HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT
Vol. 19 No. 8 October 2004
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OCTOBER SPEAKER: Don Joe McKernan, Growing Up in Ridgecrest
The October meeting of the Historical Society will return to the third Tuesday of the month, when the guest speaker will be Don Joe McKernan. The meeting will start at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, October 19 at the Maturango Museum. Everybody is welcome to attend the Society's meetings.
Don moved to the Indian Wells Valley with his family back in 1944, when his father was hired as a deputy sheriff, and Don's talk will be about his early experiences in the Valley and growing up in Ridgecrest, along with some anecdotes about his Dad's adventures as a deputy. The McKernan's first home in the area was up at Robbers Roost, no doubt quite a change from their previous residences in Nebraska and Long Beach. They moved to a house in Ridgecrest as soon one became available, and Don went to China Lake and Ridgecrest schools from first grade on. He grew up with the pioneering Fox family.
Don worked for PG&E before retirement, and has served on the Water Board for 32 years. He's been married to Joan for 46 years, and has two daughters and eight grandchildren.
For more information about this month's or future meetings, call President Bruce Wertenberger at 375-2369 or leave a message at 375-8456. Andrew Sound
MEETING SPEAKER SCHEDULE
Bill Nevins, our program coordinator, has been very busy this summer with the result that presentations have been set for most of the rest of the year. Here they are (subject to change), for your planning purposes and to mark your calendar:
16 November - Fred Weals - IWV Church History
14 December - Christmas Party
16 January - Ray Arthur - History of Ridgecrest Film Industry
15 February - Liz Babcock - From Nowhere to Somewhere IWV,
1905 2005
15 March - Tom Chapman - Hidden Camps of Inyo County
19 April - Not yet confirmed
17 May - Robert A. Pearce - Owens Valley Controversy,
The Untold Stor
Above is another unidentified photo from our archives. Probably late 40s, early 50s. Can you identify the people in the photo and what the equipment is? If so, call 375-8456 and leave a message, or call any one of our board members whose phone numbers are on the back page, or drop us a note or send an e-mail. Thanks for your participation.
BUSINESS MEMBERS
Please patronize our local business members: Farris' Diner
& Italian Gardens, Indian Wells Valley Insurance Co., The
News Review, BevLen Haus Bed and Breakfast, Jack & Dana
Lyons, The Swap Sheet, Ridgecrest Moving & Storage and Heritage
Inn
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
Our membership year is the calendar year. Annual dues are $15.00 per year per family. Checks, payable to the HSUMD, may be sent to the HSUMD at P.O. Box 2001, Ridgecrest, CA, 93556.
WHITE STAR MINE (Cont'd)
Were you among the 80-some people who attended last October's meeting at the White Star Mine? If not, you missed a fascinating evening. Frank Erdman talked about his early experiences building the original house on the White Star property, and Bill Farris, the current owner, gave a tour of the existing house, which has been built around the original. Besides arranging for local history events like this, another activity of your Historical Society is recording oral histories. The following article is based on an oral history interview with Frank Erdman conducted by Kathy Armstrong.
The White Star Mine story starts in 1896, when Peter Mack Erdman discovered the outcroppings of the White Star Mine. He worked it for two years, and had a couple of shipments of very good ore that he had milled at the Red Dog Mill in Johannesburg. But when he heard about gold discoveries in Bonanza Creek in the Yukon, being a true prospector, he dropped everything and joined the Alaska Gold Rush, vowing to return someday and develop his mine in the Indian Wells Valley. After his return from Alaska, though, he worked at various other mines in the area -- the Rhyolite, Gold Field, and Rawhide mines, among others. In time, he found himself in Bakersfield staying at the Switzer Boarding House where he met Marie Miller, who worked for the Fred Harvey Company in Mojave. They married and settled in McKittrick, where he worked in the oil fields and they had two children, Frank and his sister Elsa. Later they transferred to Ventura and then East Los Angeles.
In 1921, Peter bought his first automobile, and the next year he returned with Frank to the IWV to relocate the White Star Mine. In those days, the pavement ended at Mojave, and after that, you had to follow two ruts in the sand. They made their headquarters at Freeman Junction while Peter got his bearings about where the White Star might be. Two alfalfa ranches were about the only thing they could see in the Valley, but Peter was able to find the mine again and staked a claim. As they were leaving to return home, Peter invited Arlo Miley, the proprietor of Freeman Junction, down to L.A. for Christmas. After his Christmas visit, Arlo invited Frank to return with him to Freeman Junction to help out around the place. Frank accepted, and spent a couple of years there, graduating from the eighth grade at Inyokern school. After that, he couldn't get to Randsburg to go to high school, as he had no transportation. So he returned to L.A. to finish his education.
Unfortunately, Frank finished his education during the Depression.
There was no work to be had in L.A., so he went on a yearlong
trip to find work. He went to Canada, Texas, and Kansas, working
on farms and ranches, cultivating behind big black Missouri mules.
When it got to be snow season in Kansas, Frank decided to return
home. (to be continued)
Andrew Sound
REMI NADEAU AND HIS ROADS.
(Following is an article prepared by our great local historian member, John Di Pol, drawn from his library of local history books. Ed.)
The evolution and development of a system of roads in eastern California and upper Mojave desert region in the latter part of the 1800s was mainly the work of freight and stage line companies and operators. The principal of these was a French-Canadian immigrant, Remi Nadeau.
Born in Quebec Province in 1821, Nadeau drifted into New Hampshire as a young man, married in 1844, moved west to Chicago, then Minnesota working as a millwright. In 1860, Remi caught gold fever, headed west, spent a winter in Salt Lake City, then moved on to Los Angeles where he settled in 1861. He borrowed $600 from William Beaudry, a fellow Frenchman and brother of Victor Beaudry of Cerro Gordo fame, and started a freighting company. At this time a vigorous trade had commenced between the Mormon capitol, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. Nadeau entered this traffic - traveling 700 miles in 35 days. This trade peaked in 1865-66, but Remi foresaw the coming of the cross-country railroad which, by 1868 was beginning to draw much of the traffic.
Also, by the fall of 1868, the Cerro Gordo mines in Inyo county were well into production of silver-lead bullion. They needed a reliable freighter to carry this bullion into Los Angeles/San Pedro for transshipment by coastal steamer to refineries in San Francisco. Nadeau jumped at this opportunity, won the contract and by December was hauling bullion down from Cerro Gordo to the south. This route, known as the Bullion Road or the Nadeau Road, came down the "Yellow Grade," around the north side of Owens Lake to Lone Pine, then south via Haiwee Meadows, along the west side of Indian Wells Valley through Indian Wells, Coyote Holes, Red Rock Canyon, across Antelope Valley, Soledad Canyon, over San Fernando Pass into the San Fernando Valley, over Cahuenga Pass into Los Angeles.
Nadeau's 3-year contract expired in 1871. The Cerro Gordo "barons," Beaudry and Belshaw insisted on cheaper rates. Nadeau refused, pulled out his teams and closed stations. The "barons" awarded a one-year contract to James Brady, who built the steamer, Bessie Brady, to take bullion across Owens Lake. But trouble in moving south. Bullion bars piling up in Cartago. Mine owners unsatisfied - fired Brady. One-year contract awarded to Julius Chester of Bakersfield. A disaster. By 1873, 30,000 bullion bars piled up in Cerro Gordo and Cartago. Mine owners desperate and they sought out Nadeau.
Remi agreed to return to Inyo on the condition that Beaudry and Belshaw join him in forming a new company and provide $150,000 additional capital. The "barons" agreed, and the Cerro Gordo Freighting Company was off and running. With Nadeau's management, new stations, more wagons and improvements to the route, the backlog of bullion was cleared out by 1874, with L.A./San Pedro as the terminus, later to be shifted to Mojave in 1876 when the Southern Pacific railroad reached that point.
All this time the Cerro Gordo Freighting Company did not solely
serve Cerro Gordo and Inyo trade. Remi had established roads
and stations to other distant camps:
Panamint, 1874, with a route over the Argus Crossing, through
Searles Valley, then west across the southern Indian Wells Valley
to join up with the Bullion Road.
Darwin, 1875, with the route south up Darwin Wash, down Mountain
Springs Canyon, or across Wild Horse Mesa and down, then diagonally
across Indian Wells Valley to the Panamint-Bullion Roads. An
alternate route was due west along the south shore of Owens Lake
to join the Bullion Road at Olancha, but the sandy stretches were
bad at times.
Modoc Mine, Lookout Mt., 1875. On eastern Argus Mountains, due
south through Panamint Valley to join the Panamint Road and on
into Indian Wells Valley.
Benton and Mammoth City, Mono County, late 70s to early 80s,
with a route down into Owens Valley and the Bullion Road from
there to Mojave.
Through the 70s Remi dominated the freighting in Eastern California, however beginning in 1880 his empire was under threat: Inyo mines were playing out and the narrow gauge Carson & Colorado RR was coming down into Inyo from Nevada. He pulled his teams from the Bullion Trail in December 1881. He had started new ventures in Tombstone and Wickenburg, Arizona, in 1879, but they terminated in February 1882. The Cerro Gordo Freighting Company was disbanded in May of that year.
During all these years, Nadeau had made investments in agriculture and farming in Southern California, as well as development of commercial properties in downtown Los Angeles. Not all of these ventures were successful. In 1886 the L. A. Times reported that Nadeau was "financially entangled." His personal life more so, with a divorce from his wife of 35 years and marriage to a younger woman three months after. He suffered serious illnesses in 1886 which lead to his death on January 15, 1887.
John Di Pol
Ref: SILVER SEEKERS, Remi Nadeau IV, 1999; INDIAN WELLS VALLEY STAGE & WAGON STOPS, HSUMD, ed. Lou Pracchia, 1992; SILVER STAMPEDE, N. Wilson, 1937; DEATH VALLEY TO YOSEMITE Frontier Mining Camps, Belden & DeDecker.