Arkansas phone booth is first of its kind to make National Register of Historic Places

Phone booth historic, hello? Prairie Grove 1959 site put on national list

Prairie Grove teenagers Mason McCourt (left) and Blake Williams use the telephone booth on U.S. 62 in Prairie Grove in April, when the booth was first nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. (NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo)

By Bill Bowden
Arkansas Online

A telephone booth in Prairie Grove has become the first structure of its kind to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 56-year-old Airlight outdoor booth was selected for nomination in April by the state review board of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

But there was a hang-up.

The National Park Service had reservations about putting a phone booth on the list, said Ralph Wilcox, the National Register/survey coordinator for the state's Historic Preservation Program. It had never been done before.

The "listing blurs the line between a 'place' and an artifact, and it begs the questions about where the line between significance and nostalgia is drawn," according to the response that the National Register sent to Wilcox in July.

Wilcox had to convince the decision-makers that the phone booth is "truly significant."

He resubmitted the nomination, emphasizing that the Airlight "represented a new and advanced design for the telephone booth."

For one thing, it was intended to be outdoors.

Before the Airlight was developed in 1954, telephone booths were made of wood and were inside buildings, Wilcox wrote.

The Airlight's metal-and-glass construction could hold up to the elements, he said. And this booth was strategically placed to serve the motoring public -- on U.S. 62 in front of the Colonial Motel and across from the entrance of Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.

With that ringing recommendation, the phone booth was officially listed on the National Register on Nov. 9.

"It is my understanding that this is the first and only telephone booth listed on the National Register," Wilcox said Thursday.

Airlight phone booths were once common along highways across America.

According to the nomination form, there were 2.6 million pay phones in the United States by 1996.

But, while pay phones still exist, phone booths have become harder to find since cellular phones took over the market.

The Prairie Grove phone booth is rare in Arkansas because it has a working telephone, Wilcox said. The only other one in the state that he knows of is in Bluffton in Yell County, where there's no cellphone service.

David Parks, president of Prairie Grove Telephone Co., said he's not sure when the company put the phone booth in, but he believes it was around 1959.

Parks said Wilcox notified him Thursday about the National Register listing.

"I'm happy," Parks said. "It's just a little hard to believe. I mean, who would have thought? I'm tickled. I really am."

Parks said there are no plans for a plaque outside the phone booth.

Parks said he thought about removing the phone booth years ago but decided to leave it up for nostalgia's sake. He said it yields $3 to $4 in change per year.

Patrick Andrus, a historian who has been with the National Register for 35 years, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in April that the Prairie Grove submission was the first nomination that he knew of for a telephone booth.

Andrus said the National Register lists five types of properties: buildings, districts, sites, structures and large objects, such as outdoor fountains.

Generally, properties must be at least 50 years old to be listed on the National Register, which is administered by the National Park Service.

Telephone booths were part of American culture throughout the 20th century. Countless villains and heroes ducked into phone booths as movie plots unfolded.

A mild-mannered reporter could enter a phone booth and emerge as Superman. A telephone booth even saved Tippi Hedren from avian attackers in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 movie The Birds.

Whether the Prairie Grove phone booth has ever served such a purpose isn't known, but it is an "excellent example" of the aluminum-and-glass phone booths that were developed for Bell Telephone System in 1954, according to the National Register nomination form.

It was also nominated for its "importance in the communications history of Prairie Grove."

Airlight phone booths were used for decades. Each booth had a red panel at the top of all four sides, with the word "TELEPHONE" in white letters.

The telephone is in one corner, and the booth has a "bifold door."

"Its aluminum and glass construction was durable enough to stand up to the elements and the amount of glass along with the louvers on the sides allowed its namesake elements -- air and light -- to flood the booth," according to the nomination form. The Airlight booths also had fluorescent overhead lights.

The phone booth is a tourist attraction on U.S. 62 across from Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.

People often stop at the booth to take pictures.

In June 2014, a motorist driving a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe dozed off and ran into the Prairie Grove booth, knocking it from its concrete foundation in front of the Colonial Motel.

A public outcry on the city's Facebook page led Parks to fix it. The phone booth was repaired and reinstalled that August.

Route 66 -- immortalized, but mortal

National Park Service provides funding to document California's portion of the Mother Road as a step toward preservation of the cultural touchstone.

By Martha Groves
Los Angeles Times

It was, John Steinbeck wrote in "The Grapes of Wrath," the "Mother Road" of Dust Bowl sharecroppers heading to the promised land of California. It was where George Maharis and Martin Milner got their 1960s kicks in a Corvette and the highway that brought families to Disneyland and the original McDonald's in San Bernardino.

Immortalized in countless novels, songs and movies, Route 66 was the 2,400-mile road along which adventure seekers meandered from Chicago to the Pacific Coast, bedding down in tepee motels and eating at greasy spoons.

Of the eight states through which Route 66 passed -- the others are Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona -- California is the only one that has not done a cultural survey of the highway.

The California Preservation Foundation and the National Park Service said Monday they want to change that. With $65,000 in funding from the park service, the foundation plans to hire a consultant to document the state's portion of the Route 66 corridor.

Cindy Heitzman, executive director of the California Preservation Foundation, said an official with the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program broached the subject of a survey in July, and the groups formed a partnership.

"We were the holdout," Heitzman said, "and this was a wonderful opportunity to complete the survey."

James M. Conkle, a Route 66 aficionado and activist, said he and others had been promoting the idea of a survey for years. A full survey could cost as much as $650,000, he said.

"It's not fully funded, but it's at least a start," said Conkle, chairman of the Route 66 Alliance, one of several nonprofit groups seeking to promote awareness and preservation of the legendary highway.

The foundation has been meeting with a stakeholders committee that includes representatives from federal and state agencies as well as several Route 66 nonprofit groups, including the Route 66 Alliance and the California Route 66 Preservation Foundation.

The consultant will travel the Route 66 corridor from the Arizona border at Topock to Santa Monica and catalog the different roadside properties, such as diners, motels and attractions, and identify historic themes and key periods of significance.

A 1931 AAA guide indicated that California had 332 miles of U.S. Highway 66 from Needles to Los Angeles, though the road was later extended to Santa Monica. Along the way, the highway passes through Mojave Desert ghost towns and miles of urban sprawl.

The highway, rendered unnecessary by the interstate highway system, was decommissioned in the mid-1980s and much of the living history of Route 66 has vanished as the road has been broadened into suburban thoroughfares.

Still, groups have sprung up to preserve the highway and its history, one with deep connections with the American psyche.

As "roadie" Michael Wallis wrote in his 1990 book "Route 66: The Mother Road": "Route 66 is Steinbeck and Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard and Dorothea Lange and Mickey Mantle and Jack Kerouac. It's thousands of waitresses, service station attendants, fry cooks, truckers, grease monkeys, hustlers, state cops, wrecker drivers and motel clerks. . . . It's yesterday, today and tomorrow. Truly a road of phantoms and dreams, 66 is the romance of traveling the open highway."

A chief goal for the consultant will be to complete at least one nomination for the National Register of Historic Places, said Jennifer Gates, field services director for the California Preservation Foundation and manager of the Route 66 project.

A number of California Route 66 attractions are already listed in the National Register. They include the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia, the Broadway theater and commercial district in downtown Los Angeles and the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena.

Cut off, Goffs a study of Route's past

Route 66

By Claudia Heller
Pasadena Star-News

The 1914 Goffs Schoolhouse has been renovated and now houses a museum. (Alan Heller / Correspondent)

Part 5 of an ongoing series

We are about to visit an extremely significant Route 66 town, despite the fact that it has been expelled from the famous highway.

On our trip on Route 66, we leave the California border town of Needles and head for my personal favorite.

At first glance there isn't much left of the little town of Goffs, that is until you drive under the sign that reads "Study the Past." On the other side you will emerge into a different world to find a treasure which is under the tender care of the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association (MDHCA).

A related organization, The Friends of the Old Mojave Road, is dedicated to preserving a 138-mile trail once traversed by pioneers. This road was abandoned when railroads and more modern roads displaced it. Today the Mojave Road winds through the East Mojave Preserve in much the same dusty, bumpy and sometimes barely passable condition as it was in the 1860s.

Goffs became an important railroad stop because it is where steam engines could replenish their water supply.

The National Old Trails Road was established in 1912 (also called the ocean-to-ocean highway) and in 1926 it was designated as the first national highway system for automobiles and renamed Route 66. Several years later Route 66 was realigned to bypass Goffs when an eight-mile shortcut was carved through the Piute Mountains, skipping Goffs altogether.

Abandoned, Goffs' main landmark, a 1914 mission-style schoolhouse, fell into disrepair.

As fate would have it, a lone man, Dennis Casebier, set out to save Goffs and recapture its fading history. Today the MDHCA, under Casebier's direction, has renovated the schoolhouse to its former glory and established a museum within its walls. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the Federal Government.

The Goffs Library, a replica of the historic Goffs Santa Fe Railway Depot, 1902-1956.
(Alan Heller / Correspondent)

Unlike many Route 66 towns in the area, Goffs is not waning. To the contrary. A recent addition to the Cultural Center is the Library, a replica of the historic Goffs Santa Fe Railway Depot (1902-1956). Within its walls is the massive Mojave Desert Archives.

"There is no assemblage anywhere of material relating to the history of the Mojave Desert like the collections that exist at Goffs," Casebier said.

Visitors to the 75-acre Goffs Cultural Center will find hundreds of artifacts rescued from the area's rich history such as an Atlantic & Pacific Railway box car, a small courthouse which served the Amboy-Ludlow Judicial District in the 1940s, a Fraser-Chalmers 10-stamp mill, a Gilmore gasoline pump, and a miners cannon subject to a variety of claims regarding its origin.

Visitors are welcome at the Cultural Center on certain days or by appointment. For directions and more information call (760) 733-4482 or e-mail goffs@eastmojave.net.

On this, our fifth trip to areas of interest on the historic mother highway, we have now added three more sites to our list: (9 ) The Goffs Cultural Center; (10) The Renovated 1914 Goffs School House; and (11) The Old Mojave Road.

BLM wants Nine Mile Canyon on Historic Places list

ASSOCIATED PRESS




Nine Mile Canyon petroglyph.



SALT LAKE CITY — Federal officials want parts of Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon put on the National Register of Historic Places.

The canyon northeast of Price — sometimes called the world’s longest art gallery — is home to more than 10,000 ancient rock carvings and drawings.
Bureau of Land Management officials plan to nominate the area for the national designation.

The paperwork will probably be submitted in the next four to six months, said Byron Loosle, BLM’s state archaeologist.

The nomination will include about 800 sites in the canyon, including parts of public and private land. Some private landowners in the area have asked not to be included and won’t be in the proposal, Loosle said.

The BLM hopes to group the sites together under a single nomination.

The decision comes as the BLM considers a proposal to allow more than 800 new wells on a plateau above the canyon.

The plan has come under fire over concerns that increased natural gas activity will dramatically increase the number of trucks driving through the canyon. Some worry extra dust kicked up by the trucks will jeopardize the rock art.

Listing on the National Register is an honorific designation and wouldn’t add additional protections for the petroglyphs and pictographs.

Advocates for the canyon have been pushing for historic designation for years.

Pam Miller, chair of the Nine Mile Coalition, said she’s glad to see the BLM finally making the move.

“It’s a gold star moment,” Miller said. The designation would be a recognition “that Nine Mile Canyon played a significant part in the history of Utah and even the United States.”

She’s hoping the listing could also lead to funds to help preserve cultural artifacts in the canyon.

The BLM will make the nomination in cooperation with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office.

The National Register is administered by the National Park Service. The BLM says about 30,000 properties are added to the list each year.

Groups oppose plans to close abandoned mines

By Jens Dana
Deseret News





Eureka Mine, Utah


EUREKA, Juab County — Plans to bury or seal 116 abandoned mines near this semi-ghost town are drawing opposition from groups saying Utah's mining legacy is getting the shaft.

But officials from the state Division of Oil, Gas and Mining — which plans to begin reclamation work on the abandoned mines this week — said, "Stay out, stay alive." They also said they are eliminating "attractive nuisances" that pose a liability to land owners and potentially fatal dangers to mine enthusiasts venturing into the mine shafts.

"These mines are clearly a hazard to the (landowners) and recreating public," said Luci Malin, administrator of the division's Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program.

Orem resident Mike Capps, 22, and members of Mojave Underground, a group dedicated to preserving mining history, said the division's plan to backfill or grate 116 mines on the outskirts of Eureka, a town 40 miles southwest of Provo, will stamp out an important chapter of that region's legacy.

"It's a loss to Utah's history," Capps said of the proposed project. "(Mining) is really what made the West what it is."

Capps, who estimates he and other members of Mojave Underground have explored a combined total of 500 mines throughout the West — they always do so with the permission of landowners — said more people are killed or injured riding bikes compared with the number killed or injured in abandoned mines in Utah.

Louis Admodt, project manager for the mining division, said there are myriad dangers underground, such as cave-ins and pockets of black damp, or areas lacking oxygen. The division is trying to stop young children from going into mines and getting killed.

"That's what we're trying to protect against," he said.

Admodt said the division is filling in the majority of mines because it is cheaper than sealing mines off with a grate, $1,200 compared to $3,000. Besides, he said, the division won't do reclamation work unless it has permission from property owners.

Mojave Underground also is concerned with damage done to mining sites during reclamation work, Capps said, which typifies the division's disregard for history. Foremost on their minds is the case of the Bullion Beck headframe, equipment on the National Register of Historic Places that was smashed and splintered in March 1986 while a contractor was placing a gird on a 1,200-foot-deep mine shaft.

Malin said that unfortunate occurrence was an isolated incident, and the division went to great lengths to mitigate the damage done to the headframe.

"We go out of our way and do more than what is required to make sure that Utah's mining legacy and history and heritage is preserved," she said.

Russell Hartill, an attorney in Sandy who's written a book about the history of mining in California, said he thinks dumping dirt and rocks down a mine shaft to preserve history is an oxymoron.

"They seem to be more interested in rescuing a mine cart and sticking it at a roadside rest stop and saying, 'That's our mining heritage,"' he said.

Draper resident Corey Shuman, 35, a member of Gold Rush Expeditions Inc., a nonprofit group that works to preserve mine sites across Utah, said they're not heavily involved with Eureka because most of the sites were destroyed when the Environmental Protection Agency did lead abatement work there years ago. However, he said he's sad to see mine sites disappear off the map.

"(Mining) is a huge piece of history that Utah has to offer the nation that we're cutting our own throats on," he said.

George B. Hartzog Jr., 88

Former Park Service director led expansion of nation's wildlife refuges, historic sites



By Matt Schudel
Washington Post



George B. Hartzog Jr. added 70 areas totaling 2.7 million acres, to the Park Service and expanded its reach in urban areas.


George B. Hartzog Jr., a former director of the National Park Service who led an unprecedented expansion of the nation's system of parks, wildlife refuges and historic sites and who helped secure passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, has died. He was 88.

A resident of McLean, Va., Hartzog died June 27 at Virginia Hospital Center of complications from diabetes and kidney disease.

In almost nine years as director, Hartzog used charisma, political savvy and deep knowledge of the nation's park system to broaden the scope of Park Service programs and to increase their popularity. He expanded the service's mission from wilderness conservation to make it the principal guardian of the nation's historic patrimony.

He added more than 70 areas to the Park Service, totaling 2.7 million acres, and doubled attendance at the nation's parks and historic sites.

"He was an empire builder," said Robert M. Utley, who was the Park Service's chief historian under Hartzog. "His vision fit right into Lyndon Johnson's Great Society ideas."

Except for the Park Service's founders, Stephen Mather and Horace Albright, Utley said, "I judge George Hartzog the greatest director in the history of the service."

Hartzog expanded the reach of the Park Service in urban areas, introduced programs for volunteers and inner-city youths and promoted living-history interpretations by park rangers, now standard at historic sites around the country. He developed the concept of cultural parks with the establishment of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.

In 1966, Hartzog was a key proponent of the National Historic Preservation Act, which increased the range of historically significant properties and created the National Register of Historic Places. The register is administered by the Park Service.

In 1969, when his budget was cut by President Nixon, Hartzog made a daring countermove: He closed all the national parks, including the Washington Monument and Grand Canyon, two days a week.

"It was unheard of," he told Parks & Recreation Magazine in 2005. "Even my own staff thought I was crazy."

As public outcry grew, Congress restored the funding.

Hartzog expanded opportunities for women and minorities. He appointed the first African American park superintendent and promoted women to top jobs. Stewart L. Udall, the former secretary of the Interior who named Hartzog the Park Service's director in 1964, once called him "one of the most inspiring leaders I worked with during my years in the federal government. . . . George Hartzog reminds us of the glories of public service and the legacies our best bureaucrats leave to future generations."

Hartzog was born March 27, 1920, in rural Smoaks, S.C. He grew up in poverty and was preaching in local churches by the time he was 16. When the family's farmhouse burned down, the Hartzogs had to survive on charity.

Hartzog attended Wofford College in South Carolina for one semester before dropping out to make a living. He worked in gas stations and hotels before taking a job as a clerk in a law office in Walterboro, S.C. In less than three years, he passed the state bar exam, without having spent a day in law school.

He served in an Army military police unit in World War II. He worked briefly at the Interior Department before joining the Park Service's legal office in 1946. In 1959, he landed in St. Louis as superintendent of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

While there, he was responsible for building one of the nation's most notable landmarks.

"It was Hartzog," John McPhee wrote in the New Yorker in 1971, "who took a set of plans that had been lying dormant for 15 years and built the great arch of St. Louis."

Not everyone was enamored of Hartzog's outsize personality, and some conservation groups thought he was too eager to build roads and houses in national parks. One person he couldn't please was Nixon. In 1972, Hartzog revoked a permit to use a private dock in Biscayne National Park in Florida. The permit was used by Bebe Rebozo, a close friend of Nixon's. The president promptly fired Hartzog.

For the remainder of his life, Hartzog practiced environmental law and spoke about issues facing the nation's parks. Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Helen; three children; four grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

In southern Utah, new case of gold fever

Seeking legendary Montezuma treasure



By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune






BLM spokesman Larry Crutchfield stands at entrance to a White Mountain cave where some believe Montezuma's treasure is located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (Mark Havnes/The Salt Lake Tribune)

KANAB - In the latest "National Treasure" flick, Ben Gates goes to Mount Rushmore in search of Aztec gold.

In real life, Corey Shuman goes to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in search of the same thing.

And he will be able to continue hunting there for Montezuma's rumored riches - now that the state has abandoned plans to seal off White Mountain east of Kanab to such expeditions.

The closure was part of a wider effort to shut down nearly two dozen old mines in the southern Utah monument.

But the legendary Montezuma site has been spared - at least for now.

"Technically, we wonder if it's a mine at all," said Jim Springer, a spokesman for the state's Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program. "If the BLM wants to move forward, they can."

That won't happen until a Bureau of Land Management engineer weighs in, according to Larry Crutchfield, the federal agency's spokesman for the monument.

"He'll evaluate the site with safety concerns in mind," Crutchfield said, "and then make some recommendations on what we can do."

Shuman and his prospecting pals at Draper-based Gold Rush Expeditions hope the caves and shafts on White Mountain in Johnson Canyon never close to treasure seekers.

"The site should be left alone because it is a historical resource and the only one of its kind," Shuman said. "The work that happened out there literally emptied the town [Kanab] for a year. It is a huge chapter in the history of Kanab and Utah."

That history began in the 1920s when a drifter named Freddy Crystal showed up and claimed he had a map from a Mexican monastery that identified Johnson Canyon as the burial spot for Montezuma's lost treasures. (Some believe the Aztec ruler's riches were spirited out of Mexico City to keep them out of the hands of Spanish conquistadors.)

So, with shovels in their hands and gold in their eyes, Kanab residents flocked to White Mountain to hunt for the stash.

But they never found it. The gold fever cooled. Crystal vanished, and Kanab's residents drifted back into town.

Nearly a century later, Shuman still believes there may be something to the legend of the lost treasure - mainly because of the petroglyphs chiseled into rock panels in the region.

"There is a huge panel just outside the monument - [which] has some interesting markings on it - that has been translated and may point to White Mountain and the mine."

Shuman also noted Crystal's credibility got a boost when several caves were discovered sealed off with an ancient form of concrete. He said the concrete plugs also featured petroglyphs, possibly made by Aztecs.

Treasure or not, efforts are under way to list the site on the National Register of Historic Places - a move Shuman believes could help preserve the caves that honeycomb the sandstone mountain.

Count BLM archaeologist Matt Zweifel among the Montezuma mine's nonbelievers.

"It seems far-fetched," Zweifel said. "For the logistics alone, you'd need an army of hundreds of slaves, surrounded by soldiers, and [have to] march through the Southwest desert crossing the Grand Canyon and a bigger canyon in Mexico."

Zweifel doubts the inscriptions are in Aztec. But he understands the legend's lure.

"They were all digging like mad," he said. "Everybody wanted to be a millionaire."

And they still do.

"One guy contacted us," Zweifel said, "saying he knew where the treasure was and would split it 50-50 with the BLM if we'd help him dig it up."

The agency declined.

Mountains of problems for travelers

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HISTORY

It wasn't until well into the 20th century that engineers finally made the journey between Los Angeles and Bakersfield fairly easy and safe.

By Cecilia Rasmussen, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times

Whether they've taken the Ridge Route, Highway 99 and Newhall Pass or Interstate 5, for more than 150 years travelers making their way between Los Angeles and Bakersfield through the San Gabriel and Tehachapi mountains have found the route a pain in the neck.

The current 40-mile stretch of the Golden State Freeway, which includes the Grapevine, is plenty steep and winding, but drivers should know that it is a big improvement on its predecessors.

It is the fourth in a series of highways cut through the rugged mountains. Entrepreneurs forged the first route, in 1854, by digging a 60-foot-deep, 240-foot-long gash on the eastern edge of the Santa Susana Mountains called the Newhall Pass, where the current Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways join.

Beale's Cut, as it came to be called, created a narrow, steep passage for horses, stagecoaches and foot traffic, and is credited with spurring the development of Los Angeles.

But the first automobile to cross the mountains, in 1902, had to travel upward in reverse to keep gasoline flowing to the engine -- and the cut's 30% grade was too steep for early cars.

Beale's Cut can still be found between Sierra Highway and the Antelope Valley Freeway, south of Clampitt Road. It was all but abandoned in 1910 when the 435-foot-long Newhall Tunnel was dug about a quarter of a mile west, with an incline of only about 7%.

Still, even the tunnel didn't solve the problem. It was too narrow and traffic jammed up at one end. Meanwhile, after voters in 1910 approved an $18-million state highway bond issue, California's engineers began planning a shorter, more direct route over the mountains, one that would save travelers 58 miles.

The 48-mile Ridge Route opened in 1915 at Castaic Junction, about five miles northwest of the Newhall Pass. It had 697 curves.

The Ridge Route was considered a major feat of highway engineering -- the first modern highway directly linking Los Angeles with the San Joaquin Valley -- and it helped link Northern and Southern California.

Horse-drawn graders had carved out the 20-foot-wide dirt road that zigzagged along the ridge tops so that it resembled a giant grapevine. But the 6.5-mile "Grapevine" segment of the route, from Fort Tejon to the San Joaquin Valley, had already been so named for a different reason by Spanish Lt. Francisco Ruiz, who, after hacking his way through thick patches of Cimarron grapevines in 1806, called the area Cañon de las Uvas, or Grapevine Canyon.

In 1915, the Automobile Club of Southern California called the Ridge Route "the last word in scientific highway building." But four years later, about the time the paving was completed, the club wrote that because of the route's "tortuous" curves, steep grades and sharp drop-offs, it was "potentially one of the most dangerous in the world."

A maximum speed limit of 15 mph was supposed to provide safety. But scores of drivers ignored the limit and their cars tumbled into the canyons below. For those who made the trip safely, the Sandberg Hotel, built by Norwegian-born rancher Harald Sandberg, was a welcome sight near the top.

In 1921, the fancy Lebec Hotel opened in Kern County, about five miles north of the Sandberg, with 300 registered guests. It became a famed hideaway for such celebrities as Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Clara Bow, Buster Keaton and Bugsy Siegel.

Charles Lindbergh landed his plane in a wheat field near the Lebec Hotel in 1929 and spent time there experimenting with flying a glider. His wife, Anne, was quite fond of the hotel's chocolate malts, according to Harrison Scott, author of "Ridge Route: The Road That United California."

The hotel -- and the town that grew up around it -- got its name from a carving in the trunk of a massive oak: "Peter le Beck Killed by a Bear Oct. 17 1837."

Depression-era migrants flocking to California's fields in overloaded jalopies thought of the trip over the mountains as a route to a better life.

In "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck describes the Joad family's brutal trek, one taken by many of those Great Plains refugees known as Okies.

Steinbeck described the moment when the Joads' car crested the top of a mountain road, and they saw the Central Valley:

"Al jammed on the brake and stopped in the middle of the road, and, 'Jesus Christ! Look!' he said. The vineyards, the orchards, the great flat valley, green and beautiful, the trees set in rows, and the farm houses."

He could have been talking about the view from the Ridge Route, or the one from Highway 99, which opened in 1933. Highway 99, or the Ridge Alternate, was significantly shorter and much less curvy, though still steep and treacherous.

It cut the eight-hour Ridge Route drive in half time-wise, but still was the site of many a breakdown and much discomfort.

"In 1954, I drove my 1931 Willys Roadster up the Castaic Grade and on through the more modern Ridge Route [Highway 99], much of which is now covered with Pyramid Lake," retired veterinarian Charles Jenner of Los Alamitos said in a recent e-mail. "That was a tough drive as the Willys kept overheating." It took him two days to get from Los Angeles to Davis, he said.

In 1970, today's eight-lane, 40-mile section of Interstate 5 was completed.

Few people remembered the old roads that had gone before -- at least until Scott came along.

In 1991, the retired Torrance phone company engineer decided to drive the old Ridge Route for the first time since he was a teenager. He soon launched a one-man crusade to get a 17.6-mile stretch through U.S. Forest Service property from Castaic to Gorman onto the National Register of Historic Places. He succeeded in 1997. He also published his own history of the road.

"Only foundations, walls and steps are left from places like the Tumble Inn and Sandberg Inn," Scott said in a recent interview. The Lebec Hotel, he said, burned down in 1971.

Scott and a nonprofit group that he founded, the Ridge Route Preservation Organization, are working to maintain the roadway, which he describes as "poor and decaying." The group holds monthly work parties, helping the Forest Service clean drains full of dirt and debris.

The volunteers have put up nearly a dozen stone monuments paying tribute to area pioneers and colorful sites.

Scott is working to gain federal Scenic Byway status for the Ridge Route. It would be, he said, "just another notch on the gun belt that would allow our organization to build a museum and parking areas along the route."

Dos Palmas escapes wrecking crew

Bureau of Land Management to reassess property

The Desert Sun


Demolition of the 1920s ranch house at Dos Palmas Oasis has been postponed indefinitely, Friends of Dos Palmas announced on Wednesday.

"A bright new day has dawned for Dos Palmas!" said Jennie Kelly, chair of the North Shore Community Council and a Friend of Dos Palmas, in a prepared statement.

Her enthusiasm came in response to a public meeting with John Kalish of the Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday.

The agency agreed to reassess the adobe this fall using guidelines from Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

As reported by The Desert Sun last month, the federal Bureau of Land Management had plans to demolish Rancho Dos Palmas if its supporters could not prove its structural soundness or historical significance.

The Friends of Dos Palmas recently acquired photos of the home from the 1930s and 1940s, which they say provide "photographic proof that will support preservation and quite possibly facilitate listing (the adobe) on the National Register of Historic Places."

In the future, the group would like to host "cultural heritage events at the ranch," which may include historical reenactments and an art show.

For now, they are grateful to those who have helped support their efforts to spread the word and save their beloved ranch house.

The group sees the BLM's decision to reassess the property as "the first of many steps to preservation."

Depot plans on right track

Renovations will begin after railroads sign off on project

The Kingman depot once housed a Harvey House Restaurant. [Kathy Weiser, April 2008]

Suzanne Adams, Staff Reporter
Kingman Daily Miner

KINGMAN, Arizona - Train watchers and fans from near and far are eagerly awaiting the start of renovations on the old Santa Fe Depot in downtown Kingman.

"There's so many people interested in trains it's incredible! I've got tons of people with railroad artifacts interested in the project," said Shannon Rossiter of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Plans for the renovation of the old train depot are about 95 percent complete, said Rob Owen, special projects coordinator for the city of Kingman. All that needs to be done is to have BNSF Railway and Amtrak give their final approval for the project.

Owen hopes to have that approval by January so the project can go out for bid at the end of February. The restoration work can then start in March.

The city will be reimbursed for 94.3 percent of the restoration work by a Federal Transportation Enhancement Grant. The city applied for the $500,000 grant in 2001 and received approval in 2002.

The grant is administered by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Kingman will have to match 5.7 percent of the cost of the project.

Despite its age, the depot is still structurally sound, Owen said. The old station will be receiving new doors, windows, paint, plumbing and electrical work, heating and air conditioning, stucco and new landscaping as part of the renovation work.

Ever since 2002, Kingman residents have been asking when work was going to begin.

A lot of people don't understand the grant process, said Bill Shilling, a city grant administrator. It can take many years to apply, receive approval and get funds from a grant for a project.

One extra step that has slowed the process is that the city has to seek approval of the plans from not only ADOT but also Amtrak and BNSF. Amtrak owns the building and BNSF owns the railroad tracks and the right of way next to the depot. Plans for the project have been shuttled back and forth between all three organizations.

The only major request has come from BNSF Railway. The railway has requested a wrought iron fence to be put up between the building and the BNSF railroad tracks.

The fence is designed to keep visitors away from the tracks, which are in constant use.

Once the work is complete, the station will once again see customers lining up for train tickets. Amtrak will be moving its current ticket office from its tiny space on Fourth Street back into the western half of the depot. The eastern half of the building will become a railroad museum with exhibits and artifacts from railroad enthusiasts and the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

The building is nearly 100 years old. It was built in the early 1900s by the Santa Fe Railway of reinforced concrete and may be one of the oldest concrete buildings in the state.

It's also one of many historic buildings in downtown Kingman on the National Registry of Historic Places.

REFLECTIONS OF A SUPERINTENDENT

First Ten Years of the
Mojave National Preserve

BY MARY MARTIN
Desert Report Fall 2005

Reflecting on ten years as Superintendent of Mojave National Preserve has been a pleasure and an opportunity for an assessment of the bigger picture, which sometimes get lost in the daily crises or forgotten over time. I thank each of you, those who made the preservation of this special place possible, for giving me this chance to reflect.

Early in 1995, along with Marv Jensen as Superintendent, six longtime National Park Service (NPS) employees showed up to manage a new 1.6 million acre national park unit. The myriad of tasks ranged from finding a headquarters location; becoming familiar with the resources; meeting neighbors, friends, landowners; launching the general management planning process; to hiring additional staff. In the fall of that first year Congress passed an Appropriations Act which would essentially return management of this new park unit to the Bureau of Land Management. The “limited edition” Presidential line-item veto prevented that occurrence.

In the spring of 1996, enough money was allocated for minimal staffing at Mojave. The emotions of staff ran high and, in defining what “success” might look like five years hence, the bar was rather low — we wanted Mojave to remain a part of our nation’s National Park System. As it turned out, we accomplished that and much more.

Livestock grazing has been long identified as one of the impacts which negatively affect the threatened desert tortoise. At the time of Mojave’s designation, 1.4 million acres were grazed.

The California Desert Protection Act provided for grazing to continue into perpetuity, while recognizing the interest of ranchers to sell their permits and ranching operations. Through the generosity of people who care deeply about resource preservation and in partnership with the National Park Foundation and ranchers who had been interested in selling their operation, livestock grazing has been reduced to 200,000 acres. Non-historic fence lines, tanks, troughs, structures have been removed and numerous sites restored. Historic features are being preserved and a nomination to place the ranching district on the National Registry of Historic Places is being developed.

When Mojave was designated a national park unit, 192,000 acres of private lands were within its boundary. Hundreds of individuals were interested in selling their land, yet no federal funds for acquisition were available. An expanded partnership provided private monies for acquisition, allowing preservation of these valuable resources for future generations. In ten years the National Park Service acquired more than 111,000 acres and went from owning only a few water rights to owning more than 125 appropriated water rights/springs. This successful program has now been expanded to include Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks.

Restoration of desert resources is occurring throughout the park and in a variety of ways. Retiring grazing provided the opportunity to remove 8,000 head of cattle. The burro removal/adoption program eliminated almost 4,000 animals.

The benefit to springs was immediately noticeable. The elimination of water diversion for grazing, with reducing burro impacts, resulted in an immediate regeneration of springs, increasing surface water, vegetation and wildlife.

Mining claims, which numbered over 9000 in 1994, have been reduced to approximately 400. A number of mining areas have been cleaned up, restored, and mitigated. A public-private partnership has been developed to detoxify and restore the Morningstar mine site, while returning $1 million of public funds used for emergency mitigation. Several arrests and convictions have occurred of individuals who were illegally dumping hazardous materials, poaching barrel cactus, baiting wildlife, and illegally collecting reptiles.

The Kelso Depot restoration is nearing completion. The building is complete. Interpretative exhibits should be installed by the time you read this and the last two contracts (landscaping and parking) have begun. The building is amazing and provides a unique opportunity for educating the public about our mission, natural and cultural resource preservation and recreation opportunities. Efforts to find a concessionaire to run the Beanery are underway.

Mojave has developed a professional science and research program and hired a Science Advisor at the park level, something only a few other parks have done. The benefit to the resource with our increased knowledge is exponential. Research has focused on surface and groundwater, the endangered tui chub, the threatened desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep, climatic change, exotic plants, fire ecology, prehistoric human habitation, changing desert landscapes, etc. Cooperative agreements have been developed with the California State University system and University of California, Riverside (UCR). Through UCR we have contracted for research which resulted in the documentation of several new species of plants.

None of this would have been possible without the dedicated, professional staff working at Mojave. I have, indeed, been fortunate to work with an exceptional group of individuals. These folks give me confidence that the momentum and accomplishments of the last decade will be carried into the next.

Mojave National Preserve's preservation efforts criticized

Source: Center for the State of the Parks: Park Assessments

California Desert

Published June 2005




View full report: http://www.npca.org/stateoftheparks/californiadesert/californiadesert.pdf

Current overall conditions of the Mojave National Preserve’s known natural resources rated a “poor” score of 59 out of 100. The loss of critical habitat because of historic grazing and recreational activities (principally, off-road vehicle use) as well as isolation associated with increased transportation corridors and traffic density between Los Angeles and Las Vegas are high-ranking resource protection threats at the preserve. Additionally, nonnative species, mining-related releases of hazardous materials, air and light pollution, and continued grazing are prominent concerns for the preserve’s natural resources.

Overall conditions of the park’s known cultural resources rated 50 out of a possible 100, indicating “poor” conditions. Mojave National Preserve is a relatively new addition to the National Park System, and is the first national preserve assessed by the State of the Parks program. The fledgling cultural resource program at Mojave National Preserve has accomplished much planning work and archaeological site documentation in the last three years, but additional staff and resources are needed to further stewardship efforts. For example, the preserve currently lacks staff to care for museum and archival collections and develop relationships with traditionally associated groups of people.

KEY FINDINGS

Mojave National Preserve would benefit from the services of a term historian to complete historical research to provide park contexts for mining, structures, and cultural landscapes.

Mojave National Preserve also would benefit, as would the other California desert parks, from a shared historic preservation crew to inspect, monitor, and perform preventive maintenance on park structures.

None of the objects in Mojave National Preserve’s small museum collection have been catalogued, and a management plan is needed.

Funding is needed for specialists to help update the Cultural Landscape Inventory for the Kelso Depot, and the Mojave Road needs to be surveyed for the Cultural Landscape Inventory and nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

CULTURAL RESOURCES—VALUABLE HISTORIC TREASURES AT RISK

State of the Parks researchers assessed and assigned scores to cultural resource conditions at Mojave National Preserve. Categories included history, ethnography (peoples and cultures), historic structures, archaeology, and archive and museum collections. The scores for cultural resources are based on the results of indicator questions that reflect the National Park Service’s own Cultural Resource Management Guideline and other policies related to cultural and historical resources.

The assessments rated the overall conditions of cultural resources at Mojave National Preserve as 50. This score indicate that cultural resources are in poor condition at Mojave National Preserve. Prominent factors influencing the ratings are funding and staffing shortfalls that limit cultural resource protection activities.

HISTORY—RICH REGIONAL HISTORY MERITS ADDITIONAL RESEARCH

Completed or ongoing historical research at Mojave National Preserve includes a transportation study, town site study, historic resource studies on the region’s ranching history, and a railroad history that is part of a historic structure report on the Kelso Depot. The preserve also has an administrative history that was completed in March 2003, and an overview of the preserve’s mining history will commence in 2005. Regional Park Service historians and consultants complete most of this research.

Local citizens hold a wealth of information on the region’s history. Productive collaboration with these people benefits the preserve and strengthens ties with the local community. Additional historical research would help park staff understand Mojave National Preserve’s historic context and help them develop more interpretive tools to teach visitors about the preserve’s history. Mining, military, and historic landscape studies would contribute to evaluations of historic and cultural resources for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

CULTURAL LANDSCAPES—FUNDS NEEDED TO SUPPORT ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION AND PRESERVATION

Zzyzx, Kelso Depot, Rock Springs Land and Cattle Company, and the Mojave Road are the park’s four identified landscapes. Other cultural landscapes likely exist, but staff have not had the time or the resources to systematically identify or evaluate potentially important landscapes throughout the preserve.

The Kelso Depot, the only landscape in the preserve that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was once a major railroad depot. Completed in 1924, the depot included a restaurant and employee boardinghouse. The depot closed in 1985, but it has recently been restored to its 1920s heyday and now houses a visitor information center that will re-open to the public in the fall of 2005.

Zzyzx was once a health resort and mineral springs built by self-proclaimed minister and doctor Curtis Springer and his wife, Mary Loise Berkebile. The two operated the resort from 1944 to 1974, when it was closed for food and drug violations and unauthorized use of federal land. The site has been officially evaluated for its significance and eligibility for listing in the National Register, but the California State Historic Preservation Office is not reviewing new National Register nominations because of a budget crisis. California State University, Fullerton, leases the buildings and land at Zzyzx to host its Desert Studies Center, and is actively involved in rehabilitation of the landscape.

The Mojave Road is the name given to a corridor that travelers used for centuries to cross the harsh desert. Springs and watering holes along the way provided critical water. American Indians traveled the corridor on trading expeditions, and the route was once a major thoroughfare that served military outposts, miners, settlers, and trappers. After the advent of steamships and trains, the Mojave Road became obsolete. However, it retains importance today because it teaches contemporary visitors about the history of transportation in the region. This landscape has not had a condition assessment and has not been formally recorded and evaluated.

As grazing leases have been retired, Mojave National Preserve has assumed responsibility for remaining ranching infrastructure, which is scattered over nearly 1 million acres. The Rock Springs Land and Cattle Company was the primary ranching company in the region between 1894 and 1927. With the onset of the Depression, the company was sold and its holdings divided into the OX, Kessler Springs, and Valley View ranches within the current preserve and the Walking Box Ranch just across the border in Nevada. Park Service regional staff recently completed a Cultural Landscape Inventory of the former Rock Springs territory, and this will be submitted with a nomination for National Register of Historic Places listing for the Rock Springs Land and Cattle Company National Historic District in 2005.

Mojave National Preserve’s staff do not have enough time or resources to work on stewardship of the preserve’s historic and cultural landscapes. Park Service landscape specialists are available at the regional level, but Mojave National Preserve cannot afford to pay for their services. These specialists are also in demand in many other parks, and regional funding for their services is dwindling.

HISTORIC STRUCTURES—A DESERT REGION PRESERVATION CREW NEEDED FOR ADEQUATE STEWARDSHIP

In 2003, Mojave National Preserve’s List of Classified Structures contained about 77 entries. This list needs to be updated to include additional known structures such as the more than 100 structures Mojave National Preserve acquired when grazing leases were retired. Recent condition assessments of most of the listed historic structures found that 58 percent are in good condition. But in 2004, Park Service policy regarding the List of Classified Structures changed so that only those structures that have been formally determined to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places can be included on the list and thus benefit from preservation funding from certain sources. As a result of this policy change, Mojave National Preserve’s List of Classified Structures was reduced to a total of 12structures.

Mojave National Preserve does not have an annual historic structure monitoring program, and staff struggle to keep pace with preventive maintenance. The preserve’s maintenance staff perform some routine maintenance on historic structures, and regional Park Service staff, when available, assist with larger restoration and rehabilitation projects. If funding permits, Mojave National Preserve’s facility manager and other maintenance staff will obtain historic preservation training.

Several historic structures at the OX Ranch and Kessler Spring Ranch are being rehabilitated to house preserve staff. This will help alleviate Mojave National Preserve’s housing shortage and should facilitate resource protection since buildings that are used tend to receive regular maintenance attention. In addition, the Kelso schoolhouse and associated buildings have been stabilized and the Rock House has been rehabilitated. The Rock Springs Land and Cattle Co. Historic District is currently being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

ARCHIVAL AND MUSEUM COLLECTIONS—ADDITIONAL STORAGE AND EXHIBIT SPACE NEEDED

Mojave National Preserve has never had any staff to care for museum or archival collections. As a result, none of the collection items has been catalogued and no condition assessments have been done. In addition, the park is meeting just 17 percent of Park Service museum collection standards. However, the park’s cultural resource manager believes that most collection items, which include library items, papers and photographic archives, and historic items from the Kelso Depot, are in good condition. Mojave National Preserve needs a temporary curator or archivist to help catalog its holdings and facilitate the efforts of researchers. A recent agreement with Joshua Tree will provide an upgrade to the park’s museum technician position to curator. At that time, Joshua Tree’s curator will oversee the Mojave National Preserve collections and train the existing cultural resources staff in how to carry out the more routine museum management activities.

Storage for museum objects is not an issue for Mojave National Preserve, partly because its collection is so small. Some of the park’s archaeological items are kept at the Western Archaeological Conservation Center in Tucson, and some Chemehuevi baskets are stored at Death Valley. Additionally, the park recently built a 600-square-foot collection storage facility as part of its new park headquarters in Barstow, more than 50 miles away from the boundaries of the preserve. This new facility has excellent security, shelving, and environmental controls.

Library to house desert history

Mojave group gets grant for building

By Chuck Mueller, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun

GOFFS - A former railroad depot that six decades ago hosted thousands of troops training in the Mojave Desert is to be reborn as a library to house a rich collection of desert history.

Directors of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment have awarded a grant of $499,500 to build a library to hold the Mojave Desert Archives, gathered by Western historian Dennis G. Casebier during the past 50 years.

The archives, the single largest collection of historical material dealing with the Western migration and pioneering ventures in the Mojave, includes more than 6,000 volumes of published works, 50,000 photographs and 4,500 maps of the region dating to the pioneering quest for the West.

The collection is housed in various buildings at the 20-structure Goffs Cultural Center. The center includes the original Goffs School, which was built in 1914 and is now a museum, and a twice-moved dwelling constructed in 1927 that serves as a library.

It will take about two years to construct the library, which will be designed in the image of the historical Goffs railroad depot, which operated from 1902 to 1956. In the early 1940s, thousands of soldiers training in desert warfare arrived and departed from the depot, which was demolished in 1956, Casebier said.

The grant to the Mojave Desert Heritage Cultural Association, founded by Casebier and his wife, Jo Ann, in 1993, is one of 13 awarded out of 276 applications for funds through the endowment, supported by Proposition 40.

In 2002, California voters approved the Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks and Coastal Protection Act, known as Proposition 40, to set aside $267 million for historical and cultural resource preservation.

Kevin Starr, California historian emeritus, said the endowment's mission is to document the contributions of the many groups of people who make up California. It also helps Californians to deepen their understanding of the state's history, its present society, and themselves.

"The receipt of this generous grant marks the first time we've gotten support from outside our own membership of about 800 people," Casebier said. "The bulk of the work at the Goffs Cultural Center ... has been done by volunteers from California, Arizona and Nevada."

Viewing the upcoming construction project, volunteer Chris Ervin said, "Now the work really begins."

Among the volumes in the collection at Goffs are originals of official reports of the 1853-54 Whipple expedition, which surveyed a route for a Pacific railroad across the Mojave.

"We also have the official reports and map of Edward Fitzgerald Beale, who brought camels to California from Texas in 1850," Casebier said.

"The collection includes everything related to the East Mojave, dating to 1850. There was nothing before that."

Casebier said the center acquired the volumes "one at a time and there is a story behind each one."

The volumes also include 2,000 loose subject files pertaining to individuals of interest and specific cultural sites. It also contains an extensive collection of old area newspapers, periodicals and pamphlets, and material culled from federal records in the National Archives.

"We also have compiled 700 oral histories," Casebier said. "We're constantly looking for volunteers to help us continue this important work, and are searching for desert old-timers to participate in our extensive oral history program."

Casebier, 72, a Kansan who served in the Marine Corps at Twentynine Palms for 22 years, later was employed as a Navy physicist working with guided missile systems in Corona. During visits to Washington, D.C., he frequented the Library of Congress and the National Archives, conducting research on the East Mojave.

After writing a book in 1970 about the Arizona territory, Casebier started Tales of the Mojave Road Publishing Co., which has produced 24 titles. Sixteen were authored by Casebier.

"In 1980, I started in earnest with the library collection," he said.

A year later, Casebier formed a volunteer group that continues today, called the Friends of the Mojave Road.

"We worked with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to develop the Mojave Road and other historic trails into the back country," he said.

For this work, Casebier and the group received the bureau's highest national award for volunteer service.

Upon retiring in 1990, the Casebiers bought the old Goffs school and 113 acres around it, intent on opening a desert cultural center. Three years later, they helped found the nonprofit, tax-exempt Mojave Desert Heritage Cultural Association to take over the property.

"In 1998, Jo Ann and I deeded the school and the 1-acre school yard to the association, restoring the school to its 1914 condition," Casebier said. "In 2001, the school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

The Casebiers donated 70 acres of their property to the cultural association in late 2002.

Agency claims home of woman

By CHUCK MUELLER, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun

IVANPAH - A whitewashed bungalow in this old desert mining town southeast of Mountain Pass holds a lifetime of memories for Connie Connelly.

But the National Park Service says the 44-year-old woman, who came to Ivanpah with her parents in 1968, must leave the house by Friday.

The six-room cinder block dwelling, once a general store that stocked provisions for desert prospectors, is on federal land in the Mojave National Preserve, park officials said.

Connie's parents, Don and Pauline Connelly, were issued lifetime leases to live in the house by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which administered the area before the park service took over in 1994. But the documents did not include their daughter's name.

"But it has been my home since I was 8, and all my memories are there," said Connie, who shares the five-acre site with 12 dogs, a cat and a horse.

Her father, a former sheriff's deputy in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, died in 1990 at age 80. Her mother died last year at age 81 after a long illness that had required the family to move to Newberry Springs to be closer to medical care. While they were away from Ivanpah, another family occupied the house, and the Connellys had to buy it back for $8,000.

PAPERWORK PROBLEMS

"It appears that the bureau did not update the lease after it was granted to the parents in 1986," said Jennifer Foster, co-founder of Public Lands for Public Use, a 6-year-old watchdog group that investigates the use and misuse of public land.

As a consequence, Connelly does not possess a current lease or title to the land where the bungalow sits, said Chief Park Ranger Dennis Ziemann.

Without the lease, she is residing illegally on federal land, Ziemann said in a March 18 letter to Connelly that demands she leave the 71-year-old house.

"Failure to comply will result in criminal prosecution and removal of all property on the premises," Ziemann said.

That could mean the park service intends to tear down the house, which qualifies as a historic site because of its age, Foster fears.

"When a structure is over 50 years old, it could be eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places," said desert historian Dennis Casebier.

STANDING FOR HISTORY

Public Lands for Public Use plans to stand at Connelly's side on Friday and over the weekend and longer if necessary, said Foster's husband, Ken, who co-founded the group with his wife.

The Fosters filed a notice of intent Monday to appeal the issue in Connelly's behalf with the U.S. Department of Interior's Board of Land Appeals, claiming the BLM's legal description for the bungalow site is inaccurate.

"The coordinates cited in the bureau's lifetime lease of 1986 are wrong," Jennifer Foster said. "The lease says the house is in Section 32 of Township 15, but it really is in Section 31."

"Accordingly, the Bureau of Land Management may never have had the right to charge the Connelly family for a lease in the first place," Jennifer Foster said. "The federal government may owe Connie a ton of money."

"The bureau later corrected the erroneous section numbers, but the coordinates are still wrong. Her house isn't where the lease says it is. It's a mile away, across the (Union Pacific) railroad tracks on patented (private) land."

Documents in the San Bernardino County Recorder and Assessor's offices show that Connelly holds possessory rights to the house, and her tax payments are current.

Ziemann said Connelly has refused to comply with procedures that would allow the park service to provide her with relocation assistance.

Mary Martin, superintendent of the 1.6 million-acre national preserve, told Jennifer Foster in an April 5 letter that she wants to see "a positive resolution to this issue."

"(But) all the information in our records and those of (the) county and Bureau of Land Management clearly indicate that Ms. Connelly is illegally occupying federal land."

A PRICE FOR MEMORIES

Martin could not be reached for further comment this week, but park service spokeswoman Holly Bundock in Oakland said, "We've offered Connie Connelly relocation costs, including rent for 2 years and moving costs. In lieu of rent, we would buy a like house somewhere else. But she has declined that."

Connelly acknowledges she met with Martin and a park service real estate official Jan. 7.

"They wanted me to file a disclaimer and sign it over to them," she said. "They offered me $3,000 to relocate. But you can't put value on your childhood home. You can't put a price on memories."

The diminutive woman, who claims Mandan and Sioux tribal heritage, lives on occasional sales of her watercolor paintings and from jobs as a horseshoer and store clerk.

Her Spartan surroundings at the 2,400-square-foot bungalow include a wood stove and oil lamps. She hauls water from Nipton, 17 miles away, in two 55-gallon drums mounted in the bed of her 1973 Ford pickup. And every six weeks she shops for groceries in Nipton or in Searchlight, Nev.

When mid-summer temperatures climb to 110 degrees, Connelly turns on a generator to power a couple of fans in the bungalow.

"I'm not fussy about anything," she said. "It's not necessary to have a new wardrobe or newfangled gadgets."

The eviction controversy has sparked interest in Washington and Sacramento.

"We are aware of the situation," said Jim Specht, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who represents the east Mojave. "He has asked his staff to look into it."

State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, who represents some San Bernardino County desert areas, said he was told by a Lewis staff member that the congressman would work with local officials to ensure the issue is resolved consistent with the law and that due process is followed.

Bob Smith, area representative for county 1st District Supervisor Bill Postmus, said he has asked a survey team to study the coordinates to determine if the bungalow is on private or public land.

"If it's on private land, we would intervene to determine the legality of a federal agency being involved," Smith said.

Connelly's five acres lie within a 40-acre tract that was privately patented under the Homestead Act, according to an original land patent signed on March 7, 1912, by President William Howard Taft.

"Accordingly, the Bureau of Land Management may never have had the right to charge the Connelly family for a lease in the first place," Jennifer Foster said. "The federal government may owe Connie a ton of money."

TRIP OF THE WEEK: Goffs a forgotten town that's now drawing visitors

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Dozens of trains a day roll through old Goffs on the double tracks of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad across the Mojave Desert in California. None of them stop there these days. They no longer need the facilities of little trackside watering stops such as Goffs.

Diminished, but not forgotten, Goffs today serves other purposes. The ghost town marks a major entry point for the vast Mojave National Preserve. It lies along a well-kept portion of historic Route 66, drawing a growing number of road enthusiasts. It boasts a cultural center and museum housed in a beautifully restored mission-style schoolhouse and extensive outdoor historical displays.

Located about 30 miles from the Colorado River, Goffs occupies the top of a gradual rise in open arid country, noted when survey and mapping parties crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-1800s. Free of steep grades and mountain passes, the route proved favorable when the railroad sought routes in the 1870s. By 1883, the Southern Pacific built the line, establishing Goffs to service the trains. The railroad built a depot in 1902.

Lanfair Road, heading northward from Goffs, roughly parallels another railroad, now disappeared. From 1893 to 1927, the Nevada Southern short line railroad ran to Searchlight, then central to many active mines. Today, Lanfair Road forms part of a network of remote roads accessing the rugged landscapes of the Mojave National Preserve.

To reach Goffs, about 110 miles from Las Vegas, drive south on U.S. 95 toward Needles. Where the highway crosses the railroad tracks, watch for the well-marked junction with historic Route 66, the original paved highway across the Mojave Desert. On a recent Sunday, Goffs welcomed a road rally of PT Cruisers, just one of many groups making nostalgia runs along portions of old Route 66.

After the railroads converted to diesel locomotives, which did not require the frequent watering stops needed by steam-powered trains, towns such as Goffs began to decline. However, Goffs could still rely on the U.S. 66 traffic to generate business for its garages, filling stations, hotel and eateries. That changed when the highway was relocated a few miles south in 1931.

Today, the handsome restored one-room schoolhouse built in 1914 appears much as it did when constructed by San Bernardino County. It stands as the only reminder of the days when Goffs was home to a couple of hundred people and served a larger population scattered over a huge area. The building doubled as a community center and lending library after school for grades one through eight.

Children attended Goffs School until 1937. The building thereafter fell into private hands. Sometimes lived in, often vacant, the building gradually deteriorated. A couple acquiring it for a home in the 1980s began serious reconstruction, saving the classroom roof from caving in. Repairs continued when Mojave Desert expert and champion Dennis Casebier and his wife bought the school and surrounding acreage in 1990. Casebier brought along his extensive library of books, maps and research concentrating on the Mojave Desert and its history.

The new owners envisioned restoring the schoolhouse to its original state, using historic photos and plans. The sturdy building of wood frame covered by stucco over steel mesh had generous porches for shade, expansive windows for light into the 800 square foot classroom and a fenced acre of playground.

The Casebiers knew they couldn't do it alone. They worked to create the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association in 1993. In 2001, Goffs Schoolhouse attained listing on the National Register of Historic Places as a result of work done by a graduate class from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Now owned by the volunteer, nonprofit group, the museum opens for visitation the first weekend of each month except July, August and September. The schoolhouse museum continues to add materials to its archives and artifacts to its impressive collections. Research includes recording first person historical accounts alluding to the area. The future of the once-derelict schoolhouse now looks bright.