1952-10-Desert-Magaz
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DESERT CALENDAR September 27-October 6—New Mex- ico State Fair, Albuquerque, New Mexico. September 29-30—San Geronimo Fi- esta, Taos, New Mexico. October 1-2 — Taos Village Fiesta, Taos, New Mexico. October 1-31 — Special Exhibit of American Indian handicraft from collection of the late Kathryn W. Leighton, noted artist. Southwest Volume 15 OCTOBER, 1952 Number 10 Museum, Highland Park, Los An- geles, California. COVER Storm over Taos Pueblo, New Mexico October 3-4—Spanish Village Fiesta, By Willard Luce, Provo, Utah. Rancho de Taos, Taos, New Mex- LETTERS Comment from Desert's readers 2 October 4—Feast Day of St. Francis CALENDAR October events on the desert ........ 3 of Assisi, patron saint of Santa Fe. Santa Fe, New Mexico. POETRY Land-Locked Sea Monster, and other poems . 4 October 4 — Annual Fiesta and MEMORIAL Nevills Plaque is Dedicated 5 Dances, Nambe Indian Pueblo, New Mexico. EXPLORATION Glen Canyon Voyage October 4-6 — Navajo Indian Fair, By RANDALL HENDERSON 7 Shiprock, New Mexico. TRUE OR FALSE A test of your desert knowledge 12 October 5—Fifth Annual Colorado INDIANS River Outboard Motor Boat Race, Tribal Meeting of the Navajo 13 Needles, California. By DOROTHY PILLSBURY FICTION Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 16 October 7-11—Eastern New Mexico State Fair, Roswell, New Mexico. INVITATION Pegleg Trek and Liars Contest 16 October 9-11 — Las Cruces Lions' WILDLIFE Death Valley Playmates, by PAT STURTEVANT 17 Cotton Carnival, Las Cruces, New Mexico. PLAYGROUND Cliff Home of the Ancients October 9-12 — Tri-State Fair and By WELDON F. HEALD 18 Rodeo, Deming, New Mexico. MINING Current news of desert mines 22 October 10-12 — Greenlee County PHOTOGRAPHY Picture of the Month 23 Fair, Clifton, Arizona. LOST MINE Lost Pima Indian Gold October 11-12—Annual Liars Con- test (formerly on New Year's Eve) By JOHN D. MITCHELL 24 and Pegleg Smith Gold Trek. CONTEST Prizes for camera pictures 25 Borrego Valley, California. I See page 16.) HISTORY The Salt in Salton Sea, by W. DEANE WILEY . 26 CLOSE-UPS October 17-19—15th Annual Pioneer About those who write for Desert 28 Days Celebration, Twentynine NEWS Palms, California. From Here and There on the Desert 29 HOBBY Gems and Minerals 35 October 18-19—Cochise County Fair, Douglas, Arizona. FIELD TRIP Gems, Minerals and Mines Along Southwestern Trails, by CLAUDE A. CONLIN, JR. ... 38 October 19-25—Southwestern Cattle LAPIDARY Festival. Clovis, New Mexico. Amateur Gem Cutter, by LELANDE QUICK . 41 COMMENT October 31—Hallowe'en Mardi Gras, Just Between You and Me, by the Editor ... 42 Barstow, California. BOOKS Reviews of Southwestern literature 43 The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert, California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office, and contents copyrighted 1952 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contents must be secured from the editor in writing. RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor MARGARET GERKE, Associate Editor BESS STACY, Business Manager MARTIN MORAN, Circulation Manager Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledged unless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility for damage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub- scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue. SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Year $3.50 Two Years $6.00 Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c Extra Subscriptions to Army Personnel Outside U. S. A. Must Be Mailed in Conformity With P. O. D. Order No. 19687 Address Correspondence to Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, California OCTOBER, 1952 At the dedication of the Nevills plaque, left to right, The Nevills plaque will remain on the canyon wall just Barry Goldwater, master of ceremonies, Frank E. Mas- beneath Navajo bridge over the Colorado River, as a land, Joan Nevills, Sandra Nevills, Mary Ogden Abbott, permanent tribute to the memory of the famous river- sculptor, and Mrs. Mae Nevills. man and his wife, Doris. Nevills Plaque is Dedicated Following is the inscription engraved in bronze on the TRAVELING from the South plaque shown above. Rim of Grand Canyon to the North Rim, and vice versa, cross the Colorado River on Nav- ajo bridge in northern Arizona. Beneath the steel girders at the western abutment THEY RUN THE RIVERS OF ETERNITY of this bridge a little group of Grand Canyon voyagers IN MEMORY OF and their friends gathered from across the nation last NORMAN D. NEVILLS July 11 to honor the memory of one of the West's APRIL 9, 1908—SEPTEMBER 19, 1949 greatest rivermen, Norman Nevills—and his wife, Doris. AND DORIS, HIS WIFE Nevills' adventurous career as a pilot-boatman on MARCH 11, 1914—SEPTEMBER 19, 1949 the wildest rivers in western United States came to an WHO SOUGHT AND RAN AND MASTERED end September 19, 1949, when he and Doris plunged THE WILD AND SECRET WATERS to their death in a rocky canyon just after taking off SAN JUAN RIVER • GREEN RIVER in their private plane at their home at Mexican Hat, COLORADO RIVER • GRAND CANYON Utah. SALMON RIVER • SNAKE RIVER Immediately after their tragic death, friends of the Nevills began making preparations for a memorial— BY THE RIVER THEY LOVED SO WELL and the gathering at Navajo bridge last July was for IN THE DESERT THAT WAS THEIR HOME the unveiling of a bronze plaque which had been in THIS RECORD IS PLACED BY the making for more than two years. THE CANYONEERS For 10 years, Norman and Doris Nevills had oper- ated as a team. Norman was the designer and builder of the rugged little cataract boats which had proved OCTOBER, 1952 their stability on six expeditions through the treacher- ous rapids of Grand Canyon. While Norman was on the river, Doris was the manager of shore operations. She planned the menus, bought the food, and attended to the thousand and one details necessary to operate a fast schedule of river trips during the summer season each year. Barry Goldwater, city councilman in Phoenix, and companion of Norman Nevills on more than one of his river excursions, flew in from the Arizona capital in his private plane to officiate as master of ceremonies at the unveiling of the plaque. Assisting him in the dedication ritual were Mary Ogden Abbott of Concord. Massachusetts, artist who had carved the original model for the plaque, and Frank E. Masland of Carlisle, Pa., whose interest and financial help had made the mem- orial possible. The Nevills' daughters, Joan and Sandra, and Mae Nevills, Norman's mother, were present at the cere- monies. In a brief program just before the unveiling of the plaque, Wayne McConkie of Moab, Utah, for- mer boatman for Nevills, offered an invocation. Ben Avery, newspaperman of Phoenix, was present as the personal representative of Governor Pyle, and Frank Streater of Moab spoke in behalf of Governor Lee of Utah. To Comeron DESERT MAGAZINE Rainbow bridge, with two members of the party on top. Frank Wright, senior pilot of the Mexican Hat Expeditions. Glen Canyon Voyage By RANDALL HENDERSON When Norman and Doris tance of 20 miles, and he called this Map by Norton Allen Nevills met tragic death in an sector Cataract Canyon. AST FEBRUARY Jim Rigg airplane accident in Septem- Below Cataract Canyon the river wrote to me: "In connection ber, 1949, the river boats which flows through Glen Canyon as far as with the dedication of the Nev- Norman had designed and the mouth of the Paria River. At that ills plaque at Marble Canyon next built for his river excursions point Glen Canyon gives way to July, Frank Wright and I are plan- were purchased from the es- Marble Canyon, and below the junc- ning a trip down the Colorado River tate by I. Frank Wright of tion of the Little Colorado Marble through Glen Canyon from Hite, Utah, Blanding, Utah, and James Canyon becomes Grand Canyon. and we would like to have you as one Rigg of Grand Junction, Colo- In Cataract, Marble and Grand of our guests. We plan to leave Hite rado. Wright and Rigg had Canyons the river plunges down steep on July 4 and reach Lee's ferry July served as boatmen, and had declivities, forming rapids which have 10, the day before the dedication." acquired skill in running the given the Colorado River its reputa- I was glad to accept this invitation, rapids under the tutelage of tion as a treacherous stream to navi- for I have long wanted to become bet- Nevills. For three years the gate. ter acquainted with certain landmarks team of Wright and Rigg, op- But sandwiched in between Cataract along the upper Glen Canyon sector erating as Mexican Hat Expe- and Marble Canyons, from the tribu- of the Colorado. I had previously ditions, have been carrying on tary Fremont River to Lee's ferry, is navigated lower Glen Canyon with successfully the river traditions a 149-mile sector where the mighty both Norman Nevills and Harry Ale- left them by the Nevills. Colorado flows in a deep well-defined son, but the sector above the Esca- channel with hardly a riffle to break lante River junction was still strange sible for the sector names given to the the surface of the water. to me. various canyons through which his On his original voyage of explora- Major John Wesley Powell, who little river flotilla passed. Below Moab, tion Powell called this sector Mound first explored the Colorado River in Utah, Powell encountered a rugged and Monument Canyons, but on his 1869, and again in 1872, was respon- series of rapids extending for a dis- second trip he renamed it Glen Can- OCTOBER, 1952 yon.