By Dan Barber
I live in the City of
Note, the local preference is to spell out Twentynine as a
single word without hyphenation… and many local citizens abhor using the
numerals 29 to describe where they live, unless some creativity can be added to
the title.
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| An ancient native leaving a clue that rabbits can be hunted here. |
The name “29 Palms” just causes some people to come here to
start counting palm trees along the streets to see if it’s truly named for its
number of palm trees. Some people who have come through my adopted town have
attempted to attach their own view of this place by calling it “The 29 Stumps”
or shortened to “The Stumps.” Legend hints that the Oasis of Mara became 29
Palms when a surveyor came upon the oasis and counted the 29 California Palms
surrounding encampment of the Chemehuevi People… also probably where this group
of native people received the name “29 Palms Band of Chemehuevi.
Almost since the beginning of Twentynine Palms it has always
been associated with the military in some way. Following World War I it became
the home to many veterans who suffered from the effects of mustard gas used in
that war. At the onset of World War II the military built an air base to train
glider pilots. Then with the Korean War the United States Marine Corps took
over the former Army base titled, “Condor Field” to create a Live Fire Marine
Corps training base. The name is now the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center,
Twentynine Palms.
Business people and city leaders have tried to coax people
to visit this desert hideaway by coming up with slogans like “A beautiful
desert oasis” or “An Oasis of Murals” another comes to mind that was once tried
“The Gateway to the Mojave”… What’s wrong with the original “Oasis of Mara?”
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| Me doing nothing. |
So many people have come to this place and at first sight
think of it as a dusty desert town. We do have a lot of dust here, but there is
also a lot of beauty if you look for it. I’ve heard some people exclaim that
“there’s nothing to do here!” Sometimes doing nothing is a blessing. I can
spend hours just sitting and enjoying the magic of nature.
This place is a
dreamscape where creative people can create with very little distraction. There
are many writers, visual artists, performing artists to include musicians,
actors and dancers who choose to visit or even live here. James Cagney a very
successful actor in his time picked Twentynine Palms to build a small
non-descript home where he could escape Hollywood
to study painting with one of the old time artists who lived in the desert.
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| James Cagney built this house after he retired from Acting so he could dedicate himself to learn to paint. |
I have seen famous people walking down the street here
without anyone taking notice. People come here to escape the big cities. I have
run into people who want big box shopping built in the area. I’m rather proud
of the fact that I have to drive nearly 20 miles to get to big box store of any
kind. It is an outing when my wife and I have to drive more than 50 miles to
get to a mall. I tell people that if they want to be a mall rat, then they
should move to a big city… because we only have desert rats out here.
Because
we are a military town we do have an abundance of tattoo parlors, massage
parlors, and barber shops, which are always full because Marines have to get
haircuts just about every other day. A few years ago one of our successful Inn
keepers and a city booster wanted to suggest that all of the tattoo parlor
owners get together and create a tattoo parlor colony and market their services
world-wide because tattoos have became more common place on civilians then on
military men and women (because there are now restrictions) because of good
order and discipline. That sounded like a good idea to me at the time.
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| We do have a lot of murals. |
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| We have one of the few remaining Drive ins left in the country. |
It’s probably human nature to try to put a stamp of
ownership on something or some place instead of just trying to blend into the
environment. When I see the city lights of urban sprawl from a mountain top I
cringe. When I see the hi-rise hotels and city lights of Honolulu
I wonder if the weight of all that development will eventually sink Oahu below the ocean.
I hope my adopted home never changes because I love the
solitude of the desert and the way it can make people become creative. One of the
things I used to tell my military co-workers at the Marine Corps base was, “The
longer we have you here in the desert, the easier it is to entertain you.”
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