Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126338
N T f- lWENTY·NINE PALMS LOS ANGELES . Hwy.62 OLD DALE DALE '1j . DRY LAKE Hwy . 177 J OSHUA TREE NATIONAL Over the Hill -to Dale By Don Lemaste r Goldl An almost magical word describing a rare mineral found mostly in remote, out of the way places . Of course, on weekends , that's where you'll find your average motorcyle rider; seeing ne w pl a ces, riding the I sitting a round in the eve ni ng 18 . w~~Is?ff !~~ir,I?~u~~ .~~~..t~~~.J , ~!lPpl'}g~'~a ~to'ie:= a~out their_ adventures. So , why not combine both and ride the gold country? Digging into history has always been a turn-on for me and I try not to be surprised when I find info that lets me know what a small world it really is. A case in point is when CN editor Dale Brown asked me what I had on tap for articles that trailbikers would appreciate. As luck would have it, I was considering a story about the Da le (no relation) gold mining district. I had been doing some research on the m ines and ca me across something that tied in wit h a n ea rlier article I had written for Cycle News abou t the last manhunt in t he West (Willie Boy Was Here, J anua ry 6, 1976) . It seems that one of the posse members ch asing Wi llie Boy was named Be n De'C revecouer and a re la t ive of his showed up in my resea rch on the Da le Mines. Rona ld Dean Miller in Mines OJ The High Desert quoted Dave Poste, who ran the Virginia Da le Mine in the '20's, _as saying: "Waldemar DeCrevecour , while working in the blacksmith shop, leaned over a box nea r the wall to pick up something he dropped . When he had straightened u p , a large rattlesnake, which had struck at him, was hanging from his shirt front , its fangs caught in the cloth. Keeping the shirt away from his body, Wal calmly stepped a cross the room, lowered the snake into an open vise and tightened it firm ly on its head. He then took out a knife, cut away the piece of shirt in wh ich the fa ngs were entangled , put on his ha t and left New Da le for good. Legend states that Waldema r, who too k the stage to Redl a nds , fa inted as he alighted from the coach." That's the kind of vignette that m a kes me want to d ig a litt le deeper wh ile poi nti ng out once again that it's a small wor ld. I hadn't been to the Dale district for several years so I gave myse lf an "excuse" to go for a trail rid e , take some pho tos a nd refresh m y memory in t h a t late 1800 's gold field. Ra tiona lize , rationalize! W ho needs an excuse to go riding? 1 - __ Aft er getting ou t the to po maps for Dale Lake, Eagle Tank ( Pinto Basin ) and Pi nkh a m Well (Lost Horse Mountain), I decided that the good 01' Auto Cl ub maps of Riverside and San Bernardino counties would work fine for all but the most dedicated purist. All the mines and the major dirt roads' are marked on the Auto Club maps. I stress the main travelled dirt roads, " There are all the miles you would want(l to ride out there without leaving them . Besides, there are unmarked." m inesha fts out in the midd le or ' nowhere. I'm not trying to frighten you . Just making you cautious. Twenty -Nine Palms Highway . ;] Highway 62 , roughly follows an old q Indian trail used by the Serranosqq Cherneh uevis and . Paiutes to travel ll from the Colorado R ive r to theJI Banning area. When the white man q was shown the route by Indians in the q mid 1800 's, the Indian presence began 'J to decline. The whites brought ini cattle and then found go ld near the 29." Pal m s Oasis (then called Pa lm 1 Sp rings) . The fact tha t the In d ia ns.,,, had a village at t he watering SPo\ di d n't stop the intrude rs from I' homesteading the Ind ia n's waterhole. Not much la ter , at Burt's Lake (later called Dale Lake), near the Pinto Mountains 18 miles east of the· Oasis the white discovered gold in 5 larger quanitties and the rush was on. The prospectors soon found that their ; greatest problem was water. Water to survive on and water to run the mines:" A well in the dry lake bed solved this problem and placer mining was good , for awhile on the edge of the lake. " Prospecto rs next spread out into the'~ Pintos and did fairly well for ~ themselves . m I set out to renew my acquaintance. I with the historical district on a fine spring day. The winter rains had madey the desert look like a green alfalfan field. Instead of trucking my bike to the mines , I elected to ride the dirt roads about' 45 miles each way froma Ii friend's weekend cabin north ofj oshua ] Tree, even though there are plenty of '} places to set up camp in the Da le district. Many, small, flat p lateaus.)2 a nd cleared spots affo rd good · , loca tions for housekeeping . AnotheriJ sma ll wa rni ng. Don't ca m p in t~~ u washes. You might sudden ly find yourself awash in a flash flood! .sri East 14.4 miles of the traffic signald in the town of Twenty-Ni ne Palms iso Gold Crown Road (you turn to the right). On the left, or north, side ofu the road is a ll that remains of the town '! of Ol d Dale: a n old riveted water t ank on stilts, some concrete foundations and a dirt loading ram p:.. Of course, the usual saloons and freight stops were there at one time, J ust across the road from the Dale site b is a concrete reservoir, foundations , a nd a water tank on a tower. Pa int ed o on the tank are the words "Thornton's Com er. " lq The name Thornton rang a bell. In researching the article I relied heavily on Miller's Mines OJ The High Desert. , O n page 55 he writes, "Mickey Thornton lived there (New Dale) from I 1950 until his d ea t h a decade ago. He hoped tha t the camp woul d someday co me back to life. It may have been I wishful thi nking, but he named his claims the Ra inbow Group . Mickey r was ha lf-Irish and ha lf- Indian. This m ixtu re often led him in to troub le.a «« wit h the law . "Every few mon ths he wou ld feel t he a d esire for a trip to t he b ig city . As soon ~ as he go t into tow n, he woul d celebrate ) his arrival at the nea rest liar. After l many elbow -bendings and hea rt y" backsla ps, he wou ld buy a sack of eggs and take a walk around to wn . When Mickey met some one, he would greet him cheerily. If there were a frie ndly re ply, he would go happily on his way