QUARTZSITE

 

January, 2019

Our original travel plans had us leaving Tucson, stopping briefly in Yuma as a way point before pulling into San Diego for a month.  But as with so many things in life, flexibility is good.  Barbara’s oldest friend and her husband have been RV owners and enthusiasts for far longer than us, and they were heading to Quartzsite at the end of January for the Big Show.  From talking together over the years we knew them to be rockhounds, and at least half of the Big Show is about rocks!

We made a quick change of plans, and to sweeten the deal, BFFs from Pennsylvania, Tom and Landa, who started out full-timing about 3 months before we hit the road told us they would be right pleased to hang with us in this desert mecca for RV’ers.  We hadn’t seen Tom and Landa for almost a year, and really, really looked forward to reconnecting in person.  Unfortunately as it turned out Barbara’s childhood friend and her husband were unable to join us.

Quartzsite is a town in southwest Arizona, 36.3 square miles and 3,700 souls about halfway between Yuma and Lake Havasu City, and 18 miles east of the California border.  From 1863 to the 1880s the site was little more than a waterhole that turned into a stagecoach stop – Tyson’s Wells.  Tyson’s Wells soon became a western boomtown as minerals and gems could literally be picked up from the surface of the ground and with a little work rich veins were found in abundance.  It was a miner’s dream.  The mines have all since been run dry and closed.

Quartzsite is a mecca to visitors and exhibitors for rocks, gems, mineral specimens and fossils during the town’s famous two-month-long gem show and swap meet every January and February.  Thousands of acres surrounding the town are governed by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and they are open to campers.  Stop in town to obtain a 2-week camping permit, pick a spot, and set up your boondocking (dry camping) campsite on BLM land.  For the 2 months of the show the population of Quartzsite can swell to over 100,000, and it becomes the boondocking capital of the world.  The bars, restaurants and small grocery stores in town are crazy busy, but the most sought after products are propane and potable water, and the most needed service is a dumping station; RVs are lined up along the roadway awaiting their turn to fill-up and empty!  For those of us not ready to boondock, the RV Parks are able to charge a premium.

The “swap meet” is a gigantic flea market.  Everything you need, think you need or ever might consider needing (including dental picks!) can be found.  Himalayan Salt Lamps, ladders, camp chairs, hitches, solar panels, hats, sewer hoses, clothes, tools and hardware, prepared foods, snack foods and food trucks, jewelry, etc. are there for the choosing.

While we have been travelling Barbara has been picking up rocks from here and there, placing them carefully in a baggie and labeling the bag with the where and when of her find.  Somehow I hadn’t figured out that she was becoming or had always been (?) a rockhound.  A secret no more; Quartzsite offered her (and the thousands of other rockhounds as well) a chance to wander miles and miles from vendor to vendor, from site to site, and to drool over gems and minerals and rocks, from rough hewn to polished, from pebble to too big to handle, from costing pennies to multiple thousands of dollars.  And wander miles and miles from vendor to vendor from site to site we did.  The absolutely best shop, and the recommended stop, is T-Rocks.  All to the better the owner is a native of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and a U of M grad.  Many new additions were made to the Garrison rock collection!

The Big Show is also a chance to wander through the latest models of travel trailers, fifth wheels and motorhomes, and to walk around under the Big Tent.  The Big Tent is an accessory fans heaven with RV supplies, camping supplies, gizmos and gadgets, vacation campsite companies, RV Clubs, and travel clubs all represented.  And, of course the requisite food trucks with long lines of hungry visitors.  Overwhelming – you bet!

Quartzsite is a wonderful place in the country to get off paved roads and enjoy the things you can only see from the seat of an ATV or UTV.  Miles and miles of rough dirt paths are just waiting for exploration so put on your warm clothing, helmet and some kind of barrier over your nose and mouth to keep out the dust, and hit the path!  Shame on us for not knowing; we could have made arrangements for renting an ATV or UTV.

There were a few unique things not to miss in Quartzsite.

Let’s start with the naked bookseller and his book store/honky tonk.  Yup – the owner has been selling books for more than 25 years at the sprawling Reader’s Oasis bookshop wearing only a g-string.  Paul Winer or Sweet Pie is the naked bookseller; however, he started life as a touring musician, who on a whim started performing in a G-string (although if you ask him he’d admit to sometimes being totally naked).  In the 60s and early 70s he won 68 court cases involving his public nudity! In recent years Paul has been struck with serious illness, and his time at the bookstore has waned; he reports selling off 30,000 books to make room for a concert hall.  From a temporary stage (for now!) he and the band perform on Fridays and Saturdays the honky-tonk style of music that once was his avocation and obvious love.  We  had the good fortune to be able to hear one of their concerts.

Paul and his family moved to Quartzsite to be closer to his parents. Unfortunately his only child died at age 8 of a viral heart condition, and he and his wife created Celia’s Rainbow Garden to honor her.  The garden serves as a memorial to Celia as well as the burial grounds of other local citizens.

While the naked bookseller may be Quartzsite’s most famous citizen, the grave and monument to Hi Jolly commemorates another famous citizen of the town.   The Hi Jolly Cemetery is operated and maintained by the Town of Quartzsite for the purposes of providing a cemetery, historic site and park.  The cemetery is dedicated to Quartzsite’s pioneer families, many of whom have been laid to rest here.

As Paul Harvey* would say…Page Two!  Born in Syria as Philip Tedro to a set of Greek parents, Jolly would not get his Americanized name for many years. As an adult Jolly converted to Islam and made the pilgrimage to Mecca, taking the name Hadji Ali. It was after this conversion that the U.S. Calvary forces contracted Jolly to become one of their first riders in the experimental Army Camel Corps. Upon coming to the states his name was butchered by the soldiers, and became “Hi Jolly,” the name by which he would forever be remembered.

During the mid-1800s when much of the southwest of America was still uninhabited desert, the government decided they would deal with the terrain like the desert dwellers of the Middle East and hire camel drivers, such as Hi Jolly, to carry their goods across the arid terrain.

We got to visit a tree that is reportedly 1019 years-old.

The most unusually fascinating display in town is Jo’s gum gallery.  Jo’s sister began the collection during WWII, and she handed it off to Jo in the late 40s.  Jo has made the collection her passion, and she continues to add to the displays mostly through donations.  The gum is still in their original wrappers, and very nicely displayed in chronological order in a small pink building behind her home.  She has arranged them, for the most part, by year, which makes these little time capsules much more interesting.

And a few things pretty cool in the region to see.

…We took a hair-raising ride through part of the Kofa Wildlife Refuge.

…and hiked through Palm Canyon.  The question is why did these palm trees grow here, and only exist in the crease in the rocks?

…we kicked around the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Area and got up close with a blue heron or 2.

 

…drove over Parker Dam

…walked over the London Bridge in Havasu City.  In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London began to look for potential buyers for the London Bridge. Lake Havasu City founder and entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch placed the winning bid.  Each block was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled.  The blocks were then shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona.  Following reconstruction of the London Bridge, Lake Havasu City rededicated it in a ceremony on October 10, 1971.  Since then, it has consistently remained a favorite among Arizona attractions, drawing in visitors from around the globe.

…and braved gale force winds (no, really!) to see the Blythe Intaglios (geoglyphs). The Blythe Intaglios are a group of gigantic figures incised on the ground near Blythe, California in the Colorado Desert. The ground drawings or geoglyphs were created by humans for an, as of yet, unknown reason. The Colorado Desert contains the only known desert intaglios in North America, and the Blythe Intaglios are the most well-known of the over 200 intaglios in the Colorado Desert.

 

Quartzsite may not be a place we ever visit again, but the 10 days passed quickly.   We made new friends, Jackie and Gary, a couple of wonderful crazy Okies Tom and Landa happened to meet at the Havasu Balloon Festival.  The best though was our time, dinners and playing canasta with Tom and Landa.

Onward to San Diego!

Barbara and Brian

 

*5 cents to anyone who remembers Paul Harvey!