HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

Vol. 14 No. 8

October 18, 1999

Address change - you can now access the Historical Society page at www.Maturango.org/Hist.html

The "old way" works too.

OCTOBER PROGRAM - THE HISTORY OF SEARLES LAKE

Mr. Arzell Hale will present "The History of Searles Lake" at our October meeting. Hale will have a friend to help with this illustrated presentation. Mr. Hale, Director of Administration for IMC Chemical Inc. at Trona, is a graduate of Texas Tech and has worked at Trona over 15 years through the plant's various ownerships, Kerr-McGee, North American Chemical to the present IMC Chemical , Inc. Further details were not available at press time.

The October meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m., MONDAY evening, October 18, at the Maturango Museum. Please note the change of day, which was made necessary because of new carpet being laid in the Museum the next day. Refreshments will be served following the meeting which is open to the public. Bring a friend.

OCTOBER DIRECTORS' MEETING

Director John Faron submitted his resignation due to the necessity for him and his wife Martha to relocate to the San Diego area. John has been quite an asset to the society, especially with his advocating and promoting involvement of our area's youth in the field of cultural history. John's presence and ideas will be missed.

Subject to member approval at our general meeting on MONDAY October 18, your Board has asked Bill Burns (and he has agreed) to serve the remainder of the vacated position.

In 1992 your Board approved and carried out a motion to provide the Ridgecrest Library with microfilm copies of local newspapers. This was done at a cost of several hundred dollars.

One of the massive filing tasks that Historian Susan Hueber has facing her is what to do with our accumulation of local newspapers and what contents should be saved. A possible solution is to save each newspaper issue in the aforementioned microfilm form. A preliminary cost estimate to do this is about $5,000.00. Further inquiries will be made and reported in a future newsletter.

As part of our effort to archive printed material and photographs a computer (PC) having current technology capabilities would make the task less labor intensive. Suggested minimum equipment should consist of a Pentium II processor and 17 inch color monitor, 128 megabytes of memory, 13 MB hard drive, 100MB Zip drive, 3.5 inch floppy drive, a mid-range scanner (such as HP 3200), internal writeable CD drive, a bubble jet color printer with separate black ink cartridge, internal CD ROM drive, a USB buss, and a main frame with additional expansion slots, and the software to do the archiving job.

Thanks to grants from WACOM we have $900.00 in our funds for computer purchase but need about $2,000.00 more.

Lou

HERE'S HOW TO GET AN EARLY START ON YOUR GIFT SHOPPING

Now's the time to start thinking about your holiday gifts - and we have some good suggestions for you. Why not consider the Historical Society's publications and video for both your own pleasure and information, as well as gifts to friends or relatives?

The video and books are available for purchase at our monthly meetings, through Lou Pracchia, 375-7385, and at the Maturango Museum daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can order them on-line from the Maturango Home Page. Following are brief descriptions and prices.

SAND CANYON STATION, a 37-minute video created by Mark Pahuta. Learn about construction of the first Los Angeles aqueduct, the coming of the railroad to this valley, development of the town of Brown, local homesteading, two great floods, and an earthquake. The video features historic aqueduct footage, rare family photos, original photography and personal accounts of 1930s and 1940s family life in Sand Canyon, as told by Litha Crowell Mattis, Bob Ramsey, Lois Ramsey Carr and Hank Schuette. $19.95 plus tax.

ZIG-ZAG POST OFFICE and ITS NEIGHBORS, 1885-1971, by Jane Thomann, postmaster of the Little Lake Post Office in the 1970s. The book contains information about the history of the Little Lake Post Office, as well as photographs and vignettes of early settler families in the surrounding area. $14.95 plus tax.

HOW IT WAS - SOME MEMORIES BY EARLY SETTLERS of the INDIAN WELLS VALLEY AND VICINITY. Five different accounts are included of life in the desert and nearby Sierra Nevada. $4.95 plus tax.

INDIAN WELLS VALLEY STAGE AND FREIGHT STOPS, 1874-1906, with comments by Lou Pracchia. Included in this publication are photographs and historic information about the Native American trails along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, including the trails' development into routes for transport of bullion and people in the last quarter of the 19th century. Learn the history and locations of way stations along those trails. $4.95 plus tax.

Liz

NEEDED - SPECIAL HOLIDAY ORNAMENTS FOR DECEMBER EXHIBIT

We're still looking for special ornaments from other lands to put in our holiday exhibit. There's no time like the present to locate that special ornament you'd like to share with the public over the holidays.

Last month's plea for ornaments resulted in the offer of a set of traditional German tree ornaments from Eileen Dietz and a Swedish candle-driven carousel from George Silberberg. Thanks, Eileen and George!

In late November, we plan to install our special holiday display in the vestibule cases at the Maturango Museum. (Last month I billed this as a Christmas display, but it's occurred to me since that other winter holiday ornaments would also be most appropriate and welcome.) The display will last through the month of December and be taken down sometime in early January.

If you have something you'd be willing to loan us, just call Liz Babcock at 375-7900, e-mail her at lizbab@ridgenet.net, or write her at 401 N. Warner, Ridgecrest CA 93555.

AUTHOR OF NEW SIDEWINDER BOOK WILL SPEAK IN NOVEMBER

We're happy to announce that Dr. Ron Westrum, the author of a new book about Sidewinder and China Lake will appear at our November meeting to tell us about his book. Please note that this meeting will be on our regular date - Nov. 16 - but will start at 7 p.m., half an hour earlier than usual, and will be held in Council Chambers at Ridgecrest City Hall. We expect a crowd!

The High Desert Engineering Association (hIDEA) will co-sponsor Westrum's appearance here. Ever since we invited that participation, hIDEA members have been giving Amazon.com a lot of business, ordering up copies of Westrum's book, "Sidewinder: Creative Missile Design at China Lake," a publication of the Naval Institute Press.

Copies of the book will be on sale after Westrum's talk, and he'll make himself available to autograph them.

According to the author, his book "tells the story of the Sidewinder missile and other outstanding achievements of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, and shows how the organization created an organizational environment in which ideas came to life." The book also explores the personalities and working styles of Dr. William B. McLean, inventor of Sidewinder, and other well-known China Lakers.

Westrum holds a B.A. from Harvard, cum laude, in social relations. His M.A. and his Ph.D., both in sociology, are from the University of Chicago. Since 1972 he has taught at Eastern Michigan University, where he is a professor of sociology and interdisciplinary technology. He's traveling all the way from Michigan just to give us this opportunity to meet him!

NEW MEMBER

We wish to welcome Alan Silva as a recent new member