HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT
Vol. 18 No. 8 October 2003
OCTOBER PROGRAM TRIP TO THE WHITE STAR MINE
The October meeting of the Historical society of the Upper Mojave Desert will be at a special place and time. The site will be the White Star Mine on South China Lake Blvd, starting at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, October 21. Frank Erdman and Bill Farris will be there for an informal talk about the history of the White Star Mine and house.
Frank was the one who built the original house at White Star. His father Peter discovered the mine in 1896, but after mining there for a couple of years, joined the Alaska gold rush. He returned to the area, but ended up working in the oil fields around McKittrick, where Frank was born. The family eventually moved to Los Angeles, but Frank and his father came back to the Valley to rediscover White Star, and staked a claim. Then, during the depression, his father suggested Frank return to White Star and build a house, which Frank did despite an utter lack of construction experience. Frank never worked the White Star mine, but did do some mining in the local area between other jobs like war work for Lockheed and serving in the Navy, and eventually helping build the Base.
Frank sold White Star in 1946, and it was added onto over the years, with the original house still within the house you see today. It has been a health club, a restaurant and a night club as well as a private home. The current owner, Bill Farris will host the evening and help bring us up to date with the White Star's more recent history. Bill and his family bought the house about 6 years ago to use it once again as a private home. They have also invited the public in on occasion for community theater, fund-raising dances, wedding receptions, and now the Historical Society. Don't miss this chance to see the White Star again and hear of its history from the original owner and from the current owner!
Everyone is always welcome to attend Historical Society meetings. For more information, or to arrange for ride-sharing, call Kathy Armstrong at 375-2643 or Bruce Wertenberger at 375-2369.
Our November meeting will return to the Maturango Museum at the regular time of 7:30 PM, on Tuesday November 18. The speaker will be Steve Smith of the BLM who will tell us about the historic cabins in the Inyo Mountains. Andrew Sound
SHARE OR GET A RIDE TO THE WHITE STAR MINE FOR OUR OCTOBER
MEETING
If you would like to get a ride up to the White Star Mine for the meeting on Tuesday, October 21, or are willing to take someone or several someones with you up there, please call Kathy Armstrong at 375-2643.
NEW BOOK OUT
Our tenacious writer, Fred Weals, who is also our Treasurer, has just created a new book, "A History of the Churches of Indian Wells Valley and Vicinity," a publication of the Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert. If all goes well we should have a few for sale at the upcoming Maturango Junction and our October meeting. Consider it for a Christmas gift. More about it in next month's newsletter.
NEW MEMBERS
We welcome as new HSUMD members Irene Dodson and Dixie Chantler.
BUSINESS MEMBERS
Please patronize our business members: Granite Construction Sand and Gravel, Farris' The Diner and Italian Gardens, the Indian Wells Valley Insurance Company, the Swap Sheet and Ridgecrest Moving and Storage, Inc.
BOOKCASE DONATION
Our article indicating a need for a bookcase in the September issue of our newsletter had an immediate response. We were given a very sturdy metal bookcase by DART, who had a bookcase which was excess to their needs. Many thanks!
NOMINATING COMMITTEE
We failed to come up with a nominating committee for next year's
election at our annual meeting last June. If you have an interest
in joining this important committee, please contact Bruce Wertenberger
at 375-2369. The board of directors will be naming a committee
soon. Thank you.
NOTES FROM THE BOARD
Several tours or trips are in the planning stages for HSUMD
members. Christmas in Rand Camp, hosted
by Lorraine Blair and friends, is tentatively scheduled for Saturday
December 13. It will follow a format similar to that
of the past several years. Details will be in the next newsletter.
We are still working out scheduling problems for another tour
of The House That Jack Built. In the spring we are contemplating
trips to local historical sites. Bruce Wertenberger
CENTENNIAL OF FLIGHT EXHIBIT PLANNED
In last month's newsletter it was indicated we were planning a joint commemorative exhibit with the Maturango Museum on the history of powered flight. This would open in December 2003. Part of this exhibit would showcase the aviation history of this valley.
Here's how you can help. Do you have information about any of the early airfields in this valley? Better yet, do you have photographs and/or artifacts to share? Kathy Armstrong has already loaned us a pair of 1930's aviator goggles to exhibit. We'd love to have more such items to display. Please call Liz Babcock at 375-7900 or 375-6900 to share your thoughts and treasures.
HISTORICAL ARTICLE
GARLOCK A NAME, A PLACE, A FAULT
(The following is another in a series of articles prepared by C. John DiPol drawing on research in his library of books about the local area. Ed.)
Part I: A Name, A Place
The town of Garlock, located astride the cut-off road between Highways 395 and 14 on the south side of he El Paso Mountains, is marked today by an historical plaque, some few ramshackle wooden structures, and a private residence. But, it was not always so.
Reel back to the 1860's. Serious prospecting started in that
part of the El Pasos with John Goller's (Goler) alleged discovery
of a rich deposit. As the legend has it, Goler was on his way
south from Death Valley, stopped in a canyon to drink from a spring
and, lo, found several nuggets of gold. He rushed to Los Angeles,
organized a group of interested investors, returned to the El
Pasos, but, alas, could never relocate his discovery. The legend
of the "Lost Goler Mine" was born. However, as had
happened with other legends, numerous prospectors were drawn into
the area stretching from Red Rock Canyon in the west to the Summit
Diggings in the east.
In the 1870's a freight and stage road from Mojave to the mines
in the panamints, passed through the area. A way-station, and
supply point for prospectors, called El Paso City, was established
at a place where ground water could be obtained from shallow wells.
Concomitantly, cattlemen began using the area and by the early
1890's, the name "El Paso City" disappeared and the
settlement became known as "Cow Wells." In 1893 a real
strike was made in a canyon three miles east of Cow Wells (the
Lost Goler Mine?) Miners poured in, settling in the canyon (late
called Goler's Gulch) and in Cow Wells. Many deposits opened,
mostly placer, some lode and the Goler Mining District was established.
In 1894, an amalgamator from Tehachapi, Eugene Garlock, brought
in a stamp mill to Cow Wells. The miners at Goler's Gulch began
referring to : "down to the Garlock mill," "down
to Garlock's." Thus the name transitioned from "Cow
Wells" to "Garlock" and the name became official
with the establishment of the Garlock post office in 1896.
In the meantime, the big strike, the Yellow Aster, occurred in the nearby Rand Mountains in 1895. Ore production started there in 1896, but water was scarce in the Rands. Ore was hauled down to Garlock for processing, Garlock boomed. Eight stamp mills and cyanide plants were erected. Hotels, eating places, schools, etc. Population into the hundreds. The heyday lasted for three years. By 1899, the Yellow Aster had developed its own source of water and pumping plant in the Goler Gulch and Iron Canyon sites, and a 30 stamp mill in Randsburg; all equipment delivered courtesy of the newly arrived Randsburg Railroad. The bottom fell out of Garlock's economy, with only a few families remaining by 1900. A minor resurgence occurred in the early 1920's with mines opening up in Iron Canyon, the salt plant in Koehn Dry Lake, etc., but this was short lived and Garlock slipped back into the shadows of time.
Part 2: A Fault
The Garlock Fault, second largest earthquake fault in the state of California, lies a scant 15 miles south of Ridgecrest. Starting at its intersection with the great San Andreas Fault in the mountainous area near Frazier Park, it runs in a west to east direction and can be traced 150 miles east to the southern end of Death Valley.
The Garlock is a dominant fault zone which has had a great effect on California landscape and was instrumental in creating the mountain ranges forming the northern edge of the Mojave Desert. From its connection with the San Andreas, it runs through the Tehachapi Mountain, along the base of the southern Sierra Nevada and El Paso Mountains as far as the northern end of the Avawatz Mountains escarpment. However, these same authorities state that not a single great earthquake during recorded history can be blamed on this huge fracture.
Here in our local area, the fault is crossed by Highway 395 about at the point where the Garlock Road branches off to the east. The Garlock Road parallels the fault along the El Pasos, and offers numerous opportunities to observe the fault's surface features. Incidentally, the escarpments near the Garlock town site were responsible for giving the fault its name.
Also, if you are aboard a low flying aircraft following the connecting road out to China Lake's Randsburg WashMojave "B" Range Area, the fault is crossed a short distance from the Christmas Canyon entrance gate. If you look to the east at this point, you would see the fault as a trench heading east and disappearing over the horizon; a trench straight as if it were made by Paul Bunyon's plow with his blue ox Babe! John DiPol
References: GARLOCK MEMORIES, Paul Hubbard, 1960. GOLD GAMBLE,
Roberta Starry, 1974. EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY, Robert Iacopi