An almost intact 100-year-old miner's cabin in Joshua Tree National Park

(One gets tired of saying "incredible."  Yet, sometimes one has to simply repeat:  "Incredible."  If you don't want to read this blog entry, at least look at the photos at the end of it, at the almost perfectly preserved 100-year old miner's cabin high on a mountain in Joshua Tree National Park.)

Who were they, the people who lived here?

Lost to history.  Lost to anyone’s memories.   

At one point, each man was some mother’s bundle of joy, fed at her breast.  Probably there was a proud papa, although in that era papas always had to worry about another mouth to feed.  A burden?  A treasure?  Both? 

And as young/middle-aged/older men, here they were, in the Mojave Desert in the area now known as Joshua Tree National Park, trying to strike it rich or maybe just trying to eke out a living digging mines, and living in this cabin, which we found on one of our hikes.

These men, all now lost to history, spent many years in this cabin, day after day, night after night, while working on mines close by.  Who in the heck were they?

Were there women here too in this rugged terrain?  Was it a family that lived here?  It’s doubtful because we have not read of women at any of the mines.  Likely as not there were, but probably not as anyone’s wife.  It was a hard time for women then too.

They all meant something to someone once.  And now there is no record of who they were, or what they did here.  Does anyone even say something like “I think my great great grandpa worked on a mine in the Mojave Desert……”

But their home is preserved, high on a remote mountain in this National Park.  It is almost the same as they left it, probably 100 years ago.  They had dreams, wishes, hopes, and fears, as we all do, yet who were they? 

This home, built into rock walls in a very clever manner, provided separate eating areas and sleeping areas.  The use of available materials is evident everywhere, attesting probably to the fact that the mine or mines where they worked were not too profitable.  But maybe they were.  There is no record of how successful the mines were where they dug. 

And to get to this rustic cabin requires a hike of some meaningful magnitude.  It would be classified as one of moderate to moderate/difficult. 

When people die, one of the saddest aspects is that so much dies with them.  So many memories, so many experiences, so much knowledge.  All of the men who lived in this small shack are dead now, dead for many many years.  And we know nothing of them—nothing about their lives, their loves, their fears, their dreams, their families. 

We love Joshua Tree National Park.  The park has several areas like this that are not advertised.  Park employees are forbidden to tell where they are, for fear that people will desecrate the sites, as has been done in some of the areas that are easily accessible. 

We asked a Ranger where one structure was that we had read about, and he explained that it would be a criminal offense for him to tell us.  He was nice, and acknowledged that we were not looters or vandals, but that was the policy. 

We understand that fear, and that policy.  Yet, we would like to visit many of these old structures and ruins, and remember that all of the people who lived and worked in those areas were people, like us, trying to make meaning out of their lives, trying to find something like all of us do.

It is an interesting dilemma in a way—whether to keep structures and sites a “secret” from the public to protect them.  It makes 100% sense, and yet there is also something about it that doesn’t.  The mining structures and homes have a limited life span anyway—rock slides, rot, and rust have already destroyed many places.  In 50 years will some of those structures be gone anyway, even if people do visit them?  My guess is that any structures or sites that require hard hiking are not likely to be looted anyway, as most people who do this kind of thing have a respect for our natural areas.  But maybe I’m wrong about this too.  I’m sure the Park Service has data that I don’t. 

There are also Native American sites in this park of which the public is unaware.  It makes more sense to me to keep those sites a secret until they can be adequately studied and ways of viewing them can be created that preserve them.  The Park Service would need a lot more funding for that, but our government would rather give farm subsidies to tobacco growers than adequately preserve our natural treasures for our grandchildren. 

So, we will continue to explore, and see if we can find other historical areas.  We are being intentionally vague about the location of this incredible home.  We don’t want people to go there and destroy it, and anyone who really wants to find it will.  Just get your hiking legs in shape, and go where no man has gone before, for perhaps 100 years.

 Vicky at the "entrance."

It is kind of difficult to appreciate this area by only looking at the photograph.  We guessed it was a sleeping area.  It was large enough for at least 6 adults to sleep here.  Cool in the summer, dry when it rained.  Very clever.