Mathilde “Ma” Preston: Queen of the Desert
Cafes and rooming houses in Daggett sprang up. These were used as meeting places for business, as well as entertainment. One of the more popular joints was known as “Ma Preston’s”…
Read More
What’s on Our Desert Bookshelf? Part IV: 20 MORE Good Reads
As the saying goes, so many books, so little time. Picking out your favorite book would be akin to picking out your favorite child. Each has its own unique character. We’ve always had a special affinity for older books. Where words took center stage, not glaring, over-edited photos. Their crafty use of language painted vivid…
What’s on Our Desert Bookshelf? Part III: 20 Guidebooks
We get asked quite often, “How do you find all the places you write about?” Here’s our secret. It’s all about guidebooks. Some armchair experts may try to tell you how challenging it is to get to a particular site, but if you have the right information about how to get there and what to…
What’s on Our Desert Bookshelf? Part II: 20 Good Reads
Let’s face it. Most of us would rather be exploring somewhere in the desert in the middle of nowhere. As often happens, one discovery leads to others then suddenly, you must know more. Here’s when good books comes in handy. We’ve pulled a few favorites out of our crowded bookshelf to share. Whenever possible, we’ve…
What’s on Our Desert Bookshelf? Part I: 20 Cheap Paperbacks
One of our hobbies we enjoy is browsing museum gift shops and used bookstores for nuggets of information in the form of small books and pamphlets. Some are out-of-print so discovering these treasures is extra fun. As you can imagine, we have collected quite a few desert-related books over the years. If anything good can…
Newberry Spring’s Little House Under the Prairie
Newberry Springs, California, is known for its former private lakes where water skiing stars like Esther Williams once trained and where one of the largest population of Tricolored Blackbirds on the West Coast gather, but it has another reputation about how the Mojave River engulfed houses near its riverbed and other tales of tragedy. When…
Afton Canyon: Little Grand Canyon of the Mojave Desert
We had an amazing adventure exploring lovely Afton Canyon. The Mojave River flows above ground here and ranges from a small creek to a couple of feet deep depending on seasonal rainfall totals. Afton Canyon lies in part along the old Mojave Indian Trail, near the 35th parallel, that extended from the Colorado River to…
The Curious Case of the Cronese Cat
Cronese vs. Coronise Figuring out the origin of the Cronese Cat’s name has just about as many theories as a storybook feline has lives. It was believed the natural wonder is either named for early explorer and author Titus Fey Cronise or William H.V. Cronise. In 1870, both were officers of the Piute Mining Company….
A Trip Through Time: The Mojave Desert Then and Now Part IV
Victorville and Route 66: 7th Street meets D Street, and the year 2018 meets the roaring ’50s. The Hotel Stewart was originally the Turner Hotel more than a hundred years ago, and was serving full-course dinners for 35 cents back in 1936. Decades make a difference, and along with fires and demolitions crews, time has…
The Station: Home of Joshua Tree’s Big Josh
The quaint village of Joshua Tree has more to offer than just its magnificent National Park. That’s quite the tall order, you say? Meet 20 ft tall Big Josh, formerly known as The Mecca Cowboy who stood in front of Poor Richard’s Pawn Shop and Mini Mart since 1965. He now lives at The Station,…