195003 desert magazine 1950 march

8/14/2019 195003 Desert Magazine 1950 March

1/48

MARCH, 1950 35 CENTS


2/48

A M o d e r n M o u l t i n g Set W i t h S p a r k l i n g G e m s ofR U T I L E R A IN B O W D I A M O N D S

Is the answer to your gift problem. One of these magnificent gems set in alovely gold or palladium ring will be a gift that will be worn and cherishedfor years to come.

RUTILE IS THE GEM OF THE HOUR IT IS NOW A REALITYAfter years of experiments, synthetic RUTILE is now available in cut gemsof breath taking beau ty. This magnificent subs tance ha s been given thename of "TITANIA".

"TITANIA IS QUEEN O F ALL KNOW N GEM S"Titania gems have more fire than the diamond.

Be the first in your comm unity to ow n on e of these beautiful ne wRainbow DiamondsDEALERS INQUIRIES SOLICITED

Everyone to whom you show this new gem will wish to purchase one ormore of them. Our SUPERCATALOG tells you of our discount plan th at willpermit you to own one of these new gems at no cost to yourself.Our new SUPERCATALOG described below gives you all the facts aboutTITANIA GEMS and ILLUSTRATES mountings especially selected for them.An article tells the story behind this amazing discovery.

T h e 1950 R e v i s e d E d i t i o n o f G r i e g e r ' s " E n c y c l o p e d i a andS u p e r C a t a l o g o f th e L a p i d a r y and J e w e l r y A r t s "

$ 1 . 0 0 Pe r C o p yThis is a 192-page book 9"xl2" in size. There are a t least 60 pa ge s of in-structive articles by author s of national fame. There are new articles by EMILKRONQUIST an d LOUIS WIENER on jewelry making . The 15-page articleon jewelry casting by the LOST WAX METHOD using the new KERR HOBBY-CRAFT CASTING UNIT is alo ne w orth $1.00. "ROCK DETERMINATIONSIMPLIFIED" by Mr. E. V. Van Amringe with illustrations and charts helpsyou to identify your field trip discoveries. Two excellent field trips ar e m appe d.Everything you need in MACHINERY. TOOLS. SUPPLIES and MATERIALSis illustrated, described and priced for your convenience.VISIT OUR SHOP AND SECURE YOUR COPY OF THIS UNIQUE BOOKSent Postpaid in U. S. A., its Territories and Canada for only $1.00.

READ THESE REMARKS BY THOSE WHO PURCHASED THE FIRST EDITION"I would stillbuy it at $3.00 to $5.00 as it contains as much if not more meaty 'nformation for the lapidary andjewe ler than any of the books on the market selling in that price ran ge. " "It is better than mostlapid ary handb ooks ." "It is the only satisfactory catalog of lapid ary supp lies and materia ls thatI ha ve ever seen. It is superb ly illustrated and s uperbly printed."

JUST PUBLISHED: "THE STORY OF JADE" by Herbert P. Whitlock an d M artin L. Ehrm ann at$12 .50 per copy .

1633 EAST WALNUT STREETPASADENA 4, CALIFORNIA.PHONt Sfe-6423OPEN ON rAIDAY AND SATURDAY ONLY 8 X A M - i : 3 0 P M -MONDAY THRU THURSDAY OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

T HE D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


3/48

D E S E R T C A L E N D A RMar. 5Bandollero trek to Fortunagold mine in western Gila moun-tains, sponsored by Yuma County,Arizona, chamber of commerce.Mar.5First annual Almond Blos-som Festival at Quartz Hill, Ante-lope valley, Lancaster, California.Tours to blossoming orchards, pa-rade, barbecue, gymkhana. Spon-sored by Quartz Hill chamber ofcommerce.Mar. 5Don's club annual trek intoSuperstition mountains. Overnightpack trips, guided shorter hikes in-to the mountains. From Phoenix,Arizona.Mar. 5-12Imperial Valley LettuceGrowers' and Shippers' 22nd an-nual Golf tournament, Del RioCountry club, Brawley, California.Mar. 10-12Second annual mineraland gem show of the Coachella Val-ley Mineral society, at main build-ing, Riverside county fairgrounds,Indio, California.Mar. 11-12Rodeo at Chandler, Ar-izona, sponsored by Chandler Lion'sclub.Mar. 12Overnight Bandollero tripto Gulf of California, below theborder in Mexico, starting fromYuma, Arizona. Trip sponsored byYuma County chamber of com-merce.Mar. 15-20Palm Springs, Califor-nia, invitational Golf tournament.Mar. 17, 18, 19Eleventh annual In-ternational Desert Cavalcade ofImperial Valley, at Calexico, Cali-fornia, on the Mexican border.Mar. 18More than 500 membersof the Sons of Utah Pioneers arescheduled to arrive in San Bernar-

dino, California, from Salt LakeCity for celebration commemora-ting the famous Mormon Battaliontrek of 2000 miles in 1846.Mar. 18-19State Junior champion-ship ski meet, Arizona Snow Bowl,Flagstaff.Mar. 19One-day Bandollero trekfrom Yuma, Arizona, to Parkerdam and the lakes above it on theColorado river.Mar. 19Don's club Travelcade toSan Carlos Indian reservation, fromPhoenix, Arizona.Mar. 22-25Annual Desert Circus,varied events. Palm Springs, Cali-fornia.Mar. 24-26Annual Tucson, Ari-zona, L ivestock show at Tucsonrodeo grounds.Mar. 24-26Annual World's Cham-pionship rodeo, sponsored by Phoe-nix, Arizona, Junior chamber ofcommerce.Mar. 25-26State Combined cham-pionship ski races, Arizona SnowBowl, Flagstaff.Mar. 26Don's club Travelcade toBoyce Thompson Arboretum atSuperior, Arizona.Mar. 27Dances in most KeresanIndian pueblos of New Mexico:Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Co-chiti and others, also Jemez pueb-l o . Beginning of Easter ceremonies.Mar . 1-31Open season on Javelinain Arizona. Special license and tagrequired. Can be taken only withbow and arrow or rifle using cen-ter-fire cartridge.

V o l u m e 1 3 MARCH . 1950 N u m b e r 5C O V E RC A L E N D A RG H O S T T O W NDESERT QUIZP H O T O G R A P H YP ERSO NALITYC O N T E S TFIELD TRIPFICTIONPOETRYA RT

I N D I A N SWILDF LO WERSB O T A N YMININGLETTERSC H A M P I O NN E W SH O BBYLAPIDARYC O M M E N TB O O K S

M A R I P O S A L IL Y, P h o t o b y J o s e p h M u e n c hM a r c h e v e n t s o n t h e d e s e r t 3B u c k b o a r d D a y s a t S i l v e r R e e f

B y N E L L M U R B A R G E R 4T e s t y o u r d e s e r t k n o w l e d g e 9C o n t e s t w i n n e r s f or J a n u a r y 10H e N a m e d L a k e C a h u i l l a

B y J. W I L S O N M c K E N N E Y 11M a rc h p ho to c on te st a n n ou n c em e n t . . . . 12B l a c k W o o d i n U t a h ' s W h i t e C a n y o n

B y H A R O L D O . W E I G H T 14H a r d R o c k S h o r t y of D e a t h V a l l e y 19B e yo nd t he R oa d , a n d o th er p o e m s . . . . 20H e r C a n v a s e s A r e W i n d o w s

B y T H E R O N M A R C O S T R U M B O . . . . 2 1H e a l i n g C e r e m o n i a l in M o n u m e n t V a l l e yB y R A N D A L L H E N D E R S O N 2 4

R a i n s N e e d e d fo r D e s e r t F l o w e r s 2 6D i g n i t y a n d E l e g a n c e A m o n g t h e R o c k s

By MA RY BEAL 27C u r r e n t n e w s of d e s e r t m i n e s 2 8V i ew s a n d c o m m e n t s b y D e se rt r e a d e r s . . . 29W i n n e r of a n n u a l P e g l e g L i ar 's c o n te s t . . . 30F r o m h e r e a n d t h e r e o n t h e d e s e r t 3 1G e m s a n d M i n e r a l s 3 9A m a t e u r G e m C u t t e r , b y L E L A N D E Q U I C K . . 4 4J us t B e t w e e n Y o u a n d M e , b y t h e E d it or . . . 4 6R e v i e w s of S o u t h w e s t L i t e r a t u r e 4 7he Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert,California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm DesertCalifornia, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office,and contents copyrighted 1950 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce c ontentsmust be secured from the editor in writing.RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor AL HAWORTH, Associate EditorBESS STACY, Business Manager MARTIN MORAN, Circulation ManagerE. H. VAN NOSTRAND, Advertising ManagerLos Angeles Office (Advertising Only): 2635 Adelbert Ave., Phone NOrmandy 3-1509.Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledgedunless full return p ostage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility fordamage or loss of ma nuscrip ts or photograph s although d ue care will be exercised. Sub-scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue.

SUBSCRIPTION RATESOne Year $3.50 Two Years $6.00Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c ExtraSubscription to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity WithP . O. D. Order No. 19687Address Correspondence to Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, California

M A R C H 1 9 5 0


4/48

Street scene in Silver Reef about 188 0. In the background, the Elk Horn saloon,J. N. Loader's general store and the postoffice. These b uildings have long sincedisappeared. From one of Alex Colbath's old photo collection.Mining experts said that silverdid not and could not occur insandstone. And so the worldwas skept ical when news wentout that a big silver strike had

been made in the sandstone re-gion of southwestern Utah. Butbefore the reef was worked outmore than ten million dollars insilver bullion had been takenfrom the m ines at' Silver Reefand there is still at least one old-timer who expects the camp toboom again .

Buckboard Daysat Silver Reef

By NELL MURBARGERA pleasant tingle of antici-pation, I headed the car outthe little dirt road which ledtoward the foothills and Silver Reef,

Utah's famous old mining camp. It wasa morning specially tailored for adven-turing. Cottonwoods along the creekwere tipped in October gold and theDespite these crumbling w alls, Alex Colbath d enies Silver Reef is a ghost town.

T HE D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


5/48

lonely mountain wind which rustledtheir leaves carried with it a hint offrost.Twenty-five miles to the east liftedZion's calico-colored peaks. Acrossthe north east was flung the misty, bluerooftop of Kolob Plateau, and alongthe northwestern horizon, the darkbulk of Pine Valley mo untain. Im-

mediately ahead of us stretched a longrampart of red bluffs, at the foot ofwhich lay a low, white sandstone ridge.Here was the "reef" which 75 yearsbefore had given name to a city anda mine famed around the world.Skirting a rocky ridge and windingacross a sunny slope spattered withboulders and scrub junipers, o ur roadsoon brought us face to face with theremains of what had once been South-ern Utah's largest settlement.That a city which had boasted a gas-lighted main street a mile in length,with a full complement of stores, hotels,homes, lodges, churches and schools :could so nearly vanish from the earthseemed incredible. Lost beneath atangled thatch of sage and rabbit brushlay the streets. A few gaunt, hollowshells of stone buildings lifted crumb-ling walls above the red earth, andtottering on the rim of the ravine stoodthe ruins of an old mill.Of the entire collection, only twobuildings were remotely habitable. Be-fore the larger of these the little moun-tain road drew up and stopped.Architecturally as uninspired as apeanut butter sandwich, the squareyellow rock structure had originallyserved as the Wells Fargo bank build-ing. Any claim to beauty it ever hadmust have lain in its skillfully-dressedsandstone fronttwo thirds of whichwas blanketed behind an impregnablebreastworks of tall black iron doorsand shutters.Muffled voices issuing from withinthe spooky old building immediatelysuggested a conclave of ghostly bank-

ersor possibly bank robbersporingover stacks of phantom gold. But sinceeven ghosts have a right to their priv-acy, I rapped experimentally on theiron door. Nothing happened. WhenI pounded a second time and looseda nai led query, "Anybody home?" thevoices cut off sharply. A moment ortwo of silence; and then, in some ob-scure part of the building a male"ghost" thundered impatiently, "Well,dammit! Come on inthe door ain' tlocked!"Pushing the old bank door open I

ventured back through a narrow, dimly-lighted co rrido r, at the far end ofwhich light shone from beneath a sec-ond door. To a romanticist dreamingof spectral agents and ghostly gold

Above Alex and Mayme Colbath, lone survivors of Silver Reef, with theaged "ruffle fluter" found by Mayme in the ruins of the Chinese laundry.Below Old Wells Fargo bank in which the Colbaths reside.

M A R C H 1 9 5 0


6/48

it was a little upsetting to step throughthat door into a bright, warm kitchen,tenanted by Alex and Mayme Colbathpresent owners of Silver Reef, an das unghostly a pair as one might everfind.Vivacious Mayme hurried aroundthe oilcloth-covered table to draw outa chair for me. Almost before I hadmy hat off, we were knee-deep in talkof Silver Reef and its fabulous boomdays of two generations ago.Very early in our conversation Ilearned that it was not altogether pru-dent to refer to Silver Reef as a ghosttown."Silver Reef's no ghost!" indignantlybristled white-haired Alex Colbathwhen I first made the mistake of term-ing it so. "It's never been completelydeserted! Someone's always l i v e dhere ."And, technically speaking, someonealways has. Those who insist upondelving into vital statistics will findthat for the last 22 years the town'spermanent population has been limitedto Alex and Mayme. Alex lived at theReef even before that. He wouldn'tsay exactly how long"mebbe 33 or34 years" but folks in the nearbysettlement of Leeds seem to have theimpression that he arrived on the sceneabout the same time as the red bluffsto the west of town.

Another thing I discovered earlyin our conversation is the fact thatSilver Reef occupies a very large placein the hearts of both Alex and Mayme.On their tables and in their cupboardsare relics salvaged from the ruins andore samples from the mines. On thewalls of Alex's officethe main lobbyof the bankhangs a galaxy of price-less old wood cuts and early photosshowing the town in its heyday.As we sat around the crackling woodfire in the kitchen, and later, as wewandered among the crumbled stoneruins on the surrounding slope, Maymekept up a running fire of anecdotes;stories about this building and that,

of the Reef's quaint characters andpioneer goings-onall stories heardfirst hand from her parents and friendswho had known Silver Reef in the olddays.Although not a native of the Reefshe was born within sight of it in thelittle Mormon town of Leeds, a miledown the ravine by foot trail. Aftergraduating as a nurse at the L. D. S.school in Cedar City, she went eastto practice her profession."But the East wasn't for me!"Mayme Colbath declared with a quick

little grimace. " I guess I have too muchUtah and sand in my veins to be satis-fied anywhere else! I came back to thehills."

He was "mayor" of Silver Reef'sChinatown during the boom days.Even at the Reef, she said, her earlynurse training has been put to goodpurpose in helping care for her livelyflock of grandchildren who live on amountain ranch a mile away."Over yonder was Chinatown," shecontinued, waving toward a section ofhillside as barren of buildings as it wasof Celestials. That some 250 Chinesehad once lived there, operating shopsand laundries and cafes, and function-ing under their own Chinese mayor,seemed almost past belief. Scarcely astick or stone remains as evidence oftheir one-time occupancy."Mother used to tell me how ex-

citing it had been to come up to SilverReef and browse around the little Chi-nese shops with all their strange merch-andise and foreign odors," she wenton. "All the ladies in the towns aroundbrought their best dresses to the Chi-nese laundrymen here to have their ruf-fles fluted because the special handOuters the Chinese used did the workso much nicer than an ordinary flat-iron. And what do you think! Notlong ago I was poking around in thebrush where one of the laundries usedto be, and what should I find but oneof those old cast-iron ruffle fluters!The date on it is 1866 and it's stilljust as serviceable as the first day itwas used!"

While I learned a great deal of Sil-ver Reef's story from Alex and MaymeColbath, I didn't get all of it fromthem. Some I gleaned from old timersat Leeds and St. George and Pioche.While not all their stories agreed inall particulars, their main componentsform a tale unique in Western mininghistory.There are several versions regard-ing the Reef's discovery. Some claimthat the mine here had been workedby Spaniards long before the comingof pioneer prospectors, and even themine's discovery or rediscovery byAmericans is chronicled in several dif-ferent ways.Around Utah and Nevada miningcircles, the version I heard most fre-quently centers about one "Metallif-erous" Murphy who operated an as-say office in the boom camp of Pioche,just across the Nevada line.Murphy's assays, it seemed, almostalways showed high values, and verypossibly he was a trifle more sanguinethan scientific. At any rate, minersof the Pioche district had reached thepoint where they didn't put much faithin his reports.One day as a group of prospectorsstood on a Pioche street corner discus-sing where they might obtain reliableassays, a Mormon colonist from theVirgin Valley drove up in a farm wag-on and inquired if any of the mininggentlemen would be interested in buy-ing garden produce, firewood, or per-

haps a grindstonegrindstones fromthe Leeds quarry then being in comm onuse in many Nevada mining camps.He had started to Pioche with twoexcellent stones, the colonist contin-ued, but one had unfortunately be-come broken en route.A broken grindstonepossibly themost worthless thing in the world . . .But wait! Sandstonethat was it! Ev-eryone who knew beans about miningknew that sandstone never carriedmetallic values. Okay! They 'd just havea little fun with Mister Murphy.Mortaring the broken grindstone in-to still smaller fragments to thor-oughly mask its identity, the minersdelivered the material to Murphy, ask-ing him to run an immediate assay onit. When Murphy's report showed the"sample" to run 200 ounces of silverto the ton, perpetrators of the joke hitthe ceiling.There seems to be considerable dis-agreement concerning Murphy's fate.One story has him strung up to thenearest tree; another has him ridden

out of town on a rail. Others declarethat Murphy became so angered byhis townsmen's sarcastic jibes that helocked up shop, traced the grindstoneT HE D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


7/48

To Oak GroveG)\Y".. Camp

****.*** * ? ? " - * - i *

[=>', ' i " 1 ^ i v ' s ! . " " ' ' ^ '""''""

To Las Vega s ^ '

Vs.* LEEDS

>A.

To Ced a r C i ty &S a l t L a k e

TOaUER- r.VILLE )% /

MIDDLETON:ORGE

WASHINGTON

pon.ro*

to its source, and there discovered anentire reef of sandstone rich in horn-silver.Maybe Murphy discovered the reef;maybe he didn't. But at least someonedid. One published account relatesthat the original discoverer found orerunning $17,000 to the ton but wasso afraid someone would jump hisclaim while he was away recording itthat he filled his prospect hole to hideit from view. Upon returning to thereefaccording to this talehe wasnever again able to relocate the richdeposit. The Colbaths got a goodlaugh out of the foregoing yarn. In ad-dition to its obvious improbability,Alex pointed out that the richest oreever known to have come from thereef ran only about 400 ounces to theton. High grade, to be sure, but stilla far cry from $17,000!Various factors kept the new strikefrom developing as rapidly as onemight have expected. One thing whichmaterially retarded a boom was themining world's reluctance to credit thenew discovery. Never before in thehistory of the civilized world had sil-

ver been found in sandstone, and nowdespite what seemed concrete evidenceof such occurrencemining expertsstill clung stubbornly to the old beliefthat silver did not and geologicallycould not occur in sandstone. In theface of such skepticism it was only nat-ural that potential developers weredoubly cautious in loosening theirpurse strings.Successfully prospected as early as1866, it was not until 1870 that thereef was organized as Harrisburg Min-ing District and the first claim re-corded. Development, however, re-mained virtually at a standstill until1874 when Elija Thomas had thebright idea of forwarding some samplesof the ore to Walker brothers, SaltLake bankers.Walkers were opportunists of thefirst water. All the mining engineers ofthe world might declare this reef animpossibility, but what Walkers sawwith their own eyes, Walkers believed.The samples looked good. So good thatthe Salt Lakers dispatched to the scenethree of their ablest mining menWm. T. Barbee, Thomas McNally andEd Maynard.

When Barbee found hornsilver evenin petrified wood, he lost no time instaking 22 claims on the Tecumsehridge and wired back to Salt Lake forsupplies and mining equipment.Walkers' backing gave life to thecamp and in a matter of weeks thetown of Silver Reef had been laid outand named, and a full-blown stam-pede was under way.On foot and horseback, by muleand burro and Concord stage andfreight wagon, men streamed into thenew camp. Miners, lawyers, mer-chants, gamblers, boom-town camp-followers. Development was rapid.Soon a mile-long board walk wasflanked on either side by frame andstone business buildingsincluding aplethora of sa loons, d a n c e andgambling halls. There was a volunteerfire departm ent, a brass ban d, a school,three cemeteries and a good represen-tation of lodges and brotherhoods.The year 1877 found the Buckeyemine with a daily production of 1000ounces of silver bullion, averaging 990in fineness. During 1878 the Christymill processed more than 10,000 tonsof ore valued at $330,000. During the

M A R C H 1 9 5 0


8/48

five-year period beginning in 1875,the Reef's production of silver bullionreached 3,319,054 ounces, valued at$3,808,890, and by 1880 five largeamalgam stamp mills were in operationalong the ridge.While mining at the Reef was tocontinue sporadically for several moredecadesun til $10,50 0,000 in ore hadbeen taken outit was in the yearsbetween 1875 and 1880 that the Reefknew its greatest prosperity.Strangely, it was never a townmarked by extreme lawlessness. Whilethe inhabitants of Southern Utah werealmost wholly of the Mormon faith,tenets of that church did not sanctionthe mining of silver or gold. As re-sult, Silver Reef existed as a Gentilestronghold in a Mormon dominatedlanda situation which one might ex-pect to yield periodic fireworks. Suchwas not the case. Some of the mostfascinating anecdotes of the Reef's ear-ly years concern incidents of Mormonand Gentile cooperation.Doubtless no resident of the Reefenjoyed greater respect than the be-loved Catholic priest, Father Law-rence Scanlan, later bishop of the Salt

Lake diocese. When Father Scanlanarrived in the roaring mining camp bymuleback in 1877, he found a placewith urgent need for both church andhospital. Determined that both shouldbe built as rapidly as circumstancespermitted, the earnest young priestcirculated through the saloons, thegambling dens and houses of ill fame,and from this strata of society leasttouched by Godliness, came funds forthe undertaking. Actual work of con-struction found Father Scanlan work-ing side by side with the laborers, lay-ing stones and sawing and nailingboards.Impressed by the young padre's sin-cerity and industry, leaders of the Lat-ter Day Saints church offered him freeuse of the Mormon tabernacle at St.George as a place to hold services un-til erection of his own church wascompleted. And because he had nothad time to organize a choir, Mormon

choristers at St. George graciously vol-unteered to provide music, even learn-ing to sing the difficult Cath olicmasses in Latin!From a swashbuckling boom townof 5000 persons, where firewater and

gold flowed with equal facility, Sil-ver Reef's decadence followed a famil-iar pattern.As silver deposits close to the surfacewere worked out and it became neces-sary to go deeper for paying ore, pro-duction costs mounted. Water seepagein the mines further skyrocketed ex-pense of operation, and to partiallyoffset such increases, wages were slash-ed. The miners w ere called out onstrike; strike leaders were jailed, andmerchants who had extended credit onthe assumption of continued paychecksfound themselves in financial trouble.Business failures multiplied. With sil-ver prices nose-diving as results ofworld manipulation, original develop-ers of the Reef began to leave, salvag-ing what they could.By 18 91 , practically all of the Reef'smines and mills were at a standstill andthe last decade of the 19th centuryyielded but 206,069 ounces of silver.Closing of each mine further deplet-ed the Reef's dwindling populationand resulted in still more homes andbusiness houses being left to the mercyof wind and weather. In time theseabandoned buildings were claimed byBusiness directory of Silver Reef in 1886. Building in the center is the HarrisonHouse once the camp's leading hotel. Copied from an old photo owned byAlexColbath.

C H R I S T * M^HCdCMHJSTYMJ}) , j j s;K.T.Ctlhspm, Tseo

2T 1 > ( ! t u ~ > l * H M e r c h a n t_ _ _ . ^ J

L E A C H i N O W O B J i S G A P J T O t . - i t4VQWJfHTWCTO1lS, S A L O O N . i *r ! S LOOAf. ~y

BUTCHERS.

A LEMMON. AM

s% f^ AjM .V UU Tt ' CAMK14lft .8*T HE D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


9/48

the state for delinquent taxes. Offeredfor sale at au ction s, public interest wasless than lukewarm until the purchaserof an old saloon assertedly came upona forgotten cache of $10 ,000 in goldcoin. With that report, bidding boomedand even rock buildings were boughtand torn down with anticipation andfervor. No other treasure caches werereported found.Early in the present century AlexColbath had become interested in theReef, and in 19 16 , with the firstWorld War bolstering the silver mar-ket, he raised $160,000 and organizedthe Silver Reef Consolidated Miningcompany.Leased to a New York concern,elaborate plans were made to builda mill and reopen the old mines withmodern machineryplans effectuallysquelched by another slump in silverprices. In 1928, controlling interestin the company was purchased byAm erican Smelting & Refining whichsunk a single test shaft, pulled up stakesand retired from the field.Despite this and several other costlyfiascosone of which was calculatedto salvage quicksilver from the dumpsAlex Colbath's consummate faithin the old mines remained unshaken.He mapped their underground work-ings and studied their formation. He

a t e , slept and breathed Silver Reef . . .and in time, he acquired full ownershipof the property.For more than 10 years this man'sdriving hope has been to find an outfitwhich will work the mine as he knowsit must be worked to recover the metalstill there.One outfit had been negotiating tobuy the mine and the deal was near-ing completion when Alex learned thatthey intended to lease it to others,strip the high grade ore and abandonthe rest. That settled it. There wasn'tany sale.On another occasion he had an of-fer from a movie com pany whichwished to buy the townsite, restore itto its original form and use it in mak-

ing Western movies."They offered Alex almost as muchas he is asking for the mine," saidMayme. "The only trouble was, theystipulated that if they bought the placethey wouldn't permit the mine to beworked as it might interfere with theirown plans. That finished it. Alexwouldn't sell."Some of our friends think we oughtto farm the place," she went on. "Thesoil's rich and we could irrigate thewhole flat from Quail creek. Othersask why we don't put in a dude ranch.""Farm! Dude ranch, hell!" explodedAlex. "I'm a mining man. Been a minerall my life! When Silver Reef comes

backand it' ll come back, you'll see!it'll be as a mining camp, not asa hawg ranch!"If faith and optimism have anything

to do with it, Silver Reef will comeback. If it doesn't Alex and MaymeColbath will at least give the ghostsa good run for their money.

D e s e r t Q u i z Desert Magazine's monthly quiz is designedboth as a test of knowledge for those who arefamiliar with the desert country, and as a bitof coaching for those who aspire to know more about this great desert play-ground of the Southwest. 12 to 14 correct answers is a fair score, 15 to 17is good, 18 or above is exceptional. The answers are on page 19.

1Your car is stuck in the sand. Probably the tool that will help most ingetting it out is aPu m p Pair of Plyers Shovel Screwdriver2Largest Indian reservation in the Southwest isApache Navajo Mojave Papago3A piton is one of the tools used by aMiner Surveyor Indian silversmith Rock-climbe r4Material generally used by Hopi Indians in making Kachina dolls isCottonwood Clay Cedar Pinyon5 Center of the Chimayo weaving industry in the Southwest is inSouthern Arizona California New Mexico Utah6If you wanted to take a picture of the Great White Throne you wouldg o t o Zion National Park Gran d Canyon Mo num ent ValleyBryce Canyon7The highway over the White Mountains of eastern Arizona betweenSpringerville and Clifton isSunkist Highway Coro nado Trail Apac he TrailSunset Route8The Gila river enters the ColoradoAbove Hoover Dam Near Parker, Arizona Below the Mexi-can boundary Near Yum a, Arizona9Crystals most commonly occurring in the geodes areQuartz Tourmaline Gypsum Hematite10Indian women in the roadside stands along the highway between Al-

buquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, generally sellBeadwork Basketry Pottery Blankets11Roosevelt dam is in the Gila River Salt River Hassaya mpa RiverColorado River12 The tree most com monly used for w indbreaks in the Southwest is -Tamarisk Willow Palo Verde Cottonwood13The late Ernest Thompson Seton of New Mexico was a Mining engineer Indian trader U. S. SenatorWriter14Highest peak visible from the Colorado desert of Southern Californiais San Jacinto San Gorgonio Santa RosaMt. Whitney15The book The Saga of Billy the Kid was written about aFam ous stage driver Discoverer of the Com stock lodeNotoriou s outlaw Trap per and scout16Indians who own and manage the famous hot springs at Palm Springs,California are Chemehuevis Cahuillas Cocopahs17The desert town which publicizes itself as "The Dude Capital of theWorld" is Prescott, Arizona Palm Springs, California Las Vegas,Nevada Wickenburg, Arizona18Desert mistletoe never grows in one of the following trees Ironwood Smoke tree Mesquite Catsclaw19Saguaro fruit was once an important item of food for the Yum a Indians Hopis Papagos Hualpais20Mexican Hat is the name of a settlement in Utah Arizona New Mexico Nevada

M A R C H 1 9 5 0


10/48

& M

M O N T H . . .D I N N E R T I M EFirst prize in Desert's Janu-ary contest went to G. H.Remmerde, Bishop, Califor-nia, for above photo of"Uncle" Stanford, an old-timer residing near Kingman,Arizona. Picture was taken at11:00 a.m. with Zeiss Ikoflex,1/25 at f.ll.

A Z T E C R U I N SBen Pope, Dinuba, Califor-nia, won second place withaccompanying picture of In-dian ruins at Aztec, Colorado.He used a Medalist camera,shot the picture at 2:00 in theafternoon, 1/100 at f. 16.


11/48

He Named Lake CahuillaBy J. WILSON McKENNEY

outstretched arm the Ca-huilla Indian chief pointed firstto the clearly defined horizon-tal shoreline at the rocky foot of theSanta Rosa mountains, then swept hishand toward distant white salt flatsglistening in th e bright sunlight.Through an interpreter he talked to thetall white man who stood attentivelybeside him on a high outcrop of rocks.

"The waters of the great lake driedup poco a poco and my father's peoplemoved their village down from themountains to hunt and fish along theshore. Then the waters returned andoverwhelmed many of my father ' speople." The dusky chief turned topoint toward the northwest. "Many,many of my people lived in abundancebeside the great sea. That is wherethey made fish tr aps . . . " The o ldchief's voice trailed away.

The place was on the crest of Trav-er t ine Point in nor thwes t Imper-ial county, California. The time wasa morning in the fall of 1853. Thewhite man was 27-year-old WilliamPhipps Blake, Yale '52, geologist andmineralogist for Lt. R. S. Williamson'sexpedition.Blake was the first white man to ex-amine with scientific eyes the greatbelow-sea-level basin now occupiedby Salton sea and the Imperial recla-mation project. It was virtually drywhen he first saw it, but an inland sea110 miles long and 34 miles wide hadonce filled this basin. The story toldby the Cahuilla chief was confirmedby evidence Blake found in manyplacestravertine coated rocks alongthe old shore line, millions of tiny mar-ine shells in the sands. In his exhaustivereports Blake paid a tribute to theIndians who had once dwelt on its

shores. He called it Lake Cahuilla.The young geologist did not pretendto be the discoverer of Lake Cahuilla.He knew that Sebastian in 1774, Anzain 1775 and 1776, and the Sonora gold-seekers in 1849 had passed throughthe great dry depression. Captain A.R. Johnson, a member of Lieut. Col.W. H. Emory's expedition in the late'40s, had written: "At no distant daythis place which is now a dry desertwas once a permanent lake." Emoryhimself had reported that "the sinkcontained a basin three-quarters ofa mile long and a half mile wide inwhich water had receded to a pool."In addition to naming Lake Cahuilla

The present Salton Sea in Southern California was formed when the Colo-rado river ran wild in 1905-6-7. But the waters known today as Salton werenot the first to fill this great below-sea-level basin. William P. Blake, geolo-gist for an army engineering expedition, first identified this as an ancientlake bed in 1853and named it Lake Cahuilla in honor of the Indians whohad lived for countless generations on its shores. Here is a brief biographicalsketch of a very modest man who played an important role in western his-tory 100 years ago.

Photograph taken in 1906 at Travertine Point, when William Blake returnedto find the ancient lake bed he had named being refilled by flood watersfrom the Colorado river.

(modestly protesting efforts of friendsyears later who wanted to call it Blakesea), young Blake named the Coloradodesert (after the Spanish wordingmeaning red) for the red silt color ofthe floor.Born in New York City in 1826,Blake received his early educationthere and earned his doctor of philoso-phy degree from Yale in 1852. Anoutstanding student with robust goodhealth and premature gray hair, hisservices after graduation were eagerlysought. Employed by the New JerseyMining and Exploration company, he

also lectured on mine ralogy at NewYork Medical college and organizedthe mineral department of the NewYork W orld Exposition of 1853 . In themeantime President Pierce, mindfulof the need to bind the nation togetherwith steel rails, ordered the army to"locate a feasible route for a railroadfrom the Mississippi river to the Pa-cific ocean." Lt. Williamson was se-lected to command the survey partyand he accepted Smithsonian Institu-tion's recommendation of William P.Blake as official geologist and miner-alogist. Blake readily laid aside his

M A R C H 1 9 5 0 11


12/48

opportunities in the city to turn towardthe West.In June the wagon-train left SanFrancisco, traveling south through SanJoaquin valley. Engineers set transitsin Walker pass , the Tehachapi, andSan Gorgonio pass while Blake roamedat will with his geologist's pick andspecimen bags. The company testedeach opening in the ranges whichbarred the way south, like a fox seek-ing a way through a picket fence.That Williamson and his men dida thorough job was attested years laterwhen great railroad companies laidsteel rails along their line of stakes.Railroad engineers noted the gradualapproaches and relatively low eleva-tion of San Gorgonio pass and pressedtheir endorsement of a southern route.For topographical reasons the routeeast from Yuma lay in Mexican ter-ritory. Before the end of the year Sec-retary of War Jefferson Davis andMinister to Mexico James Gadsen hadnegotiated the Gadsen Purchase, whichadded 45,000 square miles of desertto the south edge of Arizona.As the expedition moved slowly to-ward Fort Yuma, the young geologistmade an exhaustive study of the greatdesert bowl, traveling by horsebackdown the east and west sides and ex-

ploring to the mouth of the Colorado.He discovered fossils above sea levelat Carrizo creek, prehistoric oystershells a foot in diameter on Yuha plain.He concluded that the basin had atone time been a prolongation of theGulf of California, that the glacial agehad caused the river to deposit a greatamount of silt in the delta, forming anatural dike. Only the mightiest riverfloods broke the dike. He named Newriver from its unexpected appearanceflowing from Volcano lake, at the sum-mit of the dike, northward to Saltonsink.

Four years later Blake had com-pleted his learned and exhaustive "Pre-liminary geological report of a recon-naissance and survey in California"(House Executive Document, 33rdCongress). Its conclusions withstoodthe test of time and experience, estab-lishing a reputation for thoroughnessand soundness which continued to bereflected in dozens of his articles pub-lished in scientific and technical jour-nals.He had the world for his workshop.When he had completed his field workfor Lt. Williamson the government senthim to the gold fields to make scien-tific reports on the Mother Lode.In 1857 he joined Lt. Edward F.

P h o t o C o n t e s t A n n o u n c e m e n tDesert Magazine staff is always seeking exceptional pictures, andin order to obtain them, prizes are offered each month to both amateurand professional photographers who submit the best prints. The pic-tures must be essentially of the desert, but there is a wide range of sub-jects: landscapes, rock formations, wildlife, human interest, mining andprospectors, rock collecting, Indians, waterholes, sunsets and cloud ef-fectsthe field is almost unlimited. Pictures with strong black and whitecontrast are favored b y the judges.Entries for the March contest must b e in the Desert M aga zineoffice. Palm Desert, California, by March 20, and the winning printswill appear in the May issue. Pictures which arrive too late for onemonth's contest are held over for the next month. First prize is $10;second prize $5.00. For non-winning pictures accepted for publication$3.00 each will be paid.

HERE ARE THE RULES1Prints for monthly contests must be black and white, 5x7 or larger, printedon glossy paper.2Each photograph submitted should be fully labeled as to subject, time andplace. Also technical data: camera, shutter speed, hour of day, etc.3PRINTS WILL BE RETURNED WHEN RETURN POSTAGE IS ENCLOSED.4All entries must be in the Desert Magazine office by the 20th of the contestmonth.5Contests are open to both amateur and professional photographers. DesertMagazine requires first publication rights only of prize winning pictures.6Time and place of photograph are immaterial, except that it must be from thedesert Southwest.7Judges will be selected from Desert's editorial staff, and awards will be madeimmediately after the close of the contest each month.

Address All Entries to Photo Editor'Decent Wayajcne PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA

Beale for a survey of a wagon roadacross northern Arizona. This adven-ture involved the famous experimentwith a camel herd imported by Secre-tary Davis. Unlike others in the party,Blake did not report his dislike ofthe evil-smelling ruminants but con-fined his writing to a gleeful descrip-tion of the discovery of ancient Chal-chihiutl (turquoise) mines of the Az-tecs.He completed a survey of the richComstock lode at Virginia City, Ne-vada. In 1861 he accepted a commis-sion as mining engineer for the Japa-nese government. After establishingthe first mining college in the empire,he appeared the next year in Alaska.Ascending the Stickeen river, Blakepursued the studies of the Alaskan wil-derness which he described glowinglyto Secretary of State William H. Sew-ard. President Grant sent the Blake re-port to congress and it swayed thatbody's decision in favor of the pur-chase of "Seward's Folly". That Blake'sname is virtually unknown in connec-tion with United States acquisition ofAlaska is evidence of modesty and un-selfish reticence regarding his personalachievements which continued through-out his entire career. He might havecapitalized heavily on the subsequentworld-wide interest in the golden Yu-kon if he had shown more self-inter-est.

In 1864 Blake was appointed pro-fessor of geology and mining at thenew University of California, wherehe organized the college of mining andagriculture. It was during this three-year period in California that he stud-ied the Yosemite valley and becamethe first to express the belief that itwas wrought by erosional processes.Glaciation played its part, he believed,but the major role was enacted bystreams flowing from the ice. Unfortu-nately, his remarkably accurate analy-sis was revealed only to scientific col-leagues, leaving it to John Muir andothers to popularize the glacial erosiontheory.

In all his writings, the eminent geol-ogist never indulged in extravagantphrases or promoted a cause by per-suasion alone. His lucid style and coldlogic brought him a wide followingamong scientists and students. He hadnone of the flamboyance of contempo-rary journalists. If he was interviewedby the press of his day, biographicaldata has not survived in permanentform.As representative of the Pacificcoast states, Blake was appointed a

U. S. Commissioner to the Paris Ex-position of 1867, later editing the StateDepartment reports of the commission,which appeared in six volumes. He12 T H E D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


13/48

Recovering salt from the dry floor of ancient Lake Cahuilla in 1903 two yearsbefore the Colorado river broke through and inundated this area, forming thepresent Salton Sea.then began a long period of intensiveactivity which revealed to the worldthe West's great mineral resourcesthrough skillfully arranged exhibits atgreat expositions. However, he foundtime in 1871 to act as the scientistmember of an exploration group to theisland of Santo Domingo. Two yearslater he visited the Vienna expositionfor studies which contributed to thesuccess of the Independence Centen-nial exposition of 1876 at Philadel-phia, which he headed for a time asexecutive director.

During his world-wide travels, Blakemade a large collection of mineralspecimens which became the nucleusof the present collection at the Nation-al Museum in Washington, D. C. Healso continued active collaborationwith Smithsonian Institution. In 1878he received the Chevalier of the Legionof Honor decoration from France af-ter winning the Grand Prize at Paris.Not yet content to rest on his laurels,Blake returned to the West wherehis services were in demand as a prac-tical geologist. In 1890 he inventeda new revolving calcining furnace, fol-lowing the precedent set by his mater-nal grandfather, Capt. Jonathan Mix,

inventor of the carriage spring; andhis father, Dr. Willam Blake of NewYork, a leader in development of mod-ern dental technique.In 1906, 53 years after he had heardthe Cahuilla's story on TravertinePoint, Professor Blake, 80 years oldand with hair and flowing beard purewhite, stood again at the same spot.He came back to see the Coloradofoaming through man-made levees tothreaten the existence of the pioneeragricultural empire in the Imperial val-ley. He saw men fight with shovels.He saw the Southern Pacific pourtrainloads of rock into the gaps wherewater rushed to form the Salton sea.Great newspapers around the worldwere covering the story. Quietly, Blakefilled in the background story, reviewedhis old report and amplified it withadditional information which is stillconsidered the basic text on Imperialcounty's geology.From 1895, when he became pro-fessor of geology and mining at theUniversity of Arizona and Director ofthe School of Mines, until his deathin 1910, Professor Blake made hishome in Tucson. His wife and compan-ion of 50 years, the former Charlotte

Haven Lord of South Berwick, Maine,died in 1905, the year he became pro-fessor emeritus and geologist of thestate of Arizona. His six children in-cluded Dr. Joseph A. Blake, prominentNew York physician.During the sunset years of his life,Professor Blake seasoned his early ob-servations with the wisdom of long ex-perience. His bright eyes and genialsmile endeared him to students andassociates. Gatherings at his home inthe evenings became stimulating adven-

tures for his admirers as the profes-sor's clear ruddy face glowed with hisown keen interest in what he was say-ing. One of the few personal descrip-tions of Blake was the memorial by R.W. Raymond, secretary of AIME, whowrote: "He told a fact as though hehad only just discovered it and hadan unusual capacity for delivering anoral abstract with grace, directness,and lucidity."If a biographer of his day couldhave caught the solemn wisdom, thesly humor, and spirit of high adven-

ture of this restless intellectual, Wil-liam P. Blake, what a great story ofpeaceful conquest could have beenleft to us!M A R C H 1 9 5 0 13


14/48

With their jeep pickup, the Weights camped at the base of the chocolate-coloredcliffs near Rock Springs. Black petrified wood is scattered over these slopes andca n be found in place in the Chinle clay behind the massive cliff in the back-ground.Black Wood in Utah'sW hite Canyon ...O n a camping trip into the iuniper-clad sandstone canyon countryof southeastern Utah, Harold Weight found a great area where blackpetrified wood is weathering out of theChinle formations. Here is a storythat will interest not only the rock collectors but also those who liketo explore the little-known areas inthe desert country.

By HAROLD O. WEIGHTPhot ographs by the au t hor -the road wewere on. Maverick Point isthe spot where the road from Blandingto theNatural Bridges and Hite plungesin steep curves from the southern rimof Elk Ridge to the broken wildernessof Grand Gulch plateau. It is a place

IN THEclear air of south-ern Utah, youcan't see a beetle amile away. SoLucile and I knew,as we looked down from MaverickPoint, that the buzzing blue object farbelow must be an automobile climbing14

where the world drops suddenly fromunder you. The panorama is t remen-dous; even in a land of overpoweringvistas it has driven competent writersinto an ecstacy of words.Although there was a haze thatautumn day, we could discern andidentify the sharp-ridged Henry range,the far rounded bulk of Navajo moun-tain and50 miles away against thesouthern skylinethe unreal fingersand minarets of Monument Valley.On all sides to the horizon stretchedthe vast little known and almost unin-

THE DESERT MAGAZINE


15/48

rO HANKSV

habited plateau wonderland of south-eastern Utah.But my attention was soon fixedin the west. Down there, light in coloragainst the reddish plateau mass, wasan intricate filigree of branches andtendrils, looking as if a part of theworld's network of nerves might havebeen laid bare. That was White can-yonour destination. I knew that inreality those delicate traceries weresheer-walled gorges, some of themhundreds of feet deep, cut into thePermian sandstones by millenniumsof erosion. And those shadowed can-yons were the home of the great nat-ural bridges, of ancient picturesquecave dwellingsand of black petrifiedwood.

Sometimes you need only look ata land to feel its fascination, and yousense a strange inexplicable kinshipwith it. Even from our eagle's view-point, I felt the fascination of Whitecanyon. And it wasn't the anticipationof rocks to be hunted out. We hadn'tdriven to this isolated corner of Utahjust to collect petrified wood. Wecame because we wanted to see thefabulous San Juan country. But Ran-dall Henderson's report of the speci-mens to be found in White canyon(Desert, Oct. and Nov., '49) mayhave hastened our coming.The blue car was well up the gradenow, and the road down there lookedvery slender. We decided to wait wherewe were. When it had come aroundthe last curve and past us, I starteddown. It's a good road, even if it doeslook a little like the last big dive onM A R C H 1 9 5 0

a rollercoaster. But we were glad thatwe had been polite. While there areplaces on the grade where two carscould pass without scraping, there arelonger stretches where they couldn't.And in any head-on meet, the carcoming up would have the right-of-way. Not that I can't back up a moun-tain if I have to, but my ideas of funhave changed since high school jalopydays.

The San Juan country is definitelyroad-resistant. From above its plateaususually have a deceptively smooth ap-pearance. But try to cross them di-rectly, even on foot, and you will findthere are more up and down than hori-zontal yards in almost every mile.Erosion has licked out canyon-tongueseverywhere, and with the cliff-formingtendencies of the weathering sand-stones, most of the up and down isvery steep.It adds up to a country beautiful tothe eye but difficult to tame. Much ofit will always remain wilderness be-cause it would not be profitable tothread it with roads. For that we canbe thankful, but we should be no lessthankful for the limited number of ac-cess roads being worked into it. Thosewho cannot afford the expense of packtrips or the time required to makethem, often need the peace of our wil-derness areas even more than thosewho can.Indicating the resistance of the pla-

teaus to road-building, Natural BridgesNational Monument was set aside in1908, but not until 1928 was an ac-ceptable automobile road extended to

it. Par t of our route followed thetrail of Mormon pioneers of 1879-80who founded Bluff. Not even thissavage land could stop these peoplewho brought wagons and supplies onan incredible march from Escalante,cutting their way down through Hole-in-the-Rock, fording the Colorado andconquering the plateau cliffs in a trekunmatched in pioneer history. (Desert,May, '47). At 6.5 miles from Maver-ick Point we passed a wooden signmarking the point where this long-a b a n d o n e d H o le -i n- th e- Ro ck tr ailwinds southerly into the Clay hills.

We reached the place where theNatural Bridges road branches north-ward to the edge of Armstrong can-yon, 9.6 miles from Maverick Point.Until recently, the Monument head-quarters was the end of tourist auto-mobile travel in this area. Then theroad was carried on down White can-yon to the Colorado river oppositeHite, a spot known as Dandy Crossingin the early days. When a ferry was putinto summer operation at the crossing(Desert, February, '47) it becamepossible for adventurous motorists todrive through from Blanding to Capi-tol Reef National Monument and west-ern Utah.

The state has put up a sign wherethe Hite road joins that to NaturalBridges. Mo torists desert veteransand beginnersare not likely to be-come involved in dangerous troublesif they adhere to the advice on thissign. Summed briefly, it advises driv-ing at reasonable speeds; carryingample water, gas and oil; use of low

15


16/48

Above This crumbling outcrop is a huge log of petrified wood in placein the Chinle formation above Rock Springs. Size is indicated by the pros-pector's hammer below. The fossil wood is black.Below Along the trail into White cany on at Soldiers Crossing Lucile founda miniature natural bridge resembling Owachomo bridge opposite the head-quarters in the National Mon ument.gear on grades; low or second gear insandy areas and no stopping in sand;sounding of horns on curves and dug-ways; no parking in washes and stop-ping only on high ground.

We zeroed the speedometer at thissign and headed on west. Travelerswho turn back after visiting Monumentheadquarters will have no real con-ception of the beauty and grandeur

of White canyon. They also will missa new road which has been cut to with-in about a quarter-mile of Katchinabridge. This auto-trail cuts off to theright 3.1 miles west of the road junc-tion. It joins a foot trail, marked bypainted lines on the sandstone, whichleads down a promontory to the spotwhere Katchina arches across Whitecanyon at its junction with Armstrong.Before the new trail was laid out, itwas necessary to hike or ride horse-back three miles to glimpse this mas-sive and beautiful stone bridge,.The scenery became more colorfuland spectacular as we continued west-ward. The road dipped and curvedaround the bases of great reddish cliffs.Ahead we could see a broad valley,spotted with the green of juniper andpinyon. Its north wall was a massivechocolate-red cliff, topped here andthere with picturesque buttes. Its southwall was a n even h igher series ofdouble cliffs. Down the center of thevalley, glimpsed now and then in allits awesome depth and breadth, wasthe twisting inner gorge of White can-yon.For this is a canyon within a canyon,and the story of its creation is an in-teresting one. The history of the worldeven that of its human inhabitantsseems to be a constant building upand tearing down, over and over. Soit was here. After the great layeredplateau had been built and elevated,the process was reversed. Streams ofwater cut down through the buff andred Wingate, through the clays andmarls of the Chinle and the shales ofthe Moencopie. Cliffs formed as sec-tions of the Wingate broke away. TheChinle collapsed into mounds, forminga step. The Moencopie, more resistant,weathered into a series of cliffs andsteep slopes.

By the time the water was cuttingthrough the bottom of the Moencopieformation, it was an old stream in anold valley. It had reduced its owngrade until it was sluggish, and itlooped from side to side in the broadvalley it had worn away. As it cutslowly into the harder and underlyingsandstone of the Permian age, it stillfollowed the broad loops and meandersof its course. Then something hap-pened. Probably the whole plateauwas elevated again. Perhaps it roseslowlyperhaps swiftly. The renewedgrade caused the stream to run fasterand cut deeper. But the course it mustfollow was already cut into the hardsandstone. The rushing waters wereconfined to a winding channel. Theycould widen it, especially at the bends,but straightening it was a long, slowprocess.

Most of the natural bridges of the16 T H E D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


17/48

View across White canyon from Cliff-dweller's niche atChinle formation carrying petrified wood.

Looking down White canyon between Natural Bridgesand Hite. Petrified w ood is found in the Chinle formationbetween the upper and lower cliffs in the left back-ground. Juniper trees are in the foreground.area came into existence as part ofthe straightening program. When greatfloods of abrasive-filled water pouredaround the loops, they naturally gougedmore into the outer banks on eachbend. And where two bends formed anarrow neck, the water in time cut atunnel throug h. Th e stream, taking the

newer, straighter channel, would widenit rapidlybut the capping sandstoneor bridge over the stream would remainuntouched so long as it could carryits own weight.Many visitors do not comprehendthe tremendous destructive power offlood waters in the plateau land.Campers cannot be warned too oftenagainst the danger of camping in thepossible path of a flash flood. Every-one has sense enough to stay out ofwashes during a general storm. Buttoo many fail to realize the connectionbetween the dry, pleasant wash wherethey stop and a black thunder-headsitting atop a mesa or ridge milesaway. Once they have seen a flash floodcome rolling from nowhere, filling thecanyon from wall to wall or plungingfrom what a moment before was adr y cliff, no future reminders areneeded. Those who would like to seewhat grit-filled water can do to sand-stone might pause for a moment at12.6 miles to look at the astonishinglydeep and narrow little channel crossedthere by a short wooden bridge.

Our tentative goal was a spot alongWhite canyon known as Soldiers Cross-ing, which offered easy access to theinner gorge. But we didn't make itM A R C H 1 9 5 0

the first night. Our guide for the tripwas Herbert E. Gregory's The SanJuan Country. Near a watering placehe called Rock Spring, Gregory de-scribed a great 500-foo t high o ut-crop of Chinle formation containingpetrified wood, and we were lookingfor that. The road had not been therewhen Gregory was in the country, butwe figured the approximate mileage.And when Lucile caught sight of a signby the road bearing the legend "Drink-ing Water" and pointing toward themain canyon, we suspected we werenear Rock Spring. The suspicion wasconfirmed when, looking up througha V in the big cliffs to the south, wesaw fluffy mounds banded in pinks,reds, purples, greens, browns and greysthe familiar markings of the Chinle.So we backtracked to a bit of aban-doned road among the junipers nearthe base of the chocolate-colored cliffs,and pulled out to camp. Dusk was clos-ing in, but before setting up camp Iwanted to check to see if any of thepetrified wood had reached the slopeswhere we were halted. W ithin 100yards of camp I found, half buried inthe bank of a small wash, one sizeablepiece which looked greenish on the out-side. The second one was almost bonewhite in outward appearance; the thirdthat I found was black. It looked asif there would be some variety in thisfield. But when I hauled my finds backto camp and chipped the weatheredcoating, the interior of all three piecesproved to be black. It was possible totrace the grain of the wood in mostpieces, which would add attractiveness

to the cut material, and a large per-centage was of a good enough replace-ment to polish.In the morning I decided to attemptto climb the Chinle exposure and seeif the wood was more abundant thereand if there were any other colors. Lu-cile thought she would rather investi-gate the coves at the cliff base. BeforeI finally reached the huge clay outcrop,I had learned that I wasn't much ofa cliff climber. But I found many largepieces in placeand one huge log, atleast six feet in diameter, made thestrenuous exercise worth while. I didn'tfind much variety of replacement, al-though there was some two-tonedbrown material among the more abun-dant black.

But the lack of variety didn't greatlybother me. Petrified wood is my specialfavorite among all the collecting rocks.Palm root and redwood, gorgeouslyjasperized and opalized chips and theplain brown limbs of our southern des-ertsthey all have a place in my affec-tions. I know that some advanced rock-hounds look down their collectingnoses at petrified wood. I believe thecomplaint is that it is too common. ButI know of no other rock so infinite invariety. And each piece is a tokenfrom the past with a history so fantas-tic that it is beyond the power of ourimagination to grasp it fully.With my collecting sack loaded, thetrip back to the car was more difficultthan the climb up. The rocks shiftedmy center of balance and the additionalweight made me slip on the steeperslopes. To shorten the trail, I decided 17


18/48

DRIVE CAREFULLYTH IS ROAD IS SAFE WHEN DRY AND IF DRIVEN ATREASONABLE SPEEDS NOT EXCEEDING 30MILES PER HOUR- CAft RY AMPLE WATER-CH ECK G AS AND OILUSE LOWGE A R ON STEEP GRADESREDUCE TO LOW OR SECOND 6EARBEFORE DRIVING THROUGH SAND

DQiNOT STOP IN SAftDSOUND HORN ON CURVES AND DU6WAYS

D O NOTP A R K IN W A S H E S - S T O P O N LY ON H IG H G R O U N D6 A S , M E A L S . L O D G IN G A V A I L A B L E ATH I T E a H A N K S V I L L E

AboveChunk of White canyon petrified wood. This piece, about 18 inchesin diameter is a mixture of black and brownish black, and shows the grain

clearly.BelowDrivers taking the road to the ferry crossing over the Colorado

river at Hite will do well to heed the advice given on this sign.to follow down directly from the Chinleto the valley floor. And when I foundmyself staring down a vertical 50-footfall over the rim of the Moencopiecliffs, I realized again that it is wisest18

to return by a route that had at leastproven passable.When I finally reached the car, Lu-cile had not been idle. Her wood col-lection proved that plenty can be found

without the climb to the factory. Butthe best piece, she insisted, was stillto be seen. "I dragged it to the edgeof the road," she explained, "becausethat was closer."As we drove on toward SoldiersCrossing, Lucile watched the side ofthe road for markers she had left. Atlast she told me to stop. We climbed thebank. There at the edge of the roadwas by far the best specimen of woodfrom the area that I had seena littleitem about one and a half feet square.I wrapped my arms around it andlifted it tentatively and grunted."You dragged this here?" I asked."Well, you couldn't expect me toleave it behind could you?" she de-manded indignantly. Lucile likes petri-fied wood too. And with her moralencouragement I hoisted the prize intothe pickup and we drove on.Soldiers Crossing, which we reached

at 18.3 miles, was named for the graveof two soldiers. The grave is fencedtoday and has a headstone and foot-stone, but there is no legible letteringon either. From an article by W. W.Dyer, published 46 years ago and de-tailing the story of the first regular ex-pedition to the Natural Bridges, weknow that a sandstone marker therein 1902 carried the facts.The two soldiers, named Worthing-ton and Higginson, were regulars inthe United States army, killed in someforgotten skirmish with the Ute In-dians. They had been buried by F. M.Chandler, March 30, 1885.While I photographed the soldiers'grave, Lucile hiked on down the oldroad into the canyon. Later when Ifollowed she was nowhere to be seen.Wondering how many mountain lionslived in that part of the country andhow hungry they were in September,I started to whistle and call. Finallyher voice came from behind me."Look!" she said. "A miniature Owa-chomo!" She was on the canyon slopeabove the trail, perched on a narrowbridge of sandstone which arched overa little ravine. It was in truth an almostperfect small edition of the great natur-al stone bridge at Monument head-quarters."And that's not all," she said ex-citedly, joining me on the trail. "I'vefound a cliff-dwellers cave, with picto-graphs and grinding stone and manosand arrow drippings." She led me tothe shallow niche in the southwestwall near the canyon bottom. It wasa choice location, I should imagine,protected from the weather by a broad

overhanging ledge and a great gnarledpiny on. There was a mudhole in frontof it which must have held water agood part of the year. Flowers bloomedTHE DESERT M AGAZ I NE


19/48

against the canyon slopesclematis,paintbrush, goldenrod, asters and oth-e r s . And the view was superb.The pictographs were on the backwall, chiefly circle patterns, with red,black and white clays or stains stilleasily discernible. The grinding stonewas near the front of the cave, withthree hollows worn into it. Both it andthe mano on the ground below wereof sandstone. I was surprised that,with harder material in the canyon afew feet away, the vanished dwellershad used such a soft rock. Maybe itwas a case of: "Grandmother EagleFeather used sandstone and what wasgood enough for her is good enougl'for me!" Or maybe they fancied sandas a sort of seasoning for their corn-meal or ground pinyon nuts.

Leaving the cave, we spent sometime hunting rocks in the stream peb-bles of the canyon bottom, finding pet-rified wood, a little jasper and severalpieces of splotched reddish agate whichshould cut. But we kept returning tothe cave and to other shallow nichesin the area which showed signs of an-cient habitation.There are many such places in Whitecanyon and particularly in its uppertributaries. Many are big communityaffairs, with walls and apartments. Pot-tery shards in other places tell of van-ished villages. It is difficult to realizethat long ago the population of the SanJuan country probably was greater

than it is today. The area seems tohave been a center for the Basket-makers and the Cave-dwellers. Then,as throughout so much of our South-west, these people left their homesand went away, or the race died outor it was destroyed by war or disease.No one yet knows what happened.The long shadows from the canyonwalls warned us that we must leave.Reluctantlythere never is enoughtime to do all the exploring we wantwe started to climb the old road to theupper valley. But before we had gone

more than a few steps, Lucile stoppeddecisively and turned for a last lookat the little cave."It must have been a perfect homefor them," she said. "How could theybear to leave it?"Her words brought me into a suddenrealization of our fellowship with thelost people of the plateau. Did somebrownskinned wom an, shouldering thefamily belongings, look back fromthis spot centuries agoand weep?For although we think we are far su-perior to the primitive ones who livedhere, the human heart has changedbut li t t le. A home was a home then,

t o o .

High overhead a silver transportplane winged across the blue of thesky. The sound of its motors echoedbriefly back and forth between the can-yon walls and died away as the planepassed and the sky was empty again.And I realized the great charm of thisWhite canyon country. Time has beenasleep here.The outer world has shaken withwar and revolution. The United Stateshas grown from nothing to giantstature. Pioneers have passed, to thenorth and south, and have altered theface of the West. Man has climbedfrom the mental darkness of theMiddle Ages to the moral darkness ofthe Twentieth century and now isperched precariously between a futurethat promises earthly paradise andone which guarantees self-destruction.And all this has made no more im-'pression on the White canyon countrythan the echoes of that vanished planeagainst the canyon walls. Here it reallywas only yesterday that the Cliff-dwel-lers left their homes and entered theunknown. Here it will scarcely be to-morrow when either the last man van-ishes from the face of the earth ormankind, united, turns toward thelight.Lucile looked up at me. "You knowwhat?" she said. "We've got to comeback here when we've oodles of time.And you know what? Maybe you'llthink I'm foolishbut I'd like to spenda night in that little cave."Y e s , I think we'll go back. We haveall the White canyon petrified woodthat we wantbut I doubt if we willever have enough of White canyon.

ANSW ERS TO DESERT QUIZQuestions are on page 9.

1Shovel.2Navajo.3Rock-climber.4Cottonwood.5New Mexico.6Zion National park.7Coronado Trail .8Near Yuma, Arizona.9Quar tz .10Pottery.11Salt River.12Tamarisk.13Writer.14San Gorgonio.15Notorious outlaw.16Cahuillas .17Wickenburg, Arizona.18Smoke tree.19Papagos .20U tah .

M a r d K o c k S h o r t yof

DeathValley

The thermometer hanging un-der the lean-to porch in front ofInferno store registered 122 de-grees. The new clerk who hadjust arrived from the coast theweek before sauntered out andlooked at the mercury and thenrushed back into the store."Hope I can stand this heat,"he gasped."Aw, this heat won't hurt yuh,"remarked Hard Rock Shorty ashe glanced up from the month-oldnewspaper he was reading."It'll get a lot hotter'n this inAugust.""How high does the tempera-ture really go in Death Valley?""Nobody knows," said Shorty."Got so hot one summer the ther-mometer melted. Last readin' wehad was 140 degrees."That was the summer I near-ly lost my partner, Pisgah Bill.Happened this way. Bill'd goneup the valley to get some mes-quite fence posts fer that chickenyard he wuz buildin'."Comin' home he cut acrossthe dunes. About half way acrosshe thought the sand wuz feelin'kinda funny, and he looked downan' saw the stuff wuz meltin'right under his feet. Soon he wuzwadin' up to his knees in thatmelted sand, and it kept gettin'hotter."Looked pretty bad for Pisgah.He'd lived on the desert so longhe'd never learned to swim. Sohe stopped the burro, unloadedthem logs and lashed 'em togeth-er with the pack ropes an' made'im a raft, big enough fer him an'the burro. Got it finished just intime to keep from drownin'."Him an' that burr o floatedaround out there in that lake o'melted sand fer three days withnuthin' to eat. Then the weatherchanged an' it turned cool an' thesand got hard again. Bill wuzpretty weak, an' if he hadn'tfound a jack-rabbit that'd got itsfeet caught in that solidifyin' sandan' couldn't run, he'd a starvedto death.

M A R C H 1 9 5 0 19


20/48

IRoad

The native willow of the desert is really a catalpa. Itis found only in the arroyos. This photograph takenby George Roy.OLD FLIRT

By ADELAIDE COKERLos Angeles. California(Conversation With A Donkey)Dozing in the sun was a charming fellow,And his happy snoring was deep and mel-low.I gently tweaked his long tan ear,And whispered softly. "Now listen here,Wake up and tell me where you have been,What you have done, and what you haveseen!"He just stood there in his desert stall;I thought he hadn't heard me call.Then he switched his tail, (and this I didsee.)He opened one eye and winked at me !

A WOMAN STILLBy ELIZABETH MOOR E TRACYLong Beach, CaliforniaThe desert wind is a harridan,Shrivelled and brown and old.Her banshee shriek in the dead of nightWould freeze the blood of the bold.She stumbles along in her billowing ragsHer thin hair streaming down,Muttering curses and chanting spellsOn the new-born desert town.The desert wind is a wicked witch,Yet once I saw her passTenderly over a fragile nestCouched in dry desert grass.She hurls the sharp-edged granite sand,Gnashing her teeth in rage;Yet a thistle's fluff is her powder puffAnd she perfumes her breast with sage.

WEST WINDBy MARY BOYD WAGNERNew York, New York

The breeze that drifts in from the East ismild,Scented with blooming orchard trees inspring,Mellow with ripened fruit at harvesting.The wind that sweeps in from the West iswildAs sagebrush, loaded with the zestOf scents so tangy that they almost sting . . .Why is it that I love the West wind best?e GEOGRAPHY

By PAUL WILHE LMThousand Palms, CaliforniaWest of the Pecos hillsThe desert and the sky;East of Jacinto rangeThe windand coyote's cry.

By TANYA SOUTHLove holds a torch to all on earth:To rich and poor, to those of worthOr sinners all. How vast and farIts influence! No soul can barLove from its inmost core, nor fightSuccessfully against its might.All evils can it overcome.Though grim and hard the Path wetread,And doubtful issues wait ahead,Love is the substance and the sum.

By Lois ELDER RO YPalm Desert, CaliforniaI have seen CatalpasLashed by knotted rootsTo boulders strewn;A bulwark formedTo push aside the churning floodsThat crowd the age-old highwaysOf a desert wash.I have seen CatalpasGnarled and twisted bolesLike human forms;Benign old handsOutspread, to gather in the sheenOf purple haze that filters downInto its pulsing heart.I have seen white magicFused in fairy light;Soft, whispered windsShake elfin musicFrom the tinted bells that mergeInto the moonglow radianceOf a desert night.I know, now, that heavenLies beyond the roadAnd clamorous day.This silent realmSun-seared and charred, God calledHis own. I saw Him in the moonglowWhere Catalpas bloomed. NUGGET

By RUBY CLEMEN S SHAFTArlington, CaliforniaDull brown of sand dunes,Bright blue of sky,Gray green of sage brush,Clouds floating by.A little lone hutWide open doorThe hope that sang highIn a nugget of ore.Skillet all rusty,Coffee pot blackSo-long little hut,Don't look for me back. DESERT HEALING

By MURRAY SKINNERLos Angeles, CaliforniaA stranger in a foreign land, one cameTo view the desert with dyspeptic eye.Its brown monotony seemed dull and tame,And ugly underneath a winter sky,With cold harsh winds, and dark cloudsdrifting by.A victim of the city's stormy ways,One sat, alone, breathing the desert air,Wa tching spring's still advance th roughchanging days . . .Thus, gravely grew to think the desert fair,To see the desert's lure and feel its dare.Then, suddenly, like a blast of trumpet note.This desert bloomed in rainbow-hued design,Bringing a swift, heart-choking to the throatAs flowers spread to the far mountain'sline . . .Now city-mind found desert lands divine! DESERT SUNSET

By MYRTLE M. PEPP ERLos Angeles, CaliforniaWhen sunset bathes the gorge in gold,All of the brilliant colors holdMe in a maze of strange delightsFabulous days and mystic nights.

20 T HE D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E


21/48

Her CanvasesAre Windows

Marjorie Tietjens began her art career in Europe.Later she made a new start in New York. Thencircumstances brought her to the New Mexico des-ertand now she has found a fascinating new fieldfor her creative talentin the forms and colors andmoods of the desert landscape. If you see her ather easel along the roadside sometime you'l l knowher by her silver-gray hair, her kindly smile andher British accent.

By THERON MARCOS TRUMBONE DAY, not so long ago, my family and I werespeeding along Highway 80 between Deming andLas Cruces, New Mexico. Warm sunshine flamedon the vermillion sands. Heat waves sent the enchantedbuttes on the distant horizon into a shimmering dance.The desert was at its best, but none of the speeding mo-torists in the cars appreciated the glorious world aboutthem. Each was going at top speed . . . except the car

ahead of us!

Marjorie Tietjens' workshop is the New M exico desert.M A R C H 1 9 5 0 21


22/48

It was a decrepit vehicle of doubtfulvintage and ancestry, with an out-of-state license plate. Impatiently 1 pull-ed up close behind, waiting a chance toslip around.Suddenly the driver of the car aheadlunged at his brake-pedal. The tiresscreached and the car lurched to a stop.Only by lucky maneuvering did I avoida crash.Naturally, I was somewhat dis-gruntled. I pulled to the side of theroad, and got out of my car.Then I saw the apparent reason forthe other driver's abruptness. A womansat beside the road, busily dabbing at acanvas propped on an old easel. Theinquisitive fingers of the desert windruffled strands of silver-gray hair abouther sun-browned face. When she threwus a startled glance, I saw that her softeyes were gray also, and kindly.The man was humble and mostapologetic."I never seed a real, live artist be-fore," he explained to everyone in gen-eral.An artist painting by the roadside isnot such an unusual sight in New Mex-ico. It was only when the lady spokewith a decided English accent that Igrew interested. I'm always curious toknow what it is that brings peoplehalfway around the globe to our par-ticular patch of parched and desolateearth! I glanced hurriedly at her pic-ture . . . stopped short . . . and tobkanother look. Then I really was inter-

ested. Here was no ordinary dabblerin paints. The beautiful desert vistagradually forming on her canvas wasthe work of an accomplished artist!The fairy-tale revelation came laterwhen Louise and I interviewed Mar-jorie Richardson Tietjens in her quaintlittle studio apartment just outside ofLas Cruces. The strange thread of cir-cumstances which brought this English-woman from the snug security of theBritish Isles to the expansive freedomof the desert is truly fantastic."It's all quite interesting," she as-

sured us with an expressive gesture. "Iwas born in New York, and at an earlyage was taken to England. My fatherwas the European representative of anAmerican firm. His work kept himshuttling back and forth across the At-lantic, but I wasn't allowed to visitAmerica until I was grown."My father had a fear that I wouldfall in love with an American and leavehome," she told us with a chuckle."Finally, I found a chance to cross asthe companion to a girl. I quickly gotmy clothes ready, bought my ticket,and then told my father I was going.He was a good sport. He said that Iwas just a chip off the old block, andI did get my trip to New York!"22

In spite of his apprehension, it washis stories that eventually led Marjorieto the colorful desert country. Thefirm her father was connected with wasfinanced from a New Mexican mine.Often, as father and daughter rodethrough the trim English lanes, he en-tertained her with the strange storysurrounding the mine.It seems that an Englishman, in New

Mexico for his health, was out huntingdeer one day in the mountains near Sil-ver City. After wandering far into theforested peaks, he finally shot at abuck, but succeeded only-in woundingit. Determined not to lose it, he begantracking it. The trail left by the wound-ed animal eventually led into a narrowbox canyon. There the Englishmanfound something that made him loseall interest in the buck. It was aseam of ore shining in the sun. Hepicked up a lump of the mineral andhurried back to Silver City. At thetrading post, he threw down the lumpof ore on the table and remarked to thetrader, "There's a whole mountain ofgold where I was today. It's yours ifyou want it. It won't do me any good,because I have no family or friends,and I'll probably be dead within theyear anyway . . ."The trader looked carefully at theore. It wasn't gold, but it was almostpure copper. He grubstaked the Eng-lishman and upon his death came intopossession of the valuable mine. Thiswas the fortune that indirectly support-ed Marjorie's family.When I asked Mrs. Tietjens abouther earliest display of artistic ability,she recalled an incident that happenedwhen she was hardly more than fiveyears old. She and her elder brotherwere given the task of drawing a highlyornamented fish-knife, while the gov-erness left the room. When the gov-erness returned, Marjorie's sketch wasso well drawn that she was accused ofhaving her brother draw it for her."I don't think I'll ever quite forgivethat governess," Marjorie told us, "Iwas furious about it!"At twelve, she entered the RoyalDrawing Society, a sort of educationalexperiment. Children were sent to theSociety whether they showed any ar-tistic promise or not, on the theory thatself-expression would develop their per-sonalities more fully. The instructorswere all excellent artists in their ownrights, and the Society did much to en-courage artists. "Among the famousEnglish artists of today," Mrs. Tietjensinformed us, "I've noticed that manytrace their early training back to theold Royal Drawing Society."At this school, Marjorie quickly be-came a star pupil, and took manyprizes and medals for her work.

The next stage in Marjorie's life wasas romantic as every artist's life shouldbe . She went to Rome to study in theBritish Academy, and there she wasfated to meet Paul Tietjens from St.Louis, Missouri. He was a musician,noted for composing the lilting musicalscore of the original opera, "The Wiz-ard of Oz." They were married, andfor four years their life together wasan idyll of happiness. They followedthe gypsy trails of Europe from Italyto sunny France, from England to gayVienna.

A tiny echo of nostalgia crept intoMarjorie's husky voice as she told usabout those years together. "We didn'thave so much in the way of materialpossessions, but they were the happiestyears of my life!"While Majorie painted, Paul accom-panied her with his inspiring music.In England, where her success camequickly, her pictures were hung in

many important competitive shows.There, too, she gained a nation-widereputation for her lovely flower. ar-rangements, which were lithographedfor popular enjoyment. "When I wentback to England later, I still foundprints of those pictures for sale in thestores . . .," she said.Those were indeed halcyon days.But as in every fairy tale, there must bea witch, working an evil spell. Thedepression came. For Paul and Mar-jorie the gay, carefree life was over.They decided their rainbow might still

be shining across the Atlantic. Atleast conditions seemed better in Amer-ica than in Europe, so they moved toNew York.Marjorie now had to make a newstart. She turned to portraiture, andby steady endeavor soon built up agood connection for her work.And then, when everything was look-ing brighter, Paul became ill. Soonhe was a complete invalid. His illnessstretched into long, long months, andMarjorie was forced to give up herpainting to care for him.Finally, one day, she found herselfalone . . . The rainbow of happinesswasn't in New York at all . . .But after shadow always comes sun-shine. With typical western hospi-tality, Paul's New Mexican cousins in-vited Marjorie to come and recuperatein the desert sunshine. Thus the threadof fate wove its complete pattern.As she drove up the Rio Grandevalley from El Paso to Las Cruces, thelong thoughts of childhood returned toher. These mountains were not strange,but familiar, for they had been waitingfor her all these years. The sunbakedadobe houses warmed her heart. Afterher sojourn in Italy, even the Latintongue sounded sweet to her. There

THE DESERT M AGAZ I NE


23/48

Halftone reproduction of Marjorie Tietjens' "Broomtails Mimbres Rodeo."was a peacefulness here in the land ofthe sun that took the edge from hersorrow and brought back hope.Most artists drift to the northernpart of the state with its pleasant sum-mer climate and its Indian subjects.But Marjorie was thrilled by this des-ert country. Th e long vistas of shim-mering sand and mesquite were wait-ing to be painted . The enchanted tur-quoise outlines of desert mountainswere begging to be included. Soon shehad her paints out and was at it again!

And so Marjorie Tietjens has madeanother start, just as she has startedbefore in Europe and again in NewYork. Truly, talent knows no defeat!Now, wherever she goes, she makesdozens of sketches, sometimes in pen-cil, sometimes in oil-colors. Fromthese she composes her pictures in thestudio. Contrary to modern theoriesconcerning retouching, she works onher canvases until they satisfy her."The whole trick," she says, "is inknowing just where and when to stop.I think I've spent more time studyingthe skies than anything else. Thesedes ert skies are so elusive. In Italy theskies are soft, shading into lilac ormauve at the horizon, but here the

M A R C H 1 9 5 0

brilliant turquoise shades into greenand saffron."She is particularly interested in thelife of the cowboy and his mounts onthe cattle ranches that dot the lowerfoothills of the mountains. I com-mented on the fact that her picturesare not merely beautiful scenes . . . thateach one of them tells some vivid, in-teresting story."People like animals in landscapes,"she explained . "A nd as for me, I justcan 't keep them out. I especially loveto paint horses. I'm planning now onspending some time on a cattle ranchnear Hachita where I want to paint thedifferent stages of the roundup."The reality and movement of hercowboy scenes against desert back-grounds is most gratifying. She alsohas the rare ability to capture the greatdistances of the southw est. He r can-vases are windows through which youreyes can actually travel out across theleagues of sunlit sand.If, someday, you are travelling arain-washed, lonesome trail and sud-denly come upon a lady with silver-gray hair, busily capturing an intrigu-ing scene, don't be astonished if shespeaks to you with England in her

voice. It will be M arjorie Rich ardso nTietjens recording another bit of ourenchanted desert land to thrill somestranger who had passed the samescene with an unseeing eye!

EXPLORING EXPEDITIONIS BEING O RG ANIZED

Charles Larabee and Harry Alesonof Richfield, Utah, are making tenta-tive plans to guide an exploring partyon a 90 to 125-mile trip down an un-surveyed sector of the Escalante riverin southeastern Utah during the sum-mer. Pilot runs were made in 1948 and1949. The 1950 party expects to carrymountaineering equipment to enter andphotograph a number of Indian cliffdwellings that have been inaccessibleto previous explorers. No excavatingwill be done. According to Aleson thejourney will include visits to severallittle-known natural arches and bridgesestimated to exceed 800 feet in height.As the party has not been completedyet Aleson stated that he and his as-sociate will correspond with men qual-ified for a rugged outing who are inter-ested in joining them.23


24/48


25/48

men, assisted b y rela-design. The pigments arethe thumb 3 The sand painting nears completion. It is of intricate pattern ofwhite, blue, reddish brown and black pigments. An error is nevererased, the painter merely sprinkles common sand over the mis-placed color and starts over.Following the completion of the sand paintingthe medicine man with a brush of feathers goesthrough the ritual of cleansing the spot bydispersing any evil spirits which may be lurkingabout.

6 The patient is then seated on the painting. Atintervals she drinks an infusion of herbs andsprinkles her face and limbs from the samevessel. She remains here from 30 minutes to anhour while the singers chant their prayers.


26/48

Continuing cold weather and below-normal winter rainsover most of the desert Southwest make it impossible topromise, this early in the season, anything approachingthe spectacular display of wildflowers with which the aridhills and valleys were blessed last season, but if the raingods smile on the desert country in March and April therecan still be a profusion of colorful blossoms.Conditions over most of Arizona, the Colorado and Mo-jave deserts in California, Nevada and Utah are much thesamecold nights and light winter rainfall. Warm weatherand showers in February could still bring a fair displayof blossoms to the lower levels of the desert. The higheraltitudes generally get more moisture, and will have somelate flowers regardless of rainfall on the desert floor below.Reports from over the Southwest describe local condi-tions as follows:

J O S H U A T R E E N A T I O N A L M O N U M E N T W r i t -ing from Twenty-nine Palms, California, Monument Supt.Frank R. Givens points out it is "extremely difficult" topredict the prospect for spring flowers based on weatherconditions during December and January. Rainfall hasbeen below normal, but Superintenden Givens adds that"we have observed excellent displays of flowers with al-most no rain during the early winter months." He pointsout that precipitation immediately preceding the flower-ing season is far more important. If rains come in Marchor April, there will be an abundance of flowers. And, Giv-ens concludes, "we always have some flowers."

"GRUB'S OX"A true replica of the picturf^ue -Chuck WL B looking today as it ha-, for K^neralions ul on the(he cowhovs crowded around the "Chuck Wa^on" forbeefsteaks and pan bread.This "Chuck Wagon" con*trucl...i, k.l is of the hiirhe^tquality to mcri (he demands of the most di-criminatin B hobbyistAll wood parts are accuratel; machined lo insureeasy assembly and working brake |( art. are fullyformed so that no -.|)iii:il tuoN are reiiuired tn build &truly professional modelFully assembled wheels of seasoned birch, miniaturepots and pans, turned harret and bucket togeth erwith a completely assembled chuck box . I'holo-\ Lsuat recognition of parts make this kit so easy toassemble.Each kit is packaged in a beautifully lithographedhox in Ihree colors, -*ith separate compartments toprotect each part

C A S A G R A N D E N A T I O N A L M O N U M E N T A . T .Bicknell, superintendent, reports from Coolidge, Arizona,that there is no indication of a break in the dry spell andthat the flower display "probably won't be very spectacu-lar." Cactus will bloom normally, but annuals, such as thepoppies at Picacho peak, will not be out in the profusionthat they were last spring. Hedgehog cactus is about allthat will be blooming in late February and early March.L A K E M E A D N A T I O N A L R E C R E A T I O N A L A R -EAFrom Boulder City, Nevada, comes another reportof below-normal rainfall and cold weather, which leadsMaurice Sullivan, park naturalist, to predict there will bevirtually no wildflowers blooming in February. But downnear Davis dam the

195003 desert magazine 1950 march

Documents