HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

VOL. 13, NO. 8

October 20, 1998

OCTOBER PROGRAM

LEARN ABOUT HOW WE USE MINERALS IN OUR HOMES

Our October speaker will be Nancy Hendrickson, Vice President of the California Chapter for Women in Mining, a nationwide organization of individuals employed in, associated with, or interested in the mining industry. Nancy is employed by IMC Chemicals in Trona as a central services maintenance coordinator for all three facilities. She has a degree in business from UC Riverside.

The three facilities of IMC Chemicals turn out approximately 5,000 tons a day of soda ash, borax and sodium sulfate - that's a lot of chemicals!

Our speaker promises to help us understand how we use those chemicals in our everyday lives.

The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20, at the Sylvia Winslow Gallery of the Maturango Museum. As always, the public is invited free of charge and refreshments will be served.

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS: Lorin Smith; Maurice & Charlotte Hamm.

A FOUR-STOP TOUR

Leaving at 8 a.m. from the Maturango Museum on Saturday, November 21, the tour will proceed to the Pinnacles, Searles Valley Museum, Briggs Gold Mine and Ballarat in that order. At the Pinnacles Dr. St. Amand and his son David will tell how this fantastic land feature and those of the neighboring valleys were formed. The next stop at the Searles Valley Historical Society Museum will allow a brief walk-through of their outstanding displays

Then on to the Briggs Gold Mine where their management has made special arrangements to provide a rare opportunity for tour members to view their whole operation. Also this will be our lunch stop.

Historic Ballarat is not far from the Briggs Mine and well worth a visit to examine the remaining ruins and imagine what this place must have been like in the late 1890's.

A handout providing information about each of the tour sites will be provided to tour members prior to leaving the museum.

"FIRST COME-FIRST SERVED" sign-up for the tour, which is limited to 50 people, will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Friday October 16 at the Maturango Museum gift counter. The cost is $20.00 per person, or $25.00 including a box lunch.

Car pooling is desirable. Tour not recommended for children under 10 years of age.

NEW BOARD MEMBER

Board member Dan Burnett has resigned for personal reasons. As provided in the By-laws, your Board has appointed John Faron and your acceptance at the upcoming general meeting in October will be appreciated.

"SAND CANYON STATION" VIDEO COVERS ARE IN!

Have you bought your copy yet of Mark Pahuta's wonderful videotape, "Sand Canyon Station"? If so, you can expect to pick up your videotape cover at our Oct. 20 meeting. If you haven't purchased your video yet,the meeting will be a perfect time for you to get your own copy of this fascinating retelling of local history that features our own Lois Carr, Litha Mattis, Hank Schuette, and Bob Ramsey.

"Sand Canyon Station" would make a perfect Christmas present for your friends and relatives too, especially now that it's so elegantly clad in a cover designed for us by Bill Erwin. The video gives you a peek into the past that includes scenes of the aqueduct being constructed, as well as vivid descriptions of life in Sand Canyon during the 1930s-40s when Litha, Lois, and Bob lived there as the children of aqueduct patrolmen.

If we owe you a cover and you are not able to attend the Oct. 20 meeting, don't worry. Charlotte Goodson has been keeping track of who we owe covers to, and she'll be mailing out the covers that aren't picked up.

The videos are only $20 each, plus tax. You can buy your copy at any HSUMD meeting. The videos will also soon be on sale at the Maturango Museum Gift Shop.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS - CHAPMAN HELPS US SOLVE A MYSTERY IN NOVEMBER

Remember how much fun we had last year listening to Tom Chapman talk about the Coso woodcutters? Well, in November Tom will speak to us again - and this meeting sounds like even more fun than the last one. He says he plans to give us some clues that will help us solve the mystery of what old Fort Coso was really used for. The fort has long been thought to be a cavalry outpost, but Tommy says he has has unearthed evidence that proves otherwise.

The meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Sylvia Winslow Gallery of the Maturango Museum. Plan on being there!

VETERANS TO BE HONORED AT BALLOON FESTIVAL EXHIBIT

Did you see the World War II exhibit Lorin Smith, one of our newest members, put on at the Desert Empire Fair? It included books, news clippings, photos, uniforms, mess kits, even a B-29 blade from that conflict. The exhibit attracted much attention from fairgoers.

So impressed were Ridgecrest Balloon Festival organizers with the exhibit that they asked Lorin to bring it out to Balloon Festival Park on Nov. 6-8 so that all the thousands of people coming to the festival would be able to see it. That opportunity is especially appropriate since the festival is on Veterans Weekend.

Lorin has decided to expand his exhibit to encompass more than World War II, so if you have artifacts from the Korean, Vietnam, or Desert Storm conflict that you will be willing to lend - or if you would be willing to take a turn watching over the exhibit - Lorin would like to hear from you. His number is 371-4511.

Balloon Festival Park should be a real jumping place this Nov. 6-8, and even though the HSUMD doesn't have an official role in it this year, Lorin will pass out our brochures there, as he did at the

fair. Hope to see you there!

BEANS, BACON AND SPUDS

Following is a continuation of the story of Geo. Enos begun in the April 1998 edition of this newsletter . We continue from the June 16 installment. The spelling and punctuation are as used in the original letters.

"When I first started to chop wood I could not make more than .50 a day. Was nearly dead every night and my hands were very sore and stiff Now I can make $1 a day very easy.. .my hand are getting better but bother me a good deal yet. When my hands get well and I get into the good timber I think I can make $1.50 a day.. .the first few days I was here my mouth and throat got so dry I had to take a drink every two or three minutes but have got over it for now.. .the flies are something terrible here.

When we are out we cannot see anything except the highest peaks, it is a very easy matter to get lost. The Dutchman got lost twice the first day out and several times since. I have no trouble to find my way around.. .I sleep like a log, we have a spring mattress on the bed. I found a rock that had some gold in it, but have not been able to find any more. The Dutchman is plum played out, he can't cut as much wood as I can. He did not cut a stick yesterday. I cut almost a cord"

Geo. E.

On July 5th, George writes two letters, one to his mother and one to his sister Dotha, who has requested a piece of the "yucca'. He replies she must be more specific as to the size she wants and mentions he has "not cut as much wood as I expected but can cut nearly twice as much as I could at first..." To his mother he tells of killing a rattlesnake; requests some stamps and mentions receiving newspapers for the first time since leaving home.

"...I do not think you will hear from me again for some time, as the Dutchman quit and the boss is going out to chop with me and I will not have a chance to mail a letter. We had a quiet 4th of July' out in the woods..."

The next letter saved in the bundle is dated December 12, 1897, written from Argus, Inyo Co., Cal. where the wood cutting crew has re-located, after a journey of six days.

"...mostly across the desert. Mojave, the nearest railroad town is 100 miles from here. The stage runs within 26 miles and the mail is carried in by people traveling in and out of the canyon, so mail set-vice is kind of irregular. Mountains high and rocky.. .we can see Mt. Whitney from here. We are all sleeping in tents and some nights on the trip were bitter cold, enough to freeze a bucket of water. We traveled within 15 miles of Lancaster." GBE

To be continued. Ed.

MATURANGO JUNCTION: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1998.

It's that time again! This is a major fundraiser for our Society. As usual our theme is Cookies and Conversation. However, this year the cookies are prepackaged with great- tasting lemonade to wash them down. As a new menu item we expect to offer tasty Tehachapi apples. Be sure and come to enjoy this event. It begins with breakfast, a chili cook-off later in the day and other entertainment and exhibits.