196801 desert magazine 1968 january

8/14/2019 196801 Desert Magazine 1968 January

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Desert M a g a z in e ECCK ShopDIRECTORY OF SOUTHERN NEVADA PLACENAMES by Walter Averett. Limited edit ion. 1300entries. Includes obscure names of ghost townsand old mining camps. Hardcover. $5.00.

WATER WITCHING by Earl Shannon. Entertain-ing and instructive, whether or not you acceptwater witching. Paperback. $2.75.

A GUIDE TO WESTERN GHOST TOWNS by Lam-bert Florin. Includes maps and mileages of ghosttowns in 15 western states. Large format, card-board cover, $2.25.

ANZA AND THE NORTHWEST FRONTIER OF NEWSPAIN by Bowman and Heiier. Explodes myththat Anza founded city of San Francisco andother interesting data related to Anza. Goodearly Californiana. Hardcover, $8.75.

NO MORE THAN FIVE IN A BED by SandraDallas. All about early Colorado hotels, somefamous, some infamous. Highly amusing, goodhistory. Hardcover, $5.95.

CALIFORNIA MISSION PAINTINGS by Edwin Dea-kin. Paintings from the 19th century portrayearly missions prior to modern restorations. Finetext gives history of each. Full color reproduc-t ions. $7.50.

CAMPING AND CLIMBING IN BAJA by JohnW. Robinson. Guide to the Sierra San PedroMartir and Sierra Juarez of upper Baja Cali-forn ia . Paper, $2.95.

OLD-TIMERS OF SOUTHEASTERN CALIFORNIA byLester Reed. Recounts episodes of pioneers cov-ering an area from Owens Lake to Anza-Bor-rego and from San Bernardino east to Twenty-nine Palms. Spiral-bound. $5.95.

ARIZONA: GUIDE TO THE GRAND CANYONSTATE. Newly revised and edited by JosephMiller. Past and present covered. Highly recom-mended. 532 pages, i l lustrat ions and maps.$ 7 . 9 5 .

SAN DIEGO BACK COUNTRY 1901 by GordonStuart. Filled with local color and nostalgia forhigh-button shoes and shivarees. 241 pages$ 5 . 0 0 .

HISTORIC SPOTS IN CALIFORNIA Revised byWilliam N. Abeloe. Only complete guide toCali-fornia landmarks with maps, photos and l ivelytext covering both historical and modern eras.639 pages , $10 .00 .

BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND MAIL by Waterman L.Ormsby, a New York newspaperman who wasthe only through passenger on this first west-boun d stage. Western Ame ricana 177 pages$ 4 . 5 0 .

THE LIFE OF THE DESERT by Ann and MyronSutton. Covers desert creatures, perennial waterproblems and how animals and plants survive.231 pages, $4.95.

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK IN BAJA by Erie StanleyGardner. About people and places in enchant-ing Baja California of Mexico. Colored photos,368 pages , $8 .95 .

HANDBOOK OF CRYSTAL AND MINERAL COL-LECTING by William Sanborn. Describes environ-ment typical of collection sites and physicalproperties of minerals and crystals. Paper, 81pages , $2 .00 .

REDIGGING THE WEST for old time bottles byLynn Blumenstein. Photographs of over 700bottles with articles that tell the story and aphotograph of each. $4.25.

WHEN ORDERING BOOKSPLEASE

Add 25 cents PER ORDER(Not Each Book)

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Send check or money order to Desert Maga-zine Book Shop, Palm Desert, California92260. Sorry, but we cannot accept charges

or C.O.D. orders.

ALL OF MEXICO and Guatemala at low cost byNorman Ford. Excellent guide for do-it-yourselftraveler. Paper. $2.00.

THE CENTURY AFTER CORTES by Fernando Beni-tez. Little has been written about post-Conquestdays. This is it. Hardcover. $7.50.

EXPLORING JOSHUA TREE by Roger Mitchell.Excellent guide to Joshua Tree National Monu-ment in Southern California. Paper. $1.00.

PIONEER FORTS OF THE FAR WEST by HerbertHart. Fourth in series, large format, illustratedwith historical photos, good text . $12.95.

THE MINING FRONTIER edited by Marvin Lewis.Collection of rare articles related to old West.Hardcover. $4.95.

1200 BOTTLES PRICED by John C. Tibbitts. Up-dated edition of one of the best of the bottlebooks. $4.50.

A FIELD GUIDE TO WESTERN REPTILES ANDAMPHIBIANS by Robert C. Stebbins. A PetersonField guide. 207 species, 569 illustrations, 185in full color, 192 maps. The best book of thistype. Hardcover. $4.95.

FIRE OVER YUMA by Peter Odens. Historicaltales and anecdotes from the Lower ColoradoRiver area. Paper. $1.00.

NEVADA'S TWENTIETH CENTURY MINING BOOMby Russell Elliott. First detailed work to coverthe promoters and leaders who influenced thestate's second mining boom. 344 pages, $5.95.

CALIFORNIA, A Guide to the Golden State.Edited by Harry Hansen and newly revised, itcontains an encyclopedia of facts from earlydays up to the Space Age. Mile by mile de-scriptions to camping spots and commercial ac-commodations. Maps. Hardcover, $7.95.

DEATH VALLEY BOOKSPublished by the Death Valley '49ers thesefour volumes have been selected by 49ersas outstanding works on the history of DeathValley. All are durable paperback on slickstock.

A NATURALIST'S DEATH VALLEY(Revised edition) by Edmund C. Jaeg er, ScD..__ $1 .50MANLY AND DEATH VALLEY.Symbols of Destiny, by Ardis Ma nly Walker - ..$1.25GOODBYE, DEATH VALLEY!The story of theJayhaw ker Party, by L. Burr Belden $1 .50

CAMELS AND SURVEYORS IN DEATH VALLEYBy Arthur Woo dward $2.00DEATH VALLEY TALESby 10 different au-thors $1.25

THE MYSTERIOUS WEST by Brad Williams aChoral Pepper. Rare book examines legends thacannot be proven true, nor untrue. New evdence presented in many cases which machange the history of the West. Hardcove$5.95 .

ANZA-BORREGO DESERT GUIDE by Horace Pker. Second edition of this well-illustrated adocumented book is enlarged considerably. Toamong guid ebooks, it is equa lly recommendfor research material in an area that was crosseby Anza, Kit Carson, the Mormon Battali'49ers, Railroad Survey parties, Pegleg Smith, tJackass M a i l , Butterfield Stage, and todayadventurous tourists. 139 pages, cardboarcover, $2.95.

ON DESERT TRAILS by Randall Henderson, founder and publisher of Desert Magazine for years. One of the first good writers to revthe beauty of the mysterious desert areas. Henderson's experiences, combined with his comments on the desert of yesterday and todamake this a MUST for those who really wot understand the desert. 375 pages, illustrateHardcover. $5.00.

RARE MAP REPRODUCTIONS from the year 18Series I includes three maps, Arizona, Califorand Nevada. Series II includes New MexiUtah and Colorado. Reproduced on fine papThey show old towns, mines, springs and tranow extinct. Each set of three, $3.75. Be sure state series number with order.

THE NEVADA ADVENTURE, a History by JamHulse. Covers era from prehistoric Indians ranching, atomic testing and tourism of tod306 pages, $7.50.

NEVADA'S TURBULENT YESTERDAYS by Don

baugh. The best book about Nevada's ghotowns and the rugged individuals who bthem. 346 pages, $7.50.

GUIDE TO COINS. Recent U.S. coin priceCanadian, Mexican and foreign coins, medatokens and emergency money. Colonial, Tertorial , and Civil War coins. Hardcover. $3.

THE HOME BOOK OF WESTERN HUMOR edby Phillip Ault. Collection of old and ned andotes about the West. Worthwhile gif t . Hacover. $7.50.

RELACIONES by Zarate Salmeron. Writ ten 17th century Franciscan and is only source oknowledge published for Spanish exploratiinto Arizona and New Mexico from 15381626. 121 pages, $6.00.

NATIVE SHRUBS of Southern California by PetH. Raven. Well illustrated, some in color, winteresting text and descriptions of shrubs. Pap$1.95 .

NAVAJO RUGS, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTUREGilbert S. Maxwell. Concerns the history, legenand descriptions of Navajo rugs. Full cphotos. Paper, $2.00.

OLD CALIFORNIA MINES (1899) by Charles YReprint from early mining industry recoPhotos show different types of mining, main Mother Lode country. Text contains statisand discussions of early problems $2.00.

EXPLORING CALIFORNIA BYWAYS from KCanyon to the Mexican Border by Russ Leadabrand. Maps for each tr ip with photographistorical information, recreational facilicampsites, hiking trails, etc. Paper, 165 pag$1.95 .

2 / Desert Ma gazin e / Janu ary, 1968


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Volume 31 Number 1

JANUARY, 1968 C O N T E N T S

JACK PEPPERPublisher

CHORAL PEPPEREditor

ELTA SHIVELY

Executive Secretary

MARVEL BARRETT

Business

AL MERRYMAN

Staff Artist

JACK DELANEY

Staff Writer

EDITORIAL OFFICES: 74-109 Larrea, Palm Desert,California 9226 0. Area Code 714 3 46-8 144 .Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs notaccompanied by self addressed, stamped and zipcoded envelopes will NOT be returned.

ADVERTISING OFFICES: James March & Asso-ciates Inc., 1709 West 8th Street, Los Angeles,Cal i forn ia 90017, HUbbard 3-056 1 115 NewMontgome-y, San Francisco, California 94105,DOuglas 2-4994. Listed in Standard Rate & Data.

CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT: 74-109 Larrea, PalmDesert , Cclifornia 92260. Area Code 714 346-8 1 4 4 . DEJERT MAGAZINE is published monthly;1 year, $; .00; 2 years, $9.50 ; 3 years, $13 .00.Foreign subscribers add 75 cents for postage.See Subscription Order Form in back of this issue.

DESERT is oublished monthly by Desert Magazine,Palm Desert, Calif. Second Class Postage paid atPalm Desirrt, Calif., and at additional mailingoffices under Act of March 3, 1879. Title regis-tered NO. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office, andcontents copyrighted 1967 by Desert Magazine.Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs cannotbe returned or acknowledged unless full returnpostage i; enclosed. Permission to reproduce con-tents musv be secured from the editor in writing.SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: $5.00 per year in U.S.,Canada and Mexico. $5.75 elsewhere. Allow fiveweeks for change of address. Be sure to sendboth old and new address.

THE COVER

Tucson is the center of history andmystery. Whether you go north to theGila River or south to Nogales andMexico you are living in the presentand the past. Carlos Elmer, ChinaLake, California, captures the spiritof the country in his photograph ofthe Mission San Xavier del Bac, nearTucson.

4 Book Reviews

6 Rags to RichesBy VARDIS FISHER and OPAL HOLMES

9 The Last Word in SpasBy BOB LOEFFELBEIN

10 Junk ArtBy FLORINE LAWLER and JOE BUCK

12 Rock House of BorregoBy WILSON G. TURNER

14 The Lost Missouri MineBy RAY S. CALDWELL

17 The Big Sand PileBy LOUISE PRICE BELL

18 The Land of Gule GuleBy CHORAL PEPPER

22 Head for Pioneer Pass!By JACK PEPPER

25 Death Valley Ghost Town GuideBy RICHARD S. SMITH

28 Tuscon, the New "Old Pueblo"By JAC K DELANEY

32 Desert Driving TipsBy V . LEE OERTLE

34 Tubac, ArizonaBy LAMBERT FLORIN

37 Tom orrow's Ghost CampBy ROGER MITCHELL

38 Back Country Travel

42 DESERT CookeryBy LUCILLE I. CARLESON

43 Letters and Answers

Janua ry, 1968 / Desert Maga zine / 3


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Here's a book with newfactual evidence on the

legends of the West.

This book examines many little-known stories andlegends that have emerged from the western regions of NorthAmerica. Two unsolved mysteries, unearthed in this centuryand detailed in this absorbing book, furnish evidence that theearliest European navigators to set foot on American soil dateback to anc ien t t imes . Old Roman ar t i fac ts bur ied nearTucson, Arizona, and Phoenician hieroglyphics inscribed ona rock uncovered some miles southwest of Albuquerque, NewMexico, raise startling questions about America's past. Arethese genuine arch eological finds or elaborately conceived a ndexecuted hoaxes? These unusual discoveries form but a smallpart of the intriguing history, legend, and folklore that m ake up

THE MYSTERIOUS W E S T.

Included are such phenomena as the discovery of aSpanish galleon in the middle of the desert; the strange cursethat rules over San Miguel Island; the unexplained beheadingof at least 13 victims in the Nahanni Valley; and many otherequal ly bewi lder ing happenings . Elabora te conf idence

schemes and fantastically imagined hoaxes are documented,along with new factual evidence that seems to corroboratewhat were formerly assumed to be tall tales.

T H EMYSTERIOUS WEST.by Brad Williams and

Choral Pepper $5 .9 5

Illustrated with photographs, this fascinating surveyof Western Americana will be welcomed by all readers interested in the folklore and history of the United States.

About the authors:

B R A D W I L L I A M Shas worked for various news-papers ranging in location from Oregon and California, tMexico and India. He has published several mystery noveand nonfict ion works; his books includeFlight 967 an dDue Process.

C H O R A L P E P P E R hails from the mysteriouswest Palm Desert, California. She is the editor of DeseMagazine and she has been a columnist, free-lance writeand author. Her most recent book isZodiac Parties.

Send check or money order to Desert MagazinBook Shop, Palm Desert, California 92260. Add 25


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F r o mThe G o l d R u s h e sand M i n i n g C a m p sof the E a r l y A m e r ic a n W e s t,byVa r d i s F i s h e rand O p a l H o l mBy permission of the publishers, The Caxton Printers, Ltd.

by Vardis Fisher and Opal Laurel Holmes

OSSIBLY in no other areaof human endeavor haveso many huge fortunesbeen possessed (one canhardly say earned) soquickly and easily, often

with no relationship to intelligence,knowledge, and the application of talent;or, having been won largely by luck andchance, lost so quickly, by persons forwhom money was indeed a curse. Fromone point of view the history of theWestern mining camps is a story of thefantastic rise from poverty to wealth, andthe fall from wealth to the most abjectneed.

The story in Leadville of the LittleJonny mine could stand as the perfectinstance of all such tales. A greenhorn,poking around with pick and shovel, andwith only the vaguest notion of whatprospecting meant, asked a geologist,busy near by, where to dig. Annoyed, thegeologist said, perhaps a bit sharply, "Oh,anywhere around here. Under that treeover there." The greenhorn dug underthe tree and found ore that made him amillionaire. Another story is told of aNegro who wandered into one of the

California diggings and asked how hecould find some of that-there gold in thehills. Pranksters sent him to a high hillin which everyone knew there was nogold and would never be any gold; andfor a week they laughed their heads offover their rum and beer as they told thestory, and evoked pictures of a poorblack man up there, digging holes allover the place like a man after water. Butthey didn't laugh when the Negro camedown the hill one afternoon with a smallfortune in flakes and nuggets. His mine

was named Nigger Hill.Mildretta Adams, for whom Idaho's

Silver City is a hobby, says that W. H.Dewey, convinced that there was a richlode in a certain mountain, spent a wholesummer literally crawling on hands andknees all over the mountain, and founda lode that made him a very wealthyman, who built a railroad, and a hotelthat until recent years was a landmark inthe Boise valley. That was more effortthan luck. When Bummer Dan came toAlder Gulch he was not known as Bum-mer; but he was such a lazy parasite thatthe miners soon despised him; and whenthey caught him in a small theft they

hustled him to an unworked area of thegulch below the camp and told him todig. Hours afterward they went to thespot to see if he had obeyed orders, andfound him in a feverish sweat, with golddust and small nuggets all around him.When in 1847 Col. Fremont decided tospeculate in land he gave $3000 to theAmerican consul at Monterey and toldhim to buy a tract near San Jose. Mis-understanding the instructions the consulbought the 45,000-acre Mariposa grant.Fremont was furious, for he thought thetract was worthless, until Kit Carsonfound on it the first quartz vein of Cali-fornia's famous Mother Lode.

A man named Patrick, one of the firstarrivals in Tonopah, Nevada, took achance on $5000 and found that "businesswas so good that the first manager wehired stole $10,000 in the first monthwithout our even suspecting it. Afterthat, it got better." It was also in theTonopah area that Jim Butler came infrom the hills with some pieces of rock,which he showed to T. L. Oddie, an at-torney. Jim said he was broke: if Oddiewould get the rock assayed he would givehim a part of the claim. Oddie was broke

too but remembered that an assayernamed Gayhart was teaching in Austin;so he sent the samples to him and prom-ised him half of his part, if the rockpanned out. Gayhart could hardly believehis senses; the ore ran as high as $575 tothe ton. The good news was rushed toButler but at the moment he was harvest-ing his wild hay and could not be bother-ed. Hearing of the discovery, men rushedall over the country, trying to find thespot. Butler's luck held. In those days aman's word was his bond, or Jim's was:

he granted more than a hundred oralleases to men to mine his claim. Thefirst of them received a check for $574,-958.39 for just one shipment of 48 tons.According to F. C. Lincoln'sMining Dis-tricts and M ining Resource s of N evada,the leasers, as they were called, took fourmillions' worth of ore the first year, with-out drawing up a document of any kind.Butler turned out to be the discoverer ofthe greatest bonanza of its time.

The story of a Swede named Andersonhas been told by various writers. Our ver-sion here is Rickard's. Ignorant, naive,and not very bright, Anderson came toa Klondike camp with $600. After he

was drunk two old prospectors persuadehim to buy Number 29 on EldoradCreek, a hole that they thought was completely worked out. The next morninthe Swede tried to find the two men, fohe wanted his money returned to himbut they were gone; so, unable to thinof anything else to do, he went to No29 and began to dig. He had been tolby other miners that he had the pooreshole on the creek but he kept on diggingand in a day or two he was eighteen feedown. There he struck bedrock and hmust have rubbed hard at his eyes, unabto believe what he saw. "The layer osediment, four inches thick, was morthan half gold." The two who thought tswindle him came along and asked himhow he was doing. "Ay tank ay got golhere," said the Swede, and showed thema pan with $1400 in it. Number 29 oEldorado gave up $1,250,000 but no onknows how much of it the Swede got.

What kinds of men were they whwent from rags to riches? All kinds. Othe Big Four on the Comtsock, two habeen saloon keepers, the other two weordinary miners. Of 28 in Colorado whbecame millionaires, Sprague gives th

background: four had been in real estatone was a school teacher, two were grocers, one was a butcher, three were drugists, two were lawyers, one was a prmoter, one a lumberman, one a latheone an engineer, a milkman, a plumbea handyman, a shopkeeper, a coal dealea cigar store proprietor, a departmestore owner, two roustabouts and twprospectors. Not a broker, banker, or idustrialist in the whole lot of them.

How many of them went from richback to rags? A lot of them, includingfew who were worth millions. Presentehere are some who are among the moimpressive in their ignorance, or in thecombination of ignorance and greeand in combination of ignorance angreed none was more outstanding thaEilley Orrum Bowers. She and her equaly illiterate husband, Lemuel (SandyBowers, took about four million dollaout of their mine (equal to fifteen twenty million today) and squandered all , believing that the mine would nevrun out. Sandy died early at 35, a patheincompetent who had no sense of fortuor any right to it; and Eilley after spening or being bilked of what she had le

6 / Desert Magazine / January, 1968

Rags to Riches


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"suffered dire privations ." For 35 yearsshe fought against poverty believing tothe end that her mine was still a treasureand would pay her more millions. Eilley,who in a few weeks in Europe had spentmore than half a million (in today's dol-lars) and who cultivated the notion thatshe was a seeress and the queen of theComstock, died in a poorhouse, a womantoo stupid and greedy to arouse pity.

Thousands gambled and lost all theyhad. In the summer of 1875 the Com-stock mining stocks plunged $60 millionin a week, and the Bank of Califor-nia was forced to close its doors. Somehave thought that the Big FourMackay,Fair, Flood, and O'Brienout-maneuver-ed their financial rivals and brought onthe collapse. They bought stocks at bar-

in three hours and that an unoffendingstranger that smelt the cork was disabledfor life." Stephen J. Field, one of thefounders of Maryville, California, whomLincoln later appointed to the SupremeCourt, has told us that of his 65 lots inthe new town "Within 90 days I sold$25,000 worth and still had most of mylots left. My frame and zinc houses(shipped up after a trip to San Francis-co) rented for $1000 a month. The emo-luments of my office asalcalde werelarge. At one time I had $14,000 in goldin my safe." A year later he was brokeand in debt.

How did those fare who discoveredthe big bonanzas? It's a sad story. Ofthem all, James Wilson Marshall, whoburst in on Sutter with his hands full of

Tonopah, N evada, in its rags to riches days.

gain prices. William C. Ralston wasfound to owe the bank over four million,and when his resignation was demanded

he went to San Francisco's North Beach,a favorite swimming spot with him, anddied of a stroke or drowned or (somehave thought this most likely) committedsuicide. His death and the closing of thebank forced the closing of the Pacificstock exchange and the financial panic.

Of the fabulous 1200 feet of theGould and Curry, on the Comstock, MarkTwain says: "Curry owned two-thirds ofitand he said that he sold it out for$2500 in cash, and an old plug horse thatate up his market value in barley and hayin 17 days . . . Gould sold out for a pairof second-hand government blankets anda bottle of whiskey that killed nine men

gold, has been given the most sympathy.He seems to have been the complainingself-martyred kind who found it easy tosuccumb to indolence, alcohol, and no-tions of persecution. Bancroft, who knewhim, says he "probably rendered himselfexceedingly obnoxious." His last yearswere spent in bitter complaints and pov-erty and drunkenness. There were thosewho thought he deserved a State pension,and as early as I860 the proposal wasmade in the legislature, but a bill to pro-vide one was killed with amendments. In1870 a statement was sent to the press:"J . W. Marshall, the discoverer of goldin California . . . is old and poor, and sofeeble that he is compelled to work forhis board and clothes." The Pioneers ofSacramento sent him $100. In 1877 a bill

was introduced to give him a ptiisiosi of$200 a month for two years. It was pass-ed. By 1883 he "was still walkingstraight and upright, and apparentlypromising to outlive many a youngerman." As for Sutter, one writer has saidthat when gold was found on his proper-ty he was the second wealthiest man inthe U.S. He lost just about all he had asthe stampedes swept over him, and spenthis last years in Pennsylvania, poor andforgotten.

Old Pancake Comstock, discoverer ofthe big bonanza in Nevada, sold his fewfeet of a fabulous mine for $10,000, ac-cording to Drury; for $11,000, accord-ing to other writers. He then bought afarm, went broke, wandered up to Mon-tana and there "committed suicide orwas murdered." Of those originally inthe claim with him, Finney sold his partfor a song, drank it up, and fell off ahorse and killedhimself. Alvah Gould of

what was to become the famous Gouldand Curry sold his half for $500 andboasted to his friends that he had out-foxed the smart boys in California. Whilehe peddled peanuts in Reno the out-foxedboys took out millions. O'Riley, anotherof the men in a claim with Pancake,managed to get $40,000 for his part, butthen went insane and died penniless. BillFairweather was one of six men who onMay 26, 1863 found the riches in a gullythat they named Alder Gulch, and Billand the five had their choice of claims.

Bill scattered small nuggets as if theywere no more than kernels of wheat, andbought drinks for all the bums thatswarmed around him. He became for awhile a familiar sot in Virginia City.Hearing of strikes in Canada and Alaskahe took off but returned, broke and sick,to die at Robbers' Roost at the age of 39.

There is much pathos in the riches torags stories, but the individuals, nomatter how tragic, seem trivial whencompared to the mass movements andruin, such as speculation in stocks. On

the Comstock in the spring of 1871Crown Point stock, which Jones andHayward had been secretly buying for$2, reached more than a thousand; inanother year it topped $1825, making themine worth on paper 22 millions that ayear and a half earlier had been worth$24,000. W id ow s, waiters, far m er s,clerks, and shopkeepers hastened to buy.The Belcher, close to it, controlled bySharon, jumped from $1.50 to $1525.The Comstock had become the biggestmining bonanza in the history of theworld. One group of mines would climbin paper value from $40,000 to $160million. "It was to establish fortunes and

January, 1968 / Desert Magazine / 7


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G O L D R U S H E S A N D M IN IN G C A M PT H E E A R L Y A M E R IC A N W E S T

Handsomely illustrated with nearly 200 pictures, many of them pub-lished here for the first time, and containing over 250,000 words, thisbook brings you all the remarkable men and women, all the fascinatingingredients, all the violent contrasts that chance brought together in oneof the most enthralling chapters in the history of our country.

It goes to the heart of the matter in a thoroughgoing way, exposingthe legends, penetra ting to the historic facts. Though conceived as abook for the general reader, it is nevertheless a scholarly work and isbased chiefly on primary sources.

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power which are still a notable influencein the world. And eventually it was tobring banks, business houses and specu-lators throughout the Pacific Slope crash-ing down in chaos with a loss of $386million in three months."

Mackay and Fair were deep under-ground, sleuthing around, peering andtouching; and their two partners, Floodand O'Brien, were at the mining ex-

change in San Francisco. They were soonpaying themselves one million dollars amonth in dividends, but when they knewthat the rich ore was reaching its endthey began to unload at boom prices, andignorant speculators begged, borrowedand stole in their frenzy to buy stcok thatwas about to collapse. Said a writer inSan Francisco: "Bankers, retired capital-ists, manufacturers, merchants, shopkeep-e r s , clerks, farmers, mechanics, hod-car-riers, servant men and servant women,clergymen, lawyers, doctors, wives andwidows poured in their orders for pur-chase of bonanza stocks." The excitementspread to European cities. While manipu-

lating stocks for their own selfish ends,the four Irishmen asked Dan DeQuilleof The Enterprise to go into their minesand inspect them for all he was worth.What the beguiled DeQuille found was"the finest chloride ore filled withstreaks and bunches of the richest blacksulphurets" that would assay thousandsof dollars per ton. He estimated thewhole of it, cut his figures in two to beon the safe side, and told the world that

there was $116,748,000 in sight. TheIrishmen then called in Philip Deide-sheimer, a mining expert known to min-ing men everywhere, and after a week inthe mines he told the world that he couldsee a billion and a half dollars in sightin just one mine, and that the Consoli-dated and Virginia alone ought to pay$5000 a share! It is said that he investedevery cent he could beg or borrow, butDeQuille apparently bought none.

In the mid-seventies the Big Four in-creased the C and V's monthly dividendfrom $324,000 to $1,080,000 a month,and at once wild rumors swept the Westthat it would soon be doubled and then

trebled. Stocks climbed steeply as thousands of people mortgaged everythinthey had and bought. Many of them wersoon wealthy,on paper, and as with batedbreath they watched their stocks climthey began to buy every extravagant luxury they could find"servants and gardeners were imported from England, cheffrom Paris, blooded horses direct fromArabia, rugs from the Orient, objects oart from Italy, furnishings from theworld's centers of fine craftsmanshipfood and drink from the world's greatescaterers." They were all millionairesweren't they? On paper for a few monthor a year or two. San Francisco in 187was outstanding in the distribution of itwealth; by 1877 it was bankrupt. Ththousands who owned property in thcity had mortgaged it to buy stocks, anthere was no capital left. In January o1877 the Consolidated and Virginiamost fabulous of all the Comstock minepassed its dividend. The market crashedIt literally plunged downward, and people who had imported chefs and bloodehorses were reduced overnight to begginin the streets. Men who had owned andirected large enterprises, employescores of wage-earners, maintained luxurious homes . . . were begging handouat back doors or lunch counters alonwith those who had been in their emplo

After thousands were reduced to beggary the Big Four wondered why thewere not loved. The San Francisco newpapers were giving them hell. TheMailsaid, "The magnificant Mackay, who indignant at the public want of apprecation of the disinterested course pursueby his firm is kindly looking after Consolidated Virginia for the trifling remuneration of about 90( of every dollait produced . . . " TheChronicle: "Thewhole history of this bonanza deal is history of duplicity, fraud and cunninvenality without precedent or excuse oany kind. They have won the memorabdistinction of having preferred to be mi

lionaires by tricky stock jobbing, whethey might have been millionaires by hoest mining. So they must expect the natual rewardthe hatred and contempt omankind." If the public was in a condition of "financial hysteria" at leathree of the Big Four were laying planfor mansions and social climbing. Banthroughout California and Nevada weto the wall, and thousands were finacially ruined by the cunning manipultions of four Irishmen; but this has beethe way of stock manipulation the wor

over, and the fruits of such stock jobbinhave been known to put at least one main the W hite House.

8 / Desert Maga zine / January, 1968


9/44

T h e L a s t W o rd in S p a sB o b L o e f f e / b e i nZYZXwordfromsign,

isinital l

truly the lastgetting

a l l ! Aalone

awaysmall

besideU . S . Highway 91, states

simply: ZZYZX. Theturn-off road to it appears to lead dir-ectly into nothing more than a hugewhite salt flat stretching halfway to thehorizon. And you won't find Zzyzx ifyou check your map, either. Map makershaven't found the place yet.

But, with faith in the Lord's guidanceand a pair of good Detroit shock absorb-ers, you can get to Zzyzx. After follow-ing this tortuous one-way track aroundand over parts of Soda Lake, the dry saltflat, for 4.4 miles, it opens up out of the

desert like a mirage. The oasis of Zzyzxis the small, developed part ofthe12,000-acre holdings of the Dr. CurtisH. Springer Foundation which spreadsthree miles wide and eight miles inlength through the dry lake bed and sur-rounding area. Geographically, it is about200 miles east of Los Angeles and sevenmiles southwest of Baker. Nestled againstthe mountainside are the buildings of amineral spring and health spa fronted bya small lake amid 1000 palm trees and2500 flowering trees and shrubs.

The work of transforming this pieceof desert into an oasis has been done bythe owners, the Curtis H. Springers, whohave put about $1-million into the non-profit, tax-exempt institution in the last22 years.

Under Spanish rule in California, FortSoda was built in the area and its ruinsand jail can still be seen. Prior tothebuilding of the fort the area had beenan Indian campground, as is attested toby Indian artifacts and picture rocks in

the area. Before the Springers took over,the area was also a mining camp, accord-ing to old-timers. The roadway was calledSoda Road until 1965 when it was re-named at the request of Mr. Springer,who keeps his own roadgrader at the spato maintain the road between the freewayand the springs.

The unusual name, pronouncedZigh-zix, was picked for two reasonsto sig-nify "the last word" in health spas and toassure the last listing in the telephonedirectory. It was made up by taking the

last three letters of the alphabet, reversingthem, and inserting some extra Zs.

Hospitality, health and good fellow-

ship might be listed as the products ofZzyzx. A sign at the entrance illustratesits hospitality. "Come in for free dough-nuts and coffee" it states, adding a foot-note that travelers may try one ofthemineral baths gratis also, if they'd like.

Health is the keyword that providesthe working capital for further develop-ment of the resort. A line of basic foodproducts is blended, packaged andshipped from there, as well as 25 healthbulletins on such diverse topics asTh eSeven Day Cleansing Plan, Growing Old

theme of the Springers, "Your body isthesum total of what you have eaten."

Good fellowship, the third product,starts at 7:30 A.M. when gospel musicsuddenly floats over the springs from

high on the mountain. Then there aremineral baths and mud baths offered at9:00, as well as three swimming poolskept at 72, 85 and 102 degrees respec-tively. Rowing machines, vibrator tables,stationary cycles and what is claimed asthe only President Cal Coolidge ElectricHorse existent contribute to the healthful

Gracefully, Beauty from Within, andothers on ailments like neuritis, rheuma-tism, catarrh, asthma, and diabetes. Thenatural-foods line includes food supple-ments, herb tea, a ten-grain breakfastfood, a pep-cocktail, and strengthenersfor iron, calcium and iodine, as well asappetite discouragers and indigestion re-

lief.These health foods are used at the spa,

of course, and boxes of oranges, apples,grapes, tangerines, apricots, peaches andother fruits in season are kept availableon the sundeck for between-meal snacksfor guests. The cafeteria averages 15 freshfruits and vegetables the year around,most of which are organically grown. Icecream is homemade and other dessertsare made from 100% stone ground wholegrain. Freshly extracted, organicallygrown carrot juice is offered daily at 3 :00P.M., while peppermint-flavored herbtea is available for guests at 8:30 P.M.The sum of these adds up to the favorite

activities. There are also facilities forshuffleboard, badminton, horseshoethrowing or fishing and frog gigging in"Lake" Tuendae. An 18-hole golf courseis in the planning stage. At night thereare movies and lectures to attend.

All this "good life" has a drawback,however. The spa has now, and has had

for some time back, allthe guests itcan accommodateabout 130. This hascome about through radio messages sentall over the country for the Basic FoodProducts.

As we left Zzyzx, we met a car parkedon the road. A pair of puzzled touristslooked doubtfully down the deserteddesert path. They were from South Da-kota, where they had heard radio adver-tising for the resort on their local sta-tion. When we assured them that therereally was a Zzyzx, in spite of the lack ofroad and map mention, they proceededon their way - - one more pioneeringcouple searching intothe unknown!

Janu ary, 1968 / Desert Maga zine / 9


10/44

D e s e r t J u n k A r tby Florine Lawlorphotos by Joe Buck

NE crisp, clear fall morn-ing in Southern Nevadawe, along with our hus-bands and children, start-ed on a most curious Sun-day outing. Dressed for

hiking and equipped with gunny- sacksand shovels, we were off on a search fojunk, or, if you will, trash.

We had selected an obsolete dumpingarea near an abandoned mining community. The road wound through sagebrush, up small hills and into a valleyAs we approached our goal, we saw windows lighted by the rising sun and hopethe empty old houses were not mockinus with a false welcome.

To the casual observer, the only thingvisible at the site we chose was a pile orusted cans and a myriad of broken glasAll in all, it was not an enchanting sighunless you are able to visualize the treasures you may uncover. By carefully examining the debris that covered th

ground, we recovered scraps of unusumetal, colorful bits of glass, bleachepieces of woodall of which we droppeinto gunny-sacks. No doubt many laye


11/44

oi trivia could be found if one excavatedseveral feet.

Our digging unearthed a rusted pick,an antiquated door handle, the curvedleg of a cast iron stove, a primitive axe,numerous small railroad spikes, someearly vintage buttons and several un-broken medicine bottles purpled by longyears in the sun. In one of these bottlesthe small skeleton of a lizard lay intact.

Evidence of family life was found ina toy wagon filled with the remnants ofa doll and broken tea set, but the findof the day was a hand-painted porcelaincup.

Stretching our legs and backs for aspell, we wandered through the weather-beaten houses. Sagging floors creakedand groaned and pack rats squeaked aprotest at our invasion of their privacy.On a porch stood a chair, somewhat pro-tected from the elements. The wood wasbleached grey from sun, yet the delicatelyspindled rungs were still intact. Later,those silvery rungs made a beautiful can-delabrum.

Our day ended as it had begun, withthe sunset lighting the windows of thevacant houses, but the search for treasurewas just the start. The end result may beseen in the accompanying photographs.

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6 FACTORIESTOSERVE YOUWrite today to the factory nearest you for free folder describing the most advanced cam per on (he road.

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XTENT NO. 2879103



12/44

Let's Go To Baja!"

ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME!Are you dreaming of Baja down Mexicoway? Baja California in Old Mexico has mein its spell and I must go back again. Maybeyou have always wanted to see this fascina-ting p eninsula th at time forg ot. If so thennow is your chance. Come with me in4-wheel drive air condit ioned stat ion wagonsfor a wonderful trip. We leave San Diegoarea Jan. 10 and go al l the way down toLa Paz and the cape on a leisurely triplasting 30 days. Or you may take thereturn trip leaving La Paz Feb. 11. I amtaking a limited group so make your reser-vations soon. Write to me for details.

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Phone 253-4346

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T h e R o c k H o u s e M y s ti n A n z a - B o r r e g o

by Wilson G. Turner

SIMPLE notation read-ing "Rock House ruins"on the Gove rnmen tQuadrangle of ClarkLake , N. E., in San Die-go County, excited our

imaginations. Visions of antiquity flood-ed our collective thoughts. However, in-quiries were met with diverse answers.Some told us these ruins were built bythe Santa Rosa Indians; some said therock houses were built by pioneer cattle-men; others indicated there were addi-tional unrecorded rock houses in thecanyon. Faced with this collection ofconflicting answers, we decided to in-stitute a 4-wheel drive exploration ofthe rock house ruins. Luckily, we tossedin some hiking boots. It turned out to beback-pack or horse country.

After camping overnight at the Bor-rego Springs Camp Grounds in the AnzaBorrego State Park, we headed out Palm

Above: Rock house A. Below: Rock housB with the parad oxical fireplace on its

south wall.

12 / Desert Mag azine / Janua ry, 1968


13/44

Canyon Drive early in the morning to-ward the Pegleg Smith Historical Marker.From there we drove east for approxi-mately one-half mile to a dirt road thatheaded north around Coyote Mountainand across Clark Dry Lake. Here the Uni-versity of Maryland has set up a radiotelescope, a fantastic mixture of wires,girders and two-by-fours. Continuing upthe Rock House Jeep Trail, we managedto navigate a half mile beyond Hidden

Springs, but that was it. Rocks and bould-ers of gigantic girth blocked further pro-gress.

From there, we set off on foot, headingup the canyon. It was beautiful and wild.The trail meanders gently for a mile, thenthe shallow canyon turns abruptly to theleft. To the right of it is a high retainingwall, beautifully constructed of river rock.Over 10 feet high and extending for 80feet along the wash, it is so perfect thatit is hard to believe it was constructedby the wiles of nature rather than by man.Large trunks of pinon driftwood havebeen trapped by it, having tumbled fromthe Santa Rosa Mountains six to 10 milesaway and been deposited during storms.

As the walls of thecanyon grew sheer,its floor became steeper and sandier, mak-ing it difficult to walk. After a mile anda half of laborious hiking, the canyonopened to a large flat area. Half a mileahead are a few outcroppings of graniteschists scattered through the wide wash.It was here that we came upon our firstshowing of Indian potsherds. From here,

marked with an x on our map, we walkedeast about 100 yards right into the rockhouses. The remains of the walls of houseA average about two feet high with afloor surface approximately 18' x 24'.The walls are built of sandstone andgranite shist. There appear to be no en-trances cut through the walls at this level.House B is only one or two rocks highand approximately 10 feet square. It hasan opening on the east side. A uniquefeature is a "tail" or wall extending per-pendicular to the west wall. Houses Cand D are similar, but with no apparententrances.

House D is the best preserved of all,but the most enigmatic because, of allthings, it has the remains of a fireplace.To our knowledge, no Indian ever builta fireplace. Three of the walls were aboutfour feet high. The fourth is brokendown to one foot in places. The fireplaceand an entrance are on the south wall.The ground around the entire area iscovered with Indian potsherds. We evenfound a small bead, possibly of Russianorigin and used in trade. Across the areaanother two miles is a seep spring at the

base of the mountains where petroglyphshave been reportedanother indicationthat the ruins represent an early Indianvillage. But why, if such is the case, didthey locate in such a formidable area?The pinon tree, supplier of their staplediet, lies at a considerable and difficultdistance. The idea of rock houses for early

Indian living shelters seems too remotefor authenticity.

After our return home, we learned thatthere are more rock houses near SeepSprings. The next trip into RockhouseCanyon will have to be overnight, inorder to investigate this new and evenmore tantalizing information.

2 miles toHidden Springs

^4k.^ ^ c

Janu ary, 1968 / Desert Magaz ine / 13


14/44

'iCtorville &Son Bernardino

The Lost Missouri Mineby Ray S. Caldwell

O T H I N G will fire a min-

ing prospector closertothe limits of human en-durance than the sightof raw gold in its nativematrix. I know, because

I 've been therealmost withinthe graspof unbelievable riches.And the gold isstill thereon a small knoll, in a smallvalley, high in the Cady Mountains ofthe Central Mojave Desertin California.

I am a prospector and miner. Rightnow I am sinking a prospect shaft on anew silver discoveryin the Calico Moun-tains. From the cabin on my claim, I cansee the Cady Range, the harbor of per-haps the richest cache of native goldever known to man. Why am I not there?Twelve years of almost being there,ofrugged hardships, and of risking myneck almost once too often has causedme to back off for awhile. So I am con-tent to work my silver vein, regroupandtake stock, before again tacklingmygolden dreamThe Lost Missouri Mine.

W h e t h e r I get there or not, I owe itto the few remaining real men of ourtime to tell my story. If someone getsthere firstso what! Maybethe $100per ton ore I am pulling from my silverprospect will be worth $300 a ton bythat time, so I could care less.I want theLost Missouri found! It has become aburning obsession and for 12 years it isthe only thing thathas been on my mind.W h e n it's found, I'll sleep well.

My affair with the Lost Missouri

started in 1956 when I ran across an oldt imer named "Missouri" Williams,aprospector of the old school who was

ekeing out a meager existence froma low-grade placer gold claimin the Panamintmountains of Death Valley. When heinvited me to pitch camp with him, Iwas glad. I thought I'd do a little pros-pecting near where he was finding hisgold colors and maybe locate the sourceof the gold in the vein.

As the days passed, our friendshipgrew. The old man had made a fewgood discoveries.One of th e richest, hesaid, he had lost in a crap game in themining town of Mojave back in 1933.On another evening, whilewe waited forthe spuds to fry, he rambled on as usualabout his early years " . . . and it'll go$350,000 a ton if it will go a nickle,"he said.

"What wi l l go $350,000.00 a ton,"I asked.

He handed me a rock about the sizeof a man's fist. It was as heavy as a hunkof lead and although black, was translu-cent. You didn't need a magnifying glass

to see the large wads and stringer ofyellow metal underits surface. My heartpounded with excitement.

Missouri had made the discovery whenhe was about 15 years old and livingwith an uncle who worked on the rail-road in Yermo. To make some moneyhehad accompanied a visiting artist fromLos Angeles who had come to the desertto paint and needed a guide.

With enough grub to last eight daysand enough water to get them to AftonCanyon, where the Mojave River comesto the surface, Missouriand the artist setoff toward a place among the ridges ofMount Afton where Missourihad been

\

The author on the 200-foot level of hissilver prospect in the Calicos.

with his uncle and considered one ofthe most beautiful partsof the desert.

After about four hours of climbingfrom their first night's camp at thewater hole in Afton Canyon, they cameto a little valley surrounded by highpeaks. It was a beautiful spot with everykind of desert scene drifting sandagainst the slopes of the peaks and hillswith rainbow colors cascadingup toMount Afton which stood tallto thenorth. Missouri hobbled the mules andse t up camp.

After the painter had been sketchingfor several days, Missouri grew tiredofdoing nothing and started to collect pret-ty rocks. He couldn't have been more tha

14 / Desert Magazine / January, 1968


15/44

30 minutes from camp whenhe walkedup a slope littered with shiny black rockslike the specimen he showed me.

Believing the stuff was obsidianApache tears,he gathered up all he couldcarry in his pockets and went backtocamp where he put them in his saddlebags and forgot them untilhe returnedhome and put them in a box in his dresserdrawer. Although in those days therewas a lot of mining activity aroundYer-m o , Missouri himself didn't knowonerock from another untilhe got a job as amucker in one of the Calico silver minesabout four years later. Becausethe mineowners paid a $10 a ton bonus for anyore worth more than $100 a ton thatwas brought to the surface, Missourifinally learned to recognize good orewhen we found it.

This remindedhim of the heavy piecesof obsidian he had picked up as a kid.One day he took a small sample to work

and showed it to the shift foreman.Theforeman said, "If that ain't a hunk ofbrass with obsidian that somebodyhasmelted around it, I'll eat it," and tossedthe sample aside without a secondthought. Missouri then tookit overtothe mine assay office and asked an oldboozer named Charlieif he could iden-tify it.

The next day, when the assayer firedthe furnace and tested it, he was so ex-cited he left his shop and climbed rightdown the ladder to the 200 foot level

where Missouri worked.The assay ran$352,626 to the ton gold and $2500silver numbers Missouri will neverforget!

Still not totally convinced, Missourithen took four thumb-sized piecesto agood San Bernardino assayer. Herethesamples proved so rich in metal theywouldn't crushup when the assayer triedto powder them and the stuff assayedalmost pure gold. Thatwas almost50

Part of Missouri's lost valley in the CadyMountains.

years ago and it was then Missouri turnedprospector.

"And you're still prospecting,"I in-terrupted, "working this pauper placer?"

"But you see, Podner, I could neverfind that damned hill whereI got thestuff," he sighed. "After40 years on andoff looking,I gave up. Maybe it was justmy imaginationor maybeit just ain'tmy lot to be rich."

"Imagination nothing,"I said, "whatdo you call this I have in my hand?"

It was very late that night beforewecurled up in our sleeping bags becausebefore we turned in, I had to convincethe old man he should try againthistime with me as a pardner. With hisequipment, he didn't stand a chance,but with his knowledge of the locationand my knowledgeof geology and equip-ment for modern prospecting,we couldn'tmiss! Here I was, talking to the manwho had actually madethe discoveryand

held a sample of the richest, strangestdamned gold ore I had ever seen. LadyLuck smiled all over the place.

We broke camp earlythe next morn-ing, loaded up my faithful old jeeptruck, and I headed down PanamintVal-ley toward Barstowfor supplies and de-tailed topographic and geological mapsof the Cady mountains area. However,to my surprise, the Cady Mountainshadnever been mapped geologically. Thiswas a handicap of serious proportionsand probably the major reason for oureventual failure.

I wanted, as much as possible, to du-plicate the route Missouriand the painterhad taken, so off we went, out of Bar-stow on the modern highway that leadseast toward Afton Canyon.A dirt roadled from the highway for about six milesdown to the old railroad watering stationcalled Afton Siding.The Mojave Rivertruly comes to the surface there. Afterflowing completely underground fromitssource in the high country nearSan Ber-nardino, it is forced to the surface in thisone spot becauseof the shallow, tiltedbasement rock that protrudes rightupthrough the sandy river bottom.

At the end of the road a dim jeeptrail disappeared into greenish swamp-like waters. I slipped the jeep into fourwheel drive and cautiously proceeded.When we were about half-way across,the wheels started to spin. It wasn't theway we had planned it, but Missouriand I camped that nighton the truck'shood and the top of the cab.

By the following morning the waterhad risen two feet, so we decided to hikeout whilewe could.

F R O M

G O L D A K

R I C H E S !withth e A ll N e wC O M M A N D E R '7 2 0

Treasure Locator !T h e 'C o m m a n d e r ' 7 2 0u n s u r p a s s e dfo r l o c a t i n gb u r i e d t r e a s u r e , c o i n s , C i v iWa r r e l i c s a n dfo r b e a c h -c o m b i n g , fe a t u r e sth e" Te l l - To n e " S i g n a l . L o c a t ea n y m e t a l o b je c t u n d e r d i r ts a n d ,m u d , r o c k , e t c .Noc u m b e r s o m e c o r d sc o m p l e t e l y t r a n s i s t o r i z e d ,b a t t e ry p o w e r e d .

E F F E C T IV E D E P T H R A N G(Under Normal Conditions)

3" . . .

7" .

8-12"

1 8 "

2 4 "

3 0 "

36 " .

4 8 " .

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Bullet

Penny

SilverDollar

Pistol

Jar ofCoins

Kettle

. . . Placer GoldDeposit

Metal Chest

Large MetallicObject

. T H E G O L D A K C O M PA N Y,INC.

1544 West Glenoaks Blvd.,Glendale. California91201

Gentlemen: Please send free literature on Goldaktreasure locators. I enclose $1.00 for my American Treasure

Hunters' Guide (reg. $2.00 value).

Name

Address _

City

State Zip Code

J a n u a r y , 1968 / D e s e r t M a g a z i n e / 15


16/44

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The trek up the canyon with our heavypacks was anything but easy. We campedat a place where a natural tank had heldwater before a landslide had wiped it out.On the next morning, about four hoursfrom the camp, we reached a ridge ofsteep peaks. "Right over those peaks isthe little valley full of small hills," Mis-souri said. "That's where I found thatdamned gold."

After another hour I looked downfrom a saddle near the top of one of thepeaks into Missouri's lost valley. It wasjust as he had described itbowl-shaped,filled with small eroded hills, and com-pletely surrounded with rugged peaks. Ijudged its diameter to be about fourmiles.

We rested, then headed down thesteep rocky slope to the valley floor.Only a preliminary survey could be madethis trip, the detailed search would haveto wait until we could bring the jeep up

with our supplies. The first thing I no-ticed was that all the small hills in thevalley were about the same size, about20-feet tall and hardly any over about100-feet in diameter. Hard rock, mostlyrhyolite, outcropped occasionally, an ex-cellent sign that obsidian might be in thearea. From studying a few rounded floatrocks, I knew we were in the basin of anancient drainage system. Could this be apart of that huge Tertiary river that geo-golists believe once cut through the cen-tral Mojave Desert from Death Valleyto the Gulf of California? If so, thesource of Missouri's gold could be placer.

It was almost dark when we returnedto our truck in the river. Fortunately, thewater was down well below its axles.Mith a bottle of carbon tetrachloride Icarry for such emergencies, I doused thespark plugs, distributor, and wiring. Thestuff does wonders in drying out a waterlogged engine. By anchoring our winchcable to a clump of reeds we freed thecar and headed toward the comforts ofcivilization.

Missouri never made another trip withme, or anyone else. He said he justcouldn't take it anymore. So we made anagreement. If ever I were successful infinding the gold, Missouri would get afair share.

How did Missouri's gold occur? I be-lieve I have the answer. Most geologistsbelieve that at one time, many millionsof years ago, a huge drainage system ex-tended from Death Valley to the Gulfof California. To take a look at the des-ert today it is hard to imagine that it

was once cut with a large, flowing riverwith many tributaries. Geologists pointout that this could be the only possible

explanation for the almost complete re-moval of soil in the vast Mojave Desert.It was simply carried away via the drain-age system during a period of vulcanismand mountain building.

If this is true then the river systemmust have contained placer gold; goldthat was eroded from lode deposits allacross the area that is now the MojaveDesert. If placer gold did occur in thisriver and later volcanic activity coveredit, should it not be possible then forsome of the yellow metal to be entwinedwith extrusive rocks ?

I tested this theory in the laboratory.Rhyolite has exactly the same compositionas obsidian, the only difference beingthat obsidian cooled quickly and formedinto a natural, translucent black glasswhile rhyolite cooled slower and formedinto common extrusive rock. After pul-verizing a hunk of rhyolite from Mis-souri's valley, I melted it in an assay fur-nace. I then pulled the crucible from thefurnace and before the sample had achance to solidify, poured about ahalf-ounce of placer gold dust into the melt.When it had cooled completely I had anice hunk of obsidian. What caused this?The gold had extracted heat from themelt and caused it to cool faster thannormal.

I have theorized that thunderstormsin the Cadys might have washed theloose sand cover away to expose thegold, when Missouri found it as a boy.

After that, winds and rains covered itagain. It's there and it can be found.

Missouri returned to Death Valley andvanished. No one has seen nor heardfrom him for over 10 years. No doubhis tired old bones lie bleaching some-where in the vastness of the great Ameri-can desert. Several years ago, huddledalone around my campfire, I thought ofold Missouri and wrote a verse:

Let it never be said,

That the Sourdough is dead,Only the skeptics have bid him

farewell.Rewards from the mineAre but a matter of time,But the earth weeps from the

sweat of his toil.It's down in the darkWhere a miner makes his markWhere adventure and fortune

are waiting.

Treasures of the deepAre fast asleepW aiting for him to awaken them.

76 / Desert Mag azine / Janu ary, 1968


17/44

The Big Sand Pile Louise Price BellOTORISTS who roll com-

fortably over U.S. High-way 80 when going eitherto or from Californiathrough Yuma, Arizona,have no idea of what the

sandy area west of that city, on the Cali-fornia side, was like back in the early1900s.

Until 1912, this area was a mammothsand-pile with the sand shifting andblowing most of the time. Naturally,this produced a barrier to travel and eventhe intrepid '49er passed up the dangersof attempting to cross it. They were posi-tiveand rightly sothat they would getlost, or perhaps die of thirst. There wereno landmarks by which travelers couldbe guided, so they either went overlandthrough Old Mexico, or by boat downthe Colorado River, then the Gulf ofCalifornia, then up the Pacific Coast.Many a wagon train that attempted tocross the Yuma Sand Hills was lost inthe ever-moving sands.

The first attempt to help motoristsget from one state to the other, and toattract more Easterners to the West coast,occurred in 1912, when some Californiabusiness men got the idea forand builta crude plank road. It was made up of12-inch planks, parallel to each otherand connected by crossboards. Sand oftencovered portions of it, however, so travel-ers had to get out, pull sections of theplank road from under the sand and re-place them in line with the part they wereon. This was bad enough in winter, butwhen temperatures soared over 120 in

would have had to make the same trip!

summer, trouble was unbearable.This story would be difficult to believe

if today's motorists couldn't see remnantsof the old plank road as they zip alongthe beautiful highway which now crossesthe sandy region. Sometimes these por-tions of the plank road are very near thehighway, at other times they are piledhigh on a dune, particularly if there hasbeen a recent wind storm.

When a highway bridge was builtacross the Colorado River in 1915, motortravel became heavier. It was then obviousthat the "plank road ferry" would haveto be replaced with something more sub-stantial. Iron bars had been added to holdthe road in place, but they didn't do thejob. So in 1925 a 20-foot-wide asphalt

concrete highway came into being. This

is the artery over which we drive today.It was far from easy to construct becausetrucks sank into the sand. To avoid this,planks had to be laid crosswise to supportthem so they could truck the concrete tothe construction area.

Careful engineering went into thisroad. It was built on an embankmentover the tops of the dunes where an in-creased velocity of wind over the smoothhighway keeps it reasonably clear most ofthe time. Sometimes the sand which hasdrifted across the road reminds one ofsnow drifts back East. A wise motoristwill slow up for these spots. Besides, ifhe goes too fast he might miss seeingportions of the old plank roada fadingreminder of the way his great-grandfather

The freeway artery has replaced theold plank road that still survives among

the dunes near Yuma,



18/44

Editor of Desert Magazine

ESERT isn't the kind ofcountry you can take orleave alone. You love it,or you hate it; there'sno in-between. I can'tspeak for those who

come to it seeking renewed health, or forcity dwellers escaping smog and fog, orfor those who are attracted by its casualsocial life.

For me, the allure is its natural lack ofclutterits long, clean strips of sandstretching between clumps of greasewood,its undulating sand dunes interspersedwith patches of hard, sun-varnished rock.I like the idea that you never know what's

coming nextwhat history lies hiddenin an isolated miner's shack, what pre-historic tribes pecked mysterious mark-ings in canyon walls. There is somethingblatantly honest about this landscapewhere nature stands out strong and clearlike a person who says what he meansand whose acts are his acts and he goeswith them. Desert flora is like those per-sonsprobably nothing in the world isless hypocritical than a cactus.

I have thought these thoughts on ourAmerican Southwest deserts. Now I

thought them as we drove through thedesert land that skirts the Aegean Sea.Along with other representatives of theSociety of American Travel Writers, I wastouring Turkey as a guest of that coun-try's Ministry of Tourism.

You needn't speak Turkish to under-stand the Turkey desert, but a back-ground in its history adds to the excite-ment. Actually, the Turks were nomadichorsemen, something like our own Na-vajos, and didn't migrate to Turkey fromcentral Asia until the 11th century A.D.Most of the ruins you find there wereleft by predecessors of the TurkstheHittites, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines.

I S T A N B U UEarly 19 th Century

An easy way to identify what is Turkishand what is something else is by decora-tive motifs. It is blasphemous for aMoslem to compete with God by recreat-ing living forms, so those statuary, carv-ings and decorative paintings depictingliving subjects are generally of Greek orRoman origin.

Your arrival in Turkey, if traveling byair, will be in Istanbul, the exotic Con-stantinople of old, the romantic city thatstraddles two continents divided by theBosporus, a short inlet known also as theGolden Horn. No matter where you havebeen in this magnificent world, Istanbulwill not leave you unmoved. Its bubble-topped mosques with slender minaretspiercing the sky; its ancient Roman aque-ducts overhanging city streets; its 20-acrecovered bazaar where merchants hawkjewels fit for a Sultan or, surreptitiously,rare Hittite artifacts; its smart, modernhotels that, somehow, don't destroy theillusionall these contribute to Istanbul'suniqueness.

But what is most paradoxical is thatin describing Istanbul, you find that thephysical aspects of the city itself havemore impact than its people. Paris is

beautiful, but it is the style of the Frenchthat makes it so. Rome is rich with ro-mance, but after you've seen the coliseum,you find yourself fascinated with the vo-latile Italians. In Mexico, it is the cultureof the people that intrigues you. Thissort of thing is not true of Istanbul. Hereit is the muezzin's call to prayer from aminaret; the monotonous beat of theever-present music, so discordant to ourears; the smell of leather and spices, theglimmer of brass through dark doorways,the strange calligraphy on signs and post-ers, the grandeur of slender spires andbulbous domes silhouetted against thesky.

I had always imagined the Turk ascharging through the night with blackeyes flashing and a knife between hiteeth. To my surprise, many of them arblonde and the only knives evident wera pair of stunning jeweled and sheatheones in the bazaar which I purchased tuse for letter openers. So harmoniouslydoes the modern Turk meld into his environment that he could easily be a reincarnate of the population ruled by Emperor Constantine who named the city i330 A.D. Possibly this is because Istanbul is the oldest metropolis in the worland the polyglot of dominant influencethat fused to give it character is morrepresentative of people that any singleera of people is ofitself.

Even in today's relatively desertedareas, this polyglot of influence is evident. Our first approach to the Turkisdesert came after we sailed from Istanbuand passed through the Dardanelles intthe Aegean Sea. Here is where Xerxethe King of Persia, built a bridge of boatover the Hellespont when he marcheagainst Greece. Here, too, along thcoast, lies Troy, the famed site of thOdyssey's Trojan wars which an amateuarcheologist, Schliemann, rescued fromthe realm of legend by digging up thevidence. A little further south, and ovenight by boat from Istanbul, we dockeat glamorous Izmir, the ancient Smyrnwhich dates from the 12th century B.C.

I was excited after we had left the citenvirons by bus and, for the first timI saw a camel caravan laden with burlabags bulging with heaven-knows-whand led by a cameleer who rode, of athings, a burro. We were to see other othese caravans, but modern vehicles fofreighting have almost rendered them extinct. Nevertheless, there is somethintimeless in the sight of them ploddin

18 / Desert Magazine / J anuary, 1968

Land of

Gule Gule


19/44

across thelonely landlikea montageofyesterday superim posed upon a prin t oftoday. I was reminded of Hi Jolly, theArab cameleer who brought camels forthe U.S. Army to our deserts in theSouthwest and whose grave at Quartzsiteis now honored with an Arizona Statemarker. No doubt a similar epitaph willsomeday pay tribute to the last of theAsia Minor cameleers.

Other scenes reminded me of our des-erts at home, and yet in Turkey there isno mistake about where you are. Cottongrows along the Aegean Sea, but theplants are shorter and stalkier than oursand it is women wearing baggy, paisley-printed cotton trousers with their headsand faces protected from the sun bywhite veils who are picking the bolls orcaring for the animals. Every so often Inoticed adobe ovens in the fields, likethe ones used by our Hopi Indians, andI wondered if the Turks make that dis-tinctive kind of bread made by the Hopis.Figs and melons, so beautiful you cantaste of them just by looking, are soldin stalls along the streets of every countryvillage. In the most desolate places anAmerican can eat well if he does his ownshopping and sticks to a healthy diet.

Rice is the staple for Turkish cuisine.They cook it with pine nuts and juicyraisins for a special pilaff. For otherdishes they stuff tomatoes or green pep-pers with it, or roll it with herbs intolittle grape leaf packages and cook it ina pot of lamb broth. Gourmets list onlythree basic cuisines in the worldFrench,Chinese, and Turkish, but nowhere willyou be served more dramatically than inTurk ey, nor at a lower price. W e w ereespecially impressed with the tomatojuice we orderedfresh tomatoes putthrough a blender only moments beforeand seasoned with something wonderfulwe never did identify. Nothing out of acan ever tasted like that!

The show begins, however, whenswordfish, sturgeon or lamb appears on

flaming skewers. These skewers, made ofbrass with a wide choice of decorativehandles, are a tourist treasure. Ratherthan round like the ones sold in ourhardware stores, these are flat and whenyou turn them over, the hunks of meatand vegetables turn with them.

W e envied those we passed travelingleisurely through the Turkish country-side by private auto. It would have beenfun to spend more time in villages wherefriendly Turks sit in street cafes listeningto recordings of their strange music while

they smoke waterpipes and pour tea fromthe spigots of brass samovars.The terrain varies, as it does in our

own Southwest, changing from boulder-strewn, brown hill country spotted withsilvery olive trees to palm oases amidendless stretches of colorless, rocky land.A great river, like our Colorado, irrigatesareas of desert where modern farmingmethods intermingle with oxen-poweredequipment, but whatever skills the Turksmight lack, their native skill in horse-breeding has never diminished. Along-side even the most meagre of grass-roofeddwellings, superb-looking horses graze inthe fields.

Fresh water, of course, is the eternalproblem. In the 14th century an architectwon a Sultan's daughter at Pergamum bydesigning an aqueduct to carry waterfrom a river at the foot of the ancientacropolis up to the city on top of the

Pergamum, once the capitalof the EastRoman provinces, derived its name.

"Social consciousness" has waxed andwaned mightily during Turkey's tempes-tuous history. A dubious kind was dis-played by the illustrious Sultans who em-ployed a servant for public processionsto bobble an extra royal turban up anddown on a cushion to save the sultan thetrouble of acknowledging applause fromhis subjects. Today, of course, all that ispast and Turkey is a progressive westerndemocracy intent upon maintaining goodrelations with the United States and itsEuropean neighbors.

The Greeks and Romans who werethere first set the scene for some unusualethical practices which, in a few places,persist today. At Aesculapium, a famous

DESERT'S wins a new friend in Alanya, a Mediterranean port loaded with at-mosphere, history and friendliness.

mountain. Portions of the aqueduct stilllie among the ruins; and legends of penal-ties imposed upon those persons whodared to throw waste into the water sup-ply make your hair curl.

The air here is dry and the winter sunis warm. I sat on the rocky ledge of acliff to rest. "Over there was a theatre

with 15,000 seats," a guide's voice dron-ed on. "The marble columns on your leftare all that remain of the great library."I expected him next to say . . . "and tothe right is Boot Hilla mute testimonyto the Old West's bawdy ways," as ourghost-town writers and travel commenta-tors are so fond of saying. But my mindpopped back to Turkey when he ex-plained that this ancient city was wherethe Romans invented paper after theEgyptians, jealous of their great library,withheld papyrus, the plant native to the

Nile region which was then used forwritten records. It is from the Romanword for "parchment" that the city of

fifth century B.C. hospital near Perga-mum, speech was restored to mutes, sightto the blind and health given to countlessothers all by methods of suggestion,dreams, sun and water baths, games andherbal treatments. Fortunately for themembers of the medical profession whopracticed there, prospective patients were

thoroughly examined outside of the gatesand were not permitted entrance into thehospital unless it was certain they couldbe cured. Unbeknown to the lucky pa-tients admitted was an ingenious "bug-ging" device that transmitted their voicesthrough concealed ceramic pipes fromtheir living quarters to various listeningstations where the doctors could hearwhat was being said in the privacy of apatient's room.

Another interesting feature of this

sanitarium was its magic water from aspecial well. If a person wanted a mate,he could obtain one by drinking of this



20/44

v.-ater; if he wanted to get rid of one, itwouid take care of that, too. Aesculapiumwas sort of a Reno of the Roman Empireand, as our photo shows, this is still avery popular well!

At Ephesus (Efes on some Americanmaps) we learned of other remarkableways to cure ills and render heart's de-sires. If a person suffering with lungtrouble inhales the dust in the air from ahole in the foundation of a ruin believedto be the tomb of St. John, he will becured. Not having lung trouble, we didn'ttry that one, but we did stick our fingerinto a hole that has been worn entirelythrough a heavy stone slab by hundredsof centuries of fingers. And then, accord-ing to custom, we wished. It is almostguaranteed that the wish will come true,although I was less convinced about thisone than I was about a similar wish-grant-ing phenomenon at St. Sophia in Istanbul.

This most marvellous church of the

Croesus a century later, only to arisegreater and stronger than ever, and stillloyal to Artemis. She met her match,however, wheri St. Paul arrived with theRoman Christians and held a mass book-burning fete in order to destroy the popu-lation's adiction to occult arts, as practicedby the Artemis cult. Final demise fol-lowed sometime after 431 A.D. whenthe splendid Ionic city was moved to ahigher location because of a malaria epi-

demic. Its ruins then served as a rockquarry until a great river nearby jumpedits banks, as the Colorado was so proneto do before all the dams, and createda lost city buried beneath deep layersof silt. It wasn't until 1899 that arche-ologists stumbled upon its ruins. Inter-mittently, excavations still continue.

In my opinion, and in that of most ofthe travel writers who accompanied ourexpedition, this is the greatest archeolo-gical site in the world. At others thereare magnificent single excavations, such

is just as certain to come true as are thewishes you make at St. Sophia andEphesus: Anyone who visits Turkey oncewill return seven times! This recent visitwas my second, so I still have five to go.On the next one I want to spend moretime in a resort town named Antalyawhich lies on the Mediterranean Sea.Near here the oldest shipwreck everfound (in 1959) yielded Bronze agerelics buried under the sea for 33 cen-turies. And, at Sorgun beach not far tothe south, I accidentally unearthed anancient barnacle-encrusted pottery urnwhich had been trapped under the sandin shallow water. Antalya is the ancientcity of Adalia and it is the most romanticof all the towns we visited. Horse-drawncarriages click-clack along its cobble-stonestreets and there are tree-shaded, open-aircoffee houses on almost every block. Off-shore the deep marine blue of the Aegeanmeets the cerulean blue water of the Me-diterranean and it is so clear that from a

Turkish women wear brightly colored,baggy pants and veils around their heads

to labor in the fields.

world dates back to the year 325 whenConstantine the Great raised its first ba-silica; later it passed through conversionsto a Byzantine church and then, lastly,an Ottoman Mosque. In this great build-ing is a marble column known as St.George's Column which has a deep, fin-ger-sized hole in its side. What St. Georgehas to do with it, I do not know, but Iwas assured by a brilliant and beautifulblonde Turkish lady attorney that if I in-serted my finger in this hole and made awish, there was no doubt whatsoever thatit would come true. I'll have to report onthe results of that at a later date.

Ephesus, the ruin with St. John's lungcure, is an archeological marvel with alively past. Here the many-bosomed vir-gin goddess Artemis ruled the earth

and rather well, too, since the city wassacked by the Cimmerians of Asia Minorin the 7th century and again beseiged by

20 / Desert Magazine / Ja nuary, 1968

Aesculapium was a great hospital wherepatients were entered only when it was

certain they co uld be cured.

as amphitheatres, parthenons and tem-ples, but here at Ephesus may be seen anentire city of beautiful wide streets, vend-ers stalls, wine cellars, temples, a gymna-sium, stadium, acropolis, church, magnifi-cent gates, baths and even a graphic signdirecting illiterate patrons to an elaboratebrothel. As we walked along the cities'ancient streets, we could almost hear thechants of venders selling copper ware orpeddling olive oil from huge potteryflasks. It was a beautiful city, culturedand refined. No wonder Alexander theGreat "liberated" it from the Persians in334 B.C.!

I had never before been in a "dead"city that felt so very alive. It is possibleto become satiated with ruins in countryas historically rich as this, but if you

limit yourself to only one archeologicallyimportant site, let it be Ephesus.There is an old saying in Turkey that

Camel caravans are on the way out, but a.jew still carry supplies to isolated villages

cliff high above the surf you can counshells a hundred feet below the surfaceof the water.

Within a comfortable drive to thesouth lies another picturesque villageAlanya. We were quite overcome with

the friendliness of the natives in theseMediterranean ports. A little girl at Alanya guided us among chickens andother animal life roaming the steep, narrow streets up to a stalwart fortress ruinbuilt by the Seljuk-Turks in the 13thcentury. When I attempted to give her acoin for her trouble, she felt she hadn'done enough to earn it and insisted uporelieving me of the burden of my camerand handbag during the remainder oour visit.

In the rugged mountains inland from

Alanya is found a breed of goat with anespecially luxuriant coat. Rugs are woveof this hair and sold by the natives o


21/44

Alanya. They also market handbags madeof Camel skin, but the stitching is ratherpoor and the beautiful, long-haired, well-designed throw rugs are the best buy.

From here we traveled via boat, busand Turkish airline en route to Ankara,the present capital city of Turkey. Be-cause it was inaugurated as such by Ke-mal Ataturk who rescued Turkey fromoriental despotism and reshaped it intoa democracy following World War II, I

was under an impression that Ankarawould be a city of modern buildings withno atmosphere. I couldn't have been moremistaken. A number of its splendid struc-tures are new, of course, but it has one ofthe finest native markets with the bestbargains in copper and brass pots, trays,samovars, and enormous braziers to befound in Turkey. In spite of urban mod-ernization, the citizens living on the hillsand on the outskirts of town cling totheir ancient customs. Babies are carried

the four points of the compass at day-break, at noon, afternoon, evening, aftersunset and, lastly, at night. There wassomething wonderfully thrilling aboutthisexcept at daybreak when he sound-ed more like a murder victim shouting forhelp than a praying priest. But today,high on each minaret hangs a loud speak-er. And down in its bowels is a tape re-corder. Now when "the voice" awakenedme at daybreak shouting, "Prayer is betterthan sleep," I felt like shouting back,"Turn that damned thing off!"

If you want to hear the call to prayerchanted as it should be, you will have togo to the back country where loyalmuez-zin still awaken at daybreak and climbthe steps of their minarets to call to thefaithful. Many a Moslem resents the taperecorder as much as I do.

Aside from metropolitan traffic, high-ways outside of city limits are free oftraffic and easy to travel. A company

would be to purchase an automobile andcamping equipment in wvrthprn Swop*and drive to Turkey, then sell the car toanother tourist through one of the agen-cies that makes a business of such trans-actions. You are free to camp just aboutanywhere on the Turkish countrysideon the clean, empty beaches of the blueAegean Sea, among the isolated remainsof Ionic columns that poke from theground in surprising places, or on the

outskirts of farming communities whereveiled ladies wearing their colorful cos-tumes trudge along the road beside bur-ros laden with bales of cotton.

Or, you can take a luxurious cruisestarting at Istanbul on the S.S. Ankara,like we did, and mix sight-seeing withlolling in the sun by the ship's pool andstuffing yourself like an American turkeywith pinenuts, rice and other exotic foods.This I recommend to travelers on a timebudget.

Peter Celliers of N ew Yorkwishes at the wishing hole ofEphesus, worn through a

stone slab by wishers.

These magic waters will getyou a mate, or get you rid ofone, whichever you desire. A

line forms to the right.

Of all the great archeological sites in Turkey, Ephesus is themost exciting because here has been exca vated one of the

wo rld's earliest cities in its entirety.

in back slings of brightly colored cottonand men and women alike wear the bag-gy Turkish pants. This is not done fortourists, as the Turkish guides are so im-pressed with the beautiful buildings andwide streets in the new parts of the citythat tourists are steered there and oftenmiss the exciting old part of Ankara.

Since my first trip to Istanbul eightyears ago, only a few conspicuous changeshave occurred. There are many moreautos in the city now and the Turkshaven't as yet mastered a plan to handlethem. Crossing a street there may be themost dangerous act of your life.

The other change is one we can ex-pect from progress, disillusioning as itmay be. Five times each 24 hours amuez-zin used to intone the Moslem call to

prayer from a high platform on eachminaret. As he walked slowly around itslittle gallery, his clear voice rang out to

called Kervansaray A.S. has establishedMocamps (transit sites for campers andcars) which are spotless and equippedwith tiled bathrooms, laundry facilitiesand kitchens and located convenient toplaces of interest within a normal day'stravel. Vehicles for rent are available inthe cities of Turkey or you can bringyour own by freighter to any one of anumber of exciting Aegean or Mediter-ranean ports. You can also travel theseas from either the West coast or theEast coast of the United States on mod-ern, fast-moving freighter lines that willdeposit you at Turkish ports like Izmir,for instance, from where you can takesight-seeing buses or private touringcars to points inland, visit importantarcheological sites and interior villages,and then rejoin your ship at anotherport.

A third idea, and an attractive one,

Like our own country, Turkey is anx-ious to share its cultural and scenic vir-tues and is currently subsidizing greatimprovements to accommodate tourism.The Turkish Government Tourism andInformation office at 500 Fifth Avenuein New York City, 10036, can supplyinformation in detail to those readerswho are interested in visiting theircountry.

For our own part, we fully expect tovisit Turkey five more times and, hope-fully, more. The Turks have an expres-sion which, like the Hawaiian's "Aloha,"means both "hello" and "goodbye." Itis Gule, gule. A free-spirited companionon the trip translated it literally as "Golaughing," but I rather imagine its truemeaning is more like, "Go with joy inyour heart." At any rate, that is the wayI went, and that is the way I shall alwaysreturn to wonderful Turkey.

Janua ry, 1968 / Desert Magazine / 21


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H e a dfo r

P I O N E E RP A S S

by Jack Pepper

M Y S T E R I O U S Spanishsmelter, a western fron-tier town, goldand silvermines and the largestJoshua Trees in the westcan be found on the Pio-

ner Pass road from Yucca Valleyto BigBear Lake.

This little known gravel roadin Cali-fornia's San Bernardino County windsfrom a desert floor haunted with weirdgeological formations, up to a plateauto finally zig zag through a pine forestbefore it eventually ends at BaldwinValley and Big Bear.

Although only 25 miles long it tookme from sunrise to sunset to make thedistancenot because the road is sorough, but rather, bec

196801 desert magazine 1968 january

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