HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

Vol. 18 No. 7 September 2003

SEPTEMBER 17 MEETING ­ MAKING MOVIES IN THE LONE PINE AREA

Chris Langley, executive director of the Beverly and Jim Rogers Lone Pine Film History Museum, will speak on the history of movie-making in the Lone Pine area at the HSUMD's first meeting after the summer hiatus.

Chris' talk, illustrated with pictures and artifacts, will start with the first silent movies made in the area in 1919. Clarence Badger, a director of silent movies (including "It", with Clara Bow) who had a second home in Lone Pine for hunting and fishing trips, was one of the first to introduce Hollywood to the area. Actors that Badger and others directed at Lone Pine in the early days include Mary Pickford, Fatty Arbuckle and Will Rogers.

Of course Lone Pine is most noted as the setting of Western films, from the days of Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy to James Garner and Mel Gibson in "Maverick", the most recent Western filmed in Lone Pine. Other genres of movies that have been shot in the area include science fiction, including two Star Trek pictures, film noir, and Middle Eastern epics. One of the themes of this month's presentation, time permitting, will be trends in the movies illustrated by films made in Lone Pine: how bad guys evolved from gangsters (Humphrey Bogart in "High Sierra") to psychos (Brad Pitt in "Kalifornia"). Or how Hollywood's depiction of the Middle East and Asia ("Gunga Din", "King of the Khyber Rifles") might have led to an over-romanticized view of the area.

Chris will also give information about the Lone Pine Film Festival, coming up on Columbus Day weekend. A retired teacher in Lone Pine, he has been involved with the festival from its beginning in 1990. He is Inyo County film commissioner as well as the Executive director of the Beverly and Jim Rogers Lone Pine Film History Museum, which will open next October.

He and his wife are Fellows of UCLA and the Library of Congress, having worked with those two institutions on various film-related projects. They have two sons.

The September meeting will be at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, September 16 at the Maturango Museum. Everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, call Bruce Wertenberger at 375-2369 or leave a message at 375-8456. Andrew Sound

OCTOBER, NOVEMBER MEETINGS ­ WHITE STAR MINE AND HISTORIC CABINS IN THE INYOS

The October general meeting is planned to feature Frank Erdman and Bill Farris on the history of the White Star Mine, and will take place at the White Star Mine. In November, Steve Smith of the BLM will tell us about some historic cabins in the Inyo Mountains. More details in upcoming newsletters.
Andrew Sound

NEW COLLECTION ACQUISITION

It is with pleasure that we note a recent gift by Deric and Kristina Torres to the Historical Society. They have given us an acrylic painting done about 1968 by Ruth Powers who originally gave it as a gift to Dr. and Mrs. Robert J. Hamblin. He was a former surgeon here. Accompanying the gift were several pieces of Christmas correspondence by Ruth to Dr. and Mrs. Hamblin, as well as her description of the view of the landscape which was in the Indian Wells Valley. The Torres bought the painting at an estate sale in the Santa Rosa, CA area.

IN MEMORIAM

We note with regret the passing of HSUMD member Joanne Washmuth and former member Mildred Smith whose daughter, Mirendia Katasse, was a member of the HSUMD board of directors for several years some time ago.

Help is needed to staff the Historical Society display and sales table at the Community Dinner from 1 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 20, at the Desert Empire Fairgrounds. Assistance is also needed to staff our display and sales table at the Maturango Junction on Saturday, October 18, at the Leroy Jackson Park. If you can help, please call Kathy Armstrong at 375-2643 to volunteer.

CENTENNIAL OF FLIGHT EXHIBIT PLANNED

In celebration of the amazing fact that the first powered flight happened only a century ago, HSUMD and the Maturango Museum are cooperating to create a commemorative exhibit that will open in December 2003.

In the HSUMD cases we plan to feature the Wright Brothers' historic Dec. 17, 1903, flight, as well as other pioneering aviation-related events. In the main gallery of the museum we'll showcase the aviation history of this valley. After all, would the Navy even be here if Dr. Charles Lauritsen hadn't flown over the IWV in 1943 and spotted that Inyokern landing strip?

Here's how you can help. Do you have information about any of the early airfields in this valley? Better yet, do you have photographs and/or artifacts to share? Kathy Armstrong has already donated a pair of 1930s aviator goggles. We'd love to have more such items to display, especially if they have local significance. Please call Liz, 375-7900 or 375-6900, to share your thoughts and treasures.

And, if you haven't seen the exhibit at the Maturango Museum commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Korean War, now is the time to do so. Liz Babcock

NOMINATING COMMITTEE

We failed to come up with a nominating committee for next year's election at our annual business meeting last May. If you have an interest in joining this important committee, please contact Bruce Wertenberger at 375-2369, because the board of directors will be naming a committee soon. Thank you.

BUSINESS MEMBERS

Please patronize our business members: Farris' The Diner and Italian Gardens, the Indian Wells Valley Insurance Company, the Swap Sheet, Ridgecrest Moving and Storage, Inc. and Granite Construction ­ Sand and Gravel.

We are running out of bookshelf space for our books and magazines. If you have some reasonably heavyweight bookshelves you are willing to donate to the HSUMD, please give Lou Pracchia a call at 375-7385, or Bruce Wertenberger a call at 375-2369. Or, if you have some spare cash, we would accept a contribution.

MINI-RETREAT PLANNED

The HSUMD board of directors tentatively is planning a minitreat this fall on Saturday, October 18.

HISTORICAL ARTICLE

A MONORAIL RAILROAD ­ IN THE UPPER MOJAVE!

(The following is another in a series of articles prepared by C. John DiPol drawing on his research in his library of books about the local area. Ed.)

Monorail technology has frequently been the subject of discussion and study as a modern means of helping to solve the transportation problems caused by the burgeoning populations in our urban centers. The most successful application of this technology (maybe the only?) in Southern California has been the monorail at Disneyland in Anaheim. But, did you know that a monorail railroad system was built in our region of the Mojave Desert 80 years ago?
Thomas Wright, a florist in Los Angeles and an amateur prospector, spent many trips in the desert areas in pursuit of his avocation. In one of these trips he discovered and filed a series of claims on deposits of epsom salts located in the Owlshead Mountain of San Bernardino county. While these deposits has commercial value, there were located in a remote, essentially roadless area far from market centers. Early on Wright had concluded that a railroad was the best and most feasible solution to the transportation problem. But, what type of railroad? To where and what route? Rather hastily, and probably without the best of advice, a monorail design was selected to connect with the existing Trona Railroad on the west side of Searles Lake. This would give access to refineries and markets in Southern California.

The epsom salts mines were located just outside the northeast corner of what is not the China Lake Mojave B Test Range Area and now within the boundary of Death Valley National Park. The 28 mile route followed a line that dropped down into Wingate Wash, then westerly across the Panamint Range, over Wingate Pass, down the west side via Layton Canyon and across Searles Lake to a Trona Railroad connection just south of West End. Construction started in late 1922. The monorail structure consisted of a single 6 by 8 inch wood riding beam supported by wooden "A" frames, or "bents," spaced 8 feet apart. The steel running rail of standard "T" section design was centered on the top of the riding beam. A horizontal cross beam was affixed low down across each A-frame to hold a 2 by 8 inch rail on each side to serve as guides for the outrigger sway stabilizers on the locomotive and cars.

The locomotives were powered by a Fordson tractor engine connected to two driving wheels. A total of seven Fordson locomotives were built plus a number of "freight" cars. The braking system, of inferior design to begin with, applied only to the locomotive and this proved to be a significant deficiency. Sixteen of the 28 miles of route were completed by September 1923, with the entire line finished in 1924. Concomitantly with the effort on the monorail, the entire enterprise was incorporated as the American

Magnesium Company with Thomas Wright as president and chief promoter and development of the mine site and complex was underway.

However, troubles beset the entire American Magnesium operation from the beginning. The high-grade epsom salts ore proved to be present in lesser quantity than originally estimated. The handling of a much greater bulk of lower grade ore placed a strain on the monorail system which already was showing design and operational deficiencies. The A-frame supports were not of adequate strength. Screws and nails were used as fasteners in lieu of the more reliable bolt. The locomotives were underpowered. The experiment of using a more powerful Buda engine was not successful. Heavy rains and occasional cloudburst caused washouts in sections of the line that passed through narrow, rocky canyons. These same rains put standing water on Searles Lake, causing the A-frame trestles to sink into the sediment.

After the summer of 1925, mine production slowed and trips over the monorail became fewer and fewer. The company refinery in Los Angeles was having its troubles also. Mine production and ore delivery was insufficient to keep the plant running at capacity, thus adding to the company's economic woes. In June 1926, the mine was shut down and the last load of ore shipped out over the now creaking monorail system.

On April 28, 1928, the property was put up for sale, but there were no buyers. For over 10 years the monorail timers slowly aged, although the riding beam and rail remained in place. In the late 1930's the beam and steel rail were taken up for scrap. Over a million dollars had been poured into the enterprise and little more could be salvaged. What was left, and still standing today, is a few lonely A-frames in various stages of disintegration, tracing a path up some of the canyons.

(References: RAILROAD OF NEVADA AND EASTERN CALIFORNIA, VOL.2, David F. Myrick and MOJAVE DESERT RAMBLINGS, S. Lofinck.) John DiPol