Book Review: The Joshua Tree by James W. Cornett

 I picked this up and some National Park book store.  I have been fascinated by Joshua Trees since moving to Arizona.  Well even before but more now.  There were Joshua Trees on the trip through Barstow.  They have such and unusual appearance.  Now wonder the early Mormon pioneers gave them the name Joshua Tree.  They reminded the pioneers of Joshua with his hands being held up so the Israelites would win the battle.

I hadn't realized there were two different types of Joshua Trees, Eastern and Western.  Close to us in Kingman there are the Eastern variety.  While Joshua Tree National Park and California have the Western variety.  Only in Tikaboo Valley in Nevada are both types present, and with some cross breeding.

The Joshua Tree makes the desert landscape interesting.  There are two Joshua Tree forests close to Kingman.  The closest is a half hour north on Stockton Hill Road.  The other is between Kingman and Wickenburg on Highway 93.  There are also Joshua Trees on Highway 95 traveling from Laughlin to Las Vegas.

The range of the Joshua tree extends beyond the Mojave Desert.  It extends into the Great Basin in St. George and Nevada.  It also has forestes in the Sonoran Desert.  They range from Arizona, Southwest Utah, Nevada, California and into Mexico.  

The Joshua Tree has a vital place in the eco system of the desert.  Some places they are they only tall tree which provides habitat for birds.  The desert night lizard lives under fallen trees.

The Joshua Tree is a yucca and as such its fibers are useful.  Native Americans have used the tree in the manufacture of rope and baskets.  Some Native American groups also ate the buds and fruit.  In modern times the roots have been harvesting for use in dietary supplements.

With regards to Joshua Trees all is not rosy.  Drought, higher temperatures and fire have left their mark.  The number of Joshua tree specimens is declining.  

Summer Trip to Liberty Jail

 We went with Charity's family to Liberty Jail traveling from Pohlsander Reunion in Arkansas to our family reunion in Nebraska.  Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith and other church leaders were imprisoned here for over two months form December 1, 1838 and were released in early April of 1839.  This is one of those places that has great power.  Section 121 of the Doctrine and covenants was received here.  One of my favorite verses: 45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

46 The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.

Book Review: The Lunch Tree

 The Lunch Tree by Irene Cornwall Cofer, Mohave Pioneers Historical Society Inc., Kingman AZ, Drawings by Roy Purcell, 1969.  Available at Kingman Library.  Mostly this is a primary source work as Cofer describes her life and experiences.

Irene Cornwall was born, and mostly raised in the Sandy River area, close to present day Wickieup.  She presents stories form her own life, as well as articles dealing with the lives of those around her.  As a young girl her mother passed away and they moved to Kingman for a couple of years where her father was Mohave County Treasurer. 

She provides a story of meeting a woman from the Red Light district in Kingman--which was located at first and Beale at the time and later had to be relocated as it was too close to the school.  It was known as the Rabbit Patch and Black Jack ruled as queen.  On one occasion the author thinks she met Black Jack.  The lad she met called her "Baby."  She was eight at the time.

She also describes going past the slaughter house after crossing under the railroad bridge.  There were cattle ranging close by to the slaughter house.  This and other things I have read makes me think slaughter house canyon us named for the meat packing plant, and not for a moaning woman ghost who murdered her children.  

She described the wagon trip from Kingman to the Sandy River area.  The route followed the west side of the Hualapai Mountains and cut over to the Sandy Valley through Signal which was a larger town then and had a mining mill.  There were several stops along this route and they would stay with different people along the way enjoying their hospitality.  The "Lunch Tree" was one such stop.

This book is a good genealogy source if you have relatives who lived in the area, especially the Wickieup area.  She also gives information on people who lived in Signal, Hackberry and Kingman.  She provides a good description of their home life after they returned to The Big Sandy farm and ranch after living in Kingman a couple years.  She and her older sister took over the household chores which often included serving others who came to collect mail as the ran the post office and if people came at dinner time they would expect to be fed.  Traveling was harder in those days, and farms were far apart.  

Book Review: Kingman-Arizona

 Kingman-Arizona: City in Mohave County by Roman Malach, printed by Graphicopy, New York, 1974, Arizona Bicentennial Commission. 

This is a brief version of the history of Kingman Arizona up through 1974.  Kingman started in 1882 as a railroad town.  It was originally called Sheffield's Railroad Camp for the individual who first platted the city and sold lots.  However the name Kingman took hole after the individual who decided a train stop was needed here.  In 1887 the county seat was moved from Mineral Park to Kingman.  A few things I found interesting.  There is the mention of a slaughterhouse in Kingman.  This makes me think that Slaughterhouse Canyon takes it name form the meat packing rather than the weeping ghost.  He quotes the phone book and local businesses which informs me that there was a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kingman before 1940.  (This would be the Oak Street Baptist Church at  Oak and Sixth streets.)

Harvey House was an important restaurant for travelers on the train.  It was next to the train station.  The original courthouse in Kingman was a rented building which became the Commercial Hotel.  The first constructed courthouse was close to where the courthouse is now.  It wasn't until 1915 that the current courthouse was built.  Fourth of July rodeos were held, and at times cars were used to form the arena.  Kingman also had a ball team which would play with other nearby communities. 

 

Port Kingman was established by Charles Lindbergh and the airport was dedicated i 1928.  The original airport was by Bank and Airway.  It was part of a series of airports from Las Angeles to New York called the Transnational Airline later to become Trans World Airline.  

Kingman was incorporated in 1952.

Book Review: Mohave County, Arizona, USA, One Thousand Miles of Shoreline

Mohave County, Arizona, USA, One Thousand Miles of Shoreline by Carlos Elmer, W A Krueger Company, Phoeniz, AZ, 1974.  This book is in the Arizona section of the Kingman library.

This is a photographic essay of Mohave County, focusing mostly on the lakes but also including the Hualapai Mountains, the Arizona Strip, Grand Canyon National Monument (west of the Grand Canyon, Big Sand River and Aquarius Mountains, and Joshua Trees.

The highlight of tourism in Mohave County are the lakes on the Colorado River, Lake Mead formed by Hoover Dam, Lake Mohave formed by Davis Dam, and Lake Havasu formed by Parker dam.  There are also desert lakes by Topock.  With lakes comes boating and fishing.  But lakes are also for swimming and just sitting beside and enjoying the view.  An unusual tourist attraction in Mohave County is London Bridge which connects an island to the rest of Lake Havasu City which is now the largest city in Mohave County.

Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

Lake Mohave

London Bridge in Havasu

These picture are copyrighted in 1974.  No infringement intended.

Book Review: Kingman Army Air Field

 One of my regrets in moving to Kingman is we arrived too late to tour the museum at the airport that memorialized the Army Air Field.  It closed like a year before we moved here.  I went looking for it and found the hangar it had been in, but it was empty.  

I found a binder with information on the Army airfield at the Kingman Library.  This is marked reference so you cannot check it out. However they allowed me to make a copy.  It is either in the Arizona section or in the reference section.  It seems to move back and forth.  It was compiled by Bob Chilcoat in 2017.

The Kingman Army Airfield was born out of WWII.  There was such a need for an air training location that worker were diverted from the Davis Dam project to finish the airfields.  The air field was set up to teach gunnery for the B-17.  It was the sixth such school, and the largest.  The major portion was what would later become the Kingman Airport.  

The school was first called Flexible Gunnery School at Kingman.  However as of May 1943 the name was changed to Kingman Army Air Field.   The school was activated August 1942 and the first class was in January of 1943.  The classes were progressive, starting with bb gun shooting, then skeet shooting, and finally air to air shooting. It would be inactivated at the end of the war, summer of 1945, and closed Feb. 25, 1946.  36,000 gunners were trained.  

The base included all the things you would see in a small community: library, post office, chapel, movie theater, stage with base orchestra and regular dances, day room, large cafeteria, hospital, etc.  The base hosted many celebrities including Bob Hope and his troupe.  Also the Three Stooges visited.  

There were actual seven sub bases to KAAF.  This includes the main base in Kingman, the ground to ground range also in Kingman, Red Lake Field, Antares or Hackberry, Yucca, Topock, Signal and Lake Havasu.  Lake Havasu was often used as a place for soldiers to recreate in Lake Havasu.

Subsequent to this the base was converted to Storage Depot 41.  Word was received in September of 1945 of the change, and the first plane was received on October 19, 1945.  Planes from all over the world were no longer needed and many were flown to Kingman for storage or disposal.  By the end of the year there were almost 5000 aircraft in Kingman.  The highest total officially would be about 5500, however many have said there were 7000 aircraft, the highest total in the world to that point.  Mostly these were large bombers, but there were other aircraft as well.  Some were pot marked with shrapnel and barely flyable.  However there were no accidents in bringing the aircraft to Kingman.  

I most enjoyed in this collection, the article from the Arizona Highways magazine.  Here they described the final resting place and salvage of the aircraft, some of which was very important to those who flew in them.  A few were rescued, like Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb.  It is now in a museum.

This collection also has plenty of pictures.  I share a few but there are many more in the binder.

skeet shooting while moving

Kingman Storage Facility

Kingman and subbases

A training devices using movies

oxygen room, gives the fell of being at 30,000 feet

chapel

Bob Hope and crew

Timothy McVeigh and Michael Fortier in Kingman

The events of April 19, 1995 in Oklahoma City brought the world to Kingman, Arizona.  The Oklahoma City bomb detonated at 9:02 a.m. and destroyed the Murrah building.  This was a federal building.  It held offices for federal employees including Social Security Administration, Veteran's Administration, United States Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.  It also housed a day care, America's Kids.  500 people worked in the building.  A third of the building collapsed as a result of the blast.  168 people were killed, including 19 children.  Hundreds more were injured.  The building was demolished and a memorial put in its place.  This is still the worse domestic terrorism action.

Timothy McVeigh had planted the bomb, using a rider truck with a mixture of fertilizer, diesel fuel and other chemicals which was then detonated to deadly effect.  McVeigh had perfected his explosive techniques in the desert around Kingman.  He was drawn to Kingman as his friend from military service, Michael Fortier lived here.  They shared antigovernment sentiment.  Both were upset with the Branch Davidian intervention in Waco, Texas.  

Timothy McVeigh was originally from New York, Mike Fortier from Kingman, and a third man, Terry Nichols, who had a more active part in the plot from Michigan.  It was he and McVeigh who rented the truck and turned it into a bomb.

McVeigh lived in several houses in the Kingman area over a couple years before the bombing, including staying with Fortier and his wife, and renting a residence in Golden Valley.  When staying with Fortier they would discuss antigovernment literature and ideas.  At one time he showed Fortier and his wife how he intended to make the bomb, using soup cans to represent barrels of chemicals and kerosene.  Fortier and his wife attended several test bombs detonations; mostly pipe bombs.  This tests would take place in the desert by Kingman but I am not sure where.  I heard it might be off of Stockton Hill Road.  Fortier lived in a mobile home complex.  Again I have not been able to find an address.  

McVeigh would not always stay with Fortier.  He would often stay at hotels in Kingman, once on west Beale, but also Hill Top and a Motel 6.  He had several jobs in Kingman, including as a security guard and also worked at True Value Hardware where Fortier also worked.  Fortier introduced McVeigh to drug usage, including marijuana and methamphetamine.

Fortier traveled with McVeigh; and went with him to check out the Murrah building at one point.  He also received stolen arms from McVeigh and sold them at gun shows and used part of the money to help McVeigh finance his final operation.  

When McVeigh left Kingman to actually bomb the Murrah building, Fortier declined the offer to go with him.  So in essence he knew of the plot, but did not participate in the actual bombing.  

When confronted by the FBI within two days of the bombing, Fortier lied and said he did not know McVeigh or his bomb plot.  However he eventually turned.  For a plea bargain agreement he became the primary witness against McVeigh and Nichols.  Fortier received a twelve year sentence for his involvement.  He served ten and then went into witness protection plan.  His parents, who lived in Kingman moved away as the result of these events.  Timothy McVeigh was convicted and executed.  Terry Nichols received a life sentence.  Fortier's wife was not charged despite knowing of the plot.  This was part of the plea bargain arrangement of Michael Fortier.  

McVeigh

Fortier

Nichols

I understand the presence of the FBI in Kingman, as well as national media made for a rather uncomfortable period.  Many people were interviewed about their association with Timothy McVeigh.  Also Kingman was put in a negative light by the national media, and the generalization was that Kingman residents were nothing but meth addicts and pot smokers and gun toters.  It took some years for this stains to fade away.  I knew nothing of the connection with Kingman until I visited the library of the Mohave County History Museum and was directed to a box of materials by the matron.  I also found plenty of information online.