BajaNomad - Excellent story of Baja

Excellent story of Baja

mcfez - 9-29-2010 at 02:52 PM

Cruising the net, I came across this link:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/travel/85021-baja-californi...

BAJA CALIFORNIA: Finding a LOST MISSION

DavidK....one of the better essays of Baja that I have read! Have this piece been posted here at the Nomads as well?

Oh....great maps too

Bajahowodd - 9-29-2010 at 02:55 PM

Never quite certain as to which he loves more. Baja, or his truck. :lol:

BajaGeoff - 9-29-2010 at 03:36 PM

I am not sure how he finds time to work in between all of the forum posting...

DENNIS - 9-29-2010 at 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaGeoff
I am not sure how he finds time to work in between all of the forum posting...

He's the boss. [just like you, Geoff] :yes:

Juanita - 9-29-2010 at 04:08 PM

Thank you. That is an excellent exploration and report. I can imagine them standing up on the hill looking out for a boat bringing supplies along the coast. What a barren, remote outpost though.

David K - 9-29-2010 at 05:38 PM

Thanks, but it was first (and heavily) posted here on Nomad... Then I posted the link to the Discover Baja Magazine article featuring the 'discovery'... This was New Years Weekend 2009.

It was very rewarding to find the place that Choral Pepper had written about in 1966 (Desert Magazine) and agian in her Baja California historic facts and stories book of 1973. I had been seeking it for years, as none of the party members from 1966 I talked to could remember exactly. Choral herself tried to go back a few years before I met her... and the road was not passable to her. Choral had hopped I would find her lost mission site... I only wish I had before she passed away.

The best way to see the photos and story is to just go to my web site and click on the link 'Lost Mission (?) Found' here: http://vivabaja.com/109 and Lynn Mitchell did a good job with the Discover Baja Magazine article... here: http://www.discoverbaja.com/pdf/fall09.pdf

Baja Nomad 'Sharksbaja' found the wall on Google Earth and he recognized the shape from the photos taken in 1966, I have posted. As soon as he showed me the satellite image, I made ready to go... and withing a couple weeks, we drove the nearly 500 miles to see if the line seen from space was the wall of mystery... and it was!

The head archeologist researching the area (Dr. Eric Ritter)as well as the primary mission historian of today (Dr. Michael Mathes) were both contacted with the photos I took and the background.

Since the site was disclosed 44 years ago, if historians were convinced there even was a 'started' mission of Santa Maria Magdalena, then they had ample time to study the site. Dr. Mathes never responded... However, Dr. Ritter and I had a nice phone conversation and the area around Bahia las Animas is filled with rock rings, and other native Indian sites... and while interesting, the hilltop site or the walls were no more interesting than the other sites he surveyed years ago and published his findings about, in 1994.

Baja is filled with mysteries... and these rock walls will last an eternity... Unfortunately, the established missions and visitas are crumbling away and being plowed over by road crews or farmers. Direct your enegy at these sites and let the locals know they are more valuable as a true piece of California history than a field to grow chile peppers! See http://vivabaja.com/missions1

[Edited on 9-30-2010 by David K]

David K - 9-29-2010 at 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaGeoff
I am not sure how he finds time to work in between all of the forum posting...

I don't do drugs, smoke, gamble or drink (much)... and with work nearly non-existant compared to the prosperity before 2007 when congress changed hands, I am here on Nomad and the Tacoma forum a lot more than I want to be... but it is fun, just doesn't pay well!

Got Drip? Call me for landscape irrigation upgrades or installs... please! :light:

Marc - 9-29-2010 at 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaGeoff
I am not sure how he finds time to work in between all of the forum posting...

Is the book available? I would really like to get my hands on a copy>

mcfez - 9-29-2010 at 07:37 PM

Quote:

I don't do drugs, smoke, gamble or drink (much)... and with work nearly non-existent compared to the prosperity before 2007 when congress changed hands,

You stole my paragraph.....
Give it 18 months....things will be picking up then.

These detail accounts of your travels.....even if you repeat em...be nice reading. I appreciate you and all the others that give us good stories. Thanks all....keep it up!

David K - 9-30-2010 at 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marc

Quote:

Originally posted by David K

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaGeoff
I am not sure how he finds time to work in between all of the forum posting...

Is the book available? I would really like to get my hands on a copy>

Which book? Pepper's?

Here is my '73 edition...

pepper-73r.JPG - 22kB

David K - 9-30-2010 at 07:48 AM

and here is my '75 edition (intersting slight change in the book title!)....

Her 2001 revised book (Baja: Missions, Mysteries, Myths) remains unpublished.

pepper-75r.JPG - 27kB

David K - 9-30-2010 at 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mcfez

I don't do drugs, smoke, gamble or drink (much)... and with work nearly non-existent compared to the prosperity before 2007 when congress changed hands,

Thank you! I will continue to share my travels and stories here... A book? well, maybe someday (when I am really really old)!

Keri - 9-30-2010 at 08:43 AM

Great stuff david, Mike and I really enjoy your travels. Keep'em coming,k :tumble:

Bajatripper - 9-30-2010 at 04:43 PM

Quote:

and with work nearly non-existant compared to the prosperity before 2007 when congress changed hands,

Careful there, Big David, I think you're good company. Don't screw it up!! :lol:

David K - 9-30-2010 at 04:50 PM

I can only smile so long without an income... after 10 years of constant growth, my business has dived the past two years. It is getting worse, not better and I am not alone, so I know it isn't personal.

mcfez - 9-30-2010 at 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
I can only smile so long without an income... after 10 years of constant growth, my business has dived the past two years. It is getting worse, not better and I am not alone, so I know it isn't personal.

David...
Yellowpage ad (big) - no bites
Google Adword ($2.50 a hit..top billing) - ZERO
Sacramento Bee newspaper - joke able
Sac Valley Homes Shows (did 4 per year) - Cheapskate lookers
Guys holding sign on busy corners - Nada

It s not "you".

I am currently transferring the landscaping in to commercial maintenance. Yep....in Feb....we be a freakin Gardening company! One must make change to survive. Are you making change David?

David K - 9-30-2010 at 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mcfez

Quote:

Yes, less eating out... less trips to Baja (well a couple less)... less of everything we did before without thought... so we are not spending and that hurts everyone we did business with... trickle down is a fact.

I am an old dog and I have been in the irrigation industry for 30 years... I am affraid I am limited. I still can make more working one day a week than 5 for someone else, so I am hanging on. I would love to work on a big project in Baja... and that was in the works until it died! Now, I can only hope someone out there on the Internet can use a Baja specialist to lead tours in the peninsula to the great history of Old California! :biggrin:

Debra - 9-30-2010 at 09:43 PM

David, where those books you posted pics. of part of your inheritence from Corke?

I'm really sorry that business is off for you and yours. "Mcfez' is right though, People might not be able to afford the cost of your expertize right now, but, if around my area is any indication, they are still too lazy to mow their own lawns, Might get you through?

There is no one that I know that has more expertize about Baja, and especially Baja Missions than you............there must be other "anal retentive"

newbie folks out there with a few bucks that would love to have you 'drag them around' (I've followed you everywhere , dang lost Mission anyway :lol

Maybe this is the time? Post on Craig's list? San Diego Union? Whatever, this has been your dream, maybe time to go for it? Surely more fun than sitting around blaming the Dems.

Debra - 9-30-2010 at 09:45 PM

Mcfez...........I just realized that I added to the hi-jack of your thread. Lo siento.

For the record....

mcfez - 9-30-2010 at 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Debra
Mcfez...........I just realized that I added to the hi-jack of your thread. Lo siento.

I really dont mind at all if my post(s) is hijacked, accidentally or intentionally. Keeps the reading interesting.

Absolute no issue....but thanks for the thought Debra

woody with a view - 10-1-2010 at 06:02 AM

hijack this:

hopefully these criminals in congress all get replaced when november rolls around. no budget so let's go home and have a vacation...."

hang 'em high.

Marc - 10-1-2010 at 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
and here is my '75 edition (intersting slight change in the book title!)....

Her 2001 revised book (Baja: Missions, Mysteries, Myths) remains unpublished.

Is this edition available? Amazon??

mcfez - 10-1-2010 at 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by woody with a view
hijack this:

hopefully these criminals in congress all get replaced when november rolls around. no budget so let's go home and have a vacation...."

hang 'em high.

Been hoping for that to happen since the 60's :wow:

hang 'em high. Hell yes.

wessongroup - 10-1-2010 at 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaGeoff
I am not sure how he finds time to work in between all of the forum posting...

Really surprised it is not used down here and many other places ... much, much more... given the limiting factor which all must deal with (water)... it is pretty cheap to set up for watering things... saves time, money and water !!! ... toss in an inline fertilizer dispenser... on timers and your little friends are taken care of.... all you have to do is watch for critters... and enjoy your plants...

Good luck, DK.. it is an industry... which still has not hit it's stride here in the States ... have everything on drip, except my wife's flowers.. some kind of woman thing... she likes "taking" care of them in the morning hours with her coffee ... been trying for over 40 years to get here to put them on emmiters with a timers plus fertilizer ... still could have coffee and look at the plants... she just lost the diamond from her wedding ring out side a few months ago... not sure why some women would wear a diamond ring out side to work in the dirt... but, many, many do... had suggested for years not to do it.... it's zirconium this time....

Perhaps the continuing drought will make more folks thing along those lines... still seeing severe drought in the major area of water shed for most of the western United States ...

Hope we get another very wet winter... we need it !!

One can't do anything without water.... period...

Someone posted a thread on "water wars"... it is something to be concerned about.. fresh drinking water..

David K - 10-1-2010 at 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Debra
David, where those books you posted pics. of part of your inheritence from Corke?

I'm really sorry that business is off for you and yours. "Mcfez' is right though, People might not be able to afford the cost of your expertize right now, but, if around my area is any indication, they are still too lazy to mow their own lawns, Might get you through?

There is no one that I know that has more expertize about Baja, and especially Baja Missions than you............there must be other "anal retentive"

newbie folks out there with a few bucks that would love to have you 'drag them around' (I've followed you everywhere , dang lost Mission anyway :lol

Maybe this is the time? Post on Craig's list? San Diego Union? Whatever, this has been your dream, maybe time to go for it? Surely more fun than sitting around blaming the Dems.

No, those were mine.. the first one was the one I had used pages out of for a high school report on the first California missions (that are not taught about in our schools... we are told San Diego is the first California mission). That was why I tried to contact Choral (Corke) in the first place... she had no extra copies... The second edition I found a few years ago, forgot where or if it was online?

Of the books Choral gave me on Baja... many I had already and I donated the duplicates to the Baja Book Library of El Rosario (a project for the future, but the collection is big).

David K - 10-1-2010 at 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marc

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
and here is my '75 edition (intersting slight change in the book title!)....

Her 2001 revised book (Baja: Missions, Mysteries, Myths) remains unpublished.

Is this edition available? Amazon??

Yes, often comes up... albeit at a higher price than the original $2.50 (1975) or $1.95 (1973)!

I may reproduce it online at some point. Choral granted me full rights to share her work in any manner I desired. I did have publishers ready to produce her new book, twice... But, the job never happened.

See the web page I made: http://choralpepper.com