Time carves out a sculpture park at Joshua Tree

Time carves out a sculpture park at Joshua Tree

May 1, 1973: The Avenging Angel, one of the rock forms sculpted by weather at Joshua TreeNational Monument.

This photo by staff photographer Cal Montney accompanied a story by staff writer Charles Hillingerin the May 29, 1973, Los Angeles Times:

One of the world's giant collection of stone monuments lies scattered across Joshua Tree NationalMonument, a huge desert park 130 miles east of Los Angeles, sculpted by weather and theconvulsions of the earth.

"People see everything imaginable in our rock piles," said Donald M. Black, 52, chief park naturalist.

"They keep running into the visitors' center reporting what they think is a new discovery, a newshape they think may not have been observed before."

There are hundreds of rocks resembling human heads.

The Trojan in the monument's Wonderland of Rocks section is probably the best known of the headforms.

Nature etched out a prominent Grecian nose, square chin, sharp eye, dimpled cheek and even awrinkled forehead.

"It almost looks like it had to be chiseled," agreed Black. "But we've examined the Trojan with a finetoothed comb. The National Park Service is convinced it's a work of nature."

There are rocks that resemble a group of nuns charging across the valley.

On giant outcropping that soars 100 feet looks like a cowled hag from the pages of Grimm's FairyTales.

There are animal and insect figures-elephants, camels, oxen, fish, hippos, turtles, grasshoppers andbeetles.

And odd forms like the Loaf of Bread and the Open Book.

For years, one rock cluster visible for miles was a source of embarrassment.

There were so many complaints that the shape of the outcropping was pornographic that parkrangers finally blew it up.

Joshua Tree National Monument covers 870 square miles. The main entrance is at TwentyninePalms.

"Rock shapes appear to change with the hour of the day," Black said. "Long shadows and lightingeffects of the sun from hour to hour have a great deal to do with what people see. ...

Weird rock shapes result from numerous earthquakes, from the shifting of the earth's crust, fromweathering and erosion.

Joshua Tree, set aside by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 as a national monument, gets itsname from forests of the unusual cacti.

Early day Mormons named the trees, which to them resembled the Biblical Joshua lifting his arms toHeaven in prayer.

In 1994, Joshua Tree National Monument became a national park.

Several of the 1973 images by Cal Montney accompanied Hillinger's article. The other photos arefrom other Los Angeles Times articles. John Malmin's 1954 "Seals Convention" was published as astand alone image.

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