Needles - on Route 66

A wonderfully sad tale of hope and despair

As John Steinbeck wrote in The Grapes of Wrath – ‘Then out of the broken sun-rotted mountains of Arizona to the Colorado, with green reeds on its banks, and that’s the end of Arizona.  There’s California just over the river, and a pretty town to start it. Needles, on the river.’

Welcome to Needles - the starting point on Route 66 in California

Being a Steinbeck fan, I knew there was much to explore in the city of Needles. Of course, we had passed by the city a million times while traveling along Interstate 40, but never had taken the time to stop and really look around.

That small city of Needles hugs the western shore of the Colorado River. It’s a peaceful town with a long and rich history. A short drive along Route 66 to the center of town, can easily let the visitor know that this town needs to be explored.

And explore we did.

Steinbeck had been correct with his musings. Needles is truly a pretty town and with such an eclectic history, it draws visitors from around the world.

According to the president of the Needles Regional Museum, Marianne Jones, “I would say we receive over three thousand visitors each year to our museum from all over the world. People are fascinated with the lore of Route 66. We get people from China, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, and from anywhere imaginable. As a matter of fact, most of our visitors are from Germany.”

It is the city where Charles Schulz, of Peanuts fame, spent part of his childhood – thus the reason why Snoopy’s brother, Spike, resides in Needles. This lovely little burg is also where Bess Houdini, the wife of the internationally famous magician, passed away in 1943. Alice Notley, a 1999 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, grew up here. Oh, this town has seen it all.

Charles Schulz - spent a part of his childhood in Needles

And Spike is glad - he loves Needles

The construction of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, brought Needles into existence in 1883. A tent city quickly erupted along the desert floor for the railroad workers and those taking care of the workers – dry goods stores, laundry facilities, restaurants, and of course, saloons. Folks get awfully thirsty in the desert.

Soon, the tent city turned into a permanent settlement, with Needles being the largest river port north of Yuma. Yes, a port city. This is before the dams were built further north along the Colorado River, shrinking the flow and thus negating the need for paddle wheels and barges which had plied the crystal blue waters.

Model of a paddle-wheeler that plied the Colorado River near Needles

Railroads took the place of delivering goods, and now, according to Jones, “The city gets a lot of train buffs who spend time here because of the rich history of the railroad and the Harvey House across the street.”

Harvey House? Sounded like a frat house. Nope.

Fred Harvey, was a genius when it came to taking an idea and turning it to fruition. With the development of the railroad, the entrepreneur decided there was a need for high class food and service along the railway lines. He opened his first restaurant in Florence, Kansas in 1878 and expanded westward. Harvey is considered by many, to be the creator of the concept of chain restaurants and by the late 1880’s, there was a Fred Harvey dining experience every 100 miles or so along the Santa Fe railroad line.

The man himself, Fred Harvey

The waitresses, Harvey Girls, were trained to be the best in the business. Fred Harvey had strict guidelines for all employees – guests should be treated with first class food and first class service. The waitresses became so well known that in 1946, Judy Garland, starred in a film based on the novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams, entitled, The Harvey Girls.

Needles happens to be home to one of the most luxurious depots that houses a Harvey House – the original depot burned down in 1907, but when rebuilt, the railroad spared no expense to reconstruct the masterpiece the following year. The two story structure was named after Father Francisco Garces, who in 1776, traveled through the Mojave Desert and became known as the first European to make such a venture. The El Garces is a short walk from the Needles Regional Museum and is definitely worth the steps.

The Harvey House was located within the beautiful, El Garces building

The name of the town, Needles? Where did that come from? I remember my grandmother wielding sewing needles like the Vikings swung broad swords. Get out of the way! But what kind of name is Needles for a town?

Turns out though it’s rather simple. There are a group of large sharply pointed pinnacles just southeast of the current city of Needles, on the Arizona side of the border, stretching skyward.
“It’s funny,” Jones mused. “Our name comes from across the river, in Arizona, yet we’re in California. Oh well, the name stuck and we like it.”

She also mentioned that most travelers believe that Route 66 is one block south, but is actually on Front Street. “They realigned the streets, we are on the actual original route.”

The entire town is worth a visit for anyone interested in Route 66 lore, early California history, the railroad, and so much more. Laureen and I only spent a few hours but know we will return to continue to investigate and explore.

Needles offers many exciting events every year keeping the rich history of the town alive. On March 13th, Laura Tohe, the daughter of a Navajo code talker will be discussing her father’s involvement in this highly secretive but critically important job during World War II.

We plan on visiting – perhaps you should too.

And bring the pets, Needles is a dog friendly town

For further information.
http://needlesregionalmuseum.org/

San Pasqual Battlefield

Stained glass - depicting charge by the Dragoons

One of the habits Laureen has when we travel, and I believe everyone should, is using her phone to search for any interesting sites near us when we stop. No matter where we are, there always seems to be someplace we haven’t visited, or in this case, never even knew existed.

After visiting friends in San Diego recently, we stopped in Escondido for fuel. While at the pump, Laureen delved into her habit and asked me, “Did you know that a battle was fought near us, during the Mexican-American war?”

“Nope,” I hadn’t heard of it before – sad for a guy who’s lived in Southern California most of his life. “Where?”

“Five miles east down Highway 78.”

Enough said. Fueled and ready for a new adventure.

A new adventure - count us in!

The San Pasqual Battlefield, now a State Historic Park, is located one mile east, past the entrance to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park – formerly, the San Diego Wild Life Animal Park, on Highway 78.
A very informative gentleman who works at the state park, Ranger Gil, was a font of knowledge concerning the history of the San Pasqual Valley. He actually informed us that he wasn’t actually a ranger, but an aide at the park.

Gil, regaled us on every moment of the battle, but ended up with a rather poetic take on the entire war itself.

“You know, many people don’t talk about the Mexican-American War in school, and certainly not this battle. It’s a chapter in both our histories that don’t put us in any positive light. It really was a battle of greed and power, from both sides of the border. There really were no clear winners – especially here on this battlefield.”

Turns out, when walking through the museum at the state park, one could see how both sides, at least here, made many strategic mistakes and lives were lost. The Californios had made enemies of the local natives, the Kumeyaay (also known as the Ipai), who then sided with the Americans, giving them aide and assistance when needed. And the Americans believed they could easily overcome the Californios, and made many tactical mistakes – too many to discuss here.

View of the main battlefield from the Visitor's Center

“Both sides claimed victory,” Ranger Gil stated. “The Americans lost more men in the battle, but very soon after, Pico and the Californios were forced to capitulate on January 10, 1847 to the American forces. This ended the fighting in California.” 

Fascinating but truly sad, that the bloodiest military action in California, during the war between the United States and Mexico, occurred near the city of Escondido.

Turns out, in December of 1846, General Stephen W. Kearny was traveling through an area north of San Diego and east of what would become Escondido, to bring battle against a group of Californios (people of Hispanic descent, still living in California after Mexico’s War of Independence from Spain) under the command of Captain Andres Pico. On President Polk’s orders, these loyalists to Mexico needed to be removed from California at all costs.

Unfortunately, that cost was twenty-two American soldiers of the First Dragoons and a half dozen of the Californios. The weather was damp, so the powder to fire muskets was wet and wouldn’t fire, leaving Kearny’s men to fight hand to hand combat with the Californios. The American soldiers stood no chance, with only swords and non-functioning muskets, as the Californios were armed with long lances which could kill an enemy yards away in battle, as well as lariats which could easily capture or make an enemy combatant ineffective.

As we looked out the large glass windows, which allowed visitors a panoramic view of the battlefield. It was hard to digest how death came so easily in such a beautiful valley. It had. And, though we could read the informative descriptions about the battle and reasons for the battle, it just didn’t make the reality any better.

Plaque commemorating the San Pasqual Battle

Less than a hundred yards from where we stood, men had fought and died during the cold and wet days of December, 154 years ago.

Plaque naming the Americans killed in action

On the way out of the museum, we said our thanks to Ranger Gil, who stopped us and told us of another location worth looking into.

“After this, it’s always nice to have something fun to visit," he stated. He was right.

Kit Carson, the famous frontier scout, had been with Kearny during the engagement, and there is the Kit Carson Park and Amphitheater, located in Escondido, right off Highway 15.  This 285 acre city park, has it all for any outdoors-person, including the only American sculpture park by the late, international artist, Niki de Saint Phalle. This garden of sculptures was Phalle’s way of depicting California’s mythic, historic and cultural roots.

Part of the garden sculptures

Unfortunately, the garden sculpture was closed when we went to view it. But, from looking through the fence – not in a creepy way – we were able to see marvelous and colorful sculptures created by a visionary mind.

It definitely requires a re-visit, to be able to walk among the huge imaginative creatures molded by Phalle.

So, when out of town, check around for places nearby worth seeing – we know there are plenty.


For further information:

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=655
https://www.escondido.org/queen-califias-magical-circle.aspx

The Christmas That Almost Wasn't...

And a Happy New Year!

The greeting cards have all been sent; the Christmas rush is through, and as we settle in to enjoy the holiday with our loved ones that one time of year when hopefully, all roads truly do lead us all home, we thought back how much Christmas celebrations and traditions have morphed and changed over the years. With a smile and a nod to the Carpenters, who turned Christmas into a verb with the 1978 release of what would become a Christmas classic, Merry Christmas, Darling - (I'm Christmasing with you....) let's journey back to a time when Christmas almost wasn't.

As any good American school child knows, most early European emigrants traveled to what would later become the United States from Western European nations. For various political and religious reasons, some adherents to particular religions, especially Irish, Scottish, and some British may have kept their customs quietly at home rather than disrupt life in the new Colonies.

In what would become Virginia, Captain John Smith and company, you will remember from stories of that first Thanksgiving, were mostly followers of the Church of England and observed Christmas much as they had always done -- good food, good company.

God Bless Us, Everyone

But to the north where settlers would eventually found Massachusetts, the travelers from the Mayflower observed their first Christmas a few short weeks after arriving and had no time to celebrate -- not if they wanted to survive. They were still living aboard the the ship and not yet erected a shelter.

When we look back on history, we remember it often in general terms. We remember Pilgrims who came looking for religious freedom. True. To a certain extent...and from a certain point of view.

Mayflower- 1620

Once the Mayflower folks were able to establish themselves with shelter and other necessities of life, the 41 religious dissidents, as it were, who had fled England and the Netherlands (17 men, 10 women, 14 children) in search of freedom to worship were outnumbered by 61 other passengers - Pilgrims, servants and others. These Pilgrims were looking for a new life in a new world, a purer life, hence Puritan.

Streets of Joy!

Ah, but there was trouble in this new paradise, even at Christmas. As some in the newborn colony excused themselves from work to celebrate the day on that second Christmas in new world, the governor, William Bradford, took exception. It seemed he did have a problem with their Christmas celebrations. They could, he explained, keep Christmas at home as a matter of devotion. There was to be no visible signs of celebration -- certainly no joy, no playing of children in the streets while others went solemnly to work. It went against his conscience, his Puritan work ethic, that they should play while others worked.

It reminds us of that (terrible) saying that seems so popular today: If momma ain't happy - ain't nobody happy. Or Happy Spouse - Happy House. Perhaps I am judging the poor governor by modern eyes,  but I see him as a spoiled child who has to clean his room and he cries that it's not fair as he watches the other children run out to play.

For a country that was founded on religious freedom (not freedom from religion, we remind folks from time to time), it seems frighteningly ironic that we almost lost that very freedom within a year or so of our very establishment. And all over wanting to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Can you imagine this country, this time of year, without Christmas, without the carols, without the tree-lighting ceremonies, without all the tiny little reminders of why we are celebrating in the first place?

So, this Christmas, celebrate with all your spirit! Let the world see you love and cheer! And William Bradford, wherever you are, we're taking my celebration to the street! Unless it rains.

Silent Night