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Fall 2000.Indd CENTER E FO H R T L FALL 2000 A N N O THE LAY OF THE LAND I D THE CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION NEWSLETTER T U A S T E RE INTERP “In the field of Interpretation, whether of the National Park System or other institutions, the activity is not instruction so much as what we may call provocation. It is true that the visi- tors to these preserves frequently desire straight information, which may be called instruction, and a good interpreter will always be able to teach when called upon. But the purpose of ➣ Interpretation is to stimulate the reader or hearer toward a desire to widen his horizon of interests and knowledge, and to gain an understanding of the greater truths that lie behind any statements of fact.” -From Interpreting our Heritage: Principles and Practices for Visitor Services, by Freeman Tilden FORMATIONS OF ERASURE CLUI OPENS INTERPRETIVE SITE IN DESERT EARTHWORKS AND ENTROPY SHOW LAUNCHES NEW CLUI LA EXHIBIT SPACE DESERT RESEARCH STATION IN HINKLEY, CALIFORNIA The Desert Research Station opened to the public in November, 2000, and is currently open The Formations of Erasure: Earthworks and Entropy exhibit and Land Art Database terminal to visitors during the weekends. at CLUI, Los Angeles. CLUI photo THE DESERT RESEARCH STATION, in the desert near Barstow, California, THE NEW EXHIBIT SPACE at the renovated CLUI Los Angeles location was once a thriving educational nature station for biologists and local opened in September with the exhibit Formations of Erasure: Earthworks school groups. In recent years, however, it was abandoned and vandal- and Entropy. The exhibit consisted of contemporary photographs of ized. Earlier this year, the CLUI adopted the DRS, and began a reno- earthworks across the United States, focusing on those that do not have vation of the facility. In November, 2000, the CLUI opened the doors extensive maintenance programs, and thus have been altered by time of the DRS to the public once again. and the elements. Most of the depicted pieces were constructed in the Drawn from the research that the CLUI has been engaged 1970’s and, over time, these structures have receeded from the pure, in for years, an informative display about the California desert area intentional form of the artist's idea, into a new dynamic form that rep- is installed in the DRS. In addition, books, brochures and maps of resents a collaboration between humans and the nonhuman world. the region are available at the DRS, making it a good point-of-origin In addition to the large photographs and text panels in the to explore and examine the desert region. Visitors are welcome to exhibit, a computer database was available to visitors in the gallery, browse, view videotapes about sites in the desert, talk with informed with information on existing and disappeared land art sculptures across staff, or just relax in the cool dark interior. Outside, on the grounds of the country. the DRS, relics of the site’s history as a scientific research facility are On October 13, as part of the exhibit, an evening of talks was visible all over the grounds, from an artificial pond, to an active air held in the space, attended by a crowd which filled the room to capac- sampling device. Remnants of a self-guided walking tour make for a ity and spilled into the street (the CLUI apologizes to those that missed fun and easy to follow interpretive enigma. the presentation due to lack of space - please come early to future CLUI During this winter season, the DRS is staffed during regular events to be sure to get a seat). Smithson scholar Hikmet Loe, from Salt hours, Friday through Sunday 11 - 4, until mid-February. The CLUI Lake City, presented unpublished material on the building of the Spiral will lead two tours to the DRS and environs, on January 13, 2001 and Jetty, and Sam Durant, an artist and teacher at California Institute of February 3, 2001. To make a reservation for the tour, call the Museum the Arts, gave a multimedia presentation about the Jetty’s cultural con- of Contemporary Art at (213) 621-1767. The CLUI would like to text, suggesting conceptual strands that link it to Altamont, George thank MoCA for their assistance and support in making the DRS a Bataille, and Nirvana. reality. ♦ To get to the DRS from the Los While the exhibit examined sites that are generally considered Angeles area, take I-10 east to I- to be “decaying,” one function of the exhibit was to show how meaning 15 north. Take the Highway 58 can be ascribed to these sites even if the art has been transformed by west exit, just before Barstow. After several miles on Highway erosion, or has disappeared entirely, and how, in fact, the significance 58 turn north on Hinkley of earthworks can increase in an inverse relationship to their physical Road, indicated by a sign say- ing “Hinkley 1 mile”. After existance. “An earthwork is there whether you can see it or not,” said four miles, look for the DRS on CLUI curator Sarah Simons. “When it becomes invisible, all that is the right. happening is that the site rises as a component in the work.” The exhib- ♦ View of the interior of the DRS, it was open from September 15 to December 5, 2000. which will serve as an educa- tional venue for years to come. FIELD REPORT PANCHO BARNES’ HAPPY BOTTOM FLYING CLUB Today, little remains of what was once the raucous desert RUINS EVOKE LEGENDARY ERA OF AVIATION IN ANTELOPE VALLEY playground but the surviving ruins hint at the high style and grand opulence that was Pancho’s trademark. In addition to the remarkable four-tiered cascading fountain (originally topped by a statue of a nude goddess) that graced the motel esplanade, the double-sided fireplace and door frames from the dining room and bar still stand as well as some outbuildings including the shell of the dairy barn which was used for illicit gambling. On the eastside of the ranch is the infamous wooden gate which Yeager struck on horseback - breaking two ribs - the night before he became the first man to break the sound bar- rier. North of what were the main buildings are the remains of a Ryan PT-19 aircraft which was ‘borrowed’ from Pancho’s personal fleet of airplanes by two young locals and crashed short of the main runway. Most remarkably intact is the shell of the 30-foot wide, round swim- ming pool. After the first pool was destroyed in the 1952 Tehachapi Aerial view of Pancho Barnes’ compound, in 1950’s. Edwards AFB photo earthquake, two grain silo construction contractors from the Midwest approached Pancho. They proposed using their silo molds to erect a Field Report by Charles Barile new pool, and Pancho readily agreed.The silo casts, which consisted IN THE LATE FORTIES and early fifties over the then isolated Muroc of massive, inter-connected quarter sections, were customized with Dry Lake Bed - the largest natural flat space on earth - night-flying special options demanded by Pancho including recessed underwater military and civilian pilots had a remarkable navigational beacon: lighting and, most astonishingly, a gently sloping ramp that allowed the shimmering, iridescent blue-green glow of the swimming pool Pancho and her horse, after particularly arduous rides, to cool off by at Pancho Barnes’ Happy Bottom Flying Club. An unmistakable and walking directly into the pool. exquisite landmark on a lakebed with a curvature of less than 18 inch- Each September the site is open to the public for "Pancho es over a six mile distance, it was then the only pool in the Antelope Barnes Day." Sponsored by the Flight Test Historical Foundation at Valley. Pilots landed on Pancho’s adjacent private airstrip to partake Edwards Air Force Base, this year’s event featured among its special of her generous hospitality at what was the watering hole of the most guests Eugene "Mac" McKendry, 81, a WWII pilot and Pancho’s world-renowned flyers of the post war era. For regular patrons includ- fourth and last husband. Although frail, his spirits were enlivened by ing aviation icons Chuck Yeager, A. Scott Crossfield, Jimmy Doolittle once again visiting the ranch where he and Pancho hosted many noto- and H.H. "Hap" Arnold well as the engineers, designers, mechan- rious revelries, and he reminisced fondly about the infamous rodeo ics and military personnel who built and flew a remarkable array of that opened with the entrance of one of the ranch hostesses as Lady airplanes (including the XP-80, ZX-1, F-104, X-15 and SR-71), Godiva clad only in a long blond wig and the airborne treasure hunts Pancho’s barroom was at the literal center of the supersonic age and where pilots, given written clues, flew all over the lake bed searching served as the unofficial - and always congenial - debriefing room for for a buried jackpot of 200 silver dollars. the most elite test pilots in the world. Mac remains resentful over the government’s seizure of the Pancho’s remote 368 acre Rancho Oro Verde property was, Happy Bottom Flying Club in 1954 for the construction of a 27 mile at the height of its fame, reachable only by air or a brutal 20-mile dirt long runway to accommodate a then-planned atomic-powered aircraft, road from Lancaster. In spite of its isolation, the compound offered but was quick to invoke Pancho’s philosophical attitude about the loss a swanky 20 room motel surrounding a remarkable 80’ fountain in of the legendary club: “Like she always said, ‘Well, f*** it, we had the shape of the Army Air Corps insignia, a well-stocked horse cor- more fun in a week than most of the weenies in the world have in a ral, a restaurant, airplane hangars, three landing strips, a dance hall lifetime.” ♦ (partially open-aired), gambling den and the world-famous bar where she hosted what she called "the fastest and bravest men on earth." Information about visiting the remains of the Happy Bottom Flying Club for Bordered by lush planting of cottonwoods, Chinese elms, poplars and the annual "Pancho Barnes Day" can be obtained by writing the Flight Test bamboo, the Happy Bottom Flying Club was a verdant oasis in the Historical Foundation at P.O.Box 57, Edwards, California 93523 or by desert and the site of a lifestyle as exuberant as its host.
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