196102 desert magazine 1961 february

8/14/2019 196102 Desert Magazine 1961 February

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Magazine o f t h e

O U T D O O R S O U T H W E S T

k

F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 6 14 0 C e n t s


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HuntingWhale

HUNTINGTHEDESERTWHALEPersonal Adventures

in Baja California

ERLESTANLEYGARDNER

Abundantly illustrated withmany photographs by the author.$6.00 everywhere

Thoroughly fascinating and delightful armchair adventuring, traveling arare andwildly beautiful part ofourcontinent with aman who loves itand wants toshare

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Bill Hoy photoSECOND 1961 INVITATION

To enjoy and photograph the myriadbeauties of GLEN CANYON of the COLO-RADO RIVE R in U tah. To visit and photog raph RAINBOWBRIDGE. Boat launchings at HU E, Utah . Landin gs at KANE CREEK, '/ 2 Mile fromCrossing of the Fathers in Utah. Drive your car, or fly in to rendezvouspointHITE, Utah. Your choice of nine 4-DAY TRIPS dur-ing MAY and JUNE 1961. Rendezvous dayEVERY Monda y. LaunchingsEVERY Tuesday LandingsEVERY Friday.4 -DAY FARE: $100 1961 is the final year to boat GLENCANYON in its virgin beauty. 1962 will see the closing of the ga tesof the diversion tunnels, and the floodingforever by the rising waters of the newLAKE POWELL, behind GLEN CANYONDAM near PAGE, Arizona. Come join us in our 23rd year. Identify above river canyon scene andreceive $5 credit on boat fare. During 1960, our 1001st boating guestwas SUSAN DOLESE of Ganado, Arizonawho won the fare refund. Come join us Into A Land of GreatBeauty.LARABEE AND ALESONWESTERN RIVER TOURSRichfield, U tah

FREE MAILING SERVICEWe will be happy to mail copiesof current issues of

DESERT MAGAZINEto your friends, at our regularnewsstand price of 40cSimply send us:1. Names and mailing addressesof intended recipients;2 . Date of issue you want sent;3 . Your name and address (tobe used on the magazine's mail-ing envelope as return address);4 . 40c for each magazine youwant mailed.Mail above information and remittancetoSingle Copy Desk, Desert Magazine.Palm Desert, Calif.

LETTERSFROM OUR READERSThe Word from Wadsworth . . .To the Editor: The letters-to-the-editor inthe December issue prompt these comments:

To Melissa Branson Stedman, who ob-jected to Desert's peyote repo rt: If youwill come to Wadsworth I will personallyintroduce you to the local Peyote Chief,and if you find him not to be a goodAmerican citizen, I will eat all the peyote inNevada.To Merwin K. Warner, who objected tothe ghost town of Bodie: Bodie is privateproperty, and you should consider it aprivilege to be able to visit the old camp.To Margaret Anthony, who objected tolitterbugs: when I see a beer can along thehighway, my first thought is: "someonemined the ore that went into that can;someone milled the ore; someone distributedthe can; someone filled it; someone sold it;someone enjoyed it; and now the highwaydepartment is paying someone to pick itu p . We all made a living off that can.Hurray for the litterbug!"To Robert T. Neher, who objected to aprevious letter that was critical of EdmundJaeger: Hurray for Mr. Neher. I have ad-mired Dr. Jaeger for many years.To Jimmie James, who objected to treat-ment of Indians: you are right, Jimmie.To Theodore B. Dufur, who objectedto folks not knowing how to get water outof the desert: no comment.ZEB TURNERWadsworth, Nevada

Wanted: A College Site . . .To the Editor: Could you tell me the loca-tion and possible owner of some uselessdesert property where one might start asmall private college in the Baja Californiaor Arizona desert?

F . MONACELL1033 W. 101 Hwy.Wilmington, Calif.(Perhaps some of our readers can helpyou out. The only "useless" desert landsI am familiar with are the huge areasthe Armed Forces confiscated for bomb-ing ranges. Ed.)

Honors to Fr. Kino . . .To the Editor: I wish to take this oppor-tunity to thank Desert Magazine for itstribute to Fr. Eusebio Kino, S. J. (Decemberissue). Although most people know himas an explorer and historical figure, we ofthe Society of Jesus feel that his recordin the Southwest is more renowned forhis dedication to its Christianization andfertility than its colonization. I am surePadre Kino's quiet and obscure death neverenvisioned the timely tribute you havepaid him.

Weldon Heald's observation of the in-

difference shown the memory of Kino isaccurate enough, but I wonder if this isnot due to the newness of many people tothe historic Southwest? In my own travelsand talks with Arizonians I have found adeep respect for this courageous Jesuit mis-sionary. Indeed, I have found more know-ledge of Kino than I imagined could haveexisted. Is not our jobwho have come toknow much of Kinoto promote a broaderand fuller unde rstandin g of this person ? Ibelieve that Desert has reintroduced a livingtradition with lingering interests to the new-comers of Arizona and California.Perhaps with some renewed vigor on ourpart, as well as with those who join in ourinterest, some ceremonies of distinctionwill rise in commemoration of the "indom-itable" Padre who gave the finest years ofhis life to the desert he served and the Godhe loved. CHARLES POLZER, S. J.Brophy College PreparatoryPhoenix

Forgery Pays . . .To the Editor: I note that no n.ention wasmade in the fine article on Ted DeGrazia(December Desert) of the period in hislife when he was manager of the LyricTheater in Bisbee, Arizona. I was generalsecretary of the Bisbee YMCA at the time,and Ted was very generous in giving mepasses to the show to use as awards forboys in the "Y " mem bership. He signedevery pass, and his signature was some-thing to beholdmore like a writing exer-cise in vertical lines.

Once when he was signing a stack ofpasses for me, I told him that I would beglad to save him some time by signingthe passes for him. He said a forged De-Grazia signature would never get past theticket-taker.The outcome of all this was a $5 betthat I couldn't get in the theater by signinghis nam e on an unsigned pass. I won thebet, but Ted did better than the $5. He

gave me an annual pass to the Lyric.Ted is one of the most sensitive andkeen men it has been my priviledge toknow. I don't have $2000 to purchaseone of his original paintings, but enclosed

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F I S H E R R E S E A R C H L A B . , I N C .Dept. 2C, Palo Alto, Calif.

4 / Desert Magazine / February, 1961


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with this letter is $1 for a framing printof his "Papago Harvest" as shown on theback cover of the December issue.JO E W. TIBBETSDel Mar, Calif.

The Desert's Men . . .To theEditor: Thank whatever powers thatbe that some part of the world has not yetbeen given over to atom bombs and auto-mation. How about more articles aboutmen and women who typify the desertmen like Tucson artist Ted DeGrazia inthe December Desert Magazine?

LLOYD CURRYTulare, Calif.

Colorado River Fact Sheet . . .To the Editor: I am grateful to DesertMagazine for printing the article, "Troubleon the Colorado," written by Lucile Weight(December Desert). It is, without a doubt,the most factual and unbiased article onthe river controversy which many of ushave been able to find in any publication.Mrs. Weight should be highly commendedfor the research that went into this piece.

MRS. JOHN H. BERRYDowney, Calif.

The Use of Peyote . . .To the Editor: Hoping to calm the un-founded fears expressed by your critic anddisappointed reader who took you to taskfor reporting the legalization of peyote(December "Letters"), I would like to listsome basic facts about peyote which willdemonstrate that it will hardly take overthe country ala"Hula-Hoop."

1. Very few persons other than Indiansknow what peyote is.2. Peyote is very difficult to secure, somuch so that in many tribal ceremonies itsuse is limited to only the principals.3. Its proper use is quite esoteric.4. Its use very often produces vomiting;always produces intense headache; and is

not habit forming.5. It is one of the few drugs in theworld that completely eliminates sexualurge, and sexual ability, when one is underits influence.6. Indians use it only in ceremonies of

ofun i versa l i n t eres t . .

The Classified Ads in theDESERT MAGAZINE'ST R A D I N G P O S TDirect line merchandising, seller to buyer,in the Trading Post (see pages 39, 40, 41)

a religious nature in an attempt to cureills, seek aid in grave problems, and wor-ship.7. It is never used in public since itsuse is considered a serious religious matter.8. By reference to the above, classifyingpeyote with marijuana (and other hempdrugs) andheroin is not only incorrect, butthe inference that Indians are drug addicts,in the common sense of the word, is slan-derous, and totally untrue.9 . 1, too, deplore "peyotism" because itis the Indian's compromise with the whiteman's God, in Big Moon ceremonies, oran admission that the old ways are toomuch trouble and don't work anymore inthe Little Moon meetings.10. The two basic ceremonies are all-night ordeals of a highly religious nature,and produce only the same feelings as areexperienced by a white person of strongfaith while he attends the more ferventrituals of his church.It is hoped that this will serve to erasethe ill chosen words of your critic whocertainly has done the Indians a grave in-justice.

R. R. CORDAINAltadena, Calif.

New World "Cedars" . . .To the Editor: In Edmund Jaeger's finedescription and discussion of our Junipers(Desert, December '60), he makes somemention of Cedars. I would like to bepermitted to question the statement thatCedars are wholly Old World in distribu-tion. I am not a botanist, but have beenteaching my Scouts, when hiking in can-yons above 4500-feet elevation, that ourIncense Cedar (Librocedrus decurrens) isindeed a Cedar.If this is not so, howshould this beauti-ful and well-loved member of our moun-tain-forest family be described?

W. A. BUSHHollywood, Calif.(Incense Cedar is a member of the Cy-press family. Its cones and leaves areentirely different from those of trueCedars of thegenus Cedrus, according toDr. Jaeger. The cones of true Cedarsare conical, fairly large, oval-oblong;leaves areneedlelike. Cones of IncenseCedar are small, consisting of a fewwoody scales; leaves arescalelike. Com-mon names are often misleading, as inthe case of Incense Cedar. Ed .)

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BOOKS of the SOUTHWESTA TREASURE CHESTO F S O U T H W E S T E R N ART

What draws some men of great artistictalent to the desert? What inspiration dothey find in a land that many people fearwith a passion equal to but never surpass-ing in intensity the kinship these artistscome to have for the spaciousness, subtletyof color and strangeness of form of aridlands?The lives and personal desert faith of 12men and one woman who have earnedreputations as top Southwestern artistsmake-up a newbook. Painters of the Des-ert, written by EdAinsworth, Southern Cal-ifornia newspaper columnist and Westernauthor. Accompanying the text is a desertgallery of the works of these artists, repro-duced both in color and black-and-white.Ainsworth chose these painters: Mayn ardDixon, "the man who painted poems";

Clyde Forsythe, who "dipped his brushesin the sky";Jimmy Swinnerton, the artistwho "found the rainbow in all nature";Nicolai Fechin, who "found the desert'ssoul"; Paul Lauritz, who "paints the des-ert's spirit"; Conrad Buff, whose art reflects"the desert's glories"; DonLouis Perceval,who "paints the desert's history"; John W.Hilton, "the man who captured the sun-shine"; Burt Procter, who "paints the des-ert's reality"; R. Brownell McGrew"his isthe technique of the Old Masters"; CarlEytel, the pioneer desert artist; and BillBender, the "second generation" desertpainter. The feminine touch is provided byOrpha Klinker.Painters of theDesert contains 111large-

format (9% x l l ' / i-inch) pages; 90 illustra-tions (12 color plates); handsome hard-backcover.Here are capsuled press notices receivedby this new volume: Los Angeles Times:Painters of theDesert . . . brings betweenbook covers what may well be the bestcollection of American desert paintingsever so assembled." Bakersfield Californian:". . . one of the most beautiful books ofthe West." San Bernardino Sun-Telegram:". . . the sort of book that will live foryears tocome and be read again andagain."Los Angeles Herald & Express: "A truly

magnificent book!" Glendale News-Press:"A veritable treasure chest of artists whofound inspiration in the varying moods ofthe arid lands . . ." Santa Barbara News-Press: "This is a handsome volume . . .to delight the confirmed lover of desertcountry, and to awaken strangers to theawareness of the magic of the land of colorand lonely grandeur."

Painters of the Desert was published byDesert Magazine, Palm Desert, California.$9.35. See footnote below for informationon how to purchase this book by mail.THE KEY TH AT OPENEDT H E U N K N O W N W E S T

Frontier Military Posts of Arizona haslimited appeal, but for buffs of WesternHistory specializing in the military side ofthings, this new book is a must. It waswritten by RayBrandes, whobelieves: "themilitary history of the greater Southwesthas never fully exploited the role of thesoldier as one of the dominant charactersin the settlement process . . . the infantry-man's very presence opened up new ex-panses of land . . . he was the key thatopened the unknown West." Historicalphotographs, maps and drawings round-outthe books 94 pages. Paperback edition:$1 ; hard-cover: $2.25 (see details in foot-note) .THE LIVING MUSEUMA T G H O S T R A N C HThe Museum at Ghost Ranch is an at-tractive 40-page booklet that describes thenewest conservation project by the CharlesLathrop Pack Foundation. The GhostRanch living museum, similar in conceptto the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum inTucson, is located near Abiquiu, NewMex-ico. Desert Magazine readers who are in-terested in further information may orderthe bulletin from Ghost Ranch Museum,Abiquiu, New Mexico. Price is 50 centsa copy.Books reviewed on this page can be purchasedby mail from Desert Magazine Book Store,Palm Desert, California. Please add 15c forpostage and handling per book. Californiaresidents also add 4% sales tax. Write for freebook catalog.

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3 . In automatic skillet or sauce-pan, heat IVi" fat or salad011 to 375" F. on deep-fat-frying thermometer. Mean-while, stuff peppers withmeat mixture; lightly sprinklemeat with flour. In pieplate,beat eggs with fork; dipeachpepper into egg, then intobread crumbs.4. Fry peppers in hot fat, turn-ing once, until browned onall sides. Makes 10servings.Serve hot in a ring; heapcanned red beans to whichsauteed onions have beenadded inthe center; use freshtomato wedges as a garnish,if desired.Mrs. Everett E.Davis, El Paso, TexasDesert Magazine pays $2 for recipesaccepted for publication limited toSpanish, bnrbeqne or campfire dishes.Send recipes and stamped, self-addressedenvelope to: "Recipes," Desert Magazine,Palm Desert, Calif.



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To NEEDLES

SWANSEA'^ STT&T:::- - . - ^ . Y S U C K S K I N M .TS

Quartzsite


8/44

sibly have been seenfrom the edge ofLa Posa Plain, the great valley betweenthe Dome Rock and Plomosa Mountains.Here the mountain (Planet Peak onmost maps) would still have been atleast 40 air miles to the north-northeast.The mine owner apparently had noknowledge of the country he now pro-

posed to cross half drunk, in hotweather, with no water. Between himand Planet Peak, covering more than100 square miles of the northern endof La Posa Plain, was a rolling sea ofsand which even now has no map namebut is often called the Quartzsite Dunes.There was no spring or known water-hole, no road or trail along the route hehad chosen. The d unes, in fact, resistedpenetration by road until just recently,when paved State 9 5 was workedthrough between Quartzsite and Parker.Perhaps the strangest feature of this

strange expedition was the fact that thePlanet owner did not visit Tyson's Well(later to become Quartzsite). Tyson 'sWell was a long-established way-stationon the Fort Whipple stage road, and hemust have known of its existence. From

any point where he first could have seenPlanet Peak, the well would have beenonly a few miles farther eastprobablyactually within sight. At Tyso n's hecould have obtained water and informa-tion about the country to the north.But he ignored the well and struckdirectly into the trackless desert.At first the going, across the slopesof the broad valley, was relatively good.Then the terrain changed abruptly."I got into sand," the Planet mansaid. "A lot of sand dun es. Finally Icame to a low black hill surrounded bysand. Th e sun was awful hot. It wasgetting me. I got off my horse andrested for a while."By now the mine owner realized thathe was in serious trouble. But con -fused, thirsty, heat-stricken though hewas his prospecting instinct did notdesert him. The black rocks at his feetlooked promising."I picked up a couple of pieces," hesaid. "I stuck them in my pocket be-cause they seemed heavy. I got back

R U I N S O F T H E O L D P LA N E T CO PP E R M I N E I N N O R T H E R N Y U M A C O U N T Y . T H E B IL LW I L L IA M S R IV E R R U N S T H R O U G H T H E V A L LE Y J U S T B E Y O N D T H E R U I N E D B U I L D IN G S .

on my horseand that was the last Iremembered."The horse plodded on, with its riderslumped and swaying in the sadd le. Itpassed the northernmost outlier of thePlomosa Mountains and, somewhere tothe north of present Bouse, cut theDesert Well - Bill Williams freight road.

This was a trail the animal recognized,and it swung southeasterly toward Des-ert Well. As it changed direction, themine owner fell from the saddle andlay unconscious on the sand. Still in hispocket were the black rocks he hadpicked up beside the black hill.The horse moved slowly on down thetrail toward Desert Well.Some time after the Planet mineowner had fallen from his saddle, SamButler and his brother left the Harqua-hala Minea dozen miles southeast ofDesert Wellfor a little excitement andlubrication at Ehre nberg . Sam was fore-man at the Harquahala ("Har-kee-hail-lee" the oldtimers seem to prefer to callit) which beginning about 1880 becameone of the great Arizona gold bonanzas.When the Butlers reached DesertWell, which is located a short distancesouthwest of the present junction of 60-70 and the Bouse road, they were metby a saddled, bridled, and riderlesshorse, plodding slowly toward Harqua-hala. Sam Butler recognized the anim al,which had long belonged to a Harqua-hala man and apparently was returningto its old home."That's the horse that fellow at thePlanet Mine bought," he reminded hisbrother.Leaving the Ehrenberg road, theybacktracked the horse up the BouseValley. When they reached the mineowner, he was still unconscious and ob-viously in a serious condition. Theytreated him as best they could, tied himon the horse and finally brought himback, still alive, into Ehrenberg.When he failed to improve there,they sent him on to San Francisco wherea brother lived. With him went his fewpossessions including the two blackrocks.Two months later a stranger arrivedat the Harquahala Mine, hunted up SamButler and introduced himself as thebrother of the Planet Mine owner. Themine owner, he explained, had neverrecovered and now was dead. Beforehe died, the black rocks were assayed."It went $750 to the ton in gold,silver and copper," the San Francisco

man told them."My brother remained unconsciousalmost to the end. Finally he seemedto regain his senses for a little while. Iasked him where he had gotten those8 / Desert Magazine / February, 1961


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PLANET PEAKthe mine owner's destination LA POSA PLAIN PLOMOSA MOUNTAINS

QUARTZSITE(Tyson's Wells)

i*''J itwo pieces of black rock. He told mewhat little he could remember.

"Now I want you to help me retracemy brother's route on that day youpicked him up."With the San Francisco man, SamButler and his brother returned to the

tip of the Plomosa Mountains andsearched the Quartzsite Dunes. For twoweeks they criss-crossed the sea of sand.They were unable to retrace the Planetowner's steps. They were unable to lo-cate his little black hill.Nor has anyone else succeeded indoing so in the 80 or more years since.In that more than three-quarters ofa century, the story of the gold ledge inthe sand has become many stories. Theyvary greatly as to the person who madethe strike and the date it was madethe latter ranging from the 1860s tothe 1880sand as to whether the rivertown was Ehrenberg or the earlier LaPaz. But, they are in remarkable agree-ment as to the area of the ledgethesand desert north of Quartzsiteandin each the Planet Mine is involved.In none has the name of the discoverersurvived.The version which I have givenand which I have sought to trace outin the sand duneswas told to me manyyears ago by William G. Keiser ofQua rtzsite. And" I place considerablefaith in it because Bill heard it directlyfrom Sam Butler at Bouse in 1908.Since Sam swore he was the one whofound the unconscious mine owner atthe edge of the sand area, his accountshould be reasonably accurate. In 1908

L O O K I N G N O R T H - N O R T H E A S T A C R O S S L A P O S A P L A IN F R O M N E A R T H E P O I N TW H E R E T H E P L AN E T M I N E O W N E R M U S T H A V E S T R U C K O U T F O R P LA N E T P E A K

he was operating a small gold mine inButler Valley, named for him, nearBouse. Since he firmly believed in thelost ledge although he concluded ithad been hidden by drifting sanditseems quite likely that he had movedinto the Bouse area to continue to searchfor it.

According to a version obtained byRoscoe G. Willson, Arizona writer andhistorian who questioned John Ramseyand Chris Thompson, oldtimers of thearea, the strike was made by a burroprospector in the early 187 0s. He wasattempting a direct crossing from Ty-son's Well to the Planet when he founda reef in the sand. He was rescued,nearly dead, by freighters on the waybetween Tyson's Well and the Planet,and was taken on to the Planet. Theore he found, however, seemed moregold than rock which would make itmuch richer than $750 per ton.

And another accountthe widely cir-culated "Lost Sixshooter" apparentlyfirst published by John Mitchelltellsof the Planet owner bringing visitors tothe stage at Quartzsite, then getting lostin a sandstorm on the way home, seek-ing shelter beside a ledge and finding itrich in free gold. He described the ledgein his notebook, marked it with his coatand two sixshooters, and headed for thePlanet M ine. The horse came in to themine but the owner's dead body wasfound back at the edge of the sand.The ore in his pockets assayed $25,000to the ton.

Where there is so much smoke, thereshould be some ore . But if such a ledgeexists in the Quartzsite Dunes, why havenone of the searchers found it? Theaccepted reason is that shifting sandshave covered it. Bill Keiser does notagree with that, and I agree with Bill.Blowing sand is as likely to uncoveras to cover. If it buries one side it mostfrequently continues and blows off. Andthese dunes include no giant mountainssuch as those in California across fromYum a. Throughout most of the area,according to U. S. Geological Surveymaps, the variation in elevation doesnot reach 2 5 feet. It is in fact a seaof low mounds and shallow basins. Andafter hiking through and examining aconside rable portion of it, I am inclined

to doubt that anything which could bedescribed as a small hill could be buriedin it and not stick out.Bill, who is no lost mine hunter, hasnot hunted for this one either. But hedoes believe that it exists, and that ithas not been found simply because ithas not been hunted the right way inthe right area."I'll tell you why," he says. "Before1908and before Sam Butler told methat storyJosiah Winchester and I hadfound gold-bearing copper streaks thatrun in a northwest and southeast direc-tion into that sand. And there are bigblack dikes, heavy with iron, too."The proper way is to go over therewhere I found that copper, get the trendof it, then get a marker over on the

February, 1961 / Desert Magazine / 9


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WILLIAM G . KEISER OF QUARTZSITE AT AN ABANDONED MIN ING PROJECTIN THE PLOMOSA MO U NT AINS . BILL HEARD THE STORY OF THE LOST LEDGEMORE T H AN 50 YEARS AG O F ROM SAM BUTLER, ONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS.mountainto keep on a straight line.Prosp ect across there. Search a stretchmaybe half a mile wide down throughthe dunes. Th at's where it would be,I believe. But it's a big cou ntry there'sa lot of sand."

A lot of sandand almost countlesshollows where a golden ledge might justbarely show above the sand. And alot of fun hunting itproperly preparedand in the right season. Highway 9 5now will take the lost mine hunter rightinto the heart of the Quartzsite Dunes.In a good spring, that sand sea becomesa perfumed and beautiful sea of flowerssand verbena, lily, Geraea and a scoreof others.But in summer it is barren, blazing,blinding and dangerous.And all lost mine hunters must real-i z e , of course, that there are other pos-

sible reasons why the Planet owner'sgolden ledge has not been discoveredin those sands. He may no t have beenwhere he thought he was when he madethe strike. He believedas have mostof those who have sought his ledgethat the little black hill was in the heartof the Quartzsite Dun es. But he wasfound, unconscious, around the point ofthe Plomosa Mountains from the dunes,on the edge of Bouse Valley. In hiscondition, he could not possibly havebeen certain whether he made his strikehoursor minutesbefore he fell fromhis horse.Move the location of the ledge to thenorthern tip of the Plomosas, and doesthe picture change?

It does indeed. That northernm ost

tip is a small hill called Little Butte.It is separated from the mountain chainand stands relatively alonea sea ofsand to the southwest, a sea of sand

and gravel to the north. Arou nd it sev-eral mines and prospects have beenopened and worked intermittently. Fromo n e , known in 1911 as the Little Butte,ore was shipped which averaged 7.6percent copper, 28 .9 percent iron, 2.4ounces of silver, and $6.65 in gold tothe ton.

Little Butte itself is granite, stainedwith iron oxides. Bu t the Blue SlateMine, close to the butte, is in darkgreen shale, and all through the areairon-black ledges show.And the Planet Mine owner hadpassed beyond Little Butte before hefell from his hor se. So it may be thatthe lost ledge was found again, un-knowingly, at Little Butte, and that itwas not a bonanza.Of course dedicated lost mine hunterswill look upon the Little Butte oressimply as confirmation of the Planetowner's discovery, proving that the rightkind of ore does exist in the right area.Proving that out there somewhere tothe southwest of Little Butte the fabu-lous ledge does indeed crop through thesurface of the rolling sand. A richeroreshoot of the same formation withgolden rock worth $750 $5000 perhaps even $2 5,000 to the ton. / / /

T r u e o r F a l s eSharpen yourpencils andyour wits. It'stime to take your desert exam20questions on a variety of arid-land sub-jects that should give you a pretty goodidea of where you stand on the desert-knowledge spectrum. A dozen or lesscorrect answers and you are a Tender-foot; 13 to 15 is Fair; 16 to 18, Good;19 or a perfect score rates the top ofthe class. Answers are on page 41.

1 . Arizona's Salt River Valley receivesthe bulk of its irrigation water fromthe Colorado River. True False2 . Often it is easier to drive your carover sandy roads when they are dampfrom a shower than when they aredry. True False3 . The Mormon leader Joseph Smithnever saw the Great Salt Lake. TrueFalse4 . Carlsbad Caverns National Park is onthe Vizcano Desert. True False5 . Indians were mining turquoise in NewMexico before Columbus discoveredAmerica. True False6. Ubeh ebe, one of the m ost fam ousvolcanic craters in the world, wasactive when the Jayhawkers crossedDeath Valley in the winter of 1849-5 0 . True...... False7 . Clyde Forsythe, Jimmy Swinnertonand Josef Muench all are well-knownSouthwestern painters. True False

8. Flow er of the wild desert Da turais white. True False9. Elephant Butte Dam is in Nevada.True False1 0 . Desert Holly sheds its silver whiteleaves with the first frost of winter.True False1 1 . Stage coaches on Butterfield's Over-land Mail Line crossed the Coloradoat Needles. True False1 2 . Palm Springs is below sea level.True False1 3 . A Sidewinder is not a true rattle-snake. True False1 4 . Organ Pipe National Monument insouthern Arizona derives its name

from the fluted rocks in that area.True False1 5 . Historian who contributed most topresent day knowledge of Juan Bautis-ta de Anza was Herbert E. Bolton.True False1 6 . The Kangaroo Rat is a nocturalrodent. True False1 7 . Bite of a Chuckawalla Lizard isoften fatal to children. Tru e False1 8 . The "pyramid" at Pyramid Lake,Nevada, was built by Shoshone In-dians. Tru e. False1 9 . The Mojave River of California is

a tributary of the Colorado River.True False2 0 . The town popularly described as be-ing "Too Tough To Die" is Calico,Calif. True. False......



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T h e L i t t l e - K n o w n W o r l d o fC arlsba d C a vern s"Oh, ranger! How much of the cave hasn't beendiscovered yet?" This question, or a smiliar one,is asked hundreds of times weekly at CarlsbadCaverns, and National Park Service rangers and tour lead-ers have learned that it represents a general interest whichfew cave visitors can express accurately. Some visitorswish to learn whether there may be underground passagesinto which there are no known entrances. Others w onderif there are known chambers that have not been explored.More are curious as to the extent of the caverns' corridors

which have been explored but are not open to the public.Although clumsily or inadequately phrased, such ques-tions are sincere, and the men and women in the Serviceuniform try to analyze each one in order to answer itaccurately and to the satisfaction of the questioner. Theseand many other queries point to the wide range of interestpeople have for natural caves, and the answers reveal that

there is a world of knowledge about Carlsbad Cavernswhich most visitors fail to obta in. This is true in sp ite ofthe splendid new interpretive exhibits in the VisitorsCenter building, explanatory talks by tour leaders at sig-nificant locations along the tour route, and publicationsconcerning the caverns which visitors can purchase in thePark.According to Park Naturalist Paul Spangle, whose jobit is to put what is known about the caverns into non-technical terminology and make it available to all visitors,

nearly 23 miles of cavern passages have been explored toa depth of 1100 feet. Only about three miles of the mostspectacular scenic portions have been developed to the829-foot level with surfaced trails and electric lighting forsafe public use. This walk is as much a s the average visitorhas time and energy to enjoy.The fact that air in the caverns is always fresh and clean,

Visitors to this Nation al Park see only a fra ct ion of its known u nde rgrou nd passage-ways and even less of the Chihuahua Desert wonders above grou nd. By NA TT N. D O D G E

**$


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that air movement is often felt, and that the humidity isabout the same throughout most of the passages, pointsto a free circulation of air through several or perhaps manyfissures leading to the outside world. Since no open ingshave been found entering the lower corridors, it seemsprobable that extensive galleries and passages remain forpossible discovery and exploration.Explored but pathless and lightless parts of the caveare occasionally made available to geologists and other

scientists conducting research projects under Service per-mit. Lantern-ca rrying rangers and tour leaders go alongas guides, to look after the safety of the scientists, and toassure that no damage is done to the cave and its forma-tions. The New Mexico Room, Cave Pearl Room, BellCord Room, Mystery Room, Dome Room, AragoniteRoom, Lower Cave 'and Lefthand Tunnel are some of theoff-limits p ortions of the caverns. Trip s into them maybe fraught with danger because of the limited lighting,insecure footing, cramped quarters and rugged terrain.A well-known National Park Service official, Chief Land-scape Architect Thomas Vint, broke his leg in the Left-hand Tunnel and had to be carried out on a stretcher.In several places the passage was so narrow that the

stretcher had to be turned on its side to be squeezedthrough. Vint claims this as one of the more harrowingexperiences of his Service career.Carlsbad Caverns, although the largest yet discovered,is not the only cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park,which contains nearly 50,000 acres of rugged canyon-carved plateaulands extending into the forested GuadalupeMo untains of southeastern New Mexico. A survey of allcaves in the Park is in progress, with 23 being located andexplored at the present time . Some are quite small andinsignificant. Am ong those that have been nam ed are NewCave, Painted Grotto, Spider Cave, Whistling Cave andGoat Cav e. For safety reasons and to protect them from

vandals and souvenir hunters, all are closed to the public.Dr. Charles N. Gould, at one time Regional Geologistof the National Park Service, wrote: "T he rocks in theentire area extending for approximately 50 miles west,northwest and southwest of the main caverns consist ofheavy gray limestone which contains many crevices, fis-sures, openings and solution channels, large and small.Man y of these never reach the surface. Th e entire areais honeycombed with these channels which have beenformed by the action of water on the soluble limestone.It is to be expected that, from time to time, various open-ings to the surface will be discovered. It is altogetherpossible that, when the Guadalupe area has been thor-oughly explored and developed, parties may go under-ground in the present Carlsbad Caverns and come to thesurface at some other opening five or 10 miles distant."

Since total darkness has prevailed for thousands of yearswithin all of these caves, conditions within them are quiteunsuited to plant and animal life. Nev ertheless, in sevenof these caverns, nests of the rare cave swallow have beenfound. These birds winter in Mexico, coming north tonest about m id-March each year. They usually stay untilmid -Octo ber. A cooperative study of this species by theNational Park Service and the National Science Founda-tion has just been started.Several species of insects, the little cave mouse, and afew other forms of life have adapted themselves to an

unde rgroun d existence. In the main cavern, with its ma s-sive arched entrance and artificial lighting, a primitive algaA G A I N S T T H E E V E N I N G S K Y , A C L O U D O F B AT S R IS E S

E N I N G F R O M T H E C A V E R N S ' N A T U R A L E N T R A N C E


T H E R O A D R U N N E R ISO N E O F 1 6 1 B IR D S P E -C IE S F O U N D I N C A RL S -B A D C A V E R N S N A -T I O N A L P A R K . S T R I P E DS K U N K IS O N E O FT H R E E S K U N K S P E C IE SN A T I V E T O T H I S AR E A .

WBT-and fungus have become established, and an occasionalringtail has wandered within.

A few years ago a number of bones were found buriedin a sandy deposit deep in the cavernsparts of a skele-ton of a Nothrotherium, or ground sloth, a creature longextinct in No rth Am erica. Scientists believe that 10 to15 thousand years ago, when the climate was wetter, astream washed the body of the sloth into the undergroundcham bers. Bones of an extinct bat and of a Pleistocenejaguar (Felis atrox) also have been found in the caverns.

Most numerous and spectacular of the modern animalsthat make use of Carlsbad Cav erns are the bats. Althougheight species are known to take advantage of the uppercorridor or Bat Cave section as a hideaway during day-light hours, the famous colony is made up principally ofsmall Mexican free-tailed bats. Within the deep recessesof the Lefthand Tunnel, a small colony of Fringed batsare found during the summer m onths. On occasion, othertypes of bats will wander as far as the Big Room.

During summer months, when insects on which the batsfeed are abundant throughout the surrounding countryside,the bat colony has been known to reach a population


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estimated at more than three-million individuals. With thecoming of dusk, this enormous mass of living creaturesclinging to the walls and ceiling of Bat Cave stirs restlessly.More and more bats break loose from the cluster and takeflight. A muffled roar of wings wells up out of the cavernentrance, followed by the appearance of a black cloudwhich swirls upward in a counter-clockwise spiral to fillthe twilight sky with a smoke-like column streaming awaytoward the south. Studies of bats, together with carefulestimates and computations, indicate that the CarlsbadCaverns colony, even when it numbers considerably lessthan one million individuals, rids the countryside of morethan three tons of insects each summer night!

Bats have few enemies, but several of these predatorsare sometimes seen late each summer afternoon near thecavern entrance. Horne d owls, perched in a yucca or ascrubby mesquite tree, drowsily await the flight of thebats. Haw ks of several species circle overhe ad or standimpatiently on a rocky outc rop . All take to the air whenthe bat flight begins, and plunging into the dense cloud offlying mam mals scatter the terrified b ats in all direction s.Each hawk and owl usually emerges from the flight streamwith a sque aking captive in its talon s. Thes e diving attacksadd an element of the dramatic to the remarkable spec-tacle of the bat flight which is watched each summer eveningby several hundred visitors.The fame of Carlsbad's enormous and fantastically dec-orated underground chambers has turned the spotlightof attention away from the charm of the Park's manysurface attractio ns. Few visitors to the Ca vern s, in theirhurry to go below, take time to enjoy the beauties above-ground. Carlsbad Caverns National Park preserves andprotects a rich segment of the great Chihuahuan Desert,with its wealth of spectacular plant and animal communitiesextending northward from Mexico into west Texas, south-ern New Mexico and southern Arizona.Many desert plants bloom in April and May, creating adisplay of interest and bea uty. Splashes of bright scarleton rocky hillsides mark clumps of the ground-huggingclaret cup cactus, while roselike yellow blossoms of theprickly pear cactus attract pollen-gathering insects. Ifyou should visit the park later in the summer, you wouldnotice the prickly pear's large mahogany-colored fruits,called tunas. Delicious jelly may be made from them.Palmlike in general appearance, but actually membersof the lily family, two species of yucca or soapweed attractattention. The m assive Torrey yucca, with its huge clust-ers of broad sharp-tipped leaves, is sometimes called Span-ish Dag ger. Often grow ing to a height of 10 or 12 feet,the Torrey yuccas produce in April a crowning glory of

dense clusters of bell-shaped cream-colored flowers Easter lilies of the desert.Easily confused with the yuccas are the abundant sotolclumps which send up tall blossom stalks tipped withtapering clusters of tiny cream to chocolate colored flowers.Leaves, superficially resembling those of the narrow-leafyuccas, are flat ribbonlike and armed with back-curvingspines along the ma rgins. In Mexico the thick crowns or"heads" are split open and the sugary juice allowed toferment, producing sotol, a powerful alcoholic beverage.Popularly called "century plant" because of the manyyears required for an individual to develop its basal rosetteof fleshy needle-tipped leaves and to store in its thick root-

stock the plant food necessary to produce, as a grandfinale to its life, a towering flower stalk with striking yellowblossom s, the huge agave is sure to stimulate wo nder. Itssmall relative, the lechuguilla (letch-you-GHEE-ah), withits stiff sharp-tipped leaves, is perhaps the most common

plant of the Park . It, too, sends up a tall, slender flowerstalk which sways gracefully in the desert breeze . W ide-spread, the lechuguilla is recognized as the principal indi-cator of the Ch ihua hua n D esert. In M exico , its leaf fibersare used for weaving a coarse fabric. De er and livestockrelish its young tender bud stalks.There are many other strange and striking desert plantsin Carlsbad Caverns National Park, from the tree-sizered-barked Texas madrone to the low-growing Christmascholla (CHOH-yah) cactus with its bright red olive-shaped fruits especially noticea ble in win ter. In spring aglossy-leafed evergreen shrub, the mescal bean, producesclusters of wisteria-like blossoms that mature to form podsfilled with scarlet seeds containing a poisonous narcotic.These and dozens of other plant species are foundthroughout the Park . Many of them grow alongside theentrance road which winds for seven miles up scenicWa lnut Canyon to the cavern entrance. Since these strangedesert plants are of particular interest to visitors from theEastern and Mid-Western states, the park naturalist hasdeveloped a self-guiding nature trail near the Visitor Centerbuilding. Plants and significant geological features alongthe trailside have been marked with stakes numbered to

correspond with paragraphs in a guide booklet.Hikers on this "Sotol Trail" often encounter birds and

A SU NBEAM FINDS ITS WAY INTO TH E CAVERNSFebruary, 1961 / Desert Magazine / 13


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THESE ARE THE WORLD'S MOST EXTENSIVELY EXPLORED CAVE S,AN D NEW MEXICO'S LEADING INDIV IDU AL TOURIST AT TRACTIONother animals which are much more numerous than East-erners expect to find in desert surroundings. Park filesrecord observations of 161 species of birds ranging in sizefrom the tiny hummingbird to the majestic golden eagle.Vultures ride rising air currents, and so are more fre-quently seen along steep-walled canyons and above thecrest of the great escarpment with its steep cliffs thatdominates the southern edge of the Park. Scaled quailhunt for seeds and insects among the cactuses and thornyshrubs of the mesa tops, while such colorful songsters asthe vivacious black-and-yellow Scott's oriole nests beneaththe protecting crowns of giant yuccas.

Years ago, several species of large mammals roamed thisregion. Elk, bears and desert bighorn sheep found ade-quate food and suitable habitat in the Guadalupe Moun-tains. Hunters and encroachment by cattle, sheep andgoats finally forced these native species from the landsover which they had always roamed. With the establish-ment and enlargement of the National Park, hunting wasstopped and grazing by domestic livestock eliminated.Under this protection the natural vegetation has slowlyreturned to its former composition and luxuriant growth.Pronghorn antelope already have been brought back, andefforts are underway to restore desert bigh orn. When thesenative animals have been re-established, Carlsbad CavernsNational Park will be well on the way to fulfilling its func-tion as a wilderness wildlife refuge where all of the ani-mals native to this section of the Chihuahuan Desert may

be seen and enjoyed in their natural surroundings andnormal relationships to one another.Desert mule deer are abundant throughout the park,an d are often seen in Walnut Canyon by visitors hurryingto join cavern tours. Man y varieties of smaller mammalsincluding three species of skunks, foxes, cottontails andjackrabbits, raccoons, ringtails, kangaroo rats and rocksquirrels are abundant andoften seen along the Park roads

and trailsides and near the cavern entrance. Wild turkeysfeed among thepines andoaks in the Guadalupe Mountains.Hidden among the canyons and foothills are smallsprings and seeps that create moist oases in the dry desertroughlands of the Park 's roadless back country. Stimulatedby the miracle of water, moisture-loving plants and a hostof insects furnish food and suitable habitat for a varietyof amphibians. The tiger salamander, tree species of spade-foot toad, five species of toads, two tree frogs, two truefrogs, even mud turtles, box turtles and common snappingturtles have been recorded by biologists taking the am-phibian census of the Park and throughout the surroundingGuadalupe Mountains.Relatively high year-round temperatures, an abundanceof insects and small mammals, and the dry rocky habitatis ideal for a considerable variety of reptiles, including 19species of lizards and 35 species of snakes. All of these areharmless to humans except three species of rattlesnakes.Although not numerous, rattlesnakes are found throughoutmuch of the Park except high in the pine-oak-fir forestsof the Guadalupe Mountains.Accessible only by unimproved truck trails used by Parkrangers on back-country patrol, or for a fast means ofattack on lightning-started brush fires that sometimes spreadrapidly in the dense growth of sotol and desert grasses thatclothe the ridges and mesa tops, Carlsbad Caverns is a

77-square-mile desert-and-mountain wilderness. It willsoon be expanded by an additional 5000 acres of scenicmountain and canyon which is being donated to theNational Park Service by Mr. and Mrs. Wallace E. Pratt .This area, known as McKittrick Canyon, will extend thepark boundaries into the state of Texas.Important as a refuge and an undisturbed reservoir ofmany species of native wildlife, Carlsbad Caverns NationalPark is also important as a research area for scientists.Throughout much of the Chihuahuan Desert , both in theUnited States and adjoining Mexico, mankind and hisdomestic animals have been changing the face of the landand destroying its vegetation and its native wildlife formore than a century. But, in the National Park the nor-

mal balance of native plant and animal life prevails andwill remain undisturbed for the scrutiny of scientists andthe benefit and enjoyment of future generations of Ameri -cans.On a recent day, 7000 people toured the Carlsbad Cav-erns. From soon after dawn until almost dusk a steadyparade of automobiles streamed along the seven miles ofthe Walnut Canyon entrance road taking eager sightseersto and from the world-famous underground wonderland.And every day, from one year's end to another, the pic-ture is much the same. Eagerly, sometimes almost fran-tically, travelers from every state and from many foreignnations hurry tojoin the next party taking the Caverns tour.In their hurry they give only a passing glance at the un-familiar desert vegetation covering the hillsides borderingthe road. Few of them give a thought to the back-countrythat lies beyond those hillsidesa fascinating, intriguing,undisturbed desert wilderness. / / /



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INS IDE THE HOUSE OF S ONG, NA NAI SAT WITHHIS PATIENT. HE BLESSED H IM WITH POLLENTHAT HE MIG HT GO O N H IS WAY IN HEALTH .

I G i v e Y o u Na NaiWould the people see the gods and the prophet; or would theysee only Na Nai, the singer without feet?

Eighth in a series of previously unpublished articlesBy LAU RA A DAMS ARMER

based on her 1923-31 experiences in Navajoland

THE YEAR WAS 1928. Lorenzo Hubbel l , J r . , wasmuch interested in the photographs I had made atthe ceremonial at Pinyon the previous autum n. Hesuggested that I direct a motion picture of the MountainChant .In the following weeks I studied intensively the de-scription of the ceremony as witnessed by WashingtonM atthews. On the margins of his Ethnological Report Imade notes as to where the two cameras would have tobe positioned. There could be no rehearsing of the cere-mony which was to be given near Ganado.I was taken to this settlement to meet the Hubbellfamily who lived in the historic adobe built by LorenzoHub bell, Sr. On arriving, I learned that the medicine manwho was scheduled to conduct the ceremony had become

ill. A nother singer must be found. The patient, HasteenTsosi, had been dreaming of bears and of his child whohad died some years before. He needed help .Mention was made of a certain Na Nai whose knowl-edge was great, but who was physically imperfect. He hadbeen born without feet. The Star-Gazer and other friendsof the patient rode many miles over the desert to a poorlittle hogan with a meager fire burning beneath the smoke-hole. All were greeted solemnly by the dignified old m anwho sat on a sheepskin on the west side of the fire. Theparley began. Wh en it was Na Na i's time to give his

answer, he said with deep feeling:"It is not wise for me to sing the Mountain Chant inpublic. The peop le are kind to me, it is true, but if Ising the songs of our fathers, the people will not see theFebruary, 1961 / Desert Magazine / 15


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THE 80-YEAR-OLD COURIER OF THEMOUNTAIN CHANT

gods and the proph et. They will see only Na Nai, thesinger without feet."The Star-Gazer pleaded: "Hasteen Tsosi dreams of hisdead child. His sleep is torn from him. The stars havesaid: 'Find him who knows the power of the star of thenorth, the star which lives between the horns of Klishtso,the great snake'."Na Nai's mood changed to exaltation. His eyes closedfor a moment and his lips moved without uttering audiblewords. Finally he answered: "It is enough. I go." Dressedin his old gray clothes, Na Nai rode in the wagon of theStar-Gazer to the hogan of Hasteen Tsosi .

"A t any time have you looked upon a slain bear?"N a Nai asked the afflicted man as they sat together in thesunshine."No, grandfather, I have never looked upon a slainbear," replied Hasteen Tsosi."Think, my grandson. Perhaps it was your motherwho saw a slain bear.""That is true. My mother told me when I was asmall child that before I was born she had looked upon

a bear slain by lightning.""It is as I thought. The bear has been offended. Weshall sing his songs taught to Dsilyi Neyani when theBear-gods showed him the first painting of the sacredplants. Then you will no longer dream of the dead. Yourmind will be restored. You will feel light within."This conversation was carried on as naively as if thewords had never before been spoken. It was a traditionalformula used in diagnosing a case. By this time, clanbrothers of Hasteen Tsosi were building the House of

THE LANDSCAPE BLOSSOMED WITH WAG ONS COVERED ANDUNCOVERED.



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A L A S ! T H E T RE A S U R E D G R AS S P A T C H !

S t a r s i n t h e i r e y e sMANY EXCITING words havebeen written about the red rockcountry of the pinyon-juniperwoodland in our Southwest. Eas t-erners looking for a pleasant place tosettle have flocked to this area.

Those who have been propagandiz-ed ahead to time arrive with stars intheir eyes. They have been told thatthis is a fabulous region; but they fail-ed to take the information with agrain of salt. They expect to find

J a u n S i g le rThe author is a Hoosier by birth.After many years of teaching in Indiana,she retired to the Southwest, and lives

amongst the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona."Mine has been an 'on again, off again'writing career mostly devoted to lightverse and short stories," writes Mrs.Sigler. "My first effort appeared in the'Country Gentleman' in 1932."20 / Desert Magazine / February, 1961

breath-taking scenery, serenity beyondanything they have ever known and a"near-perfect climate for year 'roundliving."Beauty is heredesert growth, hillscovered with evergreens and, for a

background, " . . . the red cliffs riseagainst the azure of the skies . . . "Beauty is always here regardless ofthe season or weather. During thetime of scant rainfall, graygreen grassesand cacti punctuate the red soil. Scruboak, yucca and the century plant addinterest to the landscape.When there is ample moisture, wild-flowers are spread like carpetsvioletfilaree, yellow puncturevine, velvetypurple owlclover. There are manycommon desert flowerssome bloom-ing annually, others waiting for a morefavorable year.Peace and quiet to match the vast-ness of the land are here . Sometime sthe only sound is the call of the quail

Is the spacious Westan unshakable dreamin the star-filled eyesof most Easterners?

by day, and the yapping of coyotes atnight. Yet no one seems to miss thewhistle of a train.Is there diversion? Yes. One doesnot have to be a fisherman, hunter,rockhound or photographer to findpastime aplenty. No r does one haveto be on the go to find excitement.It is no further away than the door-step. Often it is a bevy of birds atthe bird bath, or a covey of quail pass-ing by. It could be a coyote trottin g

up a hill on a frosty mo rning. Or per -haps a gawky roadrunner, which keepsalive one's sense of the comic.But what about the near-perfectclimate for year 'roun d living? W hen


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snow stays on for two weeks andicicles hang from the eaves day afterday, it is time to wonder. In summerthe thunderstorm strikes terror to thefaint heart. The gully-washer swirlsa clean path, and the flash flood comeswithout warning.B ut try growing a little grass, somerosebushes or a few extra trees, andit soon becomes evident how dry thesoil really is most of the time. Theschedule is: water the grass and trees,pull weeds (they flourish in spite ofthe lack of moisture), water the grassand trees, pull more weeds, look forgopher holes, and water the grass andtrees.And what of dust? If it isn't com-ing in on high winds from a neighbor-ing state, plenty is rising from windingcountry roads. But, there is a certaincharm about a country road even when

it is fogging with dust or ankle-deepin mud. Without dust there wouldbe no enchanting dust devilsthose"whirlwind maidens gowned in sand-chiffon."Insects? Page the entomologist!There must be every kind of insectthat has been described, and manykinds that have yet to be described.Surely all the ants in the world dotheir vacationing in these parts.A thing of beauty is not always ajoy forever. There can be keen dis-appointment when a newcomer is toldthat some of the loveliest of the desertshrubs must not be allowed to get afoothold on his land. If catsclaw hasencroached, it must be grubbed out;tumbleweeds cut down; and the nativejunipers freed from the parasiticwitches ' broom.The gardeners are divided into twogroups. Some work hard to give theirpremises a landscaped look; the re-mainder think that nature is the bestgardener, and they let her have a freehand. Left alone, she achieves acasual look which the formal gardenerscall "wilderness."This is a land of wide-open spacesand wide-open range. Livestockwander at will, feed on the treasuredgrass patches and trample down theflower beds. But who can complainwhen the only threat to privacy is abovine peering in the window?This beautiful region attracts manytourists. Tourist-bait shops openand close. Hopeful proprietors plungein , not realizing that there must be alimit to the number of gift shops any

one area can tolerate. Perh aps theydo not know that some tourists haveonly enough money to get from here tothere, with nothing extra to spend forIndian pottery or cactus candy. Eat-

ing places fare somewhat better. Tour-ists may not buy gimcracks or picturepost cards, but they must eat.There is much to be learned, andsome things are learned the hard way.The curious person puts a finger inthe smooth-looking depression at theto p of the fruit of a pricklypear justonce. He never grasps the lacybranches of a catsclaw the secondtime. He learns to get rid of anythingthat resembles a scorpion.But very few people, having livedhere even for a short time, will criti-cize those who refuse to acknowledgean y of the faults of this area. Forevery unappreciative resident or visitor

who might complain about the heat,the dust or lack of rainfall, there arehundreds of loyal souls whowill mini-mize these flaws in this jewel of aland.Such an attitude on the part of old-timers and a majority of newcomersbrings to mind the following cinquain:Forgetwhere youonce lived;where life seemed full of bliss.How could it have been anythinglike this?More and more they see only thebeauty and grandeur of their sur-rou ndin gs. They still have stars intheir eves. / / /

P r e s s in g F l o w e t s W i t h $ $ n dNora Mae M a h o n e y of Morongo u s e s the desert sands to preservethe beauty in her garden By PATRICIA BOOTH CONRADII T WASduring one of our week-end trips to our desert home inMorongo Valley, California, thatwe met Mrs. Nora Mae Mahoney.The beautiful flowers in her gardendrew us off the road. Wh ite lattice-

NORA MAE MAH ONE Y GENTLY POURSSAND OVER A CLUSTER OF BLOSSOMSwork, heavy with blossoms, framedthe patio of her attractive home,an d in the backyardwith the des-ert mountains as backgroundwasher cactus garden.

Blooming seasons mean nothingto this charming desert dweller, forshe has perfected a means of per-manently preserving the naturalbeauty of her flowers by "pressing"them in silica sand.First step is to pick a flower whenit is at peak of bloom. Mrs. Ma-honey has sat up more than one

night to wait for a rare n ight-bloom-ing cactus to achieve its moment offlowering perfection. Once picked,the flower is dried of surface mois-ture and immediately processed insand.Each bloom goes into a separatecontainer, propped in an inch or so

of clean dry silica sand. Care istaken to see that the petals are ar-ranged in their natural shape. Thenever so gentlyMrs. Mahoneysprinkles sand over the petals byhand. Each petal must be keptapart from its neighbor, and thereca n be no air pockets under oratop them.This operation completed, theflower is setaside to dry. The thick-ness of the petals is one of thedetermining factors in how long itwill take for the flower to dry.

Otherwise, length of drying timevaries from place to place and Mrs.Mahoney recommends that everynew hobbyist experiment with thisphase.To uncover the flower, once ithas had time to dry, the gentle sandsprinkling procedure is reversed.Then comes the rewarding momentwhen the flower reappears in all itsfixed beauty.In Mrs. Mahoney's living roomare bright desert bouquets that be-

long to every month of the year.There 's no talk here of a certainflower blooming in May or of an-other blooming in September. / / /

February, 1961 / Desert Magazine / 21


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w hat goes into a masterpiece?Time? Talent? Truth? Technique? Temperament? Tenacity?Patience? Perception? Passion? . . .Yes . . . all of this, and more . . .We at Desert Magazine are proud of a remarkable bookwe recently published that has won the good opinion ofreviewers and early purchasers. This new book, titled"PAINTERS OF THE DESERT," combines the writingtalents of Ed Ainsworth, the artistic talents of 13 desertartists whose works and lives he describes in this single vol-ume, and the master craftsmanship of modern printing . . .Prose, Paint and P rinting . . .These artists are featured in "PAINTERS OF THE D ES-ERT": Carl Eytel, Bill Bender, Conrad Buff, John W. Hil-ton, Paul Lauritz, Burt Procter, Orpha Klinker, NicolaiFechin, Clyde Forsythe, Maynard Dixon, Jimmy Swinner-ton, Don Louis Perceval and R. Brownell McGrew."PAINTERS OF THE DESERT" contains 111 pages; 90color and halftone illustrations; large format (9 % x 1 3 % -inch page size); brilliant waterproof hard-back cover.$9.35 from Desert Magazine Book Store, Palm Desert,Calif.Mail orders are welcom ed. Please add 15c per book forpostage and handling; California residents also add 4%sales tax.


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John W. Hi l ton's "Whisper ing Canyon",one oi 12 color p lates in Ains worth's"PAINTERS OF THE DESERT." For aframing print oi this Hilton painting, samesize as shown, printed on 65-pound Hamil-ton Starwhite Needlepoint paper stock,send $1 to: Reprint Dept., Desert Mag-azine. Palm Desert. Cali i . (Also availableior $1 per print, are: Bill Bender's "DesertWash"; Ted DeGrazia's "Papago Har-vest"; Al Nestler's "Rainbow Bridge".)


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F E B R U A R Y T R A V B lF r o m t h e A r a b i a n N i g h t s T o A D e s e r t S e a

By LUCILE WEIGHTDesert Magazine's California Travel CorrespondentL O O K I N G B E T W E E N R O W S O F S T A T E P A RK P I C N I CR A M A D A S T O T H E O P E N S A L T O N S E A . A R E A J U S TR I G H T O F B O A T S I S R OP E D OF F F O R S W I M M E R S .

THIS IS A DOUBLE jackpot trip, withthe two parts of it about as differentas you are likely to find in the desertwhere man has left his mark. The twoareas are 20 to 30 miles apart. Both havesomething for every member of the family.They are the Indio National Date Festivaland the recreation areas of the Salton Sea.Much of the magic attributed to oasesof Arabia and North Africa is right herein the Colo rado Desert of California. Thisfact is emphasized every February, for thatis the month of the exotic Date Festivalat Indio, this year February 17-26 inclusive,in connection with the Riverside CountyFair.There is nothing similar to it in the U. S.The setting alone, especially under the starswhen the nightly Arabian Nights Pageantis given, brings a special enchantment.Gem of the fair builldings is the Taj Mahalcompleted for last year's festival at a costof $300,000, for lavish displays of datesand citrus.A thrilling feature is the camel race,the riders in flowing Arabian costume.The national Arabian horse show, includ-ing riders in native costume, draws horselovers from everywhere. And a huge gemand mineral exhibit brings thousands ofrockhounds.The abundant semi-tropical produce ofthis reclaimed desert is tantalizingly dis-played to show samples of Coachella Val-ley's $3 0 million crops. Heading the listin value are grapes, totaling close to $7

million. Dates and date by-products aresecond with almost $5 million. (You'relikely to go home with recipes that willmake you a confirmed 'date cook '.) Othermulti-million dollar crops are carrots, to-matoes, cotton. Bringing in a million andmore are grapefruit, tangerines, sweet corn,bell peppers.Coachella Valley reached a high pro-ductivity by irrigation from artesian wells,but water brought 50 miles via CoachellaBranch of the Ail-American Canal, fromthe Colorado River, has greatly accelerateddevelopment since the 1940s.There is so much to see at the festivalyou should spend more than one day ifpossible. Many motels are in and aroundIndio. Folks with campers and trailers willfind camp spots within a half-hour drive.As to weather, you'll find the daytime highsmostly in the 70s, with low commonly inthe 40s. * * *A phenomenon which many visitors can-not square with their ideas of the desert isthe meeting of hundreds of cars pullinglittle boats and big boats away from theocean! Moreov er, skis decorate many cartops. But this isn't strange at all to thosewho head away from Southern Californiacities every weekend possible, for boating,fishing, water skiing or simply relaxing on

the sands of Salton Sea.Whether you leave Indio via Highway9 9 , which takes you west of the SaltonSea, or State Highway 111, along the north-east shore, this 40-mile inland sea will be

a dominant feature of the landscape, andamong dozens of spots around its shoresyou can find the perfect one for yourpersonal vacation, whether it be a half-day or a mo nth. Nearly all the develop-ment has come within the past few years,including the expanding Salton Sea StatePark on the north shore. There areregattas, boat races, water skiing, fishing,duck hunting, camping and picnicking.Some motels and resorts have special en-tertainment much of the year, plus privatebeach and boat facilities.First, let's take a quick run down 99

past Travertine Rock, see the amazing tractdevelopments, and drop in on Helen Burnsat Salton Sea Beach. Along the highwaywhere a short time ago there was onlysand, with occasional smoke trees and lowdesert shrubs, great pipes for water mainsare being put in; mercury vapor lights markentrances to housing developments; streetlights, markets, gas stations and cafes in-terrupt the stretch of once silent desert."Planned communities" in the making in-clude Sundial, Marina Villas and DesertShores at Salton City, Air Park Estates(with airport).To reach Helen's place, turn left 4.2miles beyond the Riverside-Imperial Countyline (at Travertine Point), at the Salton SeaBeach sign. Helen, no newcom er, is thedaughter of a pioneer who owned SaltonSea Beach many years before current de-velopments. Her fact-packed booklet, "Sal-ton Sea Story," was published in 1952.More recently she founded the monthly



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newspaper, "The Salton Seafarer," with de-velopment, community activities, personalnewsaddress Rt. 2, Box 213-H, Thermal,Calif. Salton Sea Beach has a coffee shop,beach-campground-supplies, souvenirs, amotel, sportsman's harboreven a publicstenographer.January and February are the "low"months for the Salton. This is when coldweather, if any, comes. And while most daysare pleasant the water is pretty cold forsports and may be rough for boats. But

most months, Helen has special events forher guests at The Beach House, such asShowboat, Phantom Ship (HalloweenParty), Jingle Bell Ball and crowning ofHoliday Belle, New Years Masquerade. OnJanuary 1 rugged guys and gals who skito Desert Shores and return three times(18 miles) become members of the Ice-breaker Club. Population of this part ofthe Salton is indicated by the fact that 200were registered voters in Salton Precinctlast November.Now let's go back up Hwy. 99 to Coa-chella where Hwy. 111 takes off south-east for the north shore resorts and theState Park. Or, just 10 miles back fromSalton Beach junction, turn right on No.

195, which reaches 111 west of the rail-road tracks at Mecca.A short distance below Mecca we passexotic-looking date gardens and lush fieldsbetween the highway and sea. The palms,citrus, grapes, pomegranates and truckgarden, with the sparkling sea glimpsedbeyond, are in startling contrast to inter-vening strips of seashore desert with salt-bushes, arrowweed, creosote and tamarisk.But in spring (and perhaps as early as Feb-ruary) these sands are colorful with ver-bena and other flowers. Occasional Iron-wood, Catsclaw and Palo Verde are seen.There are a few date stands, a service sta-tion, then less than 10 miles from Mecca isthe elaborate North Shore Beach develop-

ment of last year, including a yacht club, ahalf-million dollar 48-room motel whosevisitors may have full guest privileges at theclub; a restaurant, and across the highway aresidential development. The club sponsorsbeach luaus, barbecues, skiing and boatingevents, fishing derbies, moonlight steakrides and poolside steak fries. The re is aconcrete boat launching ramp plus dock-ing, landing and service facilities.A mile-and-a-half farther, after passingbeach home developments, we turn in atSalton Sea State Park, 24 miles southeast ofIndio and about 12 miles below Mecca.Here for minimum fees the entire familycan have an enjoyable outing, in activesports or just lazing on the sands. You canswim in an area marked off from boats;

you can sunbathe while watching seagullswheel above you, or follow the changingpastels of the Orocopia and ChocolateMountains; you can hike along a beach

K e n t F r o s t J e e p T r i p sInto the Famous U tah Needles Area

Junction of the Green and Colorado r ivers;Indian and Salt creeks; Davis, Lavender,Monument, Red, Dark and White canyons;Dead Horse and Grand V iew points ; Ho-venweep and Bridges national monuments.H istorical Mormon Trail of 1880

$25 daily per person. Includes sleepingbags, transportation, guide service, meals.Write KENT FROST, Monticello, U tah.

pale pink with drifts of barnacle shells;your small fry can dabble in the water orindulge in sand architecture. At a ramadaequipped with gas, water, table and benches,you can prepare a spread for those waterskiiers or fishermen. For just 50 centsper vehicle, you can have these parkingand picnicking facilities for the day. Thereare 50 picnic sites, most of them with gasplates. There are modern restrooms andeven an outdoor shower for bathers. Ifyou came unequipped, you can buy softdrinks and light foods or rent beach equip-ment from the concessioner.For campers there are 50 sites, $1 perauto per night. If you want a more primi-tive camp, you may drive farther south toMecca Beach, where there are no facilitiesnow, but also no charge. The Park Com-mission expects to develop an additional150 campsites in 1961. Camping is allow-ed up to 30 days in any one season.South of the Park office is the boatbasin. Boats and boat-trailer combinationscost an extra 50 cents per day, which in-cludes parking, use of launching ramp andboat basin. Gas and other supplies areavailable and boats may be rented. Signalflags here will warn sportsmen when to

head for shore, and a Ranger does boatpatrol. The Park water supply comesfrom the nearby Coachella Canal and isfiltered and chlorinated at the Park's plantacross the highway.There are a half-dozen favorite fishingspots around the sea: mouth of WhitewaterRiver near Torres-Martinez Indian Reserva-tion; near North Shore Beach where waterdrains from Coachella Canal; North ShoreYacht Basin; Hunters Point at DesertBeach; State Park boat basin; mouth ofSalt Creek Wash; Imperial Salt Co. belowBombay Beach; also on the southwest inSalton City area. Gulf Croak ers, firstplanted in 1950-51, are the most numerous.Orangemouth Corvina, also planted, areprized by sport fishermen. Desert Pupfish,native in the Gulf of California, also havebeen planted. Com mercial fishing is nolonger allowed, but once mullet were caughtby net, and canned . Mullet migrated fromthe Gulf and are still found in the Salton,although reportedly hard to catch by hookand line.The State Park comprises some 17,000acres, almost half under water. Averagedepth of the Salton, by the way, is but 10feet, though it is about 90 feet at thenorth end. The area is leased from U. S.Bureau of Reclamation and Imperial Ir-rigation District.The IID, besides leasing 6900 acres tothe State Park Commission, leases the fol-

lowing for duck hunting, game refuge andmarinas: To State Fish and Game Com-mission, 3700 acres at southwest corner ofSalton for duck hunting; Department ofInterior, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service,almost 5000 acres on south side as gamerefuge; Salton Community Services District,Salton City, shore frontage for marinas.On the far south side can be seen someinstallations of the Sandia Corporation, asubsidiary of Western Electric which car-ried on tests for the Atomic Energy Com-mission. These closed down in 1960, butare on a standby basis.Salton Sea State Park is one of our new-est, and is still in a development stage. Butthe great popularity of the site is attested

by the number of visitors. In 1959 therewere 329 ,611, and this number was ex-ceeded in 1960 in the first 10 months. Apriland May so far have drawn the biggestcrowds, with August having the fewest.Water temperature varies from 54 in De-

cember to 96 in July, measured at a depthof 10 feet. The season for most pleasanttemperatures is Oct. 1 to May 31. ParkSupervisor Carl Whitefield and AssistantSupervisor Jack Sutton head a staff of 15rangers, attendants and seasonal park aides,to add to your enjoyment and safety as avisitor. Mail address is Box 338, Mecca,Calif.One last no te: Visitors often bring alongtheir dogs whoenjoy the desert just as muchas their masters. It's all right to take them

into the Park if they are in the car or on aleash. But they cannot stay overnight.Except for Seeing-Eye dogs, they are notallowed on the grounds between 8 p.m.and 7 a.m.The Palm Springs Golf Classic, with fivecountry clubs participating, takes placeFebruary 1-5.Th e 14th Annual Carrot Carnival atHoltville will be held Feb. 9-12. / / /

NE W . . . NEW . . . NEWTERRY'S1961 CATALOGB I G G E R AND B E T T E R

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E R I E S T A N L E Y G A R D N E RH U N T I N G

T H ED E S E R T W H A L E

a d v e a t u n e i nG A R D N E R , S O U T H O F T H E B O RD E R

This Month: PART I / THE HISTORY OF SCAM MON 'S LAGOO NApril Desert Ma gaz ine : PART II / RUGGED ROADS, WHIMSICAL WH ALESM ay D esert M ag az ine : PART III / EX PLORING THE VIRGIN BEACH I960 by Erie Stanley Gardner. These stories are taken from G ardner's recently pub-lished book, "Hun ting the D esert Whale," published by Wm . Morrow & Co., New York

DAWN AT SCAMMON'S LAGOON26 / Desert Magazine / February, 1961


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T HE STOR Y OF Scammon's La-goon is completely fascinating,just as the story of Charles M.Scammon, the man after whom thelagoon was named, is a fascinatingstory of Yankee ingenuity, of the earlydays of whaling and of the shamefuldestruction of natural resources.There is some conflict among theauthorities as to just how CharlesScammon discovered his private hunt-ing ground. In fact, when it comes towhale hunting, the authorities seem tobe pretty generally in conflict.One authority has it that Scammonbefriended a Chinese sailor in H o n o -lulu, that this Chinese had been ex-ploring the coasts of the United Statesand Mexico in a Chinese junk andoffered to guide Scammon to a verita-ble hunting paradise in return forScammon's kindness.The other account is that Scammon,using the remarkable powers of ob-servation which he undoubtedly had,obtained clues pointing to the fact thatsomewhere along the west coast ofBaja California there was a placewhere whales congregated. How ever,so cunningly is the entrance to Scam-mon's Lagoon concealed that, despitethe fact he was searching for such anentrance, he sailed by it without see-ing it.An alert look-out, however, at the

to p of the mast, taking his attentionfrom the ocean and looking towardlong, low sand hills, looked througha little valley in the sand hills and saw

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several whales spouting, apparentlyfrom dry land.Quite obviously whales do not spouton dry land. Despite the fact thelook-out felt he was looking overmiles of arid desert and low, rollingsand hills back of an unbroken lineof surf, the unmistakable fact was thatonce attention was directed toward

dry land there were plainly visible thespouts of numerous whales appearingover the low land hillsproof positivethat there must a lagoon.Scammon had a large vessel and asmaller vessel. He anchored the largervessel, lowered two whale boats, andsent the whale boats and the smallervessel looking for a channel into thelagoon. It took them two days andtwo nights before the whale boatswere able to return with the statementthat a channel had been located andthe cutter was already in the lagoon.One marvels at the fortitude of thesemen who took to the oars and spenttwo days and two nights in open boatsexploring an unknown, dangerouscoast line. And after one has realizedhow tricky the channel to Scammon'sLagoon really is; how necessary it isto get inside the surf line and thencome on back inside a tricky bar andparallel the surf-washed shore of anisland, one wonders that the men wereable to find this channel at all.But the men did find it, and after

some maneuvering Scammon got hisbig boat into the lagoon and theywere ready to start whaling.They took two whales without in-

MURL EMERY JOSE GANDARAFebrua ry , 1961 / Desert Magazine / 27


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wheel also has a 4 ply heavy dutytire.There are many other uses for thismarvelous machine, Farmers , Ranchers ,Rock Hounds, Mineral Seekers, BeachCombers, U.S. Forestry Service, Sheriff'sDept., Division of Fish and Game, U.S.Armed Forces, and many others areinterested. Some of these are nowusing this PAK-JAK and have foundthat i t has many uses .For further information phone, orwrite

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cident but the next day when theywent whaling it was a different situa-tion. The whales seemed to knowexactly what was wanted and avoidedthe boats wherever possible but, whencrowded, prom ptly turned and at-tacked . An d the whales were so agile,so vicious and so powerful that theywere christened "the devil fish."The terminology of whaling is sim-ple, direct, and to the poin t. Fo r in-

stance, the "Right" whale was sochristened simply because the whalersfelt he was the right whale to harpoonwhen there was any choice in thematter. And now the gray whale be-came known as the devil fish.After the first few encounters, mostof Scammon's men simply refused toman the boats; and when Scammondid get a volunteer crew, the first whalewhich came toward the boat foundevery one of the men jumping over-board and leaving the boat unmanned.The word had got around and the

whales were fighting back.For two days Scammon's crew didno whaling at all, simply trying to as-certain how they could work out anew technique by which these whalescould be captured. They were in averitable whaler's paradise, with whalesblowing all around them, but almosthalf the crew was injured, their boatshad been stowed up and the whales,seeming to know exactly what the foewas there for, were ready to attack aboat whenever it showed up withinrange, so to speak.The carpenters worked long hoursgetting the broken boats repaired sothat they would be sea-worthy.At length a new scheme was pro-

FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE COUNTRYposed: The boats would anchor inshallow water by the edge of a channel.The whales could not get at them inthe shallow water but, as whales camedrifting past in the deep channel, oneof the guns would fire a "bomb-lance"into the whale, hoping to reach a vitalpoint.

The seasoned whalers felt that thiswould not work but they couldn'tthink of anything else that would workso they tried it.The day they put this plan intoexecution they fired bomb-lances intothree whales. These bomb-lances wereingenious devices, intended to explodeafter they had penetrated the whale'svitals.Three whales were killed; two ofthem sank to the bottom but the crewmanaged to get a line on the thirdwhale and towed him to the boat.Later on that day the other two bomb-ed whales came to the surface andwere found drifting with the tide.

Lines were promptly attached to them,they were towed to the ship, andScammon was in business.Within record time Scammon filledhis boat and exhausted his supply ofbomb-lances. Getting the loaded boatback out of the bar, however, was aproblem . It was more than twelvedays before they found conditions ofwind and tide which enabled them totake a chance with the heavily loadedboats; and even then they left a trailof sand behind them as they draggedtheir keels across the bar.One of the authorities has it thatthe Scammon boats were part of thewhaling fleet out of New Bedford andthat they returned to New Bedford.But, judging from the writings of



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Scammon himself, it would seem thathe was working out of San Francisco.In any event, when the Scammonboats came in loaded to capacity withwhale oil and whalebone, there wasa lot of speculation.Scammon had agreed to keep hiscrew working on shares, and sworeeach one to secrecy. So there wasno word of Scammon's Lagoon or thenew whaling discovery. Th e feelingwas that Scammon had simply beenlucky.In those days the whalers went outand stayed out until they filled theirboats. Many of the expeditions lastedfor four or five years, with the boatscruising from the Arctic to the Ant-arctic. So natura lly the fact thatScammon was back with a full boatwithin a matter of weeks was causefor speculation.Scammon apparently made anothertrip to his lagoon without arousing anycomm ent. But when he again return-ed within a few weeks with his boatsloaded to capacity, the competitivewhalers became suspicious, and whenScammon started on his next trip awhole fleet of whalers was followingalong, determined to find Scammon'ssecret whale-hunting grounds.Scammon would keep in sight ofthe fleet during the daylight hours,then at night would double and twistand turn and be out of sight by day-light. But the fleet would scatter andinevitably some of the look-outs wouldpick up Scammon's sail and again thechase would be on.Eventually, however, Scammondodged the fleet and once more en-tered his secret lagoon and startedoperations.The baffled hunters cruised every-where trying to find where Scammonhad disappeared.In the end it was the wind which

betrayed Scammon's location.A look-out on one of the whalingships which had been cruising offCedros Island noticed the telltale taintof whale blubber trying out, and re-ported to the captain, who promptlyturned the ship into the wind andstarted following the scent which ofcourse kept growing stronger until, tohis amazement, the captain beheld thespars of Scammon's ship apparentlymoored in the middle of a sandydesert; and surrounded by the spoutsof whales.The low sand hills completely mask-ed the lagoon but the spouts of whalessome ten or fifteen feet high (andeven reaching to twenty feet underproper atmospheric conditions) which

had disclosed the lagoon to Scammon,plus the telltale spars of Scammon'sship, betrayed the location to thecaptain of the other vessel.

But locating Scammon's Lagoon andlocating the channel were two differ-ent things.Scammon himself has written thaton his next trip while there were someforty vessels standing by outside thesurf, only eight of them managed toget into the lagoon.However, the secret was no longera secret and these hardy seafaring

men soon learned the channel, andthe whaling fleet moved into Scam-mon's Lag oon. Then began such amassacre of whales

196102 desert magazine 1961 february

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