Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association

Beyer's Byways: Ludlow is worth your spare time (and more) By John R. Beyer - For the Victorville Daily Press https://www.vvdailypress.com//beyers-byways-lu/5197109001/

While reading the wonderful book The Last Camel Charge by Forrest Bryant Johnson, the author talked about a black Boulder called The Bishop Sone. The Bishop... stone is in a museum in Barstow, Ca, so off I went with my daughter to check it out. The Bishop stone was engraved by soldiers of Samuel A. Bishop(The city of Bishop, Ca was named after him) in 1859 while waiting for support from a distant Army group to cross a herd of Camels across The Mohave river into California. The Camel Corp experiment is a fascinating historical topic to me. See more

Vulcan mine, southeast of Kelso. Have you ever been there?

1985, a line of vehicles making their way into Afton Canyon, California. https://digital.library.ucla.edu/cata/ark:/21198/zz0002vk97 PHOTOGRAPHER: Kelsey, Thomas... DATE CREATED: December 30, 1985 PUBLISHER: Los Angeles Times See more

The abandoned Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, traversed the Mojave from Ludlow to Beatty, Nevada, eventually connecting at Goldfield via the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad.

There's a Bagdad, CA?

Amargosa mine. The first lode mine discovered in the Mojave.

Mojave Road Camel Trek 2021. Here are a few photos from May 3 & 4th. The following is an extracted from our March newsletter: "The Mojave Road Report." The Mojave Camel Trek, organized by MDHCA member and camel owner, Nance Fite will take place May 3 -7, 2021. The Camel Trek will cover 30 miles of the Mojave Road in 3 days. ... Founder of the Texas Camel Corps, [ http://texascamelcorps.com/ ] Doug Baum, will give a presentation at Goffs on Monday May 3rd The following is extracted from Nance’s website: https://mojavecameltrek2021.com/ In 1857, Retired Navy Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale was directed to use camels in his survey for a wagon road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, across the 35th parallel to the Colorado River. After crossing the Colorado River, where his paid survey ended, he and the group continued through the vast Mojave Desert. They trekked across the Mojave Desert. . . starting at Beale’s Crossing at the Colorado River, and ending at Camp Cady. . . , Beale’s group split up, with some going down into Los Angeles and some going to Fort Tejon. Lt. Edward F. Beale spoke in the most enthusiastic terms of the work done by the camels. No other animals could have possibly endured the hardships of the trek as well as the camels did. They carried the water for mules, climbed with heavy packs over mountains, where the unloaded mules found it difficult, and, to the surprise of the party, they plunged into rivers without hesitation & swam with ease. They lived off of and got fat on greasewood and other vegetation that no other animal would/could eat. Beale said that he would rather have one of the camels for such work, than four of the best of his mules. Beale’s road was a failure certainly through no fault of the trail itself, or the camels, or Beale. Much of the route became the fabled Route 66 and the Atlantic & Pacific Railway (later the Santa Fe). In October 2007 MDHCA member Nance Fite, along with, generous friends, Bert the camel, and 2 horses, rode over some of the Mojave Road, where Lt. Beale had trekked, 150 years earlier. She witnessed the wonder of the camel in camp and on the trail. She said, I will never forget the first time I took Bert to Goffs and everyone was so excited to see him eating the creosote bush, as Lt. Beale had written, about in his notes.

This tree is literally ALIVE with honey bees! We will have mesquite jam on our toast this year!