Last updated: December 13, 2021
Place
California| Mojave National Preserve Lanfair Settlement Archive
NPS photo
Quick Facts
Location:
2701 Barstow Rd, Barstow, CA 92311
Significance:
Archive documenting the history of an interracial homesteading community
Designation:
National Preserve
The desert is a land of mystery, a land of little forgiveness, and a place where dreams have blossomed and withered. One such dream, a dream of economic independence for African Americans, came to be known as Lanfair. The determination to realize that dream has been documented by Goffs historian, Dennis G. Casebier, and anthropologists Rebecca Austin, and Ginny Bengston.
When the eastern Mojave Desert was opened to homesteading in 1910, Lanfair Valley became the focus of a visionary group of African American entrepreneurs and clergy in Los Angeles bent on establishing agricultural and mining colonies in the desert. Lanfair is situated within the Mojave National Preserve along Lanfair Road some 17 miles north of the community of Goffs. Though rail service through the valley attracted many to try their luck, there is little across the landscape today to recall this community of homesteading farmers and their efforts to literally grow a new life out of the arid desert soil.
Represented in the remains of these homesteads are the stories of the men, women, and children, friends and family, who came to Lanfair Valley to escape oppression and bigotry, and to claim land that with work could become land of their own. Links among some of these homesteaders are documented in census records, land patent proof testimony, recorded interviews, and Ancestry.com. Some were associated in the east, in most cases through family, decades before coming to California. Some became known to each other after settling in Los Angeles and the Pasadena-Monrovia area. Other relationships originated through business and participation in the efforts to colonize the desert.
The experiment at Lanfair Valley lasted only a short time and has survived the passing years and generations in name only. The reach for independence that brought about that experiment, and the struggle to realize it, perfectly define the American Dream. Details of what these homesteaders experienced and how hard they worked are documented in the historical record and memorialized in what they left behind them. Through the vision of the National Park Service and the efforts of two anthropologists, the dream and the struggle have been brought to light, and the legacy of Lanfair has reunited the descendants of a number of those pioneers.
In September 2021, the Mojave National Preserve Lanfair Settlement Archive was added to the African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN).
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the civil rights movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. civil rights movement through a collection of public and private resources.
When the eastern Mojave Desert was opened to homesteading in 1910, Lanfair Valley became the focus of a visionary group of African American entrepreneurs and clergy in Los Angeles bent on establishing agricultural and mining colonies in the desert. Lanfair is situated within the Mojave National Preserve along Lanfair Road some 17 miles north of the community of Goffs. Though rail service through the valley attracted many to try their luck, there is little across the landscape today to recall this community of homesteading farmers and their efforts to literally grow a new life out of the arid desert soil.
Represented in the remains of these homesteads are the stories of the men, women, and children, friends and family, who came to Lanfair Valley to escape oppression and bigotry, and to claim land that with work could become land of their own. Links among some of these homesteaders are documented in census records, land patent proof testimony, recorded interviews, and Ancestry.com. Some were associated in the east, in most cases through family, decades before coming to California. Some became known to each other after settling in Los Angeles and the Pasadena-Monrovia area. Other relationships originated through business and participation in the efforts to colonize the desert.
The experiment at Lanfair Valley lasted only a short time and has survived the passing years and generations in name only. The reach for independence that brought about that experiment, and the struggle to realize it, perfectly define the American Dream. Details of what these homesteaders experienced and how hard they worked are documented in the historical record and memorialized in what they left behind them. Through the vision of the National Park Service and the efforts of two anthropologists, the dream and the struggle have been brought to light, and the legacy of Lanfair has reunited the descendants of a number of those pioneers.
In September 2021, the Mojave National Preserve Lanfair Settlement Archive was added to the African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN).
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the civil rights movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. civil rights movement through a collection of public and private resources.