Raven Jake Dawes: August 2008

Antone Martin's Epic Sculptures

Ol' Smilodon Fatalis here would've been a familiar site here in Yucca Valley as recently as 10,000 years ago. The folks living here at the time probably weren't all that happy about having�450 lb killing machines around, which might be a contributing reason to why there are none left today. Smilodon, and this guy was probably the subspecies Smilodon Californicus, ruled So Cal from about 1.6 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago, enjoying a nice long run that humans would be lucky to emulate. Smilodon is also the California State fossil, possibly due to their unfortunate instinct of jumping on mammoths that were sinking in the La Brea Tar Pits. Often linked to the tiger family, saber tooths were actually of the Pantherinae persuasion which links them to lions, leopards, and jaguars as well as tigers. (I personally like to think of them as being spotty like a jag, but it's anybody's guess) This saber tooth, in Yucca Valley's Triangle Park is depicted a bit smaller than standard life size, but still looks like she could do some damage.�Her creator, Antone Martin (1887-1961), was a true desert eccentric with a mission and that mission was world peace.

Smilodon Fatalis

�So to this end, he created what was known in his lifetime as "Antone Martin Memorial Park" and is now called "The Desert Christ Memorial Park." It's up the hill on Mohawk Trail with a great view of the whole valley. As you may have guessed from the name, Christians will get more out of the Desert Christ experience than anyone else, but that doesn't mean that non-Christians won't get something from the visit. The park is comprised of about 50 figures constructed over a 10-year period arranged in tableaux that depict Christ's ministry to regular, common�people of both genders and all ages. Basically one man with a message of peace and compassion. No miracles, no�disturbing manger scene, no gruesome crucifixion. The figures have a real heroic Greek look to them (think Hercules)�and the "exile in the wilderness" part has a reclining Buddha feel. The story of Antone Martin is really quite compelling - self-educated, he had a nuimber of jobs before becoming a design engineer for Douglas Aircraft. The park is coming back from years of abuse and neglect - the 1992 Landers quake busted off quite a few noses and hands, and vandalism remains a problem. Contributions of labor and funds are particularily welcome.�

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Antone Martin

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View of Yucca Valley

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Antone Martin Map

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=34.124879,-116.443148&spn=0.015418,0.025492&z=15&msid=107348785646573726339.000454808d6dfc74d26ab

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Shield's Date Gardens

Raven Jake on a Date

Getting a date shake in Indio is one of life's culinary pleasures, and I have to tell you that I'm particular about my dates. For example, I ordered a date shake at Hadleys' that tasted just like pickles. Under interrogation, they admitted to mixing them in the same 5 gallon bucket that the pickles came in and as a result, I have never returned. I love the date shakes at Shield's and the date shakes at the Oasis Date Gardens in Mecca are the best (more ice cream in the mix). I love dates - all of them - from Medjools to Bahri and everything in between. I love them fresh and I love them dried and despite all of this, my relationship with date cultivation is kind of ambivalent.

Here's the thing: the date orchards are getting chopped as the "need" for more golf courses in the desert continues to skyrocket. The land is more valuable than a mature, producing orchard, so the groves of beautiful date palms come down and some hideous condominium complex, invariably called something like "Desert Palms," goes up. As a kid, I remember when date orchards went all the way from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea and it was wonderful to behold. When I see a field of stumps, I feel like the Lorax.

Brunette Dates

Now for the moral ambiguity part: date palms are not indigenous like the fan palm. They are a totally introduced species (most of the original plants came from Lebannon) and were part of a government program to find a crop the Coachella Valley could successfully produce. Big plantations sprang up and an agribusiness was born. Not only are the trees not native, they are also incredibly wasteful in the amount of water they require. Their roots need to be wet all the time, but their tops need to be hot and dry. This is all very fine in the Nile Valley or around an oasis, but these conditions don't naturally occur in the California desert - growning palms requires huge amounts of irrigation.

One of the tasiest ways to enjoy dates is wrapped in bacon and grilled. Now you might be thinkin' "Jake, when I'm stoned enough to eat a Palmetto bug, or even a plain ol' cockroach, I might take you up on that, but don't hold yer breath." And once, I thought that way myself. But that was before I had a Thanksgiving dinner with some friends in Palm Springs, gave into peer pressure and took a hit. Never looked back. Get yourself a nice deglet noor, cut the pit out, wrap a piece of bacon around it and secure the bacon with a toothpick. Stick it under the broiler or in the oven and let that bacon get crispy. Now I don't know who came up with this one - a number of cookbooks from the '50s had it listed - but it's an American invention; our Middle Eastern brothers like good food, but that doesn't include pork. So I'm thinkin' that bacon dates are a regional delicacy that came right outta Indio.

The Romance and Sex Life of the Date

Start your Indio date education with the "Romance and Sex Life of the Date" - and a trip to Shield's. Then work your way through the whole valley. The date is the oldest cultivated fruit and they're just darn interestin' from start to finish. And don't miss the Date Festival and Riverside County Fair in February. The Blessing of the Dates is one of the high points of the festival for me.

Indio (Images of America: California)

Patricia Baker Laflin

These little books pack a lot of local history.

The Knight Sign

Shields Date Gardens

Picking Dates

Shield's Date Garden Website

Posted at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Indio's Murals, Part 1

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History of Electricity

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Raven Jake in Indio

Twentynine Palms isn't the only town that boasts first-rate murals. Since 1996, the Indio Chamber of Commerce has been using murals to “enhance economic growth and community pride.”�This beauty, at the southwest corner of Fargo St. and Civic Center Dr. was painted by Jim Fahnestock and completed on November 4, 2000.

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"History of Electricity in the Coachella Valley"

The Coachella Valley’s Developing Agricultural industry created a need for electric services. Substations were located next to cold storage houses, providing power to preserve the Valley’s beautiful produce. In 1943, the Imperial Irrigation District took over the delivery of power to the eastern Coachella Valley. Dedicated I.I.D. workers braved the harsh desert environment to build power lines that would transport precious electricity. Reliable, affordable electricity was instrumental in transforming the desert into the flourishing cities that exist today.

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Oasis of Murals

Indio's murals, more correctly called the "Indio Chamber of Commerce Historic Mural Project," have been a bit slower to catch on than in Twentynine Palms but do no less spectacular a job of recording the unique history of this desert town.

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History of Electricity Mural Map

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The Trail of the Whispering Giants

Whispering Giants

As I mentioned in my "Waokiye" post http://ravenjake.vox.com/library/post/waokiye-and-the-trail-of-the-whispering-giants.html, an artist, Peter Toth, used to drive around the country carving giant Indian heads. He did at least one in each state - including Alaska and Hawaii - and a couple more in Canada. He did this mainly as a way to raise awareness about Native Americans and point out, quite rightly, that we are on Indian land; no matter what state of the Union you're in, an indigenous American was there first.

Now this body of work is collectively called "The Trail of the Whispering Giants." You can check out descriptions of the work in the Smithsonian archives:http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=121763SJ4T822.1551&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!209292~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Toth%2C+Peter%2C+1947-+%2C+sculptor.&index=#focus

And then there are other folks who make it their business to follow the Trail of the Whispering Giants, "collecting" the giants on their travels. David Schumaker http://www.dcschumaker.com/default.html�is one such fellow, Bob Clenandin�ais another and you can also find some waymarkers who are doing a terrific job of pinpointing exactly where these guys are at http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=8fbd270d-3a97-42ab-8631-b73cf6c32335&wo=True&sg=56bdf13c-28aa-49aa-89bf-14fb69a3a46d�And Flickr has a couple of categories for shutterbugs who can't resist a good-looking model that doesn't move http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Peter%20Toth&w=all

Wolf Toth isn't "done" yet - now that the giants are getting on a bit, they need repairing and Waokiye is slated for some fairly major elective surgery in November 2008. So to that end, over here at the Raven Jake Command Center, where we're very fond of this project, my lovely sidekick has been compiling a Google Map of Whispering Giants. Now this isn't the work of any one researcher - we're shaking the bushes and leaving no stone unturned. The geocatchers have done the best job with finding them, Dave Shumaker takes the best photos of them and the Smithsonian does the best job of describing them - and about 20 other people have picked up the slack and filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle. As more info becomes available, we'll keep updating for the latest on the Whispering Giant circut.

Here are a sampling of photos (that I didn't take) of some of the Whispering Giants:

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