Note: We gave a presentation about this subject on September 14, 2023, to the Big Bear Historical Society. This article is the culmination of a month’s long research project. We also debuted a video, which we plan to upload to our YouTube channel. Our warmest thanks goes to historians Anne Roark, Jonni Vindiola, Mark Durban,…
We visited Salvation Mountain for the first time with my sister, Dawn, when she recently flew in from the East Coast. We recalled watching television host Huell Howser visit there in 1997 and were intrigued. Salvation Mountain had again recently landed itself into the news media. So a mere 26 years later, we decided to…
Some of you might have heard that we lost a good friend on December 21, 2021. John Grasson was a friend and colleague in the study of the Southwest deserts, a fellow Army veteran, a radio personality, a go-to source for information on the legendary “Lost Ship of the Desert,” a fellow desert rat, and…
Where did your intrepid Desert Way wanderers go today? Landers, California, of course. Why? Well, we were 31 years too late for the big earthquake, so we headed on over to the Morongo Basin Historical Society Museum’s Grand Opening instead. The Morongo Basin Historical Society was founded in 1999 but the museum itself did not…
Your knight called and said you really ought to be here. Shields Dates, located at 80-225 Highway 111 in Indio, just over the border of La Quinta, is a favorite stop for world-class travelers and locals alike. The company was founded in 1924 by Floyd Shields and his wife, Bess Lugton. Floyd Shields was one…
It was a daring idea in 1911. Take 10 seven-passenger Studebaker-Garford Touring cars, add 50 passengers, and follow it with another Garford, decked out as a covered wagon, that was used to carry the baggage. Next, head out from New York, bound for Los Angeles, with stops at all the amazing desert landmarks along the…
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,…
The creation of the Cabazon dinosaurs began in the 1960s by Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell (1897–1988) to attract customers to his Wheel Inn Restaurant, which opened in 1958 and closed in 2013.
“The dinosaurs aren’t dead and they never will be,” Bell’s daughter, Wendy Murphy of Costa Mesa, said. “He wanted to build a monument that would withstand the sands of time, and he has done that…”