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Archeological Resources / Historic Resources

Archeological Resources

Various cultural resources studies have examined archeological resources in the Mojave National Preserve area. The most significant studies are: Davis, Brown, and Nichols, Evaluation of Early Human Activities and Remains in the California Desert (1980); Warren, Knack, and Warren, A Cultural Resource Overview for the Amargosa-Mojave Basin Planning Units (1980); Brooks, Wilson, and Brooks, An Archaeological Inventory Report of the Owlshead/Amargosa-Mojave Basin Planning Units of the Southern California Desert Area (1981); King and Casebier, Background to Historic and Prehistoric Resources of the East Mojave Desert Region (1981).

Pleistocene Era

Although evidence of human occupation during the Pleistocene Era remains a controversial subject, some researchers have suggested a pre-projectile point horizon where a crude flaking technology was used and where the ancient lakeshores may have provided a favorable environment for human occupation.

Lake Mojave Period, 10,000–5000 B.C.

The Lake Mojave complex, which most archeologists consider to be a Paleo-Indian assemblage, is also thought to be ancestral to the early Archaic cultures of the Pinto period.

This complex has become the comparative unit for "Early Man" in the Mojave Desert, and similarities to sites in the western Great Basin and to the San Dieguito complex of southern California have been noted.

Sites of the Lake Mojave period are nearly always limited to the surface, and it is possible that two or more assemblages are represented at some of these sites. Many of the sites are associated with shoreline features of Pleistocene lakes, such as the shorelines of extinct Lakes Mojave and Manly, and near springs.

Pinto Period, 5000–2000 B.C.

Dramatic environmental changes came to the Mojave Desert with the end of the Pleistocene Era, characterized by harsh climatic conditions with higher temperatures and lower precipitation. Lakes and rivers dried up, and available resources were much reduced. Human adaptation to these new environmental conditions appears to be represented by the Pinto period assemblages.

The Pinto sites are most often limited to surface manifestation or have poorly developed middens with relatively low artifact density. They appear to have been seasonal camps of small groups of highly mobile people. The small number of Pinto period sites, together with their apparent temporary occupation of hunting large and small game and collecting vegetable resources, suggests that the population was sparse and poorly adapted to the increasingly arid conditions of the desert environment. During particularly arid periods, they probably withdrew to the margins of the desert and to perennial springs and microenvironments less affected by the overall climatic deterioration, and during more moist periods they likely expanded their territory in the lower desert areas to take advantage of the shallow lakes, marshes, and springs. During the later part of the Pinto period, when the Mojave Desert was at its most arid, the population of the Mojave Desert seems to have decreased, although a mosaic of microenvironments permitted localized habitation throughout the desert.

Gypsum Period, 2000 B.C.–A.D. 500

The beginning of the Gypsum period coincided with the commencement of a more moist climatic era, often referred to as the Little Pluvial, about 2000 b.c. The Gypsum period was a time of intensive occupation of the desert coupled with a broadening of economic activities and increasing contact with the California coast and the Southwest. The bow and arrow were introduced late in this period, making hunting more efficient.

Although hunting continued to be an important economic pursuit during the Gypsum period, milling stones and handstones became common during this period, indicating increased use of plant foods and reliance on hard seeds. Mortars and pestles and manos and metates are reported at Mesquite Flat in Death Valley and on the Amargosa River, where they dated between 2080 and 3250 b.c. These sites are located near or in mesquite groves, suggesting that the processing of mesquite pods with the mortar and pestle may have become an important element in the subsistence system.

Generally, the Gypsum period was a time in which the Mojave Desert population incorporated new technological items and ritual activities and increased socioeconomic ties through trade. Because of these new means of adaptation, the return of arid conditions toward the end of the Gypsum period had relatively little effect on the Mojave Desert’s population density and distribution.

Saratoga Springs Period, A.D. 500–1200

In the northern Mojave, from Death Valley to the Sierra Nevada, the sites of the Saratoga Springs period appear to exhibit cultural continuity with the Gypsum period, change being most apparent in the reduction in size of projectile points as a result of the introduction of the bow and arrow. During the Saratoga Springs period, there appears to be a refinement of adaptation to the arid environment of the northwest Mojave, and presumably the beginnings of the eastward expansion across the Mojave of Numic-speaking groups, who were the ancestors of the historic Shoshone and Paiute who inhabited the region at the time of Euro-American contact.

Essentially, the same assemblage was present across the Mojave Desert north of the Mojave River. However, Basketmaker-Pueblo influences increased with Anasazi occupation of the lower Virgin and Muddy Rivers. Research suggests that the Anasazi controlled turquoise mines near Halloran Spring in the east-central Mojave between about a.d. 700 and 900, followed by Hakataya peoples, who withdrew about a.d. 1200–1300. Finally, the Southern Paiute used the area in late prehistoric times. The mining of turquoise resulted in Anasazi influence in much of the eastern Mojave, because small parties of these Virgin and Muddy River villagers used the region for intermittent and seasonal foraging. The extent of these forays has not been determined, but it appears to have been considerable, particularly in well-watered areas such as Las Vegas Valley, Ash Meadows, and the Spring Mountains. The area of this influence can be mapped by the distribution of Anasazi sherds occurring in considerable frequency at sites in southern Nevada and in California as far west as the Cronise Basin, west of Soda Lake. Anasazi influence set the eastern Mojave apart from the remainder of the desert.

During this time, the Mojave River also developed as a trade route between the Colorado River and the California coast. As a result of this trade, the ceramic and projectile point styles of the lower Colorado River spread through the Mojave River Valley, along with shell beads and ornament styles from the coastal region.

The cultural development of the Mojave Desert south of the Mojave River and Providence Mountains diverged from that in the northern area during this period. Few points of the Rose Spring series and virtually no Anasazi pottery occur in the southern Mojave. Artifact types, such as knives, drills, milling stones, mortars and pestles, stone pipes, bone awls, and shell and stone ornaments show close similarities to their counterparts in the later pottery-bearing sites along the Mojave River.

Shoshonean Period, 1200 A.D.–Euro-American Contact

The Shoshonean period clearly anticipates the historic Native Americans with evidence of bow and arrow hunting, exploitation of plant resources using milling stones, and use of circular houses. The Anasazi influence faded after A.D.1200 as a result of changes in climatic conditions, population movements, settlement patterns, social organization, and trade alignments.

The Mojave River Valley and the southern Mojave continued to be influenced by the well-developed trade system in which the Antelope Valley people of the western Mojave functioned as middlemen between California coastal and interior populations. Village sites on the upper Mojave developed, apparently dependent in part on the trade with the coastal region. Compared with other parts of the desert region, these villages appeared to be more elaborate; there are house pits, more abundant shell beads and ornaments, and the painting of utilitarian items such as metates with several different colors of pigment. Late in the Shoshonean period (ca. A.D. 1650), the trade networks involving both the Mojave River and Antelope Valley peoples appear to have been disrupted, bringing an end to the villages in Antelope Valley and reducing the intensity of activity along the Mojave River.

Historic Archeology

Historic archeological sites in the NEMO planning area are largely associated with transportation corridors, water sources, and mining operations during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Status of Archeological Research

To date, archeological work in the national preserve has been driven primarily by compliance actions related to specific development projects, and no systematic, scientific archeological surveys have been conducted. Archeological sites in Mojave National Preserve include prehistoric villages with rock shelters, petroglyphs, and pictographs, as well as quarries and high-density lithic scatters in the Providence Mountains; petroglyphs in the Woods Mountains, Cinder Cones, and Lanfair Valley; large open sites, rock shelters, and pictographs in the Granite Mountains; numerous clusters of fire-affected rocks with associated pottery, milling assemblage, and lithic tools in the vicinity of Pleistocene lakeshores; large roasting pits associated with limestone formations in the Mescal Range and Clark Mountains; an extensive string of campsites, milling sites, and lithic scatters in the Piute Range; and campsites and petroglyphs associated with prehistoric trails connecting the Colorado River with the Pacific Coast.

Landforms and Archeological Resources

While archeological sites are found on virtually every type of landform in the NEMO planning area, the persistent association of certain features with archeological sites allows for fairly reliable estimates about the types of landforms that are likely to support sites. Proximity to fresh water and food resources are the primary variables influencing Native American site location. For example, a spring in or near a mesquite grove would be an optimal location for a site. An alluvial fan generally lacks resources and would not have been a primary occupation or food collecting and processing site, but it could have been the location of food storage facilities or a temporary campsite, trail, burial site, or rock art site, all of which fall outside the parameters of a model based solely on subsistence variables.

However, previous environmental conditions must also be considered. Ancient late Pleistocene Era/early Lake Mojave Period beach features associated with now-extinct lacustrine and riparian habitat were prime occupation or food collecting and processing sites over 6,000 years ago, in spite of what the present landscape may look like.

Euro-American sites, while generally more easily identified than prehistoric sites, are generally associated with transportation networks and resource procurement/exploitation features. In the NEMO planning area, transportation routes, water sources, and mining operations are prime locations where such archeological sites may be found. The network of interconnecting roads is usually preserved and is easily discernible from aerial photographs and early maps.

National Register of Historic Places

Three prehistoric archeological sites or districts located in or near the national preserve are listed on the National Register of Historic Places:

Eleven archeological sites in or near the national preserve were determined eligible for listing on the national register on May 24, 1982:

Historic Resources

Various cultural resource studies and publications have examined historic resources in Mojave National Preserve. The most significant studies and publications are Westec Services, Inc., A History of Land Use In the California Desert Conservation Area (1978); Warren, Knack, and Warren, A Cultural Resource Overview for the Amargosa-Mojave Basin Planning Units (1980); Norwood and Bull, A Cultural Resource Overview of the Eureka, Saline, Panamint and Darwin Region, East Central California (1980); King and Casebier, Background to Historic and Prehistoric Resources of the East Mojave Desert Region (1981); Vredenburgh, Shumway, and Hartill, Desert Fever: An Overview of Mining in the California Desert (1981).

There is an impressive inventory of historical resources in the Mojave National Preserve area. The mountains and valleys contain sites associated with early Spanish and American exploration and survey of the vast Mojave Desert region, and the area is laced with remnants of prehistoric and protohistoric Native American trails as well as Euro-American trails, wagon roads, railroads, highways, and other early transportation arteries. The region contains numerous remnants of abandoned mining operations, sites of settlements long gone and nearly forgotten, railroad grades and railway structures, and sites associated with military operations against the Native Americans. Fencelines, water tanks, and corrals testify to a continuing ranching-grazing industry; scattered remains of homesteads tell of a time when dryland farming was attempted in this arid land; and the outlines of military camps are reminders of the days during World War II when American troops trained for campaigns in other parts of the world.

 Exploration

The first Euro-American exploration expedition to enter the NEMO planning area was led by the Spanish priest Francisco Garces during 1775 – 76. Garces, a Franciscan stationed at San Xavier del Bac near present Tucson, Arizona, accompanied Captain Juan Bautista de Anza on the latter’s second expedition to California as part of the Spanish effort to settle Alta California. After Anza’s main party crossed the Colorado River near present Yuma, Garces, accompanied by Indian companions, attempted to find a new trade and communications route between the Spanish settlements in Alta California and the upper Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico by traveling up the Colorado as far as the Mojave villages, and then with Mojave Indian guides crossing the Mojave Desert on what would become known as the Mojave Indian Trail through present Mojave National Preserve, and eventually arriving at Mission San Gabriel near present Los Angeles. Later, still accompanied by Mojave guides, he returned to the Mojave villages, crossing the Mojave Desert over a more northerly route through the present national preserve.

After the Mojaves committed various depredations against the Spanish settlements, Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga led a force of about 50 men to strike the Mojave homeland. Leading his force down the Mojave River and eastward into the desert, the Moraga expedition progressed one full day’s travel east of Soda Lake before being forced to turn back by desert conditions.

In 1826, Jedediah Strong Smith, credited with being the first United States citizen to reach the Mexican settlements in California overland, crossed the Mojave Desert via the Mojave villages on the Colorado River and the Mojave Indian Trail. He made a repeat trip in 1827, and during the next several years a steady flow of American "mountain men," including prominent personalities such as William Wolfskill, George C. Yount, Christopher "Kit" Carson, and Ewing Young would enter California via the Mojave villages and the Mojave Indian Trail. For the most part, these early travelers were fur trappers looking for new untapped fields.

During 1853–54, informal exploration by Francois X. Aubry, and more extensive expeditions by U.S. Army engineer Lieutenants Robert S. Williamson and Amiel W. Whipple, traversed the present Mojave National Preserve in attempts to identify the most practicable route along the 35th parallel for a transcontinental railroad across eastern California. These explorations resulted in the acquisition of significant topographic and scientific information about the 35th parallel route.

George M. Wheeler’s extensive topographic and scientific surveys west of the 100th meridian for the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers during the 1870s earned him national recognition and made an invaluable contribution to the knowledge of the West. During his first major expedition in 1871, Wheeler’s men reconnoitered some 72,250 square miles, covering portions of lower Nevada, eastern California, southwestern Utah, and northwestern, central, and southern Arizona, including the Mojave Desert. The success of this expedition enabled Wheeler to obtain congressional support for the extensive program of exploration that he would undertake throughout the rest of the decade. During 1875 his detachments again penetrated Death Valley via Darwin Canyon and Panamint Valley, and the Mojave from the south edge of Death Valley to the Colorado River. The Wheeler surveys recorded data on archeology, geology, botany, zoology, and Native Americans and developed topographic maps of the region.

During the late 1890s and early 1900s, state and federal government geologists arrived in the area that is now the Mojave National Preserve to conduct the initial scientific studies of the area’s geological formations and mineralogical potential. Surveyors from the U.S. Geological Survey mapped most of the area during the early 1900s, producing the first reliable topographic maps of the region. In 1909 Walter C. Mendenhall, who would later become director of the Geological Survey, issued a guide to the "watering places" throughout the eastern California-southern Nevada desert country, providing detailed information and maps on the main routes of travel and the location and description of irrigating and artesian waters and springs in the region.

 Transportation

The lands in the Mojave National Preserve have served as an east-west transportation corridor across the eastern Mojave Desert since prehistoric times, spanning the range from Native American trails to travel by horse, mule, wagon, railroad, and automobile. Variants of the Mojave Indian Trail, used by Native Americans for centuries, were followed by explorers, mountain men, and traders beginning during the late 1820s, establishing what would become known as the Old Spanish Trail.

Because sectional conflict that would ultimately lead to Civil War prevented the construction of a transcontinental railroad until the 1860s, attention turned to developing and improving of wagon roads and postal routes to connect "the States" with the American Southwest that the United States had acquired as a result of the Mexican War. During 1857 – 60 Edward F. Beale served as superintendent of a project to survey and improve a wagon road over the 35th parallel route from Fort Defiance, New Mexico (present northeastern Arizona) to the Mojave villages on the Colorado. As part of his work, Beale’s crews improved the Mojave Indian Trail through the eastern Mojave to Los Angeles. While making his wagon road improvements, Beale conducted his noted "camel experiment," using camels that had been imported by the U.S. War Department during 1855 –56. By the summer of 1858, at least five emigrant wagon trains had attempted to use the new route to travel from New Mexico to Los Angeles.

Encountering extreme hardships and attacks by the Mojave Indians at the Colorado River in August 1858, the emigrant trains were forced to return to New Mexico, halting use of the 35th parallel route as an overland transcontinental route. In response, Major William Hoffman led the "Colorado Expedition" against the Mojaves, arriving at their villages in late April 1859. The Mojaves surrendered to Hoffman’s superior force, and a post known as Fort Mojave was established on the east side of Beale’s Crossing of the Colorado. The post, which would remain until 1890, controlled the Mojave tribe and served as a depot for army operations in the eastern Mojave Desert in California, southern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona. Using government teams with civilian teamsters, wagonmasters, and herders, Captain Winfield Scott Hancock, U.S. Army quartermaster in Los Angeles, supplied distant Fort Mojave via Beale’s wagon road, which has become generally known as the Mojave Road. The Mojave Road continued to serve as the major thoroughfare across the eastern Mojave until 1883, when a railroad was built across the desert from San Francisco via Daggett to Needles. During the 1870s immense herds of sheep and other livestock were driven over the Mojave Road to Arizona and New Mexico when new ranges were discovered that were becoming safe from Indian threats.

In 1860 Major James H. Carleton led the 1st Dragoons against the Southern Paiutes and Chemehuevis, commonly referred to as Pah-Utes, who had undertaken periodic attacks against wagon trains on the Mojave Road in the eastern Mojave in defense of their water sources, game, and traditional lifeways. During the course of his campaign, Carleton and the Indian peoples engaged in a series of running skirmishes at Old Dad Mountain, Marl Springs, the Providence and Granite mountain ranges, Kelso Dunes, and the Devil’s Playground. Carlton established an army post on the Mojave River, which he named Camp Cady, as well as a short-lived adobe redoubt at Soda Springs. Isolated depredations against wagon trains persisted after 1860, and when the Arizona Overland Mail used the Mojave Road as a postal route during 1866–68, the U.S. Army established relay posts across the desert at Soda Springs, Marl Springs, Rock Spring, and Piute Creek to provide escort riders for the mail carriers. Military authorities at Fort Mojave made peace with the Pah-Utes in 1867, and by 1870 the Indians had ceased to be a factor of concern to the growing numbers of Euro-Americans who were entering the region to establish mines and ranches.

During the early 1880s, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, owned in part by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, began construction along the 35th parallel route from the east. The Southern Pacific (closely linked with the Central Pacific and led by Collis P. Huntington, one of California’s major railroad magnates) began construction of a rail line southward from San Francisco to meet the Atlantic and Pacific at Needles. By April 1883 the Southern Pacific Line was completed across the eastern Mojave from Mojave to Needles, and in May the Atlantic and Pacific reached the opposite bank of the Colorado. After a settlement between the two railroads, the Colorado River was bridged, and on August 9, 1883, the 35th parallel rail line was connected, thus opening a transcontinental route between California and Springfield, Missouri. This rail line, now owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, would stimulate the economic and mining development of the eastern Mojave.

The Nevada Southern Railroad completed a line from Goffs to the mining settlement of Manvel in the New York Mountains by the summer of 1893. Reorganized as the California Eastern Railroad Company in 1895, the rail line was extended to the Ivanpah Valley in 1901– 02. The Santa Fe took over the railway in 1902, and, during 1906–07, a branch line was constructed from Barnwell (formerly Manvel) to Searchlight, Nevada. That branch operated until 1923.

The San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad, jointly owned by copper king William A. Clark (who established the company in 1901) and Edward H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad (who had subsequently purchased one-half of the company’s stock) constructed its tracks through the present Mojave National Preserve in 1905, thus filling the last significant gap in transcontinental railroad lines from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. Later, this "Salt Lake Route" to southern California, officially renamed the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, would be fully controlled by the Union Pacific, and the company would construct the extant mission revival style Kelso Depot in 1924 to serve as a hotel, restaurant, and office for train crews that provided 24-hour essential helper (engine) service 19 miles eastward from Kelso to the top of Cima Hill. Cima emerged as a small railroad community, featuring a wye on which the helper locomotives from Kelso could be turned to return to Kelso.

During the early 1900s, Francis M. "Borax" Smith attempted to tap his Amargosa Valley borax properties near Death Valley with a traction road consisting of a rock-based wagon road from his newly developed Lila C. Mine to the California Eastern railhead at Ivanpah II (there were three settlements with the name of Ivanpah). In April 1904 a traction engine left Ivanpah on the inaugural trip, but it completed only 14 miles before bogging down. Smith then determined to build the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, extending northward from Ludlow through the Mojave National Preserve area to Beatty, Nevada. Operating from 1907 to 1940, the railroad, along with its feeder lines, tapped the growing mining settlements in the present day Mojave National Preserve area.

With the emergence of the automobile age, efforts were initiated to develop a highway system across the United States. The Mojave Road served as the antecedent for the eastern Mojave portion of the "Ocean-to-Ocean Highway," sometimes referred to as the "National Old Trails Highway," which was constructed in 1914 between San Bernardino and Needles. Eventually this highway would become known as Route 66, a transcontinental road connecting Chicago with Los Angeles. The highway, which skirted the southern edge of the Mojave National Preserve area, was paved during the 1930s with funds and manpower provided by Depression-era public works agencies. Route 66 became a significant transportation artery during the Depression for people who wanted to leave the Dust Bowl to make a new start in California. During the early 1970s Route 66 was replaced by Interstate 40, and today the historic route, known as the National Old Trails Highway (determined eligible for listing on the national register as an archeological district on April 26, 1993), serves as a nostalgic reminder of early automobile transcontinental travel.

The Arrowhead Trail, originally marked from San Bernardino via Las Vegas to Salt Lake City during 1914 – 16 and realigned as U.S. 91 during the late 1920s, was replaced by present-day Interstate Highway 15 during the 1960s. The highway skirts the north edge of the national preserve.

Mining

Gold and silver discoveries in the Colorado River Basin during the late 1850s and early 1860s sent hundreds of prospectors trekking across the eastern Mojave. As a result, prospectors discovered silver near Rock Spring in the present Mojave National Preserve, and the Rock Spring (or Macedonian) Mining District was established in 1863. Silver deposits were soon discovered south of the Mojave Road in the Providence Mountains. For the next several years, mining camps proliferated in the Providence Mountains/Mid Hills/New York Mountains region, but the principal settlement was at Rock Spring, where the first post office in the present national preserve was established in 1866.

Although the mines in the Providence, Coso, and Slate ranges were vacated during the late 1860s because of trouble with Native Americans who sought to protect their traditional lands against the influx of Euro-American miners, the threat of Indian attack was removed by 1870, and prospectors began heading back to the abandoned portions of the desert. The Copper World was discovered near Valley Wells southwest of Clark Mountain about 1868, and silver was discovered south of Clark Mountain in 1869, resulting in establishment of the first site of Ivanpah, where much of the mining history of the eastern Mojave would be centered during the 1870s. Silver continued to be mined in the Macedonia District in 1872 and in the New York Mountains during 1873.

The prosperous national economy after the Civil War stimulated mining ventures in the California desert region, but the bank panic in 1873 and subsequent depression curtailed speculative capital for mining. The coming of the railroads during the 1880s stimulated new mining ventures in the eastern Mojave, particularly in San Bernardino County. Ivanpah, worked since 1870 for silver, was developed by two companies in 1880 – 81. Two prospectors from Ivanpah discovered the rich Bonanza King silver mine on the eastern slopes of the Providence Mountains, resulting in establishment of Providence, which flourished during 1883–85, and Crow Town. The Cambria Mine at Nantan was active during 1885–86.

Gold mining dominated mining ventures in the eastern California desert region during the 1890s, the Panic of 1893 resulting in political decisions favorable to gold interests over those of silver ventures. During this time, the widespread use of cyanide for treating gold ore sent many prospectors out to rework old dumps, and formerly unprofitable mines were reopened. These developments led to discovery and development of the Gold Bronze and Boomerang mines in the New York Mountains, the Telegraph Mine near Halloran Springs, and the Paymaster (Whitney) Mine near Old Dad Mountain southeast of Baker. The rise in copper prices during the 1890s resulted in reopening the Copper World Mine in 1898. Other mining ventures included development of copper, lead, and silver deposits in the New York Mountains, where the town of Vanderbilt was established, its name being chosen to signify the great wealth that the mines were believed to possess. The rich gold mine of Bagdad Chase, southeast of Ludlow and several miles outside the national preserve, was discovered about 1898, and during 1904 – 52 this mine would produce more than $6,000,000, or more than half of the recorded gold mined in the San Bernardino County since 1880.

Not until the early 1900s did conditions become conducive to large-scale hardrock mining operations in the eastern California desert region, prompted in part by the improvement of transportation facilities and by a renewal of interest in gold and silver. The significant discovery at Goldfield, Nevada, in 1903 led to a stampede early the following year. During the fall of 1904, the mining rush extended southward to Rhyolite and soon spilled over into Inyo and San Bernardino counties in eastern California. A variety of metallic minerals were exploited in the national preserve area during the 1900s, including gold (Castle Mountains, and Old Dad Mountain; copper (Vontrigger Hills, Clark Mountain); lead, zinc and silver (Mid Hills, [especially the Death Valley Mine], Mountain Pass). This activity resulted in the formation of boomtowns whose progress paralleled for a time the maturation of Goldfield, Tonopah, and Rhyolite in Nevada. Ephemeral mining camps, such Vontrigger Camp, Goldbend, Gold Valley, Gold Park, Dawson, Kewanee, and Hart, sprang up throughout the desert region. These mining ventures flourished until the financial panic of 1907, which resulted in an immediate slowdown of work and often total cessation of mining activity.

Although the inflationary 1920s put a damper on new mineral discoveries and mining development in the California desert, some mining activity continued. Since the early 1920s, clay used for ceramic purposes has been mined in the Castle Mountains. During 1924–25, gold was discovered north of Goffs on the south slope of Hackberry Mountain, and a new Vontrigger camp emerged.

The 1930s witnessed a revival of gold mining in the desert. Although the major discoveries occurred in Kern County, older districts, such as the Vanderbilt, experienced revivals. Prospecting was conducted where gold was known to have occurred, and some new discoveries were made as a result of this heightened interest.

The United States recovered from the Depression largely as a result of the worldwide demand for industrial and military-related products with the onset of World War II. Factories were placed in full production to turn out war materials, and the government paid premium prices for minerals such as tungsten, antimony, manganese, iron, copper, lead, and zinc necessary for military industrial production. Mines producing these ores, such as the Kaiser Steel Company’s Vulcan Mine northwest of Foshay Pass in the Providence Mountains, which provided more than 2,000,000 tons of iron ore during 1942–48 to supply its new steel mill at Fontana, prospered during the war. Concerned that more than 20,000 men were employed at 250 gold mines and 700 placer mines throughout the western United States, the War Production Board issued Limitation Order L-208 on October 8, 1942, classifying gold mines (lode mines producing less than 1,200 tons in 1941 were exempt) as nonessential for the war effort and giving mine owners 60 days to cease operations.

Uranium fever, much like the gold fever of earlier days, swept the eastern Mojave during the mid-1950s. Tungsten prospecting revived after World War II, and a major talc industry that had begun during World War I (but had never thrived because of limited markets and remoteness of the deposits) revived. Talc has also been mined in the Kingston Mountain region, and cinders have been quarried from the Cinder Cones and Lava Beds (Aiken Mine) areas southeast of Baker. Rare earth minerals have been mined on a large scale in the Mountain Pass area southeast of Clark Mountain. Periodic gold excitement has resulted in reactivation of gold mining operations in the eastern Mojave, including the Vanderbilt Mine in 1968 and the Bagdad-Chase Mine south of Ludlow during the early 1970s.

Ranching/Homesteading

Throughout the eastern California desert region, little oases with rich pockets of ground could become for a time more profitable bonanzas than most of the surrounding mineral lands. These isolated patches of fertile soil and perennial springs could produce crops of vegetables, fruit, and hay or fatten a herd of beef cattle, providing quick fortunes for the homesteader or rancher as long as the neighboring mining camps boomed. Although most ranchers held 160-acre homestead claims, they were usually able to irrigate only a fraction of that, while their stock ranged free for miles beyond. The proximity of ranches and mining camps determined the profitability of both, but ultimately it was the size of the ore pocket that limited the size of the salable crop, so as the mines went from boom to bust, so did the ranches.

The natural fecundity of watered land in the NEMO planning area had long been demonstrated by Native Americans, who raised crops of corn, beans, melons, and squash around some of the springs and seeps.

Miners who established the Rock Spring Mining District in 1863 probably were likely the first to maintain cattle and horses for extended periods in the east Mojave. Military garrisons and mining settlements in the region would continue to provide a market for fresh milk, meat, vegetables, and fruits.

The Rock Springs Land and Cattle Company (RSLCC) was incorporated in 1894, consolidating the earliest ranches in and near the present Mojave National Preserve (the Kessler Springs Ranch was the first, dating from the 1870s), and during subsequent years it extended its cattle operations over much of the eastern Mojave and into southern Nevada. The company, headquartered in the present national preserve, spent large sums to establish claims for exclusive use and improvement of the area’s water sources. By 1920 the ranch would have nearly 10,000 head of cattle on its more than 1,000,000-acres. The ranch remained the dominant force in the cattle industry in the east Mojave until 1927, when one of its corporate members died and the company interests were subdivided. From 1927 until 1988, the OX Cattle Company, headquartered in Lanfair Valley and a direct descendent of the RSLCC, was the largest ranch in the east Mojave, operating over only a fraction of the area controlled by its predecessor, while other parts of the former range were operated as smaller ranches such as the Gold Valley, Overson, Kessler Springs, Valley View, and Blair ranches.

Beginning about 1910, settlers established homesteads and attempted dryland farming in the east Mojave, taking advantage of a cycle of particularly wet years. Although homesteads were established in many places, including Barnwell, Crucero, Goffs, and Pinto Valley, the majority (some 200–250 patents) were centered in Lanfair Valley, named for Ernest L. Lanfair, a merchant from Searchlight, Nevada, who filed the valley’s first claim. After marginal success in drilling wells in Lanfair Valley, the settlers were forced to haul water over the Mojave Road from Government Holes, the one remaining water source in public ownership. By the late 1910s, dry years had returned, and many homesteaders had left the area. After the abandonment of the railroad between Barnwell and Searchlight in 1923, most of the remaining settlers moved out.

Dunbar was a black settlement established in 1911, 1 mile north of the Lanfair townsite in Lanfair Valley by G. W. Harts and Howard Folke, and at its peak the community numbered approximately 20 households. Harts tried an experiment in cotton cultivation, and Dr. C. H. Duvall planned construction of a home and industrial school for orphans on 40 acres of donated land, but the settlement was short-lived, its post office closing in May 1914.

Many homes stood empty in the east Mojave at the beginning of the Depression. Driven by the economic downturn, people moved into some abandoned sites and managed to eke out a living, some trying to mine gold on an almost primitive scale. These proud people, unwilling to face the urban soup lines, quietly wrote a chapter in the history of the eastern California desert.

Communication

The first transcontinental telephone line, in operation from New York to San Francisco by 1915, crossed the present national preserve, but traces of the line have disappeared. Examples of significant communication lines in the national preserve area include the first powerline constructed from Hoover Dam to the Los Angeles area during the 1930s and an early telephone line that parallels the Santa Fe Railroad.

During the 1960s the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (AT&T) constructed an underground communications cable network throughout the United States. In the early 1980s the system was upgraded to accommodate current technological advances using Phillips technology; hence, it was renamed the P140 coaxial cable system. At the present time, AT&T, which owns and operates approximately 709 miles of the system between Mojave, California, and Socorro, New Mexico, is proposing to remove communications cable, marker posts, manholes, and repeater stations (incompatible with the company’s current fiber optic network) from a 220-mile right-of-way that includes national preserve lands.

Federal Administration

Until the 1930s the public lands in the national preserve area were administered by the General Land Office (GLO), established in 1812 as a bureau in the U.S. Treasury Department and later transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1849. In 1934 the Taylor Grazing Act provided for the segregation of up to 8,000,000 acres (later raised to 142,000,000 acres) for grazing purposes under the jurisdiction of the newly established Grazing Service (GS) in the Interior Department. The Bureau of Land Management was established in 1946, uniting the functions of the former GLO and GS. The bureau was given responsibility for administrating and managing all public lands in the United States and Alaska, including its surface and subsurface resources.

Modern Military Training

General George S. Patton selected much of the eastern Mojave and part of the Colorado Desert to train his troops for the North Africa campaigns during World War II. Although Patton left with his troops for North Africa in 1942 after less than a year’s training, more than 1,000,000 men destined for many of the war’s major battlefields were processed through the Desert Training Center, or the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (C-AMA) as it became known after its area was expanded to include lands east of the Colorado River. Headquartered at Camp Young near Indio, California, the C-AMA focused largely on lands south of the national preserve area. However, an important campsite was established in the southern portion of Piute Valley north of Arrowhead Junction at Camp Ibis (just east of the present national preserve), and a division-level encampment, known as Camp Clipper (also known as Camp Essex), was established at Goffs in June 1942 for 16,000 troops, including a segregated black division. Portions of Camp Clipper, which operated until June 1944, are in the national preserve, and the Clipper Mountains and Piute Valley on both sides of the California-Nevada border served as operating areas for the military training exercises.

Operation "Desert Strike," one of the largest exercises ever conducted by the U.S. Strike Command, involved more than 100,000 active and reserve men from all branches of the armed forces during training exercises between May 17 and 31, 1964. This multitude of men, along with a proportionate quantity of machines, guns, aircraft, and supplies, swarmed across the present national preserve from east to west, slashing hundreds of miles of new roads indiscriminately through the desert and leaving hundreds of tons of supplies and debris scattered throughout the area.

Today, nearly one-sixth of the Mojave Desert lies within military bases and reservations. Two of the military bases that are closest to the national preserve area are the Fort Irwin National Training Center and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.

Recreational Development/Tourism

Recognition of the recreational and park values of the California desert was first undertaken during the pre-World War I years by such organizations as the Automobile Club of Southern California and the International Desert Protective Association, both of which encouraged their members to tour the desert and helped them do so with maps, sign programs, and lobbying campaigns for better roads. Since that time, the eastern California desert region has attracted an ever-increasing number of tourists interested in taking advantage of its recreational opportunities, including hunting, trapping, rockhounding, hiking, camping, and sightseeing.

During the 1870s, a public bathing establishment was built at Soda Springs, known as Soda Lake Station when it was a stage stop. In 1914 a religious group led by Pastor Charles T. Russell occupied Soda Springs, constructing five frame houses and attempting to mine gold in the nearby hills. In 1944 Curtis H. Springer arrived at Soda Springs and, finding it deserted, took possession of the land under a mining claim. He and his wife, Helen, developed the property into the "Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Resort," which operated until 1974. With the exception of several modern structures, the site is much as the Springers left it. Transferred from the Bureau of Land Management to the National Park Service in 1994, the site is leased to the California Desert Studies Consortium of the California State University.

Mitchell Caverns, developed as a tourist attraction during the 1930s by Jack and Ida Mitchell, became a California state park during the mid-1950s. Today, the state of California administers the caverns and surrounding area as the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area.

Cultural Landscapes

Many cultural landscapes exist in the Mojave National Preserve that are potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, but cultural landscape studies have not been undertaken to identify their character-defining elements. Landscapes reflecting mining, ranching, railroading, and ethnographic activities can be seen throughout the preserve.

National Register of Historic Places

The historic Boulder Transmission Lines 1, 2, and 3 Archeological District (CA-SBR-7694H), located both in the national preserve and on adjacent BLM lands, was determined eligible for listing on the national register as an archeological (historic) district on February 16, 1994.

A national register nomination form has been prepared for the Kelso Depot.

National register nomination forms are being prepared for Soda Springs Historic District and Mojave Road.

The following ten historic sites in or near the national preserve have been designated California Historic Landmarks or California points of historic interest:

Museum Collections

There are no existing collections maintained by the Preserve, but the National Park Service could anticipate acquisition of archeological artifact collections and historical collections relating to mining, ranching/homesteading, modern military exercises, and recreational development/tourism (for example, Soda Springs).