BornFisher
Super Nomad
Posts: 2103
Registered: 1-11-2005
Location: K-38 Santa Martha/Encinitas
Member Is Offline
|
|
Baja article from Bloody Decks by Gary Graham
Gary Graham is the Baja Beat writer for Bloody Decks----
http://www.bdoutdoors.com/baja-badlands/
"When you catch a fish, you open the door of happiness."
|
|
|
BajaNomad
|
Thread Moved
9-22-2016 at 03:57 PM |
Bajahowodd
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9274
Registered: 12-15-2008
Location: Disneyland Adjacent and anywhere in Baja
Member Is Offline
|
|
Wonderful article, but the website name makes my skin crawl. They need a different name. I realize they have been around for quite some time , but do
we need "bloody"?
|
|
|
aguachico
Senior Nomad
Posts: 602
Registered: 3-23-2007
Location: tijuana
Member Is Offline
Mood: logic cannot get thru to the illogical
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by Bajahowodd  | | Wonderful article, but the website name makes my skin crawl. They need a different name. I realize they have been around for quite some time , but do
we need "bloody"? |
The site has progressed into a sportsmen site covering many aspects of hunting and fishing. The 'mean and bloody' element does not dominate the
content. If you look past the 'BD' of 'bdoutdoors', you will find a ton of useful information.
saludos
|
|
|
TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
Excellent read, thanks.
|
|
|
basautter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 862
Registered: 7-1-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy Baja history!
|
|
|
BajaBlanca
Select Nomad
Posts: 13165
Registered: 10-28-2008
Location: La Bocana, BCS
Member Is Offline
|
|
Very interesting and I had no idea there was a museum with his stuff. One day I would love to see it.
|
|
|
BigBearRider
Super Nomad
Posts: 1299
Registered: 4-30-2015
Location: Big Bear, Punta Chivato, and Cabo
Member Is Offline
Mood: 
|
|
Great article. Thanks for posting.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64490
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Some of us Nomads met in Temecula to see it: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=56397
Here was an article posted on Nomad in 2005:
By JOHN HUNNEMAN
October 29, 2005
TEMECULA ---- He crossed the desert in search of whales and photographed desolate yet breathtaking parts of the world where man had dared not tread
for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Though more widely known for his 127 novels ---- including 82 featuring famed lawyer Perry Mason ---- Erle Stanley Gardner was an adventurer and
explorer who chronicled his trips around the world in magazine articles, books and on film.
After decades without being seen, photographs taken by Gardner and those who traveled with him on his explorations of Baja California are part of "The
Baja Adventure" exhibit, which debuts Saturday at the Temecula Valley Museum.
The opening of the exhibit coincides with the fourth annual Erle Stanley Gardner Mystery Weekend, set for Nov. 4-6, in Temecula. The weekend
celebrates the life and works of the famed author who called Temecula home from 1937 until his death in 1970.
It's estimated that more than 350 million of Gardner's books have been distributed worldwide, making him one of history's all-time best-selling
mystery writers.
But the "whodunits" were only part of his literary work. During his years at Rancho del Paisano ---- located across from present day Great Oak High
School ---- Gardner and his entourage, often including wife Jean and his longtime friend and ranch manager Sam Hicks, set off on numerous adventures,
many of them heading south to the rugged and then largely uncharted land of Baja California.
Sometimes traveling by airplane and helicopter, but more often by Jeep and Pak-Jak ---- a modified dune buggy capable of climbing vertical obstacles
---- Gardner and his group traversed the peninsula while photographing sweeping vistas, native vegetation, ancient cave drawings and each other.
The photographs, taken from 1947 through the mid-1960s, were developed as slides to be projected on a screen, which Gardner did while he narrated
tales of each adventure, said Wendell Ott, director of the Temecula Valley Museum.
The slides ---- about 6,000 of them ---- had been stored in Jean Gardner's garage in Fallbrook, where she had moved after her husband's death. Most
had not been viewed for decades.
Jean Gardner died in December 2002 at age 100.
"After Jean died, her brother Norm called and asked if we'd be interested in the slides," Ott said. "He said we really ought to have them."
Gardner wrote six books about his exploration of Baja California. Among the more famous is "Hunting the Desert Whale," published in 1963.
That book follows Gardner and his party, including Hicks, as they travel about halfway down the peninsula to Scammon's Lagoon, also called Laguna Ojo
De Liebre, on the Pacific Ocean side, which is visited each year by grey whales migrating south from the Bering Sea.
Traveling over old roads ---- and sometimes no roads ---- and sleeping under the stars was part of each adventure.
"I went to sleep again and awakened with a start," wrote Gardner. "Some big animal was moving cautiously within a few feet of me. I could hear the
soft footfall of a cautious foot on gravel, then a rock moved under the weight of an animal that must have had some size. I thought of the stories I
had heard of mountain lions and lay motionless, listening."
Photographs taken by Gardner are included in his books, but they were printed in black and white.
Using a computer and scanner recently purchased with money from a grant received by the museum, Ott and his staff have been able to digitally scan the
slides and print them in their full, vibrant and original color.
"I don't know what kind of camera (Gardner) had back then, but I'm sure it was the best," Ott said.
The results are the stunning photographs of the excursions. The photos were being mounted on museum walls this week ahead of the exhibition.
Ott said he and his staff have barely scratched the surface of the donated photographs.
"We've only gotten through a couple of hundred slides so far," he said.
The photographs in the upcoming exhibit are from three expeditions, one in 1947, one in 1952 and the last in 1967, Ott said.
Not all of the 6,000 slides are of Gardner's trips to Baja and the others may well be used for future exhibits at the museum.
"The more we collect about Gardner, the more we come to know him more as a human being and not just a mystery writer," Ott said.
"Erle Stanley Gardner ----The Baja Adventure" will be on exhibit at the Temecula Valley Museum from Saturday through Jan. 8. For information, call the
museum at (951) 694-6452.
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
