HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

Vol. 17 No. 8 A UNITED WAY AGENCY October 2002

OCTOBER PROGRAM: HISTORY OF THREE LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS:, ALTRUSA, LITERACY COUNCIL & EXCHANGE CLUB

The Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert meets at the Maturango Museum, 100 E. Las Flores on the third Tuesday of the month. Each meeting features a presentation on some aspect of local history.

This month's presentation will be on the local history of three local service clubs. Dale Lane will speak on Altrusa, while Jennifer Venola will tell the story of the Literacy Council of the IWV. A surprise speaker will tell us about the Exchange Club.

The Mission Statement of Altrusa International is "to promote community service by an international network of executives and professionals in diversified career classifications." Altrusa was set up in 1917, while the local chapter's charter was granted in 1962. Locally, children have been a primary thrust, with the local chapter sponsoring Pierce Elementary and Mesquite High Schools, and giving scholarships to Cerro Coso and both local High Schools, and camperships to the Girl Scouts and the Salvation Army. This is in addition to many other local projects. The speaker, Dale Lane, has been a member of Altrusa since 1980, and has served twice as president. She has been a local resident since 1944, raising four daughters in the valley before taking up a second career as an Administrative Officer on base.

The IWV Literacy Council got its start in 1972 around Lucille Bergthold's kitchen table, when she volunteered to help two of her neighbors, Navy wives from overseas who were having trouble with their English. The council was chartered by Laubach Literacy Action in 1975, and still sponsors a China Lake literacy class, as well as tutoring programs in the local schools and in the Tehachapi Prison. The local council sponsored the first inmate in California to become a Laubach Certified Supervising Tutor Trainer. The local council also supports the Reading Improvement Program, for English-speaking adults who want to improve their literacy skills. Jennifer Venola, who will tell us more about the Literacy Council, is a life-long California resident, who was born and grew up in Los Angeles. She has worked as lawyer in San Jose, San Diego, and Modoc counties, before retiring to Ridgecrest for the horseback riding. She joined the local Literacy Council in 1989, and is currently the President.

The local history of the Exchange Club will also be discussed at the meeting, but a speaker has not been named at press time.

The October meeting will be at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, October 15 at the Museum. Everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, call Bruce Wertenberger at 760-375-2369 or leave a message at 760-375-8456.
Andrew Sound

BUSINESS MEMBERS

We appreciate the support of our business members: The Swap Sheet, Granite Construction ­ Sand and Gravel, Farris' at the Heritage and the Indian Wells Valley Insurance Co. Please patronize these business members whenever possible. We also encourage any of our members who are eligible to become business members, to do so.

MATURANGO JUNCTION

The Historical Society will be participating in the Maturango Junction again this year. Our plans are for a booth without the "Miner's Cabin." We will have information on the HSUMD and have a supply of our publications for sale. There will be a sign-up sheet at our next meeting to register volunteers for two hour shifts on manning (personning?) our booth.

JOHN DIPOL TO SPEAK TO KRVHS

We are pleased to note that HSUMD member John DiPol soon will be making a presentation to the Kern River Valley Historical Society on the topic of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. This is a presentation he has made to us in two parts in recent years.

NEXT EXHIBIT: THE KOREAN WAR

Liz Babcock is busy assembling pictures and artifacts for an upcoming exhibit on the Korean War in the Maturango Museum. Jack Lyons, Fred Kletka and Bill Hall all have contributed items. Watch for pictures of them when they were young! More details next month.

RECENT ACTIVITIES

As noted in the last newsletter, the HSUMD participated in the United Way Family Day and the Community Dinner activities. Although we did not sell all that many publications, Fred Weals and Bruce Wertenberger had some interesting conversations leaving us with potential speakers, etc.

NEW MEMBERS

We welcome into the ranks of HSUMD members four new names: John and Rose Gonzales, Claudia Sound, Mike Stringham and Jeannie Kalivoda!

A LOOK AT HISTORY: GARLOCK IN FULL BLOOM

The following bit of history is an excerpt from a booklet published in 1960, "Garlock Memories, a Tribute to East Kern County's Pioneers," which was edited by Paul B. Hubbard Ed.

GARLOCK IN FULL BLOOM

Many details of what happened in the fateful years 1896 to 1899, when Garlock came into being with vigor have been supplied by fate. Some of the known survivors of that period have many happy childhood memories. Jim McGinn, now 91, has memories generalized somewhat. It was a very happy circumstance that in 1958 a copy of the "Indian Wells Valley Independent" fell into the hands of Robert C. Kelley of Eureka, Nevada. Reference to the ghost town of Garlock, in my column "As the Spirit Moves Me," aroused his interest. He addressed a letter to the editor, apprising him that he was well informed on Garlock and volunteered a story. The letter was filed and resurrected this year to fill this need. Robert Kelley has responded nobly. Undoubtedly well in his teens, when Garlock bloomed, he has given us a remarkably complete review of that period and with a vivid memory:

"Prior to the year 1896, Garlock was known by the name of "Cow Wells." I remember that name very well. My mother wrote that address on the letters she gave me to post to my father, who at that time was mining near Cow Wells, or Garlock, as it was called later. The change in name was brought about by a man named Gene Garlock, the biggest operator there, who owned a cyanide plant and a stamp mill; he was considered one of the best amalgamators at that time, an achievement very few possessed. He was well known and a fine man and the town was named after him.

"My father, Tom Kelly (sp), operated a gold property on Mt. Gleason, near Acton; later, he moved his mill to Garlock.

"When we first moved to Cow Wells, or Garlock,
water for domestic used was hauled from Goler to Garlock, by a man by the name of Dan Williams, a rugged oldtimer, who solved the water problem with the aid of a good team, a rough road and a torrid vocabulary. He delivered a 50-gallon barrel of water for the nominal sum of $1.00. Lawns were no problem. One barrel of water was generally enough for an average family for one week. There were seven in our family, but mother was able to make this amount last the allotted time, using approximately one gallon per person per day. Later we moved to a larger place owned by McClean and McSweeney, freight contractors, who were considered the largest and best equipped outfit and well able to handle all kinds of freight­using all jerk line teams. The stage also stopped at Garlock to change horses on their regular runs to Randsburg and other points.

"The move to larger accommodations, also brought more plentiful water, which was necessary for the stock in large corrals. The large water tank was kept full by pumping with a large rotating contraption, pulled in a circular motion by a large, black, lazy mule, which needed constant prodding or he would go to sleep in his tracks, but with sufficient urging he would stay on the job and pump enough water to take care of the next day's needs­then Old Mule was turned back to the corral until his services were needed the next day. This method worked well and we supplied good water to many who lived in the town. The tank house also served for refrigeration in the summer time where my mother kept the butter, milk and other food that needed care.

"In Garlock's heyday, it supported six stamp mills, namely: McKernan Mill, Kelley, Smith, Henry, Visalia and the Garlock Mill, which milled and treated ore from Randsburg and the surrounding districts. Amalgamation was the process that enabled them to make the gold recovery. Steam was the motive power employed by all except the Smith mill, which used a gasoline engine to furnish the necessary power, and it was possibly the first one used at that time.

"Fuel for the boilers was an acute problem but not an insurmountable one, as they harvested the sparse sage brush and greasewood to feed the fires. The firemen were the ones who had the problem of firing the boilers, which was accomplished with a long handled pitchfork and probably a short temper, but they were able to keep up the steam pressure, which was their only objective. This was an example of what resolute men can accomplish under trying circumstances­the hallmark of our pioneers.

"There was considerable mining in the Goler District also; it was dry placer mining and in the years between 1893 and 1900, it produced over $2,000,000; there was a mining revival there in 1930 during the depression era but it never came back and eventually became another ghost town.

"The largest single contributor to the Kern County mining was undoubtedly the Rand Mining Company­or the Yellow Aster, owned by Singleton, Burcham and Mooers. My father, Tom Kelley, was construction foreman when they built the 30 stamp mill and also the 100 stamp mill.

"After 60 years the exact location of these various mills might prove a difficult task, but there will undoubtedly remain some relics of their former usefulness. Considering the extent of the milling operation in that period, we may in a measure gauge the tempo of the times, that are now gone and forgotten.

"Garlock contributed generously to the spirit of the Old West. Mention should be made of the Cheney Thirst Emporium, where the elite of that day congregated to discuss and solve the problems of the times and imbibe while doing so. In that congenial atmosphere were to be found several varieties of sharp-shooters, including one Mr. Edward Belcher, Garlock's contribution to the fold; a cosmopolitan assayer by vocation, a mining promoter by avocation
and a patron of the bottle in both occupations­his fame was known from John O'Groat's to Land's End.

"Another worthy citizen was a Mr. Doty, owner and proprietor of the Doty Hotel, operated on the European Plan­so they claimed. This building was a formidable structure of board and battens, two stories in height. It was the Taj Mahal of the time and from its second story, one could look farther and see less than at any point in the surrounding country. Its exterior beauty was enhanced by the persistent onslaught of the desert siroccos, a scourge that had the natural skill to apply a sand finish to anything that had the ability to protrude above the ground.

"There were other characters who lent color to the scene while temporarily grounded; charter members all of the "Wirecutter Association" employed by the proprietors of the liquor dispensaries to maintain law and order within, a precautionary measure due to the escapades of the national character, one Carrie Nation, a temperance fanatic of that epoch, then in the zenith of her meteoric career.

"Our law at the time will be remembered by many. He was John W. Kelley, born October 29, 1861 in Cooper County, Missouri. He was constable in Randsburg from 1896 to 1900; he served on the Board of Supervisors of Kern County from 1901 to 1903 when he was elected Sheriff of Kern County and served from 1903 to 1911. Mr. Kelley had one daughter, Elsie Irene Kelley.

"H. L. Borgwarld, Jr. was sheriff of Kern County in 1899 and in 1893, W. R. Bower served as sheriff.

"Memory portrays conditions of the past that will be considered incredulous in this day and age but they were a reality nevertheless. In that stirring epoch that is gone and practically forgotten, a few in the sunset of life still remain. Etched on their receptive minds they are still able to relate an accurate accounting for posterity, a narration of Garlock's day in the sun.

"The desert sands shine brightest for the pioneers who lived and toiled under great hardship. Their good deeds still echo down the years to oblivion."

Ore from the Yellow Aster, milled at Garlock, was very rich ore..."picture rock" at times, the sort in which you can see gold colors with the naked eye. Jim McGinn recalls there were too many visitors to Garlock who haunted the piles of newly mined ore that was awaiting milling. They were looking for "Specimens" and the practice had to be stopped. It was "polite highgrading."