MDHCA member Jon Carlson posted this EXCELLENT video on YouTube highlighting the Educational Field Trip to Riley's Camp, the Evening Star Mine the Mojave Cross, Carl Faber's house and Rendezvous at Goffs.
Located in the small town of Death Valley Junction, which officially lists its population as "fewer than 4," the Opera House was the official performance space for dancer, actress, and painter Marta Becket, who would perform ballet there three nights a week for more than forty years, whether she had an audience or not.
Since September 2018, the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association has published two new books; The Mojave Road in 1863 edited by Jeff Lapides and Postcards from Mecca edited by Ann Japenga and Warner V. Graves III.
The book by Jeff Lapides, The Mojave Road in 1863: The Pioneering Photographs of Rudolph d’Heureuse, highlights photographs taken by d’Heureuse in 1863-1864 during his travels along the Mojave Road—from Drum Barracks at the Port of Los Angeles to the mines of Eldorado Canyon on the Colorado River. These are the first photographs of the Mojave Road and of the Mojave Desert. Also included are never-before-published maps drafted by d’Heureuse.
Sunday, April 22, 2017 VOLUNTEERING AROUND GOFFS. NOT JUST A JOB, IT'S AN ADVENTURE
Mining minerals from the earth is a labor-intensive endeavor, and the Mojave Desert has a rich past of tenacious wealth-seekers; some of them succeeded, but most of them were not anything more than “prospectors”. Extracting riches from the earth involves much more than simply digging a hole, you have to have a way to reduce large rocks into smaller rocks. Smaller rocks, in turn, need to be crushed and refined from ore into dust or powder before the precious metals can be separated from the rubbish. In order for mining to be a profitable endeavor, the work needs to be done more efficiently than by using simple hand tools; thus, many kinds and styles of rock crushers have been invented for this purpose throughout history. As part of the ongoing mission of MDHCA, we have not only preserved some examples of authentic rock crushing machinery that were used locally by miners, but we have succeeded in restoring them into working order so that they can be run and demonstrated. This has been achieved by and through the hard work and determination of our volunteers.