HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

Vol. 18 No. 10 December 2003

DECEMBER PROGRAM ­ OUR ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY

The Society's December meeting will be our annual Christmas Party for members and guests. The fun will start a little earlier than usual at 7:00. Charlotte Goodson will give a Christmas reading, and Billy Foster and friends will play some music for us (maybe even get us all to sing along). The festivities will continue with a game of Christmas Pictionary, in which we'll form up teams and try to identify Christmas carols from pictures drawn by one teammate. Bring a dessert to share with 6-8 people to the Maturango Museum at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, December 16th.

If you're still looking for that special Christmas gift, a selection of the Society's publications will be available at the party. Andrew Sound

CHRISTMAS AT RAND CAMP

Don't forget about Christmas in Rand Camp, taking place on Saturday, Dec. 13th. The historic home tours begin at 10:00 AM. Start at Plum Cottage, the second house west of the fire station on Randsburg's main street, Butte Avenue. There you can tour the cottage and get a map to the rest of the homes on the tour. Note that these are historic homes, and are not generally handicap-accessible. The home tours will last until 11:45 AM. At noon, head for the Santa Barbara Catholic Church for a Yuletide sing along and a reading by Lorraine Blair of an 1898 LA Times account of a Christmas in Randsburg. Then at 2:00, head to Rose Cottage for some hot cider and a look at the winter garden.

There will be a $5 fee for the event, which may be paid at Plum Cottage. If you haven't made a reservation yet, you still have a little time. Reservations are a must and the list is almost full. They can be made until December 10th at the Maturango Museum, or by calling HSUMD President Bruce Wertenberger at (760)375-2369 or Bev and Ron Atkins at (760) 446-6700. Please leave your name, phone number and number of guests in your party. Andrew Sound

"COLLECTORS' PARADISE" TOUR

On Saturday January 10th, the Society has a "Collector's Paradise" event planned. A couple of local collectors have generously agreed to open their house and collections to the Historical Society as a fund raising event. These collectors have put together a vast and fascinating collection of wonderful Americana items, as well as unique souvenirs of their world travels. Their collections include something for every interest: masks, hats, miniatures from different eras, chalk ware, hotel spoons, a Betty Boop room, fair prizes, items from Occupied Japan and from West Germany, and on and on. A must-see for every collector!

Tickets will be $5 for HSUMD or Maturango Museum members and $6 for friends and neighbors, with all proceeds going to support the Society's activities. Tickets will first go on sale at our Christmas party, or afterwards you can sign up and buy your tickets at the Maturango Museum. The tickets will be good for a specific hour between 11:00 and 3:00 on the big day. Shortly before your specified hour, stop by the Museum and pick up a map showing how to get to the collectors' house. Refreshments will be available (and we are looking for volunteers to provide cookies, see below). Due to the delicate nature of some of the collections, tours are reserved for adults only. Andrew Sound

CALL FOR COOKIES

We are looking for volunteers to bake cookies for the Collector's Paradise tour on January 10th. If you would like to volunteer, and, we hope you will, call Board members Kathy Armstrong ( 375-2643 ) or Marcia Nevins ( 375-3356 ) Suggestion: while you are doing your holiday baking, make an extra dozen or so and set them aside in the freezer for that day.

UNCLAIMED SWEATSHIRT

Still unclaimed is a black, long-sleeved sweatshirt left behind after the meeting at the White Star Mine in October. Please call Bruce Wertenberger at 375-2369 to reclaim it.

FUTURE MEETINGS
Topics planned for our first two meetings of the New Year include Homesteading activities on what is now NAWS, and the history of CLOTA.

IT'S MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME AGAIN!

Our membership year is the same as the calendar year, hence this reminder that it's nearly time to renew your membership. Membership fees help pay for newsletter printing and postage costs, utility costs for our office building, production costs of our exhibits and various other activities. Membership costs are $15 per family and there are other categories. A renewal form is on Page 3. Please fill it in and send it off with your check today.

BUSINESS MEMBERS.

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

HELP! INFORMATION REQUESTED

In our collection we have a brass 50¢ trade token from the J & J Cigar Counter in Ridgecrest. Can ay of our readers give us any information on this token? Please contact Lou Pracchia, 375-7385 or Bruce Wertenberger, 375-2369, or drop us a line at P. O. Box 2001, Ridgecrest, CA. Thanks!

HISTORICAL ARTICLE

( Below is another article from our great local historian member, John Di Pol, drawn from his library of local history books. Ed.)

THE JAWBONE DIVISION ­ A RAILROAD IN OUR VALLEY

No doubt many present day residents of Indian Wells Valley remember the days when a railroad line served the valley and points north; but probably an equal number may not be aware of this fact.

By 1876 the main line of the Southern Pacific RR was connected in the town of Mojave and provided through service between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Thirty years later the city of Los Angeles was busily preparing for he construction of the aqueduct to bring water down from the Owens Valley. The upper Mojave Desert at that time was void of any significant population, with clusters principally in the mining camps of the Inyos, Panamints and Rands. The roads were very primitive, built in the late 1800's by the freight and stage lines extant at the time, subject to the vagaries of washouts, sand drifts, etc. Problem: How to move the massive number of workers, material and equipment up to the line of the aqueduct. Solution: the city of Los Angeles negotiated with the Southern Pacific RR company to build a standard gauge branch from Mojave to Lone Pine in the Owens Valley, with the city paying the freight hauling costs according to an agreed-upon schedule.

Thus the Jawbone Division was born. Construction began in 1908. Starting at Mojave, running up the base of the Sierras past Jawbone Canyon, turning to the east at the present-day Cantil, swinging to the north around the east end of the El Paso Mountains, through the Rademacher Gap and dropping down into the Indian Wells Valley. Running north with sidings #13 (Searles), #14 (Rademacher), #15 (Therese), #16 (Inyokern), #17 (Leliter), #18 (Brown), etc. Continuing to the north past Lone Pine to Owenyo where, by October 1910, the line met the narrow-gauge Carson and Colorado RR (the "Slim Princess"), which had come down from Reno in the 1880s.

As part of the Jawbone Division, a spur line up Red Rock Canyon was built in early 1909 to service a major aqueduct construction camp at Dove Springs, 9 miles above Red Rock. This spur was active for 22 months, being dismantled in late 1910. By 1914 the Trona Railroad to the chemical plants at Searles Lake was completed and connected to the Jawbone Division at Searles Station.

With the aqueduct under construction and the arrival of the railroad, settlement of Indian Wells Valley began in earnest. The Inyo-Kern Company, later to become the Inyokern Land and Water company, was formed in 1909 to sell land to settlers and commercial businesses. In the ensuing years many government land patents through various federal programs were also awarded, primarily in the southwest portion of the valley. In 1914 the Inyokern Land and Water Co. filed the tract map for what is now the present community of Inyokern and began selling "city" lots. A station building for the railroad was built on the eastern edge of town, on the northeast corner of what is now Brown Road and Inyokern Road. Thus the valley had rail connections directly to Los Angeles and San Francisco via Mojave for freight, mail and passengers.

Following the completion of the aqueduct in 1913, the principal source of revenue for the Jawbone Division was the freight hauled, both up and down the line, of the expanding chemical plants in the Trona area. With the advent of World War II, the existence of the Jawbone line was one of the important criteria
for the selection of the IWV as the site for the U. S. Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station in 1943. A
spur line from Inyokern was run into China Lake to deliver material and equipment for the construction of the technical facilities, housing, etc.

Fast-forward in time. The Carson and Colorado RR closed down in 1960. Not much freight from the Owens Valley to the south. Autos and the highways had replaced the train for passengers. Thusly, service of the Jawbone north of Searles Station was terminated circa 1981 and that portion of the line abandoned. The station depot building in Inyokern was moved ­ some say to Ridgecrest (does anyone know where?)

The Jawbone Division still runs to this day ­ from Mojave to Searles Station, hauling gondolas of coal (and heavy equipment, at times) up to Trona and chemical products in hopper cars down to the south. Maybe some of you may have been stuck on Highway 14 near the north end of Mojave, waiting for the Jawbone train to cross!! Or, possibly, on Highway 395 in the eastern end of Fremont Valley north of Johannesburg, near the junction with Garlock Road.

References: RAILROADS OF NEVADA AND EASTERN CALIFORNIA, D. Myrick, 1962, INDIAN WELLS VALLEY ­ HOW IT GREW, F. H. Weals (HSUMD pub.) 2002, FINAL REPORT ­ CONSTRUCTION OF L. A. AQUEDUCT, LADWP, 1916.

John Di Pol