Keys Ranch, Joshua Tree National Park

It wasn’t a park or a monument yet, but a rough and desolate place to make a living. Yet this man was not deterred. No, this Russian-born immigrant would make the desert his home until his death.

This is a story of a man who built something in an extremely hostile environment; one which most of us only venture into via an air-conditioned vehicle and very little time outside of that air-conditioned vehicle. 1910, a hard working man moved from Nebraska and took up residence in what would later be known as Joshua Tree National Park.

This is also a story of a man convicted of murder in 1943, and pardoned for five years later.

This is a story about Bill Keys.

According to Ranger Dave, “Bill was an industrious man. As you will see on this tour, he never let anything go to waste and built a home for his family in this often tough desert landscape.”

Ranger Dave at Keys Ranch

I generally don’t attend tours. Not that there's anything wrong with tours, but I like to wander here and there on my own and do my own research.

Sometimes I even get the research correct. When I don’t, my readers let me know.

During my recent visit to Joshua Tree National Park, I took the Desert Queen Ranch Tour - the ranch that Bill Keys created among the Joshua trees and towering boulders on the northwestern section of the park not far from Hidden Valley.

Keys Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park

To reach the ranch, down about a half mile single dirt trail, a guided ranger tour was the only way to view this abode in the middle of nowhere.

Only way in to Keys Ranch is by a dirt road

There was a locked gate. I didn’t have a key and broke two paper-clips before Ranger Dave showed up.

"I have the key,” he announced.

“I was trying to paper-clip some papers,” I replied. “But I forgot the papers.”

Ranger Dave was a friendly sort of fellow who greeted the tourists individually. The tour is limited in size and I think there may have been a dozen visitors at this early morning gathering.

Though, I was worried my paper clip may have jammed the lock.

“Okay,” he said to the tour group. “I will drive and all of you will follow me to the ranch. Please, do not take any items from the ranch or surrounding area since this is a historical site.”

Looked like I would have to stop by a gift shop to buy Laureen, my wonderful wife, a memento of my trip to Joshua Tree National Park.

A coffee mug or a rusty door knob from Bill Keys ranch - I know what I would desire.

The road was sandy, a bit rough but any vehicle could make the short trip to the ranch without any issues.

In 1910, Bill Keys arrived in the area of Twenty-Nine Palms and found work as a custodian and assayer at the Desert Queen Mine, east of where he would later build his home. It was tough work but something Keys fell in love with.

He oversaw the mine until 1917, when the owner passed away and Keys obtained the property due to not being paid for years. The back wages came in the form of a working mine.

Some mining equipment to view

That same year, he filed for 80 acres under the Homestead Act and started his ranch, built by hand from nearby rocks, adobe bricks, and wood shipped in from Banning and other locations.

“Funny story about Bill,” Ranger Dave said. “After years of living in this area alone, he met Frances May Lawton who happened to come from a very comfortable lifestyle near Los Angeles.. They fell in love, got married and Bill drove her out here to their, her new home.”

The home was a small wooden built structure boasting a living room, dining room and a bedroom located in not the green area Frances was used to, but instead a seemingly barren desert.

The Keys main residence

“What do you think her first words were when Bill stopped his old truck and showed his young bride her new home?”

Since this is a family blog - I will not say what words may have come out of Frances in my mind.

“We will never know,” Ranger Dave quipped. “What we understand is she smiled and accepted this is where she would reside with her husband. Within a short time, she loved this alcove in the desert as much as her husband did.”

Bill expanded the house, as well as the out-buildings as his family grew.  The couple had seven children, with four reaching adulthood.

It was a tough life day to day, but as Ranger Dave stated during the tour, they were a close-knit family and loved the rough and tumble life they led here.

As Ranger Dave was stopping here and there at this or that location during the tour, I wandered a bit and snapped some photos, stared into the canyon walls surrounding the property, gazed at the house, the horse corrals, the hand dug well in front of the house, and the rest of the site.

Hardy folks to say the least. Not just for a man and woman who fell in love and decided to make their life in the middle of a desert but to raise and educate children here was something special.

These were tough folks - honest folks - determined folks - and resilient folks.

I gazed over the round arrasta used to break up huge pieces of quartz in the search of gold and wondered if Keys hoped to find his fortune in the nearby hills.

The arrasta at Keys Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park

He had a small crushing mill at the ranch plus a larger one not far away for local miners to use, at a small fee, to crush what they had pulled out of the earth each day.

At one time, Keys had nearly 200 cattle on his ranch, along with pigs, burros, and a very large garden which grew both vegetables and fruit.

Horse corrals and livestock pens

This family knew how to make a buck and did it honestly with hard daily work.

Frances and Bill even built a one-room schoolhouse at the front of their property and other families in the area would bring the children there for daily lessons. The county provided a school teacher who resided in a home in which Bill had built for that purpose.

Another quarter on the ranch

During the tour, Ranger Dave told anecdotes about life here for the Keys family.

“One day, the children asked their father, since they were getting older, if it was their time to have a mine of their own.”

Ranger Dave smiled. “So, Bill told his kids to dig in a certain spot and that was to be their own mine. Well, they dug and dug and when the pit was deep and wide enough, Bill moved the outhouse over the hole.”

But, in 1943 the fortunes of the Keys family would change. With a dispute with a neighbor, Worth Bagley, there was a shootout and Keys was arrested for murder after killing Bagley.

According to a book written by Art Kidwell, Ambush, The Story of Bill Keys, the case against Keys seemed rather weak.

It was proven through the court records, or at least what I took from them, that Bagley shot at Keys without provocation first and Keys returned fire, killing him.

A trial was conducted and somehow the jury found Keys guilty of manslaughter.

Steve, a fellow visitor and recently retired California Highway Patrol Officer, looked at me - “Yeah, no issues there. A solid case of self-defense.”

I nodded in agreement.

Two former cops hearing what Ranger Dave said about the case put a lot of questions in our minds.

Rumors were that Bagley may have had friends in high places who did not like Keys.

Of course, those are just rumors.

After serving five years in state prison for the murder, Keys was pardoned by the governor of California, and instead of being a bitter man,  Keys went right back to work on his ranch and mining operations.

Frances died in 1963 and Bill six years later.

A romantic story of a couple who built a home out of nearly nothing, even with all the hardships and obstacles, their love endured till the end.

A visit to the Keys Ranch must be on the list when visiting Joshua Tree National Park - the Keys story of endurance is enough for the journey itself.

 

With winter seemingly to have forgotten Southern California, J and L decided to take a respite from their abode and travel with four furry companions to Owl Canyon Campground. The camp, run by the Bureau of Land Management, is located approximately eight miles north of the small town of Barstow. For those of who are geographically inclined, Barstow is nearly one hundred fifteen miles northeast from Los Angeles.

Quite remote, but great place to camp.

This twenty-two site campground is an ideal place to get away from the lights and fast streets of city life.

Ah, away from the city lights.

After leaving Irwin Road (one of the paved paths to the Army facility, Fort Irwin) and turning north onto Fossil Bed Road, the adventurer needs to be steadfast over five miles of unpaved road. The roadbed is wide and flat, but oftentimes wind swept, leaving a wash board effect. This time, the trip was not particularly rough for J and L and our furry friends, despite that fact that we had journeyed in our RV. It appears that our path had been recently graded. That was not the case a few years back when Paul Bakas, our frequent fellow traveler, joined these adventurers, driving his own RV out to Owl Canyon. That trip left his rear mounted tire for his RV no longer mounted. As the tire laid dejectedly on the dirt road, we reflected that this was a terrible way to end a camping trip. Not to be deterred however, we risked tire and mount, and responded to the call of the desert solitude.

I feel so rejected!

And on this outing, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and weather was absolutely perfect. We had the pleasure of basking in temperatures hovering around the mid-seventies, instead of the biting wind and even more biting cold which would be the norm for the high desert of Southern California.

“Let’s take advantage of the weather.” J and L suggested to each other. And that we did.

Though there are only a handful of campsites, and none have hook-ups. This is what we refer to in the camping world as ‘primitive camping.’ In reality, nothing particularly primitive is going on. Most of the campers come out over the dirt roads in motor-homes, fifth-wheels or tents with enough accouterments to challenge a sultan in comfort and luxury.

No, the days of ‘primitive camping’ are pretty much gone.

The camping sites are huge. There was enough room at our site for our pirate-flagged 34 footer, the ever-ready Toyota FJ,as well as the vehicles of friends (Paul, Larry, Gail, Howard and Leslie),  with plenty of room to spare.

Our friends had decided to drive out, just for the day, to join us as we spent the day exploring the canyons of Rainbow Basin and the Fossil Beds. 

The drive to Rainbow Basin is a short couple of minutes from the campground.  The one-way dirt road winds its way through the most spectacular of landscapes. Pinnacles of colorful sandstone, silt-stone, limestone, and conglomerate line both sides of the narrow path. Large vehicles are not recommended since they’d likely become stuck as the pathways and switchbacks narrow around the natural rock outcroppings. Or, at the very least, your off-road vehicle could acquire those scratches and dings which give four-wheel drive vehicles their character, if the driver doesn't pay careful attention.

Tall mud cliffs and narrow roads

Out for another adventure in the hinterlands

Laureen and Paul, accompanied by our four-footed explorers

Leaving the Bounder behind, we set off in the trusty FJ. Since the area is designated a National Natural Landmark, we thought that the BLM wouldn’t take too kindly to a motorhome becoming stuck between two mountains of sandstone like Fat Albert between two door frames.

So off we rambled and bumped along the road to the fossil beds a few miles to the north.  Finds of animals that are no longer part of the Californian culture have been made here, including camels, miniature horses, mastodons, and flamingos.

Huh? Flamingos in the Mojave Desert? Yep, this area was much wetter in times past. In fact, two million years ago, during the Pleistocene era, the region was inundated by huge glaciers. Temperatures warmed and then cooled and then warmed and then cooled, and about ten thousand years ago the area was pretty wet and lush in vegetation. No desert – almost a paradise for life.

This is a desert? Forget Florida - we like Southern California

Humans showed up, hunting the abundance of life. Then, as what normally happens on a living planet, the climate became warmer and less moist, but this time, it stayed that way, killing off the vegetation and giving birth to the Mohave Desert.

One can still find here some hardy bushes and a surprising variety of animals, though not what was there tens of thousands of years ago.

So, after a day of traveling the back trails in a couple of four-wheel drives, J and L invited everyone back to the temporary abode in Owl Canyon Campground to toast the adventure with a cold refreshment. Or two.

As the sun was disappeared behind the multicolored cliffs, so did our friends. And, like the sun, we would certainly return to continue to explore this natural wilderness.

The sun set and so did our friends

Our spur-of-the-moment adventure turned out to be a memorable way to spend time enjoying the unexpected warmth of a couple of days in winter. One day later, the temperatures were back in the low forties and winds driving from the north.

The perfect end to a wonderful adventure

But, we did have Owl Canyon – at least for a moment or two.

Or perhaps this is a better way to relax after hiking all day!

 

Spillway Trail

Silverwood Lake spillway into the Mojave River

Max, Skippy, Nicker, and Diamond were splashing in the water enjoying themselves. And why shouldn't they? After all, for the past forty-five minutes they had been carrying human cargo through the Mojave Desert.



Laureen and Skippy
 enjoying the waters
with their other four-footed friends

Now, this isn't the beginning of a new novel but a simple blog about a wonderful day horse back riding in Apple Valley with friends.
J and L were invited for an early morning ride by their friends, Allen and Carol who are the owners of about a thousand horses - well maybe only about a dozen, but to non-horse owners it looked like a thousand on their large ranch in Apple Valley. Each of the couple's horses are treated like royalty - private stalls, fly masks, daily showers during the summer months, plenty of edible treats - heck, one horse is even named 'Princess.'  How royally can one be treated?

Carol and Allen checking L's stirrups

So J and L went for the morning ride in an area just north of Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino County. The trail, we'll call it the 'spillway trail', meandered through beautiful Joshua Trees, mesquite bushes teeming with wild life - mainly rabbits darting here to fro - and ended up at the spillway for Silverwood Lake.

Thus the reason for the moniker - 'spillway trail.' Not sure that's the real name but it is for this piece.



This huge section of desert used to be open for off-road vehicles but the BLM and Army Corps of Engineers deemed it too dangerous after several fatalities and near-fatal accidents occurred in the area. People imbibing too much and then deciding to see if they could dive into the shallow waters of the spillway proved really fatal for some. Steel and cement barriers now block all access to motorized vehicles leaving only room for two- and four-footed entry.

Allen making sure the riders stick to the trail

This Sunday, the two-footed animals were atop the four-footed animals.

The morning was bright and very warm, which was fine as the trail swooped through the spillway where the riders sat atop their steeds who leisurely lapped up the cooling and sparkling clear waters from Silverwood Lake.

Cool and refreshing for both horse and rider

With waters reaching nearly the bellies of the horses in some spots it was also cooling for the riders who occasionally received splashes from the horses hooves. No one complained as the trail continued for what seemed like miles through river bottom created by the overflow from the lake.

Clomp, clomp went the horses as the two human couples chit-chatted about this and that. A delightful way to spend the morning.

Of course, a careful eye was kept out by both Carol and Allen since this was only the fourth time on horseback for Laureen and John had not been in the saddle in decades.

It was like riding a bike - a big alive bike - J stated as he leaped (okay, climbed laboriously) into the saddle and road off eastbound. The problem was the rest of the group was heading due south. With a flick of the reins Max, the horse J was riding, turned and soon all four were side by side on the trail.

Where's the next trail ride?

No accidents, no sore bums, and no one (J or L) being dragged down the desert trail by the stirrups. An hour and a half later back at the horse trailer the riders dismounted knowing it had been a great ride.

Back at Allen and Carol's ranch, the horses were unsaddled, showered off , bathed with anti-fly spray, and given numerous carrots and horse treats for a job well done.

The riders - well they weren't showered down or sprayed, but were satisfied nonetheless with a day well spent.

A horse is a marvelous creature. Powerful but gentle at the same time - they take lead easily and will keep the rider safe knowing where to step to ensure all stay upright. Though it had been decades, J felt like he had stepped back in time and loved every minute of the ride.

Decades won't slip by like the proverbial tide before he finds himself in the saddle again.

How this 'Cowboy' cooled off after the ride