Welcome!

"What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote." ~Edward Abbey

The 2011-2012 Second Friday Lecture Series continues...
Friday, June 14th at 7:00pm

   Historic Ranching in the California Deserts

    Although principally a prehistoric archaeologist by training, since he joined the Mojave staff, Dr. Bob Bryson has largely focused on preservation issues related to historic ranching and mining in the East Mojave. He arrived at the Preserve at a time when extensive cattle grazing leases were being retired and their historic infrastructure turned over to the NPS. His responsibility was to inventory and evaluate the significance of all of the buildings, corrals, tanks, troughs, and other remains of desert ranching and put together a program for their preservation. Since completing an NRHP nomination for the 845,000 acre Rock Springs Land & Cattle Co. Historic District at Mojave he has turned his attention to the roughly 1700 historic mining features within the Preserve that still possess structural remains in need of stabilization and still pose a safety threat to the visiting public. As a result, Mojave's ongoing preservation program focuses on both historic ranching and mining.
    For the past ten years Bob Bryson has been working for the National Park Service, first as the Park Archaeologist and presently as the Chief of Resource Management at Mojave National Preserve, headquartered in Barstow. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Oregon where he worked on questions surrounding the development of complex chiefdoms in Micronesia and elsewhere in the Pacific. Prior to joining the NPS staff he was a researcher at the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin, helping to develop a macrophysical method of paleoclimatic modeling which he applied to archaeological studies of culture change in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.

There will also be an optional dinner with the speaker at 5 pm at the 29 Palms Inn, space is limited and attendees are responsible for their own meal. If interested in dinner please RSVP to Marion Gartner 760-361-1202 or desert29palms@yahoo.com.

Click here or on the photo above for more information.
Click here to download a flyer for this lecture.

We're now on Summer Hours

The Twentynine Palms Historical Society and Old Schoolhouse are on summer hours from June 1st until September 1st. During the summer, the "Old Schoolhouse Museum" will be open on Fridays through Sundays from 1:00 until 4:00 p.m.

The Society's library and archives are open for those wishing to do research on Wednesday mornings between 9:00 and 11:30 a.m.

We need your help to pay for the Hastie Bus Restoration project!
Hastie Bus - 24 October 2012

If you would like to be a part of making this historic bus run again please donate. It's easy, you can click the donate button below to make an on-line donation or you can send a check to us at the address below.

Hastie Bus
29 Palms Historical Society
6760 National Park Drive
P.O. Box 1926
29 Palms, California 92277