197901 desert magazine 1979 january

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C o m evisitus. . .PALM SPRINGS

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W ILL IAM and JOYKNYVETTCo-Publishers/EditorsGEORGE BRAGA, Art DirectorSHARLENE KNYVETT, Art DepartmentMARY FRANCES STRONG, Field Trip EditorK. L. BOYNTON, Naturalist

Color S eparations byHenry Color ServiceLithographed byWolfer Printing Company, Inc.Available inMicrofilm byXerox University Microfilms

DuvxLNumber 42, Volume 1

MAGAZINE

JANUARY 1979

CONTENTS

THE COVER:Arizona panoramamajesticorgan pipe cactus in OrganPipe Cactus National Monu-ment, photographed by DavidMuench of Santa Barbara,California.

F E A T U R E SLEGENDS OFTHE LOST HORSE MINE 8 Harold O. Weight

FOUR CORNERS NATJONAL MONUMENT 12 Grover BrinkmanPALM SPRING 14 Dick Bloomquist

MARTABECKET 16 Annis M. CuppettWHY? 20 Marvin Patchen

HOSKININIMESA 24 C. William HarrisonMEN OFSTEEL: HARD ROCK DRILLING CONTESTANTS 28 Edward H. Saxton

& Phil C. BowmanCABO SAN LUCAS: SUN, SAND AND SEA 32 Ruth Armstrong

WHITEWATER PALMS 36 Bill JenningsBIG MORONGO WILDLIFE RESERVE 38 Aha M. Rutherford

WHAT'S COOKING ON THEDESERT? 40 Stella HughesD E P A R T M E N T S

A PEEK IN THEPUBLISHER'S POKE 4 William KnyvettNEW BOOKS FORDESERT READERS 6 Book Reviews

TRADING POST 42 Classified ListingsBOOKS OF THEWEST 44 Mail Order Items

LETTERS TOTHE EDITOR 46 Readers'CommentsCALENDAR OFWESTERN EVENTS 46 Club Activities

EDITORIAL, CIRCULATION AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: 74-425Highway 111, P. 0. Box 1318, Palm Desert, California 92260. TelephoneArea Code 714346-8144. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States and pos-sessions; 1 year,$8.0 0; 2years, $15.00; 3years, $22.00. All othercountriesadd $2.00 U. S.currency for each year. SeeSubscription Order Form inthis issue. Allow five weeks for change ofaddress andsend both new andD e s e r t / J a n u a r y 1979

old addresses with zipcodes. DESERT Magazine is published monthly.Second class postage paid at Palm Desert, California and at additionalmailing offices under Act of March 3,1879. Contents copyrighted 1978 byDESERT Magazine andpermission to reproduce any or all contents mustbe secured inwrit ing . Unsolicited m anuscripts and photographs will not bereturned unless accompanied byself-addressed, stamped envelope.


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C O O K B O O K SFor the outdoor enthusiast,and those who like to flavortheir life with the unusual

JVSERICAN INDIAN"

ROUGHING IT EASY by Dlan Thom as, putshe fun back into camping with easy andeconomical ways to prepare foods, equip acampsite and organize a camping trip. Pa-perback. 203 pages, $5.95.AMERIC AN INDIAN FOOD AND LORE byCarolyn Neithammer. Original Indian plantsused for foods, medicinal purposes, etc., de-scribed, plus unusual recipes. Large format,191 pages, profusely illustrated, $4.95.DUTC H OVEN COOK BOOK by DonH o l m .New and exciting culinary adventures inDutch Oven cooking. Heavy paperback, 106pages, $4.95.ARIZONA COOK BOOK by Al andMildredFischer. Unusual recipes for Indian cooking,Mexican dishes, Western specialties. Uniquecollection. Paperback, 142pages, $3.00.

C ACTUS C OOK BOOK com piled byJoyce LTate . An excellent selection of recipes thaemphasize their edible or potable qualitiesAlso includes chapter on Food PreservationPaperback, 127pages, $2.00.SOURDOUGH COOKBOOK by Don andMyrt le Holm . How to make a sourdoughstarter, and many dozens of sourdough re-cipes. Paperback, 136 pages, illus., $4.95.CITRUS COOK BOOK by Glenda McGillisAn unusual and outstanding treasury ocitrus cookery. Includes tips on freezingjuicing and shipping. Paperback, spirabound, $2.00.CALIFORNIA COOK BOOK by Al and Mildred Fischer. Recipes dwided into "EarlyCalifornia," "California Fruits," "CaliforniaProducts," "Sea Foods" and "Wine Cooki n g . " 400 more unique collections by thvFischers. Paperback, 142 pages, $3.00.

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UITH THE arrival of cooler weather,ji the desert regions of the SouthwestI enter their "season." Tourism has

become a big factor in the growth ofmany areas and when you scan weatherreports from other parts of the UnitedStates and Canada, our warm days andcrisp nights must indeed be a beacon inthe night for those seeking a change!

My favorite time of day is early morn-ing. A brisk walk stimulates the mind,invigorates the body and really chargesthe batteries for the day ahead. It canalso have its share of pluses if you enjoywatching wildlife. Coveys of quail scram-ble furtively among the heavy clumps oftumbleweed, taking to flight just brieflyenough to "disappear."

One group of Gambel quail has takento visiting me on a regular basis and arejust spectacular to watch as they foragefor food. Roadrunners scurry back andforth across my path, and about a milefrom the house a hawk, who has staked aclaim to a power pole, interrupts hissweeping search for food to peer downfrom his throne at a mere mortal!

This has been a bumper year for theblack stinkbug, or pinacate beetle. Hun-dreds of them stand on their heads as Ipass by, daring me to come close enoughfor an encounter of another kind!

All these extras from my walk alongthe road. Think how rewarding a hikeacross the desert would be.

As Randall Henderson once said,"When folks come to the desert theyshould bring a knapsack and hikingshoes and go out alone or with a gooccompanion and seek out for themselvesthe spiritual lift that comes with closeassociation with the things of Nature."

H A P P YW A N C I E R E RJ m p s

By Slim BarnardThe tours by the Happy Wandereis con-tain excellent maps, mileage, historyof the areas, costs of gasoline consump-tion, lodging meals, what to wear andthe best time of the year to make thetrips. A family can plan their trip anddetermine the exact amount of time andmoney required.Volume Number One covers 52 toursthroughout California's deserts, moun-tains, lakes and seashores. In VolumeNumber Two,Slim and Henrietta exploreArizona, Nevada and Old Mexico,, withthe areas ranging from modern resortsto ghost towns.When ordering BE SURE to state VolumeOne or Volume Two.Both books are largeformat, heavy paperback with I 50pages.

$2.95 eachPlease add 50c forpostage/handlingCalif, residents add6%sales tax

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P. O. Box 1318, Palm Desert, Calif 92260GOOD QUALITY MAIL-ORDERPHOTO DEVELOPING

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ISBN 0-87004-257-2306 Pages 6" x 9" Pap e rb oun d$5.95

T R A C K I N GD O W NOregon, says author Ralph Friedman, ismore than places and names on the map."I t is people, past and present, history,legend, folklore. . . ." So we invite you totrack along w ith him , in this new book fromCaxton, to encounter the rare and unusualin Oregon, "to locate a waterfall seen onlyby afew, to hunt out a bur ia l groun d soakedwith the juices of history, to discover theamazing Jim Hoskins of Pilot Rock, thetragic Captain Jack, the remains of Fair-f ie ld , the cavalry names etched on a desertbluff , the legend of a gunslinger. . ."

The CAXTON PRINTERS, L td .P.O. Box 700C aldwe ll, Idaho 83605

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An ETC Publication

"BooksforTDesertTradersAll books reviewed are available through theDesert Magazine Book Shop. Please add 50cper total order for handling and Californiaresidents must include 6% state sales tax.

THE SAN GABRIELSSouthern C aliforniaMountain CountryBy John W. Robinson

This is an epic book about a popularLos Angeles metropolitan area campingand hiking region that is st i l l the majorretreat for smog-bound city residentswinter and summer.

The San Gabriels, still called theSierra Madre on many old maps, form atransverse or east-west buffer acrossSouthern Ca lifornia that have inf luencedpopulat ion trends, transportat ion routesand even the weather for many centuries.In the old chamber of commerce views ofthe mountains, snow-capped immediate-ly behind the orange groves, it was gen-erally the San Gabriels you saw.

An d , for mil l ions of television view ers,the annual coverage of the PasadenaTournament of Roses parade on NewYear's Day, or thereabouts, has alwaysincluded a pan shot or two showing snowor at least the greenish-blue highlandsalong with the f loats and beautiful g ir ls.

John Robinson has writ ten lovinglyabout Southern California's mountaincountry much of his life. He has pub-lished f ive previous trail guide and re-gional books, all about Southern Califor-nia, mostly about its mountains, and hehas hiked and camped in the San Ga-briels tor more than 30 years.

D e s e r t / J a n ua r y 1 9 7 9


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One of the best things about this bookis its treasure of rare photographs, manyof them out of old family albums neverbefore opened to the public. There arem any v iews o f l ong -gone sum m ercamps, old trails and historic foresters,miners, hunters and other mountaindenizens.

Because he wound up with so muchmaterial, gathered he said over a 20-yearper iod, Robinson divid ed his San GabrielMountains west of Mt. Baldy, leavingthe way clear to another book at an earlydate, he hopes.

Thus, this volume concentrates on theregion from the west fork of the San Ga-briel River to Big Tujunga Creek, northof Glendale.

Robinson traces the history of the U.S.Forest Service in the San Gabriels fromthe original San Gabriel Timberland Re-serve in 1892 to today 's Ange lesNational Forest. He recalls the greatfires of 1919 and 1924 that burned betterthan 200,000 acres. In some areas of th e'24 burn the pine and f ir t imber hasnever regrown.

The w riter, who knows the area as wellas anyone living, leaves the reader withgreat memories of the campgrounds hey-days before World War II and also helpsspread the gospel of wilderness con-servation.

Published in hardcover, with morethan 200 photograp hs, $19.95.

DESERT RIVERCROSSINGHistoric Lee's Ferryon the Colorado River.By W. L. Rushoan dC, Gregory Crampton

All mileage begins at Lee's Ferry, Ari-zona, both up and down the ColoradoRiver, and for good reason. Nearly allthe history stemming from man's involv-ment with the strategic Grand River ofthe West has a peg at or near this deso-late spot just downstream from GlenCanyon and near the true upstream endof Grand Canyon.D e s e r t / J a nua r y 1 9 79

The writers, a comparative unknownbut thorough craftsman, W ill Rusho, anda widely known professor and Utah his-torian, Greg Crampton, are benefit tedby a short foreword supplied by SenatorBarry Goldwater, who rode the r iver in adory piloted by the late Norman Nevillsof Mexican Hat, U tah, in 1940. There arefew people who can say that and the dis-tinction gives Goldwater an unusual per-spective on the mighty r iver.

Rusho is so very thorou gh that he test-edand found wantingone of Lee'sFerry's enduring legends, the unusualsound qualities of the Echo Clif fs. W henMajor J. W. Powell, the so-called mod-ern discoverer of Grand Canyon, led hissecond boat expedition down the river in1871 he noted that a pistol fired at theriver from this rampart, the downstreamentrance to Glen Canyon, echoed with aroar l ike musketry. In 1974, while re-searching his book, Rusho tried the samething without success, but charitably al-lowed that maybe weather condit ionswere not quite r ight.

In any event, Rusho and Crampton digdeeply in the maze of sometimes con-flicting history and legends about JohnLee, for whom the ferry is named butwho operated it only brief lyand thelater dignitaries who crossed or stayed.Lee had thought the isolated bend of theColorado could be a haven for him, as afugit ive from the federal governmentwhich wanted to try him for his role inthe infamous Mountain Meadows Mas-sacre. He was caught, executed by firingsquad, but gave his name forever to theisolated spot.

Today, it is the site of most GrandCanyon dor,y and raft excursions throu ghGrand Canyon as well an an excellentcamping and exploring area on its own,at the mouth of the usually dry but some-t imes roaring Paria River.

The authors divide their excellent l i t t lebook into the major phases of river his-tory, the ancient ones, the Spanish ex-p lo re r s , t he M orm on co lon i s t s andguides who opened northern Arizonaand made peace with the Navajo, Piuteand Ute, the later-day outlaws, ZaneGrey's visits, the m ining and steamboat-ing adventures and most recently thecontroversial dam builders.

The litt le book is profusely illustratedwith some never-before seen photo-graphs, excellent maps and a good read-ing lis t. P aperback, 126 pages, $5.95.

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by HAROLD 0. WEIGHT

I OHNNY LANG discovered the Losto Horse mine in the closing days of

\ 1893, high on a mountain in what isnow Joshua Tree National Monument.Or did Dutch Frank Diebold make thestr ike? Or Bil l McHaney?While the horse may have been lost,Lost Horse mine never was. It was dis-covered, located, opened, worked, pa-tented. Camps were established, roadsmade, mil ls built and operated. An esti-mated $350,000 in gold was produced.Its chain of ownership is of record from1893 to its acquisition by the NationalPark Service in 1966.

Yet the actual discovery and much ofthe history of the Lost Horse are asclouded with v ariat io n, contradict ion andconfusion as almost any lost mine

legend. Pick any of those three "discov-erers" and you f ind seemingly authenticstories or traditions in support.

But whoever found the gold, whateverelse happened there, the story of theLost Horse mine does begin and endwith Johnny Lang. Johnny worked itf irst, he was there in its prime, he knewits waning days. He is there now, buriedclose beside the road throug h Lost HorseValley to Keys View, near the Lost Horseturnoff. But Johnn y's history is as nebu-lous as that of the Lost Horse mine.

George Was hington Lang, says Brown& Boyd's "History of San Bernardino

and R ive r s ide Coun t i es , " was anArizona catt leman who brought largeherds into Southern California to sell.When the Colorado River broke its banksin 1891 , it left pools of water and abu n-dant grass along its route. Lan g, ru nningcatt le through, found this unexpectedfeed. With son, Johnny, he brought 9000head from Arizona to pasture there.

The principa l source for the chroniclesof the Langs and the Lost Horse mine isWill iam F. Keys. You wil l f ind bits andvariations of his stories in almost every-thing published about them. But itshould be noted that the important his-


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tory of the mine was made before he gotthere. His evidence can only be heresay.

Keys came into that country about1910. He later acquired the McHaneyranch, eight miles northerly from theLost Horse mine, and lived there untilhis death in 1969. His recollections,taped by NPS personnel at his ranch andthe Lost Horse mine, in December, 1966,were made when he was 87 years old.But Keys not only knew Johnny Lang,he worked with h im , mined with h im ,found him dead on the desert, andburied him where he died.

"The Langs moved into New River be-for there was any activity in ImperialVal ley," Keys said. "Lots of peppergrass growing, and it would improvetheir color. Then they moved up to Indio,Coachella Valley, and fed their cattlethere. They wanted a bit of summerrange, and traded a hundred cows to J mMcHaney for the privilege of using LostHorse Valley and Witch Springs, whichis now Lost Horse Wel l .

"So they brought their catt le up andwere camped at Pinyon Wel l , Johnnyand his father. The horses got away.Johnny tracked them right up to theMcHaney ranch entrance, here. And hemet Jim McHaney on horseback.

"And Johnny says: 'Did you see myhorses? I tracked them right in here.'

'You lost no horses,' Jim McHaneysaid. ' I f you don't turn around and goback, I' ll fill you full of lead. ' "

v , ,

tonimiBoulder

supposed tomark graves

of two menburied atLost Horse

Well.James date

in error.Harry Vroman

photo.Why this violent and unneighborly re-

ception from a man who had just approv-ed use of nearby range by the Langs?Keys said it was because the McHaneyranch was the hideout for a gang of cattlerustlers, and Jim wanted no one pokingabout.

"Bil l McHaney brought his catt le herein 1879," Keys said. "Then Jim, h isbrother, came. They had the wholecountry in cattle here. They also got todealing with stolen catt le. Bringing themover from Arizona, big herds. Sellingthem here and there, where they co ul d."

, -.-.

Ten-stamp mill [left]of the Lost Horse mine,

which w as hauled byhorse and mule over 50

miles to this site.It has recently been

restored by NationalPark Service.

Buildings of LostHorse mine camp, [right]

about 195 0. Building farright was cookhousewhere Johnny Langspent his last days.

Building in foregroundwas assay o ffice.Others probably

dwellings.Harry Vroman photos.


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This legend of far-f lung rustling oper-ations from McHaneys' isolated ranch,some dozen miles south and west ofTwentynine Palms, has never been sub-stantiated. Neither has it been dis-proven. It is widely accepted. But it isalso made clear by Twentynine Palmsp io n e e rs , i n c lu d in g Ke ys , t h a t B i l lMcHaney had no part in the rustling.Brother Jim was the badman of this andother tales.

Turned back at the ranch, JohnnyLang made his way to Witch Springs.Dutch Frank Diebold, early prospector,was there.

"Frank was camped under a rock,"said Keys . "H e had discovered the LostHorse mine. He had the rock righ t there.Johnny could talk German. Frank show-ed him the rock.

"And Dutch Frank says: ' I don't darelocate it. They said they would drag meout by the neck by the saddlehorn if Idid. But I ' l l sell it to you.' " The "they"were McHaney cowboys.

Dutch Frank's specimens must havebeen impressive. Despite his recent con-frontation with Jim McHaney, and thewarning Frank had received, Lang hur-ried back to Pinyon Well to show thegold to his father. They paid $1000 forFrank's discovery, and Johnny set aboutmonumenting the claims.

Thus Bill Keys' story of the Lost Horsediscovery.Ben DeCrevecoeur, first white child

born (in 1874) in the Morongo country,told a somewhat different tale to MaudRussell, Twentynine Palms historian.Ben had been a freighter to the LostHorse in its early days.

"T he Langs, old George and son John,became miners by accident," said Ben."The elder Lang was drif t ing catt ledown in Lower California. His horse gotaway, and John was following the t ra i l .He got up in the San Bernardino Moun-tains and sat down on a rock. He noticedit was minera lized and broke off a chunk,and saw the gold. So he and his fathertraded some cows to McHaney for a partof that valley and the little spring, andthey began developing the mine."

Bill McHaney made his own claim.McHaney showed Frank Rogers, landdeveloper who was visiting him at hisTwentynine Palms Oasis home, a pieceof gold ore and said:

"You know, I found the Lost Horsemine. But I had things to take care of, soI didn't get back there for three weeks.Over I went to file location notices, andwhat do you think? A fellow named Langhad beaten me to it.

"I said to him: 'To hell with it. I've gota better prospect, anyhow.' "

So again if M cHane y fo un d, JohnnyLang f i led.

"And whi le he was monument ingt ho s e c l a i m s , " K e y s sa id , " t h e s ecowboys rode up on the ridge. Johnnysaw three hats bobbing up and down on

the horizon. He knew they were watch-ing to see how many were there. Oneman, they might kil l him. More, theymight not. So Johnny ran down the hil land beat it to Pinyon W e l l . "

At the wel l , allegedly for strength innumbers, Johnny took in three partnersbesides his father. The original locators,according to the notice filed in the recordbook of the Pinyon Mountain MiningDis t r ic t December 29 , 1893 , wereJohnny, George Lang, Ed Holland and J.J. Fife. The other early partner was AlG. Tingman, well known pioneer Indiomerchant. Holland and Tingman ownedthe two-stamp, gasoline-powered PinyonWell ore mi l l , the only operating one in.the district.

Returning in force to the Lost Horsemine, the partners f inished monument-ing the claims without opposit ion fromlurking cowboys. Samples from thethree-foot ledge averaged $500 a ton.Two tons of croppings milled at PinyonWell returned $7000. These values, re-ported in Riverside and San Bernardinopapers, set off a very lively gold rushinto a sti l l unknown, almost uninhabitedand lawless region. How lawless wouldsoon be shown.

The first time I visited Lost HorseWel l , two names and dates were clearlypainted in black on one of the nearbygranite boulders: JAMES 1893 andLOPEZ 1894. Outlined by rocks besidethe boulder were presumed graves.Probably two men are buried at the wel l .James was one, but the date is wrong.Lopez was not the other, but the date isr ight .

In November, 1894, Ignacio Hemenes(probably J menez), Lost Horse mine su-perintendent, suffered an apparent heartattack while being lowered into themine. He rang the hoistman to stop, gotoff at the 50-foot level, and died there.He was buried at the camp at the wel l ,then called Langville.

Thirty-year-old, blue-eyed, brown-haired Frank L. James, recently fromSan Diego Coun ty, died on Ap ril 5, 1894,in a f lare of frontier violence. And thequestion of whether it was cold bloodedmurder or the deserved death of a bravo

Stamp batteries of the Lost Horse mill,five stamps in each . One of the shoes isof f #7 battery. Guy Ohlen, left. HarryVroman photo.10


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Lost Horse Well residence area, as itlooked while Jepp Ryan and his wifelived there. Harry Vroman photo.illustrates clearly the fog of contradictionthat masks so much Lost Horse history.

Bil l Keys says James worked as aminer at the Lost Horse and prospectedthe country in his free t ime . He discover-ed what would become the McHaneys'famous Desert Queen mine. Those samecowboys who threatened Dutch Frankand worried Johnny Lang found his workand his location notice.

"They were sharp as a coyote to anydisturbance of the ground," Keys said."They tracked James over to the LostHorse and found the ore there. Thenthey knew he was the man. The reststayed up on the hil l while one, CharlieM ar t i n , walked down aways and yelledto James, who was in the l i t t le cabin inthe ravine:

"" 'We've found a r ich str ike here. Doyou own this ground?'

"James says: 'We l l , I 'll come up andtake a look. '

"And he came up, and Mart in shoth im. That was to get the Desert Qu ee n."

I f James was kil led for the DesertQueen ledge, it is strange that theMcHaneys did not f i le on it unt i l Janu-ary, 1895, ten months later. A nd whileMa rt in may have joined the cowboys, hehad come to the area only weeks beforeas a prospector, grubstaked by San Ber-nardino attorney Byron Waters. Afterthe k i l l ing, Mart in went immediatelyinto San Bernardino and told his story,with Waters now his attorney.

On Ap r i l 2nd, he said, he had located aquartz claim. Two days later, James lo-cated the same ledge. M art in met Jameson the disputed ground in the presenceof George Mye rs and McH aney (whetherJim or Bil l not specif ied). Point ing to amonu ment, James asked M art i n if i t washis. I t was, said Mart in.

"You go and tear i t down," Jamessaid, "o r I wi l l cut your heart ou t . "

Then , quoting the Riverside Enter-prise, "James made a lunge at Mart inwith a knife. He cut him on the left arm,near the shoulder, the gash being aboutthree inches long. He stabbed him twiceover the left nipple; cut a gash near theright nipp le three inches long, and madea cut all the way across from above theright nipple to the center of the breast.Two cuts were made in his left hand,

which he was using to ward off theblows. Mart in had no weapon.

" A gun belonging to one of the othermen was lying on the ground several feetback. As James kept advancing w ith theknife, Mart in grabbed the gun and shot.This did not stop him, and another shotwas f i r ed , taking effect in James' breastand kil l ing him. The miners congregat-ed, examined into all the circumstancesand concluded to bury the body owing tothe heat and the long distance to thera i l road. "

S an B e rna rd ino Coun t y Co rone rThompson examined Mart in 's woundsand they were photographed as evi-dence. Thompson then went out toexhume the body and examine witnesses.An inques t was he ld Apr i l 16 a tMcHaneys' ranch. Verdict of the Coron-er's jury was that James had come to hisdeath from two pistol wounded inf l ictedby Charles Ma rt in. "A n d we fur ther f indthat Charles Martin acted in self defensewhile his life was in jeopardy at thehands of the decease d."

There rem ains, of course, the po ssibil-i ty that the James kil l ing was a claim-jumping scheme that went wrong, inwhich case the witnesses were in terestedpart ies. One of them d id make that pistolavailable to Mart in instead of stoppingthe f ight. And who made up the jury?

Through most of 1894, Lost Horse orewas hauled over eight miles of prim it iveand precipitous wagon trail and m il led at

Pinyon We l l . But the mil l 's capacity wasonly three tons a day, and water was soscarce it had to be pumped back andused again .

So Johnn y Lang and J. J . Fife con-structed a larger two-stamp mill at LostHorse We l l . The stamp battery wasmade by Baker Iron W orks, Los Angeles,the six-horsepower gasoline engine bythe Los Angeles Windmill Company.The mi l l , "running l ike c lockwork," wasin full operation by November, 1894.

According to records, the originalowne rs sold out ea rly in 1895 to J. D. andThomas Ryan. According to Bil l Keys,the others sold but Johnny Lang retainedhis interest. As the Ryans operated, theysteadily improved the property. Waterwas piped three and one-half miles andraised 750 feet to the mine by a steampump at Lost Horse We l l . The hoist,skip, and a 10-stamp mill at the minewere operated by steam.

The new mill was bought at a mine inthe Chuckawalla Mountains, 50 milessoutheast of the Lost Horse, and freight-ed to Lost Horse in April, 1897. It tookfour six-horse wagons and three eight-mule teams to pull i t through WilsonCanyon and up a reconstructed road tothe mine . That same year, in Aug ust, theLos t Horse mine was patented toThomas C. Ryan, Jepp D. Ryan, Mat-thew Ryan, Ethan B. Ryan and SamuelN. Kelsey.

Continued on Page 30


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F O U R C O R N E R SN A T I O N A LT

HE DESERT is vast and i l l imitablehere, suggesting great age withoutthe intrusion of man, red or white.

This is a land of extremes, of contrasts,of contradicitons. Barren desert is onevery side, yet if we count the eonsthrough which it has been inhabited bycivil izat ions that have come and gone, itis an ancient, venerable land.

The distant cars, l ike ants, crawl overth e road, or seemingly crawl, for thehuman eye can telescope deep into thedistance here due to the flat, treeless ter-

ra in , and air that has still escaped thesmog of man's civi l izat ion.Strangely, the cars seem to be con-verging at one part icular spot on thedesert just ahead. There is a parking lotof sorts, you notice as you approach. Amobile home is parked to the left . A nd inthe center of the lot is a raised dais ofendu ring stone, quite large in size.

As you pull u p, you notice that peopleare climbing aboard the dais as if ingreat haste, pushing forward to its exactcenter for some reason, all of them so

anxious, as if the spot might be somecoveted Shangri-La attained only aftergreat struggle.

This is the Four Corners NationalMo num ent, the only marker of its kind inthe continental United States.

The Geographical Center of the UnitedStates is in Butte County, South Da-kota; the present Population Center ofthe nation (until 1980) has been pinpoint-ed to the Southern I l l inois town of Mas-coutah. But this center, l ike the geogra-phic, is unchanging, for strangely the

byGROVERBRINKMAN

The desert isvast andillimitable here,encompassingthe Four CornersNavajo TribalPark. Th ewoman in theforeground is anative Navajo,ready toanswerquestions.

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This rugged markertells briefly the history

of Four Corners.

corners of four states meet here, andperhaps always will unless someone up-sets the entire topography of the nation.

A well-known western writer recentlylabeled the spot as "Tomorrow in EveryDirect ion." The statement might seem abit incongruous at f irst, but upon duecontemplat ion is quite acceptable.

Here at this isolated pinpoint beyondthe mysterious Lukachukais, the soil ofArizona m eets that of New Mexico, Colo-rado and Utah. This is the needlepointon the compass where the rectangularcorners of four states touch. There is nocommercialism here, no souvenir standsor any of the gimm icks set up to get thetourist 's dollar. A Navajo woman has adrink for the thirsty, and that 's that.

For a spot of such importance, it israther a bleak place, f lat and perpetu-ally windy, summer or winter. One caneasily get a taste of sand in his or hermouth. I t is also Navajoland, and themarker is part of the Four Corners Nava-jo Tribal Park.

Looking at the de sert here , it is easy toenvision this vast emptiness as a primalhome of hairy aborigines who stoned todeath the giant sloth, the mammoth andmany another beast now extinct; of no-mads l it t le more advanced who huntedwith bows and spears and built sheltersof stone; of fierce raiders who preyedupon their peaceful neighbors; of gentlepriests who strove to impress the faithand culture of Spain upon the red menthey found here.

Not only tourists and geographersfrom the U.S. but visitors from much ofthe free world come here. The spot hasDesert/January 1979

.,, , .- . , - * _

that type of magnetism , a strange a llurethat is hard to put down with merewords.

The visitors place one foot in Arizona,the second in New Mexico. Then theybend forward on the marked dais (unlesstheir aching back forbids), touch theirleft hand fingers to Utah and right handfingers to Colorado. Unless one is quiteobese, the feat of being spread over fourstates at the same time is quite sim ple. Itis accomplished hundreds of times eachday of the tourist season.

The Navajos have a word for the area,Hozhoni, which means "that which isgood, peaceful, beautiful." They hope tokeep it that way, the white man and hislit ter notwithstanding.

But most of the hurried tourists seeonly the monument, with its four statesquartering the dais. The man with theexpensive 35mm camera poses his wifeand children, exposes a few frames ofcolor f i lm , and soon the family return totheir car and zoom off to the next attrac-tion that is a possibility for his slide file.

A small Navajo boy and his sister,both very good business people, have astepladder at the Four Corners, whichthey let photographers use, after an ex-change of a silver coin. The children alsopose on the dais to add a hum an touch tothe photo. Their coin collect ion, at theend of a busy mid-summer day, might besurpr is ing!

Most of the tourists spend less than ahour at the monument, but those wholinger feel the impact of the desert. Theancient rocks and the blue sky are stillthe same. Geographically, the spot issignificant; historically it is ever moreso. The f i rs t white man who tugged hisburro through these f lats, using the dis-tant obelisks of Monument Valley asguiding posts, saw nothing but the lureof gold ahead. The gold, at least much ofit , is still in the distant mountains, cast-ing its eternal lure.

The emptiness of this land, to the east-erner, is both appall ing and fr ightening.But the passing of time changes itsimage to one of mag ic. Q

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smaller middle one. In1977 hey rangedbetween 26 and 30 feet in height .

The oasis nestles along the verge ofthe sunstruck Carrizo Badlands, wherevegetat ion is sparse andwater virtuallynonexistent. On both sides of PalmSpring, however, moisture onornear thesurface nurtures a long thin l ine of mes-quite which stands out vividly againstt he b leached B ad lands . The name"Mesqui te Oas is , " in fact, is sometimesapplied totheentire str ip ofgreen.

Mesquites (some adorned with mist le-toe), sedges and inkweed areamong theplants found near the palms. A t inystream of water f lows for a few feet be-fore ending in a shallow pool muchvisited bybirds. House f inches, western

MILEAGELOG0.0 Junction of State Highway 78 andCounty Road S2 (Scissors Crossing)

in east San Diego County. Drivesouth on S2 toward Interstate High-ways.

5.9 Blair Valley in Anza-Borrego DesertState Park. Little Pass PrimitiveCamp and a section of ButterfieldOverland Mail Trail are a short dis-tance to left.

8.7 Box Canyon historical landmarkmarker on Southern Emigrant andButterfield trails on left.

17.7 Reconstructed Vallecito Stage Sta-tion in Vallecito County Park onright.

21.1 Road to Agua Caliente County Parkon right. Stay on S2.25.8 Palm Spring sign. Turn left off S2

onto dirt road. Under normal condi-tions passenger cars can travel thisroad without difficulty.

26.8 Junction. Turn left.27.5 Palm Spring in Anza-Borrego Des-

ert State Park. Elevation about 870feet.

bluebirds andphainopeplas abound, andthe patient observer wil l see numerousother species, especially in spr ingt ime.Mist letoe seeds voided by birds adhereto many a perch in the mesquites, andtracks of mammals, rept i les and insectsmark the bordering sands. Dieguenopotsherds are st i l l in evidence on thef lats near Vallecito Was h.

A spir it of peace andwell-being per-vades Pa lm Spr ing. Water , na tura lsurroundings, birds singing in thewarmsunshine, a breeze in thep a l m f r o n d s -all play a part in it. Together with thelegacy of history, they have made theoasis one of the most restful andromantic waystations along our desertt ra i l . DDesert/ January1979

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M ARTA BECKET is joyously aliveand well dan cing her way into thehearts of thousands who visit DeathValley Junction every year.Dancing in Death Valley Junction? If

you are one of those wh o have yet to hearof Miss Becket and her delightful pro-gram of ballet-mime, I can imagine yourincredulous surprise. After all, DeathValley J unction is not exactly a m ajor en-tertainment center of the world. It 's rea-sonable to believe, however, that thebeauty which lies in wait for you hasraised this t iny hamlet to a culturalheight never imagined during its earlyhistory.

Death Valley Junction, in the earlytwenties, was an important supply pointfor the Pacific Coast Borax Company andthe Tonopah-Tidewater and Death Val-ley Railroads which served it . A truecompany town, its hub was Korkil l Hallwhere most of the social activity was cen-tered. Here, the local cit izenry came to-16

byA N N I S M .CUPPETT

One of themuralsadorning wallsof theAmargosaOpera House.

gether to be entertained by movies anddances and to participate in church ser-vices, town meetings and weddings.

But the town began to fade in 1928,when the Pacific Coast Borax Companyclosed the mine and m ill operations. TheDeath Valley Railroad was abandonedthree years later and the death rattle ofthe town was heard in 1940, when theTonopah & Tidewater Railroad concededits long and f inal struggle. For manyyears, Death Valley Junction and Korkil lHall were visited only by quick ly passingtumb lewee d, and the music and laughterwhich had permeated the walls of theHall took on the overtones of a ghostlybabel.

Life was not so quiet in New York Citywhere a young girl was grow ing intowomanhood and revealing an innate tal-ent and love for ballet. Her parents ar-ranged for professional training and atfour teen, Marta Becket began the t ra in-ing which would turn her eventually into

a graceful and interpretive ballerina.Her schedule under Ingeborg Tarruo,Caird Leslie and the American BalletSchool among others demanded a rigor-ous program of two or three daily les-sons, and prepared her for a well-receiv-ed professional debut at the age of se-venteen. Following this, she joined theCorps de Ballet at the famous Radio CityMusic Hall before amassing her manyaddit ional dancing credits which includea number of Broadway musicals such as"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "ShowBoat , " and "Wonder fu l Town. "Amazingly, bal le t was not Malta 'sonly passion. She also loved to paint andfound t ime to discipline her talent in thisdirection with lessons from Antonio Cor-t izes. Although she was above all else, aballerina, this instruction would one dayassume great importance when her in-ner visions would need to be expressedin a medium other than dance.

Never one to rely solely on her pastachievements, Marta Becket continuedto grow in her professional capabilitiesand soon decided it was time to choreo-graph and perform her own works. Shedid this successfully for a decade asguest art ist with various ballet compan-ies and symphonies all over the UnitedStates, and during one of these roadtours, met Tom Wil l iamsthe man whowould become her husband and m anager.

At this point, we have two stories andit is interesting to contemplate that if itwere not for a f lat t ire, the two wouldhave remained as separate entities for-evermore. As it happened, Marta and

Desert/January 1979


17/48

Tom decided to take an automobile tr ipthrough the Western United States and,at one point, found themselves in DeathValley J unction with a f lat t ire. The yearwas 1967 and wh ile the t ire was be ing re-paired, Marta Becket wandered aboutthe deserted town. Soon, she found her-self in front of a dilapidated buildingand, peering inside, was deligh ted to seea stageobviously, the building hadonce been a theater of some sort!As soon as the car was once again inrunning o rder, the couple resumed theirtr ip to Las Vegas. The conversation had

changed since their unscheduled stopand all talk now focused on the buildingMa rta had discovered. Exci tement punc-

C/ose-upviewof a smallportion ofmural on

opposite pageshows detail

of Marta'sartistry.

Colorphotography

by LaurenAspinwall.

Marta Becketin oneother

delightfulcostumes.

Photo byLynnePearlman.

. .' . . - . ;

Des ert/January 1979 17

j

\. . . k i t e %_. -

L % w < .> * , ,

< , -'HP


18/48

tuated their words and sentences tumbl-ed out, one on top of another. They soonunderstood that the ir hopes and dreamsfor the futu re w ere being crystalized andthey became aware of a possible turningpoint in their l ives. Having long laboredunder the realization that the glamour ofl iving in New York City was growingth in , they hungered as one for freedom f reedom from all that they found unp lea-sant. Perhaps, they thought, there wassomething to the concept of fate. Per-haps destiny had, indeed, led them tothis neglected theater in its forgottencorner of the desert.

By the t ime the two arrived in Las Ve-g a s , many deeply-hidden thoughts hadbeen dredged from their subconsciousminds, brought out into the open andexamined in the bright l ight of a hotdesert day. They determined to learnmore about " their" theater and, af ter afew telephone calls, learned that Korkil lHall was available for leasealthough agreat deal of work would be requiredbefore it was once presentable andusable as a theater. The lease was sign-

Poetryinmotion.PhotobyLynnePearlman.

ed in Augu st, 1967, and init ial plans call-ed for it to be used as a studio .As often happens, these original,hastily-conceived plans were soon chang-e d . It was not long before Marta Becketand Tom Will iams were planning to uti l-ize the theater on a full-time basis andmuch to the bemusement o f the i rfr iends, the two were soon involved inthe throes of a major move from NewYork City to Death Valley Ju nction, Cali-fornia. I t was at this point that MissBecket made a momentous decision: shewould accept no other engagements butin this l i t t le town

The pair re-christened the buildin g theAmargosa Opera House and in F ebruary,1 9 6 8 , Marta danced before an audienceof twenty. The performance marked theculmination of several months of back-b reak ing l abo r wh ich had i nc ludedeverything from general repairs to an on-the-knees scrubbing of the old woodenfloor. At t imes, they had wondered ifthey would ever know rest again but onthat n ight, when M arta Becket saw thosetwenty waiting to see her dance, she

k n e w th e y h a d m a d e t h e r i g h t d e c i s io n .There came a t ime, inevitably, when

the twenty or so people who comprisedthe inhabitants of the area had otherplans for those evenings when Martahad scheduled performances. She soonfound herself dancing to a theater w hereher husband was the only human ele-ment in the sea of chairs facing the ap ronof the stage. But in spite of the lack of afull house, Marta never wavered. Shecontinued to danceeven to an emptytheater.

During the summer of 1968, a f lashflood deposited a large amount of debrisand mud in the Opera House and whilethe two were cleaning it up, Marta hadan inspirat ion which would help makethe Amargosa Opera House famous: shewould paint an audience on the innerwalls of the theater!

As we already know, Ma rta had exten-sive training as a painter during her for-mative years. This training now becameall- important as the f irst of more than260 faces began to appear on the OperaHouse walls. The mural, begun in Sep-tember, 1968, depicts a 16th centurySpanish Court and includes a King andQueen (bearing an uncanny resemblanceto Tom Wil l iam s and M arta Becket) , re-presentatives of various religious orders,gypsies and many, many others. Someare obviously meant to portray sedateand upstanding cit izens wh ile one can al-most hear the others as they call out tofr iends across the room adding theirrowdy manners to the colorful scene.

The side walls near the stage repre-sent the wings of a theater w ith operat iccharacters wait ing for their cues. Underthe central window on the west wal l , aman holds a scroll which bears themura l's dedication in Latin. Wr it ten byMarta, the translat ion is as follows:

"The walls of this theaterand Idedicate these murals

to the Past: without whichtoday would have

no beauty."The paint ing was completed in Au-

gust, 1972 and after a full day's rest,M ar t a began pa in t i ng t he ce i l i ng ,completing it in the fall of 1974. In thecentral dome, angels supplied withmusical instruments play l i l t ing tunes,while cherubs and doves encircle them.As visitors crane the ir necks to see everydetail, it is generally agreed that the ceil-

18 D e s e r t / J a n ua r y 1 9 7 9


19/48

ing provides an appropr iate Michelan-gelo-l ike touch to the Amargosa OperaHouse.

A t the end of the recent 1977-78 sea-s o n , Marta Becket had given over 1,300performances of her highly innovativebal let -mime programs. Today, her in-numerable hours of practice are reward-ed by a ful l house during each of herthrice-weekly performances, catapult ingrese rva t i ons i n t o an a l l - i m p o r t a n tcommodity.

M iss B ecke t ' s r epe r t o i r e i nc ludestwen ty pieces w ith a total of 56charac-ters! The program lasts approximatelyone andone-half hours and includes vig-nettes from such ballet classics asGiselle i n t e r s p e r s e d t h r o u g h o u t hersometimes poigna nt, sometimes comediccharacterizations such as the one high-l ighted by Queenie Smythea bil l ion-airess who gave up a for tune for showbusiness. In addit ion to wr i t ing andchoreographing her own productions,Miss Becket sews her own costumesa n d , when necessary, designs and sewsthe stage sets, as wel l .

M uch of Marta's repertoire has beenput on f i lm , as have her mural and var i -ous scenes around the town of DeathVal ley Junct ion. As a resu l t , "Mar taBecket's W or ld " w i l l beavailable for useby schools, clubs and educational tele-vision. Other f i lms are in production andwil l bedirected to these andother uses.The programs at the Amargosa OperaHouse are presented on Friday, Satur-day andMonday evenings at 8:15 p.m..The season opens on September 1 andcontinues through the end of May (withSaturday performances only during Sep-tember andMa y). Reservations are sug-gested andthere is no admission chargealthough a$2.50 dona tion isappreciated.As a result of the recent closure of theAmargosa Hotel (it is being leased to "agroup which plans a mineral recoveryopera t ion" in the area), nearest accom-modations are available at Death Val-ley's Furnace Creek Inn and Ranchwhich areapproximately 30miles away.The Opera House is closed during June,July and August .

To obtain reservations for the Amar-gosa Opera House, call the telephoneope ra t o r and reques t Death Va l leyJunction toll stat ion #8. Or, wri te TomWil l iams, Manager, Amargosa OperaHouse, Death Va lley J unct ion, California92328. D e s e r t / J a nua r y 1979

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A SUBSCRIBER'S OPINION// the BLM wildernessrules pass, this type of traditionaldesert road willbe off-limits.

b y M A R V I N P A T C H E NTo pa r a phr a se t he la t e Ger t r u de S t e i n ," a r oa d is a roa d i s a r o a d," b u t o nly , a p-parent ly , when the U. S. Bureau of LandM a na gem e nt sa ys so , u nder t he c onfu s i nglegal language of the Wi lderness Act of1964.The pr ob lem i s , t he def i n it i on o f a roa dc ont ai ned in the A ct de t e r m i nes t hat m or ethan 275 areas of federal land in the C a l i -fornia des er t can be de clared roadles s andt her ef or e po t ent i a l w i lder ness i n t he B LMC a li fo r n ia D e s e r t -C o n s e r v a t io n A r e a .Thes e enc la ves o f 5 ,0 00 a cres or m o r e ,t he r e f o r e , m a y b e c los ed t o a ll ve h i cu lart ra v e l s o m e t i m e i n t h e m i d-1 980 s b y C o n -gres s , m ea ni ng A LL r ec rea t i on i s t s , s t oc k-

m e n , m i n e r s , s c ie n t is t s , E V E R Y O N E .As Marvin Patchen points ou t in this ar-t i c le , t h is m ea ns e ve n m os t r oads i n A nz a-Borrego Des e r t Sta te Park, for exam ple, don o t q u a l i f y a l t h o u g h B L M ' s c u r re n ts t u dy does no t i nc lu de s t a t e or pr i va t elands.E ver y deser t v i s i t o r shou ld s t u dy t heC D C A pro gra m f ir s t ha nd, dec i de i f it i swhat he fee ls neces sary, and then com -m u ni c at e wi t h h is f eder a l leg i s lat or ! C o n-tact BLM's Rivers ide dis t r ic t of f ice, 1695Spruce St . , R ive rs ide , C al i f. 92507. Theprel im inary wo rk is f in ishe d! Don' t delay.

D e s e r t / J a n ua r y 1 9 7 9

P OLITICA LLY I am a "mid dle-of - the-road ex trem ist" and when it comes tomatters of managing the Californiadesert, again I f ind myself in the middlewith no fr iends among the tunnel-vision-ed environme ntal extremists or the men-tally deficient off-roaders who scar thedesert with a trail of beer cans and imbe-cil ic behavior. But what is of greaterconcern is how Washington has produc-ed a perfect examp le of sick governme ntwhen they announced their plan to makemost of the California desert into a no-vehicles-allowed Wilderness Area.

There is nothing wrong with the Wil-derness Area concept and not perm itt ingnew roads to be built in a few areas thatare now roadless. But that is not whatthe BLM has done. They have made uptheir own rules and have declared that adesert road is not a road unless it hasbeen improved by hand or mechanicalmeans. This is so inappropriate to desertcondit ions that one must question whythe BLM has set such ridiculous stan-dards for roads? The BLM calls a road:" A n access route which has been im -proved and maintained by using hand orpower machinery or tools to insure rela-t ively regular and continuous use. A way

21


22/48

maintained solely by the passage of ve-hicles does no t constitute a r o a d . " (Theitalics are mine.) If the Anza-BorregoState Park went by the BLM standardsmost every d irt road in the park would beclosed!

Ten years ago the BLM began a cam-paign to restr ict desert travel by showingphotos of ORV devastation. Becausethere really wasn't enough signif icantdamage to prove their point they usedthe same photos over and over again ofthe Barstow to Las Vegas motorcyclerace and tracks left by Patton armytanks. The BLM talked some universityprofessors into backing them up with de-vious press releases on how plant andanimal l i fe would disappear if man wasallowed to drive through the desert.

Environmentalists echoed the BLM's"f ragi le desert " theme. One environ-mental g roup stooped low enough to fakesome damage to petroglyphs so theycould blame off-roaders. Fortunatelythey got caught in their charade butwhen the t ruth was revealed the publ i -city was far less than when the originalaccusation was made against the off-roaders.

Today and mil l ions of tax dollars laterthe BLM propaganda machine rolls onignoring three important facts:

1. Vehicle harm to the California des-ert is less than one hu ndre dth of one per-cent (1/100 of 1%) of its total area!2. The BLM does not recognize theexistence of Death Valley, Joshua Treeand the Anza-Borrego parks.

3. Nor does the BLM concede that acombination of the desert 's ruggedmountain terrain, along with parks andhuge mil itary bases, make uncontrolledvehicle travel impossible in nearly 50%of the desert.

There is no denying that in some areasa few people have made a mess of thedesert 's surface. But to penalize 99% ofthe desert visitors who respectfully treatthe desert, with retarded regulat ions isnot appropriate.

The B LM claims that they are only car-rying out the wil l of Congress. Baloney! Ican f ind nowhere in the records whereCongress told the De partment of Interiorto create a new definition for a road sothat most of the desert under their juris-dict ion could be made into a wilderness.Even those with elementary knowledgeof the desert realize that the majority ofthe desert dirt roads are not created by22

bulldozers. Mos t were made when some-body chose a route that was either themost direct or had the least obstacles,and with ensuing use it became a desertroad. Many dry sand washes are majorroutes of travel that never req uire m ain-tenance, but the BL M' s rules sp ecif icallystate that if a road is passable only be-cause of continuous use it really is not aroad. Now if a bureaucrat can suddenlychange the de finit ion of a road by a whimit 's fr ighten ing to consider wha t they wi l lthink of n ext. I f they apply the same cri-teria to human beings it could mean thata person is not a person unless they aresick and need medical attention to keepthem wel l .

Randall Henderson, founder of De sertMagazine, an early Sierra Clubber, anda Desert Protect ive Council member,would be boi l ing with anger with the cur-rent proposals. Randall was an active

Editor's Note: Since 1960 Desert Maga-zine has published articles a nd photos byauthor Ma rvin Patchen on hiking andpaleontology. The most recent has been"Summ er Desert Hiking" [8/74] and"The Time Machine" [ 2 /76] . For othermaga zines he has written nume rousstories on his year of remote desert liv-ing in a Jeep camper. He also designed aspecial observation aircraft and hasspent hundreds of hours studying thedesert geography from the air.

desert hiker and he would take his Jeepto the base of many desert mountainsand hike up the canyons to the summit.Under the BLM proposal many mar-velous desert hikes that can be ac-complished in a weekend or a day, wouldbe out of the question because you'dhave to park your vehicle so far fromwhere you want to really start to hike.Just one example of the BLM's peculiarthinking is the Davis Mountain areasouth of Ocotillo. The area is laced withold mine roads including one road that isalmost four lanes wide. These roads al-low one to easily get to the base of the In -Ko-Pah Mountains, which offer a scenicarea for hiking with a base campsite atthe foot of the mountains. But no, theBLM wants you to park your car near thehighway and then hike f ive miles over aperfectly usable dirt road to the foot ofthe mountains.

I happen to be an ardent desert hikerand it 's possible that I 've covered asmany miles in the desert on foot as any-one alive. I know that adding a needlessten miles to a hike can be devastat ing,especially in the desert where you mustcarry your own water.

My work in paleontology also makesme conscious of the implicat ions the W il -derness Proposal has on the scientificcommunity. Al though, wi th a lot of redtape one might get permission to driveinto a Wilderness Area, it probablywouldn't be worth the effort . Conse-quently, the t ime and effort to carry ne-cessary apparatus, cameras, water andcamping gear would kil l many f ield tr ips.Also rock hounds would be hampered intheir hobby.

A recurring theme in each proposedwi lderness area is " the opportuni ty forsol i tude." The opportuni ty for sol i tudeexists today for those who make the ef-fort to seek it . Today anyone with a ve-hicle that can cope with desert roads hasthousands and thousands of campsitesthat offer solitude. Many of these mar-velous places will become off limits tovehicles under the new Wilderness Pro-posal and less, not more, opportunitiesfor family camping, including backpack-ing, in solitude wil l occur.

Indeed, those with passenger cars,who must st ick to smooth roads, are un-affected, and they wil l continue to becorralled together in camping ghettos.Rather than providing for the needs ofthose who have passenger cars or cum-bersome motorhomes by building morecampsites to spread the campsite popu-lat ion, the BLM spends mil l ions of dol-lars on trying to hinder those who havethe abil i ty to spread out.

The most fr ighten ing aspect of the sit-uat ion is that the B LM admits that all thepublic hearings and solicitat ion of com-ments won 't change a thi ng . I t 's an ex-ample of democracy at its worst.

The most important question is , "W hyhas the administrat ion found it neces-sary to banish by edict, desert roads?Was the decision made in some recentmeet ing where the BLM made a dealwith the environmentalists by sayingthat we'l l deliver the California desert ifyou'll get off our backs on some othersubject? What power play was so com-pell ing to make the BLM take the r isk ofoffering such a bizarre m ethod to createa desert wilderness?

Desert/January 1979


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A d d i n g to t h e c o n c e r n is t h e s y s t e m ofhaving huge tracts of Federal land withina state controlled by a far off Congress.I t is fr ightening to know that mil l ionsand millions of acres of California areunder control of those who live east ofthe Rockies. A Senator from Florida hasthe same vote as a Senator f romCalifornia. I t doesn't seem right that aCalifornia legislator should be vot ing onmanagement of the Florida Evergladesor the north woods of Main e. C onversely,Congressmen f rom Flor ida and Maine,who have litt le to lose no matter howthey vote, shou ldn't be vot ing on the Cal-ifornia desert. I f the B LM had a record ofthoughtfulness in its desert managementplans there would be no need for con-cern, but at this point it looks like theonly reasonable solution is to press forthe Federally owned lands to be turnedover to the State. If this occurs, at leastthose responsible for plann ing w il l be ac-cessible and responsible to the State'svoters. An example of why this can workis the Anza-Borrego State Park, whichhas one of the most enlig htene d man age-ments of any park system in the country.

Regretfully, such changes are wishfulthinking that may only be accomplishedin the far fu ture . B ut changes in the pre-sent Wilderness Proposal can and mustbe made today. As I said before, theBL M pu bic hearings are only for show. I fa thousand people show up to say " N o "on something and a hundred say "Y e s "it makes no difference to the outcome ifthe BLM is on the side of the Yeses. Al-though the BLM doesn't count yourvotes, at elect ion t ime Congressmen,Senators and the President wil l countyour votes.

The only way we are going to have avalid wilderness policy is to tell PresidentCarter that you want his ad ministrat ion'sdesert road policy to be honest and rea-sonable. At the same t ime tell your Con-gressmen that you do not approve oftheir allowing the BLM to create aphoney wilderness. Indeed, there aremillion s of acres of genuine roadless w il-derness in the desert and mountains,and the people don't need "B ig Broth er"to tell them they can no longer use theroads that exist because they have notbeen maintained. Tell Mr. Carter andyour Representat ive that you don't ap-prove of the BLM's systematic plot to re-str ict those who genuinely love thedesert. Desert/January 1979

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24/48

T h e wel l -knownof Monument Valley

appear on the horizonwhen viewed from atop

Hoskinini Mesa.

H O S K I N I N IM E S A

A mid-day stop for a sack lunch w here a scattering of rocks suggested the possibilityof it being a dwelling of the long-vanished Anasazi, or perhaps Hosk inini himself.

24

by C . WILLIAM HARRISON

IRING FRONTIER days and thatlusty era of catt le drives along theChisholm and other hard-scrabbletrails out of Texas and to the Kansasbeef markets, there was an expressionwhich paid tr ibute to any cowhand whoproved himself to be a congenial andreliable companion at t imes of stamped-ing herds and the crossing of storm-f looded st reams"he' l l do to r ide theriver w i t h . "

When it came to providing my wife,Nancy and me with some of the fascinat-ing history of his native land and its in-domitable people, and to maneuveringour air-condit ioned four-wheel-drive tourvehicle to the remote heights of historicHoskinini Mesa along an uncompromis-ing off-road byway that in places wouldhave challenged the endurance and agil-ity of a mountain goat, the Navajo Indiandriver/guide who had been assigned tous by Goulding's Monument ValleyLodge and Tra din g Post soon proved thathe most certainly would "do to r ide therock-rimmed canyons and mesas of theback-country w i t h . "

Stanley was the Anglo name of thisguide whose honored and untarnishedheritage reaches back across centuries toancestors whose first coming to theValley is recalled only in ancient legendsand the rubble of crumbling stonedwel l ings.

Stanley, his name was and is, a sturdyand competent young man whose fr iend -

Desert / January 1979


25/48

ly dark eyes held some of that same sortof unassuming serenity that you will seeand sense in the hushed buttes andsilent redrock spires of the land of hisb ir th a quiet and unintrusive youngfellow who has lived the years of his l ifeon a vast and lonely land without everlearning the meaning of loneliness.

With one of Goulding's celebratedra n ch s t y le b re a k fa s t s t u cke d a w a yunder our beltsbacon, eggs, hot bis-

cuits, and heaps of other such taste-tempters topped off by cups of steam ingcoffee that was strong enough, in thewords of an old-t im e cowboy, "t o kick upin the middle and carry double"weclimbed into our wait ing four-wheelerwhile the morning sun was sti l l stretch-ing blue -t inted shadows far out and awayfrom the t imeless buttes that toweredabove us.

"W e' l l save t ime by taking US 163

south on the f irst leg of our tour,"Stanley told us. "But in six or eightmiles we' ll leave the pavement, cutacross country, and follow Narrow Can-yon to where we will start our climb up tothe top of Hoskin in i Mesa."

Hoskinini! What a name that is to rollacross the tongue and draw into thedepths of the imagination! It has a rhy-thm to it , l ike the throbbing rataplan ofceremonial drums heard across the dis-

D e s e r t / Janu ary 1979 25


26/48

tance at deepening dusk. It has a flavorto it, rich and eloquent, like the keeningtang of the primit ive and untamed intimes long past, like the mellowy savorof unyielding pride and unbowed gentle-ness in an age of new days and betterways.

Hoskin in i ! The name of the remoteand lonely mesa which we would explorethat day in our tour vehicle, and thename of a proud and unyielding Navajochieftain of earlier and more desperatetimes to whom the freedom of his peopleand loved ones was a treasure too pre-cious to ever be will i ngly surrendered.The name tugged at my memory andmy imagination as our four-wheeler,

jouncing and jolting across chuckholesand rocky thank-you-ma'ams, worked itsway deeper into narrows of the redrockwe were in. It was a sandstone wilder-ness locked in the grip of brooding si-lence that somehow seemed untouchedby the rumbling and crunching of ourvehicle, a craggy defile haunted bycrum bling ruins and the mystic markingspainted on primordial walls by theancients.

Questions echoed through my mind,seeking answers. Had this been theroute taken a century and more ago byold Hoskinini and his beleaguered war-riors in their efforts to escape capture orannihilation by Colonel Kit Carson,

Above: Thecomfortable andeasy-access ai rconditionedfour-wheel-drivevans provide thelatest luxury for backcountry exploration.Coulding's TourGuides make sure thathalf the fun isgetting there!Left: To f ind an d hold afragmented shard ofancient pottery is tojourney back throughthe mists of unwrittenhistory to other timesand other lives.26

whom they called Ahdiloheethe RopeThrowerand his reluctant but deter-mined frontier troopers?

Had it been along this twisting, rock-rimmed canyon that the Navajo womenand children had plodded in weary des-peration behind their retreating chief-ta in, preferring the risk of starvation ordeath there on the land of their ancestorsover surrender and confinement on thatalien place they had been told about, theBosque Redondo in New Mexico?

We mo ve d o n . Th e f o u r -w h e e le rbounced and bucked in spite of ourdriver's constant efforts to smooth outthe recalcitrant canyon road. Stanleybraked his vehicle to a halt again, point-ing to a nearby hil lside th at was studdedwith rock rubble and small bastions ofhostile cactus.

"Thought you might l ike to take abreather," he invi ted. "There 's a goodchance you'll come across some bits andpieces of broken pottery up there. Ormaybe even an arrowhead or two, if thisis your lucky day."

Had this rocky hillsiope at the foot ofthe canyon's redstone w all once been thesite of an ancient dwelling long sincevanished? I made my way slowly up it,wondering. A place of toil and idle chat-ter for tr ibal women? A one-time camp-ing ground for warriors or hunters?

Not far away, Nancy called out insudden excitement, holding out for me tosee the two small shards of pottery thatshe had discovered, one showing tracesof fading pigments and the other reveal-ing faint encircling markings, whethermeaningful or capricious, that had beenengraved into the soft clay by a finger-nail of the earthenware's maker.

I stood watc hing as Nancy gazed downat the two relics that she had found. Wasshe think ing what I was thinki ng, feelingwhat I was feeling? Feeling that for onebrief and poignant moment she was jour-neying back through the mists of Time toanother age, to another human beingwho had lived and toiled and perhapshad loved?

Feel ing, I wondered, that throughthose small fragments of broken clay socarefully being held before her she wasreaching back across dimming centuriesto touch the unseen hand of their make r,and in doing so discovering that she wasdeeply moved in her mind and heart by alingering moment of human kinship, ofardent caring?

Desert / January 1979


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From the rim of Hoskinini Mesa, thebrooding immensity of Monument Valleythat can be captured on ly in enchantingbits and pieces by camera and film.

I stood there in silence, watching mywife and wondering.

We moved on again, steadily workingour way upward now along the jolt ingwash-outs and merciless riprap of thesteepening road. We were pitched andbounced, joggled and careened this wayand that by our struggling four-wheeleras it dragged itself ever upward towardthe rim of the tableland.

We topped off on the rim of the mesaa f t e r a g r i n d in g , c ru n ch in g c l imbthrough a steeply t i lted break in theupper wal l . Could it have been this sameroute, roadless then and infinitely moreperilous, that had been used by the Na-vajo chieftain and his small band of rag-tag warriors more than a century ago toreach their lofty sanctuary, their wind-swept hideaway in the sky?

Yes, this m ust have been the place. Orsome other place along the rim verymuch like it . And now, for a moment, itseemed that I could actually see them. . . f ighting men bruised and gaunted bytheir desperate hit-and-run f l ight fromCarson's pursuing troopers . . . poniesjaded by the harsh attrition of too manydesperate miles . . . the trudging foot-steps of women and children, and thewailing of a hungry infant, a plaintive cryin the muted silence of the day.

And now, somehow, it seemed that Icould see the old chief himself toppingthe final desolate rise of that rim-rocktrail . . . old Hoskinini himself passingby, never to be humbled by overwhelm-ing odds, never to be defeated . . .

The mesa that bears the name of theNavajo chieftain of long ago still existsmuch as it was in Hoskinini's time. It is aland of junipers and cactus, of big skiesand restless breezes, of brooding si-lences and lost Indian ruins waiting to bediscovered and sifted for the secret talesthey have to te l l .

From the mesa's lofty rim you can lookout upon the far places of that vast andSpectacularly located on the skirts oftowering redrock buttes in MonumentValley, Goulding's Lodge and TradingPost is a haven of rest and recreation fortoday's vacationers.Desert/January 1979 27

awesome landthe sacred symmetry ofNavajo mounta in, and in the oppositedirection the twin rounded peaks of thatnotable landmark, th e Bear's Ears, 40 ormiles or more in the distance.

Closer at hand , you can see the majes-tic spires and magnificent buttes o f Mo n -ument Valley, standing l ike si lent sen-t inels in the desert's lambent air , tower-ing l ike sculptured memorials to depart-ed gods.

A n d i f you look closely among th emesa's gnarled and stunted jun ipers,searching with an eager mind and a fer-vent heart, i t may be that you wi l l get aglimpse into th e l iving past. Is that reallytoo much for one to expect?

Then what was it that bent the t ips ofthose bunch grasses over there, andmade that whispery sound in your ear?Surely it wasn' t mere ly a vagrant breeze.Who, then , i f not old Hoskinini himself?

D


28/48

M E N O F S T E E L : T H E H A R D R C JOINERS WE RE giants in those days!oooQ For Herculean feats of strength, de-i f f m o n s t r a t i o n s o f ski l l , endurance,brains, persistence and the ability tostand up to the test under fire, the oldtime hard rock driller had few equals inany occupation or field of sport. Thehand dril lers were men of steel!

From Bisbee to Butte, Tombstone toTonopah, Cripple Creek to Couer d'Alene, the boisterous hard rock drillingcontests drew thousands of spectactorsto holiday celebrations in the westernmining towns from 1890 to 1916.

These competit ions originated fromminers hand drilling blasting holes in theunderground mines. The four- to f ive-foot holes were sunk into the ore bodiesby striking an octagonal steel drill with aheavy hammer. After each blow the dr il lsteel was moved a quarter t u r n . Th eholes were f i l led with dynamite, thecharge ignited and great chunks of orewere blasted out of the solid rock to behoisted to the surface. This daily hardwork m ade the m iners nea rly as tough asthe rock they were dril l ing.

Civen the competitive nature of strongm e n , it was inevitable that drill crewswould challenge each other to put downthe deepest hole against time. Thus

byBy EDWARD H.SAXTONandPHIL C . BOWMAN

began the era of drilling contests whichenjoyed wide popularity until about 1916when machine drilling became commonunderground.

Soon, teams from different mines inthe same area were drilling against eachother in public competit ions which,along with band concerts, parades, pic-nics and dances, became an importantpart of Fourth of July and other holidaycelebrations in western mining towns.

The local competitions evolved intocontests with other mining camps andthen from other states and territories.Before long the greatest drillers were as-sembled from all over the West. M inin gcompanies sponsored their champs andput up prize money. Merchants also do-nated prizes.

Tradit ionally, miners are gamblers.Every day they descend into the mines they gamble their very lives. So it's notsurprising that large amounts of sidemoney were bet on the drilling contests.

To assure fairness for contestants,Cunnison granite, a rock of uniformhardness, was selected for practice andcompetit ion throughout the West. Thisf ine-grained and uniformly hard rockwas hauled to contest sites on railroadflat cars or heavy wagons. A woodenplatform built up from the ground sur-rounded the car and provided a flat sur-face flush w ith the top side of the gra niteblock so contestants and judges were onan even surface above the street leveland spectators had a clear view of theactivity.

There were three types of contests:single jack dril l ing, double hand dril l ingand straight away dril l ing . In single jackone man dril led and turned, using his

Double jack contest in Bisbee. ArizonaHistorical Society.2 8 D e s e r t / J a n ua r y 1 97 9


29/48

D R I L L I N G C O N T E S T A N T S

four-pound hammer. Double hand sawtwo men working as a team, alternatinghammering and turning. Double jackdril lers used an eight-pound hamm er. Inthe straight away contests one was thehammerm an and the other turned for theduration of the 15-minute standard con-test. A s m any as 15 steel drills were usedby a team in a single contest. Cuttingedges dulled and the steel became toohot to handle. Turners made lightning-fast changes of drills so the hammermanwould not lose a stroke. The turnerpoured water into the hole to controltemperatures. A mop rag around the col-lar of the hole prevented granite chipsfrom flying all over contestants andjudges.

Old-t imers recall the memorable JulyFourth, 1903 contest when world drillingrecords tumbled. Teams from Montana,The double jack team of Page andPickens in Globe, Arizona. Obvious ly aposed picture. A rizona Historical Society.De se rt / January 1979 29

Double jack contest at Tonopah, Nevada,1908. This is a remarkable picture be-cause it was taken at the moment ofchanging steel. Note the vertical steeldrill between the two partners and theturner on his knees has inserted thefresh piece of steel just in time for thehamm erman to complete his blow with-out missing a stroke. Water m an, judgesand timekeepe r are on platform. Photofrom collection of Mrs. Hugh Brown,author of "Lady in Boomtown."Colorado, Idaho and British Columbiaconverged on Bisbee, Arizona to com-pete for the $800 prize. The unbeatendouble-hand dril l ing team of Chamber-lain and Maca was so formidable that allthe other drillers pooled their wits andswapped secrets to beat them. Many adeep hole was drilled that day at CopperQueen Plaza.

Eyewitness accounts report: "Thecrowd went wild when Chamberlain andMaca clambered upon the platform . Likemachines they went to work. Teamworkwas perfect. Positions were exchangedin the double-handed contest without afumble. The rhythm of the mighty ham-mer swung like a pendulum. As the m engasped and sweat, cold water thrown onthe hammer and dril l f lashed to steam.When their 15 minutes were up, theworld had a new record, one that wouldnever be broken. The hole was 463/Jinches deep!

Generally considered the Babe Ruth of

drilling was Sell Tarr, never defeated instraight away competit ion. But in thatsame Bisbee contest his long reign wasthreatened by Bill Ross, a huge wel l-trained miner with substantial f inancialbacking.Ross went f irst, with Carl Maca t u rn-ing the steel flawless ly. Ross swung at arate of 70 strokes a minute from begin-ning to end. He dril led an amazing 35Viinches and his friends thought theirmoney was safe.

Tarr, a bit over six feet and trim at 180pounds, also began at 70 blows per min-u t e . But as soon as his turner, Ed Mal-ley, had established a straight hole, Tarrstepped up his rate to 85. So furious wasthe pace that on the ch anging of the 13thdr i l l , Ma lley received a glancing blow ofthe hammer. Stunned, he never lost hisgrip on the steel. With blood from hisgashed temple mixing with dril l water,he gripped and turned and Tarr kept hit-ting the steel as stoutly as before. Thegroans and cheers were about equal asthe new world's straight away recordwas announced38-5/8 inches!

Hard rock dril l ing contests are sti l lheld at several celebrations in the West.But the records of the old-time drillersare not threatened because machinesnow do the work. No miner is required toperform that hard labor which developedthe muscles of yesterday's champions.

Y e s , there were giants in those days.Me n of steel who have had few equals inany occupation or fiel d of sport.

-


30/48

LEGENDS OF LOST HORSEContinued from Page 11

*

/Above: Johnny Lang. Probably the pic-ture taken by Frances Keys in 1921.From Art Kidwell, Joshua Tree NationalMonument. Below: Jepp Ryan, left, andTom Ryan, right, who took over LostHorse mine from original locators, andoperated it until its closure. Photo takenabout 1950; from theHarry Vroman file.

Although there is nosuch legal record ,Keys insisted that Johnny Lang was stil lpart owner when the new mill went intooperation at the Lost Horse. Johnny ranthe night shift , with a Ryan man runningth e dayshift. Theproduct of the mil l wasa ball of gold-quicksilver amalgam,cleaned up after each shift.

"The amalgam differed between thetwo shifts from the size of a baseball tothe size of a golf ba l l , " says Bill Keys.Johnny's amalgamthe night shiftwasthe golf ball. SoJepp Ryan hired a detec-t ive whowatched Johnny for anumber ofnights and saw that he made a clean-upat four in the morn ing , andtook half theamalgam.

"One morn ing , at the table in thecookhouse, Johnny sat right across thetable from Jepp.

"And Ryan said: 'Wel l , Johnny, wehave some news for you. We've had adetective up in the mill watching you.We've got the goods on you. Now youeither buy or sell.

"Johnny Lang said: 'Ryan, I don' thave the money to buy you out. Whatwil l you give me?

" 'I'll give you $12,000, Ryan said.' Yo u can take it or go to thepenitentiary.

"Johnny Lang said: 'I'll take it."So Ryan became the owner and

J ohnny Lang wasthen adri f ter. He drift-ed around here and located in an oldcabin in what is now Johnny Lang Can-yon. He l ived there many, many years."

Johnny must have taken the luck ofthe Lost Horse with him.Mining reportssay most of the mine's credited $350,000came before 1900. Much work was done

after, but returns dropped. The LostHorse shut down in 1900 by one ac-count, in 1908 by another. It would neverresume full scale operation again.

" I t was not worked out," said BillKeys. "By nomeans! They didn 't botherto go on when it got to two feet wide. Itwas an immense ledge. One shaft wentdown 500feet, the other was 300. Theyconnect underneath. At the 450 level,with a f lashl ight , youcould look a thou-sand feet through a gash in the earthsome places twenty feet wide and someplaces only six, where the ledge hadbeen mined out. Youcould see from oneend to theother, andthere would beonlyan occasional pinyon strut across."

Long after it was shut down Lang hewas Old Johnny Lang nowcame backto the Lost Horse mine.

" I n his latter days," said Keys, "heventured back to scrape the amalgama-tion plates of the mi l l . The bullion he re-covered, hesold to me. It wasnearly halfcopper from theplates, but I always paidhim full price for it.

"Johnny moved into the old cook-house. He had a wood stove on an earthbase, and his bed right alongside it. Hewas living off just about nothing. Forfood he would go out and shoot one ofBarker's catt le, anddress him and bringhim back with his pack animals.

" W e l l , in the end he got so hecouldn'tsee any more to shoot one. So he hadfour burros, and he tied those burros upone byone, and he shot them at a stumpnear his house. And he ate the fourburros. In the end."

In the cold January of 1926, 73 yearsold, poorly nourished, almost out of foodand afoot, Johnny Lang started downfrom his 5000-foot high cabin on LostHorse Mounta in. He left a note on thedoor: " I have gone to town for provi-sions. Will be back soon."

" W h e n I saw the note," sa id Keys," h e was already dead. He was strikingou t for hisother cabin, andthen to town.But he only made it out to the valley.Evidently he could walk no fur ther. Hestarved there and froze.

"C o min g up to the mine by automo-bile I had not seen him lying beside theroad. But in March, when I was makingthe road to Keys View, with the mules,Jeff Peeden wasdriv ing and I was sitt ingin thewagon. And I saw hat canvas overthere. I went overand Johnny Lang.Yes, Johnny Lang. He had his left hand30 D e s e r t / J a n u a r y 1979


31/48

Bill Keys digging Johnny Lang's grave. Lang's body, where it was ound, right.Frank Kiler photo from Twentynine Palms Library.over the canvas, the other under. Theone on the outside was red.Just mum-mif ied. And noanimal had touched him.

"D e p u ty Sh e r i f f Sa mu e ls and anundertaker came out f rom Banning.They saw Johnny Lang. They said: 'Buryhim r ight there. ' "

The f inding of Johnny Lang's body waworth a front page, page-wide bannerheadline in Riverside's leading news-paper. Theburial wasfor lorn. "We dugthe grave, Jeff Peeden, Frank Kiler andI ," said Bill Keys. "Wemoved him over.Put juniper boughs under him and jun i -per boughs over him, and we buriedJohnny Lang.

" I had mybook of prayers, and I readthe burial sermon. As I said 'Earth toearth and ashes,' Jeff Peeden put theashes down. And Frank Kiler took apicture.

"Johnny's sisters had sent $160 outfrom Texas to bury h im. A week later wego t a check for $10for the three of us.Somebody else kept the res t . "

The Lost Horse didn't really surviveJohnny Lang, as a mine. An attempt hadbeen made by a Dr. Wa rd in 1923 to re-open it. He spent $5000 on pipeline androad and never reached the mine. Anexpensive attem pt to rework the tail ingsfailed in 1930. Some of the support pil-lars in the upper levels were mined andmil led in 1931. Jepp Ryan made the lastrecorded production by cyaniding 600Des ert/January 1979

tons of tail ings in 1936. The NationalPark Service acquired title from Ryandescendants in1966. The mine shaftwasbeen sealed. The oldmine road is closedto vehicles.

But it isopen tohikers who, in increas-ing numbers, f ind this a fascinating trekinto one of Joshua Tree Monument'smost historic areas, with the addit ionaldividend of splendid panoramic viewsfrom the top of Lost Horse Mountain.The mine mill hasbeen largely restored.Other relics there are being preserved.

Usually the road from the paving tothe foot of the mountain is open. Fromthere it is a long 1.8 mile hike to themine. If thegate is locked at the turnoff,add 1.2 miles more.

Johnny Lang's grave is on the westside of the paving, just before reachingLost Horse turnoff. Long ago the f i rstweathered marker Keys set up was re-placed by a white painted headboardwith Johnny's name and the dates 1853-1926. That in turn was replaced by Bil lKeys with a beautiful rough granite slabinto which Johnny's statistics have beenlaboriously carved.

But here again, the confusion thatdogs Lost Horse h is to ry con t inues.Johnny Lang did die in 1926. But inhislatter years Bill Keys insisted that it was1925. That is the date he has cut, for allt ime and eternity, into Johnny Lang'sheadstone. D

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