The Late Great Gold Days

Normally I find things to write about in my mother Marion Deaver’s files, but this time I found something in my stuff.

I have been slowly cleaning out my storage unit in the last two months. I say slowly because we had the unit for 13 years and it is 9’ x 12’, tons of “stuff.” Yesterday my son and his wife Clay and Sarah came down and we brought home another truckload of “stuff.”

I found a copy of the 1958 Gold Rush Days brochure, which was the ninth annual one, held in Mojave. It was held Oct. 17, 18, 1958, to “commemorate Mojave as terminus of the historic Twenty Mule Team.”

I have written about a later Gold Rush Days, but this year was special. I was eight years old, but I remember a lot about it. It was probably the last year (or near the last) that Rawley Duntley cooked his famous deep pit beef.

It might have been the last year that miners competed in the hard rock drilling contest. They would haul in huge rocks and the miners would use mining drills to drill deep holes in the rock.

The holes were used in the mines to put dynamite in and then blow up the rock to get to the ore. This year was a world championship contest.

The inside page of the brochure welcomed visitors to the “Heart of the Future Industrial Empire of the Desert.” It went on to read “In the all-out hospitality of the Old West, Mojave extends to you the glad hand of fellowship with a Rip-Raring Welcome.” (Who talks like that??)

The brochure featured ads including one from Trusty’s Restaurant in Tehachapi. Others brought back many memories to me, including Matt’s and Chamber’s Markets (used to ride my bike there and buy stuff for my mom), Mojave Variety Store, Mojave Ice Company (Where my dad would buy a block of ice so we could make homemade ice cream), The Frontier Bar and Deli, Desert Distributing (the beer guys), and Bud’s Garage, just to mention a few. This was the Mojave of my childhood.

The town would give away a new car every year, which was funded by ticket sales by Gold Rush Queen Contestants. The one who sold the most tickets won the right to wear the crown. That year the car was a 1959 Ford. A new bike was also given away AND a lot in California City by the Development Company.

There was children’s parade on Saturday and grand parade on Sunday. One year (don’t remember which one) my parents got together with the neighbors Bob and Penny Fauske, who ran the Ford dealership.

There were four of us little girls in the neighborhood on “O” Street and all of our parents helped build a float. The men built a frame around a used car that the Ford dealership let us use.

The moms dyed sheets and made a covered wagon, complete with cardboard horses and cardboard “wagon wheels.”

All of us girls dressed like pioneer women and rode on the float. The Saturday parade was fine. The Sunday parade began and the “Mojave Zephyrs” arrived. We girls climbed into the back of the “wagon” and hid out.

We watched the horses go flying and then each wheel, one by one. There was not much left of the float by the time we got to the end. It is a memory we girls never forgot!

Other gold rush events included a craft show and mineral show, teenage dance and the Queen’s Ball held in a hangar on the Marine Base Saturday evening, greased pig contests, gold displays, quarter midget races, Whiskerino Contest, and a jackpot calf roping contest.

The city fathers did not miss a chance to promote Mojave’s Development in the brochure and mentioned that Mojave was at that time the first in the county with a Master Plan and that the town had fine schools and plenty of water.

To help wrap up the weekend the residents of Mojave dedicated the 20 Mule Team Terminus with a historical plaque in front of the County Building on Sierra Highway.

The plaque is still there. After the county building was torn down a KFC was built there, but the plaque remains for all eternity....