Outdoor Adventure USA

Many know that one of the very best books on the Anza Borrego Desert State Park and the surrounding area is the book by Lowell and Diana Lindsay. Over the years it has been updated to reflect changing conditions in the park as well as changing Park rules for use of its nearly 600 miles of off pavement trails. As last year's Borrego Fest participants will remember, Diana and Lowell were our guest speakers on Friday evening discussing the many new sculptures that grace the Anza Borrego Desert.

This year Diana and Lowell will again join us for a special presentation at 8:30 PM on Friday evening, 10/19/12. The topic will be one of Anza Borrego's most famous (past) residents - Marshal South. The presentation will take place at the community room at the Butterfield Ranch Resort. Diana will have several of her books available for sale, including "the Anza Borrego Desert Region", books on Marshal South, and books on other areas of interest for this area.

Here is a preview of the presentation:

For 17 years, from 1930 to 1947, poet, artist, and author Marshal South and his family lived on Ghost Mountain—a remote, waterless, windswept mountaintop in Blair Valley on the western edge of the Colorado Desert, now part of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. They sought to reconnect with the earth and prove that life did not have to be constrained by society’s conventions and harried routines. Over a period of nine of the years spent on Ghost Mountain, South chronicled his family’s controversial primitive and natural lifestyle through monthly articles written for Desert Magazine. His articles were the reality entertainment of the day—a sort of early version of Survivor with thousands of readers awaiting the next installment. South’s experiment in primitive living ended abruptly in the fall of 1946. He died soon after a bitter divorce. His wife lived another 50 years (until 1997) and never granted an interview. With her passing, South’s son, Rider South, was willing to tell the real story of what happened on Ghost Mountain.

If you have enjoyed any of the issues of "desert Magazine" , you will recognize Marshal South as a regular contributor. Maybe we can get TIm to post a few.

For those who want to get the Marshal South book (entitled "Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles, an Experiment in Primitive Living") before the presentation, it can be ordered directly from Sunbelt at http://www.sunbeltbooks.com.

Everyone is welcome. Check with DaveK, Ollie, Larry or TomS for details.

This is a picture of the South family one year before the experiment ended.

Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to it.