Blog Desert Man
In 1956, I started work as the zoning enforcement officer for the San Bernardino
County Planning Department. I spent a lot of time driving highways and back
roads on the Mojave Desert to and from the office.
Interesting stuff out there -- abandoned builds, mines and other structures that
defied understanding. Our city library had a few books on the subject -- I believe
one was a New Deal program for unemployed authors. I visited some of the places
mentioned including: Red Mountain on Highway 395 and Calico before it became
Walter Knott’s tourist ghost town.
The Old Spanish Trail cut right through my desert. One weekend I drove my VW
Bug up Spanish Canyon located in the Alvord Mountains. The old trail came this
way from Bitter Springs to the Mojave River. I walked up to the Boy Scout cairn
marking the spot were mule drawn wagons dropped down into the canyon, their
wheels cutting an interesting channel in the bank that marked an important piece of
history. I was lucky that I got to see it before knobby-tire-desert-motorcycles tore it
up. Those were the days.
Years later a typed manuscript by Dix Van Dyke came to my attention and resulted
in it being eventually published by the San Bernardino County Museum (Spring
Quarterly 1991). In it Mr. Van Dyke described his trips to each of the camps and
watering places on the trail from the county line to the Mojave River. I was assisted
in preparing the piece by Jennifer Reynolds of the museum’s Publications
Committee. Dix Van Dyke lived on the desert most of his life and served as Justice
of the Peace for the desert region of San Bernardino County.
After leaving the county, trips to the desert and visits to points of interest became
limited to an occasional winter weekend.
In 1962, I was working for a private consulting firm when out of the blue a fellow
worker showed me an article in Desert Magazine. He knew I was interested in the
desert and wanted me to go with him to check out a site mentioned in that issue. So
eventually we headed south to the Palm Springs area and a visit to the home of
Desert Magazine. That’s when I first met the editor Jack Pepper. He took us for a
ride in his dune buggy over a course that demonstrated the fun of challenging
different kinds of terrain; hills, sand, and rocky pebbly like stuff. I decided then
that I would own a dune buggy (I preferred to call it a sand cruiser) before the next
winter season. I would visit with Jack Pepper many times in the future.
I also subscribed to Desert Magazine, perused back issues available at the library
and came up with a list of places that needed my attention as soon as I could locate a
sand cruiser. Well, I didn’t find one that I could afford until a couple of years later.
So I continued to cruise the back roads in my VW.
It had a bright red fiberglass body, with tractor tires on the rear wheels,
underpowered Volks Wagon 40 horsepower engine and a Porsche low-tuned tail
pipe that had a really nice rumble on acceleration. It was street legal but you
wouldn’t drive it on a freeway. So, I hung a light panel (tail lights) from the roll bar
and we towed it behind our family car. For the next seven winters we explored
deserts from the Mexican Border to Death Valley. I say “we”, sometimes with my
brother-in-law sometimes with the family and sometimes by myself. We also
explored historic sites in southern Utah.
The map making insanity all started when I asked Jack Pepper if he had a
recreation map of the desert and he said no but he sure would like to have one to
sell. Well after that I thought, hell, all I need is a good base map to start with and,
you know what? I found one. A friend of mine had spliced together USGS
(1:250,000) maps covering all of southern California. He gave me a print and I
carved out that portion of the Mojave Desert that would become an Overview of the
Mojave Desert.
At that point, the map had taken shape in my mind and on paper. It would feature
ghost towns, mining camps, historic trails, ghost towns, petroglyphs (big mistake),
scenic areas and areas to explore.
I showed Jack Pepper a rough sketch of my thinking. He liked it and may have
given me some suggestions. I don’t remember it all. But he liked the scale and my
approach and offered to become an outlet for it when finished and published. That
was encouraging. If he hadn’t shown the interest that he did the project would have
ended then and there – I sometimes wished that it had.
We named our company Desert Enterprises. The business would give us a tax
deduction for the office building that I would construct, for the cruiser and for all
the costs of preparing and printing.
The next step involved more research to find additional places to put on the map. I
decided the best sources would be back issues of Desert Magazine and Touring
Topics, an early AAA publication. By this time, my library had grown and
including USGS 15’ topographical maps of those parts of the desert that covered
public lands open to recreation.
Map making requires the preparation of overlays - - one for each color. Our map
had only two colors green and desert brown. Brown for the base and green for
places to visit -- historic trails, points of interest and large areas to be explored such
as parks and monuments. All text and names had to be tapped on both overlays. If
you didn’t look too close the final product was quite impressive mainly because of
its size 21 x 36 inches. The issued date was 1970
Jack was happy and ordered quite a few to start the ball rolling. He wrote a nice
article about me and the map and on at least one issue printed a picture of the map
on the back cover. It was probably that issue or one like it that got me in trouble
with a conservationist a few years later.
I had also started preparing a companion map of the Colorado Desert which Jack
had encouraged me to do. I sometimes wondered if old Jack Pepper was playing me.
No, I don’t think so. The map followed the same format as the Mojave except that I
added a blue run because of the Salton Sea. It was a prettier map because of the
added color. The Colorado Desert Overview was issued the following year 1971.
The next year 1972, I was hired by the Bureau of Land Management to work on
preparation of a land use plan for the California Desert. Wow. An opportunity of
a life time; one I couldn’t pass up.
In the BLM office, I soon became by default the desert historian. Dennis Casebier, a
real historian, came in to see what was going on and offered his support to me.
Dennis, in my estimation, was and is the dean of desert historians. We became
friends and visited many sites together especially in the East Mojave.
I realized that my involvement with Desert Magazine and my map making escapade
might not bode well with some conservation groups. So, I dumped all of my
Colorado and Mojave maps on the doorstep of Desert Magazine and made a clean
break with the map selling business. I also told my boss Neil Pfulb about the
business and I think I told the State Director Russ Penny about it but I’m not sure.
I would try some other money losing ventures in the future.
Neil Pfulb was the director of the California Desert Plan program and I was his
assistant. We were both members of the Sierra Club. I dropped my membership
figuring that Neil could support the conservationist message while I, having interest
in desert recreation, would favor those interests.. As it worked out, we had little
influence on the final California Desert Plan. A blue ribbon advisory committee
established by the Secretary of the Interior kept their collective noses in the process
for the full four years. Their unanimous vote for a final draft with only one
abstention got signed by the Secretary of the Interior and became The California
Desert Conservation Area Plan 1980 -- a plan that has received numerous
amendments but remains in effect to this day, I think. The most apt comment on
the plan appeared in the Los Angeles Times editorial page. It stated in part, “It
must be a good plan because no one likes it.…”
I kept quiet about my map business - - didn’t mention this phase of my life to
anyone not the BLM folks and certainly not members of the public. A young
petroglyph photographer found the article in Desert Magazine and complained
about me to Neil. Well, he had me worried. It was a come-to-Jesus moment. I
don’t know what Neil told him but nothing came of it. On the recreation side, I
noticed that some members of the 4-wheeling community treated me with a kind of
reverence that I couldn’t understand – maybe Jack told them to back off. What a
life. I had also started a new business venture selling reproductions of historic maps
of the west.
Incidentally, I also published a recreation map Desert Magazine Map of Southern
Utah in 1979. I had an agreement with Desert Magazine to use their cover logo.
My luck, the State of Utah came out with a series of recreation maps the same year
with a price that I couldn’t match. So my map business ended.
My employment with BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT lasted for 28 years. I retired in 2000. For the next three
years I continued as a volunteer for the bureau, inspecting range improvements: fence lines,
watering sites, cattle guards and the like filling out forms, taking photographs and
using GPS to record coordinates for mapping.
I bought a 4-wheel Nissan pickup and continued looking for new places in the desert
that I hadn’t seen. Then in 2007, I started blogging my stories about desert places
that I felt the public should visit. I called my website “Desert Explorer” and I
became Dusty Road. A few of the early postings had a small of icon of old Dusty
perched on a split rail fence with pick and shovel holding a “Welcome” sign.
The text include some background, some history and a bit of whimsy plus a few
photos. Like Dusty Road, I’m just a simple story teller with no political message or
attempt to make any money. In my introduction to each posting, “I promise the
reader that I will never let the facts interfere with a good yarn”. In other words
don’t look for footnotes or references.
The internet opened a way for me to stay active. I take trips to places visited many
times and take photographs for my postings and continue to do some research for each story. I’ll just keep going like this I guess.
Wes Chambers
THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE
Colonel Henry Carrington and the Second Battalion, Eighteenth Infantry arrived at Fort Reno on the twenty-seventh of June 1866. His orders: To proceed north along the Powder River and establish two additional forts on the Bozeman Trail.
My name is Kermit Kimble. I was at the Fort Reno when Colonel Carrington arrived and I agreed to accompany the Battalion up the Powder River. I had spent three years in the Army as an engineer and had seen duty in the Corallines. I worked on bridges -- building them when we advanced and blowing them when we retreated.
I worked as civilian contractor at Fort Reno for over a year. I got to know the country pretty well and I had respect for Chief Red Cloud and the Dakotas as a warring nation. I knew that the natives were not happy about more troops arriving along the Powder River.
Colonel Harrington hired me to work on construction of the two new forts. As an ex-military man, I could see problems. With only four officers and 700 enlisted men, mostly raw recruits, armed with out dated weapons and limited ammunition, they could be in trouble in this country
Let me begin this story with some background about this country. The number of gold seekers along the Overland Trail increased after the Civil War. Most came by wagon in a wagon train of ten or more wagons. These travelers were warned of possible trouble with the plain’s Indians known for crimes against Whites.
The Oglalas, Cheyenne, Crow and a number of other tribes claimed the buffalo grasslands of the central plains as their hunting ground. The Sioux and Cheyenne had a history of battling for domination over the Powder River country right where the second battalion was headed.
The Boseman Trail, a 400-mile shortcut from the Platte River to gold mines in Montana Territory, had been in use by frontiersmen since the 1840s. By the 1860s the trail had become a wagon road which allowed for more White travelers along the Powder River.
The Townsend Train guided by John Boyer had 150 wagons over 800 head of livestock and 450 men, woman and children.
They had reached a good distance up the Powder River when thirty or more Cheyenne fighters who at first seemed friendly as they rode along near the wagons sudden turned and began to attack with arrows and guns.
The battle lasted for five hours with two men killed and three missing. An unknown number of Indians were killed.
Stealing livestock was a more common form of trouble. Where small bands of enterprising natives would stampede a line of cattle strung out behind a wagon train and drive off what they could handle to be trade with other tribes or sold to Whites in mining camps.
The site selected for the first of two outposts was located 70 miles north of Fort Reno on a rise that gave a good field of fire on three sides. They named it Fort Phil Kearny.
Construction of the fort followed standard military layout and design for housing a battalion of mounted infantry
During that summer and fall (1866), with the urging of Chief Red Cloud, marauders increased their attack on soldiers -- stealing livestock and firing on woodcutters on their way to and from the Fort. A number of more serious clashes happened when troop took to chasing marauders that were driving off our cattle.
Howitzers on the parapet protected the Fort from a direct attack. The boom and shower of buckshot kept the natives yards out or range.
Early in September, Indian Scout Jim Bridger warned Carrington that 1,000 to 1,500 fighters including Red Cloud and Man Afraid of His Horse had taken up lodges near Fort Kearny. He was told by friendly Crows that Red Cloud planned for two attacks one on the Pine Woods near Fort Kearny the other near Fort Smith.
Colonel Carringtion disregarded the warning and noted that Bridger had greatly exaggerated the number of fighters that had gathered.
In early December word again came from Jim Bridger and others that Cheyenne, Lakota, Oglala’s and Arapahos were gathering northeast of the Fort near Pino Creek.
I couldn’t understand why the Colonel and other officer still believed that fewer than 500 possible warriors. I got to know Jim Bridger and believed what he said about the numbers.
As far as I knew, the officers had no plans either to attack the tribes or to defend the Fort. After all, the weather had turning very cold and Indians were known to stay in their winter quarters at this time of year.
I will try to recount what I remember of the Fetterman Massacre that took place on the 21st of December, 1866.
At about ten O’clock that morning the wood detail left for the timberline about six miles northwest of the Fort. The detail had a total of 80 men both wood crew and soldiers in escort.
At 11:00 the sentry on Lookout Hill signaled that the wood detail was under attack. At the sound of the bugle, Colonel Carrington organized a rescue party with 79 soldiers and two Citizens (52 infantry and 27 cavalry) lead by Lt Colonel William Fetterman.
Colonel Carrington instructed Fetterman to keep the unit on the Fort side of the Lodge Trail Ridge and to return to the Fort with the wood detail.
The Lodge Trail Ridge that runs northeast near the Fort blocked our view of the lodges near Pino Creek.
Lt George Grummond, in charge of the cavalry company left the Fort a few minutes behind Fetterman. He was told to follow Lt Colonel Fetterman’s instructions and stay this side of the ridgeline.
At the same time, a signal came from the lookout that the wood train was no longer under attack. Fetterman and his troops were expected to return to the Fort.
But for what ever reason, the cavalry bolted out ahead of the infantry unit chasing after the Indians that had threatened the wood detail -- Indians that were led by Crazy Horse. Fetterman and his charges continued to the east and crossed the ridge line one mile behind the Cavalry.
The massacre that took place was not visible from the Fort or the Lookout. We had no idea what hell the soldiers had run into. The number of fighters that fell upon them later estimated at between 2,000 and 2,500.
At some point, Carrington sent the battalion Surgeon John Hines out to join the engagement. Surgeon Hines rode up to the ridgeline and then returned to the Fort. I don’t know what he told Carrington. (I later assumed that he told Carrington there were more Indian fighters than 500.)
When the gunfire subsided, the Colonel sent a rescue party commanded by Captain Ten Eyck with 75 soldiers. They soon found 81 dead and mutilate bodies with a few dead Indians mingled among them.
We spent the next two days bring in and burying 79 soldiers and two civlilans.
Years later historians were able to piece together what took place from reports by Indians that had witnessed or had been told about the battle. How the troops had been drawn in and killed.
According to personal accounts and evidence on the ground, the cavalry got tricked into going after a number of Indians acting as decoys that drew the cavalry away from Fetterman and the main force. A well executed tactic that I could appreciate – divide and conquer
The main force of foot soldiers had crested the ridgeline then proceeded east to the Boseman Trail. Evidence on the ground indicated that the main body moved a short distance north on the Trail.
When a signal was given by Red Cloud, Indian fighters in great numbers suddenly appeared. They had been hidden along the Trail in crevices that drained the northeast slope of Lodge Ridge.
They swarmed around the soldiers killing with arrows that some claimed covered the sky around the troops. Fetterman managed to move some men up on to a small hill where they would all die.
At the signal from Crazy Horse, attacking fighters rose up on horseback and encircled the cavalry chasing them in dwindling numbers back toward the main infantry force. Most didn’t make it back.
Witnesses stated that many soldiers had trouble with their rifles not firing. Many questioned why the soldiers stayed close together making easy targets for the attackers.
Witnesses also stated that the men fought bravely to the end and none tried to escape.
It took days for the disaster to be fully mourned, reported to higher ups and accepted at Fort Phil Kearny. Then, finger pointing began. It’s well known that blame for military error or disaster must be placed on some officer.
Officers in this case included; Lt Colonel Fetterman who disobeyed his order by going over the ridgeline, Lt Grummond who chased the Indian decoys separating the cavalry from the Infantry, Colonel Carrington who underestimated size of the encampment and didn’t send reinforcement into the battle until it was over, General Philip St. George Cooke who assigned Carrington an unqualified officer to a known dangerous territory without enough trained troops.
It seemed that everyone overlook an important fact in this fracas : the battle was won by a well managed army of Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho and other smaller tribes. They won because of a superior number of fighters and a well-honed tactic of divide and conquer.
Finally, I believe that the Bozeman Trail should have been closed to wagons of any kind before the Civil War. There was a safer route founded by Jim Bridger that avoided the Powder River country.
Ten years after Fetterman Massacre, June 26, 1876, Crazy Horse led the Sioux Nation to victory over General Custer at the battle of the Little Bighorn.
To end my story on a positive note, Colonel Carrington gave me a fine letter of recommendation on the day I left the Fort for good.
Dusty True story except that I added the Kermit Kimble character to give credit to the Indians who won the battle.