195312 desert magazine 1953 december

8/14/2019 195312 Desert Magazine 1953 December

1/48


2/48

A F I E L D G U I D E TO R O C K S A N D M I N E R A L SBy FREDERICK H. POUGH, Curator of Minerals, American Museum of Natural History

YOU HAVE BEEX WAITING FOR THIS BOOKCon-tains 234 photographs, Tl in full color, and a simplifiedField Guide to identification. Ev ery m ineral the Rock-hound is likely to encounter is described in detail. Thisis the most important new book that has ever beenprinted for the rockhound and gem hunter. This book

will be available for delivery October 20, 1953. Sendus your advance order now. You will receive a receiptand acknowledgment of order. This will be the bestCHRISTMAS GIFT you could get for any mineralcollector.PRE-PUBLICATION PRICE ONLY $3.75 postage prepaid

N W F R 56 P A G 1 9 5 3 M I D Y E A R P R I C 6 L I S TThis catalog is the same as ou r 1952 Fall Catalog. It is8V6"xll" in size and it is profusely illustrated . Yourshopping will be made easy order by mail or visitour shop to select your gifts. This catalog lists GemCutting Equipment, Grinding Wheels, Diamond Blades,Sanding Cloth, and Polishing Powders, Jewelry MakingTools, Sterling Silver Sheet and Wire, Blank RingMountings, Jewelry Findings such as Earwires,

Bails, Locket Loops, Chain by the foot, Bezel Wire, etc.Field Trip Books and Books of all kinds on Minerals,Gems, Jewelry Making, Prospecting, Uranium, etc.Fluorescent Lamps, Fluorescent Minerals, Geiger Count-ers, Uranium Samples, Magnifiers, Scales, Templates, etc.Services Offered to You Are: Expert Gem Stone Cutting,Custom Jewelry Making and liepair.Dealers please ask for wholesale discount sheetsPOLY ARBORS AT NEW LOW PRICESillustration at r ight shows

1POLY D12 Ar bor $19.95 1Dresser Rest 2.252Cast Sp lash Shield s 15.00 1Jig Block DIAMOND1100 Grit W he el 8"x lV i" 7.25 DRESSER1200 Grit Wheel 8 "x lW 8.25 2 Galvan ized Spla sh Pans.. .TOTAL VALUE $69.10SPECIAL COMBINATION PRICE S62.00

10.805.50

YOU WILL BE WEARING RAINBOWSWhen you wear jewelry set with TITANIA. Gems of syntheticTITANIA have five times more ability than the diamond tobreak light into its component colors producing a magnificentrainbow effect. These magnificent gem s can b e set in mount-/ / m?s y o u m a y n o w ^ i a v e f r o m w h i c l 1 Y u h a v e lost thema/? mo Diamond I original stone.Visit Our Shop and See Ladies' and Men's Rings Set withTitania. A Large Stock of Titania Earwires Is Also Available.

FREE LAPIDARY LESSONSWith the purchase of cabochon or facet cutting equipmenthaving a value of $85.00 or more, an experienced lapidarywill give you a lesson in gemstone cutting in his own shop.Model E-10 Gem Stone Cutter$139.75 F.O.B. PasadenaAdd $3.00 crating for out-of-town shipmentsNote: Trim saw has a vise (not illustrated) with lateraladjustment for slabbing.This unit and other HIGHLAND PARK EQUIPMENT isfully described in our 56 page free catalog.LET'S GET ACQUAINTED OFFER18" Rhodium Plated Sterling Silver oryellow Gold Filled Neck chains2 for $1.00 or $4.50 per doz.plus 20% Fed. E. Tax

ESTWING ALL STEELROCKHOUND PICKSGift Mod elP olished $4.10Regu lar Black Finish $3.85Allow 3 lbs. Shipping weight

COLORED BRAZILIAN AGATESSuperb Blue, Green, Yellow, Black,Carnelian. Choice slab any color $1. Ask for our approval selection.SXOWFLAKE JADEWyoming. Beautiful Green Nephrite that can bepolished to a high gloss free from und ercu tting. Select slab 2 sq. in. $1.BRAZILIAX AMETHYST CRYSTALS with polished terminations$3 ea.MAGNIFICENT BLUE TIGEREYEA slab of 3 sq. in. for only $1.IXCA ROSE RHODOCHROSITE Argentina. Banded Rose, cream, pink2 sq. in.$1.00.GOLDEN FLE ECE TIGEREYE Superb quality, 3 sq. in. slab for only $1.$2.20 STERLING PENDANT FRAME S-164. Summer special $1.00 ea.OFFER No. 7A1 gross Assorted Jump RingsSterling silver or Goldfilled. $1.75 per grossboxed.Add 20% Fed. Tux to above itemsG R I E G E R 'S 1 6 3 3 E . W A L N U T S T . P A S A D E N A 4 , C A L I F O R N I A

OPEN FRIDAY AN D SATURDAY O NLY 3:30 A .M. UNT IL 5:00 P.M.PHONE: SY. 6-6423

D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


3/48

D E S E R T C A L E N D A RDecember 1-30Special exhibit, In-dian beadwork and porcupine quillwork. Southwest Museum, High-land Park, Los Angeles, California.December 5-6Dons Club Trek toFlagstaff, Sunset Crater and Walnut

Canyon. From Phoenix, Arizona.December 10-12 Pilgrimage andcelebration by Tortugas Indians,Las Cruces, New Mexico.December 11-12Annual Utah Tur-key Show, Salt Lake City.December 12 Matachines, Indianceremonial. Jemez Pueblo, NewMexico.December 12Feast Day of NuestraSenora de Guadalupe. Celebratedon eve (Dec. 11) in Taos, SantaFe and smaller New Mexican vil-lages.December 13Dons Club Trek toWickenburg. From Phoenix, Ari-zona.December 13Desert Sun RanchersRodeo, Wickenburg, Arizona.December 16-24 Posadas, nightlypageant-processions depicting searchfor lodgings by Mary and Josephin Jerusalem. Mesilla, New Mexico.December 20Dons Club Trek toFort McDowell. From Phoenix,Arizona.December 20-January 1 Nativityscene in Climax Canyon, nearRaton, New Mexico.December 24 Christmas Eve inSpanish villages in New Mexico.Bonfires for El Santo Nino, TheChrist Child, lighted before houses,in streets and before candle-lit Na-cimientos, Nativity scenes.December 24 Ceremonial dance,San Ildefonso Pueblo, NewMexico.December 24Night procession withcedar torches, San Felipe, Lagunaand Isleta pueblos, New Mexico.Ceremonial dances after midnightmass in mission churches.December 25 Deer Dance, TaosPueblo, New Mexico.December 25-28Ceremonial dances,Jemez, Santo Domingo, Tesuque,Santa Clara and other New Mexi-can pueblos.December 26 Turtle Dance, SanJuan Pueblo, New Mexico.December 27Desert Sun RanchersRodeo, Wickenburg, Arizona.December 31Deer Dance, SandiaPueblo, New Mexico.December 31Annual Pegleg SmithLiars Contest, Borrego Valley, Cal.January 1-3 Desert Peaks Section,

Southern California Sierra Clubclimb of Rabbit Peak in Santa RosaMountains, California. Rendezvousat Borrego Springs.

Volume 16 DECEMBER, 1953 Number 12COVER Vernon Bricker of the Texas Big Bend countryand his burros. Photo by Josef Muench ofSanta Barbara, California.C A L E N D A R D e c e m b e r e v e n t s on the d e s e r t 3POETRY The D e se r t is W i l l i n g to W a i t , a nd o t h e r p o e m s . 4CONSERVATION Graveyard of the Dinosaurs

By RANDALL HENDERSON 5FICTION H a r d R o c k S h o r t y o f D e a t h V a l l e y . ' . . . . 9H ISTO RY J o h n n y S h o s h o n e of D e a t h V a l l e y

By A. B. CHRISTMAN 10GHOST TOWN When the Troopers Came to Nevada

By NELL MURBARGER 12DESERT QUIZ A test of your desert knowledge 16PHOTOGRAPHY Pictures of the Month 17LO ST MINE L o s t D e se r t Q u e e n M i n e , by W. R. HILLERY . . 18LIARS CONTEST Woman's Whopper Wins Prize 18FIELD TRIP Ge m S t o n e s in the P e l o n c i l l o s

By FENTON TAYLOR 19CLO SE-UP S A b o u t t h o s e wh o w r i t e for D e se r t 22PERSONALITY Last of the Mountain Men

By GASTON BURRIDGE 23CHRISTMAS Life on the Desert

By MARJORIE FRANK 25LETTERS C o m m e n t fro m D e s e r t 's r e a d e r s 26NEWS From Here and There on the Desert 28M I N I N G C u r r e n t n e w s of d e s e r t m i n e s 33H O BBY G e m s a nd M i n e r a l s 34LAP IDARY A m a t e u r Ge m Cut te r , by LELANDE QUICK . . 41INDEX C o n t e n t s of D e se r t for 1953 42C O M M E N T J u s t B e t w e e n Y o u a n d M e , b y t h e E d i t o r . . . 4 6BOOKS Reviews of Southwestern lite rature 47The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desen,California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert,California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office,and contents copyrighted 1953 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contentsmust be secured from the editor in writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor MARGARET GERKE , Associate EditorBESS STACY, Business Manager EVONNE RIDDEL L, Circulation ManagerUnsolicited manusc ripts and photographs submitted cannot be re turned or acknowledgedunless 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 RATESOne Year S3.50 TwoYears $6.00Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c Ext raSubscriptions to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity WithP . O. D. Order No. 18687

Address C orrespondence to Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, CaliforniaD E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3


4/48

All-American canal, Imperial Valley, California. Photocourtesy U.S. Reclamation Bureau.AUTUMN RAIN

By MARGARET HORMELLNorth Palm Springs, CaliforniaThe wind has brought thedesert rainAnd left themountain tops in snow!Superbly does thesunlight stainThose chastened spots where chaff haslainLike bolts of calico.Yet, on myroof the rain's diffuse;I do notpray for it to cease,Nor make of weather an excuse,Or ample reason, to induceMy seeking sheltered peace.I could retire into a nook,Or curl beside mycozy fireAnd read a rare andcherished book,Or savory beans andbacon cookMuch to myheart's desire;But, time enough to seek mylair.To read mybook, or dreams revive;Wind, rain, and sun and snow, you'rethere!I feel you in myeyes andhair,And thank God I'malive!

TEMPTATIONBy MILDRED BREEDLOVELas Vegas, Nevada

Don't tempt me with those bare bewitchinghillsThat change their colors with the time ofday.My heart belongs where frogs and whip-poorwillsFind pools and moss andwillows when theyplay.Don't tell me that they wear a purple dressBefore the sun hasfound itsway to noon,N or say their pinks and mauves and brownsexpressThe desert's moods from July until June.I like myhills to wear a cloak of green,And I prefer mymeadows clothed with hay;With brooks and creeks and rivers in be-tween;A countryside where birds and squirrelsplay.My heart might yield with one more desertscene,And when I leave, it might decide to stay.

T V c U tBy ALI C E N. THORNTONBurbank, California

The desert iswaiting beyond thecanal,As thewater ischanging the sceneConverting mirages to orchards and fieldsAnd to gardens, productive andgreen.The greasewood and juniper, cactus andsage,

With the dust, and the glare, and the heat,The desert's ownallies are biding their timeIn a strategy hard to defeat.The desert is waiting to take back itsown,An d it doesn't need much of a chanceIf water, and men, andmachinery failTo consolidate every advance.Though wider and greener the fields seemto spread,As thewater runs early andlate,The desert has all of the time that there isAn d thedesert iswilling to wait.

ABORIGINESBy GRACE BARKER WILSON

Kirtland, New MexicoThe moon shines white along the desertroad,And all the far horizon is a mistOf shadows, dusky blue. In the star-kissedLong distances the night time has bestowedA few earth scattered lights to mark theabodeOf Indian desert-dwellers, who existIn place soremote white men have missedThe strength that from their lonely liveshas flowed.Yet through the times of want and drouthand heat,The Redmen eke their solitary wayUntouched bymodern science. Magic breedsFor them the spell of desert still complete.They to their ancient gods at moon-timeprayWith dance and song for their few dailyneeds.

LONGINGBy MRS. MARY PERDEWSanta Ana, CaliforniaFor peace of long, quiet daysSun kissed and restful,Sweep of the morning breezeTangy and zestful,Brilliance of moonlit nightsStardust andsilver,Scent of mesquite andsageWind off the river,Marvel of springtime bloomAll the land glowing,Gay colored blossom tideFragrantly flowing,Call of wild geese at nightHomesick andyearningAs desert hearts who roamLong for returning.

SMOKE TREEBy ELWOOD CRITTENDENTwentynine Palms, California

Oh! strange gray bush of sandy spaceWith bright and spiney smoky lace,Why did God plant you 'way outthereTo waste your beauty ondesert air?Is it for those brave souls who wanderSeeking health andpeace outyonder,Or because in this vast wastelandWe need a touch of the Master hand?

SameBy TANYA SOUTH

The same Power guiding you and meIs growing apples on a tree,And making mountains, mice andbears,And rolling tumbleweed and hares.And one thing else, I'll have youknow,This Power is doing here below:It's drawing us, through heart andmind,Toward greater love for all mankind.

DESERT MAGAZINE


5/48

/?c/?o Pa/& a/ f/ie junction of the Green and Yampa Rivers. A section of Steam boatRock is at the left. If E cho Park Dam is built all this natural park will be submerged .

G raveyard of the D ino saursSince 1872 when, the first Na tional Park w as estab lished at Y ellowstone,the Park and Monument areas of the United States have been held inviolateagainst the encroachment of commercial enterprise, with the exception ofsuch concessions as are necessary to accommodcrte the visitors to these recre-ationa l are as. But toda y the pressure of minority groups w ho w ould breakdown this precedent has become so great that a former Secretary of Interiorgave tentative approval to a project which would put two huge dams in theDinosaur Nationa l Monum ent. Fortunately, the final decision ha s not yet bee nmade, and private citizens and conservation groups are waging a vigorousfight aga ins t the com merc ialization of the Monum ent. Here is a brief reporton the factors inv olved in this controversy. > ^ N E EVEN ING in mi d-Augus t th is\ y year Cyria and I camped in alovely natural park where theGreen River meets the Yampa Riverin northeastern U tah. It was late after-noon when we arrived, but the desertsun was still above the horizon andwe welcomed the shade of the spread-ing boxelder trees which grow profuselyin this little meadow known as EchoPark or to the local residents, asPat's Hole.

We had driven down in pur Jeepstation wagon over a rather tortuousroad from the headquarters of theDinosaur National Monument near

By RANDALL HENDERSONMap by Norton Allen

Jensen, 52 miles away. Ech o Park iswithin the Monument.There was an ample supply of dead-wood here and in many years of camp-ing I have never cooked an open-firemeal in a place of such complete seren-ity. Tow ering walls of rock rose to aheight of several hundred feet all aroundus . We were the only occupants ofthis remote little park in the heart ofthe Colorado desert wilderness, and theworld and its conflicts seemed so far

away they belonged to another planet.Here were peace and beauty, undis-turbed by men or machines.We were not the first to camp in

this delightful spot. Major John Wes-ley Powell and his Colorado River ex-plorers spent three days here in June,1869. It was they who gave this placeits name. Major Powell wrote:"At the point where the Bear, orwith greater correctness, the YampaRiver enters the Green, the river runsalong a rock about 700 feet high anda mile long . . . The river has wornout hollow domes in this sandstonerock, and standing opposite, your

words are repeated with a strange clear-ness but softened, mellow tone. Con -versation in a loud key is transformedinto magical mu sic. You can hardlyD E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3


6/48

:Ss)V;'' : ff^'Basin I.-.

DINOSAURNATIONAL MONUMENTbelieve 'tis the echo of your ownvoice . . . "

Of course Cyria and I, from underthe boxelders across the river begantalking to the big rock SteamboatRock it is called. Nev er have I heardechoes come back so clearly. W e couldrepeat a sentence of six or seven words,and immediately the great block ofsandstone gave us back our words witha mellowness that was flattering to ourown vocal chords.Just three miles downstream fromSteamboat Rock is the site where theReclamation Bureau proposes to builda great dam. When former Secretaryof Interior Oscar L. Chapman gave histentative approval to the Echo Parkdam in 1950, there was a storm ofprotest from conservation groups allover the nation. The lake behind thedam would extend 63 miles upstreamin the Green River and 46 miles upthe Ya mp a. Steamboat rock would behalf submerged.It was because of the controversywhich centers around this reclamationproposal that we made the DinosaurNational Monument the goal of our1953 summ er camping trip. I wantedto become better acquainted with thefactors involved in the dam project.The arguments for and against thedam were presented at a public hear-

ing in Washington in April, 1950. Rep-resentatives from Utah, proponents ofthe dam, took the position that sincethe Colorado River Compact of 1922had allotted 7,500,000 acre feet ofstream flow in the Colorado River andits tributaries to the upper basin statesof Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and NewMexico, it was necessary that a seriesof dams be erected to utilize the waterfor power and irrigation purposes.Reclamation Bureau engineers pre-sented tentative plans for 10 reservoirsin the upper basin states which eventu-ally would solve the problem of waterstorage. These projects were at EchoPark, Flaming Gorge, Curecanti , Mar-tinez, Glen Canyon, Gray Canyon,Bridgeport, Crystal, Split Mountain andCross Mountain. Echo Park wasnamed as one of the first to be built.Newton Drury, then Director of theNational Park Service, opposed theconstruction on the broad ground thatCongress from 1872 until the presenttime has consistently adhered to thepolicy that the national parks beheld inviolate against the invasion ofcommercial enterprise which would de-stroy their recreational and culturalvalues.

Other opponents of the project, in-cluding the Sierra Club of California,the Isaak Walton League, The Wilder-

ness Society, the Wildlife ManagementInstitute and the National Parks Asso-ciation, gave testimony in behalf oftheir contention that the nation needsmore national parks for recreationrather than less, and that the Greenand Yampa river country in the Dino-saur National Monument has greatscenic and recreational values whichshould not be lost.Major General U. S. Grant III, for42 years an officer of the U. S. Army'scorps of engineers, aligned himselfwith the opponents of the project andpresented figures in support of his as-sertion that dams could be built else-where at lower cost and greater effici-ency than at Echo Park.There the matter stands today. Utahinterests are expected to press dili-gently for the construction of the EchoPark dam, but Congress has taken noaction and there is now a new Secre-tary of Interior in W ashington. Thefinal decision is yet to be made.Cyria and I spent the night on thebank of the stream opposite Steamboatrock, and the next morning motoredto a high point known as Harper'sCorner from which we could lookdown on the Park and the surroundingregion from above.If it is true, as General Grant testi-fied, that the needs of the upper basin

DESERT MAGAZINE


7/48

states can be adequately served bydams elsewhere in the Colorado andits tributaries, it would be a tragicthing to bring in hordes of bulldozersand drilling teams to start slashing andmutilating this lovely region, and clut-tering it with power lines and privateconcessions.Juniper trees bordered the road as

we followed the ridge route to Har-per's Cor ner. The primitive characterof this region was illustrated as wedrove along the road when a mountainlion emerged from a sheltering coveand bounded up through the bouldersand trees that covered the slope notover 50 feet from ou r car. Severaltimes during the morning, sage chick-ens meandered across the road aheadof us. A forest ranger later told usthat lions are quite common in thisarea.We returned that afternoon to Mon-

ument headquarters in a little canyonsix miles from Jensen. From Jess Lom-bard, superintendent of the Monumentsince 1944, and from the studies ofWm. Lee Stokes whose booklet Dino-saur National Mon ument, Past andPresent has been published by theU. S. Printing Office, I learned thestory of the unusual deposit of fossil-ized dinosaur skeletons found in thisplace.Stokes' story, based on the researchof geologists, goes back to the Jurassicperiod of earth historya period which

according to the best estimates of sci-entists occupied the interval from 127to 152 million years ago. At that timethe region of the present Rock Moun-tains was a vast unbroken plain whichreached from central Utah to wherethe Mississippi now flows. The climatewas mild and moist and the lush vege-tation made it the grazing area bothfor the huge vegetarians of the prehis-toric monster world, and the carnivor-ous animals which preyed on thevegetable-eaters.At one time, for reasons which re-

main a complete mystery, some de-structive element brought death to alarge number of these prehistoricbeasts in one locality. It may h avebeen a sudden flood due to a riverchanging its course, or they may havedied from suffocation due to clouds ofvolcanic dust, or perhaps they werethe victims of a bacterial plague. Noone knows.But whatever the cause, there wasa period of wholesale destruction. Thecarcasses of the beasts fell or werewashed into a large stream and eventu-

ally lodged on sandbars or shallowbanks . M ud, sand and gravel soonsubmerged them, and in the bones en-tombed in water-saturated sediments,

Superintendent Jess Lombard, for JO years the custodian ofDinosaur National Monument.that process of cell replacement knownas petrification began.

It is estimated that at some timeduring the intervening millions of yearsthe deposits of sediment and the wrink-ling and folding of the earth's crustburied these skeletons thousands offeet beneath the surface of the ground.Later the forces of erosion set in, andat about the time these skeletonsemerged from their ancient tombs somecurious white men came along and dis-covered bits of fossilized bone exposedon the slopes above the Green River.The original discoverer of the fossilbones will probably remain unknown,but O. A . Peterson rep orted them, in1892, and in 1909 Dr. Earl Douglass,

excavating for the Carnegie Museumof Pittsburgh, uncovered what devel-oped into the main deposit of fossils.Under his direction prior to 1922 ascore of almost complete skeletonswere recovered and sent to the Carne-gie Museu m. In 1923 and 1924 theUniversity of Utah continued the ex-ploration and recovered the completeor partial skeletons of several moredinosaurs.In the meantime, in October, 1915,President Woodrow Wilson issued aproclamation setting aside 80 acres as

the Dinosaur National Monument. InJuly, 1938, upon the petition of thepeople of Utah and elsewhere, Presi-dent Franklin D. Roosevelt enlargedD E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3


8/48

Above Headquarters of the Dinosaur National Monum ent near Jensen,Utah, where a temporary museum has been installed.Below At the dinosaur quarry where a temporary building has beenerected to protect a 40-foot dinosaur skeleton which will be fully exposedin place as a permanent exhibit when the project is completed.the Monument to 203,885 acres, in-cluding the Echo Park site.The graveyard of the dinosaurs isat a much higher elevation than theproposed Echo Park dam, hence thepreservation of the fossil remains isno t a factor in the Echo Park Damcontroversy.It is not known how many skeletalremains are yet to be excavated aslittle work has been done in the wayof recovery since 1925. However, anappropriation of $12,000 was madeby the last Congress to resume someactivity there.In the meantime the Park Servicehas erected a large sheet-iron building

along a rock face where a 40-footskeleton is partly exposed. Accordingto Jess Lombard it is planned eventu-ally to have a museum at this place,with a partly exposed cross-section ofa prehistoric dinosaur skeleton in placein its sedimentary matrix as the centralfeature of the exhibit.Only two or three thousand visitorsregistered annually at the Monumentheadquarters before 1952, but thecontroversy over the Echo Park damproject stimulated much interest, asevi-denced by the 12,318 registrations dur-ing the fiscal year which ended June30 this year.The Park rangers have an interest-

ing exhibit in the temporary museumat their headquarters, and have builta half mile of trail to themain dinosaurgraveyard where fossil bones may beseen in the exposed walls of the dino-saur quarry.The deposit of fossilized dinosaurbones is just one of many unusual andinteresting features of the DinosaurMonument as enlarged by formerPresident Roosevelt. Upstream alongthe Yampa River is another of thosedelightful natural parks similar toEcho Park. Known as Castle Park, itis the ranch home of Mr. and Mrs.Charley Mantle. In this area acheolo-gists have found a rich field for re-search into the lives of the prehistoricIndians who occupied this region.With the cooperation of the Mantlesand under authority of the NationalPark Service the University of Colo-rado made extensive excavations hereduring the 'forties, and the results were

published under the title The Arche-ology of Castle Park, Dinosaur Na-tional Monum ent. (Desert M agazine,April '48.)Lodore Canyon, in the Green Riverabove its junction with the Yampawas described in the various diaries ofthe Powell expedition as a gorgeoussector of rapids andwhirlpools. It wasat Disaster Falls in Lodore that thefirst Powell expedition in 1869 loston e of its boats, the No Name. Alsoin this canyon is the Hell's Half Milewhere thePowell voyagers had to makethe "worst and roughest portage" oftheir journey.Improved boats today have madethe running of these rapids much saferthan in Powell's Day. Bus and DonHatch of Vernal and Salt Lake Citymake chartered boat trips through Lo-dore Canyon and down the Yampaevery summer. Last summ er 190 men,women and children made boat runsthrough these canyons under the spon-sorship of the Sierra Club of California,and plans are in themaking for anotherexpedition next summer.The Lodore Canyon voyage is forthose wholike the thrill of riding cas-cading water and an occasional duck-ing. The Yampa Canyon run is afascinating ride through the heart ofthe Dinosaur National Monumentwithout undue hazards.Both of these rivers are bordered byfantastic rock formations. It is a pho-tographer's paradise. It is one of thefew remaining recreational areas in theWest which have not yet become over-crowded with tourist and picnic parties.Much of both the scenic and recre-

ational value in this region would belost if huge dams were installed atEcho Park, and farther down stream8 DESERT MAGAZINE


9/48

In Dinosaur National Monum ent where one road leadsdown to the river level at Pat's Hole, and the other is ascenic drive to Harper's Point overlooking the Greenand Yampa Rivers.

A scenic road leads down the canyon to Pat's Hole,named for Pat Lynch who lived there for many yearsduring the last century. The H ole actually is a grassymeadow shaded with boxelder trees.within the Monument at Split Moun-tain.

The act of Congress which createdthe National Park Service defined itsduties as "to conserve the scenery andthe natural and historical objects andthe wildlife therein, and to provide forthe enjoyment of the same in such amanner and by such means as willleave them unimpaired for the enjoy-ment of future generations."Th at mandate is quite clear. The

Park rangers work zealously to carryout their directiveand in doing sothey are protecting the rights of allAmerican citizens.The time may come when theAmerican continent will be so over-populated and the food supply so scarcethat it will seem necessary to breakdown the precedent which until nowhas protected the parks from commer-cial encroach men t. Bu t that day is fardistant. Over-production rather thanunder-production is the economic prob-lem that plagues the federal adminis-

tration today.In the meantime, as population in-creases, there will be need for more

and more recreational areasand theDinosaur National Monument extend-ing across the Utah-Colorado state lineshould be retained in its unspoilednatural beauty both for this and forfuture generations.

O F D E A T H V A L L E YDeath Valley was having oneof its periodic wind storms whenthe tourists drove up in front of

Inferno store to have their gastank filled.Hard Rock Shorty was seatedon the bench under the lean-toporch with his hat pulled downto his ears to keep it from blow-ing away."Have many of these windstorms?" one of the dudes asked."Shucks, man, this ain't nowind storm . Jest a little breezelike we have nearly every day.Yu have to go up in Windy Passin the Panamints to find out whata real wind is like."Three-four years ago I wuzup there doin' some prospectin'.

Got together a little pile o' woodan ' finally got the coffee to bo ilin'.Then I set it on a rock to coolwhile I fried the eggs."About that time one of themblasts o' wind come along andblowed the fire right out fromund er the fryin' pan . Blowed 'eraway all in one heap so I keptafter it tryin' to keep that fryin'pan over the fire tu git my suppercooked."I usually like my eggs overeasy, but by the time 1 got oneside done I wuz all tired out soI let 'er go at that. H ad to walkfour miles back to the coffee pot."

D E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3


10/48

J o h n n y S h o s h o n eo f D e a t h V a l l e y

By A. B. CHRISTMANA C C O R D I N G TO Johnny Sho-4* shone, he was born "in valleyin hole," that is, in a cave atthe base of the Panamints . His birthapparently occurred in the winter sincehis tribe of Indians, part of the Pana-mint Indians of the Shoshone nation,spent their summers in the high coun-try gathering pinyons and stalking big-horn sheep, and their winters in DeathValley.Johnny lived to witness most of the

remarkable changes that have tran-spired in the turbulent history of DeathValley. He saw, among other things,the first borax moved in the 1880s bythe 20-mule teams. He has known allthe famous prospectors of the valley,and indeed did some successful pros-pecting himself, discovering an areathat produced millions in goldbutno t for its discoverer.But the real story of Johnny Sho-shone is not in what he saw andachieved, but rather in his unique per-sonality and simple philosophy which

make him a distinct individualistaman who flaunted present standards;took without thanks what he neededyet ignored what he could not use; aman who was proud but not arrogant;who was loved by the people of DeathValley for his simplicity.It is estimated that Johnny wasbornaround I860, for he remembered help-ing hismother wash dishes for workersat the charcoal kilns of Wildrose can-yon. These kilns (still standing) pro-duced charcoal for the Modoc minein the late '60s. Originally named

Tumbus i , it was probably at the kilnsthat he acquired the name Johnny.Since there were other "Johnnys" healso became known as ShoshoneJoh nny . Still later when he needed aname for his children the name wasreversed to Johnny Shoshone.On almost anywinter day youcouldsee Johnny lounging in the shade ofthe Furnace Creek Ranch of DeathValley curiously watching camera-toting visitors. Although it is comfort-ably warm there in the winter, Johnnyregularly wore two pairs of trousers,

both hung low. A beat-up hat and avest completed his typical dress. Fol-lowing a stroke several years ago, he

With thedeath of Johnny Shoshone onOc-tober 20, Death Valley lost another of thosecolorful pioneers whose characters were asrugged as the land inwhich they made theirhomes. Here is the story of an Indian whowitnessed the transition of his desert home-land from a place once shunned by whitem en to a popular winter mecca for travelersan d who adapted himself very gracefullyto the change.usually walked with a cane, occasion-ally found crutches necessary.

When he met old friends Johnnymight give them a friendly nod, or hemight turn his back and walk away.Why? No one but Johnny knew theanswer to that question. He onlytalked when he felt like itand tohim there was no discourtesy in beingindifferent toward long-time friends.In general his indifference was directedmore to women than men; one of hismost common remarks was, "whitesquaw talk too much!"Johnny's thinking was to the point,hence his comments were not dulledby social censo rships. During the yearsof CCC work in Death Valley, hephilosophically observed the changedsocial life of the area, the friendshipsbetween Indian girls and the CCCworkers. Years later when a visitor sawa red-headed Indian, she inquired,"Halfbreed?" Answered Johnny, "No!Half-CCC."Johnny's attitude toward work couldbest be understood in terms of his an-

cestory. There were no middlemenamong early Death Valley Indians;what was needed was taken directly.They followed the line of least resis-tance: to the mountains in the summer,the Valley in the winter. The Pana-mint Shoshones were hearty, ruggedpeople, yet they were peaceful in thatthey elected to eke out a living in abarren area rather than fight otherIndians in order to hold more produc-tive soils. In substance, the late elderof the Indians lived by the same phi-losophy. His needs were filled fromthe easiest sources. He gave no thanksto other men for nature's gifts to allmen. He found food yesterday andtoday so he did not worry about to-morrow . This attitude partly explainswhy Johnny was not concerned abouthis million-dollar give away.There are various versions of thestory of how Johnny gave away hisrights to the Shoshone-Montgomerymine near Rhyolite. The truth is hardto determine largely because Johnnywould nod in agreement to practicallyanything that sounded like a good

story about him. It is known thataround the turn of the century Johnnylocated the area where the mine was

later located and that he did make his"mark" that transferred his rights toprospector Bob Montgomery. Accord-ing to the most popular version Johnnyreceived a few dollars and a pair ofoveralls. Better authority has it thathe received a wagon, a suit of clothes,an d $100 for his rights to the minethat Montgomery later sold for threemillions.Bob Montgomery once promisedthat as long as he lived Johnny wouldnever have to worry about money.Years later things were not going wellfor Johnny so he went to Montgomeryand reminded him of the promise,whereupon, Johnny was given a job.His relatives heard he was working andmoved in on him in mass. Shortlythereafter, Johnny resigned his job,explaining, "Nowork, broke and hun-gry. W ork, broke and hungry! Nowork!"Johnny tackled many different jobs,usually just long enough to fill the im-mediate money problem. He generallytrusted the white men to give himwhat

a job was worth. On one occasion atemporary employer became concernedsome months afterward about thewages he had paid Johnny so heforwarded $10 by a mutual friend. Inthe meantime, Johnny had found itnecessary to seek work from his Cou-sin George, the famous George Hansenwho until his death about 7 years agoat an estimated 106years was the old-est Valley Indian. As a boy he wit-nessed the first crossing of Death Val-ley by white men. Stories of Johnnyand George Hansen are frequentlymixed and it is suspected Johnny en-courage d this confusion. After muchpleading on Johnny's part, his cousingave him a job shearing sheep on thecondition that Johnny would stick withthe job to completion. Everythingwent fine until theoverdue $10 arrived.Johnny immediately left his cousinan d a half-sheared sheep.

But having money in his pocket hasnot been the only reason Johnny wouldleave a job . Onc e while digging ditchesfor the Furnace Creek date farm, oneof the leading executives of the Boraxcompany was being taken on a tourof the establishment. As the foremanescorted the executive through the gar-10 DESERT MAGAZINE


11/48

dens the slow-motion tempo ofJohnny's work was noticed by the ex-ecutive, much to the embarrassmentof the foreman. Hoping Johnny wouldassume a more workmanlike posture,the foreman jumped into the ditch andtook Johnny's shovel, saying he woulddemonstrate to Johnny how it shouldbe don e. At this Johnn y walked in-dignantly from the scene saying in amatter-of-fact tone, "You do it good!"For many years, Johnny and theother Indians of the Valley would mi-grate in summer to a camp back ofthe Wildrose charcoal kilns as theirancestors had. In contrast to theirforefathers, they were largely depend-ent on white friends for food. In ac-cepting gifts from benefactors, Johnnywould place himself in a conspicuousplace where he would watch, neverhelp, the benefactors unload the sup-plies. Unless watched himself, hewould take for his own use the candy

sent for the children. Especially ir-ritating to him were the cans of un-labeled food donated by Trona mer-chants. Seeing these, he would cry,"Where the picture? Where the pic-ture? Wa nt tomatoes; get peaches!Why no picture?"Before the penetration of cars intoIndian life, Johnny and his group ofabout 40 Indians made their annualjourney up the Panamints with burros,of which about 30 belonged to Johnny.These he would turn loose near thehome of one of his benefactors, whosesleep was disturbed by bells on thedonkeys. The friend asked Johnnythe reason of the bells. Johnn y ex-plained, "So we hear 'em, find 'em!""But why," asked the friend, "do youherd them to my place?" Johnny's fac-tual answer, "Ding dong all night nogood for Johnny's sleep!" The samebenefactor once jokingly spoke toJohnny in terms intended to gain animpression of what would happen ifthe tables were turned. He told Johnnyhis luck had turned, he had no money,no friends other than Johnny, nothing

to eat. Johnn y looked at him coldlyand pointed to the ground, "Grasspretty high!"Around 1936, Johnny traded hisburros for a 1910 Pack ard. How ever,once having been top burro man hefelt he had a special interest in allburro s. He continued to claim all bur-ros running loose and some thatweren't. A photographer once showedJohnny his picture to see what his re-action would be on seeing his own im-age on paper. The reaction was vio-lent. Stormed John ny, pointing at hisown image and the image of burrosin the picture, "That man steal myburros!"

In his late years, Johnny had two

Johnny Shoshon e, late patriarch of Death Valley Indiansand a favorite character of winter tourists.important strikes: the old-age pensionand tourists with cameras. He was oneof the most photographed of AmericanInd ians . This is a bit strange sincehis "color" was in his language, philos-ophy, and manners rather than in hisappear ance. His commercial interestin photography started quite inno-cently. A visitor inquired if he wouldmind posing. Johnny b linked a bit asif surprised at the request, thensounded off, "Ya, ya, oui, oui, si, si,sure, two bits (later, four bits)." Thecomment put him in business.

Ordinarily he made no bid for theposing business. How ever, when aprospector with burros and cart sud-

denly monopolized the trade, Johnnywent into action. After some medita-tion he rushed from the doors of theFurnace Creek Ranch store with aHollywood war whoop and dressed withlong feather headd ress. Th e spectacleput him back in business. After mak-ing enough to meet his immediateneeds, Johnny reverted to his usualconservative dress.Johnny is not the last of the DeathValley Tribe of Shoshone Indians, norwill his passing erase the memory of

those hardy pioneers who, like ShortyHarris, have given color and virilityto that great arid waste known as theMojave Desert.D E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3 11


12/48

Fort Churchill, Nevada, from the northeast. Buildings, left to right, are thecamp hospital, subsistence store, quartermaster's store and commandant's officeand telegraph station. Soldiers' barracks inrear.

W h e n t h e T r o o p e r sC a m e t o N e v a d aBy NELL MURBARGERPhotos by the au tho rM a p by Norton Allen

THE warm breeze of aJuly evening riffling throughthe sage and fanning the coalsof mydying supper fire, I leaned backagainst the old adobe wall and let myeyes stray over the silent flat aroundm e.It was incredibly still. Now andthen, the glowing embers of the firewould crackle feebly and send forth alittle shower of bright sparks, and afew grains of dry sand would loosentheir hold on the old walls and rattledownw ard. Otherwise, there was nota whisper in all the great soft darkness,from the old graveyard on the hill tothe weather-beaten guardhouse whereI was camped. The old Army garri-son of Fort Churchill s lepta crum-bling skeleton of what had been themilitary headquarters of TerritorialNevada.

It was a chance meeting withCharles Stewart, San Francisco attor-ney and a son of Col. Joseph Stewart,builder and first commander of For tChurchill, that first stirred my interestin the old garrison and started medelving into its scattered historyaquest I have now pursued for nearly15 years.

Like other frontier Army postswhere so much of the history of theWest lies buried, much of Churchill'sstory was recorded only in the smokeof lonely campfires and the dust of theold parade ground. The sons of themen who served there are now grownold, and every year finds their ranksthinning. Even the War Departmenthas on file no returns of the post forthe years 1863 to 1865 ; nor is thereany known record that the creation ofFort Churchill military reserve wasever confirmed by executive order.

Fort Churchill was established July

To protect wagon trains travelingth e oldSimpson Trail, main emigrantroute across Territorial Nevada, anadobe fort wasbuilt on thebanks ofthe Carson River and commissionedin 1860. Its parade grounds longsilent and its neglected buildings re-turning to dust, old Fort Churchill isnow a ghost. But Nell Murbargermak es it l ive again in this story,recalling the past glory of one ofthe main garrisons in Uncle Sam'sbulwark against the Indians.20 , 1860, the answer to a need forprotection made obvious by the eventsof the several years preceding.

Beginning in 1848 and continuinginto the 1850s, goldseekers by tens ofthousands had passed through UtahTerritory en route to California. Bythe middle '50s, a few settlers werebeginning to collect in fertile valleysat the eastern base of the Sierra Ne-vada . The se first com ers lived in gen-eral harmony with the Indians. It wasnot until the great rush to the Corn-stock in 1859-60 that tribes of WesternUtah Territory realized their huntinggrounds and homeland were beingsystematically torn from their grasp bythese white interlopers.That their protest should have beenregistered in the form of violence wasinevitable.12 DESERT MAGAZINE


13/48

Sporadic attacks had been made on

Situated on the old emigrant trail,

Early in May, 1860, the elders. During his absence, the

Seething in resentment at this indig-ion. Before their de-

Word of the massacre spread rapidlyia City. On May 9, at the Buckland

Of the bravery and good intentions

Having pursued their quarry to aup and flags flying rode

How many whites were slain is an agreement. Figures quoted

of the expedition. TheIn all that area between the Rockies

Utah Territory. Women and chil-

Help from this source was quicklyoming. On May 31 , 1860, there

Fort Churchill cemetery. Bodies of 50 soldiers were removed in 1880 forreburial at Carson Citv and San Francisco.worth, Nevada, more than 750 men.Included were eight companies of in-fantry and six companies of cavalry,Nevada volunteers under Col. JackHays, and a detachment of UnitedStates infantry and artillery comprising207 men under Capt. Joseph Stewart,of California. Due to previous experi-ence as an Indian fighter, Colonel Hayswas named commander of the expedi-tion.

Two days later, near the scene ofMajor Ormsby's earlier defeat, thiswell-disciplined force met an army of300 mounted braves. Despite viciousfighting , losses were held to a m inimumonly three soldiers being slain in theengagement.With the Indian forces dispersedand the uprising apparently quelled.Captain Stewart and his regulars es-

tablished along the Truckee River atemporary earthworks known as FortHaven. Colonel Hays and his volun-

teers returned in triumph to VirginiaCity.In filing his report with the WarDepartment, Colonel Hays recom-mended the establishing of a perman-ent fort on the main emigrant route,the Simpson Trail. As feasible loca-tion for such a post, he suggested apoint on the Carson River, near SamBuckland's ranch, approximately 20miles east of Virginia City.Authorization for such a post wasimmediately fo rt h co m in g . ColonelHays' suggestion was followed in re-gard to location, and on July 20, 1860,Capt. Stewart established the new gar-rison, naming it in honor of his friend,Capt. Charles C. Churchill, of theFourth U. S. Artillery.Fort Churchill had been born.The location seemed fortuitous.From the heart of a desert valley lyingat 4250 feet elevation and surroundedby higher mountains had been carved

1 9 5 3 13


14/48

Ruins of the former guardhouse, showing the manner in which buildingsof the ghost fort are deteriorating, the adobe bricks weathering away fromthe mortar and returning their dust to the Nevada desert.a military reservation of 1384 acres.Meandering through this field was theCarson River, cottonwood borderedand cool, and within 35 miles of theselected site was concentrated virtu-ally all the population between SaltLake City and the crest of the Sierra.Carson City, future capital of the state,was then but a year old, and Reno wasyet unborn.Upon this chosen site rose a garri-

son of considerable extent, andde-spite the use of local materials acostly one. All buildings were con-structed of adobe obtained from theriver bottom near the fort. Localstone was used for the foundations,and lumber for joists and interior fin-ishing was wagon freighted from millsin the Sierra Nevada . One hundredmules, in teams of six each, were em-ployed in construction of the post.

By autumn of 1860, Fort Churchillcomprised 58 buildings located in theform of a hollow square, a quarter ofa mile across, and centered by theparade ground. Included among thebuildings were half a dozen two-storydwellings for the officers, six large bar-racks buildings, three large mess halls,quartermaster's store, subsistence store,bakery, commandant's office, telegraphoffice, hospital, warehouse and maga-zine, guardhouse, blacksmith shop, andlaundry. Outside the fort prop er, werelocated the horse corrals and quartersfor the laundresses.Although planned originally to ac-commodate 1000 troops, it is unlikelythat Fort Churchill's strength ever ex-ceeded 800 men at a single time, withthe average number around 250 to350. To them was given the stagger-ing task of preserving peace in a ter-ritory larger than any state east of the

Mississippi River!Specifically charged with escortingand guarding the United States mailsand protecting "wagon trains on themain emigrant routes, the fort alsospread its protective wing over all thefledgling mining camps and outlyingranches in its huge area. Not originallyassigned to it was the responsibility ofserving as a telegraphic relay station,but in this capacity lay one of its mostcolorful phases.Of all the telegraphic news relayedthrough Churchill, none was of greater

14 DESERT MAGAZINE


15/48

than the Lincoln-Douglas presi-election of 186 0. "Lincoln's

s were tabulated. By virtue of the

The need for more rapid communi-In the record time of 110

lines joined . The firstWith this event, the Pony Express

Soon after outbreak of the Civil war,both in facilities and personn el. It

of the Territory. In this capacityIn 1869 the nation was binding its

argely past. Com pletion of

A magnificent era was drawing to

On September 29, 1869, the lastEarly in 18 71, the garri-

And what more natural than thisLong before commissioning of the

itution in Utah Te rritory. It

The Carson River, bordered by cottonwoods and willows, bisects the oldmilitary reservation and flows within a few hundred yards of F ort Church ill.With the organization of Nevada Ter-ritory, in 1861, it had become the firstseat of Churchill County, a capacityin which it had served for two years.The fort, to meet military requirements,had been established "one mile andone rod" from the ranch; but through-out the life of the garrison, Buckland'shad provided the safety valve for thetroops, supplying such refreshmentsas Uncle Sam's reservation deniedthem.

And now that Fort Churchill wasofficially abandoned, Sam Bucklandbought its assorted improvements several hundred thousand dollars'worth in original costfor the sumof $750!Buildings were systematically strippedof their salvageable material. Timbersand roofs, windows and floors and

doorseven the huge circular stair-cases in the officers' quarterswereremoved for sale and re-use.Deprived of their protecting roofs,

the old adobes began to yield to theelements. Snow and wind and rainand frost took their toll. Weakenedwalls collapsed, adobe bricks disinte-grated and returned their dust to thedesert. And , at last, only ruins re-mained.Even the old burial ground on thehill was robbed of its dead, the bodiesbeing exhumed in 1880 for re-inter-ment at Carson City and San Fran-cisco. Only the weed-grown graves ofa few civilians were left in the lonelylittle Valhalla.With the removal of her militarydead, Fort Churchill became a place ofneglect. From the War Departm ent,

D E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3 15


16/48

the land passed to the General LandOffice, and on to the State of Nevada.Nevada, in turn, gave it to SagebrushChapter, Daughters of the AmericanRevolution.In 1935 , the Civilian C onservationCorps was given the task of clearingaway tons of accumulated litter andfallen adobe. Buildings still standingwere repaired, insofar as practicable,and there was erected a new structureintended for eventual use by a residentcustodian, and as a museum to househistorical relics. Camping and picnick-ing facilities were installed along theriver and a swimming pool provided.With completion of this program ofrehabilitation, Fort Churchill wasturned over to Nevada State Park Com-mission for future administration andcare. Later, the old shrine was desig-nated officially as a state park.In Nevada, unfortunately, the grant-ing of state park status bestows titlealone, and little in the way of improve-ment or protection. This is not thefault of the State Park Commission.From the day of its inception in 1935,this board has been served by men ofhighest calibre; but state legislatorsone session after anotherhave con-sistently pared the park budget to thebone.Denied funds for even the barestneeds of operation, the park board hasbeen forced to stand idly by whilepark areas of the state succumb to de-terioration and neglect. Nowhere isthis unfortunate situation more obvi-ous than at Churchill, where a com-plete absence of maintenance and re-pair, together with vandalism, have leftthe fine old garrison tottering on thebrink of oblivion.With each year the walls of thedying fort are a little more crumbled,the sage on the parade grounds growna little higher. Now an d then, night-fall brings to the old garrison somelonely wayfarer, like myself. H espreads his bedroll and cooks his sup-per beside one of the old buildings;and perhaps he spends the last hour ofdaylight ranging over the paradeground, seeking mementos of thatlong-ago occupation; bits of old har-ness leather and metal buttons, brokencrockery and square nails, and brokendreams.In the old graveyard on the hill, ashattered marble slab marks the lastresting place of Samuel Sanford Buck-land, now 70 years in his graveSamBuckland, who emigrated west from

Ohio and established a ranch on theCarson River when Nevada Territorywas yet unb orn . In the little fenced

plot beside the old pioneer, lies hiswife, Eliza, and five of their childrenall of whom preceded him in death.On the old-fashioned stone markerat the head of Eliza's grave, appearthese lines:

Shed not for her the bitter tear,Nor give thy heart to vain regret;'Tis but the casket that H e x here,The gem that filled it, sparkles yet.The same lines might serve as anepitaph for Old Fort Churchill, herself.

D e s e r t Q u i z The monthly class in desert history, geog-raphy, botany, Indians and general lore willnow come to order. This month's questionscover nearly every phase of desert interest informa tion that the well-informed desert reader or traveler should know . A score of 12 to 14 isfair, 15 to 17 good, 18 or over excellent. The answers are on page 2 4.1The gem stone most commonly used by the Navajo silversmiths inmaking their jewelry isA gate . Garnet . TurquoiseJasper .2The first name of Pegleg Smith for whom a famous legendary lostmine was named was Thom as . Jedediah . JohnHiram.3 The flower of the rabbit bush is Pink . Red . W hiteYellow4Two of the following dams are not in the Colorado RiverElephant

Butte _ . Roose velt . . Davis _ . Hoo ver5When a Navajo Indian refers to a Bilakana he is speaking ofAwhite Am erican . An Indian trader . A balky horseA pack saddle6In fencing the range country of the Southwest, the cattlemen mostcommonly use Tw o strands of barbed wire . Three strandsFour strands . Five strands _7Keams Canyon Indian agency is Indian Bureau headquarters for the Zunis . Hopis ... . Utes . Hu alp ais. .. .8U behebe Crater is inY ellowstone National Park . The lavacountry of New Me xico . Death Valley . Th e shore ofPyramid Lake .Bill Williams Mountain is located in Arizona . New Mex-Utah ._ . California _. .9 -1 0- IC O ..-The Indian Chief, Palma, who befriended Juan Bautista de Anza andhis first colony of California settlers was aM ojave Indian _ .Yum a .... . Pap ago . Apa che ... .11The first camel train was brought across the Great American Desertby Lieut. W. F. Beale . Jacob Ham blin . Kit CarsonGen. Kearny .12Going from Flagstaff to Jerome, Arizona, the most direct pavedroute would be through Sedona . Showlow . Apa cheJunction . . Cam eron _ . .13Tombstone, Arizona, at the height of its mining boom, producedm o s t ly Go ld . . . .C o p p e r . S ilv er . C in nab ar .14T he Penitentes are aR eligious sect in New Mex ico... An Indiantribe in Utah A prehistoric tribe of sun-worshippers . Theoccupants of a monastery in California15Pumice stone is often used for desert building because of itsLightweight Ab und anc e in the desert region . Unus ual color-ing . Insulatio n value16Tinajas Altas is the name of a historic watering place on theCaminodel Diablo in Southern Arizona Santa Fe Trail . Butter-field stage route Mo rmon Trail to Utah17The tallest tree native to the Southern California desert istheMesquite ... .. Joshua Tree . Ironwood ____. Washingtoniapalm18If you were looking northeast toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountainsyou would most likely be inT ucson . Santa Fe . LasVegas, Nevada . Salt Lake City19If a Hopi Indian gave you some piki you would Eat it. .... Wearit aroun d your neck as a souvenir . Pl ant it in the flower gar-den _ . Han g it in your home as a wall decoration . .

20 Ru th, Nevad a, is famous for itsP roduction of gold Open pitcoppe r mine Mine ral springs .. High grade silver ore16 DESERT MAGAZINE


17/48


18/48

L O S T D E S E R T Q U E E N M I N EThe New Yorker had dug richvalues from his Desert QueenMine in Cathedral Canyon,near Cathedral City, California.But wh en the lost claim was re-located 40 years later, the goldw as gon e . The only value leftin thepeacock ore on theaban-doned dump was its beautyand many specimens still gar-nish the rock gardens andcactus beds of Cathedral Cityh omes .

By W . R. HILLERY1 8 8 9 , a young NewYorker outfitted in San Ber-nardino, California, for a pros-pecting trip. Following the mountains

down to the desert, he spent manymonths on both sides of the upperCoachella Valley, searching the can-yons anddraws of the SanBemardinos ,th e San Jacintos and the Santa Rosas.Finally, in the Santa Rosa range, hefound a promising outcrop of ore andstaked hisclaim to the "Desert Queen."He needed supplies to work his mineand these he procured at Banning, asmall community in the San GorgonioPass, about 40 miles distant.It took the New Yorker and hissupply-laden burros three days to wind

down out of the pass to the sandy roadthat snaked its way among the fewscattered shacks comprising PalmSprings, then on about six miles far-ther southeast to Cathedral Canyon,at the present site of Cathedral City.Up the canyon his switchback trail ledalong the east wall several miles to hisclaim.The Desert Queen was never offici-ally recorded. To do so would havemeant a trip to the county seat thenat San Diego, a hard, long trek overthe mountains to the coast. Riverside

County had not yet been created.The young prospector worked hard,an d a sizeable dump had accumulatedby the time personal obligations com-pelled him to return east. Just whatthese obligations were is not known,but they held the claim holder in theeast the rest of his life, and he neverwas able to return to his rich DesertQueen.O n his deathbed, the New Yorkerpassed on to a relative a crude mapand the story of his rich mine in Cali-fornia. Inside the tunnel, he said,would be found a folding pick, awooden wheelbarrow with a woodenwheel and various other items.

P A L M S '10 AITS.

One day in 1928,shortly after thefounding of Cathedral City, two vil-lagers, Wilbur "Slim" Larrison andCharley Cruncleton, were riding horse-back up the canyon when one of themnoticed a faint trail leading up the eastwall. Having sure-footed horses, theydecided to follow the almost obliter-ated path and suddenly came upon thelong unvisited Desert Queen . Theyhad seen numerous prospect holes be-fore and, after casually inspecting themining implements and wanderingabout for a few minutes, they re-mounted their horses and headed backfor Cathedral City. The incident wassoon forgotten.Several years passed. One eveningSlim sat in camp in the Devils Gardenarea, listening to an old prospector,G . R. Hicks, tell the story of a lostmine. He gave only casual interest asHicks told of the easterner who a fewyears before had developed car troublejust as he waspassing Hicks' Morongo

Valley cabin. While repairs were beingmade, the stranger and Hicks chatted.Eventually the conversation ran tomountains and mines, and the strangerproduced a map which, he said, hisfather had received from a relative onhis deathbed. He repeated to Hicksthe story of the lost Desert Queen.Weary months of search followed inwhich Hicks joined. But the map wasso sketchy that the stranger gave upand returned to his home in the eastwithout finding any clue to the lostmine in Cathedral Canyon.When Hicks, in the course of hisstory, mentioned the folding pick andwheelbarrow, Slim jumped into action,remembering the prospect hole he andhis companion had stumbled on a fewyears before.Excitedly, he told Hicks his suspi-cion that the chance-found claim andthe lost Desert Queen were one andthe same. The two men struck campand, visions of wealth before them,hurried across the valley to CathedralCity and on to the long lost mine.They found it without any difficultyand took samples to be assayed. Butth e ore proved to be quite ordinarynot rich enough to warrant any de-

velopment at all. Hicks and Larrison,their dreams of riches gone, returneddisappointed to Cathedral City.A group of Indians later relocatedthe claim and worked it briefly as theEloisa. Some beautiful peacock orelies on the abandoned dump, but theonly use made of it is to garnish cactusbeds and potted patio plants in Cathe-dral City homes.

4 T V & o f t f e e tBO RREG O S P RIN G S M ore than200 male liars were put to shame thisyear, when a SanDiego woman walkedoff with first place honors in the Sev-enth Annual Pegleg Smith Liars Con-test held at Borrego Springs in October.M r s . Roxie Bane is the first wom anto win the event. Her whopper con-cerned a fabulous blood red ruby foundby Pegleg Smith during his search forthe black nugget gold deposit he haddiscovered and lost."Clutching the immense ruby, Peg-leg headed back for civilization in highexcitement," Mrs.Bane related. "Fordays he trudged on, dead tired but too

elated to rest, until one night he sighteda campfire on the top of a hill. It wascool and damp and hordes of hugemosquitos attacked him, until by thetime he staggered into the stranger'scamp he was near collapse."The stranger revived him and Peg-leg decided to show his rescuer thewonderful ruby. But when he drewthe huge stone from his knapsack, hisheart sankit was only a rose quartzrock of no value."Closer inspection revealed the holesleft by the mosquitos' beaks wherethey had sucked the blood from theonce-fabulous gem."

18 DESERT MAGAZINE


19/48

By FENTON TAYLORPhotos by the AuthorMap by Norton Al lenS THE Gila River crosses theNew Mexico border into Ari-zona, it is already turningnorthward to circle around the Pelon-cillo Mountains, a barrier of uptossedpeaks, buttes, and hills.Entering the gorge it dug betweenthe Peloncillo and the Gila Ranges,the river turns southwest to roar be-tween steep basalt walls until it flowsinto the peaceful Gila Valley, whosefertile lands its harnessed waters havemade productive farms.This area of mountains and hillsheld within the bow of the river oc-cupies a special place in my heart, forhere one spring afternoon a few yearsago, I picked up a piece of "petrifiedwa x." Delving into the secret of thisstrange rock eventually turned me intoan avid rockhound.I had driven the family out that wayto see if many poppies were blooming,but the flowers were as scarce as therains had been that season. We wereroaming the hills, the children eagerlyhunting rocks, for they were enthusi-astic rockhounds long before their Dad.Suddenly I spied beneath a smallmesquite an odd white stone halfburied in the soil. Never before hadI noticed anything like this. Draggingit from its resting place, I held in myhand a fan-shaped rock nearly the sizeof my palm. The smoo th swirls andconvolutions of translucent substanceforming the stone were of a highlywaxy luster . I was astonished at itsluminescent beauty.

"This looks like paraffin wax," Ithought and tried cutting it with myknife to no avail. I took my piece of"petrified wax," home for closer study.Thus was a new rockhound born!Later, after I had studied about thequartz family minerals and had ascer-tained the true identity of my unusualpiece of chalcedony, I discovered thatit fluoresced a beautiful light greenunder the short wave lamp, making itan even more valuable specimen formy embryo collection.Many times since then I have gonechalcedony hunting in the "bow area"as I call it. It is a wonderful place forthe rockhound.One time while on a field trip witha group of mineral club members, Istarted toward a small hill. A com -panion asked which way I was going.After I told him, he assured me, "I've

G em Ston es in the P e lon c illosOver a wide area on the slopes of the Peloncillo Range in easternArizona Fenton Taylor has found many varieties of the stones that aresought by collectors. While chalcedony is most prevalent, there aregeodes, obsidian nodules and several members of the agate family.

For those who prefer a scenic landscape for their field trip outings, thisis a trip worth while.

This is the piece of "petrified wax" actually a chalcedony rose whichlured the author into the hobby of rock collecting. This w as found in thefield described in this story.already been over that hill. You w on'tfind anything there."Having had experience in followingothers before, 1 knew he was mis-take n. N o single individual can findeverything. I have retraced my ownsteps and found wonderful specimensthat I missed the first time over. Onup the hill I went to find three smallagates of excellent cutting quality andthey all made fine cabochons.The bow area with its variety of gemmaterials is easily accessible, for thenewly completed segment of Highway666 from the Gila Valley to the Clif-ton-Morenci district runs almost di-rectly through the center of the collect-ing area. From Safford, the businesscenter of the valley, it is just a shortdrive until a person can start lookingup and down the hills and in the

draws for chalcedony, some of it theprecious fire type, agates of great va-riety, and black obsidian nodules.The broad new pavement leavesHighway 70 about 10 miles east ofSafford. Lead ing to the nor theas t, itis a straight stretch of road for thefirst few miles as it points to the upperend of the Peloncillo Mountains.Highway 666 now follows the routeof an old toll road built in 1899 byFrancisco Montes and three friends,Victoriano Corrasco, Andres Serna,and Emilo Lopera.Montes came to Arizona from theRio Grande country in 1873 and set-tled in the small town of San Jose,situated at the head of the Gila Valley.Because it was built near the ruins ofan Indian village, San Jose is some-times called Pueblo Viejo.

D E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3 19


20/48

m

Above Going east from Safford, Highway 666 follows an old toll roadthrough thePeloncillo Mountains making aneasy access route to the col-lecting field. There is fair hunting on both sides of this highway for manymiles. ThePeloncillos are in the background.Below Edith and Melvin, the author's children, in an area where theground isstrewn with bits ofwhite chalcedony.Shortly after reaching hisnew home,Montes helped build the San Josecanal to divert river water to the farms.He and his neighbors began raisingmany crops, and soon they had a sur-plus of hay, grain, corn and pumpkins.At that time, Clifton was a boom-ing mining town. Topprices were of-fered for garden produce. The farmersof San Jose loaded their wagons andtook their surplus to this top payingmarket.Then it was a three-day journey toClifton, for the many sharp canyonsof the Peloncillo Mountains made adirect route difficult. The first day's

travel took the wagons to Ash Spring.Over the hills to Sheldon and the GilaRiver was the second day's journey.

On the third day they followed theriver to Guthrie, labored up an arroyofor a few miles, and finally angledover a steep mountain to strike theSan Francisco River at Ward Canyonjust below Clifton.To save such a round-about triphome, the freighters discovered theycould cross the river at Guthrie andclimb the steep slope past GuthriePeak. It was a tough pull, but whenthey reached the summit, they haddown-hill grade the rest of the wayhome, saving both time andmiles.As Montes was making this trip,he conceived the idea of a toll road.

With his three friends, axes, shovels,and pickaxes, they carved a roadthrough the mountains that was

scarcely more than a trail around thehillsides and up the grade towardThumb Butte , a tiny knoll that is aprominent landmark close to the sum-mit of the climb.Using scrap lumber and tin, theybuilt a toll station on a hill that gavethem a good view of the road in bothdirections. Mexican folks gave it thename of La Grita.Toll charges were 50 cents for eachteam and 10 cents for each horse witha rider. At the end of the first dayof operation, the new station keeperan d the receipts disappeared, undoubt-edly heading for the Mexican border.After this incident, Montes operatedthe station himself.Not long after the road was opened,the price for teams was lowered to 30cents. Operations went along smoothly.Finally, after a series of trades, Monteslost his original partners and gained anew one, Jose Gonzales.One of the tasks of the stationkeeper was to watch the road for tolldodgers. Montes used a telescope tolook for approaching riders or teams.If he saw a rider begin to circle thetoll station, he would mount his horse,head off the rider, and collect the fee.After about three or four yearsMontes sold his share of the road toLuther Green whoopened stage serv-ice over the route. Green soon soldou t to Morg Merrill and Ben Clark.The toll road was in use until 1919when the newSafford-Clifton highway

was completed by means of convictlabor under the direction of LamarCobb, the state engineer. Built chieflyas a scenic road, the new highwayconsisted mostly of narrow dugwaywinding through the canyons andaround the northern slopes of thePeloncillos. Many people labeled thisroad "Cobb's Folly" for it sacrificedconvenience for beauty.Collecting along Highway 66 canbegin at almost any place a personwishes to stop. Good agate and chal-cedony specimens are scattered far and

wide along its length up to the moun-tains.All this material is float, of course,having been washed in and depositedby the Gila River as it carved canyonsand countless gullies. Hiking off theroad a few hundred yards in a bigsemi-circle will usually net the bestresults. I've never made such a circleand returned to the car empty handed.Early morning or late afternoon isthe best time to hunt agates and chal-cedony, for the slanting rays of thesu n are caught up in a distinctive glow

by these quartz stones to make themstand out in sharp contrast to theirneighbors.20 DESERT MAGAZINE


21/48

is.*'J ''"' , , ' . ' . . -

.X : .' j1.'*~.'rr>'A'.' " ' : " '

' , - !

;;>. . p i *

B H s j . . . *>*'(' "- v '

1

/-

\J$* '

General view of the large chalcedony deposit. The best huntingis just below the ledge in the right center of the picture.About eight miles from the junction,the old highway comes up abruptlyagainst the new right-of-way fence.It is beyond travel now, but it windsamong a cluster of low lying hills tothe west that have yielded some of thefinest green moss agates of the area.Although they are not so spectacular

as the ones from Montana, their pat-terns are such that they will makechoice cabochons.

A wash cuts around the north sideof this hill clus ter. Its ban ks offer goodhunting . Th e rocky stream beds sel-dom have anything to offer. At oneplace the course divides to make anisland of a few acres of land coveredwith creosote brush and prickly pear.This island has yielded some very finebrown and red moss agates accentedwith inclusions of pale blue agate.Anywhere along the road, especially

in the hills to the west which slopetoward the Gila River, the rockhoundwill find interesting collecting. I heardthe report that one collector found asection of petrified palm root here.In this section of the bow area mem-bers of the Gila Valley Mineral Soci-ety once conducted a night field trip,a most unique and successful hunt forfluorescent chalcedony.Scattered over these hills are small

D E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3


22/48

obsidian nodules known as Apachetears. Ap pearing dead black, most ofthese pieces are translucent to trans-parent, and when cut and polished ex-hibit a lustrous dark beauty thatcatches the light in a deep, ripe-olivesheen.Four miles beyond this area, as thehighway winds in ascent up the moun-tain slope, a pipe and wire gate admits

a seldom traveled road through thefence to the north. This is the en-trance to the big. chalcedony field.For a mile and six-tenths the roadwinds over the hills, through a washfinally to top a sloping hill immediatelybeneath a basalt ledge. Here is chal-cedony galore chalcedony of allshapes, sizes, color; huge white chunks,waxy delicate pieces, thumb sized car-nelian nodules, and red fragments.Tiny chalcedony roses are widelyscattered. Finding matching pairs ofthese roses for earrings is a painstak-

ing task but most rewarding for thewoman who wishes to addsome uniquepieces to her jewelry box.Prize of the field is the occasionalpiece of fire chalced ony which carefulstudy and cutting will turn into a cabo-chon nearly rivaling the opal for colorplay. One stone that 1 cut from thismaterial shows red, lavender, gold,bronze, and satin green color as it isturned in the light.On these expeditions my childrennever fail to rout out a horned toad.On our last trip they found one that

was exactly the same shade of reddishbrown as the rocks among which itlived.A person can easily spend a full dayin this one location, but back on thehighway toward Thum b Butte it crossesto the right side, rounding a hill spottedwith cedars. This is nodule and geodecountry, not large specimens but con-taining interesting crystals and exhibit-ing, in some cases, a pale apricot fluor-escence.Just beyond this point the roadreaches the summit. Here, to the leftagain, is another chalcedony deposit,no t so good as the first one, but offer-ing fine material to the diligentsearcher.Then the paved way dips down thegrade up which Francisco Montes andhis comrades labored their wagons. Insweeping curves it drops to the newbridge spanning the Gila River andjoins State Highway 75. In the dis-tance a white smoke plume marks thetall smelter chimney of Morenci.

Yes, the bow area is dear to myheart. It has a variety of gem stonesand beautiful scenery. I'venever spenta day there that I have not gone homewith my heart as full as my knapsack.

Marjorie Frank used her Life-on-the-Desert prize check from DesertMagazine to send a Happy Easter"complete with chocolate bunnies"to her Navajo friends of the ta chii niiclan. Miss Frank's winning story,which appears in this issue, tells of aChristmas vacation spent with the In-dian family in their hogan in SteamboatCanyon, Arizona.

It was in 1945, on a visit with herparents from Buffalo, NewYork, thatMarjorie first came to know the West.She was fascinated with the countryand, after graduation from a Californiacollege, returned to the Navajo reser-vation as a teacher.She came to know her Navajo pupilsan d to love them . "Th ey came fromall parts of the reservation to acceptthe privilege of attending school," sheremembers. She chaperoned some ofthe youngsters home at vacation time,met their families and knew the warmhospitality of their simple hogans.In 1950, Miss Frank left the Indian

Service to accept a position with theAlbuquerque city school system. Gaston Burridge, author of "Lastof the Mountain Men," the story ofBen Lilly which appears in this issue,was born February 24, 1906, in south-ern Michigan, in the little Indian townof Tecumseh on the banks of the Rai-sin River.Burridge early learned to love theoutdoors, and he spent many boyhoodhours roaming the woods, canoeingdown the Raisin, exploring the wilder-ness areas near his home.He came to Southern California in1927 and went into business with hisfather. In 1951 , the business was sold,and Burridge returned to his hobby,painting and writing, for a living. Helives in Downey, California. Robert N. Carlile, who recountedhis homesteading troubles with thegovernment in his Life on the Desert

story (October, 1953), reports he hasreceived some compensation for theloss of his Mojave Desert tract. "Inearly September," he writes, "I re-ceived a check compensating me forreturning all rights to the homesteadto the United States government. Theamount of the check just covered mycash investment."

T he desert in W inter...Whipped white clouds marching across a vivid blue sky, colorand form bold and true in the clear air, desert flora lush after a rainor stark against a blanket of snowin winter the desert landscape isperfect for the photographer. Any amateur who is familiar with hiscamera andknows the elementary rules of good composition can geta good pictureand possibly win a prize inDesert Magazine's Picture-of-the-Month contest.Entries for the December contest must be in the Desert Magazineoffice. Palm Desert, California, by December 20, and the winningprints will appear in the February issue. Pictures which arrive toolate for onecontest areheld over for the next month. First prize is $10;second prize $5.00. Fornon-winning pictures accepted for publication$3.00 each will be paid.

HERE ARE THE RULES1Prints for monthly contests must be black and white. 5x7 or larger, printedon glossy paper.2Each photograph submitted should be fully labeled as to subject, time andplace. Also technical data: camera, shutter speed , hour oi day,etc.3PRINTS WILL BE RETURNED WHEN RETURN POSTAGE IS ENCLOSED.4All entries must be in the Desert Magazine ofiice by the 20th oi the contestmonth.5Contests are open to both amateur and professional photographers. DesertMagazine requires first publication rights only of prize winning pictures.6Time andplace of photograph areimmaterial, except that it must be from thedesert Southwest.7Judges will be selected from Desert's editorial staff, andawards wil l be madeimmediately after theclose of thecontest each month.

Address All Entries to Photo EditorVeunt 7H*$*fiH* PALM DESERT. CALIFORNIA

22 DESERT MAGAZINE


23/48

L a s t o f the M o u n ta in M enBen Lilly was a Mountain Man one of those rugg ed frontiersmenwh o trapped and hu nted the South-west mountain country for preda-tors and game. Lilly's prey werelions and bears, the "varmints" hebel ieved he was "appointed byGod " to extermina te. Here is thestory of a master trailsman andhunt er who se na me ha s beco melegend in the Blue River countryof Arizona and New Mexico.

By GASTON BURRIDGEPortrait Sketch by the AuthorF BEN LILLY had lived 100years earlier, had been one of theSouthwest's first Mountain Men

instead of its last, by now he wouldbe as famous at Kit Carson, Bill Wil-liams, Jim Bridger or Uncle DickW ooton. Ben Lilly had what it took.Some say he was the greatest hunterAmerica ever produced. He huntedthe Blue River country of Arizonaand New Mexico, and in the foothillsof New Mexico's Mogollon Moun-tains is a monument to his memory.A greater monument lies in the mem-ories of several men still living whoknew him, old-timers from Needles toDenver, from Sonora to Idaho.Five years before Lilly came to theGila River watershed in 1912, heguided Teddy Roosevelt on a Louisi-ana hunting trip. Roosevelt extolledhis abilities in an account of that trip.Lilly's achievements also are recordedin several books and technical workson mou ntain lions and bears. His bi-ographer is J. Frank Dobie in The BenLilly Legend.Even before manhood, hunting hadbecom e a way of life with Lilly. Heclaimed he was "appointed by God"to rid the lands he hunted of "var-mints." He was employed as a preda-

tory animal hunter several times andfor extended periods by the U. S.Biological Survey, but most of thetime he hunted on his own, collectingbounties from counties and states.Bounty rewards accumulated and ithas been reliably reported that whenLilly died in 1936, despite the bankfailures of the 1930s he still possessedalmost $15,000 in savings. Others,also claiming to have known Lilly well,dispute this, arguing he was nearlypenniless when he passed away. It isknown that, toward the end of hisdays, Lilly's mind began to wander,and he could not remember in whichbanks his funds lay.D E C E M B E R , 1 9 5 3

Ben Lilly, last of the Mountain Men. Sketch after aphotograph by John Strickrott.Benjamin Vernon Lilly was bornDecember 31, 1856, in Wilcox County,Alabama. He came to Arizona in 1912,headquartering first at Tommy Cos-per's ranch on Blue River, just below"The Box," where the Blue hasgnawed a 700-foot gash down throughthe Mogollon Rim. The next 15years of cougar and bear hunting werethe happiest and most productive of

Lilly's life, according to his own ac-count.My investigations of Ben Lilly had

only begun when 1 becam e awa re ofthe fact that all who wrote or talkedto me about him referred to "Mr.Lilly," never "Old Man Lilly," "OldBen," or even "Ben."I asked Mark Musgrave, who prob-ably knew Lilly as well as any man,abou t it. Musg rave said there was justsomething about Lilly that required amister. Ben was soft spoken, with adecided Southern accent. His eyeswere very blue, deep-set and steady.Under six feet tall, he was stocky and

23


24/48

strong. His cheeks were full, roundand rosy beneath a rich golden tan.his beard full and wavey, his carriagedignified. Despite his rough exterior,he presented a distinguished appear-ance. Ben never smoked, never sworenor drank; but all who knew him saw-he was every inch a man, and thosewho didn't know him soon guessed it.I asked Musgrave how he ratedLilly, who hunted the Blue countryafter the hostile Indians had gone, withearlier Moun tain Me n. Musgrave'sanswer was unqualified and immediate:"Unquestionably as good as any ofthem."

Ben Lilly was without fear. Thishe proved time and time again in hand-to-paw combat with bears. And hisstamina matched his courage. Hisbody was a set of steel-trap springs,tough, resilient, fatigueless. He cou ld,and did, go days with nothing morethan a bit of cornmeal while on a freshtrail. Lilly would trail an animal tothe end, literally wearing out his prey,before he would give up . Only sucha man could have bagged 650 moun-tain lions and bears in 15 years afterthe once-abundant game had beenthinned out by others.Ben Lilly knew lions and bears . Hewould not be on the trail of a lion longbefore he could tell its sex, its approxi-mate age, whether it was on its regularbeat or was new to the vicinity,whether it was hungry and looking forfood or was just out for a stroll. If ithappened to be a female, he could tellwhether she carried kittens and, if so,about when the young were due. Heread these facts from tracks examinedminutely, from stray hairs caught onbushes, from beds of the animals,scratch marks left on trees and"scratch-piles" or "lion markers."Lilly was a master trailer whose abilitywas exceeded by none and equalledby few.

Everywhere Lilly went, he walked.It was said he could out-walk a horse.In a country of sheer 100-foot leapsof red sandstone, of yawning slits withbrush clinging to their vertical sides,of heavy stands of agave and pine, itis not difficult to understand why hechose to travel afoot. He said a horsewould only be in his way.Early in middle life Lilly becamedeafso deaf he could not hear hishounds bark "treed." Deafness ordin-arily would mean the end of a man'shunting days. But Ben Lilly was noordinary man. He overcame his han-dicap by tying a lead hound to hisbelt and letting the dog take him tothe others that had treed or corneredhis prey. Lilly's hounds w ere trainedto stay with the game until he came,no matter how long that might befive hours or five days!

Once, following his lead hound tothe pack, Lilly was pulled over a cliffby the excited animal. In the canyonbelow he found the dog uninjured, buthimself with a broken leg. Calmly.Lilly set his own leg, reached for afallen limb as a splint, bound the legin place with strips of his shirt, thencrawled on all fours back to his camp.There he remained, alone, the severaldays necessary for his leg to set enoughto allow a burro-back ride to betterfacilities.

Lilly never hunted on Sunday. Hunt-ing was his way of life, but it was asix-days-a-week proposition with him.Even though he was close to a lionon Saturday night, he would call offhis dogs until Mo nday mornin g. Henever hunted on Sunday unless he for-got to keep track of the days, inad-vertently letting a Sabbath slip bywithout prop er respects . In such cases,when he discovered his error, he tookthe next day off, asking the Lord'sforgiveness with prayers and medita-tion.Throughout his life, the Bible wasLilly's constan t com panio n. He wouldread it for hours while in camp, andhe often carried a copy in his slim packwhile on the trail. He not only readand studied the Good Book, but hequoted from it often and aptly. Suchquotations lent to his speech a quaintand folksy quality.Along with devotions, Sunday wasalso wash day for clothes and person.In freezing winter weather Lilly wouldleave his campfire, strip off his cloth-ing, and, ax in hand, walk to the poolor stream near his camp. Breakingthe ice, he would plunge in. Often hetook snow baths by sitting naked in asnow bank and rubbing himself cleanwith handfuls of snow.Lilly slept outdoors all year around and on the ground. He said a housesmelled "rancid" and that he'd catchcold if he slept inside. Musgrave toldme he met Lilly one afternoon at oneof the latter 's camps. To show Mu s-grave how good he felt, Ben ran to thetop of a high hill 100 yards away and

back again. He was then past 70.There have been claims that BenLilly was an artist. I have seen repro -ductions of his work, and I don't thinkso . I don't think he thought so either.He did have a unique way of signinghis checks, often written on bark,paper bag scraps or newspaper mar-gins. These strange checks were al-ways honored, for their signature wasunm istakable . It consisted of a draw -ing of a honey bee followed by theletter "V" and a drawing of a lilyB. V. Lilly.Ben Lilly's hobby was makingknives. His ancestors were iron work-ers, but his knife-making probably

owed less to heredity than to the de-sire for a knife he could not buy. Mostof the blades were forged from cast-off horseshoers' rasps, worn-out orbroken heavy saw blades, old autosprings, hay rake teeth. Doub le-edged,his knives had a backward sweep heliked to call "the Lilly hoo k." He h addefinite reasons for this shape, deter-mined by many years of using knivesat close qua rters . Some of his bladeswere 18 inches long.There are a great many stories aboutBen Lilly and his exploits. Every old-time Southwesterner has at least oneLilly anecdote. In the bear storiesthere appears some confusion as towhich kind of bear goes with whichstory black bea r or grizzly. Theblack or brown or cinnamon bear stilllumbers about many parts of the South-west, The grizzly is goneand BenLilly helped vanquish it.It is virtually impossible to proveor disprove even a small number of

these tales now . It is believed, how-ever, that anything Ben Lilly wrotewas as near the truth as he couldmake it, though, in a crowd, he could"draw the long bow" pretty far.Ben Lilly died December 17, 1936,in Buckhorn, New Mexico, at the ageof nearly 80. He wished to spend hislast days among those pined moun-tains and picturesque canyons he hadgrown to love so well. He wan ted tomeet death there, some night beneatha dusky cedar, some day along a sun-flecked trail. Bu t Ben Lilly had toomany friends thoughtful of his com-fort. So he died in bed, at the G rantCounty Farm.Legend, like the silvery threads ofa cobweb, is already weaving its pat-tern across Ben Lilly's nam e. In afew more years all who knew himpersonally will have gone, and only thelegend will remain of this last of theMountain Men of the great Southwest.

ANSWERS TO DESERT QUIZQuestions are on page 161Turquoise.2Thomas.3Yellow.4Roosevelt and Elephant Buttedams are not in the Colorado.5A white American.6Four strands.7Hopi Indian agency.8Death Valley.9Arizona.10Yuma Indian.I ILieut. W. F. Bealc.12Sedona.13Silver.14A religious sect in New Mexico.15Insulation value.16Camino del Diablo.17Washingtonia Palm.18Santa Fe.19Piki is Hopi bread.

20Open pit copper mine.

24 DESERT MAGAZINE


25/48

L I F E O N T H E D E S E R TBy MARJORIE FRANK

A FELLOW universi tystudent, and I had acceptedthe invitation of a family ofthe ta chii nii clan to spend Christmasweek with them in their isolated hoganin Steamboat Canyon, Arizona.

We spent busy days making cookiesand decorating them with gay coloredicings. Dolls, wag ons, ear muffs andother toys were added to our Christ-mas shopping list, along with oranges,apples and cheese. We had heard thatthe Navajos were fond of cheese, andlater were glad we had added it to ourgifts when we saw the delight withwhich shitrta sani, old grandmother,sampled each variety.Christmas parcels, food, sleeping

bags, blankets, oil and other necessitiespacked, our holiday adventure began.Through Grants, New Mexico, Gallup,and Wi

195312 desert magazine 1953 december

Documents