I’m very happy about being able to host the Mojave History web site by Kathy & Richard Thompson. I’ve found scores of great information on the local areas clicking through their site.
Heck, I never knew Apple Valley had a history. (more…)
When I first saw the desert I thought, ‘There’s nothing out there’, and I wanted to see ‘nothing’ closer- Maybe stand in the middle of it and scream or something. When I got there I found it was far more intricate and rich than I could have imagined. The more I saw, the more there was to see, and it’s never stopped or ever will. Never did scream, wouldn’t want to mess it up.
Anyway, I feel like screaming again. I just realized I haven’t posted anything for the months of January and February. This is terrible, because my stats are going up. Every month I get more and more visitors to the site. It seems like the less I do, the more visitors there are that come to see it. I sure that if I prolong doing nothing I’ll have a very, very, popular website.
I’m used to punching code in by hand. Word by word, letter by letter. This software program is awkward for me. It seems like I have to learn it over everytime. Posting images is a real pain. Maybe I’ll try another way.
–that didn’t work–
This probably isn’t much better:
Sand verbena in lava beds at Amboy Crater.
Not much for art, but a fairly decent illustrative shot.
About this photo;
This is a young, or new, canyon formed by the San Andreas fault which separates the Southern California and Mojave Desert geomorphic regions. The fault runs pretty much down the center of the long canyon, follows the edge of the foothills across the ridge in the distance and passes to the left of San Jacinto Mountain furthest away in the shot. At the base of San Jacinto Mountain lies Palm Springs.
Visibility in this photo is about 60 miles. The high mountain to the left is the 10,000 ft. ridge and Mount San Gorgonio in the San Bernardino National Forest. San Gorgonio sits on the North American continental plate while San Jacinto sits upon the Pacific plate. San Jacinto will someday, millions of years from now, move west along the transverse range and sit to the right of where I’m now standing- The Lone Pine Canyon saddle.
One hundred and fifty years ago Mormon settlers came to the canyon and found a single pinyon pine tree about half way up along the way. Near the pine is where they built the rock shelter where they lived until called back to Zion to go to war with the United States. The lonely pine still stands today in better condition than the fallen pile of rubble that once was the stone cabin.
Lawman Wyatt Earp’s sister and her husband (Almon Clyde) lived in the canyon later on and planted apple trees. The orchard still produces sweet apples that when in season, may be bought from the rancher that now owns the place- Sometimes not. The orchard is high upon a terrace on the side of the mountain, so a thief would have to first brave late summer rattlesnakes in the brush before dodging buckshot.
The odd-looking spire in the foreground is a Lord’s candle yucca. The flame is gone, but will/may ignite again in several years, if the rain is right. The big bush front and center is a rubber rabbitbush. Note that this shrub is the only thing a rabbit will not eat. Rubber rabbits don’t eat, ’cause they’re rubber. During World War II experiments were made to attempt to extract the rubber from the plant.
To the right, and out of the shot, is Slover Canyon. This canyon at the head of the Lone Pine canyon is where the last grizzly bear in southern California was killed by Isaac Slover, and interestingly enough, where the last grizzly bear killed Isaac Slover. That being a whole other canyon is a whole other story, which I’ll save for a time when I get a decent shot. 
As the subject of the shot isn’t outright apparent, well;
Red Rock Canyon is the result of the grinding together of two geomorphic regions, the Mojave Desert and Great Basin. This uplifting takes place along the Garlock fault, which is what is known as a left lateral strike-slip fault. This means that the far side of the shot is moving to the left, and the part I’m standing on is moving to the right (slowly 
). I believe the actual faultline is running somewhat through the middle of the shot.
The Garlock fault is the geologic dividing line between the Great Basin Desert, which extends from here north and east encompassing Nevada and western Utah. The Mojave Desert geo-range extends from here south and east to the Baja of California and east to the Colorado River. Botanically, I’m in the Mojave though, and the vegetation series extends north about 150 miles. However, immediately to the west is the Sierra Nevada range (southern).
The haze in the Cantil Valley beyond is the evaporate lifting from Koehn dry lake as it rained rain two days before. Somewhere in the area of the shot there are two caches of 1800s lost silver and gold. The silver was washed from a stagecoach that got caught in one of the canyons during a flash flood and was never found. Charlie Koehn’s lost stash of gold nuggets and jewelry is presumed to be buried in the valley, or foothills. He went to prison for trying to bomb a judge that had ruled against him in a lawsuit. He died in jail, but not until after he had tried to tell his best friend where his gold was. His buddy never found it.
I finally made it, the trip to Little Petroglyph Canyon! Such a beautiful place. It’s easy to see why it would have been sacred to the early people.
There are thousands of carvings throughout the canyon. No one knows what they mean or why they are there. For some reason this is what I like about them. The Koso (Timbisha Shoshoni) say they were made by their ancestors. That’s good for me.
The estimated age range is so broad, 200-8,000 years, maybe even older. Some are very old and covered by other weathered drawings. Some are covered by lichen, a plant-animal that lives hundreds of years. Grinding stones (metates) are above the canyons. Possibly where rice grass was ground to powder for flour. Seeing these makes it easier to visualize people in and above the canyon.
I’ve visited maybe 3 dozen or so other petroglyph and pictograph sites in the desert and mountains. This is the largest and most pristine of them all. The site is on a military base, and scheduling the tour, going through the security, search, and the long drive as well as spending a couple nights away was so very worth it.
The guide was very knowlegable. Not just about the site, but the prehistoric people, how they lived, what they ate, and the history of the area from then until now. Not one of my countless questions were left unanswered.
I was saving this site for last. I realize now that’s just silly. There will be more sites I’ll see and maybe I’ll go back to this one. I don’t know why. Maybe it is just because nobody knows …
A couple weeks ago I was fortunate to join up with Historian Cliff Walker and his class and explore the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road corridor from Barstow to the bottom of the Cajon Pass.
Saturday, we left the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow and drifted down the old Route 66. Stopping along the way north of, and in Victorville we visited numerous locations that have been documented to have had the trail pass through. We crossed the Mojave River at the narrows between Victorville and Apple Valley and followed it upstream around Hesperia and into Summit Valley.
We ate lunch at the historic Las Flores Ranch and descended into the Cajon Pass where we visited what was known at one time as Coyote Canyon. This was the easiest looking way for wagons to drop into the pass. The trouble was that the huge boulders in the canyon presented a problem to the pioneers and freighters and they had to unload, take the wheels off the wagons and carry them over the rocks, reassemble and reload everything before they could finish the last few miles into the southern valleys.
We camped near an ancient Indian occupation site. Great dinner and breakfast and got to try some of the foods the travelers would eat on their journey. We broke camp and located a couple passes through the ridges that were tried as an alternative to Coyote Canyon. Most worked out better.
The San Andreas fault runs right through (and was responsible for forming) the Cajon Valleys. It was fun walking back and forth between continental plates at one point during our tour.
There was so much more happening on the tour. A little botany, geology, ethnography, history and characterizations (I hope that’s what I mean):
For example, Silas Cox was about twenty years old when he wandered up Coyote canyon. In the 1800s there were grizzly bears in the area, and sure enough, Silas happened upon a cub in the thick brush. Momma grizzly didn’t care to have that happen and came from her spot in the berry thicket and took a good swipe at Silas. Silas ran like crazy with the big bear angrily chasing behind him. She got close enough to make an attempt to grab him again. This time she knocked off his hat. It must of looked to her like she knocked off this strange creature’s head. She stopped and picked up the hat and made a thorough investigation of it before shredding it to pieces. The hat had saved Slias’ life. It’s a tradition now days that you always wear a hat when in Coyote Canyon. There just might be a ghost of that bewildered and angry grizzly bear up there. You’ll want every advantage.
These museum field trips are a great learning experience. I recommend going on one if at all possible. To find out more visit the Mojave River Valley Museum web site;
http://mojaverivervalleymuseum.org/current.htm
For more information on Cajon Pass history;
http://digital-desert.com/cajon-pass/history.html
I spent four days in Barstow attending the Old Spanish Trail Association Conference. I enjoyed myself and hope next year’s will be as good. I will be attending again.
The Vanyume Indians are alive and well. What an opportunity to meet a representative of these people who were previously thought to have disappeared from the high Mojave Desert!
The Vanyume were close relatives, or a branch of the Serrano people. The Vanyume seemed to have better relations with the Mohave than did their cousins the Serrano, who kept close ties to the Cahuilla, who the Mohave did not care for because they were allies with the Halchidoma, neighbors and enemies living to the south of the Mohave- This may not be correct but it is my impression of what was happening. The Vanyume/Serrano people seemed to be a diplomatic people in surviving somewhat between these two cultures.
I was also fortunate to meet the spokesman for the Chemehuevi people. The Chemehuevi Indians are from what I understand, are an offshoot of the Southern Paiute. They also seem to have been a diplomatic people that could maintain cooperative relations with the Mohave. Although, certainly there were some disputes and ultimately a war between the two groups, the Mohave/Chemhuevi relationship seemed to be beneficial to the survival of both.
The Mohave according to one source, half-jokingly refered to the Chemehuevi as “Small Bows.” The small, juniper wood, sinew-backed bows of the Chemhuevi however were really nothing to joke about though. In the hands of a Chemehuvi warrior they could be exceptionally deadly. Travelers, freighters, mail carriers, and the U.S. military would find this out in the 1860s.
Anyway, the Old Spanish Trail, which by the way, was not old, Spanish, or just one trail, is just as fascinating to me in person as it is on maps. Studying the brief evolution of the trail system from mule trail to wagon road and the Mormon road/Salt Lake trail will be one of the more interesting of my projects to post on the MojaveDesert.NET in the coming months.
I’m cutting this post short. I’m dehydrated to a crisp, tired and sunburnt. I just wanted to post the above before it runs out my other ear. Also I wanted to say I had a great time and thank the Mojave River Valley Museum for hosting the conference/symposium. Great job!
http://digital-desert.com/old-spanish-trail/
Dorsey, the dog that carried the mail, was a famous character in Calico.
One morning, back in 1883, Postmaster Jim Stacy found on his doorstep a big black and white sheperd, hungry and footsore. Without introductions, man and dog adopted each other. (more…)
(Found Written on the Door of an Old Homestead Cabin)
Mornin’ on the desert, and the wind is blowin’ free
And it’s ours, jest for the breathin’, so let’s fill up, you and me.
No more stuffy cities, where you have to pay to breathe.
Where the helpless human creatures move and throng and strive and seethe. (more…)
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