197811 desert magazine 1978 november

8/14/2019 197811 Desert Magazine 1978 November

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NOVEMBER, 1978 $1.00

MAGAZINE OF THE SOUTHWEST


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WILLIAM and JOYKNYVETT' -P ublish ers/ EditorsiEORGE BRAGA, ArtDirector: HARLENE KNYVETT, Art Departm entMARY FRANCES STRONG, Field Trip Editor

K. L. BOYNTON, Naturalist11ARVEL BARRETT, C irculation Manager( olor Separations byI l enry Co lor ServiceI ithographed byWo lfer Printing C om pany, Inc.available inMicrofilm by)ero x University Microfilm s

Volume 4 1 , Number 11 NOVEMBER 1978

CONTENTS

TH E COVER:"hox Canyon," near Indio,C; lifornia, anoriginal 30" x2t ' oil painting created forth ! cover by Kathi Hilton, ofT\ entynine Palms, Calif.

F E A T U R E SEXPLORING THE RIO BAVISPE 8 Roger Mitchell

THE PALO VERDE 12 Annis M. Cuppett

VULTURE CITY, ARIZONA 14 James R. Mitchell

THE MONO PASS-BLOODY CANYON TRAIL 16 Betty Shannon

PICTURESQUE CRAFTON 20 Mary Frances Strong

KATHI HILTON 24 Western Art

LAST GOVERNOR OF MEXICAN CALIFORNIA 28 Katherine Sheehey

ANZA-BORRECO VISITOR CENTER UNDERWAY 32 Bill Jennings

SOUTH FORK OF SHEEP CANYON

HITE MARINA HAPPENING

DEATH VALLEY ENCAMPMENT

WHAT'S COOKING ON THE DESERT?

36383941

Dick Bloomquist

Lake Powell Update

Condensed Program

Stella Hughes

A PEEK IN THE PUBLISHER'S POKE 4

NEW BOOKS FOR DESERT READERS 6TRADING POST 42

BOOKS OF THE WEST 44

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 47

CALENDAR OF WESTERN EVENTS 47

M E N T SWilliam Knyvett

Book Reviews

Classified Listings

Mail Order Items

Readers' Comments

Club Activities

EDITORIAL, CIRCULATION AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: 74-425Higiway 111, P. 0. Box 1318,Palm Desert, California 92260. TelephoneAre i Code 714 346-8144. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States and pos-ses; ions; 1 year,$8.00; 2years, $15.00; 3 years. $22.00. All othercountriesadd $2.00 U. S. currency for each year. SeeSubscription Order Form inthis issue. Allow five weeks for change of address andsend both new andDes ert/Nov em ber 1978

old addresses with zip codes. DESERT Magazine is published monthly.Second class postage paid at Palm Desert, California and at additionalmailing offices under Act of March 3, 1879. Contents co pyrighted 1978 byDESERT Magazine andpermission to reproduce any or all contents mustbe secured inwriting. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs will not bereturned unless accompanied byself-addressed, stamped envelope.


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DESERT MAGAZINEP.O. Box 1318Palm Desert, Calif. 92260

O NE OF the great lures of the desertarea is the tales of ledges of mineralwealth being discovered and then" l o s t . " The f inder, after a good assayreport, never could retrace his t ra i l andanother " lost legend" was born.

The Lost Silver Ledge in theTrigos is agreat example because it was found andlost by four dif ferent men. HistorianHarold O. Weight described the elusiveledge 21years ago n theMay, '57 issueof Desert with a rundown of the four un-fortune-ate gen tlemen.

The ledge was supposedly located a"day 's journey" f rom theSilver Clip Mine (see originalmap), thegreatest lead-silverproducer ever worked alongthe Colorado R iver . Oreworth over a mill ion dollarswas recovered between 1883an d 1887. One of the fourmen mentioned in the articlesaid the ledge was " r icherthan theC l i p . "

Now, almost 100 yearsafter the f irst discovery ofsilver in theTrigo Mountainsof Southern Arizona, a f i f thman claims to have found thesilver ledge!

Jim Peaden, of ThousandPalms, California, a long-t ime Desert reader, cameinto the office just beforepress time with pictures anda short letter to back up hisclaim, both of which appearon page 47. The photos showa close-up of the ledge andits discoverers, andattests tot he w i l d l y -b roken coun t r yt ha t has been respons ib le for theelusive "Tr igo t reasure" and its off-againon-again history.

Jim haspromised to keep us informedof any newdevelopments, andhinted hehad another tale up his sleeve.

So, for all rainbow-chasers, this makesthe pulse beat just a litt le faster w i t h ,anticipat ion.

in thepublisher'sykM' ' aprob

^ M S 5 5 / I; v " :&* *


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Angel Arch in Canyonlands National ParkGive


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TtooksforTDesertTraders\// books reviewed are available through theI 'esert Magazine Book Shop. Please add 50cpe r total order for handling and Californiai ;s/'dents must include 6% state sales tax.

I HEATH VA LLE Y |I N '49/{y William Lewis Manly

Despite the mil l ions of words in hun-dreds of volumes, many experts feelthere are only two or three good booksabout Death Valley. Although they maydisagree about the other one or two, just.ibout all of the specialists agree thatWill iam Manly's 1894-published recol-lections of his travail nearly a half-:entury earlier is the best.

In fact, that 's the only sustained ob-jection to this famous volumethat ittook so long for him to write it. Anothermight be that it took so long for this re-print to appear. Actually, this rerun byChalfant Press, Inc., of Bishop, Califor-nia, is the fourth version

Manly's role in the Death Valley tra-gedies of the G old Rush colonists shouldbe well-known to everyone by now, butthis rep rint, in the original type, wil l be abest-seller, we predict.

Ironically, perhaps, one of the otherso-called best books on the Death Valleysaga was written by the founder of Chal-fant Press, the pioneering Owens Valleynewspaperman, Will iam A. Chalfant.His book, "Death Valley, The Facts,"was published in 1930 and, l ike Ma nly'sepic, has been out of print.

Manly's tardiness in sett ing down aneye-witness account of the 1849 argo-nauts' crossing of the Amargosa Riversink is explained by the fact that his bookis in reality his autobiography, writtenwhen he was about 75 years old and per-haps forgetful.

Either forgotten or modestly omittedare many of the almost superhumanfeats of Manly and John Rogers, thesaviors of the Bennett-Arcane party.When that party had eaten most of itsoxen, and thus d estroyed the best escapeequipment it possessed, Manly andRogers set out on foot, across the Pana-mint Mountains southwesterly towardthe known Mexican settlements near the

ISBN 0-87004-257-2306 Pages 6" x 9" Paperbound$5.95

T R A C K I N GD O W NO R E G O N Pi *'Oregon, says author Ralph Friedman, ismore than places and names on the map."I t is people, past and present, history,legend, folklore. . . ." So we invite you to

track along w ith him , in this new book fromCaxton, to encounter the rare and unusualin Orego n, "to locate a waterfall seen onlyby a few, to hu nt out a burial g round soakedwith the juices of history, to discover theamazing Jim Hoskins of Pilot Rock, thetragic Captain Jack, the remains of Fair-f ie ld , the cavalry nam es etched on a desertbluff , the legend of a gunslinger. . ."

The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd.P.O. Box 700Caldwel l , Idaho 83605

old San Gabriel and San Fernandomissions.

They found help at the San Francis-quito Ranch, near the present town ofNewhal l , more than 200 miles away, se-cured horses and food, a l it t le money andstarted back to Death Valley.

Almost as miraculous as their journeyout of the valley to get help was the factthat Manly and Rogers returned at all for the temptation to abandon the litt leparty of seven wagons would have beenvery great for many. But return they did ,after many weeks of travel, coveringmore than 500 miles.

And another miracle occurred. Theyfound the litt le camp and most of itsemaciated inhabitants still alive, and thefinal miracle, they were able to leadthem to safety without further loss ofl i fe.

Manly, modestly perhaps, does nottake the credit for naming the desolatecamping place. Someone in the partydid, but M anly at the end of this m atter-of-fact narrative merely says:

"Just as we were ready to leave andreturn to camp we took off our hats, andthen overlooking the scene of so mucht r ia l , suffering and death spoke thethought uppermost saying: 'GoodbyeDeath Valley! ' then faced away andmade our steps toward camp. Even afterthis in speaking of this long and narrowvalley over which we had crossed into itsnearly central part and on the edge ofwhich the lone camp was made, for somany days, it was called Death Va lley ."

The book is precisely as originallywrit ten and printed, even to the predict-able typographic and spell ing errorsfrom h andset type. The only addition is aforeword by Donald M. Spaulding, cur-rent superintendent of Death Valley Na-t ional Monument. The Chalfant peoplereprinted the book in cooperat ion withthe Death Valley Natural History Asso-ciation.

Spaulding, from the safety of morethan a century of time apart, recalls thatManly's account has long been the sub-ject of some controversy, namely overhis remembrances of the route traveledand the location of the Bennett-Arcanelong camp, but he also stresses thatManly wrote only a personal account.Others, namely the Reverend J. W.Brier, Sr., and his wife, Juliet, wrotetheirs . That none of them agree is under-standable.Paperback, 498 pages, $8.95.

Des e r t / Nove m ber 1978


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i I JT HW E S T E f i N

TH E ' ISC'UTHWESTERNINDIAN DETOURS __B\ D. H. Thomas

The mys tique of the Southwest iscom-po ,ed, inalmost equal parts, of its in-comparable scenery, theromance of itsaboriginal residents, the daring exploitsof theearly white explorers and, morer e e n t l y , the somet imes audac iousac ions of itscontemporary boosters andexoloiters.

Ms. Thomas, amost prol i f ic writer ona i reat var ie ty of southwestern topics,ha resurrected the history of the great-esi regional auto tour firms of them all,Sa ita FeRailway's Fred Harvey-CIark-soi> Southwestern Indian Detours.Thebu es and four-door sedans we ren 't longeni >ugh tocarry that ful l t i t le, which wasnot thecorporate name anyway.

I lur ing theexpansion era of the his-tor ic Atchison, Topeka & Santa FeRail-was' into the southwest during the 1880san enterprising Brit isher, who really wasnamed Fred Harvey, took over stationlunchrooms and later the din ing carops ration forthe new rai lroad. HarveyHouse girls became a part of the lan-gu;ige as well as the or e of the region.Haivey's dining cars made Santa Fe themo tfamous way west.

Particular ly, Harvey had a lot to dowith publicizing the wonders of the l i tt le-kncwn region as wel l as improvingpub l ic fac i l i t i es wherever San ta Fetracks reach, and sometimes beyond.

The Indian Detours represented the"scne t imes beyond ," s t re tch ing thetoui istarea served by he rai lroad manyhundreds of miles, into northern NewMe: ico and Arizona Indian Country, par-ticular ly thePueblo, Navajo andHopienclaves so seldom visited previously.

V hen Santa Fe bui l t through NewMe: ico and Arizona under the aegis ofi ts ubsidiary, the Atlantic &Pacific,ther-3 was little hope of immediate localrevc nue for i ts trains fro m either freigh tor p ssenger sources. The goal was thetrea .ure of thePacific, represented byCalifornia's agricultural and minera lDese t/November 1978

wealth. Passengers mainly wanted to getto Los Angeles or San Francisco. Stop-overs were only those necessarytoservice the trains or 10 to 20-minutemeal stops atsuch unlike ly places as LasVegas orGal lup, New Mexico, or evenless inhabited hamlets l ike Seligman,Ar izona.

But soon itbecame evident the roman-tic attractions of the aboriginal vi l lages,the scenery and the general wild west at-mosphere would br ing asmany touristsas through travelers, ifa way to br ing ac-commodations was found as wel l . EnterMr. Harvey whobecame manager ofSanta Fe's newhotels, eating housesand even thenew resort on theSouthRim of theGrand Canyon.

And, afew decades later, the Harveyhospital i ty extended to auto and bustours beyond the rai ls, supplementingMode l T services around El Tovarandother Santa Fe resorts on the South Rimand elsewhere. The new palatial busesand sedans ordered in the mid-1920swere the forerunners of the many charterand parlor carbus tours of today.

The Harvey organization bythis t imewas headed by Fred's son, Ford,who

brought inanother Brit isher tohead thenew tour operation. Major R. HunterClarkson, late of HisMajesty's RoyalAr t i l l e ry and later the embryo RoyalFlying Corps, became manager of thenew service in1925, after four years ofprior service with Harvey.

Ms. Thomas' interesting history sbacked with personal- interviews amongthe surviving dr ivers and women cour-iers from both related companies, manyof whom had met and marr ied while inDetour service. She also secured theirscrapbooks, most importantly their snap-shots, along with official records fromthe rai lroad and the Harvey-Clarksoncompanies. Gray Line bought the r ightsto thename, Indian Detours, from themajor 's brother, James Clarkson, n1968, and continues the operation today.

Both theHarvey firm and theSantaFe, persist, of course, andreaders ofthis highly informative and histor ical lyimportant book know that the major 's oldoperation wil l never dieeither.

Illustrated with scores of rare photo-graphs, old maps and travel posters, thebook is available for $5.95 paperback,and $8.95 hardcove r, 327 pages.

Whether you see Lake Powell aboard one ofour boats, oryours , you'll never forget this"Grand Canyon with water!' Plan your vacation with us. Houseboat & powerboat re ntals Guided boat to urs Restaurants Accommodations: RV hook-ups & rooms *Fishing guides & charters Backcountry four-wheel guided trips Lake fly-overs Supplies Boat docking, storage, servicingHyH UUWIIIII|f tflUOJV db Vbliy

P l e a se s e n d c o l o r b r o c h u r e and r a t e s on oneor m o r e of he f o l l o w i n g : Wahweap Hite Bullfrog For Bullfr9& HiteLodge &Marina Marina Resort &Marina . ." Y K i ' w n w

l p n m ..,... TIL -r nUtah, 1-800-662-1754. (602)64 5-2433 Telephone- Telephone" From other states P.O. Box 1597-Page AZ 86040 Hanksville UT B4734 Hanksville UT 84734 1 800-453170D. _I Name

IName _Address.City . S t a t e . - Z i p . IP h o n e _ _ . DM


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byROGERMITCHELL

Above:Fording theRio Bavispe.Oppositepage: RioBavispecountry.Left: The oldchurch at SanMiguelito iswellmaintained.8

T HE RIO BAVISPE has its headwatershigh in the mountains which form theContinental Divide separat ing theMexican states of Sonora and Chihua-hua. As tributaries cause it to grow, itf lows northw ard, a thin thread of l i fe inan otherwise arid land. About 35 milesshort of the border, the river makes anabrupt hairpin turn and starts southagain. For the last 40 years the wa ter haslingered awhile behind Angostura Dam,a pre-war project built under the super-vision of engineers from Hit ler 's ThirdReich. Eventually the river continues itsf low southwa rd, often irr iga t ing f ields asold as the first padres. Finally the RioBavispe loses its name where it joins theRio Areo s. From here on the two streamsare known as the Rio Yaqui as theycontinue south to empty into the largeNovillo Reservoir.

From where the Rio Bavispe starts, atan elevation of 7000 feet in the moun-tains of Chihuahua, it is a journey of

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ne lrly 500 miles to its fina l destination inthi Gulf of Ca lifornia near Guaymas. Tothi- Mexican campesino, the river meansthat he can irrigate his fields and raiseliv ;stock, to eke out a livin g fro m theha> sh th or ny land. The water also makesthi difference between life and no life fora vide variety of wi ldli fe all along itscourse. For the readers of Desert, th eRi


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long heads into a range of h ills kno wn asthe Sierra Cenizia. Here and there a fews Jttered live oaks offer the travele r a bitol shade for a roadside lunch break or amidday siesta. "Puerto de las Cenizas,"a gentle pass of about 5000 feet, iscrossed and the road turns in a moresoutherly direct ion. As you look downthe vast v alley , the route is obvious athin brown line of a road stretches end-lessly in the distance.

About 25 miles from Agua Prieta,there is a sudden change in the desertsi enery as you approach a large sandywash l ined with huge oak and cotton-wood trees. Ho pefully there wil l be just alit t le tr ickle of water in the wash as there

persons of the Mormon fa i th . Many Mor-mons responded by moving to NorthernMexico where they were welcomed andassured by Porfiro Diaz, the Mexicanpresident, that they could freely practicetheir religious beliefs, including poly-gamy. The f irst Mormon colonies wereestablished in Chihuahua, but by the fallof 1892 negotiations were completed forthe purchase of 200 square miles of landalong the Rio Bavispe in neighboringSonora. On February 15, 1893, a groupof 100 Mormons from Chihuahua packedtheir belongings in 14 wagons and blaz-ed the wagon road over Pulpito Pass intothe Rio Bavispe Valley. Their journey of80 miles took a month to complete.

The "new" church in Huachineria is only a century or two old.usually is. This is the Rio Batepito, astream that has its origins back in Ari-zona. The road fords the stream andmore or less follows the water coursedownstream 13 miles to the small farm-ing village of Colonia Morelos where theRio Batepito flows into the Rio Bavispe.

Colonia Morelos doesn't look likemuch today, but it f ills an interestingniche in the history of Sonora. It wasfounded by American expatriates in 1900and for 11 short years English was thepredominant language heard in thestreets of Colonia Morelos.

In 1882, the United States Congresspassed a law against plural marriages,which was legislation clearly aimed at10

Their f irst permanent encampment ona terrace high above the river was aban-doned after six months as it was too di f f i -cult to pump water to it. On ChristmasDay, 1893, they established a new town-site, to be named Colonia Oaxaca. Thepresident of Mexico had suggested thatname, as Oaxaca was the state whereMexico's greatest heroes were born Benito Juarez and of course, PorfiroDiaz! The colony grew and prosperedunder the Sonora sun. By 1905 some 650expatriated Americans were l iving there.But then, in November of 1905, naturedealt Colonia Oaxaca a blow from whichthe community never recovered. Earlysnows in the Sierra Madre Occidental

were melted suddenly with a warm spelland the Rio Bavispe flooded its banks.Trees and other debris became jammedin the narrows below the town creating adam which backed water up 40 feet intothe town. Although no l ives were lost,most of the buildings were destroyed.

Rather than rebuilding Colonia Oaxa-ca , 80 percent of the inhabitants moved25 miles downstream to rebuild in thenewest Mormon co lony o f Co lon iaMorelos. Colonia Moreios grew andprospered as Colonia Oaxaca did untilMay 1911 when the regime of PorfiroDiaz was overthrown by revolut ion. Thepolitical climate in Mexico changed forthe worse and the Mormons were nolonger looked upon as welcome guests.They were harassed and threatened byroaming bands of bandits, revolut ion-aries, and government troops. By 1912the situat ion had deteriorated to thepoint where most of the Mormons had toabandon their farms and flee northacross the border. The political situationdid not stabilize until 1920 and by thatt ime few Mormons were interested in re-turning to the Rio Bavispe.

As you look around Colonia Morelostoday, you cannot help but notice one re-maining feature of the Mormon legacythe architecture. Many of the buildingsare substantial structures made of redbrick with high, steeply-pitched roofs.These are very much dif ferent from thelow, drab, flat-topped adobe housesusually seen in this region. Even thoughthe belfrey is now gone, the old church-school house is s t i l l an imposingstructure.

The main road swings to the east here,circles a large hi l l , and then parallels theRio Bavispe on its way southward. Thereare scattered ranches along the river aswe ll as places whe re you can pull off andswim or camp. Colonia Oaxaca is 32miles beyond Colonia Morelos. Whilemost of the village was destroyed in the1905 flood, one building survived. It isthe red brick house with three high-pitched roofs and English-style chim-neys. It is on the left where the roadmakes a sudden jog to the left, thenright. At the jog to the r ig ht, a side roadgoes left past a corral. This is the roadgoing over historic Pulpito Pass. If youhave a four-wheel-drive vehicle, you cantake this road across the mountains intoChihuahua. From here it is 75 miles tothe nearest paved road at Janos.

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Just upstream from Colonia Oaxaca,tracks to the r ight go out to the r iverwhere there is plenty of room to camp.I romhere the road leaves the r iver for( luite awhile as t winds itsway through aseries of hil ls. At apoint 15 miles beyond()axaca, theroad, now n thebottom of anarrow gorge, passes some faint petro-I lyphs pecked into the rocks on the r ightside of th e road. W ere these made by the( ipata Indians who l ived in this area inrecent centuries? Or were they left byn u c h e a r l i e r man l ong be fo re theSpanish conquest? They appear to beciuite old.

A t a point 25 miles from ColoniaOaxaca a major crossroads is reached.1 he left fork goes across Carretas Passinto Chihuahua. Theroad is rough , butnot as diff ic ult as Pulpito Pass. From thisintersection it is 80 miles to Janos.

The road straight ahead soon fords ther iver and enters B avispe. The ork to ther ght also fords the r iver and, l ikewise,goes to Bavispe via the vil lage of SanMigu el i to . Remote as t is,San Miguelitoh is been around for some time. It wash >re wh en Rhode Island andMassachu-si tts were sti l l English colonies andplaces like Chicago and Los Angeleswere st i l l in thewilderness. Thechurchin San Miguelito, while being well main-ta ined, haswalls that could goback intothe 1600s.The town of Bavispe is 3.3miles north01 SanMige l i to and it dates back to thee; rliest settlemen ts in Sonora. FatherMancos, a Franciscan missionary, wasthrough as early as 1610 and there wasan Indian pueblo here then. Thevil lagew is sti l l there in 1645 when FatherG ircia came throu gh. Missionaries re-t i r ned aga in in 1646 and 1649 aridst lyed in 1653, when Father Flores tookup his residence in the valley. Thingsw re quiet and peaceful along the RioBavispe for a century or so, but theA laches became more and more of ase'-ious problem in the last half of the1th century. In 1781 Bavispe wasfo t i f ie d and selected as hesite of a mil i -ta y presid io . Most of the troops gar-risoned here were local Opata Indians.The Opatas had accepted Christianityand were loya l to the c r o w n . In18 >.O, however, theOpatas revolted dueto un just t reatment by the paymaster,an i about 500 of them went on a ram-page. They raised considerable havoc innO'theast Sonora until several thousandOe ert/November 1978

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T k P A I OT I H E T R E ET h i N k sI T ' S A L E A f !

Text byANNISM.C UPPETT

ILOW-LYING areas of the AmericanS ou t hwes t , sh rub - l i ke t r ees w i t hspreading branches soften the starklybeautiful but uncompromising desertlandscape. Painted in vibrant greenhues, with overtones of blue or yellowlike a Gauguin canvas, these often-ignor-ed trees exist in dist inct, yet harmonious,contrast to the relative drabness of thesurrounding chapparal.

The tree, of course, is the palo verdeand the remarkable circumstance of itsbeing may be seen in the trunk andbrancheswhich have the same life-sustaining characteristics of a leaf! Tofully appreciate the drama of this state-ment, it may be necessary to considerthe miraculous process of photosynthe-s i s . A quick review of this system ofplant life brings us to the realization thatthe green tint of these generally leaflessdesert dwellers is chlorophyllthe samesubstance that dyes leaves green on any12

living tree. In the plant world, water lossusually occurs through evaporation fromthe leaf surfaces but the palo ve rde,located as it is in the dry, sandy soil,cannot afford a single additional evapor-atory area. It is for this unique purposeof water conservation that the necessarychlorophyll is stored in the tree's trunkand stems, and utilized as needed in themanufacturing of food for the plant.

The words, palo verde, mean "greenstick" in Spanish and provide an espec-ially suitable name for three siblings ofthe legume (pea) family. Palo verdeleaves are tiny and will drop following afrost or during dry spells, leaving thestems bare for the greater part of theyear. Cultivated palo verde, on the other,hand, watered often and thoroughly,usually hold their leaves for manymonths.

I t would be enlightening if we couldfind representatives of each group livingtogether in close harmony but this is dif-ficult, if not impossible, even under culti-vat ion. Perhaps the following detaileddescriptions will help make the differ-encesand sim ilarities more ob vious.

Cercidium floridum, or blue paloverde, has the greatest range in Califor-nia and Arizona and is the one mostoften associated with the name, paloverde. Its range begins around Arizona'sGila River and continues into the Sonor-an Desert of California and on intoMexico and Baja California. The use offloridum in the Latin name refers to theplant 's abundant spring bloom which ismade up of clusters of bright yellowflowers with orange-t ipped stamens.Most often found in the valleys and drywashes of the lower desert, this tree maybe dist inguished from other variet ies byits green to bluish-green hue and in thespr ing, by the two or three pair of tinyleaflets which edge a short rachis orleaf-holding stem. Seed pods follow theflowers and the seeds of this tree arerather loosely contained within the pods.The blue palo verdethe state tree ofArizonaseldom grows taller than 20feet.

The yellow palo verde, or Cercidiummicrophyllum, is similar in its naturalhabitat to the blue variety but will befound in the foothills rather than on the

D e s e r t / N o v e m b e r 1 97 8


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v.illey floor. It grows in Arizona's Sonor-a. Desert, south into Me xico and westir to the area around Needles, California.t^ticrophyllum is the name chosen tohnnor the small leaves arranged in pairsal )ng a rachis w hich averages ab outeight inches in length no ticeably longerthan that found in the blue. The planthiis a distinctly yellow cast to the barkand in the spring will explode into ablooming mass of yellow flowers, eachm ?asuring about one inch in width. Thein dividual blossoms are hi ghlig hted bya i>ale yellow or cream " f l a g . " In addi-t ion, the tree's pods will be short andtij htly constricted between the three orfour beans usually found inside.

Reaching 15 feet or more in height,th wood of the yellow palo verde ism ich softer than that of the blue. Be-cause this makes it easier to cure, woodfrom this particular tree is often used forf i r wood.

Several names have been given toParkinsonia aculeata, or Mexican palove'de, and two of these are Jerusalemthorn and horse bean. Aculeata is a wordus id for a sharp-pointed object and ac-D e i e r t / N o v e m b e r 1 97 8

curately describes the spines


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V u l t u r e C i t y ,by JAMES R.MITC HELL A r i z o n a

T HE TOWN of Vulture City, locatedapproximately 14 miles south ofWickenburg, Ar izona, is very wel lpreserved if you take into account the/oars it has been sitting idle in thisdesert area. It has remained in suchgood condition mainly because it hasbeen privately owned since gold was dis-covered there over 100 years ago. Cur-rently, the present owners have openedthe site to visitors and charge a sm all ad-mission fee to tour the old buildings.This, at f irst, may sound l ike a "touristtrap," but it isn't . The visitor is allowedto walk around the town at his leisureand nothing has been rebuilt or changedsince it was last lived in.

A few years ago, nobody could visitthe site without express permission fromthe owner and a personal escort with thecaretaker. Barbed wire and numerous14

"no trespassing" signs surrounded theold mine and tow n. I was delighted whenI heard that the city was opened to thepublic.

The Vulture ore deposit was discover-ed by Henry Wickenburg in 1863 andsoon it became one of the richest goldmines in the country. Wickenburg wasborn in Austria in 1820 and, after hisfather died, left his homeland for theUnited States. Upon arriving in thiscountry, he joined Pauline Weaver inPeeples Valley and accompanied hisband of explorers and prospectors fornearly a year. After becoming impatientwith this large group, Wickenburg de-cided to set out on his own. He heard ofgood prospecting possibilit ies to thesouthwest, and headed out alone tomore fully explore them.

One afternoon, while throw ing stones,D e s e r t / N o v e m b e r 1 97 8


15/48

he broke a piece of rock off a nearbyI ;dge. To his amazement, the freshly ex-posed surface glistened brightly in thesunlight. I t was quartz f i l led with rawj o l d . Needless to say, Wickenburg wasdel ighted, and he immediately gatheredv'hat gold ore he could and headed backt) the Weaver party. He f i led a claimv ith Weaver, and convinced some of theg roup to return w ith him to help extractth e gold.

They worked for many months, but thelick of water, equipment and the ex-treme desert temperatures caused mostof his companions to abandon the p roject.Wickenburg then hired help to dig theere from the mountain and haul it to theriver, a few miles away, so he couldcrush and pan it . What he didn't knowv as that his hired help was keeping thehigh grade ore and only sending him theIt sser qu ality ma terial.

Wickenburg soon realized that he wasn ?ver going to be able to work the mineto its full poten tial by himse lf. Reluctant-l>, he decided to sell most of his claim toa man named Benjamin Phelps. Phelpsagreed to pay Wickenburg $85,000 for afour-f if ths interest in the mine. An init ialp lyment of $20,000 was made, and works arted on a grand scale.

In the following years, Wickenburgs| >ent nea rly all of th e o rig ina l $20,000 in\t gal fees trying to get the remaining$i.5,000 from Phelps. He never receivedthat money and , in add it ion, he never re-c< ived a penny of the profits from his re-rraining one-f if th ownership. As t ime

passed, Wickenburg saw Phelps takewell over one and one-half million dollarsin gold from the mine that was once his.

Wicken burg became disil lusioned withmining and set up a small farm only tohave a flood wash it away. He also hadpart of his face blown off by a trespasserwhen he confronted him. His face even-tually healed, but was terribly scarredfor the rest of his life.

As the years went by, Wickenburgbecame more and more despondent andfina lly, at the age of 85, walked out of h islitt le cabin, put a gun to his head, andpulled the tr igger. His body was foundby a passerby shortly thereafter.

In the meantime, Phelps was runningi into trouble at the Vu lture Min e. They

Opposite page:Vulture Peak.Left: Old wagon andbuildings at minesite. /Above: Ore caron rails at mineshaft opening.

hit a fault and lost the vein. After manymonths of searching, they finally wereable to relocate the displaced ve in only toloose it again in another earth fault.With no luck at other relocation at-tempts, and a shortage of funds, Phelpssold the mine. The new owner, a Cana-dian named McClyde, didn't know thevein had been lost, and was understand-ably upset upon making this discovery. Ittook months of work and a lot of luck be-fore McClyde was able to f ind the elusivegold and resume full m ining operat ions.In his lust for more gold, however, he de-cided to remove some of the high gradepillars that had been purposely left intactto support the roof of the shaft. After re-moving a number of these pil lars, themine collapsed and the vein has beenlost ever since.

There have been numerous attemptsto relocate the lode and to resume min-ing the old Vultu re, but none have beensuccessful. It is estimated that there isstill many millions of dollars worth ofgold to be mined when the vein is f inallyrelocated. Metal detect ion instruments,exploratory shafts and numerous geo-logical theories have been unsuccessfulso far. W ith the price of gold as high as itcurrently is, there is talk of a'new, largescale attempt to find the vein.

In the mean time, however, the currentowners still allow visitors on this historicproperty in order to help defray some oftheir costs. Who knows, maybe in a fewyears the old Vulture Min e wil l be react i-vated and Vulture City will once again bethe thriving l i t t le town that it once was,so many years ago.


16/48

T heMonoT a s s -^Bloody

trai l ing a tribe of hosti le Indians.At the time of the gold rush, YosemiteValley was inhabited by a small band ofIndians. The Yosemites understandablyresen ted the ho rdes o f wh i te menswarming over the foothi l ls below theirhidden mountain sanctuary. They real iz-ed i t would be only a matter of t ime be-fore these aliens discovered their deepvalley and they would be driven fromtheir sacred home just as the foothi l ltribes were already b eing displaced. TheYosemites, under the leadership of theirchief, Tenaya, decided not to wait for theinevitable invasion. Instead, they struckthe first blow. Early in 1850, a war partyof Yosemites attacked a trading post onthe South Fork of the Merced River.

Relations between the Indians andwhites continued to deteriorate. In De-cember, 1850, Indians led by a chief ofthe Chowchil las attacked another store.The brief but bloody Mariposa IndianWar was on. Within months al l the foot-hi l l tribes had been subdued. Only the

C anyon T ra ilYONE W HO has traveled the Tioga

Pass Road (Cali fornia State High-way 120) through Yosemite National

Park cannot but be awed by this spectac-ular and highest of al l highway crossingsof the Sierra Nevada. Yet few of today'svisitors are aware that a portion of theroute was traversed by moccasin-cladfeet long before the first white men ven-tured into the region.

For years, tribes of the westernslope's foothi l ls had engaged in tradewith the Mono Paiutes east of the Sierra,carrying their barter across the moun-tains. Their primitive path ascended intothe high country, fo l lowing the div idebetween the deep gorges of the Merced(Yosemite Val ley) and the Tuolumnewatersheds. However, near the summitthe trai l veered to the south to cross thecrest at Mono Pass, thus avoiding theprecipitous walls of Lee Vining Canyonto which the present highway cl ings.From the lofty 10,604-foot height ofMono Pass, which is the northernmost of16

two Sierra passes bearing the samename , the t ra i l descended th rou ghBloody Canyon to the Mono Basin.That stretch of the old trai l from thehighway to M ono Pass is sti l l the domainof the hiker. The distance from a road-side parking area to the crest is app roxi-mately four m iles. The ascent is gradu al,making an enjoyable, not too strenuousone-day hike, round tr ip. Wi thin the

pass, directly at the head of Bloody Can-yon, stands a picturesque cluster otcabins and a water-fi l led shaft. This wasthe Golden Crown mine. Buil t of white-bark pine, the sturdy cabins have weath-ered nearly a century of high Sierra win-ters. These and other historic relicsserve as silent reminders of the proces-sion of prospectors who crossed theSierra via the Mono Tra i l .However, these now mostly forgotten

men, chasing their rainbow , were not thefirst white men to fol low on the heels ofthe Indian. In the vanguard of the whiteinvasion was an 1852 mil i ta ry exped ition

byBETTYSHANNON

Fallen remainsof a once

stalwart cabinat the GoldenCrown Mine.

D e s e r t / N o v e m b e r 1 97 8


17/48

Yosemites refused to make peace. InMa y, 18 51, a company of soldiers underthe command of Captain John Boling wasgiven orders to enter Yosemite Valleyand bring in the recalcitrant tr ibe. ChiefTenaya and a few of his followers werecaptured, but many managed to escape,f leeing towa rd the east over their ancienttrade route. Scouts discovered the Indiantrail and the company resumed pursuitof their quarry. The Yosemites wereovertaken while camped on the shore ofa beautiful mountain lake. The soldiersdecided to name the lake Tenaya, to per-petuate the name of the tr ibe's bold andbrave chieftain. However, when told ofthe honor, the Yosemite chieft reported-ly replied sullenly, "Lake already has aname, 'Py-we-ack' Lake of the ShiningRocks . "

The tr ibe was taken to a reservation onthe Fresno River. But the Yosemiteslonged for their old way of l i fe and moun -tain home. So late in the year, after ex-tract ing a solemn promise of good be-

^ T l * *

havior from Tenaya, the authorit ies al-lowed the Indians to return to YosemiteValley.The peace was short- l ived. On M ay 2,1852, a party of eight prospectors blun-dered into the mountain stronghold.Tenaya led his braves in a surpriseattack on the hopelessly outnumberedgroup. Two were kil led; miraculously,the others escaped. Warily and painful-ly, the survivors made their way back tocivi l izat ion.The mil itary decided to again go afterthe troublesome Yosemites. A detach-ment led by Lt. Tredwell Moore enteredthe valley in June. Five Indians, eachwith possessions of the murdered pros-pectors, were captured. All f ive wereshot on the spot.Word of the mil itary's swift retr ibu-t ion quickly reached Tenaya. The chiefhast i ly gathered his people, leading

them in retreat across the Sierra downBloody Canyon to Mono Lake where theyfound refuge with their Paiute all ies.

Lieutenant Moore's detachment follow-ed the Indians but they had vanished bythe time the soldiers reached the MonoBasin, and the men could elicit no infor-mation from the Paiutes regarding thewhereabouts of the Yosemites. Beforereturning to their post at Fort Mil ler,members of the expedit ion discoveredsome promising mineral deposits in thevicinity of Bloody Canyon.Upon seeing the soldiers' ore sam ples,a prospector named Lee Vining organiz-ed a party of miners who set off acrossthe Sierra to prospect the reg ion. The u l-t imate result of the grou p's explorat ionswas a new gold rush east of the Sierra tosuch locations as Dogtown, Monovil le,and eventually the big one, Bodie. LeeVining left his name on a canyon, acreek, and the litt le town on U.S. 395overlooking Mono Lake.This east side excitement led to the

f i rs t improvements in the Mono Pass-Bloody Canyon t ra i l . It is believed that aTom McCee of Big Oak Flat near Sonora

'i>

*

N- fc. X


18/48

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blazed theMono Trai l in 1857, generallyfol lowing the old Indian route throughTamarack F la t , pas t Lake Tenaya,through Tuolumne Meadows, and overMono Pass.

By this t ime the problems with theYosemites were over. Ironically it wasno t the U.S.A rm y , but theMono Paiuteswho f inally brought thet r ibe to itsknees.Survivors have given historians varyingversions as to what actually happened.Some said that Tenaya had led his peo-ple back to their beloved YosemiteValley late in the summer of 1853. Butshort ly after returning home, a band ofungrateful young braves stealthily cross-ed back over themountains andstole the

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Monos' horses. However, many yearslater, another survivor insisted that thedispute had erupted on the shore ofMono Lake during a game of skil l be-tween the two t r ibes. Whatever thecause or place, all agreed that Tenayaand a number of Yosemites were stonedto death by the angry Mono Paiutes.

Fo r the f i rs t few years following theblazing of the Mono Trai l , a signif icantnumber of gold seekers used the route toreach the Mono country str ikes. Butafter the initial deposits were exhausted,traff ic dwindled to a t r ickle. Then in1874, achance discovery attracted a newsurge of prospectors and mining men tothe very summit region that many hadpassed through enroute to the east sidediggings.

Just north of Tioga Pass, a youngman, Wil l iam Brusky, Jr., was tendinghis father's flock of sheep when he founda rusty shovel and pick lying near anabandoned prospect hole. Most of afaded claim notice was i l legible with theexception of the date, 1860. At f i rs t theore didn't look promising enough to de-velop, but the fol lowing summer Bruskysunk another hole onTioga Hi l l and ob-tained some richer ore. Sti l l , it was 1878before the potential value of the discov-ery was realized and the Tioga MiningDistr ict wasformed. Thedistr ict extend-ed some eight miles along the summitan d to the base of the Sierra on theeastern side. Eventually, 350 locationswere made in the distr ict, including, in1879, a ledge of antimonial si lver withinMono Pass. This property wasdevelopedas the Golden Crown and Ella Blossmines. Mining camp newspapers wereever optimistic about each new discov-ery. The Mammoth City Herald was noexception. Its September 3, 1879 issueextravagantly predicted that thousandsof menwould beworking at the head ofBloody Canyon within a year.Both the Tioga Hi l l and Mono Passclaims were purchased by the GreatS ier ra Con so l ida ted S i lver Com panywhich provided the capital for the majoramount of work done in the distr ict. Thecompany's headquarters were at Benett-vi l le , the litt le village located near theo r i g i n a l B r u s k y " S h e e p h e r d e r " dis-covery.

At f irst supplies were brought in viathe other route then in existence, fromthe east side up Bloody Canyon. Thet rains of pack mules rubbed their sides

Desert/ November 1978


19/48

i aw on the sharp rocks pro truding be-i ide the narrow ledge of the t ra i l . Thuswas born the name, Bloody Canyon.

With the need for heavy equipment todevelop the Great Sierra's properties anew trai l was buil t over rugged terrainfi-om the bustl ing camp of Lundy. Duringthe winter of 1882, over eight tons ofdr i l ls, pipe, a boiler, even kitchen uten-sils were laboriously coaxed up nearlyperpendicular m ountainsides to Bennett-vl l le .

A better route had to be developed ifthe company planned to continue itsmining activit ies. The decision was madetd construct a wagon road up the moregentle ascent from the west side. Workb :gan in Apri l , 1883, and the road wascompleted in November56 miles fromEig Oak Flat to Bennettvi l le, via LakeT ?naya and Tuolumne Mead ows, ing ;nera l, the route follow ed by genera-tions of Indian traders.

However, not one load of ore was everh luled out over the Great Sierra WagonR >ad. By 1884, the min ing companyfcund itself one quarter million dollars indi bt. When new capital could not be ob-tained, the board of directors had l i tt lechoice but to cease operations.

The wagon road, which became knowna: the Tioga Road, was operated forawhile as a tol l road, but eventually,b< cause of neglect and lack of ma inten-ance, declined to pack trail status. TheTi )ga Pass rou te d id not become ath ought trans-Sierra thoroughfare until1911 when the State of California com-pl 'ted the last spectacular stretch whichso ambles up the glacier-scoured wall ofLie Vin ing Canyon.

For a number of sum mers, park natur-ali >ts have conducted hik es, usually oncew< ekly , to Mon o Pass. For curre nt de-tails check at park headquarters in Yose-mite Valley or write to the Superinten-dent, Yosemite National Park, California95 (89.

The parking area is approximately twomiles west of the Tioga Pass entrancestation. The trai l is well marked and canbe fol lowed easily without a guide. Na-ture photographers wil l want to l ingeralong the way to photograph the manyde'icate alpine wildflowers, and fisher-me n migh t even w ant to take along the irpoles and try their luck in Upper orLower Sardine Lakes, which are lessthen a mile below Mono Pass in BloodyCanyon. DDesert/ November 1978

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20/48

Eldon Russell poseson the plank flooringof the adobe homewhere he was born andreared. H e and hiscousin, Wanda RussellTruman have many fondmem ories of their lifehereatGrafton.PICTURESQUE

Wonzo Russell built this sturdy log cabin for wife num ber two. It is still in good con-dition co nsidering its age. Even some of the original wallpaper is still in place. I f TA H CONTAINS a s izable number ofi o ghost town s, many of wh ich were

| f former railroad or agricultural sett le-ments. Graftonon the Virgin River inSouthern Utah is described as the"m ost p ic turesque" of them al l . This oldghost town was an agricultural sett le-ment and her story is of considerableinterest. What is unusual about Craftonis, that though she was settled 116 yearsago and abandoned 83 years later, thelove and devotion for the litt le town re-mains alive and strong today.

The ghost town of Grafton was on our list of places to visit w hen we renewedour acquaintance with Zion NationalPark last November. We spent the firstfew days enjoying the great formationsand glorious fall colors. The camp-grounds were much improved comparedto our last visit of many years ago. Thedisplays and night ly programs at theVisitor Center were excellent.

Early one clear, crisp morning (thetemperature had dropped to 27 degrees2 0 D e s e r t / N o v e m b e r 1 97 8


21/48

Wanda Russell Trumanstands in front of the

house her grandfather,Alonzo Russell, built forhis first wifesome 115

years ago. Wanda'sparents and theirchildren, occupied thehouse for many years.

by MARY FRANCES STRONGphoto s by Jerry Stro ng

during the night), we left the Park andfollowed the Virgin River to Rockville. Inth

Kt the east end of Roc kville, we turne dsoi ith on a narrow , paved lane and cross-ed the river via a simple truss bridge. A90 degree turn was made and we headedwesterly along the base of the moun-tains. Separating us from the river were"th e f ie lds " as the Mormons call the irfarmlands. In this case, they were pas-ture and alfalfa plantings punctuatedwilh an occasional group of fruit trees.Alongside the road, ran the famed"Mormon ditches" used for i r r igat ion.

in less than a mile, we drove over ashort pass through the hills. A livelystream was forded at a junction with aroad coming in from the right. WeDes ir t /Nov em ber1978 21

Jake Truman, of St. George , Utah, energe tically gathers tumblew eedsCemeterya serene resting place surrounde d by natural beauty. in Crafton


22/48

Constructed in such a way as to be rodent-proof, this corn crib provided storage foran important part of the Crafton pioneer's food supply.guessed it led to Graftonwhich provedto be correct. Our route now droppeddown to other f ields, then went through,i cut in formations resembling "skeps"(beehives). Immediately on our left atoad led south to a l i t t le cemetery em-braced in the arms of Wire Mesa.

We like to photograph old cemeteriesbut hesitated when we saw several peo-ple were there. We certainly didn't wishto intrude on anyone's sorrow. When itippeared they were cleaning up thegrounds, we decided to ask direct ions toGrafton.

We exchanged introductions, thenlearned Wanda and Jake Truman andEldon Russell came out twice yearly toburn weeds, etc., in the cemetery. It is alabor of love, since many of their rela-t ives are buried there. When we men-t ioned Grafton, Wanda's eyes l i t up and22

she responded, "I f you don't mindwa it ing a few minutes, you can follow usover to Grafton. The fellows are aboutthrough and we planned to have a picniclunch there."

I quickly learned that Wanda andEldon were well-acquainted with Graf-ton, since they both had been born andreared there. In fact, their m utual gra nd-father, Alonzo H. Russell, had been oneof the original se tt lers. I could hardly be-l ieve our good fortune. A gu ided tour bydecendants of the founders and the thir dgeneration to live at Graftonthat iswhat a writer, generally, just dreamsabout.

Grafton is, indeed, picturesque in afairy-tale sett ing along a bend in theriver. Immediately northeast, SteamboatMountain now known as the "W es tPortal of Z i o n " rises skyward like a

great guardian angel. On theWire Mesa shelters the r iver valley. TheVirgin River meanders widely along thisstretch and the old ghost town stands onhigh ground a short distance south of it.

A number of original buildings remainincluding the adobe church which hasalso served as the school and co mm unitybuilding. The f ine, two-story residencebuilt by Alonzo Russell is beginning toshow its age and the ravages of time.Across the street, the sturdy log cabinMr. Russell built for wife number two isbeautifully weathered and has enduredthe elements wel l . On the corner is anold-looking building which is really quitenew. I t was built by a movie companyand used dur ing the f i lming of "ButchCassidy and the Sundance K id ."

Eldon Russell's family home had beenbuilt of adobe bricksas were many ofthe original buildin gs. I t is slowly return -ing to the earth and only two part ialwalls and a few planks from the woodenfloor remain. Along the main road, anancient log cabin is slowly sagging on itsfoundation. Old fences have weatheredto a beau tiful si lver-grey and rugged logcorn cribs have defied the elements, aswel l as t ime.

Orchards still grow in Grafton's fieldsand several homes, west of the townsite,are occupie d. J lo do ubt the ir close prox-imity has helped to protect the ruinsfrom vandals. Even so, the church bellhas been removed three times, but ineach case, recovered. It now rests else-where for its own pro tect ion. The ceme-tery has not fared as wel l . Several of themore ornate monuments have beenstolen. They have been replaced withsimple markers in the hope of discour-aging further thefts.

It was during a Latter Day Saints Con-ference at Salt Lake City in 1861 , that the"bir th of Graf ton" was planned. Br ig-ham Young had issued a call for the set-t lement of land along the Virgin River,between the small communit ies of Vir gin

'and Adventure. I ts purpose would be toraise cotton. Due to the Civil W ar, cottonhad become scarce and it was hop ed th isnew endeavor would provide a muchneeded commodity.

Seven families accepted the challenge t he A lonzo H . Russe l l s , W i l l i amHastings, John H. Ballards, CharlesJones, John Woods, the Spendloves andHall idays. They were later joined byother families and arrived in Southern

D e s e r t /N o v e m b e r 1 97 8


23/48

Utah inate November of 1861.Theb inks of the Virgin River were l ined withg jlden-leave d, cottonwood trees and thev ide-bottome d, rather narrow canyonw as flanked onboth sides with br i l l iant-h -colored m esas, buttes and mountains.The grandeur of the scene must haveb;en very impressive. A beautiful siteonthe north side of the r iv er was chosenbythe pioneers.Several projects were soon underway.A townsite, community f ields and theroutes of i r r igation ditches were laid out.V'hi le some of themen and boys beganclearing the land, others made adobeb'icks and cut logs for construction.Meanwhi le , tents and covered wagon-bods served as " h o m e " for these stal-wart pioneers. Christmas Day, 1861,b< ought ra in, but itdidn ' t dampen thejc/ous celebration. However, the rain

pared. Cotton, grain andfruit orchardswere planted. Each family had about anacre of land for its personal use. Thef ields and orchards were communityowned. Log,adobe and frame houseswere buil t, as were apost office andcharming church which served as schooland community bu i ld ing. The cottonplantings did wel l . In 1863, fivecom-munities produced 57,000 pounds ofcot-ton. The women were kept busy spinningand weaving cloth.

The church census of1864 revealed28famil ies and 168people were living atCrafton. Crops included 166 acres owheat, 70acres of corn, 28acres of cot-ton, an d 10and one-half acres of vege-tables and tobacco. Their orchards werebeginning to produce peaches, pears,apples, cherries, berries and grapes.Everyone worked hard both athome and

home of Paiute and Navajo Indians whoclaimed all the wild game, vegetationand colorful lands. They were fr iendly tothe first white men andgave them per-mission to share their homelands. Whenmore and more settlers continued to ar-r ive, establishing numerous settlements,the Indians became unhappy. The set-t lers ' cattle and sheep ate the w ild vege-tation; deer andother game fel l to thewh ite man's guns and much of their landwas being taken over foragriculture andstock range.

These same conditions brought aboutthe Black Hawk War of 1865 in Centra lU ta h ' s Se v ie r Va l l e y . Ho s t i l i t i e s nSouthern Utah began later the sameyear. Indians raided isolated ranches,ambushed travelers, as wel l as cattle-men checking their stock. In February1866, Erastus Snow waselected Briga-

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d i l n ' t s to p . It continued for 40daysandni [hts!

The Vi rg in River became a tor rent ofra ;ing water carrying considerable de-bris. Itwashed out shallow dams,wi Jened its channel and fi l led irr igationditches with si l t and gravel. During theevening of January 8, 1862, the r iversudden ly rose and b e g a n f l o o d in gGr i f ton . For Mrs. Nathan Tenney, it wa sa l ightff iare, as she was in labor andab >ut to give bir th to a baby. Quickly,se1 eral men l i f ted the wagon box andcarr ied it to high ground. Mrs.Tenneysaiely delivered a son who was promptlynaned "Marve lous F lood" Tenney.

A great deal of prime agricultural landhail been washed away by the f loodwa'ers and twas decided to relocateGr.ifton on he south side of the r iveramile east of the f i rst s i te . Again, atown-siti was laid out and newditches pre-Des.r t /Nov em ber 1978

on community projects. One chore every-one dreaded was "cleaning out thedi tches." Due to the large amount of sil tcarr ied by the Virgin River, this task hadto bedone weekly.

Dry farming was attempted inthevalleys south ofGrafton. Whi le wewereat the cemetery, Wanda pointed out theold wagon road. It snaked up the steepsides ofWire Mesa then led to the fieldsnear Smithsonian Butte. Itwas an n-credible roadone that would more thantest the abilities of amodern four-wheel-di ive vehicle. "It is very dangerous,"Wa n d a e xp la i n e d , " e sp e c ia l l y wh e ncoming down with aheavily loadedwa g o n . " The over-a-century-old roadhas not been maintained and a vehiclema y not beable to negotiate it today. Ahike to the top of the mesa would doubt-less provide a magnificent view.Southern Utah had long been the

dier General of Southern Utah 's Mi l i t ia .Indian hosti l i t ies had become acute

and several deaths occurred. GeneralSnow increased his orces and establish-ed several small forts. All travel, exceptin large groups, was halted. Orders weregiven to abandon all settlements withless than 150 populat ion, and f ina l lymar t ia l lawwas declared. By increasingthe pop ulation in the arger settlements,Snow felt they would beable to defendthemselves from Indian attack.

Grafton's people moved to Rockvillean d for several years their homes wereabandoned. The fields had been plantedand harvesting of the crops was vital fortheir sustenance. Men returned to workthe fields in armed groups.

General Snow's forces had routed theIndians onevery front and by 1869, thesettlers moved back to Grafton. Indian

Continued on Page 46


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R e a l i s m

"La QuintaSpr ing, "24 " x36"

Kathi Hilton

KA TH I HILTO N, a secondgeneration artist, was born inIndio, Ca lifornia, raised in Sonora,Mexico and the California desertand attended UCLA in LosAngeles.Being the daughter of famedartist, John W. Hilton, w ith whomour readers are most fam iliar, shehas a keen eye for the soft shadesthat make her desert landscapes sointr iguing.Ka thi creates a luminos ity of herown as she works with the pa letteknife on ly, us ing a fossil waxmedium mixed with the finest oils.25


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I nchanted Oasis," 28"x3 6" Private collection of Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Bundschuh

Her paintings have a texturalperspective w hich creates greatdepth and realism.Wo rking prima rily in the desertSouthwest, and the high coun trymeadows of Idaho, Utah andWy om ing, she captures both theirmuted and flamboyant m oods.Ka thi 's w ork can be seen in morethan 11 galleries in the West. The

"Summer Breeze" 18"x24 "recipient of many awards, she is aregular exhibitor at the DeathValley '49ers Encampment ArtShow at the V isitors Center eachNovember.Now residing in TwentyninePalms, California, at the fa milyhomestead, she has just completeda gallery to display her paintings.

Her work may also be seen at a"Sculptor's Workshop," 18"x24' Private collection of Dr. & Mrs. Thomas "Eternal Happiness" 18"x 24"


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one-woman show to be held at theJ addleback Inn Western Ar t(iallery in Santa Ana, Californiafrom November 30th to Decemberi Oth, and commencing with anartist's reception anddem onstration, and several of herpaintings are on display at theDesert Magazine Art Gallery inF'alm Desert, Ca lifornia.

r

'Moonlight and Primroses," 28"x3 0' Private collection of Mr. & Mrs . Jim Beltz

"Moonbeams"15"x30"

"Splendor," 18"x24" Private collection of Dr. & Mrs. R. Smeton


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T h e L a s t G o v e r n o ro f M e x i c a n C a l i f o r n i a

W O U L D GOVERNOR Pio Pico haven U approve d of the 605 Freeway andI I the steady stream of motorized traf-

fic only a stone's throw to the east of hisbeloved "El Ranchito?" Would he havewelcomed today's four-lane paved Whit-tier Boulevard to the north of the rancho,where in Pico's day squeaky ox-drawncairetas loaded with fruits and vegeta-bles meandered along the dusty-in-suinmer or muddy-in-winter "countyr o a d " on tedious journeys to the SanC ibrie l M ission or the Pueblo of Los

Angeles? What about the flood controlbasins where in the old days the SanGabriel River used to flow unchecked,and the freight trains now r att l ing alongthe Southern Pacific overpass, on thewest side of his ranch? What wouldGovernor Pico have thought about allthisprogress?

El R anchito, home of the last Governorof Mexican California, lies almost forgot-ten beside the bustle and roar of thefreeway, originally called "San Gabriel

by KATHER INE SHEEHEY

River Freeway," and Whitt ier Boule-vard. A state park ranger presides overthe spacious grounds and what remainsof Don Pio Pico's "l it t le" ranch, now de-signated "S tate Historical Landmark No.1 2 7 . " The ranch was much larger inPico's heyday. Nevertheless, what sur-vives is a haunting symbol of California'stransit ion from Mexican to Americanrule. Pio Pico played a leading pa rt in thecultural and economic development ofAmerican California in a surprising turn-

Brick-pavedpatio of DonPio Pico's"E lRanchito."Covered porchwith stairs tothe secondfloor may beseen at leftrear. Hugeash treetowers overthe structureat upper rightof picture.

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Cactus alongone side ofthe historic

hacienda.Adobe bricksmay be

clearly seenat right.

around long after his days as governordur ing the tumultuous Mexican per iod.

His grandparents and his father ac-c jmpa nied the trek of Juan Bautista de/ nza from Sonora, Mexico to Alta Cali-f irnia in 1776. His grandmother, DonaM a r ia A rba l l o de Gu t i e r r ez , h ig h -spirited and brave, sang and danced toentertain the soldiers along the way.Some say that Governor Pico inheritedhis grandmother's recklessness. TheAnza Expedit ion arrived in Californiaafter a long and hazardous journey. Indue course San Gabriel Mission wasf lunded.

Pico's father was a soldier guard at thef~l ission. Pio was born M ay 5, 1801 , thes ?cond son of 10 child ren , w hile hisf ither was stationed at the Mission . " Iv as born in a brush shelter, not even ahouse," Pico states in his memoirs.When he was 18 years of age, his fathercied and soon Pico was support ing thelarge family. He was successful in thisv ?nture by o pera ting a gen eral store inS in D iego, later expanding into otherbusiness enterprises.

Pio Pico's political life began in 1826v ith his appointment to the disputacion,a


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stairs were striped with "best qualityBrussels" over the oil-cloth. In recentyears Pico House Hotel has been restor-ed as part of the Pueblo de Los AngelesState Historical Park in downtown LosAngeles.

It was in the American period that theEl Ranchito property was acquired. In1850 Pico bought 9000 acres of the Pasode Bartola land grant from the heirs ofJuan C. Perez for $4692. The haciendawas constructed with the aid of Gabriel-eno Indians, who leased farmland on theranch from Pico under a sharecroppingarrangement. The house was built over-looking the rich bottomland next to theSan Gabriel River. Construction was inthe early California manner of adobeb u i ld in g s . M ix in g mu d , sa n d a n dmanure with straw, the Indians pouredthe mixture into wooden forms, then setthem aside for drying. When dry, themixture provided an excellent brick.The walls varied from two to three feetin thickness. The structure was built in a" U " shape with a court open to the eastbetween the wings. A covered porchwith stairs to the second floor is on theinside of the " U " and there is a well inthe courtyard.

Life at El Ranchito was exciting in theearly years. Don Pico was a gracious

host, together with his lovely w ife Mariaand their adopted children, and theylavished hospitality and entertainmenton everyone who visited the hacienda.

Soon tragedy was to strike, however,first in the death of his wife in 1860, andthen in disastrous floods and financialreverses for Don Pico. In the flood of1867 the course of the r iver changed andit came to within 50 feet of the ranchhouse, sweeping away beautiful gardenson the west aide, and there was majordamage to the structure. Then, after re-building, the hacienda was completelydestroyed in the floods of 1883-1884.Only the foundations and a few walls re-mained. Rebuilding was started again in1884, using some of the original founda-tions and partial walls.

Pico's fortunes were dwindling, andhe had to borrow $62,000. To obtain theloan, he surrendered the deeds to all ofhis properties. It was his understandingthat the properties were collateral for theloan. But two months later, when hetried to repay the monies, the lendersclaimed the $62,000 was for a convey-ance of title to all his properties.

In the years that followed, there wasendless litigation in the courts in whichnothing was determined until 1892 whenthe California State Supreme Court ruled

Schoolchildren are eager to discover the history of this last Governor of MexicanCalifornia. Wishing Well at rear of picture o f courtyard has been added in recentyears. Native shru bs similar to those in Pico's time a re cared for by a Park Ranger.

30 Dese rt/Nov em ber 1978


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T le ranch home of Don Pio Pico, built during the American period by GabrielenoIndians, is a haunting symbol of the transition from M exican to Ame rican rule. Thisvi-ew is from the North side.a\ ainst Pio Pico. He was evicted from hisR.inchito and with a few possessions ina buggy, went to l ive with his fr iend,Jonathan Warner, in Los Angeles. Twoy< ars late r in 1894 , he was dead a t theaj e of 93.

The old gentleman had l ived longenough at El Ranchito to witness theQuaker colonists arriving in 1887 tofound the City of Wh itt ier. This progressh< v iewe d as he sat on the verand a of hisadobe home. Port ions of Whitt ier todayw 're once part of the original Paso deBartola land grant and were purchasedfrom Pico. He watched the buggies andw igons clatter by along the county roadas the cit ies of Anaheim, Fullerton andSjnta Ana were beginning to emerge.

Although El Ranchito was allowed tofall into considerable disrepair followingPi ;o's eviction, it was rescued from totalot l ivion by interested cit izens. One ofth >se, Harriet Russell Strong, long-timeWhitt ier resident who had been a fr iendard visitor of Pio Pico, worked to saveth > property and formed the GovernorPi :o Muse um and Histo rical S ociety inth -early 1900s. Eventually the state tookov ;r the restoration an d pres ervation ofth buildings.

The grounds inc lude var ie t ies o fnative cactus and wil lows, and a doubleDe eit/November 1978

row of huge sycamore trees. A giant ashtree towers over the ranch house. Not atrace remains of the chapel, mi l l , corralsand many outbuildings once part of theproperty. Gone, too, are the f ig, pearand pome granate trees, the fields of cornand barley and a grove of orange trees.Historical pictures, items and furnish-ings dating into the history of the citiesof Whittier and Pico Rivera are on ex-hibit. A group of volunteer docents areavailable to give tours.

Busloads of schoolchildren, many ofthem Mexican-Americans, come on f ieldtrips for a peek into history, and thesechildren are eager to learn about thehome of the last Governor of MexicanCalifornia and the man who l ived thereso many years so long ago. Maybe hewould have l iked that.

Don Pico, who loved to race finehorses, might also have been intr iguedwith the speedy access to his Rancho.Take the 605 Freeway to the Whitt ierBoulevard Off-Ramp. Pio Pico State His-toric Park, 6003 S. Pioneer Boulevard, isopen to the public for a small adm issionfee Wednesdays throug h Sundays from 1to 4 P.M., except holidays. Today ElRanchito stands as a link with that excit-ing period when two cultures met andmerged to form modern California .

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t e r U n d e r w a yby BILL JE NNING S

; conception ofH I ion-dollar project.

Human History

Desert Adaptions

Earthquake Fault ExhibitMicro Climate Exhibit

D et e r t / N o v e m b e r 1 97 8

ITHESE t imes o f Proposit ion 13 andt he " w ha t ' s in i t f o r me?" syndromethat seems to be engu l f i ng th e state ofCal i fo rn ia , it is refreshing to repor t acomm uni ty bootstrap project of near ly $1mil l ion in a smal l desert town, wi th per -haps 1,000 permanent res idents, work-in g as fu l l partners wi th th e state andfederal governments.

The project is the Vis i tors Center fo rthe hal f -mi l l ion-acre-plus Anza-BorregoDesert State Park, now under construc-t i on , hopeful ly fo r dedication by Eastert ime next year.

The Anza-Borrego Desert Natural His -tory Associat ion (ABDNHA) ha s raisedmore than $300,000 of the total $900,000bare-bones construction cost and isready to contr ibute equal ly toward th eestimated $100,000 or more needed toinstal l th e f ix tures, ut i l i t ies and exhibi tsto complete t h e unique hal f -undergroundstructure of steel, native stone and con-crete now r i s ing . T he site is adjacent tothe entrance of the park 's showplace, th eBorrego Palm Canyon campgrounds,p a r k h e a d q u a r t e r s a n d m a i n t e n a n c ecenter, a mile west of Borrego Spr ings.

The s i te, 200 yards f rom th e " n e w "park headquarters, a former res idence,is on a gradual ly s loping al luv ia l f an inlower Hel lhole Canyon, commanding asweeping view of Borrego Val ley, theFont's Point badlands area and south-easterly to the Fish Creek Mountains.

It was chosen careful ly by state parkexperts . A n in formal envi ronmental im -pact survey revealed it contains no ar-cheological or natural h is tor ic valueb uta fu l l crop of desert p lant l i fe, whichw on ' t be d is tu rbed.

That apparent paradox is due to thecenter 's pecul iar construct ion. I t wi l l bemost ly underground, according to ParkManager Maur i ce (Bud) Getty. T heone-story structure wi l l be dug into th egently sloping site and the d i r t and plantmaterials displaced by the upheavalw i l l be replaced on top of the 7,000-square-foot bui ld ing, wi th th e chol lacactus and other desert perennials care-fu l ly replanted on the submerged roof .

The design also wil l ease pol lutionprob lems, at least th e visual ones causedby th e presence of a manmade structurein a natural area. Archi tect Bob Ferris ofSan Diego ha s designed an in terpretat ivecenter as yet unique in Cal i fornia.

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Workers prepare forms for the thick reinforced concrete roof of the new building,l>oured more than a foot thick to carry the he avy load of na tive soil and plants thatwill be put on top. The building is at ground level except for the entrance area.

What shows above ground wil l be thefront or eastern facade of the one-storystructure, a massive, curved wall of na-tive stone, with a shaded entry area intothe interior. An observation deck on theroof wi l l enhance the ma gnif icent view tothe no rth, east and southeast. Steps wi l llead to the deck at one end, a wheelchairi amp at the other.

Inside features wil l include an audio-\ isual room seating mo re than 50 peop le,,i large display area with replaceabledioramas and other exhibits, most ofwhich wil l be made on the site, in a pre-parator's room at one end of the exhibitarea. Storage, a reference or working. ireafor visit ing scient ists and students,and a lobby area including an informa-tion booth and sales area complete the.tructure.

Visitors wil l be encouraged to touchexhibits and conduct themselves throughthe interpretat ive displays, according tothe desert team from the Interpretat ivePlanning Unit of the State Parks and Re-creation Department, which recentlybriefed park staff members and directorsof the Anza Borrego Desert Natural His-tory Associat ion.

" W e have tr ied to stress the touch as-pect in the exhibits," Leonard Smith, apark interpretative design specialist ex-plained.Park Manager G etty, who used to be a

naturalist and interpretat ive specialisthimself, expanded on the new conceptsfor the volunteer group recently.

"T he re are many exciting new ways topresent exhibits for the cen ter," he said."For instance, cassette TV of the flowersblooming on the desert, for immediateshow ing to visitors ; a closed circu it TV ata water hole where the actions of a big-horn sheep might be observed; three-dimen sional projections; a big relief m apto orient the visitor to the typography ofthe desert and a movie projected fromabove to show park boundar ies , aselection of approved park roads, and soo n . "

Getty's predict ions, admittedly off thetop of his head, were given to the historygroup more than a year ago. A moreconcise statement of the design wasmade by the Sacramento-based special-ists early this year, and followed Getty'sblueprint surprisingly closely.

But there were some interest ing addi-t ions. For example, an earthquake ex-hibit, complete to the taped sounds of anactual temblor and a vibrat ing platformon which the visitor stands to receivewhat amounts to a three-dimensionalsensation.

As you enter the main part of thebuilding you will pass between a life-sizestatue of J uan Bautista de Anza and amounted bighorn ram. Anza, whose

1774-1776 treks through what is now thepark made the place famous, gave manyof the place names that will be perpetu-ated on the locator map in the foyer. Agroup of 10 or more large color trans-parencies show ing high lights of the hugepark wil l l ight up in turn as you press theappropriate button.

The big stuffed version of the low des-ert 's largest naturally occurring mammalpresumably w il i be one confiscated froman illegal poacher, or perhaps a tragicroad k i l l . Usually bighorns that die na-turally are badly deteriorated by the t imeman f inds the remains. I t 's against an1873-vintage state law for any person, oreven a state agency, to possess bighornremains without a special permit issuedonly by the State Department of Fish andGame.

At the foot of the ram replica the parkpeople plan to install an actual sheepskul l , which visitors may pick up andexamine.

Smith said a base relief map coveringmuch of the Colorado Desert from theSalton Sea west to the San Ysidro Moun-tains, Anza-Borrego's dramatic westernboundary, is also under study, based ona famous model installed in the Lava-lands exhibit near Bend, Oregon.

One of the most unusual exhibits wil lteach visitors about one of the desert 'sless-regarded traits, temperature varia-t ion. A circular area wil l include equip-ment monitoring actual outdoor temper-atures at several levels, from the groundup .

"People walking across the desertwith their dog can't seem to understandwhy the dog is tired out when they them -selves are st i l l feeling g re at," Smith toldthe natural history buffs. "They don'tunderstand that the ground-level tem-perature may be much hotter than it is afew feet higher up."

A dap t a t i on o f p lan t and an im a lspecies to the ar id , high temperatureand wind y cond it ions tha t are part of thedefinition of any desert will also be illus-t rated, along with the story of man'simpact on the desert, from the supposed-ly non-Indian f irst inhabitants throughthe two known Indian cultures of the Bor-rego region to the white man's presence,Spanish, Mexican and Anglo.

Harry Daniel, president of the com-munity association the past four years,explained the basic idea behind thecenter.

14 D e s e r t / N o v e m b e r 1 9 78


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"O ur basic philosophy is that the cen-1er will not be a dead musuem but anorientat ion center, a place to w hich peo-ple can come to find where things are inour big muse um ," Daniel explained twovears ago when the campaign began.

"Our museum, of course, is the parki tsel f . "

The association announced a $300,000campaign on Armist ice Day, November1 1 , 1976, after the state agency had saidit would spend up to $400,000 as its: hare, thanks to a special bill approvedhy the State Legislature had been signedby Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. , in( ic tober.

Association members had acceptedthe challenge originally in the spring of1971 when they organized for the pri-mary purpose of creating the center.Daniel had succeeded Alec Spencer, thefirst president, in 1974.Ferris was appointed project architectin August, 1974. He had part icipated inthe successful re-creation of California'sf irst non-Indian sett lement, San Diego'sOld Town and was well experienced indealing with state agencies.

The d r i ve f o r t he o r i g ina l g o a l ,i 300,000, passed the halfway point, with5164,000 by February 1, 1977. At thatt me, more than 250 individuals andgroups had contributed, including thesixth graders at Borrego Springs' ele-mentary school, who held an aluminumc in driv e, and high school students whostaged a benefit basketball game.

And there was the Borrego SpringsSoroptimists, a women's service group,v hich raised m ore than $1,200 with a\ alentine party and fashion show.

A rea l boos t came in February ,1177, when trustees of the N evada-basedMax C. Fleischmann Foundation added$?5,000, their largest out-of-state dona-tion since the late yeast king establishedthe conservation and education endow-ment in his will more than 20 years ago.

Con tribut ions came from more than 50California communities and at least 15s ates, the association reported recently,and the money is still coming in to PostCff ice Box 311 , Borrego Springs, Calif .9 '004.

And it 's a good thing, because costshive been climbing alarmingly since thep oject was f irst announced. The origina lc( st estimate w as $500,000, w hen thespecial legislation was introduced by SanDiego's state senator, James R. M il ls , aDeser t/Novem ber 1978

noted California historian.The law put a l id on the state con tribu-

tion at $400,000 payable when the localgroup, with Thomas McGuire, its vicepresident as fund chairma n, was able toraise at least $200,000.

Soon costs skyrocketed as the planswere finalized, and the roof was expect-ed to total $600,000, or a litt le more.

Finally the bids came in last spring,with the lowest of three nicely roundedoff to $727,727, that was submitted byRiha Construction Company of La Mesa.Consternation! That was some $100,000or more out of sight, let alone includingfurnishings and l it t le details l ike waterservice, electrical connections and so on.

The state secured an additional grantof $130,000 from the federal govern-ment, due in part to the presence ofWill iam Penn Mott, former state parksdirector, who now heads the CaliforniaState Parks Foundation. In late 1976,M ott, a longtime fr iend of Anza-Borrego,threw the suppo rt of his statewide volun -teer group behind the association.

Coincident with its special fund drive ,the association continues to publish andpurchase natural history books and ma-terials which it sells to benefit the centerfund and also operates the sales counter'at park headquarters.

Happ i l y , pa r k headqua r t e r s hadmoved from its old garage quarters inthe Borrego Palm Canyon campgroundsto a new $69,000 complex in the formerRose Steadman home on a two-acre siteat the entrance to the Palm Canyoncenter in July, 1977.

The move to more v is ib le andattractive quarters not only picked upheadquarters' attendance records butboosted book and other sales as wel l .

"I t 's l ike moving from the pits to theRitz, " Park Manager Get ty quipped.The new offices and public receptionarea nicely complement the VisitorsCenter, which is just up the alluvial fanof Hellhole Canyon.

Present plans call for dedication nextspr ing, hopefully by Easter Sunday,Daniel said. Signif icantly, groundbreak-ing ceremonies, witnessed by Daniel,Getty, Sacramento officials and othersinstrumental in the campaign, were heldMay 1, on the 50th anniversary of thestate park system.

Hopefully, the new center wil l st i l l bethe crown in the state park system by thehundred th anniversary, Ma y 1, 2078.

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36/48

NO. 24 IN A SERIES ONC ALIFORNIA PALM OASES

Southo f S h e e pC a n y o nT HE SOUTH FORK of Sheep Canyonemerges from the San Ysidros sometwo miles below Salvador Canyon.I he route to both palm oases is, in fact,the same until Collins Valley is reached.I hen the road to Sheep veers left, orwestward, and the track to Salvadoringles off to the northwest.

Collins Valley has seen much history.A fraction of a mile along the road tosheep Canyon, a dirt byway forks left to1 anta Catarina Spring at Lower W illows ,once the site of an important Cahuillavillage. Countless potsherds remain tothis day. Thick growth hides the springitself, which may be the best in thei ntire Colorado Desert. Anza named thespot for Saint Catherine when he campedhere on March 14, 1774, while openingan overland route from Sonora; his col-onizing expedition also paused at SantaCatarina on December 23, 1775. It was awelcome oasis, for not far beyond inwhat is now southern Riverside Countyi ose El Puerto Real de San Carlos, " T h eKoyal Pass of Saint Charles," whichmarked the end of the long desert por-tion of the journey. A monument on a hilloverlooking Lower Willows commemor-

ies the Span ish pa th f inder ' s tw inpeaks.

During the Garra Revolt of the early1850s, the Indians held councils of war atlower Willows, and several of theirleaders were executed near the sp ring b

197811 desert magazine 1978 november

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