climb Montezuma's Head
and a smaller group to climb Cerro Pinacate.
Twenty Years
Ago
The following folks finished the DPS list this period in 1974;
PAUL LIPSOHN on So. Guardian Angel on 10/13, co-led by GEORGE HUBBARD and with
30 participants, STEVE SMITH on Stepladder on 10/14, ROY & BARBARA MAGNUSON
on Indian Head on 11/3, becoming list finishers #10-11-12-13. The DPS scheduled
a conservation weekend at Darwin Falls 11/9-10. Thirty people removed 3-1/2
tons of debris and with the BLM they constructed vehicle barriers. AL CAMPBELL
& ELLIOT SNYDER led a DPS work party with the DF & G, building a
guzzler in the Argus Range. GORDON MACLEOD proposed a Desert Canyon Award,
submitting an initial list of 9 canyons. BILL & PAT RUSSELL led 11 on
climbs of Sheephole & Old Woman.
Thirty Five Years Ago
The DPS Newsletter # 57 of October 31, 1959 reported on the recent addition
of Chuckwalla Mtn, New York Mtn, Granite Mtn, Potosi Mtn, Kingston Pk, Searles
Pk, Nelson Pk, Nopah Pk & Pahrump. Because people had found a way to drive
almost to the summit; Funeral Pk was dropped from the list. BURL PARKINSON
& FRANCIS FOLEY were killed by lightning recently on a private climb of
Montgomery & Boundary Pks. BURL would have earned his DPS emblem on Mt
Montgomery. BOB GREENAWALT & TOM CROWLEY led 25 on a 4WD tour of the Inyo
Crest where they climbed Pleasant Mtn, camped at the old Saline Valley salt
Tramway station, drove to the Burgess Mine & climbed NY Butte where SILNA
and HARRY MELTS & BILL STEWART earned their emblems, BOB MARSHALL qualified
for Section membership. Most then bathed in the Dirty Socks hot spring pool
near the town of Olancha. The December business meeting would consider adding
Kofa (Signal) Peak as a 5th mandatory (emblem) peak and increasing the number
of peaks required from 9 to 15. The meeting would be held December 9 at the
Ontra Cafeteria downtown. The 1959 membership roster listed 133 regular members
and DAN THRAPP as an Honorary Member. |
THE DESERT SAGE
SAGE REMEMBRANCE
#10
By Bill T Russell,
DPS Archivist/Historian, 11/94 As DPSers
should know, the DPS was founded by Chester Versteeg who led the first
scheduled outing on Nov 15-16, 1941 (see John Robinson articles in SAGE 210 and
211 ). Versteeg announces the creation of the Section on page 137 of the Sierra
Club Bulletin of Aug 1942. He calls it an "honorary climbing section (no dues,
no officers, no meetings)" Not much happened during the years of WWII but after
the end of gas rationing, activity increased and the DPS was formally organized
in 1945. The Southern California Chapter of the Sierra Club was much smaller
then, than its successor, The Angeles Chapter, is now. Chapter meetings were
held weekly at the Boos Brothers cafeteria in downtown LA where desert peakers
could enthuse about their outings and make plans for the future trips.
The first issue of The Southern Sierran, the Chapter Newsletter, is dated,
May 1946 and it continued as a monthly publication. It usually had a column
labeled Desert Peaks which could be considered the precursor of the DPS
Newsletter which became The Desert Sage. For instance in Jul 46, the climb of
Telescope Pk on June 1-2 with 27 people was described.
In Dec 1949,
Bill Henderson was elected DPS chair and, on Mar 1, 1950, he issued Newsletter
#1. His first paragraph reads:
"The following is your chairman's report
to the membership of the Desert Peaks Section covering activities to date.
Since the Desert Peaks Section is becoming such a large [44 members] and active
group in the Sierra Club, and yet since it is difficult to have regular
meetings which will bring all its membership together coincidentally, these
monthly news letters shall attempt to keep all members up to date on section
activities, past, present, and future. Also the chairman has to do
something."
Henderson's letters were typed by his wife and good
climber, Marge Henderson. The first ones were mimeographed on two sides of a
single legal sized sheet. Bill issued the first five on a monthly basis he
skipped Aug and Oct and finished with #9 dated Jan 8, 1951. |