| Pages:
1
2 |
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Erle Stanley Gardner
Some of you know already the Erle Stanley Gardner was the #1 mystery author of the 1900s, created the character Perry Mason, took him from books to
radio, to television.
Gardner loved the desert and he loved Baja. He wrote several travel adventure books about Baja and the desert between 1948 and 1969.
Choral Pepper was the editor of Desert Magazine during most of the 1960s and her husband Jack was the publisher/owner, in Palm Desert, CA. One day,
the Peppers got a phone call from Erle Stanley Gardner (a subscriber) and he announced he was coming to see them with a proposal.
It's about time I open up my boxes of Choral Pepper's photos and scan more to share... I will add some I do not believe I have scanned before.
1965, searching for lost mines in Arizona.
Gardner and Choral Pepper at a Baja campfire (1966)
Erle and a new friend, El Coyote (Bahía Concepción) 1966
Erle's new Bronco, 1966.
San Ignacio from above.
Crossing the San Ignacio River, before pavement.
River view from the Mulege missions back
Butterfly (3-wheeler) with Erle and Land Rover, at Bahia Concepcion 1966
Mission San Miguel, 1960s
[Edited on 12-5-2020 by David K]
|
|
|
advrider
Super Nomad
Posts: 1864
Registered: 10-2-2015
Member Is Offline
|
|
Very cool David, keep them coming.. Would love to see some of the other add stuff from back in the day as well.
[Edited on 12-5-2020 by advrider]
|
|
|
Phil C
Senior Nomad
Posts: 564
Registered: 3-27-2004
Location: N. San Diego County/ Loreto Centro/Lopez Mateos
Member Is Offline
|
|
Nice photos David. Thanks
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Thanks! I will add more!!
|
|
|
chippy
Super Nomad
Posts: 1722
Registered: 2-2-2010
Member Is Offline
|
|
I am suprized that you didn´t mention the TOYOTA ? What a classic!
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
It was the first photo I posted!
He also owned a Land Rover wagon and had a Bronco when Ford first made them... on the '66 trip.
|
|
|
AKgringo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6035
Registered: 9-20-2014
Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
Member Is Offline
Mood: Retireded
|
|
So...Erle was a pioneer "influencer"?
[Edited on 12-5-2020 by AKgringo]
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Very much so...
The whale watching (1960 book) and painted caves (1962 book) and three-wheeled off road vehicles (1967 book) were made famous or known, thanks to
him... all while we watched Perry Mason on TV!
1960:
1962:
1967:
1968:
[Edited on 12-6-2020 by David K]
|
|
|
chippy
Super Nomad
Posts: 1722
Registered: 2-2-2010
Member Is Offline
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by David K  | It was the first photo I posted!
He also owned a Land Rover wagon and had a Bronco when Ford first made them... on the '66 trip. |
I know but you usually go into a toyota love fest . He had good taste in vehicles!
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
More photos added!
chippy, it was Nomads (Amigos de Baja, then) who turned me onto the Tacoma 4x4, in 2000... Been the best vehicles of my life (on my 3rd and final)!
|
|
|
chippy
Super Nomad
Posts: 1722
Registered: 2-2-2010
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: Originally posted by David K | More photos added!
chippy, it was Nomads (Amigos de Baja, then) who turned me onto the Tacoma 4x4, in 2000... Been the best vehicles of my life (on my 3rd and final)!
|
Never say final! It´s bad luck. Better penultimo!
[Edited on 12-5-2020 by chippy]
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
| Quote: Originally posted by chippy | | Quote: Originally posted by David K | More photos added!
chippy, it was Nomads (Amigos de Baja, then) who turned me onto the Tacoma 4x4, in 2000... Been the best vehicles of my life (on my 3rd and final)!
|
Never say final! It´s bad luck. Better penultimo!
[Edited on 12-5-2020 by chippy] |
Ok, in case I get my own tv show to host! LOL
|
|
|
TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
Good stuff, thanks.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
More
The Grasshopper was the custom JW Black-made dune buggy they used so much.
This image at Mission Santa María in the 60s was printed in reverse.
The original Highway 1 along Bahia Concepción.
Gardner caravan, south of Gonzaga Bay (I think)
|
|
|
Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
|
|
Thanks for the excellent history and photographs!
Wonderful aerial view of old San Ignacio. Makes it clear where "La Huerta" hotel gets its name.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
|
|
|
LancairDriver
Super Nomad
Posts: 1593
Registered: 2-22-2008
Location: On the Road
Member Is Offline
|
|
Thanks David. Really great shots of the good old days in Baja.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
| Quote: Originally posted by Whale-ista | Thanks for the excellent history and photographs!
Wonderful aerial view of old San Ignacio. Makes it clear where "La Huerta" hotel gets its name. |
My pleasure... It was people like Erle Stanley Gardner and Choral Pepper who made Baja so appealing to explore when I was a kid. 'Off the Beaten Track
in Baja' (the one you see above) was a book I asked my mom to buy for me when I was 10 years old, in 1967! Choral Pepper's Baja book came out in 1973,
as I was starting high school... I really loved it!
Here are both editions of her book (1973 & 1975):
It was such a thrill to meet and become friends of Choral in the final years of her life.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64865
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
More ESG books (that are not Perry Mason stories)
1948:
1961:
1963:
(a gift from elgatoloco and Baja Barb, 11/2001)
1965:
(Internet photo)
1968:
I have alose read Erle's final Mexico book, but it was borrowed and not in my collection. From 1969:
(photo from Internet, this book had almost no Baja content)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gardner was fascinated with houseboats in the Sacramento Delta, too (photos from Internet):
1965:
1967:
Choral Pepper told me that she could not figure out why Erle had this fascination with those 'house boaters'!
|
|
|
HeyMulegeScott
Senior Nomad
Posts: 699
Registered: 8-25-2009
Location: Orygone/Mulege
Member Is Offline
|
|
These are awesome. Thanks for sharing.
|
|
|
K7BVT
Junior Nomad
Posts: 57
Registered: 8-24-2012
Member Is Offline
|
|
Erle Stnley Gardner
One of my favorite Gardner saying is 'When driving on desert roads it is best to slow down so you will get to your destination sooner.'
|
|
|
| Pages:
1
2 |
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
