Winter 2017

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Winter 2017

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Winter 2017

The old Rose School is among the historic buildings moved to Pioneers' Park Museum in Imperial. - Photo by Bill Gay seen at Hanlon heading, the spot at which the Colorado River was diverted in 1906 to move water into the Imperial Valley. And, here the diverse cultures drawn by the opportunity and adventure of this frontier can be explored at Pioneers Museum.

You need not venture far to sense and see how the present is rooted in the region’s past. To wonder at early inhabitants and explorers who braved the sifting sands of the Algodones dunes.

Welcome to the second edition of Imperial Valley Alive! In this You need not be here long to be in awe of early settlers who issue, we invite you to delve into the Valley’s heritage and history braved blistering temperatures with little but dampened sheets for in a whole new way. Forget about dusty old tomes, dates to memorize and pop quizzes. Instead, join us for a trip of discovery relief.

And, if the adventurous spirit of the region inspires you, follow into time and place, right here, right now – and in a very lively way. the map in this edition to some of the historic sites and places of Now, some may find irony in the idea of a magazine that focuses interest that are bound to fill you with awe and wonder. on now and new turning back the pages of time to explore history.

We see the pioneering spirit of yesterday is very much alive Some might find even greater paradox in the idea of exploring today, which is why this edition includes articles about ways Valley history in a region some think is a mere baby. It is, after all, the residents are keeping history alive and about business innovations newest county in California (incorporated in 1907) and much of and projects that are creating new opportunities. the region was, until some 500 years ago, largely under water.

Speaking of looking ahead, we encourage you to use the form We, however, believe the very newness of the region provides below to subscribe to Imperial Valley Alive! so you know your a unique zest to its history that you won’t want to miss exploring magazine will arrive at your doorstep hot off the press each today. Here, geological history is written in stone in such places quarter. as Travertine Point, west of the Salton Sea near the Imperial and And you won’t want to miss the spring edition that is now in the Riverside county line, where still visible today is the level once works. While we cannot go into too much detail, we think you are reached by the ancient Lake Cahuilla.

Here, antiquities from early inhabitants offer their wisdom at the going to like the sights, tastes and ideas that we have in store for Imperial Valley Desert Museum. Here, man’s ingenuity can still be you.

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www.imperialvalleyalive.com Winter 2017

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INDEX |

Volume 1, Number 2 EDITORS & PUBLISHERS Bill Gay Susan Giller Peggy Dale

CONTRIBUTORS

An early resident of Imperial County plows a field in this photo provided by Robertta Burns.

Burns talks about researching her family history in a story on genealogy on Page 10.

WATCH | History Comes Alive

Desert Museum preserves ancient history, Page 12

Pioneers’ Park Museum: Best-kept Secret, Page 8

Childers: Pioneer in Valley Archeology, Page 14

Volunteers are museum’s life’s blood,

Teachers are backbone of learning,

Page 9

Page 28

EXPLORE |

Genealogy, Page 10 Map of sites rich in history, Pages 16-17

BUILD |

Innovators Inspire Others, Page 18 Taming Challenges through Collaboration, Page 21 Automotive Dynasty, Page 22

THRIVE | Women's Clinic offers Advances, Page 32 Slow down, breathe, be mindful, Page 33

ALSO INSIDE Publishers’ message, Page 3 Subscriber Information, Page 3

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Winter 2017

COVER PHOTO Joselito Villero

Water: The Past Is Present, Page 6

ON THE COVER: Sammy Couchman Jr. hammers a red-hot piece of metal.

Behind him is Mark Hammerness.

-Joselito N. Villero Photo

Richard Montenegro Brown Stefanie Campos Gary Redfern Brian McNeece Anne Morgan

Uniforms and more, Page 20 Calendar of Events, Pages 24-25 Coupons, Page 25

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alejandra Noriega

WEB DESIGNER Jesus Uriarte

SALES

Sue Gay Mark Gran

ADVERTISING

advertising@imperialvalleyalive.com 760-693-5330

SUGGESTIONS

info@imperialvalleyalive.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Send name, address and email address along with $16.80 for annual subscription to:

Reliance Public Relations, Inc. P.O. Box 1944 El Centro, CA 92243 www.imperialvalleyalive.com IMPERIAL VALLEY ALIVE! is published quarterly

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Winter 2017

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WATCH |

TOP LEFT: The townsite of Imperial is shown in this 1904 photo from the Quentin Burke Collection.

LEFT AND ABOVE: Photos of the Imperial Valley's early days are courtesy of the Imperial Irrigation District.

Water The Past is Present

By Brian McNeece

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It’s almost Biblical, this history of Imperial Valley. Out of nothing, a garden grew. Then came the great flood that filled the Salton Sea — and much gnashing of teeth. When the waters receded, life began anew. So goes the history of this Imperial Valley from 1900 to 1907.

The story is familiar to many of us who revel in uncovering local history, for as William Faulkner said, “The past is not dead; it’s not even past.” Much of the foundation that our forebears laid is still in place today.

I recently produced an educational video for the Imperial Irrigation District titled “The Early History of Water in the Imperial Valley,” which follows the dramatic and compelling story of those beginnings. It relates how Michigan engineer Charles Rockwood persuaded William Heffernan, an army doctor in Yuma, to put up seed money to start the California Development Company in 1896 along with Chicago entrepreneur Anthony Heber. The video Winter 2017

Much of the foundation that our forebears laid is still in place today.

can be viewed on iid.com under the “About Us” button.

Rockwood and Heber couldn’t raise sufficient capital. After four years of failure, they were broke. Rockwood wrote, “We were exceedingly economical at our table.” Heber had to pawn some jewelry so Rockwood could take the train back to Detroit for one last effort. The grand vision of irrigating the desert had all but evaporated when George Chaffey saved the project in 1900.

Based on his reputation as an innovator in irrigation and development projects here in California and Australia, Chaffey raised enough cash to divert Colorado River water near the present-day Los Algodones into a natural overflow channel. On May 14, 1901, he famously sent a telegram to his son in Calexico, that stated, “Water turned through the gate at 11 a.m. Everything all right.”

With a couple of wooden control gates in place, gravity did the rest. The magical water flowed south of the sand dunes, west through Mexico and finally back into

the U.S. just east of the present-day site of the Calexico East Port of Entry.

Even before the water arrived, anticipation was building. Word had spread that Chaffey — already a big name — was now in charge. William Franklin Holt, who later would be known as the Emperor of Imperial Valley, rode a wagon from Flowing Wells (near today’s Niland) to the small camp known as Imperial in 1900. Holt, then 36 years old, had sold a bank in Arizona and moved with his wife and two daughters to Redlands.

With $25,000 in profit from the bank sale (probably around $750,000 in present-day value), Holt was ready to put his money to work.

We can only imagine the terrain then.

The center of the Valley, especially north of Imperial, has the heaviest, most alkaline soils because that’s the center of the ancient Lake Cahuilla. When the lake repeatedly evaporated over the millennia, the soil left behind was heavy and hard.

For miles there was almost no vegetation at all.

W.F. Holt, who helped establish what would become the city of Imperial and for whom Holtville is named. In 1901 he began the Imperial Valley's first newspaper.

In those days, the New and Alamo Rivers were shallow depressions choked with brush. Alongside those “rivers” were a smattering of seasonal lakes and watering holes.

In this empty, silent land populated only by stars, a few head of cattle and the rugged men who tended them, Holt was filled with vision and grit.

His first building was a 30room hotel with a canvas roof and walls. Holt then began a newspaper. With no way to communicate out of the Valley, Holt had a telephone line built 32 miles north to the railroad crossing. Dr. William Heffernan opened a mercantile store, and suddenly the makeshift camp began to look like a town.

Holt had some money, but that didn’t stop him from getting dirty. He was known for taking a wagon west of Imperial and hand-pumping a muddy hole to keep the camp in drinking water.

Most of the arriving settlers were cash poor; for land and water, they traded their labor, running mules and scrapers to build the canals. They were literally in a race with the water as it seeped across the desert from the Colorado River.

The parched earth had to be cleared and leveled and rid of rattlesnakes. One farmer wrote that he killed 200 snakes in one acre.

You can imagine the heady, elated times with a few hundred souls frantically working to lay the groundwork for this Imperial Valley, living on faith that water would come and crops would grow.

The water arrived in June of 1901, but devastating news quickly followed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture

released a report in 1902 that said Imperial Valley soils were too salty to grow crops.

With that, the Imperial Valley nearly withered just as it was sprouting new growth. Luckily folks like Holt, Rockwood, and Heber kept building, and so the dirt-poor farmers followed their lead and kept at it, too.

Despite the USDA’s dire predictions, crops did grow, a few hundred acres at first, then 5,000 acres the second year.

Potential catastrophe for the pioneers again arose when in 1903, Imperial Land Company surveyors discovered major errors from earlier surveys, throwing title into dispute and again preventing farmers from borrowing on their land.

Then a rampaging Colorado River overran its banks in 1905 and flowed into the Valley.

The California Development Company didn’t have the financial resources to control it.

In the end, the Southern Pacific Railroad rescued us.

Without the commitment of Edward H. Harriman to throw the full resources of his railroad into repairing the river breech in late 1906 and early 1907, this Valley would probably be a desert wasteland today.

Through it all, the early settlers united in sacrifice and just kept at it.

These pioneers bequeathed us our towns, our canal system, our pluck, and a native friendliness and good will that all who visit us remark upon.

Not a bad past to keep alive. Winter 2017

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WATCH |

Dennis Gibbs (left) and Mark Hammerness use tongs to steady a piece of hot metal on an anvil as Sammy Couchman Jr. (center) hammers the metal into shape. - Joselito N. Villero Photo

Pioneers Park Museum

By Bill Gay

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The Pioneers Park Museum website states the museum in Imperial is the “best-kept secret in Imperial Valley.”

But thanks to some stately old buildings on its grounds, more than 200 volunteers, well-attended heritage events and the 22 galleries inside the main museum, that label may be obsolete.

It’s hard to keep a secret when events such as the Feb. 4 Pioneers Day, which is a free event, attracts hundreds of local residents to enjoy historical displays such as an operating blacksmith shop, wagon rides, period games, butter churning and other interactive displays.

Not to mention the food.

And each December, the museum holds its annual Holiday Tour Around the World. More than a dozen cultural galleries there share their unique ways to celebrate the holidays with Winter 2017

"Best-kept secret¨ is getting out

entertainment, cuisine and special holiday décor.

An additional monthly event at the museum is its lecture series featuring a local author or topic pertaining to the Imperial Valley.

For the younger set, all fifth-grade classes in the Valley tour the museum during the school year, thanks to the self-sustaining Jo Thornburg Educational Fund, an endowment in memory of Thornburg, a Holtville educator and past president of the Historical Society.

The foundational part of the Pioneers Museum is based around its galleries, a unique blend of culture as well as Imperial Valley lore. A visitor in the main building can visit Imperial Valley’s veterans, its cattle industry, wildlife and history of water and power delivery. In the adjoining room, one can stake a walk through more than a dozen cultural galleries focused on the contributions of the diverse ethnic populations to the

Sammy Couchman Jr. holds a tong at the blacksmith forge house at Pioneers Museum in Imperial. Tongs are used to hold and steady hot pieces of metal as they are being forged with a hammer on an anvil.

-Joselito N. Villero Photo development of the Valley.

Outside, there is the restored Rose School that was moved to the grounds to represent the many one-room schools that are part of the Valley’s heritage. The Veterans Plaza recognizes not only those Valley residents who have died in combat CONTINUED | PAGE 26

| WATCH

Vehicles being refurbished by Jurg Heuberger and other volunteers fill a warehouse at Pioneers' Park Museum. - Photo by Imperial Valley Alive staff

Volunteers Museum’s life’s blood

By Gary Redfern The preservation of history is a dirty business.

In a warehouse, adjacent to the Pioneers’ Park Museum, east of Imperial, disassembled and obsolete contraptions rest patiently.

Dusty and rusted, forgotten and neglected as the decades pass, their hope of a return to glory flickering no brighter than the dimmest nighttime star. To tell their stories, they need someone willing to care — and get dirty.

Someone like Jurg Heuberger.

If the name sounds familiar to Imperial Valley denizens, it should. As director of the Imperial County Planning and Building Department for 25 years, during a period of unprecedented growth, he became one of the county’s most visible and influential figures.

Retired from that position since 2010, Heuberger has done little to slow his involvement in large and integral activities. He has a “day job” as the environmental compliance manager for the Hudson Ranch geothermal operation and he remains executive officer of the Imperial County Local Agency Formation Commission, which sets boundaries and spheres of influence for municipalities and special districts.

Heuberger might describe his fun job as being president of the Imperial County Historical Society Board of Directors. Perhaps, more accurately, he is restorer-in-chief. The society operates the Pioneers Museum and adjacent grounds at the intersection of old Highway 111 and Aten Road across from Imperial Valley College.

“I like history. I’ve always had an interest in restoring old cars and restoring old furniture. I build houses, live in them for a while and sell them,” Heuberger explained of the sources of his interest in breathing life into Imperial Valley’s history.

Tall and lean with short gray hair, a gray beard and glasses, he has a casual, though meticulous, tone befitting a college professor.

Yet, dressed in work jeans and a white T-shirt, a sharpened pencil perched above his ear, it is clear as he moves among the various restoration projects in Historical Society’s 24,000-square-foot warehouse he has no intention of leaving with a clean shirt.

“My dad built homes in the Valley,” Heuberger said, recalling that helping his father ignited his own passion for building.

CONTINUED | PAGE 31 Winter 2017

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EXPLORE | Mike Gilbert holds a three-ring binder containing family letters and genealogy dating back as far as 1840.

Joselito N. Villero Photo accessible on the Internet.

“Do the dates seem reasonable?”

Gilbert asked. “Do I find those names and those dates in several different places? Were the kids born before the mom was 45 and before the dad was 75?

When I first started, the Internet wasn’t really available—it was just a matter of finding your grandmother’s grandmother and tracking down an address and finding out who is keeping genealogy for the family and sorting through the information that comes in.”

Gilbert’s grandmother, Bertha Corfman, was born in the Imperial Valley. Her family came to the Heber/Calexico area in September 1907. Gilbert’s greatgrandfather (his father’s mother’s dad) lived to age 97 and Gilbert was old Families are enough to hear the stories that may have learning the historical fueled his interest years later.

“I got more of a sense of that history,” basis for tales spun Gilbert said. “He lived at a time when the at family reunions fastest you could go was however fast you could get a horse to go. He went well versed with the information he from horse-and-buggy days to seeing easily follows the lineage from page men land on the moon.” to page, from commonplace names to Husband and wife Jim and Robertta connections with well-known, and farBurns of El Centro began their research flung, historical figures. around 1990, first on paper and then Gilbert noted his research led him to through computer programs. Robertta 830 AD where he discovered he is a Burns said they would research locally descendant of William the Conqueror. with the Church of Jesus Christ of Finding that you are related to an ancient Latter-day Saints and then discovered Norman king or other notable, is a matter the National Archives and Records of doing the research to identify what Administration when it was housed in Gilbert called a “gateway ancestors.”

Laguna Niguel.

For him, it was a relative of his children’s Robertta Burns traced her father’s mother who came over to the States in family back to the 1860s in Orange the colonial period. She was a distant County. She also traced her family arrival relative to a king whose genealogy is to the Imperial Valley back to 1908well documented, which is a gold mine 1910, when they settled in the Silsbee for researchers. area east of what is today the Naval Air “It’s just a matter of getting lucky and Facility, El Centro. finding one of those lines,” said Gilbert.

She recounted stories of her greatGilbert’s research of family genealogy grandmother who was born in England, has been in the works for some 15 sent to live in Australia and who ran years. Sometimes there will be a away at age 18 with a sea captain (she familiar surname and finding a common admits it’s hard to find the evidence). ancestor. Gilbert’s daughter is a third Supposedly, he died and was buried cousin, twice removed to George somewhere in Hawaii, at which point Clooney, according to his computer his widow traveled to San Francisco. In program. another story, her maternal grandmother He said he has learned to be careful lived in Kansas, got married and had two daughters before divorcing and traveling to avoid the misinformation easily

Genealogy Tracing lineage

By STEFANIE CAMPOS

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Every family has one: a story handed down through from generation to generation that’s too outrageous to be believed.

What if it were true? What if — any number of legends or lore are based on historical facts?

Better yet, follow the lineage farther and perhaps those lines extend to royalty or modern-day celebrities.

With the invention of modern-day conveniences in the world of genealogy, local residents are uncovering links to their family history that were either lost or unverified familial folklore.

Through research — both in person and online — families are learning the historical basis for the tales spun at family reunions or through treasured conversations with the eldest living members of their family trees.

“It’s like a giant crossword puzzle that you never finish,” said Mike Gilbert of Imperial.

Gilbert pulls out a binder containing some of his research over the years and expertly navigates the pages full of names and numbers. He is so Winter 2017

Mike Gilbert of Imperial and Robertta Burns of El Centro shared a few tips for those starting to trace their own family tree.

Gilbert's advice: A photo provided by Robertta Burns shows family members in the early days of the Imperial Valley. out West. She eventually remarried a man who worked on the All-American Canal.

“You find these phenomenally curious stories,” Burns said. “It’s better than reading novels.”

She said her husband is researching the genealogy of his parents, both of whom are from West Virginia, which will lead their travels back East to cemeteries. She talked about uncovering the story of a Civil War soldier.

“It made my ancestors real to me,” said Burns. “It makes history very personal.”

 Talk to whoever the old people are in your family.  Find names and dates and, after following the lines back a few generations, look onto a website like Ancestry.com.  Research — specifically, name, date of birth, date of death, date of marriage, spouse’s name and the same information on him or her — can be compiled in a computer program called Brother’s Keeper.  Take advantage of the free research periods on Ancestry.com to update any dead ends in his lineage.

Burns' advice:

 F ind census records and look at the pages before and after. O n those records, note the particulars of the area: were there boarding houses or ranches, for example. “Get a sense of where they lived. How

they made a living” she said. “It brings history alive.”  T ry church records in states that did not require birth records before the 1950s or where documents were lost in courthouse fires. W hen accessing older voter registration, researchers will discover a physical description, which could add interesting information otherwise lost.

Additional genealogy research tips can be found online through a simple Google search.

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WATCH |

A new permanent exhibit at the Desert Museum highlights ceramics found in Imperial County.

Desert Museum Heritage

The museum's mission is to "preserve, interpret, and celebrate the desert.¨

By Anne Morgan Today the Imperial Valley Desert Museum flourishes in Ocotillo in the heart of the Yuha Desert, encouraging visitors to explore the natural and cultural wonders of the Imperial Valley. With more than 13,000 visitors in the last two years the Desert Museum is quickly becoming one of the Valley’s popular go-to destinations. But the museum itself was, until recently, considered an impossible dream.

The original museum was founded

by Imperial Valley College in 1969 in a downtown El Centro storefront and operated under the direction of IVC Anthropology professors Michael Barker and Jay von Wherlhof.

At the time, the museum was home to one of three Carbon-14 dating laboratories in California. The museum worked with the college’s archaeology program to further understanding of the cultural history of the Imperial Valley.

But in 1979 the downtown building was destroyed in an earthquake.

After years of grassroots fundraising and construction the museum in Ocotillo opened in March 2012.

The Desert Museum’s mission is to

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Winter 2017

Frank J. Salazar III, the Desert Museum's Cultural Collections/Programs manager, with fish traps. -Photos provided by the Desert Museum “preserve, interpret, and celebrate the desert” and to help establish connections between visitors and the land. Traveling and temporary exhibits, such as “Seaweed, Salmon & Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast,” were displayed in 2014 while the new permanent exhibit “Imperial Valley: Land of Extremes” was installed. Designed and built by Dead Weldon Exhibits of Novato, Calif., the exhibit is the result of a collaboration

among local teachers, archaeologists, artists, the Bureau of Land Management staff, Native American consultants and the museum staff. The exhibit installation took place between April and August of 2015.

The museum now proudly offers interactive, hands-on exhibits that allow visitors to discover new ways to read the stories the desert has to tell. From the animals and plants that have adapted

LEFT: Sixth-graders from Calexico discover Imperial Valley ceramics at the Desert Museum in Ocotillo.

ABOVE: Girl Scouts use an interactive display in the museum's permanent exhibit.

-Photos provided by the Desert Museum to live in the “Land of Extremes” to the people who have lived here for more than 9,000 years, there is always something new to learn.

Nearly 100 ollas, clay pots made by Native Americans to carry and store water, show visitors how essential water was to living in the region. An interactive diorama allows visitors to envision what it might have been like living in the Imperial Valley when it was not a desert, but instead was the site of one of the largest ancient lakes in California.

The incredible geology of the Imperial Valley is a never-ending source of fascination to visitors. Geologists come from all over to study the area and visitors always have questions about the formations they see while driving.

The museum is now working on one of the most exciting and highly anticipated components of the permanent exhibit “The Geology of Imperial Valley.” The exhibit has been designed with both

general visitor interest and school curriculum in mind. The new exhibit will help unlock the secrets of the plate tectonics and fault lines that run through the area that are responsible for earthquakes, the local volcanoes and the region’s geothermal energy.

For students, hikers, off-roaders, and all other visitors, this geology exhibit will show how the Imperial Valley is part of a much larger global picture. Fundraising efforts have begun and the hope is to be able to build the exhibit in the next two years.

In addition to exhibits, the museum hosts a variety of events of interest to adults and children of all ages. There are presentations by nature experts, arts and crafts events at both the museum and in local communities, hiking groups use the museum as a starting point for local hikes, and stargazing parties remain one of the most popular museum events.

Schools bring students out on field trips

and the museum’s education staff goes into schools. More than 2,200 students came to the museum on field trips during the 2015-2016 school year. The education staff works hard to ensure that each field trip matches the student’s grade-level curriculum to ensure the field trips are not just a fun time away from school, but hands-on learning experiences the kids will remember for the rest of their lives.

Whether visitors are interested in geology or history, the great outdoors and natural history, or what’s happening in Imperial County that week, the Imperial Valley Desert Museum offers something for everyone. Or, as they like to say at the museum, “Give us 20 minutes, we’ll give you 10,000 years.”

The Imperial Valley Desert Museum is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday More information is available at www. ivdesertmuseum.org, by calling (760) 3587016 or emailing ivdmuseum@gmail.com.

Winter 2017

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WATCH |

Pieces in Morlin Childers' collection are helping tell the story of the Valley's earliest inhabitants. -IV Alive Staff Photos

Childers

By STEFANIE CAMPOS

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Tucked away in a protected space in the Imperial Valley Desert Museum are boxes stacked upon boxes waiting to share their secrets for the first time in more than 30 years. Now at work carefully opening the boxes and delving into the enigma they contain is Edgar Bernal Sevilla, a part-time museum curator and member of the education staff.

The boxes contain the extensive archaeological collection of Morlin Childers, one of the three founders of the museum, whose materials were lost more than 30 years ago, sometime after the disappearance of one of his more interesting and controversial finds, the legendary Yuha Man. Childers’ uncatalogued collection was brought back to the Valley in 2015 after the Desert Museum was notified that the Nevada Bureau of Land Management had it and was willing to see it moved back to the Valley, according to Museum Director Neal V. Hitch.

“It is a massive collection,” Bernal Sevilla said of the 36 boxes of Childers’ papers, maps and photographs and more than 100 boxes of artifacts collected at sites throughout the Imperial Winter 2017

Morlin Childers is one of the Valley's early pioneers in archaeology and a founder of the Desert Museum

Valley. “Every little story has a bit of truth to it.”

Anne Morgan, museum head curator and archivist, said, “Getting the Childers collection back here is huge because he is one of the early pioneers, not only in archaeology in general but in helping with the college and the early museum.

“It’s really been a great opportunity to develop a picture we didn’t really have before,” she added. Currently, the museum is working to raise funds to eventually put pieces of the Childers collection into an exhibit Childers, Imperial Valley College archeologist Jay von Werlhof and Michael Barker were the founders of the Desert Museum, which was originally called the Michael Barker Museum and housed in an El Centro storefront.

Together, the three recorded more than 10,000 archaeology sites in the Valley and uncovered much of what is known about the ancient Lake Cahuilla and the early civilization in the area.

Ryan Childers, a relative of Morlin Childers, said he “jumped at the chance” to help finance retrieving the collection.

“It’s part of the Valley’s history and belongs in the Valley,” said Ryan Childers, an attorney with Childers and Associates law firm in El Centro.

Of Morlin, Ryan Childers said, “He is a legend in the family” both for his contributions to the scientific community and as a successful local businessman.

In the year he has worked methodically to process the Childers collection, while on his own time interviewing people who knew Childers, Bernal Sevilla said his admiration for Morlin has grown.

“I think with something like this, oral histories are just as important,” he said.

A San Diego State University – Imperial Valley intern when he began and now a graduate, Bernal Sevilla’s work on the collection earned him a part-time museum staff position – and kindled his aspiration to seek a master’s degree in archaeology or history.

While working, Bernal Sevilla has learned about the work Childers conducted at sites in the Valley from the 1950s and into the early ’80s. Locally, Childers is perhaps best known for the notorious Yuha Man skeletal remains he and the IVC archaeology program found in a rock cairn in the desert in 1971. Early dating technology estimated the bones to be about 21,000 years old, a find that rocked the scientific world and its long-held belief that life on earth dates back 8,000 to 9,000 years.

Based on news coverage of the time, Bernal Sevilla said controversy over the age of the remains ensued for years. But in 1981, when more advanced carbon dating technology was available to age the remains once and for all, the Yuha Man had mysteriously disappeared.

While the Yuha Man was never again found, Bernal Sevilla said fragments were retested and the age dated to about 4,000 years.

The Yuha man is but one of Childers’ important finds. According to Hitch, a fossilized sea urchin that Childers unearthed in the 1950s in a Coyote Mountains survey was declared by the California Academy of Science to be a new species and named in his honor – Schizaster morlini.

“The knowledge that I’m gaining from this (collection) is invaluable,” said Bernal Sevilla. The paperwork in the collection contains correspondence between Childers and other luminaries in the field of early man research in North America.

“You really get to see how academia worked in the ’70s,” he said. “It’s really fascinating.”

Moreover, Bernal Sevilla said the work has inspired him to go into the desert.

ABOVE: A flyer at the museum acknowledges support from C&A Childers & Associates.

RIGHT: Some of the boxes containing the Childers collection are shown.

“Working in the collection has really inspired me to love this Valley,” he said.

“The desert is beautiful and it’s amazing and people have spent their lives researching it and enjoying it.”

The Imperial Valley Desert Museum and the Anza-Borrego Desert Paleontology Society will join to showcase Childers' work in a presentation at 6:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in the Anza-Borrego Desert. Natural History Association library, 652 Palm Canyon Drive in Borrego Springs. Call (760) 767-3098 for information and reservations.

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EXPLORE |

Valley Waypoints

Explore sites rich in heritage, history and adventure

1. Plank Road This section of the Plank Road near the Grays Well turnoff on Interstate 8 is the only remnant of a 7-mile long wooden road across the sand dunes that lasted from 1916 until 1926.

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2. Hanlon Heading Built in 1905, by the California Development Company, Hanlon Heading was an early source of water into Imperial Valley from the Colorado River via the Alamo Canal. It served that purpose until 1942 when the All-American Canal was completed.

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3. Camp Salvation Here, on September 23, 1849, Lt. Cave J. Couts, Escort Commander, International Boundary Commission, established Camp Salvation.

From September till Dec. 1, 1849, it served as a refugee center for distressed emigrants attempting to reach the gold fields over the Southern Emigrant Trail.

Location: Rockwood Plaza, Sixth Street East at Heber Ave, Calexico 16

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4. Anza Borrego State Park Anza Borrego is the largest state park in California. It is named for Spanish Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and the Spanish word for bighorn sheep. It has 500 miles of dirt roads, 12 wilderness areas and dozens of hiking trails.

5. Imperial Valley Desert Museum The Desert Museum is located off the Imperial Highway exit on Interstate 8 at Ocotillo. It houses and displays Native American and historic artifacts from throughout Imperial County.

6. Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Area This area, sometimes called the Algodones Dunes, is the largest mass of sand dunes in California. It extends for more than 40 miles along the eastern edge of the Imperial Valley agricultural region in a band averaging five miles in width. Between October and May, they attract thousands of off-highway vehicle enthusiasts.

7. Blue Lake/ Silsbee Townsite

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Farm fields surround this location, which in 1902 was called “one of the most picturesque lakeside townsites on the Pacific Coast.” It was designed as a fishing resort but disappeared after floods of 1905-07 drained the lake.

8. Salton Sea Occupying what was once part of ancient Lake Cahuilla, the Salton Sea is the largest inland body of water in California.

It was created by floods of 1905-1907 and today is fed by agriculture runoff. To the west of Salton Sea, off of Highway 86, the shoreline of the ancient lake appears as discolorations on the sides of the nearby hills.

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BUILD |

Innovators Inspire Others Since visionaries in the early 1900s realized the dream of tapping the Colorado River to let water flow downhill to create an agricultural bonanza, the Imperial Valley has been cultivating innovation.

The Valley now yields nearly $2 billion a year in agricultural bounty, placing it among the top producing regions in the state and nation.

But the innovative irrigation system did more than inspire early settlers to turn what had been a desert into Imperial Valley’s agricultural oasis; it opened the floodgates to countless pioneering advances in agriculture, industry and business that have put down roots and created jobs here.

Pioneers, such as Earthrise Nutritionals, LLC, came to the Valley to develop the world’s largest – and North America’s first – Spirulina algae farm near Niland, where it processes and packs nutritional supplements. In 2015, it added a state-of-theart extraction plant to supply a world market hungry for natural colorings with a product it calls Linablue®.

Innovators like Oberon Fuels came to the Valley to build and operate the nation’s first-ever production unit north of Brawley to produce Dimethyl Ether (DME), a clean-burning alternative to diesel. And, the list goes on.

Imperial Valley Economic Development Corp. (IVEDC) is working to build on these and many other success stories by marketing the Valley, providing a variety of services to developers and collaborating with organizations to offer even more opportunities to innovators.

Recently, IVEDC as part of a consortium of organizations was awarded a grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to launch the San Diego and Imperial Valley Regional Energy Innovative Cluster in support of energy startups in Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties.

The five-year, $5 million grant provides entrepreneurs working on energy technology solutions access to facilities,

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Imperial Valley Economic Development Corp. is working to build on its many success stories by marketing the Valley, providing services to developers, and collaborating with other agencies to offer even more opportunities. training and the resources of regional partners including IVEDC, Cleantech San Diego, San Diego State University and six other regional organizations. The grant is for research and development firms working on breakthrough technologies involving energy efficiency, renewable energy, energy storage, transportation and other issues that would help meet the region’s future energy needs.

Timothy E. Kelley, IVEDC president and CEO, said the CEC grant is a win-win for energy innovators and the San DiegoImperial Valley region.

While San Diego is home to many research and development firms, it lacks the open space that the Imperial Valley has and which startups need to take their ideas into full-scale production.

“Through the grant, IVEDC and the regional partners can provide a customized, accelerated path to commercialization for these innovative startups,” he said.

R&D firms that qualify for the program can get mentoring, training, advisory support, testing facilities, access to capital and other forms of support.

The Regional Energy Innovative Cluster grant may be the latest method to help innovators put down roots and create jobs in the Valley, but it is far from the only approach IVEDC uses to assist developers.

From holding seminars, to assisting businesses access grants, loans and tax credits, IVEDC is working to encourage development, create jobs and stimulate the economy in this region where the water, sun, land and natural resources are still ripe with opportunity.

An aerial view of the world's largest Spirulina algae farm operated by Earthrise Nutritionals, LLC, near Niland.

-Photo Courtesy of Earthrise Nutritionals, LLC

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5.11 Tactical

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A Brand for Everyone

Many folks may feel uncomfortable going in to a police uniform store, questioning “Is the public even allowed to go in? Is the store frequented only by rough law enforcement types? Is there anything in there for me?”

In the olden days of the 1960s or ’70s, the answer might have been that such a store would not be friendly to the rest of the public, but that has changed in a big way!

An example is Phoenix Uniforms in El Centro, located next to the Big 5 Sports Store on North Imperial Avenue. Phoenix Uniforms sells more products to the general public than it does to police officers, even though the store is best known as a police uniform store, according to Bill DuBois, store owner.

“What made the difference is the 5.11 Tactical Brand,” said DuBois. “They built a category from scratch, and brought us along with it.” The El Centro store is consistently among the top 100 dealers in America selling the 5.11 brand.

With clothing, footwear, and accessories for active adults, Phoenix Uniforms in El Centro has quite a clientele of just “regular people” patronizing the store, DuBois said. Backpacks, eyewear, gloves, and jackets, all made for the outdoor and active lifestyle, bring shoppers in to the store from all over Southern California. Many winter visitors, and off-road enthusiasts, seek out the unique products available only at Phoenix Uniforms in El Centro.

“These products are constructed for comfort, durability, and appearance,” according to Erik Arguellas, Senior Sales Associate at the store. “Every season — winter, summer, fall, whatever, they come out with something even better than last year.”

DuBois noted that typically men don’t like to shop for clothing in traditional stores. In Phoenix Uniforms in El Centro, however, the clothing is displayed in an environment more suited for them.

The general public may see the 5.11 brand on NASCAR race officials, soldiers, emergency medical workers, and just plain folks who want a great appearance and value for their shopping dollars.

5.11 Tactical products exceed rigorous and exacting standards which have allowed the brand to establish a reputation for innovation and authenticity.

Phoenix Uniforms, at 935 North Imperial Ave. in El Centro, is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Winter 2017

| BUILD

Collaboration Taming Challenges CSP may a bite-sized acronym, but until about six months ago it represented a whale of an expensive, time-consuming problem that had developers and the Imperial Irrigation District locked in unending dispute over the increasing expense and delays in processing energy service for potential new commercial construction projects in the Valley.

What turned CSP from a problem to what it is supposed to be — a workable Customer Service Proposal process — was a unique collaborative effort between the Coalition of Agriculture, Labor and Business (COLAB), the IID Energy Department staff and a dogged determination by all parties to keep working till the process was improved.

“It really was a perfect storm of things that came together,’” Sam Singh, IID superintendent of customer development services, said of COLAB’s push for changes, Energy Department management and priority changes and the work that went into developing an alternative.

“So far it seems to be working,” said Jim Duggins, of Duggins Construction Inc., one of the developers on COLAB’s team that negotiated the changes with IID. “Now if someone wants to move a business here, we have a shot at getting them.”

The issue centered on the long-standing IID method used to determine the cost of providing new electric service to a development and what information was available to the developer. A contractor would pay to apply for service — and then wait.

“There would be a wait of three weeks to three months or longer while the cost often escalated,“ COLAB Executive Director Kay Day Pricola said.

“It was just the way it had always been done and it just kept getting worse,” Duggins said. “We’ve been complaining about it for 20 years.”

Then last year, things began to change when the district appointed a new IID Energy Department management team committed to improving customer service and lasting process improvements.

“The department is going through a reorganization and a lot of effort to shift priorities, increase transparency and trim down,” Singh said. “And we put together a good team with a lot of great ideas to work through the issues.”

Instead of complaining, COLAB appointed a committee of members that met with IID over a period of several months to identify causes of the problem and to continue working through the development of a more standardized, equitable process.

The solution was outlined as part of a Price Structure Update that was approved by the IID Board of Directors in October. IID’s first pricing update in a decade is designed to reduce costs, improve accuracy, timeliness, consistency and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.

Basically, the updated structure sets firm prices based on standardized templates that were derived from the historic average needs of projects of various sizes. At the same time, IID made some other modifications to encourage economic growth in the district.

The template-based pricing structure is now available for public review.

The simplified format helps expedite IID’s process of providing estimates to developers.

IID plans to review the pricing annually.

While the program is still new, there is a lot of optimism about the pricing structure and continued improvements.

“We’re monitoring it and so far it’s looking good,” Duggins said. “The important thing is we have a direct line of contact and the attitude now is, let’s fix this thing.” Winter 2017

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BUILD |

Automotive dynasty

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For more than 90 years, auto dealerships owned by the Rogers family have been the places to go for Imperial Valley families and businesses needing new vehicles.

Today, Rogers & Rogers has expanded far beyond the founders early dealership’s footprint. Yet it still maintains its ‘’can-do’’ spirit and outstanding record of service that converts passers-by and shoppers into believers and lifelong customers.

Rogers & Rogers is now headquartered in a gleaming, modern facility at 2351 Highway 86, north of Aten Road in Imperial. It brings in $120 million to $140 million in sales revenue every year, making it a “good sales generator for the city of Imperial,” said Leslie F. “Les” Rogers, who for nearly 40 years has been at the helm of the business started by his grandfather.

The auto dealership got its start in 1925 when Leslie “Les” Rogers Sr., the family patriarch, began selling Dodge Plymouths in Brawley and later had dealerships in both Brawley and El Centro.

After Rogers was killed in a plane crash during a storm over Mount Laguna in the late 1940s, his sons, Leslie Floyd Rogers Jr, who preferred to be called Floyd, and Bill Rogers took over.

World War II had ended a few years before the two veterans opened a used car business in El Cajon. After their father’s untimely death, the brothers returned home to El Centro to take over the family trade.

Rogers & Rogers Inc. was formed in 1951 and occupied sites up and down Broadway in El Centro.

“We have a long history at the intersection of Sixth and Broadway,” said Les Rogers, Floyd’s son, who now runs the expanding family of dealerships.

At first, Rogers & Rogers dealership sold Kaiser-Frazer automobiles and Henry J’s and Crosley Hot Shot models on a lot on the northeast corner of Sixth Street and Broadway. Today that site is home to a medical supply provider. Later the Rogers family would own a used car lot at Eighth and Main in El Centro, where they also sold Wizard boats and operated the first Hertz rental in the Valley.

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TOP: The Kaiser-Frazer dealership owned by the Rogers family sat on the northeast corner of Broadway and Sixth Street in El Centro.

TOP LEFT: In 1978, the family's Datsun dealership moved to a site on Highway 86 in Imperial.

-Photos Provided by Rogers & Rogers After becoming a Datsun dealer in 1965, the family business became Rogers & Rogers Datsun.

“I went to work for Dad in 1966 selling Datsuns at 610 Broadway (in El Centro), behind the old Bank of America and across from the site of the old Kaiser/Frazer,” said Les Rogers.

The Datsun dealership moved in 1978 to a site alongside Highway 86 in Imperial, where the Rogers & Rogers Toyota and Nissan dealerships sit today.

Bill Rogers died of cancer in the early 1970s. When Floyd Rogers was killed in an auto accident in 1979, Les Rogers took over with Nissan and added AMC and Renault franchises in 1982.

The family business continued to expand, with Toyota added in 1998 along with GMC and Oldsmobile franchises. The GMC and Oldsmobile dealerships were sold in 2001.

In 2010, Rogers & Rogers became Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram dealers. Fiat will be added once the new Chrysler dealership is completed this summer.

The company is in the process of acquiring a Kia franchise, which is expected to open this year in a new building, adding to the variety of vehicles available from Rogers & Rogers along Highway 86 in Imperial.

The family-owned business still employs family. Rogers’ three daughters, a grandson, a sister-in-law, and his wife, Terri, are among the company’s 253 employees.

Look around at any intersection in the Valley and you’ll likely see a vehicle sold by one of the Rogers & Rogers Family of dealerships. That’s quite a legacy.

IMPERIAL PRINTERS

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Calendar of Events FEBRUARY Feb. 3

2nd Annual Amigos de la Comunidad With WasupWU Comedy Show 7 p.m. to 11:55 p.m., Doors open at 7 p.m., Open mic at 8 p.m., Opener at 9 p.m.

Hidalgo Hall, 410 S. Cesar Chavez St., Brawley For tickets call Juan at 760-460-6088 Fees/admission: $15 per person, reserved table; $10 per person, individual seats www.facebook.com/ Comedy Wasupwu/

Feb. 4

Discover the Desert: Where Star Wars Movies are Made 1 p.m., Buttercup Ranger Station, Interstate 8 at the Gray’s Well exit Tours to film site & activities, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“Return of the Jedi” screening, 4:30 p.m.

Contact Charla, 760-337-4155 Pioneers' Day 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Pioneers’ Park Museum, 373 E. Aten Road, Imperial Activities for the entire family. Admission is free.

Feb. 6-10

70th Holtville Carrot Festival Cookery Contest 6 p.m.

Holtville Civic Center Contact Holtville Chamber of Commerce, 760-356-2923

Feb. 10

Carrot Festival Midway Carnival 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Holt Avenue and Sixth Street

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The information included in the print version of Imperial Valley Alive! is what was available by publication deadline.

Visit our calendar online at www.imperialvalleyalive.com and submit your event information.

5th annual Produce Gala benefiting the Boys & Girls Club of Imperial Valley 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Imperial Palms Resort, 2050 Country Club Drive, Holtville Contact 760-344-2040 http://www.bgciv.org

Brawley Farmers Market 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

North Plaza Park, Brawley Contact 760-344-3160 Free admission http://www.brawleychamber.com

Art in the Park – Festivals Cultural Community Art Event Noon to 5 p.m.

Gateway Park, Yuma Contact Yuma Art Center 928-373-5202 www.yumaartcenter.org Admission is free

Eclipse Stargazing Party 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Desert Museum, 11 Frontage Road, Ocotillo Admission is free; donations appreciated

IHS Link Crew 3rd annual Color Run Extravaganza 7 a.m.

Run starts at the entrance to Imperial High School parking lot, 517 W. Barioni Blvd., Imperial Race begins at 8 a.m., registration 7 a.m. to 7:45 a.m.

Pre-registration fee is $25 each or $20 each for a team of 3 or more before Feb. 9. Fee after Feb. 9 is $35 per person Register online at http:// ihslinkcrew1415.wix.com/colorextravaganza, or in person at Imperial High school ASB office

Feb. 17

Feb. 11

Carrot Festival Mile and 5K races Applications available in Holtville Chamber of Commerce office, 101 W. 5th St., Holtville Carrot Festival Arts & Crafts Fair 9 a.m. until dusk Holt Park, Holtville 70th Carrot Festival Parade 10 a.m.

Route is west on Fifth Street from Maple to Cedar.

Carrot Festival Student Art Show 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Holtville Civic Center Carrot Festival Midway Carnival 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Holt Avenue and Sixth Street 11th annual Air Show Gala "Under the BIG TOP¨ 6:30 p.m. Cocktails, 7:30 p.m.

Dinner and dancing to follow NAF El Centro, Hangar 8 Fees/admission: $105/ person or $800/table Contact Anthony Moreno, 760-352-3681

3rd annual Keeping the Dream Dinner, Dance & Auction 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Yuma Catholic High School Contact 928-317-7910

Feb. 12

Carrot Festival Family Arts & Crafts Fair 9 a.m. till dusk Holt Park and Pine Avenue Carrot Festival Midway Carnival Begins at 11 a.m.

Holt Avenue and Sixth Street

10th annual Mardi Gras Fundraiser "Bal¨ Hurricane reception 6 p.m.; dinner, 7 p.m.

Imperial Palms Resort, 2050 Country Club Drive, Holtville Contact Marty Dineley 760-482-5068 Fees/Admission, $125

Feb. 18

Mardi Gras 2017 Light Parade & Street Festival 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., El Centro Civic Center.

Sponsored by the City of El Centro.

For information, call 760-337-4555 or visit www.cityofelcentro.org or www.facebook.com/ElCentroCA

Feb. 24

19th annual Mardi Gras & Beer Tasting Xperience 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Carmen Durazo Cultural Arts Center, 421 Heffernan Ave, Calexico.

Hosted by the Calexico Chamber of Commerce. The 2017 Mardi Gras king and queen will be selected.

For information contact the Calexico Chamber of Commerce.

Feb. 25

Imperial Market Days Tri-Tip Cookoff 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Downtown Imperial Contact City of Imperial, 760-355-3316

MARCH March 3-12

California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta Theme is "The Sweet Life¨ Imperial Valley Expo, Imperial

March 4

Blue Angels 10K & Half Marathon 7 a.m.

10K race begins at Sunbeam Lake at 8 a.m., and ends at NAF El Centro Blue Angels Park Half marathon begins at Desert Trails RV Park at 7 a.m., and ends at NAF El Centro Blue Angels Park Contact 760-339-2627

March 10

NAF El Centro 19th annual Food and Entertainment Festival 5:30 p.m.

NAF El Centro-Hangar 6 Free admission

March 11

NAF El Centro Air Show 9 a.m.

NAF El Centro Gates open at 9 a.m.

Contact Candyce Zavala, 760-339-2482 General admission and parking are free

March 17

Imperial Market Days St. Patrick's Classic 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Downtown Imperial Contact City of Imperial, 760-355-3316

March 17-18

California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta Entertainment Lineup

2017 MCAS Yuma Airshow All Day Marine Corps Air Station Contact Information: MCAS Public Affairs Office 928-269-3682 www.yumaairshow.com Cost is Free

Friday, March 3

March 18

 Foghat

DOVES Monte Carlo Night Fundraiser Gala 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Stockmen’s Club, 275 Marjorie Ave., Brawley Contact Liz Mamer, DOVES Publicity, 760-427-1766; Jody Remington, DOVES President, 760-455-1864 Various sponsor and ticket levels

March 25

Brawley Farmers Market 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

North Plaza Park, Brawley Contact 760-344-3160 Free admission http://www.brawleychamber.com

 Metalachi  Beta Maxx

Saturday, March 4 Sunday, March 5

 La Sonora Dinamita de Kali  Los Cadetes de Linares  Quinto Sol

Monday, March 6

Wednesday, March 8  Demolition Derby/Motocross Stunt Show  Downtime

Thursday, March 9  Checker'd Past

Saturday, March 11  California Lightning Sprints/ Dwarf Cars

 High School Madness

Sunday, March 12

Tuesday, March 7

 California Lightning Sprints/ Dwarf Cars

 Craft Beer Festival

For show times and locations, visit www.ivexpo. com or www.californiamidwinterfair.com

March 25-26

Relay for Life of Imperial County 9 a.m.

Imperial Valley College, 380 E. Aten Road, Imperial Contact 800-227-2345/760-336-2208 http://RelayForLife.org/ ImperialCountyCA

March 25

Imperial Valley Symphony Association Mid-Winter Concert 7:30 p.m.

Jimmie Cannon Theater at Southwest High School Contact Information: ivsymph@imperial.edu

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PIONEERS CONTINUED FROM | PAGE 8

but also all who have served in the armed forces, with a special wall where they can be honored with a plaque.

Rehabilitation work is underway to restore the Estelle Station that used to be one of the Southern Pacific railroad stops. It was moved to the grounds from Estelle, a little-known unincorporated community just south of Niland and north of Calipatria. There also is the ongoing rehabilitation project to restore the Heber College building that was moved to the museum grounds from Heber. It was the Valley’s first college.

Whether it’s restoring buildings or farm equipment, working to properly archive the thousands of photos and documents that make up the museum’s archives or assisting in events, the primary work force at the museum consists of volunteers.

Museum Curator Leanne Rutherford — Mark Hammerness adds coal to a pile of wood. As the coal burns, it emits heat intense herself a volunteer — said the museum enough to melt iron.

-Joselito N. Villero Photos is constantly looking for volunteers. “All

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they have to do is call us and let us know what they are interested in,” she said.

The museum is looking for computersavvy folks to assist in cataloguing artifacts, documents as well as the more than 22,000 photos in the inventory.

Other volunteers are needed to help preserve the farm equipment, work on the buildings and even grounds work.

The museum park is a county park.

The Imperial County Historical Society, a nonprofit organization that depends upon donations to operate, owns the museum. Rutherford points out that is another category for volunteering — they will welcome anyone who has an interest or background in assisting in that effort.

One of the main fundraising activities each year is the dinner drawing put on by the galleries, with the dinner and auction put on by the society’s board of directors.

And for those who are just interested in visiting the museum, it is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays. The museum is also closed during the summer months.

It reopens each September the day

Mark Hammerness, Sammy Couchman Jr. and Dennis Gibbs stand in front of the blacksmith shop on the grounds of Pioneers' Park Museum at Highway 111 and Aten Road in Imperial. after Labor Day and closes for the summer “right after Memorial Day,” said Rutherford.

The museum’s website notes that “Pioneers Park is a place where you can come and learn what it took to make this Valley what we know today.

It is remarkable that so many varied backgrounds have converged, blended,

and co-habituated with each other for one common goal — betterment.”

And thanks to a lot of committed volunteers and hard work, the “best-kept secret” is getting out.

To volunteer or learn more about the museum, call 760-352-1165 or visit the website http://pioneersmuseum.net 

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WATCH | As it looks to the future, IID will continue harnessing the region’s abundant renewable resources to meet California’s clean energy goals while still providing reliable and affordably priced energy to its customers in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.

Education Teachers Pave the Way

By RICHARD MONTENEGRO BROWN

FORGING AHEAD TO MEET EMERGING ENERGY NEEDS When it comes to keeping the lights on in a rapidlychanging regulatory environment where more of tomorrow’s energy needs will be met by renewable resources and there’s less dependency on power derived from fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emitting sources, Imperial Irrigation District is proud to embrace the challenge of integrating renewable and intermittent resources into its energy portfolio.

Among a growing populace where our desert communities see energy usage at its highest during intense summer heat, integrating renewable energy from solar, wind and other intermittent resources is exactly that – a challenge – but one the district is prepared to meet by undertaking several large-scale, industry leading projects, such as the new 30 MVA battery energy storage system located in El Centro, Calif., next to IID’s main power generating station.

As a public utility, IID is proud to forge ahead, making smart investments today that move it closer to meeting California’s 50 percent renewables goal by 2030, boldly willing to embrace new technology when needed to meet the needs of its customers while continuing to offer reliable service and some of the lowest rates to energy customers in all of California.

IID A century of service.

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It was 1918, and 23-year-old Lura Kirkpatrick had just moved out West, a second-year educator fresh from her first job as principalteacher at an Oklahoma schoolhouse. She followed her brother to the Imperial Valley, after he sent a message saying that the Niland area needed teachers.

Lura went on to become a fixture in the educational community in Imperial County, working at multiple schools and in positions all around the Valley for more than 30 years before eventually retiring in 1961 as principal of McKinley Elementary School in El Centro.

During her career she phased in and out of administration and the classroom. She even worked for a time at the Imperial County Office of Education as deputy district superintendent in charge of rural schools.

In 1924, Lura married William Harold Tyler. She took an 11- or 12-year break from the classroom to raise their family. Her career in service to local school children inspired her son, Jack, who set about documenting early educational efforts in the Imperial Valley as a tribute to her.

Now in its second printing, “Early Schools of Imperial Valley” by Jack Tyler, relies heavily on the documented history of the Valley’s earliest schoolhouses he was able to uncover and on the limited stock of photographs of those buildings. Tyler, who is now 81, said, he hopes the book provides a platform from someone else, someday, who will

take the effort forward to build a more complete document.

Work on the project began in about 2004, a few years after Tyler family members acquired an exhibit at Pioneers’ Park Museum in Imperial. Jack Tyler volunteered his efforts to reconstruct the early history of Imperial Valley schoolhouses because of his mother’s connection to local education. The plan at first was just to build the museum exhibit, but the project grew into a book.

“I’ve always been a big fan of history,” Jack Tyler said. “I got started on it, and it became a fun challenge.”

Much of what Jack Tyler has discovered about his mother is built from her resume and documents she used to continue her educational credentialing, rather than stories from her life. And much of what he knows of the early days of education in the Valley was gleaned from the limited sources he has found through the Imperial County Historical Society in chunks of numbers, dates and data rather than anecdotal accounts.

For Dora DePaoli of Holtville, the opposite is true. She has trouble remembering dates these days, but she still recalls those moments that made attending a small school in a rural community unique.

The former Dora Fasler, a first-generation citizen and daughter of Swiss immigrant parents, began attending the Eastside School as a first-grader around 1940. The Eastside School eventually merged with a number of other small Holtville-area districts around 1945 to become what is now Pine School.

DePaoli, now 81, wrote about many of her experiences in a weekly column for the Imperial Valley Press for many years, often describing life in rural Holtville or recollections about experiences at Eastside and Pine schools.

She recounts how attending school back then was like being in Jack Tyler holds a picture of his mother, Lura Kirkpatrick Tyler. a Tower of Babel: “There were Swiss kids, not just Hispanic kids, and some East Indian kids; there were others, too. At first they were -Photo courtesy of Richard Montenegro Brown

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Lura Tyler is surrounded by some of the children she taught in this photo circa 1946. -Photo courtesy of Jack Tyler speaking all of their own languages, so it was a little difficult to understand.”

But, DePaoli said, “They told us not to speak your own language on school grounds. They wanted us to speak English, and by the end of the year, a lot of us spoke English.”

DePaoli’s relationship with local schools extended well past her own education. She went on to marry John A. “Buck” DePaoli, who would go on to serve Imperial Valley College for 30 years, including 14 as superintendent/president.

And, she still has family members involved or working in Holtville schools, so she gets a chance to see how things have changed and how they have stayed the same. While chatting one afternoon, the wastefulness of children nowadays came up.

“Our mothers often worked in the cafeteria. … They would come in

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and help with the cooking. We would eat whatever was given to us; you ate what you got,” she said. “I see the elementary school here now. Sometimes kids don’t even taste it, they just throw it in the trash.”

For Jack Tyler and Dora DePaoli, finding the commonalities and the differences in the educational system of yesteryear vs. that of today is more of a labor of love or a fun way to pass time. For Dr. Todd Finnell, one could say it is part of his day job as current county superintendent of schools.

Finnell is very familiar with Tyler’s book; he has his own copy. In fact, looking through Tyler’s book made him seek out an old county Office of Education publication from 1969 to draw comparisons with today.

Tyler’s book, as well as analyzing materials from earlier in the evolution of education, Finnell said, “basically kind of tells us you have to understand the past in order to inform the future.”

An example, he said, was a write-up from 1969 on the “new social studies” and what those standards would look like going forward. Here we are this very moment, Finnell said, integrating Next Generation Science Standards into the classroom in the coming fall.

From a personal standpoint, Finnell admitted being somewhat torn between acknowledging the loss of some of the simplicity of life that came with the era of the one-room schoolhouse, and being an information-rich society where the world has the opportunity to serve as a classroom and learning is limitless in this new era.

More than a decade old at this point, Jack Tyler’s book is in every school library in the county thanks to the Imperial County Office of Education, which under then-Superintendent of Schools Jon Anderson, defrayed the costs of publishing the book as an important text for the community and its students.

“A lot of teachers said, ‘Thank you, Jack,’” he said. “That gave me some pride, that said my time was worth it.”

VOLUNTEERS CONTINUED | PAGE 9

Here is a man who leverages his efficient nature into making time for creativity. The museum needs it.

The warehouse contains antique cars and trucks, farm equipment, horse-drawn wagons, old signs and rows of hardwarestore-style shelves packed with parts. It has a dusty-attic scent spiced with the pungent aroma of aged petroleum fluids. To be direct, it smells old. But not forgotten. The shop area has items in various stages of restoration, and if those working on them don’t have something, they have the tools and parts to make it.

“You know what’s expensive?” Heuberger quipped during a quick tour of the warehouse. “Wagon wheels. They’re $400 a wheel.”

To make his point, he leads the way to several horse-drawn vehicles in need of wheels, and a bit more. Heuberger stressed he is just one of many in the Historical Society’s cadre of volunteers and supporters and that their dedication and creativity are the true resuscitators of Imperial Valley history.

“One of our big challenges is funding,” he said. “We don’t get government funding. It’s all through fundraisers and donations.”

Heuberger points proudly to the Rose School building, which was moved from its original location to the museum grounds and restored, including a new foundation and floor deck. It is now a working public facility, leased out for meetings, events and parties.

The museum crew is not leaning back and admiring its work, however.

“Estelle Station,” Heuberger, said, pointing to an early-20thCentury-style building that could kindly be described as a fixer-upper. “It’s a train station we moved here. It’s been sitting there, but we’ve got some funding and we’re going to put that back into good condition.”

Heuberger credits his drive and work ethic to his parents, Fritz and Leni. Born in Switzerland, he moved to the United States with

them as a child so his father could take over a relative’s farm near Holtville. Heuberger earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture with a minor in planning from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Though he spent his career in planning, his enthusiasm for building has never waned, a worthy attribute when he surveys all the historical items in need of attention.

“We could have 100 people working full time restoring,” he sighed, eyeing a dilapidated fire engine.

Pioneers Museum does not have that. But it does have Jurg Heuberger and a few more like him. He said the museum’s biggest asset, besides its supporters, is the ability to show off what it accomplishes.

“When you go to people and ask for donations, they ask ‘What’s it for?’” he said. “We can show them ‘Here is what we did with the money you gave us.’ You need to show them a tangible result.”

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THRIVE |

Araceli Nelson, MSN, WHNP/CNM and Mercy Valenzuela, MSN, WHNP/NM, Midwives

Women's Health at PMH

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Health care for Imperial Valley women was enhanced when previously unavailable services became part of the medical care now housed under one roof at the new Women’s Health Clinic at Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District located at 751 W. Legion Road, Suite 201, in Brawley.

For the first time in the Valley, the clinic that formally opened in January includes the service of midwives with its gold standard primary healthcare providers. And, contrary to common perception, midwives are not just assisting in pregnancy and delivery, but help enrich the quality of care throughout a woman’s life.

“We are primary care providers,” said Mercy Valenzuela, WHNP-NM, one of two midwives staffing the clinic. “But our backgrounds and training make it easier for patients to bond with us, to trust us with issues they may not be comfortable talking about with a doctor.”

Valenzuela explained that she was a registered nurse and assistant director of the birthing center at Pioneers before she decided to go through the grueling three-year-long classroom and clinical process to graduate as a midwife in Winter 2017

2015.

Midwives enrich quality of care for Imperial Valley women

“As nurses, we are trained to be advocates for our patients,” Valenzuela said. “As a midwife, I am still the patient’s advocate and that makes it important for me to provide information and to involve my patients in decisions about their care.”

Valley women with a wide variety of health concerns are finding their way to the clinic. According to Valenzuela she has seen patients as young as 14 and as old as 84.

“The feedback from patients is they are so happy, they feel they can talk to me, they trust me,” she said.

The two midwives follow their patients through the process of giving birth, doing rounds at Pioneers’ Birthing Center, providing post-partum care, lactation training and other follow-up care.

In addition to two midwives, four local physicians partner to provide services at the Women’s Clinic on a rotating basis to handle referrals from the midwives and see additional patients.

Art Mejia, Pioneers Memorial Healthcare associate administrator for clinics and support services, said

opening the Women’s Clinic was the latest expansion of Pioneers’ Rural Health Clinic. It is an important step in implementing a national initiative to ensure there is good continuation of care. In the instance of childbirth, that means following a patient from family planning through prenatal care to delivery and beyond.

The Women’s Clinic completes the process when partnered with the awardwinning care available at Pioneers Birthing Center.

“Now we have a much more robust family planning, prenatal, delivery and post-partum system,” Mejia said.

Having the clinic right across the street from the Birthing Center, with easy access to digital records, ensures the hospital is ready for whatever care a patient needs, said Grace Gallardo, a registered nurse and director of perinatal services. The proximity of the clinic and hospital create a virtual one-stop service for women’s health care.

“It is a specialty service,” Gallardo said. “And it is a more well-rounded approach to meeting women’s total health needs.”

| THRIVE

Mindfulness When life seems to be getting away from us, we’re urged to stop and smell the roses, to slow down and enjoy life. In other words, we’re told to pay attention to the world around us.

The art of paying attention, known as mindfulness, is increasingly becoming popular in the field of psychology. In Imperial County, mindfulness is used

by Imperial County Behavioral Health Services on many levels, but particularly with those served by the Youth and

Slow down, breathe and pay attention to the world around us

Young Adult Services programs, or YAYA. “The definition of mindfulness is living purposefully and paying attention to every moment,” said Cindy Guz, the former deputy director of YAYA who recently was named assistant director of Behavioral Health Services.

Many of the young clients served by her agency have experienced high levels of personal stress and trauma.

In addition to being diagnosed with

a mental illness and dealing with the symptoms of such, many youth and young adults have also endured psychosocial stressors and trauma.

These may include family discord and/or violence, removal from their home, aging out of the child welfare system, aging out of the juvenile justice system, and/ or have a co-occurring substance abuse disorder.

Guz said many people hear the word “mindfulness” and think it is a religious

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Imperial County Behavioral Health Services incorporates mindfulness practices in many of its programs.

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practice. While what is known as mindfulness has its roots in Eastern religion, she said, it is actually more of a lifestyle than a religion. It is just a way of living.

This definition from Jon Kabat-Zinn, she said, is one of the most well-known: “Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.

It’s about knowing what’s on your mind.”

“The opposite happens when we have anxiety and/or depression,” Guz said.

Depression, she said, comes as people think about past regrets, ruminating over those thoughts. She described anxiety as thinking and worrying about what might happen.

“You don’t have control over the past or the future. However, you do have some control over the present moment,” she said. “But when we always think about the past and future, we’re never present in the moment.”

“When we’re not in the moment, we don’t give ourselves completely,” she said. “We miss out on relationships and experiences. We miss out on the simple things in life, like the actual experience of walking outside. We miss out on how the sun feels when it beats down on us, Winter 2017

how the breeze feels on our face. Often we’re just on autopilot.”

“Mindfulness,” she said, “brings us back to the present.”

How does one practice mindfulness?

It’s as simple as just looking around.

“You can practice it anytime, anywhere,” Guz said. “It’s paying full attention to your own breath or what’s going on around you. You make yourself purposely pay attention to what it feels like to walk, using all of your senses.

How do footsteps sound as I walk? What does the breeze feel like? What do I smell?

Reading is another way people practice mindfulness. Anything that brings you into this moment and calms your racing thoughts can be effective.

Intrusive thoughts are normal and happen to each person throughout the day. What we want to target are thoughts so intrusive that you become obsessed by them and become anxious or depressed.

Athletes practice a form of mindfulness on a regular basis, she said. Runners and swimmers focus on their breathing and form. Tennis players and golfers concentrate on their swing techniques.

Football, basketball and soccer players

are cognizant of the constant action around them, anticipating their next move.

“When you pay attention to all senses, you ground yourself in the moment,” Guz said.

It’s easy to tell when one isn’t “in the moment,” she said.

“When you realize after you’ve been driving awhile that you don’t remember how you got to your destination, you’re not in the moment,” she said. “When you’re in a conversation and don’t remember what was said, you’re not listening and not in the moment. When you’re on your phone while someone is talking, you’re not listening to them, not paying attention. When you’re stressed, anxious, feel like there’s no down time, you’re not in the moment and not giving your family your best.”

Technological advances offer many advantages in the workplace and home alike, but the pervasive nature of the devices we own or operate can also bring added stress if not used in a balanced and mindful way.

When the brain senses danger, it triggers the body’s “fight or flight mode”.

The body responds by releasing various hormones to the muscles in preparation to protect oneself by either “fighting” or “flighting” (running away). This “fight or flight” response is actually a protective factor which has helped our species survive. However with the fast-paced lives led by many today, toxic stress seems to be the norm. Constant stress can alert the brain to sense danger even when real physical danger does not exist. The body’s response to this is to pump more blood and oxygen to the muscles to make us stronger and faster (to protect ourselves from the danger) and in doing so, shuts down other “less important” functions for the moment, like the digestive and immune systems.

Muscle tension, headaches, stomach problems, and other physical ailments can develop.

“Mindfulness can help alleviate those symptoms,” Guz said. “You can retrain your brain to live in the moment by being aware of what your body is doing and practicing methods to release stress.

“It’s just a matter of practicing this regularly to make it the new norm.”

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