EPISODE #248: MAPPING THE MOJAVE WITH COL. HENRY WASHINGTON

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Out here in the Great Mojave Wilderness, we’re always talking about Section 6 or Section 33 or Section whatever it is, but how did we get that system, that public-lands overlay? Who did the work? Tonight we tell you about . . . well, not the father of our country, but his nephew. The nephew of our country. Col. Henry Washington, the man who surveyed and plotted the baseline and the meridian back in the 1850s, the defining lines by which all other property in Southern California is measured. He named a lot of desert landmarks, too. Like “Old Woman Springs,” that’s one of his many desert place-names still on the maps and on our minds, nearly two centuries later.

This is EPISODE #248: MAPPING THE MOJAVE WITH COL. HENRY WASHINGTON. With fitting desert soundscape by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #247: HIGHWAY 247 REVISITED

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Photo by Ken Lund: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/8603750124

People will come to the Mojave on purpose, in summertime, and then they get sad because they can’t go outside without bursting into flames. A couple of summers ago, a guy died in Death Valley just from riding his motorcycle outside. Overheated. The 120° heat no less lethal just because it was blowing all over him at cruising speed. He just dehydrated and died.

This is the time of year to stay in the car with the A/C blasting. Do your sightseeing with a seatbelt on. How about a historic and scenic ride on the entirety of SR-247? From Yucca Valley to Barstow! A beautiful drive with stops for good food, through the great Mojave wilderness. Plus, we’ll tell you the history of the highway and many of the sights along the way.

This is EPISODE #247: HIGHWAY 247 REVISITED Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays. Photo by Ken Lund.

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EPISODE #246: PROTECT OUR WESTERN LANDS!

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“God bless America. Let’s save some of it.” — Edward Abbey

One of the senators Utah sent to Washington has slipped a very evil scheme into the big federal budgeting bill, language that’s vague enough to allow the beginning of the sell-off of our Western Public Lands. Including National Forests. Not including national parks, monuments, etc., but very much including Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands.

In fact, that’s what this senator, “Based Mike Lee,” titled this section of the Senate legislation: MANDATORY DISPOSAL OF BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT LAND AND NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LAND. No.

This is EPISODE #246: PROTECT OUR WESTERN LANDS! Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #245: DEPLOYMENT FROM TWENTYNINE PALMS

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The Mojave gets slow in the summertime, not much going on. So there was much excitement when the word spread on that early summer night: The Marines were shipping out to Los Angeles. Rumors of troop carriers and white buses, full of Marines with full kit, ready to go, and deeply annoyed to be called back to barracks, early on a Saturday night. But, it was something to do, somewhere to go. Everybody wants to get out of the Mojave in summertime.

This is EPISODE #245: DEPLOYMENT FROM TWENTYNINE PALMS, with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on KCDZ 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #244: WHO DID THE SNAKE EAT?

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SNAKE MOJAVE SNAKESGIVING DAVID LYNCH WHY

The reality of knowing the wild animals on your land is knowing that they generally live upon an accelerated timeline. Each spring’s new crop of Mojave cottontails and rock squirrels will shrink down to one or two lucky buddies by late summer, with the rest succumbing to reckless road crossings and red-tail hawks and rattlesnakes . . . the local ravens feasting on the remains, if there are any. 

This is EPISODE #244: WHO DID THE SNAKE EAT? with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on Z 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #243: THE MAD BOMBER OF TWENTYNINE PALMS

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Guy Edward Bartkus, Palm Springs, Twentynine Palms, antinatalism, terror attack

The maniac who blew himself up outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic is our latest High Desert dingbat to make the national news. Luckily, those injured in the Palm Springs terror attack have been treated and released from the hospital. But who bombs fertility clinics? Meet America’s worst new subculture, the violent anti-natalists, and their new hero from Twentynine Palms.

This is EPISODE #243: THE MAD BOMBER OF TWENTYNINE PALMS with geographically appropriate soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on Z 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

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EPISODE #241: THE VANISHING BOY OF NORTHERN ARIZONA

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Here’s how the Channel 12 news in Phoenix began the story, Thursday night on the 10 o’clock news: “God sent that dog to rescue my son.” These words were spoken by the toddler’s father, Corey Allen, outside the family’s home on the west side of rural Seligman, Arizona. Corey Allen says he was working on the roof, Sarah Allen was inside with their youngest. And two-year-old Bodin Allen went outside to play.

But when Bodin Allen’s mom called for him, he didn’t answer. He wasn’t there. And after an hour of frantic searching beneath a darkening sky, the Allens called the Yavapai Sheriff’s Department and before long there were dozens of search-of-rescue volunteers and deputies searching the area. Helicopters with spotlights scoured the plateau, the pilots reporting two mountain lions prowling the territory. A rancher named Scotty Dunton discovered the blond-headed toddler in pajamas, seven long miles away from home in the backcountry to the west. The boy was coming up the driveway, along with Scotty Dunton’s big ranch dog, Buford the Anatolian Pyrenees. This is EPISODE #241: THE VANISHING BOY with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne.

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EPISODE #240: A HUCKLEBERRY FOR SPRINGTIME

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It’s a cool & pleasant springtime in the Mojave High Desert. The hummingbirds are lingering on the branches of creosote and catclaw, looking around for the flowers. Where are the flowers? Well, that’s always the guessing game up here. Sometimes they’re evident by the end of March, sometimes it’s the beginning of May. Varies by terrain, by altitude, by a hundred little differences from spring to spring, in this forward motion of our lives. ALSO: Traveling through Doc Holliday’s American West.

This is EPISODE #240: A HUCKLEBERRY FOR SPRINGTIME, with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne.

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EPISODE #239: REMEMBRANCE OF PANDEMICS PAST

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Happy Ides of March, happy St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Equinox, and happy five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown — the beginning of it anyway: 15 days to slow the spread . . . not a great slogan, for what it cost, but that’s what we got. Much of the world is much the same as it was five years ago. Same iPhone, same president, same daylight savings time. Where did the lockdown time go? What did it do to us?

This is EPISODE #239: REMEMBRANCE OF PANDEMICS PAST. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne.

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