197502 desert magazine 1975 february

8/14/2019 197502 Desert Magazine 1975 February

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Come visit us...at ournew location74-425 Highway 111at Deep Canyon RoadinPalm Desert, California

FEATURING:BOOKS OF TH E W EST . . . PRINTS . . . MAPS . . .NOTE CARDS . . . STATIONERY . . . GOLD PANS

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WILLIAM KNYVETT, Publisher-EditorGEORGE BRAGA, Art DirectorMARY FRANCES STRONG, Field Trip EditorF. A. BARNES, Utah Associate EditorGLENN VARGAS, Lapidary EditorK. L BOYNTON, NaturalistMARVEL BARRETT, Circulation Manager

Volume 38, Number 2 FEBRUARY 1975

CONTENTSF E A T U R E S

THE COVER:A solitary desert primrosein contrast to the sandydesert f loor in the Anza-Borrego State Park. Photoby David Muench, SantaBarbara, Cal i fornia.

IT'S FITTING! 8TUMBLEWEED TAKES A TUMBLE 12

CARLOCK, CALIFORNIA 16THE REAL ARIZONA 18

MYSTERIOUS ZUNI SALT LAKE 22DESERT DERELICT 24

ROUNDUP FOR DESERT MUSTANGS 26

WONDERLAND OF ROCKS 32

THE CASE OF THE BONES IN STONE 36

Mary Frances Strong

James L. Larson

Howard Neal

John Lawlor

John Southworth

DanB. McCarthy

Buddy Mays

Enid C. Howard

F. A. Barnes

D E P A R T M E N T SB O O K S FORD E S E R T R E A D E R S 4 Book Reviews

DESERT LIFE 31 Hans BaerwaldDESERT PLANT LIFE 41 JimCornett

RAMBLING ON ROCKS 42 Glenn and Martha VargasLETTERS TO THE EDITOR 46 Readers'Comments

CALENDAR OF WESTERN EVENTS 46 Club Activities

EDITORIAL, CIRCULATION ANDADVER TISING OFFICES: 74-425 Highway 111, Palm Desert, California 92260. Telephone Area Code 714346-8144.Listed in Standard Rate andData. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States, Canada and Mexico; 1 year, $6.00; 2 years, $11.00; 3 years, $16.00. Otherforeign subscribers add $1.00 U. S.currency for each year. See Subscription Order Form in this issue. Allow five weeks for change of address andsendboth new and oldaddresses with zipcodes. DESERT Magazine is published monthly. Second class postage paid at Palm Desert, California and ataddi-tional mailing offices under Act of March 3,1879. Contents copyrighted 1975 by DESERT Magazine and permission to reproduce any or all contents mustbe secured in writ ing. Manuscripts and photographs will not De returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.Desert/February 7975


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GHOSTS OF THEGLORY TRAIL byNell Mur-barger. A pioneer of theghost town explorers andwr i te rs . M iss Murba rge r ' s fo l l owers w i l l be gladto know this book isonce again in print . Fi rs t pub-l ished in1956. it is now n its seventh edi t ion.Thefast-moving chronic le is a resul t ofpersonal in ter-v iews of o ld - t imers who are no longer here to te l lthei r ta les. Hardcover, i l lus trated. 291 pages.S7.00

30,000 MILES IN MEXICO by Nell Murbarger.Joyous adventures of a t r ip by pick-up campermade by twowomen f rom T i j uana to Guatema la .Folksy anden te r ta i n i ng , aswel l as ins truct ive toothers whomigh t make the t r i p . Hardcover . 309pages. $6.00.Order from

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B o o k s f o rD e s e r tH e a d e r s

when an analyst wasunheard of an d Dr.Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery tookcare of " h u mo r s and vapors . "

You'l l f ind true beauty in old bottles,t o o . Milk glass bottles, smooth and mel-low. Picture bottles and miniatures,snuff bottles, f igurals, bottles for miner-al waters and peppersauce, soda bottles,wh i ske y b o t t l e s and f l a sks . Co lo r s ,shapes andsizes to fascinate any collec-tor, newcomer to the f ield or seasonedp r o .

This book features the top 250bottlesU.S.A., and l ists the ten most desirablebottles in a host of categories. The au-thors, Art andJewel Umberger, have anexpertise in their f ield that cannot bechallenged. No w is the t ime to start yourinteresting new hobby. Let the Umber-gers get you off to a f lying start withtheir interesting and very informativeTop Bottles, U.S.A.

Profusely i l lustrated, paperback, 112pages, $4.50.

TOP BOTTLES, U.S.A.By Art and Jewel Umberger

A tremendous interest is growing inthe collection of antique bottles. This ex-citing hobby has mushroomed from ahandful of collectors to many thousands.It is a hobby that the whole family canenjoy together. And, in thesearch for oldbottles, many antiques have been found;coins, guns, rare pieces of china. Sidebenefits derived from the very realpleasure of bottle collecting.

The discovery of a rare old bottleopens up a newunderstanding of l ife atan earl ier period. A collection of oldmedicine bottles takes one back to aslower, less-complicated l i fe-style. At ime when a concoction of aromatic bit-ters could cure almost anything. A t ime

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NEW BAJA HANDBO O KFor the Off-Pavement Motor istin Lower CaliforniaBy James T. Crow

To the average American, Baja Cali-fornia is a foreign country. Even a t r ip toEurope is l ess " fo re ign" than a visit toBaja. The language is di f ferent, themoney isdi f ferent, theunits of measure-ments aredi f ferent, thecustoms are dif-erent, the l i fe isdi f ferent. It's a strange,exotic land like noother place on ear th.

The Baja one encounters, once awayfrom the ourist centers and off thepave-ment, would have to be classified aspr imi t ive. Not retarded or savage, butu n t r a m p l e d , u n t r a v e l e d , u n s p o i l e d .There are sti l l plenty of out-of-the-wayplaces that call for a certain amount ofadventurousness, a certain measure of

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independence andal i t t le more self-suf-can be expected of the

That's really what this book isabout,the real Baja that lies beyond the edge ofthe paved road. The author 's travels inBaja have been extensive andhe hasmade more than 50 tr ips below theborder gathering information and im-pressions about thepeninsula.For anyofus, ifwe know more or lesswhat we're going to encounter, it'sa loteasier totake that first step into a newadventure. Careful planning, too, willmake the tr ip more enjoyable.

Th e NewBaja Handbook isan nvalu-able aid for the traveler planning his f i rstt r ip toBaja, or or theseasoned off-pave-ment motor buff planning toexplore newfacets ofthe fascinating peninsula.

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A bigpart ofthe pleasure oftaking at r ip is n the planning andgetting ready.This iswhere James T.Crow, drawingfrom hisextensive travel experience,makes avalid contr ibution tomodern-day travel inBaja.

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All books reviewed may beordered from Desert MagazineBook Shop, Box 1318, PalmDesert, California 92260. Besure toenclose check or moneyorder andCalifornia residentsmust add 6%state sales tax.

ARJZONA Cook BookBy Aland

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COLORFUL DESERT WILDFL OWE RS by Graceand Onas Ward. Segreaged into categories ofred, blue, white and yellow for easier identifica-t ion, there are 190 four-color photos of flowersfound in the Mojave, Colorado and WesternArizona deserts, all of which also have commonand scientific names plus descriptions. Hard-cover, $7.50.HOW AND WHERE TO PAN GOLD by WayneWinters. Convenient paperback handbook withinformation on staking claims, panning and re-covering placer gold. Maps and drawing s. $2.50.A FIELD GUIDE TO WESTERN REPTILESAND AMPHIBIANS by Robert C. Stebbins. APeterson Field Guide. 207 species, 569 illustra-tions, 185 in full color, 192 maps. The best bookof this type. Hardcover, $6.95.THE SALTON SEAYeslerday and Today byMildred de Stanley. Includes geological history,photographs and maps, early exploration anddevelopment of the area up to the present.Paperback, 125 pages, $1.50.ROCKS AND MINERALS OF CALIFORNIAcompiled by Vinson Brown, David Allan andJames Stark. This revised edition will save youhours of time by the description and pictures ofrocks and minerals found in this state. Color pic-tures with clearly developed keys show you howto identify what you have found and gives youfine tools to increase your ability as a field col-lector. Paperback, well illustrated with photos,locality maps, charts and quadrangle map infor-mation. 200 pages. $4.95.NAVAJO RUGS, Past, Present and Future byGilbert S. Maxwell. Concerns the history, leg-ends and descriptions of Navajo rugs. Full colorphotographs. Paperback, $3.00.

INSIDE DEATH VALLEY by Chuck Gebhardt. Aguide and reference text of forever mysteriousDeath Valley, containing over 80 photographs,many in color. Included, too, are Entry Guidesand Place Name Index for the convenience ofvisitors. Written with authority by an avid hiker,backpacker and rockclimber. 160 pages, paper-back, $4.95.THE STORY OF CRATER LAKE NATIONALPARK by Howard and Marian Place. On June12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman, searching forgold, accidentally discovered a deep blue bodyof water in the crater of an extinct volcano atopthe Cascade Mountains in Southern Oregon.This is the story of Crater Lake and the CraterLake country, richly illustrated with current andhistorical photographs. Paperback, 84 pages,$3.95.MINING CAMPS AND GHOST TOWN S, A His-tory of Mining in Arizona by Frank Love. Drama-tic history of the mineral frontier as it affectedone section of the vast American West, the lowerColorado Region. Illustrated, hardcover, 192pages, $7.95ANASAZI: Ancient People of the Rock, photo-graphs by David Muench, text by Donald G.Pike. This outstanding, moving publicationgives the reader the unique opportunity to seeand understand the Anasazi civilization thatexisted some 2,000 years ago. Blending withDavid Muench's suberb photography, historianDonald Pike provides a fascinating text. Hard-cover, profusely illustrated with color and blackand white photos, 192 pages, $18.95.

.vlOCKEL'S DESERT FLOWER NOTEBOOK byHenry and Beverly Mockel. The well-knownpainter of desert wildflowers has combined hisfour-color sketches and black and whitephotographs to describe in detail so the laymancan easily identify wildflowers, both large andsmall. Microscopic detail makes this an out-standing book for identification. Special com-pressed fiber cover which w ill not stain. 54 full-color illustrations with 72 life-size drawings and39 photographs, 316 pages, $5.95.NEVADA GHOST TOWNS AND MININGCAMP S by Stanley W . Paher. Covering all of Ne-vada's 17 counties, Paher has documented 575mining camps, many of which have been erasedfrom the earth. The book contains the greatestand most complete collection of historic photo-graphs of Nevada ever published. T his, coupledwith his excellent writing and map, creates a bookof lasting value. Large 9x11 format, 700 photo-graphs, hardcover, 492 pages, $15.00.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA by the Sunset Edi-tors. A new revision offering a wide variety ofexperiences to both the tourist and resident-parks, beaches, fairs, resorts, wilderness, pluscities. General area maps plus useful travel in-formation cover areas from Fresno to the Mexi-can border. Many illustrations, paperback, largeformat. 160 pages, $2.95.BAHAMAS, A STEER TO REMEMBER byHarriett E. Weaver. A dramatic and tender storyof a boy, his pet, and the devotion they had foreach other, deftly weaving reality with fiction.Fifteen-year-old Brad is given Bahamas as aweak calf not expected to survive. The story en-compasses hard times in the giant redwood for-est and a flood that ravaged the country. Theauthor of FROSTY, A Raccoon to Rememberbrings you another fascinating story in Bahamasa book to be remembered. Hardcover, 181pages, $5.95.LOST MINES & BURIED TREASURES ALONGTHE OLD FRONTIER by John D. Mitchell. Thesecond of Mitchell's books on lost mines whichwas out-of-print for many years. Many of theseappeared in DESERT Magazine years ago andthese issues are no longer available. New read-ers will want to read these. Contains the originalmap first published with the book and one pin-pointing the areas of lost mines. Mitchell's per-sonal research and investigation has gone intothe book. Hardcover, 240 pages $7.50.

THE CALIFORNIA DESERTS by Edmund C.Jaeger. Revised 4th edition is a standard guideto Mohave and Colorado deserts with new chap-ters on desert conservation an aborigines. Hard-cover, $4.95.GEM TRAILS OF ARIZONA by Bessie W . Simp-son. This field guide is prepared for the hobbiestand almost every location is accessible by car orpickup accompanied by maps to show sandyroads, steep rocky hills, etc., as cautions. Lawsregarding collecting on Federal and Indian landoutlined. Paperback, 88 pages, illus., $3.50.AMERICAN INDIAN FOOD AND LORE by Car-olyn Neithammer. The original Indian plantsused for foods, medicinal purposes, shelter,clothing, etc., are described in detail in this fas-cinating book. Common and scientific names,plus descriptions of each plant and unusualrecipes. Large format, profusely illus., 191pages, $4.95.GOLD RUSH COUNTRY by the Editors of SunsetBooks. A revised and up-dated practical guide toCalifornia's Mother Lode country. Divided intogeographical areas for easy weekend trips, the8x11 heavy paperback new edition is profusely il-lustrated with photos and maps. Special featuresand anecdotes of historical and present dayactivities. Four-color cover, 96 pages. $2.95.

SOURDOUGH COOKBOOK by Don and MyrtleHolm. How to make a sourdough starter andmany dozens of sourdough recipes, plus amusinganecdotes by theauthors of the popular Old Fash-ioned Dutch Oven Cookbook. A new experiencein culinary adventures. Paperback, 136 slickpages, illustrated, $3.95.MY CANYONLANDS by Kent Frost. A vividaccount of the early exploration of Utah's Can-yonlands by the author who spent his entire lifeexploring America's new national park and whopresently runs a guide service through thescenic country. Hardcover, artist illustrations,160 pages, $6.95THE OREGON DESERT by E. R. Jackman andR. A. Long. Filled with both facts and anecdotes,this is the only book on the little but fascinatingdeserts of Oregon. Anyone who reads this bookwill want to visit the areasor wish they could.Hardcover, illustrated, 407 pages, $8.95.OWYHEE TRAILS by Mike Hanley and EllisLucia. The authors have teamed to present theboisterous past and intriguing present of this stillwild corner of the West sometimes called theI-O-N, where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada come to-gether. Hardcover, 225 pages, $7.95.

Desert/ Febru ary 1975


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California residentsplease add6% state sales taxPlease add 25c for postage & handling

DESERT, The American Southwest by RuthKirk. Combining her knowledge of the physicalcharacteristics of the land, and man's relation tothe desert from the prehistoric past to the prob-able future, with her photographer's eye and herenthusiasm for a strange and beautiful country,the result of Ruth Kir k's work is an extraord inar-ily perceptive account of the living desert. High -ly recommended. Hardcover, beautifully illus-trated, 334 pages, $10.00.GHOST TOWN BOTTLE PRICE GUIDE by Wesand Ruby Bressie. A new and revised edition oftheir popular bottle book, first published in1964. New section on Oriental relics, plus up-to-date values of bottles. Slick, paperback, illus-trated, 124 pages, $3.95FIELD GUIDE TO ROCKS AND MINERALS byFrederick H. Pough. Authoritative guide to iden-tification of rocks and minerals. Experts recom-mend this for all amateurs as one of the best.Many color illustrations. Hardcover, $7.95.DESERT PLANTS AND PEOPLE by Sam Hicks.Tells how pimitive desert dwellers find susten-ance, shelter, beverages and healing medicinesin nature. Hardcover, $6.95.GHOST TOWN ALBUM by Lambert Florin.Over 200 photos. Fascinating pictorial accountsof the gold mining towns of the Old Westandthe men who worked them. Large format. 184pages, profusely illustrate d, originally publishedat $12.50, new edition $4.98.

CALIFORNIA-NEVADA GHOST TOWN ATLASandSOUTHWESTERN GHOST TOWN ATLASby Robert Neil Johnson. These atlases are excel-lent do-it-yourself guides to lead you back toscenes and places of the early West. Some pho-tos and many detailed maps with legends andbright, detailed descriptions of what you willsee; also mileage and highway designations.Heavy paperback, each contains 48 pages, each$2.00.GEM MINERALS OF IDAHO by John Beckwith.Contains information on physical and opticalcharacteristics of minerals; the history, lore, andfashioning of many gems. Also eleven rewardingfield trips to every sort of collecting area. Slickpaperback, maps and photos, 123 pages, $3.95TREASURE HUNTER'S MANUAL #7 by Karlvon Mueller. Treasure, or treasure trove, manyconsist of anything having a cash or convertiblevalue; money in all forms, bullion, jewelry,guns, gems, heirlooms, genuine antiques, rareletters and documents, rare books and much,much more. This complete manual covers everyfacet of treasure hunting. Paperback, 293 pages,i l lustrated, $6.95.NEW MEXICO, photographs by David Muench,text by Tony Hillerma n, depicting New Mexico'smany and varied contrasts in a unique blend thatis her mysterious beautyand a grandeur that isour natural heritage. Hardcover, large format,188 pages, $25.00.

CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS by the SunsetEditors. A comprehensive guide covering thenorthern coast and redwood country, the SierraNevada and northern mountains, the San Fran-cisco Bay area, central valley and foothills, thecentral coast region, the southern desert andmountains. Area maps and photos. 128 pages,paperback, large format, $2.95.DESERT PLANTS FOR DESERT GARDENS byPatricia Moorten and Rex Nevins. Compiled forbetter understanding and appreciation of plantsindigenous to the desert region, including pro-per design for desert gardens, container plants,pool areas and complete landscaping. Paper-back, illustrated, 113 pages, $3.00.ON DESERT TRAILS by Randall Henderson,founder and publisher of Desert Magazine for 23years. One of the first good writers to reveal thebeauty of the mysterious desert areas. Hender-son's experiences, combined with his commentson the desert of yesterday and today, make this aMUST for those who really want to understandthe desert. 375 pages, illustrated. Hardcover,$7.50.LOST MINES OF THE GREAT SOUTHWESTby John D. Mitchell. The first of Mitchell's lostmine books is now available after having beenout of print or years. Reproduced from theoriginal copy and containing 54 articles based onaccounts from people Mitchell interviewed. Hespent his entire adult life investigating reportsand legends of lost mines and treasures of theSouthwest. Hardcover, illustrated, 175 pages,$7.50.

GHOST TOWNS AND MINING CAMPS OFCALIFORNIA by Remi Nadeau. An excellentbook on California ghost towns. We recommendit highly. Paperback, $3.75.TO HELL ON WHEELS by Alan H. Siebert. Amust for every desert traveler, this is not justanother survival book, it is a manual of mobilityfor the recreational vehicle driver who is lookingfor something more than the organized camp-ground. Highly recommended for both thenewcomer and old-timers. Paperback, 64 pages,well illustrated, $2.95.SOMEWHERE OUT THERE . . . Arizona's LostMines and Vanished Treasures by Kearny Eger-ton. A fascinating collection of 23 stories by anartist-writer, combining the most famous lostmine legends into an anthology. For all who be-lieve there's gold in them thar hills! Paperback,beautifully illustrated, $3.50.THE GREAT AMERICAN WEST by James D.Horan. With over 650 illustrations, many in fullcolor, this is the full western story from the daysof the conquistadores to the 20th Century. Manyrare photos never published before. Large 9x12format, hardcover, 288 pages, originally pub-lished at $10.00, now only $4.95.

HAPPY WANDERER TRIPS by Slim Barnard.Well-known TV stars, Henrietta and Slim Bar-nard have put together a selection of their tripsthroughout the West from their Happy Wander-er travel shows. Books have excellent m aps, his-tory, cost of lod ging, meals, etc. Perfect for fam -ilies planning weekends. Both books are largeformat, heavy paperback, 150 pages each and$2.95 each. Volume One covers California andVolume Two Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.WHEN ORDERING STATE WHICH VOLUME .SOUTHWEST INDIAN CRAFT ARTS by ClaraLee Tanner. One of the best books on the sub-ject, covering all phases of the culture of the In-dians of the Southwest. Authentic in every way.Color and black and white illustrations, linedrawings. Hardcover, 205 pages, $15.00.TURQUOIS by Joseph E. Pogue. [Memoirs of theNational Academy of Sciences]. First printed in1915, Turquois has in its third printing (1973)been updated in many ways. Among them arelisted currently-operated Turquois mines, morecolor plates. The book is full of incredible resultsof research and an in-depth study of this fascina-ting mineral of superficial origin. Hardcover, 175pages, beautifully illustrated, $15.00.

TALES THE WESTERN TOMBSTONES TELLby Lambert Florin. The famous and infamouscome back to life in this great photo history in-cluding missionary, mule driver, bad guy andblacksm ith what tales their tombstones tell.Large format, 192 pages, originally published at$12.95, now only $3.95.THE BAJA BOOK, A Complete Map-Guide toToday's Baja California by Tom Miller and El-mar Baxter. Waiting until the new transpenin-sular highway opened, the authors have pooledtheir knowledge to give every minute detail ongas stations, campgrounds, beaches, traileroarks, road conditions, boating, surfing, flying,fishing, beachcombing, in addition to a BajaRoadlog which has been broken into convenienttwo-mile segments. A tremendous package forevery kind of recreationist. Paperback, 178pages, illus., maps, $7.95.WILY WOMEN OF THE WEST by Grace Er-nestine Ray. Such women of the West as BelleStarr, Cattle Kate and Lola Montez weren't allgood and weren't all bad, but were fascinatingand conflicting personalities, as researched bythe author. Their lives of adventure were a vitalpart of the life of the Old West. Hardcover, illus-trated, 155 pages, $7.95

Desert/February 1975


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N e v a d a G h o s t T o w n

I t ' s Fitting!

The little ghost townof Fitting

nestles at the eastern endof Spring Valley Canyon.Buildings viewed from the

Bonanza King Mine roadrepresent the "uppe r section of town. "

by MARY FRANCES STRONGPhotos by Jerry Strong

T i l ^ WERE rapidly descending theI narrow confines of Spring Valley

m Canyon on the eastern slope of Ne-vada's Humboldt Range. As we roundeda sharp curve at the canyon's outplain,the road passed through one of the mostpicturesque litt le ghost towns we hadseen during many years of travel. "I t 'sF i t t i n g ! " Jerry exclaimed, as he brakedto a stop before we passed it by. Quicklyand easily, we had located the objectivesof our trip the go ld placers in SpringCanyon, Bonanza King Mine and theformer sett lement of Fit t ing.

Our love affair with Fitting began atf irst sight. Why? We cannot answer that

question. It just happened. To others,this small group of buildings may seemto be the same as any other old miningcamp. For us, Fit t ing had a "spec ial ai r"about it . T here was almost the feeling ofexpectancy, as if at any moment peoplewould appear. Even a stage roaringdown the road seemed not unlikely.

Though only a small number of build-ings remained, their varied architecturegave personality to the old camp. Amon gthem were small cabins with shed-typeroofs th e i r u npa in ted boards nowbleached and weathered to a pleasantsilver-gray. Some utilized board and batconstruction, and at least two homes



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coufci tie called "imposing,'siders where and when they were built .

Wa lking aroun d only increased the ex-citement we felt . There was evidence ofhappy l iving here. Many of the l i t t letouches had been addded which turn acabin into a home. At one house, agarden plot had been carefully l ined withcolorful rocks containing azurite andmalachite. Close bywas a sizable, rock-faced root cellar for storing a "boun t i f u lc r o p . " A spring had been tapped to pro-vide running water. Trees had beenplanted and porches built . Many of Fit-t i ng ' s r es iden t s m us t have en joyedwatching traff ic go by.

It was late October and Jack Frost hadalready paid avis i t toFit t ing. Old, gnar l-ed trees in asmall orchard wore leaves ofdeep red and bright yellow. Massiveclusters of golden blooms on giantclumps of rabbit brush cast the lovelyglow of autumn over the land. From anoverf low pipe, fall ing water t inkled l ikewind chimes as it splashed on rocks inthe creek bedbelow. Huge cottonwoodtrees lined the canyon floor. Their leave*f lut tered in the breeze like gaudy-yellowbutterf l ies and emitted a quaking rust lethat seemed to warn winter was not toofar away.

Evidence of extensive mining waseverywhere. Tremendous piles ofdredgetail ings l ined the canyon up anddown-stream of Fi t t ing . A large pond layimmediately east. On the hill south ofcamp, the headframe of the BonanzaKing Mine stood guard over a deepshaft.

Discovered in 1868, the Eagle Mine(later (Bonanza King) became the onlyimportant lode mine in the Spring ValleyDistr ict. Re-located several t imes, theproperty waseventually purchased bythe Oakland Mi l l and Mining Company.It began development in 1873 and erect-ed a 15-stamp mill in 1874. One year lat-er , theoperation had failed. From 1905to 1908, the Bonanza King Mine Com-pany tr ied its luck but production wassmall.

The vein is in a diorit ic dike cutt ingprophyrit ic rhyolite of the Triassic Koi-patu format ion. Ore minerals includedsphalerite, galena and pyrite with tetra-hedrite occuring in the r ichest ore. Hugeadits, shafts and raises remain from thefrantic search for high-grade orebodies.They areopen andhighly dangerous.Evidently, l iving quarters had beenDesert/February 1975

Right: A good,graded road

leads upLimerick Canyon.

This groveof cottonwood trees

offers agood pull-out

area foracoffee break.

It was probablya way-station

site inthe early days.

Below: A "triplex"dwelling and

former root cellarstill remain

at Fitting.An old orchard

is still aliveand there wasevidence of a

substantialgarden plot.


10/48

"*+

L ^m

Great p/7es of dredge tailings line the canyon floor both east and west of Fitting.Considerable g old was found in the placer deposits.

built at the mine site, as we noted greatquantit ies of broken bottles and dishes.Old foundations and a small section of abrick building sti l l stand. A sizable areais covered with miscellaneous parts ofmining equipment along with an incredi-ble amount of junk.

Originally called Spring Valley, Fitt ingcame into existence as did most c a m p s -due to the needs of miners. It probablydates back to the early 1870's, when asupply point and place to "bend an el-bo w " w ith fr iends was a necessity in thisremote and rugged region. Connectionwith the outside world was via a twice-weekly stage to Lovelock. Fitting boast-ed a general store, saloon and supporteda post office from 1905 to 1910.

The rich placer ground in the bottomof Spring Valley Canyon was discoveredin 1881. Over the n ext three decades, itwas worked primari ly by Orientals. In1911, The Federal Mining Company ofChicago built a 2000-cubic-yard dredgewhich operated for three years. Record-ed production for the distr ict amounts toten mil l ion dollars, but this includes therich American Canyon placers immedi-ately south. Since the dredging, placer-ing has continued intermittently.

Mining fol lowed a pattern in the earlydays. The "great whi te hope" for a for -tune the lode m ine wou ld, at f irst,produce high-grade ore. When this ran10

out, they faltered and fai led . Many neverproduced again, though low-grade oreremained.

With placer deposits, it was anotherstory. Most placer ground was heavilyhand-worked in the beginning. If i t werefeasible, dredges were used later to goover the gro und. Even though the bulk ofthe gold had been recovered, the depos-its were never idle for long.

During the years of the Great Depres-sion (1930's), many a man kept hisfamily going by working old placer de-p o s i t s . To d a y , " g o ld se e k in g " ha sbecome a popular recreational activity.Armed with portable dry-washers andsluice boxes, hobbyists spend weekendsand vacations working various deposits.It may not be assumed, however, thatbecause a mining claim is not posted ithas been abandoned. Before workingany ground, a check must be made as tothe ownership of the claim.

We l ingered long at Fitt ing, savoringthe nostalgia and enjoying the touch ofsun on such a crisp fall day. The olddredge pond, piles and piles of tailings,debris and excavations at the BonanzaKing mine and the remnants of the l i tt letown were reminiscent of the Coloradomining camps where I spent my earlyyouth.

Jerry and I speculated Fitt in g's attrac-tion might be due to the fact people had

lived there, intermittently, over the last100 years . It had not been abandoned ,only idle at times! One house had recent-ly been fixed up. Curtains hung at thewindows and a neat board and wire fenceenclosed it. We assumed it was stillbeing used. Reluctant to leave, but withthe sun casting long shadows and a chillon the air, we said our goodbyes to theli tt le mining camp.History buffs leaving Highway 40 atOreana (or iginally Oreana Junction) andheading up State Route 50 to visit Fit-t i ng , w ill need at least a fu ll day in whic hto explore the area. Great temptation todigress from their objective wil l me met,since the road leads through scenic andhistor ical mining country.

Less than three miles from Oreana,the road divides. Keep left. The r ightfork leads to Rochestera famed miningarea dating back to the 1860's. Plan tovisit it another day. The graded road nowwinds up through Limerick Canyon and,almost at once, you will begin to see evi-dence of mining. At a point 3.1 milesfrom the jucn tion, a grove of cotton woodtrees provide an excellent site for a cof-fee break. Faint trails, leading south upGold Ridge, can be seen from this point,which was probably the site of an early-day way-station.

Anothe r four miles dumps you out intoan high valley, which was an importantl ink wi th the "h igh r o a d " to the silverstrikes in Rochester Canyon. The road isstill clearly visible snaking its way southover the mountain peaks. Four-wheel-dr ive is recommended. Though gold hadbeen mined in the Rochester Districtsince the 1860's, it wasn't until 1912 thatrich silver ores were discovered. Due tothe lesser grade up Limerick Canyon,this route was used to haul heavy sup-plies to the budding camp.

The valley was also an ideal locationfor an overnight rest stop and the smallsettlement of Panama sprang up. A two-story hotel and saloon provided theamenities dear to the hearts of freightersand mining men. In later years, Panamahad one i l lustr ious residenta form erpresident of the United States! Afterl e a v i n g th e W h i te H o u se , H e r b e r tHoover returned to his profession ofmining engineer. In 1936, he leased sev-eral claims near Panama and spent twoyears in the area.

We found mining sti l l going strong atPanama. "Posted" signs had been notedDesert/February 7975


11/48

Pershing County

along the road and several springs werebeing utilized for the placer operations ofthe Limerick Canyon Cold Company.Stopping to watch mining act ivit ies, wemet the congenial owner, Dave Duffy."Our system is simple," Dave told us.He explained that ore was picked up by askip loader and transported to a largehopper. Nex t, it was conveyed to a rotarywasher. After being moistened andscreened, fines passed over a series ofriffles for recovery of the gold.

Dave appeared to be quite familiarwith the region and imparted a greatdeal about its history. Upon leaving weremarked, "Maybe we wil l see you nextyear . " "No, " was Dave 's rep ly . "Wewill be through here by next spring."Who knows, perhaps someone else wil l

be working the ground in the hope Davemissed a few gold nuggets.

From the site of Panama, where onlythe saloon building remains, the roadclimbs to the crest of 6200-foot, SpringValley Pass. You can park on this verynarrow ridge and have a commandingview of two valleys and towering peaksof the Humboldt Range. Pinching to one-lane width, as it quickly drops down themountainside, the road crosses SpringVal ley and descends Spr ing Va l leyCanyon to Fit t ing . Along the way are oldmines, trees marking old cabin sites andlong rows of peaked gravel mounds leftby the dredge.

Dave Duffy had told us that Fit t ing'splacers probably were last worked byGeorge Proctor in 1948. He also had

given us some information we were sad-dened to hear. It seemed there was astrong possibility that the Bureau ofLand Management would raze all butone building at Fit t ing. This was nothappy news for many people living in thesurrounding area. They felt the pictures-que l it t le camp should be preserved.Perhaps B.L.M. will have a change ofheart, since its policy is now directed to-ward the protection of historical sites,rather than the destruct ion of them.

If Fitting is gone in body, it is not gonein spirit. A litt le settlement that couldsurvive a hundred years of good and badtimes will always live on in the hearts ofthose who lived there and in those of uswho merely visited, but took home amemory which wil l never be forgotten.

Most of thecabins werenot painted.

Time andexposure has

given the woodan attractive

silver-greycolor.

Road inbackgroundleads to the

Bonanza Kingan d

Cinnabar CityMines.


12/48

TumbleweedHI HREE MEN huddled around a turn-I l l bleweed last May near Indio, Califor-4 nia. The air was hot and still as the

men concentrated intensely on a smallwhite box held by one of them. Slowly,careful ly, he opened the box and thethree watched in great anticipation as asmall white moth fluttered from the boxand landed on the tumbleweed. "It wasjust l ike opening up my w all et ," quippedLeonard Zink. The men opened moreboxes until 100 little moths had been re-leased in the patch of tumbleweeds.

The three men were Bob Hawkes,United States Department of Agricultureentomologist; Leonard Zink, CALTRANS(California Department of Transporta-tion) landscape specialist; and Bill Freer,

CALTRANS assistant maintenance su-perintendent. They had just launched anexperiment in biological control of thebothersome, tumbling tumbleweed, theculmination of cooperative efforts of theUnited States Department of Agricul-ture's Research Service (ARS), the Uni-versity of California at R iverside, and theCalifornia State's Departments of Agr i -culture and Transportation.

After years of correspondence with en-tomologists in Egypt, visits to Pakistanand research in the United States, BobHawkes, ARS entomologist specializingin the biological control of weeds, de-termined that this t iny moth from Pakis-tan Coleophora parthenica attacksonly the tumbleweed and a closely relat-

ed plant, halogeton (a weed poisonous tolivestock).

The idea of biological control is notnew. Hand picking insect pests from aplant is the oldest known method of"appl ied b io log ica l contro l ." Keepingtoads in a garden to devour insect pestsis another. These and other methodstrace their beginnings back thousands ofyears. Yet we, today, are more concern-ed with "ma n-indu ced biological con-t r o l , " such as the introduction of the Ve-dalia Beetle, Rodolia cardinalis ( ladybirdbeetle) for the control of cottony-cushionscale which threatened to all but destroythe citrus industry in California.

CALTRANS has been very interestedin utilizing this method of control be-

Fig. 7. Newly hatched larvae feedsthrough the egg shell and into the leaf.

Fig. 2. After feeding inside the leaves fora few days, the larvae moves into theplant stems to complete development.

12HEZ74



13/48

A Tumbleby JAMES L.LARSON

1. The insect is generally continuousalways producing more insects to do2. There are no residues or toxic ef-

3. There is no movement or infestita-plants they feed only on

4. The insect is effective.Already CALTRANS, in conjunct ion

has had highly successful results

Microlarinus lareynii, the seed

weevi l , an d Microlarinus lypriformis, th estem weevil.

In San Diego County, three insects im-ported from Austral ia were recently re-leased to control physillid colonies livingon Acacia trees. Physillids are tiny peststhat suck chlorophyll from the tendernew leaves.

But why the warfare on the tumble-weeds? After all, isn't it one of the mostprestigious weeds in the United States?Why, i t was thrust into stardom whenBob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneersrecorded the ir b ig h i t , "Tumbl ing Tum-bleweeds!" Whoever heard a hit tuneabout the Cut-leaf Bugleweed? Or, howabout "dr ift ing along with the woolly-podded mi lkweed ?" W hat m ovie or te le-vision Western is complete without at

Larva

least one scene of the howling, gustydesert wind dr iving a herd of tumble-weeds? A ghost town wouldn't be aghost town w ithout our famous characterrushing along the lonely streets in frontof the relentless w i nd !

In spite of al l this fame, the tumble-weed has, with al l i ts rol l ing around,gotten a pretty bad name for itself in theWestern and Central states, and increas-ingly on the South and Eastern coasts.For the past 100 years, this prickly pesthas been "d r i ft i ng along . . . pledging itslove to the ground." With a single plantproducing from 20,000 to 50,000 seeds,and being blown sometimes for miles,we've got a lot of tumbleweeds on ourhands!

continued

Fig. 4. The adult coleophora p arthenica,natural enemy of the Russian thistle.

arvae of the tumbleweed de-

^5&JS Adult

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the plant and complete their develop-ment (Fig. 3). Inside the stems, the lar-vae feed for a tim e, cut a small portholeto the outside and pupate. Upon emerg-ing from pupation, the moth exits via theporthole, mates, and starts the cycleover again (Fig. 4).

The action of the thistle breaking awayat maturity and fol lowing the wind tospread seed also takes moths in pupaeform into other thistle- infested areas.

Natural ly, extensive testing must bedone before any foreign insect can be re-leased anywhere in the United States,an d Coleophora was no exception. Thepossible disastrous consequences are ob-vious. So the " tumblew eed m ot h" un-derwent careful scrutiny under labora-tory conditions. Tests have shown thatthe adult moths offer not problem to na-tive flora they simply do not feed. Inmost cases in the laboratory, femaleslaid eggs on Russian thistle alone. Inthose rare instances where they laideggs on other plants, the egg developedbut the larvae seldom left the egg. It justremained inside and died. Occasionally,larvae emerged but lived only a shorttime in other plants other than Russianthistle.

Of the plants tested in the green-house, there was never any question asto the possibility of Coleophora parthen-ica using anything but Russian thistle orhalogeton as a host. Since the larvae arenot able to crawl, except within the con-fines of a self-made tunnel, larval move-ment from one plant to another is justabout impossibleDesert/February 1975

Researchers, convinced that the tinymoth was "the one for the job," nexthad to gain approval for the release ofthe moth from the states adjoining Cali-fornia and from Canada and Mexico. Allapproved, and the r ight-of-way along In-terstate 10, near Indio, was selected asone of the test sites.

Six weeks after the men huddledaround that f irst tumbleweed, the tr ioreturne d to check on the progress ifany. Hawkes reached into the pricklyweed, broke off a stem and sliced it intotiny sections, hoping to find a mothlarva. To their de light, they discoverednot one, but four larvae in the one stem!"The experiment is progressing betterthan we had hoped," Hawkes explained.If the experiment does prove to be suc-cessful, it will be a major victory in thecampaign to combat undesirable vegeta-tion without contr ibuting to environmen-tal pollution.

So now we'll just sit back and let Cole-ophora gnaw away. It looks like the endof an i l lustr ious career for Mr. TumblingTumbleweed. Hm-m-m . . . "The Wool-ly-podded Mi lkweed" just might workup into a catchy l i tt le tune . . .

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16/48

G H O S T S by HOWARD NEALLOCATION: Carlock is located on Carlock Road,

eight miles w^st of Highway 395, near Randsburg in thenorthern Mojave Desert.

BRIEF HISTORY: There are two types of gold in thedesert. One is the much adm ired m etal. The other, nearly asprecious, is water. Carlock existed because of its water. First,when it was knjown as Cow Wells, it was a watering place forstock and a rest spot for desert travelers. Later, as Carlock, itbecame a mill] site where ore from nearby m ines was pro-cessed. In the 1880's, cattlemen put up line shacks at thespot known as Cow Wells. Those floorless structures wereamong the firsi in the broad valley that separates the El Pasofrom the Rand Mountains. It was several years, though, be-fore Cow Wei s had a permanent resident.

A town was born at Cow Wells because the sur-rounding mou liains contained gold, and those mining thegold needed water. Cold was discovered in the El Paso range

at Red Rock Canyon and at Coler Gulch. It was discovered tothe east in the Summit M ountains at Summit Dry Diggings .A nd , finally, it was discovered in April of 1895, high on RandMounta in .

The Rand discovery was the largest. There was agold rush of major proportions w hich created the m ining townof Randsburg. In the summer of 1895, the water needed bythe thirsty people of Randsburg came from Cow Wells.

Cold ore is thirsty, too. Water is vital for process-ing. Wh en Eugene Carlock brought the first stamp mil l to thearea, in the fall of 1895, he set up his operation at Cow Wells,and the place became known as Garlock.

Eugene Carlock's eight-stamp mil l processed orefrom the Yellow Aster Mine, the r ichest in Randsburg, aswell as from many other mines in the distr ict. Five other mil lswere established and Carlock became a real comm unity withits stores, saloons, homes and, in 1898, a post office. Thepopulation is said to have reached nearly 500.

The mills at Carlock were the first in the district.

Sarah "CraiSlokum'sonce a famouslandmark inCarlock,has recentlycollapsed."Granny," kno\language as wellas her generosity,arrived in Carlockand bought mostof the abandoned

Desert I vhruary 197


17/48

stands today

water thatwas the reasonfor the birthof Garlock.

The relativelyshown stand

near theformer sites

of Jennie's Bar

Mercantile ofthe 1890's.

though they were inefficient, and much of the gold stay-in 1898, the Randsburg Railway arrived and ore could

at the mines at Randsburg,

GARLOCK TODAY. Gariock is not quite a truebut it is very close. Today, only two people call Carlock

stroyed, either by vandals, or by the wind and sun of the des-ert. Yet, even today, one can find the old saloon that looks asif it were once a bank, as well as a dozen other buildings invarious stages of disrepair. Of particular interest is one of thebest examples of an arrastra remaining in the desert..Thestamp mil ls are gone, sold for scrap in Wor ld W ar I. Even thetailings have been re-worked, and are also gone. Still, th eremnants of Garlock that remain are silent reminders of theMojave gold rush days of the 1890's when the loud voices ofbusy men could be heard above the whisper of the desertwind.


18/48

A r i z o n aTHE TRUE STORY BEHIND ONEOF TH E WE ST 'S GREATESTTREASURE LEGENDSbyJOHNLAWLOR

IE MEXICAN vi l lage of La Ar izona,Sonora, is in a valley 20 miles south-west of Nogales. It's not far beyondthe border of our own state of Arizonaand one might assume that's where itgot its name.

But precisely the opposite is the case.The state was named after the vi l lage.

More than two centuries ago, La Ari-zona was a mining center on one of themost rugged fron tiers of the Spanish em-pire. In its early years, it was the focalpoint of a rich silver strike that becameimmortalized as a legendary lost mineand forever identif ied the name Arizonawith great weal th .

Yet, today, the settlement is all butforgotten and isn't even shown on mostmaps.

La Arizona was founded in 1730 as ElPueblo y Real del Arizonac the villageand mining camp of Arizonac. The namederived from a Pima Indian term mean-18

ing "small spring." The Spanish earsoon rejected the harsh final " c , " how-ever, and the place was called La Aris-sona or La Arizona in many of the earl i-est records.

The village was in the Pima country ofnorthern Sonora, where there had beenlittle Spanish colonization. The onlyother Europeans nearby were a scatter-ing of soldiers and Jesuit priests at In-dian missions established in the late1600's and early 1700's by Father Euse-bio Francisco Kino.

It remained a quiet l i tt le pueblo unti llate October 1736, when a Yaqui Indian,named Antonio Siraumea, discoveredmassive chunks of silver ore in a canyona few miles to the northeast. He foundone piece that weighed 12 arrobas about 300 pounds!

Prospectors from the village of thesmall spring rushed to the canyon. Mostof them found only small, scattered

specimens of ore but one, Domingo As-mendi , located a 275-pound chunk, al-most as big as the Yaqui's. Another,Juan Fermin de Almazan, had the in-credibly good luck to unearth a piece thatproved to weigh 2500 pounds! The s tr ikequickly became known as the Planchasde Plata or Bo/as de Plata slabs or ballsof silver.

According to contemporary descrip-tions, the ore was soft and waxy in ap-pearance. That would indicate it washorn si lver or, as it 's known scientif ical-ly, cerargyrite or silver chloride. Spanishauthorit ies were baffled. They weren'tfamil iar with horn si lver in a naturalstate. They knew it as a product of thepatio process of silver refining, a tech-nique which involved m ixing ore contain-ing argentite or silver sulfide with salt toform silver chloride. The latter was easyto purify further by amalgamation, whilesilver sulfide was not.



19/48

That led to the belief the depositwas n't a virg in str ike at all, but was orethat had already been partly refined byearlier miners, either Spanish or Indian.If so, the silver was a treasure trove, nota mining prospect, and belonged e ntirelyto the King of Spain!

Such a view was strongly supported byFather Jose Toral and other Jesuits atthe missions. The priests seemed lessconcerned with enriching the royal treas-ury, though, than with preventing the in-flux of fortune seekers that word of a richf ind wo uld attract. They knew a great si l-ver rush would seriously disrupt their ef-forts to preach among the Indians andconvert them to Christ ianity.

The ranking Spanish off icial in north-ern Sonora at the time was Captain J uanBautista de Anza, commander of thePresidio of Fronteras, whose son andnamesake, then less than two years old,would play major roles in the histories ofboth California and New Mexico.

As soon as he learned of the Planchasde Plata, de Anza rode to La Arizona, ar-riving there in early November 1736. Hefound the deposit was already peteringout . He es t im ated th at over 5 ,000pounds of ore had been extracted beforehis visit to the vil lage. Afterward,though , only another 250 to 300 poundswere found.

Nonetheless, at the urging of theJesuits, he tried to impound as much ofthe ore as he could, pending a decision

Opposite Page: The 19-mile road westward to the historic settlemen t is graded mostof the way. A vehicle w ith good clearance like this Jeep Command o is useful, butfour-wheel-drive isn't necessa ry. Above: H idden in the mountains of northern Son-ora, southwest of the bordertown of Nogales, is the historic village that gave ourGrand C anyon state its name. The litt le pubelo dates from 1730. Below: This is a20th Century ruin, not an ancient S panish structure. Nonetheless, it had to be fenc-ed to protect it from vandals who searched for "treasure" that simply doesn't exist.


20/48

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by higher authorities as to whether itwas a treasure or a natural mineral dis-covery.

The miners of La Arizona were shock-ed and dismayed. Under the laws ofSpain, they expected to pay a 20 percenttax the so-called royal fift h on thevalue of any precious metals they work-ed, but at least they kept 80 percent. Atreasure would be a different matter.There would be a finder 's fee, but i tcould be as little as five percent. And inno case was it likely to be more than 50percent.

In the face of this, the Yaqui Siraumeafiled a petition in January 1737, askingsome compensation for discovering thePlanchas de Plata in the first place.Eventually, he got back 150 pounds ofsilver, jus t 50 percent of his origina l f ind.

The owne rship of the Planchas was de-bated in court for more than a year and ahalf. Finally, in July 1738, Juan AntonioVizarron y Eguiarreta, Viceroy of Mexi-co, ruled that the silver was indeed atreasure and, therefore, belonged to theKing.

The Viceroy was probably influencedby Father Toral and his fellow priests.For, in addition to serving as the King'spersonal representative in Mexico, Vi-zarron y Eguiarreta also happened to beArchbishop of Mexico City. With that re-sponsibi l i ty, he would most l ikely havebeen sympathetic to the arguments ofthe Jesuits.

Reports of the controversy and the Vi-ceroy's resolution of it were sent to Spainfor the approval of King Philip V. Itwould be another three years before HisMa jesty made a s ta teme nt on thesubject. When he did, it was a bomb-shel l . In May 1741, he issued a decreenot only affirming his right to thePlanchas but claiming as royal propertythe entire mining distr ict of La Arizona!

The King stated that the Planchas hadtotalled 4,033 pounds, somewhat lessthan de Anza's estimate four and a halfyears earlier. He singled out DomingoAsmendi's 275-pound chunk for particu-lar attention. While proper taxes hadbeen paid on the f i nd , His Majestyargued that, as a great natural curiosity,the ore itself should've been presentedto h im.

King Phil ip apparently believed thesoft ore was some sort of embry onic formof silver, for he concluded the decree bydeclaring the area around La Arizona to

20

Downstreamfrom the

small springthat gaveLa Arizona

its Indianname

Arizonacthe waters

form abroad lagoon

used toirrigate

the farmsthat servethe modern

community:be a criadero, or growing place, of themetal and ordered it to be worked on theroyal account.

The effects of this decision were dis-astrous. The King had closed the districtto individual prospectors without offer-ing any practical incentive for workingits ore deposits as royal property. Therewas no reason for anyone to remain inthe village of the small spring and, soon,it was abandoned. In a few short years ithad gone from boom to bust and becomeone of the earliest min ing ghost towns inthe West.

If La Arizona had died, the story of itssilver lived on. No one seems to havepaid attention to de Anza's report thatthere was hardly anything left of thePlanchas deposit only a few weeks afterits discovery. To the Spanish and, later,to both Mexicans and Americans as wel l ,the Planchas de Plata became a fabulouslost mine. Indeed, in the frontiersman'simagination, the slabs of silver grewbigger and richer with each retelling ofthe tale.

In the decades that followed, therewere attempts to relocate the Planchasand there may have even been someclandestine mining in the distr ict. How-ever, it wasn't until the 1870's, half acentury after the end of Spanish rule inMexico, that settlers returned to La Ari-zona. They were attracted by another sil-ver str ike, southeast of the or iginal vi l-



21/48

lage. A mine was established therecalled the Planchas de Plata, though itwasn't near the true Planchas site. Andit never yielded anything like 300- to2500-pound slabs of ore.

Meanwhile, the legend of La Arizona'sgreat wealth had inspired the adoption ofits name for a new American terr i tory tothe north. It was a good omen, for theterritory and later the state of Arizonawould prove exceptionally r ich in miner-al resources. In time, it would have itsown legends of treas ure, such as those ofthe Lost Adams and Lost Dutchman, torival the story of the Planchas de Plata.

Today, the village of La Arizona is anejido, a cooperative farm ing comm unity,rather than a min ing tow n. It l ies along astream f lowing from the Ar izonacthe

small spring itself. At the west end of thesettlement is a broad, sandy wash thatcomes from the Planchas de Platacanyon.

The buildings are fairly recent in ori-g i n , though some of them look dilapidat-ed enough to date back to the 1700's!Some barely visible mounds of adobe ata nearby cemetery are the only likely re-mains of the original pueblo y real.It isn't a very im pressive place in ap-pearance. Nonetheless, its people arerightful ly proud of i ts br ief yet br i l l iantmoment in history. And, understand-ably, a resident of La Arizon a m ight notbe able to resist reminding occasionalvisitors from the north that the name oftheir Grand Canyon state really means"sma l l sp r in g . " D

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22/48

The tiny lakewithin the cinder cone. MYSTERIOUS Z

by JOHN SOUTHWORTH

F OR MA N Y ce nturies, perhaps a mil-lennium, the Indian tr ibes of what isnow New Mexico and Arizona, re-quir in g salt for both domestic and ba rterneeds, have traveled to a mysteriouslake in the chapparal highlands not farfrom the continental divide.

Coronado visited this lake on his trekfor the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola andSpanish miners in Mexico hauled its salta thousand miles to reduce rich ores tosi lver bull ion.

Even today, the Zuni Indians, from thePueblo of Zuni, make an annual journeywhere in, with much ceremony, they takewhat salt they need for the followingyear and leave symbolic gifts at thehome of their Salt Goddess.

A salt lake in a dry land of alkali flatsand uncertain drainage certainly wouldnot be mysterious, but the Zuni Salt Lakeis a paradox in a land of surprises. First,it is in a basin or depression on high22

g r o u n d , a lmost inv is ib le f rom thesurrounding land and startl ing to comeupon. Water where no water shouldexist. Then, the lake almost surroundstwo small dark cinder cones, a few hun-dred feet in diameter, which are total lydwarfed by the horizon rim rock aroundthe lake. Finally, the smaller cinder conehas a near-perfect central crater withinwhich a blue jewel of a tiny lake reflectsthe bright New Mexico sky. A craterwithin a crater and a lake within a lake.Truly a mysterious spot.To top it all off, the tiny inner lakemakes a wonderful swim ming hole whenit is warmed by the hot summer sun. Al-though l i feguards are missing, there islittle chance of drowning and absolutelyno chance of sinking in water which con-ta ins about seven t imes as muchcommon salt as does ocean wate r. Beforeswimming , remember that the nearestshower is far away and you w ill become awalking salt mine covered with irr i tatingsalt crystals difficult to remove without a

large volume of fresh water.Apparently the inner salt pool is the

primary source of brine which passespractical ly unhindered through the inter-vening loose volcanic cinders of the mini -crater into the outer lake where, wit h hotsun and a large surface, the water sea-sonally evaporates leaving nearly puresalt as a snowy residue. Since about1938, the salt has been commerciallyharvested from the lake bottom andfrom diked crystal l izing ponds. Blowingdust and lake bottom material can con-taminate the final product which is sold,according to purity, as domestic tablesalt, highway salt (for winter use on icysurfaces) and stock salt (range cattlelicks).

During the height of the productionyears, there was a post office and schoolon the shore of the lake. Today, it hasone family in a well-constructed stonehouse, no post office, and school by busto Quemado, 19 miles to the southeast.

The exact genesis of this fascinatingDesert/February 7975


23/48

Commercial harvestingof the salt beganabout 1938.

salt deposit can only be surmised sincelittle scientific work has been done onthe subject. The large crater- l ike depres-sion at first observation appears to be ofvolcanic or igin, but there is l i tt le basaltor lava distr ibuted around the outer sur-faces and the inner walls expose onlysl ightly disturbed sedimentary rocks.Surely the basin is not a large low cindercone and probably it isn't the result ofvolcanic explosion. Most l ikely the de-pression is the result of solution of exten-sive underlying salt beds in the deepsedimentary formations with subsequentcollapse of the overlying material intothe solution cavity.

The miniscule amount of volcanic ac-tivity which is evident in the area ratherindicates that a large disturbed area ofbroken sediments through which saltwater already rose to the surface formeda path of least resistance for a dyingstage of volcanism which created twosmall cinder cones but did not stop thewater f low.Desert/February 7975

Probably the pre-volcanic water flowwas many times greater than the presentto dissolve and carry away the subter-ranean mass of salt represented by thevolume of the surface depression whichis a mile or so across and perhaps 200feet deep.

St. Johns, on the eastern border ofArizona, is an interesting rural commun-ity on the upper Little Colorado River(with good swimming at Lyman Lake towash off all that salt you bring back) andis the first civi l ization west of Zuni SaltLake. Go straight east out of town on anunmarked graded road about 50 milesthrough open cattle country and l i tt leelse to a marked intersection with StateRoute 32 down from Fence Lake, NewMexico. Plan on nearly two hours unlessyou really make the dirt and rocks fly. Orgo northwest on Route 32 from Que-mado, New Mexico, on a much shorter,slightly better road (which is also morebelievable because the road signs actual-ly make mention of a Salt Lake) to the

same marked intersection.The only entrance into the Zuni Salt

Lake depression takes off south and eastin a jumble of roads at this inters ection.Up over a sl ight r ise just a few yards andwhat you had about decided was a fig-ment of someone's imagination is at yourfeet, a total s urprise because there is noexter ior indication of what l ies ahead.

In the winter, the wind and snow blowand there is l i tt le evaporation from thesurface of the Zuni Salt Lake. In thespr ing, the wind b lows and the tumble-weeds prosper and blow into the lake. Inthe summer, the hot sun rapidly concen-trates the br ine in an oven-l ike sti l lness.Foreign items in the supersaturated sol-ution serve as nodes for crystallizationand come out covered with beautiful ha l-i te crystals, the tumbleweeds looking foral l the wo rld l ike crystal chandeliers. Thecommercial salt harvest is made in latesummer and fa l l .

Pick the season to suit your interestsand visit myster ious Zuni Salt Lake. 23


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S EVENTEEN MILES south of OldMexico's Rock Point (Puerto Penas-co), where Sonoran sand dunes slipoff right into blue Gulf of California surf,there's a desert derelict aground that 'sbound to st ir most anyone's im agination .Here's the sett ing:You're out back in the sandy waste-land, four-wheeling through a hollowyou haven't seen the sea yet. Round an-

other dune now and from the east, topoff at the crest ahead and, What 'st h i s? "A shipwreck!You've come upon the 97-ton Eros, awood-bottomed merchantman now aban-doned, weathered, vandalized, almostfor lorn.In 1916, Eros slid from the ways in aSwedish shipyard. Proudly her woodenbow was christened Eros. For centuries,sailing ships attracted such names from

Creek mythology; and Eros has meantgod of love since the ancient Olympiadays. Later, the Romans coined theword , too. To them Eros meant Cupid.Ironically, Greece and Italy are landsfar away from the pleasant Mexican sea-shore where Eros' seafaring voyages hadended so brusquely and embarrassingly.Understandably then , this magnetic,deteriora t ing hulk from far-off Swedenas wou ld any crum bling adobe stagestopin Arizona , or ruins of a silver mine backin t he Ca l i f o rn ia m oun t a ins ru f f l es

your curiosity.You snap all sorts of photographs ofEros. (Only at that point you don't knowthe vessel's name, her age, weight,marit ime purpose, her owner . . . lots offacts l ike that.)But, upon leaving Joe's EstuaryEros ' shipwreck havenyou promiseyourself : "Try to f ind out about thatgrounded vessel . "She's a gem of the sand and surf pastfrom a rust ic, neglected point of view.

She seems to deserve continued atten-t ion.Our beachcombing group f irst glimps-ed Eros in late April of 1972, some three-and-one-half years after she ran agroundin late October of 1968, searching for asnug harbor out of the strong Pacific cur-rents. Even by then , the vessel flyingjib canvas tattered and f lapping in thebreeze, her riggings afoul, lots of planksloosened and dang ling had her ownpart icular brand of forgotten expression.The Eros, laden with 100 tons of diesel

by DAN B. MCCARTHY

24 Desert/ February 1975


25/48

M/

equipment and parts, drums and drumsof lubricants for the machinery, a goodcache of champagne for the crew ofeight, and one handsome European mo-torcycle, had cast off from Sweden in1966.Captain and owner then was Carl He n-rick Ludwigs. During two years out-bound from Sweden and prior to beach-ing in Mexico, the Eros had:1. Her propeller en tangled in a Japan-ese fishing net out in the Atlantic Oceanwhich took a diver 18 hours to free.2. Erred in navigation, some 150miles off course near the Canary Islandsbefore the correct ion was made.3. Sprung some serious leaks whilesail ing toward the Panama Canal; spenttwo months in the Zone gett ing repairs.4. Seen five of the eight crewmenleave the ship at Mazatla n.Settled in the sand now, we circled her

and such Eros emergencies as stormyseas, leaking holds, and empty food lock-ers the last week of sailing toward RockyPoint, seemed so remote from the peaceand calm of her abject desolation.The report goes that Eros wo uldn 't beatilt today, listing badly to port side, ifthe captain hadn't placed full faith in aMexican pilot, hired to direct the Erossafely into the estuary. No soundingswere taken. Eros ran aground.Mexican marit ime authorit ies allow anowner of such a distressed ship 90 days

to free the vessel. If not, Mexico claimsship and cargo under the nation's aban-doned or shipwrecked vessel clauses.Ludwigs and aides attempted to l ight-en the Eros by removing as much cargoas possible. Hopefully, one of the threemonthly high tides due would success-fully ref loat the wooden-bottomed mer-chantman. No luck. Eros held fast to theshoreline f loor. Time and high t ide hadrun out.Gradually, the ship disappears. Be-

tween the t ime the accompanying pic-ture was taken and late summer of 1974,the twin masts had vanished, along withthe r iggings. More planking is loose,point ing askew.At rest now, though forsaken, Erosst i l l tugs the heartstr ings, elicits a fewfaster f lutters to the beat. You come upover a sand dune and the o ld merchant-man seems to be straining doggedly tokeep from keeling over entirely to port.Eros, the desert derelict, doing yeo-

man duty in that holding act ion! Desert/Februarv 7975 25


26/48

T ^ o u q c f u p

pear cactus. Now and then, a travelermight come upon a tiny , cool sprin g,bubbling up from beneath a rock, but

b y B U D D Y M A Y S J M AC INE , IF you will, a 23,000-acre mostly the land is dry and ar id, burnedsection of h igh , desert mesa country to a chocolate brown by the 100 degree-in southern New Me xico, f i l led with plus desert sun.

little more than rattlesnakes and prickly - The n, visualize a cowhand who straps26 Desert/February 7975I


27/48

on his spurs, coils his lariat and heads to-ward his pick-up loaded down withhorse, saddle and lots of water in round,gallon-size canteens.

Finally, imagine a tiny dust cloudsomewhere in those 23 ,000 acres.Caught by a desert wind , the dust clouddisappears for a moment, then growslarger. Then, from beneath the dust,manes and tails whipping in the breeze

nd unshod hooves thro win g sparks ofDesert/February 1975

fr iction- fire into the sand, come a herd ofhorses wild horses run ning as if thedevil were on their heels. Then, only afew paces behind the herd, the devilshows himself in the form of a huge,spotted stallion, ears flattened and teethnipping at the flanks of the horses infront of him. This way and that, he turnsthe herd, keeping them on an invisibletrail that only he knows. Few men haveseen the s tallion few er yet have ever

walked in his domain.If you can create a picture similar to

that just described in your mind, thenyou've just set the scene for what has tobe one of the Southwest's most excitingevents . . . a wild horse round-up . Onceeach year, on the sprawling McKinleyRanch, in southern New Mexico, cow-boys load their cowponies into the backof four-wheel-dr ive pick-ups and headfor Lucero Mesa, a badland-like expanse

27


28/48

Above: Weldon McKinley gets ready to rope one of his wild m ustangs. Below: TheMedicine Hat stallion spirit horse to the Com anche.

28

of desert 40 miles east of the dustytown of Belen. This small portion of NewMex ico is called home by a herd of Span-ish Barb Mustangs, descendants of theor ig inal "Mestenos" which came to theUnited States in the closing years of the16th century.

The cowboys who take part in theround-up are led by ranch owner, Wel-don McKinley, a man who considers theherd not only a part of his ranch but alsoa part of his family. McKinley acquiredLucero Mesa and the horse herd in 1958.Instantly, he fell in love with both theland and the Mustangs. Consequently,once each year, he and his cowboysround up the herd to make sure theyhaven't been injured during the longdesert winter. This is a chore he dearlyloves.

There aren't many Mustangs left onLucero Mesaonly about 25 at lastcount. Although the animals are protect-ed not only by the solitude of their deserthome, but also by the watchful eyes ofthe McKinley Ranch, some of the horsesare taken by predators, others fall tosickness and snakebite. Nevertheless,the Mustangs seem to be holding theirown, foaling several colts each year andstaying in country where many menwould not care to venture. This factmakes the yearly round-up more thanjust a horseback ride in the desert.

After two hours of dif f icult drivingover dusty, rut-f i l led roads, McKinleyand his men finally reach the LuceroMesa area. Unloading and saddling theirgra in- fed, domestic horses is only thefirst chore. The men must now make-,ure their cowponies are in top co ndition i f a horse went lame in the "bad-l ands, " it would probably mean a20-mile walk in temperatures as high as100 degrees for its rider. They mustmake sure they have plenty of watersince springs are few and far b etween onthe mesa. Necessary, too, is first aid kit,food, poncho, and all the other equip-ment needed for a ride into wilderness.

When everything is ready, when eachlittle detail has been checked and doublechecked, the real problem begins find-ing the Mustangs. A hundred dif ferentside canyons wind through the mesacountry and the wild horses could be inany of them.

Mc Kinle y and his men spread out overthe desert, each taking a different direc-t ion. Round-up t ime isn't a new game



29/48

The herdof mustangs

are driveninto thecorrals

to be checkedand thenreleased.

with the Mustangs McKinley has beenchasing them for 15 years bu t thehorses never allow themselves to just beled to the corral. The herd leader, andsire of all the foals, is a "M ed icin e H at "stallion a spotted , stream lined beautywith brown ears and black eyes, thoughtto be a spirit horse by the Comanche. Atalisman of living flesh and as sacred tothe Comanche as India's cows, theMedicine Hat knows every nook, cranny,and rattlesnake hole on his 23,000-acrehome.

After three or four hours of hard rid-i ng , search ing every ho le in thebadlands, one of the McKinley r iders,usually by luck, wil l f inally spot the herd.Then the fun begins.

Lariats whir l ing, domestic horsefleshlathering to the point of exhaustion, thecowboys attempt to maneuver the Mus-tangs toward a set of wood and wire cor-rals erected just for the purpose of con-taining wild horses. This is no easy taskwhen the horses don't want to go.

As the day progresses, the round-upusually develops into a contest of witsbetween Weldon McKinley and theMedic ine Hat stud. If the stallion turnsthe herd into a red-walled side canyon,in an attempt to escape to the high coun-try, McKinley's experience and fore-thought has usually placed a cowhandDesert/February 7975

there to turn them back out again. Simil-arly, riders keep the herd away from thefew waterholes on Lucero Mesa in an at-temp t to dry them out. Once, in the earl-ier days of the round-up, a McKinleycowboy tr ied to run the Mustangs unti lthey gave up in exhaustion. That cow-hand's horse died beneath him, his heartliterally exploded by over-work. Sincethen, McKinley has used brains insteadof brawn to corral the Mustangs, savinghis horses as well as his men.

Finally, sometime in the late afternoonor early evening, the great, spottedMedicine Hat stallion decides he and hismares have had enough, and allows theherd to be driven into the corrals. Therethey are counted, checked for injuriesand snakebite, and admired by thecrowd of press and local horse loverswho have driven 40 miles of bad road towitness the round-up. One or two of theanimals will be roped and gentled bycowboys and, in very rare circum-stances, a young Mu stan g w ill be sold toa breeder. Whoever the lucky buyermight be, he knows that before he evergets his hands on the horse, his back-ground has bee closely scrutinized byMcKinley. One incident of misconductwhere any horse is concerned, and theman would not have been allowed on theranch, let alone to buy a Mustang.

Then, just as the sun sets down overthe cactus-covered desert, the gates tothe corrals are opened and Weldon Mc-Kinley says goodbye to his Mustangs foranother year. Manes and tails f lying,hooves pounding the dusty desert floor,the Mustangs f lee the corrals at a gallop.

" I 'm not a man who cr ies," says Mc-Kinley as the horses disappear into thedusk, "but everyt ime I see those ani-mals, I want to break into tears. T hey'rejust too damn pretty for words!"

Not too many years ago, wild horsesby the thousands covered the WesternUnited States from Oklahoma to the Ore-gon Cascades. Many of these were trueSpanish Barb Mustangs which, duringthe late 1500's, had filtered up fromMexico across the Staked Plains ofTexas. Old documents lead us to believethat the Mustangs originally escapedfrom great Mexican haciendas. Beforethat, they had been brought to Mexicofrom Spain.

In 1598, more Mustangs were broughtinto the United States by a Spanish ex-plorer named Coronado, who at the timewas searching for mythical cities of gold.Coronado didn't f ind the r iches he de-sired, but when he left, many of histough, spir ited Spanish Barbs rem ained,either in the hands of Indians or Spanish

continued29


30/48

H e r e ' s B o wY o u C a n O r d e rH i g h Q u a l i t yR E P R I N T S

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The Gold Rush

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The Mining Town

The Ghost Town

soldiers who had elected to stay in theSouthwest.

Soon after Coronado left, Spanishranchers began moving into the area ofwhat is now New Mexico. Both the earl-ier Mexican horses and Coronado's Mus-tangs were allowed to reproduce, furn-ishing f ield and farm animals for thegreat haciendas built by the ranchers.Then, in 1680, the Pueblo Indians,who had been no more than slaves to theranchers, rose up in a bloody war anddrove the Spanish from the Southwest.The ranchers left, but the Mustangs re-mained, soon to become wild since noone was left to care for them.

In the 100 years that followed, thehorses multiplied so quickly that tens ofthousands soon roamed the West. Onlythe Horse Indians, Apache, Comanche,Sioux and Cheyenne, ever bothered withthe animals, and they could do litt le toaffect the numbers of the great herds.

In the middle 1800's, though, the cat-tlemen became the deciding factor in thefate of the wild horses. Complaining thatthe Mustangs were ruining grazinglands, the ranchers hired a special breedof k i l ler , cal led a "Mustanger, " to r idthe rangelands of the wild horse. TheMustangers went about their task with awi l l , decimating the herds and leavingmost of the dead animals to rot in thes u n .

In 1934, the final b low was d ealt to theMustangs in the form of the Taylor Craz-ing Act. This act allowed ranchers tofence their property if they so desired,and suddenly the few Mustangs leftwere no longer free. What herds had es-caped the Mustangers were fenced in,captured and sold to glue factories, orbroken and trained by the ranchers'chi ldren.

The day of the wild horse has come toan end in the United States. A few isolat-ed herds, here and there, still wander onwestern pastures, most protected bylaw, but even so, many die at the handsof poachers or angry ranchers who stillfeel that they ruin grazing land.

The Spanish Barbs of Lucero Mesa,though, under the loving care and pro-tect ion of Weldon Mc Kin ley , do not haveto wor ry about poachers or angryranchers. Their only concern, besidesdodging rattlesnakes and mountain lionsand f inding a drinkable waterhole, is tof igure out how to "outhorse" the horse-men in next year's round-up.


31/48

\ l5761

L !'?# ^ 1. Bobc at tracks. In walking, the claws of all felinesare involuntarily retracted [the better to stay sharp!].2. Coyote tracks. Photo shows imprints of claws, asin all canines. C oyotes set all feet in straight line.3. Mou ntain lion tracks. Again, in cat fashion, theclaws are retracted in walking, leaving no imprint.All photos were taken at Willow Holea favoriteanimal watering place near Desert Hot Springs,California.

JO} UMop dpisdn aged ujn]J}BJ ijasdp spy

-vuoq e se noA ajeuS/sap.'jse/sni/jua jjasap e dj,noA JBUJ 9}EDipui-UB }3dJJ03 OM} ' .9DIA0U }J3S3p B SE noA S>jJBLUJ9MSUE }0dJJO3 3UQ SOiOLjd 8S81/J Ul S>jDBJldui apEui sjojEpajd j j a s a p p saoads IBUM'UBO noA ji 'wo ajnSi-i / a A / p a j a p j j a s a p e a g

I


32/48

HE CHIRICAHUA Mountains, in theextreme utheastern ie r of Ar i -

grass; an ever-rising sea of grass thatgives.no advance information about thehidden world of the Chiricahuas as thecahua National Monument at BonitoCanyon.

This mountain range, with secret hid-den trails, deep canyons, forested sides,shady glens and strange massive rockformations, turrets, spires, and balancedrocks that defy gravity, is historicallyrich in all phases of man and his occupa-tion and passage through the verdantforests of this "Wonderland of Rocks."Within the generation of our immedi-ate forebears, these mountains wereknown as the homeland of the Chirica-huas Apache Indians Apache Pass, atthe north edge of the range, was a natur-al route from the Kk> Grand country toTucson and California.

The Butterfield Mail Stages establish-ed regular runs through Apache F-assfrom St. Louis to the west coast, andwere bitterly resented and attackedmany times by Apache warr iors.Students of American history are wellacquainted with the almost legendaryChief Cochise and his warriors of theChiricahuas Apache Indians. They heldthe white man at bay for 25 years in afutile attempt to halt the advance west

oon Moutains a tew nAfter the establishment of F

with ambush and massacre, were prac-ticed on both sides until the final surren-

der of Geronimo in 1886. The fierceApache had been subdued by the deter-mined white men, but the exploits ofsome of their leaders are remembered asone looks out over Massai Point and Co-chise Head which immortalizes two fa-mous Apache chiefs

A section of the Chiricahuas was creat-ed a National Monument on Apri l 18,1924 by President Calvin Coolidge. En-trance to the Monument is on the wesiside, from W illcox Off Interstate 10,take State Highway 186 south, or viaU.S 666 then State 181, from Douglas,Arizona. Facilities include a 37-unitcampground in Bonito Canyon where theelevation is 5,340 feet, one-half milef r o m th e Mo n u m e n t He a d q u a r te r s .Drin king w ater, f ireplaces and tables areprovided. Iireplac.es burn charcoal, sobr ing your own.

The campgrounds are maintained in aclean and sanitary manner, and spacesare well placed among trees which createa pleasant setting Trailers up to 22 feetcan be accommodated, but no hook-upsare available The Mo num ent is open allyear. Mean daily temperatures around40 degrees in J anuary, and 74 ciegrees inluly are ideal for comfortable relaxing.

Also, the mild winters and cool sum-mer days are perfect for exploring theMonu men t for a truly rewa rding visitwith a most unusual land. Trail guidemaps, available at Monument Head-quarters, list time and distance. Thetrails are1 no ult and extremely in-

irst feature the visitor will noticefantastic array of rock formationsst ing o f sp i res , p innac les and


33/48

by ENID C.HOWARD

f


34/48

"Old Maid."With hersnub noseand recedingchin, theold maid has morethat hershare of weightin her"hair-do."She wassculpturedlargelyby the windafter the lavaof whichshe is madecooled and cracked.

Donald the Duck,,is perchedhigh abovethe canyontrail, lookingfierce andquarrelsome.Photos byJoseph Muench.

3 34

imagined figures of people or animals.The rock surfaces are literally clothed inlichens of every hue; yellow, blue, grey,green. They coat the surfaces of thecolumns and create a softening glow tothe formations.

The geological forces, which createdth is "Wonder land of Rocks," are of vo l -canic origin. Strangest of all is the vol-cano, that produced the white hot ashwhich became the singular, and some-times quaint or comical formations, waslocated 10 miles distant. It took geolo-gists several years to locate the source ofthe volcanic deposit that had been laiddown in termit tent ly.

Finally, when the eruptions ceased,water deposits, upli ft ing, erosion, rainand wind began the cutting and wearingaway of upper strata. Erosion is stillworking at the softer layers of the tuff,while the harder layers of breccia andagglomerate, and a massive 800-foot-thick rhyolite lava deposit resist the cut-ting action and stand tall in pinnaclesthat astound us with their form andvar ie ty.

Lush green forests dominate the steepsides of the west and north exposureswith in the Monu men t. Life zones overlapbecause of the extremes in altitude, andresults in a mixing of biotic comm unitiesthat ordinari ly would be separate. Twodistinct biotic situations and a portion ofa thir d are found here; the desert grass-lands of the extreme upper edge of theLower Sonoran Zone, the chaparral com-munity of the Upper Sonoran Zone,which extends its full range in BonitoCanyon, and the forest com munity of theTransition Life Zone which tops out atSugarloaf Peak, the Monu men t's highestpoint at 7,308 feet.

Because of this unusual span of bioticcom munities, a wealth of deciduous andevergreen trees, shrubs, chaparral, f low-ers, cacti, and incredible numbers ofbirds and animals thr ive at alt i tudes andin situations where they have no busi-ness to be living. However, there is anorderly sequence to the plan because ofwhat is called micro-cl imates, where thezones overlap to create a biotic potential,and where flora or fauna can live well inboth zones.

The Chir icahua Mountains are a birdwatcher's heaven as more than 250species and sub-species have been re-corded, with about 100 of them sightedwithin the Monument boundaries. They

Dese

197502 desert magazine 1975 february

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