Desert Rats in Distant Times

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Space Cowboy
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Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by Space Cowboy »

From Desert Magazine, September 1939, Letters to the Editor

Dear Randall:
Your last issue was so darned good that we
are getting up a few to go over to the Gallup
affair and later maybe attend the snake dance.
That article on the gold was fine as the devil.
Why there must be just lots of gold if only
we knew where to look.
Have had an eventful summer so far. Hiked
up San Jac like I said—not up Snow creek.
Had a four-day hike and I never will do anything
quite so foolish. I learned a lot, anyway.
It is steep up there, Randall. I lived
through it, and then, from Idyllwild I hiked
down to Palm Springs—and got lost! I had
a potato cork in my canteen. It came out,
and when I stumbled, all the water was lost.
I tried to make it down to Palm Springs via
Tahquitz ridge—about the most foolish thing
I could have done. They found me delirious
in back of the Tahquitz Estates, and the caretakers
for the Davis estate found me and revived
me. It was worse than a case of dysentery,
believe me. My stomach acted up for
a week.
Then there was a tea party that got three
of us. Datura turned out to be a drug stronger
than we expected. I read an article in your
mag about the Dream Plant of the Indians.
We tried it. Randall, it worked! But gosh
sakes, we had nightmares, not dreams, and
fevers up to 106 degrees. Almost killed one
fellow from England. The Indians gave us
some bark to chew on, and it helped a little.
All my regards to you, and being inquisitive,
you better not publish any more stories
of dream plants!

PAUL WILHELM.

I just had to share.

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SteveS
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Re: Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by SteveS »

That is funny :lol: :lol: , I like checking out the letters to the editor, and that one was funny.

For those not familiar with Desert Mag 'Randall' was Randall Henderson the editor at the time.

One thing I also recall was the stories of advice about the best way to get your vehicle unstuck, then late in the 40’s (when 4 wheel drive became common) I didn’t see people sending those stories in anymore.
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Space Cowboy
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Re: Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by Space Cowboy »

SteveS,

‘The editor at the time’? Faint praise, don’t you think, for the founder, owner and father of Desert Magazine from 1937 until 1958, when he finally sold it. There’s lots of desert icons to be remembered, and stories told about them around the campfire, but Randall Henderson holds a special spot in my heart, because he wrote about, or published stories, on just about all those memorable icons we remember. We recollect them better, precisely because of Henderson and his progeny, Desert Magazine. Through those pages, you can feel the times, vicariously live them. He also trumps me, in that in his July 1946 article, ‘Palm Hunters in the Inkopah Wastelands’, page 13,http://www.scribd.com/doc/2149961/19460 ... -1946-July he succeeded in doing what I nearly killed myself trying, and still failed, fifty-some-odd years later http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/oct/stories/sprite.html.

There’s a respected scholar, Peter Wild, who wrote ‘Desert Magazine: The Henderson Years’, that apparently finds great fault in Henderson. I haven’t read the book. Neither of my local library systems have a copy, and I’m not blowing 33 bucks on a used copy with the cover torn off, http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... ition=used so all I’ve read is Phil Brigandi’s review of it at his sitehttp://socalhistoryland.mysite.com/article_3.html. There are, then, those that find fault in Henderson, as they do Marshall South and Everett Ruess, There’s an article Henderson wrote September 1942, page 5, ‘Refuge on the Colorado’,http://www.scribd.com/doc/2096621/19420 ... -September about the Japanese internment camp called Poston, where he practically gloats ‘Japanese may worship where and how they please with the exception, that Shintoism, the pagan creed of the warrior clan in Japan, is barred.’ Shortly, as a member of the Army Air Corps Reserves, Henderson would be commissioned and sent off to the war. His ‘Between You and Me’ editorials don’t hold up too well to the years, his concerns specific and dated, but he continues to write from his far-flung posts, reporting what he can, pining for ‘his’ desert.

And that’s where the guy really hooks me as an ‘honest-t’-God’ hero. Maybe against his will, but no less a member of ‘The Greatest Generation’. While deployed in North Africa, he writes the obituary for his own Marine son, Rand Henderson, killed in action in Saipanhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/2097185/19441 ... 44-October. Page 34.

Damn, that’s the real deal.

I remember once seeing some folks out in Fish Creek just past Split Mountain, their Yugo so packed with camping gear it was sticking out the windows, wading through the sand like a sailboat without a rudder, that could have used some of those driving-in-the-desert articles.
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Re: Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by TradClimber »

SpaceBoy, thanks for sharing Paul Wilhelm's letter to Desert Magazine.

His (1939?) trip from Idyllwild to Palm Springs via Tahquitz Canyon/South Ridge of Tahquitz Canyon is most impressive for that time. The route is a multi-day classic from Idyllwild that gains 1600 feet of elevation and then descends 7600 vertical feet of difficult and dangerous terrain to Palm Springs. All and all it is a great adventure.

The avatar to the left is a 1976 photo of me descending Tahquitz Canyon To Palm Springs.

Drinking tea made from jimsonweed (Datura) is a good example of a bad idea!

TradClimber - Tahquitz Canyon Rock Diver
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Photo by John M.
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SteveS
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Re: Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by SteveS »

Space Cowboy wrote:SteveS,

‘The editor at the time’? Faint praise, don’t you think,.....
OK ;) Besides I know you would word it better. 8-)
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Re: Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by Space Cowboy »

Someday, SteveS, we will meet, somewhere out in the vast reaches of the desert, :ugeek: and I will tease you mercilessly. You will try to respond in kind, but you will fail. Such is the Way of Things.

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Re: Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by Joshee23 »

Wow,,
Very nice pics and same through story.
I hope I could experienced too, such that in the pics,,,
Godspeed guys,,how to deal with depression
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Re: Desert Rats in Distant Times

Post by dzrtgrl »

I went ahead and bought the $33 copy of Desert Magazine - The Henderson Years with the ripped off cover. Because after all, it's what's on the inside that counts, right? (I'm a cornball.) I was pleasantly surprised by the cover the seller fashioned for the book. Besides the cover having been ripped off, the book is in great shape. When I get around to reading it I'll let you know if I agree with Phil Brigandi's book review. If anyone wants a copy of this book you can find one with the cover intact for $450 here - http://www.marshalsouth.com/BookDetails.asp?id=89. Hehe.

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