195106 desert magazine 1951 june

8/14/2019 195106 Desert Magazine 1951 June

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1951 35 CENTS


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M o b i l g a s

wonderful tripif you're using Mobilgas!"

JJJjfc "you bet!"Every trip this vacation can be w onder-ful in economy, wonderful in perform-ance, with Mobilgas. The proof is in theMobilgas Economy Run to the GrandCanyon, where 32 cars, representingnearly every American manufacturer,averaged 23.9 miles per gallon usingMobilgas.The Mobilgas Economy Run provedthat every owner who is a good, safedriver, who drives a well-conditionedcar, and who uses Mobilgas or MobilgasSpecial can get better mileage.FREE A T YOUR M OBILG AS DEALER To help you get more m ileage from yourcar, drivers, mechanics, and fuel engi-neers who participated in the Run havepooled their experiences in a booklet.Your M obilgas Dealer has a copy for you.GENERAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION,converting nature's g/7/ to better jiving.

D E A T H V A L L E Y P R O G R A MTO BE STAGED IN NOVEM BER

Next November 10-11-12 have beenset as the tentative dates for the 1951Encampment of the Death Valley49ers, as planned at a recent meetingof the board of directors held atTrona, California.No effort will be made to repeat the

elaborate pageant which drew 35,000people to Death Valley in the centen-nial year of 1949. Rather, the programthis year, as tentatively outlined by thedirectors will include a huge campfireprogram supplemented by exhibits ofhistorical weapons, Death Valley min-erals, and a square dance carnival.John Anson Ford, president of the'49ers, stated that the purpose of theEncampment will be threefold:(1) To provide an opportunity fora simple outdoor encampment in oneof America's most scenic and dramaticsettings.(2 ) To h onor the heroism andachievements of the early pioneers.(3) To make the charm and maj-esty of Death Valley known to all theworld.President Ford was authorized toname a committee of five members tohave charge of producing the program.The pageant part of the Encampmentis to be staged by individual commu-nities in the desert area.It was agreed that the cost of theEncampment be limited to such fundsas are provided by popular subscrip-tion and by the communities adjacentto Death Valley.

SKELETONS OF FIRSTCAM ELS ARE DISCOVERED . . .

When, through the efforts of EdwardFitzgerald Beale, the United Statesgovernment landed 33 camels fromEgypt at Indianola, Texas, in 1856 foruse in transportation, it was generallybelieved America had its first camels.The Civil was cut short Beale's experi-ment. Some of the camels were sold,others, uncared for, slipped away intothe desert to become nomadic outcasts.Recently fossil beds in the vicinityof Barstow have yielded skeletons oftiny camels about the size of yearlingcalves with a small hump. Accordingto Ray S. Langworthy, science teacherat the Barstow high school, the scient-ist in charge of the excavation, TedGolusha, working for the New YorkMuseum of Natural History, believesthe camels are the forebears of thepresent near-east Asiatic camels; that

the camel family originated in NorthAmerica, migrating across the BeringStraits to disappear from America.DESERT MAGAZINE


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D E S E R T C A L E N D A RJune 1-2Pioneer Days Celebration,Clovis, New Mexico.June 3Sports Day, flyand bait cast-ing. Trap shooting. Storrie Lake,Las Vegas. New Mexico.June 3Procession of LaConquista-dora from St.Francis Cathedral toRosaria Chapel, commemoratingreconquest of NewMexico fromIndians by de Vargas in 1692.Santa Fe,New Mexico.June 3-6State Future Homemaker'sConference, Arizona State College,Flagstaff, Arizona.June 7-9 State wide meet 20-30Club, Prescott, Arizona.June 7-9Rocky Mountain Federa-

tion of Mineral societies conven-tion, Phoenix, Arizona.June 10Return of DeVargas me-morial procession to St. FrancisCathedral, Santa Fe,New Mexico.June 13Corn Dance, SanAntonioDay, Taos pueblo. Taos, New Mex-i c o .June 13Indian fiesta andceremon-ials, Sandia, New Mexico.June 14-16 Veterans of ForeignWars state wide convention. Pres-cott, Arizona.June 15-16State Press AssociationConvention, Santa Fe, New Mexico.June 20-23American Legion StateConvention, Santa Fe, New Mexico.June 22-24Future Farmer's Rodeo(youngsters only), Santa Rosa, NewMexico.June 22-24California Federation ofMineralogical societies holds its an-nual convention at Oakland, Cali-fornia. Harold C. andNathalie F.Mahoney are co-chairmen of thecommittee in charge.June 24Annual ceremonials includ-ing Corn Dances, SanJuanDay,Taos pueblo, Taos; and Acomapueblo, New Mexico.June 24Saddle Club Rodeo andRacing, Farmington. New Mexico.JuneExhibit of paintings by PaulCoze, illustrating artist's conceptionof life innow ruined cliff dwellingsand pueblos of Colorado, Arizona

and New Mexico 1000 yearsago.Southwest Museum, Marmion Wayand Museum Drive, Highland Park,California.

V o l u m e 14 JUNE, 1951 N u m b e r 8C O V E RP A G E A N T R YCALENDARA R C H E O L O G YHISTORYPOETRYFIELD TRIPMININGNATUREC O N S E R V A T I O NLANDMARKP H O T O G R A P H YI N D I A N SLETTERSB O O K SN E W STRUE OR FALSEC O N T E S TFICTIONLAPIDARYH O BBYC O M M E N TCLO SE-UP S

SOLID CITIZEN. Photograph by Hubert A. Lowman,South gate, California

Death Valley Encampment announcement . . 2June events on the desert 3Trail of the 57 Shrines

By PAUL WILHELM 4Geronimo, Apache or Greek?

By ELEANOR HODGSON 9Oasis, and other poems 10Rocks oi the Ages

By HAROLD WEIGHT 11Current news of desert mines 16"Miracle" Tree of the Sahara

By WILSON McKENNEY 17Protection of National Parks 19For Those WhoFollow Desert Trails . . . . 20Pictures of the Month 21When L.ttle Whiskers' Pension Check Came

By SANDY HASSELL 22Comment by Desert's readers 23Reviews of Southwest literature 24From here and there on the desert 25A test of your desert knowledge 28Prizes for cover pictures 30Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 31Amateur GemCutter, by LELANDE QUICK . . 32Gems and Minerals 33Just Between You and Me, by the editor . . . 38About those whowrite for Desert 39

The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert,California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert.California, under the Act of March .':, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office,and contents copyrighted 1950 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contentsmust be secured from the editor in '.vriting.RANDALL HENDERSON. Editor BESS STACY, Business ManagerMARTIN MORAN, Circulation Manager E. It. VAN NOSTRAND, Advertising ManagerLos Angeles Office (Advertising Only): 2635 Adelbert Ave., Phone NOrmandy 3-1509Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledged

unless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility fordamage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub-scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue.

SUBSCRIPTION BATESOne Year $3.50 Two Years 98.00Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c ExtraSubscriptions to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity With

P. O. D. Order No. 19687Address Correspondent? to Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, California

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Trail of the 57 Shrines...On April 1 many readers of Desert Magazine gathered in front ofDesert's pueblo in the Coachella Valley to dedicate the starting- of a Shrinefor those who follow the desert trails. For those who would like to knowmore about such Shrines, and their Indian origin, here is a story that will

answer most of the questions, written by Paul Wilhelm, poet oi 1000 PalmsOasis.By PAUL WILHELM

Map by Norton Allen

Although perhaps hundreds of years old, the ancient Indian trail acrossBee Rock Mesa is still easy to follow.

LTHOUGH I have lived in mylittle cabin at California's 1000Palm Oasis 18 years, it wasnot until a few months ago that 1 dis-covered on Bee Rock Mesa not farfrom my home what I believe is arecord number of rock moundsTrailShrines of the ancient Indians whoonce camped at my spring. There are57 of them along an old Indian trailwithin a distance of one mile.Bee Rock Mesa is in the heart ofthe Indio Mud Hills, the "most pro-saically named hills in the desert" ac-cording to Harry Oliver whose "FortOliver" home lies on the floor ofCoachella valley just south of them.We residents of the area prefer to callthem Phantom Hillsbecause we thinkthey arc worthy of a prettier name than"mud."Actually, these sienna-hued claybanks have much to interest the Na-ture lover and photographer, as wellas the geologist and archeologist. Inthis great up-lifted sedimentary de-posit are found beds of marine fossils,and along their 26-miIc length aremany oases of the native Washingtoniapalm. Indians once chanted their songsamong these palms, and cremated theirdead on the nearby mesas. We are

quite certain of this for the mesas andridges are zig-zagged with ancient trails.Phantom Hills have a forbidding ap-pearance to those who view them frompaved Highways 60, 70 and 99allthree of these U. S. highways followthe same route at this point. But thoseof us who live among these hills havelearned that in the solitary places be-hind and beyond their drab exteriorare vistas of indescribable beauty. Thewhole story of creation is written inthese hillsfor those who have theinterest to explore them at leisure and

study the strange phenomena of theirformation.In the heart of these hills, for untoldcenturies 1000 Palms Canyon was oneof the more important old Indiancampsites. This was due to an unfail-ing supply of spring water forced tothe surface through fissures formedby the San Andreas fault. This con-tinuous 80-inch flow to this day makesthe canyon green with palm, willow,mesquite, cottonwood and grasses.Here can still be found artifacts of aby-gone day: clay ollas, stone imple-

ments and obsidian spear and arrow-heads, mementos left by the most re-cent Phantom Hills dwellers, the Sho-shoneans.DESERT MAGAZINE


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Paul W ilhelm and Cyria Henderson deposit their stones on one of the largest ofthe shrines found along the Bee Rock Mesa trail.

Less than a mile south of this nat-ural watering place, I came upon 57Trail Shrines. They were located oneither side of an ancient trail on BeeRock Mesa between 1000 Palms andHidden Palms Oases.Excursions had often taken me intothe Bee Rock Mesa area during myyears at 1000 Palms Oasis. It washigh countryand there was adven-ture tracking hill ridges, or searchingfor ollas hidden in caves a century agoby the Wildcat and Coyote clans ofthe late Mara tribe.This particular Sunday afternoon

the excursion led up a boulder-strewnbox canyon. Adjacent, and high to myleft, arose Bee Rock Mesa. From myshoulder hung a canteen, and a cam-era. I was intent on taking a photo -graph of a rare cacti grouping. I hadhappened on it some weeks beforeseven large bisnagas growing in acluster on a gravel slope.The photo taken, I climbed themesaand there was this ancient trail!It meandered leisurely in a northwest,southeast direction.At first glance, it appeared older

than the two trails I was familiar within the foothills a mile east betweenPushawalla and 1000 Palms Canyons.

I decided to hike its entire length. SoI tracked northwest, keeping wellapar t from the trail. 1 wanted to fol-low it across the mesa from beginningto end.The flat desert pavement over whichI picked my way was bone-dry, withscant vegetation. Creosote bushes,spaced farther apart than is their habit,were grotesquely stunted, the leavesfolded desperately inward to retainevery precious bit of moisture. Oc-casionally I walked over round smoothclearings, from five to eight feet indiam eter. But the aridity of Bee Roc k

Mesa was compensated by the view itafforded, old landmarks of the Phan-tom Hills familiar from years of asso-ciation: Squaw Hill, Cragg Bluff, Ele-phant Butte and Gaunt Ridge. Farwest arose the two-mile-high bk e sum-mit of San Jacinto Mountain. And Irealized the peaceful charm of thismesa. It was an isolated little worldof its own.At last 1 stood on the edge of a sandand rock-strewn slope. The trail zig-zagged down in sharp switchbacks.Below, on a flat of land, markings of

the trail were barely evident. Thosefaint stretches still discernable made abee-line for my home Oasis one mile

northwestthe first of three luxuriantpalm groves in 1000 Palms Canyon.Viewed from Bee Rock Mesa, thatgreen oasis in its dramatic situation,flanked by ochre-colored hills, was apainting in deep pastels. At the baseof those palms were the Indians' un-failing springs. Vivid in my mind wasthe picture of a time when dusky fig-ures roamed the Phantom Hills. Itwasn't difficult to imagine a party ofthem on the old trail carrying ollasfilled with spring water.I turned about and began followingthe trail. It was then that I first be-held many low rock mounds on eitherside of the trailgood luck shrines aswhite men call them, apparently erectedby some pre-historic people.Under the slant of a hot sun, I washeld there in that moment of discovery.Perhaps it was the recognition of aresidue of living left by a people in aplace once frequented and loved.The moment did not pass quickly.I continued studying those small heapsof loosely piled stones recalling, likeit was yesterday, a summer afternoonthree years before as I plodded up thetrail toward the summit of San JacintoPeak behind my Santa Rosa Indianguide, Pablo Arroz. Nearing the sum-mit the Indian turned aside from the

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, ! " ' " ' . 'IIIV,. ;i '*' V '.','.' T029 PAI

C O A C H E L L AELCCN1

trail. He picked up a stone, placed iton a low mound of rocks, and thencontinued silently ahead up trail. Onthe peak, he walked to a large moundand placed a flat stone thereon. Istood quietly beside him. His facelighted and his lips moved as if inprayer. On our way down the moun-tain, Pablo revealed the purpose be-hind his acts. Shrine offerings hadbeen made that we might be worthyto ascend the peak which his tribe con-sidered sacred.

These piles of rocks are familiar tomost of us who follow Indian trailsthroughout the desert Southwest. Inthe Navajo and Hopi country sprigsof juniper, sticks and wood fragmentsare to be found lining crevices of TrailShrines. In the Pima country of south-ern Arizona a large boulder surroundedwith stone and ringed with a circle ofsmaller stones has been for centuriesconsidered strong medicine.

Malcolm J. Rogers of the San Di-ego Museum, authority on Southwest-ern Indians, discovered 17 separatestone piles along a California-ArizonaIndian trade trail. Each containedshells and broken pottery. Concerningthis great east-west trade route, Rogershas this to say:"Along such main trails, desert In-dians practiced the peculiar custom ofdepositing small stones in piles to in-dicate that they had made one of theselong treks. In time many of the piles

grew to considerable size. The pilesusually occur in groups, a fact thatmay be explained by assuming thateach clan constructed a separate pile.There is also evidence that not all suchstructures were merely for the purposeof recording journeys but were the out-growth of ritual practice. In such pilesthe travelers seem to have sacrificeda portion of whatever they were carry-ing in an effort to effect a successfuljourney by appeasing seme spirit ordeity. They were particular either tobreak or burn all offerings beforedepositing them."

Among the Indians of Mexico,mounds of stone can still be seen alongtrails and in villages. Offerings are ofa specific nature: small vessels, glasstrinkets, and pottery images of animalsand birds. Some mounds, if properlysupplicated, are believed to attract rain,protect fields and assure an abundantharvest. Others secure a village fromlightning, and protect livestock andhousehold belongings. There is oneshrine of the Huichol Indians of moun-tainous north central Mexico that, ifproperly propitiated, is believed tomake hens prolific egg layers.

Continuing along the ancient trailacross Bee Rock Mesa, the markersbecame so numerous that I wasprompted to count them. So I back-tracked. From the beginning I beganchecking them off one by one in myfield notebook.

It is difficult to describe the peaceand quiet brooding over Bee RockMesa. I think it can best be explainedas a response to other lives lived longa g o . It is as if there had never beenany quarrelling or wrangling amongthose primitives that had passed thisway. Surely they had been humble,loving one another. You cannot ex-perience the mesa and have any illwill toward anyone. Along the trailyou want to share this sense of peaceand love. And share it you do!

Ahead of me now, shrines becameprominent on either side of the wind-ing pathway. My steps hardly brokethe silence and my slow progress gaveample time to study the mesa's con-tour.Bee Rock Mesa was approximately

one mile across and two miles inlength. It ended abruptly in the eastat Gaunt Ridge and in the southweston the slope of Elephant Butte. Inthe immediate vicinity of the trail, itsterrain varied. Miniature arroyos androcky hummocks gave way to broadlevels of desert pavement, or mosaic, asurface paved with pebbles and weath-ered down to flatness. From the cen-ters of a few trail markers, creosoteand encclia raised brittle branches.I paused momentarily at one of thelarger mounds. Among the loose stones

I made a painstaking search for signsof broken pottery, stone implementsand arrowheads. Unlike the two routesD E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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Hidden Palms Oasis is at one end of the trail Thousand Palms Oasis is at the other end

a mile east, not a single artifact wasevident.There were signs of vandalism insome shrines, holes dug down throughthe center to the ground surface. Butthose who thought buried relics mightbe found could have saved themselvesmuch labor. In the Southwest, nomarker was ever placed over an In-dian burial. "When we go, we leaveno trace" was as true in primitivetimes as it is with the Indians of today.This wanton vandalism remindedme of the wishing wells so prevalentin southe rn California. They are thewhite man's counterpart of the Indianshrines. How many of them have nowbeen converted from a thing of tra-ditional charm to a money-maker forunscrupulous Yankee tradesmen!Still coursing southeast, it was ap-parent that the mounds were arrangedin definite series, spaced from a fewyards to 100 feet apart. Far ahead,the trail ascended a gentle rise. Situ-ated on its summit against the skylinewas by far the largest marker. I quick-ened my steps up the slope.Simultaneously, I became aware of

cleared spaces on the broad levels ofdesert pavement. The clearings werefrom 20 to 100 feet off the trail. Onesuch area, in close proximity to thetrail, was ringed with small red stones.Before reaching the summit I placedmy canteen on a marker that I wouldnot lose count, and struck off to in-vestigate.Though it was true that a few clear-ings paralleled the trail, the majoritywere widely scattered over the surface.They may have been primitive dwellingsites, since native camps generallywere located apart fromand usuallyaboveimportant watering points assecurity against enemies. A thoroughinvestigation of the campsite revealednot a trace of an artifact.Eventually I arrived at the largesumm it marke r. It was eight feet indiam eter and three feet tall. Its com -position was entirely of loose redstones. Vandals had been busy here,too. The marker's center was gougedclean. A careful search gave up noth-ing but clay, and more stones.Significant was this complete lack ofartifacts in both the markers and the

dwelling sites. There was a possibilitythat I had stumbled upon signs of aprimitive Indian Culture, predatingthose people of pottery and pressure-flaked instruments. At least it addeda scientific thrill to my adventure.With a sense of discovery, I progressedsoutheast, counting markers mean-while, and analyzing the over-all pic-ture of my findings on Bee Rock Mesa.From Krober's "American Ethnol-ogy, Bulletin No. 78," I had learnedsomething of the Indians that hadlived most recently on the extremenorth border of the Coachella Valley.Their history was brief:Out of the fourth and fifth Shoshon-ean tribes (the Alliklik and Kitane-muk) inside the Sierra Mountains ofCalifornia, there had developed a newdivision of Shoshonean, the SouthernCalifornia branch. Since the dialectof the Kitanemuk was similar to thatof the people of the San BernardinoM o u n t a i n s , " S e r r a n o , " m e a n i n g"Mountaineer," was used in the widersense as the name of this division.The Serrano, then, was the last oftwo bodies of people who united, be-

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On Bee i?oc& Mesa Pa ul W ilhelm exam ines on the circular clearings, pos-sibly the site of an ancient Indian Wickiup. 1000 P alms Oa sis is in thebackground.cause of a dialect similarity, into a"Serrano division" of the Shoshoneanstock. Their territory was, first, thelong San Bernardino Range culminat-ing in the peak of that name. Next,they held a tract of unknown extentnorth and east of San BernardinoMountain. In the east and southeast,their domain was pure desert, and ex-isting oases.These people of the most southeastShoshonean area were of the Maratribe. Communal life was centered atwidely separated poin ts: TwentyninePalms, Thousand Palms and Pusha-walla Canyons and adjoining oases.They were divided into two clans, theWildcat and Coyote.Acorns were fairly abundant in thewestern part of the Serrano territory.However, in the desert the Mara tribehad to procure its food in part fromwestern bands, substituting with roots,cactus meat, yucca stalks when young,beans of the mesquite and wild palm,and plant seeds. They hunted wildanimals and birds with crudely fash-ioned weapons. In the Journal ofFather Garces is an observation madeon his travels through the desert in1776: "The desert people use a stickshaped like a boomerang with whichthey ferret out lizards and rodentsfrom rocks and sand."Symmetrically wrought pottery wasmade by both the Coyote and Wildcatclans, but was rarely decorated. Ar-rowheads w ere hewn .from obsidianobtained from wandering traders. Stonehammers and pressure-flaked imple-ments were widely used.

Mementos of these Shoshoneanswere to be found in camps and burialsat nearby 1000 Palms and PushawallaCanyons and other water pointsthroughout the Phantom Hills. Arrow-heads could be picked up every day.On old trails between these waterpoints, pottery shards and arrow chipswere numerous in scattered markers.On the trail across the San BernardinoMountains to Twentynine Palms Oasis,shards and arrowheads could be pickedup after heavy winds uncovered thembeneath fine sand.On Bee Rock Mesa there was nosuch evidence.Who, then, were these primitiveswho had left undisputed manifestationsof a prior people?Malcolm J. Rogers states that theoldest type of human occupancy inthe Colorado Desert of Southern Cali-forniaeven ante-dating Pinto Manwas the little-known Malpais Cul-ture. Its chief characteristics, in thewords of Roger, were "the small cir-cular dwelling sites on stony mesas,and the complete lack of stone ham-mers, pottery or pressure flaked im-plements. In fact nothing but thecrudest stone scrapers are associatedwith these house sites."As an am ateur archeologist on a fieldtrip across Bee Rock Mesa, I drew noconclusions. But in my fieldbook Imade this notation: "It appears thatthe mesa's lack of artifacts, and thecircular clearings of wickiup sites pointstoward a prior habitation by a moreprimitive group than, surely the Sho-shoneans, possibly Pinto Man."

Against this deduction were strongarguments: the trail seemed too welldefined, the stone shrines too recenteven remembering that erosion workedslowly in the desert, the attrition ofcenturies in such a dry land being al-most imperceptible.Be that as it may, until the clearingareas were proved dwelling locations,and a single crude stone scraper foundas evidence of Roger's "prior people,"the possible site of a prehistoric raceon Bee Rock Mesa would remain ten-tative, the ancient trail and its markerssimply an easy pass through the hillsfrom one water point to another bymany clans of various periods.Whatever conclusions are finallydrawn, it is an established fact thatthe desert Indians never walked insand if they could help it. Thus theold trails kept to the stony mesas when-ever feasible. To prove this , go outinto the desert Southwest. Yo u'll findtrail sections still intact. Some are asfresh as in the days when they wereused constantly. All are enduring rec-ords of ancient travel. Narrow, clearedpathways winding their tortuous waysfrom campsite to spring, from springto uplands where were sheep and deer,and forests of pinyons for Novemberharvest.Now the trail across Bee Rock Mesadescended down a long hill slope. Itended abruptly on the bank of a deeparroyo. A quarter of a mile below,appeared green heads of the palms inHidden Palms Canyon. At their base,water was certain to be, cool andabundant.As I retraced my steps up the hill,I glanced at my field notebook. Thecount was "57." On the spur of themoment I named it "The Trail of the57 Markers." The name conjured upa brown-skinned, dark-eyed peopleliving an earthy, enviable way of lifeon their isolated mesa.As I approached the large markeron the highest trail point, I picked upa round stone with a lustrous darkpatina. I placed it on the shrine andfaced northwest toward 1000 PalmsCanyon like many an Indian had donebefore me. There it lay in the friendlyembrace of the Phanom Hills, a palm-filled refuge of peace and quiet. Asanctuary for those who love the des-ert unspoiled.And then I breathed the prayer theNavajo men sing as they go towardtheir sacred mountain:Lo, yonder the holy place.Swift and far I journey,To life unending, and beyo nd it.To joy unchanging, and beyond it.Yea, sw ift and far I journey.

I heard it echo again on ghostly lipsas I made my way homeward alongthat ancient Bee Rock Mesa trail.8 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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G e r o n i m o ,A p a c h e o rG r e e k ?By ELEANOR HODGSON

THE several months ofresearch which preceded thecompletion of my painting ofGeronimo I chanced upon the Englishtranslation of a chapter from the bookThe Charming Tropics, written inGreek and published in 1945 by theKorydalos Printing Company of Ath-ens.Angelo Doxa, the author of thebook, is a native of the Island of Ke-falonia, Greece. Her book is not pub-lished in English, and only a smallpart of it is devoted to the story ofGeronimo, the major part of the vol-ume covering travel in the tropical andsemi-tropical areas of the westernhemisphere, including the HawaiiianIslands.When I showed this translation toFred Wilson, Indian trader at Phoenix,he suggested that it be sent to DesertMagazine because of its interest tohistorians of the Southwest. This isthe translation, and I am passing italong with the thought that the readercan make his own appraisal of itsmerit: By ANGELO DOXAI, Angelo Doxa came to the GrandCanyon from Greece in 1936, whileon a tour of Am erica . I registered atthe El Tovar Hotel where I stayed forseveral days.One day while spending some timein the Gift Shop there, I saw a paint-ing of Geronimo done by L. Petersonof Denver, in 1908."Heronimos," I said to the propri-etor; "How is it that this Indian hasa Greek name? Heronimos is a com-mon Greek name."The man replied that it was Spanishand p ronounced Heron imono "S."I then told him that even the fea-tures of Geronimo were Greek. Helooked like a Greek dressed up as anApache!The proprietor then showed me an-other painting of White Swan with apapoose on her back. White Swanwas Geronimo's daughter who hadmarried Eagle Feather, Chief of the

Geronimo latest painting of the Apache chieftain, by Eleanor Hodgson.Hopi tribe nearby. The features ofWhite Swan were unmistakably theclassic Greek and not Indian thiswas clear even to the proprietor him-self."White Swan lives on the Hopi res-ervation near here, but was very oldthe last time I saw her several yearsago," he said.

I was intrigued. I had to find ou tmore of this sayage with the near-Greek name.Early next day 1 started for the H opireservation. There, I learned WhiteSwan had been dead a few years. Thepapoo se of the painting? He was aliveand 35 years old. I met himtalkedwith him, but found him uncoopera-tive. He refused to be photographed.Refused to give any information,whatsoever.I offered an American $5.00 billand this seemed to help his memory.He went into his hut and returnedwith a silver locket about the size ofa silver dollar, hung on a length ofleather, for wearing around the neck.

It had belonged to his grandfatherGeronimo, he said. Geronimo alwayswore it and had treasured it as a goodluck piece given to him by his father.I asked this grandson if he mightopen the locket. But he looked puzzledand didn't seem to understand that itcould be opened. It was badly bat-tered and almost like a solid piece, butthere was just barely visible the tinyline of separation running clear aroundthe piece.I pried it open with the aid of mypenknife. The re inside was an oldlithographed picture of the Virgin Marywith the inscription hardly readableVirgin of Tinos. The locket had comefrom the Island of Tinos in the AegeanSea.This to me was proof that Geronimowas really a Gre ek. Possibly Greekfather Apache mother. Or wasstolen by the Apaches when veryyoung and raised as one of the tribe.He was never without the Greek locketand treasured it, even if he was notfully aware of its significance.

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J.Co/vi Spring in the Chuckawalla M ountains.

THE FAITHFULBy R. WAYNE CHATTERTONCaldwell, IdahoYou see that grave up on the bluff? It's allThere is of Jane, and all I have. A fallFrom that high cliff took her away and putHer there to wait for me. Now, stranger,rootAnd all, I'm h ere to stay. You city folkWon't understand why I remainyou'll jokeAbout Old Crazy Jones who lives aloneAt Echo Falls and slowly turns to stoneAmong the empty streets and rotten wallsOf that old desert town. Don't smile! It callsTo mind the smiles of some whose ghostslook outAt me from vacant windows hereabout,And 1 won't have them mocked! The townis oldAnd dying; so am I. We'll gather moldAnd dust together, it and me. I'm lastTo go, as I was first to come; the pastAnd future are the same to me. A manBelongs where he belongs, and if I can,I'll end where I began. Don't go! for whenYou're gone the life is gone from here, andthenThe wind is all that moves or makes a sound.And desert dust blows deeper in aroundThe graves. The cactus flowers are out, youknow.They don't spend long in bloom until theygo .Sit here a spell and watch them fade, andtryTo see that, slowly, as they fade, 1 die.MOONLIGHT ON THE DESERTBy KATHRYN ALIEN COEURGlendale, CaliforniaThe mellow, valley moon is ripe tonight.Her luminous glow veils off each satellite.Desert-holly snow conceals the groundAnd all is still . . . there is no soundSave echoes from dove-purple mountainwalls.And crunch of sand beneath our own foot-falls.

DESERT COMPANIONBy CONSTANCE WALKERLos Angeles, CaliforniaThe wind is a murmur,A voice without form.The sigh of another,A whisper to charmThe solitude's favor.

THE VOICE OF THE DESERTBy GLADYS L. SAVAGEDenver, ColoradoThe voice of the desert calls softly at twi-light,To the shy doe and fawnThe rabbit and lynx.To come to the spring in the hidden arroyo.While each thirsty creature quietly drinks.The voice of the desert whispers at night.Of a promise to keepWith the first rays of light.When the turquoise and amber.And rubies and goldShine in the sunrise when mists unfold.The voice of the desert can shriek like abanshee.When anger and temperUpset her calm way.Then regretfully croons to each of herchildrenTo love her again at the end of the day. THE STAMPEDE

By ADELAIDE COKERLos Angeles, CaliforniaThe white clouds graze in the sky's bluemeadow,While the wind stands guard, like a Shep-herd pup;Below the thirsty desert is waitingTo catch the rain in its golden cup.But all at once the wind grows angry.And nips and cuffs the strays into lineUntilthe frightened clouds, stampeding.Leave only mist-silvered trails behind.

By TANYA SOUTHWhatever Fate upon you broughtYou still have room for trying.Each kindly impulse, upright thoughtAre efforts all undying.And though you stand upon a crestOr grovel far below.You still can do your level best.And grow, and grow, and grow.

OauUBy MARY PERDEWSanta Ana, CaliforniaA wind, a seed, and a hidden spring,An oasis has begun,With a tiny tree, growing strong and free,A welcome shade from the sun.In a barren land of gray rock and sand,The green glows glad and brightTo a weary man and a laden beast,Who find peace and rest for the night.And dream of a story that they will bring:The wonderful tale of a new-found spring.

AN OLD MINER'S SHACKBy JOHN A. STEBBINSHi Vista, CaliforniaThe wind blows sand through my open door,Pack rats hide under what's left of my floor.A rusty stove with embers long deadStands beside an old miner's bed.A broken table crazily sagsBy a box and a coat that's gone to rags.A chair of rough hewn lumber builtHas part of a cushion made of a quilt.An old felt hat tattered and wornIn a corner by a letter faded and torn,Where dust and dirt now thickly coverThe tender words from an old-time lover.By a fluttering candle in a bottle near,These words he read and hid a tear:"Jim dear, when luck has come your wayYou'll return some happy day."Outside where sand piles up in heaps,Beneath piled stones a miner sleeps.Sleeps, while waiting that happy dayWhen Lady Luck shall come his way.

TO THE NEW OWNERBy HELEN VOGEL MOOGLaguna Beach. CaliforniaThey who first coaxed billowed sand toyield to loamy soilThese stately date palms brought to bearwhich now reward all toil.Though those who loved and worked havegone on to another field.The row on row of palms they grew stillbear their princely yield.

Soif you hear a murm'ring stir the palmswhen stars are bright,Your garden is not haunted. Just theirthoughts return at nightTo wander once again among date palmswhere peace is sweet;Where strength of all eternity and restlesspresent meet.Andif you hear a murm'ring stir thepalms when nights are black,Your garden is not haunted . Just their loveis drifting backTo bless the trees that fruitfulness hanghigh above the sand;To whisper, though the deed is yours, theseacres are God's land. NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS

By RALPH A. FISHER, SR.Phoenix, ArizonaWhat is your fear once each year,Reina de Noche, Queen of the Night?With your crown of waxlike beauty.What makes you hide by night?Why, to close at break of dawnYour flower, forever, from our sight?

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of the magnificent chocolate and white Summervilleformation buttes which make the Woodside Anticlinescenery so spectacular.Dinosaur bone which has been replaced with calcite,collected in the Wood side Anticline. Actual size ofpiece, 13/t times IV2 inches.

Rocks of the Ages - - in UtahFollowing a clue contained in an old government geological report,Harold and Lucile Weight took the highway into eastern Utah in quest of

dinosaur bones. They found the bones in limited quantitybut they alsofound a field rich in jasper, crystals, chalcedony and other minerals prizedby the rockho und s. Here is a story that will interest all who w ould like toknow about the geology of the Utah desert wilderness.By HAROLD WEIGHTPhotographs by the au thorMap by Norton Allen

NG LING BACK west from U.S. Highways 6 and 50 about40 miles southeast of Price,Utah, Lucile and I followed a twistingdirt road into the vivid cliffs, buttes,canyons and valleys of the WoodsideAnticline. Although its general ap-pearance was similar to many another

beautiful rockhunting ground in Utah,we knew it was an anticline becausethe geology report said so. And weweren't surprised to find an anticlinelying around loose since we had longconcluded that the eastern half of theBeehive state is nothing less :han alife-sized and living textbook of world-

making, written for our education andamazement by time, fire, water andwind.Perhaps the term "anticline" dis-mays or bores you, it being scientificand therefore either obtuse or dull.You can't hold to such a notion longin eastern Utah. Other states mayname their natural features after he-roes, statesmen, animals, flowers orthe oldest local inhab itant. But thegeologists got there first in Utah. Be-sides the buttes, canyons, cliffs andmes;:s familiar in the nomenclature ofthe Southwest, you'll find many a placename coupled with pure geology:Waterpocket Fold, Upheaval Dome,Capitol Reef, San Rafael SwellandWoodside Anticline.At Woodside, some long-gone day,a stretch of the earth-crust was caught

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in a big squeeze. Something had togive and the crust, being the weakeststructure involved, .buckled upwardinto waves or folds. The tops of thewaves, where the formations archedup , geologists called anticlines sincethe strata were inclined or bent awayfrom each other on either side of thearch. The lower parts , or troughs,they termed synclines as the formationsinclined toward each other. Thesenames, of course, describe conditionsat the time the strata buckled. Er o-sion o r other geologic happenings sincethen may have altered the surface sothe syncline is a hill and the remnantsof the anticline a valley.

There are a number of anticlinesexposed in Utah, but Woodside heldparticular interest for us because the

arched formations have weathered backdown in such a way as to expose rockstrata which carry highly colored jas-per, chalcedony, agate and smallamounts of dinosaur bone and petri-fied wood. We first learned aboutWoodside prior to our Utah trip whilebrowsing through likely publicationsof the United States Geological Sur-vey. One paper, with magnificent dis-regard for boxoffice appeal, was titledSedimentary Rocks of the San RafaelSwell and Some Adjacent Areas inEastern Utah, by James Gilluly andJohn B. Reeside, Jr.In the section devoted to WoodsideAnticline, we came across casual ref-erences to chert, jasper, rock crystal,fossils, chalcedony, and nodules. Fur-ther, we found the anticline was right

beside the highway we planned to taketo Green River and beyond. So Wood-side Anticline was filed on the "To BeInvestigated" list.On our first trip into the area, weleft Salt Lake City early in September,a period often subject to thunderstormsbut which this time proved ideal forcollecting and camping out. The W a-satch mountains were gaudy with thescarlet, gold and orange of the dwarfmaples, box elders and aspen, a won-derland of changing leaves. Droppingfrom Soldier Summit through Helperand Price, we caught the first far viewof tremendous Red Plateau, part ofthe San Rafael Swell. Near its easternbase, we knew, lay the Woodside Anti-cline.

As we continued south the spectac-ular Book Cliffs and their remarkableheadland, the Beckwith Plateau, dom-inated the skyline to the left. Nearthe base of that plateau, about 38 milesfrom Price, we passed through thelittle farming settlement of Woodside.At 4.9 miles beyond Woodside, justafter going through a railroad under-pass, we turned back sharply to theright on the dirt road to Castle Dale.The road had been graded and for themost part, when dry, would be calledin good shape. But almost immedi-ately we had to detour a series ofnarrow break-neck trenches wherewooden culverts had broken down orhad been washed away.We'd never been in the area before,but our mental picture of the geological

formations thereobtained from thereports we had read was so clear thatit almost seemed a dream was takingthird-dimensional form. That purpleand green and dull red was a sectionof the Morrison mudstones, going backat least to Jurassic times when giantreptiles clumped over a forgotten land-scape. Those elegant thin-banded choc-olate and white layer-cake cliffs be-longed to the still older Summerville.The peculiar greenish-gray sandstoneweathering to a brown must be theCurtis formation.We had gone about two miles fromthe highway when we stopped to in-vestigate the polished pebbles of aconglomerate which formed a high,steep bank on our right, and en-croached even upon the road. Most ofthe pebbles were quite small, many ofthem a poor grade of red or purplechert, others clear quartz. Less thana mile farther on we reached a passarea where this same conglomeratetowered on both sides of the narrowway. Great boulders of it had tumbledacross the road and lay weathering inthe gulch to our left.It was close to sunset, and we knewwe shouldn't be scrambling up thebank among those pebbles. But we

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Morrison conglom erate bo ulder, foreground, and cliff in background. It is in thisformation that scattered pieces of dinosaur bone of cutting quality have been found.were laboring under a subdued excite-ment. If that was Mo rrison conglom-er at e as we judged it was theremight be jeweled bits of dinosaur boneamong those pebbles. And at thattime we had not located and collectedany bone on our own.But the disappearance of the sunbehind the broken skyl ine aheadstopped these preliminary sorties. Wehad to find a campsite. As we emergedfrom the narrow winding canyon ofconglomerate blocks, we found our-selves in an enchanted area. It was acircular open space surrounded onthre e sides by pin k-gr ay cliffscliffsso tenuous and ethereal that we feltour three-dimensional anticline wasslipping back into the dream state.Over the sloping floor of the circle,gnarled junipers made strange blockypatches of shadow.

We drove across the Pink Circle toits western edge, turned left througha narrow V of a valley, and discoveredwe were entering another pink-grayamphitheatre, still more ghostly in thefading light. In it we picked a camp-site, somewhat protected against thecool evening breeze. It lay a few rodsfrom the road, right against a hugeflat boulder and near a large juniper.Before we crawled into our sleepingbags, the wind had dropped. The nightwas cold and calm and silver-blackwith starlight and shadow, and the skya clear cloudless blue when morningcame.And when dawnlight gave way tothe sun, we discovered our pink-graycliffs were largely the Summervilleformation, made up of layers andbandings of chocolates and dark redsand gleaming whites and sparkling

gypsum. Their unreal quality in thedusk had been enhanced by the pinkclay talus at their bases and the debriswashing down from the sedimentariesabove.Early in the morning two pickuptrucks bounced past our camp, on theroad toward Castle Dale. In a fewminutes, one of them was back andits occupants, Finley Blackburn anda Mr. Bullock, both of Ogden, Utah,came over to introduce themselves."With your outfit and the Californialicense, we knew you were rock-hounds," Mr. Blackburn explained,"so we wanted to say hello and see ifwe could be of any assistance." Bothwere rockhoundsand dealers on theside and members of the GoldenSpike Gem and Mineral Society ofOgden.We wanted to know whether there

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Gnarled junipers of great age are scattered throughout this portion of Utah.This one has a trunk over four feet in diameter.was any dinosaur bone to be collectedin the anticline. There was, but notin quantity. Blackburn pointed outthe dark Morrison conglomerate ondown the road less than half a milefrom where we had camped. Both ofthem had found dinosaur bone alongthat ridge."When you get acquainted with thiscountry," he explained, "you can justabout tell where they are lying dead.They're often as close as a mile apart.Once I found two together, in theconglomerate, and you could see they'dbeen fighting."Finley Blackburn was well ac-quainted with the San Rafael country.Once he had owned a ranch at Caine-ville, and had punched cattle all overthis par t of Utah . Before the two ofthem, who were due in Ogden thatnight, left to do "a little jasper hunt-ing" on the way out, Blackburn warnedus against the weather. With 15 years'experience in the Swell, he still checksthe weather forecast at the Salt Lakeairport before coming in. October, heexplained, was the ideal month forrock collecting in this area. In Julyand August, and sometimes Septem-ber, you are subject to cloudbursts."Don't trust this country," he con-cluded. "Ge t out and get to a townas soon as you can if it starts raining.Even the short distance from the roadthat you camped here would be toofar if the grou nd becam e soaked. I'veseen the mud so bad you couldn't ridea saddle horse through here."As he climbed into the long-bedded14

black pickup, he hesitated, then calledback a last warning. "Don't ever de-pend on the seep water in the Swell.It'll make a blue wave come on yourcoffee, and it's full of iron . It wo n'tquite kill you, but it will come closeto it."With the jeep loaded, we left ourcampsite, rounded a little rise andheaded west. At a little valley extend-ing north, just under the ridge of cor,glomerate, we parked off the road andstarted hiking toward a dark brown,buff-topped circular little hill whichwas the landmark the Ogden rock-hounds had given us for the petrifiedbone. The dark ridge, towering aboveus crested with great broken blocksof the conglomerate looked like sometremendous defense wall.When we examined some of the hugeblocks, we found the individual pebbles

cemented with something that lookedlike limestone, so hard our prospector'spicks simply bounced from it. But,through the ages, enough of the ce-ment had been dissolved or weatheredaway so that the edge of the valleybelow the ridge was carpeted withloose pebbles.Most of these rounded stones werea cherty material in black, white andgray, much of it carrying some sort offossil material. Lucile kept picking upwhat she called "jelly beans," colorful,polished little pebbles of pink, red,orange, yellow and white. Then, justthrough a little gap and in the clayeysoil of the dark hill, I found bits ofbone "casts," composed completely of

calcite, with calcite crystals growinginward to a hollow center.But Lucile made the first find ofcutting quality dinosaur bonebrownto yellow, with the cell structure re-placed with clear chalcedony. At firstshe thought it might be coarse petri-fied bark. But closer exam inationproved it to be bone. And like manyother collecting rocksonce we hadseen what it actually looked like in thefield, we were able to find it in areaswe had just walked over and pro-nounced barren. Thatthe first boneof the ancient reptiles that we hadfoundwas the high point of the hunt.But there seemed to be very littleof the bone in that area, and after acareful search, we moved on. Thiscountry was so new and strange andbeautiful, that gradually we stoppedlooking at it as a collecting ground,enjoying it for itself. As we continuedwest on the Castle Dale road we en-tered other, smaller amphitheatres,some enclosed with cliffs and wallsof red, others of pale gray, from timeto time relieved by a brown cappingor bands of green.Within two miles after leaving ourcamp, we were through the anticlineand in grassland, pricked here andthere with cactithe teddy bear andwhat appeared to be a small and verypretty species of Echinocereus. It waslate for the flower season, but muchrabbitbrush still trailed its gold, a whiteand a miniature rose-red buckwheatwere blooming, and we often cameupon little purple-lavender asters. Muchlocoweed and very tall desert plumehad flowered recently.Just under five miles from camp, wereached an old sign pointing north:"Saleratus reservoir, South Summer-ville." Hereford cattle were grazingnear by. Looking back, the WoodsideAnticline had dwindled until it lookedlike a low ridge. But beyond it wecould see the endless battlements ofthe Book Cliffs. Ah ead of us rosethe mass of the Red Plateau. We weremaking directly toward a tremendousred buttelike a great tower risingfrom colorful badlands. As we drovefarther, the junipers became bigger,more ancient and more gnarled. Oneof them, which we photographed, hada trunk more than four feet in diam-eter.That night we camped near the baseof the great red butte, driving as closeas we could over the open country,across patches of cactus, sandy moundsand dried mud holes. Before dark wehiked the rest of the way to the baseof the butte. From a collector's pointof view the trip was a disappointment,since we found only tiny bits of chal-cedony, opal and ch ert. Scenically, itwas terrific. And about halfway be-

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tween our camp on the edge of a washand the butte, we entered the pinyonbelt and had our first experience ingathering the ripe, succulent little nuts.The next morning, we turned reluc-tantly back toward the Woodside Anti-cline. Our schedule one of thosefoolish things you should never pre-pare for a desert trip had allowedonly two days for this sidetrip, andwe were committed to meet friends along way off a short time hence. Butwe were determined, if possible, tofind enough rockhound stones in theanticline to please collectors who mightnot want to come in just to see geol-ogy-Back at the first Pink Circle we hadreached coming in from the highway,we made the first strike. Near thecenter of the amphitheatre, but moreabundant to the south, we found beau-tiful red, pinkish and lavender mark-ings in almost clear chalcedony. Thematerial fractured too easily and wefound most of it in small pieces, butit will cut into beautiful stones. In thesame area, we found many pieces ofvein and nodular material coated withquartz crystals. One outcropping southof the road, a red ledge, appeared tobe made up of numerous imperfectgeodes grown together.Less than half a mile beyond thisspot, toward the highway, we stoppedto see if there was anything of interestin the abundant debris at the foot ofthe Summerville formation, and slough-ing down over it. Also, I wanted tophotograph as much of the amphi-theatre as possible from the top of theslope. But I had hardly started toclimb, when I knew we had found a"field." W ashing down with the claywere specimens of just about thebrightest jasper I had ever seen. Downbelow me, in the wash, Lucile hadstruc k it too. I called to her to dropanything that she had thereafter shesaw what was up the slope, she wouldn'twant any of those little pieces!The higher we went up the talus, themore plentiful the jasper became, andthe bigger the chunks were. We foundit in red wine and gold and purple,sometimes with a little green and vari-ous moss patterns or red and yellow.The reds went through vermilion,orange, Chinese red. It was simply acase of picking up jasper until wecouldn't carry any more, then sortingto retain only the finest pieces, thenpicking up more until we had all thehigh grade we felt we should carryaway.Then, of course, we weren't reallysatisfied. No rockhound is. We won-dered what it was like on the otherside of the hill. Probably it was evenprettier over there somewhere. Butthere wasn't time to investigate. Th e

Camp in the heart of the Woodside Anticline. Cliff formation in thebackground is made up of Summerville clays and sandstones.sun was low again, and the amphi-theatre below was fading into a pink-grey mystery. It was a moving experi-ence to see twilight and then duskcome to this strange and silent land,this unea rthly land . I felt, as I havein a few other special places in thedesert country, that here was a spotout of the ordinary stream of world-life. A place where time meant nothingwhere the clock stood stillBut that wasn't quite true of ouranticline. Instead of standing still,

Woodside Anticline Road Log00.0 Woo dside, 38.9 miles southeastof Price, 25.3 miles northwest ofGreenriver. Continue south onU. S. 6 and 50 through04.7 Railroad underpass. Continu esouth on highway to04.9 Turn back, north and west onbladed dirt road. Travel cau-tiously, checking for possible cutsin road and detours where smallbridges have washed out.06.9 Swing back S.W. and go throughpass cut by stream. Warning:This portion of Utah is subjectto flash floods during some sea-sons. Do not camp in washesor narrow valleys in the cliffs.08.6 Road em erges in circula r valleywalled with pinkish cliffs. Highlycolored jasper may be found onslopes and ridges to south andeast of road.09.0 No dular and vein aga te, somecrystals, south and west of roadon valley slopes.11.3 Road cuts through ridge of Mor-rison conglomerate, where smallamounts of dinosaur bone andgastroliths have been found.

here time had stood on its head! Forthat formation, just above us, was theCurtis, and the one just below us theSummerville and the one still lowerthe Morrison. Yet when those bedswere laid down ages ago, their orderwas just the reverse. The Morrisonshould have been on top.Of course it was just a trick asleight of hand stunt that Nature doeswith the aid of an anticline and ero-sion. But it's a clever trick that man,even with his atom-popping, hasn'tbeen able to duplicate. First you archyour earth-crust up. Then you weatherthe high point down until the olderformation is out on top. Then youweather the next step so the nextoldest formation is the one exposed.Still farther down the slope, you leavethe youngest formation showing. Then,with a little careful washing down ofdebris from one step to the next, youcan make it look as if you've turnedthe whole scheme of time upsidedown.

The bowl below grew dark, the agesblending and vanishing in the gloom.We shouldered our sacks of brightjasper and carried them to the jeep.Then we drove out through the anti-clineand out through the ages. Fromthe Summerville to the younger Mor-rison and the still younger Dakotasandstone and Mancos shale and outat last to the youngest of them allthe thin layer of paving which manhas spread in a network over Americato mark his stratum in the book oftime.

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( I IWashington. D. C. . . .The U. S. Public Health Service saysno occupational deaths have been re-ported among the nation's 2000 ur-anium miners but that many have oc-curred among iron curtain miners. J.E. Flanagan, assistant chief of thehealth service's division of industrialhygiene says the Public Health servicean d the Atomic Energy Commissionare working to protect American ur-anium miners from hazards of verysevere exposure to radiation anddeadlyradon gas. Flanagan said eight publichealth service employes are workingwith the University of Utah, primarilyon health problems of the uraniumand mill ing indus try . Pr el im in ar ysamples, he said, show that exposureto ionizing radiation and radon gasare many thousand times higher thanthe currently accepted safe limit. Ra-don gas comes from radium as theelement disintegrates. Flanagan indi-cated it also comes from uranium ore. Humboldt Star. Artesia. New Mexico . . .Despite the general belief that thereare no profitable ore deposits in thisarea, a reportedly rich deposit of gold,silver, copper and lead has been un-covered on Twelve Mile Hill east ofArtesia. C harles Eake r is credited withmaking the discovery. Ten claims havealready been staked at the old tur-quoise diggings on state land withinsight of Highway 83. Prospecting hasturned up free gold, silver, copper andlead in ore form, in addition to quan-tities of turquoise. It is estimated theore and free metal, not including thegold and turquoise, is worth $19.50 aton. Mining Record. Gallup, New Mexico . . .A record-breaking $871,786 hasbeen pledged to the Navajo tribe bysuccessful bidders for oil and gasleases on 29 tracts of land in NewMexico, Arizona and Utah with topbid registered by W. J. Weaver of FortWorth, Texas, who offered $230,-774 .40 for rights to 4300 acres in theCow Springs area in north centralAri-zona. While the total of the successfulbidders was higher than any previousNavajo lease sale, lands director Mar-vin Long said the bids did not reflectrecord prices on an average basis. Re-ports of the high bids are sent to thegeological burea u for certification, thenpassed upon by the Interior Depart-ment before contracts are signed.Money obtained is then deposited tothe tribal account with the UnitedStates treasurer. Gallup Independent.

Reno , N e v a d a . . .Latest scientific devices will be em-ployed in a newsearch for the legend-ary Lost Dutchman mine in Arizona'sSuperstition mountains. The Earn-s h aw - Tha rp - Christensen corporationplans to use radar, movies and aerialphotography along with geophysicalinstruments in a search for the pur-portedly rich mine that was lost manyyears ago. After aerial photographshave been made of the area where themine is believed to have been, elec-tronic devices from the laboratory atVerde will be used to locate ore de-posits, the corporation announced.Humboldt Star. Reno, Nevada . . .In handling approximately 1000specimens a month over many years,the analytical laboratory at the Uni-versity of Nevada has been of incal-culable assistance to the miners ofNevada through free technical assist-ance. It is estimated this branch of theMackay School of Mines has handled559,000 specimens, Professor WalterS. Palmer, director of the laboratory,disclosed. In one instance, through theadvise of technicians, who have pro-vided as much advise and counsel aspossible, a valuable talc mine wasfound and developed in Esmeraldacounty. The purpose of the laboratoryas established by law in March,1895,was to give prospectors of the state aplace where they could secure an un-biased report on any mineral sub-stance discovered in Nevada, and alimited number of free assays for thosewho couldn't afford to pay. Hum-boldt Star. Fallon, Nevada . . .The Vet Baxter mine southeast ofFallon, nowunder lease and option, islisted as the largest producer of fluor-spar in Nevada, with around half amillion tons of milling and shippinggrade ore on the dumps and blockedout. A survey, completed last fall bythe U. S. bureau of mines, disclosedfrom diamond drillings that high gradeore extended downward 256 feet be-low the present workings at a depthof 250 feet. All of the 70,000 tonsshipped since 1932 have been high-grade. One shipment to the DuPontpeople was 99.94 percent. A 250-tonmill is being planned by H. W. Gouldand Company of San Francisco, whichrecently took a lease and option onthe property from Baxter, who locatedthe fluorspar claims in July, 1922.Tonopah Times Bonanza.

Tonopah , N e v a d a . . .A new mine operation undef thedirection of John B. Siri, former Gold-field and Tonopah mining man, is get-ting underway at the old Lucky Fourmine, located some 16 miles southeastof Schurtz in the Gillis range. Al-though this operation is new, the minewa s a heavy producer of tungsten dur-ing both World War I and II. Tung-sten content of the ore ranges fromtw o to three percent. Holders of abond and option on the ground areGeorge E. Miller of Reno and GeorgeB. Franklin, Jr., of Las Vegas. It issaid shipments will soon be going outto the U. S. Vanadium mill at PineCreek near Bishop, California. Ton-opah Times Bonanza. Yucca Village, California . . .Winding up its three day annualmeeting in Yucca Village, the West-ern Mining Council passed a resolu-tion asking the government to open upthe rest of the Joshua Tree NationalMonument to mining, declaring thereare 75 producing mines, most of themgold, in that portion of the Monumentno t now open. Last year congressOK'd a bill opening 289,500 acres,mostly in Riverside county. The coun-cil hotly denounced proposed mininglaw changes and renewed its demandfor higher gold prices. Former countysupervisor, Walter Pittman, presenteda detailed history of tin mining opera-tions in the Temescal area from thetime tin was discovered in 1853. Thecouncil assured Riverside county menof help in their efforts to secure legis-lation that will make tin mining moreattractive. Desert Sun. Trona, California . . .Tin production on a major scale inthe Trona region is planned by DonaldF . McGrew and associates, if DefenseMinerals Administration approves a$2,500,000 loan to finance develop-ment and equipment. McGrew, Presi-dent and business manager of TintypeCorporation of Oakland, California,states the property he owns in Shep-herds canyon near Trona contains anextensive deposit of cassiterite withtests indicating ore running 78 percenttin. Preliminary investigation by min-ing engineers indicate it is probablythe richest deposit of cassiterite in thenation, andMcGrew reports that whenin full operation the property shouldbe able to produce 4800 to 7200 tonsof ore daily. If the loan is obtained, acompany to take over and operate thetin property, may be incorporatedwithin three months. Virtually all thetin used by American industries is im-ported, no major deposit ever havingbeen mined in the United States.California Mining Journal.

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In the foreground are young tamarisks planted for wind-breaking purposes arounda Coachella Valley date garden.

WEARY DESERT prospector ,desperately in need of water,found a cutting of evergreentamarisk in his pack and poked thestick in the dry sand at his feet. Afterwaiting ten minutes he dug down afew inches to see which way the rootswere growing and hurried off in thatdirection. When he reached the un-seen waterhole a half mile away theroots had arrived there first and soppedup all the water.This story, told with proper solem-nity, was Ernest Douglas' favorite il-lustration of the amazing adaptabilityof the desert's fastest growing shadetree.Officially named Tamarix aphylla,the tree is known in its native Algeriain North Africa as athel. Although itfirst was brought to southwesternUnited States only 42 years ago, it istoday seen more frequently in thedesert regions of California, Utah, Ne-vada, Arizona and New Mexico than

' M iracle' Tree From the SaharaBy WILSON McKENNZY

Here is the story of an invaderfrom Africaa native tree of theSahara desert which within 50years has become one of themost conspicuous shrubs on thedesert landscape. Planted or-iginally for shade and windprotection, it is now spreadingto the wilderness areas.

any other species of tree, includingthe native palo verde.Planted mainly for windbreaks andshade trees, the spread of the tamariskhas been brought about almost entirelythrough the planting of cuttings. Itsspread from seed has been confinedmainly to the water courses of theColorado, Gila and other southwesternstreams. Along the valleys of the Col-orado it has already outstripped the

native cottonwood in numbers, andhas become a threat to the fast-growingwillow.A simple cutting from another treewill take root in moist soil withoutspecial attentio n. If the soil is salineor sterile, it matters not to the tama-risk. With ample water it will growmore than a foot a month for eight ornine months of the year.Its dense foliage of lacey plumesmake s it a fine shade tree . It has beenfound to serve effectively in controllingsoil erosion. When dry it serves asslow-burning fuel wood, although notequal to mesquite or ironwood for thispurpose. Treated with chemicals itmakes long-lived fence posts. It's chiefvalue, however, is as a windbreak.The tamarisk has many virtuesbutit also has its vices, as many a desert

home owner, eager for quick shade,has learned. Planted too close to tilesewer and septic drains its roots pene-trate the joints, multiply rapidly andJ U N E , 1 9 5 1 17


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Tamarisks notonly provide dense foliage forshade, but if there is amplewater will reach aheight of40 or 50 feet.

soon clog up the lines. The onlyremedy is toremove and clean outthepipe line every fewyears , or removethe trees. Getting rid of the tree isnotan easy procedure. It will live andgrow aslong asits root system remainsintact.The fine slender leaves of the treehave decorative value, but have nomerit as a mulch. Theshallow rootsystem spreads over a large area,ab-sorbing themoisture in thesoil at theexpense of other plants.But thetamarisk's good pointsout-weigh its disadvantages, and its phe-nomenal spread over theSouthwest isno mere accident. Around desertser-vice stations, railroad depots, alonghighways and streets and around farmyards and citrus orchards it is becom-ing more andmore common.In 1908 John James Thornber, bot-anist of the University of Arizona,read in aFrench publication about thiswonder tree of theMediterranean re-gion. Hewrote a noted French sci-entist inAlgiers, Dr.Trabut, request-ing a few cuttings. Six cuttings arrivedin April, 1909, but three of them weredead. The three remaining twigs,about six inches long and a quarterinch in diameter, were wrapped in awet cloth and the cutends immersedin water for 24 hours. Thornberplanted them in the university plantintroduction garden and they startedgrowth within a few days. At theen dof thefirst growing season they wereseven oreight feet tall.

In thesummer of 1910 Dr.WalterT. Swingle andNovelist Harold BellWright visited the university and

Thornber took them tosee the"mira-cle" trees. Dr.Swingle recognized theplants at once as thetamarisk hehadtried to introduce to this country sev-eral years previously. Hetold Thorn-ber that he hadshipped some stumpsand branches from northern Africa toWashington, D. C, for trials in thegovernment garden in Maryland andalso for the experiment station near

Indio in Coachella Valley, California.Several years later Swingle wroteThornber that none of thespecimensin the original shipment had grown,either inMaryland or Indio. Cuttingsbrought to Indio from Tucson, how-ever, gave the tree its start inCoachellaand Palo Verde Valleys of California.The introduction of evergreen tam-arisk by Thornber wasformally rec-ognized in a Department of Agricul-ture plant introduction pamphlet. Gov-ernment botanists named the planttamarix aphylla, discarding theT. ar-ticulata and T.gallica which the Frenchhad attached to it, as the meaningswere synonymous.Thornber recalls that the Frenchpublication in which he hadread thedescription said the evergreen tama-risk was one of the twomost usefultrees growing in the Sahara desert,the other being thedate palm.Thornber said the name athel hasnever been popular in this country,though in Imperial Valley it is rarelyknown by any other name. Dr.Swingle stated that athel is thenamein common use in Algiers, Morocco,and northern Egypt, where it isnativeand widely used.Evergreen tamarisk isthe better andmore popular name, thedesert botan-ist believes, because it relates thetreeto the large tamarisk group whichgrows in the Southwest deserts butdistinguishes it from the salt cedarand other deciduous or shrub tama-

risks.These tamarisks arepruned back each year but before the end of theseason will grow adense top ofnew foliage.

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To clear up a confusing matter ofnames, it would be appropriate topoint out that the genus has no con-nection with Tamarack (Larix lari-cina), which is an American larch, alodgepole pine which grows on thePacific coast. The name of this pine,which grows thickly in the foothills,is sometimes shortened to Tamrac.During the winter of 1912-13 theTucson temperature dropped to sixdegrees one night (most unusualweather, the chamber of commercenoted) and the trees which Thornberhad placed in the university gardenwere killed. But Harold Bell Wrighthad taken cuttings on that visit in 1909and had planted them at his ranchnear Holtville in Imperial county, Cali-fornia. From there, shade-hungry pi-oneer ranchers quickly spread the treethrough the Colorado and Mojavedeserts. Prof. R. H. Forbes, at that

time dean of the department of agri-culture of the University of Arizona,planted cuttings at his home a blockfrom the campus and these giant trees,with trunks over two feet in diameter,still live.Like most other plants indigenousto warm dry climates, evergreen tam-arisk has a root system which seeksand finds every available drop ofmoisture within its reach. But unliketrue desert natives, it is rarely able tosurvive on scanty rainfall alone. Itmust live near a plentiful supply ofwater, often found by skilfull robbery.Dr. G. E. P. Smith of the university'sdepartment of agricultural engineeringseveral years ago conducted extensiveexperiments to determine the tree'spotential commercial value. He shippedsome large logs to a Grand Rapids,Michigan, furniture manufacturing firmfor trials in furniture or cabinet mak-ing. The experimenters found thatwhen the logs were thoroughly drythey were too hard to be cut or hand-tooled. The wood tends to crack andcheck during the drying. The firm be-lieved it would be necessary to have

a supply of fresh-cut logs to be workedup in the green sappy condition. Sincethis alternative was impractical andexpensive, the midwest experiment wasdropped.H ow ever, an ex pe r i en ce d w ood-worker, E. F. Woodhouse, establishedan athel products factory in Indiounder the firm name of Casa MaderaProducts. He developed his own secretprocess for curing and finishing thewood, which he handles from the cut-ting to the final highly-polished pieceof furniture. For several years Wood -house and his son, Dal, have beenproducing chairs, tables, bowls, serv-ing trays, and other products of ex-quisite quality. Their work is exhibitedat the Desert Magazine pueblo at Palm

1

At Trona, California, this desert dweller has pruned his tamarisks toinsulate his home against the midsumm er sun. P hoto by Ralph Cornell.Desert, California.The wood, when finished, has ablonde texture similar to ash but ismuch h arde r. It takes a finish as wellas oak or mahogany.Dr. Smith found that by using asimple process of creosoting tamariskposts, he could make good range fencewhich would stand firm for 25 yearsor more. In order to make procuctioneconomically feasible, however, Smith

suggested establishment of forests oninexpensive but easily irrigated land.There is every evidence that ever-green tamarisk is here to stay. Itadapted itself readily to the Southwestdeserts. But like the attractive andtalented guest who outlasts his wel-come, this tree digs its hairy rootsdeep into its adopted land and refusesto leave, whether we like its bad traitsor not.

TOMWhen Secretary of Interior Oscar L.Chapman several months ago approvedthe construction of the ReclamationBureau's Echo Park and Split Moun-tain project on the Utah-Colorado linehis decision caused widespread con-

sternation among conservation groups,for the reason that this project is partlywithin the boundaries of the DinosaurNational Monument.To allay the fears of those who havewondered if the Echo Park decisionwould establish a precedent for furtherencroachment on the national systemof parks and monuments, the Secre-tary more recently has issued an orderre-affirming the policy of the InteriorDepartment as to the conservation ofnational park areas. The Secretary'sorder is as follows:Sec. 1. Purpose. The purpose of thisorder is to reaffirm the long-establishedpolicies of the Department and the Con-gress, assuring the conservation of :he na-tional parks and monuments and their pro-testion from adverse effects of power.

reclamation or other water developments,and to prescribe procedures therefor.Sec. 2. N ational Parks and Monum ents.In furtherance of this policy, no bureau,service or agency in this Department shallhenceforth undertake or continue, within oraffecting any national park or monument,without the written approval of the Secre-tary of the Interior, any investigations orstudies, or undertake any drilling, surveys,or other exploratory work incident to thepreparation of reports or plans relating towater development, or obligate any Federalfunds therefor, except where the Congresshas specifically authorized such a projectin the reserved area concerned.Sec. 3. National wilderness areas andwildlife refuges. This order is hereby ex-tended to include established national wil-derness areas and wildlife refuges.Sec. 4. Reports. In those cases where itappears that it is in the public interest topermit the investigation of proposed powerand reclamation projects affecting areasspecified in this order, the resulting reports,including preliminary drafts of project re-ports, shall contain comparable data on allalternate project possibilities, adequate forthe Secretary to reach an informed decisionas to which project, if any, should beselected.

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'W U

Pictures on this page were taken April 1 at the dedica-tion of the Trail Shrine in front of Desert Magazine'sPueblo at Palm Desert. Above is H. M. (Barney) Barnes,master of ceremonies at the dedication, as he signs theregister. He holds in his hand the rock which he will

deposit on the Shrine as did ancient Indian tribesmenin accordance with their custom. Below is the bronzeplaque which marks the Shrine, and Desert Steve Rags-dale and little Steve Willis as they deposit their rockson the Shrine. Willis photographs.

1 3 T H O S E WHO F 0 L L W3 Hi Tj1 ,\j[s if) tiy _

PEACE AND BEAUTY THISRINE IS DEDI CATED' < >

m J\a\rn-\]E>mr m MIXHM, cum

MlNCHAL iV GH SOCIRTVMUWERAL A.GBV S O C I E T Y ,

N. 0, T. S. ROCHHOUXDS

i IIK) i A V . U L E V M I N E R A L S O C I E


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This picture, taken at the ZuniPueblo in New Mexico by Nell Mur-barger of Costa Mesa, California,was awarded first place in DesertMagazine's photograph contest inApril. Photo taken in September,1950, with an Argoflex camera,Sup er XX film, 1/100 second a t f.18.

a . . .Second prize was awarded to A. LaVielle Lawbaugh of Downey, California,who entered the accompanying pictureof the old mining camp at Calico, Cali-fornia. Picture was taken in December,1950, with a Speed Graphic, one secondat f.22 with Infra-red film.

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Harrison Be Ji)The burro went into action and showed as good an exhibition of buckingas hisage permitted.

W hen Little W hiskers'Pension C heck C am eBy SANDY HASSELLSketch by Harr ison BegayNavajo Artist

E F O R E D A Y L I G H T t h e r e wasa stir around Little Whiskerscamp and smoke coming out offour hogans. Even Kellee the burrohad sounded his call an hour earlierthan usual. This was the day LittleWhiskers ' old scout pension check usu-ally came from Washington and hemust go to the Agency to receive it.But he couldn't understand how aburro could tell what day of the monthit was. The burro had just noticedthe activity around camp and hadgiven his usual bray in recognition.The mutton stew they had for break-fast went untouched this morning. Hesaid what a man ate before noon waswhat made him fat. Being fat was nothis idea of a real man. His ownfigurewas slender and he was proud of it.He also liked to show the young folkshow strong-willed he was even togoing without water for a couple ofdays at a time. Another reason washe might have a chance to eat with

some of his friends at the Agency. Hewanted to be prepared to show themwhat a good eater he was and howmuch he enjoyed their food. He diddrink a cup of weak coffee that hadbeen boiled with lots of sugar. Hedidn't like the coffee that came in tincans. He liked the kind that came inbags better. But since he had beengetting his pension he decided the tincan kind was the best for its cost more.Getting himself and the burro readyfor the trip was a small chore. Hisbig silver concho belt and turquoiseand shell beads added to his everydayattire dressed him up for the occasion.Al l the burro needed was his hobblestaken off and the saddle put on.

If Little Whiskers had been youngand active he would have ridden ahorse but for a man of his age a burrowas much more suitable. A horse wasnever around camp when wanted buta burro wasnever- far away. When hemounted or dismounted he could al-

ways depend on the burro to standstill. He could have ridden in his newwagon but he didn't think it was properfor an oldwarrior to be mixed up witha whole bunch of women and children.He liked to be noticed, and who couldsee him in a crowd like that?The trail to the Agency that LittleWhiskers took led straight across sandhills and washes while the wagon had

to go around by the road. Somehowthey always managed to reach theAgency at the same time. Sometimesit took the wagon half an hour to makethe last fewhundred yards when LittleWhiskers was latebut of course thehorses were tired and had to stop oftenand rest.Usually the burro made the six miletrip over the trail in about two hours.This was faster time than his usualspeed but the burro enjoyed these tripsand lost no time in getting there. Hecould always find bits of hay and

grains of corn that some horse hadoverlooked. Also at this time of theyear there would be watermelon rindsand apple cores laying around. Hecould eat almost anythingand did.He usually went home with the satis-fied feeling of being well fed.On these trips Little Whiskers madehis first stop at the trading post. Fromthere to the superintendent's office itwas a short walk. He always left hisfamily and the burro at the store andwent to the office alone. He and thesuperintendent didn't want to be both-ered with a lot of women and children

while they talked over their privateaffairs.Today there was the usual crowdthat hung around the trading post. Ayoung Navajo who was fond of jokeshad been given a bottle of "highlife"by a white man. He was told that ifhe put it on a horse it would makehim buck. He had his doubts about aburro but here was a good chance totry it. Unnoticed by Little Whiskershe poured a good portion on the bur-ro's back behind the saddle. It wasseveral moments before the "highlife"

took effect. When it did the burro'stail took on the motion of a windmillan d his ears started keeping time withhis tail. An uninvited start and themotion of the burro's ears gave warn-ing that something unusual was aboutto happen. Then it did happen. Theburro went into action and gave asgood an exhibition of bucking as hisage permitted. Little Whiskers' longyears of riding experiences were nowpu t to use. He even tried yelling"whoa" like he had heard white mendo when they wanted an animal tostop.No rodeo performer ever had amore enthusiastic audience. Even his

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Big Snakes of the Apac hes . . .Los Angeles, CaliforniaDesert:Marjorie von Stadelman, who in1901 or 1902 was being held by theApache Indians in Arizona, told mefollowing her release about some hugerattlesnakes she saw.The snakes were approximately 6V 2inches in diameter and 10 feet long.Their skins had the markings of thediamondback. The Indians, she said,thought these snakes came to them tobring them good fortune. They killedthem, however, in self defensetalk-ing to the snakes as they did so.Miss Stadelman showed me three ofthe skins which measured over 11 feetin length. They had been stretched inthe tanning process.My husband and I prospected formany years in the Arizona deserts andmountains, and saw many rattlers, butnone over six feet in length. Thesnakes killed by the Apaches were thebiggest I have ever known.LILLIA N G . D O RA N

(Continued from previous page)own family added their cheers. Thatthe old man might get dumped off andhurt didn't bother them in the least.Not an Indian made an effort to helpLittle Whiskers.Failing to get any relief by buckingthe burro decided to lay down androll. Nothing could have pleased LittleWhiskers more for the old man wasalmost exhausted and it looked as ifhe was going to loose the contest.When the burro laid down it gaveLittle Whiskers a chance to dismountwith all the dignity becoming to a manof his importance.He first looked at the crowd andthen at the burro. His first remarkswere addressed to the burro. "Hah ahdi sha bah nah al dih?" Which interp-rets something like, "now what in thehell is the matter, burro?"He now turned to his audience."Some people think a burro hasn't anysense but this one is smart. This morn-ing he called me an hour earlier forhe knew my pension check had come.Then he brought me here much fasterthan usual. He knew that I was in ahurry for when my check comes I ama very busy man. This burro generallyis quiet and gentle but look what heis doing now. Tha t is the way mywomen-folks have been acting eversince I got my pension check and heis trying to be like them . He w ants toshow off."

Invitation to C ana da . . .Vernon, British ColumbiaDesert:Received the April copy of yourmagazine and am much interested inthe story "Geodes on an Old SilverTrail" by Harold Weight.Perhaps it is coincidence that todayI picked up a large and lovely geode,one third of it missing and the re-mainder in the shape of a man's skull.It weighs 15 pounds and would covera whole page of Desert Magazine.The entire geode is crystal, the outerpart being clear crystals from one totwo inches in thickness. Much of thecenter is a solid core of lovely clearmauve crystals.If any of Desert's readers who areinterested in rocks are up this way Iwould be only too glad to take theminto a small petrified forest that is sel-dom visited by anyone.S TA N H U N TThose Names in the Cave . . .Berkeley, CaliforniaDesert:Since you seek to make your maga-zine a source of authentic information,please let me pick a flea from yourissue of Februa ry, 1951, wnere onpage 2 1 , William H . Behle says,"Neither Thompson nor Dellsnbaughmake a specific mention in their jour-nals of their activities on January 25,1 8 7 3 , . . . "This is in reference to the name ofDellenbaugh being cut in the rock atCave Lakes.Dellenbaugh's journal entry for Sat-urday, January 2 5, 18 73, was, "To-pographing as usual."His entry for the following day was,"John and I took a ride up to theCave Lake and the Three Lakes. Theylooked about same as last time. Carvedour names in the cave. Got back tocamp a little after 3, and also a littleafter dinner. Had a fine ride and en-joyed it."One would draw the conclusion thathe might have been there on someprior visit and the conclusion wouldbe supported by his journal entry forSunday, September 29, "Mrs. Thomp-son, Clem and I rode up the KanabCanyon on an excursion today. Wentup Tinney's Canyon to an alcovewhich Clem named 'Nellie's Grotto'in honor of Mrs. Thomp son. Thenrode on up to Lake Canyon and toCave Lake where by appointment wefound Prof, with a lunch . . . The dis-tance from Kanab to the lakes isabou t f ive miles . . . . "It may please Mr. Behle to have thissupport for his theory on the carvingof the Dellenbaugh name.O TIS M A RS TO N

T h e F e u d S t i l l G o e s o n . . .Costa Mesa, CaliforniaDesert:In your April edition, page 28 under"Good News for Fishermen" by Des-ert Barnacle, nearly proved "bad news"for me, since it is not true that Cali-fornia license is good on Arizona sideof the Colorado R iver. 1 found th atout when getting ready to fish on LakeHavasu, this last week.Am sure you know by this time andcorrection will appear in your Mayissue.We enjoy your magazine and veryproud to say, have every magazinebeginning with your number one issue.A. N. ENDELLThanks for your correction. We'llbe glad when California and Ari-zona quit feudin' and give thefishermen a break. R.H. o T w o W a y s t o S p e l l It . . .Los Angeles, CaliforniaDesert:Clearing up confusion as to thespelling of a popular place name inCalifornia and Arizona, I wish to citea footnote on page 6 of the U. S.government report titled Mohave Des-ert Region:"By decision of the U. S. Geo-graphic Committee board, the Indianname applied to the Desert and Riverin San Bernardino County is spelled'Mohave'. The name of the postofficein Kern County is spelled 'Mojave'."M O H A V E J O E

Her Boss Likes Her Work . . .Los Angeles, CaliforniaDesert:On page 35 of the May issue I find"Miss Ruth Simpson, formerly con-nected with Southwest Museum." Iam thankful to say that Miss Simpsonis still very much "connected with theSouthwest Museum," and I hope sheremains so from now on. Her title isAssistant Curator.M . R . H A RRIN G TO N

S u m m e r A n n o u n c e m e n tDuring the summer months,from May until October 15, theDesert Magazine art gallery willremain open only 5V z days aweek, closing at noon on Satur-day. A fine display of art workwill be on exhibit during the sum-mer, however, and visitors willbe welcome during the openhours. Harriett Day, director ofthe gallery during the past sea-son, plans to return early in thefall to resume her duties as man-ager of both the art and craftsdepartments .

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B O O K S O F T H E S O U T H W E S TSTORY OF ARIZONA ISTOLD BY HISTORIAN"Autumn brings to the tawney des-ert country of the southwest a refresh-ing coolness, a hint of frost in the up-lands and a wine-like quality in thehazy air over brooding wrinkled moun-tains. It was on an autumn day morethan two centuries ago that a PimaIndian guided a Spanish frontier traderto a small valley some 25 miles westof the border city of Nogales. Therethe trader was shown huge slabs orlumps of nearly pure silver, some ofthem weighing a thousand pounds.The news of this discovery brought arush of Spanish prospectors to theregion within a few months."

Thus Rufus K. Wyllys begins hisArizonaThe History of a FrontierState, a tale of struggle and accom-plishment in the high, dry desert coun-try called Arizona by those Spaniardswho coined the name from that of thelittle valley, Arizonac.Through the days of the Spanish ex-plorer, followed by the missionariesand on into the colorful era when goldand silver sparked the state with min-ers and prospectors, Dr. Wyllys car-ries the reader. He paints the cowboywith the clever touch of the naturalstory teller, yet never loses sight of thehistorical aspects of his subject. TheMexican, Civil and Apache wars, thestruggle for statehood, follow one an-other in proper sequence, spiced withconflicts between the sheep and cattle-men and the coming of the railroad.Throughout the story runs the silverythread of water, one of the most im-portant factors in building the desertstate. Bringing his history up to date,Dr. Wyllys places Arizona as a statestill definitely western, yet sufficientlymodern to have become one of theimportant winter tourist sections of theUnited States.

Dr. Rufus Kay Wyllys is head ofthe social studies department of Ari-zona State College at Tempe. Al-though not a native, under the tutelageof Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, dean ofwestern historians, and because of hisown 18 years spent in collecting, as-sessing, sorting and collating availabledata on his adopted state, he has beenable to create an authentic historicalstory of Arizona that will appeal tothe entertainment seeker as well as tothe more serious reader.Dr. Wyllys has a study of Mexicanhistory in relation to the Americanwest, on his agenda for the future.Published by Hobson and Herr,Phoenix, Arizona. 362 pages. 9 mapsand 14 illustrations. $6.00.

FIRST TO TELL THE STORYOF THE DESERT SOUTHWESTThe year was 1846. General Kearny,under direction of the war departmentin Washington had assembled at Ft.Leavenworth, Kansas, an army of 2000men and officers to invade the Mexi-can Southwest and annex it to theUnited States.One of the officers in Gen. Kearny'scommand was Lieut. W. H. Emory ofthe topographic engineers. Emory'sduties were many. He was to keep arecord of the climate, topography,geology, botany and accessibility ofthe region between Fort Bent and thePacific. In other words, he was to seewhether the terrain seized and occu-pied by Kearny's army was worthkeeping.

No officer ever fulfilled a difficultmission with greater precision than didthis young lieutenant. Despite theweariness of long hours in the saddlehe kept an accurate scientific record ofwhat he observed each daythe plants,wildlife, mountains, streams and astro-nomical observations. Congress thoughtso highly of Emory's report, titledNotes of a Military Reconnaissance, itordered 10,000 copies of it prin

195106 desert magazine 1951 june

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