HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT
P. O. Box 2001, Ridgecrest, CA 93556
Vol. 22 No. 6 June 2007 ___________________________________________________________________________
JUNE MEETING: THE REINVENTION OF CERRO GORDO

The June meeting of the Historical Society will feature Cecile Vargo speaking about "The Reinvention of Cerro Gordo." The meeting will take place on Tuesday, June 19, at 7:30 PM at the Maturango Museum.

Back in April, the Society presented Mike Patterson, current owner of Cerro Gordo, giving an overview of its history and geology. Cerro Gordo, once known as the "Comstock of Los Angeles," began producing silver in 1865. At its peak, the silver that was taken down to Los Angeles for transshipment was enough to start Los Angeles on its growth path to the major metropolis it is today. This month's presentation will focus on a later era, after the silver was mostly played out, and zinc ore was discovered. This was the era that saw the building of Cerro Gordo's aerial tramway and the two-story Louis D. Gordon house.

This month's speaker, Cecile Page Vargo is a self-proclaimed historian, and ghost town gossipest. When she's not out in the back country exploring, she spends her time researching and writing about California's unique past.

Her website, www.explorehistoricalif.com, is an online magazine, updated monthly, with histories, as well as information about the guided 4x tours she and her husband, Roger, lead several times a year.

Cecile also writes for the quarterly newsletter, Panamint Breeze, has a an occasional column on the front page of www.deathvalley.com and will soon be debuting a column Digging Up California's Past for www.gather.com

The Reinvention of Cerro Gordo was first presented at the 2006 Nevada Boom Town History Conference. A printed version appears in "BOOM TOWN HISTORY-A Centennial Celebration of Nye County, Nevada, Death Valley-Area Mining Camps."
Cecile & Roger reside in the semi-rural suburbs of the Los Angeles foothills, and are very part time residents of the ghost of Cerro Gordo. They are also members of the Friends of Jawbone, the Friends of Bodie, and the Mono Basin Historical Society.

The HSUMD meets on the third Tuesday of the month. All are welcome to attend. For more information on this or future meetings, call Society President Bill Nevins at 375-4764.
Andrew Sound

NO MEETINGS IN JULY AND AUGUST

There will be no general meetings of the Historical Society in July and August. Our June 19 meeting will be the last one this spring.

ANNUAL DINNER MEETING

The annual dinner meeting of the Historical Society was held on May 15 with 80 people present. After a short business meeting and election of board members, Pat Farris gave an illustrated talk on Joe Fox with some details on his life in Ridgecrest and comments on his newspaper columns. (Elsewhere in this newsletter you will find remembrances of Pat Tharp on Joe Fox.)

At the meeting President Nevins recognized special guests Cal and Linda Fallgatter for their contribution of paint for the exterior of the old USO building and daughter and son-in-law, Cindy and Bill Dottery, who painted the exterior of the USO building. Other volunteers were recognized and thanked. Especially noted were Kathy Armstrong, head of the finance committee; Janet Westbrook, who maintains our website; Carroll Evans who tapes our meeting speakers; Mary Kus, who maintains our accession and other files; Roger McEntee for all his work on the interior of the USO building; Gwyn Jensen, who made the arrangements for the annual dinner meeting; Bruce Wertenberger, newsletter editor; and John Di Pol, SEEP coordinator who also contributes a monthly historical article for our newsletter.

OFFICERS FOR 2007 AND 2008

At a board meeting on May 30th, the board held its election of officers. The results were: Bill Nevins, president; John Di Pol, vice president; Joan Chartier, secretary and Andrew Sound, treasurer. Committees were staffed. These details will be announced in a later newsletter.

SPECIAL DONATION

The Historical Society was the recipient of a gift of $180 given in memory of the late Hank Schuette by coworkers of Bill Schuette, Hank's son, at the Raytheon office where Bill works.

NARFE NO-BAKE SALE

The local National Association of Retired Federal Employees is having a "no-bake sale" which will benefit the Historical Society.

ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE

The next meeting of the committee will be on June 12 in the old USO building.
TWO LONGTIME BOARD MEMBERS RETIRE

As of the past annual dinner meeting two longtime HSUMD board members decided to retire by declining to be renominated. Lou Pracchia, a member of the original HSUMD board nearly 23 years ago was one of them. Lou had served for many terms as president, most recently serving at least seven years in one stretch. He also had held the office as treasurer. Fred Weals joined the HSUMD board May of 1991 and had served as treasurer since June of 1993. Both will be missed. Thanks to the both of you for your many years of volunteer service.

HISTORICAL ARTICLE

(As a follow-up to Pat Farris' talk at our annual dinner meeting this past May 15, herewith a a recollection by Pat Farris' brother, Pat Tharp. Published by permission. Ed)

MEMORIES OF JOE FOX IN PAT THARP'S LIFE

Joe Fox was, in my opinion, the True Founder of Ridgecrest. He was the one who first put Ridgecrest on the map with the first subdivision and his water system. He was the one who put the grease to the axle to help people buy affordable housing and make a home in Ridgecrest.

Our family arrived in Ridgecrest in the early 40's from Lancaster. My Dad and I left Lancaster at 10:00 at night in a rented truck with all our belongings and our dog. Our mother and 4 other children (they had at the time) followed later. I remember Dad pulling over on highway 6, which is now highway 14, and saying, "Son, look down there. If you could see in the daylight, you would see where we are moving to." It was all dark except for one light. We turned onto highway 178, and followed the only light. It was light in the window of a bar.

At the time there were only 40 houses and 25 families in the whole valley, and Joe Foxes family was one of them. Joe lived with his wife, Betsey, and at that time only one of their children lived at home, Eldon, known as Bunk. He had other children: a daughter who was killed in an accident on the ranch before we arrived; and three sons living away from home at the time, Lawrence, Burnett, and Elliot. We arrived at our home, which was one lot from Joe Fox's home. Our families became good friends. Joe had approximately 140 acres of alfalfa and a truck patch and a watermelon patch which added another 20 acres. He also owned 5 or 6 rental houses, and the town's water tower. The tower was a large wood structure about 30 feet high. He also had hundreds of chickens. Joe sold most of his produce and chickens to Trona, and the hay mostly to Donker's Dairy which was out on Bowman Road and Gateway.
Joe and I soon became good friends. He was like a second father to me. He was a very good man, caring and respectful. When he went out of town to purchase supplies, he would call me to ride with him in his old Ford pick up. One time when we went to pick up the bowls for the water pump on his water well, we came up over a knoll to Searles station where there was a concrete reservoir and windmill, and we encountered six to eight head of cattle lying on the highway. The cattle saw us, and got up and started to move about. The old Ford didn't have any breaks (sic) to speak of and Joe said, "Pat, I don't know how we're going to make this! If we do, it will be a miracle!" Joe manipulated the truck through the cattle swerving and dodging between one animal after another, and made it through. He said, "This is a miracle!" We had a good laugh afterward about the incident.

Joe could be seen early in the morning walking to his water pump or through his fields. He had
a very distinct gait, sort of a bouncing lope, which everyone could recognize. About 8:00, he would come home for breakfast. Many times, after I had breakfast, I would go over to his house as he ate his usual breakfast of tomatoes on toast, and had some good talks together.

In the Spring, he hired some of the teenagers in the area to weed his truck patch. I would always help, and so did my sister, Patricia. There was cantaloupe, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots and anything that would sell in the
grocery store in Trona. He also had a large watermelon patch. His chicken and egg business grew, and he kept building more and more chicken houses. I helped clean out the chicken houses and sometimes gathered the eggs.

Joe had a small Caterpillar tractor that was manipulated by foot levers. He let me play around with it a lot. We hauled a lot of hay from that farm. We pitch-forked it onto the truck and hauled it out to the dairy. At 4:00 a.m., when we baled the hay, Joe controlled the tractor at a slow pace as it picked up the cut hay. I was on the side of the baler poking the wire through the hay as it was stuffed through the shoot (sic) into the baler. Joe tied the wire, making three bales. To load the bales onto the truck, someone had to drive the truck, and someone on the ground had to hook the bale on each side, pull it to your knees, and then throw the bale onto the truck. Then another person had to stack the bales in the bed of the truck. Often times, I did the loading by myself as Joe drove the truck. Today, it is all done through automation.
Pat Tharp ((Clifford P. Tharp)

(To be continued in the next newsletter. Ed.)