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Inscription Canyon is a major anthropological attraction in the High Desert
 A complex geometric panel overlooking the vast Mojave Desert, is indicative of Shoshonean influence post AD 1000. Stand in the quiet of Inscription Canyon and let your imagination take wing. Close your eyes and you can almost see the Indians who used to inhabit the area, waiting for visions fueled by fasting and sacred drugs — their prayers wafting skyward on smoke from their fires.
They dreamt their mystical reveries and left their shamanistic art to mystify those who came later.
We don’t know exactly who they were “as several tribes claim this as their traditional homeland,” says Jim Shearer, Bureau of Land Management archaeologist.
Larry T. B. Sunderland , anthropologist and historian, attributes the rock art to “Western Shoshone, Southern Paiute, and Kawaiisu,” in his book “Prehistory and History of the Timbisha Shoshone.”
Today, a visit to Inscription Canyon offers an opportunity to view hundreds of petroglyphs — some of which are estimated to be up to 10,000 years old.
Big horn sheep, snakes, anthropomorphs (human-like figures) and a large variety of geometric graphics adorn the walls of the canyon which runs southwest-northeast and is only several hundred yards long.
Continue reading Art on the Rocks
Take a trip down Route 66 for good eats and good times
You can sit at a counter, a table or in a red vinyl booth. Most likely the waitress will call you “Hon” as she hands you the menu — unless you are at the Village Cafe in Barstow. Owner Henry Wong does not call anyone “hon.”
Finding good food while getting your kicks on Route 66 is not a problem. Choices run the gamut from American Diner to Chinese. There are many eateries on the Mother Road, but I chose five nearby to explore.
 SUMMIT INN SUMMIT INN
 Dianne DuVall, a waitress at the Summit Inn asks, ‘What can I get you hon?’ as she seats customers. I started my multi-day culinary expedition at the Route 66 landmark, the Summit Inn, located at the top of the Cajon Pass in Oak Hills. This ’50s cafe is owned by Apple Valley resident C.A. Stevens. He is only the second owner of this cafe (where Elvis was rumored to have visited) and has preserved its vintage American feel.
The coin-operated fortune-telling napkin holders still work — ask them a “yes” or “no” question to get a look at your future. The restaurant acts as the “local country club because there is nothing else here,” says Terry Kostak who lives nearby. “Without this place we would all go nuts.” Locals like math teacher Phil Kimmel appreciate the cafe for its good food and quiet atmosphere. “At Chili’s, it’s so noisy,” he said. “It is more laid back here, homey. It reminds me of restaurants in the Midwest.” Kostak says, “It would be a shame if anything ever happened to this place. The owner has turned down offers from Denny’s and other big name chains.”
Continue reading Time Traveler
 Half-time entertainment included a map of the U.S created by the combined bands of the University of Arizona and Grambling State University … except it wasn’t called the Super Bowl in those long ago days. Officially it was the AFL-NFL World Championship Game — played on Jan. 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Off camera, media pundits called it the Super Bowl. After that, the name stuck until here we are at Super Bowl No. 44. That really dates me doesn’t it? Oh, what the hay.
Two marching bands entertained during the game; University of Arizona, and Grambling State University. Trumpter Al Hirt was there as well as an assortment of astronauts showing off jet packs on their backs, zipping around the field in clouds of smoke and steam. It was a day game with none of the Los Angeles smog yellowing the sky. No rock stars and multi-bazillion-dollar halftime shows. Our heroes were the astronauts.
I was a proud member of the University of Arizona Marching Band, the Pride of Arizona, and if I do say so myself, we were one hot band. Feet lifted to the same precision height when marching eight to the five (eight steps to five yards), heads held high with fluffy red things on our hats lilting in the wind, twirlers catching higher and higher tosses of their silvery batons — all under the watchful eye of Band Director Jack Lee.
Continue reading Super Bowl No. 1 and I was there. . .
I have been thinking too much again and it is keeping me awake — again.
There are things in the universe I don’t understand, questions that can’t be answered on Google. Have you ever noticed that most everything can be answered on Google?
I asked my friends what they would like to know.
K.Y. says, “I want to know what is on the other side of space, what is on the other side of the universe? Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated with space and stars. Is Heaven on the other side, at the end of space?”
Continue reading What do you want to ask the universe?
 An actor portrays Wyatt Earp at a living history exhibition in Barstow. When the Earp boys, Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan, cloaked in long black coats and accompanied by gambler “Doc” Holiday, made the famous walk to meet Ike Clanton and his gang in Tombstone, Ariz., Wyatt walked into an exalted place in the history of the American West.
He still captures our imaginations, 81 years after his death.
The gun battle, known as the “Gunfight at OK Corral,” wasn’t even at the corral, but rather, just near by. But “OK Corral” sounds a lot better than “Between a Photography Studio and the Assay House.”
Continue reading Looking for Earp, Part One
It started as a simple search. What makes an excellent root beer and how does one become a connoisseur of root beer?
Really, all I wanted to find out was who makes the best root beer.
I remember my dad making root beer in the basement of our house in Peru, New York. Or maybe it was the house in Clintonville. Those New York houses all sort of run together in my mind. I was pretty young and I just remember the snow and being cold in the winter.
We moved a lot as my dad was Air Force. He made root beer in the basement, sauerkraut in the kitchen and pickles on the back porch.
I have been searching ever since for a root beer whose flavor matched my memory.
But, I have found the right pickle. Bubbies Kosher pickles. They taste the same as those big ol’ cukes my dad pickled.
Doing a search for connoisseur root beer led to a blog about root beer flavored jelly beans and then the personality test about which flavor are you and then more personality tests! (Stay with me here. OK?)
Continue reading Root beer and self-awareness
 This beautiful memorial stands as a testament to the power of song. I wonder how they found the perfect Joshua tree — the rock band U2. Did they just drive around near Lee Flats outside Death Valley until they picked just the right plant? Or did they have advance scouts?
Joshua Tree was U2’s first No. 1 album and the 1987 Grammy Award-winner for “Album of the Year” and there was much acclaim for the stark black and white images created for the album by Anton Corbijn.
The band posed in front of the quintessential Joshua, in artsy poses and serious faces out in the middle of nowhere.
The tree was not really close to the highway, one had to want to trek into the desert on purpose to find it. Which leads me back to how the heck did they find that “tree?”
Nobody seems to know.
Continue reading Found, not found. U2’s Joshua Tree.
 THE ROAD IN I tagged along with Team DUSA the other day, looking for Barry Storm’s “Jade Mine”. Storm was a sometime writer for Desert Magazine and sometime hunter of lost mines. He was also the author of a book entitled “Thunder God’s Gold”. It was based upon the search for a lost mine in the Superstition mountains of Arizona.
I was the second rig for our adventure -the back-up, just-case-we-get-stuck-and-need-a-tug-out-of-the-sand vehicle. It is always a good idea when exploring the desert any further away than a mile from pavement, to have rescue options.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Not so hot as to make hiking uncomfortable and warm enough not to need long sleeves. The destination – deep in Joshua Tree National Park. And wow! what a gorgeous place.
After we got on the dirt track, Black Eagle Mine Road, we did not see another vehicle, coming or going, the whole day. My kinda place.
Continue reading Oh what a day – Road Trip to find Barry Storm’s Jade Mine with Team DUSA
 Cowboy Ted “Darlin’, you just made my day.” The cowboy tipped his hat and turned his horses to the setting sun. Gold glints silhouetted them briefly and made my eyes tear.
“And you, sir, have made mine.”
A bad spaghetti western? A Louis L’Amour novel? No, just a chance meeting near Baldwin Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California.
I was coming down the road when I saw this handlebar-mustached cowboy riding towards me — a-straddle one horse and leading the other. There was a sheathed buck knife on the saddle and a bed roll tied onto the back of his horse.
Continue reading Chance meeting with a cowboy
 PARKED IN BARSTOW: Santa Fe locomotive 1460 has found a final home in Barstow at the Western America Railroad Museum. It was the little engine that could — and did — for 66 years. And 38 years after it was rebuilt in Santa Fe Railway’s Cleburne, Texas, shop, BNSF 1460 officially retired in December 2008.
Rail fans affectionately call the little locomotive the “Beep,” and it has found a new home at the Western America Railroad Museum, or WARM, in Barstow.
Beep is a contraction of Baldwin Geep, but it was officially named an SWBLW, which stood for SWitcher Baldwin Locomotive Works, said Lawrence Dale, president of WARM.
In an experiment of repurposing locomotives, the Beep was the solitary example of a Santa Fe repowered Baldwin switcher unit, using General Motors EMD engines.
It has a GP7-style long hood and upgraded trucks, which gave it more tractive power — a handy thing when switching out rail cars in the yard.
In layman’s language, the locomotive is a rebuilt amalgamation of unmatched parts added to a stripped-down Baldwin cab and frame.
Continue reading the BEEP
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