On the Road: Museum hosts program on history of Mojave Road

MOJAVE ROAD: Speaking at the Colorado River Historical Society Museum earlier this week, eastern Mojave Desert historian Dennis Casebier gave a presentation covering the history of the Mojave Road, from its beginnings as a trail used by native tribes, to its present-day status as a recreational trail. “We’re extremely proud to have Dennis here,” said Karole Finkelstein, CRMHSM vice president. “There is no one more qualified to talk about the Mojave Road and the history of the eastern Mojave Desert.” - DK McDONALD/The Daily News

By DK McDONALD
The Daily News

BULLHEAD CITY — G.K. Chesterton called history a road to be reconsidered and even retraced.

For Mojave Desert historian Dennis Casebier, the history of one road has been his focus for more than 60 years.

Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at the Colorado River Historical Society Museum on Monday, Casebier covered the history of the road, from its beginnings as a trail used by native tribes, through time to its importance in moving troops for training during World War II, to its present-day status as a recreational trail, generously illustrated throughout with historic and personal photos, anecdotes, and stories of his drive to preserve history through the cultural center.

“It was an excellent presentation,” said Nancy Nelson, who attended with her husband, Barry. “We traveled the Mojave Road without knowing much of its history, so this is kind of after-the-fact. Just about everything he told us we didn’t know. The history is fascinating.”

Casebier and other proponents of preserving the route founded the Friends of the Mojave Road in 1981; working with the Bureau of Land Management, Casebier and the group identified the route of the trail.

The Mojave Road is unique in that for most of its 138-mile length it is in much the same condition as it was when formed more than 150 years ago, he said. Bisecting the Mojave National Preserve, the twin tracks functioned primarily as a supply, rather than migration, route, and the road was overlooked while many other early major Western routes were upgraded into state and national highways.

The Friends insisted that the BLM place no signage to mark the route; in order to help preserve the road from overuse and prevent the unprepared from attempting its crossing, navigation is only possibly by locating strategically placed rock cairns and through the travel guide.

“It’s a four-wheel-drive-only road,” Casebier said. “In order to travel the road you have to buy the Mojave Road Guide, which tells you how to access the road, and how to behave while on it. It is a dangerous place; people have died out there.”

The road guide is available at the Colorado River Historical Society Museum, 2201 Highway 68.

“It was a wonderful presentation,” said attendee Leroy Jackson. “I am so interested in his stories of earlier pioneers homesteading the region. It’s amazing to think you could be standing in the same places those people walked.”

Casebier, a retired U.S. Navy physicist, is the driving force behind the most complete archive of Mojave Desert history in existence — the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association in Goffs, Calif.

“He’s a historian above all historians, as far as I’m concerned,” said Elsie Needles, Colorado River Historical Society and Museum president. “He’s devoted his life to that area, and no one is better than Dennis at finding Mojave Desert history.”

Casebier began gathering archival materials pertaining to the Mojave Desert in 1954. When the Friends group transitioned to registered nonprofit status in 1993, his personal collection became the seed of the most complete library known on the history of the eastern Mojave Desert; the cultural center now houses more than 108,000 photographs, 6,000 historic maps of the region, 3,000 files on individuals and cultural sites of interest, 1,300 oral history files, and 6,000 volumes of published literature, including the library and personal papers of desert bibliographer E. I. Edwards, the library and collection of Harold and Lucile Weight, and the collection of San Bernardino County historian Germaine L. Moon.

Museum setting out to make history

Colorado River Historical Society and Museum President Elsie Needles, right, and Virginia Sutherland, CRHSM founding member and volunteer opened the doors to a new season on Tuesday.

By DK McDONALD
The Daily News

BULLHEAD CITY — The Colorado River Historical Society and Museum is making some history of their own.

“We’re so excited about this new season at the museum,” said Elsie Needles, CRHSM president. “Today is the museum’s opening day, we’re working on our 25th anniversary, and two phases of the Heritage Center have been completed. Moving the museum to the Heritage Center is next in the plan.”

The Colorado River Heritage Center at Bullhead Community Park is being created in four phases, Needles said. The first phase, the installation of the old Moss Mine Head Frame at Community Park was made possible through a partnership between Golden Vertex and the city of Bullhead City. Phase Two was completed in August when the 1947 Lil’ Red Schoolhouse was moved from its location near Lee Avenue and Third Street to Community Park. The building served as Bullhead City’s first school and will function as a museum of its own, complete with period displays.

Phase Three involves moving the Colorado River Museum to the complex, and the fourth phase plans the creation of a Heritage Center administration building.

“The head frame is done, the Lil’ Red Schoolhouse is moved — a ribbon cutting is scheduled for Sept. 26 in conjunction with the first Heritage Days celebration— and the museum is next,” Needles said.

A nonprofit operation of the historical society, the Colorado River Museum is housed in a building that once served as a Catholic church for workers who built Davis Dam in the 1940s and is placed in a corner of Davis Camp, just north of the Laughlin Bridge on Highway 68. Closed during June, July and August, the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, September to May.

“I love volunteering here,” said Margo Dunkelman, who along with volunteer Glen Thompson works the museum on Tuesdays. “It’s very interesting and I’ve really enjoyed learning the history of Bullhead City. I used to volunteer somewhere else too, but this is much more fun.”

The Colorado River Historical Society formed in 1963 with two primary missions — the preservation of the area’s heritage and to open a history museum.

“The museum began with nothing,” said Virginia Sutherland, CRHSM founding member and long-time volunteer. “We had lots of support in the beginning from local business and were lucky enough to get some really interesting photos and artifacts.”

Museum displays tell of the Mojave Indians, the Katherine Gold Mine, the history of the Mohave Valley and Fort Mojave, memorabilia from Laughlin, the region’s ties to Louis L’amour and more. The museum has hours of historic video available to view and are working on new displays of local interest.

In the children’s room are wildlife displays and a historic dollhouse. Children are also given the opportunity to make a cornhusk doll.

“The event schedule is packed too,” said Karole Finkelstein, CRHSM vice president. “We have a slate of monthly speakers including Olivia Brasson-McCormick, historian Cheryl Mangin and Dennis Casebier of Goffs, Calif., founder of Friends of the Mojave Road. We have road tours of historic points and we’ll have a booth at the Heritage Days celebration. We over a very popular motor tour that starts at the museum and then goes on the road to about 15 historic locations in the area.

“We encourage anyone interested in learning more about the history of Bullhead City and the Mohave Valley to stop in. We ask for a $2 donation from adults and children are free.”

For more information about the motor tours, call Finkelstein at 928-219-2582. For more information about the museum, call 928-754-3399.

Needles to cut the ribbon on renovated El Garces depot and Harvey House

The El Garces intermodal transportation facility project is complete and a ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 11 a.m. The historic El Garces building was formerly the site of a railroad station and Harvey House hotel. The hotel and restaurant closed in 1949 and it was closed as a railroad station in 1988. (JENNIFER DENEVAN/NewsWest)

By Jennifer Denevan
Mohave Valley Daily News

NEEDLES — A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for Saturday at 11 a.m. to celebrate the completion of the El Garces intermodal transportation facility renovation project, a long-term venture that has taken several attempts to finish.

The ceremony, which is open to the public, will include several speakers. Tours of the downstairs portion of the building will be given.

A farmers’ market is part of the events for the day. The market will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature live music by Antiquated Systems.

An antique car cruise is also planned. The cruise is noncompetitive and a chance for residents and visitors to view classic cars.

The Taste of Needles is included. BPO Elks Lodge 1608 will serve coffee and breakfast burritos in the morning and then serve barbecue sandwiches and loaded baked potatoes in the afternoon.

The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe will be selling fry bread as part of the Taste of Needles. The Wagon Wheel Restaurant will be selling hamburgers and hot dogs.

Tribal members will be selling jewelry outside the El Garces as a reminder of the past. The tribe will also have a special historic presentation along with having artifacts on display.

The Needles Chamber of Commerce is holding an open house from 9 a.m. until noon. Everyone is invited to come and see the remodeled building and to see what the chamber has in store for the coming months. There will be giveaways and other prizes.

The Friends of the Needles Centennial will provide refreshments prepared by the Needles High School culinary arts class.

As the El Garces project neared completion, council members and members of the community decided it was important to have something to signify the renovation being finished. A ribbon cutting finally was planned.

It has taken about two years for the project to be completed, using funds from the Federal Transit Administration, which totaled nearly $5 million. The project itself has been going longer than that.

Two years ago, council members chose to adhere to advice given to them by Allan Affeldt of El Garces, LLC. He advised the council to use the grant money or risk losing it.

In the months prior to his advice, the city and Affeldt were trying to get a joint development agreement approved by the FTA. The JDA would allow the title of the El Garces to be transferred from the city to Affeldt, which in turn would have allowed him to get financing for a commercial element of the project. The plan at that time was to have an intermodal transportation facility but also to put in a restaurant and hotel that El Garces LLC would add. The goal was to make the El Garces similar to Winslow, Ariz.’s La Posada Hotel, which was renovated by Affeldt.

The approval for the JDA was never given and Affeldt said he felt the city was running the risk of losing funds for the intermodal transportation facility. The project shifted gears to simply using the funds so the building could be used. Any retail portion will come later.

Linda Kidd, city council member, said once the city decided to move forward with the project, the focus became getting the building enclosed by getting doors and windows on so it wouldn’t deteriorate further.

Kidd said it was a long two years to get this portion of the project complete. Once the city made the decision to use the funds, the El Garces committee was formed, consisting of Kidd, council members Jim Lopez and Tony Frazier, city staff and eventually the construction management company, Kinny Construction.

There were unforeseen setbacks along the way. The city found ways to fund lead paint removal and the removal of a large kerosene tank that was found as plumbing and electric were being put in the building.

Those sidebars could have been detrimental, Kidd said. Fortunately, the city found a way to take care of them and still complete the project.

The project includes putting infrastructure in so as the city attracts businesses they can move into the El Garces, Kidd said. In the meantime, the downstairs portion of the building is complete and is available for income for the city now, she continued.

She said economic development consultant Michael Bracken and the management broker can look to fill the El Garces. The city is in the process of finding a broker who can lease out office spaces in the building.

As a business owner, Jan Jernigan said she is happy to see the city rejuvenated with a nice looking building. She said she feels it will also be an asset to reviving the downtown area, she added.

Visit Old California at museum

Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, California.

Trevor Summons, Correspondent
San Bernardino Sun

With so much concrete around us, it's sometimes hard to imagine that life was not always this way. Take away the roar of the freeway running close by and you can begin to piece together life as it used to be at the Mojave River Valley Museum.

It's perched up above the cut that now provides access to Interstate 15, with people heading out to Sin City several hours away to the east.

Back in 1776, Father Francisco Garces came along this way as the first European to forge tracks across the almost empty land. But he was not the first human.

Long before Europeans arrived, the Native Americans used the route as a trading link, leaving behind evidence of their lives in the form of baskets and jewelry, pots and other artifacts.

Explorer Jedediah Smith came through in 1826 and soon afterward the road became a busier, and more dangerous thoroughfare. It's hard to imagine today but you took your life in your hands if you traveled this way.

The museum is quite small but crammed with a huge variety of artifacts.

Wandering around the glass-fronted cabinets, I was taken with a couple of old uniforms. They belonged to Herbert J. Simmons. He served as a soldier in World War I, and then once again as a seaman out in the Pacific in World War II. It must have been tough for those people who were of an age where they were liable for service in both those mighty conflicts.

Next to this display I came upon a little bit of history from my own past. A collection of old cameras took me back to my first real job after I left school.

It was with a company that was the English equivalent of Kodak. They made all types of photographic materials and X-ray films. They also made cameras and I was trained to take photos and develop them.

How strange that an entire industry could collapse with the invention of digital photography. No more need for developer, fixer, film or the other chemicals that made everything happen. I well remember using sepia to add that little touch of color before that too was to disappear forever.

The cameras on display here are of all types and have the bellows to allow expansion and enlargement of the image. Some of them must have been the prized possessions of enthusiastic amateurs engaged in the capture of the perfect picture.

As you wander around you will find many examples of the local geology. The variety of local rocks and minerals is surprising and will perhaps encourage you to look further at the desert all around you. It may look empty but in fact there's a lot going on.

There are plenty of reminders of the earlier people who lived and fought in the area. I liked the account of some of the local tribes who could travel 100 miles in a day. They were called runners, not surprisingly.

Outside the building is a fine example of a caboose, which served as a drovers' wagon during the cattle driving days. The bunks inside don't look very comfortable, but after a long hard day in the saddle, any flat surface no doubt was welcome.

There is a gift shop and an archive of old newspapers, describing life way back when. You will find plenty to interest you on a visit, and the docents have a full understanding of the subjects.

Mojave River Valley Museum
Where: 270 E. Virginia Way, Barstow
Hours: Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Christmas
Contact: 760-256-5452, mojaverivervalleymuseum.org

Museum plans events for Arizona Centennial

COLORADO RIVER MUSEUM: The Colorado River Historical Society and Museum, between the Laughlin Bridge and Davis Camp, is planning two days of events for local celebration of the Arizona Centennial.

By JAMES CHILTON
The Daily News

BULLHEAD CITY — With the Arizona Centennial less than two weeks away, the Colorado River Historical Society and Museum is preparing two days’ worth of events for the public to enjoy.

Museum president Dave McDaniel said the society has been hard at work on creating an interactive pathway around the museum grounds that will provide snippets of history from Arizona’s century of statehood. The path will include items that hearken back to the area’s history, with numbered markers that correspond to a brochure visitors can reference to read about Bullhead City’s past, from the first Native American settlers, to the Colorado riverboat days of the mid-19th century, to the founding of Hardyville, the area’s original white settlement.

“The new pathway that runs around the museum is going to be designated the Arizona Centennial Pathway, and along the pathway we’re going to have little snapshots of history,” McDaniel said. “Along each stop there are numbers, and in the brochure, they give information about Hardyville, steamboats in the area, the Beale Wagon Road, and we have a mural that was painted by Paul Jackson, who is the tribal artist for the Mojaves.”

Inside the museum, McDaniel said, visitors will find both current and historical maps of the state dating back to 1912, as well as some other artifacts that are indicative of local life during the early part of the last century.

“On Feb. 11, we’re going to have an open house from 11 in the morning until 2, and the city council’s and some of the Fort Mojave tribal members are invited,” McDaniel added. “And we’re going to have some souvenirs we’re going to give out. We’re going to have coin envelopes with wheat pennies in them that mention the Colorado River Museum and the ‘cent’ennial.”

Then at 1 p.m. on the Feb. 11, McDaniel said the museum will host a going-away celebration in honor of Bullhead City’s first elected mayor, J. Michael “Mike” Love, who will be departing to Sacramento, Calif., with his wife Gloria after spending the last 32 years here. On Wednesday, Love dropped by the Bullhead City Hall, where he bid his formal good-byes to current mayor Jack Hakim and City Manager Toby Cotter, receiving a certificate of appreciation and the key to the city for his service.

Following the open house, on the day of the actual centennial, Feb. 14, McDaniel said the museum is planning a host of programs for the day, running from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The programs will include presentations on a number of subjects including Hardyville and Original Bullhead, as well as a video presentation on the steamboats of the Colorado River and a hike to “Museum Rock,” a nearby Indian petroglyph.

The museum’s regular hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, or a full schedule of centennial events, call 928-758-7643 or 928-754-3399.