196501 Desert Magazine 1965 January

8/14/2019 196501 Desert Magazine 1965 January

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T / L O S T M I N E SG H O S T T O W N T R IP S

T H E M Y S T E R I O U S S E R I S


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d e s e r t m a g a z i n e ' ss p e c i a l a t t r a c t i o n s

To orde r any or all of these SpecialAttractions send check or moneyorder to Special Attractions De-partment, Desert Magazine, PalmDesert, California 92260. Califor-nia residents please add 4 percentsales tax.

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CONTENTSVolume 28 Number 1January, 1965

This Month's CoverRuins at Red Cloud Mine (Story page 12)By JACK PEPPER

4 Books for DESERT Readers6 Dichos

By RICARDO CASTILLO7 Bottle Held Revisited

By GRACE KENDRICK8 Isolation, Beauty, Adventure

By V/ILLIAM HEAD10 Witchin' For Gold

By GRACE ARLINGTON12 The Trigos Fallen Arch

By CHORAL PEPPER

19 Lee's Lost LodeBy RETTA E. EWERS

22 It's Never Drab in MoabBy ROYCE ROLLINS

23 Photo of Turret ArchBy CARWIN VAN CAMPEN

24 Bajn's Buried BonesBy J^CK PEPPER

26 Seri Country TodayB y TED TREVOR

30 A Legend LivesBy EDNA LANDIN

32 Homage to the TufaBy ALBERT ERVIN THOMPSON

35 Vulture City, ArizonaBy LAMBERT FLORIN

38 DESERT CookeryBy LUCILLE I. C A R L E S O N

39 Desert DispensaryBy SAM HICKS

4 2 L e t t e r s f r o m our R e a d e r s4 3 P h o t o C o n t e s t

O N P A R K S A N D " O V E R C R O W D E D " O U T D O O R A R E A S . . . A500,000 acre area in eastern Utah contains some of the most spec-tacular scenery in the world. There are several good gravel roadssuitable for passenger car travel into the interior and yet relativelyfew tourists have been in. Now it has been officially designated asthe Canyonlands National Park. Hundreds of thousands of touristsare expected to swarm into the area . . . the same place that wasignored until it was designated as a Federal Park . . . A million anda half people jammed into Yosemite National Park last year, resultingin more than 900 arrests ranging from speeding to murder. There are214 buildings, stores, hotels, markets and other facilities to providematerial comforts for these people seeking "outdoor recreation." Andyet, the surrounding area outside the Park with miles of beautifulcountry and outdoor solitude is practically devoid of human beingsfleeing from crowded city conditions . . . Opposed by many conser-vationists as it would "bring thousands of people to the top of Mt.San Jacinto who would destroy the natural habitat in the surroundingwilderness area and mar the mountainside" the unobtrusive PalmSprings Tramway in Southern California, which provides a spectacu-lar and educational ride from the desert floor to 8000 feet above, isrunning behind expected capacity and less than one percent of itsriders venture more than 50 feet away from the upper station, missingsome of the finest forest scenery in the West . . . during the seasonthe designated public beach areas are so crowded you can hardlysit down and the lakes and streams are a veritable tangle of fishinglines.According to recent surveys in California alone, the need for campinghas increased from 4,316 sites available in 1961 to a minimum of60,000 in 1980, family picnic units from 5,250 to a minimum 1980 re-quirement of 117,200, and on down the line. The recently passedCalifornia bond issue allocating $150 million for financing beach andpark acquisition and development is great for future generations.But what about the people of the present generation who will be theteachers of the next generation? Are people who jam into publicpicnic grounds like sardines (there are even some camping areastoday where you have to put 50c into a parking meter in order topark your car) really getting "outdoor recreation?" Are people apprec-iating nature and the outdoors when they leave the crowded citiesonly to crowd themselves next to other people on "camping" trips?Has civilization progressed so far that people are afraid to be alone?Near every large metropolitan area in California there are hundredsof thousands of acres of deserts and mountains accessible by passen-ger car over a weekend which offer spectacular scenery, ghost towns,bottle collecting, rock hunting, flora and fauna for the education ofchildren. . . Much of this is public land, yet few people visit it outsideof hunting seasons, when hunters are so intent on stalking prey theysee nothing else.For 28 years DESERT Magazine has printed articles and stories on theunusual, uncrowded and educational areas of the West. These areasstill exist today for those who really want to "go forth under the opensky, and list to nature's teaching."

DESERT is published monthly by Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, Calif. Second Class Postage paid atPalm Desert, Calif., and at additional mailing offices under Act of March 3, 1879. Title registeredNo. 358865 in U.S. Patent Office, and contents copyrighted 1964 by Desert Magazine. Unsolicitedmanuscripts and photographs cannot be returned or acknowledged unless full return postage is enclosed.Permission to reproduce contents must be secured from the editor in writing. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE:$4.50 per year (12 issues) in the U.S.; $5.75 elsewhere. Allow five weeks for change of address, andbe sure to send the old as well as new address.JACK PEPPER, Publisher CHORAL PEPPER, Editor

Elta Shively Al Merryman R ose Holly Marvel B arrettExecutive Secretary Staff Art ist Circulation Manager Business ManagerNational Ad vertising RepresentativeG E O R G E R. J O S E P H CO.3959 W. Sixth Street, Los Angeles, Calif. Area Code 213 387-7181

Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, Calif. 92260 Area Code 714 346-8144January, 1965 / Desert Maaazine / 3


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T h e A n t i q u e B o t t l e C o l l e c t o rBy GRACE KENDRICK

Learn how to date andevaluate al l bottles of the19th Century.$2.25 postpaid

GRACE KENDRICK485 W. 4th StreetFailon, Nevada 89406

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D E S E R T M A G A Z I N EP a l m D e s e r t , Calif. 92260

GHOST TOWNSAND GOLDLEARN ABOUT THE COLORFUL GHOSTTOWNS OF THE WEST DIRECTORY CON-TAINS INFORMATION ON OVER 340 GHOSTTOWNS FEATURING PICTURES, MAPS, PLUSINSTRUCTIONS ON PANNING GOLD.PRICE: $1.00WRITE TO:

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C A L I F O R N I AG H O S T T O W N G U I D ENew guide toover 100California ghost townsUnique and authentic guide to over 100ghost towns in California's deserts and moun-tains with complete directions on how toreach them. Shows you the way to little-known and intrigue-filled towns that providehours of interest for those seeking buriedtreasures, old guns, western relics, purplebottles aged by the sun, and antique objects.

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S I L V E R T H E A T R EBy Margaret WatsonFrom its earliest saloons and melo-deons to iis handsome theatres, hereis an account of the amusements ofNevada's mining frontier from 1850to 1864. Brimming with anecdotes,quotat ions and narrat ion of the acti-vities of troupers such as Lotta Crab-tree, Adah Menken, Junius Booth,Virginia Howard and backstage sup-port from Mark Twain, Dan DeQuil le , J. Ross Browne, Julia Bulette,and a host of others, it is packed withgood research material . Hurdy-gurdygirls dancing with silver coins jingl-ing in their stockings, Mrs. Hayne 'screating her own text for Shake-

speare's Ophelia, and other nonsensetypical of the t ime make for fastreading. Hardcover, 387 pages, il-lustrated with photos and reproduc-tions of old theatre programs. Maybe ordered from DESERT MagazineBook Department. $9.50.

S O M E W E S T ER N T R E A SU R ET R A I L SBy Jesse E. RascoeHere is another Frontier book l imi-ted to 1000copies. With maps of Ari-zona, California, Nevada, Colorado,New Mexico and Texas, this paper-back 80-page book contains a wealthof information pertaining to elusiveweal thmeteor i tes , gold and silver.Author Rascoe covers the well-knownlost mines, such as the Gunsight ,Du tchman , etc., but also introduceslesser known ones gleaned from re-gional lore. It's a good book for lostmine addicts and Rascoe has done hisresearch well. $2.00. Available from

the DESERT Magazine Book OrderDepar tmen t .

T H E B I R D S OF A R I Z O N ABy Allan Phillips, Joe Marshall , GaleMonsonAccompanied by 64 full-color repro-ductions of field sketches by GeorgeMiksch Sutten and action photos byEliot Porter, this book encompassesmaterial relating to 400 species of

birds that frequent Life Zones inArizona ranging from the hot Son-oran desert through oak and pinonwoodlands, grassland, transit ionalpine and fir-aspen forests to the Arc-

tic-Alpine Zone of sedge meadowabove the t imber l ine .T h e aim of the large format, 215-page book is to tell exactly where

and when each kind of Arizona birdcan be found and to tell of thatwhich is interestihg about it. Hereornithology is presented as an en-gaging pursuit rather than a pom-polis dicta of experts, which is a re-freshing approach.Bird lovers everywhere will appre-ciate this beautiful book, even thoughit is slanted toward Arizona. Thisreviewer especially recommends it.Hardcover. Price SI5.00. The publi-cation date was Dec. 1st, so it's hotoff the press! May be ordered fromDESERT Magazine Book Depar tment

SHADY LADIES OF TH E W E S TBy Ro nald Dean M illerHere's a book that will sell likehot cakesand no one will be dis-appointed. Mr. Miller has coveredthis heretofore unexplored area ofAmerican history with Iivliness andhas lost nothing in authenticity."The Wes t had not only the fastestguns," he writes, "but also the fastestwomen." He describes the lives andtimes of Lola Monte/ , Catt le Kate,Highstep Jennie, Madame Feather-legs, Julie Bulette, and other famousgirls of the line from San Franciscoto Kansas City.These women, who followed theMounta in Men and the Miners, con-tr ibuted to the West's first civilizinginfluence. Many married and attain-ed respectability by producing someof the West's most honored citizens.

Others , of course, left a history ofsin.This 224-page book, hardcover andi l lustrated with early photographs,may be ordered from the D E S E R TMagazine Book Department. $6.95.

A M E R I C A N GEM T R A I L SBy Richard M. PearlAn unusual feature of this book isits collection of individual outl ine

maps of the United States showingthe distr ibution of various gem stonesso the reader can determine at aglance what to look for in whateversection of the country he happens to


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C h o r a l P e p p e rbe. The author treats each gem stoneindividually, describing its appear-ance, chemical composition, mineralrelationships, origin, geologic occur-ences, physical aspects and means ofrecognition. Then, in aseparatechapter, he deals with its history andlegends. He describes the discoveryof diamonds in glacial rock and divingfor jade in California waters. Th is isa good little 173-page, hardcoverbook, packed with information andfine black and white photos and il-lustrations. $5.50. May be orderedfrom DESERT Magazine Book De-partment.BUNKER HILL LOS ANGELESBy Leo PolitiThis colorful book with highlystyled Victorian illustrations mixesfact with fancy as it depicts the once-elegant Bunker Hill residential dis-trict olLos Angeles. Autho r-artistPoliti drew from memory, preciousold photos, and word-of-mouth de-scriptions from present and formerresidents to bring alive the gaiety ofgrand parties, the excitement of firewagons, the cat on the roof and theold man snoozing on ashaded Bun-ker Hill porch. His whimsical draw-ings produce a book to prize. Enoughis left of Bunker Hill to be able todistinguish certain landmarks in thebook, but by 1970 wrecking craneswill have leveled the remaining cur-licued buildings and replaced themwith the long straight lines of today.

Containing five chapters, this large9x12 format reeks with the color ofprize-winning artist Politi's great il-lustrations. Hardcover. $9.00. May beordered from DESERT MagazineBook Department.INDIAN ART IN MIDDLEAMERICABy Frederick J. Dockstader

This truly great book covers bothancient and modern art of the entiremiddle American geographical areafrom the Rio Grande to South Amer-ica, including islands ofthe WestIndies. Each of the 250 full-color il-lustrations is documented with an ex-planatory caption and informative,easily read tex t. Because the Spanishwere more interested in gold than inthe cultural aspects of the civilizationsthey found here only 400 years ago,

D e s e r t M a gBook: Order DepartmentWESTERN GHOST TOWN SHADOWS by LambertFlorin. Fourth in aseries of superb ghost townbooks by DESERT'S favo rite khost to wn writ er.Large format, good photos, rousing text. $12.50.GEMS, MINERALS, CRYSTALS AND ORES byRichard Pearl. This collector's encyclopedia isthe best ofits kind. Brill iantly i l lustrated withfull-color photos. Arranged in alphabetical orderf rom Agate toZircon, ittells where tof indthem, how to identify, collect, cut and display.Hardcover, 320 pages. $6.95.PICTURE GALLERY PIONEERS by Ralph W. An-drews. Remarkable collection ofhistoric photosrecording places and events important toth eWest between 1850 and 1875. Also includeslively text. Hardcover, large format, $12.50.Makes an excellent gift.DESERT WILDLIFE by Edmund C. Jaeger. A seriesof intimate natural history sketches o f wil d ani-mals, mammals, birds, reptiles and insects thatfrequent the Southwest desert. Although scien-tif ic innature, itoffers pleasurable reading.308 pages, $5.95.THE VOICE OF THE DESERT by Joseph WoodKrutch. This book explores the intriguing vari-ety ofife on the Sonoran and Southwest des-erts by one of the country's most distinguishedwriters. Covers flora, fauna, and philosophy.223 pages, hardcover, $5.00.DESERT WILD FLOWERS by Edmund C. Jaeger.Revised edition of this authoritative, best sellingbook contains a key to aid in identification anda list of name changes. This books is a"mus t "for desert travelers and botanists. Well illustratedwi th a text understan dable by amateurs, DESERTparticularly recommends it.322 pages, hard-cover, published by Stanford University Press.$5.00. Orde r fro m DESERT Magazine Book D ept.PAINTERS OF THE DESERT by Ed Ainswor th.Abeautifully i l lustrated and well-written roundupof 13 of the desert's outstanding artistsDixon,Forsythe, Swinnerton, Fechin, Eytel, Lauritz, Buff,Klinker, Perceval, Hilton, Proctor, McGrew, andBender. Folio size, gold-stam ped hard cover.Full color reproductions. 125 pages. $11.00.ANZA-BORREGO DESERT GUIDE by Horace Par-ker Second edition ofthis well- i l lustrated anddocumented book is enlarged considerably. Topsamong guidebooks, it isequally recommendedfor research material in an area that was crossedby Anza, Kit Carson, the Mormon Battalian, '49ers,Railroad Survey parties, Pegleg Smith, the Jack-ass Mai l , Butterfield Stage, and today's adven-turous tourists. 139 pages, cardboard cover.$2.95. May be ordered from DESERT MagazineBook Dept.NEVADA'S TURBULENT YESTERDAY by Don Ash-baugh. I l lustrated with af ine collection ofo ldphotos and throbbing with excit ing tales ofNevada's robust past, this an authentic ghosttown history written by one of Nevada's favor-ite authors. Hard cover. 346 pages. $7.50.

Send Check or Money Order to:

THREE PATHS ALONG A RIVER By Tom Hudson.I l lustrated byRalph Love. Once ariver, theSan Luis Rey isnow only anintermittentstream. History marched beside the river, andin asense the Valley ofSan Luis Rey cancalled the Gateway toCalifornia. The earliestoverland travelers coming from Mexico andwest from the States traveled the Carrizo Cor-ridor leading inland through Temecula toth eMission of San Gabriel and the Pueblo ofLosAngeles. The Butterfield Stage route crossedthe river near its headwaters. 245 page. Hardcover. $6.THE DESERT IS YOURS by Erie Stanley Gardner.In his latest book on the desert areas ofth eWest, the author again takes his reader withhim as he uses every means of transportation toexplore the wilderness areas and sift the factsand rumors about such famous legends as theLost Arch, Lost Dutchman and Lost Dutch Ovenmines. 256 pages, i l lustrated. Hard cover. $7.50.THE OREGON DESERT by ER. Jackman andR. A. Long. This book is ahard one to define.A single paragraph may be amixture ofgeo-logy, history, biography and r ich desert lore.The only complete book about the Oregon desert,the material applies equally well to other des-erts ofthe West. The humor and fascinatinganecdotes coupled with factual background andunusual photos, including color, make itexcel-lent reading material even for those who maynever visit Oregon. 407 pages, i l lustrated. HardCover. Third printing, $6.50.LOST MINES AND HIDDEN TREASURES by Le-land Lovelace. Authoritative and exact accountsgive locations and fascinating data about alostlake ofgold inCalifornia, buried Aztec ingotin Arizona, kegs of coins, and all sorts of excit-ing booty for treasure seekers. Hardcover, $4.00.THE DINOSAUR HUNTERS, Othneil CMarshand Edward D. Cope, By Robert Plate. Adualbiography ofthe first dinosaur hunters whosebitter r ivalry split the scientif ic world for about25 years but whose exploits ofhe 1870s and1880s excited the public imagination and madedinosaurs ahousehold wor d. Easy reading, thebook ispacked with action result ing from theintense feud between Marsh and Cope, bothwealthy men who exhausted their fortunes inthe arduous hunt for the creatures of the past.281 pages. Hard Cover. $4.95.GHOSTS OF THE ADOBE WALLS by Nell Mur-barger, the wel l known " rov ing repor ter of thedesert." The author's just-published book isanintimate chronicle ofArizona's once-boomingmining towns, stage stations, army posts, mar-auding Indians and fantastic human characters.380 pages, i l lustrated. Hard Cover. $7.50.GHOSTS OF THE GLORY TRAIL by Nell Mur-barger is afast moving chronicle ofWesternboomcamp and bonanza. Rich in human interestas well as authentic history, this book coversghosttowns of Nevada, western Utah and easternCalifo rnia. Hardcover, 291 pages. Price $6.75.

DESERT Magazine Book Order DepartmentPalm Desert, California 92260Include 25c for postage and handlin g. California residents must add 4% sales tax.

Please do not ask to be billed.


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SPICE YDURSPANISH WITH

DICHDSB y R i c a rd o C a s t i ll o

"Dichos" are thepungent Spanishproverbs which add somuch colorand logic to the conversation andthinking of our Mexican neighbors.

"Ser como el perico quedice loque sabe, pero que nosabe lo quedice."Like the parrot, you say w h a t youk n o w , but you do not k n o w w h a t yous a y ."No quiero queDios me de, sinoque meponga donde haya."" I d o n ' t ask God to g i v e me m u c h ,just put mew h e r e t h e r e ' s p l e n t y ."Quien con aguardiente cena,conagua se desayuna."H e who d i n e s onw h i s k e y , w i l lb r e a k f a s t w i t h w a t e r .

it wasn't until recent years that in-terest inthis region's art grew keen.Certain generalizations in MiddleAmerican art may be made. Clayfigurines suggest a preoccupationwith "doing things" as subject mat-te r and love ofstone for itsown sakeis evident intheir ability tocoordin-ate design with natural form. Other-wise, there is no criter ion commonto allMiddle American civil izations;a fact which gives variety to collec-tions such asportrayed here.Further words would be excessivein a t tempt ing to describe this book.It is expensive$25but each of itslarge format, 221 pages isunsurpassedby any other publication onthis sub-ject known tous. Those interested inPre - Columbian and contemporaryarts and crafts of Mexico, CentralAmerica and the Caribbean will wantto have it. May be ordered fromDESERT Magazine Book Depar tment .

MODERNMINERALPROCESSINGFLOWSHEETSOver 100 flowsheetsdata on over 200 importantmineralsmill designs, metallurgical summaries.A one-volume encyclopedia! Year's most usefu!book! Available in twoeditions: Deluxe edition$10.00; student's edition $6.60 per copy (plus post-a g e ) . Unconditional money-back guarantee. Booksent postpaid anywhere inthe world, it paymentaccompanies order. Mail order to:

Technical Publ ication D e p t . DMDenver Equipment Co.1400 - 17th St., Denver, Colorado 80217

Order aFREE

Desert-Southwest Book CatalogMore than 75Southwestern titles. His-tory, lost mines, Indian lore, adventure,gunmen, nature subjects, art of the area,guide books, travel, ghost towns, desertlegends.For your free Desert-Southwest BookCatalog, send your name and addressto:D e s e r t - S o u t h w e s t B o o k S t o r eP . O . Box 757Palm Desert, California

D E S E R T S u b s c r i p t i o n S e r v i c eg iEnter a Subscription u \g ( A d d r e s s C h a n g e O n l y

1-year subscription$4.50 One2-year subscrip-tion, or,D Two 1-year sub-scriptions . $8.50

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R e c o m m e n d e d B o o k s o nBAJA CALIFORNIAAND MEXICOHUNTING THE DESERT WHALE by Erie StanleyGardner. Among the f irst Americans to evercamp at Scammon's Lagoon in Baja California,if not thef irst, Gardner learned, while huntingthe great grey whale with a camera that theydon' t sit graciously for portraits! Whale huntingand beach combing for rare treasures make forexcit ing reading. Hardcover, 208 pages, illus-trated with photos. $6.00.THE HIDDEN HEART OFBAJA by Erie StanleyGardner. Thenoted creator of the best-sellingmysteries of ourt ime has written several bookson Baja California and thedesert areas of theWest. With his talent of combining adventureand mystery with facts, the author takes youwi th him as he probes the mysteries of "TheHidden Heart of Baja" andtells how he dis-covered an archeological f ind of major impor-tance thus opening upa new concept regardingcave paintings. 256 pages, i l lustrated with colorphotos of Indian paintings. Hard cover. $7.50.LOWER CALIFORNIA GUIDE BOOK by Gerhardand Gulick. Theauthors have revised the th irdedit ion to br ing it up to date. Veteran travelersin Baja California would not venture south ofthe border without this authoritative volume. Itcombines the fascinating history of every loca-t ion, whether it be a town, mission or aban-doned ranch, with detailed mileage maps andlocations of gasoline supplies, water andotherneeded information on Baja. 243 pages withthree-color folding map, 16detailed route maps,4 city maps, 22 i l lustrations. Hard cover. $6.50.MEET FLORA MEXICANA byWalter Pesman. Ab-solutely essential for travelers into OldMexicoor Baja who want toknow thenames, uses andhabits of f lora that grows along roads andhighways. Well i l lustrated with lively text. 278pages. Paperback, $4.00.A SOUTHWESTERN UTOPIA ByThomas A. Rob-ertson. An American Colony in Mexico. Halfa century agosome 2000 Americans, pioneers,idealists and adventurers trekked into north-western Mexico intent onfo rming a cooperativecolony. The author (reared among thecolonists)tells of the tr ials, failures and successes ofcolony life. This book, describing the peopleand life inMexico's Sinaloa will beenjoyed bythose whodream escapist dreams. 266pages.Hard cover. $5.95.FROM NEW SPAIN BYSEA TOTHE CALIFOR-NIAS byMaurice G.Holmes. Here is anaccountof the exploits of Cortes, Atvarado, Cabril lo andde Mendoza containing awealth of new materialdu g up by theauthor from archives in Spain.It covers an era of Baja's history prior to themission erathat is ignored by most historians.307 pages. $11.00.THE FORGOTTEN PENINSULA ByJoseph WoodKrutch. Anexcit ing account of theauthor's ex-ploits in Baja California told with wit and wis-d o m . It includes information about the boojumtree, the gray whales of Scammon's Lagoon,elephant trees andhistorical sketches of inter-esting sites. 277pages. $5.00.MEXICO BYAUTO, CAMPER, TRAILER by CliffCross. An excellent travel guide containing 50maps, money-saving tips, motels, hotels, trailerspace, camping, hunting and fishing areas alongw i t h a wealth of general information. Softcover, large format, $2.95.Order from:

DESERT Magazine Book DepartmentPalm Desert, California 92260Include 25c for postage and handling.California residents add 4% sales tax.


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B O T T L E F IE L D R E V ISIT E DB Y G R A C E K E N D R I C K

I T W A S O N E of those bright blueand gold Nevada days when everyshrub l ooks newly mi n t ed , c l e a nand fresh. Itha d bee n 12 years sincewe first dug bottles inGoldfield, butwe knew more about our hobby now.We knew there was no point inwast-ing t ime hunt ing on the surface.Ratherlike the gold diggers whomade this town famous, we'd haveto "mine ." It wasn't long unti l webegan tohit "pay dirt ." On the rockyside of a gulch wedug into a veri-table cache of French and Ital ianwine bottles94 to beexact!

These lovely, bulbous, long-neckedbott les, while not as old or asvalu-able as many bot t les , aregood ex-amples of free blown skill. No twoalike, they show bubbles, dimples andimperfect ions and come inpaleanddeep greenish aqua orwith anambercast. Of three sizes, some have Chi-anti etched onthe side, bits of labelswith other names, andmany he ldTuscany wine from Italy where theyare yet being blown and covered witha protec t ive hand woven holder ofstraw.We also found anamber whiskey,a near nat ive from San Francisco, andan aqua beer bott le from theSiouxCi ty Brewing Co. Who knows howit journeyed so far! Al t hough notcollectors' items yet, they addinter-est andvaria t ion to our collectionand , of course, their value wil l in-

crease with time.An amethyst ol ive oil, an aquaH.H.H. horse l iniment , a Carter 'spour ink, Mell ins food and one of

the four oval-sided olive bottles thatturn a deep amethyst inthe sun, sev-eral tall wines and a tall slim, antiquebud vase allcomprised a satisfactoryday's digging and proved that bott lefields considered already "overwork-ed" still have plenty in their coffersif you are will ing todig.After loading our lode to carry

home, we decided totake a little tourof Goldfield, for this oldcamp hasa golden heri tage, notonly of valu-able metal , but of history, romanceand struggle.Pause for abrief moment and you'l lhear the quiet atmosphere come al ive.You'l l hear thet inkle of honky tonkpianos, the clink of a faro table, boi-sterous crowds of miners celebrat inga new strike or,just because it wasSaturday night , the clop, clop of

teams and therattles of wagons inthe dusty street.Down the boardwalk on a sidestreet lined with oldframe cabins,you'll hear echoes of family life on astill nightthe crying of ababy, bark-in g of dogs, sounds of children atplay. It is all there for those inter-ested thehappiness, sorrow, pain,glory and the everlast ing struggle justto live in harsh desert land. Never-theless, Goldfield isbeautiful , with itscolorful maze of old mi ne dumpsetched with spidery head frames.Sometimes it'sgood for thespirit,traveling back in imagina t ion toourdesert 's early times. While weenjoythe historic old camps and their trea-sures, it keeps us aware of the20thCentury comforts andtreasures thatenable us toenjoy the old ones more.in

fe

. tnmim. 1 OR C. I Tioo rt \K ~-S /


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R .ED R OC K C anyon did not playan important par t in the bui lding ofth e old West. Will iam Manly foundwater there after he and his partyescaped death in Death Valley in1849, but he made l i t t le mention ofth e canyon's beauty. Later, in the'70s, the old stage line from Los An-geles to Owens Valley watered stockat a spring in the canyon. Then, in1937, a homesteader discovered minesin the vicinity of her home, whichmade a l i t t le news. Today thecan-yon wins at tent ion as the stage forEaster sunrise services and as anoccasional location for filming West-ern movies, but its greatest asset,in addit ion to its dist inct ive coloringand formations, is the fact that itis so l i t t le known.

The gold found here was notenough to lure miners from Bodieand Virginia City, but it has beenreported that a mill ion dollars wastaken from its mines. According tolegend, one single nugget worth over

by william headS1000 was recovered in Reed Gulch,located near Red Rock. Old mineshafts and cabins may still be found,b u t the canyon's only permanentpopulation consists of ghosts.This s t range and beautiful canyonis on the major route between LosAngeles and Reno, Nevada , via theOwens Valley and majestic Mt. Whit -ney. New four-lane U.S. Highway 6was c o m p l e t e d only three years agoand runs along the creekbed of RedRock Creek, extending through wallsof weird sculptures. There 's a Ca-thedral with Praying Nuns, an am-phitheater, temples, palaces, and averitable holocaust of monsters.Obsidian, pumice and other typesof volcanic rock prove that the can-yon wasonce the center of great erup-tive activity. Strata was deposited,layer upon layer, in horizontal orderu p o n a floor of crystalline rocks toa depth of several thousand feet.Moderate consolidat ion has t a k e nplace over the years, tilting some of

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the strata as much as 45 from thehorizontal. The entire formation hasbeen deeply eroded, with much ofthe lost material escaping in the floodwaters of Red Rock Creek.The highway follows what isknown as the Ricardo formation for

about two and one-half miles. Thehills along the main highway are un-derlain by folded sandstone strata ofthe Ricardo formation and cappedby Pleistocene terrace gravels. Agate,brown jasper, quartz, and crystalshave been found in the canyon, butcollectors will find rare specimensonly if they hike back from the high-way. Mammal remains have beenfound in the upper part of the Ricar-do formation and petrified trees inthe Last Chance Canyon adjoiningRed Rock.

Most of Red Rock Canyon is form-ed of comparatively soft conglomer-ate rock, making the life of the can-yon, in a geological sense, rathershort. There areplaces where erosionis eating it away, yet at the sametime higher up on the mountainsidenew formations are being depositedto counteract nature's leveling action.In springtime the blue of lupine,violet of Indian paintbrush and gol-den splash of poppy accent thescene. The best hours for photogra-phy are early morning or late after-noon when weird shadows haunt thecliffs. But even in the spring thecanyon can be hot, or the creek sud-denly become a raging river in aHash flood, so observe all precautionsfor desert camping and travel. / / /

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CHANGING ADDRESS?New postal regulations make it importantthat you send your change-of-address noticeto us pro mp tly. And please remember to listyour old address as well as your new andyour Zip Code.DESERT Magazine-Palm Desert, Calif. 92260

FREE!Helpful brochurefor rock hobbyists!This new brochure,fresh off the presses, isa v a i l a b l e w i t h o u tcharge to rock hobby-ists and readers ofDesert Magazine. Spe-cial sections on sharp-ening, reversing andinstallation of diamondblades for better lapi-dary cutting ... alsoincludes useful tips oncoolants, lubricants,speeds and feeds, andother suggestions onhow to get longer and better wear fromyour cutting equipment. Compact andeasy-reading, well-illustrated. Writetoday for your copy.

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W I T C H I N ' FOR G O L Db y G r a c e A r l i n g t o n

THOSE long-ago days ofthe Spanish Co nquistadores and Poncede Leon men have searched for goldand a founta in of youth . Now comesWilson W. Adams of Cactus, Arizona,who claims to know a way to findboth .

"Fresh air, plenty of exercise, andthe excitement of witchery," says the70-year-old desert dweller, skitteringlike a young man up mountain slopesand across miles of rough terrain.Tall , straight, and bearded, with hislong hair braided down his back,Adams enjoys his listeners reactionswhen he claims he can divine for

water andas though that doesn't taxour credulity enoughhas a sure-firemethod lor locating gold and urani-um, so he says."And witchin' keeps a man young,"he insists.His words bring wonder to the facesof his listeners, or disbelief, awe, ora wild hope that here is a get-rich-quick scheme for those who aren'tlucky enough to win a pot of goldby entering contests.

The mystery of the water witchhas defied logical solutions for ages.How can a forked twig from a willowor peach tree possess a magic thatwill point to water far down in theg round? Weigh ty a rgumen t s h a v eproven that it can't; that he whowould divine for water is a fakir anda deceiver of gullible people.

But arguments just as weighty provethat i t can, and Adams has spent alifetime in what he claims is the bestproof of allthe doing of the thing.He has cut the mysterious willow

twigs and told men where to locatewater across the continent in a zig-zagpath from Illinois, where he wasraised, to the East and then westwardto Arizona where he says his bewitch-

ing talent has never caused a man todig a dry hole, though in an earlierera religion might have brought per-secution. When witchcraft first rear-ed its head, the water dowser was saidto be possessed and an academic thesiswrit ten at Wittenburg, Prussia, once"proved" the divining rod was taintedby Satan.

But in Adams' hands the rod en-tices interest. "W an t to know how towitch for water?" he asks, whenpeople gather to watch him work.He cuts a forked branch from anative tree or bush. Says it worksbetter. Grasping the slender ends in

each hand he holds it out in frontwith the Y po intin g away from him.Then he walks slowly back and forthover the area where someone hopesto sink a well. Suddenly he standsstill."There she goes," he shouts, as theslick begins to point down. "Look atit! 1 can't h old it! Th ere 's water downthere. Wherever t he s ticks p o i n t ,there's water, be it rainy Illinois ordry Arizona."Scientific doubts of such a state-ment were offered as early as the17th Ce ntu ry. Yet, there are an esti-mated 25,000 dowsers in the UnitedStates today. A recent study of thephenomenon "proves" that the powerof the divining rod is rnere foolery:Anthropologist Evan S. Vogt andpsychologist Ran Hyman, a GeneralElectric consultant, came up with theexplanation suspected by othersthat the dowser grips the twig sotightly for such a long period thatfinally he is forced to relax, and some-how this reflex action points the stickdown.But Adams doesn't grip the sticktightly fo r long periods. Sometimesit indicates water after he walks onlya few seconds. And at that spot he

10 / Desert Mag azine / Ja nua ry, 1965


11/44

can lay the willow down, then pickit up, and immediately it points to-ward the ground.Me claims no occult powers. Sug-gestions of extra-sensory perceptionleave him cold. But he knows whathe knowswhere the sticks point ifa well is sunk there's water. Nowsomething has happened that may

oiler a solution. It came about whenhe was using what he claims is a newtalent.When he hit Arizona, the gold bugbit him, raising a lever from which hehas never recovered and luring himover miles of wasteland in the beliefthai veins of precious metals awaitedthose who sought them. But where?He hadn't much patience with the or-dinal) prospector's haphazard chip-ping of rock. Wilson Adams demand-ed a more certain method. And whatcould be better than two white sticks

in the hands of a water witch? Heclaims to be able to find preciousmetals with it.Does that make him a gold witch?

Perhaps the most bewitching thoughtis that he can find radium. Thereinmay lie the solution to this most per-plexing ol riddles. Radiation, stillcomparatively unknown, has earnedthe limelight of scientific study dur-ing Adams' 70 years. It was by chancethat he came into contact with it.He got himself two white sticks

and crossed them at one end. On the


12/44

T h e T r i g o ' s F a l l e n A r c hT H O U G H T of ano ther j ung le -of a steaming, h ot creeping mahog-an y forest in C e n t r a l America whereour train paused every mile or sowhile dark-skinned natives cu t away

roots over-growing the tracks. Butthis was different. This was a junglein the desert! Instead of mahogany,teak and orchids, we pushed throughtamarisk, bamboo and spidery netswoven through great crowded treesgrowing horizontally a long theg round .Protecting his eyes with a camera,Jack squeezed among branches thatsnapped against the car. In a narrowdirt road he held a light meter intoheavy shadows and focused. Then heduiked back into his seat."What 's your hurry?" I asked." N oi se s ," h e a ns w er ed , l o o k i n gsheepish. 1 opened my window andknew what he meant. Unseen wings

12 / Desert Magazine / January , 1965

b y C H O R A L P E P P E Rswished in the foliage. Crack les,whines, whirrs and buzzes hauntedthe black shadows. It was n't like anydesert ought to be. And very shortlyit reached an end.

We were following the C o l o r a d oR i v e r north of Yuma. Our narrow,dirt road had passed from a publicc a m p ground amid palo verde grovesinto naked sunbaked hil ls. We open-ed the gate of the Imperial NationalWildlife Refuge and drove througha melee of chalk mountains and lavaboulders.. The roughest part of ourtrip lay ahead. We were looking forthe Lost Arch Mine!Lost mine alficionados will ridiculea search lor the Lost Arch on theeast side of the C o l o r a d o , but not so

authorit ies l ike Erie Stanley Gardner.It was he who, indirectly, stimulatedthis t r i p . D E S E R T readers will recalla letter to the Editor from N. T.Jackson of Calipatria, California,

published in October '64. In thisletter, which Mr. Jackson requestedwe forward to Erie Stanley Gardner,he suggested that a mine he hadcome upon in the T r i g o s tw o yearsago might be the famous Lost ArchMine referred to in Gardner's book,T he Desert Is Yours, parts of whichappealed in DESERT, December '63.At the time of the Jackson letter, Mr.Gardner was occupied with othermatters, but took the idea seriouslyenough to suggest that DESERT in-stitute a first-hand investigation.Even so, we hesitated. T h e saga ofthe Lost Arch has been told and re-told in past issues of DESERT, aswell as in a number of books. Half-heartedly we riffled throu gh o ur old

photo files. But we didn't remainhall-hearted very long. Gardner wassurprised to discover two arches whenhe explored the Turtle Mountains togather material lor his book, either


13/44

one ot which may have held the secretof the lost lode. Our files revealedthree arches, each at tributed to th eLost Arch Mine legend. And noneof our three resembled his two! W i t ht ha t , we took a closer look. W ha t ofthese numerous arches, we asked our-selves? Which arch, if any, is thearch?Further research proved only onething. The Lost Arch Mine has morefaces than Eve. In addition to natu-ral arches, one famous legend describ-ed a man-made onean adobe archerected to connect two huts occupiedby the Mexicans who discovered andworked the mine . Diversion doesn' tend there. In another version, its dis-coverer was an American named Ams-den and in still others, a pair of pros-pectors named Crocker and Fish.Then, aga in, a German na tura l i s tnamed Kohler was to guide a pros-pector named Packer to the famous

arch, but met with a fatal accidenten rou te. Th ese are only a few ofth e fables that shroud the Lost ArchMine. In addit ion, i ts locat ion hasbeen variously reported in the Tur-tles, in the Old Woman Mounta insand in the Whipplesall of Califor-nia.So what provocation have we toconsider i t in the Trigo Mountainson the Arizona side of the ColoradoRiver? Very little, other than thefact that in Gardner's version thediscoverer, named Fish, expired in

Ehrenberg where hi s par tner hadtaken him for medical attention a fewdavs follow ing his rich discovery. IfFish had been wandering down thewest bank of the Colorado, thirst-maddened and hal l-dead with expo-sure, why, then, didn't they seekmedical help in Blythe on the Cali-fornia side? Why would they takeihe time to ferry the river to Ehren-berg? F u r t he r m o r e , who can provethey were wandering down-riverrather than up; or on the west bankrather than the east? In those days acanny prospector didn't disclose event he a p p r o xi m a t e location of a richplacer before he'd staked and record-ed his claim.C o n s i d e r i n g al l , o n l y one fac torcomes through loud and clear: therewas an arch in conjunction with thelost rich vein. This, of course, wasa safe enough revelation on the partof its discove rer. In those days anyprospector hardy enough to mounta burro knew tha t the Turt le , W h i p -pie and Old W o m a n ranges werelousy with arches.So now we come to the Jacksontheory. The mine he came upon inthe Trigos was near the famous oldClip Mine. The reason he suspicion-

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14/44

Above: Jack hears loud beeps on hismetal detector

Below:authorMine.Robert Carr and friends tellof their work at the Kathy D

Berton appears to have been on theArizona shore one autumn day in1878. Where it is now, no one knows.We noticed a charcoal lighter-fluid can hanging from a limb oppo-site a trail to the left. Ho pin g itindicated a good camp spot, wefollowed the trail up a hill and thendown to a willow-edged lagoon. W ewould liked to have camped in this

tiny cove with its sandy beach, butthoughtless campers had left such amess of cans and junk that we stop-ped only long enough for a quickswim.Back on the main road, we campedon a knoll beside Indian Wash andcooked dinner while the sun droppedbehind the Trigos. Activity increasedduring the night, but i t wasn't hu-man activity. A family of raccoonsraided our trash box and at dawn abraying burro awakened us. But ourgreatest thrill in the wildlife depart-ment occured while sausage sizzledover the fire and the aroma of coffeespread far and wide. A mo ther doeand her lawn crept timidly from acover of sagging mesquite and wan-dered so close to us that Jack accused

them of begging coins to model forphotos. When I approached themwith my camera, however, t h e yevaporated into an arroyo.A few diggings scar the hills oneach side of the road, but the mostexciting remnant of early mining inthe Eureka district today exists in alegend. It was here in Yuma Wash,while hiking between Red Cloud

Mine to the nor th and La For tunato the south, that prospector JohnNummel rested in the shade of apalo verde tree and enjoyed a swigof water from his canteen. Morefrom habit than anticipation, he ham-mered a chunk of yellow quartz froma nearby ledge. To his utter astonish-ment, it shone with free gold. Notequipped to take advantage of thestrike and, for reasons of his own,not wishing to return immediately tothe Red Cloud, he pocketed the oreand proceeded to La Fortuna wherehe hoped to make enough money todevelop his min e later. How ever,when the eventful day arrived, hisgolden ledge was nowhere to befound. All we Pepp ers can add tothis saga is that there are a heck ofa lot of palo verde trees in YumaWash!We were reveling in the wonderfulquiet of the desert when Trent calledour attention to a radio antenna tow-ering above a hill to our left. Curious,we followed a pair of tracks aroundthe low hill and into a wash. Th ere ,

appearing too suddenly for us towithdraw unobserved, stalked two'men with holstered guns strappedaround their hips. Jack stopped thecar and approached on foot, relieved,I think, to see smiles on their faces.We joined them in the shade of theircanopy to await three members oftheir party with whom they were incommunication by radioa system soelaborate we accused them of havingthe whole desert wired for sound.Soon the others arr ived, droppedore samples into a bucket and tooklong drinks of water from a huge tankthey'd broug ht in by trailer. Rob ertCarr of Yuma, owner of the KathyD Mine in Black Rock Wash, ex-plained that the other prospectorswere friends who joined him week-ends to help work his claims. Th eyhoped to take enough gold fromwashes to finance a silver miningoperat ion.Actually, in partnership with aCalifornia man, Carr has 15 claimsin the Arizona Silver District, some

of which he hopes to sell. But firsthe feels they must prove mining to-day is profitablewhich accounts forhis complex communications system.Whereas in the old days it wasn't14 / Desert Magazine / Janua ry, 1965


15/44

Right: Red Cloud mellows into thelandscape today. Below: Only impres-sive remain of early grandeur.safe for a miner to work isolatedareas alone, with a walkie-talkie radiosystem, a man can be in constanttouch with workers or supervisorsand two claims can be worked simul-taneously with only two men. LouMonroe, a hobby-prospector in theradio business, set up the system forCarr and expects it to pay for itselfin gold dust. Visitors are welcomedto this camp, especially while itsowner has a few claims to sell!

Back on the main road, which re-minded us of Baja's Highway No. 1,we joggled north among a series ofshafts designated on our old miningmap as the Black Rock, Silver Glanceand Papago mines. The country grewmore rugged as we progressed, al-though Carr's party reported thatthey'd driven as far as Red Cloud inlate model passenger cars.

Jack stopped at a fathomless cavitywe pegged as the Black Rock mine tosee if our Goldak detector wouldregister any minerals still under-ground. During produc tive days, Sil-ver District produced over a milliondollars worth of ore, but m i n e r sweren't as thorough then as theycould be with modern equipment to-day. Judging from Jack's reactionwhen he tuned-in his ear phones,the old-timers overlooked plenty!This metal locator, incidentally, isdifferent from those we have used onother trips. This one is gauged toreact to minerals 20 feet or more un-derground and which cover an areaof a foot or more in diameter. Modelsmore sensitive, but less strong, aredesigned to detect smaller items, suchas relics and coins, buried in shallowgraves. Each model has its own ad-vantages, depending upon what theseeker seeks.

Our next stop was Red Cloudmine about two miles north. Ruinsfrom World War II structures con-trast grimly with those of the 1880s.Red Cloud died twiceonce in 1890,again in 1949. The more recent struc-tures, flimsily built, resemble tem-porary movie sets, but the substan-tial remains of older ones speak ofan erstwhile hope for an everlastingbonanza.Overlooking this ghost town, oncenamed Silent, are the broken wallsof what probably represented thefinest dwelling in town. Pro tudin gabove a mound of sand, gracefulposts of a once-elegant brass bedcreated a mystery. We recognizedthem as an identical facsimile of abedstead we'd seen in a photo takenmany years ago by former DESERT

writer Harold Weight when he visit-ed an old cabin occupied by the sameJohn Nummel of lost gold fame. Mr.Nummel was at one time a caretakerlor the Red Cloud, but lived awayfrom the property in a cabin on hisown homestead near Norton's Land-ing.Staggered along an opposite ridgefrom this ruin are foundations ofhouses dug into hillsides, with onlytheir facades built of stone. Every-where are scattered masses of wea-thered sidingthe wind-strewn re-mains of a wide roof that once cover-ed La Cantina Plata, an old store-saloon described by Nell Murbargerin Ghosts of the Adobe Walls.Silent, established in 1879 andnamed for Judge Charles Silent, was

January, 1965 / Desert Magazine / 15


16/44

A-frame dwelling of North Geronimo miner.later renamed Pacific City. In addi-tion to its function as a trading cen-ter for the mines in the vicinity, italso provided a way-station on theYum a-Ehrenberg stage run. A smallsmelter was built in the 1880s, butwas unsuccessful and closed afterabout three years. Rusting into ob-livion and lying within a circumfer-ence of several miles, equipment ofvarious ages and models rattles inthe desert wind, a requiem to timesthat will never live again.

It wasn't our intention to camp atthe Red Cloud, but after following

several wrong roads in search of theClip Mine, we returned there forour second night. One of these fiascoscarried us to Norton's Landing. Th iswe didn't regret, although the 14-mileround trip through Red Cloud Wash(for 4-wheel drive vehicles only) wastime-consuming. The scenery wasbeautiful, but the old wagon roadwas so faint we kept thinking of Wal-ter Nelson, the Red Cloud Mine'slast caretaker whose lifeless body wasfound in this wash beside his sand-bogged car in 1955.An earlier tragedy occured in 1884

Trent scouts ahead on his Burrito to loo k for old road.

when a flood of the Colorado de-stroyed 30 Red Cloud companyhouses and threatened the smelter atNorton's Landing. Today's onlyremnant of this once busy port whereriver boats docked to load ore is atiny building constructed of willows.Damming of the Colorado has sochanged the river's channel that Nor-ton's Landing is now far inland andhardly worth taking the time to visit.Our second wrong route led to theDives Mine. Instead of turn ing on-to Norton's Landing road, since ithad misled us on our first attempt,we continued along the main roadleading north from the Red CloudMine. Wash-outs rendered it im-passable within a half-mile or so ofa huge mill hanging precariouslyon the edge of a mountain aboverainbow-tinted tailings. The mill ap-peared to be in reasonably good con-dition. To explore it, however, wouldrequire some mountain climbing and

road building.In this area, I must admit, we cameupon the first desert land I've everinterpreted as "mean." Perhaps itwas an array of bleached bonessomewith hoofs of burro still intact, othersfleshless arcs of ribsbarricading theapproach to Dives. Or, perhaps itwas a narrow canyon road to theright that trapped us in a cul de sacof sunless, yawning lairs. Whateverit was, this portion of desert is notfor me. I love long, naked vistas, un-compromising light and shadow,subtle colors and unconventionalflora. To me, desert terrain is un-complicated and honest. There'snothing devious about life that standsforth to be counted, alone, unclutter-ed, protected only by an ability toadapt and a determination to survive.And that's why this section of des-ert struck me as "mean." There wereno long vistas. It was treacherous,dark and confining. And I'm sure avicious wild cat lurked in each blacklair. We backed out of the deadend

canyon as fast as we could and re-turned to Red Cloud Mine to camp.At dawn we again studied ourmaps. It was just possible that theoriginal turnoff to the Clip Mineroad had washed away and we couldpick it up at another point. Tre ntscooted ahead on his Burritoa smallbut sturdy trail bike with an extra-wide rear tire for negotiating sandand soon found where an old roadturned from the main one and drop-ped into a deep, jagged wash. Wewaited while he crossed the wash, re-

appeared on the opposite side andthen disappeared behind a bluff.Soon he came charging up the mainroad toward us. He'd found where16 / Desert Magazine / J anua ry, 1965


17/44

Shallow diggings at Mendevil lookedrecent.the old Clip Mine road crossed theNorton's Landing road in Red CloudWashonly 7/10 of a mile from theDives fork on the main road.

This illusive junction is in an areaof particularly deep sand. After ashort distance the road firms up,however, but instead of sand, it's thenburied under boulders. Here, again,a 4-wheel drive vehicle is necessary,in addition to an experienced driverand a determined wife! Jack saidlater he'd never have undertaken itwithout an accompanying car if wehadn't had Trent's Burrito for sup-plementary transportation.

Along this route we passed severalold mines. The South Geronimo,what there is of it, sits on a plateauout of sight above the Norton's Land-ing junction and is difficult to reach,but the North Geronimo is alongsidethe road. Its main attraction is anA-frame building with a roof thatslants to the ground and a peakedceiling barely high enough to accom-modate a man. Th is sort of architec-ture was contrived not for fashion,but to conserve wood by the elimina-tion of side walls. A trestle-table in-side provided both work ajld eatingspace and paths cleared among des-ert-varnished stones outside indicateda tidy housekeeper with time tospare.

Two miles further, after squeezingthrough narrow passes, negotiatingwashed-out roads and removing anumber of boulders from the road,we climbed a hill. Th ere , across anarrow valley and atop an oppositemountain, loomed a very respectablefully rounded arch. Also, tucked intoa stone cairn at a junction with an-other trail was a wooden slat uponwhich had been written in pencil,

Clip Wash left Revelation Mineright.It was the Revelation Mine wesought, but we hadn't expected tofind a sign poin ting the way. T hedirection to the "broken arch" givenby Mr. Jackson in his letter placedit in the vicinity of the Clip Mineand directly above the RevelationMine. We were getting close, but this

wasn't a "broken" arch, so we turnedright and, to our surprise, came uponanother sign. This one looked fairlynew and read, Revelation Mine. NoTrespassing.Well, we hadn't come all this wayfor nothing, so we trespassed alongthe road, ignoring an offshoot to theleft where we could see distant ruinsof the Clip Mine, and continued onuntil we arrived at the foot of a steep,serpentined incline. It might havebeen possible to climb this by auto,but the risk was great."I'm game for a hike if you are,"Jack challenged. So we filled a can-teen from our water jug and set forthin the noonday sun. At the moun-tain's crest we stopped to rest andcommiserate upon the view. Notthat it wasn't thrilling, but anotherincline fully as lofty as the one we'djust climbed lay across a narrow ra-vine and the trail led straight up itsperpendicular side. Two hills weremore than we'd bargained for, butso were two arches! Th ere , toweringdirectly before us, was another arch-just as round and perfectly formed asthe one we'd passed at the Clip Washjunction."Oh boy," I muttered, "just wait'til we tell this to Uncle Erie!" But

that wasn't the only thing that mys-tified us. Before precipitating ourmission, we'd checked with Arizona'sDepartment of Mineral Resources atPhoenix and learned that the Revela-tion claim was held by a gentlemanfrom Yuma named H. L. Duty, butto the department's knowledge, hadnever produced nor was it currentlybeing worked.Nevertheless, signposts of f a i r l yrecent vintage indicated some sort ofvisitation and shallow diggings onthe adjacent hill piqued our curiosity.The old mining map we carriedshowed a claim called the Mendeviladjoining the Revelation. We werenot certain as to which claim the re-cent diggings belonged and, look aswe might, we couldn't see anythingresembling a broken arch to identifythe latter.After much huffing and puffing

and resting, it occured to us that thebroken arch might be tucked behinda mountain crag and invisible fromour point of view. The only solutionwas to march on! Going downhillinto the ravine was easy, but the sundidn't grow any cooler and by thetime we'd reached the crest of thenext mountain our only goal was tocrawl into a shady cave. Had a wildcat lurked there, I'd have said, simply,"Move over."Trent broke out the canteen andwe sprawled in the mouth of the cave

shelter until we'd built up enoughsteam to face the up and down trailback to our car. Jack examinedshallow trenches that looked newlydug, but there were no other signsthat activity had transpired since theJack finds rare old beer bottle at Clip Mine

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*K * >

its base on the side where our car wasparked, nor even from the peak ofthe first incline which sheltered it.Whether the formation was due toerosion or the result of early pros-pecting we couldn't ascertain from adistance. The Clip and other minesin the district were worked for lead-silver at a time when this metal wasmore coveted than gold, so Mr. Jack-son's suggestion that gold had beenoverlooked in favor of silver couldbe true, but whether or not this for-mation once formed an arch is ques-tionable. When bridged, if ever itwas, I believe it would have moreclosely resembled a needle's eye.It is understandable that Mr. Jack-son would have used this distinctiveformation to identify the RevelationMine. But that Mr. Fish of the LostArch Mine legend would have iden-tified his golden outcropping witha landmark so unobtrusive and dubi-

ous an arch when a perfectly goodone visible from great distances tow-ered beside it, is unlikely. He m ighthave confided to his partner thatthe gold lay in the vent of a needle'seye, but then the legend would con-cern a lost needle instead of a lostarch.I'm afraid we're going to have topass on this one. Like its Californianeighbors, Arizona's Trigo Moun-tains are overly endowed with arches.As far as we Peppers are concerned,the Lost Arch stays lost in the Tu rtles !

/ / /Trent ??d /acft climb hill be low V-slit of Revelation Mine. Right: Onlyfrom this perspective can both thearch and slit be seen.Mendevil claim was surveyed forpatent in 1887f, indeed, this werethe M endevil. It was at this stage ofspeculation that "Revelation" struckus.

"Look!" Jack pointed to the topof a mountain wedged into a gullydirectly south of the first hill we'dclimbed. At its base were shallowdiggings similar to ones we'd justexamined, but at its peak was a pro-minen t split. A jum ble of rocksspilled down its face from the V-shaped crevice.

As we climbed the winding road,it gradually faded behind the moun-tain we ascended. Th is, we wereconfident, was Mr. Jackson's brokenarch and the negligible diggings be-low it, the Revelation Mine.' Themore extensive trenches on the sec-ond mountain belonged to the Men-devil.The split was not apparent from

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O O M E W H E R E N E A R t h e O l dWoman Springs , perhaps midway be-tween Yucca and Victorville, a lostmin e awaits a lucky wan derer. An dlucky he'll have to be, for legitimaterecords are vague.Musty archives in the San Bernar-dino Court House give the fol lowingwaybil l : The White Metal Mine, lo-cated by G. Lee 5 miles N. of theLone Star Mine. Located N.E. ofBear Valley, (Big Bear) April 5, 1879.San Bernardino County, California.Lost mine tale-spinners have addedembell ishments. Some refer to Lee'sLost Lode as one of gold, but I chal-lenge this. At the time his claim was

recorded, silver was at the height ofproduction and considered as valu-able as gold. It was usually referredto as "white metal."Another event in Lee's life indica-ted a preoccup ation with silver. Itwas he who discovered the famoussi lver deposi t of Red Mountain twomiles north of Barstow and knownas the Pencil Lead M ine. Subsequent-ly, these claims were appropriated bythe same Robert W. Waterman whosucceeded Washington Bart let t as

governor ol California after the lat-ter's death in 1887.Dispossessed of the Pencil LeadMine, Lee struck across the desert in

Cottonwood Springssearch of another. Soon he returnedto Barstow to report a fabulous newvein, carrying samples to prove it.He'd build his family a house withdoor knobs and steps of solid silver,he boasted!For this venture, he assumed apartnera crippled assayer from LosAngeles who was bound to a wheelchair. Lee, who refused to divulgehis mine's location to anyone else,tried to persuade Stewart to visit it ,but the exert ion seemed beyond theinvalid's capabilities and Stewart re-fused. H e did, however, insist thatLee take a friend along on his behalf.In this event lies our only workableclue.

L E E ' SL O S TL O D Eb yR E T T A E. E W E R S

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The two men, traveling in a lightbuckboard, reached Old WomanSprings in the heat of day. It wasmid-summer, so they remained thereto water their animals and rest inthe shade until shadows began tolengthen.At 3:00 P.M. they started out againand traveled slowly for nearly three

hours. At that time Lee called a haltand said they'd stop for the night.While his companion was occupiedwith setting up camp, Lee disappear-ed. At 9:00 P.M. he returned with abag of ore samples. These he refusedto display, however. Stewart mighttrust his friend, but Lee didn't!On another trip into this regionLee again disappeared for good.Lee had lived with a man namedBrown on the banks of the MohaveRiver. One morning, pack on back,Lee announced that he was going to

make a trip to his mine. Brownwatched him depart and then return-ed to his work. These trips werelegion. Brown knew Lee'd returnwhen he was ready.On this trip, Lee reached Old Wo-man Springs and found a man await-ing him. The man was no stranger,cil Lead Mine.

Hoffman, supplied with a plenti-ful quantity of whiskey, proceeded tooffer Lee a drink. And then another.As they polished off the bottle, Hoff-Lee recognized him as an old desertrat named Hans Hoffman who wasreputed to be a henchman of Water-man's. Lee immediately became sus-picious. It occured to him thatWaterman and his partner, Bodie,had conspired to have Hoffman tailhim to the location of his new dis-covery so they could take it over dur-ing his absence, as they had his Pen-

Lava beds north-east of Old Wom an Springs carry signs of prehistoric Indianvisits, but few of mining activity.

man queried Lee about his silver de-posit. Lee was loxy and, remainingsober enough to retain his caution,refused to divulge the location of hismine.At this, Hoffman grew abusive. Ina frenzy he struck Lee over the headwith a heavy rock, killing him in-stantly. Frightened by what he'ddone, Hoffman sobered enough to diga shallow grave for Lee's body. Hethen built a fire over the spot toerase signs of fresh digging.

While Hoffman was so engaged,two men approached on horseback.Hoffman appeared so nervous andevasive that the men became suspi-cious and demanded to know whathe was hiding. Alter contributing afresh supply of whiskey to the cause,they wormed the murder secret fromhimalong with an explosive fact.They learned that Hoffman had beengiven $500 to either uncover Lee'ssecret mine or kill him trying. Andthey learned from Hoffman's boast-ing that the donor of the bribe wasno other than Robert Waterman!

After Hoffman showed the menwhere he'd buried the body, he stag-gered to his blanket and fell asleep.The men, meanwhile, leaped to theirhorses and raced to San Bernardinoto report the murder to Sheriff JohnBuckhart. They also told others, forthe news traveled to Barstow fromwhence Waterman sent forth a groupof gunmen to Old Woman Springs,hoping to intercept the posse fromSan Bernardino in time to effect Hoff-man's escape. The Sheriff got therefirst, however, and Hoffman wasarrested and taken to the San Bernar-dino jail.

Waterman's stake in the trial wasgreat. He hired the best lawyer avail-able to represent Hoffman and thusbegan one of the toughest and longestcourt battles on record in San Ber-nardino County. It lasted from 1880

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through 1881. Five witnesses for thedefense swore that the body was thatof an Indian squaw who had beenkicked to death by a horse, but Lee'sdentist swore that the teeth of thedead person were those of the mur-dered man who, as his patient, de-manded that his cavities be filledwith silver from his own holdings.Another convincing factor lay in Lee'sgreat heightover six feet, whereasmost Indian squaws of this regionwere short and squat. At the end ofthe first trial, the jury voted 11 forconviction, one for acquittal .

A second trial ensued with the sameresults. Citizens swore that Water-man employed a paid juryman onthe panel to cause a hung jury. Arecess was called. W hile aw aiting theCourt's decision for a third trial,Waterman's lawyers succeeded in ob-tain ing Hoffm an's release on f 15,000bail . He immediately disappearedand was never heard from again.

Waterman's troubles were not overyet. Lee's heirs sued him and wona jud gm en t for 8300,000. W ater-man's own brother , to whom he hadsold one-third interest in the PencilLead Mine, without securing i t inwriting, also sued him, as Water-man refused to acknowledge thetransa ction. In the process of trial,the brother died, but his heirs con-tinued the suit and eventually col-lected their third interest.

After all this Waterman was elect-ed Lieutenant-Governor of the state,so undoubtedly there were ramifica-tions which justified his reportedquestionable ethics. Also, there aresome indications that Lee might haveabandoned his Pencil Lead Mine andlater had a change of heart. In themeantime, Lee's lost lode remainedlost.There is one bold clue overlookedby those who have written about thislost mine. Old Woman Springs isthe only recognizable launching spotfrom which to conduct a search. How-ever, today's Old Woman Springs,located on private property, is aboutone mile east of the original OldWoman Springs. Col. Henry Washing-ton named the original oasis OldWoman Springs in 1855 when he wasrunning a base line survey in thedistrict. M uch later this oasis wasrenamed Cottonwood Spring, thename it bears today. Al Swarthout,a rancher, developed water to theeast of the original oasis by drillinginto rock. He then appropriated thename of the old oasis for his new lo-cation. Thus, in figuring the timeelement entailed in Lee's three-hourbuckboard ride to the spot where heestablished a camp with Stewart'sfriend, the route should be judgedfrom the present Cottonwood Springs,rather than from the present Old Wo-man Springs.

As far as other clues are concerned,it takes a lot of imagination to makeanything of them. Old mining mapsin my possession do not show a loca-tion by the name of Lone Star Mine,as was recorded in relation to Lee'sWhite Metal Mine. Most publishedmaterial referring to this lost lodegives serious consideration to an areaabo ut 15 miles east of the S pringwhere a graded road to Barstowtravels closely east and south of asmall range ol hills and access intothem is easy.

Other lost mine detectives startwith already proven mines in a givenarea and work out from them. About15 miles east of the Springs is theBlue Ribbon Silver Mine, but aneven hotter spot might be foundalong an existing trail lying west andsouth of Cottonwood Springs andleading io the old Akron-Silver ReefMines. The Santa Fe and LesterGold mines were also located in thisgeneral area, so the dubious possi-bility that Lee's lost lode was goldinstead of silver must not be com-pletely discounted.

Lucerne Valley's desert communityencompasses some exciting terrain forrock collectors as well as for lost mineseekers. It may be the former, collect-ing vercle antique, agate and jasper,who will accidentally wrest a secretfrom the land that neither whiskeynor man would wrest from Lee. / / /Mou ntains fringing Lucerne Valley ?nay well hold Lee's lost lode


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It's Never Drab in Moab

ROYCE ROLLINS-:*H,S T O R I C A L L Y , MOAB , Ut ahwas a place people went through toget somewhere else. Major Powellpassed by on his trek down the Colo-rado River and a tew trappers camp-ed o n i ts bank before Moab becamea town. Even early Indians stoppedonly long enough to t rap game andpeck a record of visits in a canyonwall.I n 1855 Mormon colonists estab-lished the townsite, but it was stillmore popularly "worked out of" than"in" by cat t lemen who gave homeynames l ike Jug Handle and SchoolMann's Pants to the superbly erodedsandstone monuments on the f r ingeof town.I n 1922 a miner named AlexanderR i n g h o f f e r looked hard at these fan-tast ic formations and dropped hispick. Sensitive enough to recognizethem as a greater at t ract ion than acowboy's "nothin' but a lot of holesin rocks," he prevailed upon Dr. J .W. Wil l iams and Moab newsman" B i s h" Taylor to pack into the coun-try and confirm his ecstatic reports.

What the miner had discovered wastruean o ve r w he l m i ng bonanza ofBeauty. Thereafter began a long siegeto persuade the National Parks Ser-vice to establish A rches Na tion alMonument .People still pass through Moab toget somewhere else. But as they passthrough today, they l inger. And then

they return to l inger some more. Forthis vivid Mormon community onU. S. Highway 160 is in the heart ofthe most exciting scenic country inthe world and only with repeated andextended visits can a tourist everhope to absorb it all.Our fir st exp l ora t ion of A r c h e sNat ional Monument occured in thewintertime. Perhaps because it wasour first; or perhaps because foamypulls of white snow contrasted sur-prisingly with pink sand and blueskies, Southeastern Utah has neversince app eared more beau tiful. Atan elevation of 4000 feet, Moab'ssnowfalls seldom exceed four inches,or l inger more than a day. In a cur-

vaceous world of suspended arcs, wefollowed wildcat, coyote, rabbit, foxand porcupine tracks through thesnow, corrupting i ts primeval puri tywith our clumsy boots. But it wasfun. And terribly beau tiful. Crystalprisms sparkled o n twigs. Here andthere green juniper pointed abovesnowy billows. Pink sand splashedabstract patterns around arches jet-tisoned three-stories high.

We ran and jumped and rol led inthe snow. We were alone in this en-chanted landjust my husband, ourson and me. No matter what any-one says, wintertime is the best timein Arches Nat ional Monument . Head-quarters are open all year to give youa quick lesson in the park's curiousgeology and trails to interestingpoints are accessible even under alight blanket of snow.Dress warmly, carry lots of film andbe sure to have enough gas in yourcar. Chances are you'll have boththe day and the park to yourself./ /

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B Y JACK PE PPE Rpublisher, desert magazine

A WE FLEW over the ColoradoDelta headed for Mulege, Erie Stan-ley Gardner reviewed his expeditionsand discoveries made in Baja Califor-nia during the past years. Since allof us had been on at least one of theprevious trips, the briefing was prin-cipally for Dr. Carlos Margain, chiefanthropologist and archeologist fromthe Mexican Institute of Archeology.Dr. Margain's presence was the di-rect result of a request by Gardner tothe Mexican government for a trainedscientist to visit the Mulege area to

evaluate material we all felt mightprove Baja was once inhabited bythe earliest man on the Americancontinent. This was the first offi-cially conducted survey of Baja'scaves by a Mexican scientist.Although best known as the creatorof Perry Mason, mystery-writer Gard-ner, or "Uncle Erie" as he is calledby his friends, has written five bookson Baja resulting from numerous tripsinto the fascinating country.Within hours after Gardner re-

ceived word Dr. Margain could ac-company an expedition, he had char-tered a plane and rounded up his"Baja crew." Because Choral and Ihad been on previous trips and writ-ten a series of articles (see DESER T,May through September, 1964) onBaja, we were also invited. As onall Gardner's Baja trips by air, thechartered plane was piloted by vet-eran aviator and owner of the BajaAir Service, Francisco Munoz. Othersin the group included Sam Hicks,Gardner's "right hand" and ranchmanager; J. W. Black, manufacturerof the Pakjak and Burrito, two-wheelvehicles that traverse the roughest ofcountry; Ricardo Castillo, Tijuanabusinessman and amateur archeolo-

gist who spends his spare time explor-ing Baja, and Joseph Gutierrez, Mexi-cali businessman and sportsman.With Dr. Margain's portfolio filledwith petroglyph and pictograph in-formation from Gardner's files andfrom DESERT'S, we turned to theimmediate object of this trip. On a

previous expedition, we explored thecaves of Coyote and Conception baysand the larger peninsula which forms

Dr. Margain exam ines ancientglyphs on fallen rock.

Conception Bay where we found ex-ceptionally old skeletons and arti-facts. It was these discoveries thatresulted in the present trip.Our briefing was interrupted whenwe landed at Bahia de Los Angeles,a popular fishing resort, to feast onlobster and frijoles prepared by

Senora Antero Diaz. An hour laterwe arived at Mulege and the modernand comfortable Club Aero deMulege.That evening business was ignoredwhile we became acquainted withDr. M argain. He has spent 26 yearsin the archeological field, speaks fivelanguages, and is a recognized author-ity on the cultures of Meso America,having participated in the excavationsof such sites as Bonampak, Monte Al-ban and Te otihuacan. But he is alsoan archeologist with a terrific sense

of humor and from the start was sym-patico with the others of our group.As he described both humorous andtragic events which had happened tohim during his many years of explor-ation, I could see Dr. Margain wasmore than a trained scientist. Usinghis academic knowledge and well-disciplined mind, he seeks empathywith the people of pre-historic civil-izations in order to obtain a greaterunderstanding of their culture.At midnight we retired, but atdawn we were bouncing south bycar toward Coyote Bay. Although itis only a distance of 20 miles, it takestwo hours to drive the serpentineroute through spectacular desert

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flora and along cliffs rising abovesparkling Gulf of California.Coyote Bay itself can best be de-scribed as a Shangri La. Its calm,clear water is filled with fish andthe white coral beach curves for sev-eral miles, ending on each side withspectacular mountain formations. Theland is scattered with palm, palo

bianco and elephant trees. Water,a scarce item in Baja, we acquiredfrom a well on the ranch of Manuelo,a gracious host and amigo who cookedtwo large fish he had caught for ourvisit.Surrounding the area are ruggedmountains honeycombed with caves.It was in one of these caves, on ourprevious expedition, that Ricardofound arrowheads, a wooden spearand the bones of a pre-historic man.These and other collections weregiven to Dr. Margain for future analy-

sis.At the entrance to Conception Bay,we stopped to show Dr. Margain anumber of petroglyphs on bouldersHe was immediately impressed withthe area, pointing out that kitchenmiddens and other physical evidenceindicated rich archeological discov-eries.His enthusiasm was too much forme. Not waiting for Manuel's roast-ed fish, I hiked up one of the steepmountains we had decided to explore.

Pausing on a cliff high above thebay, I felt lost in time and space-as though I were under an hypnoticspell. If suddenly a prehistoric manhad appeared, I would not have beensurprised . Time, for a m o m e n t ,ceased to exist and I was in a world40,000 years ago.The first cave I explored was the(Continued on Page 36)

Dr. Carlos Margain, left, and Erie Stanley Gardner exam ine collection ofarrowheads and spears which may date back to the long-headed Pericues.

/ . W. Black shovels stones out of mysterious cave believed to have beenburial place for pre-historic inhabitants of Conception Bay.

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196501 Desert Magazine 1965 January

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