HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

VOL. 16 No. 5
May 12, 2001

JOIN YOUR HSUMD FRIENDS AT THE ANNUAL DINNER MAY 12

Have you made your reservations yet for the HSUMD Annual Meeting? Since this special event is set for Farris' at the Heritage, Saturday, May 12, we need to know whether you're coming by noon on Thursday, May 10. Just stop by the Maturango Museum to get your reservations. Reservations are necessary so the restaurant can prepare the correct amount of food.

Thanks to the good ideas and proactivity of our program chairman George Silberberg, we have a very special banquet speaker - Bill Deaver, editor of the Southeast Kern Weekender, one of our area's most informative regional newspapers.

Deaver, who comes from a pioneering Mojave family, is extremely knowledgeable about local history and has a special interest in railroads of the Eastern Mojave Desert -- a topic he will share with us at the meeting.

Deaver has worked with BLM archaeologist Margaret Hangan, Red Rock Canyon Ranger Mark Faull, and others to trace the routes of some of the historic railroads of the Eastern Mojave Desert. These routes, many of them built in gold-and silver-rush days, formed the lifeline that led to further settlement of our area. Deaver has been sharing his knowledge of the railroads with the readers of his paper, and now here's our chance to learn from him face to face.

If you've ever read the Southeast Kern Weekender, you may feel you know Deaver already. He seems to be everywhere in Southeast Kern, both making and reporting on the news. And wherever he goes, he writes and takes pictures, with his products making up nearly all the content of a very informative small newspaper.

(By the way, a good way to read the Weekender is to visit the carwash on South China Lake Boulevard, since a stack of the latest issue is available there for the taking.)

Deaver appears to have been born to be a journalist and historian of the local area. The Deaver family has been prominent in Mojave ever since the late Paul and Marion Deaver moved there in 1948. Paul was a member of two local school boards and the town's volunteer fire chief, while Marion was a long-time correspondent for the Bakersfield Californian. Bill's sister, Susan Strahan, also served on several local boards, and his brother, Michael Deaver, was a prominent staff member for President Ronald Reagan.

In addition to Bill Deaver's award-winning contributions to journalism, he serves as president of the Mojave Town Council and secretary of the Mojave Chamber of Commerce.

He and his wife Billye travel widely to meetings all over the Upper Mojave Desert, and HSUMD is indeed lucky that they've agreed to make our annual dinner one of their stops.

Our meeting will also feature election of new board members, as well as the traditional great feast Farris' always prepares for us. This year, our buffet will feature lemon chicken, meatball Stroganoff, three salads, vegetables, and sherbet. The price per person will be $20, paid in advance at the Maturango Museum. Again, reservations need to be made no later than noon, Thursday , May 10.

The event will begin with a social hour at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at about 6:30 p.m. and the program at 7:30 p.m. Wouldn't this be a good time to invite your friends who are railroad and history buffs to come and find out what the HSUMD is all about? Liz

NOMINATING COMMITTEE

The slate to be presented by the Nominating Committee at our annual meeting on Saturday evening, May 12, was announced in the April newsletter. It is
Mr. Fred Kletka, Ms. Pat Rogers, Mr. George Silberberg, Mr. Fred Weals and
Mr. Bruce Wertenberger. Nominations also will be accepted from the floor
in accordance with Roberts' Rules of Order.
John Di Pol

CARS, GAME AND MIDLAND TRAIL

The other day I was handed some Los Angeles Examiner newspapers that had once served as insulation for a house in the Rand Mining District and all of which have aged considerably but remain readable. Most of the papers were dated in 1923. After sorting them by date I began reading and found this gem. In what is available from the Sunday March 11, 1923 issue there is a fascinating 14 page Automotive Section. In the ads and news columns therein I found some 41 different automobiles mentioned. Some of these cars were manufactured in Los Angeles or elsewhere in California.

Furthermore, a few of the statistics given as a news item stated: "3 million cars to be manufactured in 1923, versus 2.6 million in 1922;" "There are 11.75 million vehicles in use of which 10% are trucks;" "$9.5 million paid out for auto fire insurance in 1922," and, "2/3 of the world's rubber production is used to make tires."

Look at the following list and see how many auto names you recognize:
Auburn, Buick, Cadillac, Chalmers, Chandler, Chevrolet, Cleveland, Cole, Dodge, Dort, Earle, Elcar, Essex, Franklin, Gray, H.C.S. (Stutz), Haynes, Hudson, Hupmobile, Jewett, Jordan, King, LaFayette, Lincoln, Maxwell, Moon, Nash, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Overland, Packard, Paige, Peerless, Reo, Rickenbacker, Star, Stephens, Studebaker, Vellie, White, Willys Knight.

One not listed, and for which my father was a test-car driver, was the Dorris. This brings me to a guessing game. In the early 1930's, several of us neighborhood boys would challenge each other by asking what car we had in mind and give the first letter of its name.

On the last page of the March 11,1923, Automotive Section is the following article which partially relates to the Bullion Road/Midland Trail in its last paragraph. (The Midland Trail ran north from Los Angeles to Big Pine then east to Goldfield and Ely, Nevada., and on to New York City).

"SPEED MARKS LONG DRIVES OVER DESERT Nevada Man Buys Car in East, Drives It Home and Makes Quick Trip on Bad Roads.

"Along about October 15 of last year, L. W. Dye and Park V. Perkins of the Natural Resource Development Company of Carrara, Nev., took delivery of two series 16 Franklin* touring cars at the factory in Syracuse, N. Y. and drove west. In a recent letter to Ralph Hamlin, local distributor, Mr. Dye recounted some of his experiences with the new car.

Dye brought his car across the continent in fine shape, reaching the Coast in eight and one-half days from Indianapolis, Ind. It was the last car over Berthoud Pass, out of Denver, before the road was closed on account of snow. This is the highest pass on an automobile road in America, being at an elevation of 11,400 feet."

To quote from the letter: "As you know, I am using this car mostly for desert driving. We leave Los Angeles of a morning and arrive in Carrara, Nev**., the same night around 8 or 9 o'clock-a distance of 330 miles. In view of the fact that after we leave Mojave on this trip we do not see a human habitation, and in all likelihood will not even meet a car until we get to Death Valley Junction, a distance of 170 miles, some twenty-five miles of this road being up the floor of Death Valley.

"Around the lst of February I left Goldfield with my family at 11:30 a. m., came over Westgard Pass to Big Pine and down the Owens Valley, not striking any real roads until we got to Mojave. I thought when we left Goldfield we would stay all night at Lone Pine, or might possibly get as far as Little Lake that night. However, instead of stopping for the night at Lone pine, we drove into Los Angeles at 1:30 the next morning-fourteen hours from the time we left Goldfield.''

*Many of you may recall that the Franklin had an air-cooled engine.
**I don't know where Carrara is, but it may have been on the way to Beatty. Lou-Pracchia--

NEW MEMBERS

New members this month are Bert Koch, Don Featherston, Bud Biery and Sam
Thompson. Welcome!

EXHIBITS

Our exhibits coordinator, Liz Babcock, is busy at work preparing two new exhibits which will be placed in the Maturango Museum soon. One will be on a miner who was active in the area from about 1902 until 1923, "Shady" Myrick. The theme for the two-month long summer exhibit in the Winslow Gallery of the Maturango Museum will be on the various cultures in our community.

RECENT GRANTS

We are pleased to announce that the Women's Auxiliary of the Commissioned Officers' Mess (WACOM) has recently awarded us another grant, then just before press time we received notification that the Kern County Community Foundation has awarded us a grant for the second year in a row. We really appreciate these grants because they help us do things beyond what the family memberships can support.

HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT TOUR

In spite of the daunting cool and windy desert spring weather, a capacity number of people enjoyed the recent tour of The House That Jack Built. Our gracious host, Bill Reed, gave all the guests a fine tour and the garden was in full bloom. Last minute articles in the News Review and the Daily Independent, as well as publicity by Ray Watters of radio station KLOA really helped draw out non-members of the HSUMD to enjoy the house. The Maturango Museum took the tour reservations and had about 65 people come in on the Thursday before the tour to place reservations. We are grateful to the Museum and its staff for handling this aspect of the tours.
Co-owner and host, Bill Reed donates all the tour fee directly to the Historical Society for which also we are very grateful. Lois Balaban participated in leading part of the tour. Other co-owners are Walter Hartman and Lyle Gregory.

Tentative plans call for a tour in October.

Host and co-owner Bill Reed points to some of the many ornamental brass and glass objects which grace the house.

RANDSBURG TOUR

There is a tentative tour date of June 16 for a Randsburg happening. Being planned is a sing-a-long in the Catholic Church with Dr. Jim Vascov at the organ, as well as a possible tour of some of the historic buildings in Randsburg.

FAREWELL

With this issue of the Society's bulletin I write 30 to my tenure of helping to publish it. The job has been fun, trying at times, but Bruce's expertise and genial ways have eased the task. Good luck to the new editor(s)! Chet Creider