Mojave Desert - True Facts, Legends, & Lies

Zzyzx : The Middle of Nowhere

Announcement

Mojave National Preserve presents the photography of Walter Feller
June 21 to September 20, 2009
Desert Light Gallery in Kelso Depot Visitor Center
Junction of Kelbaker & Kelso Cima Roads
Kelso, CA 92309

From I-15, exit on Kelbaker Road at Baker, Calif. Kelso is 35 miles south.

From I-40, exit on Kelbaker Road. Kelso is 22 miles north.

Zzyzx : The Middle of Nowhere
Explores Walter Feller's vision of the marks left through time by man's use of Soda Springs.

6/09

The Amargosa House

Massacres at the Amargosa Mine

As the first group of Mormon pioneers made their way across the Mojave in 1849, two of them looking for a water source for their livestock explored a canyon and found streaks of gold in the rock. They moved on to Southern California, purchased supplies and equipment, and immediately returned to develop the prospect. In 1852 the house was first built to provide a permanent shelter and protection for the operation. The ruins of the 3-room house on the hill aren't much to look at, but the building more than served its purpose over the 100 years it was in use.

In late October of 1864 three miners named Cook, Plate and Gordon were working the mine and living in the house. A band of Paiute attacked the camp and killed Cook then burned the mill in the canyon below. Plate and Gordon survived the attack and high-tailed it off into the desert. Without water their deaths would be slow and painful. About 20 miles away the two men decided to avoid the agony and killed themselves.

December of 1864 another company took over the claims. It wasn't long until there was another Indian raid in which the mine was attacked. There was the advantage that the Indians had been spotted camped out at a nearby spring, so one of the miners made his way to Marl Springs 45 miles away to ask the military for help. The seven miners remaining had not realized the escape was successfully made and help was on its way. The next morning before dawn they attempted to make a run for it and all were killed.

05/09

The Dry Lands

Country of Lost Borders

Ute, Paiute, Mojave, and Shoshone inhabit its frontiers, and as far into the heart of it as a man dare go. Not the law, but the land sets the limit. Desert is the name it wears upon the maps, but the Indian's is the better word. Desert is a loose term to indicate land that supports no man; whether the land can be bitted and broken to that purpose is not proven. Void of life it never is, however dry the air and villainous the soil.

Land of Little Rain - Mary Austin

03/09

Vision

"When from the lips of Truth one mighty breath
Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze
The whole dark pile of human miseries,
Then shall the reign of mind commence on earth
And, starting forth as from a second birth,
Man, in the sunrise of the world's new spring,
Shall walk transparent like some holy thing."

from ~ Lallah Rookh - by Thomas Moore

03/09

Metate Stone

For hundreds if not thousands of years, the Yharetum, the People of the Pines, would sort their way through the thick hardwood forest of the mountain highlands to gather acorns and pine nuts. While the men would hunt deer, the woman would take their bounty and pound it into meal within the deep holes embedded in the boulders. The People are gone now, and the metate these women used sit lonely in the forest, serving only water provided by the snow melt and early spring rains to small birds looking for a sip in the cover of the now overgrown brush.

W. Feller - 03/09

Of the Serrano Indians

Back in the beginning of time the Lord was living here with all the people. He was the one who asked the people whether they would turn into deer. He wanted to transform them. And they obeyed Him and were transformed. And so they were transformed. That's what He (their Lord) said. And so the deer would sing. And then the people would dance the deer dance. They would sing the deer songs. It (the song) tells about what they did, about how they were transformed. Some of them cried. Some of those animals were already transforming themselves. That is how He (the Lord) wanted it. And so they were transformed. They believed, that's why. And so they were all transformed. And so they sing to those deer who had transformed themselves. Their bodies were already completely transformed. But they still felt at home here. They were still behaving like human beings. But they had already been transformed into deer. And so they cried. They wanted to live in their homes, like human beings. There was one who kept circling about. He was looking inside, inside the (ceremonial) house. It says, that's what the song says, that he (the deer) is peaking inside and circling about. He kept peaking inside. He was looking inside the house. Some of those who had already been transformed were already wandering about outside. They had to go off somewhere else. And they climbed up into the hills. Those animals who had been transformed were destined to live in the hills forever. But they still did not know how to walk on their (newly transformed) feet. They already had hooves and were slipping along. They were not used to their (new) hooves yet. They already had hooves. That's what they did

Serrano Indian Myth - 02/09

Sand

The sand in this photo is made up of granuals of rose quartz. The source of this quartz is nowhere to be found in the Mojave. Some scientists hypothisize that since this source is not to be found, and there is no increase in other minerals gathering in the area, that these dunes are no longer being replenished. Over time and as the wind blows they will ultimately disappear and no longer exist.

These are also known as 'booming' dunes. Each step someone takes can produce a booming sound (sort of like the wierd noise snow can make). A look at a granual through a microscope show each grain being nearly perfectly spherical. I think of the sand and dunes as being a huge pile of rose-colored marbles. This probably accounts for the coloring in the photo.

In these dunes lives the Mojave fringe-toed lizard. You don't see these too much. They have long toes which act pretty much as snowshoes in the soft sand. They hide under the sand to regulate their body temperature. They are only seen during certain times/temperatures of the day (probably when they need warmth or food). They have a very narrow sustainable liveable temperature range. They get too cold, they die. They get too hot, they die.

Walter Feller - 01/09

Chemehuevi Creation Myth

... When Coyote lifted the lid of the basket to see inside, all of the people jumped out and ran in the four directions. At the bottom of the basket there were people that were smashed and broken. Coyote quickly put the lid back on the basket. Brother Wolf was smarter than Coyote, so Coyote took the broken people to him on the top of the mountain where Wolf lived.


Mt. Charleston, Nevada

Wolf healed the people and taught them how to live well in such a desolate land. When they became stronger and smarter than all of those that had ran away, Wolf returned the basket to brother Coyote with the instructions to let them live in the desert where the basket was opened. That was to be their land, the land that no one else wanted.

Walter Feller - 1/09
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