197007 desert magazine 1970 july

8/14/2019 197007 Desert Magazine 1970 July

1/44

JULY, 1970 50c


2/44

D e s e r t M a g a z i n e B o o k S h o pV LOST LEGENDS OF THE WEST by Brad Wi ll ia ms

and Choral Pepper. The authors examine the"lore, legends, characters and myths that grewout of the Old West" in a sequel to their popu-lar first book, The Mysterious West. Includedamong the more than 2 0 "lost legen ds" aresuch intriguing subjects as lost bones, lostladies, lost towns, and lost diamonds. Hard-cover, illust rated,. 1 92 pages,. $ 5. 95.BAJA CALIFORNIA BY ROAD , AIRPLANE ANDBOAT by Cliff Cross. Author of a popular travelguide to the mainland of Mexico, Cross hascompiled a comprehensive book on Baja Califorma. The new guide ii well illustrated withdetailed maps of the villages and bays alongthe 1000-mile route plus travel, history an dfishing information. Large format, heavy pa per-back,' 170 pages. $3. 50.

> RELICTRAILS TO TREASURE by Wes and RubyBressie. Re ies wh ic h recently were consideredonl y junk tod ay are collec tors' items. This un-usual book lists hundreds of items with theircurrent value such as arrowheads, dolls, kettles,posters or wh at- hove- you Wi th this book you ifwant to take another look at the ' junk storedin you r a t l i c o r ga r ag e . H ea vy pa per back , 191p a g e s , p r o f u s e l y 11 l u s t ra t ed , $4 . 5 0 .

SOUTHWESTERN INDIAN ARTS & CRAFTS by TomBahti. Beauti full y i llustr ated wi th 4 -color photo-graphs, this book describes the arts and craftsof the Indians of the Southwest and offers sug-gestio ns o n what 1 o buy an d how to judgeauthentic j ewelr y, rugs, baskets and pottery.Large format heavy paperback, 32 pages,S I . 0 0 .NEW MEXICO PLACE NAMES edited by T. M,Peorce. Lists an d gi ve;> a concise history of theplaces, towns, former sites, mountains, mesas,rivers, etc., in New Mexico, including those set-tled by the early Spaniards. Good for treasurehunters, bottle collectors and history buffs.Paper back, 1 87 pages with more than 5 00 0names, $2.45.OLD MINES AND GHOST CAMPS OF NEW MEXI-CO by Fayette Jones. Reprinted from New Mexico Mines and Mine rals , 1 905. Covers mines andcamps up to that date only Descriptive l a n d -marks make it easy for a reader to identify locations. 11 lustra ted w it h photos and digr ams.Paperback, 214 pages. $4.00.

^ GHOST TOWN S OF THE COLORAD O ROCKIESby Robert L. Brown. Written by the author ofJeep Trails to Colorado Ghost Towns this bookdeals w it h ghost tow ns accessible by passen ^ger car. Gives directions an d maps for fi ndin gtowns along with historical backgrounds. Hard-cover, 401 pages, $ 6.25

WHEN ORDERING BOOKSPLEASE

A d d 50 cents PER ORDER( N o t Each Book)

f o r handling and mailingCALIFORNIA RESIDENTS ALSO

A D D 5 PERCENT SALES TAXSend check or money order to Desert Maga-zine Book Shop, Palm Desert, California92260. Sorry, but we cannot accept cha.'ges

or C.O.D. orders.

CampingHandbook

CAMPING HANDBOOKBy the Editors of Sunset Books

Formerly t i t led Family Camping, this newbook lias been completely revised andprovides basic information and practicalaspects of liv ing out ot doors. Chaptersincludes locating campgr ounds getti ngready for your trip, selecting equipment,cooking, renting and buying vehiclesfirst aid , hiking and many others Withthis book you can start planning yourvacation now. Lurge format, well illustrated, heavy paperback, 96 pages.

$ 1 . 9 5

12 00 BOTTLES PRICED by John C. Tibb itts. Updated edition of one of the best of the bottlbooks. $4.50

" V G H O S T S OF THE ADOBE WALLS by Nell Murb ar-ger, the well known "rowing reporter of thedesert.' An intimate chronicle of Arizona' s once'booming mining towns, stage stations, armyposts, mar audi ng Indians and fantastic humancharacters. 3 80 pages, illus trated. Hardcover$7.50.ESTEVANICO THE BLACK by John Upton Terrell.The discoverer of Arizona, New Mexico andC i bola wa s a Ctua 11 y an A f r ca n slave wh o w a sfinally slain by Indians because he lived toowel l , , according to this well documented an dcontroversial book. EAce Ient reading by theout hoi' of Jo urney Into Darkness, Black Robes,and other histories of the West. Hardcover, 155pages, $6.95.TERRIBLE TRAIL; the Meek Cu toff , 1 84 5 by Clarkand Tiller. Narrates the tragic tale of the Meek(-^migrant tf_ajn and lays the groundwork for asolution to the Blue Bucket lost g o l d . $4.00.SOUTHWESTERN IN DI AN TRIBES by Tom Bahti.An excellent description history and currentstates of the Indians of the Southwest, includingdates of their ceremonies and celebrations. Profusely il lust rated wi th 4 -color photographs orthe Indian Country and "he arts and crafts ofthe many tribes. Large format, heavy paper -back, 72 pages, $2.00.NA VA JO RUGS, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE byGilbert S. Maxwell. Concerns the histor y legend sand descriptions of Navajo rugs. Full colorphotos. Paper, $2.50.THE DESERT LAKE by Sessions S Whe eler . Thestory of Nevada's intriguing Pyramid Lake.. itsancient history, archeol cgical finds , geology,fish and bird life. Paperback $2. 50.

SOUTHWEST INDIAN COUNTRY by the Editorsof Sunset Books. A concise and comprehensivegui de cover ing the 4 8 resei vat ions and Pueblovillages in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico andColorad o. Includes wha t to see, how to buyconduct, history, and ceremonials. Large formatcolored illustrations, heavy paperback, 80pages, $1 .95.COLORFUL DESERT WILDFLOWERS by Grace andOnas Ward. Segregated into categories of redblue white and yellow for easier iden t i f ica t ionthere are 190 four-color photos of flowers foundin the Mojave, Colorado and Western Arizonadeserts, all of which also have common andscientific names plus descriptions. Heavy, siickpaperback. $4.50.

y^ GHOSTS OF THE GLORY TRAIL by Nell Mu rb arger is a fast moving chronicle of Western boom-camp and bonanza, Rich in human interest aswell as authentic history, this book covers ghostowns of Nevada, western Utah and easternCal i fo rn ia . Hardcover, 291 pages. Price $6 75A FIELD GUIDE TO WESTERN BIRDS by RogeTory Peterson. The standard book for field identifi catio n sponsored by the Nati onal Audu bonSociety. 2nd edition, enlarged with new sectionon Hawaiian birds. 658 in full color. Hardcover$5.95.

y THE GILA river of the southwest by Edwin CorleIllustrated by Ross San tee. M arv elo us com bin ation of history, geography, anecdote and atmosphere written with sophistication, wit and authorify. Now in paperba ck, 40 0 pages. $ I .60

'f"jEEP TRAILS TO COLORADO GHOST TOWNS byRobert L. Brown. An i l lustrated, detailed , informal history of life in the mining camps deep inColorado Rockies. Fifty-eight towns are includedthe a I most inaccessible mountain fastness of theas examples of the vigorous struggle for existence in the mini ng camps of the West. 239pages, illustrated, end sheer map Hardc over$5.50.SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA by the Editors of Sunset Books. An illustrated guide to Southern C a l ifornia, this is another in Sunset Books series. Ipresents in capsul e form most of the i nter esti ngplaces to visit in the Sou thl and . Heavy paper-back, 8 x 1 1 fo rmat , 128 pages, $1 .95 .WESTERN CAMPSITE DIRECTORY by the Editorsof Sunset Books. Just published, this book listmore than 5 000 privat e and public camp-grounds in the 11 western states and BritishColumbia and Western Alberta, including hundreds of new campsites to care for the everincreasing amount of people taking to the openr o a d . Just right for planning a vacation. Largeformat, slick paperback, illustrated, 128 pages$1 .95.

NOT ICE! !OUT-OF-PRINT

LOWER CALIF ORNIA GUI DEBOO KKnown as the "bib le" for Baja Califo r-nia travelers, is temporar ily out-of -printand will not be available until this f a l l -However, another excellent guide to thepeninsula, "Baja California" by CliffCross, is available. See review on thispage.

F O R COMPLETE BOOK CATALOG WRITE TO DESERT MA GA ZINE, PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA 92260


3/44

WILLIAM KNYVETT, PUBLISHERJACK PEPPER, EDITORJACK DELANEY, Staff WriterJ O L E E N R O B I S O N , Woman's Viewpoint EditorG L E N N V A R G A S , Lapidary EditorK. L . BOYNTON, Naturalist Volume 33, Num ber 7 JULY, 1970

C O N T E N T SF E A T U R E S

THE COVER:Depot and old wagon arc-part of the Railroad Mu-seum and Historical Siteat Laws, California. SeePubl isher 's Poke, Page 5.Photo by Robert Camp-bell, Concord, California.

S TO N E M O N U M EN T TO A D REA MTHU NDE R EGGS OR MOO N ROCKS?THE SECRET OF THE GREAT FLOODTH E LA S T O F TH E M O U N TA IN M EN

THE ANCIENT BRISTLECONEH O V E N W E E P

DESERT BIG MOUTHGOLD MINE IN THE SKY

COMELY CARSON CITY

by Walter Fordby Earl Spendloveby Robert Topolseby Bill Mackby Warren and Barbara Transueby Elizabeth Campbellby K, L. Boyntonby Bob and Kay Ramseyby Doris Cerveri

D E P A R T M E N T SA PEEK IN THE PUBLISHERS POKE

RAMBLING ON ROCKSBOOK REVIEWS

DESERT SHOPPERDESERT GARDENING

W O M A N ' S V I E W P O I N TCALENDAR OF WESTERN EVENTS

LETTERS

by William Knyvettby Glenn and Martha Vargasby jack PepperNew products of interestby Eric Johnsonby Joleen A. RobisonClub ActivitiesReader's Comments

ELTA SHIVEI.Y. Executive Secretary MARVEL BARRETT. Circulation Manager

EDITORIAL, CIRCULATION AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: 71-109 Larrea St . , Palm Desert , Cal i fornia 92260. Telephone Area Code714 3-16-814-1 Listed in Standard Rare and Data. SUB SCR IPTIO N RA TES: U nited States, Canada anc Mex ico; 1 year, S5.00; 2 years,$9.50; 3 years $13.00. Othe r foreign subscribers add SI.00 U.S. currency for each year. See Subscription Orde r Form in this issue. Allowfive weeks for change of address and send both n_-\v and old addresses with zip codes. DESERT Magazine is published monthly. Secondclass postage paid at Palm De sert. California and at additional mailing offices under Act of March 3, 1879. Contents copy righted 1970by DESERT Magazine and permission to reproduce any or all contents must be secured in writing. Unsolicited manuscripts and photo-graphs W ILL N O T BE RETU RN ED unless accompanied by a self-addressed and stamped envelope.


4/44

JO IN T H E FUNG E T INT O T H ESWINGTUMBLING'STH E TH ING

Not a toy, but an al l-stee l machine .withneoprene l iner buil t to last and do aprofessional job of polishing gems.

Abrasives and polish, enough to do 2ful l loads.

....

The best-sell ing book on how to get thebest polished stones and how to assembleit into jewelry. AND

FREE4 Pounds of crushed Gem Rock fromthe Deserts of Old MexicoALL FOR JUST$38,95

Postpaid

GEM & MINERAL SUPPLIES1741 CHERRY AVENUE

MA IL ADDRESS:Box 4073-D, Long Beach, Calif . 90804

A P e e ki n t h eP u b l i s h e r ' si N THESE somewhat apprehensivetimes with lawlessness on the up-swing it was encouraging to receive aclipping from Alva Sliger in Sunland,California. According to the CaliforniaFish and Game Code, Section 500, itis a misdemeanor to sell, purchase,needlessly harm, take or shoot a pro-jectile at a desert tortoise. A Bakers-field resident was arrested with 35tortoise in his possession and an addi-tional 157 were discovered at hishome. In the Kern River Rand Judic-ial Distr ict Justice Court in Johannes-

burg he was f ined S500 and sentenced to six months in jail which was suspendedand placed on probation for three years while an accomplice was meted out a $250fine. I t 's about time we got tough and put some backing to our often disregardedfish and game laws.

Alva also enclosed another clipping from the Mojave Desert News whichwill bring joy to many camping readers. Red Rock Canyon (Desert, Jan. '70)California's newest state park, now has a resident ranger. With proper policingand the mere presence of park rangers the Red Rock Canyon area will again becomea favorite spot for Southern Californians to get away from the crush of suburbia.

Last July we ran a short article entitled "Sierra Siesta for a Slim Princess"about the ten-wheel Baldwin locomotive and the narrow gauge line it ran on. Readeresponse was terr if ic so I know they will appreciate this month's cover which showsthe old depot and an old wagon from days gone by. They are part of the Laws Railroad Museum and Historical site at Laws, California, just f ive miles north of Bishopon State Highway 6 and it will make an interesting side-tr ip for the multitude whotraverse Highway 395 during their summer sojourns.

On the summer vacation theme, camping and nature programs in the MtSan Jacinto Wilderness State Park at the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramwaywere announced by Park Ranger Ken Smith. These include 2 p.m. slide talks Saturday and Sunday; 3 p.m. nature walks Saturday and Sunday and for ov ernight ca mpers7 p.m. campfire talks in the Long Valley camp any night the camp is in use. LongValley Group Camp is open to limited groups of 50 on a reservation basis only. Theris no charge for the use of the camp. Another new camp is Tamarack Valley Camp2l/ 2 miles from Long Valley. Contact the Ranger Station, P.O. Drawer FF, PalmSprings, Calif. 92262 for reservations and information. The Tramway, incidentallywill be closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the summer season.

Someone told me that he thought Desert was a nice magazine but too dryI think w e've found the solution in a new autho r whose initial work appears un dethe title of "The Last of the Mountain Men." Bill Mack has a sense of humor andcan put it down on paper along with considerable talent in sketching as is evidenceby the map accompanying the story. I hope you will agree with me and look forwardto more of Mack, and hope that "The Last . . ." will only be the first.


5/44

R a m b l i n gR o c k sby Glenn and Martha Vargas

I N OU R hist column we discussed agateas a form of quartz. There are otherforms of quark we plan to describe infuture columns. To make the story ofquartz even more interesting, there area number of other minerals that arenearly identical chemically with quartz,but have other characteristics that setthem apart . Opal is the most commonand interesting.

Opal, like quartz, is a chemical com-pound of one atom of silicon and twoatoms of oxygen (SiO2), but also hasthe addition of a molec ule of water(H 2 O ) attached to each si licon dioxidemolecule. The mineralogist writes theformula as SiO2-H20. The water is notintermixe d with the quartz , but is aseparate entity attached to it.

All of the molecules in opal evidentlydo not have water at tached to them. Thehighest amount of water is about 13percent. This variation is quite import-ant, and will be discussed later in thiscolumn and in later columns.

The addit ion of the attached waterproduces a mineral entirely differentfrom quartz. At one time opal wasthought to be a form of quartz, but in-vestigations have proved that it is aseparate mineral . Opal never forms crys-tals, and its hardness is about 6 in com-parison to 7 of quartz. Opal has a lowerspecific gravity than quartz and thus islighter in weight. Specific gravity is themeasurement of weight when comparingtwo articles of the same exact size. Theabove differences between opal andquartz are the most pronounced, butnot the full list.

The most important characteristic ofopal, at least in the minds of most peo-p l e , is the ability to show rainbow colorswithin the material . This is sometimes,(but erroneously) called fire. Opal with

this play of colors should be correctlycalled precious opal. Fire opal is a redor orange material with a play of color,and is a type of precious opal. The mostfamous location for precious opal is Au-stralia, with much of the rough materialand gems presently on the market origin-ating from there.

If we can forget about precious opaltor a few minutes (this is difficult to do),we will find that there is another classof opal known as common opal. Gener-ally, any opal that does not show colorplay, can be classified as common opal.Within this class are many sub-classes.If the material is orange or red, it iscalled cherry opal. If it is a colorlesscoating on rock surfaces and resemblesdrops of water, it is called hyalite opal.If it is the agent that has helped to pre-serve what is commonly known as petri-fied wood, it is known as wood opal.This list could go on. Each form of com-mon opal has a color, surface texture, orimpurities that sets it apart from theothers, but the basic ingredients are stillthe same: a silicon dioxide molecule withan attached water molecule.

The formation of opal is evidentlyvery similar to that of quartz. Solutionsof a high tem perature are introducedinto a rock formation and, upon cooling,the silicon dioxide molecules cannot re-main in solution and are deposited on therockwalls. There is one basic difference;for some reason not fully understood,some of the silicon dioxide moleculeshave an affinity for some of the water inwhich they are dissolved, and carry themover into the deposition. It is obviousthat the affinity must be present beforethe temperature has dropped to the pointof deposition, and not afterwards. If thiswere not true, the mineral depositedwould be quartz, which as soon as it isformed, is completely stable and couldnot be altered by the addition of water.

This deposition of opal can take placewithin the small bubble-like spaces inlava, or as seams in other rocks, muchthe same as agate. The opal may be in-jected into a fossil bed and be found asa filling in cracks, or even as the fillingof clam or snail shells. This happened inAustralia. In this case, the calcite (lime-stone) shell of the clam or snail hadbeen dissolved away before the opal-bear-ing solution was injected into it. Thesight of one of these shells, perfectly

preserved to the finest detail, and blaz-ing with all the colors of the rainbow, isnearly too much to believe.

The reason for the play of color inprecious opal has been pondered, dis-cussed, argued and investigated for aslong as opal has been known. We are notsure that it has been correctly explainedas yet. Recent investigations in Australiahave shown opal to be made up of clust-ers of extremely small spheres, visibleonly under extremely high magnification.These spheres are laid out in rows, withmany parallel rows making up the mass.Some of the rows have spheres missinghere and there, with the rows losing theirprecision. This lack of precision probablyaccounts for the lack of crystals or anyregular outward form. It also may accountat least in part for the play of color.

All of these unseen, but definite,characteristics are probably the result ofthe attached water, and the variation ofthe amount of water in turn undoubtedlyhas an effect on the mysterious play ofcolor.

The amount of at tached water hasother effects on opal. We will repeatthat the water is not chemically part ofthe silicon dioxide molecule, but remainsas a separate water molecule. As we allknow, water evaporates, and this is themost noticeable effect. Those opals withthe water percentages nearer to 10%show this evaporation greater than thoseof lower percentages. When the waterevaporates, the opal does not turn intoquartz, but instead it leaves a small open-ing or weak spot. These spaces left bythe evaporating water are joined by acrack, and given the correct amount oftime, the opal may fall into a number ofpieces. We have obse rved- and heard-ofmany fine opals that have done ex-actly this. This very undesirable featureh a s , in part, accounted for the supersti-Continual on pane 58

$$$F IND$$$$ $ T R E A S U R E $ $New revolutionary analytical transistorizedmetal detector wil l distinguish a gold barfrom a tin can. No more unnecessary digging for tin cans, nails, bottle caps, etc. Alsofeatures push button tuning, automatic tun-i n g , loudspeaker. Negligible ground picku p.Greatest detection range, etc. Many models- free catalog, and complete com parison de-tection chart.

G A R D I N E R E L E C T R O N I C S C O .H . 2 1 . 4729 North 7th Ave., Phoenix, Ariz. 85013


6/44

A r e t h e l e g e n d so f t h e W e s tf a c t o r f i c t i o n ?

By Brad Williams andChoral Pepper

D id the U n i t e d S t a le s G o v e r n m e n t r e n l l ys t e a l P a n c h o V i l l a ' s h e a d two and a h a l fyears a f te r his b u r i a l ? W h e r e d o e s theN o r t h A m e r i c a n Big foo t roam ? In thisb o o k , a s e q u e l to the a u t h o r s p o p u l a iThe Mysterious West, Brad Williams andChora I Pepper ex am ine man y l i t t l e kno wns to r i es and l e g e n d s of the A m e r i c a n We MHere th e l e a d e r w i l l f ind a v a r i e t y D(f a n t a s t i c a l ly c o n c e i v e d h o a x e s a l o n g w i l hn e w f a c t u a l e v i d e n c e to s u p p o r t th ev a l i d i t y of r , l n n e r . f o r m e r l y a s s u m e d Inbe IdlesT he s to ry behind


7/44

JO H N D. MITCHELLAuthor of 43 articles

published inDESERT Magazine

||| cKio Cjranoe XJress, Vnc.C L O R I E T A , N E W M E X I C O

of tkeGREAT

JOHN D. M ITCHE LLOnce Again Available from

D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E B O O K S H O PSend check or money order to Desert Magazine Book ShopPalm Desert, California 92260

POSTPAIDCalif, residentsadd 5% sales tax

JTHE OVERLAND STAGE TO CALIFORNIA; THE PONY EXPRESS 1860-1875By F. A. Root and W. E. Connelly.Greatest source of informat ion on overland stages andPony Express. Nearly 7 0 0 pages, lavishly illustrated, 8 i / 2 x l l . 17 .50

LOST MINES AND BURIED TREASURE ALONG THE OLD FRONTIER.Another of John D. Mitchell 's f ine books. 7.50

BLACK RANGE TALES; by James A. McKenna.A chronicle of 60 years of life an d adventure in the Southwest. 7 .50


8/44

Geologist Baylor Brooks inspectspart of the stone fence built by a frail

woman whose strength camefrom inspiration.

S t o n eM o n u m e n tt o aD r e a m - - \ ' W

-. . .. j

by Walter Ford

The remains of a broken dream . Cattle pens are in foreground.

DURING THE latte r p art of 1941 Tstopped in Daggett, California tovisit the late Henry Britt. Henry was along time desert prospector whose in-terest in mining dated back to 1905 whenhe was a participant in the roaring activ-ities of the Death Valley boom town ofSkidoo. I was particularly interested inmining operat ions in nearby Ord Moun-tains and it was during our discussion ofthat area I first heard about MildredWill is .

"Probably you never heard of MildredWillis ," Henry said. "She didn' t go infor mining, yet had she expended the10 years of effort at prospe ctin g she pu tinto her home site she might have be-come wealthy. However, Mildred seemedto believe that money had only a minorrelation to happiness and remained con-tent in shaping up her dream. Take arun up to the Ord Mountains sometimeand see the results of her labor."

In the spring of 1946 I made thelong delayed tr ip to the Willis homesite byway of San Bernardino County's LucerneValley. As I approached the area I re-called Britt 's reference to Mildred's ten-year efforts and wondered what form


9/44

"I met Mildred and George Wil l i sfor the first time when someone stakedthem to a few cattle near Yermo. Georgehad been a mining promoter in Nevada ,but apparently his luck ran out. Theycame down here to make a new start bysetting up a camp along the MojaveRiver. They were doing very well untilthey were washed out by a flood.

"I next heard that they had movedup to the Ord Mountains . That wasabout 1911. There was plenty of waterand good grazing up there, which madeit ideal cattle country. Mildred dug a

well and struck water at 20 feet. I wasworking at Camp Rock mine at the t imeand often walked the seven miles be-tween to visit them. Soon after they gotsett led Mildred buil t their temporaryhome. It was l i t t le more than a stonehut about ten square feet, but it providedshelter while her dream was taking form.

"Visitors up there often ask me if Mil-dred had a definite plan in mind and Itell them that she knew exactly what shewanted to do. She used to show me pic-tures of Scottish castles from which shehoped to model her home. She loved

they would take, when suddenly longlines of massive stone walls appeared.Walls which ran for hundreds of feet astrue as if they had been laid out with anengineer 's transit . Other walls buil t withsame precision formed small enclosures.

W i t h a cross section of 16 square feetthe walls contained approximately 10,880cubic feet of stone weighing roughly one-mil l ion pounds!

I felt certain Henry Britt had notmisled me, but at the same time it seem-ed unbelievable that some of the largerstones could have been handled by otherthan a husky man. I went down intoDaggett . looked up Henry Brit t and ex-pressed my doubts to him.

"Yes , the walls were built by a wo-man ." he said, "and a rather small oneat that; five feet, three in height andweighing about 12s) pounds. There havebeen many others just as incredulous asyou who have asked the same question.Mile red's husb and, Georg e, had lost theuse of an arm in an accident some yearsback, so the only help he could give wasto drive the horses that hauled the rocks.The) ' had built a sort of drag on whichMildred would load the rocks, then un-load them where needed.

H Y D R A U L I CC O N T R O L

DOWN FOR TRAVEL SAFETY. Wind resistance is reduced with Alaskan's low profile in highway travel. Gas mileage is increased and crosswind cut down. With lowered top, passengers ride in

luxurious comfort.A l J P FOR LIVING COMFORT. Alaskan camper top, operated by patented hydraulic system, is raised

in seconds. (Let a chile! do it , and see how easy it is.) Safety lock prevents accidental lowering.Weather-tight, walk-in quarters completely furnished. Three-burner stove, stainless steel sink,cabinets, icebox, beds, plus many other luxury features.8 ft. and 10 ft. models. Sold and installed only at Alaskan Camper factories at factory pricesAlso available at authorized factory outlets.

Write today to the factory nearest you for free folder describing the most advanced camper on the roadR. D. HALL MFG., INC., 9847 Glenoaks Blvd.,Sun Valley, (San Fernando Valley)California 91352, Dept. D1Factory Outlet: ALASKAN CAMPER SALES, NC.,Interstate 80 (half way betweenS.F.-Sacramento), Route 1,Box 332,Suisun City, Calif. 94585, Dept. D1ALASKAN CAMPERS NORTHWEST, INC.,6410 South 143rd Street, (Tukwila) Seattle,Washington 98168, Dept. D1PENNACAMP, INC., 401 West End Avenue,

I .E . PATENT NO 2879103

G . R. GRUBBS MFG., INC.,d/b/a Alaskan Camper Sales, 9042 Long-point Rd.,Houston, Texas 77055, Dept. D1FORT LUPTON CAMPERS, 1100 Denver Ave.Fort Lupton, Colorado 80621, Dept. D1EINARS CAMPER MFG. CO.,d/b/a Alaskan Campers North Central,3726 North 9th Avenue, Sioux Falls,South Dakota 57104, Dept. D1Manheim, Penn. 17545, Dept. D1

CANADIAN PATENT NO 637-543


10/44

T R E A S U R EF U N ! 0M e t a l e r t t u r n s a no r d i n a r y w e e k e n d i n t oa f a m i ly a d u e n t u r e .

Going to the beach? Or hunting, fishingor camping? You canadd extra fun toyour next family outing by taking alonga Fisher "Metalert" Treasure Detector.Who knows, youmight bring home avaluable lost relic;even silver and gold! Unsurpassed power andsensitivitywith solid state circuits. Easy to use;adjusts andoperateswith one hand! Superb physical bal-ance; arm support. Waterproof sensing head completelysubmersible. Telescoping shaft forcompact storage and transportation.D Replaceable transistor battery avail-able everywhere; built in tester.Built tothe same exacting standards asFisher precision instruments forindus-try and science. Send for complete freeliterature. Also, collectors ' editionguidebook "Discoveries From the Past"sent if you include 50c postage."Metalert" . . . the Finest You Can Buy

F IS H E R T R E A S U R E D E T E C T O R SDepartment DM Palo Alto, Calif. 94303

10

flowers and intended to make her desertkingdom bloom like a paradise, but be-fore shecould make it a reality sheneed-ed walls to keep out cattle. The wallsyou saw up there are the results of herspare time work. I say ' spare time' be-cause her real task was taking care ofher crippled husband and 300 head ofcattle.

" O n e dayGeorge became ill and hadto be taken outside for medical atten-tion. Fortunately, Mildred was able tosell their cattle for several thousand dol-lars. Perhaps it was her intention to re-turn andcomplete her dream after Georgerecovered. I don' t know. Sometime afterthey left word reached me that Georgehad passed away in San Diego. Mildrednever came back to the desert."

Since that day when I first saw theWillis homesite I have made several re-turn trips to the area. Other than the in-creasing array of debris left by carelesscampers, there has been little visiblechange over the years. Mildred's wallsstill stand and perhaps will remain fordecades as a m onum ent to a wom an ' sdream and the untir ing efforts which al-

most made it come true.Students of early Indian culture will

find much of interest at the Wil l i shomesite. The many petroglyphs whichappear on the granite boulders seem tobe the art work of nomadic tr ibes thatused the area as a watering place. Thehabitable caves I explored indicated pastoccupancy, but do not contain theusualdebris found in permanent Indian campsites. Part time inhabitants could havebeen roving groups of Chemehuevis .Hem m ed in by powerful Yuman tr ibesalong the Colorado River and Shoshon-ean tribes on the western rim of theMojave Desert, the Chemehuevis wereforced to drif t around between the twobarriers, ekmg out their subsistence asthey moved along. They seemed to havebeen peculiarly addicted to scratchingsymbols on smooth rocks near their tem-porary camp sites, such as those at theWillis site and other Mojave Deserlareas.

The Ord Mountains have long beena mecca for seekers of earth bound rich-e s . Prospectors in the region, known tocontain deposits of copper and gold,have been many, but one whostood out

J BARSTOV

\

\

\)

! 111To Lucerne

mmmm

AZTEC

Val ley

DAGGETT

\

)SPRINGI/To Baker

NEWBERRY MTS.

^ V RODMAN ^ K CINDER CONEWillis X .WELL ^ W ^ v P

ff CAMP ROCKff MINE^ /

M T S .* PETROGLYPHS


11/44

from all of the others for ingenuity andresourcefulness was one Brown Osborne.D ix Van Dyke, noted Mojave Desertauthority, told me about Osborne'sactivities.

Around 1881 Osborne acquired agroup of mining claims in the OrdMountains and soon after employed agroup of Chinese workmen to build aroad from Daggett to his property. Be-fore the project was completed his in-terest lagged and he took on a contractto haul salt products from Danby DryLake to the railroad at Danby. Whileon this job he designed and had builta steam tractor to which three steelwagons were coupled. Each wagon hada steam cylinder geared to its rear axle.Steam was piped from the tractor toeach wagon, and in spite of its unortho-dox construction (he combination workedvery successfuly.

Soon after misfortune overtook himand for years he remained almost broke.Then in 1 906 he made a comeback. Hesold the Tecopa mines for $350 , 000 . T h eOrd Mountains road was rebuilt, thesteam wagons were brought to Daggett,and mining operations were resumed.But no w Osborne was an old man. Theenergy and drive that characterized hisformer activities were no longer withhim. He carried on in a desultory fash-ion for a while, then in 1913 he passedaway.

A tr ip through the Ord Mountainsregion offers much in the way of scenicgrandeur and interesting spots to explore.Its e'evation of 4000 feet assures rainfallenough to provide a dazzling spring dis-play of wddflowers and cactus blooms.And at elevated points along the roadyou can get an awesome view of nearlythe entire Mojave Desert, which if theair is clear may extend to CharlestonPeak, Nevada, 130 miles away.The Willis home-site may be reachedby following the improved gravel roadwhicn extends southward from Daggett,then swings southeast to Camp Rock, aplacer gold operation 20 miles from Dag-gett. At approximately 14 miles alongthis road, wheel tracks leading to theright mark the Willis turn-off. The areamay be identified by a hill of huge bould-e r s . The location is marked as "WillisWel l " on som e road maps, but the origin-al well has been choked with debris formany years.

About 4.6 miles east of the Willisturn-off a road formerly ran no rthw ardthrough an intr iguing area known asKane Canyon. Early day road maps showa route through the canyon as part of ashort cut between Newberry and Victor-ville. Kane Spring 8.5 miles down thecanyon was an important waterhole alongthe route.

There are many stone formations in thecanyon, the most striking of which is alife-life form of a hug e camel restingabove the canyon wall. Another interest-ing geological phenomenon are the re-

mains of a lava dam which in ages pastcreated a large lake from impoundedstorm waters. Eventually the dam wasswept aside, leaving only the side abut-ments which are still visible today.

T was told in D aggett tha t Kane Can-yon is part of a gam e refuge, whichcould account for its abundance of wild-life. On a previous trip through the areaI saw three Bighorn sheep, a kit fox, andseveral varieties of birds. Tt's a good lo-cation for nature photographyand afitting place to stop and contemplate thestone monument to a woman's dream. []

b e c a u s e i t ' s a r e c r e a t i o n a l v e h i c l e ,i t r e q u i r e s c i t i z e n s t w o - w a y r a d i o !

. . and Johnson 's solid-stateMessenger 12 5 is designedfor recreational vehicles!Getting away from it al l is greatbut, i t 's a lot more enjoyable andsensible when you have the power to communicate for convenience oremergency.

Johns on's Ci t izens Two-Way Radio gives you that opt ioneffect ively,rel iably and inexpen sively. For less than $10 0, your vehicle becomes acomp lete emergency radio broadcast stat ion . . . or a useful link wi thfr iends and fami ly . . . to sui t the occasion.Johnson's Messenger 125 is special ly designed for except ional reli-abil i ty and ease of operation under recreational condit ions. It is thewor ld's smal lest complete ful l -power mobi le ci t izens radiofi ts any-where, in any recreat ional vehicle. I ts f ive-channel push-b ut ton selectoris the essence of simplicity. Its clean, tr im face is completely unob-structedwith smooth operat ing sl ide controls instead of pro-J t rud ing knobs.

For portable use, a leather carrying case wi th rechargeablebat tery and charger is avai lable.Send for illustrated

folder today E . F. J O H N S O N Cn.11707 10th Ave. S.W.Waseca, Mn. 5609311


12/44

THOSE ARE Thunder eggs," the sheep-herder said and showed me a boxoi oddly shaped rocks with a strangepattern of irregular lines criss-crossingtheir surface. The rocks, which lookedlike something brought back from themoon, were actually volcanic geodes.Their hollowed interiors, f illed withsparkling, quartz crystals, were enoughto make a rockhound head for the hills .I learned they came from the west sideof the Dugway Mountain range in nor th-ern Utah and two months later , on abeautiful spring day, I turned off State36 at Vernon, Utah and headed west ona gravel road.

It's a little over 50 miles from Vernonto where two ruts leave the gravel roadand wind northward over the desert to-ward the geode beds. This 10 miles isrich in history of the old West for mostof the way the road follows the Over-land Trail. The principal route used- dur-ing the middle of the last century byprospectors and Pony Express riders,Indians and soldiers, and emigrants MH\outlaws traveling between Salt Lake Cityand the We st Coast, Approx imatelyevery ten miles, at Lookout Pass, Simp-son Spring, Riverbed, and Dugway Pass,a monument marks the location ol aPony Express way station and each placehas a story to tell.12

ThunderThe Lookout Pass station, where trav-

elers of the trail said goodbye to theMormon settlements of Utah and lookedtoward California through shimmeringheat of the desert, was located at thehead of the pass, on the west side ofthe mountain. Not far from the monu-ment, just south of the road, is a rockenclosed cemetery which marks the finalresting place of a number of emigrants

and three dogs, pets of a lonelywoman who lived in the pass and watch-ed the world go by.

Simpson Springs, the last good water

for 100 miles was, and still is, an im-portant stopping place. Good water isavailable and on a hot day one can geta drink from a f lowing pipe or take arefreshing dip in a shallow pool below.The tumbled down walls of the olds ta t ion, operated by "Wood- leg" Davis ,can still be seen and picnic tables crouchunder gnarled junipers that grow onthe hillside.

Ten miles down the road a monument,on the banks of an ancient river, marksthe location of the Riverbed station.Through this old channel, a mightyriver once flowed and added its bit to

Geodes intheir natural state

(upper left) range insize from a marble

to a large potato.The interior of the

brown rocks is athing of beauty. |


13/44

Moon Rooks?by Earl Spendlove

L E S T KID


14/44

START YOUR OWNJEWELRY BUSINESSMake Extra M oneyCOMPLETE16 PG INSTRUCTIONGUIDESend Check, Money Order, Today!

WILK-CRAFT's Deluxe HandCaster Kitwill enable you to cast alltypes of jewelry, insignias, awards.This kit has been acclaimed as aneasy-to-use professional casting kit.It will provide youwith many itemsto sell at a profit.

Everything to Make Your First Casting $119.00WILK-CRAFT COMPANY

7033 Canoga Avenue / Canoga Park, C alifornia 91303

Hurry!Only a few left!Nifty *50'sB a c k I s s u e sAS ADVERTISED IN APRIL, 1970 ISSUE

Assorted back issues of DESERT Magazinefrom 1950 through 1959

$4.00 for12 issuesThis offer is l imited to the supply on hand

Send check or money order toDEPT. 5, DESERT MAGAZINEPalm Desert, California 92260

14

the briny inland sea, the great Salt Lake.Then one day, long before the dawn ofrecorded history, silt and gravel carriedby the stream, blocked the channel andthe ancient r iver, turned south and flow-ed into a land-locked basin, and createdthe Sevier River.

It was here, in the early lS6()s, that apassenger killed the stagecoach driverand guard, took the gold from the s trong-box, and escaped on a horse from thestagecoach team. He never lived to spendhis ill-gotten gains, however, for PorterRockwell, often referred to as the "Des-troying Angel," took his trail and justicewas meted out, without benefit of ajudge or jury.

The next station, Dugway Pass, is tenmiles to the west, and it's a fairly steepgrade up the east side of the m ounta in .O n the west, the road leads down througha draw where, on a snowy Novem ber dayin 1851, Captain Absalom Woodard andthree of his men were ambushed andkilled by Goshute Indians . The Indianslater reported a fourth man from theparty, which was carrying mail fromSacramento to Salt Lake City, escaped theambush, but never reached civilization.

I t 's four miles from Dugway pass towhere a dim trail leaves the main roadand meanders nor th through the rockstoward the geode beds . Keep a sharplookout or you will miss this track. Once


15/44

. llilllllll

-

on i:, drive carefully for it leads you overrocks, high-centers, and through steep-banked, sandy washes. Two miles to thenorth, you should come upon a sturdymailbox made from a heavy iron pipe.Inside is a book that says the Rock Ar-teseans of Utah have staked claims tothe surrounding area and you are invitedto dig, with hand tools, on their claim.There are other claims nearby, but themajority of the area is open range.

Digging with hand tools in the rocky,sun-baked, lime-cemented soil is hardwork, but if you are persistent you canfind several good geodes in a day. Somefind an easier way. On one trip to theDugway geode beds my wife and I cameupon an encampment where a half ahundred happy rock hounds were havingdinner. A small bulldozer had been atwork in the bank of a nearby wash. Afriendly man, with a stubbly two-daybeard, came out and invited us to jointhem. He said they were members of aSalt Lake City rock club and were pay-ing the equipment operator two dollarseach, per day, for doing the hard workfor them. The man had ten or f if teengeodes to show for a half day's work.

There are other things of interest atthe geode beds. Twice we have seenflocks of fifteen or twenty chukkarsscurrying through the bush. These slategrey birds were introduced into the area

Looking west from Dugway Pass.Geode beds are about four miles fromthis point. An Indian massacreoccurred here in 1841 Four whitemen ivere killed.

by the Utah State Fish and Game De-partment and have evidently found ahome in the barren, waterless wastes,for they are reported to be increasing.Ancient Indians once hunted rabbitsand antelope along the foothills of theDugway Mountains . My children havefound several arrowheads fashionedfrom red and white chert by some longforgotten craftsman.

A good discussion of the what andhow of a geode was given in the Januaryissue of Desert Magazine by Glenn andMartha Vargas in their column "Ram-bling on Rocks." It's a lot easier to ex-plain the hole in a doughnut than it isthe hole in a geode, but everyone canenjoy the breathtak ing beauty of asawed and polished geode from DugwayMountain. Under the rough exter ior isa layer of banded blue and purple agateand the hole in the center is lined withsparkling, snow white or clear , six-sidedcrystals of quartz. Truly the inside ofthese scaly brown stones is a thing ofbeauty.

Lowest Photo Prints PriceHighest QualityK O D A C O L O R F I LM

DEVELOPED & PRINTED8 Jumbo Prints (rectangular) $1.7 812 Jumb o Prints (square) -$2.1812 Jumbo Prints andNew Roll of Kodacolor except 126 $2.9 81 2 Ju mbo Prints andNew Roll of Kodacolor f i lm, 126 $3.07Kodacolor Neg reprints (square) $ .14

All prices comparably low.Price sheets and envelopesava i l ab le .No gimmicksNo lies47 years of cont inuousservice guarantees yourqual i ty .M A RK E T B AS K ET P H O T O C O .P. O . Box 370 , Yuma, Arizona 853 64 orP. O . Box 2 83 0, San Diego, Calif. 9 2 11 2WHEN IN THE GOLD COUNTRY YO U NEED THIS

Camplet $165-*Te rmsModel 1500 ( 1 V > inch)

12 07 El Camino Real.S an ta Cla ra, Calif. *>T H E m V E S T IS A L 1V E

TRIPLE VRANCH14-2OO Kj..lNDIArM A V E . \ l O R T H P AL M S P R I N G S *P H O N E : A . C . 7 1 4 - 3 2 9 -74 18 WRITE: PO & 0 X 3 4 8 NO .PAIM SPRINGS

li


16/44

-

of the

Gold is found in the small banks along the creek. Digaround bushes and weeds. Be careful of rattlesnakes.

O N MARCH 12, 1928, the ground began to tremble, andthen it happened. The San Francisquito Canyon Damsplit wide open and a wall of water, mud, up-rooted trees andboulders 185 feet high came crashing down the canyon. Thethundering torrent traveled 6^ miles to the coastal town ofMontalvo, In its wake 600 homes were swept away and 500people were killed.

The San Francisquito Canyon has had a long history oiproducing gold which dates back to the Civil War days. Whenthe dam broke, this man-made disaster did in one hour whatit would have taken nature one hundred years to do. The tre-mendous force of water released by the break literally washedthe walls of the canyon down to bed rock and deposited thesoil in the creek bed. It wasn't until the horrors of the tragedyha d faded away that the secret of the great flood was dis-covered.

16 The sluice box is a favorite means of extracting gold, just as it was 100years ago.


17/44

FLOOD!by Robert TopolseTod ay the gold rush is still goi ng on. A drive up San Fran-cisquito Canyon any Saturday or Sunday afternoon is like step-ping back into the days of the '49ers. You will find every kindof gold-seeking device available working the creek, fromdredge to hand sluices to dry washers. The truth of the matteris, they arc all finding gold. After 32 years the gold is stillthere.

1 am goin g to tell you exactly w here to find this gold.Drive up Jjeco^Canyon Road into the Ange les Nation al Forest.^Seo_C^m/oii_Rjid is the jsa n F rancisq uito Ro ad ..A fter ent er-J )

_ing th e An gele s Na tion al ForeitJ) drive for four-tenths of amile and stop. This is the gold area. The large creek bed isjust across the road.

There is very little gold in the creek itself because thesands in the creek arc- contin uously mo ving . Any gold pre sentwould settle on bed rock quite a way down. The real gold lies

in the creek banks which are about 2l/2 feet high and runalong the creek. This is where the gold was deposited afterthe flood. There is very little water action on these banks sothe gold is near the surface.

Looking around you can see where people for years havebeen slowly eating away the banks. Dig around the bushes andweeds because the roots of these plants catch the gold duringspring f loods. Work the areas where there is an even mixtureof sand and small gravel. The areas that are all sand are prob-ably somebody else's tailings. Be careful when working aroundbushes. There are rattlesnakes in this area even though peoplevisit the area quite often.

The gold is here, but it takes a lot of hard work to get it.You w on' t get r ich, but if you want a couple of p ennyw eightsto fill your vial, this is the place to come.

The secret of San Francisquito Canyon is not how richthe gravel is , but how much gravel you move.

_

Weekend prospectors use equipment from simple gold pans to more sophisticated dredging m achines.17


18/44

O F T H EKit Carson and other mountain men of the 1800s fought hostileIndians and braved the wilderness. Following in their footsteps, BillMack also encountered Indians and conquered the wilderness in this

epic tale of " the last of the mountain m en ."

R o u t e w h f r t T V ! ?(OR. HOW THE WE ^T WAS


19/44

M O U N T A I NTHJ; T A W N Y figures of the two In-dians crouched low in the late after-noon shadows. The tall, pencil- thinmountain man halted his loping gait ashis keen eyes spotted the lurking f igures.For several tension packed seconds pale-face and redman eyed each other. Sud-denly the taller of the two Indians letout a mighty yell and quickly steppedforward. At the same instant the moun-tain man also moved toward the Indian,raised a steady brown hand and graspedthe proffered bottle of white port firmlyby its neck.

W hite po r t? Mo untain man ? In a veryloose manner of speaking, yes. I wasthe mountain man and this was my firstencounter with Indians. And it all tookplace in April of 1969.

It began when friends and I were dis-cussing the feats of such greats as JimBridger, Kit Carson and others of theirbreed. I ll-advisedly I defended the posi-tion that is is still possible to walk theSier ra Nevada mountains with a pack,gun and little else and survive handily.As the discussion waxed warmer I suf-fered from an age old, and with me,chronic problem.

In a burst of over enthusiasm I let mybrave mouth run away with my chickenfanny and before I really realized whatI was doing, I found myself committedto making the test. My erstwhile fr iendsgleefully agreed to the scheme, and asreason slowly returned to my addledbrain 1 began to think of the problems.

Even in April, the higher elevationsof the Sierra Nevada mountains are deepin snow. The lower land is mostly fencedfor cattle, guns are not allowed in Na-tional Parks, and I was out of shape. Iwas beginning to develop a disease f irstdiscovered by W ood y Allen wh o diag-nosed it as "cerebral hemorrhoids." But1 was committed.

Preparations lor the tr ip were quicklycompleted. It was agreed I should carrya small food supply as an emergencyration. A pound ol jerky, three smallcans ol gelatinous mixture that someslick oaf had sold as pemmican, a smallbag ol mixed pep per and salt, and 2Tsugar cubes. It may not have been veryspo rting of me, but 1 snuck a fewmatches, a Sterno stove, three chocolate-bars, a plug of tobacco (whic h 1 con-sider authentic gear) and a Harold Rob-

bins novel which was hot enough to fryeggs on.

Othe r equipment consisted of a smallknapsack, light weight sleeping bag,hunting knife, mess kit, compass, hand-line with three hooks and a British En-field 303 with 20 rounds of ammunition.

The route selected was from the out-skirts of the historic gold rush town ofMariposa, California, to the valley f loorof Yosemite National Park, then backtowards Mariposa and a rendezvous at

The author'swife took thisphoto of the"intrepidmountain man"at the end ol his90-mile trek.


20/44

i A I N B O W ' SE N D . . .begins w ith a

I E A S U

" C O M M A N D E R " 7 2 0T h i s G o l d a k T r e a s u r eLocator is unsurpassed forlocat ing bur ied t reasure,coins. Civil War relics andfor beachcombing. Features"Tell-Tone" Signal. Locatesany metal object under dirt,sand, mud, rock, etc. Nocumbersome cordscom-pletely transistorized, bat-tery powered.

When it comes to f ind-ing your pot of gold, gowith the leader go withGoldak!E F F E C T IV E D E P T H R A N G E( U n d e r N o r m a l C o n d i t i o n s !

Start out r ight-send $1.00 pre-paid for authent ic gold-platedreplica of a Spanish doubloonfound off Cape Kennedy.G O L D A K C O M P A N Y , I N C .

1101-A Air WayGlendale, California 91201

Please send free l i ter atur e on GOLDAK trea-sure locators. I enclose $1.00 prepaid for my gold-plateddoubloon repl ica wi th pouch.NameAddress -City

V State - Z i p .

M t. Ophir, th e site of a defunct privatemint of '49er days. It would be a roundtrip of roughly 9" miles. As proof of myprowess 1 was to bring back a souvenirpostcard that conk) be- purchased only inthe gift shop at Camp Curry on th evalley floor. As is readily discernible,my friends have a great respect for myintegrity, honesty and genera] strengthof character. They also re-inforced theseattributes by restricting my pocket moneyto a staggering M)c, which, after the pur-chase of the post card in Yosemite, wouldleave me 4()c for a night of lusty frolicin some remote mountain trading post.Incidentally, that night of wild abandonnever took place because I lost the moneyon the return tr ip. Somewhere in thosehills, pardner, lies the lost Mack treasure.

I had agreed to keep off of mainloads, although it was agreed that unusedlogging roads were okay. Unfortunately,a good share of the proposed route con-sisted of private cattle ranches and a cer-tain amount of trespassing was necessarybefore I crossed the boun dary of the Na -tional Park. As it turned out, I wasstopped only once by a fence rider whowas more curious than belligerent. Heheard my story out and invited me backto the ranch for dinner. Even Jim Brid-ger wouldn' t have turned down a hot ,home cooked meal so I readily acceptedhis friendly invitation. That night, Karl,my new found friend, and I poured overthe map of my route. He pointed outseveral short cuts and I made the altera-tions on my route map. He was a greathelp and a real nice guy. 1 can't use hisname, but if he reads this, I want tothank him again.

The second day of my trek revealed myfirst big mistake. .A British 303 is a largecalibre military rifle of tremendous pow-er. What it did to the unfortunate squir-rels chosen for my larder was indescrib-able. 1 finally learned to fire just in frontof the squirrels, a technique I had readabout but only half believed possible,called barking. It really does work. Ashot placed in front of the animal or justbelow him on his branch perch stunnedthe squirrel and in several instances, kill-ed it. California squirrels are not con-sidered gourmet delights but they .irepalatable, if a bit stringy.

A portion of my route led me alongthe turbulent Merced River and for-

20

tunately, while trout were scarce, whitesuckers were plentiful and easy to catch.They loved the pemmican only asucker could. Water was never a prob-lem, but 1 was surprised how quick ly th emonotony ol my diet was getting to me.I tried a lew water plants, and al thoughthey were probably nourishing, theytasted l ike the remains of Saturday'slawn mowing. Berry bushes were just be-ginning to ( lower but the pickings wereslim. Most ol my meals consisted oleither sucker, which is pretty good butbony, and squirrel, which is all rightbut tough.

On the lourth day ou t 1 had my en-counter with the Indian s. I was trudgin gup a small rise when I rounded a largeboulder and met two ol the drunkestMiwok Indians those old mountains hadever seen. They were ostensibly mendinga fence, but it looked to me as il theywere working a great deal harder on ahalf gallon ol white port. They musthave realized that to trifle with a leanand hungry mountain man would besheer folly, tor instead ol lilting my scalpin the traditional manner, they offeredme .i slug of the scalp lifter they weredrinking. In the best mountain mantradition I mad e peace with the redskin s,but after a lew jolts of that pop-skull Iplunged back into the forest gloom.Some day I'm going back and see whatthey did to that fence.

The next day was a day ol shame.Whi le 1 hardly qualify as Mary Poppins,,i thief I'm not. Bu t the lo nelin ess ofthe mountains and my innate rottenessgot to me. I stole. The circumstances aresordid, but in all good conscience, I mustconfess.

1 was followin g a small stream whenmy keen mountain senses detected voicesin the distance. This was not too difficultas the sounds were coming from twoamateur gold panners who were shout-ing at each other about their finds. Icrept silently past them and at the nextbend of the stream came upon a Jeepstation wagon, tailgate down, parkedalong side the stream.

On the lowered tailgate was a huge-plastic ice chest filled to overflowingwith chilled cans of beer. It must have-been my association with those dissoluteaborigines of the day before that causedmy behavior. With a stealth that wouldhave brought tears to the eyes of Daniel


21/44

Boone I crept forward. A few m om entsof indecision, a rapier-like thrust of mybony arm, and [ had snatched a can ofbeer. I slunk back into the mountainshadows and enjoyed that beer like noneI have enjoyed before or since. If oneof the readers happens to have been thevictim of my cupidity, F am willing toreplace the stolen beer if he can r ight-fully prove that it belonged to him.Brewing date and packaging serial num-ber will be considered ample evidence.

As my route took me higher into themountains , patches of snow began toappear. The light weight sleeping bagwas just a shade too light and the nightswere chilly. Firewood was plentiful,however, and I managed to keep fairlycomfortable. I had adjusted my pace to aslow trudge after the first day.

That f irst day I had tried to reach mydestination as quickly as possible andhad, as a result, pooped myself out. SoI started taking it slow and easy and en-joying the wonderful scenery. Because ofmy route I rarely saw another human,but as I neared the park boundary deer,bear, even coyotes, were everyday sights.As they were park bears they evidencedlittle fear of me and one night tr ied toraid my knapsack which I had prudentlyhung in a fir tree.

The entire trip took eleven leisurelydays. As much as 1would like to recountthe har rowing dangers encountered, inall truthfullness I have to admit thatthere weren' t any, unless trying to buckthe throngs of tourists at the Camp Currygift shop could qualify.

O n the return tr ip I uncached myrifle at the boundary of the nationalpark and headed west, clutching theg a u d y p o s t c a r d a nd f u l l of s m u g t r i -um ph. But I had plenty of time to think.The tr ip hail proved a lark, but underdifferent circumstances, could have beena mess.

The real mountain men met, and con-quered the Sierras, under real handicaps.Host i le , not drunk Indians, extremes ofweather, no prepared foods, no sleepingbags, no efficient bo t action rifles andmost importantly, no friendly faces toturn to in case of trouble. They musthave been made of rawhide and gristlewith a generous spr inkl ing of real grit.

On my return home I prepared aplaque for my postcard. Of the very

f inest walnut, complete with a plexi-glass cover for the card and a brass plate,suitably and modestly inscribed "theLAST of the big-time mountain men."I t should hang in a place of honor inmy home. But it doesn' t. Somewhere be-tween my rendezvous and my hom e I lostthe authentic postcard.

Admittedly, I have secured a substi-tute, but the plaque hangs in my den,next to my discharge from the Marines ,an d my authentic and hard-earned certi-ficate from Jack Armstrong, The AllAmerican Boy Club's heroic and fearlessleader. It should hang in the most favor-ed spot as I ate at least six tons ofWheaties to get it. But it all ties in to-gether. Who can beat an ex-Mar inestuffed full of Wheat ie s? No wonderI' m the mountain man I am. D

S T O P T H ATTH IEF WITHJOCKSTRAPFits all G.I. can holders orcarriers allsteel construction,electric welded and brightzinc plated. - n nType A Only 5*1,00

Send forFREE Brochure S howingOther Models to FitAny Vehicle.

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED. .Route 4, Box 188, Salem, Oregon 97302 /

ZIP CODE YOUR MAIL

B u l l f r o g R e s o r ta n d M a r i n aIN THE CENTER OF

WO NDERFUL LAKE POWELLEV ER YTHING YOU 'LL NEED FOR A FUN-FILLED V ACATION

Houseboat rentals Travel trailer hookups Boat rentals Modern mobile home units Open & Covered boat slips G roceries, snacks, supplies

for completeinformation w rite:BULLFROG MARINA231 East 4th South,Salt Lake City, Utah Boat & auto gas & repairs Day & overnight tours 84111 ( 8 0 1 ) 3 5 5 - 2 9 9 1

G o u l d i n g ' s . . . i nM o n u m e n t V a l l e y"Best in the West"Near Arizona-Utah LineO nly Accommodations in Monument ValleyG uided Tours in Air-conditioned VehiclesPrivate Airstrip

Write for brochure:NAVAJOSANDPAINTERby Gilford Bond

G o u l d i n g ' s L o d g e and T r a d i n g P O G IBox 1, Monument V alley, Utah 84 536 Phone via Moab, Utah JL7-1172

21


22/44


23/44

Color photo of bristleconepine taken by David Muenchof Santa Barbara, California.

Text and black and whitephotos by Warren and BarbaraTransue, of Los Angeles, Calif.

R ESPECTED AN D feared for h er inex -orable pattern of life and deathand her oftimes cataclysmic accomplish-ments, Mother Nature in some instanceshas seen f it to pause in her unwaveringpath of change down the centuries.

She decided the salamander wouldsurvive intact from his earliest adventupon earth to the present day. The coela-canth, a prehistoric fish until recentlybelieved to have been extinct for 70million years has lately been rediscoveredin a form little changed from its an-cestors of 300 million years ago.

Now Nature has revealed to us aform of life in which individuals haveflourished, continually live and un-chang ed, for over 400 0 years! W e havelearned, through a process of patientscientific observation and testing, the

gift of longevity has been bestowed inabundance upon certain members of theworld of trees. Older than the oldestsequoia, more venerable by far thanMexico's famed tule tree, are the ancientbristlecone pines of the American South-west.

The 4600-year-old Methuselah Tree inCalifornia's Ancient Bristlecone PineForest was sprouting when the Egyptianpyramids were being built. I ts living butsilent neighbors have guarded the bleak,windswept hillsides for upwards to fortycenturies, and continue to produce fertileseeds for the perpetuation of the speciesin ages yet to come.

Forest Service personnel say that inmany of the trees only ten percent of thebulk is living tissue, but even this littlebit is enough to insure a bristlecone in-

dividual's life and vitality. Curiously,tests have proved that seeds from themost ancient ones produce seedlingsfully as virile as those from "youngsters"only a few hundred years old.

Preliminary studies by Dr. Andrew El-licott Douglass in the early 1900s werecontinued by his protege, Dr. EdmundSchulman, who made the P/n/is aristatahis life's work. Dr. Schulman dated treespecimens with a Swedish r ing borer, ahollow drill which can plug a tree r ightto the core without permanently damag-ing it. From these plugs, which are ex-amined under extreme magnification, atree's rings can be counted and its historytraced -wet and dry years, fire and in-sect damage.

National Geographic Magazine ofMarch, 1958, carried a fascinating ac-23


24/44

AuthorizedJEEPSales and Service

LARGEST SUPPLYOFNE W A N D USED JEEP PARTSIN T H E WEST.Looking for aJeep Try us!

BRIAN CHUCHUA'SFOUR WHEEL DRIVE CENTERDept. DM 1625 S. Harbor Blvd.Fullerton, Cal i fornia

*cenic_FligliteOVER FABULOUS LAKE POWELL

T H EMOST BEAUTIFUL LAKE

IN THE W OR LDALSO

RAINBOW BRIDGE ESCALANTE RIVER ARCHES MO NUMENT VALLEY GRAND CANYON CANYONLANDS

Numerous other FabulousAttractionsCOMBINATION TOURS BY AIRPLANE,

BOAT, JEEP AND HORSEBACKCharter Flights to Anywhere

P A G E A V I A T I O N , INC.Write P.O. Box1385

Phone (602) 645-2494PAGE, ARIZONA, 86040

count of the bristlecone studies; the au-thor was Dr. Schulman, whose text wasbeautifully illustrated with fine colorphotographs by W. Robert Moore. Asearly as December, 1929, the Geographichad documented studies of the bristle-cone in xw article by Dr. Douglass titled"Secrets of the Southwest Solved byTalkative Tree Rings." Finally in 1958,the year of Dr. Schulman's death, theForest Service set aside a Botanical Areaof 28,000 acres between California's In-yo andMono Counties to be administeredby it for "scientific study and public en-joyment."

Removal of living and dead plants isforbidden, except by written permit toaccredited institutions who wish to pur-sue scientific study of the trees. Neithercamping nor fire is allowed, and Indianartifacts must be left undisturbed. Forcampers, a comfortable and scenic spotoutside the classified area Gra ndvie wCampground is within a fewmiles ofthe magnificent Sierra View and the en-trance to Schulman Grove.

A day is sufficient to take in most olthe highlights of this starkly beautifulcountry. In Schulman Grove, be sure totake the half-mile-long path that leadsto Pine Alpha, 4300 years old and sonamed because it is the first bristleconeto have been dated over 4000 years. Theother Schulman Grove self-guided walk-ing tour is a two-mile oneyou shouldhave an extra day for thisand takesyou to Methuselah, world's oldest knownliving tree at age 4600.

Lonely hillside is typicalof th e area inwhich bristlecones

have survived formore than4000 years.

O NLY G O LD LO O KS LIKE G O LD !ONLY THE WHITE'S S 63TR DELUXE offers these outstanding features:

No finer instrumentavailable at this price!

ALL IRANSISTORIZED SOLID STATE CIRCUITRYif SENSITIVE; WATERPROOF LOOP CA N BE USED IN WATER

if SIMPLE TO OPERATE if EASY BUDGET TERMSif TWO-YEAR GUARANTEE

Locale coins, jewelry, relics, natural gold, and silver nuygets.This "qual i ty-engin eered " detector features an all-transistor,sol id state circuitry, waterproof 3-in-l loop ; and easeof opera tion. Send for FREE LITERATURERoomUse your BankAmericard or Master ChargeWHITE'S ELECTRONICS, INC.

12 1101 1 Pleasant Valley Rd.Sweet Home, Oregon 97386

24


25/44

I'/be Patriarch, world's largestbristlecone, is more than 36feelin circumference.

If you have time to camp overnight,your sightseeing can be a bit more lei-surely, especially the 12-mile drive onrugged unpaved road to the nor thern-most section of the bristlecones, Patriarchdr ove . Her e at an altitude of over 11,000feet dwells the Patriarch in all its ancientand dramatic majesty. Tts 36-foot-eight-inch circumference makes it the world ' slargest bristlecone pine.

To see living trees which were alreadyover fifteen centuries old when Egypt'sCleopatra reigned, from Big Pine on( r.S . 395 take the paved road northeastto the Westgard Pass Road. Drive about1 I miles into the White Mounta ins andyou will come to a sign designating theAncient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Don' tforget to stop at the fossil area whereyou will be permitted to take a souvenirpiece of the fossilized marine materialif it is not for commercial use, and byall means take note of the pinyon treesen route to Schulman Grovetheir nutswere once a staple food of the PaiuteIndians.

The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forestis normally open from June I to October3 0 , after which time it is likely to besnowed in. For some lively research intoancient history, spend a day with ourvenerable bristlecone pines. D

AUKORAP R O S P E C T O R S U P P L YO F F E R S T H E F O L L O W I N G F A M O U SD ETECTOR S

W H I T E ' SR A Y S C O P EP R E C I S I O NM E T R O T E C HG O L D A KF I S H E RD E T E C T R O N

A L S O A V A I L A B L EK E E N E D R E D G E SS L U I C E B O X E SD R Y W A S H E R ST O P O M A P SG O L D P A N SA N D O T H E RR E L A T E D E Q U I P .

6 2 8 6 B E A C H B L V D .B U E N A P A R K , C A L I F . 9 0 6 2 0(714) 521-6321

G i g a nt ic Gem M a k e r ' sC A T A L O GFrom the manufacturer of the w orld'sloi gest selection of gem makingequipment. Over 200 w anted itemsyou can purchase from yourfavorite dealer. WriteSINCE / 1848ox 35, REDLANDS D,CALIF. 92373

GIVEDttwLSubscriptions as Gif ts

T O M T O MAnybody can see Northern Arizona via paved highways,but it takes TOM TOMTours in4-wheel drive vehicles to see.the hidden bequty.

All regular tours or TOM TOM Custom Toursthroughout Northern Arizona are designed with thephotographer, sportsman, treasure hunter, outdoorsmanand adventurer in mind.From the SanFrancisco Peaks (highest point inArizona), throughrugged remote canyo ns, Indian country, volcanic fields (trainingground for astronauts) and fascinating deserts.Custom Tours to satisfy a nyone. Group rates ava ilable on request.AH tours conducted in4-whenl drive vehicles.W . T V a u g h t e r . T O M T O M T O U R S , D e p t 7 0 . 1 7 0 1 N a v a i o D r. . F l a g s t a ff , A r i r o n a 8 6 0 0 1 6 0 ? 7 7 4 ? 0 6 5

2.5


26/44

H O U E N

Silent structures of Utah's prehistoric past.

by Elizabeth CampbellPhotos by Robert Campbell

HOVENWEEP, A Ute India n wo rdmeaning "deserted valley," is asix-section National Monument in south-eastern Utah and southwestern Colorado,and is noted for its several differentkinds of towers. There are other ruins toexplore: "apartment houses," or largepueblo-villages, cliff dwellings, storagerooms and kivas, or ceremonial rooms.All are excellent examples of the masonry26

that is typical of the Pueblo Indianbuilders.

The Cajon Group in Utah and theHolly, Hackberry Canyon, Cutthroat Cas-t le and Goodman Point Groups in Colo-rado are virtually inaccessible. They alsoshow more of the ravages of time andthe depredations uf "pot hunters."

Easier to reach, more extensive andbetter preserved is the Square TowerGroup in Utah. Here also is located themodern campground with i ts ramada-shaded tables. Water is available, butnot firewood. Several roads lead to thisgroup, the best one leading west from

Pleasant View, Colorado by a twenty-seven mile graded road. The road takenby the writer leads off Utah's Route 47between Blanding and Bluff and goespast Hatch's Trading Post . This is agraded road, generally considered im-passable except for 4-wheel-drive ve-hicles, and provided there has been norecent storm. This is also the shortestroute, and presented no particular diffi-culty during the middle of summer, al-though it is rough in spots and the go-ing is slow. Colorado Route 146 leavingU.S. 66 south of Cortez, Colorado isrougher and longer and not recom-mended.


27/44

SCastle was built by Pueblo Indians around 1200 A .D.

Many prehistoric Pueblo Indians, fromabout 400 to 1300 A.I) . , lived in theFour Corners area where the States ofUtah , Colorado, Arizona and New Mexi-co meet, the only place in the UnitedStates common to four state corners. Inthis desolate country north of the SanJuan River, the arid land, dotted withpinyon, juniper and sage, stretches outas far as the eye can see, broken only bythe blue Aba jo Mo untain s to the n orthand 9900-foot-high Ute Mountain to thesoutheast. Yet the mesas of Sage Plainare cut by deep canyons and it was inthese and on the r ims that the Indians

of Hovenweep built their remarkabledwell ings .

First living in caves, the early Indianslater built pit houses in the canyons andon the mesa tops. Still later they builtsurface rooms in connected rows. Aboutone thousand years ago they learned tobuild with stone masonry, and it was notuntil almost 1100 A.D. that the PuebloIndians built multi-storied houses, leav-ing their small villages in favor of largerpueb los. By I 200 they had left the openvalleys and mesa tops, perhaps for de-fensive reasons. At this time they movedto the heads of the Hovenweep canyonswith their permanent spr ings .

One hundred years later the villageswere abandoned. No one knows preciselywhy, though several reasons have beensuggested. One reason is the series ofdroughts occurring throughout the South-west, culminating in the great one of1276-1299. Another possibility is thatarable lands may have been depleted; stillanother, that the large and compact pue-blos may have been visited by disease inthe form of plagues which wiped outmuch of the population. Probably all ofthese factors contributed to the disappear-ance of the Hovenweep dwellers.

T he ruins today are an impressivesight, and little hint is given as to the27


28/44

FIND BURIEDTREASUREPowerful new elec-tronic detector W o r k s throughfinds buried earth> sand> wat:er>gold, silver, rock> et c-Wrlte frcoins. free catal9-

L ,,/ ; D e p t . V - 4 72 2 1 0 W. 34th ST.HOU S T ON , T E X . 77018

DEEPEN YOUR UNDERSTANDINGof the AMERICAN INDIAN


29/44

To MONTICELLOBlandinq

MESAVERDENAT'LPARK

C O L O :N. MEX.UTAHARIZ .

To GALLUPThe trail descends into the ravine be-

low Hovenweep Castle and here the im-posing structure of Square Tower Isfound. Mystery surrounds this tower, forno one knows why it was built. Was it afort? An observatory? A lookout tower?A storage bin for the corn raised on themesa tops!-' A place of religious observ-ance? Until it is excavated we shall neverknowperhaps not even then.

Passing by a spring, now barely more

than a seep, surrounded with w illowtrees, the trail meanders along the bottomof the canyon, then up to the rim thread-ing its way past the many features of thismonument to prehistoric Indian talent. Amoment's pause by that ubiquitous desertplantthe yucca will give one a chanceto reflect on the many uses to which itwas put. The roots were used for soap,the leaves for baskets, mats and sandals,the stems and flowers for food. Anotherplant common to the area, the Utah Juni-per, provided food with its berries, whileits wood was used for fuel and for roofbeams.

On the canyon's edge stands OvalTower at its strategic location overlook-ing the forks of the ravine. Petroglyphspecked into stone in the form of threebirds may be seen beneath the tower.

Other features are Small Tower,Eroded Boulder House, Twin Towers,not really towers, but large pueblos, andRimrock House with its angled windowsor ventilation ports. At several pointsalong the one-and-a-half-mile loop, visit-ors may take a shorter return trail to theparking lot. At one point the trail goesthrough a natural tunnel, a welcome re-lief after the hot summer sun.

The "deserted valley" with its walkbackward through time gives the visitora glimpse into the life and times oflong-ago people who had learned tolive with the land.

To Sec "Something Different" Go WithMONUMENTGoldEN YTOURS

YEAR ROUND TRIPS INCLUDE:White Mesa, outstanding arches and canyons.Blue Canyon, colored monoliths (jeep only).Monument V alley, arches, ruins, sand dunes,Navajo hogans where you can't go w i t h -out guide. Photograph interest ing Indians.Hunt's Mesa, birds-eye view of MonumentsMystery Valley, prehistoric ruins, arches.Hoskininni Mesa, al l day through NarrowCanyon to rim overlook. Indian ruins,dinosaur tracks, unusual rock formations.Monument Valley in Wintertime. Totally newface of The Valley when snow mantles thebrick-red monuments. Overlooked by many.

Pack Trips to Rainbow BridgeWrite for Brochures

BOX 187KAYENTA, ARIZO NA, 860 03Telephone (602) 6 97-3 42 4

Bill and Di l lard Crawley

C O O LAPACHE LANDBEAUTIFULj( FNH'YHSHING

HUNI I NGI 000 (.AMP Slll.bMODERN CABINS

a Vacation Landto Remember

The White Mountain Apache Indians welcome you.Come and enjoy the wond erful mountain climate,the beautifu l prim itive scenery, clear, cold streamsand the best trout fishing in the S outhw est.

For In form at ion and Free Map s, w r i teW H I T E M O U N T A I N

RECREATION ENTERPRISEP.O. BOX 218

WHITERIVER, ARIZO NA


30/44

DESERTBiqMOUTIHby K. L Boynton

1970

S ELECTING A bare spot of desert groun dfor egg-laying, directly out in theblazing sun, sounds like something nobird in her right mind is going to do.Yet, come May. Mrs. Poorwill depositstwo eggs under these very conditions,

and unless an exceptional bit of ill luckoccurs, successfully raises the brace. Infact, the maternity score for these birdsis so good that poorwills are to be foundin and lands from Canada to Mexico.

Hggs left in such a position without

protection from the sun would be ruined,of course, so Mrs. Poorwill provides theshade herself, shielding them with herown body during the incubation period.And when the two chicks hatch, theyhuddle under this feathered umbrelladuring the heat of the day.

All this is fine and dandy for the off-spring, but what about Mama? How canany bird stand such excessive heat anddirect solar radiation for such long per-iods each day? By rights, she should bedead. Yet there she sits with the sunhammering down, and when dusk comesat last, she zooms off to see about supper.

Like bats, these poorwills forage in theair for insects, quartering back and forthin an erratic flight, sometimes close tothe ear th, sometimes swooping high.Main adjunct in the grocery-gatheringdepar tment is Mrs . Poorwil l ' s big mouth.This stretches far back under her eyes,and opens sidewise to a prodigious size.Further increasing its diameter is afr inge of bristles. Proportionately longerand stiffer than a cat's whiskers, they tooare sensory aids, since there are nerveendines in the follicles at their base.

30


31/44

Touch news is quickly transmitted, great-ly improving the bird's hunting style.

Myriads of small flying insects arescooped up into this great bristle-edgedbasket as the poorwill f lies open-mouthedthrough the air . Larger prey, particularlymoths, are also caught and relished. Dam-age that might occur from such big foodshipments landing at high speeds, is pre-vented by extra large and strong bonesin the roof of the mouth, reinforcing itswhole structure. And, to keep the bristlesstraight and unclogged by insects, Naturekindly provided the poorwill with acomb: a series of tooth-like notches on theunders ide of the middle toe .

Fortified by proteins and water fron"this insect diet, Mrs. Poorwill is off to agood start when her day's work in thehot sun begins. Squatting on her eggs,she blends suddenly into the surface ofthe desert, for her beautifully variegatedcoloring in the softest bronzy grey withits mottling black and silver has an ex-ceptionally camouflaging effect.

When the day's heat begins to in-crease, other desert animals flee for theirlives dow n in to holes or to the coolest

shade and shelter they can find. Mrs.Poorwill just sits there quietly, fortucked into that little bodyonly a sizebigger than a sparroware three secret-weapons that beat the big, hot desert toa standstill.

Secret weapon No . 1 is her calm andunruffled tem per am ent . She take life-slow and easy. Her's is a very low metab-olic rate, less than one-half as fast aswould be expected in so small a bird.Her heart ticks along about 200-220times a minute (compared to a sparrow's450, a robin's 570, a chickadee's 520, acanary's 795). Going along with thisslower heartbeat is a lower oxygen intake.Her body, going about its business at aplacid rate, uses up less energy, andcreates less heat in its work.

Secret weapon No. 2 is her rare abilityto operate without strain in a very wide-range of environmental temperatures.The desert can be anywhere from 9^ deg.F. to a hot III , for instance, and thepoorwill, as long as she sits quietly, con-tinues to function without undue strain,even though her own temperature is onthe rise.

M r s . Poorwill does not pant. She hasa much better way of unloading excessheat, and this is her secret weapon No.3: she flutters the membranes of hermouth and forepart of her throat. It isthe movement of air over these moistsurfaces that cools her water evaporation.These areas are so thin and have so littlemass they can be moved either by mus-cles in the tissues themselves, or bymovements of the hyoid apparatus, abony structure that supports the tongueand upper throat.

The poorwill's big mouth offers widesurfaces for evaporation, and its mem-branes .ire loaded with blood vesselscarrying deep body heat to the surface.This gular fluttering, as it is called,actually takes very little energy, as itspace is in tune with the resonant fre-quency of the areas themselves, the samework-saving principle employed by adog panting.

So efficient is this system th at thebird can get rid of more heat than it pro-duces metabolically, and in addition, canunload much of the heat gained from theenvironment. Since this cooling is achiev-


32/44

desert shopperI tems appearing in this column are not paid advert isements

PUSH-BUTTON CITIZENS BAND UNITA new compact 5-watt mobile CB transceiver with contem-porary styling and new convenience features is now available,according to E. F. Johnson Company, veteran manufacturers.The Messenger 125 citizens two-way radio is only ll /2 incheshigh, 41/2 inches wide and 7 inches deep and is claimed to bethe most compact ever manufactured. In addition to the smallsize, other new features include five crystal-controlled chan-nels controlled by push buttons. Standard Johnson solid-statecircuitry is used throughout, including 1 3 transistors, 7 diodesand 2 thermistors. For information on the new unit and itsfeatures write to E. F. Johnson Co., Dept . DM, 299 TenthAvenue Southwest, Waseca, Minnesota 56093.

LIGHTWEIGHT TOW LINETired oi hauling around a heavy chain? In his new catalog,Dick Cepek lists an emergency tow 121/, feet long that weighsonly 1% pounds with a tested strength of 65OC pounds. Madeof heavy duty braided poly-pro, it has hooks on both ends.Won' t rat t le or rust. Dick Cepek, popular supplier of backcountry tires and accessories (plus hundreds of other gadgets)has also moved into his new building at 9201 California Ave-nue, South Gate, Calif. 90980. Stop by and see him or writefor his new catalog, Tel] him Oesert Magazine sent you.

32

ed so cheaply and with very little energycost, Mrs. Poorwill can maintain a stablebody temperature of 107.6 when thedesert is I 1 I-I 13. Even if her surround-ings hit 118.4, she can keep her tempera-ture down well within the range she cantolerate.

When they finally hatch, poorwillyoungsters are covered with down in-stead of arriving naked as is usual withaltricial birds. This is a good head start,and what with being stuffed full eachnight with a high protein diet of insects,they grow fast.

Mrs. Poorwill is a first class nest pro-tector, employing some fancy diversiontactics. She goes into her broken wingroutine, flopping along the ground, lur-ing the intruder far away from the nestsite, and when almost caught, suddenlytakes off into the air and away. Onezoologist reports that as he was peer ingat one nest site, the youngsters them-selvesonly about 2-3 days oldbeganwhirl ing and flopping, doing a bit oftactical diverting on their own.

Eating insects foraged from the air isa fine way for a desert dwelling bird tomake a living. It permits working thegrocery detail at night when it is cooler,an d it nets a highly nourishing menu.But it has one serious drawback: partof the year, the weather is too cold forthe insects to be there. At this point,the usual procedure is for the bird totake off and go where the weather iswarm enough for insects to be flying.

N ot Mrs. Poorwill . She stays home.Creeping into a rocky crevice, she goesinto a kind of torpor, which in manyways resembles the hibernating done byvarious of the furry tribe who putthemselves out of circulation while-food supplies are short and the weathertoo cold for activity.

Ironically, the Indians ol the South-west who had been around the deserregions for a couple thousand yearsknew the poorwill as "the sleepingone" and told about birds that sleep bywinter hidden in the rocks. Such infor-mation was regarded with turned-upnoses scientifically, and filed away un-der "myths."

Then , one November day in 1946biologist and desert expert Dr. EdmundJaeger, out with a class of students ona field trip, actually found a poorwil


33/44

wedged in a vertical crack in a rock.They almost missed it, so well camou-flaged was it with its cryptically pat-terned feathers. And they thought itdead, for there was not the slightes:movement, nor could they detect eventhe faintest heart beat. But, as theyhandled it, the bird began to puff a bit,and after a time, o pened one* eye. It mad ea few squeaky mouse-like noises. Then,opening its big mouth, it yawned in theirfaces. They left it on the ground tempor-arily in the sun, and when they returnedabout three hours later, and picked it up,the bird suddenly raised its wings andtook off. (Desert. November, 1954).

When Jaeger 's report of this astonish-ing episode was published, bird specialistsgot quite a jolt. Here for the first timewas undeniab le evidence of a bird d oingsomething suspiciously like hibernating.Hats were tipped both to Jaeger and tothe Indians, and then a flurry of activityensued looking into poorwill physiologyto learn how in the world a bird couldsurvive for some three months with nofood and in lethally cold temperatures.Today this razzle-dazz'e bird with thebig mouth is still in the limelight, withmore interesting facts being reported allthe time.

It seems what touches off this torporbusiness along about the last of Octoberis the absence of insect food supply, andthe concurrent drop in night tempera-tures. The bird can enter into torpidityat a pretty high temperature, somewherearound 62 degrees and the process canbe so fast that it is probably run by thecentral nervous system. The heart slowsdown steadily to an imperceptible beatand the temperature drops from a nor-mal 102 to a very cold 41. in deep tor-por . Noth ing could look deader thanthis poorwill now, and even a mirrorheld to its beak shows no moisture.Coming out of hibernation is not soeasy. Arousal seems to be triggered bythe outside temperature r ising to about7 I F . Shivering, that well known warmer-upper that produces heat in men andmice as wellstarts the process going.The bird's heart rate picks up, its bodytemperature starts to climb; the shiveringstops when the bird is as warm as theair temperature. Still far from on the job,however, the poorwill may need severalhours for complete arousal, since its tem-perature must be at least 95F before it

can be active, and it's a long climb fromthe (hill of deep torpor.

It now appears that this torpidity canbe worked on a short time basis as well,say for a few hours a day onlya veryhandy thing at the beginning of theseason when the bird is officially out ofwinter hibernation but the weather stillnot warm enough lor an abundant insectsupply.It may take Mrs. Foorwill a while toget up full steam after a long winter'ssleep, but the late spring nights f ind herabroad early and late, in the midst of thepoorwill social swing. Now indeed is itapparent why these birds are also knownas "nightjars" for the still of the desertis broken by their clear ringing call, aparticularly vocal bird being able toshout "poorwill" every two or threeseconds and keep it up for hours.

How this is done around a mouthfulof insects remains to be investigated bysome hard working scientist. Until hisreport appears, Mrs. P. probably has theanswer: all in a night's work even as shebeats the desert's heat in her workingday.

M E T A L L O C A T O R S

8 Models (complete)

T O " S C U B A L O O P "SEE YOUR DEALER

OR WRITE FORFREE LITERATURE

R O T H I N D U S T R I E S D e P ..7oWorldway Box 90993Los Angeles, Calif. 90009

NairnWHY NOT TAKE AN IMAGINARY TRIP THROUGHCAL I F O RNI A . . . I N S O UND?Sit back, relax and listen to the wonderful sounds of naturewhich have been captured on both sides of this unusual stereorecord. Close your eyes and imagine Yosemite Water Falls infull flood leaping and bounding on the rocks below . . . hear the return of the swallows to famous SanJuan Capistrano Mission . . . and the delightful sounds of w orld famous San Francisco CableCars . . . listen to the animals at seal rocks and the seagulls on Fisherm an's W harf . . . the bells atMission Deloris and dozens of beautiful bird calls.All these and many more sounds have been recorded on this unique record . . . you v/ill have manypleasurable hours listening to this 1 2" LP recording.

SO UVENIRS IN SOUNDP . O . BO X 6 6 91 05 0 W. HVU Y 66F L A G S T A F F A R I Z . 8 6 0 0 1 N o . of Records Wanted :

T o u r s inC a n y o n la n d s N a t io n a l P a r k ISLAND IN THE SKY WASH ERWOMAN WALKING ROCKS MO NUMENT BASIN

T o u r s n e a rC a n y o n l a n d s N a t io n a l P a r k ARCHES NATIO NAL MO NUMENT ON IO N CREEK HURRAH PASS MO UNT AIN LOOP SAND FLATS

RATES8 Hours $1 5 per person4 Hours $1 0 per personSpecial Tours $2 0 per person

Minimum : 2 Fares 12 an d under Va Fare

LIN O T T ING ER'SMoab Rock Shoo. 137 N. Main, Moab, Utah 84532

Ph

197007 desert magazine 1970 july

Documents