2009 Trip Report - Bristol Dry Lake
Bristol Dry Lake “He said, She Said”
October 17 – 18, 2009
By Joe de Kehoe and Debbie Miller-Marschke
He said: Our group on this trip could not have been a more likeable bunch of people – what a treat - and included a 12-vehicle convoy of Vicki Hill, Dave McFarland, Marilyn Martin and her son Kevin, Mary and Charles Hughes, Brett Henrich, Glenn Shaw, Steve and Deb Marschke, Mignon Slentz and her friend Jenny, Bob Rodemeyer, Bob Jacoby, Nan Savage, Daniel Dick and Bobbie Sanchez, Bob and Sue Jaussaud and Joe de Kehoe.
We met in the parking area in Ludlow on Saturday morning under a cloudless sky and after a round of saying hi to old friends we headed out on old Route 66 after taking a spin through Ludlow’s former Main Street, past Murphy’s store, the site of the old post office on Main Street, Lee Yim’s General Store, and the 2-block area of rubble that was once the town’s business district.
She said: Joe surprised us right off the bat when he passed out bound folders containing photographs and supplementary educational materials detailing our trip. Every vehicle got a copy to take home and enjoy! This was really awesome, and I continue to look back over Joe’s materials now that the trip is completed. Thanks Joe, you really do it with style!
He said: For the remainder of the morning we made stops at Siberia, both the service station and the depot, Dish Hill volcano, Bagdad, the calcium chloride mine on Bristol Dry Lake and arrived in Amboy for lunch about 12:30. At this point we had only lost one car – at Siberia Mignon’s car lost power, but she was able to restart it and limp into Ludlow with Sue and Bob Jaussaud as escorts. Mignon called a tow truck from Bullhead City and the Jaussauds rejoined the group in Amboy.
She said: Every stop we made was a complete pleasure. Joe took us to many places we were familiar with already, but he gave us a fresh look and new information at every stop. Joe is a geologist by occupation, so he wowed us with examples of the semi-precious gem Peridot at Dish Hill. He even gave us geology sample bags to encourage our collecting! Joe attracted some “unintended celebrity” at Bagdad. We had stopped and were congregating at the site of Bagdad when a mini-van rolled up. We heard a giddy woman exclaim “Oh, look, it’s JOE!” .The side door flew open and out poured 5 spunky retired gals who quickly surrounded Joe with admiration and ardor, much to his delight AND horror (yes, both of these, I am not making this up). He had met the 5 sisters the day before at the Route 66 Museum in Barstow, and they had bought Joe’s book. The ladies were very fashionably dressed, and all of them included bright lime green in their ensembles. As they continued their journey cross county to Minnesota, they were reading Joe’s book and spotted our group. This scene was absolutely hilarious, and Joe insisted that he was NOT a chick magnet! Further down the road, we were all interested to learn that those turquoise blue pools on Bristol Dry Lake were not just brine ponds, but a “pickle juice farm”. Del Monte uses the liquid for their food products.
He said: After having lunch under the shade trees at Amboy we backtracked slightly to drive through Amboy on the dirt road that was once Route 66, past Mary Benjamin’s cottage and over to the church to see the mural on the back wall that was painted by Paul Salopeck about 50 years ago.
She said: After the group had all entered the Amboy church to admire the mural, we enjoyed a real enchanting treat. Marilyn Martin stood at the rear of the church and sang Amazing Grace. The excellent acoustics and Marilyn’s wonderful voice made us all pause in wonder. It is magical moments like these on our DE trips that I will carry with me for my lifetime – absolutely priceless.
He said: We drove out of Amboy on one of the early alignments of Route 66, past the Amboy Cemetery, and rejoined National Trails Highway at Saltus Road and stayed on the highway to about the Roadrunner Café where we detoured north to get back on the earlier (pre-1918?) alignment of Route 66. We popped out at ‘North Chambless’ at what was once Mac McConnell’s Eight Ball Ranch. When Mac retired from working for Santa Fe at Cadiz he build the Eight Ball Ranch out of railroad ties and stone cobbles, and his grounds included a grape arbor, plants of all kinds, citrus trees and a swimming pool in the shape of a figure eight. The group enjoyed scrounging through the rubble in the yard for a while before we pushed on east, through Chambless, to Cadiz Summit, a brief stop at the roadside Kiosk and then to Danby.
She said: The flagpole at the Amboy cemetery had fallen over. Unacceptable! Steve, Jaussaud, and Charles immediately repaired the flagpole, refortifying it. At the Eight Ball Ranch, there was so much interesting stuff that it seemed likely our group would never move along. The house was lovingly built with decorative flair using logs, local minerals, and bottles in the walls. A charming place, indeed.
He said: We left pavement at this point as we turned south on Danby Road and headed for Old Danby. There are only two of the original wooden miner’s shacks remaining in Old Danby, and one of them is very close to collapse – several of the beams supporting the roof are badly cracked and are unlikely to survive the next big wind storm. From Old Danby we headed south toward Skeleton Pass and made camp in the pass on a large patch of desert pavement the west side of the road. For a while it looked like Deb might win her own contest to see who could remove the most mylar balloons from the desert, but it seems Sue and Bob Jaussaud get the prize for having retrieved 5 of them!
She said: Yes, it is a pet peeve of mine when I see those mylar balloons defacing our desert. I have decided that, though I can’t pick up all the trash I see, I can pick up all the balloons I see. The most I have picked up in a weekend trip is 13!
He said: On Sunday morning we were on the road by 8:30. The first stop was at the Rice-1 well, adjacent to Skeleton Pass Road. From there we went to the Black Metal Mine and, from a distance, viewed the site of where the Old Woman Meteorite was found. Time was running short so we elected to bypass the Udsogn Mine and headed for Chubbuck. We toured the town site for a bit and then drove to the mine where we had lunch amidst the outcrops of white marble.
She said: Again, Joe produced samples of the gemstone Epidote that he had taken from the Udsogn Mine and passed them to us. What fun! It was particularly interesting to stand below the impact site of the famous Old Woman Meteorite while Joe described how the Marines removed it with a helicopter. You can read that story 100 times, but it really comes to life on location. It did not take Joe long to convince us that the impact canyon is more work than it’s worth to climb up.
He said: From Chubbuck we headed north on Cadiz Road, stopped briefly at the Archer, and arrived at Cadiz at about 2:00 pm. Cadiz road is in the worse shape any of us can remember. A recent rain in the Ship Mountains has turned sections of the road into a cobblestone wash.The tour ended with farewells in Cadiz, everyone promising to see one another again on future trips.
She said: We didn’t want this trip to end! Congratulations, Joe, you educated and amazed us with your knowledge of this area. No wonder you wrote a book on it!
Joe & Debbie
