JULY, 1957 ..... 35 Cents \ * ' •. •- .'-•

*# ' r '•#••; IRo&e By GEORGA A. STOUGH Trinidad, Colorado Alone on a rocky hillside 1 found my lovely rose; Safe guarded in her thorny bed Against her many foes. And she held her head quite proudly Beneath the deep, blue sky, While there our friendship awakened Between my rose and I. Her great beauty it was gleaming In petals of deep pink; As there I stood enraptured with, Love at first sight, I think. Now 1 will endure the hardship Of miles both hot and dry, Just again to glimpse my rose girl, Beneath the deep, blue sky.

OOO TO THE DESERT WIND By EVANS THORNTON New York, New York Go friend of space, of rock and sand, Of shadowed purple hills, wind-clean, You hide within your splendored land A longing longed for, here unseen; Hid here from us who beat "the street," And dig our gold in canyons of steel and stone, Hid here where only steam has heat And hearts are cold with fear and so alone. Return, oh wind, to your long sweep of space, Stay here no more your songs don't sell; We dare not stop for fear we'll lose the race, And we are deaf to the tales you'd tell. Within this frenzied world of men our hearts can't hear your cry, So butcher, baker, singer, and king, deaf are we to die.

BARE BROWN HILLS OF NEVADA By MRS. GLADYS THOMAS Fallon, Nevada Those bare brown hills of Nevada, Bold, and brazen, and free, They scorn the green cloak of shrub and tree, Worn by mountains of modesty, And shadows glide caressingly, Over their bare brown beauty. Those gold-lined hills of Nevada, Warm, and gay and serene, But old man winter being sorta shy, Wraps each in white as he passes by. And Jack Frost adds diamonds on the sly, Over their bare brown beauty. SPRING IS A PROSPECTOR Those ermined-wrapped hills of Nevada, By MAUDE RUBIN Gold, and haughty, and proud, Santa Ana, California Until the first warm kiss of Spring, Spring is a prospector, crabbed and bent— Aside their garments of white they fling, That lcud-braying wind is his burro. By TANYA SOUTH And brazenly, stand forth again, With a mountain and star for his bed-roll !n all their bare brown beauty. ;>nd tent Give all you have, and ask for no He searches each rippled sand furrow; reward. You will be paid, and amply, by the TIME TO LIVE Finds a color or two in a long-dry stream Lord. By HAROLD PATCH bed, So just are Life's decrees, so straight Perkinsville, Vermont (Needs a grubstake, but where can Spring a course borrow?) Is run from cause unto effect, that Give me time to think, and ponder, So he plods on through shifting mirages. force As my life's course rolls along; hope-led Is never needed in repayment just. Time to drink in Nature's beauty. Feeling certain he'll strike it tomorrow. We earn each crust! Time to hum a snatch of song. And what we earn we get without That April tomorrow is fickle and cold For the deeper joys of living And his burro is too tired to hike— reserve, As we deserve. Don't depend on speed, you know; But when palo-verde trees scatter their gold Joy's fruition is the sweeter Old Prospector Spring makes a strike! Given time to fully grow.

DESERT MAGAZINE DESERT CflLEnDRR June 24-July 5 — Southwest Writers' Workshop, Arizona State College, Flagstaff. DtMfiL July 1—Rodeo, Ely, Nevada. July 2-4—Rodeo, Silver City, N. M. July 3—Days of '47 Cavalcade, Salt Lake City. July 3-4—Rabbit Ear Roundup Ro- deo, Fort Sumner, New Mexico. July 3-5—Gadsden Purchase Fiesta, Mesilla, New Mexico. July" 4—Independence Day Celebra- tions: Mesa, Bisbee and Ajo, Ari- zona; Newhall, California; Ely, Mc- Volume 20 IULY, 1957 Number 7 Dermitt, Eureka, Goldfield, Cali- ente, Lovelock and Austin, Nevada; COVER . Fourth of July Picnic. CHUCK and ESTHER Las Vegas, White Sands National Monument and Cimarron, N. M. HENDERSON ABBOTT took this picture of July 4-6—LDS Rodeo, Show Low, their children and themselves celebrating Arizona. Independence Day on the desert. July 4-6—29th Annual Southwest All- POETRY Cactus Rose and other poems 2 Indian Pow Wow, Flagstaff. CALENDAR July events on the desert 3 July 4-7—Frontier Days and Rodeo, FIELD TRIP Collecting Gizzard Stones in Utah Prescott, Arizona. By GENE SPERRY 4 July 4-7—Rodeo, Reno. WATERHOLE Paradise Springs on the Mojave July 4-7—24th Annual Hopi Crafts- man Exhibit, Museum of Northern By WALTER FORD 6 Arizona, Flagstaff. PERSONALITIES Traders in Apple Valley July 4-7—Cowhands Rodeo, Cloud- By RANDALL HENDERSON 7 croft, New Mexico. BOTANY Cactus Without the Thorns July 4-7—Mescalero Apache Indian By EUGENE L. CONROTTO 10 Ceremonial, Mescalero, N. M. RECREATION New Access Road for Rivermen 12 July 4-7—Rodeo and Jack Pot Rop- ing, Payson, Arizona. TRAVEL Campers' Tour of New Mexico's Back Country July 6-7—9th Annual Hesperia Day By NELL MURBARGER 13 Celebration, Hesperia, California. FICTION Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 18 July 11-13 — Ute Stampede, Nephi, CLOSE-UPS About those who write for Desert 18 Utah. INDIANS Missionary to the Navajos July 11-14—Rodeo, Santa Fe. By VADA F. CARLSON 19 July 11-14—Cowboy Camp Meeting, RECREATION These Mountains Are Only for the Sturdy Clayton, New Mexico. By LOUISE WERNER 21 July 12-14—All Faces West Pageant, CONTEST Picture-of-the-Month Contest announcement . . 22 Ogden, Utah. PHOTOGRAPHY Pictures of the Month 23 July 14—Corn Dance, Cochiti Pueblo, NATURE Their Odor Is Only a Weapon for Defense New Mexico. By EDMUND C. JAEGER 24 July 18-20—Dinosaur Rodeo, Vernal, Utah. FORECAST Southwest river runoff predictions 26 July 18-20, 22-24—Rodeo, Salt Lake EXPERIENCE The Treasure We Value Most City. Pioneer Day Parade on 24th. By THOMAS W. MAY 27 July 18-21—2nd Annual Trade Show DESERT QUIZ A test of your desert knowledge 28 and Carnival, Palmdale, California. July 21—Shrine Circus, Elko, Nevada. NEWS From here and there on the desert 29 July 21-28 —Navajo Craftsman Ex- LETTERS Comment from Desert's readers 29 hibit, Museum of Northern Arizona, MINING Current news of desert mines 33 Flagstaff. URANIUM Latest developments in the industry 35 July 22-27—White Mountain Range LAPIDARY Amateur Gem Cutter, by DR. H. C. DAKE . . 36 Riders trek to Mount Baldy, from Springerville, Arizona. HOBBY Gems and Minerals 37 COMMENT Just Between You and Me, by the Editor ... 42 July 23-24 — Fiesta Days, Spanish Fork, Utah. BOOKS Reviews of Southwestern Literature .... 43 July 24 — Pioneer Days Celebration HISTORY Charcoal Kilns and Rodeo, Ogden, Utah. By JOSEF and JOYCE MUENCH . . back cover July 24—Pioneer Days Rodeo, Lund, Arizona. 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 postoffice at Palm Desert, July 24—Pioneer Days, Panaca, Nev. California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office, and contents copyrighted 1957 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contents July 25-26—Spanish-Colonial Fiestas must be secured from the editor in writing. of St. James and St. Ann, Taos; RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor EUGENE L. CONROTTO, Associate Editor Corn Dance at Taos Pueblo, N. M. BESS STACY, Business Manager EVONNE RIDDELL, Circulation Manager July 26 — Fiesta and Corn Dance, Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledged unless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility for Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico. damage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub- July 27-28 — Sheriff's Posse Round scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue. Up, Flagstaff. July 27-28—Los Alamos County Fair, SUBSCRIPTION RATES Los Alamos, New Mexico. One Year S4.00 Two Years $7.00 July 28—Ricks Trophy Air Races, Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c Extra Tucson. 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 JULY, 1957 fossils especially beautiful for most had crystallized into various shades of red and pink. One specimen Wolverton Collecting G\iwi found contained a perfect star-shaped fossil of a starfish that may have lived 400,000,000 years ago. It is milk white in color as are most of the giz- zard stone micro-fossils. Stones in Utah... The Yellow Cat district also con- tains other fossilized rocks. Most had shell, coral and cell structure imprints. Not all scientists agree that the smoothly polished gizzard stones Occasionally I found small clusters actually were used by dinosaurs as crop roughage—but everyone of round coral on the surface of the agrees that they make very unusual cabinet pieces. This month's field rock rather than imbedded or im- trip takes you to the Yellow Cat uranium mining district where these printed. I also found fossils of seg- stones abound, along with gem quality pertified wood and fossilized mented worms, archaeocyathus, corals, bone specimens. nummulite shells, snails, spirifers, tracks of Crustacea and worms, spon- ges, bryozoa and crinoidea. My one By GENE SPERRY disappointment is that I have yet to Map by Norton Allen find an imprint of a trilobite {Desert, Photographs by Lee W. Sperry Sept. '55). Petrified wood and dinosaur bone BECAME AN ardent rockhound and slickness not found in other rocks, were two other treasures we found after one prospecting trip to no matter how long they have been ex- here. Tracking the original source of Utah's Yellow Cat uranium min- posed to weather and water. They are bone or wood splinters became an ex- ing district between Cisco and Thomp- easily seen for they are entirely foreign citing game. It was generally a matter son. And no wonder—the material is to the native stones. Even the holes of following the float up a wash or plentiful and colorful, and the craggy on the surface of the gizzard stones incline. Often I was disappointed be- and rough-hewn battlements that we have a velvety polish. cause the source had completely dis- wandered through are fascinating. In many of the gizzard stones col- appeared. Other times I discovered Ted Wolverton, who leases mines lected that day I found fossils which where the log had shattered to pieces in the Yellow Cat district, told my were ancient when the dinosaurs or where several dinosaur bones were husband, Lee, and I about the area's roamed this land. They record our buried in the sandy soil. gizzard stones. This is a rock of con- first forms of life, from the Cambrian, Bone and tree rocks have a texture tention in the rockhound fraternity. Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian unlike any other. In bones the cell Some geologists, miners and rock- eras. structure is completely there. Often hounds believe the gizzard stones were Most were worm or micro-fossils, they are a soft red, brilliant blue, dull actually swallowed by dinosaurs to aid a few were imprint fossils. In some brown, glittering black or a combina- in the maceration of their food—others the cell structure was plainly visible tion of these colors. Trees are com- oppose this theory. to the naked eye while others required plete with knots, rings and bark. They These gastroliths have a high polish a magnifying glass. I found the shell too occur in many shades of brassy

o Crescent Jet -6Mi. Greenriver-£7Mi.

A PORTION OF THE YELLOW CAT AREA »_ —Pavement =... Jeeps and Pickups GRAND COUNTY, UTRH Suitable for Passenger Cars

DESERT MAGAZINE green, dull black, crystal white, pale tan or a combination of colors. In many cases the specimens have agatized or opalized, and these are real prizes for the rockhound. Most petri- fied bone and wood is dull colored, brittle and easily shattered, while the agatized and opalized bone and wood is very hard and will usually take a high polish. The Yellow Cat area's many roads give the rockhound an opportunity to cover the entire country. The main gravel roads can be traveled by con- ventional automobiles, but four wheel drive is advisable for the side trails. There undoubtedly are many types of material yet to be discovered in this interesting country. Waterholes, which are few and far between, often record the occupancy of Indians in red vana- dium and yellow carnotite painted pictographs, or in incised petroglyphs. Brilliant flints and jasper of every known color abound near these water- holes and I found two arrowheads, a spear point and a fleshing knife. Mine dumps in the Yellow Cat offer many samples of uranium ore. Rang- ing from the bright yellow of carnotite through the dull greens and blacks and brilliant blacks of pitchblende. Old vanadium mining dumps are the best sented by a variety of species—loco- rows. This also is the land of the cot- places to find good specimens of ura- weed, greasewood, brittlebush, cacti tontail rabbit. nium and red vanadium ore. and others. Spring is the best time to visit the Plant life, while sparse, is repre- Mice, ground squirrels and small Yellow Cat district—and don't be sur- lizards were numerous around our prised to find me, head down and pick camp and I saw many birds about, in hand, looking for new wonders in Top—Jeeps are best suited for travel including roadrunners and desert spar- the stones. in the Yellow Cat district. In this wash the author found beautiful specimens of black and green opal- ized wood. Bottom — Uranium hunter Pasco Spadafora of Grand Junction, Colo- rado, rests in the craggy and rough- hewn battlements of the Yellow Cat district. Gizzard stones and petrified wood and bone are found here. HISTORIC DESERT WATERHOLES VII Pmike Springs on the Mojm... To the pioneers of yesterday who knew it as an important water- telephones, television sets and traffic ing place on the Mojave Desert and to the desert lovers of today who noises, they do have such conveniences live there in contentment—no name serves quite as well for this little as gas refrigeration and battery oper- valley where the water bubbles out of the ground as does the name ated radios, and above all, the free- it has—Paradise Springs. dom to live as they please. Paradise Springs is now owned by By WALTER FORD Royal and Renie of Los Angeles. The owners were absent when I was there, T'S a paradise, boys, it's a For three-quarters of a century this but Olga Shuey graciously showed me paradise!" waterhole has been a rendezvous for around. A number of springs have Thus spoke the leader of a prospectors. Some came to bathe in been developed in the area around thirsty little band of emigrants as they the warm mineral waters of other which permanent residents have erected got their first glimpse of a cool sweet springs nearby. Some remained to living quarters or have parked their water spring bubbling from the earth prospect the hills and evidently they trailers. An interesting phenomenon at the head of a little valley on the found a showing of pay ore for there of the area is hot and cold water issu- Mojave Desert. There was more than are the ruins of an old arrastre, and ing from the earth in close proximity. cool water here. Grass for their stock numbers of abandoned shafts and My guide pointed out two streams grew in abundance, mesquite beans tunnels. two feet apart that were flowing into were plentiful, and rabbits and quail At one time an effort was made to a small tank—one icy cold while the could be taken with little effort. pipe water from Paradise Spring to temperature of the other ran well over Time has obscured the identity of the Olympus mine three miles away, 100 degrees. but according to the late Dix Van this party, or its destination. Probably The original spring flows from a cut Dyke of Daggett who was very familiar they were following the desolate Death in a low bank at the head of the val- with this region, the mineralized water Valley-Barstow trail by way of Cave ley. Two concrete bathing pools have soon crystallized the iron pipes. When Springs, or had drifted off the old been built a short distance from the wooden pipe replacements were put in Spanish Trail as it swung south from spring, side by side, so that one may the water destroyed the metal hoops Bitter Spring to what is now the Bar- bathe in warm or cold water, as his holding the pipe together. stow-Baker sector of Highway 91. mood dictates. Olga Shuey told me But the word of this refreshing Many years have passed since the that the warm mineralized water had waterhole in one of the most desolate first white travelers visited Paradise such curative powers that many visitors areas in North America was passed Springs, but to the group of former travel several hundred miles to bathe along to other emigrants and prospec- theatrical people from coastal cities in them. She stated further that no tors—and eventually Paradise Springs who have established their homes charge had ever been made for use of became a name on some of the maps. there, it is still a paradise. Lacking the bathing facilities. Driving back toward Barstow I The author kneels at the original spring which still flows from the base of a dirt bank at the head of the valley. passed a soldier walking nonchalantly toward Camp Irwin, minus a canteen JfT' and with the temperature hovering a i " '.v..*..*...\ "., ...... '•. . ..';,,-. .'.,..•..:....^ around the 100 degree mark, appar- ,. '-. v" ^ '- ently confident that with the heavy flow

il-. ls •- • "^ *% "•• * of traffic toward the military area he '••:, -* , would soon obtain a ride. I could not P§§§1 help but reflect on what a change a iffliBBI few short years had made. This was the road that was formerly little more ,'jBa than two ruts, over which only the §sii most foolhardy would venture in the 1 • ^^ summer without sufficient water, and along which Adrian Egbert used to maintain bottles filled with water to ISKIiii gf alleviate the sufferings of such travelers. -, : Paradise Springs is located one and n ^ a half miles west of the Camp Irwin road and 20.5 miles northeast of Bar- stow where a metal sign indicates the \ 2,,: turn-off. While visitors are undoubtedly welcome, it should be remembered that Paradise Springs is private property and that the common courtesy of an- nouncing one's arrival should be ob- » served. DESERT MAGAZINE Frances and Zeke Comia of Buffalo Trading Post.

Frances and Zeke Cornia found the end of their rainbow in Apple customers who come here to obtain Valley on California's Mojave Desert. True—there was no pot of gold the high quality crafts products on dis- awaiting them there, but they found more important things—health, play. But when the day's work is work that paid a fair reward, and the opportunity to be of service to ended they close the door to their their neighbors. world of commerce and live with their books and hobbies in an atmosphere By RANDALL HENDERSON of exquisite Indian furnishings. Architectural photography by I wanted to know what kind of peo- Douglas M. Simmonds, Los Angeles ple had created a place so charming. Frances and Zeke and Danny, their 12 Y ACQUAINTANCE with the their customers, but I noted that it was year old son, were modest, but coop- Cornias began in March this no ordinary curio store. Housed in a erative in answering my questions. year when Cyria and I visited newly constructed and very distinctive Zeke is 54, and they came to Apple their attractive trading post four miles sales room, with living quarters adjoin- Valley in 1947 from Long Beach, Cal- from Victorville along the paved high- ing, the structure is a pleasing blend of ifornia. Both Zeke and Danny were way that connects Apple Valley with Indian pueblo and modernistic design, bothered with sinusitis and their doc- its nearest railroad. having the most substantial and attrac- tor had advised them to seek a dry Inside the adobe walls were many tive features of the Southwest's origi- climate. The new Apple Valley com- customers—folks who had come here nal architecture modified with the ma- munity development was much in the to obtain Navajo silver and turquoise, terials and lines of modern planning. headlines at that time, and this high pottery from Santo Domingo, basketry, Later that evening we sat before the desert valley seemed to offer oppor- ceramics, hand-tooled leather — the huge native stone fireplace in the liv- tunities for a family too young to re- finest handiwork produced by both In- ing room of their spacious home. Be- tire. dian and white American craftsmen. yond the partition was the shop where Zeke left the automotive reconstruc- Zeke and Frances were busy with they spend their working hours serving tion business in Long Beach, and they

A n attractive blending of Indian pueblo with modern design. C I II 1 C E ••• .

P 4 u Floor plan of the trading post and living quarters. McFarland-Bonsall, Architects. planned and built the Black Horse Mo- for visitors who would bring their work they became acquainted with E. tel in Apple Valley. They are fond of mounts to the desert in trailers for a M. Daniels, veteran Indian trader at horses, and have done much riding, weekend of riding. Fontana, California, and he became and the new motel was designed for Zeke had always wanted to have a their main source of supply, and taught horsemen and their families. There trading post, and after the motel was them much about the business. The were eight apartments, and stall ac- opened they decided to put a couple silver and turquoise secured through commodations for riding animals. Their of show cases of Indian jewelry in the Daniels was of exceptional quality, and place became a popular rendezvous office. In seeking new stocks of crafts- their jewelry business prospered—in 8 DESERT MAGAZINE fact they found it more satisfying than motel operation. Then in 1955, Daniels wanted to retire, and the Cornias made new plans. They would sell the Black Horse and build a trading post — stocked with the Indian crafts goods their trader friend had collected during a lifetime in the Southwest. One of their customers at the Black Horse Gift Shop was Douglas McFar- land of the Los Angeles architectural office of McFarland-Bonsall, and when they learned that he was familiar with the Spanish and Indian architecture of the Southwest, they arranged with him to prepare the plans for the new trad- ing post. The building is a combination of adobe and wood, with rock wool in the frame walls, and composition board in the roof for insulation. Beam ceil- ings and lodge-pole arcade carry out the pueblo design, and this is further emphasized by gorgeous Navajo rugs and other Indian handiwork for dec- oration. A central gas heating unit with under-floor ducts to every room An orderly well-kept shop of fine craftsmanship. supplements the fireplace as a source of warmth. The building is so well The Cornias do most of their own Mexico and a beautiful collection of insulated that cooling equipment for sales work, and they enjoy it. They Indian basketry which they acquired summer weather has been found un- have become quite expert in judging from the Daniels' collection. necessary. the quality of crafts products, and are Both of the Cornias are active in Set well back from the highway, very selective in their choice of mer- civic affairs. Zeke has been president with a low ridge of mountains as a chandise to be displayed in their post. of both the chamber of commerce and backdrop, the building in its landscape Ninety percent of the Indian products the Lions' Club in Apple Valley. of native shrubs and rocks invariably are reservation made, much of it ob- Frances is program chairman for the attracts the attention of motorists on tained from the Navajo Arts & Crafts Apple Valley Women's Club. the Apple Valley-Victorville highway. Guild at Window Rock and from Zuni The Apple Valley community which Known as the Buffalo Trading Post, Pueblo. They have ceramics from the they selected for their home is unique a buffalo head is mounted on the front Sims Ceramics studio in Apple Valley in many respects. Newton T. Bass and wall at the entrance to the building. and from Desert House in Tucson, Barney Westlund, the original develop- The front of the building is decorated Craftsman copper from Costa Mesa, ers of the community, planned their with typical Indian art, done by Jim California, Navajo rugs from the res- project for spacious living. There are Pahawk, Cherokee Indian. ervation, Chimayo blankets from New no crowded subdivisions. The build- ing sites are large, the streets wide, and Living room and fireplace in the Cornia home. most of the residents of the wide valley have chosen to do their landscaping with native shrubs and rocks, with of course a generous sprinkling of Joshua trees which are so conspicuous on this part of the Mojave desert. There are no tall buildings in Apple Valley to shut off the distant horizon. The ideas of space and individuality are well illustrated along the wide busi- ness street. The old custom of creat- ing a canyon of brick and cement and calling it Main street, was discarded in the planning of this community. In most instances the stores and shops are of the ranch type of architecture, each an individual unit with spacing between, and ample parking front and rear. This is the place the Cornias selected for their desert home. The sinus trouble that brought them here has long since disappeared, but they are happy in what they are doing and have no thought of ever leaving the desert. ...

Nature spent millions of years developing a spiny protective stead, into a poisonous enemy," com- armor for prickly pear cactus—and then Luther Burbank in 15 years mented Burbank. reversed the process. Here is an amazing story of plant selection— But, since plants were on earth long "the most important record of my entire work," Burbank commented before foraging animals—this protec- in 1915. tion was acquired. Burbank quickly concluded that there was a time in the By EUGENE L CONROTTO history of the cactus that it did not need a defense—a time when it did HIS long and illustrious developed new beauty in many spe- not have barbs. career Luther Burbank experi- cies, his quest always was for adap- The Southwest was once a great mented with 10,000 species of tability and hardiness. He felt that if sea, Burbank explained. Before evap- plants. He took the pit out of plums his experiments did not lead to greater oration of this inland sea was com- and the acid out of berries; he pro- utility—-to service for mankind—then plete, the heat and moisture and chem- duced brilliant flowers and developed his efforts were useless. ical constituents of the sandy soil fruit to pre-determined specifications Long before the turn of the century combined to give many plants an op- of size, taste and appearance; his Burbank gave much thought to the portunity to thrive. Among these was grasses were hardier; where wind dam- cactus and its arid home. Here is a cactus. aged corn he developed a hybrid that plant, he reasoned, that is denied a As the heat began to parch the for- grew so fast and was so strong that drop of rain for a year, two years— mer sea bottom the cactus started its it was never bothered by winds; he even 10, and yet still gets enough first great adaptation. It gradually made better beans, squash, grapes, moisture out of the soil and air to dropped its leaves to prevent too rapid pears, apples, carrots, figs, melons, build a structure that is 92 percent transpiration, sent its roots deeper and peas, artichokes — and he took the water. deeper into the sand, thickened its spines out of cactus. Burbank started his experiments stalks into broad slabs. During this "My work with cactus is the most with cactus one day after he reflected time, of course, many species, unable important story to be told in connec- that every plant growing on the desert to adapt to the heat, were lost. tion with the record of my entire was either bitter, poisonous or spiny. A few more million years and then work," declared Burbank in 1915 The bitterness, the poison, the spines animal life appeared on this vast sea when he was 65 years of age. —these were Nature's defensive arm- bed. These animals found the plants Strange for the creator of Burbank or — developed for the purpose of excellent forage. Vegetation began potatoes to make such a statement survival. thinning out while the animals, with about those grotesquely shaped inhab- "What might have been a food plant still abundant plant life to feed them, itants of the arid places; strange for the equal to the plum transformed itself multiplied rapidly until a new balance greatest botanist who ever lived to into a wild porcupine among plants; was struck. Many more species of place the thorny cactus at the zenith what might have been as useful to the plants were lost until the cactus found of his 10,000-unit parade of plants, cow as hay changed its nature and itself but one of a dozen hardy ones ranking it above wheat, above the became bitter, woody, inedible; what left. carnation. might have been a welcome friend to Out of every million cacti eaten to While in the floral world Burbank the weary desert traveler grew up, in- the ground by animals perhaps only

A prickly pear cactus hedge. a thousand or two of the hardiest had stamina to throw out new pads—to try again. These plants eventually sent up an ineffectual modified fruit bud or leaf in a desperate attempt at protection. But, this proved too soft and of the thousand or two left from the original millions there may have been but a hundred able to stand off the new onslaughts. This hundred, stronger than those that had given up, sent up new leaves. Each new crop the hairs became stiffer and longer until finally, even if only one out of a million was left, there developed a cactus which was effectu- ally armored. One such survivor out of the billions upon billions of cactus plants that had grown before, would have been suffi- cient to have covered the deserts of the world with its progeny. One cactus may have fathered and mothered all the cactus in the world today! Burbank's job would be to go back through the ages and return to the earth its long lost spineless cactus. He knew it would take a long time. Actu- ally, he accomplished in 15 years what had taken Nature several millions of years to do, but 15 years in the life time of a man is a long time. Of Massive clusters of cactus fruit. Burbank's experiments told him that an course he had several thousand other acre of cacti yields between 150 and 300 tons of new forage annually projects going at the same time and besides nearly half as much fruit. Photograph by Harry Vroman. the cactus time was hardly noticed. But, what made Burbank consider this experiment his most important— primarily as a fruit-bearing plant for and burning the cactus was only jus- even before he started on it? True, man. Rather he saw the great possi- tified when it was a question of life the plant was adaptable and hardy, but bility its juicy pads held as a feed for or death for the livestock. it had a third feature when added to livestock, especially on the open ranges Nature has produced a few spineless the other two which made it, in Bur- of the arid Southwest. cacti, but these are all small and in- bank's eyes, of prime significance to In pioneer days early settlers often conspicuous species and very bitter man. This characteristic was produc- saw cattle and antelope eat cactus that tasting. tivity. An average annual yield for somehow, usually by fire, had lost Cactus grows so rapidly under fa- cactus planted on even the poorest its spines. It was considered excel- vorable conditions that a three-year or soil was 18,000 pounds of fruit per lent forage in this land where other older stand will gain between 150 and acre. succulents could not secure a foothold. 300 tons of new forage per acre an- "The possibilities of production on Cattle and sheep owners often were nually besides nearly half as much good soil and with fully matured plants forced to send crews out to burn the fruit. of the perfected varieties are probably spines off of cactus and to feed it Burbank decided to attack the prob- greater than those of any other fruit- to the livestock in times of drouth. lem of producing a spineless cactus by producing plant. With perfection cac- This was an emergency measure, how- hybridizing known partially spineless tus should reach an astonishing pro- ever, for the high cost of gathering species with large spiny ones followed ductivity of 100 tons per acre!" Bur- by a rigid program of selection. bank declared. And this fruit con- He felt that from the standpoint of tained 14 percent sugar and small WHY NOT MORE CACTUS? amounts of protein and fat. Thus, economic value, one of the Opuntia Burbank reasoned that man could reap l/uther Burbank over a period species—the cactus commonly known of 15 years devoted much time as prickly pear—offered the greatest 14 tons of energy-giving sugar per and labor to the breeding of spine- less species of cactus—feeling that possibilities. It is hardy, adaptable, acre with the cactus. easily grown and very productive. Fruit production by cactus was not, he was rendering a great service to mankind, and especially to the Finally, his experiments were started. of course, new in Burbank's day. cattle industry. The readers of People of the Mediterranean basin Desert Magazine would be inter- The cactus blooming season was a and Indians of the Southwest had made ested to know why a food plant period of torment for Burbank day which yields so much forage value and night, for he found that he could cactus fruit an important part of their in a land of little rainfall is not diets long before. There is no known being cultivated more widely for not avoid the spines while hand polli- standard for comparing the taste of that purpose by the cattle indus- nating and inspecting the cacti. Many try. Comment in answer to this of the species had flowers that opened this fruit. In general, it combines the question will be appreciated by taste and texture of a melon and rasp- the editors of Desert Magazine— only during the hottest part of the day, berry. to be passed along to our readers. and some of the blossoms remained But, Burbank did not regard cactus open for only 15 minutes. The atten-

JULY, 195 7 11 dant had to be on the spot when the bank explained the blossom phenom- gigantic cactus overtopping all its critical time came. enon in this manner: the floral envelope known ancestors in size and surpassing Burbank used a watch crystal as a occupies a position in the hereditary them all in succulence, producing fruit vessel in which to collect the pollen. scale somewhat different from that of of unpredicted excellence in almost When the plant to be pollinized was the main stem of the cactus plant. unbelievable quantity and having a sur- ready to bloom, its stamens were re- The flower is a relatively recent de- face as smooth as the palm of a hand. moved just before they matured and velopment in the history of plant life At the end of 15 years he did not pollen dusted from the watch crystal and was not governed by the same have one, but several new species of with a camel's hair brush over recep- forces that determined that the hybrid spineless cacti of the opuntia family. tive stigma. should be an intermediate. He had plants that produced a wide Years of rigid selection produced a variety of fruit in size and form as While in the early hybridizing stages well as texture and flavor. he discovered a curious feature in cac- cactus that had no spines. Every seed- tus. In crossing the giant opuntias with ling that showed any propensity to Burbank had an acre and a quarter planted to spineless cactus at his Santa smaller spineless species the hybrid bear spines had to be eliminated. Be- fore too long Burbank was able to Rosa, California, experimental farm. was intermediate in all details—size, Despite the fact that he had 2500 stem and manner of growth and form make that choice as soon as the seed- ling popped its first leaf out of the other experiments going at the same of pads—except one: the hybrid blos- time, visitors were time and again lured ground. In due time he developed his som was relatively enormous—much to the cactus. They stood before the larger than the blossom of either par- spineless race—a plant that showed a acre and a quarter jungle of smooth ent. These hybrids bred true to form reassortment of hereditary character- green pads, awed by the miracle per- and showed no tendency to racial vari- istics. His final product was exactly formed by this wizard of the plant ation in the second generation. Bur- what he had started out to produce: a world.

Hall, Hole-in-the-Rock, Mystery and Twilight Canyons and other scenic Km Creek Jeep Road Pewits points in Glen Canyon are all upstream from Kane Creek, the new jeep road— for those who have the proper equip- ment — will serve to keep open for Glen Canyon Access to Rimmen river travelers the most interesting sec- While the Colorado River at the for jeeps and light pickup trucks tow- tor of the Colorado and San Juan riv- Glen Canyon damsite will remain ing light boat trailers," Regional Di- ers in Glen Canyon, until such time as closed to navigation as previously an- rector E. O. Larson warned. water begins to back up in the newly nounced by the U. S. Reclamation As access to Rainbow Bridge, Music formed reservoir. Bureau, a new exit route from the river at a point upstream from the dam lite will make it possible for boating parties to make their scheduled runs from Hite and Mexican Hat this summer, according to the latest U.S.R.B. bulle- tin. A 19-mile jeep trail has been com- pleted, leaving the river at Kane Creek (the Crossing of the Fathers) and con- necting with the Kanab-Damsite road at Wahweap Creek. "The new access road at Kane Creek is suitable only GLEN CANYON RESERVOIR

o Pario KANE CREEK JEEP ROAD J1 9

To Kanob Mexican Hat 30 miles 'Rainbow Bridge Not'l. Monument _U T_ __A GLEN CANYON Crossing of A R" "" Y~ "o DAMSITE •Jy^ ~>v Ine Fathers Lees Ferry UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION GLEN CANYON STORAGE UNIT WAHWEAP-KANE CREEK JEEP ROAD To Konab LOCATION MAP 65 mi les jBitter Springs To Flagstaff 110 miles

12 DESERT MAGAZINE Free forest camp in Taos Canyon four miles east of Taos. State Highway 38 between Questa and Red Mountain Pass.

". . . when we left Santa Fe that morning we didn't have the vagu- est idea where we'd spend the night — and certainly we didn't dream that the week's rambling would carry us to Indian pueblos, prehistoric cliff and cave dwell- ings, Spanish mission ruins, de- serted ghost towns in the mining country and along tumbling streams to frosty camps in the high mountains . . ."

By NELL MURBARGER Map by Norton Allen

LICKING ITS heels at the busy way onto New Mexico's Route 10. went well until the major railroads be- freeway, the ragged little road That week-long outing cost each of us gan switching to diesel oil, whereupon went galloping off into the sum- only $6.91! the coal mine operators found them- mer hills speckled with junipers and Route 10 is a two-lane black-topped selves caught between rising produc- sunshine. Soon as Dad and Mom and road that serves a few small towns, a tion costs and a diminishing market. I saw it we knew it was a road we great many huge cattle ranches and As the mines closed, the bulk of Mad- wanted to follow. several mining camps. rid's population moved away and to- We never lack adventure on our Since we elected to bypass the fa- day many homes and business build- camping trips for when we reach a mous Los Cerrillos turquoise mines ings stand vacant, and the gaunt black road fork we consult our map to see situated only a few miles off our road, hulks of the mine buildings are silent which way seems to offer the greatest the first signs of mining activity we and deserted. potential interest. If the road branches encountered were at Madrid—a strange Evidence of former mining activity three ways and we each vote different- little town almost swallowed by the increased with each mile traveled and ly, we settle the matter by drawing mountainous jet-black dumps of her before we reached the old town of straws. Our best trips are those in once active coal mines. Discovered in Golden we were seeing prospect holes, which we don't know where we are 1835, the mines were worked exten- old cabins, tailing piles and whole going until we get there! sively beginning in 1869, and at their washes torn and tumbled upside down For instance—late last August when peak annually shipped 100,000 tons of by man's everlasting search for gold. we turned off the Albuquerque high- anthracite and bituminous coal. All When Marshall's discovery touched off

JULY, 1957 13 To RATON

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the stampede to California in 1849, derosa pines at an elevation of over wagons drawn by horses and mules. men already had been placering the 8000 feet. The free campground was They were from the pueblos of Santa washes in Golden for more than 300 big and clean and almost untenanted; Ana and Zia, whose sand-colored walls years. Spaniards, in the 16th century, there was much dry wood and cones and flat roofs were visible on a bench first worked this ground with Indian for our campfire and a little breeze across Jemez creek about a mile north- slave labor. was making music in the tops of the east of our road. The San Pedro district, on a side tall pines. We knew it would be a Compared to Zia and Santa Ana, road a couple of miles beyond Golden, grand night for sleeping—and it didn't Jemez is a Johnny-come-lately town, was mined for copper as early as 1832 worry us one particle that we only had built only 257 years ago. The original and had its greatest boom about 1880, traveled 63 miles that day! pueblo to occupy this site had around when a sizeable city sprang up around We planned to start early next morn- 500 inhabitants at time of the Pueblo the mines. Now, it is only a ghost ing—and would have, except for a Revolt in 1680. The Spaniards, on town, and we had a great time prowl- mother deer and her twin fawns, a their return to power in 1696, chased ing around the old ruins which include couple of funny looking squirrels with the Jemez folk into the hills and de- a big adobe church, beehive charcoal black tufts on their ears, and a half stroyed their city. Gradually they fil- kilns, stone cabins, mine buildings and dozen crested jays. They all seemed tered back to their ruined homes and an old graveyard. Mom found some to think we should feed them before built the present pueblo in 1700. especially good dendrite, and on thewe left camp, and Dad seemed to We drove slowly through the town dump of the main mine, a mile south- think so, too. from one end to the other, seeing out- east of town, we found a number of Then we drove to Bernalillo where door ovens, corn racks, meat hanging nice quartz crystal, limonite, hematite, we crossed the Rio Grande and looked in the open to dry — but we didn't calcite, garnet and malachite cabinet in on Coronado State Park. Embrac- make the acquaintance of any of the specimens. ing the site of two pre-Columbian shy citizens. Soon after returning to Route 10 we Tiguez ruins, Kuaua and Puaray (now Thirteen miles beyond is Jemez paused for a brief inspection of the partially restored) this generally is sup- Springs (Desert, Aug '56), a small re- Indian pueblo ruins at Paako State posed to have been the site of Coro- sort grown up around a hot artesian Monument. Built of rubblestone and nado's headquarters in 1540-42. From spring. A little farther up the road is adobe, and abandoned prior to 1670, the park we continued northwest on one of the loveliest church ruins in the highest walls remaining are not Route 44 through a colorful and scenic the entire Southwest—the old Spanish over four or five feet above the ground, area of eroded canyons and cliffs in mission of San Jose de Jemez. Com- but the forms of the separate rooms which we found some nice specimens pleted in 1617 and abandoned five are clearly defined, and everywhere of petrified wood. years later due to constant aggression we looked we saw fragments of pre- We were entering Indian country by the Navajos, its roofless sandstone historic pottery. now, and frequently we met whole walls stand to heights of 30 and 40 We camped that night in the Sandia families trudging along the road or rid- feet, and are stout and plumb despite Mountains in a grove of giant Pon- ing in rickety buckboards or covered wind, weather and vandals of more

DESERT MAGAZINE than three centuries. We ate lunch at Soda Dam, a strange geological phe- nomena extending across Jemez Can- yon. The dam is a coral-like barrier 350 feet in length, 50 feet high and 50 feet wide. Formed of minute calcium particles contained in the water of nearby soda springs, this natural stone plug is glistening white with streakings of vivid color. It has the general ap- pearance of a huge dinosaur—lumpy, wrinkled and very fat. The bright little stream in the canyon has cut a tunnel through the dam from which it emer- ges as a pretty waterfall, and hot- water springs still send their calcium- laden waters trickling over the face of the formation to keep it perpetually plastered white and fresh. The narrow graveled road up Jemez canyon is bordered by a leafy jungle of tall cottonwoods, woodbine, clema- tis, Apache plume, scarlet mallows and sunflowers. We passed half a dozen beautiful camping sites, each provid- ing limitless water and shade and wood. At Los Conchos campground, in Santa Fe National Forest, we found a perfect jewel of a place. In this clean grassy clearing, bordered by tumbling Jemez Creek and surrounded by tall firs and quaking aspen, were two log cabin snow shelters the Forestry serv- ice provides in some of its high-eleva- tion camps. Each was equipped with Aged Indian of Taos pueblo.

The author examines one of the paddles used for removing bread from an outdoor oven in an Indian pueblo.

WKKm- !*«* JULY, 1957 15 There's a museum with interesting archeological exhibits, and park ran- gers conduct several foot tours daily through these grand old cliff and pueblo ruins. In the afternoon I rented a horse for two dollars and rode up the canyon, seeing several deer and lots of squir- rels and chipmunks. At dusk a hand- some mother skunk and her troop of youngsters came down to the camp- ground for tidbits. Between Espanola and Pilar, about 30 miles, we were in sight of the Rio Grande almost all the way. In this northern part of the state it is one of the most beautiful rivers in the South- west—wide, blue and sparkling, with every accessible cove ringed by fisher- men. Although we stopped half a dozen times along the way it was still early when we reached Taos. Taos is fun! There's no end of things to see and do. After visiting the collection of pioneer relics housed in the Kit Carson home, we went to the old plaza in the center of town, a fascinating place to sit in the shade of the trees and dream of the past while you watch the ebbing and flowing of the present. Taos Indians bundled in white bedsheets, artists in berets, cow- boys in battered felt hats and blue jeans, fishermen in bright plaid shirts, dudes in fashionable range garb; min- ers; tourists; ranchers; writers; all in- termingling and milling through this same old plaza that in earlier centuries knew the footsteps of such Western immortals as Milton Sublette, Dick Wooton, Old Bill Williams, Kit Carson, St. Vrain, the martyred Governor Bent and others. We bought a nice steak for supper, Taos Indian stands before the ancient adobe walls of her pueblo. Photo added 25 pounds of ice to our portable courtesy New Mexico Tourist Bureau. ice box—enough to keep our food cold for another three days — and a wide stone fireplace—and soon as knew we were traveling at a high ele- drove out Taos canyon about four Mom saw this she declared, "We're vation but we didn't know how high miles to a cottonwood-shaded camp- home!" Dad rustled some wood for until we started down into Valle ground near a tumbling little stream in the fire and she cooked a pot of beans Grande — a wide 176 square mile Carson National Forest. Our travels for supper. We always carry a pound green saucer whose rounded bottom is this day had carried us 80 miles. or two of dry limas, which cook well 8500 feet above sea level. Geologists Next morning we visited Taos In- even at high elevations; and we'd believe this is the largest volcanic dian pueblo. We're not too fond of bought a piece of ham that morning crater in the world. visiting some of the pueblos—we feel at Bernalillo. She made some dump- After driving through miles of moun- uncomfortable because we are intrud- lings out of biscuit-mix and cooked tain cattle range comprising the Baca ers. But Taos Pueblo is different. Here them on top of the beans—and we Land Grant, we skirted Los Alamos, it is strictly business. From each auto- wouldn't have traded that meal and our the forbidden city of the Atoms, and mobile load of visitors entering the little log cabin shelter for the best hotel turned off to Bandelier National Mon- pueblo the Indians collect 50 cents. suite in Albuquerque! Later in the ument. Although it was only mid- An additional dollar is charged for evening we took a walk through the morning and our travels for this day the privilege of photographing the woods and found enough wild rasp- and the day previous had totaled but pueblo, but the right to take pictures berries to remind us how good they 105 miles, we like Bandelier and de- of individuals must be negotiated sep- taste. cided to remain there. It is a fascinat- arately. Next morning found us rambling ing spot and a wonderful place to Ray Mirabel, pure Taos Indian and eastward, following the crest of the camp—quiet and cool, with many tall then governor of the pueblo, told us mountains and rounding the heads of yellow pines and boxelders for shade. that the two huge adobe apartment deep canyons where exposed points Flowing through the heart of the camp- houses, four and five stories in height, revealed tremendous sweeps of coun- ground is pretty little El Rito de los which face each other across Taos try. From the alpine vegetation we Frijoles—the Little River of the Beans. Creek, were built long before coming

16 DESERT MAGAZINE of the Spaniards in the 16th century. Today they are occupied by nearly 1000 persons. In addition, the pueblo includes ruins of an old church built in 1704, a "new" church built in 1848, barns, corrals and other structures. We also saw many outdoor adobe ovens of the beehive type. It was baking day and everywhere we went we could smell the fragrance of burning pinyon wood and the savory odor of baking bread. From the pueblo we continued north on State Route 3 to Questa, 20 miles south of the Colorado line, where we turned east up a scenic and densely- forested canyon to the summit of Red River pass, 9852 feet. Even at this height we still were overshadowed by the towering Sangre de Cristo range whose 12,000-foot peaks rose white and snowy only a few miles to our right. In this majestic setting is Elizabeth- town, the picturesque ghost of a boom- camp that flowered in the late 1860s and '70s. Within a relatively short while after discovery, every foot of pay gravel in a radius of 16 to 20 miles was staked; the new town, with a claimed population of 5000 to 7000, had become seat of Colfax county and was served by three stagelines. Among the buildings yet standing we identified the schoolhouse and Catholic church, two saloons, several store buildings, a two-story stone struc- ture that appeared to have been one of the hotels, and a large number of private dwellings. But the only person we found in town was a young Mexi- can woman who could speak enough English to tell us that only three fam- ilies still lived there. Winding down the mountain road we turned east on paved U.S. 64 at Eagle Nest Lake, and after traveling about six miles made camp near the headwaters of the Cimarron River in

Cimarron Canyon Wildlife Area. Like .•!Vi! •' •* 1 •' . •' '.•''•'• the other camps we had enjoyed on *&••':: r''f;' /

- • • • . • .";•/, the trip, this one had the usual facili- • • • •••••••• • • • •• i ties—tables, outdoor fireplaces, toilets, : '•• - . . > etc.—and was clean, cool, uncrowded %1 -•• •?•: * • "'•

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_^ •';•••/*• ' z.';:' •'.-•: ' '- Shortly after crawling into our sleep- & ;, "i, " ' '

ing bags we were awakened by a rattl- ™R»?^-. :' •'•-. . ••1. ••• '. •' ing among the pans and dishes on the SI"'. • • •• •. .'-4 '. • '•"•i.' ; • ••••• •• -'. camp table. When Dad turned his flashlight beam in the direction of the "- . f -•••- Top—Ruins of the Spanish mission ;.-!,.;.-,. • • ,' '•" -•-•":• near Pecos, completed in 1620. • Center—Ruins of Tyuonyi pueblo, ;*» • •:,:,. . '' Bandelier National Monument, N.M. _jn'WII"lT' !- . ^ . . • Bottom — A snow shelter in Los Conchos Forest Camp, Santa Fe National Forest.

JULY, 1957 17 noise we were delighted to see that to visit the many points of interest in Rental of horse at Bandelier__ 2.00 our nocturnal visitors were a big fat Las Vegas. We did stop at the Old Ice cream .90 mother racoon and three nearly-grown Spanish mission ruin at Pecos, now 25 pounds ice .35 young. preserved as a state monument. Our Postcards and pottery at Taos 1.13 Although no more than a dozen feet last visit had been on a snowy March from us, they showed no fear of the day in 1928, and it had changed little $20.73 in the almost 30 years since. Brought light but went right on with their ran- Personally, I think this makes a sacking. The animals found a bag of to completion in 1620, at which time it was hailed as "a very splendid tem- pretty good case for camping. While apple:peelings and were as tickled as a I wouldn't recommend pulling a house bunch of kids with a new spotted pony! ple of distinguishing workmanship," the fine old structure has been in a trailer over the steep grade between They squealed and fussed and snatched Questa and Red Rover Pass—at least the peelings away from each other. state of ruin for over 200 years, but its walls are still stout and plumb, not without previous local inquiry—I We wanted to be back in Santa Fe and alniost unbelievably massive. see no reason why small-to-medium for the Fiesta on Labor Day weekend, sized trailers cannot be taken over the so we regretfully broke camp next From Pecos State Monument, it is remainder of our route. only 25 miles to Santa Fe and noon morning knowing this day would see As for Dad and Mom and me, the the end of our happy little circle jaunt found us back at our starting point. In six days we had driven 495 miles joy we gain from cooking over a camp- to nowhere-in-particular. fire and spending our nights in a sleep- Driving down lovely Cimarron Can- and our cash outlay for the entire trip (exclusive of the imperishable food ing bag under the open sky is priceless yon we visited several historic build- —and neither do we feel that any sane ings in the old plains town of Cimar- and films we had carried with us from Santa Fe) was only $20.73: itinerary is ever half as good as these ron—once the capital of Lucien Max- whimsical wayward wanderings where well's mighty land grant—and then we 29 gallons of gasoline $10.15 we plot our route one road-fork at a rolled up the miles, in quick succession, time. to Springer, Wagon Mound and Wat- 1 quart cylinder oil .45 rous. Fresh meat and bread 4.25 Admission and photography We did not feel that we had time fee at Taos 1.50

Rock Shotttj Ghosts of the Glory Trail, Nell Murbarger's best selling book, has cap- of Death Valley tured still another award. Latest hon- ors came from the National Federa- "Anybody ever get bit by a tion of Press Women which named it rattlesnake around here?" The Death Valley's well known salt the best non-fiction book written by question was asked by the newest flats. "Snakes did that — jest an American woman and published arrival at the Inferno dude ranch. crawlin' over the ground. during 1956. Hard Rock Shorty was in a "Anything bit by them rattlers Miss Murbarger's book is now in its bad humor. He'd taken a job swells up bigger'n a barrel. Guess second edition and is published by hustling baggage at the Inferno you never heerd about ol' Pegleg Desert Press of Palm Desert, Calif. to get a grubstake for the next Pete. Usta prospect in them hills prospecting trip. The dude who over there. One night Pete went wanted to know about the rat- out to set a coyote trap an' a Having lived in Indian country most tlers had brought 14 pieces of snake nipped him in the leg. of her life, first near the Sioux in Ne- luggage along—and after prying Happened to be his wooden leg, braska where she was born, and later all that "hifalutin' junk" out of an' Pete didn't feel it. in Wyoming near the Wind River Res- the station wagon and stowing ervation, moving to Flagstaff seemed it away in the cabin Shorty was "But twasn't long afore he was raisin' right up in the air. Kept like homecoming to Vada Carlson, plumb disgusted. author of this month's "Missionary to "Sure there's rattlers here," he on goin' up while Pete pawed the air with both arms and his good the Navajos." She has been a news- exclaimed, "an' they hate tender- paper woman most of her life and is feet so bad they climb the out- leg tryin' to find somethin' to hang on to. The pizen in that currently a feature writer and society side of the house and come down editor of the Arizona Daily Sun. the chimney to git a bite outta leg wuz swellin' it up like a tree one." trunk an' Pete wuz growin' higher every minute. The dude turned a little pale. "The Treasure We Value Most" is "Are they really poisonous?" "Boys discovered 'im up there Tom May's second Desert true experi- he asked. next morning 30-40 feet in the ence story, the first appearing in the "Hell man, them snakes is full air." February, 1955, issue. A resident of o' pizen. Up here they gotta spe- Shorty started to walk away. Wilmington, California, where he is cial brand o' pizen. Makes every- "But Mr. Hardrock, they didn't employed as a machinist, May is a thing turn white. They even leave leave the poor man up there did native of Arkansas. An intractable out- a white trail when they crawl they?" door lover, he admits he knows more around! "Hell no, they finally shot 'im about the desert and the mountains "See all that white ground over down to keep 'im from starvin' than he does about metropolitan Los there?" and Shorty waved toward to death." Angeles where he lives with his wife, Gussie. DESERT MAGAZINE An elderly Navajo grandmother, crippled with arthritis, is assisted by Katherine Beard at last year's Christmas party at The Gap, sponsored by the Flagstaff Mission to the Navajos.

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The ancient ways run deeply in the veins of the Navajos, some shelter and paused at the door of the of whom have never heard of the White Man's God or the miracles of hogan, as is the custom, before lifting modern medicine. Telling Christianity's story—and offering material the worn blanket and stooping to look comfort when the means are available—is the never easy but deeply inside. rewarding work of Katherine Beard and other missionaries in Navajo- A medicine man, his paraphernalia land. arranged on a strip of calico beside By VADA F. CARLSON him, had just completed a sand paint- ing of the moon, the rainbow and the THE VAST expanse of the and no smoke issued from the smoke corn pollen boy. Near the door an Navajo Indian Reservation the hole, but Katherine Beard, field direc- old woman sat on the cold ground, leaden clouds hung low. Early- tor of the Flagstaff Mission to the a nude youngster on her lap. Others winter rainfall splashed monotonously Navajos had noted the dejected team of the Tsosie family sat in the gloom into the reddish puddles near the dome- in the corral and the wagon beside of the cold room, waiting for the sing shaped hogan of the Tsosie family. the hogan. to begin. There was no sound from the hogan She left her car near the summer Miss Beard shook hands with the

JULY, 1957 19 •\*

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WTwEKQWMHIKHSHI EHDHMSHHH MHBd^^E^^"^" IHHH open arr church. Navajo Indian women at Black Falls hear the story of Jesus for the first time from a mission worker. grandmother before sitting down be- fully made designs. The medicine man Miss Beard invited him in. side her. lifted his shrill voice in a chant which "Oh, She-ma zani," he said in Nav- "What is the matter with the little he accompanied with the dry rasping ajo, meaning "older mother," the name boy?" she asked the medicine man. of the rattle. The family joined in. given to Miss Beard since her hair has He was an old man and had known Rain dripped through the smoke hole. turned gray, "I am so ashamed of my- her for a long time. Their relationship The sick child shivered and whim- self because I get drunk, lose my was friendly since she had never in- pered, his black eyes imploring. money. So I want to come here. I terfered with his healing rites. Miss Beard closed her eyes and want to find out what they got." He "His father looked at the full moon prayed. pursed his lips, inclining his head to- before the child was born," he an- After almost 25 years among the ward the other Navajos. Navajo people, whom she loves, she swered soberly. "That is why this sick- They needed no signal from Miss ness has come upon the child. I will is keenly aware of the problem of sub- stituting Christianity for their primi- Beard or her co-workers. Volubly sing over him today, tonight and to- they began telling the tall man what morrow. Then, if the moon does not tive religion. To win them away from the dozens of superstitions that rule they had that was now precious to hear and bring healing, they will take them, and he listened intently. him to the white man's doctor." their every move is no small task. Only dedicated people who sincerely care "We just stood back and listened, Miss Beard looked at his medicine, for the Navajos as individuals could too," Miss Beard reported. "It was sadly. There was an abalone shell filled endure the frustration and the heart- wonderful." Her kind, patient face with sacred herbs; feathers of the eagle, aches involved in missionary work. broke into a smile and her eyes bluebird and hummingbird; pouches of However, being a dedicated person, twinkled. "And, of course, that's what sand from the holy mountains; two and having boundless faith, she works we've been working for all these years." carved sticks representing the first man on, encouraged by small signs of en- She looked out the back window to and the first woman; and several rat- lightenment that prove to her that mis- tles, one of buffalo hide with the magic the foundation upon which the mission sionary work is bearing fruit; that the church will be built when funds are turquoise bead in the center and the little leaven is working in the mass of buffalo tail hanging from it. And with available and there was no discourage- 80,000 Navajos on the reservation, ment in her bearing. these trappings, plus his chanting, he some of whom have never heard of the expected to drive the sickness from the white man's way of worship. All that there is here—the Mission, child's body. The encouragement she receives is an old house made over; and the front She looked at the gaunt little suf- typified by the incident that happened part of the church-to-be, at present ferer, his belly distended and his limbs on a recent Sunday. serving as a storehouse—have been looking like little brown sticks, and The meeting room at the Flagstaff made possible through the generosity wondered if he would live long enough Mission to the Navajos was filled with of church groups and individuals all to see the white man's doctor. a congregation of Indians, mostly Nav- over the United States. Those walls The baby was placed, screaming ajo, who had come for the morning will rise, she is sure, in time to house with terror and discomfort, on the cold service, when a tall Navajo, his long the congregation that is already about clammy sand painting, and his fren- hair bound into a knot, staggered up to overflow the meeting room in the zied kicking soon destroyed the care- to the door. Mission. The leaven is working.

20 DESERT MAGAZINE The San Pedro Martyr Range, highest on the peninsula of Baja California, is a majestic pine-clad These Mountains Ate landmark—but with neither trails nor habitations and only limited water. It is a place to be explored only by skilled mountaineers. This story reveals the penalty that may be paid when inexperienced hikers Only fot the Sturdy select this place for a holiday.

By LOUISE WERNER Photos by Niles Werner

HOSE MOUNTAINEERS who have enjoyed the exhilerating 7 experience of climbing in the rugged San Pedro Martyr range 125 miles south of the California border in Baja California, will be pleased to learn that the Mexican government has established the crest of this range— above the 5000-foot level, as a Na- tional Park — Parque Nacional de Mexico. The park extends 60 miles north and south along the ridge and includes the precipitous high point on the peninsula, Picacho del Diablo. Actually the park was tentatively established six years ago when lumber- ing interests threatened to move in and denude the high slopes, but according to Alberta and Salvador Meling, whose San Jose ranch is on the western slope of the range, the official announcement of the park reservation has now been made. The San Pedro Martyrs are only for experienced and well-equipped moun- Portion of the San Pedro Martyrs—sharp granite ridges rise above deep taineers because of their isolation, and gorges that wind out to the floor of San Felipe desert more than 7000 their precipitous character. This fact feet below. was emphasized recently when an in- structor and two students from a boy's school in San Diego became lost in the horse travels. A jeep road from the None of the rescue party had ever range, and at least one of them would Meling ranch extends to the edge of been in Copal Canyon, but Bernhard have perished had it not been for the forest, but beyond that point the knew what to expect—a steep twisting timely rescue by Mountaineer Edward area is accessible only to horse and granite-walled gorge where slick-rock Bernhard, Sierra Club member of Cor- foot travel. There are no habitations, waterfalls would require either roping onado who happened to be climbing and few live streams or springs. or exhausting and dangerous detours. in the region at the time. When the mule came limping back It was perhaps 10 or 12 miles to the to the ranch April 21, Milt Farney flew floor of the desert with a drop of 6000 The misadventure occurred during out to the nearest phone, 40 miles feet. The tracks of the lost men could Easter week this year when Roy away, and alerted the coast guard. The be seen where they had slid down the Downs, 55, Richard McBean, 18, and school was notified and within a few talus slope at the head of the canyon. Stephen Courtney, 16, of the Brown hours planes arrived at the ranch The route called for skilled mountain- Military Academy hired a pack mule bringing relatives and a doctor, and eering. at the Meling Ranch for a 4-day out- a widespread search was started. "I'll go down," said Bernhard, "but ing in the San Pedro Martyrs. In the meantime Edward Bernhard, not alone. Give me one good man." When the Downs party, due back at who with a companion had been climb- The vaqueros protested. "Muy pel- the ranch Thursday, April 18, had not ing in the range that week, started out legro," one of them muttered. Andy returned by Friday, Milt Farney, who with Andy Meling, the ranch owners' Meling spoke to them briefly in Span- had flown in to spend Easter with the son, and six Mexican vaqueros, to fol- ish, and then tossed them a coin and Melings, circled the forest above and low the tracks of the lost party. Two and they began flipping it. Marcario, the to the east of the ranch in his plane, a half days later the searchers reached youngest of the group, was the loser. in an effort to spot smoke signals or the crest of the range at a point where Bernhard took a 50-foot rope from other evidence of the whereabouts of the mule had turned back and the the gear, two kapok sleeping bags, and the missing party, but without success. three climbers had started down Copal what food could be spared from the The pine forest, extending for sixty Canyon toward the San Felipe desert meager supply—a can of soup and four miles roughly north and south between which lies between the San Pedro Mar- potatoes. Also two quart canteens. elevations of 6000 and 9000 feet (west tyrs and the Gulf of California on the Before parting Bernhard asked that to east) is about 25 miles wide as a east. a helicopter be sent to the desert below JULY, 1957 21 to pick them up. "We'll never make hardware. But downstream there was it back up that canyon," he told them. a break where it seemed feasible to At first, he and the Mexican made climb out. good progress, then the canyon nar- Filling the two canteens Bernhard rowed to a slick-rock slot, and the instructed Marcario to wait for him little stream disappeared over the top until the next morning; then if they of a ledge—a waterfall impossible to had not been able to communicate with descend. each other, to continue out of the can- By using the rope it appeared possi- yon and get help. They had become ble to climb 200 feet up the canyon aware of planes and a helicopter flying wall and detour the waterfall. Then overhead. followed hours of treacherous rock Four hours later, after considerable work, ascending with only finger-tip 4th class climbing (which the book holds, and rappelling down vertical said should not be done without a pitches that could not be scaled other- belay) he found 16-year-old Stephen wise. Marcario had never been on a Courtney lying prone on a ledge that climbing rope, but spurred by his com- could be reached only from above. An panion's instruction and encourage- empty canteen and a knife were beside ment he faced it like a veteran. him. His lips were swollen, his eyes Finally they arrived in a granite sunken and his fatigue suit with the crevasse 700 feet below the top of the insignia of his school in rags. waterfall. The canyon ahead looked At first he seemed apathetic when good. "We'll be out in two hours," Bernhard raised his head and held the Bernhard assured his companion. "Bet- canteen to his lips. But soon he re- ter keep yelling." Their shouts bounced vived, and had to be restrained from back off the granite walls, but a faint Edward Bernhard of Coronado, Cal- gulping too much water. After he had cry reached their ears. Marcario ifornia, Sierra Club mountaineer eaten the can of soup he brightened shouted again, and cupped his ear. whose skill and stamina led to the and began to talk. Again the faint cry. It seemed to come rescue of three inexperienced hikers ". . . no food since Sunday . . . Mc- from down canyon. in the San Pedro Martyrs. Bean and I split a can of chili . . . what As they hurried ahead they contin- day is it? ... I heard you a long way ued to shout. Again they were certain up the canyon . . . afraid you wouldn't they heard a reply. They continued move so we can see you." Six hundred hear me ... sometimes I blacked out down the gorge scanning the canyon feet up the steep wall a hand appeared ... we went wrong didn't we ... walls on both sides. Finally Bernhard feebly waving a white rag. The wall leaving the stream . . . did the mule shouted, "Where are you? Make a was too steep for climbing without get back? I wanted to follow it, but I had never been camping before and was over-ruled." "What did they do, leave you here to die?" asked Bernhard. "Oh, no! I couldn't keep up, and fatk kt Vmtion Photos... then I got sick . . . you mustn't say The Desert Southwest is not all sand and space — and when that . . . Mr. Downs is experienced. summer comes the delightful pine country retreats are visited by How are you going to get me out?" thousands of vacationing Americans. If you are among the ever It was 5:00 p.m.—and there was increasing number of folks who record these happy moments on film, nowhere to go but up. Bernhard tied you will find that it will be fun—and perhaps profitable—to enter the the rope around the boy's waist, and best of these pictures in Desert Magazine's Picture of the Month contest. then climbed ahead and then pulled Entries for the July contest must be sent to the Desert Magazine the weakened youngster after him. Foot office. Palm Desert, California, and postmarked not later than July 18. by foot they made their way up 400 Winning prints will appear in the September issue. Pictures which feet. Then it became dark and they arrive too late for one contest are held over for the next month. First hovered around a small campfire to prize is $10; second prize $5. For non-winning pictures accepted for keep warm through the night. publication $3 each will be paid. When daylight came they worked down the steep walls to the creek and HERE ARE THE RULES found Marcario roasting the four po- 1—Prints must be black and white. 5x7 01 larger, on glossy paper. tatoes. The remaining two miles to 2—Each photograph submitted should be fully labeled as to subject, time and the mouth of the canyon were easy. A place. Also technical data: camera, shutter speed, hour of day, etc. helicopter was waiting for them there. 3—PRINTS WILL BE RETURNED WHEN RETURN POSTAGE IS ENCLOSED. After they had separated, McBean 4—Entries must be in the Desert Magazine office by the 20th of the contest month. had found his way out of the canyon 5—Contests are open to both amateur and professional photographers. Desert and was the first to be rescued by the Magazine requires first publication rights only of prize winning pictures. helicopter. 6—Time and place of photograph are immaterial, except that it must be from the desert Southwest. Downs, who had left the boys Sun- 7—ludges will be selected from Desert's editorial staff, and awards will be made day to go for help had gotten out of immediately after the close of the contest each month. the canyon and turned north across the desert. Andy Meling and his Mex- Address All Entries to Photo Editor icans followed his tracks and caught up with him the next day at the mouth 'Decent 70Cz$*$fae PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA of a canyon three miles away. He had survived by eating cactus.

22 DESERT MAGAZINE Coyote... While camping in Joshua Tree National Monument last July, Bob Leatherman of San Bernardino made this fine camera portrait of an early morning camp visitor. The coyote photo is this month's first prize win- ner. Leatherman took the picture with a 2Vi x 3Vi Crown Graphic camera with Ektar lens on Super Panchro-Press type B film; f. 16 at 1/200 seconds; No. 5 flash bulb. PICTURES OF M MONTH $$nd Done ... Shifting sand has long been one of man's favorite photographic sub- jects and J. Haines' second prize winner explains why. The photog- rapher, a resident of Los Angeles, used a 4x5 camera with Ektar lens.

JULY, 1957 23 ON DESERT TRAILS WITH A NATURALIST -- XXXIX f/t Octvi (A, Only a

Nature, in her wise way. has given the skunk a very convincing defense — along with a revealing black and white coat which its would-be enemies can easily spot and therefore avoid. Here are Dr. Jaeger's per- sonal observations on the ways of this gentle By EDMUND C. JAEGER, D.Sc. animal. Curator of Plants Riverside Municipal Museum Drawings by Morris VanDame

YEARS ago I lived on very narrow body made it possible for lamp enabled me to advantageously the desert's edge in a small it to come in through a large knothole watch her. frame built-by-myself shanty. in a side-wall pine board, or through Susie, as I called her, caught mice Great rocky canyon-dissected brush- a very small open space beneath the much like a cat does, by springing covered mountain slopes rose beside closet roof. All these animal neighbors forward and grasping them between and behind me, and below flowed a were welcome and often amusing con- her always nimble forepaws. Unlike a merry streamlet that had its origin far tributors to my knowledge of animal cat, however, she never played with back in one of the precipitous gorges. mentality, play and feeding habits. her prey, but ate it at once. She kept The whole environment encouraged Because the dainty little skunk was the mouse population at a minimum. the presence of wildlife, ranging in va- always so full of inquisitive kitten-like It was only because new mice kept riety from tiny strange-looking insects play and so much given to new and moving in on me that I had any of and land snails to reptiles, birds and prankish mischief, I soon regarded her these soft-furred rodents at all. mammals. as the most beloved and interesting of Spiders and moths were gobbled up It was not long after I set up house- all my small wild pets. She rewarded and eaten so quickly that I could keeping that many of these wilderness my confidence in her innocence and scarcely follow her actions. Of my children occasionally came in to share well-meaning by a very exemplary foods she above all adored bacon and my not-too-commodious quarters. A odorless behavior. her face and paws were shiny with roadrunner sometimes walked into the This skunk's den was under a rock in grease after she grasped and chewed open door and rested on the sunlit a nearby clay embankment and there, the bacon bits I placed on a special floor; pack rats lived under the house undisturbed, she spent the daylight high shelf for her. and with white footed mice came up hours. Generally at dusk, but some- When strangers came into the house through the knotholes and ran across times even several hours after, she ven- for an evening's visit she sometimes the floor at night. Another frequent tured forth on her nocturnal quest for manifested her displeasure and suspi- after-dark visitor was a nimble-bodied food. When she came into the house cion of new faces by rapidly tapping spotted skunk whose small head and the dim light from my small kerosene one of her forepaws on the wooden floor and making a chittering noise with her teeth. Once when a neighbor approached too closely she gave this evidence of her displeasure, men sud- denly, to my great consternation and fright, she prepared for full defense. The body was bent into the form of a U with both head and hind end di- rected toward us; the tail, always so beautifully plume-like, was held fully aloft. For an anxious split second a sud- den fear seized me, that of having our- selves, the house and everything in it suddenly deluged with the noxious pen- etrating suffocating odor of skunk ef- fluvia, shot at us through the special anal papillae. Just why, at that critical moment, she desisted I shall never know. Had there been any sudden movement on the part of either of us just then I am certain we would have been sorry indeed. She intermittently played for hours Striped Skunk with a long empty salmon can placed DESERT MAGAZINE Spotted Skunk and young

outside, rolling it back and forth, no course, there was always the possibility quite plentiful in wooded areas of many doubt enjoying each wispy scent of that my pet spotted skunk had been parts of the United States and Canada, fishy odor that came from its depths. caught by the big horned owl which are confined in desert regions almost One I threw out at dusk was found nightly sent forth his voluminous wholly to the brush and tree-lined bor- 200 yards away next morning, no doubt "whoo-whoos" from the rocky emi- ders of the desert's living streams such rolled all that distance as she investi- nence on the big mountain behind my as the Colorado River or the Rio gated and played with it during the house. Horned owls do just such Grande. The little spotted skunks seem night. things, especially when they have young able to get along without water, but One night early in May I began to in the nest. not these larger fellows who must al- hear faint squeaky bird-like calls from The different subspecies of the small ways have ready access to it. They are her den opening and I decided there spotted skunk (Spilogale) are wide- pre-eminently insect hunters and hunt were skunk kittens inside. It wasn't spread over North America from Puget in the leaf mold and decaying logs many days afterward that I was re- Sound south to Yucatan and from the which are found along stream bottoms. warded on a moonlit night by the Pacific to the eastern and southern At- The female striped skunk is able to sight of four quarter-sized replicas of lantic coasts. It is most numerous in nurse up to eight or nine kittens. One their white-spotted mother. They had the western states, especially in the of my most pleasant memories is that come out of the den to frolic with her arid Southwest. The desert-inhabiting of observing a mother striped skunk on a nearby grass tussock, and later species seem almost wholly confined to out on a moonlit night in a mesquite to go forth hunting spiders and insects rocky areas, especially along mountain and cottonwood thicket near Needles at which I found they were early adept. borders. The sand and brush-covered on the Colorado River, scratching After that I frequently saw the gay clay flats seem completely shunned by among decaying leaves at the side and little family party. I do not know if them. They are very adept and agile beneath a rotting cottonwood log as it was a sign of caution or otherwise climbers and delight in clambering over she searched for beetles and larvae for but only once did the mother skunk rough surfaces and making their way her five agile and much interested bring a youngster inside my shanty, on journeys of discovery among rocks youngsters. and then only for the briefest stay. of giant proportions. Occupying the often hot arid coun- Just below me some 500 feet away While on their perambulations oc- try of southern Arizona and New Mex- an old short-statured whiskered pros- casionally they come suddenly upon ico and parts of Chihuahua and Dur- pector came to camp on the sand flats situations of surprise that cause them ango in Mexico, is the long-tailed or for the winter and spring season. I to discharge their fated fluid. The odor hooded skunk. It is a small slender could not help but like the jovial old lasts for many days but is never as creature compared to its striped skunk fellow but I found he had one occu- lingering as that of the larger skunks. cousin. The tail is bushier too, and pation which I did not like, the trap- The spotted skunk is the smallest much longer. The long white hairs of ping of wild animals—coyotes, foxes, of all our skunks, about a third as the neck and back of the head form wildcats and skunks. I was always large as a full-grown cat. Its plumy the cape or hood which gives this fearful that some day he would trap white-tipped tail and long hair make gentle animal its common name. one of the animals of which I was so the animal appear larger than it really Sometimes the top of its tail, entire fond and which had rewarded my kind- is. The skull is depressed in compari- back and a narrow stripe along each ness by frequent appearances about son to the high-arched cranium of the side are white. my dooryard. All went along rather cat-sized, more heavily-built striped Occasionally I have seen these hand- well until late in February when sud- skunk. There is always a white spot some and active creatures shuffling denly I missed the evening visits of on the forehead, but the tail may or along a trail, leaving behind the marks little Susie. I suspected that she'd been may not have a white tip. of their long flat-footed feet. They seem snared in one of Joe's traps, but, of Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), to prefer the late evening and early

JULY, 1957 25 night hours for hunting along the bot- bands or these may be completely Having had one real experience with toms of brushy washes and cliff bases united. The tail is generally pure the nauseous artillery of a skunk of rocky canyons for rodents, small white and hence especially conspicu- neither dog nor man would be other birds and insects. ous when waved about on moonlit than foolish to menacingly approach or attack one. In parts of southern Colorado, south- nights. ern Arizona and Texas, the large Chi- The peculiar combination of black Because of their food habits skunks huahuan Desert of Mexico and south- and white of skunks has been regarded are among our most valuable mammals ward to Chile and Patagonia is found by naturalists as a warning coloration. and should be protected. If for any the heavily built but less active white- Such colors, said Dr. E. B. Poulton, reason they annoy, they can be trapped backed hog nosed skunk (Conepatus). assist in the education of enemies, en- in box traps which do not injure them I have seen them only in the warm abling them to easily learn and re- and transported to parts distant enough lowland valleys where their hair is member the animals to be avoided. so they will not return. coarse and the normally black areas are only a brownish black. I am told that hog nosed skunks living at higher elevations have pelts with much finer and longer hair. Just why more mild SPRING RAINS IMPROVE DESERT temperatures, greater altitude and higher humidity should produce this effect is not definitely known. And it RIVER RUNOFF FORECASTS is not only among skunks that this change occurs, but also among other Above average Spring rainfall has The Sevier and Beaver basins had mammals. A somewhat comparable considerably improved Southwest river heavy April precipitation, considerably alteration takes place among certain runoff forecasts. improving a critical situation there. grasses. The wide spread tobosa or Only over portions of the Great Salt Below average streamflow is still fore- galleta grass which in the hottest des- Lake Basin in Nevada and California's cast for the Sevier basin while near ert basins grows stems so coarse and Mojave Desert were the water-flow average streamflow is now expected rigid that cattlemen consider it almost predictions reduced over the previous for the Beaver River. worthless as forage, is fine stemmed month's estimates. Favorable precipitation has improved and leafy at higher elevations. A water-supply forecast near 60 the outlook for the Colorado River This large slow-moving shy and percent of the 1938-52 average was Basin. Slightly above normal runoff rather slow-witted skunk with a some- made for the upper Humboldt Basin is in prospect for the drainage area what pig-like head seems especially and near 82 percent of average for above Cameo, Colorado, and for the adapted as a hunter of ground dwelling Martin Creek near Paradise Valley, Taylor Basin. About 10 percent less insects, especially beetles !fand their Nevada. Other forecasts: Truckee, than average streamflow is expected larvae. Its shoulders are stocky, the Carson and Walker rivers, 65 to 75 for the main Dolores and Uncompah- claws are long and heavy and its bare percent of average; Owens River gre rivers. The runoff of the Colorado flexible snout enables it to locate and (which reported above normal rainfall River near Cisco, Utah, is forecast at root out its chosen insect food from the in April) 75 percent of average; Mo- 116 percent of average. loose soil and leaf mold. In prickly pear jave River, less than half of average. Water-supply forecasts for the Yam- country the cactus fruits as well as Near or above normal streamflow pa and White Basins in Colorado are small rodents and birds are eaten. is expected for all streams in the Great for 110 to 115 percent of average ex- Salt Lake Basin except some of the cept for the Little Snake River where The skull of Conepatus has many smaller creeks near Salt Lake City. near 90 percent is expected. For the special characteristics. The teeth are upper Green River in Wyoming fore- different both in shape and number casts of runoff vary from 75 percent from other skunks, and the nostrils of average for some of the smaller open forward and downward instead streams to near 90 percent for the of on the sides of the muzzle. The Green River near Linwood, Utah. Near ears are extremely small and the tail average runoff is in prospect for the less plumy and snorter than in other extreme upper Duchesne and Price skunks. There may be two very dark Rivers, but below average streamflow is indicated for the remainder of the Utah tributaries. Streamflow for the Hog nosed skunk Green River near Green River, Utah, is forecast to be 109 percent of average. The water-supply outlook for the San Juan River Basin is for slightly above average streamflow for the entire basin. Streamflow of the Rio Grande's drainage area in Colorado is forecast to be near or slightly above the 1938- 52 average. Near average runoff is also expected for the Rio Chama in New Mexico. Below average stream- flow is in prospect for the tributaries draining the western slopes of the Sangre de Cristo range in New Mexico. The runoff of the Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge, New Mexico, is expected to be 108 percent of the 15-year average. DESERT MAGAZINE LIFE ON THE DESERT

The personal experiences — the sharing of happiness—are the real treasures of the desert. Here is the delightful story of a man and his wife who brought two lonely des- ert dwellers together and received for their efforts a warm unending friendship—and two gold mines. Si By THOMAS W. MAY

HE PROSPECTOR who we had just met, made us welcome in 7 her small cabin on the four or five claims she was working in the Rich Hill country of Arizona. We'll call her Anna, but that isn't her true name. She was wearing a homemade blue denim dress with a half-gallon pocket on the right side. Pulled tightly over her stringy rust-colored hair was a weather-worn felt hat, Anna's leathery brown face, wrinkled by the burning desert sun, revealed every one of her 54 years of age. And never think for one minute that Anna didn't know how to take care of herself out there in the middle of no- where, for she appeared unafraid of man or beast. But, like most folks we have met in the remote corners of the desert, she possessed a big heart of ,^':\> •.. ••••••••,••.•• gold. The author at the entrance to one of the gold mines he and his wife My wife, Gussie, and I accepted received from Anna and Bill. Anna's invitation and entered the small box-shaped cabin with its sheet-iron roof. The kitchen doubled as a store of those varmints and put up with that room. Behind the crude table was "Doesn't it get lonesome out here billygoat scent!" she said in a shrill a three burner kerosene stove. Nearby all by yourself, Anna?" Gussie asked voice. was an oil lamp with a smoky chim- while we were on the latter subject. ney and nailed to the walls were rough "Sometimes," she answered. "But, Gussie quieted her down with a ges- plank shelving and screen-covered ap- I have plenty to do to keep the lonely ture. "No, no, Anna," she said sooth- ple boxes in which her food supplies times from lingering." ingly, "not all of them are that way. were stored. A grin appeared on Gussie's face. We know a middle aged prospector Between the parted burlap drapes "I would think you would run across who's not that dirty, don't we Tom?" which separated the kitchen and Anna's some nice prospector who hasn't been I don't remember having answered bedroom I saw a topsy-turvy bed and as lucky as you, and who would make that question. an old iron strapped trunk standing you a good helper on your claims— And then Anna's mouth broadened open. In a corner was an old-fash- and a good companion," she said. into a wide smile and she said, "Well, ioned dresser with a cloudy mirror, its Anna exploded! "You don't know when the right man comes along—I top crowded with innumerable objects. those old filthy desert rats like I do!" might take on a partner." Anna kept up a steady chatter — she cried. "I haven't seen a one that mostly questions—in an accent whose appeared to've ever had a bath, other We spread our bedrolls on Anna's origin I could not discern. As she and than the one he got when he came front yard that night, and after break- Gussie prepared the evening meal and into this world, and never expects to fast the next morning we said our fare- even while we ate, the conversation take another unless an undertaker gets wells. Before we left, Anna handed never lagged. We spoke on every sub- him before the buzzards or coyotes me her bank book with some paper ject immaginable, from mineralogy to do!" She slapped the table top so hard money folded in it and asked me to health and life on the desert to love the dishes bounced. "Now, I hope you make the deposit for her. and family life. don't think I would marry up with one We arrived in Wickenburg before

JULY, 1957 27 ihe bank opened, so we sat on one of Irishman, a widower of 65 who looked recommending her as a prospective the benches across the street. no older than 50. He always carried companion. Bill showed some interest, "Look who is coming down the a smile on his face, and a better—or but turned the whole matter into a street," said Gussie after we had been cleaner—man never lived. joke. Then the bank opened its doors there but a moment. It was Bill, the He sat down on the bench and we and our visit with Bill ended. prospector from over Vulture Moun- chatted for a few minutes. Of course Several months later we received a tain way who Gussie had referred to Gussie made it a point to bring Anna letter at our Wilmington, California, the night before. into the conversational spotlight, boost- home. It was from Anna. She and He was a short powerfully-built ing her as a good cook and jestingly Bill had gotten married! She invited us to visit them at our earliest con- venience. 9* • ffc • Desert Magazine's monthly Quiz is both a For the next few days I wracked my II QC Q •'¥ IIII IT test of your knowledge, and a school for brain trying to think of an appropriate •rVWVl 1 Y expanding your acquaintance with one of the wedding gift. Gussie made a bad joke most interesting regions in USA. The questions range through geography, by recommending we buy them a history, wildlife, mineralogy, literature, Indians and the lore of the desert. wheelbarrow and shovel, along with All the answers have appeared in past issues of the magazine. A score of a couple of sticks of dynamite. The 10 is very good for a tenderfoot. For more advanced students of the reality of this marriage and the hap- desert, 12 to 14 is good, 15 to 17 is excellent, 18 or over is superior. The piness it would bring to Anna and Bill answers are on page 34. —and to us—was not yet fully realized. 1—The staple meat in the diet of the Navajo Indians is—Beef More months passed before we were Mutton Pork Wild game able to visit them. As we rounded the 2—The fleetest animal now found in Nevada is—Antelope _. Jack- familiar clump of mesquites before rabbit Mule deer Bighorn sheep Anna's cabin we wondered if we had 3—The historic feud between the Clanton Gang and the Earps was staged the right place. The cabin was painted at—Prescott Bisbee . . Tombstone Ehrenberg a dull red, trimmed in white. A room 4—Montezuma Castle National Monument is located in—Arizona had been added and there was a new New Mexico Utah . Mexico front door and screens on the windows. 5—The book What Kinda Cactus hzat? was written by—Edmund C. Once inside we received even more Jaeger Mary Beal . Oren Arnold . Reg Manning startling surprises. The living room was lavishly furnished. In a corner 6—A lecture given by M. R. Harrington probably would be on the sub- was a television set, in Anna's room a ject of—Archeology .. . Placer mining Dry land farming maple bedroom suite and the kitchen Rock collecting was one any woman would be proud 7—The Gadsden territory was purchased from—Spain - . Mexico of. There was a bathroom, too, with France The Indians .... . hot and cold running water. 8—The botanical name of the plant known as Squaw or Mormon tea should be spelled — Aphedra . Effedra Ephedra Bill proudly showed us around their Ephedria home and then Anna, who had been 9—The mineral commonly known as "volcanic" glass generally is— fumbling around with some papers in Chalcedony Mica .... Chert Obsidian the bedroom, joined us in the living room. In her broken English she said: 10—The name John D. Lee is associated with—the Lincoln County War "I've been told you two old desert in New Mexico . Kidnapping of the Oatman sisters . Moun- tramps have been prowling these des- tain Meadows massacre ___.. . Capture of Geronimo erts looking for gold for the past 10 11—"Crossing of the Fathers" is a historic landmark along the Colorado year and ain't found none yet. Me River identified with—The trek of Father Escalante . Mormon and Bill aims to put a stop to that colonization . The march of Coronado Gold rush to Cali- right now. We're going to give you a fornia gold mine — and a pretty good one, 12—One of the following dams is not in the Colorado River—Hoover too." She handed me a packet of dam Davis dam Elephant Butte dam Parker bulky legal papers. dam "Give them that one of mine over 13—The Indians who come to Harry Goulding's trading post are mostly— in the Big Canyon, too," said Bill to Navajo Apache._ Yuma Paiute Anna. 14—The specific name for Indian symbols incised in stone is—Picto- Gussie and I were speechless. graphs Pictograms Petroglyphs Hieroglyphics She and I have long been aware 15—Entering Arizona's Oak Creek Canyon from the south you would that looking for gold and treasure on pass through the town of — Holbrook Show Low the desert was only an excuse to wan- Miami Sedona der about, admiring the beauty of the 16—The blossom of Encelia or Incense Bush is—White . Yellow. . scorched earth as the Maker had left Red Blue it. Nor has the power of the desert's 17—Indian arrowheads were never made of one of the following minerals magnetic charm lessened its tension on because of its softness — Obsidian . Chalcedony Cal- us, for we keep going back, and we cite Chert have been back to visit Bill and Anna 18—The month you would most likely find Smoke tree in blossom is— since. But our return visit was to en- June September __ . February April joy the companionship of our good 19—The transcontinental highway which connects Tucson with Yuma, friends—not to work those gold mines. Arizona is—U.S. 80 ___ . U.S. 50 U.S. 60 .._.. U.S. 66 For, in truth we have never recorded 20—The capital of Nevada is — Reno Las Vegas . Carson our title to those mines—for the wealth City Elko we treasure most is the friendship of Bill and Anna.

DESERT MAGAZINE Land Script Deadline August 4 ... WASHINGTON, D. C—The Fed- eral Government announced an Au- Hete mi Ihm on the Demi... gust 4 deadline for the recording of ARIZONA dians, said these two tribes will seek script, the documents acquired under Indians Name Park Commission . . . a "Point Four" program of economic law entitling the holders to claim pub- WINDOW ROCK—Chairman Paul aid from the federal government. The lic lands. None has been issued for Jones of the Navajo Tribal Council Hualapai tribe is asking congress for 50 years. The government said scrip has announced the appointment of the an $800,000 appropriation for a range covering 67,500,000 acres was issued following members to the Tribal Park water development program to enable and there is more outstanding than Commission which is empowered by a them to drill needed wells and install has been recorded.—Phoenix Gazette resolution passed by the Council in catchment basins on their 900,000- • • • February to recommend recreational acre reservation. The San Carlos Indian Tax Opinion Near . . . and historical areas within the reserva- Apache tribe still is in the process of PHOENIX — An opinion holding tion to be established as Navajo Parks drafting its program, the attorney said. that Arizona's reservation Indians are and Monuments: Howard W. Gorman —Phoenix Gazette subject to the state's income tax regu- of Ganada, chairman; Edward Manson • • • lations was scheduled to be issued by of Coppermine, Frank Bradley, Sr., of Park Officials Inspect Fort . . . the attorney general's office. The opin- Kayenta, Howard Sorrell of Lukachu- BOWIE—Continued interest of the ion is only advisory, however, and is kai and Ned Hatathley of Tuba City. National Park Service in Fort Bowie yet to be determined by the courts. • • • was evidenced recently when a party The opinion will hold that individual Two Tribes Seek Aid . . . of officials inspected this site at the income of Indians as well as tribal PHOENIX—Royal Marks, Phoenix request of local citizens who ask that uranium and oil exploration revenue attorney and general counsel for the it be preserved as a national monu- will be taxable, it was further stated. Hualapai and San Carlos Apache In- ment.—Tombstone Epitaph —Phoenix Gazette

dynamite. Of course the specimens proof that my instrument could find were shattered to worthless bits. gold. He set up a test in his yard in Rockhounds must police their own which he supposedly buried $50 in ranks or suffer the consequences. I gold and dug several other holes in suggest that they make every effort to his yard to confuse me. I could find report vandalism to the proper author- no gold in his yard. He had buried Hammer Happy Rockhounds . . . ities. Unfortunately, rockhound clubs a silver casket filled with silver coins. and individuals are acquiring bad rep- There was no buried gold. Big Pine, California utations due to the acts of a few—and The only way to properly test an Desert: unless those few are controlled, more instrument is in the field. On the Mo- I would like to comment on "Ham- and more fields will be closed to us. jave Desert two friends asked me to mer Happy Rockhounds." F. B. TERRY locate gold with my depthometre. I • • • named a spot and said the gold was It has been my experience that soon five feet below the surface. At four after a new collecting field is discov- Save Rainbow Bridge . . . Silver City, New Mexico feet we found decomposed granite. At ered, the ground is covered with shat- five feet we were throwing out gold. tered and abandoned specimens. Desert: I have grown up with Rainbow The samples assayed 21 cents gold While helping a friend at his quartz Bridge on the Colorado River and and 11 cents silver! crystal mine in this area, we located would like to add my comments to- That's the way to check an engineer! and removed many broken pieces of ward conserving this wonderful land- In the field. crystals, clusters, etc. Many of these mark. M. A. BERNHARD specimens were of great beauty and As the Navajos know, the white • • • value, some weighing up to 300 man's mechanical devices sometimes Sheep Destroy Wildilowers . . . pounds. Actually, the claims are are destructive, and I would not want Boron, California posted, but if a rockhound wanders to see a bulkhead dam below the Desert: onto the property and takes some of Bridge. The scars of construction During the latter part of April we these specimens and then goes about would deface the canyon. had a solid carpet of wildflowers along his business, there would be no hard the highways in this area—and then a feelings on the part of the owner. AZEL LOCKNEY PRUIT • • • carload of sheep was unloaded at Kra- mer Junction. Two weeks later hardly Recently, some one did enter the Doodle Bugs Do Work . . . property. He knocked down the loca- a wildflower remained. Los Angeles, California A person can be arrested and fined tion notice monument; shattered the Desert: glass-topped box in which the notice for picking a bouquet—which wouldn't With all respect to Asa Russell's ef- make a dent in the flower patches— was displayed; and then broke crystals forts and experience with doodle bug off of the clusters we had taken out of yet sheepmen can come in with their gold locators (Desert, June '57), I can flocks and level an entire year's growth the mine—despite the fact that there not agree with him. were no less than 300 pounds of good along with the seed for future years, I have a Distometre which can regis- and nothing is done about it. specimens lying around loose, and all ter gold at 20 miles. This I proved of much better quality than those several years ago while in a canyon A. C. PRITCHARD broken off the clusters. draining into Baja California's Laguna Dear Mr. Pritchard — Riverside This is not an isolated case nor are Salada. I checked this canyon from the County, California, has solved the individuals to blame in every instance. main highway and we found gold and problem by establishing Wildflower A mineral society recently came into water in it. Reserves wherein it is illegal to pas- this area and blasted for crystals with Once a Long Beach doctor wanted ture sheep.—R.H.

JULY, 1957 29 40 ACRE RANCH For Sale. 660 feet front- age Highway 91, 7 miles east of Barstow. Near entrance Calico Ghost Town Road. THE DESERT TRADING POST Ten inch well and pump and four room house. $15,000 cash or submit terms. Classified Advertising in This Section Costs 12c a Word, $2.00 Minimum Per Issue Sam Domino, 5814 Holmes Avenue, Los Angeles, California. MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS—MAGAZINES INDIAN GOODS GHOST TOWN ITEMS: Sun-colored glass, OUT-OF-PRINT books at lowest prices! FIVE FINE Prehistoric Indian arrowheads amethyst to royal purple; ghost railroads You name it—we find it! Western Ameri- $2.00. Perfect stone tomahawk $2.20. Ef- materials, tickets; limited odd items from cana, desert and Indian books a specialty. figy pipe $5.00. Perfect flint thunderbird camps of the '60s. Write your interest— Send us your wants. No obligation. In- $3.00. Flint fish hook $3.00. List free. Box 64-D, Smith, Nevada. ternational Bookfinders, Box 3003-D, Five offers for only $12.00. Arrowhead, Beverly Hills, California. Glenwood, Arkansas. LADY GODIVA "The World's Finest Beautifier." For women who wish to HAVE REAL fun with desert gems, min- AUTHENTIC INDIAN Jewelry, Navajo become beautiful, for women who wish erals and rocks. The rockhound's how- Rugs, War Bonnets, Squaw Dresses, to remain beautiful. An outstanding des- to-do-it magazine tells how. One year Squaw Boots, Fine old Indian collection. ert cream. For information, write or call (12 issues) only $3.00. Sample 25c. Gems Pow-Wow Indian Trading Post, 19967 Lola Barnes, 963 N. Oakland, Pasadena and Minerals, Box 687-D, Mentone, Cal. Ventura Blvd., East Woodland Hills, Cal. 6, Calif., or phone SYcamore 4-2378. WESTERN TRAVEL Books: Send for SELLING 100,000 Indian relics. 100 nice ROCKS FROM deep underground: Core our mapped list of Books on Western ancient arrowheads $25.00. Small grooved specimens taken from tests drilled for oil Travel and Rock Collecting. 101 titles stone tomahawk $2.00. Large grooved in West Texas. May be polished for to choose from. Scenic Guides, Arizona stone tomahawk $3.00. Perfect spear- paper weights, pen stands, etc. One dol- $1.00; California $1.50; Colorado $1.50; head over 8 inches long $20.00. Flint lar per specimen. Corox, P. O. Box 2933, Nevada $1.50; Oregon $1.50. Save by scalping knife $1.00. Indian skull $25.00. Midland, Texas. mail! We pay postage. Scenic Guides, Ancient water bottle from grave $7.00. Box 288, Susanville, California. List free. Lear's, Glenwood, Arkansas. ASSAYS. Complete, accurate, guaranteed. FINE RESERVATION-MADE Navajo and Highest quality spectrographic. $3 per FREE! Zuni jewelry. Old pawn. Hundreds of sample. Reed Engineering, 620 S. Ingle- TAX-DEDUCTIBLE subscription to profit- fine old baskets, moderately priced, in wood Ave., Inglewood 1, California. making study material or field expense excellent condition. Navajo rugs, old and if so used! TREASURE TRAIL GUIDES. new, Bayeta, native dyes, Two Gray Hills. ARTIST, DECORATOR, sign painter, sil- No. 1— Artifacts and gems. A collector's para- versmith, leatherwork, furniture repair THUNDER GOD'S GOLD dise! Open daily 10 to 5:30, closed Mon- and high class maintenance man wants By BARRY STORM days, Buffalo Trading Post, Highway 18, location on large estate or resort. Mobile More fantastic than fiction is this incredi- Apple Valley, California. shop, trailer house and car. No salary ble factual story of Arizona's sinister required. Work when needed for you SUPERSTITION MOUNTAINS MIN- COMPLETE COLLECTION of about 600 and neighbors. Single, no vices, no pets. ING DISTRICT where Spanish miners, specimens of red and black obsidian, and References. Box JB7, Desert Magazine, massacreing Apaches and scores of un- some quartz arrowheads, knives, scrapers, Palm Desert, California. lucky treasure hunters, since days of the beads and other items. All found in Sur- fabulous LOST DUTCHMAN, lived the prise Valley, northeastern California. Best FOSSILS. 12 different for $2. Other prices amazing true story of America's most offer takes. For details write to Moise on request. Will buy, sell or trade. Mu- famed lost mines mystery. 34 actual Penning, 158 Dolorosa, San Lorenzo, Cal. seum of Fossils, Clifford H. Earl, P.O. photographs and maps of clues discovered Box 188, Sedona, Arizona. by the author's treasure hunting expedi- 5 INDIAN ARROWHEADS and strand tions mark approximate sites of LOST trade beads, $2. Have tomahawks, pipes, PAN GOLD: $1 for 75 panning areas in GOLD MINES within a known region. warbonnets, beadwork. Paul Summers, 25 California counties. Geological for- New enlarged edition includes Treasure Canyon, Texas. mations, elevations, pertinent notes. Pan- Hunter's Guide, Electronic Prospecting, ning pans $2.75, $2.25. Leather nugget Field Geology, Ore-Identity Charts. 170 MAPS and dust poke $1. Fred Mark, Box 801, pages, clothbound. $3.75 pp. "More ex- Ojai, California. citing than a mystery novel,"—The World SECTIONIZED COUNTY maps — San in Books. "Breaths of the West's treasure- Bernardino $1.50; Riverside $1; Imperial, HISTORICAL CALIFORNIA logging wag- lands," — Nature Magazine. "Much to small $1, large $2; San Diego 50c; Inyo, on for sale; solid wheels which need re- excite imaginations," — Desert Magazine western half $1.25, eastern half, $1.25; pairs. Western atmosphere for rancho, (Sept. 1954). Why not acquire this rare Kern $1.25; other California counties cabin or business-—see, make offer. L. A. factual book now? STORM PUBLISH- $1.25 each. Nevada counties $1 each. Weatherwax, 13029 Glenoaks Blvd., San ING ASSOCIATES, Box 74, Inyokern, Topographic maps of all mapped western Fernando, California. California. areas. Westwide Maps Co., 114 W. Third St., Los Angeles, California. MUST SACRIFICE never-used Precision Radiation detectors. $385 Model 107C BACK ISSUES, 1949-52; Desert Magazine, Professional geiger counter—only $289; Rocks and Minerals, and The Mineralo- REAL ESTATE $585 Model 11 IB scintillator—only $439. gist. Write for listings. VanNostrand, NEAR ANZA, house, barn, well, $3300. 40 Leather carrying cases included. Box 37, 4858 Sepulveda Blvd., Sherman Oaks, Cal. acres or less, $300 an acre. 971 Barbour, Rancho Mirage, California. Banning, California. COMPLETE FILE of Desert Magazine. ADAMS GOLD—want partner. Landmarks Good condition. $60. Also Arizona High- CHOICE HOMESITES and acreage. Salton match. August 1. A. M. Anderson, 16926 ways from March, 1940. $25. Paul E. Sea vicinity. Low as $1495, $95 down, South Howard, Gardena, California. Pierson, 68 E. Midway, Phoenix, Ariz. $25 month. Pon & Co., Box 546 DA, Azusa, California. DESERT MAGAZINES, complete set. 1937 to 1947 in binders, balance unbound. $35 NICE SHADY oasis planted to grapefruit, Town Developers Sought . . . for lot. Hempler, 2885 Blanche St., Pas- tangerines. Good house, swimming pool, PAGE—Plans for the establishment adena, California. 33 acres, Coachella Valley. $85^000. of the new community of Page at the Ronald L. Johnson, broker, Box 162, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine. 1939 Thermal, California. Glen Canyon damsite on the Colorado to 1955 complete (204 issues). Will sell River call for maximum participation for best offer. L. R. Murray, Box 273, ILLNESS FORCES sale of well established by private capital, the Department of Wickenburg, Arizona. rock shop and three bedroom home. San Interior said. It will be general policy Bernardino area. Sander, 20279 Valley, Rialto, California. to accomplish only those tasks beyond CLUBS—ORGANIZATIONS the capacity of local resources, public ARE YOU interested in prospecting for IN SEDONA—Red Rock Ridge area. Two and private, to perform, the govern- minerals, or rockhunting? Write for lit- acres with rock house. Spectacular scen- erature to United Prospectors, 701V4 E. ery. Total $6800. By owner. P. O. Box ment added. Those interested in start- Edgeware, Los Angeles 26, California. 6, Sedona, Arizona. ing a business at Page should write to

DESERT MAGAZINE "Project Construction Engineers Office, way July 1. The trail, which will be Desert Plant Remover Fined . . . Kanab, Utah." Bid opening was held an extension of the state system under BORREGO SPRINGS —A Spring for grading of an area and construc- the Department of Beaches and Parks, Valley man was fined $25 and court tion of foundations for 50 demountable will enter the Monument at La Con- costs for removing native desert plants houses at Page. Martin-Rice Construc- tenta road near Paradise Valley. It from the Anza Desert State Park. Jack tion Co. of Las Vegas, Nevada, was will run south to Lower Covington Welch, state park supervisor, said low bidder at $21,961. — Southern Flat, along the south side of Quail warnings have been issued to visitors Utah News Mountain, cross Juniper Flat and Lost that digging up or disturbing desert • • • Horse Valley, and wind past White plants, minerals, rocks or any other Drouth Decreasing . . . Tanks and Belle campgrounds, leav- geological features is in violation of WASHINGTON, D. C—The Geo- ing the Monument along Utah Trail. the California Administrative Code logical Survey reports a recent decrease The state will pick up the trail from governing preservation of natural and in the persistent drouth in the Midwest that point.—Desert Trail historical features of state parks. — and Southwest. The situation from • • • Borrego Sun the Great Lakes to Southern Califor- Boats on River Controlled . . . • • • nia reached critical stages in some BLYTHE — An ordinance adopted Parks on River Considered . . . areas, but at the end of the six-month by the board of supervisors makes it BLYTHE—Seven public park and period ending March 31, showed some unlawful for any person "to operate, camp sites have been mapped out on indication of decreasing, the report drive or propel any motorboat or other the Colorado River in the Blythe area said. It was noted that drouth has boat on, over, along or across any and county and state approval for their been present in varying intensities for river, lake or other body of water in eight years or more over much of the KENT FROST JEEP TRIPS willful or wanton disregard for the Into the Famous Utah Needles Area southern mid-continent region and the safety of persons or property." The Junction of the Green and Colorado rivers; Indian and Salt creeks; Davis, Lavander, Southwest.—Phoenix Gazette ordinance was designed to answer Monument, Red, Dark and White canyons; • • • Dead Horse and Grand View points; Hoven- problems encountered in controlling weep and Bridges national monuments. State Parks Board Named . . . 3-day or longer trips for 2-6 person parties reckless operation of boats on the Col- —$25 daily per person. Includes sleeping PHOENIX—Arizona Governor Mc- orado River in the Blythe area.—Palo bags, transportation* guide service, meals. Farland announced the names of five Verde Valley Times Write KENT FROST, Monticello, Utah. men and one woman appointees to the • • • state's first parks board. Those named Indians Seek Autonomy . . . were Max Connolly of Tempe, a for- WASHINGTON, D.C. — The De- BE THERE!!! mer legislator and now connected with partment of Interior has recommended a Phoenix printing firm; Charles J. to congress that it enact four bills AUGUST 8-9-10-11 Reitz, superintendent for the past four which would in combination bring an Thursday through Sunday years of Yuma's Recreation and Parks end to Federal trusteeship over the Department; Mrs. Frances Weedon, property and affairs of 38 small Indian Phoenix, president of the state Demo- reservations or rancherias in Califor- cratic Women's Clubs in 1955-56; nia in line with recommendations made Ricki Rarick, Tucson newspaper exec- by the Indian owners. Total area in- utive; Ezekiel B. Taylor, Clarkdale, a volved is about 3860 acres and the Yavapai cattleman; and A. V. Mercer, total population approximately 890 pioneer Pinal County cattleman whose Indians. home is near Mammoth. Connolly was • • • elected chairman of the group.—Ari- zona News Christ Park Controversy . . . YUCCA VALLEY — Violence • • « broke out in Desert Christ Park (Des- CALIFORNIA ert, Oct. '56) when sculptor Antone Bristlecone District Asked . . . Martin knocked the concrete noses off BISHOP—The Inyo County board heroic-sized Biblical figures he created of supervisors took steps to acquire there. The trouble started when Pastor the land in the White Mountains where Eddie Garver reportedly decided to the bristlecone pine grows (Desert, charge admission. When Martin ob- June '57). The board's resolution asks jected to the commercialization, a sec- for the transfer of the lands from the • Colorfully Costumed Indians ond dispute is said to have arisen over in Strange and Spectacular state to the county so> that the pines, the ownership of the land and the Dances reputed to be the oldest living things statues. Only Judas was spared defac- on earth, can be better protected.— ing "as a symbol," the artist said. At • The Country's Largest Exhibit Inyo Register last report the rift was patched and of Genuine Indian Handicraft • • • work started on replacing the noses. • A fun-filled Indian field day Monument Trail Planned . . . —Desert Trail and rodeo, parades. TWENTYNINE PALMS — Work on a 30 mile equestrian and hiking BRING THE Nothing Like It trail through Joshua Tree National Looking for a PUBLISHER? FAMILY! ANYWHERE Monument was scheduled to get under- Do you have a book-length manuscript you would like to have published? Learn about our unusual plan whereby your book can be It's Cool at the Ceremonial published, promoted and distributed on a SAFARI MINDED? professional basis. We consider all types of Sleep every night Need a man to accompany me on a 2 man work—fiction, biography, poetry, scholarly 13,000 mile motorized non-hunting Safari in and religious books, etc. New authors wel- RIGHT NOW—WRITE Africa this December. Dakar to Mombassa come. For more information, write for valu- to Capetown. 11 countries. 4 months in able booklet D. It's free. Africa. Will cost about $4500 each. Contact CEREMONIAL ASSOCIATION at once: VANTAGE PBESS, INC. Box 1029, Dept. D7 ED HUDSON 6253 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 28, Calit. 815 12th Street Paso Bobles, Calif. Main Office: New York 1, K. Y. Gallup, New Mexico

JULY, 1957 31 establishment is being sought. An es- NEVADA for "greater than Hiroshima" test blasts timated $35,000 is needed to improve State Range Power Killed . . . in Nevada are June 27, July 25 and the sites and build boat launching CARSON CITY—The Nevada Su- August 19. The current testing pro- ramps, fresh water facilities, surfaced preme Court, in an unanimous de- gram will continue into September. parking areas and access roads, sani- cision, ruled that Nevada's 1925 Stock NEW MEXICO tary facilities and fencing.- Watering Act was superseded and ren- dered ineffective by the act of congress Navajo Dam Again Delayed . . • placing control of the public lands in WASHINGTON, D. C. — New SAN JUAN and COLORADO Mexico Senator Clinton P. Anderson RIVER EXPEDITIONS the Secretary of Interior and the Bur- eau of Land Management. It was an reports that the Bureau of Reclama- Enjoy exploration, safe adventure and opinion of vast importance to stock- tion plans to award a construction con- scenic beauty in the gorgeous canyons of tract for Navajo Dam in San Juan Utah and Arizona. Staunch boats, experi- men of the West and the first case of enced rivermen. For 1957 summer schedule its kind to reach a court of last resort County in late fiscal 1958. Prelimin- or charter trips anytime write to— in the Western states since adoption ary work recently was begun on the I. FRANK WRIGHT of the Taylor Grazing Act. The court base camp and it was the New Mexico MEXICAN HAT EXPEDITIONS also ruled that state courts may no congressional delegation's hope that the Blanding, Utah longer control range through enforce- contract would be let this year. The ment of stock watering rights; that the Bureau originally had set a 1961 date beneficial use of water is the ultimate for the start of the New Mexico storage test; and the control of stock water unit — Navajo Dam — of the Upper Keep Drinks Colder and control of range are separate func- Colorado River Storage Project. — tions.—Pioche Record Aztec Independent • • • LONGER • • • Industrial Help Asked . . . Indians Lose Hunt Decision . . . WASHINGTON, D. C. — The ICEBERGS MINDEN—Three Washoe Indians ~v^yY-YYvy-v Bureau of Indian Affairs has proposed who wanted to gain for their tribe the Federal aid to industry in depressed They Serve right to hunt and fish on its own lands areas as a means of providing employ- as Coasters, Too! regardless of state game laws walked ment for Indians. The Bureau said Slip an Iceberg on a out of Douglas County district court the program would be a good supple- can, bottle or glass of as both victors and losers. Through your favorite beverage, ment to other plans to help the Indian and your drink will a technicality, Judge Frank Gregory keep cold as much as 3 better himself.—New Mexican times longer than with- overruled a previous justice court con- • • • For out the Iceberg—even in the hottest summer weather. Ice- viction on charges the three possessed Giant Solar Oven Planned . . . Bottles bergs eliminate the need for deer meat illegally. However, he also Glasses coasters. They prevent wet, HOLLOMAN—The world's largest sticky rings on furniture; also ruled that the state has the same right and Cans keep your hands dry. Made solar furnace is under design by phys- of frosty white foam plastic. to regulate hunting and fishing on In- icists at Holloman Air Development Satisfaction Fully washable. Shipped in dian lands that it does on other lands. Guaranteed plastic carrying bag with Center. It is expected to be completed string closure. You can use -—Nevada State Journal Set of 4 bag to take Icebergs on picnics. early in 1959 and will be located near $3.00 ppd. Send cash, check or money • • • Cloudcroft. The new device is ex- Set of 6 order (no CODs or stamps, Stone Age Artifacts Found . . . please) to: pected to produce temperatures as $4.00 ppd. VIRGINIA CITY—Two European high as 8000 degrees Fahrenheit. — riastic Products Division, Dept. 7D scientists unearthed three Stone Age New Mexican SOUTHWEST PACKAGING AND artifacts while inspecting geological PAPER PRODUCTS, INC. • • • 4006 N. 7th Street, Phoenix, Arizona formations on the lower slopes of Mt. Urges Aid for Indians . . . Davidson. The pieces found were: an WASHINGTON, D.C.—A spokes- obsidian dagger eight inches long; a man for the Board of Home Missions small saucer-shaped object; and an of the Congregational Christian You'll want to keep those exquisitely carved feline animal figure Churches told the Senate Indian Affairs amulet.—Territorial Enterprise Subcommittee that an economic aid MAPS • • • program should start at home with Tests Harmless. AEC Says . . . the American Indians. Frank S. Ket- which appear each month in LAS VEGAS—The Atomic Energy cham declared that the average income Desert Magazine—maps which Commission reassured Nevadans that for many Indian tribes is "far below will be your guide on many de- nuclear tests being conducted near here the level needed for decent living." lightful excursions into the great are rigidly controlled and all available He said some Indian families have in- desert playground. evidence has "confirmed that fallout comes of $400 a year and those with Attractive loose-leaf binders em- from Nevada has not caused illness or more than $1200 a year are in the bossed in gold not only will detectable injury to health." The AEC minority.—New Mexican preserve the maps, but will be said precautions are taken to keep the • • • a beautiful addition to your amount of local fallout to as low levels UTAH home book-shelf. Each binder as possible, and to measure and record Flaming Gorge Bids Delayed . . . holds 12 copies. Easy to insert, the radiation exposures which might WASHINGTON, D.C.—the Bureau they open flat. be received by persons in the area of Reclamation reported that bid open- around the test site. Tentative dates ings for construction of the Flaming Mailed postpaid for Gorge Dam on the Green River in $2.00 northern Utah have been tentatively Book Manuscripts rescheduled for fiscal 1958. At the by cooperative publisher who offers authors early publication, higher royalty, national same time, invitations to bid on high- THE A ' mflGflZiriE distribution, and beautifully designed books. way, streets, utilities and residences for All subjects welcomed. Write, or send your 4 MS directly. Flaming Gorge community facilities PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA GREENWICH BOOK PUBLISHERS, INC. were issued by the Bureau. — Vernal Atten. Mr. Slocnm, 489 Fifth Aye., N.Y., N.Y. Express DESERT MAGAZINE Glen Bridge Concrete Poured . . . KANAB—Contractors on the $4,- 130,000 Colorado River Bridge below the Glen Canyon Dam began the pour- MINES ni MINING ing of concrete for the substructure. When completed, the 700-foot-high bridge will be the highest single span Bonanza, Utah . . . Moab, Utah . . . steel arch in the nation. The bridge The first pipeline ever built to transport Delhi-Taylor Oil Corporation announced solid materials over mountainous country plans to develop potash deposits in the builders are ahead of schedule and has gone into operation. Running from the Grand County area adjacent to Moab. The there is a possibility that the bridge mines of the American Gilsonite Company concern said the project includes the driv- will be finished by the fall of 1958, at Bonanza, the $2,000,000 pipeline extends ing of a shaft on the Seven-Mile structure six to eight months before the contract 72 miles over the Book Cliff Mountains to west of Moab, the building of a processing completion date. — Southern Utah the company's new refinery at Gilsonite, mill and other phases of work which would Colorado, near Grand Junction. This is result in putting the mineral on the com- News the first privately-financed refinery in the mercial market. Reports indicate that the • • • nation to produce on a large scale conven- company has a 41-year ore reserve at the tional petroleum products from solid hydro- mine based on a 1000-tons-per-day opera- Archeologists Search Canyon . . . carbons. Gilsonite, a trade-marked name, tion.—Moab Times-Independent GLEN CANYON — Archeologists is the mineral raw material used. It is mined • • • from the Museum of Northern Arizona from vertical seams and is coal-like in ap- pearance.—Vernal Express Papago Reservation, Arizona . . . have moved into the area along the • • • One of the largest copper ore explora- south rim of the Colorado and San tion programs in the nation is underway Juan rivers and have begun the map- White Pine County, Nevada . • . on the Papago Indian Reservation, a First ping and photographing of future ar- Coppermines Co. plans to spend $7,000,- National Bank of Arizona business devel- cheological diggings. Also engaged in 000 in White Pine County to broaden its opment department official said. He did operations through diversification; reduce not identify the company, but it is known the research will be the University cost through equipment modernization; and that both the American Metals Company of Utah's anthropology department, participate in oil and gas programs begun in and the Miami Copper Company have headed by Dr. Jesse D. Jennings who 1956. The company said it expended $3,- conducted extensive explorations on the 690,000 developing copper properties there reservation for a considerable time.—Casa believes a lost "desert culture" may Grande Dispatch have existed in the area long before last year.—Pioche Record the obvious Mesa Verde cliff dwellers came on the scene. In seven years it is expected that the waters behind Glen Canyon dam will cover the area. —Southern Utah News Prospectors' Headquarters • • • Anti-Litter Law Adopted . . . GEIGER COUNTERS AND SCINTILLATORS SALT LAKE CITY—Utah's tough The "Snooper" Geiger counter—model 108 t 29.95 The "Lucky Strike" Geiger counter—Model 106C 99.50 new anti-litter law became effective in The "Professional" Geiger Counter—Model 107C 149.50 May. It provides that anyone who The "Special Scintillator"—Model 117 299.50 throws or causes trash or burning ma- The "Deluxe" Scintillator—Model 111B 495.00 terials to be thrown onto highways will ULTRA-VIOLET MINERALIGHTS be guilty of a misdemeanor which is Model NH—Operates on 110 AC only 14.75 Model M12—Operates on batteries only—with battery 40.85 punishable by a fine of up to $299 Model SL-2537—Operates on batteries or 110 AC—without case and batteries 39.50 and/or six months imprisonment. — With No. 303 case and batteries 61.00 Vernal Express With No. 404 case and batteries 66.00 • • • BOOKS Utes Divide Land, Cash . . . "Prospecting with a Geiger Counter" by Wright 60 FORT DUCHESNE — After three "Uranium Color Photo Tone" 1.00 "Uranium Prospectors Hand Book" 1.00 days of negotiations, nearly a million The Uranium and Fluoreseent Minerals" by H. C. Dake 2.00 Popular Prospecting" by H. C. Dake 2.00 acres of disputed grazing land was Uranium, Where It Is and How to Find It" by Proctor and Hyatt 2.50 divided between the Ute and Affiliate Minerals (or Atomic Energy" by Nininger 7.50 Ute (mixed-blood) Indians. The land Let's Go Prospecting" by Edward Arthur 3.50 division was one of the major steps in MAPS following out the intent of a congres- Map and Geology (Uranium and Mineral Districts of California) 1.S0 Map of Kern County (New Section and Township) 1-50 sional act which calls for the termina- Map Uranium and Minerals (The Nine Southwest States) 1.00 tion of federal control over the mixed- Book and Map "Gems and Minerals of California" by McAllister 1.75 bloods and establishment of a devel- Book and Map "Lost Mines and Treasures of the Southwest" 2.00 opment program for the remaining full- OTHER SUPPLIES blood Indians. A total of $735,000 Mineral Hardness Test Set 2.00 Radiassay—Uranium Test Kit 14.95 was distributed among the 490 mem- Mercury—Detector Fluorescent Screen 6.75 bers of the mixed-bloods as part of Scheellte Fluorescent Analyzer 6.00 Fluorescent Mineral Set—10 Specimens—boxed 2.50 the $30,000,000 settlement the fed- Mineral Specimen Boxes (35 named Minerals) 1.50 Prospectors Picks (not polished) 4.40 eral government made in behalf of the Prospectors Picks (polished) 4.75 Utes in 1951. 12" Diameter Steel Gold Pan 1.25 16" Diameter Steel Gold Pan 1.70

All prices F.O.B. tos Angeles Add 4% Sales Tax if you live in California MINERALOGY Member of American Gem & Mineral Suppliers Association Offers unlimited opportunity for rock collector or Ura- nium prospector. Make It your career or hobby. We train ALLEN LAPIDARY EQUIPMENT COMPANY you at home. Diploma course. Send for Free Catalog. MINERAL SCIENCE INSTITUTE 3632 West Slauson Ave., Depl. D Open Monday evening until 9:00 Los Angeles, Calif. Desk 7 • 159 E. Ontario • Chicago 11

JULY, 1 957 33 Salt Lake City . . . Santa Fe . . . Henderson, Nevada . . . Both lead and copper were reduced one- Legislation which provides that the dis- A $15,000,000 expansion program by half cent a pound recently by custom smel- covery requirements for establishing a lode Titanium Metals Corporation is progressing ters amid warnings from the west's mining mining claim may be obtained by drilling, rapidly and company officials expect the industry that if the reductions continue, has been enacted by the New Mexico Legis- melt shop, which will be used for melting many mines will close down. Economists lature. The act states that a locator of a titanium sponge into ingots, will be ready also warn that given annual continuation of mining claim may, at his option in lieu of for operation by August 1. The 51,000- cost inflation, price reduction and growing discovery shaft, tunnel or pit, drill or cause square-foot building is the largest ever imports, the big underground copper prop- to be drilled a hole, for the same purpose. erected for the sole purpose of melting ti- erties of the West will be forced to close. The hole must be an inch and a half or tanium. Meanwhile, announcement was Other operators will of necessity have to more in diameter; not less than 10 feet in made that Titanium Metal's 1956 produc- reduce work shifts. Announcement was depth; and in the event more than one hole tion of 6000 tons of titanium sponge was made in Washington, D. C., that the Eagle- is drilled, the discoverer is to designate the greatest of any U.S. producer. This Picher Mining Co., principal lead-zinc pro- which hole is to be considered the discovery year's production goal is 9000 tons.—Pioche ducer of the tri-state district of Kansas, hole. This hole should then be marked by Record Missouri and Oklahoma, was closing down a substantial post or other permanent mar- • • • all operations, which apparently includes ker at least 30 inches in height and placed its diatomaceous earth operation near Reno. within five feet of the hole.—Mining Record Boron, California . . . • • • • • • Establishment of a mill site in the Kramer Hills Area, with the necessary buildings Henderson, Nevada . . . Washington, D. C. . . . and appurtenances necessary to its opera- American Potash and Chemical Corpora- tion, has been approved by the county tion has begun production of decaborane at Competitive bidding for oil and gas planning commission. Allen B. Rasmussen its pilot plant in Henderson. Decaborane leases on Indian lands in the Four Corners plans to build the mill on Highway 395 is a high-energy chemical compound of area has resulted in bonuses for the Indian about eight miles south of Highway 466.— boron and hydrogen being studied for pos- owners of over $45,000,000 in the past six Barstow Printer-Review months, the Bureau of Indian Affairs an- sible use as a high potency "hot" fuel for • • • jet and liquid-fuel rocket engines. Another nounced. By comparison, the combined high-energy boron fuel, known as HiCal, income realized by all Indian tribal groups Salt Lake City . . . will be produced by the Callery Chemical and individual Indian landowners from Over 2000 metal mining men and indus- Co. in a plant being built for the Navy at bonuses, rents and royalties on oil and gas trial mineral producers will meet in Salt Muskogee, Oklahoma. HiCal is a com- leases in the 12-month period which ended Lake City September 9-12 to outline their bination of boron, carbon and hydrogen.— lune 30, 1956, was approximately $41,- views on national mineral policies and dis- Boron Enterprise 000,000. The latest opening of bids on cuss the latest advances in mine and mill Indian lands in this area was held at Ig- operating practices. The convention is be- nacio, Colorado, March 25, and produced ing sponsored by the American Mining New York, New York . . . total high bonus offerings of $4,358,040 on Congress.—Inyo Register The Perlite Institute of New York says 45 tracts comprising 56,336 acres. Of this • • s perlite, a white feathery volcanic material amount, $4,284,269 was bid for tribal and previously used in plaster and concrete, is allotted lands of the Ute Mountain Reser- Eureka District, Utah . . . now being sold as a soil conditioner by vation and the balance for lands on the Dragon Consolidated Mining Co. reports over 50 manufacturers under various brand adjoining Southern Ute Reservation. increased earnings from royalties on its names. Perlite acts like a mechanical earth- • • • halloysite clay deposit in the Eureka Mining worm in the soil, keeping it porous and District. The clay is mined by and sold to pliable, the institute said.—Pioche Record Boron, California . . . Filtrol Corporation, operators of a plant U.S. Borax & Chemical Corporation re- for production of oil refining catalysts at ports that it has reached the main borate Salt Lake City. Dragon, an affiliate of sub- ore body in its new open pit mine at Boron. sidiaries of Anaconda Co., receives royalties with OREMASTER'S Tincal ore, which is the principal raw ma- on the clay body mined by both under- STRIKE IT RICH "Rockhound" terial for a host of important boron chem- ground and open pit methods. The com- SUPER icals, was reached at a depth of 137 feet pany had a net income of $119,800 in 1956, GEIGER COUNTER after 7,000,000 tons of overburden were without provision for depletion.—Salt Lake removed. Production was scheduled to be- Tribune gin in lune. The new pit is the largest known sodium borate ore body in the world and this mine, to be operated by the Pacific Coast Borax Company Division, is ANSWERS TO QUIZ the first large open pit borate operation in Questions are on page 28 the United States.—Boron Enterprise 1—Mutton. a • • 2—Antelope. 3—Tombstone. Manhattan, Nevada . . . 4—Arizona. Work of preparing the old White Caps 5—Reg Manning. Mine for active operation is being conducted 6—Archeology. (For Uranium, by the White Caps Gold Mining Company. 7—Mexico. Thorium, and The work was concentrated on pumping out 8—Ephedra. the shaft which has been under water since 9—Obsidian. Rnre Earth Minerals) 1935. Prior to that, the mine produced $5,- 10—Mountain Meadows Massacre. 000,000 in gold. Plans call for the pump- The new OREMASTER "Rockhound" is 11—The trek of Father Escalante. ing of water down to the 800 foot level 12—Elephant Butte dam. a SUPER Geiger Counter thai excels and rehabilitating that level to a crosscut many $500 instruments. It is sensitive 13—Navajos. directly over the ore body.—Pioche Record 14—Petroglyphs. enough for airborne and mobile pros- 15—Sedona. pecting, yet weighs only five pounds. 16—Yellow. Big 4%" Super Sensitive Meter. Power- $$$ TREASURE $$$ 17—Calcite. ful built-in speaker, bismuth tube, water- 18—lune. proof, indicates the direction of radio- Improved metal detector finds lost or hidden treasure, coins, gold, silver, jewelry, relics. 19—U.S. 80. active deposits, and numerous other Profitable hobby. Also new underwater metal 20—Carson City. features. detector. Detects sunken ships, outboard mo- tors, etc., in Send for free literature and photo! 300 It. of salt or fresh wat- PRICE ONLY $129.50 er. Operates Fully guaranteed from a boat. Free litera- THE PROSPECTOR'S CATALOG Terms if desired: $35 down ture. We are pleased to announce the advent of $10 per month a new Minerals Unlimited Catalog, specifi- GARDINER cally designed for the amateur or profes- Largest stock of used instruments of all ELECTRONICS sional prospector. If you are interested in makes. Expert servicing. Geiger Counters, Mineralights, Blowpipe Sets, DEPT. 9 Gold Pan or any of the other equipment necessary to a field or prospecting trip, WHITE'S ELECTRONICS 2545 E. INDIAN send 5c in stamps or coin for your copy. SCHOOL ROAD MINERALS UNLIMITED, Dept. D 1218 M. Street — Sweet Home, Oregon PHOENIX, ARIZ. 1724 University Ave., Berkeley, California

DESERT MAGAZINE site. Copies also were given to chambers U. S. Highway 66. Completion is scheduled URANIUM NEWS of commerce in towns around the test site for late spring of 1958. The mill is ex- for distribution to tourists "who are afraid pected to have a 750 ton-per-day capacity to drive by the testing range." and will employ about 100 millworkers. Written in general terms, the booklet at- Homestake, with home offices in San Conimi fot tempts to reassure anyone who might be Francisco, California, will operate the mill. worried, that, based on the results of 45 The other "partners" include United West- nuclear explosions in Nevada between Jan- ern Minerals Corporation, Rio De Oro uary, 1951, and June, 1955, no harm can Uranium Mines, Inc., and companies asso- come to anyone living in the area. ciated with these firms.—Grants Beacon Fallout raising radioactivity levels "may make uranium prospecting difficult for a few days" after each blast, the AEC said. Geiger counters react sharply to even the smallest increase in radioactivity levels.— JEW PRODUCTS U-Mill Si New Mexican FOR DESERT MVIXG • • • Kermac Nuclear Fuels Corporation has Only 107 of 1200 U-Shippers signed a contract with the Atomic Energy New Flashlight Floats Commission which will lead to construction Cited for "Consistent Supply" of the largest uranium ore mill in this na- Only 107 uranium producers in six states If Dropped Overboard tion. Mill site is at Ambrosia Lake District have been cited for outstanding performance Bright Star Industries of Clifton, northwest of Grants, New Mexico. Speci- as consistent shippers of uranium ore by New Jersey, is marketing a new water- fications call for a $16,000,000 mill to proc- the uranium industry. More than 1200 dif- proof floating flashlight designed to ess 3300 tons of ore daily. ferent operators made ore shipments during Kermac is made up of Kerr McGee Oil one or more of the four periods for which meet the needs of boat owners and Industries and Ambrosia Lake Uranium lists have been compiled by the Atomic fishermen for a light that can be re- Co., both of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Energy Commission. Of these, only the trieved if dropped overboard. The 107 on the Honor Roll appear on all four Anderson Development Co., Albuquerque; manufacturers claim that their new and Pacific Uranium Mines, Inc., of Los lists, according to Uranium Magazine. Of Angeles. the steady shippers, Arizona has 12, Colo- product has excellent corrosive resis- The mill will use a carbonate leach em- rado 40, New Mexico 7, South Dakota 7, tant qualities. The new Bright Star ploying counter-current decantation proc- Utah 39 and Wyoming 10. light Number 8118, in addition to its ess. Comparing the two most recent lists of ability to float, has a white Luminous AEC officials said there was an option ore shippers, Colorado climbed from 146 arrangement in the contract which permits to 163 while Utah dropped from 203 to end cap that glows in the dark; a three the government to change purchase of ura- 199.—Moab Times-Independent position waterproof signal switch; an nium oxides to conform with regulations of • • • emergency red lens ring; a bulb shock the 1962-66 concentrate buying program. Homesictke Mill Construction absorber and a plastic lens that reduces Under that program, as now stated, no more than 500 tons or 1,000,000 pounds Underway Near Grants, N.M. the possibility of breakage to a mini- of uranium concentrates will be produced Men and equipment have begun construc- mum; metal belt loop and an extra and sold to the government from any one tion on the Homestake-New Mexico Part- bulb holder. Retail price of the flash- ners uranium processing mill near Grants, mine.—Salt Lake Tribune light is $3.95. • • • New Mexico, and about four miles north of Yuma U-Mine Opened To Arthritis Sufferers The Crown Uranium. Mine, 38 miles northwest of Yuma in the Chocolate Moun- tain foothills, was scheduled to open its Cotnpton Rock Shop doors to sufferers of arthritis, sinusitis and asthma. The mine is one of several in the METAL DETECTORS nation that have converted over to paid public visitations, although medical science • Battery test switch has not endorsed the healing power of • Head phones with clear signal uranium. The mine shipped one carload of high • Great sensitivity • Low cost operation grade ore after it was developed in 1954. • One nob control • Easiest of all to operate The elusive large ore body was lost, how- ever, and mining is no longer profitable, MORE ACCURATE, it's the first METAL DETECTOR designed SPE- the owners said. CIFICALLY for detecting placer gold, nuggets, and other small metal Regular charge for mine sittings will be $50 for six visits of one hour each, the objects. Depth range 7 feet—comes complete ready to use. recommended time limit.—Yuma Sun MODEL 27—instructions included $110.00 MODEL 711—with 21 ft. depth range $138.50 Nevada School Children Receive A-Blast Information Fifty thousand copies of a booklet ex- MINERALIGHT—Complete line from $14.95 up to $114.00 plaining the Atomic Energy Commission's Send for Complete Information test blasts have been distributed to school children in areas adjoining the Nevada test HARDNESS TESTING PENCILS— complete with diamond, in leather case $ 10.50 PENSCOPES — 20-40 Power $ 12.00 LAPIDARY EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES—TOOLS—GEMS—JEWELRY Find Valuable CHEMICAL KITS. MORTARS & PESTELS—PICKS—BOOKS—ETC. Strategic Minerals! FOR THE WOOD WORKING HOBBYIST WE NOW STOCK A Uranium—Tungsten—Zinc Mercury—Zirconium COMPLETE LINE OF ATLAS AND PORTER CABLE POWER TOOLS (buy from an experienced wood worker) Outdoors for fun and profit? Take along an ultra-violet Mineralight! Write Dept. D for free prospecting information kit! 1405 S. Long Beach Blvd. 3 blocks south of Olive ULTRA-VIOLET PRODUCTS, INC., San Gabriel, California NEmark 2-9096 Open Friday Evenings Compton, California

JULY, 1957 35 bath and placed in a warm closed container with lumps of ammonium carbonate, for at least two weeks. The purpose here is to AMATEUR OEM CUTTER have the ammonia gas penetrate the agate and cause a bright green precipitate of a By DR. H. C. DAKE, Editor of The Mineralogist chromate salt. (Liquid ammonia solution would possibly bleach out some of the sol- This is the second and concluding part as thin as Munich beer. The aquaeous so- uble chromic acid or bichromate.) After of Dr. Dake's original translation of the lution of iron nitrate should be kept warm the agate is removed from the ammonia gas 1913 paper by Dr. O. Dreher of Idar, and the agate submerged for from one to chamber it is dried and then gradually Germany, on the artificial coloring of four weeks according to the thickness of the strongly heated in a crucible and oven as agates. Prior to the appearance of this stone. described under red coloring. paper, the coloring of agates had been a Stones three mm. thick for about a week, Green colors often do not come up to ex- highly guarded secret. six mm. about three weeks, and 10 mm. pectations. A muddy green or bluish-green Red—To produce red colors the agate is stones about four weeks. Stones thicker may be noted. Experiments often will solve soaked in a strong solution of iron nitrate. than 10 mm. will seldom color throughout. the problem in various kinds of agate. Of According to the directions of the old Ger- (A mm. is 1/25 of an inch.) This means the best methods so far as I know them, I man agate cutters, this solution should be that seldom will the color penetrate into an agate deeper than about five mm., or about dare not say anything, since they should yet 1/5 of an inch. Let it be understood at remain secret. this point that all coloring is done after the Black coloring was first known to the stone or slab is completly cut and polished, Idar cutters in 1819, and was discovered in otherwise grinding would expose the un- an accidental manner. INILANI Pill colored material below. The agate is first soaked in a solution of After the agate has been soaked in the ordinary sugar, 375 grams to one liter of THE LAPIDARY'S above solution for the desired time, it should water, or about as thick as flowing honey. STANDARD OF VALUE first be carefully dried in a warm oven for The earlier cutters employed diluted honey, from two to ten days. This is to remove as hence this solution is often called the honey bath. While the agate is in the sugar solution BUY THE BEST much free moisture as possible prior to the "burning" to avoid possible fracturing. the vessel should be kept warm, as this FOR LESS seems to promote penetration. The stone Congo l)ia Blades — Sizes The agate is removed from the oven and is kept submerged for from one week to Range from 4" to 24" in while still warm is placed in a crucible. The three weeks, according to thickness, "hard- Light, Standard, Heavy agates can be best packed in some substance ness," and depth of color desired. As water and Extra Heavy duty. like fibrous asbestos or powdered magnesium oxide, and the crucible covered (an iron evaporates from the warm solution addi- crucible will answer). tional water can be added. Highland The heat in the oven is raised very The agate is removed from the sugar slowly, until the crucible has reached a red solution and without washing is placed in Park heat. It is then allowed to cool very slowly. sulphuric acid. The acid is slowly warmed Trim Saws This is best carried out be reducing the on a hot plate and then brought to a boil- Compact and flame or heat gradually. The agate must ing or near the boiling point for about rugged for long not be removed from the crucible until the fifteen minutes. The vessel should be cov- lasting service. contents are completely cooled. ered and care should be exercised to avoid K-l Trim San It is possible that some stones may not the hot acid from spattering in the eyes, have the desired color. In this case the skin or clothing. A large vessel is best and soaking in the iron nitrate solution and a hot plate where the heat can be controlled A Leader the oven "burning" can be repeated one or is excellent. The agate is permitted to cool more times as desired. with the acid for a few hours. In Its Field Green colors can be produced in a num- After the sulphuric acid treatment a Highland I'ark l'ower-f«ed ber of ways. Two "baths" are in common stone may tend to "sweat," due to a small Slab Saws. Sizes range use—saturated or strong solutions of chro- amount of acid remaining in the pores of from 12" to 24". Metal mic acid or potassium bichromate. The so- the agate. This can be eliminated by soak- or Lucite hood. lution of chromic acid seems to be pre- ing the agate in warm water for several ferred, although the bichromate salt is hours or longer. cheaper. Blue coloring was first used at Idar in The stone is placed in the chromic acid 1845. Two shades of blue can be had, by solution for from eight to 14 days, accord- the use of yellow prussiate of potassium or ing to the thickness and the "hardness" of by the use of the red prussiate of potassium Highland Park Combination Unit the agate. Stones or slabs over 10 mm. in Available in all sizes. Perfect Combination (ferrocyanides of potassium). Unit for Lapidary work. Handles sawing, thickness should remain in the bath for a Dissolve 250 grams of one of the above grinding, sanding and polishing. Excep- longer time, up to eight weeks. tionally quiet operation. salts (poisonous) in one liter of water. The The stones are then removed from the agate is soaked in this solution for from one week to two weeks. This bath should be kept warm, but not too hot and should not be boiled. The agate is then soaked in a solution of iron vitriol (iron sulphate) for from four to eight days according to the depth of color desired. No "burning" is needed in K-KI Combination Unit this method. A darker blue color will be had if the Arbors ol all sizes—Tumblers, two models. iron sulphate solution is acidified with a Wet and dry belt sanders—Lapidary units few drops of sulphuric and nitric acid. in two different sizes. While the agate is in the iron sulphate solu- tion it can be examined from time to time, 32 MODELS TO CHOOSE FROM and removed when the desired color is The most complete line of lapidary machin- noted. The solutions used in agate color- ery offered by any manufacturer. See these at your local Highland Park dealer or write ing can be used repeatedly, by adding water for free literature. to replace evaporation and small amounts This beautiful 18 Gemstone Bracelet, of the salts as the liquid becomes weakened. A Product of Rhodium Plated - Only $5.00 2 pounds mixed tumbled gems $5.00 Some of the chemicals employed in agate 20 mixed tumbled gems.- $2.00 coloring are poisonous or corrosive and 1 Boulder Dam souvenir key chain $1.00 should be used with due caution. In the use HIGHLAND PARK Prices Include tax and postage of the prussiate of potassium solutions, Please send cash with order small amounts of cyanide gas may be gen- MANUFACTURING CO. erated and care should be used in the in- WESTERN MINERALS halation of these fumes. This can be best 1009-1011 Mission Street BOX 61 used in a chemical laboratory under a hood, South Pasadena. California BOULDER CITY, NEVADA or outdoors where the fumes cannot reach a possibly dangerous concentration.

DESERT MAGAZINE SAPPfflRE CARVING OF JEFFERSON COMPLETED Recently presented to the people of the United States by the non-profit Kazanjian Foundation of Los Angeles, was the mag- nificent carved sapphire head of Thomas Jefferson. This was the fourth Kazanjian President Sapphire, the others being like- nesses of Washington, Lincoln and Eisen- hower. The Jefferson stone weighed 1743 carats uncut and 1381 carats carved. Sculptor was Harry B. Derian and the stone was dis- covered in Queensland, Australia and pur- chased by Kazanjian Brothers, gem impor- ters, in 1948. It took a year and a half to carve the beautiful blue stone, and in the process over 70 diamond tipped tools were worn out. First step was to smooth and polish the stone in order to locate surface imper- fections. Next, the nose was carved. Then came the forehead, mouth and chin. Last of all the eyes were sculptured and polished to give the optical illusion that they are moving from one side to the other as the viewer moves. Jefferson's likeness was drawn mainly from his life mask made in 1825 when he was 82 years of age, and from two paintings made from life.

Lapidary Equipment Co., Inc. 1545 W. 49th St., Dept. D-4 Seattle 7, Washington. "They say it was level here before the rockhounds came."

NEVADA OPALS TO JULY SHOW HIGHLIGHT RENO SHOW Special displays of Nevada opals, trans- parent slabs and Kalama, Washington, ag- • Send me a complete course ates are planned for the July 20-21 Nevada CALENDAR Gem and Mineral Show at the Idlewild of instructions on "Gem Park Recreation Building, Reno. Making" by Hillquist. I en- July 4-6—Bend, Oregon. Deschutes Geol- Two field trips, one to an agate field and ogy Club's annual show. the other to a wonderstone area, are sched- close 25c. July 4-7—Ellensburg, Washington. Annual uled by show officials. Club displays are All Rockhound Pow Wow. planned by these societies: Washoe Gem • Send me your free catalog July 5-7—East Los Angeles. 18th Annual and Mineral and Pyramid Gem and Mineral, Convention and Show of the California both of Reno; and the Lahontan Gem and of Hillquist equipment. Federation of Mineralogical Societies. Mineral Club of Fallon. Free Nevada high- Great Western Showgrounds, Eastern way maps will be given to show visitors. Ave., south of Santa Ana Freeway. July 6—Baltimore, Maryland. Micro-Min- eral Collectors' National Symposium. July 13-14—Buhl, Idaho, Magic Valley Gem Club's 7th annual show. July 18-21 — Pasco, Washington. Three Rivers Mineralogy Society's 2nd annual show. Petrified Wood, Moss Agate, Chrysocolla July 19-28—Santa Rosa, California. Red- Turquoise, Jade and Jasper Jewelry wood Gem and Mineral Society's show in conjunction with Sonoma County Fair. HAND MADE IN STERLING SILVEB July 20-21—Reno. Second annual All Ne- vada Gem and Mineral show. Idlewild Bracelets, Rings, Necklaces, Earrings Park. and Brooches July 21—Placerville, California. Third an- nual Stifle Memorial mineral and gem SPECIALLY SELECTED STONES WITH auction. Stifle Memorial. CHOICE COLORS AND PICTURES July 27-28—Delake, Oregon. North Lin- Write for Folder With Prices coln Agate Society's 15th annual show. • • • ELLIOTT'S GEM SHOP The Imperial Valley Gem and Mineral 23S East Seaside Blvd. Long Beach 2, California Society announced that it has planned its annual Gem Show for November 8-10 at Across from West End of Municipal the De Anza Hotel in Calexico, California. Auditorium Grounds Further information can be had from Viola Hours 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Daily Except Monday Dressor, secretary, Box 1721, El Centro.

JULY, 1957 37 HOW TO CAB TIGEREYE cil, and holding the slice on the same plane, THREE TYPES SANDERS TO GET "FLOATING EYE" rotate it 3 60-degrees and again mark the AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC dividing line between the light and dark There are three types of sanders available Obtaining the proper "floating eye" in a portions of the face. The pencil marks to the gem cutter—belt, drum and face. tigereye cabochon often proves difficult for should be in the same place. To double As far as quality of work produced is con- the amateur gem cutter. Walter Jayne of check, turn the stone over and you should cerned, each does equally well. the Wisconsin Geological Society suggests get the reverse lighting effects on the two the following technique for pre-determining halves. Here are the main features of the three: where the stone should be cabbed. Belt Sander. This is a sander of industry Take a slice of tigereye that has been When you look down at 60-degrees and and is used where production is an im- see the dark side of the slice nearest you, portant factor. Using 10-foot belts traveling properly cut—that is, parallel to the grain at high speed over rubber-bonded-to-metal of the fibers—and sight across it at an you are looking at what should be the wheels, the amount of work that can be angle of about 60-degrees. You should see crown of the finished stone, so place your the face of the stone divided into light and turned out in a given time is amazing. The template on the side where the light half is small models designed for home lapidary dark halves. use retain some of this productivity, but not Lightly mark the dividing line with a pen- base.-—Rock Lore to any important extent. Belt sanders, gen- erally, are not adaptable to equipment that is not designed expressly for their use, and they usually take up more space than other types. Drum Sander. This is perhaps the most popular sander with lapidaries because it is adaptable to all kinds of equipment. It can be mounted on any kind of arbor, the end of a motor shaft, on a line shaft or in combination with other wheels. The wheel itself can easily be made from wood by the lapidary. Many methods have been devised to make the changing of sanding cloths on a drum sander both fast and easy, and to make a smooth surface where the ends of the cloth meet. Chief advantage of the drum sander over the face plate sander is that it is much easier and faster to sand a flat object on the drum. Over a period of time one probably would have to change sanding cloths more often on a drum sander ON JANUARY 1st, WE RELEASED than a belt, however. The New 1957 MOliTXiVJM Edition of our Encyclopedia Face Plate Sander. Sometimes the design of the equipment makes a face sander and Super-Catalog of the Lapidary & Jewelry Arts. necessary. These sanders cannot match the YOU MAY PURCHASE THESE AT: Here's What One Customer Says about other two in production, but they have two our Encyclopedia. good features. A face plate gives you a $1.95 for Paper Bound Copies greater variety of surface speeds without $2.95 for DELUXE Book Binding Your catalog & "Bible" is getting more valuable to me changing pulleys—by changing positions on Add 25c for Domestic Postage & Packing or every day. Removed my first batch of tumbled stones the face, the center, of course, has a slower yesterday and they turned out swell, thanks to your surface speed than the outer edge. Another 50e for A. P. O.'s, Foreign, or U. S. Territories. good feature is that certain areas can be This is a book of 240 PAGES 8/2"' x 11" in instructions in the "Bible". "saved" for special use. It is necessary to size, the equivalent of 480 regular textbook H. D. Bushey, Bakersfield, Calif. crown face sanders if you are going to work on flats because this type sander will sand size pages. EIGHT COLORS of ink are used. heavily at the leading edge of the work and before you can remove the scratches in the of NEW and VALUABLE information for the center, your piece will be rounded—not flat. JEWELRY CRAFTSMAN and GEM CUTTER. It is an out- A crowned plate will sand along a narrow line of contact, and this line changes as the standing NEW BOOK —not just a catalog. It is direction of pressure on the work is varied. excellent for SCHOOLS and their CRAFT —Carroll Kelley in the Minnesota Mineral TEACHERS. Club's Rock Rustler's News NEITHER TIME, COST OR RESEARCH HAVE BEEN SPARED THREE STAR to MAINTAIN THE HIGHEST STANDARD OF USEFULNESS PREMIUM OFFER No. 1203 ROCKHOUNDS SHOULD BE ON AND SCOPE. IT SUGGESTS THINGS TO DO-THE MOST ONE PREMIUM OFFER No. GEE* LOOKOUT FOR METEORITES APPROVED METHODS OF DOING THEM AND IS FILLED | contains 3 GENUINE ROCK CRYSTAL FACETED STARS as Much more common than generally sup- WITH ILLUSTRATIONS and INSTRUCTIONS DESIGNED to illustrated. Regular VALUE $3.45. NOW $1.50 posed, meteorites are worth watching for FULFILL YOUR EVERY REQUIREMENT. WITH the purchase of an Encyclopedia. in your field trip wanderings. IT LISTS 2200 items —machinery, tools, supplies NOTE: Word your order like this: Any black polished mass or rust-coated rock in an unusual locality should be sus- for gem cutting and jewelry making. Baroque gems, I No. CffiE (Point Drilled) S 1.50* pected as being a meteorite, particularly books, Jewelry metals and parts. Gilding metal and I Encyclopedia ...'.., 1.95 if it shows erosion marks in one direction. copper forms for enameling. TOTAL PRICE of the 2 items . . . $3.45 The composition of meteorites vary. Dia- monds, enstatite, chondrodite, hypersthene, DEALERS: SEND FOR Dealer Information YOU GET BOTH ITEMS for the olivine, bronzite and some feldspar and Gold Filled ACCESSORY REGULAR PRICE OF THE STARS. quartz have been found in some falls. :[:Add 10% Fed. Tax to GEE & 25c postage Among the nickel-irons, the following SPECIAL OFFER No. S-194 rare minerals, most of which have not been contains all metal parts needed to make complete found on earth, have been identified: old- necklace and earrings from stars in P-84. REGULAR hamite, a sulphide of calcium; schreibersite, a phosphide of iron and nickel; daubreelite, VALUE $4.05— a sulphide of iron and chromium; cohenite, NOW I for $3.70* 3 for $8.30 a carbide of iron and nickel; moissanite, a *Add 10% Fed. Tax to S-194 silicide of carbon; and lawrencite, a chlo- ride of iron. California residents K9-27 Please add 4% sales tax. Most of these minerals are believed to 7 ml | 1633 E. Walnut Sr. have been formed under temperatures in nA excess of 1,000,000 degrees. — Montebello, if ^« -fl-MlCy* Pasadena 4, Calif. California, Mineral and Lapidary Society's MAIL ADDRESS: P. O. Box 4185, CATALINA STATION, PASADENA, CALIF. The Braggin' Rock

38 DESERT MAGAZINE CALIFORNIA MINERAL BOOK IS REPRINTED A revised edition of Vinson Brown and 400 Competitots In July 5-7 David Allan's Rocks and Minerals of Cali- fornia and Their Stories, first published in 1955, is now available. Written especially for the beginning col- folifotnia Fedention Show lector and the layman, the book features 48 California rocks and minerals pictured The largest display of minerals and day show passes for $1. General admission in full color and 41 pages of two-color lapidary work ever assembled for exhibition is 90 cents per day. maps showing interesting mineral and rock —400 cases—is expected for the July 5-7 Of interest to Southern California visitors locations throughout the state. California Federation of Mineralogical So- will be special Gem-0-Rama tours to Dis- Published by Naturegraph Company, San cieties convention and show by the host so- neyland, La Brea Tar Pits, Marineland and Martin, California; 120 pages; many illus- ciety, Compton Gem and Mineral Club. Knott's Berry Farm. trations; $2.75 paper cover; $4.50 cloth. These competitive cases plus 32 cases of special displays and exhibits will be shown at the Great Western Show Building in East Los Angeles. Over 120 gem and mineral societies are expected to be represented in GRIEGER'S Parade of Values the event. Watch this page for new offerings. Don't buy elsewhere until you have compared our low prices The convention opens at 10 a.m., July 6, & high quality. at the Hotel Clark, 426 So. Hill St., Los Angeles, following an Editor's Breakfast at 8 a.m. That night a Banquet Under the Stars is planned at the exhibition hall. ^ SPECIAL OFFER No. S-l ^ Theme of this, the 18th annual show and We want you to see the quality of convention of the federation, is "Treasure . these earwires. We'll send you ONE LMking for Trails." Over 15,000 square feet of floor space has been allotted to dealers from all Special Offer No. S-l consisting of I pair over the nation. Show doors will open at each #43-2, 43-10, 43-11 & 43-27 in STERLING 9 a.m. on all three days of the show. Mem- "^•SILVER (Regular Value) $3.75. bers of the Federation may purchase three- NOW I for $2.55 3 for $5.70. SPECIAL OFFER No. S-2 GOOD POLISH DEPENDS ON Same as above EXCEPT in GOLD FILLED. Regular Value $4.00. w PRELIMINARY SANDING I for $3.00 3 for $6.70* Many buff and polishing powder com- binations are possible, but until the begin- ner prepares his cabochons properly, no combination will give him the polish he is -> STERLING SILVER (SS) LOW AS 50c a pair in 3dzlots looking for. Most all equipment and polishing agents ->GOLD FILLED (GF) LOW AS 50c a pair in 3dzlots will do a good job and there is really very little difference between them. The secret 14 KARAT YELLOW GOLD (l4Ky) LOW AS $3.72 a pair of a good polish depends a great deal upon DEALERS: You can buy these items & thousands the preliminary sanding or lapping. It is No. 43-10 easy to say there should be no scratches more at LOW WHOLESALE PRICES. Write left on the cab save those made by the EARWIRE FOR for dealer information. final sanding or lapping, but in actual prac- DANGLES tice, it is not so easy to do. It requires a trained eye and careful inspection with a No. 43-2 Made with large good glass to detect those scratches that EARWIRE FOR ear pad. Super will not buff out quickly and completely. DANGLES fine finish. %•" full ball ornament. You must remember too, that a worn sand- No. 43-10 SS ing cloth of say, 320 grit, can give you a Made with large ear pad and 7 mm better finish than a sharp, new cloth of 600 lpr$l.00 I dz pcs $3.80 3 dz $8.95 grit. Beware of new sanding cloths for your shell front for extra neatness. final sanding—keep the old ones for that No. 43-2 SS I pr $.75 No. 43-10 GF purpose. 2pr$1.35 I dz pcs $3.35 3 dz $8.95 I pr $1.00 I dz pcs $4.00 3 dz $8.95 This listing is only a part of Grieger's huge If you can't get the scratches out of your No. 43-2 !4Ky cabs with very little buffing, do not expect variety. Get our Encyclopedia now. It LISTS much improvement by changing buffs or I pr $6.00 2 pr $9.95 3 pr $11.15 2200 items — all comparable values. polishing compounds. Concentrate, instead, No. 43-2 GF on your preliminary finishing. — Carroll FEATURE VALUE Kelley in the Minnesota Mineral Club's I pr $1.00 I dz pcs $3.90 3 dz $8.95 No. 43-11 Rock Rustler's News FEATURE VALUE EARWIRE FOR No. 43-27 DANGLES An 11 pound emerald found last year in EARWIRE Heavy construction. Made with large the Tzaneen district of South Africa was Heart ornament. ear pad and 7 mmVi ball ornament. brought to New York for examination this spring. The owners of the 24,000 carat No. 43-27 SS No. 43-11 SS stone did not know its worth, which has I pr$l.00 I dz pcs $3.90 3 dz $8.95 I pr $1.00 I dz pcs $3.45 3 dz $8.95 been estimated at from $70 to $14,000,- 000. Final valuation will depend on depth No. 43-27 GF No. 43-11 GF of color and the likelihood of flaws becom- I pr $1.00 I dz pcs $4.45 3 dz $10.00 I pr $1.00 I dz pcs $4.85 3 dz $10.85 ing apparent on cutting.—Gem Cutters News PRICES QUOTED APPLY ONLY TO THOSE QUANTITIES MENTIONED • • • PER ITEM AND COLOR OR LARGER MULTIPLES THEREOF. The largest gem ever found was a 520,000 ADD 10% FEDERAL EXCISE TAX EXCEPT WHERE NOTED. carat aquamarine near Marambaia, Brazil, in 1910, which yielded over 200,000 carats California residents K9-40 Please add 4% sales tax. of gem quality stones. However, the largest known aquamarine crystal is a 134V4 pound , Inc stone valued at $40,000 and found in Brazil, December, 1955.—New Mexican O. Box 4185. PASADENA. CALIF.

JULY, 1957 39 BLACK TOURMALINE $1 per ounce. Smoky quartz $1 per cutting inch. Gem ADVERTISING RATE quality. Jay Cramer, Pierce, Idaho. E HI fllflRT 12c a word . . . Minimum $2.00 VISIT ROY'S Rock Shop 101 Highway, Trinidad, California. Agates, thunder- eggs, minerals, rough materials, baroques, findings, preforms, polish specimens, C. EARL NAPIER "for rocks." 19 Lake GEMS A-PLENTY: Beautiful baroque gems, wholesale retail dealers send one dollar View, Boulder City, Nevada. Free guide large variety, tumbled polished all over, for samples and price list. Box 133. service to collecting areas. $10.00 for one pound (about 100 stones). 10 lbs. of top grade gemstone prepaid for DINOSAUR BONE. Gem quality colorful FOR SALE: Beautiful purple petrified wood $7.00. Wholesale price to dealers on ba- agatized, jasperized, opalized bone 50c with uranium, pyrolusite, manganite. Nice roque gems and gemstone in the rough. pound. Also beautiful red lace agate $1 sample $1.00 Postage. Maggie Baker, Satisfaction guaranteed on every sale. pound. Postage extra. Gene Stephen, Box 7, Hackberry, Arizona. San Fernando Valley Gem Co., 5905 Route 2, Grand Junction, Colorado. Kester Ave., Van Nuys, California. COLORADO MINERAL specimens, cut- 35 YEAR collection, specimens, slabbing ting and tumbling materials. Send 2 cent VISIT GOLD Pan Rock Shop. Beautiful rough and finished, tumbling, all kinds stamp for list and terms. Dealers please sphere material, gems, mineral specimens, of agates and fire, jasper, palm wood, write for wholesale list. John Patrick, choice crystals, gem materials, jewelry, arrowheads, hammers, fossils, geodes, Idaho Springs, Colorado. baroques, etc. Over 100 tons of material minerals, purple glass—any amount. D. to select from. John and Etta James, W. Rogers, 3 blocks north Midland ele- 12 POUNDS OF beautiful Colorado min- proprietors, 2020 N. Carson Street, Car- vator, Ashton, Idaho. eral specimens, $8.00 prepaid. Ask for son City, Nevada. list of others. Jack the Rockhound, P. O. HUNT IN our rock yard. Agate, jasper Box 245, Carbondale, Colorado. MEXICAN AGATE Nodules: a beautiful and wood. Rocks for jewelry and decora- polished specimen postpaid $1.00 or 10 tions. Pollard at Green's Little Acre WE ARE MINING every day. Mojave for $5.00. B.&H. Rock Shop, 29 Cherry Trailer Park. Route 80, 6 miles east El Desert agate, jasper and palm wood, Lane, Granbury, Texas. Cajon, California. shipped mixed 100 pounds $10.50 F.O.B. Barstow. Morton Minerals & Mining, IN RUIDOSO, New Mexico, visit the Gem MICROMOUNTS. Colorado mineral spe- 21423 Highway 66, R.F.D. 1, Barstow, Shop. Gemstones, mineral specimens, cimen. State power of microscope. Pre- California. gemstone jewelry, cutting materials, slabs, forms in opalized wood and fossils. A crystals, decorative items, sea shells, In- few select preforms in red sillimanite and OPALS, DEEP red, blue, green, golden, dian points. James and Woodie Gayden. blue sillimanite. Jarco, Littleton, Colo. flashing in all colors of the rainbow, One mile west of Post Office on Main direct from the mine, 15 for $5.00. 10 Road, Upper Ruidoso. TUMBLED GEM baroques, highly polished, ringsize stones, (opal, amethyst, etc.) mixed variety, over 100 stones. $6.50 lb. ground and polished, ready to set $5.00. TUMBLED GEMS of the desert for sale. Bondi's Gem Shop, 3245 Prospect Ave., Kendall, Sanmiguel d'Allende, Guana- Agates, jaspers, obsidians, etc. Mixed South San Gabriel, California. juato, Mexico. lots $4 per pound. T & J Rockhounds, 9000 National Blvd., Los Angeles 34, FIFTEEN FOSSILS $2.50 postpaid. Pleis- GEMS OF THE desert, tumbled polished California. tocene and pliocene mollusks. Fifteen baroques. Mexican lace and carnelian shells $2.50 postpaid. Shell list for stamp. agate. Death Valley jasper agate, rose POLISHED PREFORM slices of all kinds. "The Life of the Pleistocene" by F. C. quartz, petrified wood palm, black fig, Beautiful for Bolos. Sample Order 3 for Baker for sale. Southeastern Mineral many others. General mixture, $6 pound. $1.00 prepaid. Approximately 85 to the Company, Box 2234, Lakeland, Florida. Mexican agate slices and various cuff link pound $15.00 per pound. Parts for Bolos TRADE GEM stones rough and sell. Spe- preforms. Slabs and findings. Earring and all jewelry findings. Lowest prices. size tumbled turquoise $8 pound, larger cial Lake Superior agate small $1.25 lb. Wholesale to dealers. Jewelgems by Jay Datolite $2.00 up. Montana agate $1.00 size $1 ounce. Price list. Golden West O'Day. P.O. Box 6, Rancho Mirage, Cal. Gem Co., 7355 Lankershim Blvd., North lb. Want jade, chrysocolla, Mexican ag- Hollywood, California. JUREANO WOOD, gem quality, 65 cents ate, faceting rough. Visitors welcome. plus postage. A. B. Cutler, Box 32, Father Krauklis, Box 180, Flintville—Rt. OPEN 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Monday through Salmon, Idaho. Slabs, tumbled, J. E. 5, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Friday. Other hours by appointment or Cutler, Gearhart, Oregon. AGATE, JASPER, wood, gem grade, very when home. Residence back of shop. colorful. Two pounds $1.00. Ten pounds Mile west on U.S. 66. McShan's Gem OPALS AND Sapphires direct from Austra- $4.50 pp. Preston, Star Route, Box A-23, Shop, Box 22, Needles, California. lia. Special—this month's best buy: Cut Grants, New Mexico. and polished solid opals ready for mount- GENUINE TURQUOISE: Natural color, ing; two ovals each 6 x 8, 8 x 10 and blue and bluish green, cut and polished 10 x 12 mm. All six for $15. Free air- If you can't get scratches out of your Cabochons—25 carats (5 to 10 stones mailed. Send personal check, interna- cabochons with very little buffing—don't according to size) $3.50 including tax, tional money order, bank draft. Free 16 expect much improvement by changing buffs postpaid in U.S.A. Package 50 carats (10 page list of all Australian Gemstones. or polishing compounds. The trouble prob- to 20 cabochons) $6.15 including tax, Australian Gem Trading Co., 49 Eliza- ably stems from poor preliminary sanding. postpaid in U.S.A. Elliott Gem & Mineral beth Street, Melbourne, Australia. —Puget Sounder Shop, 235 E. Seaside Blvd., Long Beach 2, California. FLUORITE OCTAHEDRONS, 10 small gemmy cleavage crystals $1 postpaid. 11 COLLECTORS ATTENTION! Rough and Gene Curtiss, 911 Pine Street, Benton, #/ Cut Stones at lowest prices. Large assort- Kentucky. ment. Ask for price list. Will send on QUOTES approval to responsible party. L. de TURQUOISE FOR Sale. Turquoise in the FROM THE GEM AND MINERAL WORLD Crissey, P. O. Box 93, Times Square rough priced at from $5 to $50 a pound. Station, New York 36, N.Y. Royal Blue Mines Co., Tonopah, Nevada. Happiness is not like a large and beauti- HAVE REAL FUN with desert gems, ful gem, so uncommon and rare that all DELIGHTFUL MIXTURE Texas petrified search for it in vain, all efforts to obtain minerals and rocks. The rockhound's palm, opalized wood, agate, calcite, etc. how-to-do-it magazine tells how. One it hopeless; rather it consists of a series of 8 pounds prepaid only $10. Texas Gems, smaller and more common gems grouped year (12 issues) only $3.00. Sample 25c. Box 185, Taylor, Texas. Gems and Minerals, Box 687-D, Mentone, together into a pleasing and graceful whole. California. PETOSKEY AGATE Shop, Gould City, — Contra Costa, California, Mineral and Michigan. Petoskey stones, rough or pol- Gem Society's Bulletin LARGE VARIETY mixed tumbled stones ished. Petoskey stone jewelry. Floyd * * * —tigereye, agates, obsidian, palm root, Irwin, Manager. There is a great satisfaction in finishing quartz. 40-60 stones in pound—only $4. something upon which much labor and time Free: matched preforms with every ROUGH INDIA star ruby, dopped, oriented. has been spent, knowing it is not perfect, pound purchased. Cash or money orders, Ready to cut and polish. With instruc- but as nearly perfect as time will allow.-— tax paid. Sid's Originals, Route 1, Box tions $3.00. Price list free. Jack Schuller, Seattle, Washington, Gem Collectors' Club's 369, Beaumont, California. 616-D Overhill, Park Ridge, Illinois. Nuts and Nodules

40 DESERT MAGAZINE ULTRASONIC WAVES USED at quite high speeds with good performance. High spots in blade. A blade worn out TO SLICE QUARTZ GEM SHOW RETURNS TO of round will set up a hammering effect A new slicing device which uses ultra- L A. COUNTY FAIR which is easily corrected. Using the pin sonic waves for a cutting edge is being After an absence of two years be- and block as a gage, position the pin head tested by the Army Signal Corp. Paper-thin cause of a lack of space, the popular very closely to the edge of the blade, and wafers of quartz, a mineral much used in gem, rock and mineral show will re- by rotating the blade slowly, any high spots radio equipment, has been cut by the ma- turn to the September 13-29 Los An- will hit the pin. These spots should be chine. The cutter produces three times as geles County Fair, Fair officials peened down with a light hammer while many usable quartz crystal slices from a announced. the blade is on the spindle. block as do the best of diamond saws. — SMS Matrix The show is scheduled to be housed Slight side wobble. This is nothing to in a large new $200,000 exhibit build- worry about for few saws are perfectly ing now under construction. In addi- flat. However, if your blade has become QUARTZ CRYSTALS* CLEANED tion to a hundred cases of cut and excessively bent, it can often be peened IN OXALIC ACID SOLUTION polished stones and minerals, the fair back into position, but this requires care To clean quartz crystals, the following is providing large commercial display and a high degree of skill. Some saw man- methods are suggested: space where natural and polished spe- ufacturers will do this job for you at a Slow method: mix one level tablespoon cimens will be placed on sale. In- very nominal cost.—Carroll Kelley in the oxalic acid (obtainable in any drug store) cluded among the new features is an Minnesota Mineral Club's Rock Rustler's in one quart water. Soak crystals until industrial mineral exhibit of ores em- News clean. Repeat process if crystals still are ployed in the manufacture of products • • • used in everyday living. dirty. Never wear a turquoise ring or bracelet Fast method: Use same solution as above while washing your hands. Turquoise is a and pour over crystals in two-pound coffee delicate gem that may be discolored by soap. can. Heat over flame until quite hot—just DIAMOND SAW CARE —SMS Matrix below the boiling point. Let cool slowly and rinse. Caution: too much oxalic acid ADDS TO LIFE OF BLADE may etch the stones.—Fresno, California, Your diamond saw, like all mechanical Gem and Mineral Society's Chips devices, should be given an occasional item. DIAMOND BLADES check-up to assure maximum efficiency. A COMMON ERRORS *IN few corrective measures taken in time can Heavy-limy huper Slanil. add to the cutting life of your blade. Listed Sup.-Chgd. Chgd. Chgd. JEWELRY SOLDERING below are some of the more common ail- 6" $ Ii 11.55 $10.50 8" Stale 15.45 14.05 Here are the common errors in soldering, ments of the diamond saw and their rem- 10" A rfoor 19.80 18.00 and their causes: edies. 12" Size 26.60 24.24 Balling of solder. Improper fluxing, dirt, 14" 41.60 36.50 33.20 Misalignment between carriage and saw 16" 46.80 41.60 37.80 insufficient heat; flame concentrated on blade. When the clamp holding the stones IX" 76.50 52.15 47.40 solder pellets rather than on base metal. does not move at right angles to the axis 20" 84.90 57.75 52.50 Solder pops off. Poor or dirty flux; pre- of the saw blade, excessive wear will occur 24" 102.40 83.30 75.70 80" Send 179.10 Sis. lux heating too fast. on one side of the blade, ultimately causing 36" Postage 267.60 iii Calif, Solder won't flow into joints. Dirt or sticking and binding of the blade in the sc—Send poataE'e—Tax ill Calif. oxides in joint; insufficient fluming; uneven work. To check the accuracy of the carri- heating. age proceed as follows: Press the end of a Solder seams show. Poor fitting; not pin into a block of wood and clamp the enough heat; too much solder. wood in the vise so that the head of the Solder joint breaks. Poor fitting; not pin is not quite touching the side of the enough solder; not enough heat to cause blade when the vise is in its forward or bond. starting position. Make a pencil mark on Lumping of solder. Not enough heat and the blade at this point and then rotate the Free Catalog shows 17 Covington fluming. blade 180 degrees. Being careful not to vertical type grinders and polishers. disturb the lateral adjustment of the vise, Base metal fuses. Too much heat; solder v fc™,. :: 6 Covington Trim Saws to high fluming.—Template slide the vise back on the carriage until the i- to choqse from in latest. • • • pin is again in starting position. If the gap | Free Catalog. The following new officers were elected between pin and blade is not the same as by the St. Louis, Missouri, Mineral and it was in the first position, the blade and Gem Society: Joseph A. Schraut, Jr., presi- carriage are not in alignment and a correc- dent; Karl Busch, vice president; Mrs. Mabel tive adjustment should be made. Toeniskoetter, secretary; Charles Seger, Excessive vibration. This can be caused treasurer; Frank Signaigo, historian-librarian; by several things and often is difficult to and Albert Frank, A. Paul Davis, Gloria trace. Check for worn or loose bearings. Chastonay and J. Henry Ellersick, directors. The spindle should be firmly held by the —Rock Lore bearings with no side play or wiggle when • • • you try to shake it. It may be that the Select any one of 7 Covington Slal) Saws The Sheep Springs collecting area in Kern spindel is bent, in which case there is noth- from latest Free Cata- County, California, has been closed until ing to do but take it out and have a log. autumn, reports Mary Frances Berkholz, machinist straighten it. Sometimes the California Federation field trip chairman. bench or stand is not rigid enough or the Multl-Feature Lapi- Permission to collect there must be obtained floor is uneven. Badly worn belts or too dary Unit. Free Cat- from Sheep Springs Claims, Box 146, Little- high a spindle speed will cause vibration alog shows 8 Cov- although a saw in good shape can be run ington Horizontal rock, California. models.

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JULY, 1957 41 Qu5t Metween (Jon

By RANDALL HENDERSON

MONTHS ago I commented on the proposal of the Russian people themselves, would concur in a deci- of a little group of men in Arizona to strip the Salt sion to discontinue any further atomic weapon tests. Pend- River watershed of its timber as a means of putting ing such an agreement among the nations involved, I hope more water runoff in Roosevelt reservoir. that a powerful public sentiment can be aroused in the Since then 1 have been reading William O. Douglas' United States against the conducting of any further tests Strange Lands and Friendly People in which the Supreme in Nevada—or on continental United States. Court Justice describes what has happened in the Middle In the meantime, I am sure that Russian scientists are East since the famous Cedars of Lebanon were hewn no less aware of this new threat to human health and life down by the ancients. Douglas wrote: than are the scientific men in the western world. I feel "The cedars are mostly gone. Topsoil that their roots that the problem would be solved if the United Nations once held back has rushed to the Mediterranean. The would call on all its member nations to abide by the results gullies became harsher and deeper, the land more impov- of a popular poll in which the people of each country erished every year. The goats keep new forests from would have the opportunity to express their wishes in the rising. Poverty has permeated the land." matter. According to the Bible, King Solomon once had 80,- 000 woodcutters chopping down those magnificent cedars, Should a rattlesnake always be killed on sight? It is to build a great temple for himself (7 Kings 5:15). Solo- a question I have often heard discussed around the camp- mon might be forgiven for his great error. He did not fire. Among my acquaintances are some who will never know better. It is not easy to be as tolerant of those who kill a snake of any kind. They hold the view that snakes would send woodcutters into the great Salt River water- were created for a useful purpose and it is not for man shed today. We do know better—or we should. to destroy them. Among naturalists, however, the more common atti- Recently [ have read Dr. Albert Sweitzer's A Declara- tude is that rattlers should be killed only when they are tion of Conscience, in which the noted scientist points out found in inhabited areas. The range of a snake is seldom the critical danger to human health in the continued re- beyond a radius of three or four miles, and when they are lease of radioactive elements in the atomic tests being con- found in sectors far from human habitation they pose no ducted by United States, Great Britain and Russia. serious threat to human beings. I have been especially interested in such reports, be- I recall an incident on the trail many years ago—in cause it is on the Great American Desert that the United the Chuckawalla Mountains of Southern California. The States is releasing most of its test explosions. Some of our nearest camp was that of a miner many miles away. The desert people in Nevada and Utah already have suffered leader of our hiking party was an old-timer, a man whose from the ill effects of these explosions. creed was: "Rattlers are pizin—kill 'em on sight." However, the danger of atomic fallout is more than We were strung out single file along a narrow burro merely a local problem. From H-bomb explosions the trail with the leader in front. A rattler was tightly coiled radioactive particles are carried to the higher air strata on the trail and he stepped over it without seeing it. It where they may remain for years before being brought to could have bitten him, but it made no move. earth with rain or snow, anywhere around the world. The next man in the line saw the snake and restrained Since Dr. Sweitzer's report was made public by the those behind him. When the leader turned to learn the Nobel Prize Committee in April, 2000 American scientists reason for the commotion, he saw the snake and looked have signed a petition confirming the German doctor's around for a weapon to destroy it. conclusions and appealing to all nations to discontinue further atomic test explosions. There were protests from some of the hikers: "Leave it alone, it didn't harm you!" Not all scientists, however, agree that the danger is critical. The U.S. News and World Report in an early This was a new code for the old-timer, and he did not June issue, suggested that the alarming reports of danger easily abandon the habit of a life-time. He was advancing from radioactive elements are Communist-inspired propa- toward the snake with a club of mesquite when a young ganda. All of which, in my humble opinion, is neither woman in the party exclaimed: "Please! Don't you know fair to American scientists, nor does it contribute the least the same God who created you also made the snake?" mite of wisdom to the solution of a problem in which every The old-timer hesitated, growled his disapproval, and human being has a stake. then tossed the stick aside as the rattler crawled off into Probably every American and Englishman, and most the underbrush. DESERT MAGAZINE owned the entire town after it became a ghost. The inspiration for this book came to the author at an oldtimers' gathering she attended. Here the stories of the LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES the Dominicans occupied Baja Cali- camp's early days were the chief form OF CALIFORNIA 1772-90 fornia. They are of interest also be- of recreation. When the Jesuit fathers came in cause Father Sales wrote with complete "Why should these tales die with Baja California in 1697, they found candor about every phase of the native the tellers?" she asked herself. This a population of naked savages living life, and of the difficulties in obtaining started her doing serious research and, at a low level of degradation—with the supplies necessary to carry on the eventually, writing the book. Like many vices and few virtues. mission work. The civil authorities in most books written by those closely Spain and Mexico were not always co- associated with the historical events The Jesuits established a chain of operative, and both the mission fathers they are writing about, The Story of missions, and with courage, self-sacri- and their neophytes often were reduced Bodie is underscored with a deep un- fice and religious zeal began teaching to the verge of starvation. derstanding and love for a time and its these primitive tribesmen the elemen- people. tary arts of civilization. In their 71 Originally the letters were published years of missionary effort they had in Madrid in 1799, but these copies Bodie, a well-planned, spacious made considerable progress, but their have become very rare. A new edition, community 8300 feet above sea level, work came to an abrupt end in 1768 translated and edited by Charles N. was inhabited by 10,000 people in its when, due to internal politics' in the Rudkin has been published by Glen heyday. It claimed four distinctions: royal court of Spain, they were ex- Dawson of the Dawson Book store in (1) the wildest street for a mining pelled from the New World. Los Angeles under the title Observa- town; (2) the wickedest men; (3) tions on California 1772-1790. worst climate in the world; and (4) Three years later at a conference in best drinking water. Mexico City, the missionary field of Edition limited to 300 copies. 218 California was divided—the Francis- pp with bibliographical notes and in- We are indebted to Mrs. Cain for cans being given Upper California, and dex. $10.00. giving life to this complex organism the Dominicans much of what is now • • • which lived and died in the rarefied Lower California. FAVORITE TALES OF BODIE atmosphere of the High Sierras, through the very human stories of per- RETOLD IN NEW PUBLICATION One of the first Dominicans to reach sonal triumph and tragedy she retells Baja California was Father Luis Sales. The Story of Bodie is a new book of the camp's favorite characters. During the years of his ministry in by Ella M. Cain who was born in this the territory he wrote vivid reports of California mining camp generally re- Appropriations recently were made his experience in letters to a friend garded as having been the wildest, by the California State Legislature to in Spain. He described the savages as toughest and most lawless settlement establish Bodie as a Historical Park. stupid and lazy, and brutal in their the Far West has ever known. Her Published by Pearson Publishers, treatment of women. "I am sure that father-in-law, James S. Cain, was a San Francisco, California; illustrated; never in the world will there be na- prominent banker and businessman in index; 196 pages; paperbound $2.50; tions so poor, so unfortunate and so Bodie and the Cain family finally clothbound $4.00. lacking in intellectual capacity as these," he wrote. Father Sales' letters are of special interest to historians because this is Physiology of Man in the Desert the only contemporary record avail- able of the short period during which The exhaustive study prepared during the war for the U. S. Office of Scientific Research by the University of Rochester, which tells how humans are affected by the summer heat of the arid deserts. Books reviewed on this page are Here is a book that should be in the library of every desert dweller, available at Desert Crafts Shop physician, teacher and motorist who plans to travel in the desert Palm Desert, California country. Add four percent sales tax on orders It answers the thousand and one questions related to man in the desert environment— to be sent to California How much water should you drink? Is thirst a Write for complete catalog of true criterion to man's water needs? Can the Southwestern books body become conditioned to lack of water? What are the symptoms of heat prostration? What clothing is best for desert wear? What type shelter gives the most protection from the sun's Desert Best Seller List* ,_, rays? 1. Ghosts of the Glory Trail Complete with tables, graphs, illus- Nell Murbarger .. $5.75 trations; 357 pages. 2 Geological Story of Death Valley Paper cover — $3.50 Thomas Clements $1.50 3. Lost Mines and Buried Treasure Cloth cover — $5.00 John Mitchell _.. $5.00 Please add 12c postage 4. Lower California Guidebook California purchasers add 4 percent sales tax Gerhard & Gulick - paper $5.25 cloth $6.00 Order today from 5. The Wild Flowers of California Mary E. Parsons__ $3.95 DESERT CRAFT SHOP *Based on May sales by Desert Magazine Bookshop. PALM DESERT CALIFORNIA

JU 1957 Charcoal Kilns in Wildrose Canyon. One hundred miles in the distance are the HISTORIC PANORAMAS V High Sierras.

Thousands of cords of pine trees were fed into these "Beehives," and bits Ctotcoul Kilns of charcoal still lie about.

By JOSEF and JOYCE MUENCH • •-. •• i ••...•• .•••.-•• •• •. • • • • ••••••:•.•.• •:. •

In Wildrose Canyon near the Death Valley National Monument summer headquarters, these time-defying kilns stand like Indian Teepees. Above them is Mahogany Flat and the trail to the peak of Telescope. Looking west across the Panamint Valley, the distant Sierra Nevada may be seen. The kilns were built in the 1870s by George Hearst. Trees were cut in the vicinity, converted into charcoal and then hauled to the smelters of distant mines across the valley. The kilns, each large enough to provide shelter for a number of campers, have watched a new forest grow up about them, but the danger of the stone furnaces de- vouring it is past.