MORONGO BASIN HISTORY REVIEW

By Ruth Long
 
What is now known as the Morongo Basin is roughly a narrow corridor which stretches through the desert from Morongo Valley to the Dale Mining District east of Twentynine Palms. Water is scarce and rain is rare.  Thus, not everyone who trekked through the Basin came with the intent of living here permanently.
 
Indians--Serrano and Chemehuevis--had been coming here for hundreds of years to gather food or camp for short periods. Petroglyphs and other signs of their presence have been found near springs and water holes.

Explorers, surveyors, prospectors and rustlers came—and left--up to the 1870s. 
 
There was a change in the early 1870s.  The number of prospectors and miners increased dramatically when gold was finally discovered east of (what is now) 29 Palms.  About the same time, cattlemen in Big Bear and Banning discovered the lush grass of the Morongo Basin was a good place
to winter their cattle. 
 
The deCrevecour family settled in Morongo Valley briefly.  After they left, the genial Mark "Chuck" Warren and his family brought their cattle to the Morongo Valley and established the Warren Ranch.  It soon became famous for the warm hospitality--and water--which was available to travelers headed either east or west in the Morongo Basin.
 
In 1880-1881 Warren was grazing cattle in (what is now) Yucca Valley and needed a reliable source of water for them.  He and his sons hand dug a well there, built corrals and a small bunkhouse.  Cattlemen held spring roundups to brand calves and gather cattle before shipping them to market or up the canyons to Big Bear for the summer months.  A stage line and horse-drawn freighters carrying supplies to the mines in the Dale District stopped there to add water (at a small price) to their loads. Warren's Well later became the social center of Yucca Valley and is now listed as an historic site by California.
 
Until 1910 only a few 160 acre homesteads had been filed in the Basin. Between 1910 and 1916 many were filed, mostly in the western end.  The Heard, Pearce, Cariker, Sargeant, McKinney, and Shay families were among the first to brave the challenge of staying three to five years and trying to raise a crop on "desert farms" as required by the homestead laws.  Discouraged by the lack of water, depredation of crops by animals(including cattle) and harsh living conditions others who filed gave up and left the area.
 
Those who stayed in Yucca Valley depended upon Warren's Well or The Tunnel, a spring in the south of town, for their drinking, bathing and laundry water until they could manage to dig their own well.  The Oasis of Mara, springs and wells provided water in the Twentynine Palms area for miners and the few pioneers there.
 
 By 1917, most of the mines, miners and freighters were gone.  Men went” down below" to work during World War I, leaving their families on the homesteads.  They survived because "neighbor helping neighbor" was the accepted way of life here.
 
A new influx of settlers came into the Basin in the 1920s.  "Lungers", veterans who had been gassed during World War I, came, often recovered, and stayed.  From the east to the west ends of the Basin, 160 acre homesteads were filed and the population slowly grew.  Wells were drilled, small stores opened and the County sent school teachers to tiny schools.

The clear air and hot, dry climate continued to attract people seeking relief from lung problems or arthritis.  June LeMert Paxton and Elizabeth Campbell wrote of its benefits in their books, “My Life on the Mojave” and “The Desert Was Home”.  The Pearce and Gehr families opened a rest home for tubercular patients in Pipes Canyon. 

The 1938 "Baby Homestead Act" which allowed homesteads to be filed on five acres instead of 160 acres had little effect on the Basin at first.  The Great Depression was ending, World War II made jobs available "down below", gasoline was rationed - and who wanted to live in the harsh DESERT?!! 
 
After World War II, the economy boomed.  People began looking for retirement or vacation homes away from the smog and problems of cities. Col. Moore in Joshua Tree drew detailed maps and helped people file on five acre homesteads.  Because water was more easily available in Morongo Valley and 29 Palms those areas grew first.  The Marine Base replaced the Navy Glider Base and Twentynine Palms blossomed.
 
The last cattle drive from Yucca Valley to Big Bear was in 1947. By that time the Basin had piped water in some areas, electricity, telephones, schools, stores, a newspaper and a paved highway. But hauling water and driving on dirt roads and was still a way of life for many. 
 

By the turn of the century, developers and builders had again discovered the area, not so much because of its healthy climate, but because land was so much cheaper here than in other areas.  The population is expanding, bringing with it many changes. The Town of Yucca Valley, and the City of Twentynine Palms have been incorporated. Communities such as Morongo Valley, Joshua Tree, Pioneertown, Landers, Wonder Valley are growing. Beautiful homes are replacing homestead cabins.  A modern college and hospital provide services our pioneers only dreamed about.  International tourists visit to marvel at the Joshua Tree National Park.  Some of them may decide to settle here.  They will find that fierce, independent spirit of the hardworking pioneers who first came here is still flourishing.