DECEMBER, 1949 35 CENTS A Modern Mounting Set With Sparkling Gens of RUTILE RAINBOW DIAMONDS Is the answer to your Christmas gift problem. One of these magnificent gems set in a lovely gold or palladium ring will be a gift that will be worn and cherished for years to come. RUTILE IS THE GEM OF THE HOUR — IT IS NOW A REALITY After years of experiments, synthetic RUTILE is now available in cut gems of breathtaking beauty. This magnificent substance has been given the name of "TITANIA". "TITANIA IS QUEEN OF ALL KNOWN GEMS" Titania gems have more fire than the diamond. Be the first in your community to own one of these beautiful new Rainbow Diamonds DEALERS INQUIRIES SOLICITED Everyone to whom you show this new gem will wish to purchase one or more of them. Our SUPERCATALOG tells you of our discount plan that will 1 permit you to own one of these new gems at no cost to yourself. Our new SUPERCATALOG described below gives you all the facts about TITANIA GEMS and ILLUSTRATES mountings especially selected for them. An article tells the story behind this amazing discovery. The 1950 Revised Edition of Grieger's "Encyclopedia and Super Catalog of the Lapidary and Jewelry Arts" • $1.00 Per Copy This is a 192-page book 9"xl2" in size. There are at least 60 pages of in- structive articles by authors of national fame. There are new articles by EMIL KRONQUIST and LOUIS WIENER on jewelry making. The 15-page article on jewelry casting by the LOST WAX METHOD using the new KERR HOBBY- CRAFT CASTING UNIT is alone worth $1.00. "ROCK DETERMINATION SIMPLIFIED" by Mr. E. V. Van Amringe with illustrations and charts helps you to identify your field trip discoveries. Two excellent field trips are mapped. Everything you need in MACHINERY. TOOLS. SUPPLIES and MATERIALS is illustrated, described and priced for your convenience. VISIT OUR SHOP AND SECURE YOUR COPY OF THIS UNIQUE BOOK Sent Postpaid in U. S. A., its Territories and Canada for only $1.00. READ THESE REMARKS BY THOSE WHO PURCHASED THE FIRST EDITION—"I would still buy it at $3.00 to $5.00 as it contains as much if not more meaty information for the lapidary and jeweler than any of the books on the market selling in that price range. " "It is better than most lapidary handbooks." "It is the only satisfactory catalog of lapidary supplies and materials that I have ever seen. It is superbly illustrated and superbly printed." JUST PUBLISHED: "THE STORY OF JADE" by Herbert P. Whiflock and Martin L. Ehrmann at $12.50 per copy. 1633 EAST WALNUT STREET PASADENA 4, CALIFORNIA. PHONLSY6-6423 OPEN ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ONLY 8 30AM-5.30 PM- MONDAY THRU THURSDAY OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY THE DESERT MAGAZINE DESERT CALENDAR Dec. 2—San Antonio day at La Loma, New Mexico. Dec. 3—Death Valley Pageant, cen- tennial observance sponsored by Death Valley '49ers, Inc., present- ed in Desolation canyon, cast of 1,000 people, commemorating trek of the Manly-Jayhawker parties through Death Valley 100 years ago. Dec. 4—Lecture by Dr. George W. Brainerd: The Ancient Maya Cities Volume 13 December, 1949 Number 2 of Palenque and Uxmal, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, California. COVER WHITE CHRISTMAS ON THE DESERT Dec. 5-11—Borrego Aviation week, featuring treasure hunt by pilots in By Nicholas N. Kozloff, San Bernardino, Calif. private planes December 10, and CALENDAR glider soaring and spot-landing con- December events on the desert 3 tests Sunday, December 11. Borrego EXPLORATION Valley, California. Valley of the Cathedrals By CHARLES KELLY 4 Dec. 6-7 — Northern district, New PAGEANTRY Mexico Cattle Growers association, Death Valley Pageant 8 Santa Fe. FIELD TRIP We Found Ant Hills Covered with Jewels Dec. 10—Imperial Highway associa- tion monthly meeting at De Anza POETRY By EDITH RUTENIC McLEOD 9 hotel, Calexico, California. EXPLORATION Abandoned Desert Home, and other poems . 12 Dec. 11—Don's Club Travelcade to Goldfield mine and King's ranch, Panamint Pack Trip Phoenix, Arizona. QUIZ By RANDALL HENDERSON 13 Dec. 12—Feast day of Nuestra Senora CHRISTMAS de Guadalupe, Santa Fe, New Test your desert knowledge . 16 Mexico. Pom Poms at Christmas CHRISTMAS Dec. 17-—Opening party at Arizona By DOROTHY L. PILLSBURY 18 Snow Bowl, Flagstaff, Arizona. MINING Shine Smith's Christmas Party 21 Dec. 24—La Posada, Mexican Christ- INDUSTRY mas observance, Armory park, Tuc- Current news of desert mines 22 son, Arizona. Dec. 24—Midnight mass for Papago HISTORY Adobe Maker of Scottsdale Indian people, San Xavier mission. By CHRISTINE B. MacKENZIE 23 Death Valley in '49 Dec. 24—Christmas eve procession HUMOR with cedar torches, Taos Indian By J. WILSON McKENNEY 27 pueblo, New Mexico. NEWS LETTERS Hard Rock Shorty of Death Valley 28 Dec. 24—Dances after midnight mass at Indian pueblos: San Felipe, La- LAPIDARY From here and there on the desert 29 guna, Isleta and others in New Mexico. HOBBY Comment by Desert readers 37 Dec. 25—Indian dances at pueblos BOOKS Amateur Gem Cutter, by LELANDE QUICK . 38 Christmas day and three days fol- lowing. At Jemez, Santo Domingo, COMMENT Gems and Minerals 39 Tesuque, Santa Clara and others. Deer dance or Matachines at Taos Reviews of Southwest literature 44 pueblo in the afternoon. Just Between You and Me, by the Editor ... 46 The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc., Palm Desert, California. Re-entered as second class matter July 17, 1948, at the post office at Palm Desert, Dec. 26 — Turtle dance, San Juan California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 358865 in U. S. Patent Office, Pueblo, New Mexico. and contents copyrighted 1949 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce contents must be secured from the editor in writing. Dec. 28-29—American Astronomical RANDALL HENDERSON, Editor AL HAWORTH, Associate Editor BESS STACY, Business Manager MARTIN MORAN, Circulation Manager society meets at University of Ari- Los Angeles Office (Advertising Only): 2635 Adelbert Ave., Phone NOrmandy 3-1509. zona, Tucson, Arizona. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot be returned or acknowledged unless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility for damage or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Sub- December—Clarence Ellsworth's scribers should send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding Issue. paintings of western scenes and SUBSCRIPTION RATES early Indian days will be displayed One Year $3.50 Two Years $6.00 daily. Southwest museum, Los Canadian Subscriptions 25c Extra, Foreign 50c Extra Angeles. 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 DECEMBER, 1949 77ze.se cathedral-like pinnacles have been carved in sandstone through thousands of years of erosion Valley of the Cathedrals . By CHARLES KELLY which resembled temples and cathe- peculiar hole, believed to have been drals. made by a falling meteor, was located Photos courtesy of Dr. Wayne Smith Dr. Inglesby had a further oppor- there. The mysterious hole showed no and Worthen Jackson tunity to become acquainted with the evidence of meteoric action, but the area a year later when he accompanied party passed through another group of N 1944 a northbound military plane an expedition into this wild section of fantastic formations not far from those was reported missing somewhere Utah to investigate the report that a previously reported. between Bryce canyon and Price, Following Dr. Inglesby's directions, Utah. It was not found until nearly a Frank Beckwith and I visited the east- year later when two men hunting cattle To the cowboys it is just "a ern section of this area in September, came upon the wreckage in a wild sec- bad place to hunt for cows/' 1945. Leaving a rough desert road we tion of Wayne county west of Factory but for the explorer, the photog- drove IVi miles down a dry wash Buttes. rapher and the rock collector floored with gypsum, arriving on the Soldiers in jeeps were sent to recover this recently discovered scenic brink of a deep gully we could not the bodies. They were guided to the landscape in the southern Utah cross. About two miles distant was a spot by Worthen Jackson of Fremont, wilderness promises to open a pink cliff running several miles east Utah. Later, on a return visit to the great field for new adventure. and west, beautifully sculptured into site of the tragedy, Jackson was ac- Here is Charles Kelly's story of what appeared to be architectural companied by Dr. A. L. Inglesby of some of the most fantastic rock forms — pillars, columns, spires and Fruita, Utah. On his return the doctor formations in the Southwest — decorative statuary — resembling the reported that he seen in the distance a and some of the least known. ruins of a thousand Greek temples. On group of isolated buttes or monuments the flat sandy desert half a mile from THE DESERT MAGAZINE V3^ ^ West Cathedral Valley-— K -^•^^^K=srj: East Cathedral Volley — - J2J \l Meteor Hole'- Norton pilen —fromC.K, this cliff stood two large natural struc- ed the following year, is more difficult extending north into Cathedral Valley, tures and two smaller ones, eroded to to reach. Perry Jackson pioneered a about 15 air miles north of Capitol architectural forms resembling great jeep trail into it, but it cannot be Reef National Monument. Where cathedrals. reached by ordinary passenger cars. walls of Entrada are exposed by fault- This section, near Thousand Lake ing it has been eroded into fantastic Leaving our car we hiked across the mountain, is even larger and more forms.