The Mojave: A Portrait of the Definitive American Desert

by David Darlington

Release Date: November, 1997

Edition: Paperback

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A geology framed by misadventure and interference

David Darlington takes us hunting for Joshua Trees, exploring volcanic cones and pleistocene lakes, for a survey of the great American desert that may seem heavy on geology and flora until you notice that, along the way, Darlington is introducing us to an impressive cast of real-life characters who define this portrait of the Mojave.

His prose does not call attention to itself, but he deftly weaves scientific information with human behavior in a portrait of the desert at a certain time in its relationship with humankind.

Habitat of the Phantom Duck of the Desert

Growing up during the 50s and 60s in the Los Angeles area, some of my fondest memories are of the day trips my parents and I and our arsenal of .22-caliber rifles would take to the Mojave Desert. While Dad and I plinked paper targets, discarded bottles and rusty cans, Mom would wander off, hopefully out of the line of fire, to hunt wildflowers. After littering the desert with expended shells and disturbing the quiet with gunshots, I remember hearing the rattle of the desert shrubs in the wind and the scuttle of unseen small animals on the desert floor. It was an extraordinarily peaceful place. (Hey, who says I wasn't a sensitive child?)

Before reading THE MOJAVE, I thought that desert a relatively small area northeast of Los Angeles extending to Needles and the Colorado River. I was surprised to learn that it also stretches into western Arizona and as far north as the southern tip of Utah, and encompasses southern Nevada and such places as Death Valley, Las Vegas, and Hoover Dam. Indeed, David Darlington's book provides a wealth of information about this big "empty" place. After an opening chapter on that definitive symbol of this desert, the Joshua Tree, Darlington explores such diverse places and topics as a seventy-mile stretch of old Route 66, the space shuttle landing area at Edwards Air Force Base, the desert as a convenient hiding place for dead bodies and illegal drug labs, and a history of area mining from the first pick-and-shovel prospectors to today's international conglomerates. As a self-proclaimed conscientious objector, the author describes, but isn't thrilled about, the military's use of the region, from Patton's Desert Training Center during WWII, to modern day's Fort Irwin National Training Center (for Army infantry maneuvers) and the Nevada Test Site (for nuclear weapons). And, on a less apocalyptic note, he describes cattle ranching and the life of the desert tortoise, and reveals Giant Rock as a mecca for UFO and ET True Believers.

Most of what THE MOJAVE imparts to the reader is truly fascinating and informative, so I was initially tempted to give it at least a 4-star rating. However, the final chapter is a tediously long - 91 of the volume's 314 pages - narrative history of the conflicts arising from desert land (ab)use, such as urban over-expansion (in Las Vegas) and the recreational use of off-road vehicles, epitomized by the on-again, off-again and much fought over Barstow to Vegas ORV race. Darlington's hot button seems to be the fate of the endangered desert tortoise, about which he apparently cares a lot (though tries not to be obvious about it). But it was way much more than I needed to know, especially when the author bored me to tears with the escapades of the Phantom Duck, the nemesis of the Fed's Bureau of Land Management. And, because the author apparently disapproves of the manner in which the Mojave is being utilized by the military, Big Mining, and greedy land developers, the tone of the book is unnecessarily humorless. Gee, Dave, I wish you could've lightened up more - the Earth continues to spin.