Twentynine Palms, California, United States
Went back into the park early this morning to get to the same parking lot from which we headed to the dam yesterday, this time, to head to the Wall Street Mill--the ruins of a stamp mill which was used to separate gold from the raw ore, mainly by crushing. The mine ceased operations in 1966 by Bill Keys, one of the original (white) settlers in this area, about whom, much more later! Keys died in 1969, and the mine was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. There's a lot of junk still left here, but it does give an interesting view into what must have been a truly difficult life back in these desert hills. Lots of photos.
Along the trail, we saw a good many birds. Scrub Jay was new for us this trip--there were a lot of these guys eating out of pine cones. Also got some pictures of the Ladderback Woodpecker, and a very nice shot of a Red Tailed Hawk. I redeemed the "almost got it" photo of the Loggerhead Shrike, when one kindly posed for me very nicely. Got some good photos of Cactus Wrens. Lots of Black Throated Sparrows about, none inclined to sit still and have his (or her) picture taken.
After lunch--excellent burgers at Andrea's Char-Broiled Burgers (they also serve breakfast all day); we recommend them--we went back to the drive-in to see if we could get photos in actual light. Quite interesting: there were a bunch of cars parked there; one person drove in while we were there (we parked just outside the wide-open exit gate), and drove on up one of the little ridges facing the screen, just as if he were going to watch a movie. Long time 'til show time--next opening is Thursday.
To finish off the afternoon, we took the driving tour around the town to look at the murals that were painted beginning in 1994 as a beautification project, to raise civic pride, celebrate the history of Twentynine Palms, and give the tourists something to look at. This actually turned out to be quite interesting. A few of the murals are in really bad shape due to sun and wind, a couple have been replaced all together, and two or three have been removed but not replaced. We saw all those accessible to the public (one at the high school is not visible from the street, near as we could tell, and we weren't going to drive onto campus and start walking around!), and got a good feel for what it must have been like living here at the start of the 19th century. I posted photos of a few of the most interesting ones--there are still about 23 murals extant.
You can view all the murals--in their original glory, before sand and wind and sun took their toll--and read the descriptions here. I took the descriptions on the photos from this website. The descriptions duplicate the tour booklet we got at the town visitor's center.
Tonight we're going to go out for actual Mexican food (our only "Mexican" so far being a stop at Del Taco on the way in from the airport), and we head out tomorrow for Arizona and more NP sites.
2025-05-22