BajaNomad

Erle Stanley Gardner and Others

SFLowTide - 12-10-2010 at 02:54 PM

I just finished watching a show (California's Gold) about Erle Stanley Gardner and it just reminded me that it's always been interesting that most of us (Baja Nomads) have lives outside of Baja, but might just define ourselves though Baja. Just as, like myself as a child, there may be some of the nomad family that never read a "Perry Mason" mystery, but fell in love with another one of his writings like "The Hidden Heart of Baja" or "Hovering over Baja" or "Hunting the Desert Whale". One thing that most of us have in common with E. S G. is that Baja has transformed our lives in some way, and I thank the pioneers and writers that took us "Into A Desert Place"...

DENNIS - 12-10-2010 at 03:02 PM

Yeah....his stuff is some of the first that I found way back when. It was like a magnet.

I'm one of those who never read any of his novels.

Gardner in the Southwest

John M - 12-10-2010 at 03:11 PM

ESG also wrote two great books about the Southwest, particularly Arizona in Hunting Lost Mines by Helicopter and introduces another real desert rat, Ken Wilhelm in a book largley focused on the California desert, The Desert Is Yours. 1965 & 1963 respectively.

John M

1968

David K - 12-10-2010 at 03:41 PM

On the back of Erle's 'Mexico's Magic Square':

Barry A. - 12-10-2010 at 03:49 PM

----and then there is, "THE LAND OF SHORTER SHADOWS" 1948

and, "NEIGHBORHOOD FRONTIERS" in 1954

-----all of which I have and have read several times. Great stuff!!!!!

Barry

David K - 12-10-2010 at 04:03 PM

I am lucky to have seven of Gardner's travel/ adventure books...

1948:


(missing the cover jacket)



1960:



1961:



1962:



1963:



1967:


One of my all time favorites... mom bought for me when I was 10! The other Gardner books were collected over the past 25 years. One was a gift from a Baja Nomad couple.

1968:



Erle's last book that included Baja was 'The Host with a Big Hat' 1969 (I think)... Erle passed away in 1970. My parents and I missed meeting him when we went to his Temecula ranch home... He was in Baja!

sancho - 12-10-2010 at 04:09 PM

Good subject, for me it started out in the 70's surfing
San Miguel, just no. of Ensenada. You know, being
able to buy beer before you were 21,and throwing up
on your buddy. Early 80's
saw a copy of 'Peoples Guide to Mex', that really got me
started with Mex. Tom Millers 'Baja Book III',
G Kiras 'Baja Catch' I wore that thing out. Drove the
Peninsula a few times, fond memories of Requeson
southern end of Conception Bay. I don't have any
friends or aquaintances that will drive across
the Border, and I live only 75 mi no. of San Ysidro.
They will fly down for a week to Vallarta, but
won't cross by land. To me this board is the
only input I can get re; Baja

[Edited on 12-10-2010 by sancho]

Barry A. - 12-10-2010 at 04:12 PM

I have all those too, David, plus 2 more. My 'shorter shadows' book is the only one without a dust cover, also.

Most of these I got from Norm Cristy (sp?) many years ago----the rest thru ABE books, and I inherited two from my Aunt, who was a huge Baja traveller back in the '50's and on until her death about 15 years ago.

Barry

David K - 12-10-2010 at 04:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by sancho
Good subject, for me it started out in the 70's surfing
San Miguel, just no. of Ensenada. You know, being
able to buy beer before you were 21,and throwing up
on your buddy. Early 80's
saw a copy of 'Peoples Guide to Mex', that really got me
started with Mex. Tom Millers 'Baja Book III',
G Kiras 'Baja Catch' I wore that thing out. Drove the
Peninsula a few times, fond memories of Requeson
southern end of Conception Bay. I don't have any
friends or aquaintances that will drive across
the Border, and I live only 75 mi no. of San Ysidro.
They will fly down for a week to Vallarta, but
won't cross by land. To me this board is the
only input I can get re; Baja

[Edited on 12-10-2010 by sancho]


Tom Miller was a really nice guy... We talked often and camped together at Laguna Manuela and Posada Don Diego. Here's his first 'The Baja Book' 1974:

books 002.jpg - 45kB

David K - 12-10-2010 at 04:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Barry A.
I have all those too, David, plus 2 more. My 'shorter shadows' book is the only one without a dust cover, also.

Most of these I got from Norm Cristy (sp?) many years ago----the rest thru ABE books, and I inherited two from my Aunt, who was a huge Baja traveller back in the '50's and on until her death about 15 years ago.

Barry


Norm is a Baja Nomad 'rockman'... sold his Punta Final home and is in Loreto (I think) and Washington State, as you know.
We traded my 1974 published road guide (which was on his want list) for the Howard Gulick El Camino Real notes and maps.

bajamedic - 12-10-2010 at 07:11 PM

David, what is the mobile contraption on the cover of Off The Beaten Path In Baja, looks like tractor tires on a possible dune buggy or ??? JH

Barry A. - 12-10-2010 at 07:16 PM

They called it a "butterfly", and it was invented by JW Black of Paradise, CA specifically for Uncle Earle S. Gardner, as I understand it.

It was one of many contraptions that Black came up with over the years.

Barry

David K - 12-10-2010 at 07:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajamedic
David, what is the mobile contraption on the cover of Off The Beaten Path In Baja, looks like tractor tires on a possible dune buggy or ??? JH


That is called the Butterfly... invented by J.W. Black of Paradise, CA. I think Honda stole the idea and created the ATC from it after the book came out!

David K - 12-10-2010 at 07:20 PM

LOL... Barry and I were almost stepping on each other with the answer... I might add that J.W. Black lives/ lived near Pompano (Roger) at Concepcion Bay... Been there ever since Erle took the gang to the spot in the 1960's.

Have a look at several original photos of the Gardner team in photos given to me by one of the team members, Choral Pepper: http://choralpepper.com

From ChoralPepper.com

David K - 12-10-2010 at 07:24 PM


Baja Air Service's Captain Francisco Munoz has a chat with Uncle Erle
(seated in one of J.W. Black's off road inventions, the 'Butterfly').



J.W. Black, the mechanical genious who created the
Grasshopper, Butterfly, Pak Jak, and Burrito off road vehicles.

SFLowTide - 12-10-2010 at 08:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Quote:
Originally posted by sancho
Good subject, for me it started out in the 70's surfing
San Miguel, just no. of Ensenada. You know, being
able to buy beer before you were 21,and throwing up
on your buddy. Early 80's
saw a copy of 'Peoples Guide to Mex', that really got me
started with Mex. Tom Millers 'Baja Book III',
G Kiras 'Baja Catch' I wore that thing out. Drove the
Peninsula a few times, fond memories of Requeson
southern end of Conception Bay. I don't have any
friends or aquaintances that will drive across
the Border, and I live only 75 mi no. of San Ysidro.
They will fly down for a week to Vallarta, but
won't cross by land. To me this board is the
only input I can get re; Baja

[Edited on 12-10-2010 by sancho]


Tom Miller was a really nice guy... We talked often and camped together at Laguna Manuela and Posada Don Diego. Here's his first 'The Baja Book' 1974:


This is the first book I ever tried to read on my own (I was 5 yrs old in 1974). Thank goodness it has some great illustrations. My parents bought it and put with all of our camping gear in the back of our 1970 Ford Econoline E-300. I'm not sure they ever saw it again until they cleaned out my room when left for college. It is still in my house south of San Felipe.

But David, I thought you of all people would rose to the "Into A Desert Place" bait. I feel as though we will be talking about our contemporaries in the same light as we do these fabulous pioneers of the past.

ElFaro - 12-10-2010 at 09:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Tom Miller was a really nice guy... We talked often and camped together at Laguna Manuela and Posada Don Diego. Here's his first 'The Baja Book' 1974:


What years specifically did you "talk often" and "camp together" with him? And was this with your parents or by yourself?

I met Miller in 1975 when he was peddling his Baja Book I guide at local fishing tackle stores in San Diego. His claim to fame was being the 1st book with satellite photos of Baja (new gimmick) sections and the roads drawn over them. The photos were horrible...no detail. Virtually all the info. in that book (which wasn't much) was already in LCG. It just keyed off the new asphalt highway.

David K - 12-10-2010 at 11:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ElFaro
Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Tom Miller was a really nice guy... We talked often and camped together at Laguna Manuela and Posada Don Diego. Here's his first 'The Baja Book' 1974:


What years specifically did you "talk often" and "camp together" with him? And was this with your parents or by yourself?

I met Miller in 1975 when he was peddling his Baja Book I guide at local fishing tackle stores in San Diego. His claim to fame was being the 1st book with satellite photos of Baja (new gimmick) sections and the roads drawn over them. The photos were horrible...no detail. Virtually all the info. in that book (which wasn't much) was already in LCG. It just keyed off the new asphalt highway.


I knew Tom and Shirley from the late 70's to 80's. Then Shirley, after the divorce when she continued the Mexico West Travel Club without Tom. Camped with them in 1982 I think, and a couple times in '84.

There is no comparison between The Baja Book and the Lower California Guidebook... not even close. Tom's book was just well marketed and I did cringe at the way he drew in the highway and dirt roads on the satellite maps... I wish I could have had a hand in that! The fourth edition published after Tom died by Ginger Potter-McMahan still had mistakes in cartography. No photos, just drawings...

Yes, the maps were a gimmick of sorts... I agree. However, the book was a huge success with 4 editions and multiple printings... The only real good Baja guides after the Lower Ca Guidebook and its updated Baja Ca Guidebook were Jim Hunter's 'Offbeat Baja' and Walt Peterson's 'The Baja Adventure Book', in my opinion. All other guides only cover paved and some graded roads... boring!

Tom's promoting of the (then) 4WD Subaru is how I came to own them (3 in all) starting in 1977. Tom published a Subaru West 4x4 newsletter, as well as his Mexico West newsletter (I wrote articles in both for him).

[Edited on 12-11-2010 by David K]

wilderone - 12-11-2010 at 08:19 AM

"...the way he drew in the highway and dirt roads on the satellite maps.. I wish I could have had a hand in that!"
David, you've already mapped Tecate to Laguna Manuela with tons of great maps. Continue what you've been doing, print in color, bind, and voila! Get Sunbelt Publishers to do the publishing. Your book could more specifically be routes to particular places, with the GPS points. "David K's Guide to100 Secret Baja Spots".

David K - 12-11-2010 at 08:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by wilderone
"...the way he drew in the highway and dirt roads on the satellite maps.. I wish I could have had a hand in that!"
David, you've already mapped Tecate to Laguna Manuela with tons of great maps. Continue what you've been doing, print in color, bind, and voila! Get Sunbelt Publishers to do the publishing. Your book could more specifically be routes to particular places, with the GPS points. "David K's Guide to100 Secret Baja Spots".


Thanks Cindi, all those are the AAA maps with Mike's route highlighted. I have drawn my own maps over the years... mostly in the '80s of the area south of San Felipe.

Your idea of a guide of routes to special places is one I have already considered and would like to do. Baja Angel agrees... said I should be busy working on it while I am out of irrigation jobs.

Until the economy springs back and people are not scared of Mexico, the book wouldn't do very well, I think. Until then, we have Baja Nomad where you can get all my travel data for free (and everyone else's too).

My special places guide would include all the missions and many visitas, petroglyph/ rock art sites, old mines, palm canyons, beaches, etc.

Right now, I have made a 'tours' web page that has links to my photos and info on dozens of sites, grouped around various detinations in Baja... link is in my signature, below.... http://vivabaja.com/tours

Thank you for your input... I seriously think all Nomads could write a book about their trips or adventures in Baja!

wilderone - 12-11-2010 at 08:50 AM

I have a friend who built the San Diego app. When it's totally available (soon), it will cost $3. Built a Baja app, for a nominal fee.

wilderone - 12-11-2010 at 08:57 AM

"...all Nomads could write a book about their trips or adventures in Baja!"

A special "bonus" chapter of 'The Strange and Wonderful"

In collaboration with Doug: "The Bajanomad Exclusive Guide to Baja" - a compilation of particularly intriguing, informative message strings. (Hey, if a book can be published about guest book entries ("Baja Outpost") ....)

David K - 12-11-2010 at 08:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by wilderone
I have a friend who built the San Diego app. When it's totally available (soon), it will cost $3. Built a Baja app, for a nominal fee.


I don't understand... 'app.' ?

wilderone - 12-11-2010 at 09:17 AM

You can access it on your cell phone (if it has that capability) - like an icon on your computer - to provide information. Anyone from around the world could purchase your app to have Baja info at their fingertips.


"... shorthand for the ubiquitous software applications that live on iPhones, iPod Touches and an array of mobile devices running Google's Android operating system — continue their inexorable march from cellphone novelties to virtual personal assistants.

More than 100,000 apps now populate Apple's App Store, which opened for business two years ago. Since then, more than 2 billion apps have been downloaded at prices ranging from free to $900 (for iRa Pro, which links a phone to a surveillance camera network).

Tech specialists estimate the annual app market at $2 billion. That probably will grow once Apple's iPad, which arrives Saturday, gets going with a new breed of apps aimed at redefining the user experience."

David K - 12-11-2010 at 09:22 AM

So who built a Baja app. ?

You would need to help us older Nomads on how it works... and do we need an i-phone or can today's cell phones pick it up, like they can see the web?

How would that work in Baja with no cell service... or does it store in your phone?

wilderone - 12-11-2010 at 09:48 AM

"built" was an error. I meant to say "[you] build a Baja app"

"How would that work in Baja with no cell service... or does it store in your phone?"
Not sure about this (if the cell phone service is dependent on communication towers). I would think internet downloads would work because they're stored otherwise. An app would certainly work in a wireless laptop wherever you'd get wireless connection. I'm not that WiFi savvy - don't own a cell phone either, but others here would certainly know more.

I've seen my friend's app. She brings it up on her phone, it can sort by various categories - like restaurants, activities with children - or totally alphabetically, and people can read short blurbs about it and see 3-4 photos. For the nominal fee, the information is well worth it. She has to keep it updated and she will be adding information - it will get better and better as it evolves.

David K - 12-11-2010 at 09:52 AM

Nothing beats a book in your hands for easy viewing no matter where you are... There is no cell service between El Rosario and Guerrero Negro, or south of San Felipe... beyond where the towers in those places can reach.

racheldarlin - 12-11-2010 at 10:59 AM

I have a friend who used to windsurf in La Ventana. He complained to me one day in a moment of nostalgia that there are now hundreds of people tripping over one another in this beautiful place he and a couple of his buddies used love and have to all themselves. He cursed that it was now being "loved to death" because of Hwy 1 and the philistines " from the land of silliness" (Ca), amongst other reasons.

I asked him if he had ever told anybody else about his "secret" place and, of course, he had. In fact he used to have slide shows (this was before digital photography and the internet) for his friends and wrote a couple of articles for surfer magazines.

I told him as gently as I could that the next time he found a secret place he should keep it to himself or become reconciled to the fact that Baja is going to eventually look like SoCal or Hawaii. It is well on it's way.

ESG also wrote about the Nor-Calif Delta...

Mexray - 12-11-2010 at 01:08 PM

...in two books that 'bracketed' the release of his 'Magic Square' book:

# Gypsy Days on the Delta (1967)
# Mexico's Magic Square (1968)
# Drifting Down the Delta (1969)

He purchased several River Queen houseboats for his Calif Delta adventures, so his entourage could be nearby...

The River Queen's were stout, single hull, steel vessels suited for exploring the Delta...They were powered by one or two Chrysler Marine engines with heavy outdrives hung on the stern...

We used to 'boat' all over the Delta in the 70's, and when we moved to the Stockton/Lodi area in the late 80's, I lusted after one of ESG's River Queens to carry our whole family on our backwater adventures in the Delta...

The River Queens were long out of production by this time, but as luck would have it, I found a 30 ft'r languishing in a boat yard in Antioch - it was in need of lot's of loving care, but, hey, I had the time!

I had it hauled over to our Battery shop's parking lot, where I propped it up on some oil drums, to work on the hull...

I had to 'jacket' the keel with new steel panels, and several of the bottom areas as well...the engine was 'frozen' and had to be sent to a rebuilder for a complete overhaul...

I installed new wiring, plumbing, pumps, tanks, etc., to bring it up-to-date inside...

I sand blasted the 'beast', and gave it fresh coats of top and bottom paint...

We named our RQ, "Four C's", as there were four in our family, and our sur name started with 'C' (Cellar)...hey, we thought it was clever!

The day came to launch the Four C's, and the boat trucker guy backed into one of the support barrels, knocking the RQ to the ground, breaking the outdrive! We were one bunch of unhappy boaters that day!

After I repaired and installed the outdrive, we tried the launch routine again - this time with success! She floated like a dream, fired right up for our maiden voyage down the river to her new 'home port' at Herman & Helen's Marina near the mighty San Joaquin River!

The old RQ gave us good service for several years, exploring the Delta region - we met several other surviving RQ's in our travels, as those old steel hulls seemed to live forever in the Delta's fresh water rivers and sloughs...

We passed the old RQ along to another family after about five years, as we found an old Marine Trader Trawler to carry our our boating family to greater adventures down to the SF Bay, under the golden Gate Bridge, and out into the ocean a few times...

We still have the old Trawler, for our extended family's enjoyment here on the 1,000 miles of waterways in the Delta that ESG also enjoyed so many years ago...

Ray

Cypress - 12-11-2010 at 01:26 PM

Mexray, Thanks. Good times!:bounce:

Jack Swords - 12-11-2010 at 02:13 PM

On our IPod touch, we can access the Internet, e-mail, etc. from anywhere in the world via wireless. Any wireless that you can connect to serves as a portal to the Internet. In the States, Starbucks, Mcdonalds, etc. have free Wifi. There are free aps that will find nearby Wifi hotspots and map the locations for you. Most libraries have free Wifi. With Skype (also a free ap), you can make phone calls over the Internet for very little money (you have on deposit with Skype). Yahoo messenger, and others, allow Ipod to computer communication (even video calls) for free (Yahoo messenger is also an ap-free). Borders do not matter anymore, it's a brave new world.

bajalera - 12-16-2010 at 05:03 PM

A little drizzle of rain for the Gardner parade:

ESG wrote great Bajadventure prose but was not a friendly outdoor neighbor. We were camped out at the south end of Coyote Bay in 1964, having been given permission to use the little rustic cabin that was there then by the rancher living across the road. This was a favorite Baja campsite of my three pre-teen kids, because there was a little hut alongside the road where a lady sold really great panocha, which she made with a hand-powered cast-iron stirring machine. (There was a lot of truck traffic on the bad old road even in this days, and the little candy shop was a favorite stop for sweet-toothed truckers, too.)

One day an expedition that included just about every off-road vehicle known to man pulled in to the north of us and set up a camp. For a couple of days various odd-looking conveyances came down the beach past us, turned around and passed by again on their way back--but none of the drivers noticed us sitting there.

My two sons kept telling each other they wished we had things like that to ride in.

A woman who I later figured out must have been ESG's Significant Other hiked down the beach and back, and was able to see me. We exchanged smiles but she didn't slow down or say hello.

A boat that passed by close to shore one day was operated by someone at the bow; seated at midsection was a man who stared straight ahead, with arms folded across his chest in a serious, I-am-in-charge sort of way. We saw him again on the road, where he sat staring straigt ahead in a vehicle someone else was driving. Not difficult to Guess Who.

I wanted to go over in the evening for a visit, but my husband the archaeologist didn't think this was a good idea. (Archaeologists are about as territorial as tigers and mocking birds, and he must have suspected that a colleague was invading his territory.)

When the expedition left, its trucks stopped for a time at the base of El Coyote grade, and somebody shouted, "Remember that Power Wagon!" That had to be us. Some of ESG's books have a few sort of paranoid comments about people folllowing his explorers, and we may have filled this role.

We went past the site where they had camped on our way to somewhere else, and there were no signs that anyone had ever been there, although it had been a bit llittered before their arrival.

[Edited on 12-17-2010 by bajalera]

Barry A. - 12-16-2010 at 06:07 PM

ESG was a very busy man, and seldom hob-knobbed with hoi paloi. :lol:

Even when in Baja, he was continually flying back to the States with updates and changes to his manuscripts for PERRY MASON, as I remember. Busy, busy, busy!!!!

He was a difficult man, most of the time, from what I have read, an affliction of many very talented people.

Loved his books.

Barry

David K - 12-16-2010 at 11:33 PM

Gardner (known as 'Uncle Erle' by all in his party) had a softy side...



He loved people... and his Baja books were always about the people he met or where part of his expeditions.

Choral Pepper told me that he was very generous and covered ALL costs for anyone invited to be a part of his expeditions.

bajalera - 12-16-2010 at 11:44 PM

He looked way better staring straight ahead.

capt. mike - 12-17-2010 at 06:18 AM

was he a trained lawyer?

wilderone - 12-17-2010 at 09:11 AM

From Wikipedaea

"Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author of detective stories, who also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr."

TMW - 12-17-2010 at 09:48 AM

It's Wikipedea, don't you know the spell checker will get you for things like this. Where's DK when you need him.

Vince - 12-17-2010 at 02:07 PM

In the mid 1970's I was at my casa on Coyote Bay (near Pompano's old casa) when the wind picked up during the night. I had my 17 foot 1965 Boston Whaler anchored just off shore. At first light I looked out there and it was gone! I ran down the beach to the only other people around and asked a guy with a boat to help me out. We went out looking for my whaler and found it about 10 feet off a point a mile or so away. The rode was too short and the wind just pulled up the Danforth anchor. He introduced himself as J.W. Black and from then on he was my hero. Coyote Bay was one of his favorite camping sites. Another time when I was there he was there with his father. His father died one night on the beach unexpectedly and J. W. put him in a sleeping bag and drove him back home.That was the story.

David K - 12-17-2010 at 07:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Vince
In the mid 1970's I was at my casa on Coyote Bay (near Pompano's old casa) when the wind picked up during the night. I had my 17 foot 1965 Boston Whaler anchored just off shore. At first light I looked out there and it was gone! I ran down the beach to the only other people around and asked a guy with a boat to help me out. We went out looking for my whaler and found it about 10 feet off a point a mile or so away. The rode was too short and the wind just pulled up the Danforth anchor. He introduced himself as J.W. Black and from then on he was my hero. Coyote Bay was one of his favorite camping sites. Another time when I was there he was there with his father. His father died one night on the beach unexpectedly and J. W. put him in a sleeping bag and drove him back home.That was the story.


It was fun when I talked to J.W. Black on the phone researching the location of the 'lost mission' or 'strange walls' for Choral Pepper... J.W. couldn't remember exactly where they found them in 1966, but it was great to talk to another member of the Gardner team! I had also talked with Bruce Barron and Ricardo Castillo... Thanks to Amigos de Baja (incl. Pompano, Barry A, & Lindsay) for the contact information back in 2001.

[Edited on 12-20-2010 by David K]