197707 Desert Magazine 1977 July

8/14/2019 197707 Desert Magazine 1977 July

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W ILLIA M and JOY KNYVETTCo-Publishers/ EditorsGEORGE BRAGA, Art DirectorMARY FRANCES STRONG, Field Trip EditorF. A. BAR NES, Utah Associate Ed itorGLENN VARGAS, Lapidary EditorK. L. BOYNTON, NaturalistMARVEL BARRETT, Circulation ManagerColor Separations byHenry Color ServiceLithographed byWolfer Printing Company, Inc.Available in Microfilm byXerox University Microfilms

Volume 40, Number 7 JULY 1977

CONTENTS

THE COVER:"Tarahumara Ma n , " 1 6 " x20" oil, by Charles LaMonk of Palmdale, Califor-nia, this month's featureartist. Courtesy of Mr. andMrs. James Smullen, Pasa-dena, California.

F E A T UTRAIL ING THE "P ON Y" ACROSS NEVADA 8

MO K EL UM NE HIL L , CAL IFO RNIA 1 2SPLENDOR IN THE DESERT 14

SUMM ER CEREMO NIALS ON PUYE MESA 16FOLLOWING THE BRAD SHAW ROAD 20

PETROGLYPHS, PICTOGRAPHS AN D PORTRAITS 24TRACHYTE CREEK 2 8DESERT DAZZLER 32

T A R A H U M A R A S - T H E F AS TE ST H U M A N S 3 6TWE NTYNINE PALMS OASIS 40

R E SMary Frances StrongHoward NealMichele MethvinRuth ArmstrongBill JenningsBill KnyvettDale MaharidgeK. L. BoyntonJim SmullenDick Bloomquist

D E P A R T M E N T SA PEEK IN THE PUBLISHER'S POKE 4 William Knyvett

NEW BOOKS FOR DESERT READERS 6 Book ReviewsTHE TRAD ING POST 42 Classified Listings

BOOKS OF THE WEST 44 Mail Order ItemsRAMB LING ON ROCKS 46 Clenn and Martha Vargas

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 47 Readers'CommentsCALENDAR OF WESTERN EVENTS 47 Club Activities

ED ITOR IAL, CIRCULATION AND ADVER TISING OFFICES: 74-425 Highway 111, Palm Desert, California 92260. Telephone Area Code 714 346-8144.Listed in Standard Rate and Da ta. SUBSCRIPTION R ATES: U nited 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 and sendboth new and old addresses with zip codes. DESERT Magazine is published monthly. Second class postage paid at Palm Desert, California and at addi-tional m ailing offices under Act of March 3 , 1879. Contents copyrighted 1977 by DESERT Magazine and permission to reproduce any or all contents mustbe secured in w ritin g. Manusc ripts and photographs will not be returned unless accompanied by self-addressed, stamped envelope.Des ert/July 1977 3


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B A C K I S S U EB A R G A I N S !ODDS ANDENDSMiscellaneous Copiesfrom 1959 to 1965Package of 10$0003o selections available

VOLUMES FORYEARS1966 1969*197411 issues only

EACHCOMPLETE VOLUMESFOR YEARS

1967 1968*19701971 1972*1973and 1975ONLY $E005 EACH

COMPLETE1976 VO LUM EONLY

S C O O6Send check or money order toDESERT MAGAZINEP.O. Box 1318

Palm Desert, Ca lif. 92260

in thepublisher'syokeT HIS ISSUE of Desert retraces twodusty histor ic trai ls. Mary FrancesStrong fol lows the memorable PonyExpress across Nevada in the f i rst of atwo-part article, and Bill Jennings pur-sues California's old Bradshaw Roadfrom the Salton Sea to the ColoradoRiver.

A tr iple treat is in store for lovers ofIndian legends and lore as Ruth Arm-strong covers the summer ceremonialson Puye Mesa in New Mexico , and JimSmullen tells us about the Tarahumaratr ibe of Mexico, reportedly "the fastesth u ma n s . " Our feature and cover artist,Charles La Mo n k , of Palmdale, Califor-n i a , who specializes in Indian rock writ-ings and Tarahumara por tra i ture, com-pletes the t reat.

On the f lora and fauna side, MicheleMethvin "sweeps the f lo ra " w i th themuch overlooked juniper tree, while na-tura l ist K. L. Boynton "has a l i t t lefa u n a " in his hummer of a t reatment onthe Costa Hummingbird.

For the chasers of dreams and gold,Howard Neal tel ls us how t was and is atMokelumne Hill, Cal i forn ia , one of theCold Rush towns of 1949, whi le out inUtah, Dale Maharidge hikes down Tra-chyte Creek, an interesting side door tomajestic Lake Powell.

A n d , after a long hike, what betterplace to end up in than a cool palm oasis,as Dick B loom qu is t ' s se r ies coversTwentynine Palms in Joshua Tree Na-t ional Monument.

If this list of articles hasn't struck anerve, try reader Ci f ford 's " Lett er to theEd i to r " onyour funny bone!

I S N O T u p ?i t c o u l dl e t y o u D O W N !How much air's in your spare?Any? If you're not on the ball,you'll find out the answer to thatquestion when it's too late. Mostpeople would check the air pres-sure in their spare time more oftenif it were more convenient. Right?Well, with this Inflate-a-spare kit itis convenient: You mount a valvestem in a handy place and thenconnect it to the spare with the tub-ing provided. You can read pres-sure without opening the trunk orclimbing under your pickup ormotor home. Slick. It's $5 for astandard valve stem unit, $6 forlong stem. Shipped postpaid. Cali-fornia residents please add 6%state sales tax.

Send orders to:DESERT MAGAZINE, Dept. T,

Box 1318, Palm Desert, CA 92260

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3 G R E A T B O O K S !INDIANJEWELRY MAK INGFor the first time Indianjewel ry makers , whetherexperienced or novice, haveat their disposal a full-colorphotographic essay of basicIndian designs. The bookutilizes a sequential, step-by-step approach for thecraftsman. In addition tobasic designs, a short pic-

torial history of Indian jew-elry making as well asmodern day techniques andtools are presented. Valu-able information on how toset up a work be nch, gaugewire, know the weight ofsilver, etc.64 PAGESALL COLOR

I N D I A NJEWELRYM A K I N G

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O S C A R ! B R A N S O N

TURQ UOISE, The Gemof the CenturiesBeaut i fu l i l lus t ra t ions inaccurate color can help youidentify the turquoise inyour jewelry. Pictures ofturquoise from 43 localitiesfrom U.S. and around theworld. A must for anyonepossessing even one pieceof turquoise.

FETISHES And Carvingsof the SouthwestA vivid pictorial account ofthe use and beliefs associ-ated with fetishes and thehistory of popular fetishnecklaces since prehistorictimes. This book presentsthe wide range of fetishesand carvings from severalSouthwestern Indian tribesas well as the outstandingworks of several knownfetish carvers.

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D e s e r t M a g a z i n e B o o k S h o pP.O. Box 1318, Palm Desert, California 92260


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Rare OilPlantJOJOBASimmondsia ChinsisEASY TOGROWThis plant produces anoil that isreplacing thesperm whale oil. Itcan beused inautoplasticwax.A good indoor plant.Seed Packet andComplete InstructionsLIMITED SUPPLYSend $2.50 now toRILEY'S NURSERYP.O. Box326, Rialto, C alifornia 92376

MAKE MONEY OUT OFROCKS!'Rock Creations for Fun and Profit" pictures dozensof little animals, people andinsects in ful l color, with stepby step instructions on how tomake them, how andwhere tosell them forextra income.Oneof the most unique, profitableand inexpensive hobbies in theworld can be yours for only$2.95 plus 30 cents shipping.Send to THE OWLS ROOST,

No. 1 Corral Lane Sp. No. 17,Ashland, Ore. 97520.

Dealers Inquiries Invited*>nt a n d V * by Dorothy Davis

EXTRASomething you wouldn twant to m i s s .

Read all about the Assassination ofAbraham Lincoln and many otherH is t o r i ca l E ven t s in a G e n u i n eReproduc t i on of the New Y orkHerald, Saturday, April 15, 1865Edit ion. Send only $4.50 to-

G L M 3541 Main St. Rive rs ide , Ca.92501

*BooksforTtesertTraders

All books reviewed are availablethrough theDesert Magazine BookShop. Please add 50c per totalorder for handl ing and Californiaresidents must include 6% statesales tax.

O L D T I M E C A T T L E M E NA N D O T H E R P I O N E E R SO F THE A N Z A - B O R R E C O A R E ABy Lester Reed

In 1963, one of the classic regionalbooks of the desert southeastern cornerof California waspublished by ts author,

HELLDORADOS, GHOSTS ANDCAMPS OF THE OLDSOUTHWESTby Norman D.Weis

Come wi th Norman D.Weis ona7,000-mile tou r ofthe OldSouthwest .Seethe weathered ruins of 67 ghost towns and abandoned mining camps some famous, others l i t t le known, and one never before mentioned inwri t ten history.A l ively, humoro us text and285 stunning black-and-white photos recal lthe roar ing t imes when miners dug for go ld , silver, or coal in Cal i fornia,Ar izona, Nevada, New Mexico, and the southern port ions of Coloradoand Utah.Approx imate ly 320 pages, 6x9 , 285photograp hs, c loth $9.95

The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd.Box 700

Caldwell, Idaho 83605

Lester Reed, descendant of a pioneerfamily in theBorrego and Hemet region.It has long been out-of-print but now asecond edition has appeared.

Unchanged from theor iginal , the newedition adds only a preface and an n-dex. None of the text and photographsare revised. Then and now,Old TimeCattlemen and Other Pioneers of theAnza-Borrego Area offers the most ac-curate, eye-witness account of the earlydays in the Colorado Desert yet pub-l ished.

It features first-hand accounts of thehistoric mines, cattle drives, home-steads, life among the Indians and inval-uable geographic information about lo-cations, place names andother obscurefacts of what is now the huge Anza-Bor-rego Desert State Park andother colorfulcorners of California's Colorado Desert.

The author spent a long career as acowboy, government hunter and t rapperbefore turning author, a happy circum-stance made even more enjoyable nowthat his litt le book has reappeared.

Old Time Cattlemen and Other Pio-neers again is available to f i l l a largevoid in the bookshelf of useful volumesabout theCalifornia desert country.

In his preface, Bill Jennings explainshis reasons for reviving this desertclassic. As hesays, it is an invaluable re-gional history that could not be allowedto disappear. And, the index proves tobe equally invaluable as a tool for thehurried reader whoneeds to f ind the t ruestory of howCollins Valley got its name,or, where the old Indians made theirhome.

A valuable, highly readable andveryaccurate book. Paperback, illustrated,148 pages plus in dex, $4 .95.

THE BRADSHAW TRAILBy Francis ]. Johnston

The Bradshaw Trail is a lively, fast-moving narrat ive dealing with the manand events which opened California to

Desert/July 1977


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American statehood and awakened thatvir tually undisturbed giant of raw ma-ter ia l , Arizona. The book is rich incolorful and informative material andcontains, along with i l lustrations andindex, a fine foldout map of California'sRiverside County depicting the Trail 'sactual path and many of the landmarksalong it. The Appendix contains tablesnoting the names and modern location ofcamps, sp r ings and s ta te s ta t ions.Names, rou tes and da tes- in -use o fWestern stage line companies are alsoincluded.

Paperback, 215 pages, $6.00.

DESERT JOURNA LA Natural ist Reflectson Arid CaliforniaBy Raymond B. Cowlesin collaboration withEtna S. Bakker

The layman reading this l i fetime re-miniscence by one of the California des-ert 's most renowned natural ists wil lmake an inevitable comparison to thework of one of his distinguished peers,Edmund C. Jaeger.

Both men fell in love with the desert atan early age. Both have the knack ofwrit ing about a basically scientif ic sub-ject in a way both u nderstan dable andhighly enjoyable to the average reader,particular ly to the average reader im-bued, as they, with a l i felong infatuationwith the ar id regions.Cowles' field was as varied as hisimagination. He was one of the Univer-sity of California's outstanding biologyteachers. His students have followedhim to distinguished careers in variousspecialties, encouraged and exhilarated

by his example. Dr. Cowles has writtenrnany works, both technical and popular,but this, his last manuscript before hisdeath in late 1975, in many ways may behis monument.

Desert Journal is more than one m an'sobservations of the teeming, if some-times inobtrusive l i fe of the south-western arid regions. It offers food forthought to those of us who feed or other-wise alter the natural environme nt of thedeser t den izens a round us. Cowleswarns against manipulation of the natur-al homeland for countless small crea-tures, with many examples of well-meaning but deadly assistance to the na-tives that result in death.

The book is filled with the observa-tions that made Cowles a top scientistand reveal the life-long curiosity thattypifies the dedicated desert researcher.The book will provide the occasional des-ert visitor as well as the year-arounddesert dweller with answers to many ofthe little questions you have been reluct-ant to ask, and probably your equallycurious fr iends couldn't have answeredanyway! Ray Cowles learned the an-swers in a lifetime of desert living andloving.

His c ollaborators, Gerhard and Elna S.Bakker helped turn his lifetime's collec-tion of notes and random thoughts into ahighly readable book. Gerhard Bakker,one of Cowles' students, drew the hand-some black and white illustrations andM r s . Bakker, a successful desert authorin her own r ight, organized the narrativeinto an excellent, concise book.

Ha r d co ve r , we l l - i l l u s t r a te d , 2 6 3pages, $10.95.

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T H EG O L D H E XBY KEN MARQUISS

$3.50i A single man's endeav-I ors, Ken has compiled20 of his treasure huntsin book form. His failure to hit the "jack-pot" does not mean he is treasureless.From gold panning to hardrock, fromdredging to electronic metal detecting, heenjoyed a l ifetime of "doing his thing."

, Magazine Book ShopP. O. Box 1318Palm Desert, California 92260

Please add 50c for postage/handlingCalif, residents add 6% state sales tax

U K 1 1I I I 1 j Now...I Good things \Ware happening at...D e a t h W i l e y

J u n c t i o nStay at the historicA M A R G O S A H O T E LThis lovely 50-year-old hotel isbeing restored. 20 rooms openyear 'round. All carpeted. Allbeautifully furnished. Electricheat and air conditioning. M akethe Amargosa Hotel your head- 11quarters while in the Death jiValley area.Telephone Deat h Valley Junc-tion #1 for information or reser-vations.

V isit M arta Becket's famousA M A R G O S A O P E R A H O U S E .You've read about this beautifuland unique attraction in Desertand National Geographic. SeeM a r t a B e c k e t ' s p r o g r a m o fdance-mimes. See her fabulousmurals inside the Opera House.Performances Friday, Saturdayand M onday Through April.Saturdays only in M ay, Septem -ber. 8:15; doors open at 7:45.i i Telephone Deat h Valley Junc-Jjtion #8 for reserva tions. Tours !(welcomed.I

The General Store, Filling Sta-tion and Pottery Shop are open.RV Park coming. Space avail-able for development.

For further information aboutD E A T H V A L L E Y J U N C T I O Nplease write:Death Valley Junction, Inc.P.O. Box 675Death Valley Junction,California 92328

Desert/July 1977


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turnsN E V A D Aby MARY FRANCES STRONG

PART ITHE HISTORY

photos by Jerry Strong

VERYONE HAS HEARD a greatdeal about the legendary Pony Ex-press. Our school history classes

gave us the facts. However, it was theSaturday afternoon movies that showedus the exciting tales about these braveand daring young men. Fact was sodeeply embell ished with fancy it seemedas if the Pony Express hadplayed a longand intrinsic role in the settl ing of thewest.

T h e " P o n y , " as it was affectionatelycalled, was one of the most successfulendeavors of the 1860s. However, itproved to be a financial failure eventhough postage rates were $5.00 perhalf-ounce. It was also doomed to earlyextinction by the " s t r i n g i n g of the wire-less" west. Actual ly, the Pony Expresswas in existence for only a hectic 18months - Apr i l 3, 1860 to October 28,1861. Yet, it gained immortal i ty as one oft h e mo s t d r a ma t i c u n d e r ta k i n g s inWestern History.

As part of our Nation's BicentennialCelebration, the Pony Express Routethrough Nevada has been marked and

Pony Express Route AcrosLovelock

FernleyReno

Milters KDayton".

FortChurchillCarson City

.Genoa

Fall on

>"ve\ ,-. Carson Sand

Carson// ' . Sink ^~"

?mithCreek

Friday'sDesert /July 1977


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some of the original ruins protected.This wasaccomplished by the jo int effortof the Nevada Distr icts of the Bureau ofLand Management, Youth ConservationCorps members and summer fire crews.Their labor hasprovided travelers an op-por tun i ty to " t u n e in on the past . " Anexciting adventure wil l be the result of" T r a i l i n g the Pony in Nevada." Beforeembark ing onsuch atr ip, let 's bone-up al i t t le on the "Pony 's" h is to ry .The years 1841 to 1857 saw the great-est mass migration in history take placeas thousands of emigrants packed alltheir possessions and fol lowed the sunwest. They were searching for pr imeland on which to settle and begin a newway of l i fe. Included in the movementwe r e fa r me r s , r a n ch e r s , me r ch a n ts ,tradesmen and professional men. Alsojo in ing the ranks were gamblers, prosti-tutes, crooks and gun slingers. They,too, planned to try their luck on the newfrontier. Their journey was long and haz-ardous. Many l ives were lost, yet, un-deterred, the movement west continued.

Nearly 2,000 miles of vast, unpopu-

lated land, plus the mighty Sierra andRocky Mountains separated the pioneersfrom their relatives back home. Oncesettled in, they yearned for news of thoseleft behind. Letter mail was usuallyshipped around the Horn to West Coastports then dispatched by stage to f inaldestinations. Time enroute could varyfrom six to nine weeks.

By 1858, mail service had improveddue to shipment viastage lines includingJohn Butterfield's Overland Mail Serviceto California. Delivery time hadbeen re-duced to three or four weeks. Sti l l , thenew frontier hungered for more up-to-date news of country and loved ones.

When ominous war clouds beganthreatening the young United States, itbecame apparent to many that a fast, de-pendable method of communication withCalifornia would be imperative. Califor-nia's Senator Wil l ia m M. Gwin had longbeen of this opinion. He had proposedsuch a service, via the Central OverlandRoute, to Congress four years earlier butthe project had aroused little interest.

The imminence of war and the great

Colorado Gold Strike of 1858 combinedto make the f re ight ing f i rm of Russell,Majors andWadell aware of the need foran overland route to serve the RockyMountain Regions, as well as California.They decided to charter a new company(Central Overland California & PikesPeak Express (to operate a f re ight ser-vice andweekly mail delivery to Califor-nia. The latter to becalled the " Po n y Ex-pres s." They also provided a mill ion dol-lars to set up the new enterprise.

Some historians feel Russell, Majors& Wadell 's backing of the " P o n y " wasnot essentially to provide a faster mailservice. Instead, they hoped to prove theCentral Overland Route shorter andmore feasible than the southern routeused by Butter f ie ld 's Over land Mai lCompany. They were after the lucrativemail contracts held by the latter. SinceButterfield's route ran through seces-sionist territory, they also hoped to showthat mail would be safer on the CentralRoute. This was a persuasive point intheir favor toward obtaining the govern-ment contract.

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elope .*)Spr.

, Spring" c h i l l V a l l e yCreeK

Rober ts. " S u l p h u rSpr.

.1 Dryrrj< . *. - 'Simpson

.'GrubbsWell

Park EurekaAu s t i n

Desert/July 1977


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Genoa, the first permanent settlement in Nevada, was the second stop eastbound onthe Pony Express Route from California. Originally established as Mormon Stationin 1851 , a replica of the original trading post now houses a fine museum . Items usedby the Pony Express and other local, historical a rtifacts are on public display.

Be that as it may, the monumentaltask of placing the Pony Express in ser-vice began. Plans called for the estab-lishment of 190 stations along the near-2,000 mile route. Stations already in useby the Overland Stage Line between St.Joseph, Missouri and Salt Lake City,Utah , were quickly ut i l ized.

From Salt Lake City, the Pony Ex-press Route headed across the Utah Des-ert and followed the 49'er Trail throughCentral Nevada to Sacramento, Califor-

nia. Nearly all the stations needed alongthis section of the route wo uld have to beconstructed. This was accomplished injust two months!

Two types of stations were built home and relay (the latter also called"changing stat ions"). Home stat ionswere approximately 50 miles apart and arider's regular run was back and forthbetween h is home s ta t ions . Freshmounts w ere obtained at 10 to 15 mile in-tervals at relay stations along the way.

Fort Churchill was established in 1860, following an uprising by the Paiute Indiansand interruption of the Pony Express Mail Service. Camp ing is permitted.

Riders rested at the home stations u ntil >rider from the opposite direct ion arrived.There were few "d ays o ff ." Pony ridershad to be ready whenever the mail ar-rived anytime of the day or night.

Home stations had sizable crews ineluding the all- important blacksmith. Astable and corral housed a considerablenumber of horses. Maintenance of thehorses and equipment was providedalong with sleeping and eating accommodations for riders at the end of theirruns.

Relay stations were quite primitiveand usually built from materials avail-able locally rocks, logs or adobe. Acorral and crude shelter held the horsesThe latter was often part of the men'sliving quarters. Two men operated therelay stations and a saddled horse wasready when a r ider arr ived . Init ial ly, therider blew a horn as he approached thes ta t i o n . I t was soon learned thepounding of the horse's hooves gave am-ple warning of an approaching rider,thereby eliminating the need of a horn.Only two minutes were allowed for therider to dismount, remove the mochila(mail carrier), place it over the newmount and then take off.

The moch i la were an innovat iveleather blanket which had been speciallydesigned for use by the Pony Express. Itfitted over the saddle and was held inposition by the saddle horn and weight ofthe rider. The load limit was 20 poundsof mail carried in four pocket-likecompartments. Three held transconti-nental mail and remained locked untilarrival at San Francisco. The fourth com-partment held local mail to be deliveredalong the way. Each home station keep-er had a key to the local compartment.He counted the letters and made note ofthe number and arrival time in his logbefore removing any mail for his area.

Because riding the "Pony" Routewould be grueling work, only wiry , braveyoung men were suited to the task.Speed was of the essence. Riders had tobe under 18 years of age and weigh nomore than 120 pounds. They were re-quired to be excellent r iders with enoughstamina to endure up to 10 consecutivehours in the saddle. It didn't take long torecruit the 80 such men needed. Thoughyoung, many were already skilled cour-iers, guides and scouts. They were paid$120 to $125 per month, dependent ontheir run.10 Desert/July 1977


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The first Pony Express Mail deliveryleft San Francisco, California and St.l o s e p h , M i s s o u r i s i m u l t a n e o u s l y onApr i l 3, 1860 Destinations were reachedin just under 10 days! Both ends of thel ine held gala celebrations for the newera of rap id commun icat ion . "P on y"r iders achieved a remarkable record byconsistently carrying the mail between" S t . Jo and Fr isco" in 10 to 13 days.Only once, during the entire operation,did mail fai l to come through. This wasdu e to both r ider andhorse being ki l led.

Pony Express riders were some of theyoungest (many just 14 years af age),most dar ing men in theWest. Those whocovered the 420miles through Nevada atbreakneck speeds encountered mountainblizzards, bl inding desert sandstorms,flash floods, extreme heat and bone-chi l l ing cold. Add ing to their worr ieswasthe upr is ing of the Nevada Paiutes.

The Indians had long endured mis-t reatment by the whites and many wereon the verge of starvat ion. M ost of theirraids were made on isolated stationswhere food and horses were available.Many men were ki l led and stationsburned. It wasalso adangerous situationfo r the r iders. They would arr ive to f ind afresh horse unavailable, then be forcedto continue their run on a t i red mountthrough hosti le Indian terr i tory.

The longest ride in Pony Express his-tory was made by Robert "Pony Bob"Haslan in May 1860. Bob's regular runwas from Friday's Station in the Sierraseast to Buckland's Station near what isnow Lake Lahontan. His first awarenessof a problem came at Reed's Stationwhere he found all horses hadbeen con-f iscated by the mi l i t ia . The Pyramid In-dian War had begun! Even though hishorse wasnearly exhausted, Bobmade itto Buckland's Station where he was to berel ieved by r ider John Richardson.

Richardson refused to take his run be-cause of Indian problems. "Pony Bob"agreed to make the extra run when sta-t ion keeper Marley offered him a $50.00bonus. Bob, after three relay stops, ar-r ived at Smith's Station a total dis-tance of 190miles. He took a short rest,then began the re turn tr ip . His first stopwas a Cold Springs Station where hefound the Indians had ki l led the keeperand taken all the horses. Bob was able tochange mounts at the next station (SandSprings) andsafely re turned to Fr iday's.He had traveled 380miles and was but aDesert/July 1977

The Bureau of Land Management marked thePony Express Trail across Nevada aspart of our Nation's B icentennial Celebration. Their efforts were anattempt tomakeus all aware andproud of our heritage. Unfortunately, a great deal of vandalism hasoccurred. Some people seem to feel these expensive signs make fine souvenirs.Such thievery by fellow Americans shames us all. Photo courtesy B.L.M., BattleMountain, Nevada.few hours over the regular schedule! Hisreward was an additional $50.00 bonus.

Bolivar Roberts, based in Carson City,wa s the superintendent of the WesternDivision of the Pony Express. He was re-sponsible for the construction of 29 sta-tions across the Nevada wilderness, plusthe hir ing of r iders and men to man thestations. When the mail service com-menced, Roberts was constantly on thetrai l handling emergencies; taking careof horse thieves, seeing to it suppliesreached the stations, rebuilding stationsthe Indians burned down, hir ing newmen and making sure the horses werekept in good condition.

The "Pony" rou te was divided intothree distr icts. It was the deep dedica-tion of the superintendents BolivarRoberts at Carson City, Nevada, JosephA. Slade at Julesburg, Colorado andA .E . Lewis at St. Joseph, Missouri that was largely responsible for the out-standing efficiency of the service. In thevast, unpopulated terr i tory along thePony Express Route, the superinten-dents were "general, judge and j u r y . "Today, the Pony Express lives on inNevada, perhaps more drama tically thanelsewhere along the route. It is possibleto follow most of the tortuous trai l fromborder to border across the Silver State.You wil l travel through country that, ex-cept for f ine highways and a few towns,remains much the same today as it was117 years ago.

Thanks to the effort of the Bureau ofLand Management, you can easily lo-cate the various station sites some

with ruins, others where nothing re-mains. A few are onprivate property. Onsuch a t rek , youwill become aware of thehardships endured and marvel at thecourage of the men who rode the" P o n y " and manned the stations.

For those who would prefer to followthe "Pony" over a shorter route, youwi l lf ind Highway 50 from Fallon to Jacob'sStation a fascinating tr ip into the past.

To becontinued in theAugu st issue "T ra i l ing the Pony in Nevada, Part II The Tour . "

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by HOWA RD NEALa M . & H O S T SM o k e l u m n e H i l l , C a l i f o r n i a

12

Moke lumne Hill 's Catholic Church is one of two beautifulsmall wooden churches in the community. The other is the

Congregational Church, built in 1856. New England sailors wereamong the first "49ers" and strongly influenced the design

of early buildings.Desert/July 1977

To the casual traveler, moving north orsouth along Highway 49, California's Mother Lodecountry appears to present a quiet vista of pastoralpeace. It was not always so.One gold rush town, Mokelumne Hil l , canboast the following roster of murder and mayhem:five killings in one week, a minimum of two lynch-ings, a 17-week period during which there was atleast one murder per week, and two . . . yes, two . . .wars! The first war, in 1849, went down in historyas the "Ch ilean W a r. " It seems that one Dr. Conchawas using slave labor to work his claims, and the"Y an ke es " d id not appreciate that use of slaves. TheAmericans attacked and won the only battle of thewar. One can only speculate how much the Ameri-cans were influenced by a desire to take over the richdiggings being worked by the South Americans.Two years later a group of French miners,in a show of po orly-timed pa triotism , raised a Frenchflag above their claims. The Americans didn't likethis any more than they liked slavery. Besides, the


13/48

The I.O.O.F. Hall was the first three-story buildingto be built along the Mother Lode. A light brownstone, which is known as rhyolite tuff, is a verycommon building material used throughout theCalifornia Gold Country.

UK I I I I I

Above: Hotel Leger, one of the most famous along the Mother Lode, is still operating. Hotelproperty includes the building that once served as the Calaveras County Courthouse. Thecounty seat was moved to San Andreas in 1866. Left: The remains of the Mayer & Son store isa noted ruin on one of Mokelumne Hill's main streets. Gold was discovered in the "Mok H i l l "area in August of 1848. The town was established as a supply center less than three monthslater. Photos by Howard Neal.

French claims were very rich. Again, the Americansattacked and won both the battle and the gold.To this day, the visitor to Mokelumne Hillwill not only find pleasantly winding streets and anexcellent display of gold rush architecture, but hewill find French Hill and Chile Gulch, the sites of thetwo "war s . "Mokelumne Hill is located on CaliforniaHighway 49, seven miles south of Jackson.

Desert/July 1977 13


14/48

TNbyMICHELEMETHVIN

iACATION TRAVELER sees so

"much while on the road, that quiteoften what is seen is taken forgranted. It is ther e, it is noticed , and it is

passed by, without a second thought.The juniper tree is just such an example.W ithou t them , the desert would lose partof its grandeur and splendor. And yet,are they really seen at all?

The juniper tree is found throughoutthe world, from the United States to theHimalaya s. Though they usually come tomind in association with the desert, theyare actually native to cold and temperateregions. Thus, junipers grow in bothhigh and low alt itudes. The juniper is amember of the Pine family; genus Juni-perus and this includes a bout 40 species.

The juniper has a tough, scaly stem.The bark is separated from the woodylayer by a resinous-gummy structure

which enables it to be easily stripped. In-dians made use of the bark for such ne-cessities as mats, sandals, padding andrope. The tree itself provided the Indianswith shelter from the sun in summer andits wood provided them with warmthduring the winter. Its utilization has al-ways been versatile; always in demand.The wood of the juniper is fine-grainedand, today, is used for cabinet-work andinlay design.

The juniper is seen generally as aspreading shrub, with its twisted andgnarled body bent and contorted intonumerous shapes. But the juniper canalso obtain the heights and dimensionsof a tree , regal and majestic in stature.Two types of leaves are produced bythe juniper; small, scale-like leaves andneedle-l ike, sharp-pointed art iculatedleaves; these without oil glands. Theleaves can be found on separate plants,needle-like on younger and scale-like on

older plants and some plants produceboth simultaneously.

In most species, male and femalecones are borne on separate plants. Themale cones are dry and bear pollen producing cells on shield-shaped scales.The female cones have fused scaleswhich are fleshy when mature and give as o l i d " b e r r y - l i k e " a p p e a r a n c e . T h eberry can vary from one-quarter to one-half inch in diameter and contain fromone to 80 bony seeds. The Utah juniperdistinguishes itself from other junipersin that it contains but one seed and oneseed only.

The juice of the berries is both bitterand lasting; quite unpleasant to thetaste. Some varieties of the juniper areeven poisonous. The berry, or cones,grow in clusters and are red, purple orblue-gray in color.

The Utah juniper is also different inone other aspect ; i ts main t runk

Just a part of alengthy juniper rootthat searches forwater and life.

14 Dese rt /July 1977


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T H Ebranches start just above the ground,rather than below ground.

So what is so outstanding about thejuniper tree?

Many junipers are old-looking trees,even when they are very young. Theylook wind-blown, they look t i red. Theylook as though it is all they can do tokeep from fall ing over. During the dry,summer months when they are torturedby the unrelenting rays of the sun andthe hard, hot, blowing desert winds,they look dusty and drab. But even withthat they are beautiful to behold. Thereare no two alike. Each has its own char-acter, its own personality. They are asindividual as anything on this earth.And for every shrub that is gro-tesquely gnarle d in shape, there is a treethat holds itself up straight and proudand weathers the elements with dignity.

They can grow and live anywhere theycan get their roots into a litt le soil, even

if that soil is but a few grains embeddedin a crack of sandstone. Their rootsspread and travel great distances insearch of water to sustain their lives. It isnot unusual to see roots, above ground,f ingering their way for 60 feet, gropingand feeling for water.

They persevere in an environment thatis not always kind. That alone makesthem worthy of notice and makes thembeaut i fu l .

The Navajo Indians believe that thejuniper tree is the tree of life, for it issometimes the only living tree to befound in the hot, burning desert. Theyhave the ability to survive where noth-ing else can or wi l l .From a distance, their twisted appear-ance is very ornamental, and they aredecidedly breathtaking when spectacu-larly perched on the edge of a cliff withno apparent support. And when coveredwith snow in winter, they sparkle and i l-

luminate themselves as rays of sunlightreach out and touch them.

The junipers also provide anotherform of beauty that is forever. If it werenot for the squirrels of the desert, whowork at surviving each day, this maynever have come to be. With their sharpteeth, the squirrel makes a hole in thelarge end of a berry. At the same time,the hull is removed. As the squirrel re-moves and eats the tiny inner seed, heleaves behind the hulled outer casing ofthe seed. The Navajo Indians gatherthese outer casings and by poking a holein the small end, they string the casingsand create unusually fine jewelry.

Next t ime , when traveling through thedesert, give some thought to the junipertrees you will see. Don't see just a tree.See instead, a life that is determined tosurvive, and while surviving, is provid-ing additional beauty to a land thatabounds in beauty.

A gnarled andtwisted juniper

crowning the edgeof a sandstone cliff.Dese rt /July 1977 15


16/48

S u m m e r C e r e m o n i a l so nP u y eM e s aby RUTH ARMSTRONG

Opposite: About ahalf dozen tribes takepart in the ceremonies,performing manydifferent dancesand lasting two days.Photo courtesyAlbuquerqueChamber ofCommerce.Left: The colorfuldancers on top ofPuye Mesa givephotographe rs a rareopportunity tophotograph authenticdances and costumesin a spectacularmountain top setting.Photo byEllis Armstrong.16 Desert /July 1977


17/48

THE LAST we ek-end in Ju ly each yearthe Santa Clara Indians of New M ex i-co return to their ancestral homes onPuye Mesa in the Jemez Mou ntains , and

host two days of spectacular danceswhere visitors have the rare opportunityof photographing the ancient dances andbril l iant costumes of several dif ferenttribes in a setting of outstanding scenicbeauty.

At most ceremonial Indian dancesphotography is str ict ly forbidden, butbecause this is a social event with sever-al other Indian tr ibes part icipat ing, andis not a religious event, the rules arerelaxed. The program varies from year toyear, bu t one year we saw the Belt, Buf-falo, Bu l l , War, Blue Corn, Rainbow,Corn Gr ind ing, Rain, But ter f ly , Harvest,B aske t and M orn ing and E ven ingDances in two days. The Rain Dance, in-cidentally, is st i l l strong medicine. Wehave never yet attended the dances atP uye when t he re we ren ' t t hunde rshowers.

An open market surrounds the plazawhere other tr ibes sell pottery and jewe l-ry, and it 's always more fun to buy dir-Desert/July 1977

ectly from the craftsman. Some of thebetter craftsmen usually attend thisevent, because Indians, like almosteveryone else, love a party. Santa Clarais best known for its black and red pot-tery which is in collections all over thewor ld , but you're also l ikely to f indpottery from Acoma, J emez, San J uan orSan lldefonso, and jewelry from SantoDomingo and Zuni.

As you approach Puye Mesa you cansee that the face of the cliff is pock-mark -ed with dozens of caves. The plateau iscomposed of compressed volcanic ash, inwhich wind and water have eroded na-tural caves. Prehistoric Indians foundshelter in these, and in time also builthouses along the base of the cliffs,usingthe caves as additional rooms. The"talus " houses are only piles of rubblenow, but the caves, with their smoke-blackened ceilings, look as if their inhab-itants moved away last week instead offive to eight hundred years ago. Petro-glyphs, prehistoric carvings, are scatter-ed the length of the mesa.

The dances take place on top of themesa in a plaza surrounded by ruins of

an ancient pueblo where 2,000 peopleonce l ived. The two- and three-story pue-blo was abandoned somewhere around1500 or 1600 A.D. Only a small part ofthe ruins has been excavated, and youactually sit on the ruins to watch thedances. A road goes to the top of themesa which is covered with juniper,pinon and some pine trees. A short dis-tance from the plaza booths are set up bythe Indians where chi l i , Indian bread,coffee and hamburgers can usually bebought .

A good way to make the history ofthese ancient people come alive is toread The Delight Makers by AdolphBandelier, which puts flesh on thebodies and thoughts in the minds of theTewa tr ibes that inhabited the entirearea from around 1000 to 1500 A.D ., giveor take a cen tury. They were ancestors ofmany of the modern Rio Grande PuebloIndians.

Just as spectacular as the dances andcostumes is the view from Puye Mesa.Mountain ranges are in all direct ions,and you feel as if you are up in the cloudstoo, though the elevation here is only

17


18/48

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using comfortablefour-wheel drive vehiclesand experienceddesert guides.Write for free brochuresdescribing our fa l l ,winter and springschedules.Box 1404-DPalm Desert, CA. 92260

Above: Headquarters building at the entrance to Santa Clara Canyon and the PuyeCliff Dw ellings. Below: There are four small lakes up the canyon with nearby camp-grounds. In dry years the lakes may not have much water in them, since they aremade by dams on Santa Clara Creek. In w et years trout fishing is good, and thecamping fee included a fishing permit. Photos by Ellis Armstrong.

18 Desert/July 1977


19/48

around 8000 feet. The th in , clean airmakes the sunl ight br ighter and pinesmells sharper. The beat of the Indiandrums is loud and strong, v ibrat ingthrough the ground , up your legs andinto your body. The monotony of thechants hypnotizes you unt i l the drumbeat and your heart beat are one. Youfeel youknow the people who once livedhere. Youunderstand why hey chose tol ive in this beautiful place, and howtheymust have loved it. And you feel atw inge of sadness that they found it ne-cessary to go down to the valley so theycould raise more food to feed morepeo-ple. But you are happy that they careenough about their ancestral homes toreturn here each year for a beaut i fu lceremony.

Puye Mesa is part of the Santa ClaraReservation, and is reached by dr iv ing

CAMPING INFO RMATIO NCamping atany of the four small

campgrounds in Santa ClaraCan-yo n is $3 a night. There are nohookups but there are pr imi t iverest room faci l i t ies. The fee in-cludes the permit to f ish in thelakes. Photography fee at thecere-monials is based on the size andtype of camera, but squite reason-able.

For further information you maywri te d i rect ly to Gov. Paul Tafoya,Santa Clara Pueblo, New M exico.

15 miles north of Santa Fe on U.S. 84,then west on N.M . 4 about eight miles toN . M . 30, then north five miles to a signthat directs you to the Puye Cliff Dwell-ings. This road continues past the cli ffdwell ings another three or four miles to arecreation area where the tr ibe operatesc a m p g r o u n d s . T r o u t f i s h i n g in thestream and four sm all man-made lakes isp e r m i t t e d , t h o u g h the f i s h i n g i s n ' tusually spectacular. The campgroundsare in small meadows or beneath thepines along the stream. If you ' re not acamping fami ly, however , there aremany good motels in Santa Fe, 35 milesaway, and one of two good ones in Es-panola just three miles on up N.M. 30.

Even wi thout the dances at Puye, thet r ip to the ruins on this mountain mesais wor thw hi le , but f your tr ip fal ls on thefour th weekend in July, youwil l have anexperience notsoon forgotten . Desert/July 1977

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20/48

r OR TWO CENTURIES, Indian run-ners carrying Spanish dispatches,mule trains, horse-drawn wagons,freight ing wagons and, more recently,off-road vehicles, have traversed a net-work o f rocky and sandy canyonsthrough lonely passes beyond often-drysprings between coastal Southern Cali-fornia and the Colorado River to Arizona known optim ist ically as the BradshawRoad.

It 's no road, and Wil l iam D. Brad-shaw didn't really pioneer it , although anew book closely links the 49er fromNorth Carolina with the track. The Brad-shaw Trail, by Francis J. Johnston ofBanning, has been published by River-side County's Historical CommissionPress as a belated but important contri-bu t i on t o t he na t i on ' s b i cen t enn ia lcele bratio n. (See book review page 6.)

Originally the route headed east fromSan Bernardino up San Timoteo Canyonto Cherry Valley, Beaumont and east-ward through the San Gorgonio Pass viaB a n n i n g , Cabazon , t he W h i t ew a t e r

HISTORICOLD MININ G TRAILBACK W AY TOCOLORADO RIVERRiver to Agua Caliente, now betterknown as Palm Springs.

From there, the sandy trail led south-east past Indian Wells, the present-dayTorres-Martinez Indian Reservation andthe Salton Sink of Dos Palmas. The routethen headed more or less straight eastthrough Salt Creek Canyon by CanyonSpr ing, Tabaseco Tank, the ChuckwallaSpring region, present-t ime Wiley Wellinto the Palo Verde Mounta ins and even-tually to the old mining camps of Ehren-berg and La Paz.

Today, the route is invisible west ofDos Palmas but the traces from thereeast are strong and often highly visible.

Johnston noted that the trail lost favora f te r the Southern Pac i f ic Ra i l roadpushed through the desert in 1876-1877,

but current users of off-road vehiclestend to deny that assumption. Except forthe middle of summer, the Salt Creektrail is well traveled on an almost dailybasis.

The revival actually began duringear ly Wor ld War I I when Genera lGeorge S. Patton's armored legionsswarmed over the entire Colorado Des-ert and much of the southern Mojave ontraining sweeps. Their tracks still showvividly in the Orocopia and ChuckwallaMountains south of Interstate 10 andmany of the soldiers and their four-wheel-drive vehicles returned afterthe war to start the present off-road tra-vel boom.

Actually, the Salt Creek route for atime had been proposed as an all-yearhighway shortcut between the Coachellaand Palo Verde Valleys bu t a shorter andeasier route through Box Canyon east ofMecca to Desert Center won the infor-mal competition in the early 1920s.

The late Randall Henderson, founderand longtime editor-publisher of thisF O L L O W I N G T H E E H

Canyon Spring,potable water for earSalt Cr veler


21/48

\ .i Tfl b

i

,fft/s gap p j ^ ^Salt CreVWCanySn

ism@w nearlyimpassable due torepeated flodding. D S H J L W H O A D by BILL JENNINGS

magazine, described the road search inan ar t ic le, "Waterhole on the Old Brad-shaw Route," that appeared in the Janu-ary, 1947 issue.

Henderson recalled his first auto tripalong the route in 1920 with a group ofBlythe residents scouting for the newroad. He had not retraced his tr ip unt i l1946 when he camped at historic DosPalmas, site of a Civil War-era stage sta-t ion and sett ing for the unsolved murderof Herman Ehrenberg.

Ehrenberg's grave is still at Dos Palm-a s , although the stone marking the spothad been removed between this writer 's1950 and 1977 visits. The area is postedprivate property.

Ehrenberg was an early surveyor,mining prospector and Indian Agent. Hewas shot to death at Dos Palmas Oct. 18,1 8 6 6 . Johnston's version of the tragedydif fers from Henderson's earl ier accountbut it is usually agreed it was robbery.Ehrenberg carried upwards of $3,500 ingold dust, some say, and his killer orkillers got it all.Desert/July 1977

The grave and the now totally-obscureDos Palmas stage station site are on pri-vate property, just a quarter-mile southof the All-American Canal service roadthat offers a usually well-graded detouraround the Bradshaw route through theDos Palmas marsh just east of the SaltonS e a .

This is as good a place as any to be-gin a modern re-creation of the old Brad-shaw. West of Dos Palmas the only traceof the original route is the Whitewaterstage station, just south of the rest stopon the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10,two miles east of the junction with StateHighway 111. Everything else is eitherburied under new roads, subdivisions orhas long since been plowed up asfarmland.

Today's Bradshaw starts inconspicu-ously enough as Parkside Drive, eastfrom Highway 111 at the main entranceto the Salton Sea Recreation Area.

This public park and fishing meccaalso is a likely place for an overnightcamping spot for motorists attempting to

re-es tab l ish the Bradshaw route . I tboasts good campsites plus a brand newinterpretive center and is adjacent to thelast gas stations along the Bradshawuntil you reach Ripley, 85 miles to theeast.

Parkside is paved two miles east of thehighway and halts abruptly at an un-marked T-intersect ion. The left forktakes you to the Coachella branch of theAll-American Canal and the r ight forkeventually becomes the powerline roadthat can be followed southward to Ni-land, if you like powerline roads.

From the canal bank, which you reachnear Siphon 30, you travel southeasterlyeight miles to the beginning of SaltCreek Road, at Siphon 24. The siphonsystem on the unlined canal permits theColorado River water to pass under floodchannel washes. The numbers increasenorthward from the junct ion with themain canal east of Holtville.

The land along the canal is postedagainst trespassing by the CoachellaValley County Water District but pass-

21


22/48

age on the graded road is not restr icted.At Siphon 24 the route crosses the

canal and heads steeply up the SaltCreek wash along a rocky path thatshould be traveled slowly to protect thevital underparts of your vehicle. Warn-i ng ! There are few turnouts along theboulder-strewn road and passing is pre-carious. For safety, let the westbound ordownhil l vehicle swing out. This is noroad for sissies or low-slung sedans.

It gets worse some three miles east ofthe canal when you pass over the KaiserEagle Mountain rai lroad and enter thewash proper. Here soft sand replaces therocks for the next eight miles.

Two miles east of the rail crossing theroute passes under the Kaiser Salt Creektrestle, a frequen t cam ping place forgroups. From this point on to the junc-tion with the Salvation Pass road, about38 miles, the road skir ts the northernand northeastern boundary of the USNavy's Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gun-nery Range. Stay to the north of the fre-quent signs along this border or expectto answer a trespass charge in an Im-perial County justice Court!

A short mile beyond the trestle theroad passes histor ic demons W el l , long-since dry, now fenced and marked wit h asign, both courtesy of Kaiser Steel. Thewell was dr i l led after the mining boomended and was primari ly used by mining22

Wiley Well, at thejunction of two historicColorado Desertroads, is now a publiccampgroundmaintained by theU.S. Bureau of LandManagement. Wellwas dug to serveranches and later-daytravelers past theheyday of theBradshaw Road.It is now dry.

freighters enroute to and from mines andmil ls in the Chuckwallas. While histor icin its own right, the well is not part of theBradshaw legacy.

Another 1.7 miles or thereabouts up-stream you will pass the unmarked siteof Canyon stage station, on your right.Until 30 years ago or so the rock wallswere plainly visible on the bank abovethe stream bed but the big floods of1965, 1969 and 1976 removed all tracesof the l i tt le rest and team-changingstation.

At this point, however, watch care-fully for tracks leading left, across thewash, with a small hi l l as your land-mark. This is the entrance to CanyonSprings wash, a side trip of less than amile and well worth your time. Formany, this is the best overnight campingsite along the Bradshaw west of WileyW el l , almost 50 miles to the east.

Wiley and nearby Coon Hollow offerimproved campsites, with good wellwater, provided by the U.S. Bureau ofLand Management, but many sti l l pre-No trace remains of the Canyon Springstage station in Salt Creek Canyon, butthis mound of rocks on the approximatesite may be an old grave. Gap in hills op -posite is mouth of side wash containingnever-failing Canyon Spring in OrocopiaMountains.

Desert /July 1977

fer Canyon Spring, improved only to theextent of an occasional Kaiser railroadtie left behind by another camper. Bewarned, these are excellent firewood butthey are heavily creosoted, so don't sitdownwind !

Canyon Spring is a major gatheringplace for rockhounds in this region. Ex-perts say there are bloodstones andother gem-quality rock on the slopesabove the always-filled pools, but thewriter is no rockhound so don't take hisword for i t.

The spring is salty and unpalatable, asattested by the heavy alkaline incrusta-tions below the two small pools. But inmore than 30 years, the writer has neverfound the well dry and it therefore isa worthy em ergency su pply, for radiatorand stomach.

Above the Canyon Spring turnoff, themain road continues its steady climbalong the iron-ore rai lroad, which ac-counts for the generally well-graded con-dition of the histor ic route. Just fourmiles east of the spring side canyon themotorist has a choice. The left fork, ormain road continues along the railroad10 mi les to In te rs ta te 10 midw aybetween Chir iaco Summit and DesertCenter. If you enter Bradshaw countrythis way, look for. the Red Cloud M ineRoad o f f - ra m p, n ine mi les east o fChir iaco Summit.


23/48

The r ight-hand fork crosses the tracksat an unmarked junction and headssoutheasterly along the gunnery rangeboundary. This is the approximate routeof the old Bradshaw and is graded for thefirst leg to Tabaseco Tank, marked by awell shot-up Auto Club road sign, about3.5 miles.

The write r always hedges when givingmileage between points in the off-high-way regions because of the discrepancyamong car speedometer and odometerreadings Your tire size, inflation andspeed make a decided difference att imes.

This traveler depends on topographicand Automobile Club of Southern Cali-fornia maps for directions, terrain andmileage figures, respectively. To coverthe Bradshaw from Salton Sea to theColorado River you will need the follow-ing 15-minute series U.S. Geologic Sur-vey topo charts: Cottonwood Spring,Hayfield (or Canyon Spring, old series),Chuckw alla Mounta ins, Ir is Pass, Chuck-walla Spring, and Palo Verde Moun-tains. The Auto Club's Riverside Coun-ty map is a worthy companion as wel l ,although it shows great gaps in the oldroad al ignment east of the rai lroad trackspar t icu lar ly.

Tabaseco Tanks are within the boun-dary of the Naval range, with a warningsign just south of the main road to re-

i -

Dos Palmas oasis near th e Salton Sez isnow under private ownership as explain-ed by this unvandalized, official-appear-ing sign. S ite of a Bradshaw Road stagestation, the old spring now contains up-wards of 50 palms instead of original twomind you. Years ago, before the Navalboundaries existed, this was an excellentplace to see desert bighorn sheep onoccas ion . Nowadays they a re ve ryscarce, just as desert mule deer, whichthe author recalls vividly, boundingaway from Canyon Spring on an earliervisit, circa 1949 or 1950.

From Tabaseco easterly the road skirtsthe navy boundary past the gas lineroad, 3.5 miles, past the Augustine Passroad, another 13 miles and nearly to thejunction with the Beal Well road, as theold Ni land-Blythe " h ig hw ay " was ca lleda generation ago.

At this point, eight miles east of theAugus tine crossing, the motorist has an-other choice. Northward across GrahamPass is an alter nate route to 1-10, a lbeit avery rocky and sometimes barely pass-able 20 miles. This area was the settingfor this year's Fast Camel Cruise anannual off-road jaunt sponsored by theSarrea El Jamel four-wheel-drive club ofIndio.

Graham Pass is also the center of ahistoric mining area that played out earlyin this century. The jeep run, as mightbe expected in this contentious time,drew protests from environmentalistsbut the writer found few signs of de-struction along the old county roadth rough the Chuckwa l la and L i t t leChuckwalla ranges a week after the run.

From the Beal Well road junction it isanother short span, about three miles tothe Salvation Pass road. In this area, theBradshaw track blends with severalother roads, including one of GeneralPatton's tank trails. The only safe adviceis to follow the heaviest-used route andstay heading generally east. You beginto bear more to the north just east of thisjunction, along the south slope of the! i tt le Chuckwallas.

It's another 14 miles to Wiley Wel l ,and if you have tired of the ruts, thewashboard and endless dus t, this is agood place to pack it in and head for thefreeway, just nine miles to the north. Onour pre-run the writer and photographermerely made a first-hand check easterlythrough the Mule Mountains to AvenueSO, seven miles southwest of Ripley, and

Not Proceed Be p n d This PointNO ENTRY NO TRESPASSINGdos PalmasWILDERNESS REFUGE

headed back to our overnight camp atCanyon Spring.

Wiley Well Junction, however, offersmore adventure to the traveler. It is acrossing with one of Patton's major sup-ply and training routes, the old MilpitasWash trail that heads southeasterly pastCoon Hollow to State Highway 78 nearPalo Verde, 22 miles to the southeastThis is also a shortcut to Walter's Campand other Colorado River fishing andboating haunts.Several old mines dot the ridges on allsides of Wiley Wel l , which was orig-inally a county-drilled oasis on the oldB l y th e - l n d i o h i g h wa y . Un t i l r e ce n tyears, Wiley Well was the winter homefor a colorful group of squatters, main'vretired miners and desert denizens. Cur-rent BLM regulations restr ict the lengthof stay and impose other limitations onall-winter campers.

The Bradshaw route is generally us-able by high-center two-wheel-dr ive ve-hicles as well as all sorts of four-wheel-drive rigs, but it's a good idea to checkthe route in advance before venturingeast of Dos Palmas or west of Wile y W ellin conventional vehicles.

The only safe dr inking water on theentire 90-mile run between the SaltonSea and Blythe can be found at WileyWell and Coon Hollow. Canyon Spring,Chuckwalla and Chuckwalla Well aredoubtful sources although all three wereused during stage and freight wagondays a century ago.

Desert/July 1977 23


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WESTERN ART "Tarahumara Children"20"x16", Oil,Desert Magazine Collection.

Char les S. La Mon k, A. I .C .A.

m I -

P i c t o g r a p h sa n d P o r t r a i t sby BILL K NYV ETT

24 Desert/July 1977


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H O MA TTE R what l ine of work aperson p ursues , success dependsgreatly on the enthusiasm anddedication or drive of the individual.Art ist Charles La Monk, of Palmdale,Californ ia, is a worthy example of thesequal i t ies.He has two channe ls for hisdedicat ion. First, the recording andpreserving of Indian rock writ ings(petroglyphs and pictographs), andsecondly, the por traiture of theTarahumara Indians of Mexico.La Monk's renderings of rock writ ingsinvolve on-site study and mostwell-preserved petroglyphs are veryinaccessible, requ iring considerablehik ing. Using eroded sand and rock, heapplies it over a wh ite lead base b uildinga realistic fac sim ile of a chosen

petroglyph.The pictographs are painted on asimple base, using a frayed deer hide ona one-half inch wide stick some fourinches long. By experimentation hefound this ideal to produce the strokesand dots of the ancient rock artists. Littlewonder that with his great interest inIndian art he was drawn to the prim it ivetribe of Tarahumaras that inhabit analmost inaccessible area.His love for the Tarahumaras has led

him on many, many trips to thefortress-like barrancas of Mex ico. Iasked him why he chose this obscuretribe to preserve on canvas and his'answer gives an insight to the kind ofman he is."If I can show in my paintings of theseAm erican Indians a bit of thebackground of their l ives, by theexpression in their eyes, their gestures,or capture that hau nting, em otionalquality so often seen in them , then myefforts are not in vain."Fo rtunate ly, the major ity ofTarahumaras have retained their Indianidentity . They are closely l inke d with theancient past and possess thosewond erful facial qualit ies that m oves andinspires the portrait painter."L on g ago, as a boy livin g on a ranchin western W yom ing , I saw on occasionsmall bands of mounted Indianstraveling through the mountains orplains. They were picturesque, gracefulin the saddle, so in harmony with the

environm ent. W hat a thr il l for this boy! IDesert /July 1977 2


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"Inyo County,California Petroglyph,"24"xiO",Oil and natural sand.

longed to ride with them. Those days aregone. A few artists and writerswitnessed it, recorded what they sawand made a valuable con tribut ion toWestern Americana.

"T he Tarahum ara's stone age l ifestyle will change now that their land hasbeen declared a Mexican National Park.An influx of tourists from all over theworld are entering the area. I shalldocument them as 1 see them , notpolished or sophisticated. J ust smalltranscripts from life as seen through anart is t 's eye."

"Smal l t ranscr ipts, " indeed! Workingin earthy tones, his po rtraits come to lifefrom the lined oldsters to the shy,downcast looks of the young sters.

"Tarahumara Child"W'xTl", Oil.

i 26 Desert/July 1977


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"Tarahumara Trio"20"xl6", Oil

Desert Magazine Collection.

Charles, who is a member of theAmerican Indian and Cowboy Art istsSociety, has paintings on display at theLos Angeles County Museum of NaturalHistory; Southwest Indian Museum, LosAngeles; Palm Springs Desert Museum;the Early Man Research Center in LaVerne, Ca lifornia, and The DesertMagazine Art Gallery in Palm Desert,Calif .

He has had invitational shows at theMuseum of Man, San Diego; HerdM useum , Phoenix; University ofArizon a, Tucson; University of NewMexico; Denver Museum of NaturalHistory; and numerous otherunive rsities and state colleges.

"Tarahumara Family"20"xl6", Oil.

"Tarahumara Mother"20"xl6", Oil.

Desert/July 1977 27


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E VERY ONE of 186-mile-long LakePowell's countless hundreds of re-mote slickrock side canyons is totallydif ferent and unique than any other onein the sprawling redrock recreation areaof southern U tah like f ing erp rints, notwo are exactly alike. They can differ incharacter and be as close as one mileapa rt. Some are desolate dry washes thatonly contain water during rare thunder-storms in the form of furious flashfloods. Others are open and wide,ending in lonely box canyons that are ac-cessible only to lizards and mountainlions. A very few the exceptions arewell-watered edens, isolated paradisesthat invite casual explorat ion by investi-gat ive hikers.

One of these exceptions is TrachyteT R A C H Y T E28

by DALE M AHAR IDGEDesert/July 1977


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Creek Canyon. It flows from its source inthe lofty Henry Mountains south intoLake Powell about eight miles below thepresent location of the H ite M arin a. Thisinteresting canyon can easily be reachedfrom Lake Powell or by hik ing into it ,fol lowing the deepening canyon from itsjuncture with Utah 276, a paved roadtha t leads south from Utah 95 to the Bul l -f rog Marina further down on LakePowel l .

Visitors to this watered canyon canfind shaded groves of cottonwood and

.tamarisk-studded sandbanks nestled inrocky alcoves that offer plenty of excel-lent campsites. The rounded, unscalablered canyon walls are splashed with theelectric purple hues of ancient desert

Left : The sphinx-like form of HoskinniniMonument awaits hikers who venture upSwett Creek, a tributary in lower Tra-chyte Canyon. Below: Towering canyonwalls overshadow hikers in TrachyteCreek Canyon. Sandbars and cottonwoodgroves offer plenty of ideal campsites.

varn ish, and are broken only wh ere occa-sional side canyons enter. Hikers can ex-plore these invit ingly narrow branchcanyons that snake back into the rimrockand end in huge, vaulted amphitheatersthat usually have dozens of dripping,t inny-tuned springs harboring miniaturejungle-l ike gardens of maidenhair fernsat their bases. In Swett Creek, a largetributary canyon in the lower reaches ofTrachyte, is the sphinx-l ike toweringbutte called Hosk innini M onum ent aneasy, worthwhile dest inat ion to see.

Trachyte Creek was named by the firstwhite men to see it, a group of MajorJohn Wesley Powell 's men . They had al-ready come down the Green and Colo-rado Rivers from Wyoming, on Powell 'ssecond river trek in 1872, and werespending the winter in Kanab,Utah, be-fore continuing down through the GrandCanyon. Making use of their idle t ime,,they searched for an overland route fromKanab to the mouth of the Dirty DevilRiver where they had hidden a boat tofloat down Glen Canyon. On June20th, after having crossed the Henry

Mountains, they reached a small canyonthat they had thought to be the present-day North Wash. Realizing their mis-take, Professor Thompson (leader of theexpedition) decided to christen it Tra-chyte Creek, according to Frederick Del-lenbaugh in his historic book, A CanyonVoyage, that gives an excellent accountabout his participation on the secondColorado River journey.

Later, the canyon served for a shortperiod of time as a wagon route fromHanksville to the old settlement of Hiteon the Colorado River.

Trachyte Creek begins high up in theHenry Mountains as a series of smallwashes in between the 11,000-foot sum-mits of Mount Pennell and Mount Hil-l e r s . I t doesn' t form much of aformidable canyon until after it crossesthe Bullfrog road and turns south towardLake Powell, where it incises its way intoa deep trench as it circumvents the veryrugged and southernmost range of theHenry Mountains known as the "Lit t leRockies" Mount Holmes and Moun tEllsw orth so called after the ir fierce

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Sweet Creek,above

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Creek inthe distance.

and impregnable disposit ion on theireastern f lanks.

The Henry Mountains were the last" d i s c o v e r e d " range in the Un i t edStates. They extend south of Hanksvil leto Lake Powell, ending in the Lit t leRockies. Muc h of theHenry's wildernesscharacter has been lost through thebui ld ing of roads through the heart ofthe mountains, but some official protec-t ion has f inally been given to at least aportion of these strange desert moun-tains. Recently, the Little Rockies havebeen setaside as the Henry MountainsNational Natural Landmark, preservingfo r all t ime at least a significant sectionof these rugged peaks. The boundariesof the newly created area extend fromeast of Utah 276to theedge of theGlenCanyon National Recreation Area, andf rom the north on Swett Creek to thesouthern flanks of Mount El lsworth.

30

The National Park Service, which ad-ministers theGlen Canyon National Re-creation A rea that encompasses all of thedesert land surrounding Lake Powell, isconsidering adding much of TrachyteCreek for inclusion aswilderness underits jurisdict ion. Their proposal wouldcover approximately 16,000 acres, ex-tending from Ticaboo Canyon north toTrachyte Creek.

The streambed of Trachyte is l i t teredwith cobblestone-sized, water-polishedigneous boulders, a stark contrast fromwhat youwould expect to f ind in a sand-stone canyon. This oddity is a result ofthe laccolithic nature of the HenryMoun tains that is, they were formedwhen rock layers from deep within theearth broke through the Mesozoic sedi-mentary surface strata thrusting themountains skyward thus exposing theblackened cinder-colored rocks to ero-

Desert/July 1977


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sion. As the mountains have beenbroken down, they've deposited theweather-rounded boulders in the canyonbottoms.

The most convenient access point tothe canyon for a casual visitor is f romLake Powell. Hikers have only a shortdistance to walk to reach Swett Creek,which enters from the western side ofMount Holmes. About onemile up SwettCreek, past turquoise-t inted waterfalls,is Hoskinnini Monum entformed wherethree small canyons come together inone place. The monument is a needle-like spire that from certain angles lookslike a sphinx, and f rom others, a giantwinged gargoyle. Thecanyons above themonument are especially rough as theyare chock full of car-sized slabs of rockfallen down from the steep mountain-side. Lake Powell has yet another 40feetto rise above its present elevation of3,660 feet from sealevel. When the lakereaches 3,700 feet, the mouth of SweetCreek wil l be inundated.

The side canyons that flow into Tra-chyte from the east almost extend to theri m of the1000-foot cliffs of North Wash.Most of them are passable only for a

short distance before you are stopped bycryptic narrow canyon walls that defy en-t rancesometimes theconvolut ing ram-parts are so close that you may touchboth walls with your outstretched arms.In one unnamed canyon, flash floodshave burrowed their way so deeply thatthis wash occasionally "goes under-g r o u n d " in sections, forming short tun-nels and l i t t le natural bridges. Otherside canyons end in unscalable cirques,or where building-sized rocks have rolledinto the main channel, blocking thesewashes from rim to rim.

Except for cows that are pastureddown in the canyon bottoms, TrachyteCreek remains an almost untouchedwildernes s a pristine canyon tha t hasbeen formed over the centuries by theslow but steady action of the endless cy-cles ofwind , sun,rain andfrost chiselingaway at the seemingly unc angeablesandstones. Here you wil l fin the sim-ple pleasure of casual unh urri ' d walkingby day, and the sweet silence of a stellarnight, broken only by the chirping voiceof t iny Trachyte Creek that wil l put youto sleep like the singing of a thousandlullabies.

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Desert/July 1977 31


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DesertDazzlerS PLENDID IN HIS jewel-bedeckedraiment , the t iny Costa humming-bird puts a sparkle and dash into thedesert scene. His is the m ost bea utiful ofall costumes, done in greens, his crownwith its burnished helmet, his ruff offeathers at his throat shining with ir i-descent ever-changing hues of violet,sapphire, amethyst and br i l l iant emer-ald. Nor is the lady to be outdone. True,she is not so f lashily dressed, but st i l lt u rned ou t by a m os t im ag ina t i vecou turier, her gown of more quiet greenssubt ly touched with gray or black, wi thaccents of white on certain feather t ips.A sight to gladden the eye, these l it t lethree- to four-inc h b its of f luff and feath-ers! Revved up and on the go almostevery minute, they buzz in from seem-ingly nowhere, hover in mid-air before af lower, t iny wings but a blur in the speedof their beat. And then . . . the next in-stant they are gone in a flash of color.Most of their act ive t ime is spent on thewin g , and in just going about their nor-mal business, they burn energy at a ratesome 10 t imes that of a running man.32

by K. L. BOYNTON1977

Now no desert the Mojave, theColorado, and certainly not Death Va lley is any place for so wasteful an ex-penditure of energy in the face of foodand water shortage, high daytime heatand severe drops in temperature atnight. Yet, these l it t le hummingbirdsselect these very same grim and forbid-ding places for nest ing and raising theiryoung. Naturally such a state of affairs istoo much for inquir ing biologists whohave to f ind out how in the world thebirds get away with it .

I ronically, the very thing that de-mands so much energy their marve-lous f lying abil i ty is in large part re-sponsible for their success. And, asanatomist R.H. Brown points out, i t inturn is due to superior body construc-t ion and design. So it al l starts with theskeleton. First , the hummingbird has abreastbone with a very deep keel, pro-vidin g a broad area for the attachm ent ofpowerful f lying muscles. Second, thebony parts of the wing itself are pro-port ioned for high speed, with the upperarm shortened while the lower part and

Photo byKarenSausman,

Palm Desert,California.

hand are greatly lengthened, thus pro-ducing a th in-bladed, narrow-taperedwin g . A nd t h i r d , the shoulder joint ro-tates freely. This means that when thewing is stretched out fully it can bemoved backwa rd and forwa rd in almost ahorizontal plane, its top and under-surfaces alternately facing downward.Wings beating this way produce an airreaction that is almost vertical whichhelps to support the bird and makes itpossible for it to hover. With a l i t t le ski l l -ful change in the beats and in the angleof the body, the bird can move forwardor as easily backward.Speed of the beat is natu rally impor-tant , the f ly ing hummingbird doingabout 50 to 75 per second. (A pigeonmakes about nine, the leisurely vulture

only one.) Muscles supply the go-power,Desert /July 1977


33/48

and while it takes many of them func-t ioning together to produce f l ight , twomain ones do most of the work. The f irstof these provides the powerful downstroke. I t originates on the breastboneand connects with the underside of theupper arm of the wing. The second mainmuscle l ies under th e f irst on the breast-bone but its tendon part goes through ahole between the bird's shoulder bonesand attaches to the top pa rt of the uppera r m . This makes a fancy rope and pulleyarrangeme nt so that when this musclecontracts on the breastbone, it hoists upthe w ing.

Now most birds use the powereddownstroke much more in f l ight than theupstroke, and hence in their cases, themuscle that depresses the wing is muchlarger than the one that raises it . In a

robin, for instance, it is about 10 timesbigger. But in the hummingbird, whodepends on the upstroke to help in hov-ering, the wing-raiser is relat ively enor-mous. It is almost half the weight of thedepressor which is also very large in thist iny b i rd . Ponder ing this , AnatomistSavile concluded that there was noreason why these outsized elevatingmuscles couldn't also furnish a forwardthrust about as powerful as the down-stroke muscles. So why c ould n't thebirds use them in level f l igh t too, unless,of course, the f l ight feathers separatedand the wing bent at the wrist whichwou ld spoil the act ion? To his deligh t, hefound that indeed the feather shafts andwebs of the prim ary f l ig ht feathers of thehummingbird wing are surpr is ingly r ig idfor their size and do not separate under

pressure. And the wrist does not bend.The hummer's marvelous powered up-stroke, then, contributes to the speed ofi ts f l ight and is why a hummingbird,hovering before a f lower, can suddenlyzoom off like a streak of light.

Fueling this jet machine is mainlysugar from f lower nectar. The bird'sprobing bil l is excellent for gett ing deepinto a f lower cu p, and its long tongu edes igned f o r nec t a r s l u rp ing . I t i sprotruded from the mouth by musclesconnected to the tongue bon e, the hornsof which are so long they curve uparound the back of the bird's skull atongue shoving device also shared bywoodpeck ers. This high suger diet aquick energy producer is also bol-stered with proteins from insects andspiders the birds f ind on plants and

Desert/July 1977 33


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Courting Costa hummingbird-styletakes a lot of energy, for the suitor putson a bigshow of stunt f lying. Rushing upinto the air, he plummets earthwardfaster, faster, swooping upward just inthe nick of t ime . It's a f ine aerial per-formance, the bird f ly ing his U-shapedarcs always from different points of thecompass. Sound effects are included too,high-pitched whistles andhissing addinggreatly to the show. Oh, a dazzling sighthe is indeed, his jeweled feathers glow-in g and shin ing wi th the changingcolors, his ruff spread wide, his tai lthrown so jaunti ly from side to side. Na-tura l ly all this is too much for thewatch-ing lady to resist and she succumbs tohis charms.

But alas! In no t ime at all the bloom isof f the rose. The Costa hummingbirdmay be adeluxe aerial ar tist, but he's nofami ly b i rd . Any nest building andyoungster raising that's to be done is upto her. He's off now to tank up on nectarfor more high-powered courting, and tocontinue hisf ierce protection of his terr i -t o r i a l f e e d in g g r o u n d s . B io l o g i s t s ,watching such a j i lted lady busily pros-pecting for a nest site with obviously nobroken heart, wondered. Was it thestunt f ly ing and the bejeweled raimentof the suitor that dazzled her or didshe really have an eye on the groceries ofhis pr ivate feeding ground? Anyhow,that's where the lady sets up house-keeping.

The upshot of all this is that, in de-fending his floral nectar bar, the gentle-man also defends the nesting female,wi l ly n i l ly. And he has to divy up thefood supply with her, too. However,since the gents with the best feedinggrounds attact the most females and getto do themost courting, they may not re-gard this as such a bad deal after all.

The lady, meanwhile busy with hernest construction, selects plant downand fine shreds of vegetation for itswal ls, making it about 1-5/8 inchesacross the top and 3/4 inches deep. Shelines it with feathers and covers it withbits of leaves or l ichen. Thewhole worksis held together andfastened in place ina cactus or shrub by strands of silkenweb, compl iments of some local spiderwho, if not fast-footed enough, probablyalso furnished a protein snack for thenest builder.

Two small bean-size eggs are par for aclutch. What hatches out some 12 to 16Desert/July 1977

days later are so t iny, 50naked and sogray with such skinny black knobs foreyes that they look, as even a bird loverl i ke o r n i t h o l o g i s t Wh e e lo ck had toadmit , more l ike worms than humming-b irds. But Mrs. C gets right onto thegrocery detai l . Thrusting her long billdeep into the gaping mouths, she de-l ivers a brew of regurgitated nectar andinsects, poking and shoving it down thechicks' gullets, and why they aren'tstabbed to death in the process, nobodyknows.

What with repeats of this at least oncean hour and sometimes as often as 25minutes, she begins to get results. Theyoungsters grow surprisingly fast and amagical transformation takes place. Bythe twelfth day, the chicks, covered withgreenish feathers butwith wisps of downsti l l sticking out here and there on thetops of their heads, at last begin to looksomewhat l ike miniature adults. Tendays later as their wings grow longer,they're ready for the i r f i rst f l ight, andthen it's just a matter of t ime beforethey' re off on the i r own.

Probably the best adapted to desertlife of all hummingb i rds , the Costas stillface the p r o b le m of mois tu re lossthrough evaporation and in excrement.For these high-powered l i tt le birds,there must always be nectar, succulentfood and if possible, surface water.These are to be had in the great deserts,an d the Costas seem to know exactlywhere.

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T A R A H U M A R A STkF A S T E S TH U I V I A N SPJOU MAY have heard of them, but i ta isn't probable you have seen them

I at close range unless you have treat-ed yourself to one of the most dramaticand spectacular train trips in NorthAmerica, if not the world.

We're referring to the TarahumaraIndians who wander the vastness of theSierra Madre Occidental where it formsthe lower spine of our continent as itpasses through the Mexican state ofChihuahua.

Usually the Tarahumaras are dist in-guished among the Indian tr ibes ofMexico for their feats of running. Theyhave been called the world's fastesthumans and in their native language areknown as Raramuris, or foot runners.

byJIMSMULLEN

Photos courtesyCharles La Monk.

The hugebarrancas, whichthe Tarahumarascall home, hassuch inaccessibilitythat the tribe hasbeen isolated fromthe crush ofcivilization.36 Desert /July 1977

8/14/2019 197707

197707 Desert Magazine 1977 July

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