Marcy Taylor’s Desert Mohahve Muse

AV Parade

THE FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER was a busy one in Apple Valley. Locals were up early setting up Street Fair booths at James Woody Park (including ours,) arriving in antique and classic cars for the Car Show, and getting ready for the Happy Trails Parade. Our historically themed float, “Hollywood Comes to Apple Valley,” featured 13 “celebrities” whose films spanned seven decades, from 1937-2008.

Representing the old Westerns were MHS members Mike Phillips as Herb Jeffries in 1937’s “The Bronze Buckaroo,” and Bill Cadenhead as John Wayne in 1939’s “Stagecoach,” along with Roy Rogers playing himself in “King of the Cowboys” 1943.

Excitement and terror reigned in 1955’s “Tarantula,” with the frightening spider played by Jamie Paye, and 1977’s “The Hills Have Eyes’” with Marina Kranz as one of the cannibals. Coincidentally both are mentioned in Rene DelaCruz’s Oct. 14, 2022 Daily Press article entitled “Horror and SciFi Movies Filmed on the Mojave Desert.”

The beautiful Apple Valley Inn was the setting for several mid-century movies starring the glamour girls of the era, including 1954’s “Highway Dragnet” with Teri Watanabe as Joan Bennett, 1955’s “Fox Fire” with MHS member Bonnie Ingram as Jane Russell, and MHS member Marcy Taylor as Joan Benedict, who played Poopsie Patata in “Saturday Night Bath in Apple Valley” 1965.

The military was front and center in two non-fiction films. Gary Whitesides played Alan Ladd in the 1955 biographical film “The McConnell Story.” MHS member Anna Diamond represented an American soldier in Billy Bob Thornton’s 2008 “Eagle Eye.”

Action movies with good chase scenes are always exciting. Three movies filmed in three different decades provided the adrenaline rush: Mike Johnston played Kirby Grant in the 1956-58 TV series “Sky King.” The villains never got away from the cowboy pilot behind the controls of the Songbird. Ten years later in 1967 Phyllis Diller, played by MHS member Carol Johnson, raced down Highway 18 with co-star Bob Hope in “Eight on the Lam.” Ten years after that, in 1977, Ron Howard, played by MHS member Delvin Harbour, zoomed down the same stretch of road in “Grand Theft Auto.”

So you say you missed the parade? Then don’t miss the Dec. 15 MHS Christmas party, when these famous characters will make their second appearance. Mark your calendars, as this is a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the stars of movies filmed right here in Apple Valley.

Queen Elizabeth

ARECENT ARTICLE IN THE “DAILY PRESS” referred to the tremendous amount of wealth that the late Queen Elizabeth left to her heirs. And part of that tremendous wealth is a coin made of genuine Apple Valley horse poop, produced by a genuine Apple Valley horse, which with the talent of a genuine Apple Valley man, was made into a piece of art fit for the Queen of England!

Now I am not making this up. A popular Apple Valley business back in the 1970’s was “Apple Valley Creations” operated by John Westman out of his house in the old Apple Valley Village area at 13861 Osage known as “The House of the Green Door.” Now this green door did not hide a marijuana dispensary, but rather an art studio that produced objects from organic materials. These included bowls, plates, ashtrays, and other items made from a variety of materials such as orange peels, Apple Valley apples, wedding cake, old newspapers, joshua trees, tumbleweed, bread, and yes, even horse poop.

A Wed. Nov. 30, 1977 London newspaper headline read, “ Coin made from Horse Manure deemed ‘Most Original’ Silver Jubilee Gift to Queen Elizabeth.” On display at St. James Palace, along with all the other exotic gifts the Queen received, was “a coin presented by a California gentleman. About the size of a jubilee crown, it has a Red Indian head on one side, with a buffalo on the other. And it is made of dung!” Oh, I wonder if that coin has any resemblance to the wooden nickels locals could redeem at the Buffalo Trading Post. (I’m sure that was not a coincidence.) Mr. Westman apparently also sent, by way of Mr. Henderson, a plate made of apples, as acknowledged in the July 8, 1977 thank you note received from Buckingham Palace.

Now don’t you think that horse poop coin from Apple Valley deserved to be displayed right up there with the two human skulls from the South Pacific, the dinner plates sent by President Carter, the silver vanity set from King Hussein, and the Bible from the Pope? I sure do! After all, it was one of only three photos of the Queen’s gifts that appeared in the London “Daily Express.” I wonder which one of the Queen’s heirs will be the lucky recipient of the Apple Valley apple plate and the coin made from the poop of an Apple Valley horse.

To see more of John Westman’s AlArt objects, visit the Apple Valley Legacy Museum.

“The Big Horn Mine” Presentation

OUR SEPT. 22 SPEAKER was our own MHS member, and active member of the Sierra Club, Norman Bossom, on the topic of the Big Horn Mine in the Wrightwood area. His power point presentation was in two parts. Part 1 covered the incredible life of Tom Vincent, a mountain man in hiding for 56 years, who built and lived in a rustic cabin in his namesake Vincent Gulch from 1870 until 1926. While out hunting bighorn sheep, he discovered the gold mine. Part 2 told the story of the mine itself, discovered by Tom Vincent in 1894. Perched at 7000 feet on the eastern slope of Mt. Baden-Powell and six miles west of Big Pines, the mine was most active in the early 1900’s, with some brief renewals of activity later on.

A few weeks prior on August 27 a number of MHS and Sierra Club members visited the Wrightwood Museum located in the old firehouse. We got a little preview of Norman’s presentation there, as we viewed photos and paintings of Vincent and the mine. The Saturday following his presentation on Sept. 24 Norman led a group of Sierra Club members on the five mile hike out to the mine itself. You can find further information on page 108 of “Images of America: Wrightwood.”

Thank you, Norman, for being such an active member of our organization and community, for researching and sharing local history, while at the same time promoting physical fitness. You are inspiring!

Camp Cajon & Los Flores Ranch

THE SECOND WEEKEND IN OCT. was certainly a celebration of local history, with several MHS members supporting two accomplishments of other organizations.

The California Route 66 Association California East, for which our MHS VP Delvin also serves as their VP, invited us to join them at Camp Cajon Saturday Oct. 8. There five of our board members got a dose of history and the chance to admire the “in progress” kiosk, which now boasts two completed panels and 11 road signs on top. (Only two more panels to go.) It is the third installation by the Camp Cajon group, complimenting the replica monument dedicated July 4, 2019 (exactly 100 years after the original,) and the relocated concrete picnic table, which came back home July 26, 2021.

After a welcome and a brief history of Camp Cajon, compliments of Mark Landis, attendees split into two groups for the walking tours. Gary Smith handled the trek up Wagon Train Rd., the 1953 Route 66 alignment, pointing out where the buildings and amenities used to be. The packets of original photos handed out to each member of the group clarified the locations. Meanwhile, Nick Cataldo’s group hiked a short way up Crowder Canyon, learning about the Native American trails, John Brown’s Toll Road, and the Pacific Crest Trail, which all passed through this steep canyon. It is hard to imagine how wagons and later automobiles could make it through there. A highlight was seeing the remains of an old bridge- a real photo op. Again, a packet of pictures and diagrams was provided to aid in understanding. Then of course the two groups switch spots for part 2. (Note to board members: If you didn’t learn a lot on this fieldtrip, you must not have been listening.)

We are proud that the MHS’s name is on the Camp Cajon monument, which is included in our Monuments Booklet, and that the organization has played a small part in supporting all three projects on the site.

The following day the Billy Holcomb Chapter 1069 of the Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, better known as the Clampers, celebrated their latest installation, the reconstructed Las Flores Ranch monument. This historic ranch dating from the late 1800’s, has a long an important history, shared by the Clampers historian. The original Las Flores monument was the group’s very first ever project, dedicated on Oct. 5, 1960, thus their Chapter number. (Get it?) The original wooden plaque was moved in 1972 with the beginning of construction of Lake Silverwood. At that time the words were engraved on granite and placed with three other plaques on a pyramid-shaped monument. Due to the recent sale of the ranch property to a developer who plans to turn it into a large housing development, the organization placed the new monument on Highway 173 at the entrance to the ranch on public property at a place where people can safely stop and view it. This monument incorporates the text from all four of the prior monuments, so four for the price of one.

A highlight for me was seeing Dennis Parker, the man responsible for attaching our three new granite plaques, sworn in as the new Noble Grand Humbug and receiving the giant symbolic keys (to I don’t know what.) His monument project will be movies filmed at Dead Man’s Point, highlighting Tarantula. What a coincidence! Reminds me of our float. We all need to turn out for that dedication next spring.

Again thanks to the organization for all you do to save local history, and to the men who have assisted us with our monument restorations.

Where the Wild West Meets the Cosmos

SEPT. 24, 2022 WAS A FUN AND EDUCATIONAL DAY for the 18 MHS members who made the trip to Boron to experience “Where the Wild West Meets the Cosmos.” The group met at the Twenty Mule Team Museum, a charming old building with an inviting front porch, stuffed full of history. A lot bigger than it looks from the outside, it includes displays on the early days of mining, as well as period displays like the kitchen and beauty shop. The lower level features a model of a twenty mule team, that comes to life at the flip of a switch.

The docents overwhelmed us with more information than most of us could absorb, with Dave handling the inside portion, and Jerry, a former Borax mine employee, touring us around the outside grounds. There we experienced a miner’s cabin, old mining machinery, equipment, and implements, while listening to Jerry’s entertaining and hilarious stories. Picnic tables and an outdoor stage also grace the area, welcoming locals who hold various events there.

The next stop, the Vernon P. Saxon Aerospace Museum next door, was full of an amazing number of floor to ceiling aircraft related and aeronautical displays. Of special interest to our group was the Poncho Barnes display. as we previous learned about her “Happy Bottoms Riding Club” through a presentation and movie by Past President Jim Mustra a number of years ago, and more recently, two fieldtrips to member Waldo Stakes’ Museum of Speed in Apple Valley. There’s really no way to describe the massive collection inside that museum. We thank docents Alison, Mike, and Mike for sharing so much information in the short time we were there. Most people quickly realized a return visit is in order.

Our third stop, unplanned, was the stone cottage of Poncho Barnes, just a few blocks down the road. Docent Jerry led us there, and then onto the last planned stop, the Rio Pinto Mine. There we were overwhelmed with history lesson #3. Standing on the new viewing platform we could see the gigantic 1.5 mile wide x 2 mile long 850 foot deep open pit mine. Having started as an underground mining operation in 1927, it evolved into a more modern day open pit mining operation in 1957. Some miners advanced from living in the mine tunnels, to small cottages like the one we saw at our first stop. Today most of the 800 employees of Rio Tinto live locally in town. The mule trains have been replaced by forklifts and bulldozers, semi trucks, train cars, and ships. That’s what it takes to run one of the largest mines in the world, producing the 16 products we use in our daily lives. Inside the visitor center docent Marlon treated us to a fifteen minute video on their operations, before we set off to explore more displays and the gift shop.

By this time the hunger pangs were hitting most of us. And what better place for 15 members of the group to dine, but at the Twenty Mule Team restaurant back in town right across from the museum. Boron is certainly full of a lot of welcoming and hospitable people, and well worth another trip!

I T ' S A T I M E T O . . . Give Thanks!

W E A R E G R A T E F U L F O R T H E F R I E N D S H I P S T H A T H A V E B L O S S O M E D F R O M O U R C L A S S E S A N D E V E N T S !

N O V E M B E R S C H E D U L E E D U C A T I O N A L M E D I C A R E M E E T I N G S K N O W Y O U R 2 0 2 3 B E N E F I T S C A L L T O D A Y F O R A M E E T I N G N E A R Y O U A L L A T T E N D E E S R E C E I V E A C O R K E Y ' S P I E V O U C H E R ! W W W . H D M E D I C A R E . C O M

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ON TUESDAY SEPT. 20 RAY AND DEBBIE CLAYTON, a husband and wife team, road their bikes, loaded down with backpacks and supplies, into the parking lot of the Victor Valley Legacy Museum in Old Town. It was obvious they were cycling down Route 66. I kind of jokingly asked, “So are you riding all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles?” Ray’s shocking response was, “Well, actually we started in Virginia and are heading to my sister’s place in San Diego.” Wait, what?!? Well, come on in and rest a spell! At this point they had covered almost the entire country in four months, sleeping in parks, hostels and churches, or supporters’ homes, carrying their sleeping bags and supplies with them. Not surprisingly they were inquiring if there was a parallel road to get down the pass, as they had just realized the I-15 covers over many parts of the Old Route 66. How do you get from the Summit to Cleghorn on a bike without getting run over? (Many commuters in cars wonder the same thing!)

Wow! I though riding my bike from Santa Monica through Venice to the Marina and back enjoying 70’s temperatures and the ocean breezes was an accomplishment. Imagine riding through the Mojave Desert in August! My hat’s off to the ambitious and in-shape folks of the world. Keep the wheels turning.