Mostly Plants

In today’s edition, our intrepid heroes climb a mountain and hike through the desert to abandoned mines and the tomb of a desperado miner who died by the hand of a rival, fighting over a few scraps of land in the desert.

As in the previous posts, italic text is from my contemporaneous trail journal, roman text is written for the blog.

3/17/2008
1910 PDT
Keys View

Hiked 8 miles today. Started @ Ryan Mountain at 12:30; got to the summit in about an hour. Summit was very windy and chilly–not good conditions for the light, summery kilt . We took shelter behind a large Yucca and enjoyed the view for a while before hiking down.

A panorama I short at the summit. Stitching by Double Take. Which I might buy, to get their watermark off my photo.

From left to right: The summit, Briony, Laura, and Ginger

I had to put this one in big so you could all see just how silly I looked.

Once we got back to the bottom, we drove to Hidden Valley picnic area for lunch. It was warm enough that after eating we stayed to bask in the sun for about an hour before we set out for the Wall Street Mill. Over 1.1 miles hiking out to the mill we passed 3 rusty cars, a rusty windmill, and the ruins of an old adobe house. One of the cars–a green pickup truck–had plants growing all throughout it, and I spent a great deal of time shooting the truck.

The trippy thing about this truck was what good condition its tires were still in. The sidewalls were kind of falling apart, but most of the main surfaces were intact. Things don’t really decay in the desert. I took a closeup of the engine block, which you can see here. The other truck wasn’t doing so hot:

This Well was called the Desert Queen Well, for the nearby Desert Queen Mine. The man who built it sold it to Worth Bagley in 1924, six years after it ran dry. Poor Worth Bagley.

The history of this area deserves some telling. In the early 20th Century it was occupied by two rival miners, Worth Bagley and Bill Keys. The California District Court of Appeal (4th District) told this story in 1944, on appeal from a jury verdict finding Keys guilty of the manslaughter of Bagley (asterisks represent page numbers in the Cal App.2d and P.2d reporters):

Defendant had lived on the desert in Riverside County since 1910. He acquired land there on which he built a home for himself and family. He also acquired land in San Bernardino County north of and adjoining the line dividing the two counties. Land belonging to the Southern Pacific Railway Company lay between the properties.

Defendant operated a mine in San Bernardino County. Some time after 1910 he built a stamp mill, tank, water **591 troughs and a pumping plant on his San Bernardino County property. We will refer to this as Keys Mill. There was also a well on the railroad property where he had a windmill which he removed when Bagley acquired the property. In the record this is referred to as Bagley’s well. The removal *906 of this windmill was one of the causes of disagreement between Bagley and defendant. There were roads crossing the railroad property which connected the two properties of defendant. He testified he had used these roads without obstruction or objection for about 30 years. He also testified that one or more of these roads had been opened and in use since about 1874. Defendant started raising range cattle in 1918. It was his custom to let the cattle range on the railroad property. Twice each year he drove them along a road crossing this property when moving them between the summer and winter ranges.

In 1936 Bagley acquired the railroad land lying between defendant’s properties. He was then a deputy sheriff. At some indefinite date, probably prior to 1939, he made cement blocks with which to build a house. He complained that defendant’s cattle were breaking those blocks while ranging on his land. This seems to have been the start of the differences between the two men. With Bagley’s consent, defendant, at his own expense, built a fence which kept the cattle off from about 80 acres of land around the Bagley house which he commenced using, probably in 1939. There may have been other fences and also cattle guards and gates which we are unable to locate because of the manner in which the witnesses testified. When a witness points to a map and says a certain thing is “here” or “there” it is understandable in the trial court but is meaningless on appeal.

Someone shot and killed a cow belonging to defendant and later a Spanish jack. Defendant accused Bagley of killing the animals, which Bagley denied. He became enraged and threatened defendant. Bagley interfered with defendant’s travel over the roads across his property and ordered him to stay off. Without going into further detail it should be sufficient to say that the relations existing between the two men deteriorated rapidly. There is evidence that Bagley made threats against defendant which were communicated to him. A disinterested witness testified that defendant threatened Bagley’s life although he denied doing so. Both men armed themselves. Bagley usually carried a 38 caliber police special revolver and also sometimes had a rifle when traveling in his automobile. Defendant carried a 30-30 caliber automatic rifle with him in his car. He testified that he regarded Bagley a dangerously insane man. This was the state of the relationship between the two men at the time of the fatal affray *907 which occurred at about eleven o’clock on the morning of May 11, 1943.

Defendant was the only living witness to the killing and we gather the following from his testimony. On that morning he arose at his usual time, had breakfast and went to Keys Mill to pump water for his cattle. He drove over the road across Bagley’s property and on to Keys Mill. There was an obstruction in the road over Bagley’s property which he drove around. He started his pump and pumped enough water to fill two troughs, but not his tank, when his engine stopped because of magneto trouble. Being unable to fix it he took the magneto off, placed it in his automobile and started home over the same road he had traveled earlier that morning. When he reached the Bagley property he saw several obstructions in the road ahead of him. These obstructions, separately placed, consisted of broken glass, of stones, and of Yucca logs across the road. There was a sign on a stake in the road about 50 feet beyond Bagley’s property line. Defendant drove to a point near the sign and read it: “Keys This is my last warning Stay off of my property.” Defendant backed his car up the road to a point which he believed was on his own property, though it is highly probable that he did not leave the Bagley property. For a distance of approximately 104 feet the road in front of defendant rose to an elevation of about six feet and descended on the other side. Defendant got out of his car and walked forward to a point where he could look over the top of the rise. He saw Bagley approaching, crouched over with his revolver in his right hand. Defendant ran back to his automobile, armed himself with his rifle and stood beside the car. When Bagley reached the top of the rise he fired one shot at defendant. The bullet passed close to his head and hit the door of his car although he was not conscious of this last fact. Defendant immediately returned the fire. He **592 described the subsequent events to an officer as follows:

“He said he shot at his gun hand, but he shot a little high; he hit him in the arm, and Bagley turned to the left and started to run, and he ran in a zigzag manner; and I asked him why he was running in a zigzag manner, and he said he thought to make him miss him. He said where he–he said he fired another shot as Bagley was going away from him, and he hit him in the left arm, partially turning him around, and when he partially turned, he fired another *908 shot and he dropped, he hit him in the side. * * * Deputy Heap asked Keys about the shooting. Keys told Heap that Bagley was coming over the hill, he shot at him; he went back and got his rifle out of the car, shot at Bagley’s gun hand and shot a little high and hit him in the upper right arm, and Bagley turned to the left and started running from him in a zigzag manner. Heap told him he was shooting the man in the back, and Bagley said it was an automatic and shot fast.

“Q. By ‘Bagley’ do you mean–A. Or Keys.”

Defendant’s rifle was an old model and is what is now sometimes called a semiautomatic. The explosion would eject the shell that had been fired and insert another in the chamber, but pressure on the trigger was necessary to fire each shot.

Defendant’s testimony at the trial did not differ materially from the story he told the officers. It is significant that sufficient time elapsed between each of the shots so that he could observe the effect of each and could see that Bagley was running away from him when the second and third shots were fired. It was the opinion of the medical experts that the third shot caused immediate death.

After Bagley fell defendant got into his car, turned it around and drove to his home by a circuitous route which did not cross the Bagley property. He cleaned up, had his lunch, secured another magneto and returned to Keys Mill by the same circuitous route. He attached the magneto to his engine and pumped his tank full of water. He climbed a hill which gave a view of the Bagley property but could see nothing unusual. He returned to his car and drove it to about the same place where it had stood during the affray. He alighted and walked up the rise, probably about 50 feet, to a point about half way between his car and where Bagley stood when he fired at him. He did not see Bagley’s body which was lying in low weeds and brush off the road. He testified that while he thought he had killed Bagley he was not sure and that Bagley might have been wounded. He returned to his automobile and drove to Twenty-Nine Palms where he surrendered to constable O. J. Cones. Defendant, the constable, David M. Poste, Dr. Gilbert John Leonard and W. E. Ketcham of the Federal Park Service returned to the scene of the shooting, arriving there shortly after four o’clock in the afternoon. They found the body of Bagley lying prone on its face near the top of the rise and a short distance from the road. The revolver was cocked and was clasped in the *909 right hand with the forefinger resting on the trigger. No fingerprints were found on it on subsequent examination. Low Grass and brush were standing around the body.

People v. Keys, 142 P.2d 589, 591–92 (1944); 62 Cal.App.2d 903, 905-909

And here is the place where Worth Bagley Bit the Dust. Keys painted and erected the tombstone himself, over fifty years ago. Like I said, stuff doesn’t decay in the desert.

The Mill itself is an old apparatus used to extract gold from ore. The ore was ground and crushed, then passed over a tray of mercury. The gold would bind to the mercury while the rest of the ore flowed off into the desert. This plaque by the National Park service shows how it works. Click on the images for larger copies.

Various shots of the mill:

It’s not cordoned off or anything, so you can actually go in and climb around the mill. Here are some shots of inside: Note the sign for the office, and the remains of the amalgam table. The bottom left shot is the two-stamp mechanism for crushing the ore.

And as if we hadn’t had enough abandoned mines, we scampered off from there to see the Desert Queen Mine.  Desert Queen was one of the most productive gold mines in the area, and it was huge.  Now all of the shafts have been sealed off (and re-sealed after extra-stupid explorers broke in), but the surface is terribly interesting to walk around–both to see the shafts from outside, the heaps of tailings, and the abandoned machinery that is still left lying around.  I was pretty tired by the time we got there, so I only took two good shots:

And then, as if we hadn’t done enough in one day, we went to Keys View to see the sun set over the San Andreas Fault.  That valley you see in the center of the photo is where all the pollution comes into the park from LA.

More pot o’ shit and two-buck chuck for dinner. Ginger is altitude-sick and going to bed.

Larger copies of all photos—including those that are not linked, and some not included here, are at http://www.borealnemeton.org/cpg.