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- What was Llano del Rio and how can I find out more about it?
- What is that place that looks like a castle along the California Aqueduct?
- Where were the Butterfield stagecoach stations in our area?
- What can you tell me about Littlerock?
- What can you tell me about Edwards Air Force Base?
- Where can I find old photographs of Antelope Valley?
- What can you tell me about Lancaster's history?
- What can you tell me about the history of Palmdale?
- What can you tell me about the Los Angeles Aqueduct?
- What can you tell me about agriculture in the Antelope Valley?
- What can you tell me about mining-and the Gold Rush-in the Antelope Valley?
- What can you tell me about Tiburcio Vasquez, the namesake of Vasquez Rocks?
- What can you tell me about Pancho Barnes?
- What can you tell me about John Wayne when he lived near Lancaster?
- What can you tell me about Judy Garland when she lived in Lancaster?
- What Indians lived here?
- What can you tell me about cowboys and cattle ranching in the Antelope Valley?
- What can you tell me about General Beale's American Camel Corps?
- What can you tell me about the San Andreas Fault and its association with the Antelope Valley?
- What can you tell me about the history of railroads in the Antelope Valley?
1. What was Llano del
Rio and how can I find out more about it?
[Some of the
information below courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery]
On May 1, 1914,
the Llano del Rio Colony, a socialist utopian community, was
established north of Los Angeles in the southeast Antelope Valley.
Among its founders was Indiana native Job Harriman, an idealistic and
charismatic young lawyer who had unsuccessfully run on the first-ever
Socialist
Party platforms for Vice President in 1900 and mayor of Los Angeles in
1911. Thwarted by political efforts to effect social change, Harriman
and his fellow visionaries instead thought they could accomplish their
utopian goals via the colony's cooperative economic system. Llano del
Rio was promoted nationally by
the socialist magazine The Western Comrade, and the
cooperative thrived for several years-its population exceeding 1,000
people in 1916-until its long-term water supply was diverted by an
earthquake fault.
In 1917 about 200 participants moved the colony to Stables, Louisiana,
a defunct lumber town, and renamed it New Llano. Despite numerous
internal hurdles and external criticism, the colony for more than two
decades made its mark as a social experiment. It had one of the
country's first Montessori schools; it was renowned for the production
and sale of high-quality food and other items; it was where the
national socialist paper The American Vanguard
moved its headquarters; it hosted a fertile intellectual and cultural
climate, replete with orchestras and theater groups; it set up
satellite colonies in Gila, New Mexico, and Fremont, Texas; and its
innovative social services-including low-cost housing, Social Security,
minimum-wage pay, and universal health care-were decades ahead of their
time. Though financial woes and infighting forced the colony into
bankruptcy in 1939, Llano del Rio is
today considered Western American history's most important
non-religious utopian community. More information about Llano del Rio
can be found in the following sources:
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- Conkin,
Paul Keith. Two Paths to Utopia: The Hutterites and the Llano
Colony. University of Nebraska Press, 1964.
- Davison,
James N. Newllano: History of the Llano Movement.
Woodville, TX: Dogwood Press, 1994.
- Greenstein,
Paul. Bread and Hyacinths: The Rise and Fall of Utopian Los
Angeles. Los Angeles: California Classic Books, 1992.
- Hine,
Robert V. California's Utopian Colonies. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983.
- Llano
Colonist. Los Angeles, CA: United Co-operative Industries.
- Llano
Colonist. Newllano, LA: Llano Publications, 1921-1937.
- McDonald,
Alexander James. The Llano Co-operative Colony and What It
Taught. Leesville, LA: The Author, 1950.
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Images:
- Job Harriman, the
founder of Llano del Rio, c. 1900
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Job Harriman, the
founder of Llano del Rio, in May Day Parade, c. 1915. Job Harriman is
on the front passenger side.
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- A furnished tent house
at Llano del Rio, c. 1914-1917
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- The land as the Llano
del Rio colonists first saw it, c. 1914
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- A dormitory and the
Hotel Llano del Rio, 1916
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Ruins of the Llano del
Rio Hotel, c. 1920s
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- A group of Llano del
Rio colonists, 1914
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- The last colonists
leaving Llano del Rio, 1918
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
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2. What is that place
that looks like a castle along the California Aqueduct?
Shea's Castle is
an architectural curiosity in the southwest Antelope Valley designed to
look like an Irish castle. Real estate baron Richard Peter Shea
(usually identified as John Shea) built Shea's Castle as a residence in
1924. The Shea property, which also includes a Kitanemuk petroglyph
site and a private airstrip, passed through many hands and is still
privately owned today.
Images:
- Construction of Shea's
Castle, 1925
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
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3.
Where were the Butterfield stagecoach stations in our area?
The
Overland Mail Stage line, commonly called the Butterfield Stage line
after its organizer John Butterfield, ran up San Francisquito Canyon,
by Elizabeth Lake, along the southwest edge of Antelope Valley, and
though Tejon Pass. Although there are no stage stations in the Antelope
Valley, almost any old building in our area might be touted as a
Butterfield Stage station, even though miles from the actual route.
Later stage lines, including local short lines, have been confused with
the Butterfield which operated from 1858 to 1861. More information
about the Butterfield Stage can be found in the following sources:
Website
Links:
Print
Sources:
- Flickwir,
Richard F. Report on Route of the Butterfield Stage Line, San
Francisco to St. Louis; Known as the "Overland Mail" between Los
Angeles and Chino. Los Angeles County, CA: County Surveyor.
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4. What can you tell me
about Littlerock?
Founded in 1893,
Littlerock is an agricultural town with approximately 12,600 residents,
located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains about 50 miles
north of Los Angeles. Known today for its orchards, fruit stands, and
antique stores, and dubbed "The Fruit Basket of the Antelope Valley,"
Littlerock is the
Valley's largest unincorporated community. The area's original
inhabitants were groups of Piute Indians until the first non-native
settler moved there during the mid-1860s and stayed until he was killed
by a grizzly bear in 1886.
In the early 1890s the town's core population began with a group of
settlers who planted almond and pear trees, started a blacksmith shop
as the first business, and called the community first Alpine Springs
Colony and then Tierra Bonita before changing its name to Littlerock in
1893-the same year that the first post office opened.
Development milestones continued into the early twentieth century with
the 1913
opening of the first schoolhouse and the 1914 founding of the first
library. Littlerock Dam-now considered a historical architectural
structure-was completed in 1924 to provide water to irrigate the town's
orchards and today also provides recreational amenities such as
boating, fishing, and camping.
More information
about Littlerock can be found in the following sources:
Website
Links:
Images:
- Little Rock Dam, c. 1920
[Courtesy of the Palmdale City Library]
- Pear picking in Littlerock,
1920s
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
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5.
What can you tell me about Edwards Air Force Base?
Edwards
Air Force Base began in 1933 as Muroc Air Force Base, a remote bombing
range built at Muroc Dry Lake. During World War II, it was a major
bomber training base, and in 1947, after taking off from the base,
Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a Bell XI aircraft
while flying over Antelope
Valley. The base's name was changed in 1950 to honor Captain Glen W.
Edwards, who died while test-piloting the experimental YB-49 aircraft
there on June 5, 1948. More information about Edwards Air Force Base
can be found in the following sources:
Website
Links:
Print
Sources:
- Desert
Wings [micoform]. Muroc, CA: Africa's Printers for personnel
of Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB.
- Hendrickson,
Walter B. Winging into Space. Bobbs, 1965.
- Pace,
Steve. Edwards Air Force Base Experimental Flight Test Center.
Osceola, Wisconsin: Motorbooks International, 1994.
- Palmdale:
How It All Began. City of Palmdale, 1998.
Places
to Visit:
Edwards Air
Force Base History Office
AFFTC/HQ
305 E. Popson Avenue
Edwards AFB, CA 93524-6595
(661) 277-2498
City of
Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery
44801 N. Sierra Highway
Lancaster, CA 93534
(661) 723-6250
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6.
Where can I find old photographs of Antelope Valley?
Historic
photographs of the Antelope Valley can be found in a number of
locations. Two major sources are the City of Lancaster Museum/Art
Gallery and the Palmdale City Library:
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7. What can you tell me
about Lancaster's history?
[Portions of the
information below courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art
Gallery]
Lancaster-which
today calls itself "the heart of the Antelope Valley"-owes its birth to
the Southern Pacific Railroad. In the summer of 1876
the railroad laid track through the town's future location and by
September had
completed a railroad line through the Antelope Valley, linking San
Francisco and Los Angeles. The origin of Lancaster's name is unclear,
attributed variously to the surname of a railroad station clerk, the
moniker given by railroad officials, and the former Pennsylvania home
of settlers. Train service brought passengers through the
whistlestop-turned-community, which with
the help of promotional literature quickly attracted new settlers. The
person credited with formally developing the town is Moses Langley
Wicks, who in 1884
bought property from the railroad for $2.50 per acre, mapped out a town
with streets and lots, and by September was advertising 160-acre tracts
of land for $6 an acre. The following year, the Lancaster News
started publication,
making it the first weekly newspaper in the Antelope Valley. By 1890,
Lancaster was bustling and booming, and thanks to ample rainfall
farmers planted and sold thousands of acres of wheat and barley.
The town was
devastated by the decade-long drought that began in 1894, killing
businesses and driving cattle north, though fortunes improved somewhat
in 1898 following the nearby discoveries of gold and borax, the latter
to become a widespread industrial chemical and household cleaner.
Thanks to the five-year construction of the 233-mile Los Angeles
Aqueduct starting in 1908, Lancaster became a boom town by housing
aqueduct workers. The 1912 completion of Antelope Valley Union High
School allowed students from the growing region to
study locally instead of moving to distant cities, and the school
boasted the state's first dormitory system to accommodate students from
outlying districts.
For seven years starting in 1926, a young Judy Garland-then still
Frances "Baby" Gumm-lived in Lancaster and honed her skills as a child
singer, dancer, and entertainer before going on to become one of
Lancaster's most famous residents. The community began a steady growth
spurt in the 1930s, starting with construction of Muroc Air Force Base,
frequent flight tests, and later space shuttle landings. Lancaster was
controlled politically by Los Angeles County until 1977, when it was
incorporated as a city. More information about Lancaster can be found
in the following sources:
Website Links:
Print
Sources:
- Palmdale:
How It All Began. City of Palmdale, 1998.
 |
Places to Visit:
City of
Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery
44801 N. Sierra Highway
Lancaster, CA 93534
(661) 723-6250
Lancaster Public Library
601 W. Lancaster Boulevard
Lancaster, CA 93534
(661) 948-5029
|
Images:
- Intersection of Sierra
Highway and Lancaster Boulevard, looking south on Sierra Highway
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Aerial view looking north and
showing almost the entire city of Lancaster, c. 1952
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- The Gillwyn Hotel, which
became the Western Hotel and was used as Lancaster's first high school,
c. 1880s
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Lancaster Boulevard, looking
west, c. 1900. The Western Hotel is the building in the center of the
photograph.
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Tenth Street, c. 1940
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Lancaster Boulevard, looking
east from Cedar Avenue, 1950s
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- The Lancaster Airport on the
northwest corner of 10th Street West and Avenue I, 1930
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Map of Lancaster, 1940s
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
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8. What can you tell me
about the history of Palmdale?
Palmdale,
located approximately 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is the
offspring of long-defunct Antelope Valley communities Palmenthal and
Harold. Palmenthal was founded in 1886 by westward Swiss and German
settlers who in 1888 named their new community Palmenthal after
mistaking the local Joshua trees for palm trees; initially prospering
as grain and fruit growers, many settlers abandoned their homesteads
after drought decimated their crops and land scams prevented them from
clearing their property titles. Harold-also known as Alpine Station and
Trejo Post Office-was founded at the junction of the Southern Pacific
Railroad and what is now Barrel Springs Road; but it too went under
after the railroad moved the site of its booster engine station north
of town. Both abandoned communities blended into Palmdale, so-named in
1899, when residents jointly relocated to a new site near the Southern
Pacific railroad station and the stagecoach line between San Francisco
and New Orleans.
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, irrigation systems
and dry farming techniques allowed Palmdale to flourish as an
agricultural community known for its alfalfa, apples, and pears. After
World War II, Palmdale's economic base shifted to aerospace and defense
industry with construction of Air Force Plant 42 and the Federal
Aviation Administration's Air Route Traffic Control Center. Palmdale
became incorporated in 1962 as the Antelope Valley's first city and in
recent decades has experienced astounding growth: its geographic size
increased from 2.1 square miles in 1962 to 102 square miles today, and
its population soared tenfold from 12,227 residents in 1980 to about
122,400 people today, making it one of the country's fastest-growing
cities. More information about Palmdale can be found in the following
sources:
Website Links:
Print
Sources:
- Palmdale:
How It All Began. City of Palmdale, 1998.
Places to Visit:
Palmdale City
Library
700 E. Palmdale Boulevard
Palmdale, CA 93550
(661) 267-5600
 |
Images:
- Aerial view of
Palmdale business district, c. 1930
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Palmdale Grammar
School at the end of Main Street (Avenues Q through P), 1925
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- The Avenue S area in
old Palmdale, 1890-1895
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Aerial view of
Palmdale, from the airport to where the Colton Spur of the railroad
track crosses Sierra Highway, c. 1986
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Palmdale looking
northwest from the railroad water tank toward houses on Pacific Avenue
(6th Street East) and beyond, c. 1918
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- The Palmenthal
schoolhouse and students in old Palmdale, 1890s. The school was located
near present 30th Street East and Avenue S.
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
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9. What can you tell me
about the Los Angeles Aqueduct?
In the early
twentieth century, the Los Angeles Aqueduct was built as a way to
provide much-needed water to rapidly-growing Los Angeles. It was the
brainchild of William Mulholland, an Irish immigrant who worked his way
up from ditch cleaner to become the chief engineer of the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power. In 1904 the Owens Valley-located between
the Sierra Nevadas and the White Mountains-was targeted as the likely
source of additional
water for Los Angeles, a move that touched off the so-called "Owens
Valley Water Wars" between city and valley residents. Nonetheless, the
next year the project was publicly announced and Los Angeles residents
approved a bond to pay for the aqueduct's construction.
It took until 1913 to complete the 233-mile structure across mountains,
hills, and desert, with some 6,000 men working round-the-clock as
miners, laborers, and plasterers, using picks and shovels to dig
trenches, drive tractors, put cement in place, and transport pipes. The
project revived the economy of Antelope Valley communities Lancaster,
Mojave, Fairmont, and Elizabeth Lake, whose farms and businesses had
been decimated by a decade-long drought beginning in 1894. Becoming the
country's largest municipal water system in its day, the Los Angeles
Aqueduct was completed in 1913-ahead of schedule and under its
projected $25.5 million budget-when it began transporting water from
the Owens River into the San Fernando Valley near Sylmar and
Mulholland. More information about the Los Angeles Aqueduct can be
found in the following sources:
Website Links:
Print
Sources:
- Kahrl,
William L. Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles'
Water Supply in the Owens Valley. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1982.
Images:
- Construction of Owens Valley
Aqueduct, c. 1910
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- 52-Mule team used in the
construction of the Los Angeles-Owens Valley Aqueduct across the west
side of the Antelope Valley, 1908
[Courtesy of the Palmdale City Library]
- Workers standing in front of
tunnel entrance in the Los Angeles-Owens Valley Aqueduct, c. 1908
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- The completed Fairmont
Tunnel (aka the 'Elizabeth Tunnel') of the Los Angeles-Owens Valley
Aqueduct, c. 1920s
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
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10. What can you tell
me about agriculture in the Antelope Valley?
The Valley's
first agricultural boom occurred during the 1880s and early 1890s,
when heavy rainfall attracted homesteaders who successfully cultivated
alfalfa,
barley, wheat, and a variety of fruits and nuts. However, a serious
drought between 1894 and 1904-the worst in Southern California's
recorded history-devastated farms, forcing many settlers to abandon
their land in the valley. With the drought's end came an agricultural
resurgence after 1905 in the form of irrigation, thanks to pumps
powered first by gasoline and later by
electricity, which proved more reliable than the former reliance on
artesian wells. Irrigation, besides allowing for the replanting of the
crops that previously thrived, also allowed the large-scale cultivation
of alfalfa, which by 1920 was the Antelope Valley's major crop.
Between the 1880s and the late 1920s, farmers were also plagued by
jackrabbits,
who reproduced and ate crops so quickly that they made it impossible
for many farmers to stay in business; Evan Evans, a settler and county
road superintendent, noted that the rabbits were so thick that at night
the ground appeared to be moving. To eradicate these pests, farmers
held big jackrabbit drives in which horseback riders drove the rabbits
into makeshift corrals, clubbed them to death, and then barbecued the
meat; the events were considered
a weekend sport that attracted locals and city folk who came by train
from Los Angeles. Though communities such as Littlerock have retained
their agricultural character, the Antelope Valley has undergone
tremendous change and growth in the second half of the twentieth
century with a shift from agriculture to defense and aerospace
development. More information about Antelope Valley agriculture can be
found in the following sources:
Print Sources:
- Palmdale:
How It All Began. City of Palmdale, 1998.
Images:
- First combine in the
Antelope Valley on the Godde-Stratman Ranch, early 1900s
[Courtesy of the Palmdale City Library]
- Crate label from the
Blum Ranch, c. 1950s. Printed on it is 'The sweetest story ever told .
. . Blum Ranch, grown and packed by Ray Billett in Acton, California'.
[Courtesy of the Palmdale City Library]
- Antelope Valley farm
scene with an early hay baler, c. 1902
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- Letter from O. F.
Goodrich of the Antelope Valley Hay and Grain Company to a Mr. Kelly
regarding a poorly behaved mule., c. 1920s
[Courtesy of the Palmdale City Library]
- An Antelope Valley
road separating an orchard and the desert, c. 1920s. The caption on the
photo reads: 'conquering the desert with water.'
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- Interior of a pear
packing shed, c. 1920s. Probably located on Atlantic Avenue/Sierra
Highway, just south of East Harding Street/Avenue Q.
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
- New pear orchard
(possibly in Pearland) and water flowing from a standpipe
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
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11. What can you tell
me about mining-and the Gold Rush-in the Antelope Valley?
[Portions of the
following information are courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art
Gallery]
California's
Gold Rush began southwest of the Antelope Valley, contrary to the
popular belief that James Marshall found the first gold in 1848 at
Sutter's Mill in northern California. The big discovery occurred in
1842 at what was then called Live Oak Canyon when Francisco Lopez,
stopping for lunch while searching for stray cattle, pulled some wild
onions and found flakes of gold clinging to their roots. In the
subsequent gold rush, the canyon was named Placeritas, meaning "Little
Placers," and today is called Placerita Canyon.
Gold rushers soon flocked to the canyon and took an estimated $100,000
of gold from the region before heading north to the more exciting
discovery at Sutter's
Mill.
Mining changed
the region's history in profound ways, as gold seekers settled
permanently in the valley's southwestern corner during the 1850s and
1860s. The area further grew during the Civil War, as gold, silver, and
copper were extracted from the Soledad Canyon region and Fremont's Pass
was enlarged to facilitate and speed up ore shipments. However, in a
more sustained fashion
mining helped valley residents survive the drought between 1894 and the
Great Depression of the 1930s, though desert mining imposed numerous
hardships that included high equipment costs, broken-down wagons,
temperatures that swung between bone-chilling winters and scorching
summers, fatal mine shaft accidents,
a shortage of lumber for buildings and fuel for fires, looting in camps
and supply stations, and lack of water. Mining continues today in and
around the Antelope Valley, where besides gold, silver, and copper, the
ores and minerals extracted over the years include antimony, borax,
calcium, chloride, feldspar, granite, gypsum, iron, lead, lime,
limestone, marble, potash, rotary mud, salt,
silica, tungsten, uranium, volcanic rock, and zinc.
 |
Images:
- Twenty Mule Team loaded
with hay at the John Searles' San Bernardino Borax Company warehouse in
Mojave, c. 1880. This is one of the earliest photographs taken in the
Antelope Valley.
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- Early day miners at
entrance to the Lida Mine, c. 1900s
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- Ezra Hamilton's Lida
Mill, c. 1900s
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- Fred Hamilton (son of
Ezra Hamilton) in mining clothes and surrounded by the tools of his
trade, c. 1900s
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- Map showing the Tropico
Mine in Rosamond, CA, c. 1960s. The map also shows Willow Spring.
[Courtesy of the Palmdale City Library]
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12.
What can you tell me about Tiburcio Vasquez, the namesake of Vasquez
Rocks?
Tiburcio
Vasquez was a legendary and much-feared 1870s California outlaw who was
considered a hero by Californios and a villain by
the Anglo population. Born in 1835 to a wealthy and respected family in
Monterey, Vasquez was a well-educated teenager with a poetic flair
when, following a fight at a dance in 1852, he and two other men were
accused of killing a sheriff. The only one of the three to escape a mob
lynching, Vasquez opted to live a life of crime rather than obey
mainstream laws. Imprisoned twice for petty theft and stealing horses,
upon release he and former prisoners formed a gang and held up
stagecoaches, stole horses, robbed cattle, and otherwise cut a wide
criminal swath throughout central and southern California.
The
target of the greatest manhunt in California's history, Vasquez eluded
his captors for almost twenty years in mountainous and rural areas that
included the vast Antelope Valley. There, he found an ideal rock
fortress near Agua Dulce springs-a spot known today as Vasquez Rocks
Park-that he used as a hiding place by passing himself off as horse
buyer Ricardo Cantuga. In April 1874, with a $8,000 bounty on his head,
Vasquez was caught by a posse near what is now the Hollywood Bowl, put
on trial in San Jose, and hanged in 1875. More information about
Tiburcio Vasquez can be found in the following sources:
Website
Links:
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13. What can you tell
me about Pancho Barnes?
Florence
Leontine Lowe Barnes, nicknamed Pancho, was a colorful and fiercely
independent socialite who made her name as a pioneering female pilot.
Born in Pasadena in 1901, the high-spirited Florence thwarted the
efforts of her fundamentalist parents to channel her energies in a
conventional direction; though they arranged their debutante daughter's
marriage in 1921 to proper Episcopalian minister C. Ranken Barnes, she
left him after receiving a half-million dollar inheritance following
her mother's 1924 death. Thus began her life as a freewheeling
globe-trotter and hostess: she headed for South America on a luxury
liner, returned to the United States to entertain movie stars and
pilots such as Bette Davis and Amelia Earhart, crewed on a south-bound
banana boat, and trekked across Mexico, where she indulged her
rebellious streak by adopting the nickname "Pancho."
A life-changing experience occurred in July 1928, when Pancho took her
first flight out of Ross Airfield; the next week she bought a Travel
Air 4000 aircraft and started taking flying lessons, and in September
she made her first solo flight. From then on, flying became her passion
and claim to fame,
perhaps no surprise given her lineage as the granddaughter of Thaddeus
S.C. Lowe, who during the Civil War commanded observation balloons for
the Union Army. In 1930 alone, Pancho won the women's world's speed
record of 196.19 miles per hour (beating the record previously held by
Earhart), was the first woman to fly into Mexico's interior, and won
her first Tom Thumb race. Several years later she also started the
Women's Air Reserve and trained women in flight exercises, first aid,
and parachute drops.
During the 1940s, the outspoken, cigar-smoking Pancho ran a tavern/inn
sixty miles north of Los Angeles known as the Rancho Oro Verde (also
known as the "Happy Bottom Riding Club"), which included Sunday
brunches for pilots, exciting rodeos, training programs for civilian
pilots, and Wednesday night dances; the inn was frequented by pilots
and future astronauts testing aircraft
at Edwards Air Force Base. Her fortunes took a bad turn during the
1950s and 1960s when the Air Force took her property for expansion and
she suffered ill health, but circumstances improved about a decade
before her death in 1975. Over the course of her eventful lifetime
Pancho was also a barnstormer, movie stunt pilot and movie double,
songwriter, and animal trainer. Valerie Bertinelli portrayed her in Pancho
Barnes, a 1988 made-for-television movie. More information
about Pancho Barnes can be found in the following sources:
Website
Links:
Print Sources:
- 92
M2938 Dwiggins, Don. Hollywood Pilot: The Biography of Paul
Mantz. Doubleday, 1967. The life of a movie stunt pilot
includes information about Pancho Barnes flying planes for Howard
Hughes's Hell's Angels and her forming of the
Motion Picture Pilots Association.
- Mitchell,
Barbara. "Pancho Barnes: A Legend in our Lifetime." Antelope
Valley Spectator, January-April 1963; Hi-Desert
Spectator, May-August, 1963. This is a five-part biography of
Pancho Barnes.
- 92
B2604 Schultz, Barbara Hunter. Pancho: The Biography of
Florence Lowe Barnes. Lancaster, CA: Little Buttes, 1996.
- 92
B2604 Tate, Grover Ted. The Lady Who Tamed Pegasus: The Story
of Pancho Barnes. Maverick, 1986.
- 629.1
Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux, 1979.
Images:
- Pancho Barnes and Amelia
Earhart, late 1920s
[Courtesy of the Edwards Air Force Base, Air Force Flight Test
Center-Headquarters]
- Pancho Barnes, c. 1920s
[Courtesy of the Edwards Air Force Base, Air Force Flight Test
Center-Headquarters]
- Pancho Barnes's truck with
Rancho Oro Verde, c. 1940s
[Courtesy of the Edwards Air Force Base, Air Force Flight Test
Center-Headquarters]
- Pancho Barnes's Rancho De Oro
after it burned, early 1960s
[Courtesy of the Edwards Air Force Base, Air Force Flight Test
Center-Headquarters]
Top of Page
14.
What can you tell me about John Wayne when he lived near Lancaster?
The
movie actor John Wayne-born in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907 as Marion
Morrison-spent about two years of his childhood on a farm near
Lancaster. He was the first-born child of Mary "Molly" Brown and Clyde
"Doc" Morrison, who after being diagnosed with tuberculosis moved his
family during the 1910s to an 80-acre homestead near Lancaster-roughly
where the United Parcel Service
is now located near Sierra Highway. As a child, Marion attended the old
Lancaster Grammar School on Lancaster Boulevard, though school records
show he had poor attendance and at age 12 was promoted only to the
third grade. Doc, unsuccessful at farming, soon returned to his
original profession as a pharmacist in Glendale, where he moved his
family. Marion went on to attend the University of Southern California
on a football scholarship and later became an actor who made more than
150 films. He died of cancer in 1979. More information about John Wayne
and his time in the Antelope Valley can be found in the following
sources:
Website
Links:
Print
Sources:
- Bishop,
George Victor. John Wayne: The Actor, the Man.
Ottawa, Illinois: Caroline House, 1979.
- Carpozi,
George. The John Wayne Story. New Rochelle, N.Y.:
Arlington House, 1972.
- Davis,
Ronald L. Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne.
Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
Top of Page
15. What can you tell
me about Judy Garland when she lived in Lancaster?
Frances Ethel
Gumm, later known as Judy Garland, lived in Lancaster during part of
her childhood. Born in 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Frances and her
family-father Frank, mother Ethel, and sisters Mary Jane and
Virginia-moved
to southern California in 1926. Frank, in search of a movie theater
where his
three daughters could sing and dance, looked first in Glendale and then
West Hollywood before buying the 500-seat Lancaster Theater. He
renovated the interior, built a box office, installed air conditioning,
changed the name to the Valley Theatre, and thus created a venue where
the "Gumm Sisters" could
perform on a regular basis, with their mother as agent and manager.
While living in Lancaster before relocating to Los Angeles in 1933, the
Gumm family lived in three houses, one near the high school and two on
Cedar Avenue.
Though much of Frances's early stage and theater experience took place
in Lancaster, she and her family performed beyond the Antelope Valley
as well, in Los Angeles and outlying towns. Frances' stage name changed
several times-and included Frances Gayne, Alice Gumm, and Baby
Gumm-before it became Judy Garland. She went on to become a prolific
and versatile entertainer, whose oeuvre included 32 movies, one Academy
award and two nominations, and thousands of theater, nightclub,
television, and radio performances. She is best known for her role as
Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and her acting in Andy
Hardy movies. In her personal life she was beset with emotional
problems, however, and she died in 1969 at age 47, apparently from an
accidental sleeping pill overdose. One of Lancaster's most famous
residents, her childhood footprints are imprinted in a cement sidewalk
slab now located in the backyard of the city's historic Western Hotel.
More information about Judy Garland and her time in Lancaster can be
found at:
Print
Sources:
- Dahl,
David. Young Judy. Mason/Charter, 1975
- Morley,
Sheridan. Judy Garland: Beyond the Rainbow. New
York: Arcade Pub., 1999.
- Shipman,
David. Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend.
New York: Hyperion, 1993.
Images:
- Downtown Lancaster street
scene showing the old Valley Theater on the west side of Sierra
Highway, 1940s. Judy Garland's father owned this theater and Judy
Garland and her sisters performed here.
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- Sierra Highway from the
Valley Theater to the old Ledger Gazette Building, c. 1948
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
Top of Page
16. What Indians lived
here?
[Information
courtesy of the Antelope Valley Indian Museum]
Today it is hard
to imagine large groups of Native Americans living off the land in the
Antelope Valley. Hundreds of years ago, however, the landscape of the
Antelope Valley was very different. Vast plains of tall native bunch
grass covered the valley floor and active springs and pools were
plentiful. The lush vegetation and abundant water supply supported many
types of wildlife which are no longer found in the valley.
Archaeological evidence from what appear to be several major village
sites indicate that substantial numbers of Indians occupied the valley
floor year round at one time. Major trade routes from the coast to the
eastern Mojave and Southwest, as well as north-south routes from the
Central Valley and Owens Valley to the Los Angeles Basin also crossed
the Valley.
Archaeologists
believe that Native Americans have been living in, or at least
visiting, the Antelope Valley for at least 11,000 years before the
present. Over time, many cultural groups have passed through the Valley
and left their mark. The original inhabitants were Paleoindians. These
peoples were probably
hunters of large game animals that have since become extinct. Among
their weapons were spears with fluted projectile points. Little is
known of the culture of these original people and only their artifacts
survived.
From 9000 to 7000 years ago, as the Ice Age ended, great lakes formed
in the Valley. Evidence exists of large groups living near these lakes.
Many grinding tools have been found from this era pointing toward more
dependence on plants for food, however, hunting remained an important
activity. Many archaeologists believe that during this period, the
atlatl (spear thrower) became more important as hunting activities
became centered on faster game animals such as dear and antelope. Some
people have speculated that these early people may have been Hokan
speakers, the language ancestral to present day groups like the
Chumash, Pomo, and Dieguenó. These groups may have formed
the oldest semi-permanent settlements in the Great Basin.
During the
period from 6000 to 4000 years ago, larger groups began to establish
more permanent settlements. Game animals became smaller as evidenced by
the increased use of dart points and other archaeological evidence.
Plant processing also became more important in everyday life. As these
settlements became more advanced toward the end of the period, a
complex religious life began to emerge as well.
Starting about
4000 years ago and lasting until 1500 years ago, the people of the
Antelope Valley became seasonal hunters. The mountain sheep was of
major significance in this culture. Many of the rock art sites
throughout the Coso Mountain Range near present day Ridgecrest appear
to celebrate hunting and the
mountain sheep. Archaeologists theorize that the rock art constituted a
form of "hunting magic." These peoples often had summer and winter
camps which were
spread throughout the Antelope Valley and nearby mountains. These camps
helped
in the seasonal gathering of food. The ceremonial life that evolved to
produce
such beautiful rock art is little understood.
After about 1500
to 1000 years ago, people depended more on gathering than on hunting.
Hunting itself also changed considerably during this period. The
invention of the bow and arrow forever changed the way the people
hunted. Fewer men could acquire game more quickly and with more
stealth.
From the period
1000 years ago, and perhaps earlier, until the Spanish arrived in
California, the culture of the Antelope Valley changed dramatically. It
is believed that this is the time the "Shoshonean Wedge" swept through
the Great Basin and California. The Uto-Aztecan (Shoshonean) speakers
more or less took over the Great Basin and parts of Southern California
during this period. The details of their origins or how rapidly they
spread remain controversial.
More is known
about these people than about those that came before them. The cultures
that developed during this time are what we today call the Great Basin
people. They lived in summer and winter homes. They created the great
communal grinding stones found throughout the Antelope Valley. They
supplemented their diet of acorns and piñon nuts with small
game and deer. These are the people the Spanish first encountered when
they began to explore the Antelope Valley.
When the Spanish
and other Europeans began to come to California about 400 years ago,
the Antelope Valley's population had already begun to decline, probably
because of the increasingly arid climate. Groups of Serrano, Kitanemuk,
Tataviam, and Kawaiisu were living in and around the Valley, but not in
great numbers. Many of these groups shared the Paiute culture with the
people living further north in the Owens Valley. Some Chumash influence
also existed in the Valley, as evidenced by different language groups.
Trading among the different groups was extensive. Obsidian from the
Mono Lake area and sea shells from the coast are still frequently found
today throughout the Valley.
The first fully
documented contact with the people of the Antelope Valley came in 1776
when a Franciscan priest, Father Francisco Garcés began a
trip to Monterey through the Mojave Desert. Garcés's diary
of the trip has been used by many scholars to identify the people,
cultures, and language groups living in the Antelope Valley at this
time. For several years, the contact with the Spanish was limited and
benign, however, increasingly the people of the Valley began to be
"resettled" to the San Fernando Mission. In 1808, the Spanish sent a
military expedition into the Valley. There is no documentation of any
violence during this expedition, but it began the continual and
eventually deadly contact with the Spanish. In 1811, Mission records
indicate the "resettlement" of two entire villages.
The slow decline
in the population of the Antelope Valley followed that of other native
Californian societies. Disease spread by contact with the missions and
forced labor continued to take its toll. To the Europeans, tribal and
clan affiliation held little meaning. As with many California cultures,
the old ways began to die along with the people.
Many revolts
were staged against the Spanish, as various tribal groups attempted to
free themselves from the oppression of the government-sanctioned
Mission system. Only a few succeeded, and then only for short periods.
In the mean time, the Spanish, by then under the flag of the Mexican
government, and other Europeans began to establish farms and ranches in
Southern California,
thus dislocating the original people. By the time California was
transferred from Mexico to the United States in 1848, the people of the
Antelope Valley were losing their struggle for survival.
While the Gold
Rush did not directly impact the people of Southern California, it was
important in many ways. The massacres of many tribes to the north cut
off centuries old trading patterns. As more people came to California
in search of gold, many filtered south for the rich farming land of the
San Joaquin Valley. The United States government began a policy of
relocating Native Americans to give the best land to the European
settlers. In 1853, Fort Tejon was established in the mountains on the
western edge of the Antelope Valley. The United States government
established a reservation there to "protect the Indians." By 1864, the
1000 people living there had deserted the fort in an attempt to return
to their ancestral lands in the Tehachapi Mountains and in the Antelope
Valley. However, the government continued its reservation and
relocation program well into the twentieth century. During the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most native groups remaining
in the Antelope Valley simply faded into the European culture growing
up around them. More information about native populations in the
Antelope Valley can be found in:
Website
Links:
Print
Sources:
- Sturtevant,
William C., ed. Handbook of North American Indians.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
- Heizer,
Robert Fleming and M. A. Whipple. The California Indians : A
Source Book. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.
- California
Indians Fact Cards. Milpitas: Toucan Valley Publications,
1996.
Places
to Visit:
Antelope
Valley Indian Museum
on Avenue M, between 150th and 170th Streets East in the Antelope Valley
(661) 942-0662
Images:
- Mano and metate from the
Piute Butte area
[Courtesy of the Antelope Valley Indian Museum]
- Burden basket of the type
used by Piute Indians
[Courtesy of the Antelope Valley Indian Museum]
Top of Page
17. What can you tell
me about cowboys and cattle ranching in the Antelope Valley?
[Information
courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery]
Cowboys and
cattle ranching began in the Antelope Valley as early as the 1840s and
became more prevalent in the following decade after the gold rush led
to a demand for beef. One of the most important jobs for cowboys was to
round up calves in the spring-and perhaps again in the fall-and to
brand, castrate, dehorn, and vaccinate them. Among the best known
cowboys were Ted Atmore, Emery Kidd, and Forrest Patterson. Cattle
ranching was especially important in the region between 1886 and 1910,
though it was hurt by the drought between 1894 and 1904. Cowboys and
farmers sparred over a number of factors, including competition for
land and crop damage by livestock; the tension prompted farmers to
erect fences to keep cattle out and led ranchers to discourage
prospective farmers from settling in the region. By the 1920s the
cattle industry had slowed down tremendously in the valley due to a
growing
population and disputes with sheep herders and alfalfa growers.
 |
Images:
- Cattle round-up on
Butterworth Ranch, c. 1906
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- Cowboys at H. J.
Butterworth corral, c. 1905-1910
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
- The first rodeo in
Antelope Valley, c. 1910
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
|
Top of Page
18. What can you tell
me about General Beale's American Camel Corps?
[Information
courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery]
Edward
Fitzgerald Beale-a Mexican War veteran who traveled to Washington,
D.C., as the first person to report news of California's gold
discovery-came up with the idea of using camels to reach distant
Western military posts. After he successfully pitched the idea to War
Secretary Jefferson Davis, Congress voted in 1855 to spend $30,000 for
an experimental American Camel Corps, and the following year the camels
started to arrive at the mouth of the Mississippi River. General Beale
and a team of men led the camels from New Orleans to Fort Tejon, where
they subjected the animals to various tests but ultimately found the
experiment problematic. Ultimately, some camels headed out into the
desert and the rest were sold at auction by the U.S. Army-and with the
1937 demise of their last descendant, "Topsy," the American Camel Corps
died a quiet death.
Website
Links:
Print
Sources:
- Stacey,
May Humphreys. Uncle Sam's Camels. Harvard
University Press, 1929.
- Thompson,
Gerald. Edward F. Beale and the American West.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Images:
- Beale Adobe at Tejon Ranch,
1863. The adobe was built in 1863 and is the oldest building in
Antelope Valley.
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
Top of Page
19. What can you tell
me about the San Andreas Fault and its association with the Antelope
Valley?
The San Andreas
Fault, one of the world's most heavily scrutinized tectonic plate
boundaries, extends along the Antelope Valley's entire southern slope.
Although the fault is perhaps best known for the 1906 earthquake that
caused the great San Francisco fire, one of the most powerful
earthquakes ever recorded in U.S. history occurred when a major rupture
occurred on the fault's line at Fort Tejon on January 9, 1857. As a
result of the quake, which registered about 8.0 on the Richter scale
and is estimated to have lasted up to three minutes, the Kern River
reversed course and overran its banks by four feet, water from the
Mokelumne River was thrown on the banks, and Fort Tejon-located at the
epicenter-was severely damaged. Because the affected area was sparsely
populated at the time, only two people died; today, the same earthquake
would probably kill many more people in communities such as Frazier
Park, Palmdale, Taft, and Wrightwood, all built on or near the area
that ruptured in 1857. More information about the San Andreas Fault can
be found in the following sources:
Website
Links:
Print
Sources:
- American
Association of Petroleum Geologists. The San Andreas Fault
Zone from the Temblor Mountains to Antelope Valley, Southern California.
Pacific Section, AAPG, SEPM, and San Joaquin Geological Soc., 1964.
- Barrows,
Allan G. Geology and Fault Activity of the Palmdale Segment
of the San Andres Fault Zone, Los Angeles County, California.
Sacramento, CA: California Division of Mines and Geology, 1976.
- Beeby,
David J. Preliminary Fault Map of the Lake Hughes Segment,
San Andreas Fault Zone, Los Angeles County, California.
Sacramento: California Division of Mines and Geology, 1977.
- Wallace,
Robert E. Aerial Views in Color of the San Andreas Fault,
California. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept of the Interior,
Geological Survey, 1983.
- The
San Andreas Fault [videorecording]. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Educational Corporation in cooperation with the American Geological
Institute; Bert van Bork, producer. Chicago, Illinois: Britannia Video
Cassettes, 1974.
Images:
- Aerial view of San Andreas
fault line from just west of the Palmdale Reservoir to Big Pine, c. 1935
[Courtesy of the West Antelope Valley Historical Society]
Top of Page
20. What can you tell
me about the history of railroads in the Antelope Valley?
[Information
courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery]
During the
1870s, completion of a Southern Pacific Railroad line through Antelope
Valley changed the region from an isolated basin to a magnet for
settlers. The railroad had been looking for an inland railroad route
between San Francisco and Los Angeles since 1853, following passage the
previous year
of the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railroad Act to give railroad
companies land grants to encourage settlement near train routes and
distribute public land to make family farms affordable. The Southern
Pacific finished its route through the valley in 1876 and settlers soon
flocked to the region and established homesteads near surface water,
thus launching a boom growth period. More information about railroads
and the Antelope Valley can be found in:
Print
Sources:
- Settle,
Glen Allen. Along the Rails from Lancaster to Mojave.
Rosamond, CA: Kern-Antelope Historical Society, 1977.
- Palmdale:
How It All Began. City of Palmdale, 1998.
Images:
- Lancaster Railroad Depot, c.
1900-1905
[Courtesy of the City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery and its many
donors]
Top of Page
Agoura Hills |
Antelope Valley |
Carson |
Catalina Island |
Claremont |
East Los Angeles
Gardena |
Lakewood |
La Puente Valley |
Pico Rivera |
San Dimas |
San Fernando
San Gabriel |
South Gate |
Willowbrook
