MDA acquires Charlie Michael Collection

Charlie Michael, who lives in Las Vegas, contacted member Roger Mitchell in early February regarding interest in his collection of mining journals dating back to the 1880s. Roger recommended he contact us here at the MDHCA while giving him some background on our collections. It turns out Charlie knows Dennis Casebier as well as members Gail and Donna Andress. We invited him to come take a tour and decide if this was the place for his collection.

Charlie arrived at Goffs on Saturday, February 15, accompanied by his son, Aaron. We gave Charlie a full tour of the property, and discussed the collection and how we can preserve and protect it. We then proceeded to unload seven boxes into the library of the Schoolhouse. Donna Andress was here and began checking the contents. There are copies of The Mining Journal dating from 1890 to 1951 as well as American-Canadian Geological Society journals. There are also two containers of desert artifacts.

After several emails, Charlie and Aaron returned to Goffs with an additional eleven boxes of books covering California, Native Americans, the American Southwest, and mining. There is also an extensive collection of American Heritage magazines from the mid-1950s through the late-1970s. We will begin processing these boxes to develop finding aids and provide Charlie with a record of his donation for tax purposes.

Thank you to Charlie and Aaron for these generous donations!

File cabinet shipment delivered

Report and photos by Dennis Casebier

Lopez Trucking, under the command of Fernando Lopez with Hesus Rivera as copilot, arrived at the Library just before 1:00 p.m. By 3;00 p.m. they had 48 file cabinets unloaded and in place in the north Freight House Room and they have now departed Goffs.

Two Hispanic gentlemen and one 84-year-old gringo (Gail Andress) did the job in two hours. The cabinets look just fine. Jo Ann and Donna have already made use of about four of them to store the Russell Collection, so that collection is now off the floor in safely stored away in cabinets.

Tortoise fence removal

Report and photo by Dennis Casebier

Mark Wire got the tortoise fencing material removed from around the Library/Depot today. That leaves the pegs. Gail Andress intends to use the tractor to remove the pegs tomorrow and then smooth out where the fence had been. He'll also bring fill dirt in to build up in front of the handicapped parking pad.

Ready to go

Report by Dennis Casebier
Photos by Dennis Casebier and Roger Mitchell

Today, the "A" Team, consisting of Phil Motz (in charge), Gail Andress, Gus & Stella Lind, and Morris Swain assembled on the west side of the Library/Depot with all the materials in hand to install the septic system that will support the new facility.

At the controls of the Jack & June Greening Tractor, Gail Andress did the digging, with shovel accompaniment provided by the Linds and Morris Swain.

With the big hole dug, Gail lowered the new 1,000 gallon septic tank into the hole.

Meanwhile, the crew had the sewer line ready to connect from the building.

Gail then dug the ditch for the 50-foot leach line and dumped the required amount of leach rock in the bottom. The leach line was laid on the rock and more rock placed on top of that -- according to code.

The job will be finished tomorrow by laying newspaper on top of the rock on top of the leach line. Then the whole thing will be covered with dirt.

While the leach line was being laid the new septic tank was filled with water. Next thing you know, we'll be almost "ready to go," so to speak.

Stairway to second floor built

Report by Dennis Casebier
Photos by Chris Ervin

There was a lot of rain in the East Mojave today. It rained off and on here in Goffs all day but it was not particularly heavy. Searchlight, on the other hand, experienced heavy rain more than once today and then heavy fog late in the day.

In spite of the bad weather much was accomplished on the Library/Depot project. General Contractor Dan Cordova and two of his crew showed up early in the morning and spent the day building the stairs to the second floor of the depot. For the first time there's a convenient way to reach that space. Before you had to use a ladder.

A crew consisting of Gail Andress, Gus and Stella Lind, and even myself through part of the day, laid a 2" water line all along the west side of the Library/Depot. That included digging the ditch (that's Gail's specialty using the backhoe), laying the pipe, and getting it glued together. Gail then covered the ditch and smoothed it out.

It was a long working day under adverse weather conditions, but the job is done. That finishes most of what we can do in the way of laying pipes now until the water tanks are delivered and put in place.

MDHCA Director Russ Kaldenberg spent a good part of the day here today. He'd been following construction progress on this blog, but today was the first he'd actually seen it. He got here just in time to be able to access the second story of the Depot with the new stairs.

The electrician Fred Compton was here today. He brought a load of electrical supplies and is due back tomorrow.

It is cold and wet here in Goffs tonight.

Outside painting finished

Report by Dennis Casebier
Photos by Chris Ervin

This was quite a day. As previously reported, the Case backhoe tractor was down due to the failure of a seal in a hydraulic piston. Gail Andress got up early this morning so as to be at the Case tractor parts place in Las Vegas when they opened at 6:00 AM. He bought the necessary part and then high-tailed it for Goffs.

Gail arrived here at 7:30 AM and then he, Gus and Stella Lind, and Morris Swain worked for four hours to get the piston repaired. And, lo and behold, it worked just fine! (Gail said he used to make repairs like this all the time, but he hadn't done one in 40 years!).

The crew was back out there right after lunch. They dug a trench along on the west side of the building adjacent to where the stairs will be, laid the water pipe, connected a pipe to the input to the new building, and got it all covered back up again. It was getting dark by the time the job was finished. It was necessary to get that stretch of pipe laid because Mr. Cordova plans to work at that spot tomorrow to build the stairs.

The plumber was here today running a line into the attic for humidifiers. He made other adjustments to the water system.

The painters finished with outside painting today. They finished all the yellow and green.

Mr. Cordova thinks the roofers will come out soon to get the tar paper on the roof to make it water proof. He will call early tomorrow morning to get a weather check before sending the roofer out.

The weather today was pretty good. Not especially cold early-on, but by late afternoon there was a stiff breeze out of the west and it was colder.

Spirits are high at Goffs as this beautiful new building comes into focus. A lot of good work was done at Goffs by a lot of good people today.

Many highlights during a busy, full day

Report by Dennis Casebier

It was 42 degrees on our front porch at 6:30 AM with little or no breeze. By 11:00 AM it got up to 60 degrees with a pretty good little breeze out of the northeast.

The painters arrived just before 7:00 AM. The new building got a lot more yellow color yesterday. Much of today was spent touching up the green trim.

Building inspectors Gary Given and Steve Given were here this morning and toured the construction site.

Gail Andress and Gus Lind completed the pad for the 2,500 gallon potable water tanks today along with considerable work on our drainage system. That's the good news.

The bad news is that there was a failure in one of the hydraulic pistons that operates the backhoe on the tractor. Inasmuch as we were about to start on ditches for water lines, requiring the backhoe to be in constant and heavy use, that puts us in a bit of a bind.

But you can't hold down Messrs. Andress and Lind. Gail went back home to Nelson this afternoon and got on the phone to the Case Tractor dealer and parts supplier in Las Vegas and made arrangements to pick up the needed part early in the morning before he comes over tomorrow. Once here, he and Gus plan to fix the piston and, assuming everything goes OK, we'll be back in business and can start digging the ditches for water lines.

As if that wasn't enough, beginning at about 2:30 PM we were hit by a squall, accompanied by lightning, thunder, and even some rain. It was severe enough that we turned off the breaker on the deep well pump and shut down the computers to avoid any damage from stray lightning.

That wasn't the last of the highlights for today. A break in the clouds permitted observation of the full moon rising in partial eclipse just as it was getting dark.

But now at 7:00 PM we're back about where we started this morning. Heavy overcast, very little wind, and about 43 degrees on our front porch. The full moon has disappeared behind the clouds.

Painting and padding

Report and photos from Dennis Casebier

The painters showed up at 7:00 AM this morning. The weather was nice and continued nice all day. The temperatures got up to 70 degrees with little or no wind.

There are two painters: Brandon Bates and Rich Hernandez. As with everyone that has come out to work on our project, they are really nice guys and very competent. They painters worked through the day until 5:30 and got a lot done.

There's a lot more yellow on our beautiful new building than there was early this morning. They will be back early tomorrow and we can hope the good weather will continue.

Gail Andress arrived on site at 7:30 AM this morning. He manned the tractor and, assisted by Morris Swain and Gus Lind, worked all day to build the pad that will hold the two 5,000 gallon water tanks. It took all day.

Gail plans to be back tomorrow morning early and the day will be spent digging ditches and laying pipe. So we're beginning to make progress on the water system.

We're going great guns at Goffs!

Framing nearing completion

Report by Dennis Casebier

Gail Andress was scheduled to come over this morning from Nelson, Nevada. He made it OK. He, Gus Lind, and I assembled out by the new well and redesigned how we were going to position the two 5,000 gallon tanks and the associated pipes. At that point we agreed to abandon the digging project for the day because of the weather.

Cold strong winds were blowing out of the northeast. When I went out on our front porch at 6:30 AM this morning it was 42 degrees. By 9:00 AM, instead of warming up the temperature had fallen to 39 degrees and it subsequently went lower. So we called a "stand down" until next week. That should work out better anyway because we might have gotten in General Contractor Cordova's way today, and he and his crew will be gone next week.

Dan says he and his crew will be through up through the "combo" inspection) by tomorrow afternoon. After that it'll be up to the subcontractors. Dan will be out from time to time, but I believe his crew will be done with the framing job.

The electrician is presently scheduled to be here Monday, 25 February 2008.

Dan & Crew are working on the soffits covering the underside of the roof overhangs. In other words, the underside of the overhangs will be boxed in. That'll look a lot nicer and it'll permit the roofers to use longer nails on the shingles which will make them stay down better in the wind.

Dan hopes to get the stairs to the upper floor of the Depot completed by tomorrow.

At exactly 12:00 noon the temperature on the front porch has risen some but it is still blowing a gale.

Today is the 18th anniversary of our taking over the Goffs Schoolhouse property. What will the next 18 years bring?

Electrical wiring has been pulled

Report and photos by Dennis Casebier

Sacrifices in the face of adversity are becoming commonplace around here.

By the terms of our agreement for construction of the Library/Depot, we are required to run an adequate power line up into the new structure. After that, General Contractor Cordova is responsible for electrifying the building.

As those of you who are following this project know, we arranged with Southern California Edison for a 400 amp service for the new building. This was accomplished last year through a major effort on the part of our own director-electrician Phil Motz and the assistance of several other volunteers. The 400 amp service was brought in and is at the ready in a new Power House that was constructed by our volunteers.

The immediate remaining challenge was to get that power conveyed underground from the Power House some 200+ feet to the Library/Depot building. This past week Gail Andress came over from Nelson, Nevada and used our backhoe to dig a ditch for the required 2" conduit line. Phil Motz and others laid the conduit and then the ditch was covered.

The final task was to get three strands of "000" power line and a smaller ground line through the conduit. Phil laid his plans carefully for this but got skunked by the severe weather Thursday and Friday of this past week. It was just too cold and windy. Not only that, but we are up against a time schedule because Phil is poised to return to Indiana this coming week.

So, taking advantage of a bit of softening in the temperature and wind, Phil and his crew tackled the job today. In addition to Phil, his team consisted of; Gus Lind, Morris Swain, Dorothy Beal, Bob Beal, and Hugh Brown. Working aginst difficult odds and adverse weather the job was accomplished today.

If you go out there to the new Library/Depot building, you'll see the wires coming out into the building right where they are supposed to be. Then, walk a couple of hundred feet to the Power House, where the 400 amps are just waiting to be put to work, there's the other end of the wires.

Much credit goes to this crew and especially Phil who designed the whole thing, procured the conduit and wire, and organized and supervised the team that saw it through. The wire was laid in the best spirit of the Friends of the Mojave Road and the Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association at no cost to the MDHCA except possibly for the materials.

The job is done. That's the bottom line. There'll be no holdup now. The subcontractor in charge of electricals can step right up and finish the job and electrify the building at the appropriate time in the construction cycle.

Three cheers for Phil Motz and his wire pullers!

Electrical conduit trench completed to Library

Report and photos by Dennis Casebier

This has been quite a day. The weather was bitter cold all day with a strong wind out of the northeast. Everyone out there was bundled up and still had to brave the cold.

Messrs. Cordova & Co. started work on time, but they knocked off at about noon as it was considered unsafe to work on the rafters in the wind and cold.

In spite of the weather, Gail Andress showed up on time and spent much of the day digging the trench for the electrical conduit that will carry power to the new Library/Depot. Phil Motz was out there directing the effort with Bob Beal and Morris Swain assisting.

The ditch was dug, the conduit laid, and the ditch covered back up. It is planned that Phil, assisted by Gus Lind, will be stringing the wire through the conduit tomorrow.

Meanwhile, this morning a delivery truck brought more materials, including the corrugated siding for the sides of the Freight House, lumber for trim, and other supplies.

Two San Bernardino County building inspectors were at the construction site early this morning for the "nail/shear" inspection. They checked the construction over carefully and we passed with flying colors.

This project is moving forward rapidly and appearances are it'll continue that way.

Trench dug from Power House to Pump House

Report by Dennis Casebier

Gail Andress dug a 100-foot trench from the new Power House to the new Pump House in anticipation of the extension of the new electrical service.

Mojave Desert Archives Groundbreaking

GOFFS, CA – July 15, 2006 – At long last we broke ground for the new library archives building at the Goffs Cultural Center. The structure, funded in large part by the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, is to be built in the image of the old Goffs Railroad Depot.

A nice group of long-time supporters gathered in 110+ degree heat to witness the ceremony. A brief opening statement was made by Dennis G. Casebier, Executive Director MDHCA, who introduced Chris Ervin, president of the MDHCA. President Ervin stepped to the front, made carefully selected and poignant remarks, referred to our long-standing mission, what the new building will mean to humanity, and then proceeded to remove the first shovel of dirt.

For the ceremony, Mr. Ervin made use of a specially inscribed gold-plated ceremonial shovel provided by Director John Fickewirth. The shovel will be mounted on a wall in the Schoolhouse until the library is completed and then it will adorn a wall in the reading room of the new structure.

Following Chris Ervin’s lead, each director came forward and removed a shovel of dirt, accompanied by general approval of the assembled crowd. Following that, each other person present had an opportunity to participate in the ceremony.

By then everyone was getting warm… say, HOT. So we adjourned to the air-conditioned comfort of the Schoolhouse for follow-on speeches and to await the dinner hour. In the Schoolhouse Dennis Casebier passed out mementos in the form of miniature inscribed shovels, also provided by Mr. Fickewirth for the occasion.

Once everyone was there, President Ervin proposed a toast, followed by a couple more toasts from others. The champagne and champagne flutes were provided by Chris and Leslie Ervin. Then dinner was ready. Roast beef and special beans were prepared by Master Chef Dale McBride, potato salad and cole slaw were procured from a Bullhead City caterer, and other dishes were contributed by Betty Burton and Shirley Roby.

Once everyone had enjoyed the superb dinner we all indulged in dessert, a sheet cake appropriately decorated for the occasion and provided by Gail and Donna Andress. On the way over to Goffs from Nelson, Nevada, Gail had attempted to destroy the cake when it tried to slide off the seat and he grabbed for it, but Donna rose to the occasion and protected the cake. Meanwhile, Gail had gotten a handful of icing, which, at the urging of his bride of 62 summers, he proceeded to lick off his hand, turning his tongue and inside of his mouth (so far as could be seen) bright blue.

It was a smallish but very special group that gathered to take note of this important moment. I will confess, though, that I favor the celebrations that occur when something is finished more than marking the beginning. I am very much looking forward to that day a couple of years from now when the library building stands in all its splendor with the Board of Directors and our supporters gathered to honor that achievement.

Along those thought lines, my mind went back to that day in November of 1983 when a large group of the Friends of the Mojave Road gathered on the banks of the Rio Colorado of the West, just opposite Fort Mojave. There was an oversized yellow ribbon stretched across the road. A pair of ceremonial scissors (probably a full 30” long) had been provided, and Dennis Casebier stepped up and cut the ribbon, thereby signaling publication of the first Mojave Road Guide and the opening of the old wagon road as an interpreted four-wheel drive backcountry recreation trail. Twenty-three years have passed and the Mojave Road continues to serve and inspire the public. It was a day full of pride.

And so, within two years from now, we look forward to experiencing another of those milestone moments, of which it has been our honor to have had many, when Chris Ervin steps up to the door of the new library with an oversized pair of scissors and thereby dedicates and initiates operation of the Mojave Desert Archives to the interests of mankind. I predict many of you will be there and you will share the pride in having been part of this.

Those who participated in the groundbreaking ceremony included: Gail and Donna Andress, Jere Baker, Betty Burton, Chris and Leslie Ervin, Dave Given, John Harrington, Don Johnson, Randy Kimball, Roger and Virginia Leggett, Dick and Kathy MacPherson, John and Barbara Marnell, Dale McBride, Steve and Mary Mongrain, Phil Motz, Kib and Shirley Roby, and Carl Weikel.