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bajabif
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who said it was lost in the first place? it was right there all along
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BajaNomad
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David - a big congratulations sir. Thanks for the before and after pics - I've enjoyed them along with everyone else. Amazing to think how old those
desert plants truly are.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
https://www.regionalinternet.com
Affordable Domain Name Registration/Management & cPanel Web Hosting - since 1999 |
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Mango
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Congratulations David K. The story of this mission has indeed been intriguing over the years and I am glad you were able to find the site.
It might be a good idea to report your find to someone at the INAH or a professor at UABC, etc. Then again.. maybe it wouldn't. It could be good to
have someone thoroughly survey/map and document the area.
Either way, right on DK!
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Sharksbaja
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Doug is right. Look at those little plants, they have hardly grown in 40 years. Wow!
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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David K
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It really is amazing at how slow the plants grow... That a simple ocotillo is alive perhaps for may human generations. Cardons and boojums may be a
thousand years old?
Tonight, while taking a break from the computer, I was comparing the 1966 photo and last Friday's photo... Elizabeth did a good job of being in almost
the same spot as Choral, when she took the photo. I can actually see the rock I was standing on... in the 1966 photo! I have a LOT more photos of the
site, stay tuned to the Trip Reports forum!
Yes Corky, there were a 'ton' of clam shells and oyster shells up on the mesa, above the wall... I have photos of them... will post soon in the trip
reports thread. We did not search the desert beyond the base of the mesa... Only saw part of one wall on the desert floor, to the north of the mesa.
Choral did write that the wall went across the valley... ?
Frankly, I was amazed that so much of what Choral said was spot on, no embellishment necessary!
Thank you Doug for the nice words... and other Nomads, too! I am just so very happy to share this 're-discovery' with you all.
I will soon give exact directions to the site... It can be reached by 2WD, high clearance vehicles, no problem (dry weather).
The mesa climb is difficult and perhaps almost dangerous... So, use caution when climbing... I did hurt myself when I went to see the cave, when the
lava gave way under my feet and I fell a few feet, landing on my left arm... My blood marked the spot... Just like at the steep grade near Mision
Santa Maria from the first time I was there on a quad, and wiped out! The name 'widowmaker' has since been applied to that grade! Someone could easily
fall all the way to the desert floor, 100 feet below! The sides are that steep...
The site really seems to be a fort, and maybe a mission would be below, by the dam? Santa Maria Magdalena resembles the first Jesuit colony site at
San Bruno, north of Loreto... from what I have read of it.
[Edited on 1-5-2009 by David K]
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Barry A.
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bump
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David K
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Letter from Choral Pepper's son, 1-5-09
I also posted this in the trip report Part 5:
(fyi: Corke, silent e, is what Choral prefered to be called by friends and family)
1-5-09
David, thanks for sharing your find with my family. To think several times so close and then a satellite image helps you to I.D. the location. It's
unfortunate the historians lost interest in this site. With infrastructures, the location and forever unknown possibilities-much room is left for
speculation and conclusion. A historians dream. But you know what I'm more impressed by are the considerations you and the other contributing Baja
nomads offer in the blog.
I don’t portend to be at any level near what you, Elizabeth and the frequent explores of Baja expertise. I can comment that Corke would be proud to
have associated with you and be remembered in your find.
As a kid in ’63 I stayed home when Corke went with Uncle Earl, J.R. and the rest of the team to Baja. So much was revealed in their stories/ writings
yet it amazes me how much was forgotten. You would have thought with the Bell helicopter, J’R’s “Grasshoppers and Pak-jacs vehicles designed to
explorer Baja, and very capable people every site would have been surveyed and charted. This was roughly done and with minimal impact.
Hell, I was in seventh heaven when we went back in following years, we had no doubt Corke's findings would be revisited. “I’m sure it’s on the other
side of that saguaro, Oh, I remember that old tire fire next to the road, we’re near,” she would say. More times than not we overshot the site but
ended up finding new things to dwell on. Using the same tools of exploration, “feel, stubbornness, a few notes”, 30 some years later Corke made her
last trip to Baja with Denis. The results she wrote about.
What I learned from those years is they all recorded the “moment”. The people (past and present), technology, superstition, speculation came together
for that moment to reveal parts of Baja past and then to retreat as if it was sacred ground “forgotten”.
What I love is the time line of discovery and rediscovery. You are walking the site some 45 years later. Who was there before you? Were those shells
left in the last 30 years?
Was that cave man made? Will your boot soles be around when the next explorer discover the site?
Keep in touch.
Happy new years and thanks,
Trent
[Edited on 1-7-2009 by David K]
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Sharksbaja
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What a nice and romantic letter. David, I'm sure you're proud to be part of the family so to speak. Thanks for sharing it!
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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David K
Honored Nomad
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De nada!
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Debra
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wow! YOU FINALLY FOUND IT! Congrats!! Did you wet your pants, jump for joy or just scream into the hills?!
Funny, a few weeks ago I was on the way to Las Animas and scaned the hills myself, giggling ("Dad it's lost aready, that is why they call it a lost
mission" how did Christopher react to your news?) remembering the trip we took, and I swear I thought I saw something man made like the pictures you
showed me years ago. Of course I knew it couldn't be the "mission" as it was too close to the road and in plain view.
I'm very,very happy for you and I know Corke was looking down and also jumping for joy!
Mean people suck!
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Graham
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Location: San Diego and DeTour, MI
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David,
Congratulations!
Fascinating, thought-provoking stuff. Thanks for documenting it so well, and to Sharksbaja for the great work with the satellite imagery.
Easy to imagine Choral Pepper's spirit, smiling, back there with you.
Wonderful to share your enthusiasm and excitement. Makes me want to get my boots on, load up a burro, and head way south.
Graham
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Debra
wow! YOU FINALLY FOUND IT! Congrats!! Did you wet your pants, jump for joy or just scream into the hills?!
Funny, a few weeks ago I was on the way to Las Animas and scaned the hills myself, giggling ("Dad it's lost aready, that is why they call it a lost
mission" how did Christopher react to your news?) remembering the trip we took, and I swear I thought I saw something man made like the pictures you
showed me years ago. Of course I knew it couldn't be the "mission" as it was too close to the road and in plain view.
I'm very,very happy for you and I know Corke was looking down and also jumping for joy! |
YES... I almost did... I think I cried a tear of joy! I will let Baja Angel tell you my words or how I uttered them when I saw that palm! That was it
for me... I knew we had found it! Sarah was very happy, she was thrilled... Chris hasn't heard yet... I will let him know soon.
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Graham
David,
Congratulations!
Fascinating, thought-provoking stuff. Thanks for documenting it so well, and to Sharksbaja for the great work with the satellite imagery.
Easy to imagine Choral Pepper's spirit, smiling, back there with you.
Wonderful to share your enthusiasm and excitement. Makes me want to get my boots on, load up a burro, and head way south.
Graham |
What an honor to hear this from you Sr. Mackintosh! Thank you sir!!
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Graham
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David,
De nada. Your painstaking postings and attention to detail are truly humbling.
Thanks for the inspiration and for promoting such fascinating debate and speculation. Choral Pepper would have loved that.
Recalled our get together with her way back when…what a delightful and generous lady.
Graham
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David K
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The time when you and I went there together was fun... Neal and Marian Johns were there, too.
Choral (Corke) invited me back several times to go over the new 'Baja Missions, Mysteries and Myths' book editing... this was after the publisher
added new demands on Choral she wasn't willing or able to comply with and gave me the book m/s to do what I wished with.
Every time I am sure we talked about the Santa Maria Magdalena site... she really wanted to go back and see it, we could find it again!
Here is a photo of us taken about 2001.
[Edited on 1-8-2009 by David K]
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David K
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The clues and the find... Da Vinci Code style.
The entire chapter is posted in the Nomad Historical Interests and Literature forum... Here is the part of Choral's book with what the Erle Stanley
Gardner team saw in February, 1966... What I have been looking for, all these years:
===================================================
There it was, a primitive dam among rocks and dead trees with a scraggly date palm standing alone. Usually date palms appear in groves. This one was
relatively young, so must have sprouted from seeds dropped by dead ones.
We left our grasshoppers to climb into the ravine and examine remnants of the dam that once held water in a natural reservoir. An ancient wall
half-buried in sand angled from the dam to stretch in broken sections across the level valley. Then, from the other end, a similar wall serpentined up
the side of a steep mountain. It was easy to miss, as the stones were coated with desert varnish and melded into the rocky terrain. The upper parts of
the wall, constructed above a thicker base typical of mission trails, remained in only a few places. The top of the mountain appeared flat, but its
sides were steep. From where we stood, we could only guess at a structure on top.
It was a hot day and a climb up the hill uninviting, but somehow I felt we’d discovered something interesting. Subsequent research proved me right
about that, as established in my earlier Baja books. Today it is generally accepted that this is the old Jesuit mission of Santa Maria Magdalena,
which was never finished, and which had necessitated the Padres Gulfo Camino, later abandoned.
In the first place, the rock-lined wall leading up the steep hill was an enormously ambitious project, much more than Indians native to Baja would
have undertaken on their own. Then, the rocks on the walls were heavily coated with desert varnish, all of it deposited on the upper sides. This black
coating on rocks called desert varnish occurs in desert regions all over the world, often on the faces of rocky cliffs as well as on rock covered
ground. European scientists refer to it as dunkel Riden and believe it is caused when rainwater soaks into the rock and is then brought back to the
surface by capillary action of the sun. Here it evaporates, leaving a deposit of the chemicals with which it becomes charged according to the
composition of the rock itself. If there is too much moisture, it departs the rock in liquid form and carries the salts with it. If there is too
little moisture, salts are not dissolved to form the varnish on top while unexposed sides remain natural. In desert climates like Baja, it can take
many centuries to form. In less than several hundred years the tops of all these rocks would not have tanned to the same degree. On the plateau at the
top of the mountain, the wall continued around the edge, but in several areas there were large piles of rock, that appeared to have fallen, or been
knocked down, from a larger structure, possibly a lookout tower.
We were intrigued by a series of rock rings grouped in a colony at the far end of the plateau, some with adjoining openings as if to designate
separate rooms. Early Baja natives connected with the missions often lived in circular pens of stones, sleeping on the bare ground. Eroded clamshells
lay among the rings, suggesting the pens had held people, not cattle.
In view of extensive walls in the now arid valley below and the number of huge old trees, many dead, there must have been a live spring dammed there
at one time. Walls designed to confine cattle as well as the presence of a date palm clearly indicated missionary direction. But historical as well as
physical evidence re-enforced my identification of the site as Santa Maria Magdalena.
====================================================
Here is what Baja Angel and I saw in January, 2009:
1) Primitive dam
2) Scraggly date palm standing alone
3) Reservoir that once held water (photo from mesa)
4) Ancient wall, half-buried in sand
5) Then, from the other end, a similar wall serpentined up the side of a steep mountain. It was easy to miss, as the stones were coated with desert
varnish and melded into the rocky terrain.
6) The top of the mountain appeared flat, but its sides were steep.
TOP:
SIDES (notice the slide/ chute, cleared of rocks):
7) On the plateau at the top of the mountain, the wall continued around the edge
8) in several areas there were large piles of rock, that appeared to have fallen, or been knocked down, from a larger structure, possibly a lookout
tower.
9) We were intrigued by a series of rock rings grouped in a colony at the far end of the plateau, some with adjoining openings as if to designate
separate rooms
10) Eroded clamshells lay among the rings, suggesting the pens had held people, not cattle.
Yup... the clues were right on target... and with Sharksbaja sharp eye in GoogleEarth spotting a wall from space, the mystery as to where the old
mission or whatever site was, was solved!
[Edited on 1-9-2009 by David K]
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Barry A.
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BINGO!!!! Excellent post, David.
You are certainly able to cry "EUREKA" on this find, Dr. Holmes.
(and to think I drove right by that place at least 12 times in the last 26 years)
Barry
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David K
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Site Marked
I went over the Google Earth 3-D images of the site and made some changes/ additions:
First, the mesa, looking west, unmarked...
With label marks, looking northwest...
looking west...
looking south...
and looking northeast...
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Steve in Oro Valley
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Great Trip, David!!
Sta Maria Magdalena site?
This site reminds me of the TRINCHERAS sites of Northern Sonora and also near Tucson...
The indigenous peoples were successful for 100s of years in trapping water for agricultural purposes long before the advent of Jesuits...
Tinaja Santa Maria: (nearby)
Also, I noticed that there are two La Unions and two la Polea references on my maps (one near El Arco) and both or one appear to be on the Camino
Real...
Do you know what the two La Unions are about?
Thanks
Steve in Oro Valley
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David K
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Hi Steve, I am looking for any input on what the purpose of the parallel walls are going up the side of the mesa (one lone, one short, on the
saddle)... Directing sheep to the top of the mesa was one. The 'chute' is real steep, but free of rocks. If not to drag supplies up by rope from the
desert floor, then could livestock climb up that? Then at the top of the really steep slope at the end of the chute, you are in the area between the
two walls... at the lower end.
Tinaja Santa Maria is a ways south, just off the Golfo Camino Real... La Union is on the Camino Real northwest of Santa Gertrudis. Have you seen this
thread I did on the Camino Real... La Union (a ranch) is included: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=36002
The other La Union, I don't know... I have only seen it on the Baja Almanac.
[Edited on 1-9-2009 by David K]
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