Spanish or Mexican Trails to the Ocean

[gollum]

I have a question for everyone;

While the Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to Pueblo de los Angelos (LA) is well documented and mapped, there are several other trails that aren't. I haven't been able to get a single concrete lead on trails through the Joshua Tree Area until the mid 1800's.

Does anybody out there have any maps on file that show trails in this area?

There are several places along the coast of SoCal that were used as staging points for expeditions east. Some of them were fortified, with permanent lookout stations built. One of the best is at the North end of Camp Pendleton.


Thanks-Mike

 

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[gollum]

Come on! Nobody has anything?

Mike

 

[MesaBuddy]

You got mail!- Mike
I have been doing years of research on the old trail that ran through the high desert,the Spaniards used it , the Indians , Pauline Weaver used it many times on his way to the Colorado river , it has been a hard one to pin down
I know there has to be another way that the Spaniards used to get to Santa Fe and I think it went right through Yucca Valley , Joshua Tree and 29 palms all the way to Parker and the surrounding areas
MesaB

 

[MesaBuddy]

EDITOR'S NOTE: Last newsletter Paul challenged us to identify Pauline Weaver. No one wrote in. When I asked around the "experts" they all had the same blank expression as myself. Paul obviously is way ahead of us, research-wise. Good show, Paul!)

During the next several years we "commemorate" the Forgotten Gold Rush of the Southern Mojave and Colorado deserts. It’s not all a "celebration" since many things happened during those years to cause great suffering to many peoples, particularly Native Americans and Californios. One of those bold individuals worth "celebrating" was Pauline Weaver.


Pauline Weaver was the earliest known Caucasian to pass through the Morongo Basin of the high desert. He found a direct route from his adobe home in San Gorgonio Pass to his Indian wife’s home near Parker, Arizona on the Colorado River. The trail he followed may have been his own, but was likely to have been first used by the Native Americans in the region. It went through the Morongo Pass and on to the 29 Palms Oasis, and then to the site of Dale. From there it went northeasterly through the Coxcomb Mountains, then to Fenner, and ultimately to the area near Parker.


Depending on whom you talk to and when, Pauline Weaver was born between 1797 and 1806 in White County, Tennessee, about fifty miles north of Chattanooga. He did not write, so we have no firm account from his own pen about his family and he left no personal records of any kind. We do know that in 1830 he left his home to join a trapping expedition into the Rocky Mountains with Captain John Rogers.


This early trip was not successful as they had serious skirmishes with Native Americans and they only collected forty or fifty beaver skins. But it did introduce Pauline to the western wilderness and he spent most of the rest of his life in the American Southwest. In 1832 he crossed the desert and reached the sleepy pueblo of Los Angeles where he teamed up with several other adventurers.


Old church records indicate that he married Maria Dolores Martin on September 10, 1832 in New Mexico and they went on to have three children. In 1845 Pauline applied to the Mexican Governor, Pio Pico, for ownership. He befriended the Cahuilla Indians and with their help became a key figure in the apprehension of Antonio Garra and four other hostile Indian chiefs in 1854, when they were trying to stir up a native revolt after the United States acquired California in the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo (1848).


In 1857 Pauline Weaver left his home in San Gorgonio for good and spent most of the remainder of his life in Arizona. Shortly after the turn of the century it was reported that his San Gorgonio home still had some of the huge old fruit trees which the mission padres had planted when it was an outpost of the San Gabriel Mission.


Although he never acquired much in the way of material success, Weaver played a major role in the discovery of gold in the Oatman along the Colorado River. Later, as conflict grew between the Indians and the miners and settler, he established several key treaties and became widely known as a peace broker among the Indian tribes of Arizona and the early white settlers.


When the Civil War came West, Pauline Weaver, with his intimate knowledge of the terrain of the area, became a valued scout for the Union. While their are no known portraits of Weaver, the following description by a California volunteer for the Union in the Arizona campaigns, gives us a good picture of Pauline "the man":


"He had come to Arizona about thirty years before and knew the country and the Indians well. He was pretty much of an Indian himself, and liked to scout far ahead of us. He had been so much alone that his speech was part English, part Spanish, with a few Indian words thrown in for good measure. He wore his clothes ‘till they fell off him,’ and if he had shook those long gray whiskers of his all of a sudden I’ll bet woodchucks, gophers and trade rats would have jumped out of them.


His mother may have washed him when he was little, but after he got away from home he didn’t believe in using water to wash in. After a hard march we would peel off our clothes and jump into the muddy Gila, but not Paulino. No siree! He didn’t believe in washing. Said it made him sick"


He died in 1867 and has been described as Arizona’s foremost mountain man, trapper, gold-seeker, scout, and pioneer. We remember him as the man who first discovered Highway 62 on his way through the 29 Palms Oasis.

 

[gollum]

Hey,

Thanks for the info and emails. I have two of those sites you sent. Never heard of Paulino Weaver before, but I noe know where Weaver's Needle got it's name!

Hey, what does the PS as in buddyinPS mean? I thought it was Palm Springs, but you live in Az.

Thanks again-Mike

 

[MesaBuddy]

Yeah Mike thats my other haunt Palm Springs - Grew up in Palm Desert
Oh and your absolutely correct about about Weavers Needle , he also discovered a very rich gold find above what is Stanton and Octave , AZ , Rich Hill , the upper area of the Hassayampa River , and the La Paz goldfields in present day Eherenburg , AZ and if I remember right some gold around the Yuma , Az area
It is well documented that he traveled from San Gorgonio to the Lake Havasu area quite frequently
Hope it helps have been researching the trail for quite some time , and as most trails go they originated from someone(the Spaniards)
I know you have proof of them being in the area as I do also!
Best Always
MesaBuddy

 

[gollum]

Yeah Mike thats my other haunt Palm Springs - Grew up in Palm Desert
Oh and your absolutely correct about about Weavers Needle , he also discovered a very rich gold find above what is Stanton and Octave , AZ , Rich Hill , the upper area of the Hassayampa River , and the La Paz goldfields in present day Eherenburg , AZ and if I remember right some gold around the Yuma , Az area
It is well documented that he traveled from San Gorgonio to the Lake Havasu area quite frequently
Hope it helps have been researching the trail for quite some time , and as most trails go they originated from someone(the Spaniards)
I know you have proof of them being in the area as I do also!
Best Always
MesaBuddy

The main proof are two things; In TwentyNine Palms, there is Turtle Rock. They actually built a housing development around the rock! And just to the SouthEast of Joshua Tree, there is a 50 foot tall Heart Carved into the side of a mountain. Not too awfully far from the Colorado River Aqueduct and the 10. It's in a pretty rough section of mountains. And to see it, you have to come through a certain pass into a low valley at a certain time of day. The reason for this is if you are 15 degrees off to either side, you can't see it. If you are too early or late, you can't see it either.

Very neat.

Mike

 

[MesaBuddy]

Those pictures that you put up of the heart on the side of the hill looked very familiar to me! I am not saying I know exactly where its at but after you gave the general area it dawned on me!!
Kind of out by the pumping station??
Turtle Rock have been wondering what else got wiped out when they put in those homes?

That was a neat find Mike!
Best
MesaB

 

[gollum]

I think what I told somebody else who asked the location was;

If you use Blackeagle Mountain as the centerpoint, and draw an arc at a 5 mile radius for about 270 degrees (I won't say where to start), the Heart lies somewhere in that arc! I won't say whether or not it is in Joshua Tree Park or not.

I'll just say that I have found some other things in the area, and would feel better not posting any more until the entire area is hunted out. I will say that professional opinions on the site all agree that at one time, there was something very large in the area. If someone else stumbled upon it like I did, and found the end, who knows. More of the popular opinion is that the ruggedness and remoteness of the terrain lends to the belief that mother nature may have protected what was there.

And to add a warning to my statement, if you plan on heading out there to look, mother nature can be a bi*ch! take lots of water and extra gasoline. There are no services for a looooooooooooong way. This is not a place for those unaccustomed to the heat (especially this time of year). And this place is not nearly accessible by vehicles of ANY type (except helicopter). Even the arroyos leading up to the low pass are boulder packed. I wouldn't want to try an ATV or MotoX Bike.

Mike

 

[MesaBuddy]

No No Mike don't get me wrong am not looking to hijack your find, what I was saying is those rocks and mountains and their configuration are very familiar
As far as the heat goes no worries I been pouring concrete in the 110+ heat of Palm Springs,CA,Phoenix,AZ for the last 30 years of my life guess you can say I am accustomed to it or I'm half lizard
The boon docks are my second home
Best
MesaB

 

[gollum]

No problem! One thing I have found in this area, is that all the mountain ranges look the same except for a few choice spots! The Sheepholes, The Bullions, The Pintos, The Coxcombs, and every other range out there. The one thing that I like about climbing around out there is the distinct lack of Cholla. Whenever I'm in Anza-Borrego, I can't help but get legs full of it. HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE IT!

Mike

 

[MesaBuddy]

Oh yeah I know what ya mean about those "cactus" friends out there in the desert!!Thats why I like goofin off in the high desert and even the hills around the Coachella Valley, but when one goofs off out in Anza Borrego area you got to watch out for those "pricks"
Buddy

 

[MesaBuddy]

Oh boy did I set myself up!Now my amigo out here in Phoenix is razzing me about being part lizard

 

[djui5]

Oh boy did I set myself up!Now my amigo out here in Phoenix is razzing me about being part lizard

hahahaha!!!

 

[mdog]

The main proof are two things; In TwentyNine Palms, there is Turtle Rock. They actually built a housing development around the rock! And just to the SouthEast of Joshua Tree, there is a 50 foot tall Heart Carved into the side of a mountain. Not too awfully far from the Colorado River Aqueduct and the 10. It's in a pretty rough section of mountains. And to see it, you have to come through a certain pass into a low valley at a certain time of day. The reason for this is if you are 15 degrees off to either side, you can't see it. If you are too early or late, you can't see it either.

Very neat.

Mike

Hi Mike.

I know this is an old post, but I was wondering if you ever did any more work at this site? If possible, I'd like to know if you found any other monuments in the area.

I've been reading about one of the earlier settlers, Bill Keys, and I believe he had a ranch house by Turtle Rock. Was there anything special about Turtle Rock, other than it being a landmark?

Thanks Mike