Page 4 - THE ESCUTCHEON OF FORT OLIVER - THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO THE WORLD'S GREATEST OPTIMIST THE DESERT PROSPECTOR - Packet No. 2
Harry Oliver's
DESERT RAT SCRAP BOOK OLD WEST PAGE
THE PEAK OF SAINT HYACINTHBy Tom Hughes
That grey monument against the sky — you see it from almost any point in the Southern California deserts. Helmsmen on Spanish ships used to set fair-weather course by it. For the San Gabriel padres it marked the east frontier of their domain, and to John Steven McGoarty's enraptured eye it was "The kingly outpost of the royal hills."
Growing ever more awesome as you near it, by the time you have entered the San Gorgonia pass it has taken on an aspect fairly atartling. Along the highway at some point near the lower end of the pass you simply must stop, and look, and fill yourself with looking, for you are face to face with the highest rock wall in the nation.
Ah, yes, you may have seen dissying heights in other places. Colorado has its Maroons and its Wild Gardens, Wyoming has its Tetons, Washington has its Skuksan, Texas has its Signal Peak, Utah has its Navajo Mountain; but they all dwindle in comparison with the sheared-off and gouged-out face of San Jacinto.
Measured in terms of mountain-building time, this rock wall is in the first flush of youth. The utter grimness that all but overpowers the climber who dares to invade its secret places is by the magic of distance transformed into beauty for the worshipper below. Its contours are etched with mysterious shadows, and tracings of last year's snow hang in filigree along the upper reaches. Of course you will get out your kodak and take a picture, little realizing that the precipice is the despair of expert cameramen. That's because the vertical angle is so great. The truth is, no wall in the Grand Canyon is much more than half as high. Pikes Peak wouldn't fill that vast uplifted granite bowl. If you have visited Glacier Park, you may recall how from The Narrows at St. Mary Lake you gaze aloft to Red Eagle Mountain on your left and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain, dead ahead. Now the one could be piled on top of the other and still wouldn't show above San Jacinto's cornice.
If you look closer you may make out a silver thread dangling from near the summit. That is Snow Creek, which geographers have called the swiftest stream in North America. It is virtually one continuous cataract, with much of its downward flight lying in perpetual shadow.
From your car window you are beholding still another spectacle unmatched in our land. The escarpment soars through six life zones. The sand washes are Lower Sonoran, with brush rats and cactus. The nearer foothills show Upper Sonoran, supporting coyote and chemisal. Where the precipice begins to really steepen is Transition, with its mule deer and pines. Next above lies tha Canadian, where chickadees hop about in the brush chinquapin. Still farther up is the Hudsonian, and perhaps a bighorn sheep is peering down from beside a clump of Alpine sorrel. At the very top, in the Arctic-Alpine belt, there may live no native beast or bird, but wind-flattened limber pines cling prostrate to the rocks.
Yes, in one upward sweep of the eye you are viewing a forshortened landscape of 3,000 horizontal miles — from Mexico's Candle of Our Lord to Alaska's brave little buttercup.
[image]
SAN JACINTO MOUNTAIN
From Old Fort Oliver
Sketched by the light of the low sun on June 16th reveals the face of that grand old man of the mountains.
THE TAIL OF OLD FRIENDSHIP
Ever live alone with a dog? If you have you will sure agree with me that Charles M. Russell's dog story is the greatest dog story ever told. HARRY OLIVER
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
From The Recently Republished Charles M. Russell Book
Of the three best known of our modern-day American story tellers, Charles Russell, Irvin Cobb and Will Rogers, it was my good fortune to have heard the latter two. IF one is to believe first-hand listener reports, Charles Russell was the equal, if not the superior member, of the triumvirate. Will Rogers, great friend that he was of the Montana genius, insisted that "I always did say that you could tell a story better than any man that ever lived." Will Crawford, himself an artist-humorist of the old LIFE and JUDGE days, declared that the story-telling marathon at Charlie's birthday party in New York in 1904 (the story telling by Will Rogers and Charlie Russell lasted all night) ended in a dead heat. At that time Will Rogers was telling'em on the stage with the Follies and Russell was trying to make a living an an artist and illustrator.
Cobb was a friend of the artist in the late years of Russell's life, and what a "pair to draw to" those two must have been!
In 1921 the first published booklet of Russell's salty cowboy stories, illustrated by the artist, was published by the local press of his home town, Great Falls, Montana. It was titled "Rawhide Rawlins Stories". In 1925 this was followed by another booklet of the same calibre which he named simply "More Rawhides." It is theis rare little booklet that we now take pride in republishing. The many admirers of the greatest of all Western Artists may now enjoy another of his varied talents.
Signed W.E. Britzman
Dog Eater
By CHARLES M. RUSSELL
"I knowed a fellow one time that was called 'Dog Eatin' Jack. I never knowed how he got his name that's hung to him, till I camp with him. This old boy is a prospector and goes gopherin' round the hills, hopin' he'll find something.
"I'm huntin' hosses one spring and ain't found nothing but tracks. I'm up on the Lodgepose in the foothills; it's sundown and my hoss has went lame. We're limping along slow when I sight a couple of hobbled cayuses in a beaver meadow. One of these hosses is wearing a Diamond G iron, the other a quarter circle block hoss. They're both old cow ponies. I soon locate their owner's camp — it's a lean-to in the edge of the timber. While I'm lookin' over the layout, here comes the owner. It's the Dog Eater. After we shake hands I unsaddle and stake out my tired hoss. When we're filled up with the best he's got (which is beans, bacon and frying pan bread, which is good filling for hungry men), we're sittin' smokin' and it's then I ask him if he ever lived with Injuns.
"You're thinkin'' says he, 'about my name. It does sound like Injun, but they don't hang it on me. It happens about ten winters ago. I'm way back in the diamond range; I've throwed my hosses about ten mile out in the foothills, where there's good feed and less snow. I build a lean-to, a good one, and me and my dog settles down. There's some beaver here and I got a line of traps and figger on winterin' here. Ain't got much grub but there's lots of game in the hills and my old needle gun will get what the traps won't.
"'Snow comes early and lots of it. About three days after the storm I step on a loose boulder and sprain my ankle. This puts me plumb out; I can't more than keep my fire alive. All the time I'm running short of grub. I eat a couple of skinned beaver. I'd throwed away one day. My old dog brings in a snowshoe rabbit to camp and maybe you don't think he's welcome. I cut in two with him but, manlike, I give him the front end. That's the last we got.
"'Old Friendship (that's the dog's name) goes out every day but he don't get nothing and I know he ain't cheating — he's too holler in the flanks. After about four days of living on thoughts, Friendship starts watchin' like he's afraid. He thinks maybe I'll put him in the pot but he sizes me up wrong. If I'd do that, I hope I choke to death.
"'The sixth day I'm sizin' him up.; He's laying near the fire. He's a hound with a long meaty tail. Says I to myself, "Oxtail soup! What's the matter with dog tail?" He don't use it for nothing but sign talk but it's like cutting the hand off a dummy.' But the eigth [sic] day, with hunger and pain in my ankle, I plumb locoed and I can't get that dog's tail out of my mind. So, a little before noon, I slip up on him while he's sleeping , wih the ax. In a second it's all over. Friendship goes yelpin' into the woods and I am sobbin' like a kid, with his tail in my hand. The water is already boiling in the pot an' as soon as I singe the hair off it's in the pot. I turned a couple of flour sacks inside out and dropped them in and there's enough flour to thicken the soup. It's about dark. I fill up and if it weren't for thinkin', it would have been good. I could have eat it all but I held out over half for Friendship, in case he came back.
"'It must be midnight when he pushes into the blankets with me. I take him in my arms. He's as cold as a dead snake and while I'm holdin' him tight, I'm crying like a baby. After he warms up a little, I get up and throw some wood on the fire and call Friendship to the pot. He eats every bit of it. He don't seem to recognize it. If he does, being a dog, he forgives.
"'We go back to the blankets. It's just breaking day when he slides out, whinin' and sniffin' the air with his ears cocked and his bloody stump wobblin'. I look the way he's pointin' and not twenty-five yards from the lean-to stands a big elk. There's a fine snow fallin'; the wind's right with us. I ain't a second gettin' my old needle gun but I'm playin' safe — I'm coming injun on him. I use my ram rod for a rest. When the old needle speaks, the bull turns over — his neck's broken. 'Tain't long till we both get to the bull and we're both eatin' raw, warm liver. I've seen Injuns do this but I never thought I was that much wolf, but it was sure good that morning.
"'He's a big seven-point bull — old and pretty tough, but me and Friendship was looking for quantity not quality and we got it. That meat lasted till we got out.'
"'What became of Friendship?' says I.
"'He died two years ago,' says Jack. 'But he died fat.'"
FRANK M. KING, Associate Editor
Western Livestock Journal Says—
Charles M. Russell was not only the greatest painter of western scenes of all time, but he was a humorist of big proportions and wrote some books, the reading of which will scare dull care into the brush country. I have just finished two of them books, titled, "RAWHIDE RAWLINGS STORIES" and "MORE RAWHIDES," both copiously illustrated with Russell's drawings. Trails End Publishing Co., Inc., H.E. Britzman, president, has secured the copyrights to these books and has just published a lot of them for the benefit of the reading public and for Charley Russell fans. The price of the books are $2.50 each, or $5.00 for the pair, but if you all will address H.E. Britzman, president of Trailos End Publishing Co., Inc., 725 Michigan Boulevard, Pasadena 10, Calif. you can get the books and all the information you need. Even at this price of these books, I wouldn't take double that for the two books that I have. Charley Russell was an actor, as well as a great story teller, and he loved to hear funny stories as well as to tell'em. Charley was also a great historian, and he put the old West on canvas in such a manner that it may be hung up on walls for all to view at all times. There are 40 of Russell's drawings in one of these books and 34 in thed other, 74 drawings in all, that you cannot secure in any other way, even if you pay big money. They just can't be had. These drawings are worth many times the price of the two books no matter what they cost and I know the price is reasonable.
THE ART EDITOR Says—
[image: broken shaving mirror]
MODERN ART
Nowadays in art if you can tell what it is, it's a sign not modern art.
SELF PORTRAITS
For hundreds of years artists have gazed into mirrors and turned out great self portraits; if you have seen better portraits it does not mean the artist was a better artist or a handsomer man; maybe he just happened to have a better looking glass to work with.
THE ART EDITOR
Whiskers
I asked a very old whiskered prospector how he accounted for his longevity and he says, "I never shave, just let'em grow."
Arizona highway sign: When this sign is under water, the road is impassible.
OLD SCOUT
The only white man who learned to beat the Apaches at their own game.
It is not true that the most interesting Westerners have gone West. The most interesting man who ever lived in the West and knew the West better than any other white man is still living — out Fillmore way — and is none other than Maj. Frederick Russell Burnham.
We hear so much of Maj. Burnham's exploits as a scout for the British army under Cecil Rhodes in the Boer War that we forget his skill and bravery as a scout against our own Sioux and Apaches.
First Editions of his book "Scouting on Two Continents is a Valuable book today.
Wasps will go out of their way to atack only when their homes are molested.
"Weepah Stampede" was started by finding ore in a badger hole.
SNAKE STORIES
There is no scientific proof, whatever to support a single one of the popular beliefed and widely circulated snake stories. Many snake stories undoubtedly came out of bottles.
Some people say young snakes crawl into their mothers mouth, however, no baby snake ever runs down it's [sic] mothers's throat. With the exception of rattlesnakes, virtually all reptiles lay eggs. Young snakes seen with adults are more than likely not related. At the approach of a human being the little snake may appear to run into the larger snakes mouth, but a baby snake has a way of disappearing into the smallest of hiding places.
In his battle for existance [sic] among creatures of his own size the rattlesnake uses a powerful "Haymaker" blow rather than his lethat fangs.
SPECIAL OFFER
For new subscribers only; I have a few hundred copies of packet 1 and packet 2.
I will send you 1 and 2; skip 3 that you have in your hand and send you the next 6 all for ten dollars. $5.00 a year — 100 years for $500.00. Please write Special Offer on check, env., etc.
HERE COMES JOHN HILTON AGAIN
THERE AIN'T NO SILENCE ON THE DESERT
I was talking to my old friend Shoshone Gus recently and he has a pet peeve to get off his chest. Says Gus— " I gits mighty tired of these danged dude writers that comes down here fer a week end an go back to Noo York or Pokytello an write a "great desert novel". The worst mistake they make is talkin about the vast threatenin silence of the desert.
Now they aint no silence on this here desert nor none other I ever heard an its never deserted nor lonesome. Its jest that the noises are smaller here. Anybody that ever slept out alone on the desert knows that aside from the "lonely howl of a mournful coyote" (Anybody knows coyote are happy when they holler) an the soft whisperin of the gentle desert breeze, there is a good many other noises that after a week or so begin to be so important to a feller as to almost sound like a racket.
I play a game with the desert tryin to figure out where all the noises come from an it never gits tiresome. For instance there's that funny sound the grub worms make in the mequite [sic] bark in the spring. Stop under any mesquite tree, where they ain't no street cars passin, an stand still fer a minute anybody can hear it! Then there's the noise made when seed pods split open on the desert primroses. Makes a feller almost jump out of bed. An the tiny rustlin noises of desert mice an the cheepin noises they make callin one another. Theres no end to em. Why one night a noise kept a botherin me till I had to git up out of bed an investigate. It was one of them stink bugs stompin around in the dark. I had to carry him a quarter of a mile an turn him loose sos I could sleep.
John Hilton
DESERT RAT TEN COMMENDENTS [sic]
BY THE EDITOR
I
Thou shalt love the DESERT, but not lose patience with those who say it's bleak and ornery (even when the wind is blowing).
II
Thou shalt speak of the DESERT with great reverence, and lie about it with great showmanship, adding zest to Tall Tales and Legends.
III
Thou shalt not admit other DESERTS have more color than the one on which you have staked your claim.
IV
Thou shalt on the Sabbath look to the Mountain Peaks so's to know better your whereabouts, so's you can help others to know the DESERT, dotting on the map the places where you have camped.
V
Honor the Pioneers, Explorers and the Desert Rats who found and marked the water holes . . . they tell you about the next water hole and try to help you.
VI
Thou shalt not shoot the Antelope-Chipmunk, Kangaroo Rat or other harmless Desert friends. (Keep your shot for a smake.)
VII
Thou shalt not adulterate the water holes no leave the campsite messed up. Be sure to take 10 gallons of water with you. Don't have to ask the other fellow on the road for a quart, but be able to help the tenderfoot by giving him some water.
VIII
Thou shalt not steal (from the prospector's shack), nor forget to fill the wood box and water pail.
IX
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor; you know the minin laws; you know the whereabouts of his monuments.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's sleeping bag, his gun, nor the contents of his canteen.
INJUN STUFF BY BEN BEAN
ORAIBI, ARIZONA
This Hopi village of Oraibi is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the United States. Many of its houses had air cooling long before Columbus discovered America. The squaw hung a wet blanket over the entrance, the circulating air went through the blanket and out a hole in the ceiling. (This is Lesson No. 1 in Air Conditioning Schools.)
Hopi towns were located on the mesas for protection from Navajos and Apaches who roamed the plains. That danger passed years ago, but the Hopis refuse to desert the lofty homes of their fathers and today, as in ancient times, every drop of water for all purposes is carried by the women up the cliffs.
Women do most of the work here in Hopi land. They do the household work, carry water, make pottery, carry water, make baskets, carry water, have babies, carry water, weave, carry water, care for the babies, and for a change carry wood.
Western Square Dances
Boy Howdy! Here it is. Large 125-page book; 30 complete calls, 35 illustrations. Fun, Frolic and entertainment from Park Avenue to Salton Sea. Don't wait any longer, folks. Send today!
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THE RUMPUD CO.
P.O. Box 1857 Denver 1, Colo.
LIVING FIRE FROZEN IN ROCK PRECIOUS FIRE OPALS
Cut stones $6.00, $12.00, $18.00 up and down.
Rough specimens for collections, $1.20, $2.40, $3.60 more or less.
Mixed assortments for $15.00, $25.00, $35.00. How much have you?
Fluorescent Nevada, Moss or Tiger Opal $5.00 per pound, postpaid.
When in Nevada be sure to meet Wild $Dollar $Bill. His spot is The Hurry Back Trading Post, Goldfield, Nevada. Send your autographed Dollar Bill for his collection with snapshot.
$5.00 for 36 Minerals; Cabachons $1.00 each; Turquoise $2.40 ounce.
A 800 to 1000 pound
METEOR
found in Eastern Oregon
shortly after its fall.
For sale by its owner
Write
J. A. ELLIOTT
Box 865, Burns, Oregon
WHITTLERS!
We can supply you with ready-cut pine blanks, with complete step-by-step instructions for finishing 50 different subjects.
It's easy and fun!
For further information write to:
"OLD WHITTLER"
1402 Charles St., LaCrosse, Wisc.
West Texas Minerals GEM AGATES
Fluorescents, Rare Minerals, Superb Crystals, Mail Order
Frank Duncan & Daughter
Box 63, Telinqua, Texas
MORE HIGHGRADIN'
FROM THE WESTERN PRESS
[continued from Page 2]
Chinese Journals published in San Francisco.
THE PONY EXPRESS - PLACERVILLE CAL.
THIS WORD "MOJAVE": J OR H?
Much confusion and arguement have arisen from the two spellings of the word "Mojave." A ruling of the Geographical Board in Washington, D.C. however a few years ago simplified the problem someshat. If you are in California, the name of the river, the city and the desert should be spelled with a "j": Mojave. If, on the other hand, you happen to be in Arizona, then you must spell the name of the county and the Indian tribe with an "h": Mohave. Dr. A.L. Kroeber of the University of California, noted anthropologist, claims that only the "h" spelling should exist, since the word is an Indian one, not Spanish, and was only transliterated by the early Spanish, who gave all "h" sounds a spelling of "j". The very same problem arose with the greatest Indian tribe of Northern Arizona: should it be Navaho or Navajo?
The word Mojave (or Mohave) itself is of Indian origin and is that tribe's name for "three mountains," referring to three distinctive landmarks near the present city of Needles, whose name also refers to this geological oddity.
DESERT SPOTLIGHT
YUCCA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
TOMBSTONE'S BOOT HILL HAS NEW GRAVE MARKER
Boot Hill Graveyard, the last resting place of some 300 pioneers of Tombstone, "The Town Too Tough To Die" now has 50 permanent and anchored markers erected over the graves. Vandals who in the past robbed the cemetery of the markers or defaced them will have a tough time pulling the new ones out of their concrete bases.
New markers noticed were those over the graves of Billy Clanton and the McLowery brothers who killed by the Earps in the epic OK corral gunfight. The grave of Marshall White killed by Curley Bill also has a new marker, along side of these men "killed with their boots on" lie the refined and peaceful people of the colorful old mining camp.
THE TUSCON NIGHTINGALE
TUCSON, ARIZONA
THE HOTTEST PLACE ON EARTH
The hottest region, in general, is the southeastern part of Persia, where it borders on the Gulf. For 40 consecutive days in July and August the temperature has been known not to fall lower than 100 degrees. A sheltered thermometer at Greenland ranch in Death Valley, California on July 10, 1913 reached 134.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Azizia in Italian Tripoli in 1925 reached 135.4 degrees.
DESERT MAGIC
Russ Nicoll, (VALERIE JEAN DATE SHOP), is a true Arab prince of the date industry. Nicoll, who flies on the magic carpet, has given more showmanship (definition of showmanship: knowledge, appeal, energetic effort and good taste) to the date industry than any one.
The, Saturday Evening Post and the Reader's Digest, have told the people of Russ Nicoll (they're a couple of good publications too) but coming back to the Arabian maic of his showmanship I wish I had him here as I ponder on the design of the Date Festival entrance spread out on the drafting board here in the tranquil atmosphere of old Fort Oliver. However, I promise you I shall show it to him before any of the mud bricks are laid in place.
SALTON-SEA
DESERT BEACH
250 FEET BELOW SEA LEVEL
*
Desert and Seashore Homesights [sic]
*
Swimming and Boating
*
Cocktails at the Wheelhouse Bar
9 1/2 Miles East of Mecca, Calif.
DESERT TEA
Fresh from the heart of the Mojave
LARGE BUNDLE $1.00
GRAIL FULLER RANCH
Box 26 Dagget, Calif.
Desert Art, Antiques, Pets, Curios
Ready to plant at your HOME IN THE SUN
Desert Holly Smoke Tree
Rooted plants of these and other desert trees and shrubs now available at
RANCHO MIRAGE NURSERY
Between Palm Springs and Indio on Rancho Mirage Plaza, beside the PALO VERDE DRESS SHOP.
F I N I S
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