"BAJA CHARACTERS"

There are many......

GARDNER BAJA EXPEDITIONS 50'S & 60'S: JW BLACK - "BLACKJACK"

JW BLACK....FONDLY KNOWN AS 'BLACKJACK'.

Baja have blessed me with meeting several 'interesting characters.' One of these is JW Black of Paradise, California. I met him in the winter of 1971 at Coyote Beach south of Mulege when my compadre and I were on a remote-Baja camping trip. (This was a couple of years before the pavement came in...the old Camino Baja was rough...think 2-3 hours from Mulege to Santispac.)

For some unknown reason 'Blackjack', as I came to know him, befriended me and we reunited at Coyote every year for about the next 10 years, undertaking many camping jaunts into the Baja outback. He had many interests and talents...just a few were: desert survival expert, flyer, inventer, water-witcher, master mechanic, and the best fireside story-teller I ever knew. In those early Baja days, his passion for exploring the hinterlands led him to join up with the amatuer archeaologist, Earl Stanley Gardner, on many expeditions during the late Fifties and into the Sixties.

Blackjack acted as a logistic 'ramrod' on most of 'Uncle Earl's' mission and cave painting expeditions..and also invented a few trip vehicles like the pac-rat and grasshopper and a few others. Some were specialized for helicopter travel. These trips were recorded in books by Gardner, which are available today in book shops and places like Amazon.com.

Blackjack was certainly one of the most colorful members of that troupe...and I am glad to call him my friend. My early times in Baja would have certainly not been the same without him acting as my guide. He was a catalyst in my Baja love affair.

I will post a few photos of JW Black taken in the 50's & 60's, accompanied with some more recent ones of mine in the 70's. I'll recount some Blackjack adventures and posts of yesteryear...after I get some sleep. Fish all day..write all night..can't do both anymore.

...BLACKJACK...





MAYBE THE FIRST BAJA ATV





Blackjack's Inventions

JW Black was a very smart hombre. At first sight he looked like a hillbilly wandering loose in Baja, but as you talked to him and listened, you began to realize this was one intelligent character. He invented a host of things for the expeditions. One of those gadgets was Baja bug called a 'grasshopper'..he also made the 'pac-rat', which was a small collasping scooter they could carry in the helicopters.

Blackjack was great friends with Uncle Erle. It was Gardener's wish that when he died his ashes would return to Baja, but when he did die his widow had different ideas and wanted the ashes to stay on her mantel. Blackjack knew Erle's wish and so JW and friends 'liberated' his urn and flew to Baja where they scattered the ashes out the window high above the Sea of Cortez. Blackjack loved to fly..learning as a youngster and doing some barnstorming around the nation.

PLANNING THE NEXT LEG AT RCHO COYOTE





Checking some relics next to his Pac-Rat



WITH FRIEND OUTSIDE MULEGE HARDWARE TIENDA



TAKING HIS SKIFF TO THE SHRIMP BOATS



Fellow Nomad Vince wrote this: " Blackjackhelped me out once, I had my '65 Boston Whaler Montauk anchored out in front of the house on Coyote Bay, he was camped down by your place. A wind came up during the night, the next morning my boat was gone! I went down there for his help and we went out and found the boat approaching the point of rocks off to the south at the entrance to Coyote Bay. We towed it back. All because I didn't put enough scope out. That's the same boat I have now, thanks to Blackjack!"

TIMES TOGETHER AT COYOTE BAY AND AREA


from the files:

True Grit....
some of Blackjack's attributes were a genuine modesty of his own good deeds.
a great sense of humor, and an ability to regale us all at our evening campfires and cookouts.

People from all the remote and mountain villages of Baja remember him for his generosity of clothing, baseball equipment, homemade wooden toys, and his persistance in fixing whatever was wrong with any engine, device, or contraption he found busted wherever he went in Baja. And the folks remembered him for that spirit.

I went on an expedition with him in 1973 to the San Luis Comondus in the hinterland (took 9 hours in the 'grasshopper' to get there from the blacktop highway between the Bay and Loreto. Few northeners had been there before. We were winding around a high mountain trail and then saw laid out, about a thousand feet below, the two little villages along the waterway. Quite scenic.

Blackjack had not been back to these villages for about 10 years. When we drove into town and stopped by the church in the square the padre came running out, shouting "Senor Black..senor Black!" The whole village turned out to welcome him...and us. They set up an impromtu lunch right there on the little plaza and we experienced that old Baja charm and hospitality...the feeling that keeps us coming back.

Our evening campfires and cookouts were our social hour in those days...no TV, no radio..just us to entertain ourselves. Lots of singing, guitars, and storytelling.

Nobody excelled at storytelling like Blackjack. He always wore an old floppy hat with a scorpion pinned to the horsehair braid. He used Beechnut chewing tobacco and would have a good chaw before getting ready to spin a good one.

Remember back when there was the trouble at the reactor at Three Mile Island? Well, one night in the mid-70's or so, a fellow from Las Vegas was at our fire..there was maybe 30 all told...and this fellow said, "Hey, Blackjack, you know about a whole lot of things...why don't you explain to all us here about how nuclear reactors work?"

Blackjack looked around for a place to spit and then said, "Well, before I answer that, can I ask you a couple of questions?"

"Sure.", Las Vegas said.

"Do you know what sheep pellets look like, feller?" Blackjack asks.

"No..no, can't say I do." says Vegas
"Know what deer scat looks like?"
"Nope."
"Have you ever seen a cow pie?"
"Don't think so." sighs Vegas.

Blackjack spits again and leans back in his campchair saying,

"Well, here you are asking me about nuclear reactors and you don't know sh*t."





BLACKJACK WITCHED THE WATER, THEN DID THE WELDING ON THIS COMMUNITY PILAR TOWER BUILT ON MY COYOTE BAY PROPERTY.




Jack of all trades....



that motto was made for men like Blackjack. This photo is of him and a few other friends helping build our water tower in Coyote Bay in the 70's. Blackjack did all the welding. Blackjack first 'waterwitched' the area and found the best spot to dig. We hit good water at 10 feet...all mountain runoff water headed for the ocean 300 feet away. The tower creates about 38 lbs. pressure. It supplied 11 houses, a ranch across the road, and a cafe with water... thanks to some friends like Blackjack and Manuel.

One day Blackjack, myself, and Manuel Diaz went into the mountains behind Coyote Bay and JW waterwitched a well for Manuel, who wanted to start some crops on fertile land he owned back there. I was a first-time skeptic of witching, but changed my mind after watching him, then Manuel, and finally myself, find water. I could'nt keep those damn wands from crossing though I tried to keep them straight ahead. The well was dug by hand with a windlass and they found good water at 80 feet.
Blackjack was quite a guy.





WE WENT TO GET BOLEOS OFTEN AT THE BAKERY IN SANTA ROSALIA





GYPSUM MINE ON SAN MARCOS ISLAND..BLACKJACK REPAIRED A WELDER.



I have some good stories to tell...are your ears burning, Blackjack?

At toast to all you OTHER "Baja Characters" we are going to meet in the future...muchas gracias.




[Edited on 12-16-2013 by Pompano]

cracks me up the Capt. Munoz always was wearing a tie in those old photos. like a pro pilot which he was, always suited up for official biz.

So Pompano - you just drove to baja a few weeks ago - now you snuck back up north? like to drive or what??

Good morning, mike...

Glad to see you posting Roger.

We'll be neighbors pretty soon. I headed up to Naknek in a week for a month of paddling. Reading Sevareids "Canoeing with the Cree" this spring had a lot to do with it. Thanks.

I'm afraid I'm too left brained to believe in bowsing. But you never know.

Good morning, Igor.

Glad to hear you read that book...I thoroughly enjoy it from time to time. We should 'make voyages' like that sometime in our lives.

On your way Up North...keep an eye out for the oversized flyrods they use up there! The fish are HUGE!!

Buena Suerte amigo.

Ah to be young and thinner again...

Richard...so I hear from mi fishing amigos and reports here from Bob y Susan. Lots of dorado around, eh? You tell those guys to pen a few up till I get back.

Elinvest8..me too. I practice the manana diet.

p.s. No wait...I have been dieting and now I look like this.


[Edited on 7-19-2008 by Pompano]

Si Pompano mañana hacemos la dieta!

POMPANO YOU FORCED ME INTO USING THIS!

Pompano, Thanks for all the pictures and stories! You're a "Baja Character".

KILLER CAINE

If you were at some Baja festival and that white-haired and well-attired gent with a video camera filmed you, it was probably Killer Caine.

Another truly remarkable 'Baja character', Killer got his nickname in the usual way...in hot pursuit of the fairer sex...but hey, we all got our names that way. Back home in our youth, mine was Wild Oats...even had that on my license plate, WLDOATS. When I got married, my wife, being a country girl, knew just what to put on hers...CARBINE...a proven chemical that controls wild oats.

Killer started his video enterprise, Relentless Productions, while river-rafting the Colarado River with Johnny Tequila in the early 80's. Then followed JT to Baja around mid-80's and found Mulege and Santispac Beach, which became his home when not out filming life in all it's variety.

Killer was known far and wide all along the peninsula and at gatherings in the SW USA...like Burning Man, SeptemberFest at Ridgecrest, and others. I am sure some of you knew him well.

If it was worth filming, Killer was there. La Paz carnivals, parades, school marches, religious events, funerals, weddings (including his own mock marriage)...and things only Killer could imagine in his artistic imagination and capture with his uncanny aptitude.




A particularily vivid memory I have of seeing Killer Caine make a movie is one of a lovely young gal with flowing long black hair..ah, I can see her now...she is kneeling naked in the moonlight at the water's edge...the ocean is alive with phosphorescence. Her bare back and long black hair to the camera. She leans forward and with both hands reaches back and flips her hair into the water..then slowly drags her hair back and forth in front of her, soaking it full of the glistening moonlight water. Then she lifts her head and slowly, then faster begins to twirl her long hair around and around, sending a spiral of fireworks into the soft light of the full moon. It was an awesome sight and it took me a good week or two to recover. Felipa got tired of me asking her to grow longer hair and dunk her head over the seawall.

Killer would wander Up North in the hot season and was sighted in places like Homer, Alaska and Bangor, Maine...with his adopted Escondido beach dog, Lefty. Lefty is still with us at Coyote Bay today.




Killer..you had a talent like no other.



And you were truly a Baja Character. RIP old friend.


[Edited on 12-16-2013 by Pompano]

Mike and LancairDriver...

Mike..JT did indeed crack up his plane, but it was much farther north near BOLA a long time back...somewhere around 1986 or so. I seem to recall Johnny Tequila telling me Killer filmed it and interviewed him. Now, JT may have had a prop-bender at the northside strip, too, for all I know. Hell, people were wrecking their birds all over the place. Regular demoliton derby at times.

Killer's epic flight out into Conception Bay under his balloon was a hilarious event. Jeez..the things that guy thought up. He rode that propane bottle like a quarter-horse right up into the sky. Evel Knieval would have been impressed. We made bets on whether he would wear 'wings' on his lapel after that one.

Don't diss that Gorilla Glue...I pined for mine for mucho tiempo, too. It kept my Sonora longhorns on my buggy and the Jeep for many moons.








LancairDriver.. I wish I could have met Lou Federico in person as he had tons of experience in Mulege and Pta. Chivato. I did get the chance to visit with him over the phone and emailed a few times from 1999 to 2004. He sent me an autographed copy of "One Hell of a Ride" which sits comfortably amongst my other Baja books.

We shared some similar memories/acquaintances and I always looked forward to a talk. He once was a competitor of Don Johnson for Nancy. Saul Davis amongst many other Mulege citizens worked up at the hotel for a time. Building at Punta Chivato in those days was a grand undertaking, with every obstacle to overcome...whether structural or political.

Lots of celebs came and went..and still do..but don't recall the Shakey's pizza founder, but then I am a bay-dweller and hardly ever make it into town. Parties? - No sir, Never!

I personally never saw a giant snook, let alone the fabled black ones in Ray Cannon's book, but did see some good-sized silver Robalos to 8-10 lbs or so. The last one I ever caught near Mulege was maybe 20 years ago at Cocos Beach in the Bay..next to where the mangroves grow. For some great snook times, head to Mag Bay and fish the backwaters.

Chayo was later married to Harrison Evans and entered the judicial system in Sta. Rosalia...as a judge, I believe. Lots of Mezas around still, of course.

anecdote on Ray Cannon....I took all the nice pages of photographs out a Ray Cannon book once and helped laminate them onto a neighbor's kitchen countertop. It created a nice affect for a fishing household on the Sea of Cortez.

Oof-da...I just realized I am now an "old timer." I need one of those 'Dorian Gray' portraits!

Well, take heart, LancairDriver..me and others here like Baja nostalgia, too.

minifact: I have 10,000 + Baja photos on discs...grab some popcorn and a beer or three.

Hey, did I just hear several pc's shutting down?

Here's a few photos about Lou Federico ..and some of Chivato.
.
Lou standing with Don Johnson at the Serinadad.
.

[Edited on 12-9-2013 by Pompano]

Great pictures of Killer Caine Pompano.

I will always remember sitting in Ray Limas old cantina at Santispac many years ago where I first met Killer. In he walks with a beautiful drunken women on his arm(he had many)that he was showing around Mulege. He spent the rest of the night giving me the ins and outs of Baja life.
It was the start of a great friendship that lasted many years until his passing. He would visit me often in Loreto with his latest movie he had just filmed and we would get drunk and watch his movies all night...
I am a better man for having known him..

In regards to ole Lou,

The one item that Lou never wrote about in his book were the many people who had fronted him all the money for both the hotel on the hill in Mulege and the hotel at Chivato.
It never makes for good reading when the hero of the story takes funds from his friends and others and never makes good on his debts.
In his book ,ole Lou is done wrong by everyone else and he is the innocent one.
I am sure Don at the Serinidad could shed some truth on the subject if asked.
There was only one successful tailor from San Jose that made it in Baja and it was not ole Lou...

[Edited on 7-21-2008 by palmeto99]

[Edited on 7-21-2008 by palmeto99]

Iflyfish

Roger,
Being from Sacramento and familiar with the Shakey pizza parlors, maybe the fact that Sherwood " Shakey " Johnson carries the same name as Don, has something to do with the notion that he was part of this Baja history.
Just a thought.

Lou Federico not dead

I spoke with him in April this year . He was going to make the booksigning but had a major toothache and the dentist was his first choice understandably. He will try to make it this year. You guys should break away and come up and tell tall tales together. I'm sure it would be fun for all,k PS great thread, this is what nomads is supposed to look like. Thanks for sharing,k

[Edited on 7-21-2008 by Keri]

ADOLFO OF MULEGE

Although Adolfo of Mulege has been the subject of many photos and posts on Nomads by myself and others, no thread like this could be done without him.

I will insert here a photo-remembrance of an old Baja Character of Mulege. Known as a few names, El Cantor, Rudoldo (my bad), and The Old Man of Mulege.

as previously posted:

I knew him for many years as Rudolfo..but that's a private joke on me. His real name is/was Adolfo Meza and here is just one thread about him..and his passing:

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=23108#pid2107...

I first met him when I asked him if I could take his photo in 1974. Then we went into the old Hacienda cantina for a drink.. (the original one with all the famous and not-so-famous autographs on the walls.)




I took a couple hundred photos of him over the next 3 decades. He was photographed by all who saw his colorful amble around the town. He never asked for anything, and gave his friendship freely. A buck's worth of pesos was always accepted and appreciated though.

He played a mean guitar and was quite the lady-killer. We teamed up more than a few times way back when...I would bring the senoritas into the Hacienda atrium cantina and he would fire up his guitar and sing softly...making the gals sit 'real close' to hear. He was a fine rascal of the first caliber.

He wore out many pairs of shoes and hats, plus I once gave him a cloth shopping bag from Trader Joes, but he seemed to prefer the plastic ones.

Gonna miss him a lot...like I said, the square will not be the same without him....but his family is still there, Victor, Paty, and all.

Play well and ride hard, amigo. I hastily drew this at the Hacienda bar one afternoon...sorry for the quality, but it's a good memory for me.



Here for your viewing follows a collection of Alfonso photos:















.

Home from the rounds for the last time...



.

(watercolor below courtesy family friend, Boise, Id.)




Not to be forgotten.



[Edited on 12-17-2013 by Pompano]

Pompano, Thanks for the pictures.Best wishes to you and your family.

Quote:

Originally posted by Pompano Although Adolfo has been the subjec of many photos and posts on Nomads, no thread like this could be done without him. I will insert here a photo-remembrance of an old Baja Character of Mulege. Known as a few names, El Cantor, Rudoldo (my bad), and The Old Man of Mulege. as previously posted: I knew him for many years as Rudolfo..but that's a private joke on me. His real name is/was Adolfo Meza and here is just one thread about him..and his passing: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=23108#pid2107... I first met him when I asked him if I could take his photo in 1974. Then we went into the old Hacienda cantina for a drink.. (the original one with all the famous and not-so-famous autographs on the walls.) I took a couple hundred photos of him over the next 3 decades. He was photographed by all who saw his colorful amble around the town. He never asked for anything, and gave his friendship freely. A buck's worth of pesos was always accepted and appreciated though. He played a mean guitar and was quite the lady-killer. We teamed up more than a few times way back when...I would bring the senoritas into the Hacienda atrium cantina and he would fire up his guitar and sing softly...making the gals sit 'real close' to hear. He was a fine rascal of the first caliber. He wore out many pairs of shoes and hats, plus I once gave him a cloth shopping bag from Trader Joes, but he seemed to prefer the plastic ones. Gonna miss him a lot...like I said, the square will not be the same without him....but his family is still there, Victor, Paty, and all. Play well and ride hard, amigo. Here for your viewing follows a collection of Alfonso photos: . (photo below courtesy of cardon) (photo below courtesy of sharksbaja) . Home from the rounds for the last time... . (watercolor below courtesy family friend, Boise, Id.) [Edited on 7-23-2008 by Pompano]

Roger,

A lot of folks do not know that Adolfo spoke really good english and loved talking to the gringas .
My wife found this out years ago by offering him a beer while he rested outside of the el candil .
Imagine her surprize when he answered back in good english and asked her if she was a blonde or a brunette.

Say Hi to Gary and Lisa for me while you are in Bend.

[Edited on 7-24-2008 by palmeto99]

Cardon,

I took the liberty of Photoshopping your photo of Adolpho. I will remove it if you take offense to it. I regret not having the opportunity to take a picture of him myself.

Ken

Ken, No problem at all.

Maybe we should have a "Lets Paint Adolfo" thread!!!!!

If anyone wants to paint the photo of Adolfo that I took you can get the hi-res photo here on my website:
http://baja.smugmug.com/gallery/2530624_hboqQ#134212831_XbbhB

Here is a little digital painting I did of Adolfo using Corel Painter.

"CARMELITA'S BURRITOS"

Who hasn't stopped yet at Carmelita's in Jesus Maria south of Guerrero Negro and tried a burrito or tamale? She is located at the Pemex station there...easy to find.

Somewhat of a highway tradition now, Carmelita's has achieved a following somewhat like Mama Espinoza's cafe did many decades ago in El Rosario.

She has been at that Pemex station for about 20 years now..first starting serving out of her well-bumper-stickered van.
.



.



Gradually her business expanded as travelers passed the word...
.



.
Today you can enjoy a sitdown meal if you choose. Served sometimes by Carmelita's other half. Nice fellow to join for an early morning cup of java.
.


.
Fudging a little on the diet...I like getting some to go..."Tres burritos para el camino, por favor."




Yummy road treats...who cares about calories?
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[Edited on 12-17-2013 by Pompano]

Carmelita continued...

Carmelita's back in the day.

A one-of-a-kind Baja character and a must-stop place.
.






So sad to say goodbye to another old Baja friend. Rest in peace, Carmelita.



[Edited on 12-17-2013 by Pompano]