HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

VOL. 13. NO. 2

FEBRUARY 17,1998

FEBRUARY MEETING-LEARN ABOUT THE '49ers

February is a good month for you to learn about the Death Valley '49ers and the routes they took through our valley to get to safety after some of them perished as they left Death Valley in the winter of 1850.

Hank Schuette has been helping Liz Babcock and Bruce Wertenberger construct a new exhibit, "Trails of the '49ers," which is now ready for your viewing pleasure in the vestibule of the Maturango Museum. We were delighted with the size of the exhibit space we found available to us in the new cases, and we were able to display many of Hank's excellent photos that will help you discover (or discover again if you've hiked there) how very rugged the terrain was that the '49ers had to traverse.

When you see the exhibit, your curiosity will no doubt be piqued by the points where the routes Hank believes the pioneers to have taken differ from those suggested by other historians. And your questions will be answered when Hank himself will speak at our February meeting in the Sylvia Winslow Gallery of the Museum, Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 7:30 p.m. Hank's topic will be "Routes of the '49ers Through the Indian Wells Valley."

Liz Babcock

ABOUT THE SPEAKER - HANK SCHUETTE

Hank, who is a life member of the HSUMD, has lived here in the Indian Wells Valley for nearly all his life. His family's ranch occupied sizable acreage on what are now ranges in the China Lake Complex. He has spent many years collecting and studying information about the history of the local area, and he has shared it with us on numerous occasions.

A special interest has been the routes of the Death Valley '49ers, which Hank knows intimately, since he's been there, and luckily for us, he took pictures, which he will share with us during his talk. (Some of those pictures are also displayed in our new exhibit.) Both the presentation and the display are designed to serve as a lead-in to Indian Wells Valley Days in Inyokern on Feb. 21-22.

HSUMD Board Member Dick Moe is serving as the chairman of that celebration, which honors the Death Valley '49ers. The grand marshalls of the Indian Wells Valley Days parade, Saturday, Feb. 21, will be our own Hank Schuette and Lois Carr.

Liz Babcock

BOARD DOINGS

Bored Board? No way! A lot of subjects were covered in almost five hours this past meeting. Among those subjects are the following: We agreed on a budget with projected expenses exceeding income by $350. We determined the extent of our participation at Indian Wells Valley Days on Feb. 21 and 22.

There we will set up the porch and have our books for sale, lead a trip to some of the stage and freight stops and to a nearby area where the Death Valley party camped one night. Remember the Adopt-A-Cabin program that BLM speaker Steve Smith talked about last September? Your board believes there may be a possibility for the society to sponsor one in the Garlock Mountain area. We will be letting the BLM know of our interest. Hope to tell you more next month. A lot of time was spent on how to replace our annual "cookie" fund-raiser at the Maturango Junction. One possibility that seems promising would be to enter a "scrip" selling program. There were many other items on the agenda but to keep this column brief, I will close with mention of a major project that will be proposed to the Museum Board this month. The project is to install a school bell on the museum grounds. The 200 pound bell is a gift from the John Pate family and we hope further research will explain its connection with the Little Lake Hotel. Inside the bell it has what is believed to be a casting date of 8-27-02. I hope you find this project as "a-ppealing" as we do.

Lou Pracchia

IWV DAYS AT INYOKERN

Your attention is again directed toward the Inyokern Days Feb. 21 and 22, 1998. There is much to interest you at this affair and you are encouraged to attend it.

We hope to see you at the presentation, the exhibit and the parade!

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

Time is running out for renewal of membership dues. If you have not yet paid your dues for 1998 please do so at the earliest opportunity by sending your check for $10.00 to Fred Weals, Treasurer, 551 E. Dana, Ridgecest, CA 93555. Dues are still our main source of income that allows us to carry out our historical program of exhibits, meetings, and speakers.

MEMBERSHIP CARDS

The Board will be sending out membership cards beginning in a month as acknowledgement of dues paid, which would be good for that year.

VESTIBULE CABINET CONTRIBUTIONS

In the light of receiving several more contributions and in the interest of being sure to include all donors the period for contributions to the vestibule cabinets has been extended. The amount of donation remains unchanged at $40.00

SOON COMES SEEP

The day long field trips of the Sand Canyon Environmental Education Program (SEEP) will begin on Thursday, February 26. Las Flores Elementary School students will be this year's first of Ridgecrest's fifth-graders to participate in on-the-spot learning of the natural and cultural history of Sand Canyon. Their day will consist of hands-on activities at the archeology, aquatic life, art, bird, and botany stations in addition to a walk through historical sites of the 1930's and 40's.

The History Walk, introduced last spring, was well received by all who followed its trail through the past. Seeing the remnants and hearing the stories of past dwellers in Sand Canyon helped to bring its history to life. We all have Hank Schuette, Bob Ramsey, Lois Ramsey Carr, and LithaCrowell Mattis to thank for bringing this rich experience to the students.

Volunteers are needed to guide the groups of students through the History Walk. The information about the sites is contained in a brochure given to each student, parent and teacher. We've found that the kids enjoy being called upon to read sections aloud to the rest of their group. This makesguiding really easy! The total number of students will be divided into three groups. Each volunteer guide will lead their group on a tour lasting 30 minutes. All of the History Walk tours take place from about 11:00 AM to a little past 12:00 noon.

Following are the scheduled field trip dates for the 1998 SEEP Season:

Las Flores Thurs., Feb. 26

St Ann's ) R/C Christian ) Mon., March 2

HomeSchools ) Gateway Fri., March 20

Inyokern ) Fri., March 27

Viewig ) Pierce ) Fri., April 3

Immanuel ) Richmond Thurs., April 30

Faller Fri., May 1

Three guides from our Historical Society membership are needed for each of the above dates. Bring a picnic lunch, water, hat, and walking shoes for a thoroughly enjoyable time. The SEEP location is reached by graded dirt road from the intersection of Brown Rd. and Hwy. 395 to the black aqueduct pipe.

We begin the History Walk a little further up canyon (west) at the Ramsey home site. Please let me know what date(s) you would like to come.

Charlotte Goodson 375-6449

FROM OUR PAST

The following article is taken without editing from a book of interviews conducted and written by a group of sixth graders under the direction of Ms. Gaylin Cloonan, a teach at Los Floes School in 1982. They wrote the book because they were interested in the history of Indian Wells Valley.

THROUGH THE EYES OF SHERM SHOAFF

by Andy Corzine Craig Rindt

Mr. Sherm Shoaff is a local restaurant owner. Known in the community as Sherm, he was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on December 9, 19l7. He came to Ridgecrest more or less by mistake. He came to visit a man who was doing some work out here. That was in December of 1943, and he has stayed ever since. At that time he was single and the rest of his family was scattered throughout the States.

Sherm started building his restaurant in 1944 and finished about March of 1945. He named it The Drawing Room. He still works there, and the restaurant still has the same name. His sister has also worked there since it opened. Sherm's business is the only business left from thirty-six years ago.

When Sherm first came, Ridgecrest was called Crumville. They named it Ridgecrest about a year later. The residents wanted to name it Sierra View, but there were too many towns called Sierra View. Therefore, the post office named it Ridgecrest for postal reasons.

In Ridgecrest, there was a little store on the corner called Benthem's Corner. It was a little grocery store, with a one-pump service station and was located where the Bank of America is today. There are a couple of the old original native stone houses here today, but there are very few of them left.

Sherm recalled, "Inyokern was the original town here. When I came in 1943, there were approximately 7,000 people who lived in that area. There was Harvey Field over there. That was a Marine training base. Inyokern had a few old stone buildings, two or three restaurants, a grocery store, and a small post office. Mainly, it just had a lot of people, and that was it."

They moved most of the people from the Marine base over to the Navy base and closed Harvey Field, according to Sherm. This was in 1947 or 1948, and the county took over the airfield at that time.

When Sherm first came here, there were probably only a couple of hundred people in the Ridgecrest area. The population has increased to about 17,000. When he first arrived, the only doctor was Dr. Drummond, who lived in Red Mountain. In the latter part of 1945, they started making the cement blocks and started to build the hospital; however, before it was built, Dr. Drummond had a little, one-room office.

The job market has also changed considerably. At first, it was just construction workers coming, and then people from the base started arriving.

He explained, "We founded the Chamber of Commerce in about 1946. It was the first association we has in this area." He also said, ''When they first started to build the base, they brought in hundreds of the Navajos from the reservation to work. They were here during the constrution of Michelson's Lab. The first captain they had on board was Captain Sykes, and before him the commanding officer was a chief-Bald Eagle."

Sherm thinks that the theater was built around 1946 or 1947. It was located where Burger King is now and was Ridgecrest's walk-in. It was built by a man from Downey, who also owned and operated it. Besides the theater, there was no form of entertainment in the area.

Since the area was small about twenty-five to thirty years ago, according to Sherm, there was only one active policeman, a sergeant in the Sheriff's Department which controlled the whole valley. This policeman took care of everything. "There were anywhere from five- to eight-thousand people who lived here and we only needed one policeman on duty," explained Sherm.

He also said that there was not a local paper here for a long time. The original paper was started by Archie Peckham, who called it the Ridgecrest Herald. There were a couple of people involved with the paper until they built the printing company over here. They originally printed the paper in Randsburg at the Hubbard Printing Co. Then they built the building here to allow them to do printing for the base, something which they still do. Archie Peckam sold the paper to Hubbard, and Hubbard sold it to the present owners.

Sherm did not go to school here becaused there was no school system at that time. They finally towed in a couple of empty buildings from off the base, and that was the first school. The first principal in this town was Mr. Luttrell. There was no place to feed the school children lunch so, at one time, Sherm had them eating at his restaurant.

Sherm thinks we have a good educational system, and he thinks this is a pretty nice town. Personally, we do too. We also think Sherm is a really nice guy.

This article concludes the series of interviews conducted and recorded in 1982 by the Los Flores sixth grade students.