Outdoor Adventure USA

A little bit of a departure this week due to some calendaring and work related conflicts. Our net this week will cover two separate adventures located in two different states.

• 1. Kokoweef - California Mojave Desert
  The Kokoweef story is as mysterious as any you will find. The story begins during the depths of the depression and continues today. The gold find of Earl Dorr started a quest for his "river of gold" that is still being sought today.
  
  2. The Yuma Territorial Prison - Arizona
  While the Yuma Territorial Prison (YTP) was not used very long, its reputation was known throughout the west. It's history, secrets and legends are fascinating.
  
  Pictures, links and information to follow.

Please check me in for this evening. Thanks.

KOKOWEEF

The Kokoweef story began in 1934, during the depth of the depression, when Earl Dorr penned his now famous "Sworn Statement", concerning his find in the County of San Bernardino. The caves which he claimed to have found were (and possibly are) in the Eastern Mojave Desert near Kokoweef Peak (thus, it's name). The extent to which the desperate times of the depression helped fuel interest in his find, is impossible to know, but logic certainly suggests that it did. The prospect of finding this "river of gold" must have been nearly impossible to ignore, especially when times were so difficult.

One can look to countless reasons why the "find" may have been exaggerated, or even untrue, but the one that jumps out immediately is found in the last paragraph of the last page. Keep in mind that mining operations are work intensive, time consuming and VERY expensive, and rarely did the prospector who found the gold, have the resources to fund large scale operations to extract it. Mining history is rich with stories of gold strikes which were sold (or in which an investment was made) which turned out to be overstated or just untrue. Obviously the savvy investor (or buyer) needed to do his homework. This paragraph states:

I, E. P. Dorr, residing at 390 Adena Street Pasadena, California, make the following statements for the purpose of inducing investors to invest in the work of mining the gold in these caves, and I solemnly swear that all statements made hereinabove are true and that all persons will find the physical conditions in the cave as above stated.

On the other hand, however, there are sufficient facts in Dorr's Statement that ring true enough to give credibility to the story. The credibility of Dorr's claims are supported by the continued interest in finding the "river of gold", which remain, even to the present. All of the images below are from the Kokoweef website at http://www.kokoweef.com.

Here is the Statement:
Here are drawings of the Caves or caverns:

YUMA TERRITORIAL PRISON

The Yuma Territorial Prison has become a western legend, and for many good reasons. Yuma is famous for many things, but there is no getting around the FACT that it is one of the hottest places in the country. During the summer time, the temps are regularly above 115 degrees, and when the prison was in operation, Yuma was a remote and desolate location, making escapes rare and very dangerous. In a dramatic departure from today's prisons, the prisoners at the YTP were forced to actually build the prison and live in the extreme conditions of the Yuma Desert.

The Yuma Territorial Prison website (http://www.yumaprison.org) recounted the reasons why the Prison was nicknamed "the Hell Hole":

Prisoners feared and loathed the Territorial Prison

"Insufferable heat... that made the place an inferno."
Surrounded by rivers, quick sand and desert in all directions.
An inhuman "Snake Den" and Ball and Chain as standard punishment.
Tuberculosis is #1 Killer
"Impossible to endure, more impossible to escape."

For all its negatives, the YTP had a remarkably enlightened approach, which we will discuss during the net. The YTP only lasted 33 years, from 1876 to 1909 and during its life, it housed a total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women. Over crowding eventually took its toll and the prisoner population was moved elsewhere and again, forced to build another prison.

Here are some pictures of the Prison as it exists today.

Entrance
Cell Row
Cells
Dark Cell
Guard Tower

FAMOUS YUMA TERRITORIAL PRISON INMATES

Here are the pictures. The details will be on the net. Look at the ID on each photo for the inmate's name:

The fascination with the Kokoweef river of gold has been fueled by newspaper accounts, magazine articles, and mining journals. The area surrounding Kokoweef Peak is now a privately run operation whose goal, at least in part, is to find Earl Dorr's treasure. One of the best sources of information on the history and developments of the Door legend is http://www.kokoweef.com. A visit to this website is mandatory if this has piqued your interest.

Here are a couple of articles that give a good view of the level of fascination that exists, even today:

1. California Mining Journal

2. The Legend of the Kokoweef By Bob Ausmus

KK6CTT for an online check-in please. Thank you.