Joshua Tree National Park (Part 2)

Over time, Hoyt argued that the more than 1,100,000-acre area east of Palm Springs from Twentynine Palms to the Salton Sea should receive federal protection, especially after Death Valley was proclaimed a national monument in 1933. Early that year, California Assembly Member John Phillips introduced a bill for a much smaller "California Desert Park" in the Lost Horse Valley area but this was vetoed by Governor James Rolph, Jr. at Hoyt’s request. Later in the year, California obtained an alternative tract of land used to establish Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This eliminated any immediate threat that a state park might be established in the area where Hoyt desired a national park unit.

Hoyt next met with NPS officials in Washington, D.C. where her proposed unit took on the name “Desert Plant National Park.” She convinced Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes that the area needed to be further studied and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6361 temporarily removing about 1,136,000 acres from the public domain. In 1934, Hoyt led Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Roger Toll on a four-day inspection of the withdrawn area but Toll reported that it was not suitable for a national park and suggested that a smaller national monument would be more appropriate. After receiving considerable pushback from the scientific community, politicians, and the general public, the NPS sent Assistant Director Harold C. Bryant to carry out a second evaluation of the withdrawn area a few months later. He supported the idea of a larger national monument than that suggested by Roger Toll but noted that the vast amount of land required would be incredibly difficult to acquire from its various owners. In recognition of her efforts, many Californians expressed support for naming the potential reserve “Minerva Hoyt National Monument,” although Hoyt preferred "Joshua Tree National Monument." 

Rock climbers call this monolith on Hidden Valley Trail the Great Burrito.

In 1935, William and Elizabeth Campbell conducted the first paleontological study in the proposed monument area. They discovered horse and llama fossils as well as stone tools and spear points associated with the Pinto Culture, further strengthening the case for a national monument. However, as Bryant predicted, acquiring the land proved to be the greatest hurdle. The Southern Pacific Railroad (SPRR) owned large tracts of land in the proposed monument area as did the State of California while a multitude of private individuals held smaller parcels. In addition, some infrastructure was constructed through the area including a Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Los Angeles aqueduct, a state highway from Indio to Blythe, and telephone transmission lines. Public Law 74-838 allowed the acquisition of 42,000 acres held by the state in exchange for other federal lands used for the expansion of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. However, negotiations for the remainder of the lands held by other entities were slow and ineffective. Vandalism and the unencumbered removal of desert plants continued to denude the area, forcing Hoyt to compromise on a smaller monument that could be expanded in the future. The final proposed area consisted of 825,340 acres with the northern boundary at the road to Twentynine Palms and the southern boundary at the right of way for the MWD's aqueduct, eliminating the need to acquire a large portion of the land owned by the SPRR. On August 10, 1936, President Roosevelt invoked the power of the 1906 Antiquities Act to issue Proclamation 2193 establishing Joshua Tree National Monument. 

From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, climbing groups like The Desert Rats created many of the popular routes that scale Intersection Rock including the North Overhang, Upper Right Ski Track, and Left Ski Track. In 1970, John Wolfe co-authored The Desert Rats Uninhibited Climber's Guide to Joshua Tree National Monument which brought attention to the area and quickly made Joshua Tree a world-renowned rock climbing site.

This bus was painted matte black to allow others to draw on it with chalk.

Yosemite National Park Superintendent Colonel Charles G. Thomson was the first person assigned to manage Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. After Colonel Thomson died in 1937, this responsibility was officially inherited by his replacement at Yosemite, Lawrence Merriam, although the de facto manager of Joshua Tree National Monument during this time was James E. Cole, who was named its superintendent in 1940. That year saw the Southern Pacific Railroad (SPRR) relinquish 105,240 acres to the monument as part of the Transportation Act of 1940. However, this would be the last positive development for the acquisition of non-federal lands within the monument for many years. The establishment of the monument allowed existing mines and claims to continue as long as they were actively worked and produced sufficient ore but any new claims were banned. This incensed the mining community which sought to overturn the ban or abolish the monument entirely. Their dissent led to discussions over the potential deletion of the eastern section, where the majority of mining claims were located, in order to ensure the survival of the monument and keep mining banned across its entire extent. This upset Minerva Hoyt who galvanized her allies to write letters opposing the idea and this temporarily maintained the status quo.

In 1941, Superintendent Cole designed and graded the first road system in the monument based on existing primitive auto trails, most of which still exists as paved roads or jeep trails in the park. He also collected about 250 plant specimens, called “vouchers,” that he labeled with information such as the location, elevation, and habitat in which they were found for an herbarium to aid future resource managers in preserving biodiversity. In 1942, Limitation Order L-208 declared gold mining as a non-essential industry during World War II. With the need for steel during the war, Kaiser Steel, Inc. acquired a steel mill in Fontana and bought the Iron Chief Mine from the SPRR, bringing large-scale development to the already problematic eastern portion of the monument. In 1943, Bill Keys shot and killed Worth Bagley during a dispute caused by Keys crossing Bagley’s property to water his cattle and repair a pump. Keys was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nine years in San Quentin Prison while his wife was forced to sell their cattle to pay the attorney’s fees. In 1945, Limitation Order L-208 was revoked, Minerva Hoyt passed away, and the first of a series of four bills were introduced to eliminate the eastern portion of the monument based on recommendations made by Superintendent Cole. In 1948, Keys was released from prison after serving more than five years of his sentence thanks to the help of Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason novels. Keys resumed operation of the Desert Queen Mine, raised the walls of the Barker Dam in 1949-1950, and was ultimately granted a full pardon in 1956.

By 1948, Joshua Tree National Monument still contained almost a quarter of all the non-federal land within the national park system which, along with the ongoing attempts to adjust the boundary, tremendously inhibited recreation development and visitor access. Under Superintendents Frank Givens and Samuel A. King the NPS finally encountered success in acquiring significant amounts of non-federal lands within its borders via purchases, exchanges, condemnation of tax delinquent properties, and invalidation of mining claims between 1948-1956. In 1950, Representative John Phillips introduced H.R. 7934 which was passed by Congress and became Public Law 81-837. This authorized the long-anticipated boundary change for the monument, resulting in a net loss of nearly 267,000 acres. The Iron Chief Mine, Dale Mining District, most mountains east of Range 9 East, and private lands along the northern boundary were all removed while most of the over 5,000 mining claims were deleted from the original eastern portion of the monument. Efforts to open the monument to new mining claims were hampered after the passage of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which specified that only an Executive Order issued by the president could permit new mining operations within national parks, monuments, and wildlife areas. In 1954, the park headquarters was opened at the Oasis of Mara which was added as an exclave of the monument in 1961.

Neglect during World War II and a subsequent decade of underfunding left the monument in poor condition but the Mission 66 program paid for the construction of much needed infrastructure, including the visitor center at Twentynine Palms, which was completed in 1963. In 1966, the NPS acquired the property of Bill Keys while allowing him to continue living at his home. He would assist with the monument's interpretation program until his death in 1969. In 1973, Gram Parsons, a member of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, died of a drug overdose at the Joshua Tree Inn and his body was illegally burned near Cap Rock to fulfill his wish of having his ashes scattered there. Between 1975-1976, the Ryan House and Lost Horse Well, Barker Dam, Cow Camp, Keys Desert Queen Ranch, Wall Street Mill, and Desert Queen Mine were added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1976, Public Law 94-567 designated 429,690 acres of Joshua Tree National Monument as wilderness. That same year, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Mining in the National Parks Act made mining in the monument economically infeasible and the few remaining active mines ceased production. Over 300 abandoned mines were later counted within the future park area. By 1977, the NPS reduced the non-federal land in Joshua Tree to 11,470 acres through purchases, exchanges, and takings. In 1981, Kaiser Steel, Inc. closed its steel mill at Fontana and the Eagle Mountain Iron Mine. In 1984, Joshua Tree National Monument, Death Valley National Monument, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and the Santa Rosa Mountains Wildlife Management Area were designated as the four core areas of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. The following year, a native plant nursery was added to the Joshua Tree headquarters to build a stock of plants for the rehabilitation of disturbed areas.

The lower stone portion of Barker Dam was built by C.O. Barker in 1902 while the upper concrete layer was added by Bill Keys in 1949-1950. 

While Joshua Tree National Monument saw numerous positive developments in the latter half of the 20th century, a new controversy was brewing in the desert to the northeast. In 1980, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued the California Desert Plan which proposed the creation of an Eastern Mojave National Scenic Area along with recommendations that 2,100,000 acres of land be designated as wilderness. This region had previously hosted the annual Barstow-to-Las Vegas motorcycle race until it was banned in 1975. Off-road vehicle organizations opposed the plan for infringing on the rights of private citizens while environmentalists found it too weak in its scope. However, many within the government at this time still did not respect the desert as an environment worthy of great protection. Secretary of the Interior James Watt expressed his own disdain for the plan and called for elimination of many of the proposed wilderness study areas as the BLM reopened the Barstow-to-Las Vegas motorcycle race. In response, the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, and other environmental organizations led by Jim Dodson, Judy Anderson, Peter and Joyce Burk, and Elden Hughes formed the California Desert Protection League to support the creation of a Mojave National Park, safeguarding of the proposed wilderness study areas that Watt wanted to do away with, and expansion and improved protections for Joshua Tree and Death Valley. After Superintendent Rick Anderson publicly expressed support for the redesignation of Joshua Tree as a national park, Regional Director Howard Chapman privately berated the monument’s staff, explaining that the "kitty-litter park" was undeserving of higher status. From 1986-1991, four bills were introduced to Congress by California Democratic politicians which would have upgraded Joshua Tree to a national park, three by Senator Alan Cranston and another by Congressmen George Miller, Rick Lehman, and Mel Levine, but each was defeated by Republican opposition. The BLM vigorously contested the bills as it stood to lose nearly three million acres to the NPS that it managed under a multiple-use prescription. Although the fight was decided in the short-term, it would resume again in the near future.

At 5,816 feet, Quail Mountain is the highest point in the park. Mount Minerva Hoyt stands at 5,408 feet behind the prominent Joshua tree on the right.

Keys View Road terminates at Keys View (formerly Inspiration Point) in the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The vista lies at an elevation of 5,185 feet and overlooks the south of the park and beyond. On the horizon to the far left is the Salton Sea and scanning to the right provides views of the Santa Rosa Mountains as well as Indio and the Coachella Valley below. The San Andreas Fault runs through the valley.

A thick blue haze often limits the visibility from this point because Gorgonio Pass funnels smog from southern California into the Coachella Valley. Joshua Tree National Park is one of the most ozone polluted units in the entire national park system.

The San Jacinto Mountains can be seen in this direction with Mount San Jacinto standing as the highest point at 10,834 feet. Below Mount San Jacinto lies the City of Palm Springs.

In 1987, a highly unusual incident occurred at the monument which had its origins at another park. A man named Leslie Marr was arrested for becoming violent after receiving a citation for illegally camping near Phantom Ranch in Grand Canyon National Park. He then missed the hearing for the arrest and called in a bomb threat to the Grand Canyon headquarters. After failing to stop for a traffic violation, California Highway Patrol pursued Marr until he crashed through a retaining wall at the Joshua Tree headquarters. He then lit a flare and fired shots, setting fire to the massive amounts of incendiary materials loaded in his car which killed him in the process. Marr had been on the way to the Grand Canyon where he planned to use the vehicle as a car bomb when he was intercepted by California Highway Patrol.

Reporting on the Marr incident helped to raise the profile of the monument while efforts to make it a national park, publicity from the 1987 U2 album, “The Joshua Tree,” and increasing interest in rock climbing contributed to rising visitation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this time, Kaiser Steel, Inc. attempted to find a profitable use for its Eagle Mountain holdings. The company leased part of the land to a private jail and formed the Mine Reclamation Corporation which proposed the installation of a landfill. The environmental impact of such a venture on the border of a national monument was vehemently protested and the project was defeated following a series of legal challenges brought by individuals such as Donna and Larry Charpied and organizations like the National Parks Conservation Association. The Eagle Mountain Energy Company (later renamed the Eagle Crest Energy Company) alternatively proposed that the abandoned mines be utilized for a hydroelectric project. Although the Eagle Crest Pumped Storage Project has endured its share of legal challenges, it may eventually become a reality.

Oyster Bar is a rock formation on Ryan Mountain, a 5,456-foot peak named after rancher and miner Jepp Ryan.