197905 Desert Magazine 1979 May

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C o m evisitus...

PALM SPRINGS

A GREATSELECTIONOF BOOKS

ON TH E W EST

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MAP S GOLD PANSGREETING C ARDSA ND

A LARGEASSORTMENT OF

CURRENT ANDOLD BACK ISSUES

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WILL IAM andJOY KNYVETTCo-Pub lishers/ Editors

GEORGE BRAGA,Art DirectorSHARLENE KNYVE TT,Art DepartmentMARY FRANCES STRONG, Field Trip EditorK. L. BOYNTON, Naturalist

Color SeparationsbyHenry Color Service

LithographedbyWolfer Printing Company,Inc.

Available in MicrofilmbyXerox University Microfilms

DUIAL

THE COVER:Prickly pear bloom, Valleyof Fire State Park, Nevada.See article on Page 16.Photo by David MuenchofSanta Barbara, C alifornia.

Volume 42, Number 5

MAGAZINE

(USPS 154-940)

MAY 1979

CONTENTSF E A T U

THE MINE LEE REALLY LOST! 8

PINYON STRATEGY 12

NEVADA'S VALLEY OF FIRE 16

IMPERIAL VALLEY'S HISTORICAL MEXI CAN FORT 20

LATE SPRING ON LOW DESERT 24

JACK MITCHELL AND HIS CRYSTAL CAVES 28

NEW MEXICO'S FORGOTTEN SKY CITY . . . TSANKAWI 32

SOUTHWEST GROVE 35

PYRAMID LAKE'S LOST SISTER 36

WHAT' S COOKI N'ON THE DESERT 40

R E S

Harold O. Weight

K. L. Boynton

Helen Walker

Herman W. Ronnenberg

Bill Jennings

Charles Taliaferro

James E. Leonard

Dick Bloomquist

Eric Moody

Stella Hughes

D E P A R T

A PEEK IN THE PUBLISHER'S POKE 4

NEW BOOKS FOR DESERT READERS 6

LIVING DESERT RESERVE HOT LINE 41

TRADING POST 42

BOOKS OF THE WEST 44

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 46

CALENDAR OF WESTERN EVENTS 46

M E N T S

William Knyvett

Book Reviews

Karen Sausman

Classified Listings

Mail Order Items

Readers' Comments

Club Activities

EDITORIAL, CIRCULATIONAND ADVERTISING OFFICES: 74-425Highway 111, P. 0. Box 1318, Palm Desert, California 92260. TelephoneArea Code 714 346-8144. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United Statesand pos-

sessions; 1 year, $8.00; 2 years, $15.00; 3 years, $22.00. All other countriesadd $2.00 U. S. currency for each year. See Subscription Order Form inthis issue. Allow five weeksfor change of address and send both new and

Desert /May1979

old addresses with zip codes. DESERT Magazine is published monthly.Second class postage paid at Palm Desert, California and at additionalmailing offices underAct of March 3, 1879. Contents copyrighted 1979 by

DESERT Magazine and permission to reproduce any or all contents mustbe secured in writin g. U nsolicited m anuscripts and photographs willnot bereturned unless accompanied by self-addressed, stamped envelope.


4/48

i tnza-Borrego Desert Region

THE ANZA-BORREGO DESERT REGIONA Guide to the State Park and the Adjacent Areas

By Lowell and Diana LindsayAt last a current and comprehensive guide to Southern California's most

popular desert playground has been written. There has long been a need forsuch a guide to the Anza-Borrego/Yuha Desert, which annually receives morethan a million visitor-use-days. This area, muchof it wilderness, covers a th i rdof San Diego Countyand portions of Riverside and Imperial counties fromtheSanta Rosa Mountains to the Mexican Border.

In its more than a million acres, about equally divided betweenthe Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (the nation's largest state park) and BLM's Yuha

Desert Unit (containingthe site of possibly the earliest human remains in NorthAmerica), the Anza-Borrego region appealsto a broad range of outdoor enthu-siasts: backpackers, dune-buggy drivers, hikers, horsemen, nature seekersand campers.

From prehistoric Indians through weekend vacationers,men have calledthis desert hom e, some for all of their t im e, others for some of their t ime. Frompiney mountain crags to a windy inlandsea, a rich variety of desert plants andanimals dwell , in terrain and landforms as different as their inhabitants.

The book contains a large foldout m ap, providingan overall viewof the re-gion, and also detailed maps showing the most popular hiking and backpackareas. A section on arid-area travel and special precautions adds to the desertexplorer 's enjoymentand safety. Sixty-five trips along700 miles of jeep trails,paved roads, and hiking routes are described, giving detailsof over 300 points

of historic and natural interest. The guide was written in cooperation with the California Dept.of Parksand Recreation, the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Associationand theU.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), RiversideDistrict Office.

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PRING IS a wonderful season to en-joy the desert Southwest. The daysare warm and the evenings cool, and

i t' s wi ldf lowert ime .Oh, he visual feast,rainbows of color, varieties galorewha ta challenge to the photographer, be heamateur or professional.

In this issue, Bill Jennings extolsonth e low desert area in late spring andits points of interest. K. L. Boyntonshows us what an important part the pin-yon tree plays in the balance of Nature,and Charles Taliaferro does a treatmenton Mitchell Cavernsand the ProvidenceMountains.

On the historical side, HermanRon-nenberg elaborates on an old Mexicanfort in California's Imperial Valley. Itha d a very short life,but is being review-ed archeologically by a dedicated groupfrom the Imperial Valley College Muse-u m , whose ultimate goal is the restora-tion of the fort. Eric Moody takesus backin Nevada's history as he tells of Pyra-mid Lake's lost sister, another waterwaythat died into an alkali sink.

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D e s e r t /May 1979


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New Mexico's pueblo of Tsankawi isreviewed by James Leonard, whi leHelen Walker journeys to Nevada's Val-ley of Fire State Park. Dick Bloomquistcontinues h is series on the p alm oases inCaliforn ia, and Stella Hughes tempts thetaste buds with ox-tail stew.

The combination of a lost m ine, a lostledge, a disappearing old prospector,

possible claim jum pin g, political shenan-igans all make for great reading byHarold Weight. He brings us the first oftwo tales of a man who lost twominesand his life.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

One of Desert's favorite projects is theLiving Desert Reserve, located righthere in Palm Desert. This 900-acre areais being carefully developed into aunique facility for the interpretation ofour native plants and wildlife. Thismonth, Karen Sausman, Director of theReserve, initiates a "H ot lin e" column to

keep us informe d of wha t's happ ening inher "Living Desert." Her featherecfriends take top billing with the openingof the new walk-through Lilian ChaseAviary.

ChuckWagonCookin'

by STELLA HUGHES

A tantalizing collection of cow-camp cook tales and 112 authen-tic old-time dutch oven recipes.165 pages.

Stella and herchuckwagon

on the way toWashington, D.C.

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to e B o o k S h o pP.O. Box 1318, Palm Desert, California 92260

P O T T E R Y T R E A S U RThe Splendor of Southwes t

Indian Art.

Photography by Jerry Jacka,Text by Spencer Gill.

Masterpieces of Maria andNampeyo, creations of

contemporary potterymakersand treasures from prehistoric

villages and centuries-oldpueblos. 85 inspiring

photographs in rich color.

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I P O T T E R Y T R E A S U R E S

D e s e r t M a g a z in e B o o k S hP.O. Box 1318, Palm Desert, California92260Desert/May 1979


6/48

C o l o r a d oR i v e r

G h o s t T o w n sBy Stanley W. Paher

Ghost Towns

The skeletal remains of abandoned minesand towns in the Cerbat Mountains andother barren ranges in western Arizonaalong the Colorado River are visited bythe author. Lavishly illustrated with rareold photos. Large format. Standardedition is $2.95.

Beautiful 91/2x12!. i hardcover editioncontains 15 four-color reproductions ofetchings by noted Roy Purcell. $9.95

Please add 50c for p ostage /hand lingCalif, residents please add 6%s tate sales tax

. Magazine Book ShopP.O. Box 1318, Palm Desert, Ca lifornia 92260

"Booksfor

T)esertTraders

All books reviewed are available through theDesert Magazine Book Shop. Please add 50cper total order for handling and Californiaresidents must include 6% state sales tax.

'

MONO DIGGINGSHisto rical Sketches ofOld Bridgeport, Big MeadowsAnd Vicinity,Copiously Illustrated

By Franks. Wed ertz

One of the seldom remarked corners ofthe California gold country is the vastmountain and desert region of Mono

ISBN 0-87004-263-7Approx. 140 Pages

Paperbound6" x 9" $7.95

C

Here is the first lengthy account of thewater transportation system, such as i twas, that served Idaho from the time ofLewis and Clark until the present. Evenbefore the coming of the white man, thenative peoples of the Gem State knew themany great rivers in their land and how tocross them. This is the story of the Idahoferryboats and the important part theyplayed in the settlement and developmentof our beautiful state.

The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd.P.O. Box 700

Caldwell , Idaho 83605

County, and the adjoining Nevadaterri-tory of Esmeralda County. Close to morefamous Virgin ia City, Tonopah and Gold-field, the old placer and hard rock pros-pects of Aurora, Masonic, Monovilleand, to a certain extent, even Bodie, arenot as well known.

But minin g was only part of the exten-sive history of this Eastern Sierra Won-derland, as the present booming touristvisitor and summer business mecca iscalled in publicity releases. Cattle andsheep raising , lumbe ring, and just plainhell raising were as much a part of theMono country's long history.

Author Wedertz has the advantage ofbelonging to one of Bridgeport's mostfamous merchant families and many ofhis kin have also served the county inmany elective and appointive politicalcapacities. Therefore, his book has theauthentic stamp of history as told by onewho either made some of it himself or isdescended from those who did.

The region pre-dates the Gold Rush,of course, because of its geographic loca-tion as one of the early but most ruggedfair-weather crossings of the Sierra. A lsothe presence of Mono Lake has assuredthe county of a rightful place in the his-tory of California.

John Bidwell's pioneering colonizationand exploration e xpedition of 1841, oneof the first major overland treks in Me xi-can California, brought him up fromHumboldt Sink via the Carson andWalker rivers to what is now the BigMeadows-Bridgeport valley of MonoCoun ty, but he followed tw o of the m ajormountain men by more than a decade.

The first non-Indian visitor to MonoCounty appears to have been JedediahStrong Smith, whose arduous journeyinto and out of California in the 1820s in-cluded a sashay through the M ono Basincountry in perhaps 1827, although Smithleft no accurate journal of his feat. Hisparty of fur trappers entered Californiaalong the Colorado River from Utah butleft, at the urgent request of the Spanish-Mexican authorities, via the Sierras,somewhere between present-day King'sCanyon and perhaps Beckworth Passnorthwest of Reno. Some say he wentthrough the Leeving-Bridgeport gap, butwho knows for sure?

Author Wedertz makes a case for hisregion and also for Joseph R. Walker, forwhom Wa lker Pass and the twin forks ofthe Walker R iver are named. Walker fo l-

Desert/M ay 1979


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lowed Smith by some five years and pre-ceded General John C. Fremont and heBidwell-Bartleson expeditionsby someyears also.

Wedertz has done a good job roundingup all the old tales about Aurora,Mason ic, Bodieand the other East Slopemining bonanzas and brings his readersthrough the great snows and deadly

slides of 1911.He also presents vignette biographies

of some of Mono's most distinguishedearly families. In paperback, 256 pages,with many previously unpublishedhis-toric photographs, $9.95.

STEAMBOATSON THECOLO RADO RIVER, 1852-1916

By Richard E. Lingenfelter

There have been many books and ar-ticles written on the romantic if ruggedhistory of steamboating on the Colorado

River and its tributaries, particularlytheGreen, but Lingenfelter's lengthy effort,published by the University of ArizonaPress, is the first to combine all thefacets into one volume, and it's aboutt ime .

The first venture, appropriately,be-gan at the mouth of the Colorado, withthe launching of a little tug, the UncleSam, built to tow military supply bargesup the river to Yuma. Her captain wasJames Turnbull, late of Benecia in theeast San Francisco Bay. A sidewheelerof20 horsepower, she proved inadequate

for the tough job of fighting the Coloradotidal bore and the swift river currents,but she made history.

Much of the Colorado steamer historywas tied with two epochs of Southwest-ern history, Army campaignsand miningdevelopment, but in the later phases,during construction of the dam thatwould end the steamer era, the remain-

ing lower river boats ended their careersas dormitories for dam workers. Thelast of these, the old Searchlight, rem ain-ed active until 1916 as a levee tender forth e old U.S. Reclamation Service.

In the 64 years between the beginningof the Uncle Sam and the sinking of theSearchlight, a number of private andgovernment boats pliedthe main riverasfar up as the mouth of the Virgin Riverand smaller boats were built or hauledoverland to work the upper Coloradoand

the Green for primarily mining ventures.Perhaps the most famous upriver boat

was the Charles Spencer, built by hernamesake in the winter of 1911-1912 tohaul coal for a foolhardy mining venturenear Lee's Ferry. She was abandoned inthe spring of 1912 after onlytwo trips be-tween the steam-operated mining millatLee's Ferry and the coal supply up-stream at Warm Creek, now submergedby Lake Powell.

As the author points out, the steamers

contributed to their own ultimate demiseby hauling men and materials for theagents of their destruction, the railroadsan d the dams. A growing shortage offirewood doomed them, anyway!

Today, the only paddlewheelers plyingthe long desert watercourses are touristcraft, one running intermittentlyatBlythe and another nearly 1,000 milesupstream at Moab, Utah. Neither aresteamers, incidentally.

A prestige addition to your desert li -brary, 195 pages, many maps, photosand historic sketches, paperback, $9.50.

BAJA CALIFORNIAD o n ' t l e a v e w i t h o u t O F F B E AT B A J A ,

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8/48

MANY A PROSPECTOR LOST A LEDGE OF

GOLD AN D SPENT YEARS SEARC HING INVAIN. GEORGE LEE WAS DIFFERENT. HELOST TWO MINES! ONE BECAUSE HE OVER-

LOOKED TH E VALUE OF HIS TAILING W AST E,AN D TH E OTHER C OST H IM HIS LIFE!

T H E M IN E

Ore from the Waterman mine was hauled to this mill on theMojave River at what was then Waterman and is now part of

8

Barstow. Ruins of mill may be seen today. 1880s photo fromBurr Be lden Collection, S an Bernardino Westerners ' Corral.

Dese rt /Ma 1979


9/48

Robert W. Waterman,17th governor of California,

won a fortune from the minewhich he relocated after

George Lee disappeared.That silver wealth enabled him

to enter politics.Portrait from Burr Belden

Collection, San BernardinoWesterners ' Corral.

R E A L LY

L O S T !by HAROLD 0. WE IGHT

5E0RGE LEE was pretty well knownin San Bernardino and around theMojav e Desert a century ago but he

had to disappear to become famous.George vanished in the Mojave in 1879,when he went out to work a ledge he haddiscovered there. He must have convinc-ed many people that his ledge was bon-anza-rich, from the number who wentout to look for himand it. They neverfound either. The Lost Lee hasn't beenfound yet.

George is principally rememberedtoday for his lost ledge. But in the yearsimmediately after his disappearance, hisstatewide fame was due to his othermine. The one that he lost, in a very realsense, because he failed to recognizewhat he had found. This mine he calledthe Pencil Lead, and it lead to the discov-ery of the great silver mines of Calico,and almost as directly to making RobertW. Waterman Governor of California.

For George it did nothing.Had he been an expert in ores, or had

Desert/ May 1979

adequate assays been m ade, George cer-tainly would not have walked away fromthe riches of the Pencil Lead to die in thedesert. There probably would be no LostLee today. Alm ost ce rtainly there wou ldhave been no Governor Waterman. Cali-c o , which Lee never lived to see, mighthave boomed in the 1870s instead of the1880s. History is a tissue of chance andaccidentand George seems to havesuffered more than his share of both,alive and dead.

George Lee located the Pencil Leadmine in 1875, a few miles north of pre-sent Barstow, and about eight west offuture Calico. Such maps as show ittoday identify it as the Waterman. WhatGeorge filed upon was a narrow red veinwhich he believed was quicksilver. Fromat least 1875 into 1879, he developed theclaim, doing more than the work neces-sary to hold it. He never doubted that thePencil Lead would become a valuablemine.

During those years, the only spots of

civilization near George's claim wereGrapevine and Fish Pond Stations, sup-ply points on the San Bernardino-SaltLake road. Both were on the MojaveRiver. Ellis Miller operated Grapevine,which would later become Waterman,and eventually part of Barstow. Lafay-ette Mecham was proprietor of the FishPonds, near present Daggett.

During pan of the 1870s, two of La-fayette 's sons C harles a nd G . FrankMecham lived with him at the station. InBrown & Boyd'sHistory of San Bernar-dino and Riverside Coun ties, 1922,Charles Mecham recalled: "An old manby the name of Mr. Lee would come toour place often for provisions. We al-ways kept enough on hand to accommo-date travelers. Mr. Lee would workaround San Bernardino, doing gardenwork, and after saving a little money hewould go to his mine and prospect untilhis money was a ll, gone and then hewould return to San Bernardino and re-peat the same thing over again. He


10/48

would bring some of his ore with himevery time he came for provisions."

George Lee invited the Mechams tocome over and see his mine. BrotherFrank did. He found Lee in the shallowshaft, filling buckets with the rock hehad blasted out. Heber Lytle, whom Leehad hired to help, was at the surface,hoisting and dumping the buckets. Infollowing and opening his prized red

vein, George broke out and threw on hiswaste dump quantities of a waxy ledgematerial that was soft enough to cut witha knife. This was the "pencil lead" fo rwhich he named his claim.

Years later, Frank Mecham would re-member vividly how, between buckets,Lytle sat there whittling aimlessly at apiece of this soft and sectile "waste"rock. Frank remembered it so well thatafter its value was recognized, he wasone of the prospectors who discovered

the same ore at Calico and located thegreat Silver King mine there. That dumprock proved to be cerargyrite or hornsilvera rich chloride of silver. Assaysof it would run to $3000 a ton.

George Lee's "quicksilver" was onlyone of his prosp ective bonanzas. Fiveyears after he filed on the Pencil Lead,he headed east to work on another, sup-posed to be extremely rich.

April 6, 1880, the San BernardinoDaily Times carried a story headlined:

"A DESERT TRAGEDY-Ceo . J . LeeKilled by Chimehuevas."

"On a prospecting trip to the north-east of San Bernardino about 100 miles,from which Barney Carter and C. J.Reed have just returned, they discoveredthe spot where George J. Lee, wellknown in San Bernardino as a veteranprospector, met a violent and suddendeath at the hands of a party of Chime-hueva Indians. Mr. Lee left San Bernar-dino last summer to explore this un-

known country, and months elapsingwithout his return, a search was madefor him.

"A peculiarity of the soil there retainsany imprint on its surface for ages, andthe old man's tracks were discoveredand traced for days, but nothing definitewas found. On their last trip Messrs.Mclntosh and Carter followed his foot-prints to the spot where he was killed.Some bloody clothing lay on the grou nd,and an examination showed that M r. Lee

had been walking leisurely along when aparty of Indians in ambush behind somebushes fired upon him. He reeled andsank, digging his elbows into the softearth; the Indians then revealed them-selves, and placing.his body on a horsecarr ied it off in to the mountains . . . "

Quite an impressive and detailedaccount, particularly since the men, whowere prospecting in the Dry Lake Dis-trict, foun d no body and saw no Indians.Abo ut a mon th later another pa rty, pros-

pecting the same district north and eastof Old Woman Springs, spent a day

Dry stone walls of the Waterman mill, looking like primitive battlements, can still beseen in north Barstow. The mill proce ssed more than a million dollars in silver.

s e a r c h i n g fo r L e e ' s b o d y, u n s u c cThe only evidenceif you want to call

it thatdirectly connecting Indians withGeorge's death surfaced about a yearlater at Ivanpah mining camp. DanKiestler, a cattleman, was shot to deaththere by an Indian named Win, tribal af-filiation not noted. The San BernardinoValley Index, April 1, 1881,said: " T h emurderer being an Indian, the county

was relieved of the enormous expense ofa murder tr ial . A few citizens took thematter into their own hands and madeshort work of the matter."

Then the writer added, almost as anafterthoug ht, " W in confessed to havingkilled Lee, who disappeared upon thedeser t ."

A solution of the Lee mystery shouldhave received greater prominence thanthat, since George and his Pencil Leadwere dramatically enterin g the news pic-

ture at this time, thanks to Robert W.Waterman. In the 1870s, Waterman wasa prominent citizen of San Bernardino.He owned a "be au tiful semi-tropicalranch"the western part of present Ar-rowhead Ho t Springs . He also was a bee-keeper, and operated the Holstein Dairy,largest in the valley. He represented theHot Springs on the executive committeeof the Agr icultu ral Society. He sold farmimplements.

The late L. Burr Belden, who gathered

and published an incredible amount ofSan Bernardino history and legend, saidthat Waterman became interested inmining when he saw a wagonload ofIvanpah silver bullion displayed at thebank where he was depositing his mea-ger dai ry earnings . In the fa l l of1880September, Belden said W ater-man and John L. Porter, his partner,camped at Grapevine Station on a pros-pecting tour. When he inquired aboutlocal minera l po ssibilities someone men-tioned Lee's "qu icks ilver " claim ap-parently untouched since George's dis-appearance. Station keeper Ellis Millerlater swore in court he had told Water-m a n , with the understanding he wouldreceive a half interest should the claimprove valuable.

One story is that when Waterman andPorter visited the claim Porter, an ex-perienced practical miner, instantly re-cognized the horn silver, and claimswere filed The otherm ore likely sincethe claims were not filed u ntil December7, 8, and 9is that Waterman and Por-

10 Deser t /May 1979


11/48

ter were disappointed and made DO loca-tions. They did take samples, however,and when spectacular assay values werereturned, they rushed back and stakedout ten claims.

Imme diately when the mine 's richnessbecame known, the legal struggle for itbegan. Ellis Mi lle r's claim to a half inter-est was rejected by a jury in September,1881. But the real battle for the

minebetween Waterman and Lee's re-lativeswould continue through twoyears of bizarre and grotesque hap-penings.

Someone located Lee's mother, broth-ers and sisters in New York state and in-formed them of George's disappearanceand of the rich claim he had held.Br oth er Rob ert Lee came or wasbrought to San Bernardino to representthe family. Waterman seems to havebeen a stubborn man, not adverse to le-

gal contention, and one whose businessethics were called into question morethan once. He refused the Lees any com-promise or concession.

December 21, 1881, Dr. A . F. W hite ,acting for the Lee relatives and allegingthat George Lee had died in August,1879, applied for letters of administra-tion for his estate. Ten days later, Dr. H.W. Rice, San Bernardino County Coron-er and Public Administrator, filed a con-test to White's application, claiming that

he had the better legal right to adminis-ter. Since Dr. Rice was Waterman's son-in-law, there were immediate cries ofoutrage. But if Waterman did influenceRice to act, he had reason: The Water-man mine was listed as part of the Leeestate White was to administer.

If George Lee was not d ead, there w asno estate to administer. If he was andthe relatives had no will designatingthem as heirs w hich must have beenthe case for Rice to intervenethey hadno right to administer. Recognizing theprobability that Rice would come out ofthe contest as administrator, W hite with-drew his application. Almost immediate-ly, however, on January 7, 1882, the Leerelatives and White (now claim ing an in-terest in common with the Lees) suedWaterm an and Porter, alleging George'sownership of the Pencil Lead, his death,and their title as successors. Theydemanded recovery and possession ofthe mine, and $50,000 damages.

Providing George could be ruled dead,the claimants must still prove he had

George Lee's "Pencil Lead" claim became the Waterman mine, which producedmore than a million and a half insilver. Mine in operation in the 18 80s, with teamhauling ore to the mill on the MojaveRiver. Burr Belden Collection, San BernardinoWesterners'Corral.

completed the annual labor for 1879 ne-cessary to hold the mine. If he did hethen would have had the whole year of1880 to do that year's assessment work.The Pencil Lead would have been pro-tected from relocation until January 1,1881. Waterman and Porter, filing overLee's claims in early December, 1880,would have been claim jumpers. But be-fore that could be considered, Georgemust be declared dead.

A body was needed. In light of laterevents, it might seem an effort was com-menced to supply one. While the casewas being tr ied, a San Bernardino Indexheadline for February 11 , 1882 read:

"LEE'S BODY FOUND"There is a rumor, and it comes very

straight, that the body of old man Lee,who was lost on the desert some fewyears ago, has now been found. Partiesare now on the road after the body. Somemen on the desert found the body andsent word to some of the old man's rela-tives that they had found it and it couldbe ident if ied beyond al l doubt . . . "

Apparently the parties found no body,or it was not Lee's. On Ap ril 11 , 1882,after being out 15 minutes, the jury inSan Bernardino Superior Court found infavor of Waterman.

The Lee relatives and Dr. White im-mediately moved for a new t r ia l , andwhen that was refused, appealed to the

California State Supreme Court.George Lee dead was now more im-

portant than he had ever been alive. Atthe end of July, 1883-the SupremeCourt not yet having acted on the Lee-Waterman casea body finally wasforthcoming. A. L. Hoffman, a miningman "somewhat eccentric and addictedto drink," declared he knew George hadbeen kil led , on the Mojav e in 1880, aboutfive miles from Calico. Later, drunk, heis said to have admitted doing thekill ing.

Five miles from Calico could be veryclose to the Pencil Lead claim. But whenHoffman went out to the desert with of-ficials, he led them to Old WomanSprings (40 air-miles from Calico). Therea body was exhumed and brought to SanBernardino, in a couple of metal crackerboxes.

Reporting the story August 2, 1883,the Los Angeles Times commented:"The hypothesis that (the remains) areLee's looks extremely improbable. Itmust be remembered that there is a bit-ter contest over the mine between Lee'sheirs and Waterman and Porter, presentowners of the mine, and in the past noexpense has been spared on either side,and the case is still pending in thecourts. If it can be proved that Lee wasmurdered on the desert near the famous

Continued on Page 38

D e s e r t / M a v 1 9 7 9


12/48

P i n y o n

S t r a t e g y

cone [below] with a fewnuts still in place.

Photo by Harold O. Weight.

by K. L. BOYNTON

1979 COME FALL, a pinyon-juniper wood-land is a mighty busy place. Day andnight, at that. Then it is that the pin-

yon nuts are ready and many an interest-ed furred and feathered citizen aroundand about knows it. The jays are in thetrees stuffing themselves in the brightsunlight and quarreling with the chip-munks who are likewise stuffing them-

selves and quarreling with the jays.When the woodland darkens down,

packrats are busy; big eared deer miceand harvest mice, climbing the branches,sniff out the cones with the best andbiggest nuts, other members of themouse tribe pattering about on theground below find those that have fallen.Sunup, the woodland resounds oncemore to the clamor of the loudmouthedjays and scolding chipmunks back forbreakfast.

On the face of it, it would seem thatthe pinyon tree is running a free grubstand, but let it be reported here thatthis is by no means so. The provenderspread out so lavishly is part of the slickstrategy this sturdy little tree has evolv-ed for dispersing its seeds.

If a tree species is to continue to flou r-ish in an area and to widen its distribu-t ion, it has to have some way of d istrib ut-ing its seeds. Many pine trees, such asthe ponderosa, handle this situation by

producing small, light seeds equippedwith "wings" which sail away on thewind . This method is not very efficient,for when the little seeds are blown aboutso willy nilly, many land on bare rocks orin water or places so unfavorable forgrowth it may take years for the seed-lings to get underway.

The pinyon produces seeds that aretoo heavy to be dispersed by the wind.Wingless, they may be up to one-half

Rock ground squirrel loves pinyon nuts.Photo courtesy Jim Cornett, PalmSprings Desert M useum.

12

inch long. If they simply dropped to theground below, there would be only iso-lated groves of pinyons in restrictedareas. Even under the best of soil and

moisture conditions the seedlings wouldbe stifled by crowding and competitionfrom the ma ture trees. In the arid South-west, the loss would be astronomical forthe seedlings could even less stand thecompetition under stress of high temper-ature and lack of water.

In solving its heavy seed dispersal pro-blem, the pinyon neatly employs the ser-vices of the m obile citizens of the region ,particularly those who store their extragroceries in shallow caches in the

ground. These food harvesters do thedispersal job for the tree, for many of theseeds they bury will never be retrieved.In time, many of these germinate andthe new seedlings thus carefully "plant-e d " are off to a fine start for carrying onthe pinyon line. Often, too, the seeds arecarried away to brand new areas, andthus pinyon trees become established inplaces where they have not been before.

So successful is this seed dispersalsystem that pinyon pines, together with

various species of junipers, make up adistinct type of woodland that covers anarea in western United States variouslyestimated to be between 60 and 100 mil-lion acres. Its range extends throughoutthe southern Rocky Mountains andmountains of the Great Basin fromsouthern Idaho and Wyoming throughthe eastern edge of northern California,Nevada, Utah and western Colorado intothe high plateau region of Arizona andNew Mexico.

Grow ing at altitudes from 3000 feet orso in the north to 8500 in its southernranges, the pinyon ju niper type of wood-


13/48

land lies just below the ponderosa pinezone and is the first conifer belt upmountain from the sagebrush desert. Itis a belt where ra infall may run only 10 to25 inches a year, with daily and seasonaltemperature extremes, high wind move-ment and an evaporation rate by far thehighest recorded for any forest type. Infact, Botanist L. Benson, noting the

small number of woody plants supposedto differentiate the juniper-piny on wood-land from the sagebrush desert, sug-gests that maybe the two are not reallyso well segregated as previously thought.The hardy little old pinyon makes it any-how in this desert-like environment,even securing toeholds on steep talusslopes of mesas and rocky canyon walls.One of the most drought-resistant oftrees, it needs only 12 to 18 inches of rainannually, its shallow roots making the

most of what's delivered. Growth isslow, trees 150 to 375 years old reachinga breast-high d iame ter of 12 to 30 inchesrespectively. A scraggy tree at best, thepinyon is not a candidate for any botani-cal beauty contest, but its system of get-tin g its seeds hauled off by cargo carriersand planted is a winner.

Now a bird or animal doing his dailygrocerying is out to get the most andbest food with the least cost in time andenergy. The diner wants fast service in

the food line, particularly when beingjostled by pushy competitors out for thesame food and since he is usually on thedodge himself to escape predators whowish to eat him. Furthermore, if thediner is the prudent type who believes inlaying in a good store for fut ure use as dothe various jays, Clark's Nutcracker andthe pantry stackers among rodents, thefood has to be wo rth the hard work of col-lecting, hauling and burying it.

To attract these energetic members of

the Seed Burying Society, the pinyon of-fers a first class product and backs it upwith a marke ting program that really de-livers the goods.

It hasn't been an easy job.The pinyon, it seems, belongs to a

group of primitive plants living today(the cycads, ginkos, Mormon Tea, pinesand many other kinds of conifers) calledGymnosperms (Creek fo r "na ke dseeds") because they never got aroundto evolving flower structures in which

their d eveloping seeds could be enclosedand fully protected. In line with its oldconifer family tradition,then, the pinyon

Pinyon pines in Joshua Tree National Monument. Photo by Harold O . Weight.

pine has no flowers but produces conesinstead, formed of scales spirally arrang-ed on an axis.

Each tree produces separate male andfemale cones. Male cones are smallerand grow in groups. They are the red

clusters that seem to cover the twoneedle pinyon in the spring. Sacks de-velop on each of their diminutive scalesand it is here that millions of grains ofpollen containing the male cells are man-ufactured. The young female cones grow

White-footed mouse won't pass up pinyon n uts. Photo by Jim Cornett, PalmsSprings Desert Museum.

Desert/ Ma 1979 13


14/48

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singly. They are larger, short stalkedand rather purplish in hue and it is ontheir scales that "ovules" develop inwhich the seed-to-be will eventually takeform.

At the right time the pollen sacks ofthe ma le cones burst open and the pollenis released into the air. It sifts downupon the female cones and fertilization

begins, to be completed only after manycomplex changes take place. An embryoforms and seed development is at lastunderway.

Producing these seeds costs the treeconsiderable energy. It also takes a longtime, Botanist E. L. Little finding that itactually begins in August when the firstwinter buds that will become new conesstart to form. The buds are fully matureby October but growth stops and doesnot resume u ntil Ma y of next spring. Pol-

lination occurs in June and cone growthcontinues only to stop once more inAugust. The following May it picks upagain, and finally in September thecones are mature and nutlike seeds atlast ready. The cones open and the treeis ready for customers.

Besides being big and hence attractiveto harvesters interested in filling them-selves up fast and increasing their forag-ing rate, the pinyon seed is stuffed withfood value. Li t t le ' s careful analysis

showed that each seed has an energyvalue of 7.409 kilocalories per gram,high in comparison to seeds of otherpines. If stored and retrieved during thewinter when free food is almost unavail-able, its value increases still more. Hereagain size is important, making collect-ing trips pay off in quickly gatheredcaches for those customers winging infrom a distance.

Now a thick hu ll on a seed means ithas to be worked and worked on before

the diner can get to the good part. Ittakes time and effort. This discouragesharvesters and consequently adverselyaffects seed dispersal. Testing the seedsof six kinds of pines including two whichproduce big seeds, Biologists S. B. Van-derwall and R. P. Balda, during thecourse of their big pinyon-Nutcrackerstudy, found a definite relationship be-tween size and coat thickness: trees thatproduce big seeds provide thick hulls forthem. Not the pinyon. Its seed coat isth in , which further increases the seed'schances for attracting harvesters andhence being dispersed.

Not all seeds are sound. Some fallvictim to insect pests, some due to envi-ronmental stress do not mature properly.For the tree it is most important that onlyseeds that will grow are distributed tosites favorable to germination. For theseed customer, only those that are edibleare worth hauling off and caching.

How do they tell the good ones from

the bad?There's color for one cue, perhaps a

built-in dispersal adaptation by the tree.Good seeds are dark bro wn, the inedible,tan, and experienced jays and nutcrack-ers, cocking a knowing eye , use this. Thegood ones weight more, too, a bill pick-up test showing this. There may be asound difference, too, birds often clack-ing seeds in their bills reject certainones. Certainly there is an odor differ-ence clear to bewhiskered rodent noses,

and a weig ht difference easily tested. A llthese cues make shopping for goodpinyon seeds easier, speed up harvest-ing efficiency and increase dispersalchances.

Packaging always counts, and the pin-yon displays its merchandise rig ht, quitedifferent from pines using the wind forseed dispersal. The cones of these otherpines point downwards and outwards,and while this makes it easy for theseeds to fall out and be on their way , it is

hard for foragers to see them and get atthem under the down-slanting scales.Pinyon cones face upwards and out-wards. Not only does this keep the seedsfrom falling out, it also shows them offbetter. The light gets in around the openscales. Vanderwall and Balda observingthe cones from all angles found thatindeed some 87 percent of the seeds arevisible from the cone's apex,77 percentfrom the sides.

Pinyon cone design is also excellent.

There are only 25 scales to a cone (theponderosa has 73) which means fewer tobe searched. They are sh ort, too, and donot hide the seeds, and they have nospines as do some pine cones to get inthe way of seed removal. Fanciest of allis that ingenious pinyon super touch:each seed rests in a deep depression onthe scale held there by small flanges at-tached to the inner surface of the conesides. Hence the merchandise is kept aslong as possible for those customerssuch as jays who do much of their shop-ping in open cones by day and for theclimbing members of the mouse tribe


15/48

who work the tree by night.What with holdingthe merchandise on

the shelves as long as possible and itsschedule of cone opening from earlySeptember to late October, the pinyonmakes at least 50 days of harvesting pos-sible. The gun jumpers among cus-tomers who work the ones just beforethey open make the season that much

longer.Biologist J. D. Ligon, long interested

in the pinyon tree-pinyon jay relation-ship, noted that widespread heavy cropswere produced over much of the South-west at irregular and infrequent inter-vals: 1936, 1943, 1945, 1954, 1959, 1965,1 9 6 9 , 1974 and he wondered. Trueenough it takes three growing seasons toturn out a cone and a lot of climaticandmoisture variationscan take place in thattime which would accountfor crop differ-

ences, but only in part. There had to besomething else.

He thinks that the pattern of synchro-nous production of seeds over such alarge geographic area evolved as a de-fense response to seed predators. Pinecone moths, pine cone beetles and otherinsects kill cones and growing seeds. Inyears of poor seed crops or none at all,big populations of these insects die off.Come a bumper seed crop, there arefewer insects around to do damage. Fur-

thermore millions of seeds maturingsimultaneously stuff the feathered andfurred eaters fu l l , leaving millionsto bestored. As Biologist D. H. Janzen pointsout, seeds that are eaten by these pantry-stockers is the price the tree pays tor reli-able dispersal and planting. Witha bum-per crop, the proportionate cost is low.

Naturally any tree with an off-beatpro-duction schedule is at a big disadvan-tage. Local and out-of-area predatorsdescend upon it and promptly eat up

most if indeed not all the seeds, leavingthe tree with a minus score reproduction-wise. This is particularly the case withpinyon jays who are forced to wandergreat distances for provender if crops intheir home range fail . When some 300 ofthese hungry transients come wingingin , local pockets of out-of-phase pinyonsare cleaned out in no t ime.

This synchronous timingof seed pro-duction over widespread areas of itsrange is an ace in pinyon dispersal stra-

tegy that has only recently cometo l ight.That this tough, scraggy little treehasstill others, is worth bettingon.

Desert/Mav1979

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16/48

N E V A D A ' SV A L L E YO F

16

by HELEN WA LKER

I YOU are traveling between Las Ve-gas and Salt Lake City, on Interstate1 5 , Nevada has a surprise for you theValley of Fire. You cannot see Valley ofFire from the h ighwa y, but you can reachit by driving just 18 easy miles east onN 4 0 , about 55 miles north of Las Vegas.The valley is obscured beh ind a low pro-file ridge, where not a hint of the sur-

prise is given away.As you top out on the ridge, and lookdown into the valley below, only oneword can describe what lies before you"sp ec tac ula r." I can tell you how redand golden the bluffs contrast the bluesky and the surrounding Muddy Hills,but you must actually see it, to believe it.

Right where you will want to stop totake in the view, Nevada has provided aview/rest stopdrive in and take advan-tage of its orientation. A large contourmap marks the point where you are,what you are about to see, where youmay camp or picnic, and where theVisitor Center is located. It does, in fact,prepare you for your visit down into thevalley, whether it be for a few hours or afew days.

As you travel, give thought to thepast, and the 600 million years of geolo-gy that were required to create what youare about to see. Visualize that whereyou travel now, there was once a sea,hundreds of feet deep, and its shores

reached to the distant horizons. It was aDesert/May 1979


17/48

Sandstone formsin the V alley of Fire.Photo by David Muench.

warm sea, and during the 300 millionyears of its existence, marine and plantlife flourished, allowing time for simplelife forms to grow in their comp lexity. As

new life replaced the old, beds of limedeposits and shells blanketed the seafloorbuilding layers hundreds of feetdeep.

As time traveled up the geologicaltime scale, the sea floor gradually rose,lifted in part by forces beneath its crust.Slowly the seas disappeared, leaving be-hind mud flats and sluggish streams.During periods of heavy rainfall at thehigher elevations, the streams becameswollen, and coarse sand, branches,twigs and tree trunks w ere washed downand became imbedded in the mud flats.For 75 million years, the limestone bedscont inued to be covered wi th thehighland run-off, growing to a depth ofnearly 5000 feet.

Climatic conditions brought anotherchange to this area. Searing heat and dryswirling winds dried the mud flats andpiled the sand into lofty dunes. Thedunes became embedded and crossbed-ded with the muds and limestones andthus we see the creation of abstract

mounds throughout the valley. Natureshaped them into whimsical and grotes-que shapes. The given name of this ma-terial in the dunes is Aztec Sandstone. Itis practica lly fossil free , as a result of theoxygenated environment that causes arapid decomposition of flora and fauna.The brilliant colors that predominate inthe valley are deep reds and near pur-ples, to the more subtle tans and whites.The changes in color are due to ground-water that percolated through the sandand leached out the oxidized iron.

You may want to get settled into campbefore setting out to explore the sights.Valley of F ire is a State Park. In fac t, it isNevada's oldest State Park, dedicated in1935. There are two campgrounds, with50 units each wa tch for the turn -offsigns as you reach the valley floor. Youwill find a variety of siteslong, levelpads for trailers and campers; a bit moreprivate spots for tents, etc. Each site isprovided with shade, a picnic table,BBQ, wa te r nea rby and res t rooms .There is also a dump station at one

Desert/May 1979 17


18/48

campground. A fee is charged, and ispayable at camp.

Whether you plan to camp for a fewdays or just stay for a picnic, a stop at theVisitor Center will be well spent. Hereyou will be provided with a free brochurecovering the facts about the valley, and a

map which w ill g uide you on a tour of thesights of interest. All the listed sites arereached by auto, a few require shortwalks, and some easy hikes are optio nal.Most of the sites have water, picnicareas, restrooms and ample parkingspace.

During your tour of the valley, take aclose look at the sandstone dunes rubyour hand across their abrasive exterior.

These dunes are of the Mesozoic Era onthe geological time table, some two m il-lion years old. You will notice that somedunes are delicately crossbedded, theothers show deep, etched wrinkles. Thecementation of the sandstone particlesoccurred under a variety of circum -stances and climatic conditionsthere-fore some areas of the dunes are ofharder material than others. In periodsof torrential rainfall, the softer materialis washed away, while the harder sub-

stances resist wind and chemical de-struction. The harder sandstone formsknobs, and they are referred to as"India n M arb les ." As the softer materialis washed away, it leaves picturesquearches, holes and hollow spots a de-lightful playground for children, and areal challenge for photographers.

Another surface to look for is thesmoother and usually darkened veneer.This slicker surface is a result of groundwater seeping through the joints in the

Picnic areas are chosen for their view.

18 Desert /May 1979

Campground,Valley of Fire.

sandstone. The softer material becameleached out and a harder material re-placed the voided space. This materialwas usually quartz or calcite. Eventually,the cleavage between the soft and har-dened surface breaks away, leaving theslick, smooth surface.

Some of the surfaces of these verticaljoints are streaked with white mineraldeposits, while others are coated with a

dark finish known as "desert varnish."Look carefully on the harder dark sur-

faces, as it was here that the early Indian


19/48

residents of the valley carved and peckedtheir art that we recognize today as pe-troglyphs. Two of the best displays ofpetroglyphs in the valley are at AtlatlRock and Petroglyph Canyon. The atlatlthat is plainly pecked on the smooth jointface of A tla tl Rock dates back some 3000years. The atlatl was a notched stickused by the Indians to increase the dis-

tance and accuracy of the spear he wasusing as a hun ting weapo n. This combin-ation of weapons was a predecessor tothe bow and arrow.

Other rock art at these and similar lo-cations throughout the valley date backto 500 AD to 1000 AD, and are believedto be the work of the Pueblos.

There are several excellent displays ofpetrified logs along the self-guided tour.These logs were washed down from thehighlands when the seas had dried to

mud flats. They became buried in themud and slowly their woody materialswere altered, molecule by molecule, andreplaced by quartz and other minerals.Some of the petrified logs have becomefractured by earth movements, somehave changed colors where exposure hasoxidized the minerals.

Plant life and the anim al po pulation ofthe valley have endured the struggle forsurvival. You will find the familiar creo-sote bush, brittlebush, Mormon Tea and

a variety of cacti. In the early sprin g, na-ture produces a blanket of brilliantwild-flowers. Each individual specie has de-

veloped its method of resistance to harshweather.

Animal life has an advantage overplant life. The animals can move under-ground to avoid heat, and become noc-turnal when necessary to survive. Ifyou are an early riser, take a quiet walkand you wi ll see the tracks of the pack ratin the sand, small indentations of the

kangaroo rat and long, swirling trails ofthe lizard or snake. This is the story oflife after dark, the hunt for food andsearch for water.

Early inhabitants of the valley haveleft behind many of their relics. Most ofthese can be enjoyed at the VisitorCenter. There are baskets which wereused to carry seeds and water from thehigher elevations, g rindin g tools and theweapons with which they provided theirfamilies with fresh meat.

Ano ther excellent place to view Indianrelics and learn more facts about thevalley is at the Lost City Museum atOverton, just a few miles northeast ofthe park on the eastern entrance.

You can visit Valley of Fire anytime,but the ideal visit is made in the earlyspring or during the fall months. Sum-mer sees the thermometer rise to above100 degrees, and winter months bringfreezing temperatures.

Whe never the visit, you 'll find it is one

"surprise" that will l inger in your mem-ory, and hopefully in the photos you takeh o m e .

Whimsical

shapes oferodedsandstone.

Des ert/May 1979

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20/48

*< - - . / . ^ . .

Imperial

ValleysHistoricMexican Fo rt

by HERMA N W . RONNENBERG

20

N APRIL 23, 1826, a KumeyaayIndian, a captive taken in a small,brief war, was publicly shot at the

military presidio of San Diego. Twentypairs of ears from his fellow warriors hadalready been put on public display. TheMexicans did not shoot this now-name-less man to celebrate their victory, but totry to take the sting from their defeat.

The fierce warriors of the burning Colo-rado desert, the inland area the Mexi-cans described as being muerto (dead) orbelonging to diablo (the devil), hadpushed out the intruders. The fort theMexicans had built at the place calledLaguna de Chapala had ended its his-tory after only four months and wasnever to be regarrisoned.

In the 153 years since then all visiblesigns of the fort have disappeared, butthe site, near Im perial, Californ ia, is now

being excavated and hopefully will oneday be restored.Most of the history of the fort was re-

searched by volunteers from the Imper-ial Valley College Museum and pu b- lished in its Miscellaneous Publicationnumber six as preparation for archaeo-logical work at the site.

The history of the fort had been es-sen t ia l ly los t before the i r researchbegan. About the only Imperial Countyresident with a prior interest in the fort

was ex-sheriff Hubert Hughes, who is apublished poet and local historian. Hephotographed and measured the de-cayed, but sti|l visible, walls in 1958.

In 1973, he contacted the then re-cently established museum to share hisin fo rmat ion . Ch ie f Museum Cura to rMichael Barker and Museum DirectorWilliam Farris were immediately inter-ested and the project has been under-way ever since.

Just how did a Mexican fort come tobe established in a part of California theMexicans, and before that the Spanish,tried so hard to avoid entering?

The Mission San Diego de Alcala wasfounded on July 16, 1769 and its im-pact immediately extended to the hotlands beyond the coastal m ountains; thearea we know as the Colorado Desert,which today includes Imperial and thesouthern portion of Riverside counties.

Five years later, in 1774, the "Con-queror of the Desert," Juan Bautista deAnza, made his famous crossing of thearea. On the portion of his journey from"Cerro Centinela" (Mt. Signal) to "San

D e s e r t / M a y 1 9 7 9


21/48

Opposite page:Test trenches at thefort site. S uch a test

trench may uncover theremains of one of

the cavalry men notlisted as being buried

back in San Diego.Right: Bull Head

Slough, lying about100 yards w est ofthe site. Today it

carries a great dealof irrigation run-off.

In 1826, it wasprobably just a

wet place.

Sebastian" (Harper 's Well) he musthave passed close to the future fort site.

In 1784, Pedro Fages, another notedSpanish explorer of California, also pass-ed through the vicinity.

In 1821, political upheaval ended"New Spain," and in 1824, the FederalRepublic of Mexico was born. The as-yet-unconceived-of Mexican fort thusavoided going down in history as the"Spanish For t ."

The following year, Lieutenant (some-times refe rred to as Captain) Don Santi-ago Arguello from Presidio San Diegowas chasing deserters when he dis-covered a new and better land routethrough the mountains to the easterndesert. The usual route was the oneAnza had pioneered through CoyoteCanyon (now a popular hiking area inAnza-Bor rego Park ) . Coyo te Canyonforms a natural wedge between theSanta Rosa and the San Ysidro Moun-tains a natural east-west corridor.Arg uello 's rou te crossed San Felipe Val-ley from Carrizo Wash to the Warner'sHot Springs area and then to the coast.The routes are essentially parallel butArguello's is more southerly, hencecloser to San Diego.

Des ert/May 1979

In 1823-24, another Spanish (actuallyMexican) explorer, Captain Romero, de-ve loped a t r a i l f rom Al ta P imer ia(Tucson) to Pueblo Los Angeles by wayof the Yuma Crossing of the ColoradoRiver and the San Gorgonio Pass (pres-ent day Beaumont, Banning and Caba-zon). This "San Gorgon io-Cocomari-copa" route had to be made safe fromIndians, so the Mexican governmentordered Lieutenant Romualdo Pachecoto bui ld a for t a t San Gorg onio(Banning). Pacheco personally preferredthe Carrizo route of Arguello so he de-layed and bided his time at San Diego.

The first Mexican Constitutional Gov-ernor of Alta California, Senor JoseMaria Echeandria, arrived at San Diegoin November, 1825. Being the largestsettlemen t in Alta C alifornia (1,829 non-Indians), San Diego became the seat forhis administration.

Early that December, Echeandriaand Pacheco, with a force of cavalry, re -l

connoitered to the Colorado River via theCarrizo route. Together they selected thesite for the fort at the area they namedLaguna de Chapala over 120 milesfrom its ordered site at San Corgonio.Governor Echeandria left Pacheco and a

few of the cavalry at the site to beginconstruction and returned to San Diego.

The place they picked was well knownto the explorers and travelers of thearea. The site is adjacent to the presentNew River and Bull Head Slough. These"streams" were shallow standing wateror muddy depressions most of the yearthen, but did flow in the spring carry-ing flood waters from the C olorado River

to the lowest part of the Salton Sink.Here was lush grass for horses, standingwater in the sloughs, and a high watertable to make well-digging practical.

The fort site was due east from the

mouth of Carrizo corridor and on a slightknoll in the desert. The Carrizo route,the Coyote Canyon route, and the SanGorgonio route all passed this areabefore diverging.

There was a village of Kumeyaay In-dians nearby who were momentarilypeaceful and they we re hired as laborerson the project. The description recordedsays they bu ilt a fort about 60 feet sq uarewith its only opening on the east wall ,and that only six feet wide. Measure-ments taken in 1958, however, reveal astructure about 100 feet square. Arch-aeology should detect the exact size.

21


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New Riverabout 100yards away

Ove rhead v iew of Mexican For t

Ocotillo cactusbarricade

Breastwork

Adobe-Moat (dry)

Earthen corner ramp

Cobble stone footing

Cross sect ion of a wall at a corner

Drawings based on those in"Laguna Chapala, theMexican Fort," Miscellan-eous Publication no. 6, IVCMuseum Society, 1977, p. 8

The Mexicans also dug "calf holes,"which are ramps descending to the w atertable like a well for animals to walk intoto drink.

During the last week of December,1825, Lieutenant Pacheco's report fromLaguna de Chapala predicted completion

of the fort in one month. By the end ofJanu ary, Pacheco was back in San Diegoand apparently one Ignacio Delgado wasin charge at the fort.

The situation deteriorated immediate-

A test trench dug at the fort. The ridge inthe middle was probably a wall. Theoriginal walls were adobe, five or six feethigh, possibly w ith som e earth on top.

The walls had cobblestone footings and apalisade of thorny Ocotillo branches.

ly. News arrived in San Dfego of an i"m-pending Indian uprising but was soonfollowed by a less-alarming dispatch tha tthree chiefs from Vallecito, Cuaripe,Haluco and Cajaguaca, with 15 warriorshad arrived at the fort proposing friend -ship. The situation had calmed for themoment.

By April however, the fort-buildingKumeyaay had been provoked and theyattacked their former employers alongwi th the Mexican ' s newly acqu i redVallecito allies.

With all the timing of a good movie,Lieutenant Pacheco returned in the nickof time with 25 cavalry lancers from hisMazatlan squadron. Together with thedetachment at the fort, they counter-attacked. Mexican lances, sabers, and afew muzzle-loaders faced Indian arrows,spears and clubs. Six troopers werekilled and "various" others receivedarrow wounds. Twenty-eight Indiansdied at the battle and one captive wastaken. As William M. Farris,I.V.C. M u -seum Director has written of the battle,"though the fighting was inconclusivethe results were decisive; the fort wasabandoned."

After the battle, this first attempt atnon-Indian settlement in the ImperialValley was all but forgotten. The nextmention of the fort is in the July, 1891,Riverside Press, which said there was a"rude" fort in ruins, but sti l l standing.Mesquite trees and a pool of water (theold calf hole?) were also reported at thesite.

About 1900, the first settlers began ar-riving in the Imperial Valley. Some no-ticed the old ruin and fanciful talessprang up about it. The Imperial Press in1901 said: "History of the fort would beinteresting were it possible to read it."The account suggested that the fort mayhave been built to protect stages carry-

ing U.S. Mai l . (The old Butterfield lineran through the area in the 1850's and60's.)

The Imperial Press and Farmer in1902 gave the fort a headline worthy ofNational Inquirer: "Was a CatholicPriest Burned at the Stake?" It went onto describe a charred mesquite post atthe site surrounded by burned humanbones and teeth. A "legend" (probablymade up on the spot] was then relatedthat a "Spanish expedition was over-

powered by savages, the entire partyperishing save the priest who was trans-

22 Desert/May 1979


23/48

lated (sic) to heaven without sufferingdea th . "

Some time after 1958, when SheriffHughes had surveyed the area, the re-maining walls were leveled by a farmer'sland plane. A simple hole or any dis-turbance of the soil becomes a surpris-ingly permanent feature in that it alwaysretains a different character than the

surrounding soil. For this reason, afterevery rain, weeds still grow thickly fol-lowing the now invisible wall and createan outline of the old fort.

IVC Museum's first project was toraise money to fence the site which theydid through private donations. With thenew fence in place, in late Spring of 1977a number of test trenches were dug atthe site to locate the greatest perimeterof the walls.

The Museum is awaiting arrival of a

resistivity meter before excavating fur-ther. This is a device to record under-ground objects. An electrical current isrun between points and the resistance toeach charge is plotted. As the points aremoved, changes in the resistance are de-tected. Since underground obstructionscause this variation, the final chartreveals where the obstructions are andthe archaeologists know where to dig.Once the long overdue device arrivesfrom England full-scale work will start.

The soil at the area is very acid andmany artifacts may have dissolved away.Buttons, guns, coins, leather goods,etc., are the type of objects that wouldlogically be left behind when a fort ishastily abandoned. Such finds couldyield enormous information.

Possibly the burial sites of three Mex-ican soldiers listed as killed bu t not listedas return ed to San Diego for bur ial mi ghtbe found. It was the Mexican militarypractice to bury soldiers outside the

walls but inside the surrounding moat. Ifthese are found, it should be of greatinterest to the Mexican government torecover the remains of war-dead.

Trash, which garrisons customarilyburied, might also be found.

The Museum currently favors a plan tohave students reconstruct the fort usinghand-made adobe bricks when all theexcavation is completed. When their re-building is finished, Imperial County willhave a monument unlike any other in the

state, and Laguna de Chapala will be-gin adding to its long-suspended history.

1Above: Confluence of the New River and Bull Head Slough, S.E. of the site about200 yards. The towers of the El Cen tro Naval Air Facility can be seen in thebackgroun d. B elow: The carefully staked grid system for excavation p urposes.


24/48

0 npnng

P BUnexpected

"Desert

by BILL JENNINGS

M O U MIG HT not th ink that late spr ingV M ay and even early June would4 be a good time to sample the myriad

attractions of California's Anza-BorregoDesert State Park, bu t give it a try.

You could be happily surprised at themildness of the days and the coolness ofthe nights, and this is still wildflowerseason.

In fact, two of the prettiest bloomers,the dark blue smoke tree, and its vividdarker cousin, the precisely namedindigo bus h, are just getting started. Theverbena, morning glory, mojave aster,several cacti and the towering agave andyucca are still in their glory.

Besides, the big ne arly 900 squ aremiles by latest measurepark is blessedwith a number of fine, higher-elevationcampgrounds that are accessible by con-ventional car, over fair to excellentroads.

This time of year you'll find plenty ofroom at Culp Valley, just up the scenicMontezuma Grade from park headquar-ters in lower Palm Canyon, at some3,300 feet in elevation. Further south,there is Blair Valley, over 2,500 feet.Both are rated as primitive camps butthat's not to say they aren't equipped,particularly with scenery.

Many experienced desert camperssave their lingering trips, those three-

24

day affairs, for this time of year in theBorrego country. Many campers stayaway, for no good reason I can think of,and there will be a better pick of camp-sites, no crowds at Font's Point andyou'll have the Bill Kenyon scenic over-look trail all to yourself as you threadYaqui Pass, site of another relativelyhigh-elevation, albeit primitive, roadsidecamp.

By the time this story appears, in theMay issue, out in late April with luck,you'll have your choice of two excellentguidebooks to the Borrego country.Lowell and Diana Lindsay's model, "TheAnza-Borrego Desert Region," subtitled"A Guide to the State Park and AdjacentAreas," has been out several months.

George and Jean Leetch's new editionof the historic (1957) Horace Parker"Anza-Borrego Desert Guide Book" isdue out under auspices of the Anza-Bor-rego Na tu ra l H i s to ry Assoc ia t ion .There's no choice for most of us Borregofans. We have to own both.

And the park association has providedanother great wrinkle, cheap reprints ofthe trusty 15 -minute series topographicalmaps put out by the U. S. GeologicalSurvey.

Books, maps and a lot of free, but ex-cellent, advice are available at the park'snew Visitors Center, which opened in

mid-March. All of the permanent dis-plays in the energy-conserving buildingare not yet installed but some of thegoodies, particularly a spectacular audio-visual program were scheduled for com-pletion about now.

The new building is a success story ofrare vintage. The state and federal gov-ernments put up about half of the esti-mated million-dollar investment and therest came through the natural historygroup's efforts. Volunteers from the as-sociation also staff the handsome stoneand concrete dugout style structure,located at the entrance to the BorregoPalm Canyon campgrounds, near thepark headquarters.

One of the newer attractions in thepark that is drawing good attendance inlate spring is the Anza Ranch horse-men's camp near El Vado (the ford) atthe mouth of Coyote Canyon. Thisfacil-ity was added to the park in 1977 and

. provides corral space for up to 27 horsesand 10 camping groups.

A system of trails connect the campwith nearby Collins Valley and lower

Dunes primrose and tumbleweedson the Anza-Bo rrego Desert.

Desert/May 1979


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,

f t -

I


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Cattle watering pond also is a haven for deer and other w ildlife on the Lo s CoyotesIndian R eservation near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a good late spring camp-ing area for desert visitors. Photo by Bill Jennings.

Coyote Canyon and patroling rangerskeep horses and vehicles on their ownspecifically designated routes.

At the far east end of the park, nearOcotillo Wells, the state's first off-roadvehicle recreation area has been addedto the park system. Approved by theState Park and Recreation Commissionin early 1976, the new site includes

14,000 acres north of State Highway 78designated for off-roaders' primary use.

Casual visitors won't want to venture

26

The late H orace Parker,guidebook author, former state

park commissioner and noted desertconservationist, was a special

speaker 10 years ago at the dedicationof the Bill Kenyon Trail.

That's Wes Cater, formerAnza-Borrego Desert State Parkmanager, behind him.

intoth eO c o t ill o W e l l s S t a te V e hRecreation Area anyway. Most of it isrough terrain best suited for four-wheel-ers and sand buggies.

Another area primarily used by off-roaders is the new Culp Valley section,more than 600 acres of the historic ParoliRanch that provides a continuous jeeptrail from Culp over the Jasper andGrapevine routes across the south ridgesof the San Ysidro Mountains to StateHighway 78 near the Yaqui Well andTamarisk Grove campgrrounds.

The coolest parts of the park for latespring visitors are also the least accessi-b l e , except via h igh-center or four-wheel-drive vehicles. This is the park's rela-tively new north end, Coyote Canyon inparticular. This seemingly remote area isactually well traversed by old cattle andmining roads, but most are not intendedfor passenger cars. This part of the parkis bighorn sheep country, and the parkmanagement closes the main routes inmid-June for the summer months so thesheep can have undisturbed access toMiddle Willows, the only sure watersupply in warm weather.

Blair Valley, the 2,500-foot-high bowlabove Mason and Shelter valleys at thepark's south end, is a good late springsite, and offers many side trips negoti-able by sedan or compact coupe, intoLittle Blair Valley, south to San DiegoCoun ty's Agua Caliente Hot Springs and


27/48

Vallecitos Stage Station parks, or to thewest up winding Banner Grade to thehistoric mining region around Julian,San Diego County's almost county seatback in 1870 when the mining boom waspeaking.

As in the case with all these weekendtrip reports in recent months, I stronglyurge you to make advance reservationsfor any motel or other accommodations

and also to inquire well ahead of triptime regarding scenic attractions such aswildflowers and road conditions, whichcan change relatively quickly in the wakeof our occasional thunderstorms.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, ofcourse, stays open all summer, if you'reso inclined, and there's nearby Cuyama-ca Rancho State Park in the cooler highcountry as well , plus the public campingand picnic facilities maintained by theLos Coyotes band of Mountain Cahuilla

Indians at their high-country reservationnear Warner Springs.

Another Indian camping area of greatbeauty and hospitality is just below theLake Henshaw resort on State Highway76, operated by the La Jolla Reservation.Lake Henshaw itself is a popularsummer resort area, with boating andfishing and nearby Mt. Palomar with itsfamous 200-inch telescope, several stateand county park camping areas and well-marked day loop trips.

Wh en you think about it, late spring is

The view across Coyote Canyon and Lost V alley to the Santa Rosa Mountains is one

of the scenic high points of a late spring visit to the Anza-Borrego Coun try, from LosCoyotes Indian Reservation.

just about a perfect time to visit the lowdesert, as long as you leave yourself anescape hatch, in the form of ample roadsand accommodations in the nearby SanDiego County high country!

With the present gas allocation pro-blems , it's a good idea to map your routecarefu lly. M any of the crossroads servicestations have been closing on weekends,so keep a relatively full tank by stoppingwherever you can. Again, a call to parkheadquarters at Borrego Springs, or any

Des ert/May 1979

of the other numerous state and county,Indian and private sites is well worth theeffort.

If you don't fi nd the bee-mecca smoke-tree in bloom when you come down, youmay be a little early, but the indigo willmake up for it, along with the manyother late annual and perennial blooms,particularly in the higher elevations and you can always take in the annualJulian Wild Flower Show, a mountaintradition this time of year.

27


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J A C K M IT CI

1929, while prospecting for silverin Southern California's ProvidenceMountains, Jack Mitchell became fas-

cinated with what were then called the"Providence" or "Crystal" caves. In1932 he decided to close down his de-pression-haunted business in Los Ange-les and move to the desert. For a time heworked at various silver m ining projects,but his real interest was in the cavernsand their tourist potential. He built aroad and several stone houses that areused to this day, and un til his retirementin 1954, he and his wife, Ida, providedfood, lodging, and guided tours of thecaverns to a sma ll but steadily increasingnumber of visitors.

Famous for his highly en tertaining tallta les , Jack Mitchel l a lso gave thecaverns their present names: El Pakiva,the Devil's House; and Tecopa, after aShoshonean chieftain. Subsequent toJack Mitchell's retirement, the State ofCalifornia became owners of the pictur-esque caverns, and it is now part of theProvidence Mountains State Recreationarea.

Providence Mountains State Recrea-tion Area, which includes Mitchell Cav-erns Natural Preserve, is located about80 air miles east of Barstow in the centerof a vast, arid, sparsely populated por-tion of the eastern Mojave Desert.

This area, from Barstow on the west tothe Colorado River on the east and in-cluding all the land between the twomajor east-west highways (Interstate 15and 40), is known to local residents as the"lonesome triangle." It is sun-scorchedland of broad valleys filled with creosotebush and cactus, sand dunes, cindercones and dramatic pinon-clad moun-tain ranges.

The 5,900-acre recreation area is situ-ated on the eastern slope of the Provi-dence Mountains where the land sweepsup from Clipper Valley tohigh, heavilyweathered, rhyolite crags ranging to7,171 feet in elevation.

Park headquarters at 4,300 feet over-looks some 300 square miles of desertvalleys and mountains. At times it iseven possible to see the Hualapai Moun-tains in Arizona some 85 air miles to the

east. Due in large part to the elevation,temperatures in the park are relativelymoderate the year around though themonths from October to May are most

favored by visitors.The caverns are filled with intricatelimestone formations and remain an al-most constant 65 degrees in all seasons.El Pakiva and Tecopa Caverns are opento the public and have been equippedwith stairs, railings, and special lightingto facilitate the guided tours that areconducted on a daily basis by the parkstaff. Entry to Winding Stair Cave, onthe other hand, is restricted to exper-ienced caving groups that have first ob-

tained a special permit. This cavern goesdown some 350 feet in a series of free-fall drops that vary in height from 50 to140 feet.

Archeological work in the cavernsturned up the bones of a Pleistoceneground sloth, one of the prehistoric ani-mals that apparently ranged this terri-tory and used the caverns during the latePleistocene Epoch some 10 to 15 thous-and years ago.

Researcherscalculate it takesbetween 500 to 700years to form acubic inch of theicicle-type

stalactites inTecopa Cavern.Photo by Mary Hill.

28 Dese rt /Ma 1979


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H I S C RY S TAA L O O K AT M IT C HA N D T H E P R O V ID ERivaling the famous Carlsbad Caverns, Mitchell Cavern's remote location doesn't

get the attention of the former, but the formations are of equal beauty.Photo by California De partment o f Parks and Recreation.

by C HARLES TALIAFERRO

Indian artifacts indicate that humanbeings have been using the caverns forat least 500 years. The smoke-blackenedwalls, hidden caches of food, tools, andother artifacts show that the Chemehue-vi Indians used the caverns at least on aseasonal basis while hunting for game.They also collected the nuts of the pinonpine and used many other desert plantsfor food or medicine.

The first European to visit this part ofthe desert was Father Francisco Carces,who crossed the Mojave in J une 1776, inorder to visit San Gabriel Miss ion. There

is no record of another Europeancrossing the Mojave until 50 years laterwhen Jedediah Smith led his party of furtrappers along the same route intoCalifornia.

In the early 1860s, the United StatesArmy bui l t a wagon road, the MojaveRoad, from the port of WilmingtontoFort Mojave on the Colorado River.Camps were established at springs thatwere approximately one day's travelapart. Remnants of some of these camps

are still visible a few m iles north of thepark. Then, after the Civil War, silverwas discovered in the vicinity and pros-pectors and miners began to arrive.Numerous diggings were begun, andanumber of mines established that con-tinued to operate until the silver marketcrash of 1893.

Near the visitor center, the Mary BealNature Trail offers visitorsa wonderfulopportunity to become acquainted withsome of the plants and other natural

features of his desert landscape. Thetrail is self-guiding and forms a loopabout a half-mile long. Because of the

notorl/Mau1


30/48

! 0 0 K B O O K SFor the outdoor enthusias t ,and those who l ike to f lavortheir l ife with the unusual

, AMERICAN INDIAN. # FOO D AND LORE

AMERIC AN INDIAN FOOD AND LORE byCarolyn Neithammer. Original Indian plantsused for foods, medicinal purposes, etc., de-scribed, plus unusual recipes. Large format,191 pages, profusely illustrated, $5.95.

C HUC K WAGON C OOKIN' by S te ll aHughes. Recipes collected straight from the

sourcecowboy cooks. Contains Mexican re-cipes, instructions for deep-pit barbecue andthe art of using Dutch ovens for cookingeverything from sourdough biscuits to Son-of-Gun stew . Paperback, 170 pages, $4.95.

DUTC H OVEN COOK BOOK by Don Ho lm .New and exciting culinary adventures inDutch Oven cooking. Heavy paperback, 106pages, $4.95.

ARIZONA COOK BOOK by Al and MildredFischer. Unusual recipes for Indian cooking,Mexican dishes, Western specialties. Uniquecollection. Paperback, 142 pages, $3.00.

De GRAZIA AND MEXIC AN C OOKERY, II-lustratred by De Grazla, text by Rita Daven-port. A delightful presentation containing allthe favorite Mexican recipes that have be-come standard throughout the Southwest.Beautiful illustrations, in color, by the incom-parable De Grazia. $4.95.

C AC TUS COOK BOOK com piled by Joyce L.Tate. An excellent selection of recipes thatemphasize their edible or potable qualities.Also includes chapter on Food Preservation.Paperback, 127 pages, $2.00.

SOURDOUGH COOKBOOK by Don andMyrt le Holm .How to make a sourdoughstarter, and many dozens of sourdough re-cipes. Paperback, 136 pages, illus., $4.95.C ITRUS COOK BOOK by Glenda McGi llis .An unusual and outstanding treasury ofcitrus cookery. Includes tips on freezing,

juicing and shipping. Paperback, spiralbound, $2.00.C ALIFORNIA C OOK BOOK by Al and Mi l-dred Fischer. Recipes divided into "EarlyCalifornia," "California Fruits," "CaliforniaProducts," "Sea Foods" and "Wine Cook-ing . " 400 more unique collections by theFischers. Paperback, 142 pages, $3.00.

Please add 50c per to tal orde rfor postage and handling

California residents please aad 6% Sales tax

Send check or money order today to

Magazine Book ShopP. O. Box 1318

Palm Desert, California 92260

The ParkHeadquarters,

is located in this oldbuilding originally

built by Jack Mitchellfor his living

quarters. The broadvista from the front

porch is worththe trip itself. Th e

metal triangle hangingfrom the porch's

ceiling once announcedthe daily meals.

Photo by CaliforniaDepartment of

Parks and Recreation.

The Cavernentrance [below]

bids visitors welcome .The cave is well

lighted for you to viewnature's wonder,

with guard rails for V'\"''

protection against % having a mishap.

t ra i l ' s favorable locat ion, a good sampleof the region 's plant l i fe and othernatural features can be seen.

For those who would explore further,there is a tra il up into the Providence

Mo unta ins by way of Crystal SpringCanyon. Above the spring, the s lopesare s teep and rugge d, and the panoramicv i e w spectacular. A l o n g w i t h t h edrought-resistant single-leaf pinon

30 De se rt/May 1979 '


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pines, there are junipers and scrub oaks.Perennials such as Mormon tea, cliffrose, squawberry, and blue sage sharethe upland areas with barrel cactus,Mojave and banana yucca, cholla andothers. In the spring and early summer

the wildflower display is likely to be de-lightfully rich and varied.

Wildlife includes numerous antelope,ground squirrels, cottontail rabbits, andvarious rodents as well as badgers, liz-ards, snakes and other small animals.Bighorn sheep are seen occasionally asare the extremely shy wild burros.Coyotes, gray foxes, bobcats and othersmall predators also live here. G amble'squail , pinon jays, white-crowned spar-rows, roadrunners and cactus wrens are

just a few of the many birds in the area.There are only six designated camp-ing sites on the flat below area head-quarters, and the water supply is lim-ited. Much of the surrounding area iswithin the Bureau of Land Manage-me nt's Piute Planning Area and is there-for open to camping.

The Park's staff will be happy to tellyou about the back roads, and some ofthe natural and historic features that canbe explored. Visitors are advised tobring a supply of water, as well as extrafood and gasoline as a norma l precautionwhen traveling in the desert.

Daserl/Mav 1979

O ld ie s , b u t G o o dRELIVE THE EXCITEMENT OF THE OLD WES T!

Travel through gold rush bo omtow ns and frontier settlements . . . meet thepro spectors and cow bo ys, the merchants and fast-buck entrepreneurs that

made settling the Wes t unfo rgettable. Nell Murb arger brings the true W est tolife in a w ay no o ne else co uld. S he trekked more than a quarter of a millionmiles through mou ntains and desert to interview every living p erson w ho co uldtell her about the w ay things really w ere. S he w ove their sto ries around photo-graphs and maps , and the result w as fascinating bo oks that w ill bring the smellof sagebrush right into your living roo m.These long out-of-print volumes arenow available in soft-cover, ide ntical in content to the original versions.

SOVEREIGNSOF THE SAGE

True s tor ies of people andplaces in the great sagebrushkingdom of the Western UnitedStates.So ft Cover $7.95

GHOSTS OF THEADOBE WALLS

Authentic stor ies of hu ndreds o fmining camps and ghost tow nsin Arizona. Great for treasu

Documents

197905 Desert Magazine 1979 May