December 1st I had some prostate surgery and haven’t been able to do much physically during the recovery phase. To occupy the hours, have been reading
quite a bit. One of the books was “Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert”. When hiking in the San Pedro Martir in the 80’s, we followed a stream
going westward from the La Grulla meadow. There were literally hundreds of miniature trout in that stream. We even tried to catch them by hand. On
other trips, I fished for them by Mike’s Sky Ranch with light fly gear. John Gardner described them as salmo nelsoni in his classic “Climbing and
Hiking in Baja”. By chance, I noticed that the peninsular sheep and a small rodent was also “nelsoni” in the former book and wondered if they were
named for the same man.
So many obscure documents are now available on the web. The first document I found by Edward William Nelson (1855-1934) was a summary of his four
years work around the Bering Strait: https://archive.org/stream/eskimoberingstrait00nelsrich#page... He became proficient at arctic survival and got around with a dog sled team. He
researched the the Inuit peoples in the area and collected thousands of artifacts and recorded “the people” as they existed around 1880. The skill set
and courage needed to do this boggles the mind.
Of course, I had to know about the nelsoni trout. Nelson took on the Baja California peninsula in March of 1905 until February of 1906, using some
horses and a few pack mules. He crossed the peninsula 8 times when he journeyed from Ensenada to the tip. The nelsoni trout were mentioned on page 22,
in the Santo Domingo River. The constant theme is the number of ranches and industries that were tried and failed in Baja. Also, count the number of
dry camps he had. This guy was the real deal. Love his story, pages 13 thru 48 of this tome: https://books.google.com/books/about/Lower_California_and_It...
Thanks to David K, DianaT and the countless other Nomads who have made this month better for me.
Happy Holidays,
John
[Edited on 12-28-2015 by JohnMcfrog]David K - 12-27-2015 at 10:54 PM
Awesome, and thank you for the post on Nomad with links.redhilltown - 12-28-2015 at 12:28 AM
Great post!!!Maron - 12-28-2015 at 09:28 AM
Nice post and picture. Get and stay wellJohnMcfrog - 12-30-2015 at 06:31 AM
Mentioned in the above narrative about Nelson's Baja exploration is a solo side trip by his assistant Mr. E. A. Goldman to the Santa Claras, near
Punta Abreojos. My friend Denny and I went there two years ago this month and did a circumnavigation of one of the Rhyolite domes. Beautiful, rough
area that feels like time has forgotten.
Lost Denny the week before Christmas. This December has been one to forget, but should get the doctor's OK today to get back to my normal schedule of
activities. Looking forward to greeting the New Year in our local desert.
David K - 12-30-2015 at 07:19 AM
Interesting! Do let me know if you find any signs of Spanish/Jesuit activity!
From a chapter on lost missions in my new book coming out in 2016:
San Juan Bautista (Santa Clara)
The third mission the Jesuits listed on their 1745 report and the 1757 map as ‘started,’ was named San Juan Bautista. The 1757 map has it located
west of San Ignacio in the Sierra Santa Clara, north of Punta Abreojos. While there is at least one reliable water spring in these desert hills, no
ruins have ever been documented to exist. The Lost Santa Clara Mission legend is well known to locals.
When the Jesuits were expelled from the New World by order of King Carlos III, some believe they had advance warning and collected all their valuable
church possessions and treasures to hide in a secret mission. Santa Clara is considered by many as the best choice for this mission.
To David K:
Ed, my neighbor in Punta Abreojos, (who was one of the smartest and old timer gringos there) always said that the best place to look for the lost
Santa Clara mission would be around one of the ranchos there in the Santa Claras. The reason being that the ranchos have a permanent water source
close and that although it is possible there were other sources in other times, why not first look where there is water now.
To Bajaguy:
Thanks so much for that piece of the trout puzzle!
Happy New Year!
[Edited on 12-30-2015 by JohnMcfrog]David K - 12-30-2015 at 02:20 PM
I will always remember when Whistler (Glenn) introduced me to the Punta Abreojos ejido or co-op president and his assistants when they came up to
their Ensenada home/office on business (back in 2001 or about)... He called me the man who looks for Lost Missions... and immediately they all said
"SANTA CLARA!"David K - 12-30-2015 at 02:26 PM
They are beautiful! Not sure if it is in the links on that page, but the story of Mr. Utt and how he transplanted the trout from the one stream to
others in the San Pedro Martir mountains is interesting.
bajaric - 12-31-2015 at 08:39 AM
JMcFrog, thanks for posting the link to Nelson's report. I really enjoyed reading it, what an adventure. Numerous mention is made of abandoned
mining camps, most of which I knew about but some I had never heard of. Here is a (somewhat far fetched) theory that occurred to me in reading the
description of the giant boulders washed far in to the desert by flash floods. Regarding the lost Mission / treasure legend, suppose they buried the
treasure in some remote location, then a flood such as they could never imagine swept it all away. A couple hundred years later some hardscrabble
miner dug a few pounds of "gilded stones" out of an arroyo, never imagining that he was in actuality mining the lost treasure of the Jesuits.David K - 12-31-2015 at 09:07 AM
It is these stories the create excitement and a desire to go and see Baja in person. For that reason, lost treasure fables are valuable. However, do
know that the Jesuits had no accumulated treasures to hide. The altar pieces were taken by the Franciscans unless a few were hidden by the Indians or
soldiers between the time the Jesuits were forced from their missions and the Franciscans arrived to replace them.
Life at a California mission was harsh and all available time was devoted to food production and building churches, dams, canals, and roads. That is
the treasure we have to enjoy today... seeing what great energy was expanded 200-300+ yeatrs ago in this harsh land.
