197709 desert magazine 1977 september

8/14/2019 197709 Desert Magazine 1977 September

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W I L L I A M and JOYKNYVETTCo-Publishers/ EditorsGEORGE BRAGA, ArtDirectorSHARLENE KNYVETT, ArtDepartmentMARY FRANCES STRONG, Field Trip EditorGLENN VARGAS, Lapidary EditorK. L.BOYNTON, NaturalistMARVEL BARRETT, Circulation ManagerColor SeparationsbyHenry Color ServiceLithographedbyWolfer Printing Company, Inc.Available inMircrofilmbyXerox University Microfilms

DuvxLVolume40,Number9

MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER1977

CONTENTSF E A T U R E S

PATTON COUNRTY 8

CRIME STOPON THEDESERT 14

RIVEROF THEDESERT 16

NEVADA'S COLD MOUNTAINS(S) 20

RETRACINGTHETONOPAH&TIDEWATER RAILROAD 24

MISSIONSANXAVIER DEL BAC 28

MOPAH SPRING 30

THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL 32

WESTERN HOGNOSED SNAKE 36

PICACHO'S LOST ARCH GOLD 40

Bill Jennings

NancyL. Brandt

Albert U. Millspaugh

Betty Shannon

Boband Ana Cook

Howard Neal

Dick Bloomquist

Edward D. Anthony

K. L.Boynton

Harold O. Weight

THE COVER:Southern Arizona sky atsunset. In theValley of theSun, apainted sky,delicatetones and the statuesqueSaguaros combine tomakea brilliant ending for adesert day.Photo byJosefMuench, Santa Barbara,California.D E P A R T M E N T S

A PEEK IN THEPUBLISHER'S POKE 4 William Knyvett

NEW BOOKS FORDESERT READERS 6 Book Reviews

TRADING POST 42 Classified Listings

BOOKSOF THEWEST 44 Mail Order Items

LETTERSTO THEEDITOR 47 Readers' Comments

CALENDAROFWESTERN EVENTS 47 Club ActivitiesE D I T O R I A L , C I R C U L A T I O N AND AD VE RT ISIN G OF FIC ES: 74-425 High way 11 1, Palm Desert , Cal i for n ia 92260. Te lephone Area Code 714 346-8144l is ted inStandard Rate and Data . SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Un i ted S ta tes and possessions; 1year, $7.00; 2years, $13.00; 3years. $19.00. Allothercoun t r ies add $2.00 U.S. cu r rency foreach year. SeeSubscr ip t ion Order Form inth is issue. A l low f ive weeks forchange ofaddress and send both newand old addresses wi th zip codes . DESERT Magaz ine ispubl ished month ly. Second c lass postage pa id atPalm Desert , Cal i forn ia andataddi t iona l mai l -ing o f f ices under Act ofM a r c h 3,1879. Contents copyr ighted 1977byDESERT Magaz ine and permission toreproduce anyorallcontents must be secur-ed inwr i t ing . Unso l i c i t ed manuscr ip t s and pho tog raphs w i l l not be re turned un less accompanied byse l f -addressed, stamped envelope.Deser t /S eptember 1977 3


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

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1 AST MONTH we featured theRoad-runner in an ar t ic le ent i t led, "Clownof theDeser t . " But this bird does nothave the corner on the market. In thisissue, our natural ist, K. L. Boynton,reveals the sneaky antics of a snake whoplays dead. TheWestern Hognose is aclown of a crawler with a real twistandit still presents a puzzle to biologists.

An d sp e a k in g of puzz les , au thorA l b e r t M i l l s p a u g h g i v e s us a f u l lt reatment on another Desert Clownwhich does anoff-again, on-again disap-pearing act. Andwould youbelieve? it's

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ a r iver !An d as for the disappearing act, Harold Weight continued his Picacho Lost Gold

Legends with a fascinating tale of an arch that was "up -aga in , down-aga in . " Whoknows . . . ? And . . . fol lowing thetheme of disappearing acts, Bob and Ana Cooktr y to retrace the long-gone Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad in a four-wheel-dr ivevehiclewith and without success. Butoh, they had un!

For tennis lovers, a double fault is a no-no, but author Edward Anthony'streatment is a match point when he describes the Devil 's Punchbowl which l iesbetween the SanAndreas Fault and the SanJacinto Fault. This is a beautiful area,just two hours dr ive from the Los Angeles Basin, but visited by few.

Betty Shannon takes us to Cold Mounta in th is month, as shewanders through thebeautiful mining country of Nevada's Esmeralda County, and Dick Bloomquist con-tinues his Palm Oases series with a visit to Mopah Spring in the mysterious TurtleMounta ins of Cal i forn ia .

Howard Neal explores Arizon a's b eautiful Mission SanXavier del Bac, and whi lewe're inArizona, Nancy Brandt br ings us up to date onMaricopa County's Histor icSites P ossece rtainly aworthwhile organization the l ike ofwhich isneeded in manyother areas.

Topping off our issue this month is anarticle on "Pa t ton Coun t ry , " for which wehave had so many requests from our readers. Bill Jennings' nostalgic look atGeneral George S. Patton and the histor ic Desert Training Center he establishedearly inWo r ld War II recalls a spir i ted but futi le effort to establish a f i t t ing memor-ial to the general and his armored corps gladiators that began 21 years ago.

Riverside County Supervisor Walter V. Pittman proposed a monument to beerected at the site of Camp Young some 30 miles east of Indio, California. A Sher-man tank on a native-stone platform would be f lanked by a tal l obelisk of steelforged from iron mined atnearby Eagle Mountain. A 320-acre site wasproposed bythe Highway 60 Association, the American Legion and the Native Sons of theGolden West.

The plan was later modified to utilize the existing altars and huge outdoor reliefmap near the Iron Mountain Pumping Station on the Colorado River Aqueduct, 30miles northeast of Desert Center. Here a state memorial park wasproposed after afederal monument plan was rejected on the grounds there were too many suchproposals at the t ime .

Actor Leo Carr i l lo , as the general, a fourth-generation Californian, added hissupport but theproposal never got off the ground. Perhaps today, with the renewedinterest in the general, is the t ime to think about it again.

Mary Frances andJerry Strong andGlenn andMartha Vargas are onvacation thismonth , enjoying awell-deserved rest.

Desert /September 1977


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GOLDM I N E SOFSOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

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BooksforDese r tTradersAll books reviewed are availablethrough the Desert Magazine BookShop. Please add 50c per totalorder for handling and Californiaresidents must include 6% statesales tax .

MINES OF THE SAN BERNARDINOSBy John W. Robinson

Nineteenth Century miners were anoptimistic lot. They would go almost any-where and dig tirelessly at the sl ightesthint that valuable minerals m ight be pre-sent. And they would do this year afteryear, for rewards that were hardly worththe effort. The prospector, the miner,the capitalist were motivated by the hope

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that, just maybe, they would str ike thebonanza to set them up for life. Thedream of incredible wealth was fueled bythe knowledge that, indeed, some didstrike it r ich. On the chance that they toomigh t f ind a fortune in gold or si lver,thousands of treasure hunters pox-mark-ed the western landscape with ditches,shafts, tunnels and all manner of miningimpliments. But only a handful of thishorde ever saw their dreams come true.

Mining in California's San BernardinoMountains fol lowed this famil iar pattern.Thousands of men, seeking their for-tunes, were lured into the area by thequartz-rich hills lying north and east ofBear Valley. Countless man-hours wereexpended d igg ing, dr i l l ing, washing,blasting and otherwise defacing nature'slandscape. Holcomb Valley, Cold Moun-ta in, Blackhawk Canyon and the Moron-go county still bear the dimpled scars ofthis mining frenzy of years past.In this volume, John tells of the manystrikes that led to the opening of thishigh wooded area. It was in 1860 that"Un cle B i l ly " H olcomb wandered over aridge to start the largest gold rush in thesouthern regions of the Golden State, arush that is still celebrated by a festivaleach year at Big Bear. Here are stories ofUncle Bil ly, as well as the more recentones such as Lucky Baldw in's, who buil tlarge gold mil ls at D oble, the remains ofwhich are still to be seen above the shoreof the lake that now bears his name.

Pa p e r b a ck , i l l u s t r a te d , 7 1 p a g e s ,$2.50. iff

ISHI IN TWO W ORLDSA Biography of the Last W ild Indianin North AmericaBy Theodora Kroeber

The life story of Ishi, the Yahi Indian,lone survivor of a doomed tribe, isunique in the annals of North Americananthropology. For 15 years TheodoraKroeber's biograph has been sharingthis tragic and absorbing drama withreaders al l over the world.

nesBrt /SentumhRr 1S77


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Now Ishi's story is embellished withpictures which help to br ing the story tol i fe. Many of the photographs weretaken at the actual locations in the DeerCreek country of northern Californiawhere Ishi was born and l ived for nearlyhalf a century as a " w i l d " Indian. Alsoincluded are many newly-discoveredcontemporary photographs, 19th Cen-tury drawings, maps and the photo-graphs that have long been famil iar toreaders of Ishi in Two Worlds. All theseprovide the reader with a true impres-sion of the reali ty of Ish i 's wor lds.

Ishi stumbled into the20th Century onthe morn ing of August 29, 1911,when,desperate with hunger and with ter ror ofthe whi te murderers of his fami ly , hewas found in the corral of a slaughterhouse near Orovil le, California. Finallyidentif ied as an Indian by an anthropolo-gist, Ishi was brought to San Franciscoby Professor T. T. Waterman and l ivedthere the rest of his l ife under the careand protection of the staff of the Univer-sity of Cal i forn ia 's Museum of Anth ro -pology.

Ishi was perhaps the most remarkablepersonality of his century. This and moreM r s . Kroeber hasvivid ly impar ted to thereader.

Hardcover, large format, 262 pages,over 500,000 copies in print. $14.95.

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Deser t / September 1977


8/48

SIS MEMORY has not d immed forthousands of desert residents, yet thephysical signs of General George S.

Patton 's Wor ld War I I " invasion" of theColorado and Mojave deserts are gradu-ally fading awayas old soldiers are re-puted to.

In January, 1942, the famed cavalry-man and U.S.Olympics equestr ian, oneof the modern Army's first armor spe-cial ists, established the largest trainingcenter in the history of the nation's mil i -tary forcesencompassing most of thearid parts of California south of DeathValley, from Las Vegas, Nevada, andKingman, Arizona on the east to the es-carpmen t of the San Berna rdino, San Ja-cinto and Santa Rosa Mountains on thewest.

Patton himself spent only a fewmonths at Camp Young, as the head-quarters nucleus itself was called, beforeleaving for North Afr ica and his textbooksuccess against the Germans there, inSicily and across France and Germany.

He died, just after the war ended inEurope, the result of a car-truck crash.

Patton came to the desert from Ft.Benning, Georgia, establishing his or i-ginal headquarters at the old red-brickHotel Indio. Advance units of his newFirst Armored Corps moved via trooptrain to Indio and Freda siding, 45 milesnorthwest of Blythe, init ial ly in Apri l ,1942.

The huge base, covering more than16,000 square miles, expanded undersucceeding commanders, becoming theDesert Training Center. The secondmajor headquarters area was establishednear Freda. The late General Walton H.Walker formed the XX Corps after hismentor, Patton, departed. Known as the"Ghost Corps" by the Germans due to

his elusive attack and disappear tactics,W alke r 's force was second only to P attonin its exploits.The Patton mystique has grown inrecent years, particularly since the hitbiographical movie starr ing George C.Scott. Patton was the grandson of DonBenito (Benjamin) Wilson, one of thefirst Anglo-Saxons to reach Spanish-Mexican California before the GoldRush. The general was born at San Ga-briel in 1885, graduated from West Pointand was a mainstay of the U.S. Olympicteam in 1912, although he did not win amedal. He fought in Mexico with Persh-ing and distinguished himself in Francedur ing Wor ld War I .

Such is the Patton legend today that anew commemorative group has recentlyformed to honor both the Californian andthe desert training complex he establish-ed . Headquarters of the Camp Young-Patton Histor ical Society are in W hitt ie r,not far from the general 's bir thplace.

Larger of the twoaltars at the almost-forgotten IronMountain trainingsite for World War IItank and artillerygunners shows littleeffects of repeatedflooding and rodentholes under itsH footings.

8 Desert/ September 1977


9/48

by BILL JENNINGS

This revised mapis from the original

1957 article wherein aDesert Memorial Parkwas planned to honor

all the men whotrained in the desertin the early stages of

World War II.This map covers but

a small portionof the16,000-square-

mile DesertTraining Center.

DanbyDryL.

TORICE aVIDALJCT.

L-X-iNARPINO CO.O.

' Palen'%\ Dry Lake '

Interstate 10TO 8LYTHE

paRjaM f!L~e\

The mark he lef t behind is more sym-bolic than actual m any of the scars re-m a i n i n g in the p e r i m e t e r s of hismaneuver area actually date to 1964,when the Army again used much of thePatton Country to stage Desert Strike,the largest desert training exercise sinceWor ld War II. Most impact aroundTwentynine Palms is due to currentMar ine Corps t raining, and Naval aerialgunnery and rocketry have marked the

Chocolate Moun tains northeast of Nilandmore than Patton ever did.

Because of the huge size of the DesertTraining Center, neeCamp Young, thisstory will concentrate on only a smallpart of the region, a roughly rectangulararea bounded on the west by the Coa-chella Va lley, on the north byMetropol i -tan Water Distr ict 's Colorado RiverAqueduct , on theeast by the river itself,and on thesouth by the Riverside-Imper-

ial counties boundary. Even that arbi-trary division encompasses more thantwo mil l ion acres, most of it administer-ed in 1977 by the U.S. Bureau of LandManagement .

P a t t on ' s f i e l d headqua r t e r s we relocated a mile north of present-day In-terstate 10, a half-mile east of the Cot-tonwood Springs Road which leads toTwentynine Palms through Joshua TreeNat ional Monu ment . All that's left today

Desert/ September 1977 9


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11/48

Lower of the twoaltars at the Desert

Training Centerheadquarters campnear Iron Mountain

shows the ravages oftime, and is beginningto merge back into the

desert alluvial fan fromwhich it was formed

in 1942. Site isprotected by fencing

and lack of directionalsigns. Site was used

by tank-artillerytrainees.

at the BLM's Desert Li ly preserve, sixmiles northeast of Desert Center onSta te 177 . An o th er re s t r i c ed a reasurrounds Palen Dry Lake, which in-cludes some private land, a zone of unex-ploded arti l lery and aerial bombs andshells, some charted archeological s ites.You are urged to stick to existing trai ls,of which there are l i teral ly hundreds inPatton Country.

Ford Dry Lake, opposite the CornSpring-Graham Pass offramp on 1-10, 25miles east of Desert C enter, is the jump -ing off place for one of the few unre-

str icted travel areas under the BLMplan. You can drive north into the PalenPass country or northeast across theMcCoy Mounta ins to the Ar l ington Mineand the almost deserted company townof Midland, on the Santa Fe Railway'sRice-Blythe branch. Midland was aban-doned when gypsum quarr ies in theLitt le Maria Mounains were closed adozen years ago. Many of these mines,in the Litt le Marias, the McCoys and thePalens are still active claims so heed theno-trespass signs.

The only major paved roads in this

part of Patton Country are the state-fed-eral routes, 1-10, SR 177 and 62, and theportion of the Blythe-Rice road to Mid-land, maintained by Riverside County.State Highway 95, parallel l ing the Colo-rado River to the east, marks the peri-meter of Patton Country here.

The Bradshaw Trai l , described inDesert two months ago, is the main ac-cess to the southern perimeter of PattonCou ntry, and is generally in good, sl ight-ly washboard condition, except afterthose rare cloudburst storms when it islikely to be impassable.

Historic Hotel Indio,one of the oldestresort buildings in thelower Coachella Valley,gained fame of anothersort in 1942 when itbecame headquartersfor General GeorgeS. Patton's desertarmored trainingcenter to the east.Indio was the mainsupply point for thehuge camp that sprangoutof the cactus35 miles away.Desert /September 1977 11


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B A C K I S S U EB A R G A I N S !ODDS AN D ENDS

Miscellaneous Copiesfrom 1959 to 1965Package of 10$0003o selections availableVOLUM ES FOR YEARS1966 1969*1974

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Send check or money order toDESERT MAGAZINEP.O. Box 1318Palm Desert, Calif. 92260

a , '

Quartz chips mark a lasting replica of the U.S. Seal at the old artillery headq uartersarea of the Desert Training Center near Iron Mountain Pumping Station. The W orldWa r II souvenir, still intact, is about five feet in diameter.

Off these major routes are countlessdesert tracks, some of them frustratingdeadends, o the rs good secondarythrough routes.Accurate maps for Patton Country arehard to come by. The U.S. Geologic Sur-vey 15-minute series topographic maps,generally the best overall for thesemonthly tr ips, are not total ly satisfactoryin this case, because of their age. Someof the area has not been surveyed ormapped in more than 25 years and roadsshown on them may not be passableorexist at al l ! This is particular ly true ofthe Ford Dry Lake-Palen and ChuckwallaValley area east of Desert Center.

Part of the problem stems from con-struction of Interstate 10, which does notfollow the old 60-70 route. Some of thesecondary roads can be reached from theold highway which is a frontage roadwith overpasses for the Corn Spring,Graham Pass-Chuckwalla Spring andWiley Well routes to the south. Some ofthe old tracks to the north of the freewaycan be reached from these offramps, orcross country from the Desert Center-Rice highway.

Ca m p in g is g e n e r a l l y p e r m i t t e d12

throughout the Patton region but theonly organized campgrounds are theBLM enclosures at Wiley W el l , CornSpring and Coon Hollow. There is nosafe water other than at the camp-grounds and perhaps Chuckwalla Spring which has been refurbished since thebig storm of September, 1976.

The only off-roaders route across therugged middle of Patton Country fromeast to west is the old Palen Pass-Arling-ton Mine road. It leaves SR 177 (DesertCenter-Rice road) 10 miles south of itsjunction with SR 62, near Iron MountainPumping Station. It emerges on the easton the Blythe-Rice road near Inca siding19 mi les no r th wes t of B ly th e . Inbetween, it traverses the Palen-Graniteand McCoy Mountains over some l i tt le-traveled but highly scenic and historicmin ing country.

Watch for the fading paint on someprominent signboards near the Palensand Granite Mountains denoting unex-p l o d e d a m mu n i t i o n , mo s t l y a r t i l l e r yshells and practice aerial bombs. Thesesigns frequently end up as campfirewood for unprepared groups, which is abizarre form of Russian roulette for those

Desert/ September 1977


13/48

%* Bf r ^ * ^ * * =

Road to Lost Palms Oasis, just north of Chiriaco Summ it and Interstate 10, is mark-ed by the National Park Service. During Patton's tenure on the Colorado Desert, thelitt le canyon spring and its fringe o f native palms were off limits to training tanktroops and has remained relatively intact over the ensuing 35 years.who ven ture after them but no off-roaders have been blown up out there inmy memory!

The most visible areas of Patton'stenure occur along the west and northernperimeters of this areaalong Cotton-wood Springs Road and near the IronMou ntain pu mping stat ion on the Me tro-politan Water Distr ict 's Colorado RiverAqueduct .

Two hand-hewn rock altars, a crumb-ling sand and cement relief map of theentire Desert Training Center and a net-work of confusing roads between IronMountain and Freda mark the vicinity ofthe old northern headquarters. The al-tars were built by tanker and armoredart i l lery crews under the Walker regime,while the huge relief map apparentlywas built by Patton's f irst troops.

Much of the Iron Mounain area isM W D property and it 's advisable in ad-vance to inquire if you can visit thesehistoric sites.The best places to get accurate infor-

mation about what is still thereandjust w here are Rice, Chiriaco Sum mitand Desert Centeralso the only rel i-able places for gas, water and food inPatton Country.

Whether you find souvenirs of Pat-ton's regime or not, a visit to his historicCamp Young-Desert Training Center isworth the long t r ip.

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Walking Rocks in CanyonlandsDesert / September 1977 1 3


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Before itwas restored byinterestedpersons thiscemetery hadbeen torn apartby vandals.CRIME STOPON

M HE VIEW from the top of the moun-0 tain was ma gnif icen t. Indian ruin s,1 probably Anasazi, capped the sum-

mit and spread their way down the side,looking much as Tuzigoot must havelooked prior to i ts excavation. Brokenwalls showed the extent of the massivedwell ing. Pot sherd and l i thic materiall i t tered the ground. The ai r was warm.All was stil l except for the ceaselessblowing of the breeze and the hum of anoccasional bee. Perfect, you say. Itwould have been except for one fact. Thebeauty of the site had been marred bythe digging of professional scavengerswho m ake thousands of dol lars each yearthrough the destruction of pieces of ourAmerican her i tage.A desert ghost town in Western Ar i -zona had stood deserted and intact forhalf a cen tury. Its small ceme tery aneternal reminder of those pioneers wholived, worked and died to help sett le anunsett led land. Today their graves havebeen desecrated by fortune hunters whohold nothing sacred especial ly i f theycan make a fast buck in the process.

In north central Arizona an ancientsalt mine stands abandoned . A mound ofsalt is the most dominant reminder off i rst the prehistoric Indians who dug the14

salt from the earth with their bare handsand crude implements and later ofmining done by modern man. Themound gl istened in the sun unti l re-cently. Now it is scarred with the tracksof motocycles.

There are dozens of sites like these allover the Southwest. This wanton de-struction of historical sites is a big worryto all of us who are interested in the pre-servation of our heri tage. And this typeof destruction is going on, not just inArizona, but al l over the country wherethere are unprotected sites.

Sheriff Paul E. Blubaum of MaricopaCoun ty, Arizona , a man of vision and aninnovator in the f ield of law enforce-ment, recently took posit ive action to tryand curb some of this vandalism and de-struction by forming the new HistoricSites Posse. This posse is under the di-rection of Captain Harry Potter, who isalso a member of the Arizona Archaeo-logical Society.

According to Captain Potter, the His-toric Sites Posse was founded as a co-ordinating organization between inter-ested groups. It wi l l work with groupssuch as the rockhounds, hunting andfishing organizations, treasure hunters,historical and archaeological groups and

even private citizens who have historicsites on their property or are just inter-ested in their preservation. The idea ofthe posse is not to keep these peopleaway from their fa vori te areas, but to in-vite their help in preserving those sitesfor future generations.

Captain Potter said, " I envision theHistoric Sites Posse in the form of anucleus of interested people who will goto the grade schools and the high schoolsand acquaint these chi ldren with theneed of protecting the sites. And also tobring this to the attention of off icers ofprivate organizations such as the archae-ology society, wi ldl i fe associations, themineralogical society, just to name afew. Al l of these people, through theirjoint and coordinated efforts can make atremendous impact on the State and ul-t imately , I hope, the nat ion."

Captain Potter has already receivedrequests for more information on thisconcept from other agencies around theState.

By the same token, Captain Potterhopes to coordinate with Federal organi-zations such as the U.S. Forest Service,the Bureau of Land Management andParks Service on whose land many ofthese sites are located. He says the pro-

Desert /Seoiember 1977


15/48

CaptainHarry O. Potter

points todestruction doneat the Brazalete

Pueblo.

*

by NANCY BRANDTgram w il l be very similar to a Crime Stopprogram used in many towns and citiesand with that in mind he warns, " I wouldcaut ion, as we do in the cities, any in div i-dual from attempting to interfer if theysee vandalism or thievery going on.Don't forget, many of these people arearmed and if they are professional, oreven if they're not, they wouldn't hesi-tate to shoot you. So be cautious. If youcan get license numbers, do so. If youcan take pictures without being seen, doso. And then get the information to thenearest Sheriff 's Department or ForestService Off icer, wherever you might be.If you have a citizen's band radio, youcan re lay in format ion much fas ter .CBers know how to do this."

Captain Potter went on to say, "Thereis a great deal of destruction and not onlyin the f ields that we've talked about.Every police department in the UnitedStates is tryin g to convey that they do nothave man power to personally surveyand watch every private dwell ing, sowhat they are doing is trying to formCrime Stop programs where the citizenscan, to some degree, protect themselvesby watching each other's homes and re-po r t i ng any t h ing susp i c ious t o t hepolice. What I am trying to do is simplyDesert /September 1977

carry this to the wilderness area. Let'sprotect our property out there as w e l l . "

At present the State of Arizona, likemany other states, does have antiquitylaws. However, Captain Potter and hisgroup are lobbying for even strongerlaws laws that w ill have more teeth inthem. In the last Legislative session Dr.Lindsey of the University of NorthernArizona caused to be introduced a billthat wil l broaden the Arizona Antiqu it iesAct and put vandalism and thievery ofpictographs and petroglyphs under theState Crim inal Code a step in the righ tdirect ion.

With this type of program one of thebiggest problems is manpower. Thereare only six members of the HistoricSites Posse at this tim e, but this problemhas been minimized greatly by theSheriff 's Air Posse flying surveillanceover many of the sites. These flightshave been expanded to cover six coun-ties in the State. Combined with otherposses in operation in Maricopa Countyalone, there are now 3,000 plus personsactively engaged in this effort.

While we are talking mainly aboutdamage done deliberately, much of thedamage to these sites is done by personswho are not aware of what they are

doing. Cases have been reported inwhich campers using ruins for campsites have pulled wood from the roofs ofthe structures to use in their campfires.Often this is enough to make the entireroof collapse. Sightseers, who climbaround the ruins, alter the archaeologi-cal value. Frequently these personswould be horrified if they realized thedamage they were doing.

The U.S. Forest Service is using onemethod which may deter vandals atsome of their sites. They have locatedsensors at many of these sites. These arethe same type as were used by the mil i -tary in Vietnam. They are sensitive tothe human voice (can listen in on conver-sations at the site), pick up footsteps ofeither man or beast and even pick up thesound of an airplane f lying overhead.

Whether you are scrambling up theside of a mounta in in the wake of CaptainPotter in 100-degree-plus weather totake pictures of an Indian ruin or vaca-tioning beside a cool stream we can alljoin hands to be sure tha t these sites areprotected for our children and our g rand-chi ldren.

The Maricopa County Sherif f 's His-toric Sites Posse is one step forward-there are others.

15


16/48

by ALBERT U . M ILLSPAUGHMojave River n the winter

flowing through the Narrows gorgebeneath the old Rainbowand new modern bridge.

IPRESSED BY the tale of a strangeriver that tumbled down the wrongside of a mountain, ran beneath itsown river bed, rising occasionally to thesurface and finally disappearing foreverunder desert sands sent me driving outto the Mojave Desert to firtd out what itwas all about.I soon discovered that it was nothingnew. The river, named the M ojave, hadbeen doing just that for hundreds ofyears. It has puzzled desert newcomerslike me as well as Indians, Spanish ex-plorers and American pathfinders, trap-pers and settlers for just as many years.I started my exploration by drivingwith my family out to the fairly new Mo-jave Forks Dams just south of Hesperia,California. The earthen dam was com-pleted in 1971 and built for flood controlpurposes. There is no water behind it.

The Forks or the confluence of the WestFork of the Mojave and Deep Creek be-hind the dam is the beginning of the M o-jave River proper.An exploration of this river is a tripinto the past. This strange stream ofwater had its beginnings in the PluvialPeriod when torrents of rain poureddown from the sky and today's desertwas covered with rivers and lakes. Thestreams racing down the northside of thenewly-formed San Bernardino Moun-tains eventually formed the MojaveRiver. The great flood plain below themountains where Hesperia and Victor-ville sit today was filled with alluviumand the river wandered across it seekinga permanent channel.At the middle of the valley small an-cient granite hills formed at an earlierperiod offered some resistance to the

mighty river until it cut a channelthrough th em . Today this gorge is calledthe Upper Mojave Narrows. Furthernorth, the river cut through some small-er hills forming the Lower Narrows.The river w ith a mind of its own turnednortheast not south or west toward theocean like most common sense rivers ofthe Southwest. It flowed into a large de-pression walled on the east by the Caveand Cady Mountain;.. There it formed ahuge lake estimated to be as large as 300square miles. This ancient lake is nowreferred to as Lake Mannix after a rail-road siding in the vicinity. The westernshore of the lake reached into today'sBarstow area.Eventually the river overflowed thelake at the junction of the two mountainranges c utting a channel so deep the lakewas drained. The large gorge cut

16 Desert/September 1977


17/48

through the clay sediment in the lakebottom created what was called CaveCanyon for years. Today it is namedAfton for the railroad siding at the west-ern end of the canyon.

Afte r leaving. Afton C anyon, the riverspread over a giant plain that form ed thenorth-south trough leading to DeathValley. In those days, with the largevolume of water f lowing down from themountains, the river f i l led many lakes.First Litt le Mojave, then Soda Lake andSilver Lake until it f inally poured into theAmargosa River on its way to DeathValle y. Some of these lakes were aroundlong enough to encourage the growth ofmollusks which early man added to hism enu . Later Indians lived and farmednear them.

Following the wet period came adrought. The mighty Mojave became a

tr ickle, the lakes became dry salt playasand the land became a desert. But theriver, with wisdom of the ages, went be-neath the desert sands to prevent theloss of its precious water to the desert'sheat. Today, it only surfaces where ob-structions beneath its sandy bed forces itup into the deSert sunlight.A Spanish priest, Father FranciscoGarces, is given the honor of being thefirst white man to discover the MojaveRiver. Over two hundred years ago onMarch 9, 1776, after leaving the Colo-rado River, he wrote in his diary , " Ifound a stream bed f i l led with ratherbrackish water." He named it the Arroyode Los MatiresCreek of the Martyrs. I twas only one of the many names given tothe river.

Father Carces met the river just eastof Afton Canyon. He continued through

the canyon following the Mojave towardthe coast. H e was following the route In-dian traders had used for hundreds ofyears between the Southwest and thePacific Ocean.In 1826, American trapper JedediahSmith reached the river and followed itinto Southern California. He named itthe Inconstant River. Today a monum entmarks the place where Garces and Smithcrossed the divide on their way to SanGabr iel .Captain John C. Fremont reached theriver in 1844 and remarked about its dis-appearing act in his journal. Fremontnamed i t the "Mohahve" af ter Indiansliving near the Colorado River. In the1850s, Lieutenant Edward Beale led aherd of camels driven by Syrians alongthe river. It was perhaps the strangest ofthe caravans to follow the old river t ra i l .The river soon became the route of ex-plorers, pioneers and emigrants fromColorado, Salt Lake, Santa Fe and otherparts of the Southwest. First it was just atrail a trail of many names. Parts of theOld Indian Tra i l , Garces Tra i l , Mo rmo nTra i l , Mojave Tra i l , Salt Lake Tra i l , Gov-ernment Road and Old Spanish Trail fol-lowed the river.Later, the trail became a wagon roadand f inally railroad tracks followed theriver bed. Just prior to World War I, thefirst automobile bounced over the road-bed which later became Routes 66 and

91 . Today, Interstate 15, part of a vastn a t io n w id e h ig h w a y sys te m, f o l l o w smost of its length. 'For one to really explore the rive r andenjoy the beauty of it and the surround-ing area, you must start where the riverbegins. Many t imes since our f irst en-

counter, my chi ldren, my wife, Barbara,and I have driven up the West Fork andwatched the water ripple over the smallstream bed on its 147-mile journey to thedesert sink.West Fork begins in the Summit areaon the t imber-covered northern slope ofthe San Bernardino Mou ntains and f lowsinto the clear water of Lake Silverwood.The lake is part of the California Aque-duct System and is used to store waterfrom the Feather River hundreds of

miles to the north. Today, the lake hasbecome a thriving recreational area forDesert /September 1977 17


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boaters andf ishermen. It has swimmingbeaches and hundreds of picnickingsites.

Below the lake, the r iver is usually dryunti l it reaches the Forks. Here, WestFork surfaces for a short distance beforemeeting the cold water of Deep Creekpouring down from Holcomb Valley andthe Arrowhead Lake area. A hike upDeep Creek is a must for all visitors ofthe r iver. In thespr ing, thetrees in DeepCreek canyon are green and the f lowersare blooming. When summer comes,each small reed-lined pond becomes aswimming pool for many young campersand hikers, and in the fall cottonwoods,sycamore and oaktrees break forth i ,to athousand shades of orange, yellow andred. Nearby, Mojave Forks RegionalPark is open year around with amplecampsites for all visitors to SilverwoodLake and Mojave Fork.,.

A fewmiles below the Forks, the r iverdisappears under thesandy river bed asit passes Hesperia. Fourteen miles later,it appears again just above the MojaveNarrows gorge in Victorvi l le . The Nar-rows was a stopping place for all fol low-ers of the r iver t ra i l . Thewide green val-ley was a haven for Indians, a restingplace for Father Carces and JedidiahSmith and a source of water and pasture

18


19/48

^ ^ / O AFTON^^ CANYON

SILVER DRYLAKEBAKER 1 /

J/ AND/ SODA DRY LAKE7

UNION PACIFIC RR

- -

for the livestock of early pioneers. One ofthe f irst buildings in the valley was aMormon way stat ion. I t 's st i l l standingsouth of the Narrows on the CampbellRanch.

The Sante Fe Railroad laid its tracksthrough the gorge in 1882 and perhapsthe most famous bridge to cross the M o-jave spans the Nar rows. The o ldRainbow Bridge was built high to protectit from the ravaging waters of flashfloods that often roar down the river. Thebridge is still there, but its use has beenreplaced by a modern one.

In 1968, 840 acres of the CampbellRanch were preserved forever as theMojave Narrows Regional Park. It is anexcellent stopping place for your explor-ation of the Narrows. The park has faci l-i t ies for Ca.nping, f ishing, boating andhiking.

Downstream from Victorvil le, the r iverreaches Barstow, a giant railway ter-minal . In the early days, Barstow wasthe junct ion of the O ld Spanish Trai l , theMormon Trail and many others. Today,it 's a hub of railroad and automobile traf-f ic between Southern California, Neva-d a , Utah, Colorado and Arizona. Bar-stow is also the home of the MojaveRiver Valley Museum and the new BLMWay Stat ion which provide a wealth ofDesert/September 1977

information on the r iver and the sur-rounding desert. They are open sevendays a week.

East of Barstow, along the shores ofancient Lake Mannix, evidence of earlym a n , 50,000 years old, has been found.An archeological dig is now in progressin the Calico Moun tains ju st off Inter-state 15. In the Rainbow Basin areanorth of Barstow, 25 different fossil bedshave been found. Fossils of prehistoriccamels, small rhinos, saber-tooth cats,40-inch horses and dog-bears five to tenmillion years old have been discovered.

Many miles later, after occasionallyappearing and disappearing, the r iverarrives at Afton Canyon. It 's the last stopbefore the river is gone forever. Thecanyon is a verdant refuge of smalllakes, marshes and streams surroundedby towering cliffs of green and grey clayoverlaid with orange and buff-red con-glomerate. In many places, the cliffshave been eroded by rain and wind untilthey remind one of a medieval castlestanding guard over a bed of sand and atwist ing stream of water.

Afton Canyon is a paradise for birdwatchers . The marshes and lakesabound with ducks, coots and otherwate r fowl . The trees are filled with songbirds. Redwing blackbirds rest amongthe cattails and swallows dart above theponds. The snowy egret flies silentlythrough the trees and high above theturkey buzzard glides on the up draftfrom the cliffs below.

Like many d esert oases, the canyon at-tracted first the Indians and then otherdesert explorers. The Indians lived in themany caves that line the canyon walls.Later, Spanish and American explorersand pioneers used the canyon as a placeof refuge and a trail into Southern Cali-forn ia .

Beyond Afton Canyon, the river flowsout onto Soda Dry Lake or the MojaveSink as it is sometimes called, where,after 147 miles it truly sinks into the sandand is gone forever. Except in someflood years, its waters may cross SodaLake and flow into Silver Dry Lake beforesinking away.

This river of the desert may be gonewhen it reaches that desert sink, butyour enjoyment of it is only beginning. Itcan be explored again and again untilthis backwards and upside down rivergets as close to your heart as it has tomine.

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19


20/48

A portion of Hornsilver's once bustlingbusiness district. The old mining camp is still inhabited

by a handful of residents and is now known as Cold Point.

Nevada'sGold


21/48

:~ - : * ' . '

several other ghost towns near Tonopah,was detai led by Mary Frances Strong inan article in Desert of J une 1971.

Gateway to the two older Gold Moun-tains is through Gold Point, approxi-mately 14 miles southwest of Lida Junc-t i on , half of that distance via a dusty butgraded road.

Gold Point itself has undergone aseries of name changes. It was born in1868 as Lime Point, the name selectedbecause of nearby lime deposits. Silverore mined there during the 1880s washauled to a mill near Lida for processing.But after several years, mining ceasedand the town lay dormant unti l the GreatWe stern Mi ne was opened in 1905. A de-posit of high grade hornsilver was dis-covered in 1908. During the fol lowingboom the enthusiastic newcomers re-christened the camp Hornsilver. Inter-mittent mining operations continuedunti l World War II, but in later years theore yielded more gold than silver. So in1927 the inhabitants decided to againchange the town's name. This time it be-came Cold Point.Desert /September 1977

Gold Point slumbers quietly today. Itslast business, a gas station and grocery,is closed, but a handful of residents stayon, some living in a few of the severald o ze n r e ma in i n g f r a me s t r u c tu r e s ,others in modern mobile homes.

A sign informs v isitors that the town isstill inhabited and is off-limits for shoot-i ng , digging, and treasure hunt ing, but"p ic ture taking is O .K ." For the la t ter Iwas grateful as a row of buildings, aportion of the old Hornsilver 's businessdistr ict remains, creating a picturesquescene with Mount Jackson in the back-ground.

A network of dirt roads fans out intothe desert south of Gold Point. There areno road signs to indicate the route toe i the r o f the o ld min ing camps.However, with one of the large ArmyCorps of Engineers' maps, which aresold by the U.S. Geological Survey,spread across my lap I confidently pre-dicted that we would be explor ing theslopes of Gold Moun tain w ithin the hour.

Several hours later, after much back-tracking and by a very circuitous route,

we finally arr ived at the foot of ThomasShaw's mountain of gold.

I had made the first error in navigationimmediately beyond Cold Point. We hadtaken the first left fork when we shouldhave stayed to the r ight. For miles wewandered within an uncharted, laby-r inth- l ike maze. Our travels had taken usbetween, over, around, and through aseries of low hills, and finally down abroad wash. However, the journey wasnot without its rewards as the sceney ispleasant. The hills are dotted withJoshua trees, and here and there areremnants of mining activity.

Gold Moun tain is a massive mountain.Its lower flanks are covered with a densegrowth of brush, gradually giving way tostands of pinyon pine. A steep trai lwinds to the top of the 8,150-foot peak,where amid bold granitic outcroppings,bonzai- l ike pinyons anc alpine wildflow-ers tenaciously struggle for survival.

The view from the summit offers arare opportunity to view a vast land,l i t t le changed by man. For one exhilarat-ing moment grab a gl impse into infinity,

21


22/48

Kboth in time and space. Angular r idgesfar below seem unreal, their size reduc-ed to the miniature scale of a bas-reliefmap. Desert roads cross the landscapelike a thread laid across a piece ofrumpled fabr ic. Mounta in range aftermountain range fades away unti l landform and atmosphere meld into an unde-finable blue haze on the far distanthorizon.

It was to this m ountain tha t a group oflone, Nevada prospectors made theirway in the fall of 1865. However, theyhad barely set up camp when they wereattacked by Indians. During the ensuingnighttime affray two of the men werekil led, another wounded. The survivorshasti ly broke camp and retreated toSilver Peak.

The fol lowing year, one of the men,Thomas Shaw, returned to the mountain.This t ime, undisturbed, he found whathe was looking for, an outcropping ofgold ore. Elated with his success, henamed the peak Cold Mountain.But init ial ly neither Shaw's discoverynor the r ich sounding name generatedmuch excitement. Litt le work was doneun til 1871 when Shaw made some addi-t ional discoveries. One location yieldedsome particular ly r ich samples. Dubbedthe Oriental, the new mine was develop-ed by sinking a 150-foot shaft into themounta in. This time it looked like ColdMountain might l ive up to i ts name.

A single cyl inder portable steam en-gine was hauled to the remote location,its power replacing the traditional mule22

in working a six-foot arrastra. Thecrushed ore and concentrates were thentransported to Belmont or Austin for fur-ther reduction, a distance of more than100 and 185 miles, respectively.

Using the most abundant buildingmaterial in sight, the miners erected adozen or so stone cabins and buildingson a north-facing slope. At f irst the campwas called Gold Mountain, but withinthe decade the name was changed toOr ienta l . A spring, farther up the slope,furnished an adequate although not anabundant supply of water.

Cold Mountain yielded some of therichest gold ore ever found in Nevadaduring the last century. Specimens fromthe Oriental mine were displayed in theNevada exhibit at the Centennial Expo-sition in Philadelphia in 1876.

One theory is that Thomas Shaw mayhave found what Jacob Breyfogle lost.The legendary Lost Breyfogle mine hastantalized gold seekers for years, butfacts and fiction about both the man andhis discovery have become so interwoventhat the truth is probably irretr ievablylost. About the only point of agreementamong all the many tales concerning theLost Breyfogle is the richness of the oresamples as reported by Breyfogle's con-temporaries.

Apparently Jacob Breyfogle left Aus-tin in the summer of 1864 on a prospect-ing expedition. During his travels hefound a promising outcropping and tooksome samples. Then the facts becomeblur red.

According to most of the stories JacobBreyfogle was the victim of a vicious In-dian attack from which he miraculouslysurvived. The location of the alleged at-tack ranges from Death Valley's Day-light Pass to a spring east of Shoshone,and you can take your choice as towhether he was clubbed, scalped, orshot with a poison arrow.

Another version takes an oppositetack. In it the Indians are the good guys.It suggests that while Breyfogle waschasing his two saddle horses which hadstrayed from camp, he lost his hat,becoming badly sunburned, and subse-quently, delir ious. He was rescued byseveral Indians who cared for him untilhe was ready to travel. Regardless ofwhat happened, eventually Breyfogle re-turned to Austin with his ore samples.But his mental condition was never thesame and he remained confused as towhere he had found them.

Breyfogle, himself, along with severalother prospectors tried in 1866 to relo-cate the site. It has been reliably docu-mented that their search centered in theDeath Valley area. Therefore, i t hasbeen widely assumed that the Lost Brey-fogle was in or near the foothills of D eathVa l l e y ' s G r a p e v in e o r Fu n e r a l -Mounta ins. Al though Gold Mounta in is agood 50 miles north of the FuneralMountains, i t l ies in a direct l ine be-tween Austin and Death Valley. OrientalWash at the base of Gold Mou ntain pro-vides easy access to Sand Spring in thenorthern reaches of Death Valley.

So the possib ility remains th at theBreyfogle deposit, for which many menrisked their l ives over a period of manyyears, was rediscovered and developedlong before the myth makers really gotstarted on the story. However, i f that isthe case, the Lost Breyfogle provedsomew hat less of a bonanza than the pro -verbial pot of gold at the end of the rain-bow. Most of the ore did not prove asrich as assay samples. By 1881 only 10men were sti l l working on Gold Moun-ta in.

Oriental did experience a mild revivala few years later. There was enough newactivity to merit a post office w hich func-tioned from 1887 to 1900. But nowadays,the camp on the northern slope of ColdMountain is one of Nevada's most for-gotten ghost towns. In fact, if you shouldinquire locally about Oriental most likelyall you'll get is a look of puzzlement.

Desert /September 1977


23/48

Opposite Page:The Oriental mine on

Cold Mountainyielded some of the

richest gold ore foundin Nevada during the

last century. The campwhich began lifeas Cold Mountain

was renamed Orientaland finally became

known as Old Cam p.A steep trail, [right]

winds to the top of8,150-foot Cold

Mountain. The summ itoffers a spectacular

view of thesurrounding

desert country.Sometime during this century Orientalbecame known as Old Camp and that iswhat most Esmeralda County residentsstill call it.

Half hidden by brush are the crumbl-ing stone walls of the cabins and storesthat date back to Oriental 's heyday. On anearby knoll are several newer framestructures, apparently from the OldCamp era of activity. One of these, athree-room cabin, is built direct ly over adeep mine shaft. Adjacent to it is themines' blacksmith shop.

The old arrastra vanished long ago,but the portable steam engine and boil-er, which had been the work horse of thepr imit ive mi l l , were reported in goodcondition as recently as 20 years ago.Unfortunately, since then vandals havedestroyed the engine atop the boiler,apparently by placing a charge of pow-der within the single cylinder.

Cattle now graze on the slopes and inthe canyons of Gold Mountain. Waterfrom the spring is piped to a tank andtrough at Old Camp. In considerat ion ofthe animals' needs the area is posted,asking that visitors do not camp in theimmediate vicinity of Old Camp. How-ever, Cold Mountain is a big mountainand if you l ike to "rough it ," you canfin d other places to stop and spread out asleeping bag. Just about every ravineand slope has a prospect hole or tailingspile which can be reached by road orfour-wheel-dr ive t ra i l .Shortly after Thomas Shaw made his

original str ike on Cold Mountain heturned his attention to a ridge a fewmiles to the north where he made someaddit ional locations. Within a year ortwo , however, he had abandoned theseclaims to work his more promising pros-pects on Gold Mo unta in But Slate Ridgewas not totally forgotten. Others movedin , taking over Shaw's claims andmaking additional discoveries. The areadeveloped slowly as it was not until thelate 70s that the major development, theStateline mine, was attracting muchpublicity. The greatest drawback to areal boom was the lack of water. Thatnecessary comm odity had to be hauled inbar re ls f rom the spr ing on ColdMountain. The price was a stiff $3.50 abarre l .

How ever, by 1881 a town site had beensurveyed and because of the increasedactivity at the Stateline mine most ofOriental 's residents had moved theirbaggage and businesses across OrientalWash to the new community on SlateRidge. And, whether in memory of themountain they had left behind or in anti-cipation of greater riches, what did theinhabitants do, but name their new townCold Mounta in !

In 1882, a 15-mile pipeline had beencompleted bringing water from TuleCanyon to operate a 40-stamp mill andsteam hoist, as well as to quench thetownspeoples' thirst. Although the near-est doctor was 85 miles away in Canda-ler ia, the camp f lourished during the de-

cade of the 80s. Howeve r, by 1890 the in -evitable decline had begun and GoldMountain's post office was closed a yearlater.

There has been recurrent miningactivity on Slate Ridge during this cen-tury. The Stateline mine was reopenedand amid th old town's ruins a new mi l l ,machine shop, and bunkhouse werebuilt . Cold Mountain was dead, but onthe site the camp of Stateline was born.Even today, we were to ld , Stateline hasnot completely given up the ghost as alone resident is doing further develop-ment work on the mine.

In our roundabout route to Old Campwe probably did not miss Stateline bymore than a mile. But our dwindling gassupply prevented any additional explora-t ion. By following the most traveled roadthe return route to Gold Point proved tobe direct and easy.

To reach Old Camp on Cold Mou ntainfrom Gold Point, turn left at the generalstore and gas pump (closed). In a litt lemore than a half m ile the road forks, takethe right fork. After another half mile theroad forks again. This time take the leftfork. Proceed approximately 3.3 miles toanother fork and continue on the rightfork about 3.5 miles to Old Camp.

If you should take a wrong tu rn , don'tdespair. Probably, like us, you willeventually find your way to the mountainof gold. But consider for a moment theplight of poor old Jacob Breyfogle. Henever did return to stake his claim .

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Amargosa Gorge, closed to vehicles by the BLM,is one of the scenic spots along the old Tonopah & TidewaterRailroad. Photo by George Service, Palm Desert, California.

R E T R A C I N GT H ET Q N Q P A H

T I D E W A T E RR A I L R O A Dby ROBERT and ANA COOK

Editor's Note: When this manuscript arrived at ouroffice, it was postmarked Lima, Peru, as unlikely apoint of origin as could be imagined. Surprise turn-ed to delight when I discovered the writer/ph otogra -pher was a desert and railroad buff who wanted toshare one of his most memorable desert adventures:Retracing the long-abandoned Tonopah & TidewaterRailroad in a four-whe el-drive!24 Desert/September 1977


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VEN THO UGH the famil iar c l icki ty-M clack of a P ullma n or coach is^ mis sing , our Jeep provides'a soft ef-fortless ride along the abandoned rai l-road bed built five feet above the desertf loor. Suddenly the right front wheelcatches a soft eroded edge. The Jeepjerks to the right and f ishtails down theemban kment. W e brace ourselves as theleft wheels pull off the ground as if toro l l . With a jarring blow a boulder haltsour further advance. We teeter at a 45-degree angle, balancing on our r ight twowheels, similar to a stunt car at an autothril l show. Although we only hang inthe air a few seconds, it seems like m in-utes before we fortunately settle backdown on four solid wheels.

Our derailment fared better than theTonopah & Tidewater's locomotive No.13 which ran amuck in the same localealmost 70 years ago. While making itsscheduled 170-mile run between Beatty,Nevada and Ludlow, California, No. 13derailed on a section of track that hadbeen undermined by runoff from adesert storm . As the locomotive tum bledoff the rails, two train crew m embers anda hobo were crushed beneath the slither-ing mass.

Altho ugh we escape with only bruises,we begin to wonder if we can really suc-ceed in retracing the original route ofone of the most controversial railroadsever constructed. Even 30-odd yearsafter the tracks were taken up, the blood,the sweat and the vengeance of the T&Tare still indelibly etched in the desertsands.

The T&T was the creation of FrancisMarion (Borax) Smith, who in the 1890ssucceeded in consolidating most of theborax operations in the eastern Califor-nia deserts. Instead of the antiquated 20mule team wagons, Smith envisionedsteam tractors hauling out tremendousloads of borax from his Lila C mine nearDeath Valley. In 1904 his steam tractorwas ready for its inaugural tr ip. Afterpuf f ing 14 miles the " iron mule" sput-tered to a definit ive halt.

Recognizing the failure of the steamtractors, Smith investigated the feasibil-ity of a railroad. He took note of therecent gold and silver discoveries inGoldfield and Tonopah, Nevada. A rai l-road to his Lila C mine could eas :ly beextended north to these two bonanzas. Afew months after the steam tractorDesert /September 1977 25


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f iasco, Smith establ ished the Tonopahand Tidewater Rai lroad Company withheadquarters in New Jersey. Smithgrandiosely projected that the T&Twould extend to San Diego, a t idewateroutlet for the gold, silver and borax.

The actual southern terminus for therai lroad was Ludlow, Cali fornia at thegeographic center of expansive San Ber-nardino County. After six hours ofdriving from Los Angeles we reachedLudlow via Interstate 40 out of Barstow.We poke around the few remainingbui ldings where the T&T interconnectedwith the Santa Fe Railroad, then headwest out of town fol low ing a faint scaralong the dry baked earth. We swingnorth, cross Interstate 40 and take ad-vantage of a nearby dirt road which fol-lows the well eroded T&T bed. An hourlater the dirt road turns away from therai lroad bed and heads into the Devi l 'sPlayground. Because of the lateness ofthe hour we decide to camp among thegolden dunes and grotesque formations.

In the morning we shift into four-wheel-drive, cl imb off our comfortabled i r t road, and begin bounding over ter-rain carved by centuries by rampagingstorms. After being well mixed for anhour we arrive at Crucero, 26 miles byrai l from Ludlow but 48 by Jeep. Herethe same SP,LA&SL tracks (later to beknown as Union Pacific) glitter beneaththe blazing desert sun just as they did in1906 for a bitter Borax Smith w hen hewatched the T&T tracks being laidacross the railroad of his accursed com-

peti tor, Senator Wil l iam A. Clark.Just 10 months earlier Senator Clark

had encouraged Smith to interconnectthe T&T to his own SP,LA&SL at LasVegas. To Borax Smith this was an idealbase of operations, since it provided aminimum distance co his Li la C mine.W ith in a few months Sm ith assembledthe equipment, mustered a crew ofworkers, and began pushing a gradenorth from Las Vegas. In the fall of 1905Smith's venture appeared very attrac-tive. The bonanzas at Goldfield and To-nopah we. e producin g an d recent newsof fabulous strikes near Beatty, just 50miles north of his Lila C mine, seemed toinsure success for the T&T. So attractiveappeared the venture that Senator Clarksent his own crews into the field tosurvey a rai lroad route to the go ld f ields.

When Clark refused to permit the T&Tto interconnect with his SP,LA&SL,Smith turned to the Santa Fe for assis-tance. With adequate assurances ot co-operat ion, Smith quickly shifted his baseof operations to Ludlow where the inter-connection with the Santa Fe could beac c omp l i s hed . F rom Lud l ow S mi thwould have to bui ld 50 addit ional milesand over more diff icult terrain than fromLas Vegas.

With a 12-mile head start and ashorter distance to cover, Senator Clarkformed the Las Vegas and Tonopah Rail-road Company and commenced bui ldingin January 1906. Meanwhile, a simmer-ing Borax S mith, with an establ ished andrel iable construction crew, raced past

Wi th an oil can scepter and a grimey rail-road vestment Harry Cain poses aristo-cratically against the type of meticulousmachinery that graced the T&T Railroadcirca 1908. This 10-wheel locomotivelasted only four years when its boiler ex-ploded in Amargosa Canyon. [Courtesyof the Hendrick Collection.]the Union Pacific tracks at Crucero with26 miles of completed track b ehind them .With the same 26 miles of T&T road-bed behind us we head the Jeep up theUnion Pacif ic 's rai lroad bed, bump overthe single pair of tracks, and slide downthe opposite side. A hundred yards tothe north we f ind the trai l of the T&T. Ina cloud of dust we scramble along roughterrain until we reach dry Soda Lake.The hard smooth surface allows us tomake rapid progress for the 10-milejourney to Baker on the northern rim ofthe lake.

North of Baker the desert thunderstorms have been kind to the T&T grade,so for the 20 miles we are able to drivemost of the distance on top of the bed. Insections all of the original ties are stil l inplace and we suffer through jostl ingsimilar to bad washboard. By late after-noon we pass to the right of the Dumontsand dunes, the highest of which is over400feet. Just beyond these mountainousdunes we meet the treacherous andnormally dry wash of the AmargosaRiver.When Borax Smith faced the Amargo-sa Canyon 90 miles from Beatty, sched-uled trains of Clark's LV&T were run-ning to within 45 miles of Beatty andtrack laying was proceeding on the f inalsection. Despite the oppressing heat ofthe Death Val ley summer, Smith an-xiously tr ied to push his T&T throughthe canyon to reach the f lat AmargosaDesert where construction could onceagain continue at full speed. After his re-gular crews abandoned the "hel l hole,"he brought in Japanese laborers andthen Me xicans witho ut any success. TheGoldfield News in J uly 1906 summ ed upSmith 's p l ight , "He could not get h ismen to work at this t ime of year becauseof the insufferable heat. Men died offl ike f l ies, and the rest f led from thedeath pit." Despondently, Smith sus-pended construction and conceded thefirst round to Senator Clark. By the endof the summer the LV&T reached thegold f ields near Beatty and scheduledservice commenced on October 18, 1906.

26 Desert /Septem ber 1977


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With a Pennzoil scepter and a spotlessrailroad vestment Robert Cook posesaristocratically against the type of meti-culous machinery that graced the T&TRailroad circa 1974. This four-wheel-drive Jeep lasted only three days beforederailing and breaking an axle in theAmargosa Desert.

With the arrival of cooler weather anembittered Borax Smith redoubled hisefforts to breach the formidable canyon.After three 500-foot trestles, immensecuts and f i l ls, and much hardship thef i rs t t ra in chugged through the Amar-gosa Canyon to Tecopa in May 1907.

We spend the night outside of Tecopaand in the morning we pay a visi t to thehot springs. After a relaxing cleansingwe locate the T&T grade on the snowwhite salt f lats just west of town. Thefive-foot-hig h g rading is in excel lent con-dition and the Jeep rides easily along thesmooth salt surface. For a mile and a halfwe kick up a cloud of white sal ine dust,until a 40-foot break in the bedding isencountered. I cl imb out and approachthe gap. At the edge my foot breaks thecrusty surface and the ooze swallows myfoot and ankle. We gather about 20 oddT&T rai lroad t ies and lay a tenuousgangway on top of the swampy surface.Cautiously we manuever the vehicle onthe f irst series of t ies. B ang ! WhisssOur right front t i re goes f lat. An hour ofsloshing in the m ud awards us with a t i rewell punctured by a four-inch T&T rai lspike.

From the salt flats of Tecopa to DeathValley Junction, Highway 127 uti l izesthe old T&T right-of-way. No sign of theold T& T grade is visible unti l a few milesbefore Death Val ley Junction, where thebedding crosses a dry lake. At this pointon August 16, 1907 Borax Smith com-pleted a seven-mile branch l ine to thisLila C borax mine. Later in 1914 Smithtore up the Li la C branch of the T& T andreplaced i t with the narrow gauge DeathValley R ailroad. The DVRR ran 20 milesto Ryan and a "bab y g uag e" (two-footgauge) railroad extended service anotherfive miles along precipitous hi l ls to newborax mines.

North of Death V al ley J unction the old

Wh/7e crossing the Amargosa Desertupon the T&T Railroad bed, we pass theonly other car we would see on the four-day journey.Desert /September 1977 27

= f f l p _UM I) J&T RR

T&T grade fol lows the wash of theAmargosa River. For the remainder ofthe afternoon w e use four-whe el-drive tocrisscross back and fort h across the washtrai l ing the easily visible bu t wel l deteri-orated bed. After 20 miles we arrive at apoint where the railroad bed becomesdrivable.

We waste no t ime in mounting thef i v e - f o o t - h ig h T & T g r a d e. H u r t l i n galong at the breakneck speed of 35 mph,the Jeep catches a soft shoulder and de-rai ls. We come to a stop balanced onlyon the two right wheels, then gently set-tle back on all four wheels. Fortunatelywe do not suffer any serious personal in-jur ies, but the rear axle shaft was

broken. Using only front wheel drive, wel imp one mile to the 200-foot-high BigDune, the only large sand dune in theentire Amargosa Desert. In the length-ening shadow of this solitary dune we setup camp and affect the necessary repairsto continue the fol lowing day.

W ith only 21 miles of T&T roadbed re-maining out of the 170 miles, we beginthe fourth day in high spirits. In lessthan one hour we cover 12 miles acrossthe Amargosa Desert without incident.We f ind the3/4-mile spur leading to Car-rara before reaching Beatty. Althoughno trace of this once booming town nowexists, the scar of the three-mile Lidger-

Continuedon Page 46

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In 1692 Father Kino firstvisited the Indian vil lage ofBac. Eight years later he laidthe foundations for themission church and named itSan Xavier in honor of hischosen patron saint. It wasthe third church that Kinohad established in what isnow the U nited States.San Xavier w as a jewel inthe K ino chain of missionsand is certainly the crownjewel among the missions inthe American Southwest.

The present missionstructure at San Xavier isconsidered by many expe rtsto be one of the fine stexamples of missionarchitecture in the UnitedStates. The buildin g is thethird of the mission churchesto be bu ilt at Bac and wascompleted by theFranciscans in the periodbetween the years 1783 and1797. The arc hitectu re is acombination of Moorish andByzan tine, blended to createa graceful yet start l in gst ructure.

Little is known of the twochurches that preceded thepresent build ing . I t is known .that Father Kino built achurch. Its exact location isunknown to this day. It isalso known tha t, in theperiod following 1756,Father Alonso Espinosa builtanother church. Its locationis equally elusive. It is knownthat in 1767 the Apachesattacked San Xavier andcompletely sacked themission. Perhaps that factgives a clue to the fate of theEspinosa mission buildings.

Little is also known aboutthe actual construction of thepresent church buildings.There were debates amongexperts for years regard ingthe actual con struct ionper iod, although tha t hasnow been confirmed. Yet,the architect is stillunkn own , as are the reasonswhy one of the church towersDesert/ September 1977

Right: one of the twochurch bell towers was

apparently nevercompleted. One legend

tells us that a priest [or aworker . . . or a church

architect] fell into the towerduring construction and was

killed. As a gesture to thedeceased the tower remainedunfinished. Another story

indicates that, since no taxcould be levied by the

Spanish king until a buildingwas complete, the church

was deliberately leftunfinished to avoid taxes

to be imposed by the crown.Below: The San Xavier

del Bac mortuary chapel,adjacent to the mission

church, was completed in7796. It is not known how

many people were buried inthe church cemetery, which

is now a cactus garden. Onlya headstone remains.

It is that of a Mexican landgrantee whose lands were

surrounded by the SanXavier [Papago] Indian

Reservation. The chapel wasseverely damaged by an

earthquake in 1887.That quake destroyedmany of the mission walls

and damaged the facadeof the mission church.

was apparently nevercompleted.

So, Mission San Xavier delBac provides the presen t dayvisitor with mystery as wellas beauty. There are,indeed, r iddles to ponder,history to be absorbed, andmajesty to be beheld at thisplace, the site of one ofAmerica's oldest DesertGhosts.

Mission San Xavier delBac is located on San XavierRoad, immed iately west ofInterstate Highway 19, ninemiles south of Tucson,Ar izona. D

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NO. 10 IN A SERIES ONCALIFORNIA PALM OASES

Mopah Spring and itsclustered palms nestle nearfoot of volcanic Mopah Peak

in the Turtle Mountains.Pencil sketch by author.

A / l o p o f tS p r i n g by DICK BLOOMQUISTT HE MYSTERIOUS Tur t le Mounta insrise within a vast tract of desert wil-de rness in the easte rn Mo jave .Mea suring 60 miles east and west by upto 55 miles north and south, this far-spreading expanse of over one and one-half million acres contains no towns, nopaved roads, vir tually no permanent in-habitants; its lands are for the most partpublic domain. Many other mountainranges, wi th names l ike "Old Woman,"" Sa c r a me n to , " " P iu te , " " Sh e e p h o le , "" I r o n , " and "Ship," a lso ra ise ruggedcrests within the region.

The volcanic Turtles, named for thedesert tortoise, hold many treasures forexplorers of the arid lands: jagged peaksand natural arches, hidden waterholes,old Indian glyphs and trai ls, and the loreof the Lost Arch Mine; for mineral col-lec to rs the re a re cha lcedony roses,geodes, agate, jasper, opals and sard.All this, set amid the unblemished gran-deur of the desert, with its spaciousnessand si lence, i ts varied plant and animall i fe.30

On the east side of the Turtles standsMopah Peak, the eroded plug of an an-cient volcano. At its feet lies MopahSpring, with its clear water and five

Mileage Log0.0 Vidal Junction at intersection ofAqueduct Road and U.S. Highway95 in southeastern San BernardinoCounty . Dr ive nor th towardNeedles on Highw ay 95.12.1 Turn left (west) toward TurtleMountains on unmarked dirt road.16.1 Cross Was h.17.2 Jun ction . Ruins of stone cabin toright. Bureau of Land Manage-ment has closed Turtle Mountainsto motor vehicles slightly beyondthis point. Park near ruins and hikeup left fork of road into wash. Dis-tance from end of vehicle travel toMopah Spring is three miles. Ele-vation at oasis 2240 feet.

small palms. An unimproved road leadsto the oasis, branching west from High-way 95 12 miles north of Vidal Junction.For five miles this winding track can bedriven in a passenger car as it climbs the

bajada before arriving at the ruins of astone cabin. The Bureau of Land Man-agement has closed the Turtle Moun-tains to motor vehicles at a point slightlybeyond the cabin ruins. It is now neces-sary to hike the final three miles to thepalms (see mileage log).

A fraction of a mile before road's end,the palms come into view. The road soonforks, the left branch halting abruptly ona steep slope. The right fork ends aroun dthe next bend a short distance below thewaterhole. I was surprised to find a pros-pector camped by a clump of paloverdes. We exchanged greetings and hetold me of his plan to search for goldalong a nearby fault line.

Mopah Spring has the lure of a classicdesert oasis despite the fact that itsWashingtonias are not native. Old-tim-ers have stated that no palms grew bythe spring late in the 19th century. Thetrees were evidently planted, perhaps byprospectors. Were Mopah a native palmoasis, it would be the most northerly inNorth America, replacing Twentynine

Desert/ September 1977


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MOPAH SPRING > 5 ? W

Palms, and would also rank as the mosteasterly wild palm group in California.Corn Spring in the Chuckawallas holdsthat honor. All the native Californiaoases lie within about 30 miles of theshore line of vanished Lake Cahuilla, butMopah stands alone some 75 miles fromthe old fresh-water lake.

F i ve t t u rdy Wa sh ing t on ias shadeMopah Spring today, an increase ofthree since 1940. The tallest are only 20feet in height, yet attain a trunk di-ameter of well over two feet. The short-skirted trunks show signs of fire, and Isaw the remains of two burned stumpsalongside the l iving trees.

A pool of clean, clear water four feetacross and 10 or 11 inches deep lies atthe very foot of the palms. It 's a perfectdesert spring. Many a waterhole hasbeen covered over or polluted by man, orits moisture has been piped away for useelsewhere, but Mopah abides in naturalsimplicity. Wildlife, of course, makesuse of the water. The Chemehuevi In-dians, whose glyphs and dim trails st i l lsurvive in this country, knew the oasiswel l , as did the old-t ime burro prospec-tors. "Mopah," in fact , contains theShoshonean word for water (pah), whichis found in many other Mojave and GreatBasin place names. There is a secondpool down in the wash a few pacesfrom the palms.The oasis is located slightly above the

TO NEEDLE

level of the arroyo wit h its growth ofmesquite and palo verde. All a round, theTurtles lift their red, buff and yellowramparts. Dominating the landscape issheer Mopah Peak, over 3500 feet high.This is the more northerly of the twinMop ah Peaks; the other, less than a mileaway, is slightly higher. Together theymark the northern end of a spur of theTurt les known as the Mopah Range.Chalcedony roses and geodes may befound on the east side of this volcaniccrag as well as on some of the otherridges.

A tale of the Mopah Peaks concerns aChemehuevi Indian pursued by soldiersduring the latter part of the last century

for a crime he had committed. He tookrefuge on the higher pinnacle until per-suaded by members of the tribe tosurrender.

While I was rest ing at the spring, theprospector mentioned earlier came up toget water. Although I could not agreewith his talk of an "Aztec smelter" be-hind the waterhole or of a "road forwheeled vehicles" which he said the In-dians had built into the Turtles centuriesago from Arizona, I could still admire thesim plicity of his way of life as he fille d uphis jugs. It 's good to know there areplaces like Mopah Spring, where palmsand water have blended to fashion un-spoiled oases in the des ert.

Desert /September 1977 31


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N O . 1 DESERT JACKRABBIT

N O . 2 IA CASA

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34

realm along thestream bed. Here, at thebase of the towering sandstone cliffs,water-loving deciduous trees dominate,including alders, cottonwoods and syca-mores, their leaves turning bright colorseach Fall . After following thecreek for ashort distance, the trail begins its steepclimb back up to the canyon rim. Thistrail ismuch more strenuous than PinyonPathway, and themore habitually seden-tary mayexperience sore leg muscles fora few days after taking it.

Several species of birds, reptiles androdents are commonly seen in the park,including jays, ravens, hawks, lizards,chipmunks and ground squirrels. Thelarger animals known to live there areseldom seen because they tend to benocturnal or shy by nature. Theseinclude deer, cougar, bobcat, fox, coyoteand rattlesnake. Fossil evidence report-edly indicates that more exotic animalsinhabited the area during Miocenetimes, including a three-toed horse and aprimitive camel.

Much later, Indians, probably Ser-ranos for the most part, are believed tohave occasionally taken refuge in thePunchbowl. However, signs of theirpresence have been far fewer than in theVasquez Rocks area 20miles to the west.This ispuzzling because water andgameare more plentiful at the Punchbowl.Both were inaccessible and would havefurnished protection from enemiesequally wel l .

There were some attempts at home-steading in the vicinity of the Punch-bowl , but it was a spare existence andmost were eventually abandoned. Aslate as the 1940s, life was still primitive,with no electricity, telephones or run-ning water. Access was by way of an olddirt road which washed out after rain-storms. To reach the Punchbowl itselfmeant a strenuous three-mile hike, mak-ing it accessible only to the healthy andstrong.

The 1,310 acres encompassed by thepark were surveyed, acquired and de-veloped by Los Angeles County over a13-year period beginning in 1949. Thepark was opened to the public in 1963.Facilities are simple, but adequate andwell-maintained, and there is no admis-sion fee. Theaccess road andparking lotare paved. The visitor center, thoughsmal l , seems to serve wel l . It has gooddisplays depicting thegeology and wi ld -life of the area. The small picnic area is

Desert/SeDtember 1377


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Front view of the main Punchbow l formation from the canyon rim. The San GabrielMountains are in the background.shaded by pine trees. There is no camp-ing in the park, but South Fork and Sy-camore Flats campgrounds are nearby.A trail about four miles long connectsSouth Fork with the Punchbowl via the"Devi l 's Chair" format ion and makes agood hike with spectacular scenery.

Dev il 's Pun chbowl makes an excellentfamily weekend tr ip. I t is accessible,inexpensive, uncrowded and there isplenty for all to do: Hiking, picnicking,animal watching, photography or just

enjoying the scenery. The Punchbowl isa nature reserve and collecting rocks orspecimens of any kind is prohibited. Thepark is open all year and although th e cli-mate is generally moderate, it can gethot in the summer and cold in the winter.It is said to be at its best following asnowstorm, when snow-covered treesand mountains frame the rock forma-t i o n s , c rea t i ng a t r u l y b rea t h t ak ingscene. But whenever you go, you willf ind it rewarding and worth

197709 desert magazine 1977 september

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