Petroglyphs .... Part Deux

Searles Valley, part of the Mohave Desert, was definitely a popular place for Indians back in their day.  As hunter gatherers, tribes of Kitanemuk, Serrano and Koso, along with Southern Paiute lived in this area for thousands of years.  I rather imagine back then there was a little more water than we see now.

There are other canyons with petroglyphs, but none the likes of this one.We walked the sandy bottom of the stream bed finding pictures on literally every rock.

This would be the Northern end, a little narrower with more rock step-ups.  It's also the older portion of the images.

I'm sure there are lots of books on the best guess for translation.  Maybe he meant to show his entire family, who knows.

This seems to be a picture of an adle-adle, a spear used to kill mountain sheep (on the left).  It had a hook to attach to the spear, allowing him much more leverage when throwing.  

Goats, sheep, deer, dog, stick man, rain ... your guess is as good as mine.

This appears to be the only sign of a bear print in the canyon.  So my next question would be what did they make these drawings with?  I imagine a rock for the hammer, but what did they use to actually make the marks?

"Harold .... come and eat!!"  "I'm busy scratching out this lovely scene of animals so later people will wonder what in the world we were doing here!"  That HAS to be a really BIG ram on the right.  Look at those horns.  

I think this guy chewed up too many juniper berries, or like the trains of today, someone tried to cover up his work.

Again with the steps.  Does this mean go up here, it's an easy climb?  Is it a snake?  A waterfall?  Stairs to heaven?

This looks to be pretty self explanatory.  It appears to be two people shooting arrows at each other.

Lastly, this is the most seen scene from the canyon.  So maybe all those box-like images were the start of the family portrait.  That certainly seems to be the case here.

In no time, we had to leave.  It was an even longer ride back as the driver hit the brakes going up every hill and all the way down to the bottom.  We survived the ride and the weapons testing fields with flying colors.

Back at the Maturango Museum, we decided to walk through the Petroglyph Festival.  It's their claim to fame here in Ridgecrest California.  If you are ever going to be in this area, call ahead a few weeks and make reservations for the full day trip to the canyon.  It's definitely worth the time and trouble.  My trip on this day cost $45.

Although there was lots going on at the festival, like music, Indian dancers and food, we didn't stay long.  We made a quick trip down one side and up another to find most of the homemade foods were parked in the sun.  

BLM was there with their adopt a horse program.  The picture makes them look so pretty.

In reality, these yearlings were in less than perfect shape.  How scary for them to be caught and enclosed in fence.  

The baby burros of course are cute as buttons.  If you have a back pasture that needs cleaning up, they will eat practically anything.

If I was still at the ranch, I just might consider adopting ten or twelve!!

So that was it ... a day at the Petroglyph Festival in Ridgecrest California.  Definitely worth the trip to hike with these two wonderful people.

To make up for all my troubles on this trip, I was regaled with a magnificent sunset on the last night.

The perfect ending to a wonderful day in the desert, walking the same trails as the Indians did eons ago.

Indian Graffiti .... Petroglyphs

They advertise that this hike is very strenuous and you should be in excellent shape to sign up.  Some people didn't read that part and had to be hefted up into the van by two people.  On the other hand, if you can get up INTO the van, you can probably walk the canyon where the petroglyphs live.  It is an amazing sight to see!!

It is a rather long process to get approved however, since this entire historical site is located on the China Lake Naval Weapons Station, meaning you have to provide all your personal information weeks in advance in order to go through a background check.  If you have anything sketchy, you will be denied.

We, meaning Dan St John, his wife Betsy and I, arrived in time for another check-in, signing a statement that said if we died, it was on us.  Luckily for me, one volunteer did not show up, so I was allowed to sit up front with the driver to offset any carsickness I would encounter.

Worst driver EVER!!!!  Luckily we had enough brakes by the end of that really steep hill to keep us on the road.  She hit the brakes going UP as well as down, keeping the van in the middle of the two lane road.  No problem until that big Mac Truck came at us!!!

But first ... we had to go through a check at the Naval Weapons Center gate.  Police were everywhere.  Thank goodness Dan put his knife in my car at the last minute, because we were all under threat of arrest and jail if we had not complied with the long list of rules.

They lined us up with only our ID, checking us off one at a time.  Then they began the van search.  My camera was in my backpack in the front seat.  SHOULD have been in the back.  I'm going to prison, I just know it!!

NO telephoto lenses.  Now I'm REALLY in trouble with my 28-300 lens.  Good thing it stayed put and didn't extend as he pulled it out of the bag, along with everything else that was in there ... lunch, wallet, keys, glasses, etc.

One lady brought her passport and had traveled a few too many places.  They threw her up against the van.  Not really, but they certainly did grill her for ten minutes.

We drove through weapons testing sites with targets everywhere under threat of death if we took a picture.  We all had to turn our phones completely off.  We weren't even allowed to take pictures of the dozen mustangs we saw sitting under some joshua trees or the two burros I spotted hotfooting it down a trail.

Well over an hour later we arrived, 30 minutes late due to the gate delay, the bad driving and the porta-potty stop where twelve people got in line not forty minutes from the bathroom at the museum.  That cut into our hiking time, so when the guide said are you ready, let's go, I jumped in line and we were off.

Back in the 1920's, ranchers discovered this site, adding an occasional initial here and there.  Since the Navy took over in 1945, it has been a protected historical site.  Seems funny to find the Navy in the desert.

Boy were there lots of pictures to be taken.  There are literally thousands of petroglyphs lining the walls from top to bottom.  

It definitely appears these people lived in this area, probably during the springtime when water was available.  No one really knows what any of these mean.  So here's my interpretation.  Those above look like marking the days to me.  There are hundreds of these dating back 1500 years.  

You can see lots of sheep like these, which no longer exist in this area .....

and what looks like elk except for that long tail.  The "experts" say anything with a long tail is a cougar, but that doesn't explain the horns.

Every single flat surface is covered with art.  I think some of these people were more artistic than others.  There are only two griffins in the entire 1-1/2 mile long canyon, this being one of them.  

This being the other.  The ones on the sunny side of the canyon were highly visible.  If you found one and waited a second, you would find twenty more.  

What's your guess??  Looks kind of like a waterfall falling into a pool at the bottom.  Who knows .....

That's when I found the ALIEN!!!  Big head, feelers coming from the top, three legs ..... right???

The canyon sloped downhill for a long ways, but it was an easy hike with only a few long jumps down over rocks.  Running out of time (our group was the first to hit the bottom of the canyon) our guide asked if we wanted to see the upper Northern portion, much older than the bottom.  Of course we said yes, and the rush was on.

We hiked that mile in a flash.  All those pumpkin patch miles really paid off.  Not only that, but I didn't get out of breath at the 5,000 foot elevation.  

The petroglyphs at the other end are much older, dating back 2,000-3,000 years they guess.  Although many look somewhat the same, you can definitely see the differences.  They are carved much deeper into the rock and have a different patina.

I have a few more to show you, but in the interest of keeping this blog shorter than the walk, I'll post the rest tomorrow, as well as our little trip to the Petroglyph Festival of Ridgecrest.  

In the meantime, the time change has occurred, causing chaos everywhere.  Once I've unloaded the rig, I'll be on the couch!!!

Working For The Company

You have probably heard about Company Towns, built by the huge businesses to house their employees.  This little town of Trona has a long and varied history.  Borax was discovered by John Searles in the 1860's while he was looking for gold.

He started up the San Bernadino Borax Mining Company, hauling product by 20 mule teams to Southern California.  Later he sold out to Francis Smith, the Borax King.  In 1913, the American Trona Company was set up by Consolidated Gold Fields out of South Africa.  They built the railroad and began production of potash in 1915.

If you were a company executive, you got company housing.  I have to admit, these homes are VERY well built, each having a huge tin roof covering a large wrap-around porch.  Most of the homes now have enclosed porches, rather ruining the original appeal of the structure.

Mexican employees were required to live in a separate section across the tracks from the plant.  Construction workers were relegated to tent living somewhere in between.  

It appears they are all two bedroom homes with a nice galley kitchen, lots of built in storage and high ceilings.  I assume that is because it was really hot in the desert and there was no such thing as air conditioning.

They had a large bathroom, this one having been slightly remodeled.

As time went on, the Company built guest quarters and various buildings to be occupied by businesses.  One long building, now demolished, held a clothing store, the types of businesses to keep their employees happy.  

After World War II, their Latino employees gained a foothold and were finally allowed to purchase homes in the upper section, but only when those homes became available through attrition.  

In 1974, the entire lake, land, railroad and buildings, were purchased by Kerr-McGee.  Not wanting to be strapped with the company town, they sold it off piece by piece to employees who wanted to own their homes.  Then they had massive layoffs and cut production by half.

Although it has had several more owners since, the town has never recovered.  Property prices being what they are, houses don't sell, and so are rented out to very low income people.  A sad ending to an amazing little town.

Production continues today as brine is pumped from below the lake and processed using evaporation methods.

But WAIT ..... there's much more to see, as our 93 year old hostess took us out back to the Caboose Museum.  Trona Railway donated this beautiful example in excellent condition.  By the way, the trains still run the same route as they did back in the heyday of potash.

But WAIT!!!!  There's even ANOTHER railroad museum at the back in this little building.  The scales used by the railway company to weigh things can be seen, along with lots of office equipment and other paraphernalia.  

As we tried to leave, we were asked to come back one more time to the FIRE museum.  I've never seen so many little museums in such a tiny town.  We declined however, since we had a 2:00 appointment at the new Naval Weapons Museum in Ridgecrest.  That will be part of tomorrow's story.

By now we are all starving, so we headed out to Casa Corona ... fine Mexican cuisine.  It WAS pretty good food, but the place was so full of people and so loud you could hardly hear yourself think.  

And so we leave Trona for the hike to see the petroglyphs.  If you're ever here during the fall or spring, be sure and make a reservation for this one.  The hike is not nearly as bad as they say and the sights are just fascinating.

Trona ... A Gray Mineral

Who knew?  Or even cares for that matter.  Well you might be interested to learn that it's a common source of soda ash, a significant economic commodity because it's used in making glass, chemicals, paper and detergents.  Think Gallo wine bottles, since a significant portion of this plant's products are shipped to them in central California, just down the road from me.  Well at least all their grapes are grown around my little part of the world.

Why would the Golden Spike Railroad Group want to go here?  Mostly because it's on the way to Death Valley for their big encampment.  However they DO have a railroad here.  It doesn't go far, only 31 miles.

It's called the Three Elephant Route because many of the railroad's employees were English and couldn't understand why anyone would use 20 hay burning mules to haul this stuff to the railroad.  They thought three elephants could do just the same with less expense.  The name stuck.

Finally the railroad was built from Trona to a junction with the Southern Pacific Railroad.  They brought in fuel and took out potash, or whatever they were making at the time.  Originally it was borax they were after in the late 1800's around Searles Lake.  They scraped it up with mules pulling scrapers.

When the borax ran out, they tried other manufacturing processes to make other products.  At this time, they are pumping out the salty brine from under the landscape and processing that with an evaporative system.

Several companies have owned the property, with American Trona being the first.  Over the years it has changed hands, but most of the buildings remain intact.  This was the guest quarters, housing several apartments for big names guests of the company.  

Looking just the same today, it is now the museum that we visited.  Do NOT take pictures.  Our hostess with the mostest was very adamant about that.

Ninety something years old, she has almost single handedly acquired everything in this and several other buildings.  It really is a fascinating set up, showing every different owner and telling you what life was like back in the day.  She worked for the various companies until her retirement.

It took us a full two hours to get through the museum before stopping at the rest stop for lunch.  We then returned to the second museum in the Company Housing section.

It's fascinating, this little town.  The Mexicans were only allowed to live on the far side of the tracks, with all the upper echelon folks having houses in the company town.  Every one is built exactly the same, with huge tin roofs and big front porches.  

There's way too much stuff for a single post.  I'll finish up tomorrow.  Today I'm going on that petroglyph hike.  Wish me luck ... it's located at over 5000 feet and they promise it to be cold!!!

Not Exactly My Best Trip .....

Ever have one of THOSE days???  I'm hoping all of this stuff happened at once so I can get it out of the way.  Otherwise, I'm in BIG trouble!!

After half way washing the rig and getting stuff packed, I checked most everything off my list.  Time to hook up the Jeep.  DRAT!!  Low tire light.  I drug the heavy air compressor out and plugged it in.  I'm sure the neighbors loved me, it's so loud.

I used the tire pressure gauge to check before filling.  All it said was Lo .. meaning it needed a new battery.  Really, I don't have time for this.  I found another one in the truck.  Finally I'm ready to hook up.  Ever since being repaired in Indio, this hitch is the pits!  It's so stiff and tight, it's hard to move at all.  I used my knees, as I do with everything I'm trying to move.

That's when DISASTER happened.  All the wires pulled completely out of the plug on the rig.  OH GREAT!!!  Of course my first call was to Mr. Chance, but alas, he was in the dentist's office.  I looked on-line for a schematic, but they were all for six or seven wires.  I only have four.

I called my backup, Bingo Buddy Mark.  He pulls a huge fifth wheel and is a GREAT handyman.  Until he arrived, I messed with it totally guessing where stuff went from all the pictures on the web.  I actually did pretty good, with only one of four in the wrong spot.

Still, I have no right turn signal on the Jeep.  Something is wrong, but apparently it's on the Jeep side.  I'll  have to fix it later as I was already two hours late.  I took a picture so I will know where the wires go next time.

Traffic was terrible.  I rarely pass anyone, but on this day every slow vehicle in the State was in my lane.  My mind wandered as it does driving down the highway.  No worries about fuel, I filled up just 20 miles from home on my way back from Arizona.

I glanced down at the gauge.  WHAT?????  I have just over half a tank.  How is that possible?  I haven't driven it at all!!  That's when it hit me.  Someone siphoned fuel from my tank ... and the only someones who know how to get in my back yard are the GARDENERS!!!!!  I was instantly enraged.  

I already had to pay a kid to take the lawn clippings OUT of the trash bin because the Trash Company won't dump it otherwise.  Not once, but TWICE, even though I wrote all over the top of the can NO GRASS NO GRASS NO GRASS!!!

They also cut my landscape lights again and no matter how many times I have called, they have NOT called me back.  I'm going to let them keep going for another month and I'm NOT PAYING THEM!!

Calm down dear, it doesn't help at all to get mad.  I pulled in at the next Pilot station for fuel.  That reminded me to check on that last purchase.  I paid for $230 on my credit card, but it only took $178. I needed to be sure they gave me the credit back.  

I about came unglued.  Could it get any worse?  They charged me the entire $230 with NO credit.  This is officially the worst trip EVER!!

Finally over Tehachapi Pass, I cut North on Highway 14 to the big city of Ridgecrest.  My how you have changed.  It was nothing but a few houses and a gas station way back in the day when I was here as a kid.  

So the reason I signed up for this rally was to view the Petroglyphs at the China Lake Naval Air Station.  Having received my clearance after much paperwork back in September, I was looking forward to it until I ended up working all of October.  Now I'm pretty beat up, and another two hour hike doesn't sound so good after all.

I finally arrived in one piece at the Ridgecrest Elks Lodge.  Our small group of 15 got smaller as one rig got in an accident and one blew out her hip ... ouch!!  With mostly new members, I only know four of the group and feel rather out of place.  Time to make new friends.

The puppies and I went to bed early.  I knew 4:30 would come quickly and I was VERY tired from driving 5-1/2 hours to get here.  

On today's menu .... Trona Railroad Museum (it was a company town, now apparently a welfare town) and the China Lake Naval Weapons Museum, if they let us in.  I think I can sneak in a little snooze from 4-5:00.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Okay, I'm one day late.

I was up early again to head out to the Patch for clean up day.  Mostly we cleaned up the snack bar.  With everything boxed up, identified with contents and stashed in the container storage building, it was finally time to call an end to the Pumpkin Patch.

I was too tired to buy candy or set up anything at my house for trick or treating.  My plan was to go home and contemplate packing the RV.  That's when I got the text message.   "We're bringing Braden by tonight!!!!  He's so excited!!!"  That elicited this expression from me.

RATS!!  I loaded up a passel of pumpkins for the front porch and drug out my main man, the Butler.  Then I made a mad dash to the store for candy, along with ice cream to make the butter pecan ice cream dessert for thirteen people (RV Rally).

I came back in the house, rushed to the bathroom and almost didn't make it.  The MAN scared me half to death.  I thought someone was in the house.  It happens every time!!!  You would think I would learn, since he's been with me almost 15 years.

I whipped together the pie dessert and unloaded all the candy.  That's when I got the SECOND text message.  "So Braden is going to be with his Dad out of town tonight".  I hung my head in defeat.  I could have just sat on the couch and relaxed.  

Now I have all this candy, so I HAVE to open the door tonight instead of sleeping peacefully!!  Otherwise, I'll eat all of this candy and gain back the weight I lost.  BIG SIGH!!

I hauled some of it to the rig, only to discover it was filthy dirty.  I mean REALLY dirty.  I drug out the squeegee/window washer and gave it the once over, emptied and filled the water tank and gave it a quick wipe down inside.  It's going to bother me the whole trip, but I'm pretty good at ignoring things like that.

There were not as many kids as candy, but I got rid of quite a bit.  The parents lamented that I didn't dress up this year.  I was just too tired.  I think I finally reached my leg limit.  

This morning I'll pack up the essentials and hit the road.  At least it's the bare minimum so there's no big "haul" to carry out and pack.  Plus, I'll be sitting down the whole way!!!