195206 Desert Magazine 1952 June

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OnBy WALTER EUGENE VINSONLa Mesa, California

Cat Canyon near California's Palm Desert.P ALBy GLADYS L. SAVAGEDenver, ColoradoPatient little donkey,Plodding through the sand,Looking for tomorrowAnd the promised land.

Land ofgolden nuggetsOr twisted wire gold,Or maybe square cut emeralds,In amountain's fold.Keeper of the meal sack,The coffee pot and pan,The pick ax and the shovelAnd the dreams ofman.

DESERT CANDLESBy EM MA MESSICKLos Angeles, CaliforniaJune is walking softly through theYuccahillsLighting the desert candles after winter'sdark.Tipping hertorch of sunbeams over themshe spillsDown the straight stalk her light-ignitingsparkUntil every little bell bursts creamy white,And all thedesert hills aresprinkled withtheir light.

DESERT WINDSBy E. A. BRININSTOOLLos Angeles, California

Oh, desert winds, you sing tome in accentsmild andlow!Of stretches green, where breezes soft gowandering to and fro!You sing of Springtime's balmy hours; ofmesas blooming fair,Until I feel thedesert lure that turns myfootsteps there!

Oh, desert winds, I seem tohear you sing-ing asyo u go!While perfumes from theSouthland fair invagrant breezes blow!I catch the scent ofgreasewood on he cool-ing evening air,An d 1can tell the song you sing which bidsme come back there!Oh, desert winds, my heart goes out toyourenticing plea!1 hear your murmured accents drift acrossthe sagebrush sea!Your beauties rise before mefrom acrossthe shifting sand,And bind the tiethat draws me back tomyown Desert Land!

I enter now the redhawk's ancient realm.Forgive this new intrusion, regal one,From whose wide wings beneath theverysunSuspends afar the Universe's helm;Whose fierce frontiers admit no soft-leavedelmOr dallying aspen, but towarp and stunWeave hot horizons w here the lizards runAnd majestic palms lift toward the sun.Your boundless battlements ofraging rockOnce knew the Indian warrior's wary tread,Beneath your eye the arrow and flintlockWere bloody rivals, buttheir masters dead,You soar once more and looking down-ward mockMy usurpation where Time reigns instead. DESERT CITYBy GRACE BARKER WILSONKirtland, New MexicoA phantom city's lying on the desert's magicface,A city with its walls all gleaming bright;And from afar I watch asrosy sunset gildsthe place,And long blue shadows creep through thereat night.I view it from myhill top, but in fancy Iam thereAmong the shades that wander up anddown;No matter how I strive thesecrets of theirlives toshare,I cannot break the silence of that town.For when I come toonear it all thevisionmelts away,The walls and towers vanish from my sight.There's nothing left of magic, just thebar-

ren hills all gray,That melt together in thedusky light.DESERT LANDSCAPEBy E. E. MITCHELLWinslow, Arizona

Blue and purple shadows playAcross the desert land,While distance lends enchantmentTo astretching sea ofsand.Rainbow colors glow and changeAs if aMighty HandHad scattered precious jewels thereTo mingle with the sand.Beyond the gleaming desert rimThe purple mountains riseMajestic intheir grandeur stillAgainst the evening skies.The desert dusk falls quickly onThe sunset's golden flare,While tall Saguaro cactiLift their arms insilent prayer.

By TANYA SOUTHTo face the open Door at last,And look unfrightened atthe vastFar panorama, is to beWholly and truly free. ^Fear holds usback. Itshuts the door.It wraps theconquests life canstoreIn such black mantles ofdespair,The thoughts become a perfect snareFor failure ofeach separate planMade by aman.

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D E S E R T C A L E N D A RMay 30-June 1Sierra Club, South-ern California Chapter, desert peakssection hike. San Francisco Peaks,near Flagstaff, Arizona.May 30-June 1Sierra Club, South-

ern California Chapter, hike to SanJacinto primitive area, California.June 1Lincoln County Homecom-ing Day, Caliente, Nevada.June 1-30 Special exhibit, Cali-fornia Indian Arts and Crafts.Southwest Museum, Highland Park,Los Angeles, California.June 11-14 Rodeo and PioneerDays, Clovis, New Mexico.June 12Second Annual Day of Na-tions Festival, Encanto Park, Phoe-nix, Arizona.June 13Corn Dance, San AntonioDay, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.June 13-14 Arizona CattlegrowersAssociation quarterly meeting. Flag-staff, Arizona.June 15Dedication of Mary BealNature Trail at Mitchell's Caverns,23 miles northwest of Essex, Cali-fornia. A plaque and cairn, honor-ing the desert botanist of Daggett,California, will be unveiled by JackMitchell at 10 a.m.June 18 Annual Strawberry Day,Pleasant Grove, Utah.June 20-22New Mexico State Fu-ture Farmers of America Rodeo.Youngsters only. Santa Rosa, NewMexico.June 23-July 4 Southwest WritersWorkshop, Arizona State TeachersCollege, Flagstaff, Arizona.June 24 San Juan Day at TaosPueblo, New Mexico. Corn Dance.June 25-28 Annual Rodeo, Lehi,Utah.June 26-28 Vernal Rodeo, Vernal,Utah.

G E M AND MINERAL EVENTSJune 14-15East Bay Mineral Soci-ety annual show, Oakland, Cali-fornia.June 20-22California Federation ofMineralogical Societies convention,Angels Camp, California.June 26-29 American and RockyMountain Federations of Minera-logical Societies convention, CanonCity, Colorado.

V o l u m e 15 JUNE, 1952 N u m b e r 6C O V E R

POETRYC A L E N D A RC I N E M AN A T UR EFIELD TRIPPERSONALITYM I N I N GEXPLORATIONP H O T O G R A P H YC L O S E - UP SFICTIONEXPERIENCELETTERSN E W SDESERT QUIZLAPIDARYH O B B YC O M M E N TB O O K S

Golden Turret in Cathedral Gorge, NevadaBy Josef Muench of Santa Barbara, California

On Entering Cat Canyon, and other poems . . 2June events on the desert 3On Location With the Navajos

By BETTY WOODS 4Methuselah of the Junipers

By ROBERT CROMPTON 9Petrified Wood Along the New Butterfield TrailBy HAROLD WEIGHT 10Writer of the Chiricahuas

By DOR WOODS 16Current news of desert mines .Murray Canyon is a Challenge

By RANDALL HENDERSON

18

19Pictures of the Month 23About those who write for Desert 24Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 24Life on the Desert

By JOSEPH SCHMEDDING 25Comment from Deser t's reade rs 27From here and there on the desert 29A test of your desert knowledge 32Amateur Gem Cutter, by LELANDE QUICK . . 36Gems and Minerals 37Just Between You and Me, by the Editor . . . 42Reviews of current Southwestern literature . . 43

The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert,California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert,California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office,and contents copyrighted 1952 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contentsmus t be secured from the editor in writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, EditorBESS STACY, Business Manager MARGARET GERKE, Associate EditorMARTIN MORAN, Circulation ManagerUnsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledgedunless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility for

damage 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 RAXESOne Year $3.50 TwoYears $6.00Canadian Subscriptions 25cExtra, Foreign 50cExtraSubscriptions to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity WithP . 0. D. Order No. 19687Address Correspondence to Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, California -

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ON LOCATION WITH THE NAVAJOW h e n a Hollywood picture company wanted wild Indians to playthe roles of Apache Warriors in the filming of "The Battle at A p a c h ePass" at Moab, Utah, they recruited Navajos from Monument Valley.And here is the story of how these tribesmen reacted to the strangesituationplaying Apache under a Mohawk Indian Geronimo and awhite Cochise inthe artificial atmosphere of a Hollywood set.

By BETTY WOODSPhotos by Universal P ictures Co.WORD came to get outof sight, I hurried with a hun-dred others to hide quietly inthe brush. Suddenly from the rimrockabove, wild Apache yells and the swish

of arrows filled the furnace-hot air.Several cavalrymen fell sprawling inthe sandy arroyo a few yards away,some with arrows in their backs.Here were our Indian friends, whoa short time ago had been talking and

now turned intoIn a minute it waslaughing with us,screaming savages.all over."Good work, boys," George Sher-man , the mild-mannered director,called to the Indians. "Come ondown."That was the way it wasduring theshooting of TheBattle at Apache Passin Moab, Utah. There was never aretake when the Navajos did a scene.

Maybe it was because they were hav-ing so much fun playing Apaches.My husband, Clee Woods whom Icall Poncho, was technical adviser onthe desert for Universal-International'stechnicolor story of Cochise. This Col-orado River country was giving usfresh experiences. There were new In-dians to knowNavajos from the re-motest part of Monument Valley. Mostof them wore their hair long andcouldn't speak English.The sweat-streaked Indians leapeddown from the blood-red cliffs andrushed for ice water, soda pop and

shade. The thermometer in the soundtruck read 112."Hey, Gomez," called Tony to themake-up man, "our war-paint is run-ning." Tony had gone to school,learned English and cut his hair . HeDESERT MAGAZINE


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Above Clce Woo ds had to teach this Apache Devil Dance to Navajo actors for "The Battle at Apache Pass." TheIndians liked it so well, they decided to ask the N avajo Tribal Council to adopt a modified version as a native dance.BelowU. S. Cavalrymen and Indian leaders hold an ill-fated peace conference. Scene was staged in CourthouseCanyon near Moab.

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Actor Jay Silverheels, aMohawk Indian, played therole of Geronimo.was one of the few Navajos who hadto wear an Apache wig. He snatchedoff the hot headgear and held it up,yelling, "I'm scalped!"To the Indians this job of beingmovie extras was one long fiesta. Infront of the camera they rode horse-back, chased the U. S. cavalry withguns and bows and arrows, and war-danced. Between scenes they dozedunder cliffs, kidded and commentedabout tourists in Navajo. They watchedwith unashamed curiosity while make-up men sprayed mahogany paint onwhite actors. They laughed when spots

were painted on the mare that doubledfor Geronimo's horse.At night they sang and dancedaround the fire in their temporarycamp at the rodeo grounds, playedcards and visited. On cool eveningsPoncho and I would drive out to watchand talk to them.But one night when we arrived atcamp we didn't hear a single drumbeat. Poncho stopped the car and twoNavajo boys came up. "We want todance, but we got no drum." The onethey had been using was in the prop-erty truck.

"Maybe we can fix youup," Ponchotold them. Back to town we went tofind the property man and his key.But wewere out of luckno propertyman. Then Poncho had an idea. Wedrove to a garage and picked up agallon oil can and a discarded innertube.Back at camp the Indians soon hada drum. Every night as long as theNavajos were there they used it. Werecognized many of the native songs,but some of the old, old ones we hadnever heard before. Familiar chantsoc-casionally startled us. Snatches of cow-boy songs had a reckless way of stray-ing into them.Yet it wasn't all fun for these Indi-ans. Out in the dry scorching sun theywould sit patiently on their horses towait for the next scene. They weregood troupers. They never complained.These Navajos were natural bornactors. In fact, George Sherman saidthey were stealing the show. Theirquick understanding of a situationbrought admiration from all the whiteactors. An example of this was shownwhen Poncho had to teach them theApache Devil dance. None of the In-dians had ever seen this weird dance.Poncho told them what it was like.Questions and long discussions in Nav-ajo followed. Finally the Indians saidthey had a similar dance of their own.So , they combined it and the Apachedance to make an entirely new one.

The Navajos liked the result so wellthey are asking the Tribal Council toadopt it as one of their own nativedances.In spite of their limited understand-ing of English, the Indians needed lessrehearsing than some of the whiteplayers. Lee Bradley, the Navajotrader from Monument Valley, wasinterpreter for the 90 Indians. Hisquiet, friendly wifepart Navajo, partApachecame with him.Mrs. Bradley and I spent much ofour time trying to keep out of the

camera's way, and stay in the shade."Now," she'd say when we'd find acool spot, "I'll bet we have to move."She was right. We always did. It gotto be a kind of game between us andthe camera. Mrs. Bradley insisted thatthe camera could look over rocks andpeer around corners.It was Poncho's job to co-ordinatehistory and Hollywood showmanship.He was to keep Apache customs andcavalry commands authentic. It wasdirector George Sherman's job to makethe picture entertaining and pictoriallybeautiful. Occasionally fact had to beignored, but this did not happen often.It was the cavalry guidon that reallygot Poncho down. The tent set wasdressed andwaiting for the next scene.

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Poncho had put the guidon in itsproper place in front of the tent, atthe left side of the doo r. This is onescene that will be authentic, he thought.Poor Poncho!"O.K.," said George coming ontothe set. "Let's get rolling. We'll shootthis scene from the back of the tent."Poncho sat down on a rock andshook his head.There is a strange superstition aboutclouds and George Sherman. Out hereon the desert it was completely mysti-fying. For a month the sky had beenbright blue and cloudless. Now, nearthe end of shooting time, clouds wereneede d for pictoria l effect. Wh en Iheard someone comment, "We'll haveclouds tomorrow," I thought he wasjoking."When George needs clouds, hegets them," another worker agreed. In

fact, everybody agreed. Maybe Sher-man got clouds other places, I thoughtto myself, but this was the Utah desertand the wrong season for dramaticcloud formations.By seven the next morning the longcaravan of buses, trucks and cars waswinding up the canyon road besidethe Colorado River. The high blood-red walls seemed to glow with heat.Twenty-six miles later we arrived atPreacher Flats where a fort set hadbeen built. Everyone began takingsalt pills early to combat heat sickness.Make-up men sprayed cavalrymen'sfaces and uniforms to make them lookdesert-weary. Actually we were allcovered with red dust from the tripfrom town.

Little whirlwinds chased one an-other across the parade grounds. Thesilk flagespecially made with 34 starsflapped in the wind. Caissons, am-bulance wagons and other army equip-ment rattled into cam era focus. Thenall work s topped. George in his talldirector 's chair mounted under an um-brella was waiting for clouds. The skywas clear blue and very hot. For along time a hundred people just sat,waiting.While we watched for clouds, a talllean-boned old man came to sit besidem e. His squinted eyes and wind-tough-ened skin told me he had seen a lotof living out here on the desert. Afterhe had asked me many questions, mostof which I couldn't answer, I beganasking him a few of my own. As achild he had come with a party of Mor-mon immigrants, he said. "We campedhere with our wagons on this veiy spotand named it Preacher Flats. Youknow, I've seen a lot of things in mytime, but this movie business is suresomething. Why, a man could shoe ahorse over there in the blacksmithshop, it 's that complete."

Vincent Romaine is making up Yazzi Clyah, a Navajo medicine man, for arole in the Apache play.

After a while somebody said,"There's the first one." Behind a bigred mesa a little stray cloud wanderedalone in the bright blue. "Little onesmake big ones," said the mike man.The lunch wagon arrived with itswhite-coated waiters. They unfoldedtables and canopied tops. Clouds piledup higher and whiter. The wind grewstronger. It covered foodeverythingwith sand.After lunch the battle scenes wereshot against massive wind-blownclouds. Soon these turned to ominousblack ones. And the sand-carryingwind grew stronger. Then rain. Allturned into the fury of a desert storm.Th e cast kept right on working. Fo rmood, all the equipment in Hollywoodcouldn't have produced a better effect.

Only this was real. The legend ofGeorge Sherman and his clouds held.Some evenings when we didn't visitthe Navajos we would drive to Court-house canyon and talk to the nightwatchm an in charge of equipment. Sit-ting on the steps of the wardrobe truck,we'd listen to this oldtimer's stories ofUtah pioneers stories of hardsh ips,homesickness and heroism. His unclehad come west ahead of BrighamYoung's colonizers "to build the brid-ges and kill the snakes so the otherscould come on."Sand and heat were the annoyingdiscomforts now, just as they had beenwhen the Mormons first came tothe valley. M ake-up ran. M ustachesslipped. But nobody complained. Too

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Cochise (Jeff Chandler), fourth from left, sits with his Apache tribal council. Hiswife Nona (Susan Cabot) is with the native women in background.

many funny things were happening.Like the cavalryman who lost his sus-penders. All work stopped while hetook a pair from a trooper not in thescene. The friend had to hold up hisown trousers while his suspenders werein use. Production was held up whenthe bugler disappeared. He had some-how locked himself in one of the sets.People made so much noise yellingfor him that they couldn't hear himpounding on the door. The Navajossat back and thought it all very funny.

The most startling things were al-ways coming over the loud-speaker."Somebody bring the blood for thebandages." "Are the cannons ready toshoot the peat moss?" "Where arethose guys we're going to throw overthe cliff?"

The actors liked the desert. Thiswasn't a pose. The spectacular scen-ery and color impressed these peoplewho are so used to spectacles. Regis

Toomey never came to work withouthis color camera. Between scenes he'dbe taking pictures of fantastic rockformations or Navajos. Other mem-bers of the cast planned for fall hunt-ing trips into the mountains. Some ofthe men traded with the Navajos whosomehow had extra belts and jewelryon hand. Anybody could see the actorsliked the Navajos.

The Indians liked most of the Holly-wood people. But the actor who inter-ested them more than any other wasJay Silverheels, a Mohawk Indian. Sil-verheels plays Geronimo in The Bat-tle at Apache Pass. People in Moabadmired him tremendously. Where-ever he went he was surrounded bychildren. His sincere fondness forthem reached out to boys and girlsalike.

When the company arrived in thispicturesque desert town there wascourteous interest in the newcomers.

But motion picture companies weren'tnew to Moab. Two other shows havebeen filmed in the nearby technicolorcountry. More will come, because theMoab people are fair to deal with. Someof them worked as extras. Most of thecavalrymen in the picture were cow-boys from nearby ranches.

Moab liked the Hollywood people.To prove its friendliness, the town gavea Fourth of July picnic for the entirecompany of 120. The realistic peopleof the desert met those of make-believeand found respect for each other.But there was one incident I'll re-member a long time. On our last dayon location an old Navajo touchedPoncho shyly on the arm. Slowly he

said, "Everybody." This was the onlyEnglish word he could speak. He hadlearned the one word he had heardmost often here. He was proud hecould speak just this one, "Everybody."And so were we for him.DESERT MAGAZINE


9/44

By ROBERT CROMPTONJUNIPER is perched on athrone of stone high on Cotton-wood ridge up Logan canyon,just a few miles east of Logan, Utah.The tree is believed to be 3000 yearsold.

Botanists look on the long life ofOld Juniper with as much amazementas Methuselah's 969 years, becausethe average age of a red juniper (con-iferous tree of the genus Juniperus) is500 years with very few ever reaching1000 years.Proving, perhaps, that frugal livingis the way to a long life, Old Juniperis believed to have sprouted 3000 to3500 years ago in the crevice of amonolith. The boulder, it would seem,could provide no more water and foodfor the young seedling than a sanddune could for a stalk of corn.At an altitude of 7300 feeton ashoulder of the Wasatch mountainsthe juniper must have had a strugglethe first couple centuries.After two hundred years, botanistsguess, the tree was a mere sapling sixto eight inches thick. It sunk its rootsthrough the dirt in the crevice downto the solid limestonea dead end.But the roots gave off carbon dioxidewhich dissolved the stone a little eachyear, and they felt their way deeperinto the rock.Other elements of nature helped.During winter, water would flow intothe crevice, freeze and spread it openwider.After three centuries it had a sub-stantial toe hold. To o, it had bu ilt anetwork of roots that would supply itwith sufficient food and water. It grewslowly, adding an inch to its circum-ference each century.A few hundred years more and ithad become the monarch of the Wa-satches. While other junipers growingat the same time in more fertile groundwere dying Old Juniper was still in itsyouth. Perhaps the hardy root systemit had developed in wedging its waythrough that great mass of rock madethe difference between a long life andjust an ordinary life.The ancient tree is 26 feet eightinches around its rotund base, and is44 feet six inches tall. There's enoughwood in it to keep a cabin warm forat least two winters.When the juniper, after four or fivecenturies, was the established "oldman" of the mountains it probablyreached its maximum growth. AddingJ U N E , 1 9 5 2

height and width like a young man inhis teens, Old Juniper likely put aninch on its girth each 65 or 70 years.For centuries it grew steadily, with-out interruption, and then in the 1870'stragedy struck. Some botanists are ofthe opinion lightning struck the tree,while others believe a forest fire rav-aged its mountainside.Now it's starting to show its age.With a hollow trunk and only a fewbranches that still bear the green oflife, it looks like an ancient pioneer ofthe desert in the autumn of life.A masterpiece of Nature's finestwork in sculpture, its trunk and limbstwist and bulge into muscular beauty.

The tree was discovered in 1923 byMaurice Linford, then a student atUtah State Agricultural college in Lo-gan. He brought it to the attention ofthe college botany departm ent. Thetree was entered in the National Rosterof famous trees, and was officiallynamed Jardine Juniper for WilliamJardine, a graduate of Utah State Agri-cultural college, who became U. S.Secretary of Agriculture.The old man of the mountains hasquadrupled the ordinary life-span ofred junipers but is now nearing theend of its existence. Botanists predictit can live but a few more hundredsof years.

This old juniper in the Wasatch mountains of Utah is believed to be 3000years old.

M ethu se lah of th e Junipe rs


10/44

This is thedesert area made accessible by the new Imperial Highway. Old Indiancampsites in this region have yielded many artifacts to museum collectors. Cloud-shadowed Coyote Mountains are in the distance.

In the 1850s the best andabout the only road fromYuma across the Colorado des-ert to the Pacific coast was theButterfield stage route that fol-lowed Carriso and Vallecitocreeks and climbed to the hotsprings at Warner's ranch. Thenthis old road fell into discard,and for nearly a century muchof it has been impassab le toconventional cars. In recentmonths, however, San DiegoCounty has built a new gradedhighway paral le l ing the worstportions of the old roadandtoday the motorist may rolla long in high gear through asector of the Southern Californiadesert which has been closed toall but the hardiest travelers.Today it is known as the Im-perial Highwayand its spon-sors believe that before manyyears it will be a new p a v e dshort-cut from Los Angeles toImperial Valley.

By HAROLD O. WEIGHTPhotographs by the au thorM a p by Norton Allen

D O U B T IF Marshal South, thepoet of Ghost Mountain, wouldhave approved recent develop-ments along California's historic Butter-field Trail. M arshal's little adobe cabinon the top of the monument lookeddown on the old trail where it wandersthrough the desert of southeastern SanDiego county. Often he followed thealmost forgotten ruts of the old stageroad to Vallecito and Agua Calienteand beyond.

He felt the romance of that firsttranscontinental stage line, for he putit into words in a poem written forDesert Magazine. I never go into thathistory-haunted land without recallingsome of Marshal's lines.There's a valley I know in the waste-lands

Where, down through the grease-wood and sageLike a dim ghostly thread from theyears that have fledStretch the tracks of the OverlandStage.Lone, ghostly and dim in thestarlightGrey, desolate andpale in the dawn,Blurred by heat-waves at noon stillo'er mesa and duneWind the tracks of wheels that havegone.

He described, in that poem, howon starlit nights at the old stage sta-tion of Vallecito you could seeorat least imagine you sawthe stagesonce more sweeping by. And I knowthe feeling he was conveying. To methat series of little valleys throughwhich the ancient trail climbs fromthe great desert to the mountains is a

10 DESERT MAGAZINE

Petrified W ood A long theNew Butterfield Trail


11/44

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": :"'/ r\ To Warners :. , '_.f"v-!il ; . ' ' '- '&&k/ : i < '>:.*? I-

ifOCOTILLO

?OYOTE WELLS

JACUMBA

Vallecito

land aparta place where legends arebelievable and where phantoms mightcome atnight.Part ofthe charm ofthis land whichhas seen somuch of the passing pag-eant ofour Western history, lay in itsaloofness, itssense of continuity withthe past. When you went below theDevil's Canyon andVallecito andAguaCaliente, the road constantly deterior-ated and became ruts which in turnbecame sand washes and no one camethat far unless he belonged to thecountry, orreally desired tosee it.Well, allthat ischanged now. Theold trail won't be lonely any longer,an d if phantom stages are prowling onstarlit nights, they'd better watch outfor mo dern autom obile traffic. Becaus e

there's a newroad down throughMason Valley and Vallecito andSweeney Pass and across west of theCoyotes to Highway 80. It's calledthe Imperial Highway, andwhile itisn't oiled and iswashboard in sections,it offers easy going even for the aver-age tourist.I have watched the progress of theImperial Highway with mixed feelingsthese past fewyears as itedged its waydown into the desert. I knew itwouldopen awonderful section ofmountain-desert tomany who would understandand appreciate the country, and whowould not have come but for the newroad. That is good. Butalso, thatcountry would be opened to many whoshould never enter it. I hate to think

of what thetype known as the "tincan tourist" maydo toVallecito andAgua Caliente andMountain PalmSprings.But that must work out as it will,for the road is open. We receivedword of itscompletion last Decemberin a jubilant letter from George Kel-logg, perennial secretary of the Im-

perial Highway Association. "Thesection between the Kane Springs-Ju-lian road and Ocotillo, near CoyoteWells on Highway 80, has been com-pletely improved with a good graveledroad, well aligned and 20feet wide,"he wrote. "We traveled it at from 40to 50 miles per hour. Since then we'vebeen recomm ending: 'Take the Im-perial Highway! See some new coun-try inSouthern California!'"George's enthusiasm is understand-able. Since the highway first was pro-jected in 1929,hehas been one of

the prime movers in thestruggle toput through a first class roadway fromEl Segundo on the coast toEl Centro.He was there in1931when the asso-ciation backed thepresent route byadopting a report which declared:"Whereas in1858the Butterfield Trailwas theshortest andmost feasibleroute from the Imperial Valley to thePacific, that distance has notvariedwith time and so today amodern high-way following approximately the routeof the Butterfield Stage would likewisebe the shortest and most feasible routefor the Imperial Highway Associationto promote and improve."

Since then millions have been spentimproving, aligning and connectingsections of the highway-to-be fromLos Angeles out. Butin all those years,the mapname of "Imperial Highway"on a wriggling black line in south-western Imperial and southeastern SanDiego counties seemed little better thana practical joke to any who tried tofollow it.Lucile and I had personal experi-ence with the condition of that "high-

way" early in 1949, when weattemptedto drive allthe way through along it,from State Highway 78 to U. S. 80.We found the road from thenorthgreatly improved to a point belowAgua Caliente. But atAgua Caliente,Robert Crawford, custodian for thehot springs there and forthe restoredstage station of Vallecito, both SanDiego County parks, warned us thatSweeney Canyon was not what hecould call passable, going south, andthat itwas easy toslip over the edgethere if you tried it. A carryall hadbarely made it afewdays before com-ing northand that wasdown hill.

Well, wewent on, but our jeeptruck was in four-wheel drive by thetime we reached Carrizo Wash. From12 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


13/44

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j i . . , ' - * --. . . . ':*fRobert Crawford, park custodian at Vallecito and AguaCaliente for San Diego County. He is shown here atone of the springs being developed at Agua Caliente tosupply more drinking water.

Boyce A ten Post of the American Legion a t El Centraerected this monument in 1933 when they grubbed outthe right-of-way for the new Imperial Highway. Afterlong delay, the highway has been brought to the cairn.there on, up the sandy wash and sidecanyon, we progressed on a one-mile-per-hour hop spin and jerk basis. Wedid reach the foot of the zigzag dug-way up the south side of SweeneyCanyon, but a hike up its twists con-vinced us that Bob Crawford wasright. This dugway had been con-structed by Everett Campbell of Val-lecito and his crew in December, 1932.It looked as if it had received butl i t t le maintenanceand no wideningsince. Long hours of shovel and fillwould be necessary to take care ofslides and washes before we woulddare attempt to climb it. So we back-tracked across Carrizo wash to Moun-tain Palm Springs to camp for thenight.

In the morning we followed theButterfield Trail out by Carrizo Creekrather than to return the way we hadcome. For this is the approximatepoint where the old Butterfield and thenew. Imperial H ighway part company.The stage routeand also the moreancient trail which was followed bySpaniards and early trappers, byKearny and Emory and Cooke andthe Mormon Battalion, by the Cali-fornia Gold Rush emigrantsheadedalmost due east here, following downCarrizo Wash between the Fish Creek

Mountains and the Coyotes, then head-ing southeasterly to cross today's High-way 80 between Plaster City andSeeley.Originally the new highway also wasto have followed down Carrizo Wash.Even in 1949 the question had notbeen finally decided. But the route upSweeney Canyon and west of the Coy-otes was favored because less new con-struction would be required and main-tenance problems would not be sogreat. Also, along the Carrizo Wash

route there was the problem of theNavy, which had withdrawn an areaincluding part of the old road and wasactually bombing on the ruts of theButterfield Trail.We had been warned that since theNavy had officially blocked the lowerend of the trail, there was little trafficdown to the ruins of Carrizo stagestation, and the road was in bad shape.We found it primitive indeed, in deepsoft sand part of the way and com-pletely obliterated where cattle hadtrampled the bed of Carrizo Creek.

But aside from pleasure in tracing theButterfield through, the trip was valu-able for a striking exposition of themanner in which occupation or inter-ests influence viewpoints.At the ruins of Carrizo station

now just a trace of wall and a moundof adobeone of the men running cat-tle in the area had his cam p. We talkeddesert for a while, then he queried:"Were you folks out here when theflowers were blooming so wonder-fully?"Lucile started to exclaim over thebeauty of that flowering season, buthe went on: "A wonderful year, thecattle sure did well on them. Do n'tknow what it is about flowers, butthey sure did well!" Since then we'vealways grinned a little wryly whensomeone remarks: "It 's a wonderfulyear for flowers."

Since we'd failed to make it throughon the Imperial Highway from thenorth, we determined to try again fromthe south so we would at least haveseen the whole route. Early in 1950we got around to that trip, stoppingen route at Eva Wilson's home in ElCentro. When Eva learned of ourplans, she suggested that we also lookup a petrified wood field she had foundsome years before northwest of Coy-ote Wells and near the San Diego-Im-perial county line.

Eva had been botanizing with afriend at the time, and was investigat-ing the twin-rut desert trail that car-ried the elegant name of "ImperialU N E , 1 9 5 2 13


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Highway." After miles of rough goingshe encountered a broad sand washthat would spell disaster for her car.So she parked south of it, and the twowalked on, finally reaching low hillswhere they found an abundance of thedark petrified wood typical of that des-ert, and some reddish wood that wasnot so common. But by the time theyhauled their rock back to the car, theyhad completed a nine-mile trek. Thewood was good, but once was enoughand they hadn't visited there again.We followed Highway 80 from ElCent ro to a point two miles beyondCoyote Wells the Ocotillo turnoff.Slanting northwest from Ocotillo, theImperial Highway made a braveenough beginning. In January, 1933,Legionnaires from El Centra 's BoyceAten Post had grubbed and graded itas far as the San Diego County l ine,where they erected a monument .Beyond the county line, even whenwe were there in 1950, the highwaywas no more than a winding deserttrail. But it was a picturesque trail,an d we enjoyed the winding climb tothe Sweeney Pass dropoff. Thedugwayitself was in even worse condition thanit had been the year before and lookedas if the only vehicles using it werenarrow-gauge jeeps.We turned back, rockhunting as wewent. There were small pieces of pet-rified wood scattered over the rollingslopes leading up to Sweeney Pass.The wood apparently was weatheringfrom a narrow conglomerate laid downat one particular level. Farther southwe stopped again and hunted in thehills to the west of the road, that Evahad told us about . We found petrifiedwood there sufficient in quantity andgood enough in quality for a DesertMagazine field trip. Unfo rtunately,some bad road, and washes whichmight trap inexperienced drivers laybetween it and the highway.So when we received George Kel-logg's letter, we had a number of rea-sons for a return trip to Imperial High-waynot the least of which was todiscover whether Sweeney Pass reallyhad become a high speed road. It wasin March of this year that we finallymade i tand there were clouds overthe Colorado Desert and snow fallingon the Lagunas when we left El Cen-t ro.The stretch of Imperial Highwayfrom Ocotillo to the county line wasjust about as we remembered it though a little wider and straighter,and possibly a little rougher. But inSan Diego County the old trail had

been abandoned. A new, broad,straight graveled road invited us onto the northwest . It was, indeed, thesort of highway George had writtenus about , and the American Legion

IMPERIAL HIGHWAY LOGSOUTH

From Highway 78 to Highway 8000.0 State Hig hwa y 78 at Scissors Cross-ing, head south.17.7 Vallecito stag e station and picnicarea, west of road. San DiegoCounty park.21.7 Agu a Caliente Hot Springs, westof road. San Diego County park.30.1 Turnoff. right, to Mountain PalmSprings oasis, in Anza State Park.33.1 Top of Sweeney Pass .35.3to38.3 Hills w ith petrified woo d to westof road.38.9 San Diego-Imperial County Lineand Imperial Highway Monument.45.5 O cotillo.46.5 U. S. Highway 80.NORTHFrom Highw ay 80 toHighway 7800.0 Ocotillo turnoff from Hig hw ay 80,approx. 2 miles west of CoyoteWells .01.0 Ocotillo, turn northwest.07.6 San Diego-Imperial County Lineand Imperial Highway Monument.08.2to11.2 Hills w ith petrified wo od to westof road.13.4 Top of Sweeney Pass.16.4 Turnoff. left, to Mountain PalmSprings oasis, Anza State Park.24.8 Agu a Caliente Hot Springs, westof road. San Diego County park.28.8 Vallecito stag e station and picnicarea, west of road. San DiegoCounty park.46.5 State Highw ay 78 at ScissorsCrossing.

monument beside it no longer lookedout of place.The new road cut right through thecorner of Eva's petrified wood hills.Not only was the field open to rock-hounds but the rockhounds werethere in force. There were six cars ofthem in thehills theda y wewere there.The sight tended to confirm my be-lief that mapped field trips are notresponsible for areas being stripped.Here was a field which had been opento the general collector only a fewmonths . To the best of my knowledgeit had never been "written up" orpublicized to any degree. Yet the rock-hounds were busy and the petrifiedwood will all be gone in time, whethera story about it is published or not.

But when a mapped trip to any fieldis published, it does assure that whenmost of the collecting rocks from thatfield are gone, they will be scatteredin the hands of many rockhounds ,rather than being piled up in the yardsof a few.We drove off the road at severalplaces in order to check the quantityof wood and we found that autotrails, new ones, wound in and outamong most of the little hills. The

petrified wood here is found mixedwith a sort of coarse cobblestone pave-ment made up of desert varnishedrocks. These rocks are quite large insize but the manner in which they arepacked together and their rounded ap-pearance make it seem likely thatthey were deposited here by water.Much of the petrified wood foundon the Colorado Desert is little betterthan specimen material. William P.Blake, geologist with the railway sur-vey through this stretch of country, de-scribed it well back in 1853: (Thespecimens) "are generally of a browncolor, and retain all the appearance ofwood; the grains and knots show dis-tinctly, and resemble the wood of themesquite. The surfaces of these speci-mens were also curiously polished, andsome of them appear to have beendeeply cut and grooved by the movingsand."

In addition to the usual brown sili-cified wood, the hills along the ImperialHighway contain some specimens greyish, greyish with red patterns anda few all redthat have perfect grainreplacement and are fine cutting ma-terial. There still is a good deal ofwood of various kinds scattered overthe rocky hill slopes, and there shouldbe for a long time for those who liketo hike and hunt .Cold rain driven by an icy wind offthe snow mantled Lagunas cut ourrockhunting short , and we continued

north along the newhighway. SweeneyPass was a revelation. The highwayengineers had taken care of it withan "S." They had cut the new roadalong the hill edge to keep it out ofthe wash below, and had packed agood, hard crossing over big CarrizoWash. In a matter of minutes we hadtraversed the old mile-an-hour stretchand were at the Mountain Palm Springslurnoff.This stretch of five and one-halfmiles of new road, from Carrizo Washthrough Sweeney Canyon and to the

county line, cost $10,000 for new con-struction and $30,000 for decomposedgranite surfacing. We think it was abargain, and that many a future visitorwill bless San Diego County for thework.We were due back in TwentyninePalms that night, so we drove onrapidly to the north, stopping for abrief visit with Mary Smith at her tinystore at Agua Caliente, and pausingfor another look at Vallecito station.A nd wewished, when wereached StateHighway 78 at the Scissors Crossing,

that there was time to continue on upImperial Highway past Warner's Stagestation, and Warner ' s Hot Springs andperfectly preserved Oak Grove station.Visitors should, as much as possible,14 DESERT MAGAZINE


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follow the old Butterfieldor the newImperial Highwayall the way.Sometimes it has happened that goodroads like the new one through Swee-ney Pass are opened in the desert, thenpermitted to go to ruin under the as-saults of the weathe r. 1 hope th at willnot happen with this new stretch, andI doubt that the Imperial HighwayAssociation will permit such an occur-rence. In fact it seems certain that intime this entire link will be paved.But desert lovers shouldn't wait forthat time and become involved withthe traffic rush that will follow. Nowis the time to visit the legend-rich landalong the Butterfieldwhile it still isrelatively untouched, still peaceful andunchanged.Even after paved Imperial Highwayis a reality, there is the consolationthat the new road does not exactlyfollow the old trail. Places will remainwhere you can see and trace the actualruts of the stage line. You can seethem when you look down into Valle-cito from the pass between it andMason Valley. You can reach therutted trail east of the highway belowAgua Caliente, where the station ofPalm Springs once stood.Best of all, the highway and theold trail part company north of Car-rizo W ash . W hen the highway trafficof the future roars past Vallecito stagestation, and picnickers swarm over it,I imagine the ghosts of Butterfield dayswill dese rt the old sod station . Butthey'll have to congregate somewhere,and if we leave the pavement and godown the wash toward Carrizo andcamp by the old trail of a moonlessnight we may find it still just as Mar-shal South visioned it:A nd again across dune, wash and mesaAs the dead years turn back on theirpagePass the dim racing teams from aghost-world of dreamsDown the tracks of the OverlandStage.

Top Vallecito stage station,watering place on the Butterfieldroad. Through the efforts of Mr.and Mrs. Louis S t r ah lmann of SanDiego the old adobe station wasrestored several years ago and isnow a San Diego County park.Center One of the palm groupsin Mountain Palm Springs oasis.These native palms grow not farfrom the new Imperial Highway.Bottom Num erous fine stands ofcholla cactus grow along the newroad. This is Opuntia bigelovii,also known as "jumping cactus."

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Writer o f th e Ch ir ica h u a sThis photograph of Weldon F. Heald was taken by Alfred M. Bailey in1945 when the two men made the scenic boat trip from Mexican Hat toLee's Ferry with Norm an Nevills.

M a n y r e a d e r s of W e s t e r nbooks and magazines are fa-miliar with then a m e Weldon F.Heald. He is a prolific writerand photographer of Westernnon-fiction stories. Weldon andhis wife, Phyllis, have a homein the Apache country of south-eastern Arizonaand here is thestory of why they went thereand what they have found tointerest them in that remotemountain wilderness.By DOR W O O D S

U R I N G W O R L D W A R II Wel-do n F. Heald was assigned toduty with the Arctic, Desert andTropic Information Center an or-ganization set up by the Air Force tostudy climatic environment and deter-mine the proper clothing, food, shelterand equipment for use by troops undervarying conditions.Heald was sent to the Southwestdesert country to determine what sol-diers should eat and wear in zones ofhigh temperatures.Weldon had always liked the moun-tains and his tour of duty in theSouthwest gave him an intimate ac-quaintance with the desert ranges ofSouthern California and Arizona. Inthe desert mountains he found a vastnigged domain that provided ideal liv-ing conditions, and also the oppor-tunity to explore and pursue his hobbyof photography.As a result of this experience,Wel-don and Phyllis Heald in 1947 soldtheir home on the hillside above Alta-dena, California, and bought the 8000-

acre Flying H Ranch in the HuachucaMountains of southeastern Arizona.They found here an ideal retreat fromthe crowds, the smog and the hightension of metropolitan life.Weldon Heald is a native of NewHampshire and spent most of his earlylife in Boston. At the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology he studiedarchitecture. Then he came to Cali-fornia and here met Phyllis Wardewho had come from New Rochelle,New York. They were married in

1930.His interest in mountains beganwhen he was eight, during a visit toEurope with his parents with whom hespent some time in theAlps in Switzer-16 DESERT MAGAZINE


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land. As he grew older his desire toknow and climb mountains became anabsorbing avocation.He began an intensive study ofeverything to do with mountains; theirgeography, geology, climate, botany,glaciology, etc. This brought aboutdiversified activities and exploring ex-peditions. During these years he

climbed mountains in four continents.He has collected one of the foremostprivate libraries in the country dealingwith mountains.He ran a pack train inthe Wash-ington Cascades; navigated the Colo-rado and San Juan Rivers in 15-footboats; has done extensive photographyin black and white and color. He ispast vice-president of the AmericanAlpine Club.During the years after he came toCalifornia, Weldon's interest turnedfrom architecture to writing, and afterhe and Phyllis were settled on theArizona ranch in the heart ofthe oldApache country he realized that herewas a fertile field for writer and pho-tographer. He made many trips intothe little known mountain areas insoutheastern Arizona and during thelast four years has sold numerous il-lustrated feature stories, featuring theHuachuca and Chiricahua landscapes.He has been a contributor to threevolumes of the American MountainSeries. One of these, The InvertedMountains, deals with the canyoncountry of northern Arizona andsouthern Utah. He has sold over 100feature stories to 35different maga-zines, and has edited and written muchof the copy for 12 Scenic Guide bookscovering the western states.

With writing assignments takingmore and more of his time, heandPhyllis found the management of abig ranch an almost impossible chore,and so they sold the Flying H, reserv-ing arambling home with apanoramicview of the vast San Pedro Valley fortheir own occupancy. Here Weldonorganized the Huachuca Writers, com-posed forthe most part of personswho aspired to produce novels, poems,song-poems, articles and photographicfeatures for the free lance market.Members of the organization pay hightribute to Heald for the help he gavethem indeveloping their writing tal-ents and finding markets for their ma-terial.More recently the Healds have pur-chased another home in the Apachecountry. They acquired the Painted

Canyon ranch near Portal in the heartof the Chiricahua Mountains, and thatis now their home. "If you are onewho likes to explore in the high ruggeddesert wilderness country," says Wei-

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Kanab, Utah . . .Shipment of the first carload of orefrom the King Manganese Mine 35miles east of Kanab was made in April.With many thousands of dollars in-vested in good equipment, plenty ofwater for washing and a 'round-the-clock work shift, the big mining opera-tion is expected to produce high grademanganese in sizeable quantities forshipment direct to steel mills and otherusers. Kan e County Standard.

Goldfield, N e v a d a . . .M. McPherson, diamond dril l man-ager for Newmont Mining Company,recently examined the site his com-pany has chosen for diamond drillexploration nea r Goldfield. At leasttwo holes will be put down to an un-announced depth in preliminary oper-ations. Tonopah Times-Bonanza. Independence, California . . .What gives reasonable promise ofbeing one of the world's most valuabletungsten deposits, on the west slope ofthe Inyo Mountains east of Indepen-dence, now is being opened throughcompletion of an access road which"couldn't be buil t ." Not long ago,engineers spent almost $25,000 sur-veying the area to decide a road to thetungsten-rich Jumbo Mine was impos-sible. By April, after little more thanone year of work, the road was nearlyto the mine adit. Inyo Independent. Humboldt , N e v a d a . . .A five-year lease-option agreementon Churchill County tungsten claims,involving a consideration of $65,000,has been announced by Clarence Staggsof Golconda and Angelo Quilici ofLovelock. Ore assays about two per-cent tungsten. Development will beundertaken by the Cordero MiningCompany of San Francisco, which alsoplans further exploration of claimsnear Eastgate. Humboldt Star. Battle Mountain, Nevada . . .Development of open pit mine op-erations 30 miles south of Battle Moun-tain are reported moving ahead stead-ily. The mine, owned by S. J. Welter,is being operated by John Uhalde andassociates. It is estimated 100,000 ton sare available on the property, the oreaveraging about 62 percent iron. Theproperty was first located 50 years ago,but little development was made untilpresent operations began. ReeseRiver Reveille.

Tucson, Arizona . . .Approval of a $111,288,000 loan toSan Manuel Copper Company, to putArizona's largest low-grade coppermine into production, has been prom-ised by the Reconstruction FinanceCorporation. The mine, located 45miles north of Tucson between Oracleand Mammoth, has been under devel-opment for the past six years by SanManuel, a wholly owned subsidiary ofMagma Copper Company, which op-erates the mine, mill and smelter atSuperior . Harry A. McDonald, R.F.C.administrator, said it would be thelargest business loan ever made byR.F.C. Arizona Republic. Searchlight, Nevada . . .Its bonanza days are long past, butmining is not gone altogether fromSearchlight, in the far southwesterncorner of Nev ada. There are a dozenor more miners working old claims,and small operations are still going onat the old Quartette Mine, famous inthe early days of the boom camp. Sixmen are working with the Desert Drill-ing Company running the Quartette'stailings and dumpings through a mill

at a daily rate of approximately 30tons. The Yellow Pine Mine, notedfor its millions in production of silver,lead and zinc ores, also still yields goodvalue in places. Las Vegas Review-Journal. Winnemucca, Nevada . . .Gus Rogers, mine operator, andHarold E. Reed, prospector, both ofWinnemucca, are partners in the oper-ation of a group of quartz claims inthe Scossa mining district in PershingCounty. Reed is using a dry washerto test hot spots in the vein outcrop,claiming he gets better results by thismethod than by panning with water. Mining Record. Tombstone, Arizona . . .Lomelino Interests, which for thepast year has been operating the orereduction mill at Tombstone, revampedits organization under the title, Shan-non Mining Company after taking overthe old Shannon Mine at Gleeson. Ex-tensive operations now are being read-ied. Large lead and zinc deposits arefound at the mine, where a 16-footface is exposed in one place. Th eShannon has been operated for manyyears, but until now these mineralswere ignored, due to lack of demandand low market price. TombstoneEpitaph.

Winklemctn, Arizona . . .To assure continued production ofcopper from the Christmas Mine inGila County, government officials haveannounced a contract to pay above-ceiling prices to the Sam Knight Min-ing Lease, Incorporated, of Winkle-man. Under the two-year contract, theChristmas will be operated at its cur-

rent rate of production 1,195,000pounds of electrolytic copper annually.The government guarantees a price of31.6 cents a pound, compared withan existing ceiling of 24.2, F.O.B. re-finery. Arizona Republic. Kingmcm, Arizona . . ."Today's new techniques in metal-lurgy and mining, plus vastly improvedmachinery, should make mining ofchloride ores profitable on a long-rangescale," according to Elwood Dietrichof California, lessee of the GladstoneMine in the chloride mining district ofArizona. Dietrich expressed hopes ofa smelter being established in the areato process lead, zinc and copper fromlocal producers. Mining Record. I b a p a h , Utah . . .A "significantly large supply" ofcritically needed quartz crystal hasbeen located on the Goshute Indianreservation near the Nevada border,according to Jess Larson. The findreportedly represents the first important

strike of domestic quartz since the newhunt for the material began. Qua rtzcrystals are vital to the manufactureof electronic and radio equipment.Mining Record. Las Vegas , Nevada . . .Early construction of an electrolyticzinc reduction plant four miles east ofHenderson and adjacent to the man-ganese ores mine and mill is plannedby Electro-M etals, Incorpo rated. Theproposed pilot plant would produce 15tons of zinc dust per day by a leachingand electrolytic process which treatsoxide zinc and carbonate lead ores.Pioche Record.

Goldfield, Nevada . . .W. H. Allured has announced hiscompany, the Garnet King, plans toerect a 100-ton mill on tungsten prop-erty in the Cucamonga mining districtof Esmerelda County. A permanentcamp now is being built on the prop-erty, which formerly was owned byRoper and King, and work on the millstructure is expected to begin soon.Ore near the surface will be strippedoff. Ac cord ing to Allure d, it will besome time before operations must goundergro und for the rock.GoldfieldNews.

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The palms with full skirts are believed to be from 75 to 100 years of age. Atintervals along Murray Canyon are found aged trees that have been through fire.Some of these probably are 250 years of age.M u r r a y Ca nyo n i s a Ch a l l e ngeAlways seeking new mountains and gorges to conquer, membersof the Sierra Club of Cal i ioni ia recently made an all-day ascent alongthe palm-fringed stream to the headwaters of Murray Canyon nearPalm Springs. And here is the story of a canyon that, according to theauthor, "is both charm ing an d o bstinate."

By RANDALL HENDERSONMap by Norton AllenA C C O R D I N G T O t h e s t o r i e sf* which have come down fromthe early days in Palm Springs,Dr. Welwood Murray, who opened

the first hotel there in 1886, was astalwart Scotsman whose rugged indi-vidualism sometimes made his neigh-bors love him, and at other times wishhe was back in his native Scottishhighlands.

But they thought enough of Dr.Murray to name a library, and a can-yon in the San Jacinto Mountains inhis honorand after three trips intothat canyon I am convinced it waswell named. For Murray Palm Can-yon combines some of the most gor-geous scenery with some of the tough-est obstacles that ever faced a weekendhiker. Like the character of the man

for whom it was named, it is bothcharming and obstinate.My first acquaintance with MurrayCanyon was in December, 1936, whenwith my son, Randie, I hiked up An-dreas Canyon to about the 3000-footlevel, then climbed over the ridge tothe south and dropped down into alovely oasis of native Washingtoniapalmsin upper Murray Canyon.It was a rugged gorge. We ropeddown over four waterfalls from 10 to30 feet in height, and when darknesscame we were wet and cold, and ourflashlightlike everything else in ourbackpacks, was full of wateranduseless. When we heard more fallingwater below we decided we had hadenough of Murray Canyon for one

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day, and climbed up on the ridge onthe south side of the canyon and feltour way down over the rocks to thefloor of the desert where our car wasparked.

Since that first experience I havemade two trips up Murray Canyonand found it more beautiful and moredifficult on each occasion. The mostrecent visit to Murray was early inMarch this year with a group of Sierraclub members.We arranged with the Agua Cali-ente Indians through their agent inPalm Springs, Lawrence L. Odle, tocamp overnight on the reservation at

the entrance to the canyon. Our camp-site was inside the Palm Canyon tollgate where the Indians collect 30cents for each car with not more thanthree passengers, and 12 cents foreach passenger in excess of three.

The gatekeeper is stoical John Jo-seph Andreas, grandson of CaptainAndreas for whom one of the nearbycanyons was named. The gate is openfrom 9:00 to 5:00 daily during thewinter season. Money collected at thegate goes into the Indians' tribal fund.

Ninety-eight of us parked our carson the bajada at the base of the SanJacinto Mountains and spent Saturdayevening enjoying one of those im-promptu campfire programs which areso important a part of all Sierra cluboutings. The upper half of the SanJacinto range was carpeted with snowthat March evening, and the air onthe floor of the desert below was crisp.Most of the Sierras carry air mattressesin their sleeping bagsand these aircushions not only provide comfort butare good insulation against the damp-ness in the ground.

Dead smoke tree and desert willowwood dragged in from the Palm Can-yon arroyo below our camp providedan ample wood supply and a clearstream flowing out of Murray Canyonfurnished water for those who did notbring their own supply.Cyria and I, and Margaret Gerkeof the Desert Magazine staff, broiled

a hamburger steak dinner over ourfire. Next morning we had a flap-jackflipping contest in which Cyria andMargaret were tied for first honors, andI ran a poor third because I lost partof one of my cakes over the edge ofthe frying pan. Camping is fun whenyou make a game of it.It had been raining for two daysand the stream in Murray Canyon hadswollen almost to flood proportions,and with an ample water supply it wasnot necessary to carry canteens on thehike which started at eight o'clock

Sunday morning. Co-leaders on thetrip were Dick and Catherine Freeman.No trail has been built in MurrayCanyon. The few people who ventureinto the gorge have worn a path whichcan be followed the first mile or two.After that it was a case of pick yourown route. Farther up we came to aseries of spectacular waterfalls whichmade it necessary to detour up overthe steep slopes of bordering ridges.The canyon is narrow and in manyplaces choked with catsclaw, mesquiteand palm trees. There are a few syca-mores and cottonwoods. We had tocross the stream many times, jumpingfrom rock to rockand getting wetfeet if we missed.The first wild palms in the canyonare visible from the paved road whichmotorists follow in visiting Palm Can-yon. Actually, Murray is a tributaryof the Palm Canyon system. From thispoint the stately Washingtonias arestrung along the creek singly and ingroups for a distance of four miles.Three distinct generations of palmsare seen in the canyon today, all ofthe filifera species. Occasionally wepassed aged trees towering 50 to 60feet in the airpalms that had beenthrough fires and windstorms for per-haps 250 years. Their trunks werecharred and weathered. Beside themgrows a younger generation of treesperhaps 75 to 100 years in age, greenand vigorous and wearing full skirtsof dead fronds, evidence that no fireshave visited this canyon for manyyears.Considering the root system with

which Nature has endowed them, thesepalms live to an amazing age. Theirroots consist of hundreds, perhapsthousands, of tiny rootlets not muchbigger than a lead pencil and seldomreaching a depth of more than six20 DESERT MAGAZINE


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but always close to the surface. Con -

robably is in their flexibility. Theorous trunks bend easily and the treesway in the wind, but are seldom up-ooted.

Even the veterans of 250 years re-main erect and flexibleuntil eventu-ally an extra blast of wind carries awaythe little thatch of fronds at their uppertipand even then the trunk some-times remains standing for many yearsbefore it falls. While the palm gener-ally is as straight as an arrow, we sawtrees growing close beside precipitousrock walls where the trunk had becomedistorted in its effort to surmount ajutting boulder of stone.Within recent years, a new genera-tion of palms has sprouted in MurrayCanyon. We saw hundreds of treesfrom two to six feet high, giving prom-ise that in future years Murray Canyonwill have a palm forest much denserthan it is today.

Our trip was a field day for hikers,for botanists, for photographersandfor Ruth Simpson, assistant curator atSouthwest Museum, who soon dis-covered the grinding holes of ancientIndian tribesmen on a great flat rockalong the streambed. Wherever thereis water on the Colorado desert it isprobable that old Indian sites may beround close at hand, but it sometimesrequires the sharp eyes of an archeolo-gist to discover the evidence.

Cold weather in late winter had de-layed the flowering season in this partof the desert, but many Canterburybells and wild hyacinths were in blos-som. Occasionally we saw a bisnagajust coming into bloom and in shel-tered places the encelia was out. Alittle later the mountainsides above thecanyon were covered with the goldenblossom of the encelia or incense bush.The rock which forms the sidewallsof the canyon we were ascending ismostly granite and often we passedthrough narrow portals where the wallswere too precipitous to be climbed.Later, in returning to base camp overthe ridge to the south I found float ofrose and ivory quartzbut not enoughof it to make a field day for a rock-hound.There was some evidence of wildsheep on the mountainsidesprobablyanimals from the Santa Rosa band ofbighorns. Thirty years ago the big-horns in this area were almost extinctas a result of the depredations of hun-ters. But the establishment of a gamerefuge is slowly restoring the band.

Above A drift pile of aged palm trunks bore evidence that mighty torrentshave come down Murray Canyon in previous years.Below Here one of the Sierra Club groups is approaching the can yonentrance. San Jacinto mountains in the background.

Generally they range on the northslope of the Santa Rosa range, but oc-casionally cross Palm Canyon to theeastern slope of the San Jacinto range.For two miles our climb was grad-ual, and although we frequently had toclaw our way through mesquite andcatsclaw, there were no serious ob-

stacles except the stream, which hadto be forded frequently.Then the canyon floor rose sharplyand great boulders blocked the way,making it necessary to detour up theprecipitous walls to get around slickrock waterfalls that could not bescaled.

J U N E , 1 9 5 2 21


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In upper Murray Canyon the way isblocked bynumerous waterfalls withdeep pools below. Thehikers found it necessary todetour up therockyslopes tocontinue their ascent.The Sierrans were strung outnearlythe full length of the canyon, the moreleisurely hikers going only as far asthey found thegoing not toodifficult.Veteran Mountaineers Bil l Hendersonan d JimGorin and a little group ofseasoned hikers were far upahead.At three miles up the gorge we cameto two double waterfalls where thestream tumbled over smooth-wall dikeswhich could not be surmounted. Wedetoured thefirst of these double cas-cades byclimbing high up onthe ridgeto the north. When wedropped down

into the canyon again we had goneonly a short distance when we facedanother double waterfalland I rec-ognized this asthe place where Randiean d I hadroped down into a pool sodeep we had to swim out with ourpacks onour backsand this wastheplace where we had climbed out inthe dusk on our first excu rsion intoMurray Canyon.Ferns were growing in thecrevicesaround the waterfalls, and from some-where above I could hear the call of acanyon wren. It is an idyllic spotbut one that is guarded well bycats-

claw jungles and rocky walls. GeorgiaWhite and Tom Corrigan dived intothe 10-foot pool of water at thebaseof the lower fall, and came outshiver-ing with cold. It is a delightful littleswimming pool but onethat willnever be overcrowded.Jim Gorin and I carried counters totabulate the palms in thecanyon,andup tothis point had recorded 548 treesover three feet in height. In thenexthalf mile above the waterfalls therewere another 171 trees. Bill Hender-son, theonly member of ourparty togo beyond that point estimated therewere another 150 palms farther upmaking a total of 869palms in thecanyon. This is nearly three times asmany palms asare inAndreas Canyon,which ismuch better known tovisitorsin this area, andgives Murray creditfor having one of the finest stands ofwild palms in Southern California. Innumbers it is exceeded only by PalmCanyon. Borrego Palm Canyon has778 trees.It required four hours of steady go-ing to reach the canyon floor abovethe waterfalls, and then we climbed tothe ridges above andreturned to ourbase camp by aneasier route than theascent had been.A t theuppermost point of our as-cent we were less than eight milesfrom Palm Springsthe desert 's mostglamorous winter resort community.And ye t sorugged is the scenic beautyof Murray Canyon that probably notmore than three or four among PalmSprings' annual half million visitorsever see thepalm-fringed pool in theupper canyon where we ateour lunch.Like the man for whom it wasnamed, Murray Canyon is both ob-stinate andcharming. BONES INDICATE ARIZONAINHABITED IN8000 B.C.As they continued to uncover evi-dences of a 10,000-year-old mammothin theborder town of Naco, south ofBisbee, Arizona, archeologists becamemore andmore convinced they hadmade one of the most important findsin Arizona history. The prehistoricanimal's bones were discovered by afather and son in aneight-foot arroyo.Imbedded in the remains were fivespear points.Dr. Emil W. Haury, director of theArizona State Museum, called the find"definite proof" that early Arizona manhunted andkilled with weapons. Herecognized the spear tips as "Clovisfluted po ints," first used inClovis, NewMexico, about 10,000 years ago.

When the excavation iscomplete, thegiant fossil will betaken tothe Univer-sity of Arizona at Tucson where itwill be prepared for exhibit at thestate museum on the campus. Ari-zona Republic.22 DESERT MAGAZINE


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P i c t u r e s ofT h e M o n t hD e s e r t P l a y g r o u n d

First prize in Desert Magazine'sPicture of the Month contest in Aprilwas awarded to Edward Canby,Palm Springs. The picture is of hischildren, Judy and the twin boys,Tommy and Dickie. Taken with an8x10 Eastman View camera, K-2 fil-ter, Triple Pan film f32 at 1/50 second.

T h e M a d E g gNorm Moore of Inglewood, Cali-fornia won second prize with the ac-companying picture of one of themud bubbles which are constantlyactive in the mud geyser along theshore of Salton Sea near Niland,California. Take n with a Press cam-era, 1/25 second at f32 on Super XXfilm.

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010-gram Garnet, (Mex.) 3.00Sale on Over-Stocked Minerals$10.00 to $12.00 worth specimens for $5.00Our choice. State price range you desiresuch as 5c to 25c25c to 50c50c to $1$1 to $2 each, etc.Satisfaction Guaranteed

Equipment Mountings & FindingsSuppliesSend for Our Circular TodayPlease add postage to all orders. If nota dealer, add 20% Fed. Tax. to slabs, pre-cious rough and faceted stones. Californiasales tax.11669 Ferris RoadEl Monte, Calif.FOrest 8-7551

GEM GROUP CHOOSESNEW SLATE OF OFFICERSSanta Monica Gemological Society heldelections in April, planning to instaU newofficers in May. Harold H. Hagen is newpresident; C. E. Hamilton, first vice-presi-dent; Mrs.Florence G. Strong, second vice-president; Edwin S. Jacobsen, treasurer;Mrs. Martha Eberhart, recording secretary,and Muriel Bodwell, corresponding secre-tary. Via roads bordered with California poppy,shooting star, Indian paintbrush andlupine,a field trip group from East Bay MineralSociety drove from Oakland, California, toManhattan Mine. An onyx vein was found125 feet into the mine tunnel. F arther onsome searchers found cinnabar, marcasiteand pink banded onyx. A few pieces ofcutting quality myrickite were picked up onoutside dumps. Gila Valley Gem and Mineral Societyand the Mineralogical Society of Arizonaheld a joint field trip to the canyon of theGila River below Coolidge Dam.

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LONG BEACH SOCIETYELECTS RALPH PAULRalph Paul was elected president at a re-cent meeting of Long Beach Mineral andGem Society. Other officers for 1952 areMrs. Jessie Hardman, vice-president; Har-vey Hawkins, treasurer, and Mrs. MarjorieE. Erdal, secretary.Representatives from 49 of the 64 soci-

eties comprising the California Federationof Mineralogical Societies attended the Fed-eration directors' m eeting April 19 in AngelsCam p, California. Plans were completedand reports made on the June convention.Following dinner, the directors made anafter-midnight field trip to Calaveras cementquarry to search with fluorescent lights forcalcite crystals. Mrs. H. T. Daniels was featured speakerat a recent meeting of the Oklahoma Min-eral and Gem Society of Oklahoma City.She outlined a plan for study of quartz,assigning the mineral's various forms tomembers for research and subsequent re-port. As each speaker describes his particu-

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ANNUAL SHOW PLANNEDWITH FARMERS FAIRSan Jacinto-Hemet Gem and MineralClub again will hold its annual show inconjunction with the Riverside CountyFarmers Fair in Hem et, California. Datesfor this year are August 27 through Septem-ber 1. Edna P. Nichols is 1952 president ofthe society. After each member's name in the 1952directory of California Federation of Min-eralogical Societies will appear a legendindicating his interests crystals, minerals,lapidary, fossils or jewelryand whetherhe has material to trade. After searching unsuccessfully for sage-nite agate on Agate Mountain and SageniteHill in California, members of Delvers Gemand Mineral Society, Downey, decided tovisit the travertine deposits at the mouth ofMule Canyon. Their luck changed, andeveryone brought back a good selection. Pointing out that all Japan consists of arange of volcanic mountains, Dr. J. HarlanJohnson told Colorado Mineral Societyabout his trip to the Islands last summer.He made special mention of Mt. Aso, onKyushu Island, and Mt. Mihara, on OshimaIsland, both of which were active duringhis visit. Heading for the Berkeley hills and anagate nodule field, members of the Gemand Mineral Society of San Mateo Countyfollowed Lloyd Underwood on the club'sApril field trip. Armed with hammers, screens and shov-els, mineral resources division members ofSan Diego Mineral and Gem Society trav-eled to the Clark Mines at Rincon to lookfor morganite.

Mineral interest in caves was reported byLoren Whitelock at a meeting of PacificMineral Society, Los Angeles. Whitelocktold particularly of the Lost Soldier's Cavein Sequoia Park, showing colored slides ofunique formations of travertine, dolomite,calcsieous tufa and feathery Iceland spar. A case displaying rough and polishedagate specimens is being prepared by ElPaso Mineral and Gem Society for presen-tation to the National Museum in Washing-ton, D. C.

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EAST BAY MINERAL SHOWTO BE HELD IN OAKLANDAnnual show of the East Bay MineralSociety will be held June 14 and 15 in theMasonic Temple, 6670 Foothill Boulevard,Oakland, California. Hours are from 11a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and from 10a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.a A general introduction to archeologicalsurvey methods formed the program at a

recent meeting of the archeological sectionof the Earth Science Club of Northern Illi-nois. Material included reasons for a survey,types of surveys, preparations, maps, fieldwork and aerial photography. Carved of agate, quartz crystals, jade,slate, glass and other stones, the Chinesesnuff bottles of C. N. Laird were displayedat a meeting of Pasadena Lapidary Society. Florida's Seminole Indians were de-scribed by 12-year-old George Preston whenhe appeared as speaker for Yavapai CountyArcheological Society, Prescott, Arizona.As George told of Seminole life, his mother,Mrs. George Preston, showed colored slides. "Conchologists know of more than 100,-000 species of shell life," reported PresidentErnest E. Michael when he spoke to mem-bers of the Yavapai Gem and Mineral So-ciety. Michael showed choice specimensfrom his collection of 5000 sea shells. Because the membership has grown solarge, Minnesota Mineral Club has adopteda set of rules for convoy driving on fieldtrips. Each car is identified by a pennantand follows the car ahead at a specifieddistance and specified speed. The travelplan is designed to increase safety andeliminate confusion when many membersparticipate in a single field excursion. March-April issue of Oklahoma Gem andMineral Society's Sooner Rockologist in-cludes a pronouncing list of gem names. Fine crystal specimensmost of themwith inclusions and many with phantomswere promised participants in the ShadowMountain Gem and Mineral Club field tripto the crystal hill collecting area a few milessouth of Quartzsite, Arizona . Mem bersplanned also to attend the Blythe MineralShow. Junior members of Coachella Valley Min-eral Society followed Desert Magazine'sdirections to the Borrego Badlands con-cretion beds. Intrigued, the youngstersgathered many of the peculiar sandstoneformations.

HOLLYWOOD LAPIDARIESANNOUNCE SHOW DATESMembers of Hollywood Lapidary Societyhave decided on October 18 and 19 as datesfor their Fifth Annual Lapidary and GemExhibit. The show will be held at PlummerPark, Hollywood, California. Preparing for a discussion of mineral as-sociations, the program chairman of theMineralogical Society of Arizona distributedamong members mimeographed sheets onwhich all identified Arizona minerals weregrouped into classes. The classes were de-termined by association with other mineralsand not by physical properties or chemicalcomposition. Minerals of four groups wereoutlined in detail: primary minerals (largelyore); secondary minerals derived from pri-mary ore; contact metamorphic minerals,and pegmatite minerals. Most specimensfound by amateur collectors fall into thesefour groups. Less common classificationsalso were discussed. A copy of J. B. Streeter's Precious GemStones and Minerals, published in Londonin 1882, has been presented to the SanDiego Lapidary Society library by JamesA. Moore.

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Two speakers were scheduled to sharethe rostrum at the April meeting of Sacra-mento Mineral Society. C. M. Goethe chose"Rockhound Knowhow" as his subject, andL. J. Bergsten of Oakland was to discussjade. He planned to show many rare piecesfrom his collection.A colored-slide tour of the high Sierraswas conducted by Vice-President Orlin J.Bell of East Bay Mineral Society at a meet-ing in Oaklan d, California. Bell told thegeological history of the range, pointing outthe effect glaciers had in forming valleysand lakes.

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JSetween l / ou and.Ate

By RANDALL HENDERSONS A HIGH SCHOOL boy in Iowa many years agoI spent long hours digging dandelions out of thefront lawn. Dandelions were noxious weedsand every spring rain brought a fresh crop of them.Their only mission on earth, as far as I was concerned,was to take the joy out of my Saturday school holiday.

We have dandelions on the desert too, an entirelydifferent plant genus that has little in common with itslawn-invading namesakeand I have had to forget myold prejudice against the name. For our wild dandelion ofthe desert is one of our prettiest flowers.A few days ago Cyria and I were out taking picturesof this year's exceptionally colorful wildflower display.We drove up the bajada that leads from Highway 60 toCottonw ood Spring in eastern Riverside Coun ty. Thesouthern slope at the base of the Cottonwood Mountainswas carpeted with the canary yellow blossom of dandelion,sprinkled with California poppies. These lovely wildlingsof the desert never invade people's lawns, and if they didI am sure they would be welcome visitors.Within recent years the historic old waterhole at Cot-tonwood Spring has been included in the Joshua TreeNational Monument and the rangers have converted itinto a well-kept picnic ground for visitors. A trail leadsover the ridge from the Spring to Lost Palm Canyonand many winter visitors to Palm Springs have taken aNature hike over this trail with Lloyd Mason Smith ofthe Desert Museum. {Desert Magazine, Dec. '51.) Thanksto Lloyd's initiative, many hundreds of those who cometo this desert area every winter are learning what the old-timers already knowthat one has to get away from thepaved highways to discover the real charm of the desert.* * *They've been exploding bombs on the Nevada desertagain. It has been rather hard for those of us who havespent much of our lives on the desert to become recon-ciled to the idea that so much of this last retreat for space-loving Americans should be taken over as a laboratory inwhich to perfect the instruments for mass destruction ofhuman life.Perh aps it is necessary. I do not know . But I hopethat one of these days it will be possible to turn back thedesert to the peaceful pursuits of those people who arecoming to this arid Southwest in increasing numbers eachyear for escape from the enervating pressures of commer-cial and social life in the congested centers of population.I am wondering if we Americans are not giving exag-gerated importance to the threat of communism. I cannotbelieve that a philosophy as starkly materialistic as is the

doctrine of Karl Marx can long retain a dominating placein the world of human affairsespecially when the inter-pretation and application of that doctrine remain in handsas ruthless as those in the Krem lin.You and I have been taught, and we believe in ideals

which extend to all men the right of life, liberty and thepursuit of happiness. If that teaching is true, then com-munism carries the seeds of its own destruction.I believe with Herbert Hoover that we should keepourselves defensively strongand morally and economic-ally strongand discard the notion that we must meetcommunism's force with force around the world. It is toobig a joband in undertaking it there is a very greatdanger that we may undermine the morale of our homefrontand in the end defeat the worthy purpose we wereseeking to serve. * * *I am glad to report that since November when webegan putting a jacket in full color on Desert Magazineeach month, the increased revenues from circulation havemore than covered the additional costs. This informationis given to reassure those who wondered if we were goingto raise the subscription price to pay for the extra platesand presswork.Unless inflation goes far beyond its present limits,there will be no increase in the selling price of Desert.Thanks to the loyalty of our more than 100,000 readers,Desert does not have to spend as much on promotion asdo many other publications. While it is true the cost oflabor and materials have advanced during the last threeyears, the growing efficiency of our plant and organiza-tion have fully absorbed th

Documents

195206 Desert Magazine 1952 June