Photo above: Kelso sand dunes at Mojave National Preserve. Right: Cima Dome at Mojave National Preserve. Source: National Park Service.

Mojane Then

This was the land of the Mojave, a tribe with two leaders who took different paths in their relationships with the Europeans that would follow. Chief Cairook, born around 1814, led the tribe in the Mojave War, which stemmed from the Mojave attack against the Rose-Baley party on August 30, 1858. The Rose-Baley party was the first wagon train to traverse the 35th parallel with over one hundred people and five hundred head of cattle. The attack by Cairook and three hundred warriors was repulsed, but cost eight settler lives and thirteen warriors. It gained the Mojave goal for the moment, as the party turned back to Albuquerque. The war would eventually prove the opposite, lasting until April 1859 before peace ensued. Irataba was a Mojave man of the same age who disagreed with the attack on the party and the war. He was elected leader of the Mojave tribe after the war, when leaders of the Mojave were imprisoned, including Cairook, and killed, including Cairook, when he tried to escape. Irataba chose peace for the Mojave, although his legacy is still debated as to its value to the tribe due to the reservation that was agreed upon and whether that was a true positive outcome for his people who were dislodged and displaced by the Europeans that would settle the desert. Irataba was lauded as a peace maker at the time, even meeting with President Abraham Lincoln in Washington in 1864.

Photo above: Painting of Chief Cairook, Irataba, and Mojave Woman by Balduin Mullhausen, 1857, courtesy Wikipedia Commons and the New York Public Library. Below: Granite Mountains at Mojave National Preserve. Source: National Park Service.

Mojave Now

Vast and foreboding. Harsh and beautiful. The landscape of this park in the desert of the Mojave Indians defines it and will your experience. Mojave National Preserve is the third largest park in the United States outside Alaska. It has only been a preserve since 1994, but that's quibbling over designations most don't care about. There are petroglyphs from tribes that traversed this territory long before the Europeans came, before railroads crossed the land, before four wheel drives recreated. And yes, it is dry and hot. Less than thirteen inches of rain falls here each year. Bring water. Enjoy the sparseness of the land, the uniqueness of the features of the rocks that climb above its valleys, and the attempt by man to corral it through settlement that failed and mines that did not.

Today, the heritage of the area includes that of the desert, the Mojave tribe, and those that came to seek fortune. In 1872, the General Mining Law induced mines to spring up all around the Mojave. In 1883, silver was discovered in the Bonanza Silver Mine. In the 1940's, steel from the iron ore mined at the Vulcan Mine would build U.S. ships during World War II. Even today, the Soledad Mountain gold mine is owned by a Canadian company who estimates 31 tons of gold and 375 tons of silver sit there.

But none of those things will likely draw you to the Mojave. You'll come to recreate, learn about the past, marvel at the natural wonders, and take a hot walk. Along the way, your visit to the Kelso Depot Visitor Center will, however, get you up to date on some of the stories of the Mojave past, whether that be its Indian heritage, its mining history, or the ability to take a walk in the wild nature that time has carved in each rock and footpath.