HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

Vol. 15, No.3
March 21, 2000

LEARN ABOUT CHINA LAKE'S CULTURAL RESOURCES PROGRAM

March 21, 7:30p.m. at the Maturango Museum.

Ever since the days of Pop Lofinck, the Navy at China Lake has actively exercised good stewardship over the cultural resources contained in themillion acres that make up the Naval Air Weapons Station's vast rangeareas. At our March meeting, we'll have a chance to learn about thatstewardship from a lively speaker who is responsible for preserving thoserich and varied resources.

Carolyn Shepherd, NAWS Director of Environmental Programs and Station Historic Preservation Officer, Naval Air Weapons Station, will speak to us about the past, present, and future of China Lake's public-resources program.

Moving here as a child, Carolyn is a Burroughs High School graduate and long-time fan of high-desert living. And her proud dad, Chuck, is an HSUMDmember!

Carolyn's educational qualifications include a bachelor's degree in anthropology from UC Davis and graduate studies in environmental management and public policy at both UC Davis and UC Berkeley. She's been a NAWS
employee for 22 years.

After Carolyn gives us a brief talk on China Lake's historic preservation program, she'll show us a 22-minute video documenting recent studies of historic mines, Old Coso Village, Coso Fort, and the recently rediscovered
petroglyph areas on the North Range.

The video, produced under contract to the Navy by Cinnabar Video Productions, just won two Tellys, national recognition given for excellent commercials and documentaries. The Cinnabar video, "The Cultural Resources
Program at China Lake NAWS," was named the best in the category of non broadcast programming in history, as well as in the category of low-budget programs.
Liz Babcock

VISIT HISTORIC RANDSBURG ON MARCH 25

After Lou Pracchia participated in a recent Trona Historical Society tour of historic Randsburg, he was so enthusiastic about it that he decided to work with Randsburg resident Lorraine Blair to arrange a similar tour for HSUMD members.

Tour participants will rally up at the Maturango Museum parking lot on Saturday morning, March 25, BEFORE 8:30 a.m. Car pooling will be encouraged. We MUST leave the MM parking lot by 8:30 to arrive at the Randsburg Catholic Church on east Main Street no later than 9:15 a.m. We'll begin the first tour, in groups of 10, of the Rose Cottage at 9:30. It is about a 10 minute walk from the parking area to the Rose cottage. While a tour group is in the cottage, the others of us will view the cottage grounds and have complimentary refreshments courtesy of Lorraine Blair.

Because the event involves walking through historic Rose Cottage, the trip will be limited to no more than 40 people. Reservations will be needed. The cost per person is $5. For more information or to reserve your spot for this fun tour, call Lou at 375-7385 or e-mail him at ldpracc@ridgenet.net. Or, sign up at the Gift Shop at the Maturango Museum.

First stop on the tour will be century-old Rose Cottage, where Lorraine Blair, the cottage's current owner, will show us this cozy home, which was built entirely of redwood without any framing in the walls. The house is named in honor of Judge Edward B. Maginnis' sister Rose, who owned it for more than 30 years.

As noted above, the cottage tour will be in shifts of about 10 persons. After that, we will rally up at the Santa Barbara Church for a tour of the parsonage and an organ recital in the church at 12 noon by Jim Vascov, an Azusa-based musicologist specializing in sacred music.

Lunch will be self-directed with the break starting at 12:45. "There are at least two places to buy lunch - the Opera House, and the General Store (owned by HS member Marcy Holbrook) - or bring your own," Lou recommended. The tour resumes at 2:00 p.m. and should end by 3:00 p.m.

Other short tours may also be included, as well as opportunities to shop for antiques and sip sarsaparillas in the General Store. Liz Babcock

Biographical Information on Our Tour Guides

Lorraine Blair's love affair with historic Randsburg began one day when she made the turn off highway 395 during a holiday drive north. The ad for the first "as is" house she purchased in 1982 understatedly read, "Needs tender loving care." She's been working on restoring Rose Cottage since 1984.

Lorraine has lectured and published in both this country and England and has presented historical material on BBC Radio 4. She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women and has recently completed her Ph.D.
thesis in social and historical studies at the University of Portsmouth, England. Lorraine's writing includes biographies of Anglo-American women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is now researching Dr. Rose Burcham, the dynamic Santa Monica doctor who helped bankroll the Yellow Aster. The working title of Lorraine's proposed book is A Rose and A Yellow Aster.

Our organist, Jim Vascov, has been visiting Randsburg for many years, often on his way to hiking trips in the High Sierra. As a musicologist specializing in sacred music, Jim is fascinated with the authentic condition of Randsburg's historical Santa Barbara Church, including its reed organ. Such instruments (also termed pump organs or harmoniums) were a very important part of churches and homes a century ago.

Jim teaches music education at St. Frances of Rome Catholic School in Azusa and serves as organist at the historic (1888) Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana. He also provides service music for a range of Christian and Jewish worship experiences in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Jim recently completed his Ph.D. in music at Claremont Graduate School.

WHAT A HISTORY ORGANIZATION GIVES US

"History organizations help preserve and tell the stories of the past. All accounts of the past--all history--derives from memory and from the traditions, documents, images, artifacts, buildings, monuments, landscapes, and ruins that have survived. Since memory is fallible, and because all things eventually perish, preserving these traces of the past is vital to our ability to enjoy history's gifts.

"History institutions, in partnership with their communities, are leaders in preserving, researching, and interpreting these traces of the past. By helping to save, and keep history's sources, and by joining with others to study the evidence and engagingly tell history's stories, history institutions connect the people, thoughts, and events of yesterday with the active memories and abiding concerns of people and communities today and with the broad sweep of national and, indeed, world history.

"By preserving and presenting the evidence of the past, and through public programming, history organizations pass the gift of history on to future generations. They guarantee that each generation can search for its own answers, and forge its own meanings. Finally, by preserving, presenting, and actively connecting people and communities with the past, history organizations make the communities in which they are located more attractive places in which to live, work, and visit. And they are themselves travel destinations, employers, purchasers of goods and services, and recipients of gifts and grants. Sometimes on a small scale, sometimes with much greater impact, history organizations are economic engines in their towns, cities, and regions.

"History organizations, in these ways, make the gift of history a living presence in the lives of Americans and American communities. They expand our understanding of who we are and what, in our diversity, we may become."

The preceding is an extract from a leaflet published by the American Association for State and Local History. Our society has recently joined this national association to keep you and your Board of Directors better informed of trends and concepts regarding cultural history. Your comments are invited.

A state-of-the-art computer is awaiting the arrival of archiving software to begin the task of converting our collections into a digitized format. We are in need of a few PC oriented people (one at a time) willing to devote several hours periodically to enter information from our records onto simple computer forms. Please contact me. Lou Pracchia

REMINDER ON DUES

There are still a number of members who have not yet paid their dues. As noted in the last newsletter, the annual dues per family go up to $15, effective April 1, 2000.

Those of you who have not yet renewed will find an envelope included within this issue of the newsletter. If you want to save $5.00, please write out a check now and send it to our treasurer, whose name and address are on the
included envelope.

We have a lot of activities going on and a big budget to fund this year. Please help us by renewing now.
Thank you much.

The Nominating Committee, consisting of Kathy Armstrong, John DiPol and Harold Platzek, has been activated for our annual election. If you are interested in being nominated for the Board of Directors, please contact one of them now.

APRIL TOUR PLANNED

A tour of the "House that Jack Built" in Ridgecrest is planned for Saturday, April 22. Look for more details in our next newsletter.

ANNUAL DINNER MEETING

The annual dinner meeting is tentatively scheduled for Friday, May 5. Please mark your calendars now. Details will be forthcoming in the next newsletter.

EARLY IWV SETTLERS

This true story will appear in this and future newsletter issues. As background to the story, it begins in 1995 when I responded to a letter from George F. Marsh of Long Beach, CA forwarded to me from the Maturango Museum about land ownership. From land records that I have, the information was provided and I mentioned that the HSUMD would be interested in acquiring further details about his grandmother Irene Chambers and her IWV homestead. His response produced over the next few months genealogical data about his family, drawings, photo copies, Irene's handwritten recollections and also memories from Zoe, daughter of Irene and mother of George.

The Chambers' homestead was located 3 miles east of Leliter and 4 miles NNE of Inyokern in Section 33, township 25S and Range 39E. She lived on the homestead, adjacent to her brother John Simmons and his wife Mollie homestead, from 1918 to 1921 when she and her husband Lee moved to Lone Pine.

On October 26, 1926, Irene wrote the following memories:
Lou Pracchia

SAGE BRUSH WHISPERS

Dear Lida:

You asked me to tell you of our life on the desert. Well, it is a long story. So just sit down, take off your bonnet and I will gladly tell you a part of it. Of course there are a great many things that I have forgotten. But here are some of our good times and heartaches. You will remember my brother, John, and his wife, Mollie. A friend of theirs took a homestead in Indian Wells Valley, put down a well and fenced some land. When his wife went to him, she would not stay. No, sirree! None of that desert for her, and back to the city she went. Not long after that, John and Mollie were on their way to Lone Pine and went by to see their friends' homestead. They were very much impressed by the beauty of the valley and the fertility of the soil. They wished they had some of that land. They went back next day and were more enthused than before after seeing and hearing what the neighbors were growing and doing. But they
could not buy any of the deeded land and did not have money enough to homestead. So they talked and planned. Finally, they wrote us and said they had found the honey pond and could buy a relinquishment. And if they could
find us a homestead near, would I take my two little girls, Margaret and Peggy, and go up and prove on the land while the men worked to pay expenses? (You know we lived in Stockton then) Well, I was all up in the air. But when Lee came he would not read the letters -------- said it was impossible and very foolish to think of such a thing. But Cecil read the letters and said it looked good on paper.

After two or three days, Lee read the letters and got more interested in the project. Then I wrote John to see if he could get us a homestead. He replied that he had found a relinquishment joining the one they could buy, and if we wanted it, for Lee to meet him in Mojave. He did. They drove out to the land which was so much better than Lee had expected to see, that he wanted John to rush him to see the owner of the homestead, which he did, and Lee bought the claim or relinquishment. Then he filed on the land.

All was excitement getting ready to go to the homestead. The neighbors asked if I had lost my mind, and they had their opinions of Lee to let me take the children way out on the desert like that.

Lee would get cold feet, but Cecil would say "Go to it Ma. We will make it alright, and California land is not so easily gotten these days." So on the third day of July, the girls and I started for the desert (I will admit I nearly had heart failure as we got on the train) The train was hot and crowded. We changed cars at Mojave. The conductor asked Peggy where she was Going, and she replied "To homestead". He smiled and seemed to think,"You poor fish ----- you won't stay." As he helped Peggy down out of the car he said,. "Look out fir the sidewinders." We did not know what he meant until later. (To be continued)

HSUMD 3/12/00