The Desert Peaks Section of the Sierra Club, Angeles Chapter, will hold its annual banquet Wednesday, May 6, at the Luminarias restaurant in Monterey Park. Festivities start at 6 p.m. and dinner will be served at 7. The featured speaker will be Professor Jay von Werlhof from Imperial Valley College, and his title is Giant Desert Drawings: Puzzles from the Past. Professor von Werlhof, an archeologist, will show dramatic slides of the prehistoric Indian geoglyphs and rock alignments in the desert areas of California, Arizona, Nevada, and northern Mexico. He has a theory about the meaning of these giant ground drawings which he will present, a theory for which evidence is scanty but for which von Werlhof makes a persuasive case.
The geoglyphs were made some 500 to 1000 years ago by Indian tribes such as the Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, and Kumeyaay, and the figures range in size from 25 feet to 475 feet. Von Werlhof has spent years flying, over the desert looking for the outlines of human figures, snakes, and other forms sacred to the early Indians. He has documented some 300 geoglyphs in this area, but interpreting their meaning has been more difficult. Current members of the tribes which probably drew them seldom know about the figures or are willing to talk about them. Von Werlhof is writing a three volume work on the geoglyphs and he has very definite theories, about their meanings--come to the DPS Banquet for a preview!
In addition to the speaker, there will be a raffle and a photo contest. The photos entered, portraying people and incidents from recent DPS trips, will be displayed at the Banquet. The Luminarias is at 3500 Ramona Boulevard, Monterey Park. For a ticket, send $18 and a SASE to Karen Leonard or any other DPS Management Committee member before April 28.
