July, August, September 2019
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July, August, September 2019 632 Landers Lane, Landers 92285 • PO Box 2046, Yucca Valley 92286 760-364-2000 • www.MBHS.net • [email protected] Aviation in the Morongo Basin Landers, Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree Landers Airport The first settlers in the Morongo Basin in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s came on horseback, by horse-drawn wagons, and on foot. But the Basin remained lightly settled until after World War II. Then a second wave of homesteaders, spurred on by the Small Tract Act (five-acre homesteads) passed in 1938, came by car and airplane. They were not necessarily interested in living here full time. Instead, many only wanted “recreational prop- erty” a place to get away from the city for the weekend and for vacation. As roads were still undeveloped in many areas, air travel and air transportation became critical. Airports, mostly dirt landing strips, sprang up in the Morongo Basin and outlying areas. The region even had both a “flying doctor” and a “flying constable.” Nowhere was aviation more important than in the settlement of the Landers area. The story is fairly well known. Newlin Landers and seven other flying acquaintances from the Los Angeles area banded together to acquire eight adjacent five-acre recreational properties. In 1950, they went to the Bureau of Land Management in Los Angeles as a group and at the same hour on the same day filed on their claims. They arranged their adjoining tracts so they could carve out a half-mile (2,640 feet) long airstrip right in the center of their properties, dividing them in half, four on each side of the airstrip. Newlin Landers started flying to the desert after World War II. He first learned about the Landers area when he read a news story about the mysterious death of Frank Critzer, an eccentric prospector and rumored German spy, who had built a home under a huge boulder called Giant Rock. Landers flew to the area, along with his father and brother, for the first time in 1947, landing at the Giant Rock airstrip. He was drawn to the desert and as an entre- preneur he recognized its recreational potential. At the time, the Landers area was sparsely settled. Besides Charlie Reche’s homestead, in the vicin- ity of the present-day Integratron, and son Walter Reche’s nearby adobe house, where Gubler’s is located now, there were few other dwellings. After several more visits, he met George Van Tassel, who had leased his friend Critzer’s claim following his death. Van Tassel was living there with his family, had a government permit to operate the Giant Rock airstrip, and built a small café called the Come On Inn. Landers had spotted a promising location for an airstrip. Since there were no roads, Van Tassel drove him to the site in a converted World War II weapons carrier, perfect for the rugged desert terrain. Landers, a partner in a valve manufacturing company, Selwyn-Landers, in Los Angeles, soon interested his flying instructor, Joe Nugent, in the project to acquire land in the desert and construct a private airstrip. Nugent recruited his brother-in-law, George Roth. They were joined by Jack Bale, who owned and operated a service station and tire recapping business and four other part- time pilots, Dr. Morris, a dentist, Jack Hulet, a bookkeeper, A.T. Stock, a plastics manu- facturer, and George Belfield, a café owner. Once they had recorded their claims, they pooled their resources to hire bulldozers and graders to build the airstrip and brought in truckloads of decomposed granite for the runway surface. They also laid out a road from Goat Mountain Road to their site, east of Landers Lane. Then they joined forces again to put the road through to Old Woman Springs Road (known as Victorville Road at that time). This connecting road became today’s Reche Road. In 1951, George Belfield and wife Merrol built the first of the flyer’s homes along the airstrip. Belfield’s health concerns drew him to the desert. Like many other early pioneers to the Morongo Basin, “the doctor told him to get to a dry climate.” The Belfield’s maintained two homes, one in Landers and another in Bell Gardens. Likewise, they operated two businesses: a restaurant and bar in Bell Gardens and a café, bar and nine-unit motel in Landers. The Belfield’s also added a large tiled, heated swimming pool with showers and a barn and corral for six horses available for motel guests. The café started as a joint effort with Jack Bale and was originally built on his property at the north end of the airstrip. Later Belfield moved it to his site on the northeast corner of Reche Road and Landers Lane. He named it George’s Sky Room Café and it soon became a popular gathering place for the locals, especially the kids. Steve Hanson, MBHS historian and site chairman, has fond memories of the Sky Room Café and swimming pool. “I first visited this site with some friends in 1959.The owner, George, had a policy that if you bought something in the restaurant you could swim in his pool all day. During the summer months we kids went there as much as we could. George loved kids and always welcomed us. The last time I visited there the swimming pool had been buried, so no more swimming.” The motel is gone as well. The Belfield property was eventually acquired by the Landers Moose Lodge and all that remains of the motel is a foundation with floor tiles in front of the lodge. Jack Bale had Aero build the second house next to the airstrip. He added a gas station, later purchased by Newlin Landers, to his property. Joe Nugent, who made a living in aviation, built his home and hung up a wind sock. Nugent owned six airplanes and operated a business which promoted air charters to remote places. He George's Motel and swimming pool envisioned Landers as a flyer’s hideaway. Friends flew in from all over for weekend gatherings and enjoyed barbecues at the Belfield’s. In 1954 the Landers airstrip first appeared on the Geodetic Survey Map of Emerson Lake, then on World Aeronautical and Sectional Aeronautical Charts. The original group of aviators who had established the airstrip branched out into businesses like water delivery, well digging and construction. Most made major contributions of time, money and even land to growing the community. Newlin Landers original dream of coming to a remote part of the desert and establishing a flyer’s haven with a group of friends had become a reality. They came here by airplane. Landers was a true pioneer. He roamed far and wide by airplane and developed properties in Havasu Landing in Needles and the Navajo Tract in Apple Valley. Last year the Historical Society was contacted by the current owner of the airplane Newlin owned for twenty-six years while he was flying here and elsewhere. The plane, known as a Stinson “flying station wagon” flew into Yucca Valley Airport on a Saturday and we were there to meet it when it landed. Glen L'Heureux, the pilot and owner, was kind enough to bring along the logbooks and detailed history of the aircraft since it was built. He has done a major rebuild of the en- gine. Newlin Landers & Glen L'Heureux - Newlin's Stinson Flying The Historical Society has perhaps the first logbook in its files in Landers with Newlin’s Station Wagon detailed entries of flights, times, and dates from 1947. We also have a number of repair and gas receipts. These are fascinating to look over. Landers started out learning to fly out of Vail Field in Bell Gardens. Before long he was flying to the desert, landing at Giant Rock airport and the Sky Corral airport in Yucca Valley (the town’s first airport). Gas receipts and log entries show trips as far east as Indianapolis as well as into Mexico, possi- bly to check out a gold mine there. Landers Airport with Vultee B-13 Trainer & Fairchild PT-19 Giant Rock Airport Of all the airfields in the Morongo Basin, Giant Rock Airport may be more widely known as a historical site rather than as an airport. Nonetheless, it certainly had a role in the aviation history of the area, especially, from 1940 up until George Van Tassel’s death in 1978. After that the airport had sev- eral more owners but eventually ceased to function as an active airfield. Historic Sites chairman Steve Hanson’s database has the starting year for Giant Rock Airport as 1941.There is no ending year but the airport is listed as closed in his database. According to the Abandoned Airport internet site, Giant Rock Airport first appeared as an auxiliary field on the LA Sectional Aviation Map in 1939. By 1995, a USGS aerial photograph showed an unpaved runway in good condition but no sign of any recent activity. Three years later, 1998, Giant Rock Airport no longer appeared on the World Aeronautical Chart. July, August, September 2019 2 Morongo Basin Historical Society George Van Tassel himself reported that he operated the airport until 1975 “at which time I sold it to Phyllis & John Brady, who in turn turned it over to Jose Rodriguez & his family in 1977.” The last appearance of Giant Rock Airport on an aeronautical chart was on the LA Sectional Chart 1989. It listed Giant Rock as a public- use airport with a 4,900- foot unpaved runway.