before leaving for




Pennsylvania to attend Carlisle Indian School, Barrowsdid not visit the Cahuillas again for more than 50 years.

Beginning with his appointment in 1900 to serve as amember of the Taft Philippine Commission to reorganizegovernment in those islands, Barrows achieved honors inmany fields—educational, governmental, military. Chiefof the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, director of Educa-tion in the Phili ••ines, acting Presid ent of the U niversityof California, member of the Hoover Relief Commission

in Belgium, Major of Cavalry in the National Army, aideto the Commanding General in Manila on an inspectiontrip of the Archipelago, emissary on a military missionto Siberia, President of the University of California forfour years, Professor in the Department of Political Scienceat Berkeley, lecturer in South America in behalf of theCarnegie Endowment, Theodore Roosevelt professor at theUniversity of Berlin, organizer of the National Guard inNeva da, Utah and C alifornia, "Major-General comm andingCalifornia's 40th Division—these were some of the activi-ties that, with travel in many lands, occupied him for halfa century.

Then, in 1949, when he and Eva, wife of his secondmarriage (Anna had died in 1936), were living in Berke-ley, there came a telephone call that put him in touchagain with the Cahu illas. Guad alupe C osto, daughter ofhis old friend, Juan Maria, had discovered the whereaboutsof the man of whom her father so often talked with deepadm iration and affection. To his joy, the Gen eral learnedthat Juan Maria still lived.

Now advanced in years, Barrows was on the point ofretiring from the more pressing duties of his busy life,and as soon as he was able to make the trip, he headedfor Cahuilla Valley, eager to renew the old friendshipwith Juan Maria.

In the valley the small groups of thatched jacales weregone, as were most of the people who had lived in them.

Ma ny slept in the little cemetery on the hill. Inde ed, onlya few families remained.

The Costos lived in a neat frame cottage across theroad from the cemetery. A knock brought N attie, theCosto daughter who kept house for her father, to the door.Then Juan Maria came out into the sunlight and the twoold friends who had not met for more than 50 years weregripping hands.

Though no longer "strong as a derrick"—a reputationhe had gained in earlier years, Juan Maria, great grandsonof the famous Cahuilla chief, Juan Antonio, was at 104still vigorous physically, and mentally alert. Only du ringthe past five years had he ceased doing all work around theplace, and up to two years before had continued to ridehorseback.

Most of his long life had been spent in the MightyMountains where he had acted as a leader among hispeo ple. He could still recall the day when as a child hehad seen the Mormons in their high-wheeled wagons arriveat the present site of San Bernardino. And once he hadjourneyed far from hom e. In 1906 he had gone to Wa sh-ington to plead with the lawmakers in an attempt to securethe rights of his tribesmen to the land their forefathershad possessed for untold centuries before the arrival ofthe white ma n. His mission was hardly successful; buthe did obtain som ething. Legislation was enacted givingthe Indians title to the homesites they then occupied.

As long as time permitted, Juan Maria and the Gen-eral talked together in Spanish, renewing old memories andcatching up on the years of separation.

After an interlude of travel, Eva and the General re-turne d to the desert the following winter. At this time we

became friends and because of my own eager interest inthe Cahuillas, the General indulged freely in his favoritetopic of which he and I never tired. Traveling in my stationwagon, the three of us searched for new acquaintancesamong the few remaining Cahuillas on the local reserva-tions. It was my privilege to provide transportation for avisit to Juan Maria's home and observe another meetingof the two men who, each in his own way, exemplified allthat was finest in his race.

Unfortunately, Juan Maria had recently suffered a fallwhich left him physically disabled. But his mind w as still,keen and his eyes lighted at sight of the Gen eral. Jua nMaria insisted upon sitting up while they talked, and toavoid overtiring him we were careful not to stay too long.

Afterward, provided by Nattie with a key to the gateof the cemetery, we wandered in the sunshine among thegraves of the Costos, the Lugos, the Lubos and many othersonce familiar to the Gen eral. Ra mo na's grave was there,too. Like the others, it was bright with planted narcissusand wild poppies.

The General stopped at the warm pool of the springbelow the hill to talk to a Cahuilla woman who stoodknee-deep in the water, washing clothes. Startled by ourpresence an owl flew out of the bell tower of the desertedschoolhouse, successor to the one in which Martin Costohad learned to read.

Martin, "the beautiful boy" who had been like a son toBarrows, lay under the poppies beside his people. Follow-ing his graduation from Carlisle he had entered the Navy.During the first World War he was killed in an accidentaboard the battleship Utah.

Nearby was the little Catholic church of which JuanMaria, whatever his native beliefs may have been, hadbecome a mem ber. In the near distance rose the baldgranite face of Cahuilla Mountain and along the far skyline

stretched snow-capped peaks. The nearby slopes weredazzling green, starred with wildflowers. W as the Gen eralseeing all this, I wondered, or was he seeing again thelively scene of long ago at the fiesta of San Luis Rey?

It was doubly fortunate that he and Juan Maria hadtheir meeting that year, for by the following winter whenthe Barrowses again came south, the Indian patriarch wasgone. He died in August, 1 952, at the age of 107 . Hisbody was laid to rest with those of his family who hadpreceded him, in the little cemetery on the hill.

We went again the next spring to see Na ttie. But JuanMa ria's absence left a painful gap. Standing on the Costo s'porch, the General looked down at the grassy swale below

the house."There," he mused aloud in a tone nostalgic with

memory, "is where they had the booths and ramada andthe cerem onial dances that night. Na ttie tells me it nolonger belongs to her people. How chang ed— how changedit all is!"

In my treasured copy of the General's privately printedmem oirs are these revealing lines: "I dwell on the hopethat I can still, at the age of 80, make a successful trip withhorses and pack animal with my Cahuilla friend, DomingoCosto, into the complex of the Santa Rosa M ountain s. Ilong to re-experience the good rides in rough country, thefinding of water and good feed for my horses, the camp-fire with coffee pot and frying pan, and blessed nights onthe ground happily disturbed by the contented champing ofmy horses. This is the way I want my life to come to itsmaturity—sitting with a Cahuilla friend in the long eveningsand listening to his accounts of the history of his spiritedp e op le ." / / /




R e c l a m a t i o n :

water

from

thesea

AERIAL VIEW OF SUNKEN GARDENS

B yW I L L I A M E . W A M E

During the past months six articles have been writ-ten for this publication by William E. Warne basedon his experiences in Iran {where he served in the

early 1950s as administrator of our Point Four pro-gram). The article on these pages concludes his Iran-ian series, and the subject— water from the sea— isan appropriate one, for on January 2, Warne. tookoffice as California's Director of Water Resources.

ASTRIP OF low-lying desert ,

here wider, there narrower, bor-dered the sea. The wasteland

lifted gently to the base of formidablesteeply-eroded dry mo untains . Broa dfanning outfall cones spread at themouth of nameless canyons gave muteevidence that rain, when it did come,might be more terrible in its torrential

behavior than the usual drouth.

Flying along the edge of the Per-sian Gulf, this panorama spread be-hind the wing of the DC-3, and Ithought of the startling statementsomeone once made to me that morepeople had lost their lives by beingdrowned in the flash floods that pourdown the waddis, than have died ofthirst on the sands of the Sahara Des-ert. It hardly seemed possible thatthis could be true, yet there was thefrightening evidence of the catastro-phic storm nearly 35 years ago inMountain Springs Canyon on our ownCalifornia desert. I had seen howthe seething waters of this flood hadrolled boulders as big as boxcarslike dice, and thrown them out towardCoyote Wells.

In these piles of debris poured outof the arroyos of this Iranian moun-tain range, again could be read thestory. A man might pray a lifetimefor water at the lower edge of such atalus slope, and meet his death as aconsequence of the storm that finally

came.

"But people live even her e." Ihad noted a few utterly desolate ap-pearing mud houses huddled besidethe shore.

"Oh, yes," my Iranian friendanswered. "Peop le live here, buttheirs is a difficult lot, and they arepoo r. There is so little wa ter."

I saw round patches of green a fewyards across sparsely dotting a plain.My curiosity was aroused.

We landed soon at Bushire, a placewithout natural endow ment. It wasan old seaport. A road, in recentyears little used, lead from Bushire toShiraz and Teheran. It once was abusy caravan route, but had been re-placed by the railroad at Khoramsharfarther west. A few leaky hulksstood at the quay. Brackish waterwas hauled in goatskin jugs by wagonsfrom a stream six miles away, and soldby the cupful on the streets. Th erewas no piped supply in the town.

Temperatures stood at stifling levels,worse than anything I experienced onthe Amazon, or in Maylayan jungles.

As we walked to the shade of the




"This evening, when it is cooler,"

We were caught up in the official

ered four-wheel-drive vehicles and weent bouncing off into the desert.

We found one of the green spotsnot far off the road a few miles eastof town. It was a sunken garden — ahuge steepsided hole in the groundwith grapevines and fruit trees growingbouqu et like in its bottom . The lipwas ringed with a stone wall piledhigh with dry thorny bush to providea barrier to man and beast. I could

not find a way through this barricade,and could only guess that the ownerhad arranged so that a branch some-where in the circle could be lifted toform a gate.

The water table has lowered grad-ually through the centuries, and thefarmers, simply lowered their farms bydigging off enough of the surface sothat deep roots could still reach mois-ture and shallow wells would yieldbucketsful. In the course of time, theyfound themselves farming the bottoms

of great pits. Similar "farms" along theRed Sea in Saudi Arabia are said tobe so deep that date palms barelyreach the surface of the surroundingterrain.

I had witnessed other desperatemeasures taken by the people alongthe Persian Gulf and the Gulf ofOman to maintain a precarious foot-hold on the inhospitable shore. AtBandar Abass great hive-like domescovered cisterns. Th e surface waterswere led by a wide system of lowdikes and ditches to them on those

few occasions in a year when rain didfall. Since the water had to be heldfor virtually the whole year, thesecommunity cisterns presented contam-ination threats and grave health haz-ards. But they permitted life to goon.

In California, using the same tech-nique, the Fish and Game Departmenthas constructed gallinaceous guzzlersfor quail and other small game andwildlife on otherwise waterless ranges.They hold only a few barrelsful of

rainwater, but it is enough to make alife or death difference to little wildcreatures.

In Jordan, the guzzler, on a muchbigger scale, is called a Roman Tank,

and impounds enough water for bandsof sheep. I have seen some withcapacities of hundreds of thousandsof gallons. These have made it feasi-ble to use wide areas that producegrasses but have no other impoundedor flowing waters.

Nowhere in the world, in all proba-

bility, is there greater need to obtainfresh water from the sea than thesouth shore of Iran.

In thriving burgeoning America,populations have been established insome areas where deficiencies in watersupply have developed—and theseregions are not all in the Desert South-west. Look ing ahead, water expertsfor years have foreseen increasingwater needs and diminishing watersupplies presenting problems wide-spread. In Am erica, there is usually

somebody who will try to do some-thing constructive about such a prob-lem.

In 1950 the United States Depart-ment of Interior, which has the Geo-logical Survey and the Bureau of Rec-lamation among its family of agencies,began to stir with the awakening real-ization that one day the United Stateswould need water from the sea.

The Navy Department had demon-strated during the second World Warthat waterless islands could be usedby providing fresh water through dis-tilling the salt water from the ocean.This invention was more or less adaughter of necessity, and costs werenot considered a deterrent. The idea,however, gave useful stimulation tothe longer range planning of the re-source department.

Goodrich W. Lineweaver of theBureau of Reclamation developed amodest program of research and ex-perimentation which was authorizedby the Congress in the summer of

1952. Since then, five differentmethods have been evolved and morethan $10,000,000 made available toestablish pilot plants.

Sadly, no breakthrough to newtechnical vistas can be repo rted. InMarch, 1960, the Select Committee onNational Water Resources of theUnited States Senate published apamphlet on "Present and ProspectiveMeans for Improved Re-use ofW ater." One of the outstanding in-stallations reported by the committee,that at Aruba in the Netherland An-tilles, produces 2.7 million gallons aday along with process steam andelectric power at a cost of $1.75 perthousand gallons. The maximum costfor municipal and irrigation waters in

the United States in 1952 were, re-spectively, 38 and 12 cents per thou-sand gallons. This indicates theeconomic gap still to be closed.

Distillation processes, such as thatat Aruba and a large multi-flash seawater evaporation plant in Kuwait,use solar or non-solar heat resources.

Othe r processes are : Th e electricmembrane deminera li za tion , u s i n gelectrodialysis; freezing; solvent ex-traction and ion exchang e. An elec-trodialysis plant has been constructedat Coalinga, California, to treat 28,000gallons a day of brackish well water.The treatment costs $1.10 per thou-sand gallons, which is cheaper thanhauling the water by rail from thenearest good well, but hardly a bar-gain for most purposes and mostsituations. The freezing process seems

to have greater theoretical possibilities,but in experiments so far it worksbest on low concentrations of salt.

While reclamation of water fromthe sea is still in the experimentalstage, it nevertheless is possible to listmore than a score of plants widelyscattered in the world which are suc-cessfully producing potable water.

In the United States, where watersare plentiful but poorly distributed,there is apt to be a long wait beforewater from the sea will become a prac-

tical substitute for diversions for ir-rigation and most other uses. Wa terfrom other natural sources conserved,stored, and transported by canals andaqueducts in most circumstancesshould be cheaper to provide, until thesea water research has been carriedmuch farther.

If, however, a deeply felt need ex-isted, few experts doubt that it wouldtake America long to devise and de-velop ways and means of utilizing thesea as a source of potable water.

Most of us now take it for grantedthat we will do so in only a matter oftime.

Unfortunately, along the shore ofthe Persian Gulf where need for wateris urgently felt, there are no alterna-tive sources of water, and the skillsare presently lacking to resolve theproblem by freshening sea water. Yet,nearby are the greatest proved oil re-serves in the world, and natural gas inunimagined abun danc e. Since energyis a prime consideration in the pro-cesses now being tried, and Iran hasenergy in excess, perhaps this dismalshore after all could become the prov-ing ground for a new form of recla-mation—irrigation with water madefresh from the sea. / / /




S c i e n c e G a i n s A

B e a c h h e a dI n B a j a C a l i f o r n i a

By JOHN W. HILTON



THEY MIGHT have called i t the

"Baja California Field Station ofthe San Diego Museum of Nat-

ural History;" or the "Gulf of LowerCalifornia Field Station;" or, for thatmatter, any one of half a dozen names.But my friend George Lindsay, di-rector of the San Diego Museum ofNatural History, is a man with a flair

for word s. He called it "Th e Ver-milion Sea Field Station."

Dr. Lindsay believes that scienceshould be interesting to more peoplethan it is. He believes tha t the func-tion of a museum is to bridge the gapbetween the specialized scientist andthe layman . It should be a livingwindow on science where anyone canstop for minutes or hours to enjoyand learn at the same time.

Just as he believes the function ofthe museum is to be of service to the

public; he holds that the museum'sstaff should be constantly researching

in the laboratory and the field to addto the store of knowledge offered tothe public.

The San Diego Museum of NaturalHistory is fortunate in the fact thatone of the world's largest zoos is liter-ally "next door" in the same BalboaPark, and that full cooperation be-tween the two institutions has existed

for many years. Likewise, the ScrippsInstitute of Oceanography in nearbyLa Jolla is in constant touch and activecooperation.

These three institutions and manyothers have from time to time sponsor-ed extensive field trips into the wildsof Baja California. Alm ost everyBaja-bent scientist whom I have talk-ed to has expressed the feeling thatthere is too much country and toolittle time . In the old days the bod y-and nerve-wracking ordeal of making

the land trip over the alleged "road toLa Paz" took up most of the time and

energy of the expedition members.And when these investigators reachedan area where they wished to studyand collect, they were faced with thedown-to-earth problem of housingtheir equipment, collections, andselves; plus considerations such asfood, water, gasoline, boats, dependa-ble plane service, and radio commun-

ication by overseas telephone.Bahia de los Angeles on the gulf-

side of Baja California has become,more or less by common consent, thecenter of such scientific activities fortwo main reasons: some of the above-mentioned basic needs are reasonablyprovided for here; and the bay iscentrally located in the area in mostneed of study.

It was only natural that this placeshould be chosen as a permanent fieldstation by the San Diego Museum of

Na tural History. The building theychose to house the station was a

CHRIS PARRISH, 17-YEAR-OLD JUNIOR NATURAL-IST, INTERVIEWS A YOU NG OSPREY. NEST WASFOUND ON AN ISLET IN BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES.



THE VERMILION SEA FIELD STATION IS A LARGE AD,.,QBE BUILDING LOCATED O N THE SHORE OFJHE BAY,

'Hrr

"n atu ral," too. It has nine spaciousroom s. It is right on the shor e, justsouth of the main settlement. An d,Dest of all, it was available!

Here is where this report takes ona "this is where I came in" aspect.The building is best known to mostold Baja hands as the "Walker house"or the "Mining hou se." Here it wasthat I met the promoter, Mr. Walker,on my first trip with C. E. Utt. Hereit was that I heard the first real talltales of the peninsula by Walker, Utt,and Dick Daggett (the latter was bornat the nearby mining town of LasFlores). And here is was—much later—that I took my wife, Barbara, ourdaughter Sharon, and our son Bil l to

spend three fun and work-filled sum-mers.

To Barbara and me that old ram-shackle building will always be "ourhouse," no matter who owns i t orlives in it. W e shall never forget the

starry nights on the great slab ofcement that served as a porch andsometimes a sea wall, listening to thegentle laughter of the little waves on

the rocks below, or the gusty sighingof a whale just off shore, or the brag-ging of a coyote who had found anextra fine morsel in our trash pile.

We shall always remember thosebreathless mornings when we rose asthe first gold threw Angel de la Guar-da Island into silhouette, and breweda hasty pot of coffee, got fishing thingstogether, or made ready for a shellhunting trip at ebb tide. How it allcomes back—the excitement of thechildren—the breathless promise ofnew adventure, the feeling of great

discoveries just around the corner.

Then there were the sunsets whilewe sat on the porch dining on fish orclams or sea turtle or other bounty ofthe Vermilion Sea. We used to watchthe rose light kindle the islands to the

RICHARD LEE, A SAN DIEGO STATE COLLEGEBIOLOGY STUDENT, HOLDS A CHUCKAWALLALIZARD FROM ANGEL DE LA GUARDA ISLAND

east, and the strange blue triangularshadow slowly creeping up the side ofSierra de las An ima s. Then it wasthat we sat and watched the wheeling

terns diving for small fish in ourfront yard, and the great black fork-tailed frigate birds hovering high,waiting for a fish to drop, then swoop-ing down with incredible speed andsnatching it withou t getting wet. Weused to cal l i t our TV program.

I could go on about the warm nightswhen phosphorescence (more correctlybioluminescence) filled the sea like agreat bowl of living fire, and eachmoving thing left a trail like the milkyway. Or catching fish and even thre e-

foot sharks right off the porc h. Orthe day Barbara speared a two-footred squid right in front of the house,and then spent hours with the Fish-erman's Wharf Cook Book learninghow to prep are it. These are thetreasurers no one can steal; they areonly brightened by the sharing. Maythe new occupants have as muchpleasure and work and learning as wehad under that leaky roof (now re-paired) and on that porch wheredesert and sea merge into a singleentity along with yesterday, now, and

forever.The Vermilion Sea Field Station is

no longer just a dream, but to thoselucky ones who use it I am certainit shall become a precious memorythat shall never fade.

All legal details have been clearedwith the Mexican Government, andpermits granted by the Secretaria deAgricultura y Ganaderia as well as theother agencies concerne d. Some spec-imens already collected by San Diegofield investigators at the station are

at the University of Mexico, showingthe international aspect of this project.

The National Science Foundationhas granted a substantial sum to fur-nish, repair, and maintain the station




' • •

for the next three years. Equ ipme ntincludes a four-wheel-drive vehicle totake scientists and students to outly-ing areas of the desert, a boat to takethem to islands and beaches not acces-sible by land travel, and two-wayradio s. A list of equip me nt copiedfrom the original budget provides arough idea of what will be going on:"gasoline driven pump for salt watersystem, float for pump, plastic hoseto building, water tables, aquaria andsalt water plumbing, fish traps, mam-mal traps, plant presses and driers,preservatives, etc., also camping andpacking equipment for land work, tent,stove, pack boxes, gasoline, lanterns,sleeping bags, canteens, etc."

The request for the grant reads:"The station will be extensively usedby personnel from the museum en-gaged in collecting activities and fieldstudies as a part of a biological survey

project of Central Baja California."The station will be used by the

members of the San Diego Society ofNatural History and the museum staff:Dr. Lindsay, the director; Ed N. Har-rison, interested in birds of the area;Dr. Carl L. Hubbs, expert on whalesand fishes; Dr. Gifford C. Ewing, whoflies his own sea plane and studiesphysical oceanography, ecology of la-goons, whales and natural history ingeneral; Dr. Reid V. Moran, curatorof botany; Laurence M. Huey, curatorof birds and mammals; Dr. John A.

Comstock, entomologist; and EmoryP. Pierce, curator of mollusks.

Its use, however, is not limited tomembers of the controlling institution.Any qualified investigator or studentis welcome to use the facilities to fur-ther natural history research. Themuseum is actively working with bio-logists of the Instituto Biologia ofMexico. Dr. Enrique Beltran, sub-secretary of Mexico's federal depart-ment of forestry and game, has ar-ranged complete sanction of this pro-ject with all federal departmen ts. Dr.

Margarita Brava of the Instituto Bio-logia has requested use of the stationin her studies of fish parasites. JamesH. McLean, a Ph.D. candidate underDr. Donald Abbott of Stanford Uni-versity, would like to undertake a two-year study of the life history of themollusks (sea shells to we ordinarycollectors) and to make a collectionfrom the entire area.

The list is growing. Eastern organ-izations are sending inquiries. Uni-versities, marine laboratories andspecializing students all want to cometo Baja California, and there is onlyone field station on the 800-mile pen-insula. Scientific history will be madein the old mining house m y family on cecalled home, and we are proud that

US ING SHOELACES FOR NOOSE S, CHRIS PARRISH CAU GHT THESE SPECKLED RATTLERS ON ANG EL DE

L A G U A R D A I S L A N D . SN A K E S M E A S U R E D 5 6 I N C H E S -R E C O R D L E N G T H F O R TH I S N E W S U B S PE C IE S .

we were there to see the start of theproject.

In my article in Desert Magazine on

Angel de la Guarda (Dec. '59) I de-scribed what I called "whisperingrattlers." This intrigued some of themuseum staff members. On one tripto Angel de la Guarda Island, ChrisParrish, junior naturalist of themuseum, celebrated his 17th birthdayby catching two more of the whisper-ing rattlers, and setting the record forsize in spotted rattlesnakes. Bothspecimens were 56 inches long. Theywill probably turn out to be a newsub-species of Crotolus Mitchellii.

With the advent of this new estab-lishment we can rest assured that Angelde la Guarda and many of the othergulf islands will be explored over theyear s. It is with pleas ure, tinged withjust a little envy, that I turn the task

over to them . Ma y they never tire ofthis land where whales and coyotescan keep one awake on the same night,where kangaroo rats have becomebeachcombers, where coyotes dig forclams and pull them above high-tidefor the sun to open, where foxes fishfor crabs with their bushy tails, wheresmall sea gulls keep large pelicans asdomesticated servants, and a uniquespecies of bat lives by catching livefish.

From time to time I shall have thepleasure of reporting on the progressof this field station that stands withone foot planted in the Baja desertand the other in the Vermilion Sea.

We may even take part in some ofthe field trips, especially to our be-loved Isla Angel de la Gu ard a. The reis a combination of desert and seaabout this country which weaves aspell of magic that calls one back. / / /




KA HCHITQ

SHORTY BOYD AT THE ENTRANCE TO HIS "RANCHITO"

He roped ' em,

IDON'T UNDERSTAND thesemodern rodeos. Looks to melike they have the calf roped be-

fore he comes out of the chute . . .and then the critter lies down andcrosses his legs so's they can be tied.

"These days a man will haul a horse30 miles in a truck just to ride him30 yards . . ."

These words come from five-footthree-inch Arthur "Shorty" Boyd ofVaughn, New Mexico — a cowboyfrom the old school.

Shorty's trademark is his wit andgood humo r. All the old cowboys inthis part of the country know Shorty,

B y B E U L A H M E E K S

Beulah Meeks is a native of Iowa, butshe has been a New Mexican for the past50 years. She resides in A lbuquerque.Her specialty is writing about pioneerdays and people, and she also has writtenabout the customs and life of SouthwestIndians.


rode ' em,n branded 'em

and mention of his name brings asmile to their lips. Life on the ope nrange was sometimes dangerous, nearlyalways lonely. A sense of hum or was

as necessary for survival as a goodhorse, or a canteen that didn't leakwater.

Shorty was born 70 years ago inAnson, Jones County, Texas. Threeyears later his family moved to theWest Texas plains and Shorty grewup on a ranch, loving every minute ofit. High-heel boots, leather chaps, 10-gallon hat and spirited horseflesh havebeen part of his life since his firstmemories.

When Shorty was 14 he went out

into the world to make his living asa bronc buster. He worked for theL-S-O, Drag-Y and the famed 3,000,-000-acre X-I-T ranch.

"The work was clear-cut," he re-

coun ts. "I roped 'em, rode 'em, andbranded 'em."

In modern-day rodeos, a broncrider only has to stay aboard for 10seconds. "Heck," says Shorty, "wejust rode 'em 'til they quit."

He liked to ride broncs—the wilderthe better. When he drew a gentlehorse, he'd trade it for a wild one.Few of the critters ever sent him offinto outer space or left him sprawledon the earth. Once lured into the net,a cowboy usually loves every danger-ous moment of bronc riding.

There were no corrals or grand-stands at the early-day rodeos. Wag-ons, buggies, people on horseback anda few cars arranged in a circle formedthe arena. Sometimes the spectators



experienced as much excitement as theparticipants. The bucking stock wasroped, eared-down, blindfolded andsaddled right out on the open flat. Therest was up to the cowboy.

Shorty early learned that being acowboy meant doing a lot of thingsbesides riding broncs and brandingcalves. He learned to cook, build

fence, repair fence, feed stock and ridethe range the long day through.

By 1916 the young cowboy had ac-quired several head of stock, and hedecided to push west. In May of thatyear he bade the Texas Plains goodbyand shipped his stock to the EstanciaValley in New Mexico where he tookup a homestead nine miles north ofthe town of Lucy.

The winter of 1918-19 is still vividin the minds of the old-timers in thisterritory. M any horses and cattle froze

to death; late snows did additionaldam age. Then cam e a couple of yearsof drouth which finished off most ofthe operators, big and small.

Turning his remaining stock over tothe loan company, Shorty "saddled upOld Sib, took my hot roll (bed roll),and vamoosed the ranch and traveled."From ranching he drifted back intothe rodeo business—eventually as aprom oter. Soon he had a string ofbucking horses — Lightning, GraveYard Agnes, Bingo ("and they hit thedirt!"), Yellow Jacket, Tadpole, Six-

Fifty, Black-Jack, Old Sour Doughand Quo Vadis: fine horses, especi-ally the last mentioned which threw90 percent of his riders. Quo V adiswas a deceptive critter — gentle tohandle as long as the cowpoke stoodon the ground, but when someoneclimbed upon his back, the horse wentloco. Quo Vad is was well known upand down the small town New Mexicorodeo circuit.

Shorty often drove his stock 150miles from one rodeo to another. Once,after finishing a 10-day rodeo at Tula-rosa, he headed toward Magdalenawhere the show's next appearance wasscheduled. To save time he took a"short cut" through the mountains.Memory of this experience still causeshim to shake his head.

The rugged country was new toShorty and soon he was hopelesslylost. To add to his discomfort a heavydownpour struck his temporary camp.

"Not only was I without a bed, fireand something to eat; I couldn't evenlight a smoke," he recalls. "Th at nightI went to bed on my stomach andcovered up with my back." The fol-lowing morning a few lizards weretreated to a $2.50 rodeo extravaganza.Shorty roped one of his wild cows and

milked her, using the brim of his hatfor a pail. Breakfast over, he madeanother attempt to get through themou ntains. Three days later he madeit out to flat country and drove hisherd into a branding corral.

Later that night he turned the stockloose to graze, roping a fresh horseto ride next morning when it would

be time to round-up the wanderinglivestock.

At daybreak Shorty made a veryunp leasan t discovery. In the black ofthe preceding night, his lariat had madea very bum choice: Quo Vadis.

"I knew I had a slim chance,"recoun ts Shorty. "Usu ally I liked tospur 'em, quirt 'em from the cornerof their shoulder to the root of theirtail—but not Quo Vadis.

"I pulled down my hat, pulled upmy pants, and yelled out something

like: 'Let's go get the horses.'"What a ride! That sun-fishing son-

of-a-gun really turned it on. Th is wasone time I knew it was either ride orwalk." Luckily, Shorty soon ropedanother horse to ride the rest of thatday.

Nearing his destination, Shortycounted his bucking string and dis-covered the tally was one short. Heback-tracked several miles before itoccurred to him that he had notcounted the horse he was riding. Such

is the grist for a good laugh whencowboys get together.

When Shorty unwinds, the storiescome thick and fast. Lik e the time hesaw a coyote slinking across the prairie.Cattlemen shot coyotes on sight, butShorty did not carry firearms. So hedecided to give chase to the coyoteand attemp t to rope it. After twohours of skillfully dodging the rope,the coyote was still on the loose, andShorty had just about lost all interestin the sport.

Just then the coyote bounded up asmall rise and onto the highway. Shortywas right behind; and once more hecast his rope, snagging the coyote ontop of the rise—in full view of a carjamm ed full of tourists. They were soexcited at seeing a cowboy rope acoyote with his first throw that theystopped their car and got out.

"Whenever I miss one the firstthrow," Shorty told his new friends,"I just turn and go home."

Shorty usually stayed clear of poli-tics, but long years of association with

cowboys taught him plenty of diplo-macy.

Like the time he was driving hisbucking string to the next rodeo date."I came across a man from Kansas

who was cooking a big lunch of hamand eggs," recalls Shorty. "I was hun-gry as a pet coon, but he did not askme to eat with him.

"I began racking my brain forsomething to say that would cause himto invite me to have lunch with him.Finally I said: 'Well, mister how'spolitics up your way?'

"Th is fellow replied: 'Well, we'regoing to get rid of that Democrat andput a Republican in this fall for sure.'

" 'Tha t's just the thing to do, ' Itold him, and that Kansas fellowjumped up and stepped around likea burro eating cactus. 'Get dow n,mister, and have some lunch with me,'he said. W e had a good political talkand when I left he followed me downthe road for a half-mile still talkingpolitics."

Late that same day Shorty came to

a ranch house and decided to see ifhe could find a corral for his horsesand a night's lodging for himself.

"I rode over to the place and hearda couple of women arguing politics.One was a Republican, the other aDem ocrat. I listened a few minutestrying to decide which one owned theranch. Finally one of the women wentto her car, saying to the other: 'Comesee me, you hard-headed old Demo-crat. '

"I rode up closer just as the ranch

woman came out of her chicken housewith a basket of eggs. She looked likeshe weighed 400 pounds after a 24-hour shrink, and she had a huskyvoice.

" 'Good evening,' I managed to say.Those political words were in the bot-tom of my boots, but I was able tocough them up : 'I 'm a hard-h eadedDemocrat looking for a place to spendthe night, and corrals for my horses.'

" 'Get down, mister, and spend thenight, ' she said. And so I was a Re -publican at noon and that night aDem ocrat. I had such good luck withpolitics I quit it then and there."

It was at Mountainair in the sum-mer of 1941 that Shorty staged hislast rodeo . He sold his bucking stringand returned to ranching, but eventsof the rodeo world still are close tohis heart.

"The modern rodeo arenas are toosmall," he says. "Just turn a wildsteer or calf loose in the wide openspaces and I 'll rope 'em. The futureof rodeoing is hard to look at."

Shorty still rides the range and ropesand brands calves on his spread. Heis always busy; works every day. Hedoesn't quit a job until it is finished.

/ / /




c r o s s i n g a b r u s h - c o v e r e d m e s a

—wi tha compass

With the help of acompass—andknowledge of how to useit— the author and hiswife "navigated"through a tangle ofpi nyon and scrub oak tothe rim ofCanyon de Chelly

By CHARLES RAYMOND EGE

IT WAS THE last afternoon of a

delightful stay in the Canyon deChelly area of northeastern Arizona,

and we wanted to enjoy it alone. Ou rplan was to leave the car somewherealong the road on the high mesa and

hike north toward the main canyon,intersecting its rim at Monument Can-yon, the southernmost branch of deChelly.

A few miles southeast of Chinlewe noticed a pair of wheel tracks turnoff into the scrub—heading our way.We followed this rut-trail for threemiles—and then it faded into nothing.There was no change in terrain; nomarks of vehicles having been turnedarou nd. It was just one of those in-explicables of rough country. And tocomplicate matters further, pinyon andoak scrub surrounded us. It was sothick visibility was limited to 20 or30 paces.

Now we were faced with a decision:Should we hike on through the tangle—gambling on finding our parked carupon our return—or should we turnaround and drive back to the mainroad and forget about Monument Can-yon?

Having a good compass, we decidedto forge on afoot.

From my map I figured that wewere less than three miles from thecanyon's rim. By laying out a straightcompass course to the canyon, wewould be able to retrace it to the car.

We took a canteen and sandwicheach, the camera and tripod, and my


Compass of type mentioned in accompanying article, super-imposed on photo of Canyon de C helly. Comp ass card points

to magnetic north, but line of sight (from eye-piece at bottomthrough slot in raised cover at top) is true north. White line abov ethe arrow is painted on underside of rotable cover-glass; thelatter may be set to allow for local deviation from true north.True bearing is thus read directly under the wh ite line. Smallbutton at left of compass box operates a lever to damp theswing of compass card.

old dependable compass. We notedthe exact time and started off.

Ordinarily, such compass workmerely means sighting some mark—a tree, rock or bush as far ahead aspossible on the desired bearing, thenwalking to it and making another ob-servation farther on. But on this mesathe small trees were so thick it wasdifficult to identify one on line—par-ticularly while dodging low branchesand brush. So Jean went ahead as"flagman" as far as visibility permitted.I signalled her onto the exact bearing,(N 30° E) then moved ahead to herposition. After 46 minu tes of such"leap-frog" tactics, we emerged on theCanyon's rim about as we had ex-

As a boy in a small Iowa town, CharlesEge's imagination was fired by KirkMonroe's stories of the Southwest andKit Carson's desert campaigns. He likedmaps, surveying, construction work —and dreamed of exploring wild country.For a short while after graduating fromcollege (Iowa State) Ege worked at high-way, railway and bridge engineering jobsfrom the Black Hills to Puget Sound—then came a 31-year desk-stint in Chicago.At last—in 1950—theoretically retired,Ege removed to San Diego. He has livedin the West ever since, "escaping fromretirement to take part in the construc-tion engineering for large concrete build-ings and dams."

pected. We marked the intersectionby tying a white streamer—torn frommy shirt—to a bare limb.

Then we found a vantage pointwhere we could sit and enjoy the mag-nificent chasm at our feet. Well abovethe cliff an eagle floated effortlesslyon rising thermals—that side of thegorge had been in sun since earlymorn ing. Soft echoes of our conver-sation drifted back to us. We won-dered if this part of the canyon hadechoed to the shots of Kit Carson'svolunteers when they herded the Nav-ajos out of its depths and started themon the "long walk" to Ft. Sumner,New Mexico, in 1863-64.

Most of all we enjoyed the com-plete peacefulness of the Canyon.There were no traces of human occu-pancy from where we sat, save forfaint horse trails through the brush onthe sandy canyon bottom. There wereno sounds other than our voices andthe occasional rustle of the soft breeze.We walked both ways along the rimfor a mile or less.

After an hour or more of thoroughlyenjoyable loafing and camera-work,we drifted back to the point whereour white streamer floated from thebare limb. Here we took another com-



pass bearing (S 30° W) for the returntrip, noted the time, and plunged intothe scrub. The sun was lower andthe shade thicker, but twice we sawfootprints we had made on the way in.After 46 minutes of hiking with fre-quent compass shots to hold our coursewe stopped to rest. The car was no-where in sight. We realized that anerror of something less than 100 feet

either way could have caused us tomiss seeing the car in this jungle. Th uswe were laying plans to search a seriesof 200-foot circles with one personremaining at the center of these circleswhen we caught a flash of sunlight onthe brightwork of the car. It wasparked less than 50 feet ahead anda bit to the left of the course we hadfollowed.

On the ride back I must admit thatwe were somewhat pleased with oursuccessful navigation of the thicket.Actually, there is little chance of be-coming lost in the wilds if a personlearns how to "keep track" of him-self—without getting "turned around."When in unfamiliar areas, one shouldavoid relying on unconfirmed "no-tions" of cardinal directions, particu-larly in cloudy weather or at night.

Few people are gifted with an in-nate sense of direction, so one shouldhave a continuing and reliable frameof reference, even for the directions"up" and "down" — strange as this

THIS OLD PROSPECTORKNEW HIS CACTUS

I once asked an old Colorado Des-ert prospector how many varieties ofcactus he was familiar with. "Bygosh," said he, "you city fellers haveno idea how many kinds we got. Iknow every one of 'em. The re's the'full of stickers,' 'all stickers,' 'never-fail stickers,' 'stick everybody,' 'thestick and stay in,' 'the sharp stickers, ''the extra sharp stickers, ' 'big stickers, ''little stickers,' 'big and little stickers,''stick while you sleep,' 'stick while youwait,' 'stick 'em alive,' 'stick 'em dead,''stick unexpectedly,' 'stick anyhow,''stick through leather,' 'stick throughanything,' 'the stick in and never comeout,' 'the stick and fester cactus,' 'thecat's claws cactus,' 'the barbed fish-hook cactus,' 'the rattlesnake's fangcactus,' 'the stick seven ways at oncecactus,' 'the impartial sticker, ' 'thedemocratic sticker, ' 'the deep sticker, 'and a few others."

I am not scientist enough to passjudgment upon the accuracy of theold prospector's classification, but to

my layman-like mind he seems tohave been pretty successful in his en-deavors to tabulate them all.—GeorgeWharton James' The Wonders of theColorado Desert (1906)

may seem. I have had passengers inmy car dispute me when I remarkedthat we were climbing fast; and thiswhen a stream-bed along the roadshowed conspicuous marks of storm-water flowing in opposite direction toour travel.

A good compass is the best frameof reference for cardinal directions.

I prefer a sighting compass, with asimple adjustment for setting off localdeclination—there are few places onearth where a magnetic needle pointsto true north. This deviation fromtrue north is stated for specific areason U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps; also,it may be learned from any land sur-veyor's office, or from the local countyor city enginee r. Rou ghly, in easternNew Mexico, the declination is about11° east of north. In Southern C ali-fornia it is about 15° east of north.Many modern compasses are dividedinto 360 degrees clockwise from thenorth-point; formerly, they were di-

vided into quadrants to read fromnorth to 90° east and west, and fromsouth to 90° east and west. Most prop-erty lines are described in the lattermethod of compass division. The reare many Japanese instruments nowon the market of excellent sensitivityand make, but which display some(to us) weird markings—such as di-viding the full circle into 64 degrees.

Lacking a compass, but having sun-shine and a watch set for standardlocal time (not daylight saving time),approximate cardinal directions can bedetermined thusly: hold the watch faceup to the sky and point the hour-handto the sun. Halfway from the hou r-hand to the numeral 12 will be south.

Having these aids in determiningcardinal directions, believe them . Dis-card any unconfirmed notion as towhich way is north; it may be wrong—and that's one of the easiest waysto get lost. The compass is r ight. / / /

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SOUTHWEST NEWS BRIEFS

<JA jet-age capital city forArizona—to replace "badly laid-out Phoe-

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i sP

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<I The rapid "butprudent" economicdevelopment oflands along the Col-

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California andNevada who met re-cently inYuma towork toward solu-tion of the varied and complexproblems affecting theregion(see

"Trouble on the Colorado" in theDecember Desert Magazine). Theconference members created an or-ganization ofactive local chambersof commerce torecommend actionon needed roads, zoning, buildingcodes andpollution control. Mean-while, theDepartment ofInterior re-

iterated its policy of removing all"squatters" from the river lands. Aspokesman said theDepartment be-

lieves "it is obligated to takeanyand allsteps necessary todiscour-age andindeed block anyfurtherencroachments on federal land. Inshort, nofurther trespass inthis areacan be tolerated."

t][ The Federal Housing Administra-tion isnow prepared toinsure homesFHA por built onNavajo and

I ,. Hopi reservationlands inArizonaand

New Mexico. Themove washailedby theDepartment of Interior as amajor advance toward improved

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the shadow ofShiprock Mountaininnorthwest New Mexico. ArizonaPublic Service isbuilding theline,as well as thecoal-burning powerplant.

<JDr. A. L Inglesby, pioneer south-

ern Utah mineral collector, passedHobbyist S W a Y in

Q7Novemb

f*•He wa s 87y e a r s old.

Succumbs " D o c " Inglesby'sname appeared often in theearlyDesert Magazines inconnection withreports ongem fields in theFruitaarea. Plans are toplace hisexten-sive andunique collection in amu-

seum as a memorial.

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€J Texas Gulf Sulphur Company an-

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of a $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 pot-

Potash a s n m i n i n g an dprocessing p l a n t near Moab i nsoutheastern Utah. Exploration forpotash in this area was begun in1953 "as insurance against the pos-

sible endof theuranium industry."Texas Gulf's newplant isdesignedto produce annually "well over amillion tons of muriate of potash."This will make the company thelargest potash producer in the na-tion. Moab potash will be on themarket in late 1962 if constructionschedules are maintained.

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3 0 / Desert Magazine / January , 1961



C A L I F O R N I A H A SS A G U A R O S , T O O

By LUCILE WEIGHT

Desert Magazine's California Travel Correspondent

EW TRAVELERS who go to Arizonato see that state's most symbolic plant,the saguaro, know that these cactus

giants grow in numbers on the west or Cali-ornia side of the Colorado River, too.

Best and most easily accessible saguaroarea in California is along a 10-mile stretchin the Whipple Mountains near ParkerDam , on the Colorado. Here at least 100can be counted along the river road and ashort distance up one or two side-canyons.Many more aTe reported farther back in therange. (See map on page 8.)

This frontier stand of saguaros is littleknown not only by the public but byauthors on Southwest flora. Of 22 writersmentioning saguaros in the state, two saidthey occurred at but a single locality; five

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that they were found in two areas; two said"two or three" sites; six gave three occur-rences; others were indefinite.

At least 14 other saguaro locations arereported for California, but the WhippleMountain group not only is the largest buthas the most beautiful setting. Singly andin small colonies they occur from a pointabout 13 miles north of Ea rp (where theColorado is bridged to Parker, Arizona) toabout eight miles north of Parker Dam.

Even if you are unmoved by saguaros,boating or fishing, you cannot fail to beenthralled and awed by the spectacular riverdrive. Throug h this section the Coloradocuts into the east cliffs of the Whipples andflows through sheer red and purple andgreen walls. Volcanic headlands, cragsand peaks dwarf the motorist at the baseof the cliffs. At a few places the riverbed widens slightly, where side-washes cutto the river or the canyon bends, and atsuch spots are added colors of cottonwood

and willows—gold and light bronze inspring and fall, and brilliant green insummer.

On such patches of land too are rivercamps and trailer parks, headquarters formountain climbers, rock hunters, boatmen,fishermen, and photographers.

It was because of such a setting, withboth scenic and recreation value, that thisarea long ago was suggested as a Califor-nia state park. The State Division of Beachesand Parks in 1952 gave top priority to9200 acres in this section. Since it wasfederally owned, it was thought that therewould be little difficulty in arran ging alease to the state. But people had movedin and already had invested a reported$40,000 on the river front there . In suc-ceeding years, park commissioners andcounty supervisors have made "survey trips"and "studies," continuing to list the WhippleMountain site as a future state park. Thetrespass problem has mounted. (See "Troubleon the Colorado" in the December '60Desert Magazine.)

The geologic beauty and the river willremain while officials work on plans—butwill those unique California saguaros remainindefinitely without protection, with greaternumbers seeking the river for recreation?That far more saguaros once lived on thisside of the river is indicated by variousreports in which travelers and writers re-ferred to "many saguaros" and "a largegrove," one in the mid-1930s stating thata "grove" was being slowly removed in theParke r area. How many were taken byearly plant collectors and dealers, or suc-cumbed to vandals who used them as tar-gets or torches will never be known. Un-

A SAGUARO AGAINST THE RUGGED VOLCANICBACKGROUND OF CALIFORNIA'S WHIPPLE MTS.

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NAVAJO RUGSReasonably Priced

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DESERT MAGAZINE CRAFT SHOPPalm Desert California

Open 9 to 5:30

every day of the week,including Sundays




doubtedly at least some of them weredestroyed in the 1930s during the buildingof Parker Dam and the takeoff Metropoli-tan Water District aqueduct.

The road from Earp postoffice (16.2 mi.

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Available in two colors, green or amber, with orwithout sideshields. Priced at only $5.00 includingdeluxe "carry-al l" case. Sent postpaid. Specifycolor and sideshields when ordering. No C.O.D.'s.

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FIRST 1961 INVITATIONTo enjoy ond photograph the myriad

beauties of GLEN CANYON of the COLO-RADO RIVER in Utah.• To visit a nd ph otograph RAINBOWBRIDGE.• Boat launchings at HITE, Utah.• Landings a t KANE CREEK, </2 Mile fromCrossing of the Fathers in Utah.• Drive your car, or fly in to rendezvouspoint—HITE, Utah.• Your choice of nine 4-DAY TRIPS dur-ing MAY and JUNE 1961.• Rendezvous day—EVERY Mon day.• Launchings— EVERY Tuesday• Landings—EVERY Friday.

4-DAY FARE: $100• 1961 is the final year to boat GLENCANYON in its virgin beauty.• 1962 will see the closing of the gatesof the diversion tunnels, and the floodingforever by the rising waters of the newLAKE POWELL, behind GLEN CANYONDAM near PAGE, Arizona.• Come join us in our 23rd year.• Identify above river canyon scene andreceive $5 credit on boat fare.• D uring 196 0, our 1001st boating guestwas SUSAN DOLESE of Ganado, Arizona—who won the fare refund.

• Come join us Into A Land of GreatBeauty.

LARABEE AND ALESONW E S T E R N R I V E R T O U R S

R i c h f i e l d , U ta h

from Vidal Junction on Hiway 95) to twomiles beyond Parker Dam, a distance of 17miles, is paved. Beyond that the Metro -politan Water District's graveled road maybe traveled—carefully— by standard carshauling small trailers. At 29.6 mi. fromEarp, the route terminates at Roads EndCamp where there are limited accommoda-tions and a wonderful view of the southend of Lake Havasu, backed up by ParkerDa m. A side-trip may be taken at BlackMeadow Landing (3V2 mi. right) at a turn-off 6V2 miles north of Parker Dam.

First of the saguaros are seen less than13 miles north of Earp . Some grow inbarren volcanic rock, on rocky ledges, atcave entrances; others in volcanic soil ofside washes. Just below and above ParkerDam no saguaros are seen. Whe ther theywere destroyed there during the construc-tion period has not been determined . Theyreappear about 2Vi miles north of the dam,and about a mile farther is the saguarocenter, the best specimens growing on awest slope of a little volcanic range bor-dering the river, right of the road. Land-mark for this area is a beautiful round archnear the crest of a ridge. Besides thesaguaros seen from the road, more are

found in side canyons both right and leftof the road.

With the saguaros along the river roadare other cacti—Bigelow cholla, beavertail,deerhorn and barrel—their flowers in springadding colors to the deeper hued back-ground. Other plant companions are mes-quite, incense bush, bright green "desertfir" hanging from red banks, desert laven-der, paloverde climbing the barren vol-canics, verdant catsclaw, ocotillo, and thegreat ironwood trees. The alien pinkflowered tamarisk adds spring color towashes and little tongues at river's edge.The white flowers of the saguaros openabout May, and within six weeks their redripening fruits are targets for whitewinged

doves and other birds that haunt this walledworld.

How long the saguaros, migrants fromMexico via Arizona, continue to add their

majesty to this colorful gorge, or whetherchanging conditions will allow them to gaina further foothold may depend on whatprotectio n is given those rem aining. Nowthe area is referred to as "no man's land."This is not strictly true . Deve lopment hasincreased along the river; throngs of visitorsare multiplying; and because the land isstill nominally federal, little or no controlcan be imposed by the county.

To protect the saguaros, as well as insurethe best development for river recreation,

the government will need to take fasteraction than it has in the past 10 years.Further delay will increase the hydra-head-ed problem. . . for the rush to the riveris accelerating, as beaches and mountainsoverflow with recreation seekers.

JANUARY EVENTS ON THE DESERTSOUTHWEST:

1—Gila Bend, Ariz., Sportsmen's Club An-nual Jeep Ride.

3.7—13th Annual Arizona National Live-stock Show, Phoenix.

6-Feb. 2—Exhibition of paintings by BillBender, and carvings by Mogens Abelat the admission-free Desert MagazineArt Gallery in Palm Desert, Calif.

6-7—Annual Convention, Nevada WoolGrowers Association, Ely.

15—Dons Club Travelcade to Ray-HaydenCopper Mines, from Phoenix.

15 and 29—Desert Sun Ranchers' Rodeo,Wickenburg, Ariz.

16—Yuma, Ariz., vs. Ft. Lauderdale, Flor-ida, Ice Melting Contest. (A huge blockof ice is set out in each city to determinewhich is the warmest winter tourist ha-ven.)

21-22—Pacific Coast Championship SportsCar Road Race, Palm Springs.

22—Dons Club Travelcade to Prescott-Jerome area, from Phoenix.

28-29—21st Annual Rodeo, Palm Springs.28-29—Dons Club Bus Tour of Nogales

and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum nearTucson, from Phoenix.

H u d R o c k S h o r tyof Death Valley

"Fightin 1?" asked Hard Rock Shorty."Naw — don't do thet no more. Notthet I didn't usta. But, I give myselfthis here black eye this mornin' whileI was lookin' in a new fangled mirror."

Having thus insured further listeners,Hard Rock felt his bruise tenderly be-fore he relaxed in his chair and went onwith his yarn.

"Yup—feller from Los Angeles wasin Death Valley last night sellin' mir-rors, an' I bought one. Looked good,t o o , but I ought to o' known better.Mirrors made any place else ain't nogood here. It's colder in them other

places, an' when one o' them cold cli-mate mirrors gets into Death Valley, itdon't somehow act right.

"I asked a college perfesser about it

oncet, an' he explained thet the hotweather here speeds things up so thatyuh can't rightly trust what you see inthe mirror.

"Like wot happened to me this morn-in'. I got up an' started gettin' dressedin front o' this cold climate mirror. Wellsir, thet mirror was acclimated by then,an' it had me all confused. It was three -four moves ahead o' me. Like when Igrabbed my shirt, looked in the mirror,an' there was my arm just comin' out0' the sleeves. I gets the first arm injust as the mirror finished buttonin' up.

"Between reachin' for thet other sleevean' tuckin' my shirt tail in, first thing Iknowed I'd belted myself one in thee y e . "




BY JAMES TALLO N

R I Z O N A IS RICH with the dwellings of ancient In-dian cultures. Some of these prehistoric ruins arewell-known—Betatakin, Keet Seel , Wupatki . . .

of others are nameless and obscure, rarely if

by man . . . and undoubtedly a few ruins remainto this day.

Foy Blackburn, a writer of Western fiction, and I hada two-day picture-taking session amid theof Monument Valley, and were heading

on the dusty reservation road. A few miles fromwe entered Long House Valley, named for a

of many rooms joined end on end.my attention to what appeared to be a tiny

in the red sandstone cliffs to the north. Ito a stop and Foy produced his binoculars. Our

aSunlight filtering into the cave painted an outline

and a small watchtower.

We turned off the road and drove to where the sand-out of the powder-dry floor of the valley. A

a narrow gorge evidently cut byof years of intermittent cascades of water. After

a short distance we came to a 15-foothad a pool of fresh clear water at its base.

the hand- and foot-holdsthe wall by the Ancient Ones. They took us to the

the ruins. In the shade of an over-our goal we paused to catch our

who had climbed this trailus did the same thing. Here on the face of the cliff

had chiseled strange signs and figures intorock. Potsha rds by the thousands lay at our feet. How

to rest, had let theirto the ground and shatter?

The course became rougher now. The one and onlyto the ancient apartment house was over a one-

a narrow ledge. Hand- and foot-had been worn into the rock. Despite the height,

me as being considerablya modern city street—no vehicles, no half-asleep

An aura of silent mystery surrounded the ruins as weicked our way among the decaying walls. Once in thehadow of the great cave, each footstep was placed withare. Several times I have had the short hair on my neck

raised by the buzzing of a rattlesnake that had sought outthe coolness of such a place.

This had been a house of many rooms, but all sufferedfrom the devastating effects of time. Judging from thevast amount of potshards, the population must have beenfairly large.

The small square watchtower's remaining walls stooddefiantly at the front of the cave. In the recesses the redsandstone was blackened by the smoke of long-dead fires.A thick layer of bat guano told us there was some formof life here yet.

A s Foy walked engrossed among the fallen masonry, Isa t on a cold flat stone and gazed at a large potshard withstylized black patterns. In this setting one need not be aromanticist to recreate the jar from which this piece ofpottery came, to hear a startling cry from the watchtower,

to see the jar slip from the woman's fingers and become amass of shards . . .

. . . Her eyes are flecked with apprehension as she

turns from two naked children and gazes at the horizon.

ANCIENT

SANCTUARY

Minute figures race down the slopes on the opposite sideof the valley. Realizing they are discovered, the attackersshout fearfully. The workers in the fields below raise their

heads and calmly observe the charging of their enemies.They gather their tools and retreat in an orderly fashionto the safety of their cliff house . . .

. . . Preparat ions are made for the coming at tack.Everyone is shouting now, and frightened children addtheir wails to the rising din. The raiders scale the steepslopes and one charges madly across the narrow ledge tothe cliff dwelling. He spins quickly about, a featheredshaft protruding from his chest, and tumbles over the cliff.There is a moment's hesitation and then a second raidercharges—and meets the same fate. A council is called bythe enemy. An hour passes. Then, with much grumbling,they make their way back down the cliff, stopping only toshout obscenities . . .

. . . The woman steps from the shadows and watchesthe ant-like figures disappear into the distance. She quietlythanks her gods that this had been a short raid. She smilesat the two children who have re-appeared behind her.

A shout from Foy roused me from my reverie, andtogether we examined the two goatlike petroglyphs he haddiscovered. Several large raindrop s spotted the sandstoneas the warm sun disappeared behind dark clouds movingswiftly through the sky. Soon great veils of lashing rainwere tearing at the handiwork of the Ancient Ones. Some-day nothing will be left here to remind man that his fore-bears once lived in caves. / / /

B R O K E N R E M A I N S OF POTTERY LIE SCATTERED ABOUT THE R U I N S




CA HU IUA YUCCA-FIBER SANDAL. SOMETIMES SIMILAR FOOTWEAR WAS MA DE FROM A GAV E FIBERS.

I n d i a n U s e s of N a t i v e P l a n t sBy EDM UN D C. JAEGER, D.Sc.

author of "DESERT WILDFLOWERS," "THE CALIFORNIA DESERTS,""OUR DESERT NEIGHBORS," "THE NORTH AMERICAN DESERTS"

FOR AGES man has availed himselfof the fibers of various parts ofplants to make clothing, domestic

utensils, parts of instruments of the

chase, and shelter for himself and hispossessions. The important plant fi-bers employed for textile purposes orthe making of cordage was obtainedfrom hairs which are the outgrowth ofseeds (as in the case of cotton), orfrom the fibrovascular bundles ofstems. Th e latter consist of long nee -dlelike bast cells with tapering endstha t overla p and interlock. Such fibersmay be short or very long, even up toseveral feet in some of the rushes.

Our desert Indians' strong interestin fiber-bearing plants early led them

to experiment with fibers of the severalspecies of yucca, especially those ofthe lowly gray-leafed big-fruited yucca(Yucca baccata) of New Mexico, Ari-zona and eastern California, the tallerMojave yucca {Yucca schidigera) ofthe western Mojave and Colorado des-erts, an d Yucca elata of Arizona, NewMexico and west Texas. All of theseyuccas also fulfilled many other needsof the Indians.

They obtained strong coarse fibersby soaking yucca leaves in water thenbeating and rinsing them . From thesefibers they made moccasins, strongrope, a coarse but strong cloth, sacks,brushes and even saddle blankets. Themoccasins had woven soles almost aninch thick, and tie-strings of twisted


CARRYING-NET MADE OF MILKWEED FIBERS BYCAHUILLA IND IAN S. MA NY TYPES OF BURDENSWERE CARRIED IN THESE NETS, WHICHOFTEN WERE SUSPENDED FROM THE HEAD.

yucca fibers that were wrapped aboutthe ankle.

It was rope made from fibers of theMojave yucca that the Cahuilla Indiansused in the markedly barbarous "cac-tus treatment" meted out as punish-ment to members of the tribe guiltyof the most heinous crimes such asmurd er. A long yucca rope was tiedabout the victim's ankles, and he thenwas jerked to the ground and draggedby shouting men through patches ofthe viciously spiny Bigelow cholla.

Suffering utter pain, and later, if hesurvived the initial torture, festeringsores, the prisoner almost always died.

For carrying burdens Indian women(Cahuilla, Mohave, Panamint) wovecarrying nets from yucca cords of smalldiameter or from fibers obtained frommilkweeds. In these nets, suspendedfrom the head or shoulders, a womanwould carry ollas filled with water orbaskets filled with bulbs, edible roots,acorns o r piny on nuts. Such a netmight be as much as two-feet longand capable of being widened a footor a foot-and-a-half at the middle.The yucca fiber saddle blankets werenot only durable, but very easy on thehorses or burros because they were

coarse enough to provide ample ven-tilation, and to readily absorb perspi-ration.

The desert's agave or century plants,with their long leathery spine-edgedand spine-tipped leaves, were not over-looked as a source of long strong fibers.By pounding the green leaves of Agavedeserti, the common Colorado Desertcentury plant, the Cahuilla Indiansreadily separated the long vascularbundles from the juicy pulp . Theymade sandals from this material even

as they did from yucca fibers; alsothey made rope and a kind of coarsecloth. Th e quality of the fiber differswith the stages of maturity of the

— continued on page 36



MAN, WHAT A

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on badmen, range wars , Indian f ights ,rush, ghost towns, lost mines, buried

and ranch life — they por t ray the

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PUBLICATIONSAUSTIN 31,TEXAS

W rt IHUU9 DLl/WUM:

Mef, % u t b e a u t i f u lMost of the world's beautiful flowers are born to bloom unseen by

man. Luckily, photographer Hiram Parent of Tucson caught this cactus inits short hours of nighttime splendor. Echinopsis turbinata, once native ofArgentina and now growing well in our own Southwest, brings multipetaledwhite flowers into bloom in a night—and when morning comes they aregone. Each plant bears from one to eight flowers of the purest white, up

to five-inches in diameter.

8( \ ( \ A \jk The buds are nine inches long,

tUU I • /VK show white at the petal tips

CONTINUED

on next page

"SPECIALISTS IN SOUTHWESTERN PRESSWORK"

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cac us o s som. . . (continued)

P . M .The flowers h av e started to flatten out,and are about three inches across

Please join us in Palm Desert for a

Special Exhibitof

Desert Paintings

by the noted Southwest ar t ist

B IL L B E N D E R

(you read about this promisingyoung painter—pictured at r ight

•—in the November Desert Magazine)

January 6 to February 2

From 9 to 5:30 da ily, inclu dingSundays — Shar ing the spot l ightwi th Bender 's deser t scenes wi l l

be the wood carvings anddecorat ive panels of

MOGENS ABEL

Desert Magazine Art GalleryPalm Desert , Calif.

(on High way 111 mid-way betw eenPalm Springs and Indio)

These special shows are also scheduled at thisadmission-free gallery:

F e b . 3-March 2—Marjorie ReedMarch 3-April 5—Browned McGr ewApril 6-May 15—Burt Procter

$

JAE GE R/I ndian Uses— continued from page 34

agave plants, the older plants havingthe stronger fibers.

From the short-leafed Agave lechu-guilla, the Mexican Indians have formany years taken quantities of an im-portant fiber they call ixtle. This wildplant is a predominant feature of thedry limestone mesas and hillsides fromthe vicinity of San Luis Potosi, Mexico,to western Texas, southern New Mex-ico and southeastern Arizon a. Eventoday much of the fiber is obtained byhand work. It is separated from thepulp by pulling the leaves between ablunt knife and a block of wo od. Atbest a workman can clean only 66 to88 pounds of fiber in a week, com-pared to 360 pounds per worker perweek when machinery is used.

A very good string was made bytwisting the relatively long fiber theIndians secured from the widely dis-tributed carrizo or reed grass (Phrag-mites communis). Locally this plantoccurs today in abundance along ca-nals, desert canyon streamlets andriver borde rs. It has much the ap pear-ance of a small sparsely-leafed bam-b o o , but actually it is a very largegrass with beautiful silky plumedflower heads . Indians of Mex ico, Ari-zona and California made prayer

sticks, pipe stems, arrowshafts, matsand thatching for their crude dwellingsfrom its pith-filled stem s. Th e Pan a-mint Indians even obtained a sugarfrom it. Acco rding to Dr . FrederickCoville, the canes were dried andground, then a sort of flour sifted out.The moistened meal was set before afire, allowed to swell and brow n. Thefinal sweet sticky product was eatenlike taffy.

A noticeably tall and slender legu-minous plant (Sesbania macrocarpa)grows abundantly on overflow lands

of the lower Colorado River and alongthe borders of irrigated fields andcanals of the Imperial Valley. It mayreach a height of six to 10 feet, hassmall bonn et - shaped pale - yellowbrown-spotted flowers, long dainty pin-nate leaves each with up to 60 smallleaflets, and nume rous many - seededdown-hanging very slender pods, upto nine inches long. The Yuma Indi-ans got from the dried Sesbania stems,which they somewhat rotted in water,very strong smooth shining-white fila-ments which they wove into fine-netted

seines for catching fish and birds. Forthis reason it is sometimes called seineweed. It is also known as ColoradoRiver hemp. Incidentally, this plantis considered to be a great soil builderlike many other legumes, and its num-




erous seeds are readily eaten by do-mestic fowl and quail.

Milkweeds, of which there are manykinds on our deserts, furnished someof the finest and strongest warp andweft materials for cloth-making. Some-times the cloth, especially that to bemade into durable shirts, was orna-mented with patterns made from hu-

man or other hair. Milkweeds of sev-eral kinds provided strong fibers formaking fish-lines and for string to bindarrowhe ads to the shafts of arrows. Ihave in mind a beautifully made arrowfound recently in a cave near Twenty-nine Palms in which fine milkweedfibers bound onto the shaft not onlythe stone arrowpoint but the feathersas well. The milkweed furnishing thelongest fibers was the white-stemmedmilkweed (Asclepias albicam) ofsouthwestern Arizona, southeasternCalifornia and adjacent Mexico. Its

finger-width stems sometimes reach alength of 10 feet. Th e stalks weresoaked in water then repeatedly beatenwith a flat stone until the fibers sep-arated.

Our aboriginal people early madeuse of the durable fibers of rushes(Juncus) which are sometimes calledwire grass. The somewhat grass-likedark - green leaves occur in largebunches sometimes several feet across,and three to four feet high. Split jun-cus leaves were used over coiled bun-dles of grass (Epicampes) by the Ca-huilla and other Indians to make bas-kets. Th e varying shades of the leavesproduced the mottled effect in thebasket designs so very pleasing to theeye. The Indians appreciated the lus-trous texture, usually brown in color,of the dried rush. Different types ofjuncus grass baskets served as flatplates, shallow and deep bowls, flaskswith constricted necks, or woman'scaps. The larger baskets were usedas storage vessels. Water jugs werewaterproo fed with piny on resin.

Baskets were also woven from stripsof mesquite bark, or from small, splitor whole willow withes. Black designswere made from the hooked seeds ofdevil's claw (Martynia). Bark of themesquite (Prosopis) was sometimespounded and worked over until verysoft, and then used to line the cribsof babie s, or used for diapers . Th einner bark of the cottonwood andelderberry similarity treated also cameinto good use as a soft absorbant lin-ing material. Doughn ut-like rings fiveor six inches in diameter, made oftwisted cottonwood or mesquite barkand yucca fibers, were placed on thehead to make more comfortable thework of carrying loaded baskets orwater jars.

It must be remembered that prior

9 » 4 5 P . M .The flowers are a wh ite torch abou t CONTINUEDan inch and three quarters across on nex t page

to the coming of the Spaniards our

Southwest Indians had no sheep's woolto use in weaving. Their only dom es-ticated animal was the dog. The N av-ajo rug of wool, so beautiful with itssymmetrical decorative and colorfulpatterns, is a rather modern creation.Whether the looms used by these In-dians were patterned after the Spanishhand-loom is conjectural. The Nav a-jos may have learned the art of rugweaving from captive Pueblo women.

But many of the pueblo and otherSouthwestern Indians did have whatwe may call a cotton-wool. It was

obtained from the various wild speciesof Malvaceae, a plant group to whichcotton of commerce (Gossipium) be-longs. Wild cotton fibers are veryshort in comparison to those of culti-vated cotton, yet string could be madefrom them and a cloth of sorts wovento use in making garments.

Each cotton fiber is the outer partof a single elongated cell of the testaor seed coat. The fiber loses its orig-inal cylindrical form when drying, andbecomes a flat ribbon with convolu-tions. Th is gives the "cling " whichenables cotton to be spun.

There are a number of kinds ofnettles which when macerated in wateryield a very strong fiber for the makingof small cords. Our desert Indians

were well aware of its good qualities

and used it extensively. Even the lowlywild iris was put to use. Its exceed -ingly thin but strong filaments wereused when extra soft thin threads wererequired. Indians climbed the steepcanyons and into the mountains tosecure it.

The strong flexible vines of the wildgrape were cut and used as rope tocarry heavy things or to tie togetherbundles of objects of considerableweight. Of course the vines onlyserved well their purpose while they

were still green.Each autumn came the Indians'

"annual" wild rabbit drives whenthousands of the luckless frightenedhares and cottontails were drivenagainst nets set up on poles or strungupon bushes. The re men were stand-ing ready to club them to death. Someof the meat was eaten at the timeeither raw or cooked, the remainderdried for winter consum ption. Theskins were cut into strips which weretwisted into cords or braided and thensewn together or woven into blankets.

These soft rabbit-fur blankets are reallyhandsom e articles and very warm. Afew of them may be seen in museums.A particularly good looking one isusually on display at the Palm SpringsDesert Museum. / / /




Cactus Blossom... (continued)

n l y l Pure white petals spread open to their full glory. By six the nextI • l V I » morning all had folded up, their beauty done until next year.

PERSONALIZED

BRANDING IRONS

BY MAIL

WILLIAM L. KUHNS of Clay-ton, New Mexico, uses hisknotty pine office walls for a

permanent business file. Kuhns hasdeveloped an international mail ordertrade for custom-made branding irons,and after he completes a job he scoresthe wall with the hot brand.

"It 's the only way I know to keepup my records," says this 73-year-oldblacksmith. "W hen a customer wantsa repeat order, I look up the brandon the wall—and then go to work!"

There are about 1000 brands onKuhns' walls to date—initials, stars,crosses, hearts, fancy dooda ds. Mostof his customers are in the livestockbusiness, of course — including 13ranchers in Hawaii. Some people use


Kuhns' "irons"—usually with their in-itials—for fireplace pokers. One manfrom Iowa had Kuhns forge the entirealphabet—26 branding irons—so hisguests could burn their names on thesides of his log cabin. Oth er pop ularuses for branding irons: curtain rods,

wall embellishments, door stoppers,candle holders, book ends.

One customer, a brand collector,has given Kuhns a standing order forall the old irons that he lays his handson—and in so doing Kuhns has runacross many he made 50 years agowhen he first moved to Clayton.

Today's irons are vastly differentfrom the old heavy pig iron models.Made of lightweight high carbon steel,they have perforated handles whichremain cool when the brand face is

heated to red-hotness. And too , theyare made with more attention todayto prevent blotching on the animal'shide. But, no one has come up witha suitable substitute for hand-forgingand hand-filing the bra nd s. It takes

Kuhns four to 10 hours to make astandard brand (cost: $4 to $15).

B r a n d la w s v a r y c o n s i d e r a b l ythroughout the nation regarding theregistration of brand designs. In somestates the counties do the licensing,

in others a state agency is chargedwith making sure no two outfits havethe same bran d. Some states have norecording of bran ds. Usua l cost ofregistering a brand is $5. If yourdesign is too close to an existing reg-istered brand, the agency usually re-draws it, incorporating the main fea-tures of your brand, then returns itfor your appro val. Of course, if youdon't intend to actually scar the hideof a dogie with your iron, no regis-tration is necessary.

It takes all kinds of customers to

make a mail order business, Kuhnsbelieves. An Easterner who had in-herited a Montana ranch, wrote toKuhns for branding iron information—the dude didn't know what theyw er e. / / /



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OUT-OF-print books at lowest prices! You nameit—we find it! Western Americana, desert andIndian books a specialty. Send us your w ants.No oblig ation . International Bookflnders, Box3003-D, Beverly Hills, California.

BOOK—20 formulas, $5. Cosmetics, perfumes,nice gift chemistry students. Big profits, yourown business. P.O. Box 1868, Hollywood 28,Cal i fornia.

SO YOU Want to Start a Rock Shop, new bookby Arth ur E. and Lila Mae Victor, 52 pages,price $2. Invaluable information for the be-ginning rock shop, or any "thumb-nail" sizedretail business. Interesting reading for anyone. By the same authors, Gem Tumb ling andBaroque Jewelry Making, sixth edit ion, autho-r itative and recognized book of complete in-structions. At your dealers or order direct, $2each, postpaid from Victor Agate Shop, South1709 Cedar, Spokane 4 1, Washington . 8c taxWashington delivery.

"OVERLOOKED FORTUNES"-in the Rarer Min-erals. Here are a few of the 300 or moreyou may be over look ing whi le hunt ing, fish-ing, mining, prospecting or rock hunting: Ur-anium, Vanadium, Columbium, Tantalum, Tung-sten, Nickel, Cobalt, Titanium, Bismuth, Mo-lybdenum, Selenium, Germanium, Mercury,Chromium, Tin, Beryllium, Gold, Silver, Plati-num, Ir idiu m, etc. Some wo rth $1 to $3 apou nd, others $25 to $200 an ounce. Learnhow to f ind, identify and cash in -on them.New simple system. Send for free copy"Overlooked Fortunes in Minerals," it maylead to knowledge which may make you rich!Duke's Research Laboratory, Box 666, Dept-B,Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

LOST MINES, buried or sunken treasure, bibliog-raph y. Our research has 41 bo oks, articles,maps covering this fascinating subject. Com-plete list $2. Earth Science Enterprises, Park-wood Dr ive, Madisonv i l le, Kentucky.

"GEMS & Minerals Magazine," largest rock hobbymon thly. Field tr ips, "h o w " artic les, pictures,ads. $3 year. Sample 25c. Box 687J, Mentone,Cal i fornia.

BOOKS: "PANNING Gold for Beginners," 50c."Gold in Placer," $3. Frank J. Harnagy, 701 VzE. Edgeware, Los Angeles 26, California.

HARD-TO-find books located. Millions availablethrough w orld -wid e contacts. Book Land, Box74561L, Los Angeles 4 , California.

FREE BOOK Catalog of the Southwest—history,people, legends, lost treasure, Indians, nature,gems, minerals and children's books. World'slargest all-desert book selection. Write foryour catalog today: Desert Magazine BookShop, Palm Desert, California.

C L A S S I F I E D S

• EQUIPMENT-SUPPLIES

CAM PING EQUIPMENT: Personally selected scout,t ra i l , fam ily tents. Best quality United Statesman ufacturers. European pack equ ipm ent. Sat-isfaction guaranteed. Send 25c for catalog.Don Gleason's Campers' Supply, Northampton,Massachusetts. Good practical equipment atsensible prices.

FOR SALE: co mplete camp out fit for tw o, likenew. Miss Traill, 7125 Stafford Av e., Apart-ment 2, Huntington Park, California. See orwrite today for a real bargain.

FREE CATALO G—W orld's finest lig htw eig ht camp -ing and mountaineering eq uipmen t. Used onMt . Everest, Himalayas, Andes, etc. It's ex-pensive but absolutely unsurpassed! Gerry,

Dept. 107, Ward, Colorado.

10X SELF illum ina ting pocket m agnifie r. Examinespecimens anywhere anytime. A magnifyingglass wi th its ow n built- in light. $3 postpa id.Emerald Distr ibutors, Oakridge, Oregon.

SLIK TUMBLERS regular size and midgets, allgr its and polishing powders, Frantom units,saws, etc. We have the new M K diamondblades all at regular prices. Write us yourneeds. Joseph S. Gen tzler, P.O. Box 129 2,Santa Ana, California.

VERSATILE 30-inch custom made diamond saw,heavy construction, 12 x 30 inch capacity,$650. Paul Leech, Panaca, Nevada.

• FOR WO ME N

LADY GODIVA "The World's Finest Beautif ier."Your whole beauty treatment in one jar. Pro-tect skin against sun, w i n d . For free brochurewr ite : Lola Barnes, 963 No rth Oak land , Pasa-dena 6, California.

DRY SKIN conditions solved with daily applica-tion of G'Bye Dry. Large jar prepaid for only$1 . Try it now and be desert happy. NevadaRX Drug, Boulder City, Nevada.

A SOUTHWEST favorite—deep blue turquoisenugget earr ings, sterling silver, gift boxed,$3 . Yucca Bill, Box 958, Yucca Valley, Calif.

• G E M S , C U T - P O L I S H E D

AUSTRALIAN TUMBLED gemstones, 8 differentpolished baroques, identif ied, suitable fornecklace or chain bracelet. $1.10 postpaid .Or 10 different polished baroques, identif ied,f rom around the wor ld. $1.25 postpaid.Bensusan, 8615 Columbus Avenue, Sepulveda,California.

GENUINE TURQUOISE: Natural color, blue andbluish green, cut and polished cabochons—25carats (5 to 10 stones according to size) $3.50including ta x, postpaid. 50 carats (10 to 20cabochons) $6.15 including tax, postpaid inU.S.A. Write for folder. Elliott Gem & MineralShop, 235 E. Seaside Blvd., Long Beach 2, Cal.

OPAL, AMETHYST, etc. 10 ringsize stones, groundand polished ready to set, $5. Opals, deepred, blue, green, golden flashing in all colorsof the rainbow, direct from the mine, 15 for$5 . Kendall, San Miguel d'Allende, Guanaju-ato, Mexico.

ROYAL BLUE shattuckite and beautiful greenajoite $4.75 per pound. Handmade sterling

silver jewelry set with turquoise, opals, agates.Bud's Rock Shop, 1019 Whipple Street, Pres-cott, Arizona.

OPALS AND sapphires direct from Australia.This mon th's best buy : cut sapphires. 1 bluesapphire facet cut, 1 black star sapphire, 1cabochon sapphire, 1 blue star sapphire. Al lwe ighin g over 1 carat each. $18 , free airma il.Send personal check, international money or-der, bank draft. Free 16 page list of allAustralian gemstones. Australian Gem TradingCo., 294 Litt le Collins Street, Melbourne, C.I.,Australia.

ARIZONA GEMS. Eight different stones, tumblepolished and labeled, postpaid 60c. Also tum-

ble polished apache tears and amethyst at$2.50 per pound w hile they last. Rock Park,5050 East Van Buren, Phoenix, Arizona.

GOOD QUALITY po lished opa lite baroque s, as-sorted sizes, f ine for all types je we lry, $3.50poun d, postpa id. Cody Inn Curio Shop, RR 3,Golden, Colorado.

ROCKHOUNDS AND craftsmen invited to visitnew gem craft shop, 6276 Adob e Road, Twen-tynine Palms. Grand opening November 10.Featuring fluorescence.

• GE MS , DEALERS

RIVERSIDE CALIFO RNIA. We have every thin gfor the rock hound, pebble pups, interestinggifts for those who are not rock hounds.Minerals, slabs, rough materials, lapidary sup-plies, mountings, equipment, black lights. Whynot stop and browse? Shamrock Rock Shop,593 West La Cadena Drive, Riverside, Calif.

OVerland 6-3956.

VISIT GOLD Pan Rock Shop. Beau tiful sphe rematerial, mineral specimens, choice crystals,cutting materials, jewelry, bolo t ies, baroques,spheres, bookends, paperweights, cabochons,faceted stones, f luorescents, jewe lry f inding s,lapidary equipment and supplies, Navajo rugs,sun colored desert glass—gold specimens, ourspecialty. John and Etta James, proprietors,2020 North Carson Street on Highway 395

north end of town. Carson City, Nevada.

CHOICE MINERAL specimens, rough and cut gemmaterial, lapidary and jewelry equipment andsupplies, mountings, f luorescent lamps, books.Valley Art Shoppe, 21108 Devonshire Street,Chatsworth, California.

GEODES, CRYSTAL. Lined, comple te, unb roke n,3" to 5", $1.50 postpaid. Many have inclu-sions, most are partially f i l led with loose,tiny double terminated quartz crystals andclusters. Lim ited sup ply. Act Fast. U nusualpresent for a rockh oun d. Free list: gems andminera ls. The Vello r Co., P.O. Box 44 (D),Overland, St. Louis 14, Mo.

BARGAIN GEMS! Wholesale prices, 10 for $1 .Sample 14 c. Loyd Casteel, 84 2 Birch, Depart-ment D, Sunnyvale, California.

MORE CLASSIFIEDS %




C L A S S I F I E D SContinued from preceding page

ATTENTION! FINE Indian artifact collectors.Authe ntic, rare, museum pieces. Excellentconditio n. Beaded bag, Panamint Indian stor-age basket, large leather Indian doll in Wood-land cradleboard. Pictures, discriptions tointerested parties on ly. O ther items. "TheColes ' " , 551 S.W. Coast Hiway, Newpor t ,Oregon.

DESERT ROCKS, wo od s, je we lry. Residence rearof shop. Rockhounds welcome. Mile west onU.S. 66. McShan's Gem Shop an d DesertMuseum. P.O. Box 22, Needles, California.

• GEMS, MINERALS - FOSSILS

MIOCENE, EOCENE, plioscene fossils; 50,000

shark teeth, 200 varieties intact shells; whaleribs, vertebrae, disks; petrified crabs. Freeretail, wholesale listing available. 25 differentIdentif ied fossils $3. Malicks, 5514 PlymouthRoad, Baltimore 14, Maryla nd.

FOUR NATURAL staurolites, cross on both sides,for $1 postpaid. "Animals" assembled fromuncut quartz crystals — "Rockhound," $1.25each. Five assorted animals, $5.50 postpaid.Reasoner Rock Originals, Crown King Highway,Bumble Bee, Arizona.

FINE DOMESTIC and foreign crystals and mas-sive minerals. Please ask for fre e list. Con-tinental Minerals, P.O. Box 1206, Anaconda,

Montana.

• GEMS, ROUGH MATERIAL

TURQUOISE FOR sale. Turquoise in the roughpriced at from $5 to $50 a pou nd. Royal BlueMines Co., Tonopah, Nevada.

MINNESOTA SUPERIOR agates V2 to 1 inch$1.35 pound postp aid; 1 to 2 inch $2.50pound postpaid. 3 polished Thompsonites $1postpaid. Frank Engstrom, Grey Eagle, Min n.

WILL TRADE mixed obsidians for agate, or sellgold sheen, silver sheen, olive green banded,

spider web, feather, ambers, etc., 60c poundpostp aid. Blacks for do uble ts, etc., 25c poundpostpaid. Colorful comm ons, 35c pound post-paid . Ashby's, Route 2, Box 92, Redmond,Oregon.

CHRYSOCOLLA SLABBED 30c square inch, chal-cedony roses 35c pound, rose quartz 50cpou nd, guaranteed satisfaction. Rogers Bros.,P.O. Box 662, 222 West Chapman, Orange,Cal i fornia.

GLASS FOR tumbling, 40 transparent colors at40c per pound, ruby and flashed, ruby andyellow at 70c per pound. All pr ices f.o.b.plant, Brock Glass Co., Ltd., Santa Ana, Calif.

COLORFUL AUSTRALIAN fire opal ; rough or cut.No deposit. Approvals sent on request. Seebefore you buy. Free list. Write : Walker"Opals Exclusively", 20385 Stanton Ave.,Castro Valley, California.

• INDIAN GOODS

FINE RESERVATION-MADE Navajo, Zuni, Hopijewelry. Old pawn. Hundreds of f ine old bas-kets, moderately priced, in excellent condition.Navajo rugs, Yei blankets, Chimayo homespuns,pottery. A collector 's paradise! Open daily10 to 5:30, closed Mon days. Buffalo Trad ingPost, Highway 18, App le Valley, Ca lifornia.

AUTHENTIC INDIAN jewelry, Nava|o tugs, Chi-mayo blankets, squaw boots. Collector 's items.Closed Tuesdays. Pow-Wow Indian TradingPost, 19967 Ventura Blvd., East WoodlandHills, Calif. Open Sundays.

THREE FINE prehistoric Indian war arrowheads$1 . Flint scalping knife $1. Rare fl int thunder-

bird $3. A l l $4 . Catalog f ree. Arrowhead ,Glenwood, Arkansas.

INDIAN PHONOGRAPH records, authentic songsand dances, all speeds. Write for latest list:Canyon Records, 834 No. 7th Avenue, Phoenix,1, Ar izona.

SELLING 20,000 Ind ian relics. 100 nice ancientarrowheads $25. Indian skull $25. List free.Lear's, Glenwood, Arkansas.

AMERICAN INDIAN color slides. Superb mu-seum specimens covering archeology and eth-nology of Western Hemisphere. Excellent forteachers, artists, collectors. Free list. AmericanIndian Museum, Broadway and 155th, N.Y. 32.

NAVA JO RUGS, genuine, direct from tradingposts. Large selection. From $11 to $660.Crystals, Two Grey Hills, Yeis; single, doublesaddle blankets. Vegetable dyes and anilines.Perfect Christmas g ift fo r man's room, den,or children's room. Desert Magazine CraftShop, Desert Magazine Building, Palm Desert,California. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven daysa week after October 15.

10 WARPOINTS $1.50; 6 arrowheads $1.50; 4birdpoints $1.50; 2 spearheads $1.50; 2 gem-points $1.50; 24 " strand trade beads $1.50; 4photographs framed relics, idols, beadwork,masks, rugs, pipes, baskets $1.50. (Refundedwith $10 order.) Paul Summers, Canyon, Texas.

• JEWELRY

GENUINE TURQUOISE bolo ties $1.50, 11 stoneturquoise bracelet $2. Gem quality goldentiger-eye $1.75 pound, beautiful mixed agatebaroques $3 po und . Postage and tax extra.Tubby's Rock Shop, 2420V2 Honolulu Ave.,Montrose, California.

JEWELRY PARTS, get best service — bracelets,sweater clips, tools, bails, cuff links. Bellcaps (special this month 20 No. 3324 sterlingcaps $1 postpa id). Epoxy, earrings, jump-rings. Chains, clasps, key chains—bola slides,tips and cords. Rings, penda nts, brooches.Diamond blades. Safe delivery assured. Welike small orders. All items guara nteed . Send

3c stamp—postage on your catalog. RockCraft Folks, Box 424D-7, Temple City, Calif.

A SOUTHWEST favorite—deep blue turquoisenugget earr ings, sterling silver, gift boxed,$3 . Yucca Bill, Box 958, Yucca Valley, Calif.

LADY'S SOLITAIRE birthstone r ing , 61/2—7 mm,round bril l iant synthetic stone in sterling silvermou nting. This elegant r ing is perfect for alloccasions. State mo nth and size (whole sizes5-9). Only $7 .50, tax, postage included . Sat-isfaction guaranteed. Wo rldw ide Gems & Min-erals, 1628 Uth Street, Sacramento 14, Calif.

UNIQUE LOVELY bracelets of ten differentidentif ied gems set f lat on untarnishable giltH.P. mounting. Choice of "Gems of theW o r l d " or "Western Gems," $3 each. Alsochoker-style necklaces to match, $3.75 each.Tax, postage inclu ded . Bensusan, 8615 Co-lumbia Ave., Sepulveda, California.

ALUMINUM CHAINS! Dealers , wr i te for whole-sale price list on our fabulous line of non-tarnishing aluminum chains. Include $1 forsamples postpaid. Please use letterhead orstate tax numbe r. R. B. Berry & Compan y,5040 Corby Street, Omaha 4, Nebraska.

STONE JEWELRY, bob's, key chains, mail ordersfil led prom ptly. Small mineral boxed speci-mens, 35c each plus postag e. Cactus Rockand Gift Shop, Box 684, Tombstone, Arizona.

• LODGES, MOTELS

MELODY LANE Apartment Motel, 6259 AdobeRoad, P.O. Box 66, Twentynine Palms, Cali-fornia. All electr ic, air-cooled, trees and patio,oppo site post office, near super-ma rket. Day,week or monthly rates.

ROCK HOUND headquarters: Moq ui Mo tel, Es-calante, Utah—on Highway U. 54, phone MAr-ket 4-42 10, Dyna and Mohr Christensen. Packand Jeep Trips by appointment.

• MINING

ENGINEERS, PROSPECTORS, ge olo gist s. Locateboron, l i thium, strontium, uranium and othervaluable minerals with the new always readyfluorescent mineral detector. Detector opera-ates in daylight, uses no batteries, fits in shirtpocket and eliminates dark box. Is unsur-passed for open pit uranium mining opera-tions. Price only $12.50 . Free brochu re. Es-sington Products and Engineering, Box 4174,Coronado Station, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

ASSAYS. COMPLETE, accurate, guarante ed. Hig h-est qu ality sp ectrograp hic. Only $8 per sam-ple . Reed Engineering, 620-R So. Inglewood

Ave., Inglewood, Cal i fornia.

NATURAL PLACER gold nuggets and grains, $50troy ounce. Better price on quantities. Cash-ier's check or money ord er. Marcum Bielen-berg, Avon, Montana.

$1 FOR gold areas, 25 California counties.Geolog y, elevations. Pans $3, $2.50. Poke $1 .Fred Mark, Box 801, Oja i , California.

BERYLLIUM ASSAYS with gamma-neutron Beryl-lium an alyzer. Presence or absence, $1 .Qua ntitative BeO, $6. Boulder Scientific Co.,250 Pearl, Boulder, Colorado.

READ "SUCCESSFUL Gold Diving and Under-water Mining. Covers dredge construction,underwater prospecting, everything you need.$2 . Sea Eagle Underwater Mining Publica-tions, 1000 Date Street, Lompoc, California.




MAPS

D COUNTY maps - San Berna rdino$3 ; Riverside $ 1 ; Imp erial, small $1 , large $2;San Diego $1.25; Inyo $2.50; Kern $1.25;other California counties $1.25 each. Nevadacounties $1 each. I nclude 4 percen t sales tax .Topographic maps of all mapped westernareas. Westwide Maps Co., 114 West ThirdStreet, Los Angeles 13, California.

T TOWN map: big 3x2 feet. Californ ia,Arizona and Nevada, with roads marked. PlusTreasure catalogue 100 items. $1 , or A mericanTreasure Hunter's Guide $2. Foul Anch orArchives, DM, Rye, New York.

ABULOUS MINERAL Guide and map of WesternMexico and Baja. For map and guide send $2to Mineral Guide, Box 24232, Los Angeles 24,California.

OUTE MAP Pacific Crest Trail, 2153 miles Can-ada to Mexico through 22 National Forestsand 6 National Parks in Washington, Oregonand California. 20-page folder $1. W. Rogers,2123 South Park Drive, Santa Ana, California.

BURIED TREASURE and lost mine map, 72 authen-tic California locations, 19x24, beautiful four-color with f ree gold nugget, $2 postpaid.100-years-old Indian trade beads, approxi-mately 24 " s t rand, $4 , 40 " $6.50 postpaid.See famous old Gold Rush Museum, P.O.Box 46, Amador City, California.

• OLD COINS

RARE UNCIRCULATED Carson City mint dollars,1878, 1882-83-84 -90-91, $10 each. 100-pagecatalog 50c. Shultz, P.O. Box 746 , Salt LakeCity 10, Utah.

• PL AN TS , SEEDS

WILDFLOWERS SEEDS: New catalog offers over600 di f ferent k inds of wi ldf lower and wi ldtree seeds. Ca talog 50c. Clyde Ro bin, CarmelValley, California.

CACTI—MANY varieties of specimen plants only.Send for list. Rosso's Cactus Nursery, 25399Hiway 99, Loma Linda, California.

CACTUS AND succulents from the deserts of theSouthw est. Free illustra ted catalog. DavisCactus Garden, 1522 Jefferson Street, Kerr-ville, Texas.

SPECTACULAR PLANT and blossom, reaches 10feet in one season, easy to gr ow . Threepieces $1. 2443 Merrywood, Pomona, Cal i f .

• PH OT O SUPPLIES

COLOR SLIDES. Re-live your vacation trips. 3000travel Kadochromes, parks, U.S., foreign, na-ture , etc. Free list (sample 30c). Send toda y.Kelly D. Choda, Box 15, Palmer Lake, Colo.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM Adams Diggings. Woman,tw in peaks, bear head, others. For info rmatio nwri te: Jerry Rose" Studio, 5306 Me naul Blvd.,N.E., Albuquerque, New Mexico.

5x7 COLOR enlargement lc with regular orderfrom any size Kodacolor neg ative. Regularprice $1.25 or $1.26 for tw o. Qua lity f inishguaranteed. Arro w Camera Shop, Pottstow n,Pennsylvania.

DEATH VALLEY colorslides, also Rhyolite, VirginiaCity, desert scenes, Bodie. Sample and list 25c.Longstreet, 5453 Virginia, Hollywood 29, Cal.

• REAL ESTATE

ONE ACRE near Salton Sea, near Box Canyon,lovely soft well water, pr ivate road, shade andseclusion, total pr ice $5000. Write Ronald L.Johnson, Box 162, Thermal, California.

FOR INFORMATION on desert acreage and par-cels for sale in or near Twentynine Palms,please write Silas S. Stanley, Realtor, 73644Twentynine Palms Highway, Twentynine Palms,Cal i fornia.

INVESTMENT PROPERTY between Palm Springsand Salton Sea. Booming area. $125 acre.20-160 acres. Low down, low monthly pay-ments. W rite: Cotton , P.O. Box 593, Coalinga,California.

FOR SALE: T wo-be droom house, tw o level acres,Black Canyon, Arizona near Black CanyonHighway between Phoenix and Prescott. Closeto rock hunting areas, f ine scenery, well ortow n wa ter. $6000 cash, $6500 terms. RalphStuckey, Mariposa, California.

FOR THE best in desert land at lowest pricesand easiest terms, send for free list to Pon& Company, Box 546D, Azusa, California.

FOR SALE—Randsburg. My two bedroom fur-nished home. Electr ic range and refr igerator.Deeded. $1950 full p r ice. Montana G. Cozad,10900 Jamie Avenue, Pacoima, California.

FOR SALE: Drive -in, root beer, soft ice cream,hamburgers. 30 miles from Phoenix in fastgro win g area. $4000 wi ll handle. RobertAnderson, 710 Roosevelt, Buckeye, Arizona.

• TRAILERS- CAM PERS

FOUR-WHEEL-drive 3/4-ton 1956 GMC pickup.Camper, radio, heater, hubs. Clean, goodcondit ion. $200 0. 151 Laurel, Arcadia . EL8-5825.

RANGER STEEL camper, five windows, doublebunks. Fits V2 or % ton pickup. Made for'53 , can be modified for new er. $250. 6116East Cecilia Street, Bell Gardens, California.

• WESTERN MERCHANDISE

LIGHT AMETHYST (Desert Hue) glass made inmolds 50-years old, pressed by old t imemethod. Sugar bowls, old fashioned glasses,creamers, iced teas, wine glasses, etc., butterdish and cover, mustard and cover, puff boxand cover at $1 each. Candy dish and coverand flower vases at $1.50 each. Also avail-able in crystal glass which will turn amethystin sun in approximately 12 months. All pr icesf.o.b. plant, Brock Glass Co., Ltd., Santa Ana,Cal i fornia.

MAC'S ORIGINAL t imber l ine weathered wood.Finished table or what-not shelf pieces, 6for $10 postpaid. Write for prices on patiopieces. Cody Inn Curio Shop, RR 3, Gold en,Colorado.

GHOST TOWN items: Sun* olored glass, amethystto royal purple; ghost railroads materials,t ickets; l imited odd items from camps of the'60s. Write your interest—Box 64-D, Smith,Nevada.

DESERT TREASURES, primitive relics, purple glass,gem stones, paintings, rock tr ips, informationon Last Chance Canyon. Visit Roberta's in theghost town of Garlock, 12 miles east of RedRock Canyon Highway 6, via Randsburg road,or 8 miles west of Randsburg and Highway395. M ail inquir ies answered. Roberta's, BoxC, Randsburg, California.

LARGE CHUNKS—2 Ib. to 25 Ib. desert glass,was crystal but now turn ing in sun, for patios

and flower arrangements. All pr ices f.o.b.plant, Brock Glass Co., Ltd., Santa Ana, Calif.

FOR SALE: My collec tion o f sun colo red g lass, an-tiques and unusual pieces. Mrs. A. E. Wyc-koff, 11501 Davenport Road, Auga Dulce, Cal.

GENUINE "JOE Ha l l " handmade western boots .A lso paratrooper , engineers , hunt ing, workboots. Western shirts, pants. Free catalog.Sellers Company, 8830OR Alameda, El Paso,Texas.

• MISCELLANEOUS

ARTIST SUPPLIES of a ll kinds . Oi l colors , wate rcolors, brushes, etc. Send us list of your needs.R.C. Color Store, 1834 South Hil l , Oceanside,Cal i fornia.

PLASTIC EMBEDDING for fun and profit, nooven. Make beaut i fu l jewelry , decorat ivepanels, science specimens castings. Catalo g25c, Natcol Plastics, Box 444, Yucaipa, Calif.

ULTRAVIOLET LAMPS fro m $1 4.5 0. Accessories,tubes, f i lters, electr ical parts, batteries avail-able. Free literature. Radiant Ultra VioletProducts, Manufacturers, Cambria Heights 11,New York .

SIMULATED ENGRAVED business cards $3.95and $4.95 per thousand. Write for samples.Tumble polished baroques $2.50 per poundpostpaid. Doney's Printing & Rock Shop, Box246, Lucerne, Lake County, California.

SOUR DOUGH biscuit recipe and full directions$1 . Dutchoven or modern baking. Revive thelost art. Franks Mu rdoc k, Dalha rt, Texas.

Keep your

DESERT MAGAZINES

in attractive loose-leaf

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D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E

PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA




u5t Hetwaan I f o n a n d M e

By RANDALL HENDERSON

IN NO VE M BE R I was among the 18,000 persons who

trekked to Death Valley for the Annual Encampment ofthe Dea th Valley '49ers. The program this season was

of special interest because it included the dedication of anew million-dollar museum financed jointly by the State

of California and the National Park Service.Actually, the 1,907,000 acres in the Death Valley Nat-

ional Monument themselves comprise a colossal museum.Their geology reveals much of the story of evolution ofthis planet over a period of millions of years, and theartifacts recovered from ancient beach lines tell us some-thing of the aboriginal life of its first human inhabitants.But Death Valley is too big, much of it too inaccessible,and the greater part of its story too technical for any butthe scientists to interpret. An d so there has been broughttogether in one spacious building a series of graphs, ex-hibits, dioramas and art work to tell the story in terms allcan understand.

It is primarily a museum of ideas, not of things. Thereare ample exhibits—but only those necessary to illustratethe many interesting facets of geology, zoology, botany,prehistoric life and the known history of this interestingland.

The tragic story of the original '49ers of the Jayhawkerparty, and later of Jimmy Dayton, Henry LeMoigne andthe other single-blanket prospectors who succumbed to thescorching summer heat of the Death Valley sink, have nowbecome legend. Today several paved highways lead intothe Valley, excellent accommodations are provided by theFred Harvey Company at Furnace Creek Inn and Ranch,by Peggy Putnam at Stovepipe Wells hotel, and at Scotty'sCastle, and a trip to the Valley during the winter seasonnow may be a delightful experience. The new m useum alsomakes it an educational experience.

* * *

While in Death Valley I recalled a quotation fromGeorge Palmer Putnam's book, Death Valley and ItsCountry. Palmer was writing about Charlie Walker, oneof the old desert rats at Beatty, Nevad a. Charlie was asurveyor and draftsman who spent his spare time—whichwas most of the time—following the desert trails in anold mon grel car looking for mineral riches. Also , he wasa humorist. He once suggested that Death Valley shouldbe publicized as a fishing resort. Said he : "W hat yo u'reafter when you go fishing is to have a rest and be away

from w orries. The Valley's perfect for that. Yo ur fly won 'tget caught in the willows. Your feet won't get wet, nortuckered out chasing along a danged stream to find abetter pool. And there'll be no fish to clean."

And that recalls one of Hard Rock Shorty's yarns. He

was telling about an old prospector whose eyesight wasfailing, and who decided to take a day off and go fishing.After sitting out in the sun for several hours casting his line,he came back to camp with two lizards and a sidewinder.He had been fishing in a mirage.

* * *This is being written in November, a few days after

the ballots were counted in the presidential election. Thelong, and sometimes confusing, debate is over and I amsure we are all grateful for that regardless of how we feelabout the outcome.

I am glad both the political parties this year turned toyounger men for leadership in the years ahead. Consideringthe state of affairs today, both at home and around theworld, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the old-timers of my generation have created more problems thanthey have solved. An d so I am looking forward hopefullyto January 20 when there will be new and younger men

at the executive throttle—in the United States at least.Not since the days of Woodrow Wilson have we had

high level statesmanship in the White House. Frank lin D .Roosevelt dealt with domestic problems very effectively,but he failed to sense the challenge of Marxism as a world-wide issue. Wilson's ideals were never realized becausethere were too many humans at home and abroad whosevision had not advanced beyond the immediate horizon ofprofit-making.

In the final analysis, in a democracy, the people get justabo ut the kind of governm ent they deserve. I would liketo believe Americans are ready now for more enlightenedleadership than they have been getting in recent years—

and that the youth and energy of John Kennedy will bringvision and understanding of a new order to the White House.# * *

Recently I have been reading Peter Fark's book, LivingEarth. It is the story of the abundance and complexity oflife within the soil which we humans more or less takefor granted . In a teaspo on of good topsoil there may beliterally billions of bacteria, protozoa, fungi and algae.Were it not true this land would be too sterile for humanhabitation. The auth or also cited another scientific truthwhich was rather devastating to my vanity. The basicelements of this earth may combine with new forms, butthey are never lost. Th at which decays today becomes p artof some new form of life tomor row . An atom of nitrogen

in my body may at some time in the past have been partof the structure of a dinosaur, a viper, a fishworm or ahead of cabbage.

Perhaps that is a thought for racial segregationists toconsider.




Beautiful . . .Brand New . . .Unique

r a i n t e r sof the

Desert'

— Artists featured in this new book—

R. BROWNELL McGREW

DON LOUIS PERCEVAL

J I M M Y S W I N N E R T O N

ED A IN SW O R TH 's newest book — biographical sketches ofsome of the West's outstanding desert artists—all in one volumecontaining:

111 pages

90 color and halftone illustrations

Large form at ( 9 % x 13% -inch page size)

Brilliant waterproof hard-back cover

Exclusively desert, and warmly personal . . .

(please odd 15c per book for mailing;

California residents also add 4 % sales tax)

A round-up of painters who have loved the Desert Southwest, andhave used the desert's fascinating colors and forms and peoples assubjects for their canvases.

M A Y N A R D D I X O N

CLYDE FORSYTHE

NICOL AI FE CHIN

ORPHA KL INKE R

BURT PROCT E R

PAUL LAURITZ

J O H N H I L T O N

C O N R A D B U F F

BILL BENDER

Available by M ail FromDESERT MAGAZINE BOOK STORE, Palm Desert , Calif.



MODERN WESTERN. . . the turned-up brim

belongs to the Jet Age

WILD BILL HICKOK. . . a flat-brim framed wavy

shoulder-length hair

WESTERN SOLDIER. . . the artist Remingion

helped popularize this model

FIG TREE JOHN

the Cahuilla Indian wasdignified in his top hat

SAM HOUSTON. . . the Texas hero was

commanding in his "beaver"

DEATH VALLEY SCOTTY. . . a standard slouch typeStetson pulled down in front

ROY BEAN. . . the "Law West of Pecos

wore a straw topper

BOB DALTON. . . a conservative hat for

this famed outlaw

ANNIE OAKLEY. . . a star was added as a

feminine touch

HATS

T h a t W o n T h e W e s t(see story on page 10)

To a resurrected Billy the Kid or Wild

Hickok, the mechanical wonders ol the m

ern world would hardly seem more incredi

than the headdress we assign to Old W

vision melodramas.

The ghosis of Ihese boys from Yesterd

would surely marvel at all the bare hec

about them, and the lack of individuality

Ihose few hats that are in evid ence. In 1

old days you could tell a great deal abi

a man and his mood by studying his hal a

the way ho wore it. Bill and Billy probal

would have difficulty lelling the sexes ap

if by some miracle they could participate

a 1961 group outdoor outing.

We present ihese drawings to set the nord straight in a few instances; and to h:

at the rich variety of headdress that onspiced the Western scene.

CONQUISTADOR

. the Spanish plumes thaiconquered the Southwesi

WILLIAM BONNEY. . . no dashing sombrero

for Billy the Kid

"TAME" INDIAN. . . the red man retained

his feather

EASTERN DUDE. . . those inclined to be

"tony" wore derbies

PARK RANGER. . . also favored byengineers, geologists

and surveyors

Documents

196101 Desert Magazine 1961 January