Capturing the Mojave Desert

Painters, Photographers, Poets, and More Invited to Artist-in-Residence Program

A spring scene from the Mojave National Preserve (Matt Kettmann)

by MATT KETTMANN
Santa Barbara Independent

There are plenty of acute instances of beauty and wonder to be found in the Mojave National Preserve: obscure, Seussian flowers emerging from lonely, hardscrabble succulents; chaotic rock art surrounding mysteriously deep watering holes; abandoned mines littered with forgotten tools and shiny tailings; sharp mountains jutting violently from the subtly rolling flatlands; columns of sunlight piercing through the crusted earth to illuminate the circular walls of an underground lava tube. But the overall impression that this desert expanse just west of the California-Nevada border gives is of a collective vastness: From proper vantage points, the landscape simply goes on forever, making one feel materially insignificant and yet cosmically connected at the same time.

How to convey as much in art, photography, and poetry is the charge of the Mojave National Preserve Artists Foundation, which hosts work by the latest artist every 60 days in the Desert Light Gallery inside the Kelso Depot visitor center. The selected artists stay in the adjacent town of Baker, but by later this summer, the foundation hopes to have rooms at the centrally located Ox Ranch ready for use.

“The major advantage is that it’s in the middle of the preserve, so they don’t waste a lot of windshield time driving from Baker to wherever they are going to photograph or paint,” said Foundation President Bob Killen. “If you’re staying at the Ox, you are about 20 miles from anything you’ll want to do.”

Artists typically stay in the Mojave Preserve — which is the National Park Service’s newest preserve, and the third largest Service property in the lower 48 — for two to four weeks and then have about a year to complete their project. Once ready, it hangs in the gallery, where pieces are sold (there as well as online) with a 50-50 split to the artist and foundation.

The foundation has hosted numerous photographers, painters, and poets, as well as the occasional sculptor and even basket weavers. “We primarily focus on the art that’s going to create an educational link with the public and the preserve,” said Killen. “We want people to be able to see and interpret the desert in a much higher order through the eyes of the artist.”

Himself an accomplished photographer, Killen also owns National Park Photography Expeditions, which runs five-day masterclasses to the Mojave and seven other national parks/preserves for aspiring photographers. “They stay in the field with me for five days learning advanced landscape photography,” said Killen, who usually takes six to eight students and donates some proceeds to help support the artist-in-residence program.

Mojave preserve offers views and plenty of Joshua trees

The world’s largest concentration of Joshua trees grows in the Mojave National Preserve. (DEBORAH WALL/SPECIAL TO VIEW)

By DEBORAH WALL
SPECIAL TO VIEW

Beckoning seductively to city dwellers who long for elbow room, the 1.6 million-acre Mojave National Preserve lies in Southern California, barely an hour’s drive south of Las Vegas. While it has fewer than a dozen developed hiking trails, some of those are great ones. Among the best is the Teutonia Peak Trail, which boasts spectacular views of the east Mojave and beyond.

The moderate 4-mile round-trip trail takes you up to a steep outcropping on Cima Dome, at an elevation of 5,755 feet. The first section of the trail passes through the largest concentrations of Joshua trees in the world. While you will be hiking on the geologically interesting dome itself, the dome is best viewed from afar to see its almost-perfect symmetry, rising 1,500 feet above the desert.

From the signed trailhead, which is at an elevation of about 5,030 feet, follow the abandoned gravel road toward the obvious granite outcropping to the southwest. The first part of the hike is fairly flat and easy, so children will enjoy it. But once you’re hiking up the outcropping, it becomes more strenuous and extremely rocky with uneven footing, unsuitable for small children.

In the first mile or so, you will be surrounded by Joshua trees, remarkably odd but beautiful members of the lily family, with twisted, scaly limbs bearing long leaves only at their tips. They look like the fanciful trees in some children’s book by Dr. Seuss. Joshuas usually grow at an elevation between 2,000 and 7,000 feet, in sandy soil on flat or rolling terrain, so the foot of Cima Dome is one of their favorite places. Some along this hike are more than 20 feet tall. Other vegetation here includes yucca, cholla, blackbrush and Mormon tea.

After about a mile, you will come across timbers and mine tailings, evidence of an old silver claim. Take a glance, but stay away, as many old mines in the Mojave Desert are notoriously dangerous. Leave it alone and continue toward the outcropping.

Once up on the outcropping, follow the faint path along the ridgeline as far as you feel comfortable. The actual summit is difficult to access without a lot of rock scrambling. Indeed, you won’t need to reach it to take in the best of the far-reaching views. To the west, you will see the cinder cones and lava beds, which are part of the Cinder Cone National Natural Landmark, designated in 1973, and within the confines of the park. A bit past that, if you look carefully, you can even make out the world’s largest thermometer in Baker, Calif. Beyond, you can see the outline of the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.

To the south, you can see the Kelso Sand Dunes, and to the north, you can see Clark Mountain, the highest peak in the park, at an elevation of 7,929 feet. Clark sits just north of Interstate 15 near Mountain Pass.

While you are in the park, take time to head over to the Kelso Depot Visitor Center. The Mission-Revival style former train station was built in 1924 by the Union Pacific. The restored depot building is now the park’s main visitor center and has wonderful displays on the early mining and ranching history of this area, as well as Chemehuevi and Mojave Indian tribes. While trains no longer stop here, they roll through about once an hour. It’s a thrill to watch them from the station platform, thundering past at what appears to be full speed. And it’s safe to do so because a sturdy fence protects onlookers without obstructing their view.

The depot is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Tuesdays but closed Wednesdays and Thursdays. Its Beanery Lunch Counter is closed, so bring your own picnic supplies. There are picnic tables at the depot, but just about any location along one of the hundreds of side roads in the uncrowded preserve offers an inviting spot to spread a tablecloth. Gas is not available in the park, so before entering it, fill up in Primm or nearby Baker.

Deborah Wall is the author of “Great Hikes, A Cerca Country Guide” and “Base Camp Las Vegas: Hiking the Southwestern States,” published by Stephens Press. She can be reached at deborabus@aol.com.

Lunch counter to close at Kelso Depot Visitor Center

Visitors will no longer be able to enjoy a bite to eat at the Kelso Depot "Beanery."

Staff Reports
Victorville Daily Press

KELSO • After more than four years in operation, the Beanery Lunch Counter at Kelso Depot Visitor Center will close at the end of the month. The counter’s operator, Mike Williams, will serve his last lunch on Tuesday, according to a Mojave National Preserve news release.

Williams took over the lunch counter at Kelso Depot in 2008.

“I’ve enjoyed meeting people from around the world here at Kelso,” Williams said. “But it’s time for me to move on to other activities.”

The National Park Service spent a year searching for a replacement for Williams but was unable to find someone new in time to keep the lunch counter operating, according to the release. Although 50,000 people per year visit Kelso Depot, it is far from any town, presenting challenges for prospective business operators.

The National Park Service is currently exploring other food service options for the near-term, the release stated.

The Kelso Depot Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Tuesday.

Flash flood warning issued for Mojave preserve

From Staff Reports
Desert Dispatch

A flash flood warning is in effect for areas within the Mojave National Preserve and the Morongo Basin area until 4:45 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. A flood advisory is also in effect near Joshua Tree National Park.

Flash flood activity from a thunderstorm near Kelso in the preserve was detected at about 3 p.m. Thursday. Motorists along Kelbaker Road south of the Kelso Depot and Cima to the east of Kelso, according to the weather service. Other dirt roads within the Mojave preserve may be washed out.

Most deaths related to flash floods occur in cars. Motorists are warned not to drive cars into areas where water covers the road.

Wildflowers expected to put on a show at Mojave National Preserve

Joshua tree bloom in the Cinder Cone National Natural Landmark area of the Mojave National Preserve on 20 March 2010 (photo by Leslie Ervin)

Margo Bartlett Pesek
Las Vegas Review-Journal

April annually produces the widest variety of wildflowers in the Mojave National Preserve. In a good year of plentiful rainfall, most of the 250 flowering plants of the region produce blossoms in profusion to the delight of visitors to the vast preserve located south of the Nevada-California border. Even in years of scant rainfall, a few dependable varieties still show up. Head for the Mojave National Preserve soon to enjoy the best of whatever show nature provides.

To reach the preserve, head south from Las Vegas on Interstate 15. Drive through Primm and over the state line to the Nipton-Searchlight Cutoff, Highway 164. Watch for the Ivanpah Road exit and turn there. Go a short distance to the Morningstar Mine Road, which leads to a crossroads at Cima. Follow the signs south to Kelso, once a major watering stop on the railroad. Visitors from Southern Nevada can also reach the preserve from I-15 by taking Cima Road or Kelbaker Road, which cover different parts of the preserve. Cedar Canyon Road between Cima and Kelso connects with other major routes through the interior of the preserve.

The handsome Mission-style Kelso Depot built in 1924 served railroad travelers and employees for decades before falling into disrepair. An ambitious restoration gave the depot new purpose. It serves now as the main visitor center for the Mojave National Preserve and headquarters for National Park Service personnel. Open daily except Christmas Day, the building houses informational exhibits and displays, a bookstore and a basement art gallery. On the main floor, a cafe called The Beanery serves meals Fridays through Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Inquire at the depot about where to look for current wildflower displays.

Predicting a sensational wildflower season would challenge a Vegas odds-maker. The goal of the players is to produce plenty of flowers and seeds for future seasons. Many variables change the game. A perfect season begins with an inch of rain in late autumn, followed by scattered rains and no desiccating winds in winter and early spring.

This year, the rains came late, promising greenery, but delaying the flowers. Occasional heavy winds did not help. Late bloomers risk all against the oncoming summer heat. If summer comes early, they lose. If it holds off even a few days, they could play a winning game.

In the Mojave National Preserve, flowers show up first in the lowest elevations along roadsides and on south-facing slopes. Varieties change with the terrain. For instance, look for the showy pale blossoms of dune primrose only around sand as at Kelso Dunes or in sandy spots along roadsides. Often you'll find a sand-loving pink verbena in the same area. Join a ranger for a walk among the dunes any Saturday at 11 a.m. The dunes lie seven miles south of the depot, then three miles west on a graded road.

Soon after the earliest blossoms fade, different flowers take over and the show sweeps into higher elevations. By May, many early annuals are done, but several kinds of cactuses are then at their showiest. Nearly everything takes a summer hiatus, but a few kinds of flowers put on a nice autumn show if the monsoon rains deliver late summer moisture.

Springtime in the Mojave National Preserve invites visitors to explore this largely undiscovered recreational treasure. In addition to paved routes, the preserve contains about 1,000 miles of primitive roads ideal for four-wheeling or horseback exploration. For a small overnight fee, campers use two nice campgrounds at different elevations along Cedar Canyon Road and Black Canyon Road. Self-contained RV users or primitive campers may also camp where others have traditionally done so, free of charge. Several trails and hiking routes probe interesting canyons, historical routes and geological points of interest.

Visitors do well to remember that springtime draws reptilian residents out of winter dens.

The Mojave is home to several species of rattlesnakes, the most dangerous being the Mojave green, whose strong toxin attacks the respiratory system. Watch where you step or put your hands and listen for that warning buzz.

15th Anniversary Celebration of the California Desert Protection Act

by Michael Gordon

Please join the National Park Service and the National Parks Conservation Association to celebrate this historic anniversary at Mojave National Preserve’s Kelso Depot Visitor Center in Kelso, California. Entertainment, education, food, and an incredible line-up of speakers will add to your enjoyment of our celebration, located at the Historic Kelso Depot in the heart of Mojave National Preserve. Only a few miles from the 700-foot tall Kelso Sand Dunes.

Signed into law on October 31, 1994, the California Desert Protection Act designated 7.8 million acres of land as wilderness, changed areas previously designated as national monuments into Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks, and established Mojave National Preserve. This bill was the single largest land protection bill in the history of the lower 48!

The California Desert Protection Act is important because it established Mojave National Preserve and expanded Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks," said Mojave Superintendent Dennis Schramm. "Before its passage in 1994, Death Valley and Joshua Tree were designated as National Monuments."

Activities during the event include guided hikes and tours, distinguished speakers, children's activities and more.

The Fort Mojave Tribal Band and Needles Select Choir will perform, and Cowboy Poet Rob Blair will recite poems inspired by his life in the Mojave.

Lunch can be purchased at The Beanery lunch counter inside the Kelso Depot. Kelso Depot was built in 1924 and served as a Union Pacific station until 1986. The building was renovated and re-opened in 2005 as Mojave National Preserve's visitor center. The spectacular mission-revival style building now houses a museum, information center, bookstore, lunch counter, and art gallery.

The bookstore operated by Western National Parks Association will be open, and many regional authors whose books are on sale will be available for book signings.

Western Artist Susan Altstatt has a solo show in the Desert Light Gallery of the Kelso Depot Visitor's Center beginning October 10th and running through January 3rd, 2010. Twenty-two pieces of Susan's work focused on the East Mojave will be displayed, and selected prints will be available. Susan has been painting off and on for the past 50 years. Her media is primarily acrylic on canvas.

• Visitor Center open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Activities begin at 10 a.m.
• Susan Altstatt, Western artist
  solo show in the lower gallery
• Kelso is 34 miles south of I-15 at Baker on Kelbaker Road
• Celebration event at 1 p.m.
• Lunch concessions available

The Turtle Mountains by Susan Altstatt

This event is free and open to the public!

For more information call 760-252-6100 or visit us online at www.nps.gov/moja

You can download a flyer for this event here.

Suicide Victim Found At Inholder Residence

Mojave National Preserve
National Park News

On July 21st, a woman contacted the information desk at the Kelso Depot Visitor Center and said that she hadn’t heard for a while from her father, Michael Obert, who was staying at an inholder (sic) residence within the park (sic). She asked that a ranger check on him, as he’d left a message for her the previous day saying that she should send help if he was not heard from by 8 a.m. on the 21st.

Ranger Brian Cooperider and a San Bernardino County deputy sheriff drove to the residence near Cima and discovered Obert dead of a gunshot wound. He was lying face forward with a .22 caliber handgun underneath him and as single gunshot wound in his head.

The county coroner was notified, as was his daughter.

Environmental group opens office in Barstow

By ABBY SEWELL, staff writer
Desert Dispatch

BARSTOW • The newly opened office of the National Parks Conservation Association in Barstow is still almost bare, but staffer David Lamfrom has big plans for it.

The nonprofit organization, which was created in 1919 by the same people who founded the National Park Service, lobbies and provides public education and community outreach on issues centering around the national parks. Its office in Barstow opened Feb. 9.

In the coming months NPCA will give digital cameras to a dozen High Desert high school students and lead them on expeditions to the Mojave Desert, where they will photograph desert tortoises, their habitat, and threats to their survival. At the end of the 16-month program, the group will self-publish a photographic book focused on the tortoise.

In the process, Lamfrom — who worked as an environmental biologist and then as vice president of an environmental consulting firm before joining the NPCA as a field representative — hopes the kids will learn not only about the desert ecosystem but about critical thinking and expressing themselves through art.

“It’s a marriage of arts and sciences,” he said.

Aside from the desert tortoise project, the NPCA has also advocated on environmental issues like the siting of renewable energy projects.

Another focus of the nonprofit is on channeling the tourism to the national parks so that communities like Barstow see a positive economic impact, Lamfrom said. As one piece of that, the NPCA sits on the Barstow-Kelso Heritage Railroad committee, which hopes to run a tour train from the Harvey House in Barstow to the historic Kelso Depot, traveling through roadless regions of the desert in between.

“Ultimately the long-term goal of this office is to help Barstow embrace being the gateway to the Mojave National Preserve,” Lamfrom said.

The group has already begun working with some other local partners, like the Desert Discovery Center and its Discovery Trails educational program, and the Mojave Environmental Education Consortium, a public-private partnership that provides teachers with environmental education materials and provides grants that allow teachers to take students on environmentally-focused field trips.

Jane Laraman-Brockhurst, artistic coordinator for Discovery Trails and president of local nonprofit Main Street Murals, said the NPCA will add a welcome new piece to the Desert Discovery Center Partnership, which previously included the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Barstow Community College, Barstow Unified School District, the Mojave River Valley Museum and Main Street Murals. NPCA will be leading some workshops and assisting with a field trip to Death Valley as part of Main Street Murals’ Discovery Trails educational program on the Ice Age.

“It’s really important that the public experience the public lands we have, and that’s David (Lamfrom’s) role, is as an enabler to get the public to really experience public lands,” she said.

In the future Lamfrom said he also hopes to partner with the city of Barstow in bringing more national-park related economic development to town.

Interview With Dennis Schramm

Superintendent of Mojave National Preserve

BY DAVID LAMFROM
The Desert Report

A Brief Introduction to Mojave National Preserve:
To millions of drivers en route to or returning from Sin City, the Mojave National Preserve is a large green or brown area on a map, a desolate, rugged, barren landscape to be traversed. To those who have come to know “the Preserve” it is a 1.6 million acre desert mountain wonderland, teeming with wildlife, wildflowers, and wilderness; a place containing singing sand dunes, sweeping vistas, and arguably the finest night sky viewing in Southern California. The Mojave Preserve is a significant reservoir of cultural history dating back 8,000 years or more and is a haven of wilderness within a developing world, allowing current and future generations the opportunity to experience the vastness and diversity of the Eastern Mojave Desert.

Introducing Mr. Dennis Schramm

Dennis Schramm has been the superintendent of Mojave National Preserve for almost three years. He is a professional botanist who grew up in the Mojave Desert and has witnessed firsthand the population boom that impacts desert wildlands. Dennis has worked for the NPS for 31 years and has worked in Alaska as well as Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. I have posed questionsto Dennis in order to share the work being done at Mojave National Preserve. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) would like to thank Dennis Schramm for taking the time to discuss the Mojave National Preserve with us.

David: Speaking to those who are unfamiliar with the Preserve, what is significant about Mojave Nnational Preserve?
Dennis: Well, from the perspective of the enabling legislation, it is the natural and scenic resources including transitional desert elements that all come together here; it is the human history and the resources associated with Native Americans and westward expansion; and it is the opportunity for compatible outdoor recreation and to promote understanding of the Mojave Desert. From my personal perspective I think the most significant thing is the preservation of 1.6 million acres of prime Mojave Desert ecosystem and the vast landscapes that are encompassed within the Preserve. Considering the developments being proposed today in the Mojave, it is so important that a large expanse of the Mojave Desert is permanently protected for future generations.

Your favorite destination in the Preserve?
Wow, that’s kind of hard. There are so many different landscapes and vegetation types to explore. But I would have to say that the hike into the Castle Peaks is definitely one of the tops on my list.

In your lifetime, how has the Mojave Desert changed?
Population growth and the way people use the desert have changed a lot. Of course Las Vegas has grown substantially since I went to school and college there in the 60’s and 70’s. This surge of people has caused unprecedented development in the Vegas valley and the Victor Valley/Lancaster areas.

Have attitudes towards the Mojave changed?
I’m not sure if attitudes overall have changed, but a lot more people seem to be interested in motorized recreation, whether it is jet skis on Lake Mead and the Colorado River, or four wheel drive vehicles in OHV areas. There is still a core population of folks who prefer a more intimate experience with the desert, but their voices don’t seem as loud as in the 60’s.

In your tenure, what do you consider to be the greatest victories or achievements attained?
Well, I have to include in my tenure my first seven years here as the planner and management assistant. Of course, my first major accomplishment was completion of the General Management Plan in 2001. During those first years we also removed 4,000 feral burros and around 8,000 cattle (all with donated funds!). Restoration of the Kelso Depot and opening it as our main visitor center has been a significant achievement and remains a tremendous opportunity for visitor contact. Mojave achieved a 99% visitor satisfaction rate last year and a lot has to do with the Kelso Depot and staff that work there. I’m also proud of the work we are doing to reduce our impact on the environment. We now have eleven solar systems operating around the Preserve and this year will eliminate the last diesel generator from the Preserve. This year we also converted all our maintenance equipment to bio-based fluids and greatly expanded our recycling program. Finally I would have to say that the staff we have hired are among the best around and we accomplish a great many things each year due to their hard work and dedication.

What do you consider to be the greatest threats to Mojave Preserve?
I think most of our threats today are originating outside the Preserve, some from sources that you wouldn’t have suspected. Obviously, the proposed Southern Nevada Supplement Airport just north of Primm poses major threats to the natural quiet of the Preserve if it is built. Then there are the hundreds of solar and wind energy applications filed all over the desert. Mojave has nine proposals surrounding it in California. The Ivanpah Solar is moving rapidly through the permitting process. It lies on the bajada just east of Clark Mountain. They propose to clear nearly 9,000 acres for solar energy development, the majority of which is wet solar. They would heat water to produce steam by pointing mirrors at several 450 foot tall towers. Then they would burn natural gas at night to keep the water warm. We’ve learned recently that some of the projects are proposing new utility rights of way through the Preserve to connect with grid.

Why? How can these challenges be best addressed?
The public needs to speak up at the hearings for these projects. As a federal agency we can only do so much. We raise our concerns at every opportunity, but we are also thinking ahead to mitigation if the projects do get built. It is important for the public to learn the details about these proposals and know how these projects will affect the future of the Mojave Desert.

Looking forward, what are your goals and priorities for improving Mojave Preserve?
This could go on for a while! There are several areas that we have identified for the future. One obvious opportunity is the National Park Service Centennial Celebration in 2016. A major initiative is already underway to get the parks ready for this milestone event. 1Mojave has identified a number of proposals, and we will continue to refine our thinking in conversations with the public. One major initiative that needs to be supported is the relevancy of parks to future generations. This means connecting kids with parks and with the outdoors in general. We are working on this initiative with several of our sister parks. Restoration of disturbed lands and ensuring safe visits for the public at all of our abandoned mine lands is a priority for us, and for all the desert parks. Reducing our carbon footprint is a major priority for all of us. We will be looking for opportunities to implement meaningful actions that contribute to this goal. This is just one aspect of dealing with climate change. Protecting Mojave from invasive species rates high as well. Surprisingly, given the long grazing history, Mojave has few issues with the major weed species. After the Hackberry Fire I would have expected lots of exotics to invade the area, and that has not happened. It is important to guard against these invasives making inroads into the Preserve. I also think it is important that we get some wayside exhibits with short accessible trails at four or five key areas along the main paved roads through the Preserve. Providing opportunities for the public to experience areas like the lava beds and cinder cones, the diverse Mojave scrub vegetation in Granite Pass, and the Joshua Tree community on Cima Dome are important to helping people connect first hand with the resources and not just have a drive through experience. Finally, we are anxious to move forward with a tortoise headstart facility in Ivanpah Valley. This facility will help us and other land managers learn more about juvenile tortoise survival and to jumpstart the population recovery with reproductive age tortoises that have been protected from predation. Getting more juveniles to reproductive age in the population is critical to tortoise recovery.

What opportunities exist for the conservation community and the local community to support the efforts of Mojave Nnational Preserve?
Opportunities are almost endless. Obviously volunteers and donations are very important to our operation, and these tend to come from the local communities and members of conservation groups. Being an active voice for National Parks and being a participant in the public review of development proposals that are threatening to further fragment the desert. Teach the children to love the outdoors!

I would like to offer you the last word, is there anything you would like to impart to those reading this article?
Mojave National Preserve is a very special part of the Mojave Desert. Many people worked very hard to create the Preserve and it is up to all of us to ensure that future generations can enjoy this place as we do. Most of all, get out and enjoy the quiet, enjoy the dark night skies, enjoy the smells after a desert rain, and enjoy the vast open spaces and spectacular landscapes. This is your national park!

David Lamfrom is the Cal Desert Field Rep for NPCA’s Cal Desert Field Office. David is a relative newcomer to the Cal Desert and pursues his passions of conservation, wildlife photography, hiking, and herpetology throughout the Mojave.

Oasis of The Quack

Desert Rattler




By Ken Layne
LA City Beat



Soda Springs. Photo by Ken Layne

Just a few miles south of Interstate 15 and its spastic weekend traffic of creeping truckers and cretin Vegas tourists, there is an oasis out of some cheap Saharan dream. It sits at the end of a gravelly road that wraps along the glossy brown volcanic rock piles to the west, as the desert gives way to saltbush and actual wet marshland, thick with cattails and tall green reeds, busy with dragonflies and hidden water birds.

This is Soda Springs, where mineral waters are forced from the Earth at the western edge of a vast dry lakebed circled by the jagged mountain ranges that run across Mojave National Preserve. Out of this wild panorama rise neat rows of palm trees – monster California and Mexican fan palms, six decades of dead fronds reaching to the ground. The palms lead to a small village from another time.

The lonely boulevard is divided by a wide median stocked with more trees, an old nesting box for owls or bats, and park benches facing the small lake ringed by willows. The coots have the run of the pond, a half-dozen of the goofy white-billed black creatures gliding across the water.

On a steamy still day as the season’s last monsoon thunderstorms cook up over the eastern mountains, I walk down the empty street in the 104-degree heat, stopping in the shade of huge smoke trees. The town, abandoned on this Saturday, consists of a handful of white plaster buildings along the grandly named Boulevard of Dreams – rows of dorm-style guest rooms are across the way, with small shared patios between them. The grandest building, also closed up, has an outdoor dining room with the whole Eastern Mojave for a backdrop, a crescent of those giant Mexican palm trees framing the scene.

This is, ultimately, the reward for living in this desert with its foreclosed exurbs and off-road motorcycle morons and campaign yard signs warning against gay marriage when neither marriage nor gays seems to exist in these strip-mall trailer-park pawn-shop wastelands: The most stunning parts of the Mojave, the ones that still remain, are always empty of people.

I walk back along the water and kneel down for a look. Just below the pond’s surface, handsome little fish dart around – Mohave tui chub, the last pure specimens, accidentally saved from extinction or cross-breeding by a curious character who introduced the rare critters from a nearby spring, their last natural existing refuge, when he built his little acre-and-a-half lake.

For 30 years, from 1944 to 1974, the self-appointed doctor and preacher lived out here, presiding over his arid empire of health potions and faith. He was “The Reverend” Curtis Springer, “Doc Springer” to his friends, and anybody who mailed an envelope of cash to the world-famous Zzyzx Mineral Springs was indeed his friend.

To build his Moroccan-inspired oasis, Springer bused in Los Angeles winos from skid row – they got food and a bunk for their troubles, but most headed back to Fifth Street once they figured out booze wasn’t part of the menu.

When his hotel and cross-shaped soaking pool and radio studio were completed, Springer broadcast his invitation to anyone with the means to travel out to Soda Springs and take his many cures. Generous donations were expected. To those who couldn’t afford a visit to his enchanting resort on the desert but listened to his sermons carried by more than 300 radio stations, he offered mail-order cures both commonsensical and absurd – it’s hard to argue with carrot juice and mineral baths, but his “Mo-Hair” baldness cure consisted of rubbing Soda Lake salts on the scalp while hanging your head upside down and holding your breath.

The quack complaints eventually made their way to the Law, in the late 1960s, after Springer had plied his weird trade for a quarter century. In 1969, while another Mojave mystic prepared to bring his Family back from Death Valley to Hollywood, Doc Springer went on trial for selling bogus medicine. He served 49 days but his troubles weren’t over. The Feds went after him for squatting on Bureau of Land Management property – he had nothing but a mining claim on the 12,000 acres, and he was selling Zzyzx Springs residential lots to his loyalists.

But why Zzyzx? It was the last word in the English language, Springer claimed, so it was the last word in health. Go to the Kelso Deport museum in the Mojave National Preserve and you can hear recordings of Springer’s smooth bullshitter’s voice.

Doc Springer was forced off his creation in 1974, and died in Las Vegas a dozen years later. He was an old-time crook who never really hurt anybody and provided some adventure for bored, gullible Americans during our long-gone Era of Prosperity.

Today, Zzyzx is the Desert Studies Center, part of Cal State Fullerton and home to UC Riverside’s occasional extended education outings for the peculiar few who want to spend a weekend learning about rocks and bugs. There are no services for the traveler and no reason to exit the interstate.

Mojave offers plenty of trails

TRIP OF THE WEEK

by Margo Bartlett Pesek
Las Vegas Review-Journal

The return of cooler months to the desert invites exploration of the sprawling Mojave National Preserve just over the Nevada border in Southern California.

Although the preserve contains few established foot trails, hundreds of miles of old roads and historic trails lead hikers, mountain bikers, cyclists, four-wheelers and equestrians to probe washes, canyons and mountains. Always carry at least a gallon of water per person and extra for your vehicle. Let a responsible person know where you are headed and when you plan to return.

Administered by the National Park Service since 1994, the Mojave National Preserve sets aside a huge portion of the Mojave Desert, the smallest and driest North American desert. The preserve encompasses a rough triangle bordered by U.S. 95, Interstate 40 and Interstate 15, plus an area north of I-15 near Mountain Pass. Many areas of the preserve are less than a three-hour drive from Las Vegas.

These highways provide easy access to the network of 2,200 miles of roads and trails into the interior of the preserve. Visitors can use passenger vehicles safely on major routes through the preserve, but many graded roads and dirt tracks require high clearance vehicles or four-wheel drive.

Before venturing off main roads, consult a good map. Learn about current road conditions at the preserve's information stations in California at Baker, Barstow, Needles, Nipton, Goffs Schoolhouse Museum on Route 66 or the visitor center in the restored Kelso Depot. Built in 1927, the two-story Mission Revival building served train crews and passengers on the Union Pacific.

Access the depot from near Nipton using the Morningstar Mine Road toward Cima and Kelso, the Cima Road from I-15 between Mountain Pass and Halloran Summit or from Baker on Kelbaker Road. The beautiful Kelso Dunes lie a few miles south of the depot. Visitors drive to them and park near the base of the 700-foot mountains of sand. Only foot traffic is allowed on these protected dunes. The soft, shifting sand precludes any defined trail, so it is a slog to the crest.

The Cima Road passes the trailhead to Teutonia Peak, a developed trail. Watch for an informal campsite at Sunrise Rock 10.4 miles south of I-15 on the Cima Road. The four-mile trail begins nearby on the opposite side of the road, cutting through an extensive forest of Joshua Trees, a signature plant of the Mojave.

Between Cima and Kelso, watch for the Cedar Canyon Road turnoff, an access to developed facilities, accessible from I-40 as well. Pavement soon turns to gravel through five flood-prone miles to the junction with Black Canyon Road. Turn south and look for a narrow two-mile road to Mid-Hills Campground, one of two developed campgrounds in the preserve.

Continue south on Black Canyon Road to reach facilities at Hole-in-the-Wall, named for strangely eroded rock formations. Developments include a ranger station, housing for fire crews, an equestrian group campground, a 35-unit RV and tent campground, and two additional walk-in tent sites.

Both campgrounds have tables, fire rings, parking pads, drinking water and centrally located toilets. Fire restrictions may be in force. Plan to use a camp stove for cooking. Camping fees apply, but no entrance fee is charged. Reservations are not accepted, except for the equestrian facilities.

A popular eight-mile trail connects Mid Hills and Hole-in-the-Wall. Hikers, bikers and horseback trail riders often start from Mid-Hills, which sits 1,200 feet higher than Hole-in-the-Wall. They park transport vehicles at the visitor center/ranger station for the ride back, unless they want to do 16 miles roundtrip.

Wildflowers blooming this year after rains

Verbena and evening primrose blooming along a roadside in the Mojave National Preserve.


By Jason Smith, staff writer
Desert Dispatch

BARSTOW - Visitors to the sand dunes and desert lands around Barstow can see something they haven't seen for years: blossoming flowers.

Area national parks are seeing wildflower blossoms that they haven't experienced since 2005, said Linda Slater, a park ranger at the Mojave National Preserve.

"It already is a good year for wildflowers," she said. "Compared to last year, it's a really good year."

Some flowers such as the yellow-petaled Evening Primrose are most visible in the lower elevations of the preserve now. Joshua trees and some species of cacti will likely bloom in the coming weeks, she said. She said the preserve has seen about 200 visitors per day at its Kelso Depot Visitor Center a substantial increase over last year at this time last year.

"Everybody's asking about flowers," she said. "We're seeing a lot more people camping around the preserve."

She said she expects the wildflower bloom to reach its height in the coming weeks and end sometime in May. This year's rains have caused flowers to spring this year where they were not last.

"Basically what we've had is one decent soaking rainfall every month," she said. "That'll produce a decent bloom."

In Death Valley National Park, wildflowers are also blooming now, said Charlie Callagan, a naturalist with the park. He said the one and a half inches of rain the park received last year wasn't enough to produce the spectacular blooms for which the area is known. Still, visitors in search of fields of flowers are filling up the park's campgrounds and motels.

"This is probably one of the better years we're seen since 1998 and 2005," he said. "This is probably the third best year we've had in decades."

Anthony Chavez, a rangeland management specialist with the Barstow office of the Bureau of Land Management, however, predicts a typical year for wildflowers in the region.

"You have wildflower blooms, but I wouldn't consider this a spectacular year by any means," he said. "But anything's better than last year."

He said the wildflowers many people think of are annual plants such as Desert Marigolds, Sand Verbinas, Native Phacelia and Popcorn Flowers, which complete their life cycle in one growing season and die after flowering. Periennel plants produce seeds every year and last more than one growing season.

Chavez was in the Ord Mountains Thursday gathering samples of annually flowering plants and found 784 pounds of vegetative material this year. BLM crews found no evidence of annually flowering plant growth last year at this time due to the severe drought, he said.

He said that if annual wildflowers haven't already bloomed or begun to bloom than they won't this season. He said this weekend's projected rains won't make any difference.

"Once an annual plant has germinated, you can pour an ocean of water on it but it's not going to grow any taller," Chavez said.

Kelso Depot Hosts Fine Art Photo Exhibit

Press Release
Mojave National Preserve




Bob Killen Photo

Since the turn of the last century, transcontinental railroads have promoted rail travel to national parks by producing framed prints and advertizing art that depicts the beauty of these national treasures. The tradition of close ties between the railroads, art, and national parks continues as Mojave National Preserve inaugurates its new gallery space with Back to Loneliness, a fine art photography exhibit at the Kelso Depot Visitor Center.

The Back to Loneliness collection of photographic prints by Bob Killen is an exploration of Mojave National Preserve’s Ivanpah Mountains. Killen’s cinematic style, reflective of his commercial editorial work, applies a fine art edge to the saturated hues of Teutonia granite formations, pointy cactus flora, crumbling mine sites and the world’s largest Joshua tree forest.

“The Mojave Desert has always been an inspiration for writers, photographers, and other artists,” said Linda Slater, Chief, Resource Interpretation & Outreach for Mojave National Preserve. “The addition of an art gallery to the Kelso Visitor Center is an exciting opportunity to enrich the experience of our visitors.”

The Back to Loneliness exhibition runs from February 16th to May 19th. Limited edition prints of Bob Killen’s work will be available at Western National Parks Association bookstore inside the Kelso Depot Visitor Center. Proceeds from print sales will fund additional projects aimed at promoting the understanding and enjoyment of Mojave National Preserve.

Preserve to hold community meeting Sept. 29

Desert Dispatch [Barstow, CA]

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE — On Saturday, Sept. 29 the National Park Service will hold a community meeting at Hole-in-the-Wall Interagency Fire Center in the Mojave National Preserve at 10 AM.

Park officials will present information about projects currently underway at the preserve, including efforts to clean up dumps at Morningstar Mine and proposals to open a restaurant at the Kelso Depot.

Superintendent Dennis Schramm will host a community meeting at the Hole-in-the-Wall Fire Center beginning at 10 AM. Park managers will be available to answer questions and provide information about park activities.

Meanwhile, park employees and volunteers from Desert Survivors will be working all day on cleaning up campsites and repairing the road in Caruthers Canyon area. Before the meeting, there will be a ribbon cutting of two new hiking trails near the Hole-In-The-Wall visitor Center.

For more information about the meeting and directions, please call 760-252-6101.

Zzyzx facility to get new solar panels

By JASON SMITH Staff Writer
Desert Dispatch [Barstow, CA]

Thanks to a federal grant, an educational center in the Mojave National Preserve will be getting new solar panels. The new panels will expand the power-generating capabilities of the California Desert Studies center at Zzyzx within the preserve.

The project will be 50 percent funded by the National Parks Service as part of a national program to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the parks service. The remaining funds will be paid by the group that operates the facility, a group of seven California State colleges, said Larry Whalon, acting deputy superintendent of the Mojave National Preserve.

“It’s a good show of support from the Bush Administration for the national parks,” he said.

The centennial anniversary of the parks service will occur in 2016, but increased federal funds were put aside for improvement projects in the 2008 fiscal year. The preserve also might apply for funds to operate a Barstow-to-Kelso Depot rail line and to acquire more land, Whalon said.

William Presch, director of the consortium that manages the study center, said the 12-building complex needs more power-generating capacity. The facility includes housing for as many as 70 researchers.

Presch said the solar panels will teach students about environmental sustainability in the harsh desert environment. The facility currently uses diesel and propane generators in addition to its existing solar panels. The center is completely self-sustaining and treats its own wastewater.

“We have nothing coming in from the outside. We are completely off the grid,” Presch said.

The 1,200 acre facility receives an average of 20 users each day and 7,200 each year, Presch said. The majority of visitors are undergraduate students of biology, geology, astronomy and other subjects. Graduate researchers are also able to use the facility.

Recent research projects have included sand movement, earthquake research and studies of plant and insects. The Mars landers were tested at the facility before being sent to space, Presch said.

Construction of the panels will begin in March and be finished by October 2008.

Food vendor needed at Kelso Depot

Desert Dispatch [Barstow, CA]

The National Park Service is accepting proposals for food concessions at the Kelso Depot Visitor Center at the Mojave National Preserve. The concession contract will run for 10 years.

The park is looking for a private concession operator to serve meals at the 1920s-era lunch counter, which was rebuilt as part of a renovation project.

For more information about making a concession proposal, go to http://www.concessions.nps.gov/Prospectus.cfm or call Kim Gagliolo, the concession management analyst, at (510) 817-1368.

Mojave National Preserve ponders entrance fees

Desert Dispatch [Barstow, CA]
By HILLARY BORRUD Staff Writer

KELSO - Visitors to the Mojave National Preserve could begin paying an entrance fee as soon as next year, a park ranger at the Mojave National Preserve said.

The proposed fees are $10 per vehicle for seven days and $20 for a year pass, although the fee is still under study and the National Park Service is accepting public comments, park ranger Linda Slater said. These fees could take effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

The fees were discussed at a community meeting at the Kelso Depot Visitor Center in the preserve on Saturday along with a nearly complete project to legally define wilderness areas and the cleanup of Morningstar Mine, where cyanide used to leach out gold spilled from a pond.
Entrance fees at Joshua Tree National Park are $15 per vehicle, and at Death Valley National Park, they are $20 per vehicle, Slater said.

Meanwhile, the Park Service is wrapping up wilderness mapping in which a group of people is "ground truthing" the boundaries that Congress drew up a map when it established the preserve under the 1994 Desert Protection Act, Slater said.

"Some local landowners feel like areas they could drive to in the past, they can't drive to anymore," she said, although wilderness boundaries are not being altered. "What people are seeing on the ground is that more and more wilderness is being marked."

Cleanup of Morningstar Mine, where heavy rain caused cyanide contaminated water to overflow and leak from a pond, could begin as early as May or June, said Larry Whalon, chief of natural and cultural resources for Mojave National Preserve. The mine was active periodically throughout the 20th century and stopped operation in 1990.

The Park Service will be able to minimize the cost of cleaning up the mine by getting a private contractor involved, Whalon said. The contractor will clean up the contamination and remove heaps of rock, which will be used as an additive to cement, perhaps for freeways, he said.

"It will take a year to clean the site up, then probably five years to remove the heaps."

The National Park Service is in the process of setting up a public comment section on its Web site, www.nps.gov/moja. Comments can also be mailed to Mojave National Preserve, Superintendent, 2701 Barstow Road, Barstow, CA, 92311.

Kelso jail back in old home next to depot

Chuck Mueller, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun




KELSO - The old jail has arrived back home after a 12-year stay in a backyard in Hinkley.

It now sits near the 82-year-old Kelso Depot, where a half-century ago it held a variety of miscreants during the heyday of the mid-Mojave rail stop.

"We're glad to get it back, as it adds to the authenticity of the historic landscape," said Linda Slater, a ranger with the Mojave National Preserve, which operates the depot as a museum and visitors' center.

The Union Pacific Railroad opened the stately depot in 1924. It was closed in 1985 and was destined for demolition until a group of citizens rallied to save it.

"The building has been renovated virtually as it was when the Union Pacific closed it," said Slater, who along with other park officials searched far afield for authentic artifacts, century-old photographs and original furnishings to restore its original character.

"We talked to desert old-timers and went to eBay, other railroad museums, and the Union Pacific," said James Woolsey, the preserve's former interpretative officer, in a recent interview. He has since taken another position with the National Park Service.

The old jail, which was used to hold unruly individuals from the mid-1940s to 1985, had disappeared.

Corona resident Richard Klepper, who lived in Kelso in the 1940s, washed dishes as a youngster at the depot's lunch counter, The Beanery. His father and several siblings worked for the Union Pacific.

"Before (the jail) was brought in, people who got into trouble were kept overnight in closed reefer cars on a siding," he said.

The family left Kelso in 1947 when the railroad switched from steam engines to diesel, and Klepper later advanced with Union Pacific, retiring in 1987 after serving as a terminal superintendent in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

In the mid-1970s, San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Ron Mahoney was on duty in Kelso when he first saw the jail.

"He and I picnicked near Kelso in 1984, and it was still there," said his wife, Kay Mahoney of Hinkley. "We learned that it had been moved to Barstow in 1987."

The Mahoneys later learned that the jail was behind the county health department in Barstow. "Ron spoke to a county official about buying it but was told it was not for sale," his wife said. "But the official said we could store it at our home as long as we liked."

So the 7-foot-by-10-foot structure ended up in Hinkley in 1994. "Our grandkids used it as a playhouse," Kay Mahoney said. "If that got out of hand, we would threaten to lock them them up in the jail. Of course, we never did.

"When we had visitors, it was always a conversation piece, and people wanted to buy it as an antique. But we didn't want to part with it."

Ron Mahoney died three years ago, but his wife remained as a guardian of sorts for the old jail, which stood next to a wood pile.

"I heard about plans to renovate the Kelso Depot and went there for a visit last year," she said. "I asked a ranger about the jail, and she said it was rumored to be in San Bernardino."

She said, "No, it's in my backyard."

That sparked interest at the national preserve. "James Woolsey called me and asked if I would be willing to return it to Kelso, and I said yes," Mahoney said.

"It belongs in Kelso, not in my backyard."

Under Kelso's dusty top layer is vivid history

A boarded-up post office and restored depot dot the landscape in Kelso. The town attracts as many as 400 people a day to explore the Kelso Dunes and the visitor center. Photo by Greg Vojtko / The Press-Enterprise

By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise

KELSO - Tim Duncan was not quick to jump nine years ago when the National Park Service asked him to leave his job as a ranger at the Manassas Battlefield in Virginia and move to the dusty and nearly deserted outpost of Kelso in the Mojave Desert.

He had visited California once on vacation, and drove the desolate stretch between Needles and Barstow.

But he took the assignment, in part because one of the Park Service's attractions has been the opportunity to work all over the country, from Alaska to Virginia, he said.

Duncan, 50, has come to love his home in Kelso, hidden against the Granite Mountains. The nearest civilization is in rural Baker, along Interstate 15, some 30 miles to the northwest.

"I enjoy the quietness, I enjoy the remoteness, I enjoy the terrain," he said. "I enjoy the railroad community and the visitor center, which has just been restored."

He was referring to Kelso's 15 other inhabitants: Union Pacific Railroad employees who maintain the track between Barstow and Las Vegas. And to the two-story rail depot officially reopened in March as a visitor center for the 1.6-million-acre Mojave National Preserve.

The visitor center, renovated at a cost of $5.5 million, has fostered something of a renaissance for a town that was founded in 1905 as a water stop for steam-driven trains, boomed as a mining town during World War II, and has been little more than a ghost town ever since.

As many as 400 people a day venture off Interstates 40 and 15 on weekends to sift through the artifacts on display here. They also explore the nearby Kelso Dunes, where weather-polished grains of sand emit an eerie, growling boom sound as they cascade during avalanches.

The only other visitors Duncan sees are the motorists who are detoured through town when traffic accidents prompt the California Highway Patrol to shut down one of the interstates.

"The traffic backs up for 50 miles," Duncan said. "It's a slow crawl, and I have to go out and make sure it keeps moving."

How Kelso Came to Be

James Woolsey, chief of resource interpretation and outreach for the preserve, likes to amuse visitors with the not-so-compelling story of how Kelso got its name.

Three railroad surveyors took turns naming the stops, he said. Only two of them were on hand at the Kelso founding and they decided to throw their names, and the name of the third guy, into a hat and choose one for the town.

The name they drew? "The guy who wasn't there," Woolsey said.

He is not certain how often John Kelso visited his namesake, or whether he ever visited it.

When the first trains started running, Kelso had a small store and a few-dozen residents, including a smattering of gold and silver miners.

Soon after, the railroad built a roundhouse to service them and parked half a dozen extra locomotives to help the engines make it up the grueling 19-mile, 2,000-foot grade to Cima.

"That's what made Kelso," said Theo Packard, 95, who moved to the town with his parents in 1920 and stayed for a quarter century.

"Sometimes, the trains were so long, they had to hitch on two or three helpers to make it," Packard said.

Kelso had about 200 residents then.

"It was just a regular, work-a-day town," he said. "Mostly, we worked."

A Busy Little Place

Packard's father opened a general store that doubled as the post office. There were no saloons.

Packard attended Kelso's one-room school, which closed in the 1970s. The building, which still stands, was home to the town's one big social event: a monthly dance where the railroad workers, ranchers and miners converged to foxtrot and waltz.

"They had a kind of a makeshift orchestra," he said. "My mother played the piano."

The school had one teacher who instructed students through the eighth grade, after which they commuted by train to Barstow or Las Vegas to attend high school.

The massive two-story depot, which would eventually house railroad workers, restaurant employees, and telegraph and baggage workers, was constructed in 1924.

Four passenger trains a day, two each in the early morning and evening, stopped in Kelso to load up with water and feed the passengers.

The telegraph operator was something of a gossip, Packard remembers, and would pass the word when celebrities were on the way. Packard ran down to the station one day to meet silent-movie cowboy Tom Mix and look at his horse in the baggage car.

Kelso's "boom" came at the start of World War II, Woolsey said, when iron ore-mines in the area supplied raw material for the Kaiser Steel plant in Fontana. The plant, in turn, turned out steel for the Liberty ships that ferried beans and bullets to Europe during the war. At one point, the town had 2,000 residents.

By war's end, Kelso was on a track to oblivion. Packard left to seek work for a rail delivery service.

'Tin Cans and String'

Today, Kelso has no general store, no restaurant, no movie theater and still no saloon.

Duncan has two freezers and drives to Las Vegas once a month for supplies. He says it's quicker than going south to Barstow and there is a wider variety of stores, which saves trips.

Only a few of the railroad workers are in town at any given time, he said. Their only entertainment, he said, is what it has always been: They get together every now and then to have dinner.

That isn't all that's stayed the same. The telephone at his ranger station has a scratchy signal and frequently cuts out, like poor cell-phone service.

"The lines, the equipment, everything, is 50 years old," Duncan said. "I guess they don't see the need for improvement. We're on tin cans and string out here."

Not exactly the way he likes it.

Video: A history of Kelso, the once flourishing railroad town in the Mojave Desert

Kelso Depot back on track

Memories revived by restoration

By HENRY BREAN
Las Vegas REVIEW-JOURNAL

Theo Packard.

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, Calif. -- Trains don't stop much at the Kelso Depot these days, but Theo Packard remembers when they did.

Packard lived in Kelso from about 1917 to 1935. Until the Great Depression cost him the job, he briefly worked as a cashier at the depot's lunch counter a few years after it opened in 1924.

Back then, Kelso was a bustling little railroad town, where trains would stop to take on water and let their passengers off to eat and stretch their legs.

Packard, now 95 and living in Studio City, Calif., said the tracks in front of the depot also were busy with "helper" locomotives that were used to get trains up the steep grade between Kelso and Cima, 18 miles and a 2,100-foot elevation gain to the east.

Though he didn't work the rails, Packard got to know that stretch of track pretty well.

"In the early days, you used to be able to ride along on the helper engines," he said.

Packard was among more than 600 people who traveled to Kelso on Saturday to celebrate the building's grand reopening, not as a depot but as the central visitors center for the 1.6 million acre Mojave National Preserve.

The National Park Service spent three years and $5.1 million restoring the three-story, Spanish Mission Revival-style structure, which cost $88,000 when it was first built.

George Lowell and his wife, Lisa, came from Apache Junction, Ariz., to see how the renovation turned out.

It wasn't Lowell's first time at the depot, but it might as well have been. The last time he saw the building, he was 4.

"I've just got pictures to look at and the stories my sister tells. She's the historian of the family," he said. "This is my first time back since 1949, and believe me, it's a thrill."

Lowell brought along an antique wax stamp that was used to seal envelopes in Kelso's post office during the 1920s and '30s. He gave the stamp to the Park Service along with some old family photographs from Kelso.

Lowell said his father worked as a mechanic for the nearby Vulcan Mine. His grandfather, Charles Frank Lowell, drove one of the "helper" engines.

Packard remembers Lowell's grandfather well. "He rescued me one time," he said. It happened early one morning when Packard was driving to Kelso from Las Vegas and fell asleep at the wheel of his 1932 Ford coupe. The car drifted off the road and crashed, so Packard used his headlights to signal a passing "helper" engine.

Charles Lowell stopped to pick him up and take him the rest of the way to Kelso, where he showed up at his mother's door with blood all over his face. "She nearly fainted when she saw me," Packard said.

Though the depot began to fade with the advent of the diesel locomotive and the decline of mining in the area after World War II, the tracks remain busy today.

Bob Bryson, who works out of the Park Service office in Barstow, Calif., said that if there isn't a freight train rumbling past the depot when you get there, just wait for 15 minutes or so.

"This is Union Pacific's main route from Las Vegas and Salt Lake City down to Los Angeles," he said.

The first train Katherine Shotwell remembers seeing at the Kelso Depot is the one she was on when she arrived there with her family in 1944.

"I stepped off of that train and onto that platform, and someone had to come out and unlock the depot" because it was late, said the 70-year-old Shotwell, who drove down from her home in Las Vegas for Saturday's event.

She vividly recalled the day when a huge locomotive nicknamed "Big Boy" broke loose from a siding and derailed in front of the depot.

"Its boiler broke and flooded the street," she said. "But the real show was watching the cranes lift it up and put it back on the tracks. That was my 9-year-old memory."

Like Lowell and others, Shotwell brought along an envelope full of keepsakes from her days in Kelso. Mixed in with some old photographs was her war bond booklet, which showed her address as "Trailer #17, Kelso, CA."

Shotwell also showed off her report card from the 1944-45 school year. It describes the then-Katherine Dell as a "good conscientious pupil" and gives her high marks in everything but being "neat and orderly."

"I haven't changed a whole heck of a lot," she said.

The Kelso Depot closed in August 1964, though the restaurant continued to operate until July 1985. Union Pacific donated the building and sold the land to the Bureau of Land Management in 1992. The Park Service took over the property when the national preserve was established in 1994.

The depot first reopened to the public in late October, and it has drawn pretty good crowds ever since, said park ranger Linda Slater.

"You think you're out in the middle of nowhere, and then you've got all these people," she said. "It's cranking all day long out here."

The visitor center is now open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m daily.

Slater said it probably will take another year for the Park Service to reopen the depot's lunch counter and find someone to operate it. In the meantime, she said, visitors are welcome to bring along a lunch and eat it at the counter.

Packard is just glad the counter is still there. He said he used to wonder if the old building ever would be brought back to life.

"I certainly wished for it," he said.

Now it looks just like it did when it was first built, he said, right down to the color of the paint on the walls. "It's unbelievable."