Desert Wheels ... Everywhere in the desert land, weathering wheels are re- minders of a historic past. Upper left, a 10-foot diameter plank wheel at Goler, once used on a booster pump for Randsburg's water supply, photographed by William F. Sprinkle, Jr., Te- hachapi, California. Upper right, the hub of a 20-mule team borax wagon, taken at Furnace Creek ranch, Death Valley, by Ben Pope, Dinuba, California. Lower left, ore wagons from silver boom days, at Tombstone, Arizona, pictured by Carl H. Schaettler, Pasadena, California. Lower right, pioneer wagon wheels have been built into this fence at Brigham City, Utah, photographed by Willard Luce, Provo, Utah. DESERT CALENDAR May 18-June 8—Exhibit Guatemalan Textiles, costumes of the Indians of Guatemala, Museum of North- ern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona. June 10-12 — Thirty-second annual Cherry festival, parade—Saturday, 11 a.m., Beaumont, California. June 11-12—Sixth annual show of the San Fernando Valley Mineral and Gem society, Sat.—1-10 p.m.; Sun. —10 a.m.-9 p.m. North Holly- wood Recreation center, Califor- Volume 12 JUNE, 1949 Number 8 nia. Admission free. June 11-12—Sierra club hike. Climb COVER DESERT SPARROW HAWK. Photograph taken Winnedumali, ancient landmark in east of Banning, California, by Robert Leath- Inyos east of Independence. Over- erman, San Bernardino, California. night camp. FEATURE Desert Wheels 2 June 11-26—First International exhi- bition of Latin American photog- CALENDAR June events on the desert . 3 raphy, Museum of Northern Ari- Why Tree Yucca Wears a Hat zona, Flagstaff, Arizona. NATURE By EDMUND C. JAEGER 4 June 13—San Antonio day, Corn He Planned to Change the Desert Climate dance, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. HISTORY By DAVID HELLYER 5 June 13—San Antonio day, Green There's Placer Gold in the Desert Bajadas Corn dance, Sandia Pueblo, New MINING Mexico. By ADDISON N. CLARK 8 I Got My Five-Acre Title June 16-19—De Anza days, annual HOMESTEADING festival combined this year with By MELISSA BRANSON STEDMAN ... 11 Gem and Mineral exhibit. Chuck wagon breakfast, parade, street HUMOR Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 12 dances, Riverside, California. EXPLORATION Ancient Artists Lived on Rattlesnake Peak June 19—Corpus Christi Sunday, out- By THERON MARCOS TRUMBO 13 door religious procession from St. DESERT QUIZ Test your desert knowledge 16 Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe, New Mexico. PERSONALITY Cowgirl of Brown's Hole June 23-25—Grand assembly, Rain- By CHARLES KELLY 17 bow Girls, Gallup, New Mexico. FIELD TRIP Rocks by the Roadside June 24—San Juan day, afternoon By HAROLD O. WEIGHT 20 corn dance, Taos Pueblo, New PHOTOGRAPHY Contest winners in April 25 Mexico. POETRY Billy the Burro, and other poems 26 June 24—San Juan day, annual fiesta BOTANY and corn dance, San Juan Pueblo, Emigrant Flowers that Never Fade New Mexico. By MARY BEAL , .... 27 MINING June 24-26—Convention of American Current news of desert mines 28 and California State Federations SURVEY of Mineralogical societies. Exhib- Who reads Desert 29 its, field trips, bus tours, Sacra- LETTERS Comments and views of Desert's readers ... 30 mento, California. CLOSE-UPS About those who write for Desert 32 June 24-26 — State F.F.A. Rodeo, CONTEST (Future Farmers of America), Prizes to photographers, annual cover contest . 32 Santa Rosa, New Mexico. NEWS From here and there on the desert 33 June 26 — DeVargas memorial pro- LAPIDARY Amateur Gem Cutter, by Lelande Quick ... 40 cession commemorating recon- HOBBY quest of Santa Fe in 1692 and Gems and minerals 41 held annually since that date, COMMENT Just Between You and Me, by the Editor ... 46 from St. Francis cathedral to Ro- BOOKS sario chapel, Santa Fe, New Mex- Reviews of Southwestern literature 47 ico. The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert, June 29-30 — Lehi roundup, Lehi, California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office, Utah. and contents copyrighted 1949 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contents must be secured from the editor in writing. June 30—Fishing contest, awards, RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor Parker, Arizona. AL HAWORTH and MARION HEWES, Associate Editors June—Fred K. Hinchman exhibit of BESS STACY, Business Manager MARTIN MORAN, Circulation Manager Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledged Southwestern arts and crafts, in- unless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility for cluding jewelry, blankets, costumes, damage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub- pottery, baskets and Plains Indian scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue. beadwork. Southwest Museum, SUBSCRIPTION BATES Highland Park, Los Angeles, One Year .. $3.50 Two Years ... $6.00 California. Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c Extra Subscription 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 JUNE, 1949 Why Tree Yucca Wears a 'Hat' HAT is it, you ask, that some- By EDMUND C. JAEGER these pupal cases in numbers, some- times causes yucca trees to die times whole handfuls of them, each off at the stem-tip and look as about the size of the last joint of the if they had some strange sort of "hat" little finger. They are very hard and pushed down over the apex of the tough to tear apart, the coarse fibers stem. having been tightly cemented together Personal investigation revealed to by the maturing grub. If you are for- me some years ago that this was due tunate to find the skillfully constructed to the work of a beetle (Psyphophorus cases just at the right time, you may yuccae), close relation of the small find the fat pupae inside. snout weevil that is such a vexatious Naturally the killing of the stem- pest of our granaries and kitchen pan- terminus ends further upward growth tries. The adult insects are large, hand- of the tree's branch. Not discouraged, some black fellows almost an inch and, perhaps even stimulated by this long with a long, curved, slender, injury, the yucca plant soon sends out moveable beak, set marvelously like a one or two new side shoots. Thus, we swivel into a cup-like socket at the see that this work of the weevils is front of the head. really a very useful aid in causing these In late spring these insects may be yuccas to have beautiful branching seen in numbers crawling over and crowns instead of consisting of mere among the long saw-edged yucca straight stems. Of course there are needles. The mother beetles lay their other causes of branching such as wind eggs in the soft tissues at the base of or fire injury or the forming of a pan- the narrow, bayonet-like leaves of the icle of blossoms at the stem-tip; but stem-tip and when these eggs hatch, the weevils play a very important role the young grubs immediately begin to nevertheless. feed, bringing severe injury to the Yuccas, other than the tree yuccas, plant tissues. This causes the topmost are visited by similar weevils. Perhaps leaves to turn yellow, wither at the because the stemless, Whipple's yucca, base and turn downward, making the sometimes called Candle of the Lord, top of bristling needles look like the of the coastal mountain slopes, has proverbial Chinese coolie's hat. more tender tissues, it is most fre- When the young grubs have fed, quently attacked; much more so than they utilize the fiberous plant tissues the more hardy, slow growing species which had previously entered and of desert yuccas. I have seen many a passed through their bodies, to make fine old plant of the wide-spread Mo- their queer pupal cases; cases which, jave yucca (Yucca schidigera) with its at least in shape, resemble the cocoon long yellow-green bayonet-like leaves of the silk worm moth. In these, they brought to an inglorious end by the spend a short period of seeming rest activities of yucca weevils. Curiously before coming forth as restive black enough, there is in Hawaii a nearly re- adult weevils. lated beetle that causes great damage If you will tear into one of the in- to sugar plantations by boring in the fested yucca stem-tips, you will find stalks of cane. The cases or cocoons from which This is Psyphophorus yuccae the young grubs emerge as full Mojave tree yucca, showing what which lays the eggs and eventu- grown yucca beetles happens when the yucca beetle ally reverses the growth of the selects it as a nesting place. yucca THE DESERT MAGAZINE WIDNEY SEA Drawing by Norton Allen shows the area proposed to be inundated It seems quite fantastic to- under the Widney scheme. Pres- day, but in 1873 Dr. J. P. Wid- ent day place names are imposed ney started a nation-wide con- to identify that area. troversy by proposing that the Southern California desert be converted to a great inland sea by diverting the entire flow of the Colorado river into the basin now known as Im- perial and Coachella valleys. Newspaper editors endorsed the idea, and the territorial governor of Arizona actually went to Washington to urge the appropriation of money for the project. Here is the story of one of the strangest episodes in Southern Cali- fornia history. He Planned to Change the Desert Climate By DAVID HELLYER STRIDE his sweat-flecked horse Above that line the hot bowels of the Colo- and jagged." rado Desert, Dr.