It's summer in the desert. Too hot to hike, so what to do? I decided to take the Jeep out exploring. Hot, yes, but I wouldn't be exerting myself, so that's something. Destination: Dale Dry Lake, east of 29 Palms. On Google Maps, I could see what looked like a group of abandoned trucks and construction vehicles, and I figured they would be fun to photograph. Before driving out, I did a little research on the area. It turns out, this area has a lot of history.
The original town of Dale was established in 1884 next to a well dug into what was called Dale Lake (now called Dale Dry Lake). I don't know if Dale was actually a lake back then, or a dry lake like it is today. At any rate, the well at Dale Lake provided a reliable water supply to the miners in the area. In 1899 the miners brought in pumps and laid the infrastructure for pumping water from the Dale well to the mines. It's estimated over 3,000 miners and thousands of supply and service workers lived in the area, and Dale was thriving. But not for long.
About the turn of the century, the town of Dale was moved to a location closer to the actual mines. This is where things get confusing, at least to me. New Dale was built several miles south of Old Dale. Of course Old Dale wasn't called Old Dale back then, but simply Dale. Multiple references mention that the original site of Dale was on or next to the dry lake (red arrow), but other references show the original Dale (Old Dale on the map below) as being near the current Highway 62/Gold Crown Road split. To make things even more confusing, there was a town called Virginia Dale, and another Dale site near Virginia Dale. Oh, and no one seems to know who the heck Dale was!
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| Reference: digital-desert.com |
One thing is for sure: There was something here, and it was substantial. The big concrete pads with heavy bolts must have held down large machinery or structures. Perhaps water pumps for the well?
Whatever was here is slowly being broken down and swallowed by the desert. But the trucks and equipment I could see on Google Earth and I came here to photograph? All gone! Someone removed them. Fortunately, there are all kinds of interesting things out here to keep a photographer busy!
Here's yet another mystery: Pretty much right where I'm standing in the photos above is labeled "Bush" on Google Maps. I'm guessing it's the site of a small town, although when I research it, I get nothing.
There were a couple of these big mounds of wood debris. Whatever these structures were, they were sitting on top of a dug out area that went pretty deep. Much of the wood has fallen into the space below it and partially filled it in.About the only thing being mined out here these days is salt. It makes for some interesting photography, especially in the late afternoon when the shadows are long. It doesn't seem to be an activity that requires many employees. I didn't see another human being all afternoon.I'm driving the Jeep over to a large concrete structure I saw on the horizon.
Awesome desert solitude and scenery!
Nope, not piles of snow. It's salt. And yes, I did taste it!
This looks interesting. Hope you will stop by next post while we go check it out!
Thanks for stopping by!!
Addendum to this post: As it turns out, Dale Dry Lake is owned by the CA Supreme Salt company. My assumption was that this is BLM land, but that's not the case. I promised the good people over at CSS that I would update my post, let my readers know that this is in fact private property, and ask that you please not trespass. I've also asked CSS if they could provide a map of the property they own. It's a huge area with many interesting things to see, and it would be very helpful to know exactly what is private property and what is public. You might also be interested to know that CSS "derives revenue from location companies and private third parties that rent our property for fashion shoots, advertising campaigns, music videos, and movie productions." So if you see an add, video or movie in the future with a familiar background, don't be surprised!
