Cabins in the desert

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Chris142

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I was goofing around out in the desert yesterday like I often do. I run across old cabins. Often they are 20+ miles from any main rd and 20+ miles from water of any kind. No streams or springs around here.

Who were these people? What did they eat and drink? Did they haul food and water out to there shack every week? What did they do when they were not sleeping or hauling water?

Did they have snake soup for dinner with a side of Squirrel?

I wish I knew who and why somebody would build a cabin this far out in the boonies. Here is a pic of one I saw yesterday.Just sitting out there all alone.

0901121556.jpg
 
Probably loaded up on supplies every so often and then stayed away from other humans until they needed more stuff. We had a guy in PA in the mid 1960's who kidnapped a girl named Peggy Ann Bradnick, I believe, near Shade Gap. I was in a local college at the time. He apparently lived alone in the woods and they suspected him for years a s the guy taking pot shots at cars. He used to go into town with a wagon and load up every 6-12 month. He was killed in an FBI shootout.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Ann_Bradnick

So at least some of these loners are problematic. Do I recall correctly that Chalres Manson lived like this?
 
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Originally Posted By: chiks
Someone who was trying to find their inner peace, i would presume.


It this a national park area or was it?

It almost looks like the remnants of an old ranger station from the 50s.
 
It's amazing that there are so many little abandoned towns and cabins between Primm and Victorville. If you were settling in back at the turn of the century, I'd think somewhere with milder weather would be where I would setup.
 
Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
Originally Posted By: chiks
Someone who was trying to find their inner peace, i would presume.


It this a national park area or was it?

It almost looks like the remnants of an old ranger station from the 50s.
no just open land near batstow,ca
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
It's amazing that there are so many little abandoned towns and cabins between Primm and Victorville. If you were settling in back at the turn of the century, I'd think somewhere with milder weather would be where I would setup.
you correctly guessed the area!(
 
It looks like a homestead claim.

You had to improve the land and farm there for five, or perhaps years. Then you got your 160 acres in your name.

Many of these cabins were put up by people to get title to the land when the Homestead Act was still around. The Act ended in 1976. You see a lot of these cabins along the road between 29 Palms and Sheep Hole Pass. You can also see some along Highway 15 from Barstow to Las Vegas.

Off the Shadow Mountain Road west of Highway 395 there used to be quite a few. There were also failed post WWII developments there. I recall in 1980 hunting around there and finding a street sign posted in the middle of nothing.

On the highway from Gorman to the Lancaster area you see lots of land that was once used to grow crops. Now gigantic solar plants and wind farms are getting built on the same land. The desert is slowly vanishing.
 
I don't have an answer for you, but another question. Do you notice a lot of burned-out cars on the back roads?

I ask because I drove from Parker, AZ, to L.A. about fifteen years ago, and the number of burned cars by the side of the road really made an impression on me.
 
Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
I don't have an answer for you, but another question. Do you notice a lot of burned-out cars on the back roads?

I ask because I drove from Parker, AZ, to L.A. about fifteen years ago, and the number of burned cars by the side of the road really made an impression on me.


I remember driving through utah and seeing old Belairs and VW's rusted on the side of the road, abandoned for years!
 
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Barstow? Well, back in the Route 66 days, who knows what else was along there and is completely gone now. My parents have a place in the mountains in PA, and in a pretty random spot, there are a bunch of little weekend cabins even with a hand water pump. They seem to be pretty well preserved, but are much more shaded and in the woods near a home.

Ill bet some of this stuff can be from prohibition days when people ran other stills and stuff out away from people. Maybe cattle or some other kind of outpost (doubtful in the SOCAL desert, but in places like NM, apparently there were agricultural areas in the past that are now desolate).

Really interesting stuff!
 
I thought a lot of these were mine claims?

I sort of wish I lived near the California desert... I find this stuff very interesting.
 
I vote for homesteader cabin. It's too big for a miner's cabin. Lots of people (including my grandparents) filed homestead claims and lived and ranched on what we now realize is non-economically feasible land.

Hardship, high infant mortality, and doing without were the way of life for these pioneers.
 
Originally Posted By: Highline9
Where's that one at? Is it near any transmission power lines?
its somewhere between Barstow and the southern boundary of china lake. I suspected a mine claim as its not too far from coolgardie,goldfield and williams well. But I would build my cabin closer to the gold areas if I was working them. I can't imagine walking or riding a horse several hrs a day to go dig for gold. Oh there's no power or lines anywhere near. Rout66 is way south too.
 
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