| Pages:
1
2
3 |
gueribo
Nomad
Posts: 458
Registered: 10-16-2014
Member Is Offline
|
|
Nice bump, David. I've enjoyed Choral Pepper's writings and wry humor.
|
|
|
Vince
Nomad
Posts: 445
Registered: 10-17-2006
Location: Coronado
Member Is Offline
|
|
David, just read Choral Pepper's account of El Barril. It answers several questions I had about that area. I flew in there several times to visit
Dianna and her husband Hevs, who passed away about that time. Then she remarried and stayed there care taking for awhile. We were with Tom Carlin
who was close friends of one of the owners (Hugh Kelly) of the nice house at the end of the runway, overlooking the Sea. Hugh Kelly and his Tahitian
friends came there every year. It was a pleasure to stay with him and his Tahitian family. Kelly died but his daughter is still a friend or ours.
This was all 15-20 years ago. Wonderful fishing around the area. Thanks for filling in some history with Coral's article. Always looking for more.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64476
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Baja and Old California history are great for adventure stories and they just pull at me to head down and see these places in person as well as
research for more information on them. My mission book was so rewarding to produce in 2014-2016.
For the Choral Pepper fans, I have a newly discovered letter from 1964 from a Desert Magazine reader detailing a Jeep trip to San Ignacio that took a
month and included a mule ride to the rock art sites, not long after Erle Stanley Gardner "discovered" them.
I will share this letter with you all, soon!
|
|
|
JZ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9217
Registered: 10-3-2003
Member Is Offline
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by David K  | Baja and Old California history are great for adventure stories and they just pull at me to head down and see these places in person as well as
research for more information on them. My mission book was so rewarding to produce in 2014-2016.
For the Choral Pepper fans, I have a newly discovered letter from 1964 from a Desert Magazine reader detailing a Jeep trip to San Ignacio that took a
month and included a mule ride to the rock art sites, not long after Erle Stanley Gardner "discovered" them.
I will share this letter with you all, soon!
|
I've been sucked into learning about this history a lot lately.
This site is a treasure trove of information.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64476
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Today, I feature the El Barril Rock House at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions
|
|
|
bajaric
Senior Nomad
Posts: 601
Registered: 2-2-2015
Member Is Offline
|
|
Interesting story. It certainly is plausible that the Mormons built the rock house. It is similar in appearance to the stone building at the landing
on the Colorado River that they also built. Other than the missions, there were few 1800's era structures built of stone in central Baja; most were
adobe or frame houses.
The landing at El Barril served as a supply port for the mining town of El Arco in the late 1800's.
[Edited on 2-8-2021 by bajaric]
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64476
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
In 2017, El Arco (including the big military base) was abandoned except for a cattle ranch now there in the middle of a ghost town.
I had been through El Arco twice before, in 1966 and 1983... both times it was just a small village clinging to life.
In 1960, the population estimate was 150, and called a "small community at the site of a former gold mine"... (Gerhard & Gulick).
G&G reported that over 1,000 workers were employed in the gold mines developed by an American company in the 1920s. A prolonged strike by miners
caused an end to operations.
In Arnold Senterfitt's 1972 Airports of Baja California, he mentions the town has a "new lease on life thanks to lots of test coring and excellent
results"! The mining company, Larco believed the deposits were so extensive that an open pit 20-30 miles in diameter was in the future here.
|
|
|
| Pages:
1
2
3 |
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
