#devil's garden

Mario Petrucci (1893–1972), “Teufels Garten” (Devil’s Garden)

from ‘Die Muskete’ Vol. 36 #19, November 1, 1923

Little fit check while I wait for my beautiful sister @timearrowisreal to be ready for the festival. Loving this new dress!

Carved Creations is open for business. Custom carvings are available upon request.

If y'all aren't aware, @the-barn-rat and I are directors of a tiny non-profit called Rising Action Mustang Society (www.risingactionmustangs.com). We have had over 55 mustangs come through our property on their way to their lifelong homes across New England!

We are asking for help to support one of our horses in a scary health crisis. Our boy King, a 10 year old Devil's Garden mustang, is currently fighting Potomac Horse Fever. He is very ill and has severe colitis, which needs time and supportive care to beat.

We have been providing around the clock care for this gentle giant, and through it all, King has been patient and brave. He is a magnificent, kind, and goofy horse who deserves a chance to heal and find his forever home, where he can represent the best that mustangs have offer.

We want to do everything we can to give King a fighting chance, but vet bills run up FAST. Almost all of our work is done out of our own pockets, so ANY amount helps us help King. Donations are also tax deductible!

I posted this link a couple of days ago, but then remembered, to my embarrassment, that one of the best stories to emerge out of cacti poaching happened right here in the US back in the early part of the last century. It involves a woman named Minerva Hoyt and the founding of Joshua Tree National Park. I’m embarrassed, because I’m on the Board and Treasurer of Joshua Tree National Park Association, and obviously I know this story.

This is a link to an LA Times story about Minerva Hoyt and how she persisted in the creation by President Franklin Roosevelt of the Joshua Tree National Monument, which in 1994 became Joshua Tree National Park.

Minerva Hoyt became a desert conservationist for many reasons. But one of them was her anger at the desecration of that part of the desert just north of Palm Springs called “Devil’s Garden.” She noticed that the LA crowd was driving to that spot and poaching the cacti and other desert plants and hauling them back to LA for their landscaping. To this day, you can look at Devil’s Garden and imagine what it must have looked like. Right now, it’s fairly barren (except during spring wildflower season, if wildflowers are in bloom).

Here’s an old photo of what Devil’s Garden looked like in the 1920′s, as the land was being wrecked by LA people:

And now a today photo, which I took a few years ago:

And it has it moments of glory when the rains have been sufficient and the temperature is right, leading to wildflowers. But no cactus, no big desert plants other than the creosote bush. Another of my photos.

A family breaks for lunch in the Devil’s Garden