195802 desert magazine 1958 february

8/14/2019 195802 Desert Magazine 1958 February

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The colorful Arabian N ights Pagean t is a nightly feature of the D ate Festival.

I n d i o D a t e F e s t i v a l to b e F e b r u a r y 1 4 - 2 3The Riverside County Fair and Na-tional Date Festival takes place Feb-ruary 14-23 at Indio, California, wheremost of America's commercial datesarc produced. Linking the new worlddeserts with the old, highlight of theFestival is the nightly outdoor ArabianNights Pageant featuring a colorfullycostumed cast of 150. A new drama,"The Tale of the Jovial Geni," writ-ten by former Desert Magazine asso-ciate editor Margaret Gerke, will bepresented this year.A new Fair event will be the Out-doorsman Show with exhibits featur-ing all the recreational pursuits fromwater skiing to desert mountain hiking

offered in the county . The show willinclude trailer, boating and conserva-tion exhibits.Here are some other Festival events:National Horse Show, daily throughF e b . 2 1 .Camel Races. Originated at theIndio show many years ago, this dailyevent provides many hilarious thrillsfor viewers.Cirque Araby, another new featurethis year. Only two performancesmatinees on Feb. 22 and 23 arescheduled.Costumed Street Parade at 10:30a.m. Feb. 22 from downtown Indio toFairgrounds.

In addition to commercial, agricul-tural, civic and educational exhibits,the Festival again has scheduled oneof the Southwest's most extensive gemand mineral shows. Hobbyists fromthroughout the West have reserveddisplay space for rare and beautifulmineral specimens and polished stones.Free entertainment is presented dailynn the Arabian Stage at 3 and 5 p.m.The Arabian Nights Pageants, forwhich there is no extra charge, startat 6:45 p.m.Fairground gates are open dailyfrom 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Admissionto the grounds is 85 cents for adults,25c for children 6 to 12, and free tochildren under six.

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D E S E R T C A L E N D A RJan. 30-Feb. 2Open Golf Tourna-ments at Phoenix and Tucson.Ian. 31-Feb. 2 Parada del Sol,Scottsdale, Arizona.F e b . 1 Far West Ski AssociationGiant Slalom Races, Flagstaff.F e b . 1-218th Annual Rodeo, Palm

Springs, California.F e b . 1-2Western Saddle Club PonyExpress Ride from Prescott toPhoenix.F e b . 1-2Dons Club Tour of Chiri-cahua National Monument andSouthern Arizona, from Phoenix.F e b . 2Candlemas Day CeremonialDances at San Felipe, Cochiti andSanto Domingo pueblos, N. M.F e b . 3-9 - Southwestern LivestockShow and Rodeo, El Paso, Texas.F e b . 4State Pancake Race, Clay-ton, New Mexico.F e b . 7-918th Annual Imperial Val-ley Tom ato Festival, Nil and, Calif.F e b . 8Festival of Fashion, Tucson.F e b . 8-9Jaycee Silver Spur Rodeo,Yum a, Arizona.F e b . 8-9Western Saddle Club Stam-pede, Phoenix.F e b . 9Buffalo Barbecue, Chandler,Arizona.F e b . 9 Dons Club Apache TrailTour, from Phoenix.F e b . 9-11New Mexico Wool Grow-ers Association Convention, Albu-querque.F e b . 9 and 23Desert Sun RanchersRodeo, Wick en burg, Arizona.F e b . 12-13 Tri-State HerefordBreeders Show, Clayton, N. M.F e b . 13-16 11th Annual CarrotCarnival, Holtvilie, California.F e b . 14-15Dons Club Bus Tour ofDeath Valley National Monument,from Phoenix.F e b . 14-16Gold Rush Days, Wick-enburg, Arizona.F e b . 14-23 Riverside County Fairand National Date Festival, Indio,California. (See facing page.)F e b . 15 Ceremonial Dances, SanJuan Pueblo, New Mexico.F e b . 15-16Mid-Winter Ski Carnival,Taos, New Mexico.F e b . 16-23 Arizona Sports, Vaca-tion, Boat and Trailer Show, Phoe-nix.F e b . 20Dried Arrangements FlowerShow, Garfield Garden Club, Phoe-nix.F e b . 20-2333rd Annual Fiesta delos Vaqueros Parade (on 20th)and Rodeo, Tucson.

F e b . 22-23 Arabian Horse Show,Scottsdale, Arizona.F e b . 22-23Arizona Cup Ski Races,Flagstaff.F e b . 23Dons Club Tour of Jeromeand Montezuma National Monu-ment, from Phoenix.F e b . 23-March II lth Annual Cac-tus Show, Desert Botanical Gar-dens, Phoenix.F e b . 28-March 1 11th AnnualSquare Dance lamboree. Phoenix.Month of FebruaryOriental Paint-ings Art Exhibit at Phoenix ArtCenter.Month of FebruaryFred D. PenneyExhibit at Desert Magazine ArtGallery, Palm Desert, California.

V o l u m e 21 FE B RUARY, 1958 N u m b e r 2C O V E RP R O G R A MC A L E N D A RP O E T R YRE CRE AT I ON

F O R E C A S TTRUE OR F A L S EM I N I N GH I S T O R YDE VE L OPM E NTFI CT I ONFIELD TRIPC O N T E S TP H O T O G R A P H YN A T U R EEXPERIENCELETTERSCL OSE -UPSN E W SM I N I N GL A P I D A R YH O B B YC O M M E N TB O O K S

Wildflower Garden, by HARRY VROMAN1958 National Date Festival 2February events on the desert 3The Desert Speaks and other poems 4The Water W as Rough in Cataract Canyon

By RANDALL HENDERSON 5February Wildflower Predictions 12A test of your desert knowledge 12Open Pit Miners at Goldacres

By NELL MURBARGER 13Territorial Prison

By JOSEF and JOYCE MUENCH 17Progress Report on Upper Basin Dams . . . . 18Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 18Loop Trin Through the El Pasos

By EUGENE L. CONROTTO 19Picture-of-the-Month contest announcement . . 22Pictures of the Month 23Life on an Ancient Moiave Playa

By EDMUND C. JAEGER 24The Desert Gave Us a W ay to Live

By DOROTHY ROBERTSON 27Comment from Desert' s rea der s 28About those who write for Desert 28From here and there on the desert 29Current news of desert mines 35Amateur Gem Cutter, by DR. H. C. DAKE . . . 37Gems and Minerals 38fust Between You and Me. by the Editor . . . 42Reviews of Southwestern literature 43

The Desert Majrnslne Is T>ubllshed monthly hv the Desert Press . Inc.. PaTm Desert.California. Re-entered as sppnnd eTnsft Trotter* July 17. 194R. at th* r>nMoff!ce at Palm De e e r i .California, under the Act of March fl. 1R7B. Tit l e reg i s tered No. 33Sfi5 In IT. , Patent Office,a n d c o n t e n t s c n n v r l e h t e d 1B5S by the Desert Press , Inc. P e r m i s s i o n t o ' r e p r o d u c e c o n t e n t sroust be secured from the edi tor in wri t ing .E U G E N E L,. CONROTTO. Associa te Edi torEVON NE RIDDELL, Circula t ion ManagerR A N D A L L H E N D E R S O N . E d i t o rBESS STACY, Bus iness Manager

Unso l i c i ted manuscripts and photographs submitted rannot be returned orunles s ful l return pos tage is enc losed . Desert Mtifntxtne assu me s no respons ibi l i ty ford a m a g e or loss of m a n u s c r i p t s or p h o t o g r a p h s a l t h o u g h due care wil l be e x e r c i s e d . Sub-scr ibers should send not i ce of c h a n g e of address by the f i rs t of the month preceding i s sue .S U B S C R I P T I O N F A T E SOn e Te ar .


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RATTLESNAKEBy GRACE BARKER WILSONKirtland, NewMexicoA sinuous motion stirs under sagebrush,With faintest of sound in the desert's widehush;Then diamond back markers inperfect designGlide out of the shadow into bright sunshine.With flattened head lifted, and swift dartingtongue.It goes seeking breakfast of prairie dog

young.And then comes the warning that freezesthe breath.The rattle that all desert things know spellsdeath.

NIGHT IN THEINDIAN COUNTRYBy JEAN HOGAN DUDLEYInglewood, CaliforniaWe camped inHopi Country by a coldThin river, where red sandstone cliffsstretched high.The moon rose like a red fire, then a gold.One cliff-face turned to silver in the sky,The other lay in swaths of shadow, darkAs in a mine-pit . . . Stranger than a dreamThis jagged landas if upon some stark

Moon-plain, itself, we lay, in earth-lightgleam.

PhotographbyRichardL. CassellT h e D e s e r t S p e a k s

By ANYA P. SALATombstone, Arizona

Those little trails that crisscrossSand smooth as driven snowReveal the quiet trafficOf desert folk who goWandering, adventuring,And seeking, to and fro.Here, birds have sought bright berriesThat hang above the groundOn brittle branc hes, dry in g- -While there, by leap andbound,A squirrel has crossed the hollowTo climb the farther mound.Gray fox and little rabbitThe tracks arevery clear.And look! Thedainty footprintsOf a family of deer.Unhurried in their movementsBecause no panther's near.How much the silent trails revealOf desert folk who goAdventuring, and scurrying.And seeking, to and froA wondrous tale of wanderingOn sand like driven smow.

DESERT SUNSETBy FRANCES PARKER GRAAFAlhambra, CaliforniaMountains darkly silhouettedAgainst a flaming skyThe glory of a desert sunsetWe watched together, you and I.Our steps were slow in leaving.So lovely was the sight.A s , silently wewatched it fadeAnd beckon to the night.

P i g m yBy TANYA SOUTHHow greatly does the pigmy, Man,Think of himself in this, God's plan!He puffs up high his little chestIn egotism, to attestHis greatness. Hisbombastic speechThe farthest earthly echoes reach.It is astounding and despairing,However slow the Path he's faring.How great he feels himself, how fineIn God's design!

An d yet the Earth itself, the sphereOn which he, as a microbe, dwells.Is in itself a microbe sheerIn interplanetary cells.

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These are the two neoprene barges on which Georgie White piloted the 23 boat-men and passengers on her 1957 expedition through Cataract Canyon.

The W ater W as Roughin Cataract Canyon . . .All Colorado River boatmen have a wholesome respect for Catar-act Canyon where the stream drops 415 feet in 41 milesand youwill understand the reason for Cataract 's bad reputation when youread this story of a trip through the rapids in rubber rafts during thehigh flood season of 1957. Here is a day by day record of what oneof Georgie White's river expeditions encountered in this treacheroussector of the C olorado.

By RANDALL HENDERSONMap by Norton Allen

7HE RAPIDS in Cataract Canyonof the Colorado River are norougher than many of those inGrand Canyon, farther downstream,but there are more of them to the mile.Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, who accom-panied the second Powell expeditionin 1871, recorded 62 rapids in 41miles, and some of them are thrillers.Thanks to the invitation of GeorgieWhite, famed woman pilot of the west-ern rivers, I spent three wet days rid-ing over and through the tumultuous

waters of Cata ract last June. Most ofthe time we were on top of the waves,but not always. There were occasionswhen my experience was much likethe sensation of diving through thehigh breakers at the beach. I soonlearned that the best technique forriding that kind of water was to duckmy head and hang onto the ropeswhich were strung around the perim-eter of the rubber rafts on which wewere riding.Our voyage started at Greenriver,

Utahnot to be confused with thetown of Greenriver farther north alongthe river in Wyoming.Throughout the day, June 9, pros-pective voyagers who had signed forthe trip were arriving at Robbers'Roost Motel, our rendezvous in Green-river. A majority of the 21 passengerswho with Skipper Georgie White andtwo boatmen made up the party, werefrom California, but the list also in-cluded midwesterners from Chicago,Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cicero,Illinois.

The evening preceding our dep arturewas spent in getting acquainted withthe passengers who were to be ourcompanions on the trip, and in repack-ing clothing, bedrolls and equipment.Everything must be enclosed in water-proofing, and for this purpose Georgiehad provided a quantity of neoprenerubber packing cases war surplusitems. There were big containers for

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clothing and bedding, and small onesfor camera equipment and personalitems. In addition to the neoprenecases, a kapok life jacket and plasticcup and bowl were issued to each ofus . The latter items were to be oureating vessels for the next six days.Early next morning we got our firstglimpse of the river craft which wereto carry us through Labyrinth and Still-water Canyons of the Green, and Cat-aract Canyon of the Colorado, to ourdestination at Hite Ferry crossing. Theboats were moored along the riverbank just below Greenriver.

Georgie White has her own systemfor operating the rubber rafts she usesfor river transportation . For this tripshe provided two neoprene barges, onecomposed of three 13-ton towing raftslashed together with nylon rope, mak-ing a deck approximately 21x28 feet,and the other composed of three 10-man neoprene landing rafts each 15feet long with a seven and one-half-foot beam, also tied together side byside with nylon.The 13-ton rafts are similar to therubber pontoons used by army engi-neers during the last war for bridge

work, except that our rafts have alongitudinal tube down the center.The outer tube has eight air cells andthe center tube two.Luggage is tied to the ropes on topof the barge, and in quiet water thepassengers may move over the deck atwill.Since the large barge is too un-wieldy for oars to be effective, itscenter raft is equipped with an 18horsepower Johnson outboard motorto facilitate landing and maneuveringin the current. Georgie was motorm anand pilot throughout the trip. Thesmaller barge has an oarsman on eachof the outside tubes.The skipper's instructions were sim-ple: "Tie your luggage on securely,"she said, "and wear your life jackets."Actually there was little need for lifejackets in the smooth-flowing currentof the Green River, but evidentlyGeorgie wanted us to become accus-tomed to wearing them, for the daywhen they might be needed.At 10 a.m. we shoved off in a driz-zling rain. A mile downstream wepassed under the cable of the USGSgauging station, and the hydrographerin his cab overhead told us the riverwas flowing 38,000 second feet ofwater. This is a big discharge for theGreen River, and the abundant drift-wood floating with the current indi-cated the stream was still rising.I started the trip in the big barge.With the help of the motor we weremaking 10 miles an hour. We werein the Morrison formation with lowcliffs and hills on both sides and abelt of willow, tamarisk and mesquitealong the shore lines.Seven miles downstream Georgiepulled to the shore just in time for usto witness a fountain of water spoutingfrom the limestone mesa, an intermit-tent geyser which came into actionseveral years ago when drillers putdown a well here, and then abandonedit because of the highly mineralizedhot water they tapped. The geysergave warning of its impending dis-charge by sputtering for a few seconds,and then sent a fountain of water 30feet into the air. Three minutes laterit had subsided.As we continued downstream hun-dreds of cliff swallows darted aroundus . They feed on the wing, divingdown to the surface of the water fora morsal of food and then zoomingaway, apparently undisturbed by thebig rubber barges floating with thecurrent. In places we could see theirmud nests on the almost vertical cliffwalls.We pulled ashore for lunch wherethere was a little grove of cottonwoods,and saw where beaver had been cut-ting down some of the smaller trees.

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Later on the trip we saw an occasionalbeaver swimming close to the shore.Georgie White has reduced her com-missary operation on these trips toutter simplicity. She carries one ofthose six-feet-in-diameter octagonalplastic wading pools. Preparing lunchconsists of inflating the tubular rim ofthe pool, placing it on the ground, andthen filling the basin with an appetiz-ing assortment of cold meats, cheese,jam, honey, fruit and fruit juice, andcanned nut bread. We had buffetlunchor as one member of the partytermed it, "Cataract Canyon smorgas-bord."For evening meals and breakfasts,there were three two-burner Colemanstoves and a generous supply of Reverekettlesone stove for hot water tomake instant coffee or chocolate, onefor a hot canned meat and a vegetable,and one with kettles for washing andrinsing those plastic cups and bowls.We found it no hardship to eat anentire meal from soup to dessert in abowl, with a plastic cup and teaspoonand then wash them ourselves inreadiness for the next meal. Hot cakesor beef stew taste just as good in aporridge bowl as on a fine dinner plate,when one is camping out.It requires careful advance planningto feed 24 people in this manner. M uchof the food, such as breakfast cerealsand canned fruits, were in individualcontainers. Preparing for a river trip,Georgie and her shore crew pack acomplete day's ration for 10 peoplein one neoprene case, with the break-

fast items on top. Then the cases arenumbered in bold letters, and whenmealtime comes the boatmen simplyoffload the right cases and the stovesand the meal is served with a minimumof effort.During the afternoon we passedfrom Morrison to the Entrada forma-tion, and camped that evening justbelow the mouth of San Rafael Riveron an embankment of red sand. Therehad been generous rains earlier in theseason and the sandy floor of ourcampsite was covered with a profusionof lupine, fiddleneck, phacelia, salmon

mallow and what appeared to be aspecies of white sand verbena. Themost conspicuous shrub on the hillsidewas squaw bush.The river rose three inches duringthe night and was carrying great floatsof drift when we embarked at 7:15 inthe morning. The canyon walls beganto close in, and later in the morningthe Entrada formation gave way toNavajo sandstone. Here the creamywalls along the stream revealed lovelytaoestries patterns formed by theminerals carried down the sidewalkby rainwater. Generally these stains

are caused by manganese in solution

Georgie White, three times through Grand Canyon in 1957.and are not true desert varnish. Farup on one hillside we saw a crew ofmen working a uranium mine.Since leaving San Rafael River wehad been in a sector of Green Riverwhich Powell named Labyrinth Can-yon. Stillwater Canyon is a continua-tion of Labyrinth with no well defineddividing line. Viewed from the riverLabyrinth and Stillwater Canyons pre-sent an ever changing panorama ofbeauty and majesty equal in my

opinion to the beauty of Glen Canyonin the Colorado which later will besubmerged in the reservoir behindGlen Canyon dam.We passed Three Canyons, tribu-taries which come together and mergeinto the Green River gorge. We madethe great sweep around Bowknot Bendwhere the river almost doubles backon itself. We passed the mouth ofthe great Horseshoe gorge where ear-lier in the year I had photographed

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Georgie White, fast water skipper.Photo by Cliff Sejerblom.some of the most amazing pictographsin the Southwest (.Desert Magazine,Oct. '5 7 ). This is a land of mu lti-colored sandstone, of turrets anddomes and spires sculptured by mil-lions of years of erosion. One feelsvery humble in such a setting.We camped that night near one ofthe newly discovered uranium mjnes,where a caretaker was temporarily incharge.In landing the big barge we got apuncture. This neoprene rubber isalmost impervious to the battering itgets on rocksbut it could not with-stand the dagger-like point of a hugedead cot tonwood root which protrudedfrom the bank . Geo rgie, piloting theraft from the stern, did not see theroot, and we hit it at five or six milesan hour. There was a phufland thecell went fiat.It was only a mino r accident. Theboatmen patched i t up that evening,but lacking equipment for a vulcaniz-ing job that must be done from theoutside, the cell finished the runthrough the canyons a bit flabby, butit affected our journey not at all. Therewere still nine air-tight cells in theraft29 in the barge.There had been rain back in thehills, and we passed two chocolate-colored waterfalls pouring over thecliffs along the river on this secondday of our voyage.We were away at 8:15 the thi rdmorningin a new type of geology.We had passed out of the Navajo sand-

stone, and the cliffs during much ofthe morning revealed other sedimen-tary deposits so common in SouthernUtah. At the top was Wingate, oftenalmost white. Below was a stratumof Chinle, the formation which yieldsso much fossil material to the paleon-tologists, then Shinarump and belowthat Moe ncopj . Uranium p rospectorshave learned that uranium ores oftenare found at the contact betweenChinle and Shinarump sandstones , andwe saw the "coyote holes" of minersin many places.The old-timers in this region havetheir own vocabulary for place names.Every cove along the river spaciousenough for grazing or farming is a"bo ttom ." Du ring the trip we passedHorsethief Bottom, Tidwell Bottom,Potato Bot tom, Beaver Bot tom, QueenAnne Bot tom and Anderson Bot tom.Toward noon we entered a new forma-t ionCutler sandstone.For lunch we pulled ashore to theshade of a huge block of stone whichhad fallen from the cliff ab ove . Onthe back side of the rock I discoveredsome Indian petroglyphs, and theground along the base of the nearbycliff was strewn with the discardedchert chips of prehistoric arrow-makers .The river continued smooth all dayand our camp that night was on a widesandy ledge just above the river. Ispread my bedroll in a lovelv naturalgarden of salmon Mallow in full blos-som careful not to disturb thesecolorful wildings of the Utah desert.In my log of this day's trio I againfind the notation, "Stillwater is a lovelycanvonno less so than Glen Canyonof the Colorado."That evening at our camofire gath-ering, the women staged a little ritualin which Bill Siamp, our companionfrom Chicago, was presented with someimprovised bits of attire in celebrationof his birthda v. The delightful com -panionship of such a trio amongpeople who until three days ago werestrangers-is a refreshing experience.Somehow, close association in such anenvironment brings out the best inh u ma n s .The Green River at this noint flowsthroush (he Robbers ' Ro^st conntrv,f>ne of the hideawavs for Butch Cassf-dv ar>d h's ou tlaw s. Th e storv is re-corded in much detail in CharlesKeliv's Outlaw Trails, now out nf print.We shoved off at 7:40 the nextmomine. and at 10:40 reached theconfluence of trie Green and ColoradoRivers . The C'i rado above this nointis shown on old mans as the Gr?mdRiver. Thev come together in theheart nf an almost inaccessible fumble"f cliffs and buttes. Eight vears ago

I came overland to this junction with

a party guided by Ross Musselman ofMo a b . A quarter of a mile away itbecame too rough for our horses, andwe finished the trip on foot.At 11:30 we s topped for lunch ata cove known as Spanish Bot tom,where an old Spanish trail comes downfrom the Land of the Standing Rocksto a place that could be forded in lowwater.Soon after we departed from Span-ish Bottom we could hear the roar ofwater . We were in Catara ct Can yon,with the river in flood discharge, andwe knew there was rough boatingahead.I had exchanged seats with one ofthe passengers on the small barge. Wewere down close to the water and forthe next two days I spent much of mytime either hanging onto the ropes orbailing.Then we came to the first of therapids. Beneath the surface, and com-pletely submerged at this stage of theriver, were great boulders over whichthe water poured in mad whirlpools.The oarsmen strove to miss theseholes, and generally were successful,but there was no way of avoiding theseries of huge lateral waves whichcurled up in quick succession below.Sometimes the lead raft would be wal-lowing at the bottom of the pit be-tween the breakers as the rear raftcame over the top of the last one.And immediately their positions werereversed. It was a violent roller-coaster and a very wet one . Inevitably,some of the waves broke over the raftsand the ropes creaked and groanedas the tremendous power of the watertried to jerk the rafts apart.

It was rough going, but we had

PERSONNELCataract Canyon Expedition.June 10-16, 1957Geo rgie Wh ite, Los Angeles, pilot -leader.Fred B. Eiseman, St . Louis, boatman.Haro ld Smith son, accomp anied byhis wife Carma, boatman.A. Gregory Bader, Los Angeles.Wm. B. Barnhill, Roswell, N. M.

A. B. Cadman, Jr . , Alhambra, Calif.Nathan C. Clark, Los Angeles.Tallulah Le Conte Elston, Carmel,Calif.Randall Henderson, Desert Magazine.O. D. Hitchcock, Pasadena, Calif.Marion R. Jones, San Francisco.Ed. J. Karveolet, Long Beach, Calif.John T. Lonk, Cicero, 111.L. C. B. McCulloch, San Francisco.Carl R. Peterson, Los Angeles.Frank Rich, Jr . , Culver City, Calif.Tora M. Ringdahl, San Francisco.Joel Say re , Santa Monica, Calif.Bill Slamp, Chicago.Richard and Marion Smith, West Co-vina, Calif.Walter Szedziewsfci, Milwaukee.Dorothy Wullich, San Diego.



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complete confidence in our boats, andas we emerged from each dousing thepassengers would cheer their triumphover Ol' Man River.Once a wave caught Marion Jones,who was riding in the lead craft, andwashed her overboard. But she hungonto the ropes and Boatman FredEiseman dropped his oars and pulledher back to safety. She shook thewater out of her hair, resumed herseat in the boat, and grinned. Ofcourse we were all wearing our kapokjackets, and had no feeling of personalhazard.The big barge with its 18 horsepowerto help it along, was always ahead ofour smaller barge. In mid-morningwe caught up with the leaders as theywere trying to figure some way tosalvage a neat little fibre-glass skiffthey found tied to the willows alongthe shore in a sector of comparativelystill water.This boat, I learned later from aletter (Desert, Oct. '57) belonged toBurton G. Odell of Amarillo, Texas,Running the western rivers is his va-cation hobby. He had left G reenriveralone in the little boat with two out-board motors, expecting to float downto the junction with the Colorado, andthen return upstream to Moab. Buthis motors were not powerful enoughfor the upstream pull in this flood stageand he decided to continue throughCataract Canyon to Hite, knowinglittle about the treacherous waterahead.He navigated the first three rapids,then in the fourth one collided with arock, lost one motor and sheared offan oarlock. He realized he could notcontinue through such rough waterwith a partially disabled boat. He tiedthe craft to the willows and hiked outof the canyo n. It was a difficult trekand he suffered from lack of water.Several days later he stumbled into asurvey camp in Beef Basin in San JuanCounty.Georgie White considered loadingthe boat on her big barge, and alsotowing it downstream. But it was tooheavy to be taken out of the water,and a tow job in such a river wouldbe too hazardous. When we left, theskiff was again tied to the willowswith its remaining motor lashed inthe bottom. Since then Odell has madean effort to retrieve his boat, but atlast report it was still moored there.At 3:30 in the afternoon we ar-rived at a grassy bottom where therewas ample space and abundant drift-wood for a night camp, and Georgieheaded the big barge for a landing.We all welcomed the opportunity todry out and get warm again.During the four days we had beenon the river together I had acquired

Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons, in the opinion of the author are no lessscenic than Glen Canyon of the Colorado River.

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a great admiration for the competentmanner in which our leader had man-aged the details of the expedition. Thisevening as we lounged around a blaz-ing campflre I asked Georgie some ofthe questions in my mind. She talkedcandidly .of her early life.Of course it is taboo to ask a womanher age, .but I would guess she is 47,a slender bronzed woman with a tre-mendous capacity for hard work.She was born in a tenement districtin Chicago. Her father, of Frenchdescent, was an artist, often out ofwork. Her mother was an industriouswoman who toiled as a breadwinnerduring the day and often worked latehours into the night to keep the hometidy and to make sure the childrenwent to school next day with theirmeager clothes freshly washed andstarched.Georgie is a vegetariannot as afad but simply because she does notcare for meat. "We did not have muchmeat in the house when I was a kid,"she says, "and it wasn't too good. Iquit eating meat as a youngster, andhave never cared for it." Her stapleitem of food is tomato juice and thiswith other vegetable items gives hertremendous energy. Years ago, on atrip down the Escalante River withher, when the water was shallow andwe had to do much portaging, I sawher on more than one occasion shoul-der two 40-pound neoprene cases offood and trudge through the sand withthem.After her school days were over shewanted to get away from her tenementdistrict surroundings, and went toFlorida seeking work. Those were de-pression days and when Florida failedto yield an adequate job she went toNew York where she was employedby a florist.On off days she would spend hourswalking in Central Parkjust becauseshe liked the outdo ors. In the Parkshe became acquainted with membersof a cycling club, and soon was anenthusiastic rider. In 1936 she wasmarried and she and her husband latercrossed the continent to Los Angeleson their bicycles.As soon as her daughter Sommonawas old enough, she became her moth-er's companion on bicycle trips thatoccupied many of their weekends.When World War II came, Georgieobtained a job in the security staff ofDouglas Aircraft, but her tremendousvitality always was calling for more^activity than any ordinary 8-hour jobwould provide . "I never stayed on onejob long enough to earn a paid vaca-tion," she explains.At the Douglas plant she becameinterested in aviation, and a ferry pi-lot's job was her next goal. When she

10

learned that 35 hours of flying experi-ence was necessary to qualify for thetraining school the Ferry Commandhad set up, she gave up her job andinvested her savings in pilot trainingat a private aviation school at Quartz-site, Arizona . She was an apt student,and soon qualified for Ferry training.But by the time she had completed the500 hours preparatory to a Ferry as-signment, the war was nearing an endand the Ferry Command was deacti-vated.Back in civilian life she took outa real estate license. She wanted workthat would allow plenty of free timefor her hiking and cycling. Then in1944 her daughter was struck by adrunken auto driver, and killed. Geor-gie became more restless than ever,and she asked the Los Angeles cham-ber of commerce if there were anyhiking clubs in the city. They referredher to the Sierra club. She became aSierra member and has been on manyof the climbs of the Desert Peaks sec-tion.At the home of friends in Los An-geles she met Harry Aleson who wasshowing kodachrome pictures of thecanyon country where he was a boat-man. When she learned that Harryshared her interest in cross-countryhiking, they arranged a backpack triptogether. Other long jaunts with theirbedrolls and food in their knapsacksfollowed. They conceived the idea ofswimming the Grand Canyon with theirgear on their backs in knapsacks . Ontwo river excursions they paddledmany miles of the Grand in theirswimming trunks.In association with Harry Aleson itwas only natural that she should be-come interested in fast water boating,and she accompanied Aleson as helperon some of his expeditions.In 1951 she bought her first neo-prene raft from a war surplus storeand that was the beginning of hercareer as a river pilot. In 1954 shetook a party through the Grand Can-yonin a year when the river was solow other boatmen cancelled out theirtrips. There was much portaging atthe rapids, and Georgie was turningover in her mind plans for relieving herpassengers of this back-tiring chore.It was following that trip that sheconceived the idea of lashing threerafts together side by side. The theoryis that the push of the rafts behind, orthe pull of the rafts ahead, will forcethe flat-bottomed boats over rock ob-structions which would bar the wayto a single raft. Actually the trem en-dous power of the cascading water isthe factor that makes the method ef-fective.Georgie's 1957 schedule is evidence

of her tremendous capacity for organi-

zation and work. Here are the tripsshe booked for the season:Two Easter week trips on the lowerColorado for the Sierra Club and BoyScouts81 passengers.April and May, charter trips throughGrand Canyon from Lee's Ferry toLake Mead4 passengers.May, down the San Juan fromMexican Hat to Kane Creek 33passengers.June, Cataract Canyon-23 passen-gers and boatmen.June and July, another Grand Can-yon trip70 passengers.July and August, down the MiddleFork of the Salmon River, two groups33 passengers.August, Salmon River run 35passengers.August, Hell's Canyon on the SnakeRiver37 passengers.September, two trips through GlenCanyon with Sierra Club and BoyScouts 85 passengers. Total 401passengers.In addition to her boatmen, Georgiehas two faithful associates who domuch of the shore work. He r sister,Rose Marie DeRose in Los Angeles,carries the office work and correspon-dence involved in booking the tripsand keeping contact with passengers.Her husband, "Whitey," whom shemarried in 1942, is a tower of strengthon shore duty. He trucks in the boatsand supplies for the start of each trip,inflates the neoprenes, and with Geor-gie, does the critical roping job re-quired to keep the 3-raft barges intactin all kinds of water. Last season theyused a ton of nylon rope.

The schedule requires a small fleetof neoprene rafts of various sizes andat the end of each expedition Whiteydeflates them and hauls them off to anew start on some other river. Onoccasion Whitey has taken to the riveras a boatman, but his shore dutieskeep him so busy there is little timefor the rapids.Friday, June 14, was our wettestday. From 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 in theafternoon we ran one rapid after an-other, and spent the minutes betweencataracts bailing water out of the rafts.Once the torrent swept us into adeep hole. We rode to the top of thefirst 12-foot wave below, but our tim-ing was wrongthe breakers were tooclose together for our clumsy craft.The next wave caught the barge as itwas rising, and neatly curled the leadboat upside down on top of the middleraft in which I was riding. The oar s-man and his two passengers landedon top of the three of us in the centersection. The dilemma was easilysolved. The six of us simply liftedthe raft off our heads and flopped itback in its proper place and the pas-D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


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sengers returned to their seats. Thisrapid was the daddy of them all, butwe emerged from the experience withonly minor scratches and bruises.The character of the river, andespecially the rapids, changes at everystage of the water. In a discharge of100,000 second feet or more, most ofthe boulders that normally give troubleto boatmen are submerged. Some ofthe low water rapids disappear en-tirely. Fo r instance the rapid at themouth of Dark Canyon was reputedto be one of the worst in the canyonbut when we arrived there it was onlya heavy riffle.But while high water smooths outsome of the rough places, the velocityand power of the stream at flood stagecreates new problem s. Boatmen gen-erally prefer to navigate the fast waterstreams of the West at a lower level.The veteran pilot, Norman Nevills,regarded 25,000 to 30,000 second feetas the ideal stage.Later, when we reached the USGSgauging station at Hite we learned wecame through Cataract on a dischargebetween 108,000 and 110,000 secondfeet.At 3:30 in the afternoon we hadpassed all the rapids in Cataract. Wehad lost 415 feet of elevation in 41miles compared with a fall of two feetto the mile in Labyrinth and StillwaterCanyons.We camped that night at the mouthof the Fremont River, which Jack

Sumner on the first Powell expeditionin 1869 had dubbed the "Dirty Devil."We spread our bedrolls on the sameslick rock bench where Powell hadcamped 87 years ago. I climbed thelow hill back of our camp and foundit to be a rockhound's hunting ground.The ground was strewn widi good spec-imens of agate, jasper and petrifiedwood which obviously had not yetbeen discovered by the collecting fra-ternity.Fremont River virtually marked theend of our excursion. It was a smoothwater ride of but an hour and a halfnext morning downstream to HiteFerry crossing where Wayne Nielsenof Richfield was waiting with a truckto carry us back to Greenriver.We had navigated Cataract rapidsat their worst and had gained a whole-some respect both for the canyon ofthe cataracts, and for the leadershipand skill with which Georgie Whitehad brought us through. Within threehours after we landed, Georgie hadtaken off in a chartered plane for Lee'sFerry where another group of passen-gers was assembling for a ride throughthe turbulent waters of Grand Canyon,Georgie's third trip through the Grandin one season.

Above the Fremo nt (Dirty Devil) River en ters the Colorado at the left.Center We got a puncture.Below When driftwood was running, passengers took turns at the bow

of the big barge to keep it from fouling the propellor.F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 8 11


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P r o m i s i n g W i l d f l o w e r S e a s o n P r e d i c t e d f o r D e s e r t . . .A mild fall combined with farmore than theusual number of gentlerains, mayresult in a bumper wild-flower crop in thelower andwarmerdesert areas inFebruary, Desert Mag-

azine correspondents report. Flowerprospects forthe high desert areas alsoare excellent, but the bigshow therewill come 30 to 60days later.Lucile Weight ofTwentynine Palmssays that thehighways from Indio toBlythe, andNewberry toNeedles arefringed with green shoots. On therocky slopes between the Granites andClipper Mountains, northeast of Am-boy, patches of green annuals wereunder nearly every bush, among them

evening primrose, pincushion, chia,forget-me-not, lupine, delphiniumandpoppy seedlings. She found newgrowths of delphinium, lupine andmany other species in the Old WomanMountain areas. On allslopes of theLittle Chuckawallas millions of seed-lings arecomingup.Scattered verbena was inbloom be-fore year's endalong some CoachellaValley roadways, and sprouts ofmanyother species are everywhere in evi-dence onthe valley floor and foothills.February visitors tothe Coachella maywitness one of the most outstandingfloral displays inmany years.Seedlings are showing insome parts

Just relax! You'll not get 'emall correct, but you'll learnsomething and that is moreimportant. These questions take you into the worlds ofgeography, history,botany, mineralogy and thegeneral lore of thedesert country. Thesearebig and interesting worldsthat every American should know somethingabout. Twelve to 14 is a fair score, 15 to 17 is good, 18 or over isexcellent. The answers are on page 30.1One of themost poisonous insects on thedesert is the tarantula.

True..... . False2White Ocotillo is common in many parts of theCalifornia desert.True False3Panamint range is on thewest side of Death Valley. TrueFalseAMany of thecliff dwellings found in theSouthwest arestill occupiedby descendants of theoriginal builders. True False5The land where Nogales, Arizona, is located wasacquired by theUnited States in theGadsden Purchase. True False6Brigham Young brought the first Mormon colonists toUtah afterthe civil war. True False__7An arrastre was a tool used by the Spaniards for hewing logs.True False8A sidewinder is seldom more than 24 inches long. TrueFalse9The break in theColorado River which formed Salton Sea in1905-6-7 occurred inMexico. True . False__10The color of the chuparosa orhummingbird flower isred. TrueFalse11According tolegend the fabulous Seven Cities ofCibola were locatedon theMojave desert ofCalifornia. True False12The agave orwild century plant ofthe Southwest generally dies afterits first flowering. True False13The tortoises found inthe southwestern desert are hatched from eggs.True False.__14El Tovar isthe name of a famous hotel inDeath Valley. TrueFalse .15The infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred in Utah.True_ False16Paul Jones is chairman of theNavajo Tribal Council. TrueFalse_17A calcite crystal will scratch aquartz crystal. True False18Petroglyphs were painted on the rocks, pictographs incised in therocks. True . False19Tuba City is the name of a town in NewMexico. TrueFalse20The Ail-American canal which serves the Imperial andCoachellavalleys of California, is a diversion from the Colorado River.

True False____

of the Anza-Borrego Desert StatePark, reports Park Supervisor ClydeE. Strickler. A fewdesert lilies havestarted tosprout and if January bringsadditional moisture Strickler predictssome early display.Park Naturalist Bruce W.BlackofJoshua Tree National Monument saysprospects are good for asplendid wild-flower year, with Cottonwood Washand Pinto Basin the best probableareas. Black expects thebloom peakto be inApril, although several plantvarieties on the lower elevations al-ready are in flower andmore will beout byFebruary, he added.The southwestern Mojave Desert(Antelope Valley) also was treatedfavorably by the winter ram gods,butJane S. Pinheiro ofQuartz Hill believesFebruary will be tooearly forflowersthere. "Itshould be avery good year,especially for poppies, butApril andMay are thebest months in theAnte-lope Valley," she wrote.At Death Valley National Monu-ment, Park Naturalist M. B. Inghamsays any flower displays during Febru-ary will bebelow the1500 foot level.He reports that the valley receivedconsiderable early winter rain.An above average display is predicted forFebruary byChief RangerJohn T.Mullady ofOrgan Pipe CactusNational Monument if the strongJanuary winds which ruined last year'spromising crop do notreturn.Pen stem on and numerous otherwildflower sprouts are up in SaguaroNational Monument, wrote Park Ran-ger Robert J.Heying. Ifno late killingfrosts occur, February visitors probablywill see lupine, poppy, heliotrope, pur-ple mat, fairy duster, paper-flower andbladder-pod blooms.Good fall rainfall resulted in thegermination of winter annuals andsome growth of filaree, Indian wheatand annual grasses inthe Casa GrandeNational Monument, says ArcheologistAlden C.Hayes. Hepredicts a betterthan average showing ofblossoms fromFebruary on into spring.Earl Jackson, naturalist at theSouthwest Archeological Center inGlobe, Arizona, reports that the UpperSonoran Desert in theGlobe vicinityreceived unusually good rainfall andsome southern exposures of lowhillsare thickly dotted with young lupineplants. It also will be agood yearforblue dick (hyacinth).February promises a good displayof mallows, lupines, phaselias andprimroses at Lake Mead NationalRecreation Area, according to ParkNaturalist William D. Tidwell.

1 2 DESERT MAGAZINE


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The 400-ton cyanide mill at Goldacres makes it p ossible to profitably mine $5 a ton ore.Open Pit Miners at GoldacresThere's a feeling that all is right with the worldat the small gold mining and milling camp at

Goldacres, Nev ada. Despite its isolation and lackof citified embellishments, Goldacres' wages andliving conditions are good, work is steady, themine manager is respectedand you can't beatthe bright expansive Nevada desert as a placeto live.By NELL MURBARGERPhotographs by the authorMap by Norton Allen

5NCE 1942 when Uncle Sam decreed that goldmining was not essential to the war effort, goldproducers of the West have been fighting an uphillbattle. Even the war's end did not mean that the country'sgold mines could automatically resume operation forduring these years of enforced idleness timbering andequipment deteriorated, underground workings in manycases had become flooded, and cost of labor had nearlydoubled. As a result of this unsavory situationplus thefact that the mint price of gold has not been permitted torise above $35 a fine ounce where it was pegged in 1934nearly every major gold mine west of the Rockies hasremained closed.

In the course of my post-war roaming over the West,I had seen so many inoperative gold mines and mills Ibegan believing that lode gold mining, like buffalo hunt-

Harry C. B ishop, manager of the Goldacres operation.F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 8 13


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ing andwagon freighting, was an oc-cupation of thepast.And then, last summer, I heard ofthe London Extension MiningCom-pany of Goldacres, Nevada.That any lode gold mine can oper-ate profitably bymarketing its productat a price established in themiddle ofthe Depression years while paying to-day's high wages, indicated that it waseither a remarkable mine or had aremarkable manager. In the case ofLondon Extension, 1found thereasonfor success was a combination of thesefactors.Perched on the east flank of theShoshone range at an altitude of 5600feet, the mining camp of Goldacresoverlooks the wide flatness of CrescentValley, bare but for greasewood andsagebrush, a ranch or two, an occa-sional windmill and stock - wateringtank, and a dry sink that gleams hot

and white in the desert sun. At thenorth end of this valley, 30miles fromGoldacres, the double tracks of theSouthern Pacific andWestern Pacificrailroads are straddled by the smallcattle-shipping station of Beowawe.And 36 miles west of Beowawe isBattle Mountain, a town of less than1000 inhabitants-the most populouscenter between Winnemucca and Elko,and home of the only doctor and drug-store in an area nearly half as largeas thestate of New York.That the 130 residents of Goldacres,including 60mine andmill employeesand their respective families, find itpossible to live and work harmoniouslyin a degree of isolation fargreater thanthat which prevailed in many of theboomcamps of two generations ago,seems almost as amazing as the factthat Goldacres is making money forits stockholders at a time when most

gold mines have given up the struggleAgain, I suspect that the answer isfound in the person of Harry CBishop, manager of the London Ex-tension.I sawHarry Bishop in action onlya few minutes after my arrival atGold-acres. Driving through thecamp, withits neat white dwellings and cleanstreets andyards, 1 halted in front ofa white frame building that bore asmall sign identifying it as the office.Harry Bishop was at his desk atall serious balding man who appearedto be nudging the 50-year mark. Wehad chatted for half an hour whenthe star route carrier from Beowawestopped his vehicle in the office yard,removed three mail sacks from his loadand carried them into the office.Interrupting our talk with a mur-mured apology, Harry opened the mailsacks and began distributing lettersand second-class matter into half-a-hundred regulation postoffice boxesbuilt into onewall of his office, withtheir locked doors facing the openlobby so that their contents were avail-able to patrons at any hour of theday or night.Arrival of the mail stage had theeffect of a bugler sounding assembly.Within a few minutes women andchildren were streaming toward thepostoffice from all sections of camp.For each patron, Goldacres' non-offi-cial postmaster had a few personalwords of greeting an inquiry intosome matter of health or family for-tune, or a bit of banter. Many of thewomen addressed him as "Harry"and when thewife of a miner or mill-man feels free to call her husband'sboss by his given name, a companyhas little cause to worry about laborrelation problems.As soon asthe last piece of mail waspu t up and the parcel post packagesstacked in the lobby where their ad-dressees could sort over them, HarryBishop and I resumed ourvisit.Because of its name, Harry ex-plained, many believe London Exten-sion is owned by English capital, butthere is not one stockholder in theBritish Empire. The name originatedwhen his father, the late Harry Bishop,Sr., took a contract in 1905 to extenda development tunnel in the SouthLondon Mine at Alma, Colorado. Tofinance this work he organized theLondon Extension Mining Company,disposing of stock among his friendsand relatives inColorado and hisboy-hood state of Ohio.In 1933 the senior Bishop whowas secretary - treasurer and generalmanager of the company came toNevada and early the following yearbought for his group an equity in 16claims, including ground located 10

DESERT MAGAZINE


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Goldacres miners and their families live in these company-owned cottages.years earlier by a prospector namedLee Lankin. Some of these claimsform the nucleus of the present Gold-acres Mine. When clear title was ob-tained six years later, ow nership passedto Consolidated Goldacres Company,a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lon-don Extension Mining Company.Development of Goldacres began inthe fall of 1940, and by the next springthe outlook was so promising WesternKnapp Engineering Company of SanFrancisco agreed to build and equip amill. Development and operation ofthe property was carried out by Con-solidated Goldacres until the summerof 1948 when title again passed toLondon Extension.After doing business for over 50years, London Extension is strongertoday than ever. Its holdings include20 patented lode claims, 41 lode claimsheld under mineral filings, and 47placer claims. A closed corporationits stock cannot be bought on theopen marketit is owned in its en-tirety by 55 shareholders, most ofwhom are heirs of the original pur-chasers, and is headed by 81-year-oldFred C. Bishop, of Centerburg, Ohio,a brother of the company's founder.After 15 years under the capab lemanagement of Harry Bishop, Sr.,"young" Harry was appointed to thatposition upon the death of his fatherin 1955. No man was better qualifiedto assume the reins of management.Except for two years in the EngineerCorps during World War II, Harryhad been in the employ of the com-pany since 1939. During the post-waryears when the War Production Boardwould not permit gold mines or millsto buy new equipment or repair parts,F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 5

he had spent most of his time runningfrom one inoperative mill to anothertrying to buy used machinery to keepGoldacres in production. Despite hisbest efforts at scavenging during thatcritical period, the plant operated onlyon a diminished scale."We didn't set the world afire," saidHarry . "Bu t, at least we kept some ofthe wheels turning most of the time."From Harry's office I drove thehalf-mile graveled road to the mine.Although I knew Goldacres wasworked by the low-cost open pit meth-od, I was astounded at the immensesize of the excavation formed here inthe past 17 years! Not that it chal-lenges Ruth copper pit or BinghamCanyon, to be sure, but the fact thatso much material has been removedby so few men seems almost beyondbelief. The area worked is 1600 feetlong and 800 feet wide, with a depthof approx imately 100 feet - whichmeans that over 42.000.000 cubicyards of dirt and rock have been drilledand blasted, loaded and trucked awayfor milling, or dumped over the bankas waste.The ore yields from $5 to $6 per tonin gold, with a trace of silver, andduring the past 15 years approximately2.000.000 tons of ore have been outthrough the mill. During 1956, 1.042,-694 tons of material was hauled outof the oit190.000 tons of it ore and853.000 tons waste. At present theratio stands at about five tons of wasteto one ton of ore. Late r, when a cavedarea has been worked out, the ratiowill drop to about three-to-one.Tn the mining opera tion 18-footvertical waeon-drill holes are sunk on10-to-l2 foot centers. These holes are

"sprung" or chambered at the bottomand charged with 50 pounds of pow-der which is fired electrically. The18-foot benches, including both wasteoverburden and ore, are mined bypower shovels and truckstwo shiftsof drillers being able to keep one shiftof shovelmen busy. The mill worksaround the clock.Determination of which material iswaste and which is millable ore, de-pends entirely upon assay testssam-ples being taken from each drill holeat 6, 12 and 18 feet depths."Our entire mining program isbased on assay reports," said Harry."The gold is deposited in brecciatedlime and it is so extremely fine that Idon't believe anyone on earth can ex-amine our ore with even the mostpowerful microscope and tell which isworth milling and which isn't."One time I thought I'd have a goat panning it. I mortared some rockwith extreme care and panned it justas carefully as I was able. When Ifinished I was quite proud of myselfuntil a subsequent assay showed thatT had saved none of the gold. My pantailings ran as high as my concentrate!"At the east edge of the pit stands the400-ton cyanide plant through whichthis elusive gold must pass on its waytoward becoming bullion. Crushed toone and one-half inches, the ore is fedinto a Marcy ball mill where it isground. This discharge, in turn, isclassified, and the sand fminus three-eighths inch, plus 65 mesh) is trans-ferred to open leaching tanks for about120 hours, after which the slime istreated by counter current decantation,and filtered. A Merrill-Crowe precini-tation unit then recovers the gold,

15


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Ore is mined by open pitmethod.which is molded into bars and shippedto the U.S. Mint at San Francisco.With 60 men employed in drilling,shovel work, heavy trucking and mill-ing, it seemed to me that in the courseof a year a considerable number ofaccidents must occur. Yet, when Iasked Harry if the company maintaineda camp hospital, he said no."Even if we could afford to employa doctor or registered nurse, we prob-ably wouldn't be able to find one will-ing to live this far from town. Fo r-tunately, we haven't had any bad ac-cidents."But, despite their extreme isolationand lack of medical facilities, the peo-ple of Goldacres are very fortunate.Compared to the "good old days"when mining camp dwellers lived indugouts, tent houses and dirt-flooredshacks pieced together from coal-oilcans and packing cases, these folks areliving in comparative luxury. In addi-tion to 32 one-family dwellings rang-ing in size from two to five rooms andeach neatly painted and maintained intop-notch condition, the camp includeseight apartments, a 30-bed bunkhousefor unmarried men, boarding house, awell-stocked general store owned byMr. and Mrs. Bruce Warmbrodt, andan elementary school at which twoteachers conduct full-time classes foran average attendance of 25 pupils.The camp is completely mo dem. Wateris pumped three miles from a well inCrescent Vallev to a large tank locatedsufficiently high above camp to assure16

good fire-figh ting pressure. Sewagedisposal is provided, an d electric poweris generated on the premises.At noon Harry suggested that I eatlunch at the company boarding house."It'll give you a chance to see howwe feed our men, and I'm sure you'llenjoy Mrs. Burrus' good cooking," hesaid.In the cool spic-and-span diningroom, where not a speck of dust wasin evidence, a dozen men seated at along oilcloth-covered table were eat-ing with greater appreciation of goodfood than was ever felt, I am sure, byDuncan Hines. On the table sat steam-ing platters of juicy roast beef andbowls of brown gravy, mashed pota-toes, sage dressing and lima beanscooked with ham. There was jellofruit salad and canned pears, scaldingpitchers of coffee, and for dessert,pineapple pie.After Harry Bishop introduced meto Mrs. Burrus, the cook, she set anextra place for me at the table andstarted the sundry bowls of food mov-ing down the table in my direction.The food was well cooked, well sea-soned, and served in an appetizingmann er. Such a menu , at any small-town restaurant of my acquaintance,would cost between $1.50 and $1.75,plus tip. Yet, my table companionsassured me that this meal was "onlyaverage" of the 21 a week they areservedwith all the second helpingsthey wantfor only $12.60.

Perhaps policies of this sort areresponsible for the fact that severalof London Extension's employees havebeen with the company for more than14 years.Later, as I was climbing the hill tothe water tank to photograph the milland pit below, a woman called to mefrom her front porch."Are you the girl who is getting astory on Goldacres?" she asked. I saidI waswondering, at the same time,how the grapevine could have dissem-inated this information so quickly."My husband saw you taking pic-tures over at the pit this morning,"went on this friendly miner's wife."We're from Sacramento. We've onlybeen here two weeks, but we sure likeit. We like this bright clear air!""How did you happen to comehere?" I asked. "Did you answer ahelp-wanted ad?""Oh , no !" said the woman. "Ourson-in-law has worked here for severalyears. He and our daughter thinkthere's just no place quite as good asGoldacres! They were after Dad fora long while to come up here and goto work . They told us what a grandfellow Mr. Bishop is to work for, andthat working conditions were fine, andthey liked the climate. So, finally Dadand I sold our place in the Valley andcame up hereand from what we'veseen of it, I don't think we're going tobe sorry! Like our son-in-law has al-ways said, Goldacres is a good campto tie to!"A good camp to tie to! It had beena long while since I had heard thisexpression that old-time miners com-monly used in referring to favoredcamps where wages and living condi-tions were good, work was steady, andthe management respected.As I headed back through CrescentValley to Beowawe and on to BattleMountain, I was grateful that it hadbeen my privilege to visit Goldacres.I had found pleasure in meeting andtalking to Harry Bishop, and in seeingthe mine and mill in operation. I had

relished my meal at Mrs. Burrus*boarding house, and had enjoyed mytalk with the friendly woman in theminer's cabin on the hillside.But greater than all this, I think, w asthe feeling of "all Tightness" this placehad given me. It had done my hearta world of good to know that thereis one mining camp where the roarand clatter of a ball mill still soundsaround the clock, where gold still ispoured into bullion molds, and thegrand old phrase"a good camp totie to"still falls affectionately fromthe lips of workmen.



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These cell blocks once housed manydesperate criminals, but today Terri-torial Prison is a tourist point ofinterest.

HISTORIC PANORAMAS XII

T e r r i t o r i a l P r i s o nBy JOSEF and JOYCE MUENCHAt Yuma, Arizona, on a bluff over-looking the Colorado River known asPrison Hill, stand the grim forbiddingruins of Territorial Prison.Congress authorized establishment ofthis prison in 1867. Eight years later,still not completed, the first prisoners ar-rived and were put to work on the con-struction job. All of the stone and mor-

tar buildings as well as caves into thebluff for the incorrigibles were built bymen condemned to occupy them.If the punishment fit their crimes, thenthey were bad men indeed who were in-carcerated in the cramped and dreadfulDungeon Block and the Main Cell Block.The prison was deactivated in 1909.Before acquiring its present status asa museum, the prison served for fouryears (1910-1914) as Yuma High School ,which still calls its athletic teams, "TheCriminals ."

The prison's main cell block, builtby inmates.F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 8


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P r o g r e s s o n T h r e e U p p e r B a s i nD a m s T o l d b y R e c l a m a t i o n B u r e a u

Work at Glen Canyon, Navajo andFlaming Gorge damsites, major unitsof the$760,000,000 Upper ColoradoRiver Storage Project, advanced alongseveral lines during thepast year, theDepartment of Reclamation reported.While a contract foractual construc-tion of a dam and powerplant onlyhad been awarded for Glen Canyon{Desert, April, '57) at year's end, theDepartment's time table called for theissuance of invitations for bids onFlaming Gorge dam and powerplant(Desert, Jan., '57) in January of thisyear with awarding of a prime contractin late spring. Invitation for bids onthe Navajo dam and powerplant isexpected this spring.Glen CanyonEfforts at Glen Canyon have cen-

tered on the construction of accessroads to the damsite; thestart of con-struction on the suspension bridgeacross the canyon; establishment offacilities for carrying on constructionat the damsite; andpreliminary workto achieve diversion and control of theriver at the damsite.During the year prime contractorsMerritt-Chapman and Scott Corpora-tion established offices, warehouses,trailer housing, dormitories, mess halls,commissary and related facilities at thedamsite. Under sub-contracts, excava-tion of the left diversion tunnel andpowerhouse service road tunnel havebeen started, along with spillway ex-cavations on each canyon rim, andhighline erection andsuspension foot-bridge across the canyon. The right

H a r d R o c k S h o r t yof Death Valley

An old Model T stopped infront of the Inferno store andthe occupants came inside to re-fresh themselves from the barrelof apple cider theproprietor al-ways kept on tap."Been up to that crater," oneof them explained "Ubehebecrater, they call it."The speaker glanced aroundthe room at the wrinkled pros-pectors seated on the counter,the bags of potatoes, and acouple of rickety stools. "Anyof you fellers living here whenthat volcano was blowin' off?"he asked.Hard Rock Shorty was thefirst to answer. "You'll hear alo t o' different stories about thebig hole," he explained. "Butdon't youbelieve none o' them.Scientific fellers say it wuz a bigblow-out when a lotta gasaccu-mulated in the ground an* ex-ploded. Some folks think it wuza volcano."Over in Rhyolite one day Imet a feller who claimed it wuzdug by a Scotchman. Said theo l ' Scot had a hole in his pocket

an' lost a dime there onedayan' then spent two years diggin'till he found it."But them explanashions is allwrong. I know what made thathole. That wuz where ol'PisgahBill had his gunpowder mine.Bill found that mine back in the'90s when hewuz out prospectin'the north end o' Death Valley.He sat down on a rock one dayan' lit his pipe while he did alittle contemplatin'. When hethrew thematch away it setfireto a rock lying there on theground. Bill got all excited andstarted diggin' an' sure enoughhe hit a rich deposit o' blackpowder."Bill wuz skeered somebody'djump his claim, so he slept inthe tunnel every night. One nighthe left his wallet with somematches lying beside his bedroll,Dunn ' the night the packratsfound them matches an' startedchewin' on 'em. When theplaceexploded it blew Pisgah clear upon the side o' thePanamints, an'if he hadn't landed in a big firtree it'd probably a killed him."

diversion tunnel was holed through inNovember and final clean-up is inprogress.Over $6,000,000 in contracts havebeen awarded for town facilities atPage, Arizona, theGlen Canyon dam-site community. Work is underwayon streets; water and sewer distribu-tion systems; sewage treatment plant;and water supply system. Permits forthe construction of business, serviceand other establishments are to begranted this year. The Page schoolenrollment grew from 150 in Septem-ber to 300 in December.Flaming GorgeDuring 1957, considerable pre-con-struction work wasdone on FlamingGorge Dam onthe Green River. Fielddata was obtained for use in prepara-tion of the facility's final designs andspecifications.Principal field construction centeredon the building of the access road fromLinwood, Utah, and the start of con-struction of the Flaming Gorgecom-munity onDutch John Flat. The roadis scheduled to be completed in June.A $2,600,000 contract was awardedlast June for the building of facilitiesfor the Flaming Gorge community, andcompletion of the job is due in Febru-ary, 1959. However, some housesprobably will be ready for occupancyin mid-1958. Work on thewater sys-tem will be undertaken this year, andthe government hopes to move con-struction headauarters and personnelfrom Vernal, Utah, to Flaming Gorgeby late summer.Navajo DamNavajo Dam on theSan Juan Riverwill be a large earth and rockfill struc-ture about 405 feet high and3600 feetlong. Water from its reservoir will beused for the proposed Navaio Reserva-tion irrigation project and the SanJuan-Chama project.Activities during 1957 were limitedto pre-construction investigations toobtain design and construction data,and to the beginning of constructionof a small temoorary camp near thedamsite for Federal personnel. Maiorwork included exploratory drilline andexamination of the damsite and theborrow areas (areas from which ma-terials used in construction f the damwill beobtained); survevs to establishconstruction controls: andexaminationof rieht-of-way requirements.

The Navajo Dam camp five milesdownstream from the danisite. isscheduled forcompletion in June. Fif-teen temoorary residences areplannedfor the camp, A 10-mile access roadis expected to be started early thisvear from a point three miles east ofBlanco, NewMexico, to the damsitearea.18 DESERT MAGAZINE


19/44

L o o p T r i p T h r o u g h t h e El P a s o s . . .The whole family will enjoy making this short junket through theEl Pas o Moun tains on the western Mojave Desert. It 's a land ofgorgeous canyon scenery, rich mining history and beautiful rockhoundtreasuresan arid desert range with a colorful past and a hopeful

future. And a s for the presen t, there is plen ty of room o n top forcamping, prospecting and hiking.By EUGENE L. CONROTTOMap by Norton Allen

I'M GOING up there to see aminer," said the sun tanneddesert man, pointing to thebleak El Paso Mountains behind us."Want to take a ride?"I was more than happy to accept,not only for the opportunity to travelagain mrough this historic mining androckhound country, but to take an-other desert junket with Godfrey Law-rence of Cantil, California. He hasspent over 25 years on the MojaveDesert, all of it in the country fromIndian Wells Valley south to the An-telope Valley.We threw our canteens in the backseat of die ranch wagon and with myfour-year-old son, Duane, and the 14-year-old Lawrence family dog, Butch,left the Cantil General Store on U.S.Highway 6 and drove north.The El Pasos are not a lofty range,rising only 2900 feet at their highestpoint above the 2000-feet-above-sea-level desert floor, to form a low butmassive barrier between the IndianWells and Fremont valleys.

Five main parallel canyons drainsouth from the El Pasos in this vicin-ity: Red Rock {Desert, Feb., '56)which we drove through on Highway6 and whose spectacular red-browntowering sandstone cliffs are an attrac-tion people drive hundreds of miles tos e e ; Last Chance {Desert, May, '42),one of the earliest and most popularrockhound collecting locales in South-em California; Mesquite; Iron; andGoler {Desert, Mar., '52), where theGerman prospector Goler's lost placerground was re-discovered. The ca n-yons lie in this order, from west toeast.Past Red Rock the terrain broad-ened out and the bright sun-filled hori-zon was broken by the dark roundedvolcanic summits of the El Pasos.At 8.4 miles north of the CantilGeneral Store we turned right (east)onto a dirt road at the far side of alittle knoll. This is a well-bladed coun-ty road connecting Inyokem and High-way 6 and should not be confused witha road of similar appearance a few

yards south of it on the near side ofthe knoll. Positive identification is af-forded by a sign a few feet from thehighway on the county road directingmotorists to "Lee's Copper Basin."Up to this point we had been mak-ing an almost imperceptible climb, butnow the trail more noticeably pitchedupward as we started across the widebajada. There are several forks andjunctions on this plain and in the can-yons we traveled that day, and theaccompanying log should be consultedby those planning to use this "backroad" into Last Chance.At the top of the pass are thegleaming white buildings of CalsicoMine and Mill. Here pumice andsilica taken from the great cavity onthe mountain face above the mill areground into various grades of fineness,depending upon the proposed use ofthe material.From the saddle of the mountain wedropped into the upper reaches of aLast Chance Canyon tributary. So farthe entire trip had been made in highgear and with the greatest of ease.As we drove deeper into the canyonthe sheer walls loomed higher aboveu s . Here was evidence of the miningactivity of bygone daysblack open-ings of old mines, tunnels and shaftshacked out of the sides and floor ofthe canyon; bare dumps beneath andbeside these portals; faint side trailsleading from the main road; tiny cab-i n s ; sturdy stone monuments allrelics of hope and effort.

Chips Schneider squats before Colo-rado Camp's living quarters. Coal-dale remains lie in draw between thecabin and Black Mountain in leftbackground.

F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 5 8 19


20/44

The El Pasos were the scene of con-siderable placer gold activity in the1890s, and even up to a few years agoin greatly diminished amounts. Vo l-canic ash deposits here for many yearswere important pumicite sources, butrecent discoveries of bigger and bettertuff layers in other sections of the statehave reduced the significance of thesedeposits.However, a great number of activeclaims in a variety of minerals aboundin these mountains, and every week-end will find at least one dusty vehicleloaded with mining paraphernalia andthe inevitable barrel of water, on thecanyon trails.Into view came the beautiful pinkand white exposures of bentonite andother clays on the dark canyon wallsbelow. At the junction with the maincanyon road we parked the car and gotout.

Creosote, the most widespread ofall desert vegetation, was scarce in-deed. In its place grew gnarled scrubmesquite.A million years before the SierraNevada west of the El Pasos beganto emerge, oak, fan palm and locustgrew in the green meadows of thisonce-lush paradise. On the surface itis impossible to conceive that thiscountry ever could have had an abun-dance of water and animal life. Onthis entire trip we did not see oneperson who was a permanent residentof these mountains except the minerwe visited. Later I was told by Kem

EL PASO MOUNTAINSLOOP TBIP LOG

00.0 Cantil General Store on Highway6, approximately 21 miles northof Mojave. Drive north fromhere through Red Rock Canyonto8.4 Tur n right o nto county-ma in-tained dirt road on north sideof knoll. Sign reads: "Lee'sCopper Basin Camp."10.8 Fork . Turn right.12.6 For k. Keep left. Road to rightleads to "Stormy'8 Camp."13.9 Junction with road from Ha rt'sService Station on Hwy. 6. Keepright.14.9 Calsico M ine and Mill. Keepleft. Just over rise is upperreaches of Last Chance Canyontributary.16.6 Junction . Right fork leads toLast Chance Canyon proper.Turn left, up canyon to20.7 Delia G erbrach t's Black Mou n-

tain Mining Comp any. Rightfork leads down Mesquite Can-yon. Keep left to21.8 Colora do Cam p and Coaltjale *jsite. Four-wheel drive recom- *mended for down-canyon trailsbeyond. Return to22.9 Gerb racht's ( 20 .7) . T urn left toMesquite Canyon.25,7 Fork. Right leads to Randsb urgHighway. Keep left to27.3 Garlock . Tu m right to28.1 Randsburg Highway. Randsburgis 8.2 miles east of this junction.Turn right to40.2 Highw ay 6 just below CantilGeneral Store (00.0).

County predator controller RichardWonacott that wildlife is especiallyscarce in this range. He has heardreports of three or four wild burrosfurther to the east and a few bobcatsand coyotes in the canyons.Conclusive proof of Last Chance'sgreener youth the petrified forest

down canyon now lies below thesurface. Collectors have carried offall the exposed logs, but those who donot mind a little work still can findbeautiful specimens of this material.The technique is to probe the groundwith an iron rod. When a hard objectis struck, the rockhound digs downto it andif he is luckyit will bea piece of petrified wood. The opalbeds below the petrified forest stillyield specimens, and some brilliant butsmall fire opals have been taken fromthese hills. Most of the opal and woodareas are on private land and inter-mittently rockhounds have been al-lowed to collect on them by paying asmall fee to a caretaker., .Collectors also are finding moss andother agates in the El Pasos, but thequality of this material is not too good.A fourth rockhound prize, jasper, alsoawaits the person with a little prospect-ing skill and a willingness to search arich area long ago classified as "wo rkedout." ,We took to the worn dirt road andcontinued -eastward into the broad en-ing reached of th"e*range's summit. Ar-riving a* Colorado : Camp we again

were on the slope of a wide bajada20 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


21/44

The El Paso Mountains as seen from the Randsburg to Cantil cut-off, lookingnorthward. Garlock is at foot of mountains in center.with the El Paso range on our rightand 4938-foot Black Mountain on ourleft. Due no rth stretched the flat ex-panse of Indian Wells Valley.Colorado Camp's broad inclinedyard is flanked by a cabin fronting theroad, and a garage-shop on the higherground. The several open shafts, dig-gings and prospect holes on the prop-erty are in the rimrocks and gulliesbehind the shop.One of the old-timers who workedhis claims in the waning days of theEl Paso's mining boom was C. E.French"Frenchy" his friends calledhim. He had owned the 26 claims ofColorado Camp where in past yearssix percent copper ore had been dis-covered. The son of U. S. Grant

financed the digging of the 200-foot-deep and 450-foot-long main copperore shaft. Besides the copper the ear-lier miners had passed over or missed,Frenchy was developing gold, silver,molybdenum and lead prospects on theproperty.Out of the cabin partly dug into thesloping yard came Maynard "Chips"Schneider to greet us. Chips is a raw-boned balding man of 46, Living andworking mostly alone during the lastfew years, he had absorbed the calmof his desert mountain habitat and Ihad to strain to hear his softspokenand polite conversation.By a strange coincidence, GodfreyLawrence was responsible for Chips'being in these mountains.

Four years ago, during the heightof the uranium boom, Chips quit thesea after 22 years spent mostly in theOrient, and purchased some prospect-ing gear. His destination was LonePine to the north, but an old mortarand pestle in Godfrey's cactus gardenattracted his attention and he stoppedto investigate.Soon the two men were in a miningconversation and Godfrey suggestedthat Chips prospect the El Pasos. Be-sides, Frenchy, who was seriously ill,was looking for help and Chips prob-ably would be able to get work."It's a small world," said Godfreyin telling this story, "Seems thatFrenchy once worked for Chips' dad,and he and the younger man got alongGarlock ruins at base of El Pasos. Second building from right is Grandma Slocum'sshack where fallen windm ill once supplied water to area's prospectors.


22/44

famously. When Frenchy passed awayhe willed Colorado Camp and all hismining equipment to theex-sailor.Chips invited us into hisneat cabinto look over ore specimens. The roughinterior walls were covered withme-mentoes of the orientJapanese waterpaintings, Philippine knivesand on a

bookshelf were twohuge volumes ofa Japanese-English dictionary.Chips handed me two beautifulpieces of heavy copper ore shotthrough with green splotches, glisten-ing silver, and dark stains of gold sul-fide. "See why I'm sitting onthis hill?"he asked with a smile. "It's not likeit was in the 90s when they pickedupgold nuggets here by the lard-pailful,but these hills arestill plenty rich."He told of a newexcavation beingmade back of the shop in which adeposit of fluorescent rock has beenuncovered. We picked upsome of this

material and that night when we putit under the black light it glowed abrilliant pink and red. It has not yetbeen determined whether these stonesare in thecalcite or zinc families,andtheir only distinguishing characteris-tic bydaylight is a film of dull yellowrust. This is a rare deposit and col-

lectors have come to secure specimensfrom as far away as San Diego. Itmust be remembered, however, thatColorado Camp is private propertyand permission to hunt for fluorescentmaterial must be obtained from Chipsor his assigns. No miner objects tosharing a stone or two, butthey cringewhen someone drives upwith a dumptruck. And it is never in badtaste tooffer to pay for specimens collected.

Between Colorado Camp and BlackMountain is shallow Colorado Gulchin which there is a noticeable outcrop-ping of black ore. The several cabinclearings surrounding it are all thatremain of Coaldale, one of severalcoal boom towns in California.Before development of the state'soil resources, the hope of discoveringeoal was uppermost in the minds ofindustrialists.Coaldale's coal operation began in

1894 and lasted six months into 1895,according to the late Finley Buhn whowas born and lived his 83years in thisarea. With his team, Buhn hauledthree or four loads of this material toa blacksmith in nearby Randsburg,But, thecoal was nogoodin fact itwas asphaltum tar and smoked badly

P r o f i t F r o m Y o u r P h o t o s .. .February on thedesert means snow in thehigh ranges, a nip inthe air, and sparkling clear skies to delight the photographer. Thepictures you take on the desert in Februaryor any montharewelcomed entries in Desert Magazine's photo contest. Any desertsubject will do Indians, wildflowers, wildlife, panoramas, ghosttownsthe possibilities are endless. You will proiit by regularlyentering thebest of your black and white desert scenes in this easyto enter contest.Entries ior the February contest must be sent tothe Desert Maga-zine office. Palm Desert, California, andpostmarked not later thanFebruary 18. Winning prints will appear in theApril issue. Pictureswhich arrive too late for one contest are held over ior thenext month.First prize is $10; second prize $5. For non-winning pictures acceptedfor publication $3 each will be paid.

HERE ARE THE RULES1Print! must be black and while, 5x7 orlarger, onglossy paper.2Each photograph submitted should be fully labeled as to subject, timeandplace . Also technical data: camera, shutter speed, hour otday, etc.3PRINTS WILL BE RETURNED WHEN HETUBN POSTAGE IS ENCLOSED.4Entries mast be in the Desert Magatine office by the 20th of Ihe contestmonth.5Contests are open to both amateur and professional photographers. DesertMagazine requires first publication rights only ofprize winning pictures.

.._;>Time and place of photograph are immaterial, except that it must be bomthedesert Southwest7Judges will be selected from Desert's editorial staii. and awards will be madeimmediately after Ihe dose ofthe contest each month.

Address All Entries to Photo EditorPALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA

when burned. After the shaft wasabandoned a flash flood destroyed i tDuring its heyday, Coaldale hadnearly 75residentsall male. Despitethe lack of womenor perhaps be-cause of itCoaldale was a peacefulcamp, Buhn recalled. Some of themen who lived here were placer minerswho haddrifted over from the earliergold camps in Red Rock CanyonandBlack Mountain. The Goler andRandsburg booms followed thesestrikes, the latter becoming the mostimportant California mining boom inthe 90s.

At Coaldale the gold miners livedin tents while the coal miners had awooden bunkhouse. In addition therewere a few cabins, a cookhouse andan office.The afternoon shadows were length-ening rapidly when we said goodbyetoChips andstarted back down thetrail.

We took the left fork at DeliaGer-bracht's Black Mountain Mining Com-pany headquarters and headed downMesquite Canyon. Thenarrow Mes-quite road was rougher than any ofthe trails behind us, and required care-ful driving.Soon we emerged into the broadfanthat sweeps down to the ghost townofGarlock and out across the desertplain to theRand Mountains beyond.Visible above the waist-high forest ofcreosote were the silent crumblingadobe and battered wooden wallsflanking both sides of the dead city's

paved highway.Garlock predates Randsburg. Itwasthe milling andsupply center for theplacer miners in the El Paso canyons,and Randsburg's first gold ore wahauled here for milling by 20 MuleTeam wagons over a nine-mile sandytrail. This valley's main traffic todayconsists of a few cars that skirt theEl Pasos from Highway 395 to High-way 6and thedesert tortoises whichbreed here in large numbers.The stone walls of Garlock's bigsaloon still are in good condition,butthe windmill has crashed through the

roof of Grandma Slocum's shackandthe exhausted jumble of sun-warpedwood is sinking lower and lower intothe desert soil. For many years afterGarlock died, this windmill suppliedwater to local prospectors.We turned south along Garlock'smain street and at the junction of theRandsburg Road Godfrey swung rightonto the paved route paralleling theEl Paso Mountains, now deep in shad-ow andsunset vermilion.As we drove the 12 miles back toHighway 6, I glanced often at the low

range which has passed through thefull cycle of time.2 2 DESERT MAGAZINE


23/44

Cactus Pad . . .To the uninitiated the cactus Is aforbidding plant. But lovers of thedesertland know it as a plant of

symmetrical beauty and more ~ asym bol of the fulfilled desire to sur-vive by adaptation in an environ-ment never generous with the in-gred ients for lush plant life. An yo newho has seen a seemingly deadcactus awaken into full life after adesert storm knows that this plant isa marvel of Nature. This month'sfirst prize photo was taken by PaulE, Black of Inglewood, California.

P i c t u r e s o ft h e M o n t h

Deserted building in the ghosttown of Bodie, high on the easternflank of California's Sierra Nevadas,is the subject of the second prizepicture. It w as take n by J. Meyer-peter of nearby Bishop. Bodie wasa rugged mining camp with a repu-tation for bad men, good drinkingwater and, because of its nearly9000 feet altitude, the world's worstweather. Cam era data: 4x5 GraphicView camera; 163 mm. B&L lens;or an ge filter; Su per XX film; 1/100sec. at f. 8.

23

Bodie GhostHouse . . .


24/44

ON DESERT TRAILS WITH A NATURALIST --XLVI

SurfaceofSoda Lake iscovered with dry puffy salt-encrusted mud.

Water in the underground-flowing Moiave River rarely reachesits ultimate destinationa chain of salt-encrusted playas on the flooro! a sandy depression. Butdespite its outwardly stark appearance,this is a unique land possessing much that is of interest and beauty tothe desert explorer.By EDMUND C. JAEGER, D.Sc.Curator of PlantsRiverside Municipal MuseumM ap by Norton Allen

FT ER IT emerges from the highnarrow walls of colorful CaveCanyon ineastern San Bernar-dino County, California, the erraticMojave River's flat bed broadens outover therocks, sands andgray gravelsand heads easterly into a long troughwhich extends northward to the south-ern extremity of Death Valley. On thefloor of this arid valley lie, in line,three dry-surfaced playas ordry lakes:Wedge-shaped Soda Lake, 12 mileslong and sixwide at its southernend;Silver Lake, and Silurian Dry Lake,named after the adjacent Silurian Hills.Only occasionally does w ater flowover the final broad channels of theMojave River into Soda Lake, aptlyknown as the Sink of the M ojave. TheUnion Pacific Railroad's deflecting

rock levee at the lower opening ofCave Canyon diverts most of the or-dinary storm waters into an ancientchannel which leads to East CroniseDry Lake north of the highway andat the base of the Soda Mountains.After traversing Cave Canyon, the rail-road strikes eastward along the Mojavechannel.The big spring storm of 1938 senta sufficient volume of water down themain channel not only to cover thesurface of Soda Lake, butSilver Lakeas well. Vividly do I remember theunique experience of taking a refresh-ing swim in both of those lakes thatyear. Silver Lake was shoulder-deepand beautiful indeed was the broadsheet of quiet water around me, shim-mering like polished silver inthe bright

desert noonday sun. At times I couldsee the images of the nearby highlyconvoluted mountains reflected on thesmooth surface. These are covetedsights seen but two or three times ina lifetime. It gave me an opportunitybetter toenvision the larger and deeperPluvial Lake Mojave which occupiedwith some permanence this same inter-mountain basin nine milleniums ago.Those were times when Quaternary-Age aboriginal man dwelt here andhunted ground sloths, three - toedhorses, antelope and smaller animalsalong the brush-covered margins ofthe lake. Andfrom the lake he tookfish and clams {Onodonta californien-sis).The waters of the 1938 storm havelong since evaporated, andSoda Lakeis again a dry barren playa. On aclear day last November with myfriend Gerald Becker, I again traveledover theflat surface of the lake. Nowit is covered with dry puffy salt-en-crusted mud, and littered in placeswith round dark brown to black vesic-ular pebbles andsizeable boulders ofbasalt which had washed down fromnearby volcanic hills. Walking on themud-surfaced areas was like treadingon a carpet of spongy rubber. Thesouthern and especially the south-east-em borders of the playa were coveredwith fine near-white wind blown sand.Although much of the flat playasurface seemed at first to be unusu-ally barren anddevoid of life, we fre-quently stopped the car and investi-gated dierubbery flats which in many

places were heaved up into strangesmall "bumps" by salt crystals, or24 DESERT MAGAZINE

Life on an An cien tM ojave Playa . . .


25/44

shrunken to form polygonal "cakes"separated by narrow but rather deepfissures.Becker pried up some of these mudblocks and found beneath them andin the separating cracks small browncrickets and soft-bodied Thysanura orsilver fish.We concluded that these insectswere attracting the several small flocksof horned larks we had seen earlier inthe day. They may furnish the neededliquids that make it possible for thesehardy solitude-loving birds to exist onwaste places far from water. Quiteoften I see flocks of horned larks farout in the center of large dry lakes.And perhaps the several killdeer wesaw, birds usually associated with pondborders and wet meadows, had foundin the crack-dwelling insects some-thing to appease their appetites andquench their thirst.These and other birds also feed onsmall seeds blown in by strong winds,or on seeds cast by the unattractivefine-stemm ed inkweed or Sueda, andon the vividly green salt-tolerantpickleweed which we saw growing insome areas on the lake.All about us was entrancing scenery,varying from vistas of distant moun-tains such as the Providence and-Gran-ite ranges to nearby somber--shapedvolcanic or calcareous mountains uponwhose flanks lay lacy-edged drifts ofwhitened sand.Every motorist approaching the

small wayside settlement of Baker onthe north end of Soda Lake must beimpressed as we were that day by thestrange small gray rocky eminences offantastic form to the west. The near-est of these is a hill of pure stratifiedlimestone, actually an outlier of thenearby Soda Mountains. If ever aplace seemed like an unlikely abodefor living snails, this was it. Yet, oursearch among the rocky gullies on itsprecipitous sideseven those with hotsouthern exposuresoon revealed that

land snails do dwell amidst the rocksand deep crevices. The ones we col-lected that day are known as Eremi-qrionta bakerensis.Shells of small snails of the genusPhysa, often called bubble-shells, andof a large flat-spiralled snail, Planorbis,are found nearby in the ancient beachsands of Lak e Mojave. These beachesare some distance from, and 20 feetabove the surface of the present drylake clays.At several places on Soda Lake wefound where the United States Geo-logical Survey had drilled core holesin 1952-3 as part of its investigationof the salt deposits on the MojaveDesert. They probed to depths up to

1070 feet, and while no saline beds ofcommercial value were located, inter-esting evidence of the old lake's pastwas revealed. The drills went throughlayers of gravel, mud, silty clay, sandand volcanic ash. Study of the lattermaterial provided scientists with addi-tional clues to the time and nature ofthe volcanic activities of the dark-col-ored and well-formed group of craters20 miles to the east.At the south end of the playa wateris quite close to the surface and wefound a broad area where there is anextensive growth of large honey andscrew bean mesquite trees, scatteredwillows, inkweed, saltbushes and saltgrass.After five miles of westward travelwe

195802 desert magazine 1958 february

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