Woke up to another brilliant desert day. Drove out of gold
Butte and marveled at the desert plants along the way.
Barrel Cactus and Soaptree Yucca |
Teddy Bear Cholla |
Cholla (sp.) |
Desert Palm |
Staghorn Cholla ? |
Drove past the entrance
to Juanita Springs Ranch on the way out. A cluster of desert palms might
indicate a spring and oasis in this otherwise dry country. Hard to tell whether
someone lives here currently.
Entrance to Juanita Springs Ranch |
Desert Palm Oasis. Water Maybe? |
We saw signs in the Bunkerville area for the ‘Bundy Ranch’. Did a little Googling and discovered that we were in spitting distance of
the Cliven Bundy spread. Bundy, a cattle rancher in these parts, claims
ancestral rights to public lands in the Bunkerville area, now managed by the
Bureau of Land Management. Forget those pesky Paiutes who were here long before
Bundy and his clan.
Bundy also claims the federal government has no
constitutional right to own land, an assertion courts have
repeatedly rejected. Bundy has a long history of over grazing his cattle on
public land, causing substantial damage to the fragile desert ecosystem. For
years he has refused to pay modest annual grazing fees. Now he is in arrears in
the amount of one million dollars. Courts repeatedly have ordered him to
pay up and remove his cattle from these publically held lands. To no avail. Bundy defied all orders.
In March of 2014 BLM officials rounded up Bundy’s cattle to
evict them from federal land. Bundy gathered his family and friends and, along
with armed outside militia, staged a protest. Eventually
the feds suspended the roundup and returned Bundy’s cattle to deescalate the
situation. That just fired up the mob even more. They claimed victory in the
‘Bunkerville Wars’. National news reports showed militia members strutting
about, brandishing their weapons and pointing them at federal officials.
Some of Bundy’s followers seized and occupied the Malhuer
National Wildlife Refuge Oregon in January 2016. Federal employees were not
able to go to work. The interlopers, in effect, closed the Refuge. Local people
howled in rage and demanded that the federal government do something to rid
their community of these thugs.
Eventually law enforcement officers tried to arrest Robert
LaVoy Finicum, the leader of the thugs. Finicum resisted and state troopers
shot and killed him as he moved his hand toward his pocket where officers later
found a loaded weapon.
Eventually the feds arrested Bundy and many of his 'associates'. They charged him, his sons and many others with multiple federal offences. Bundy spent some time in prison while the legal process snail walked along. In January of this year a federal judge dismissed all charges against
Bundy. So now he can go back to over grazing his cattle on public land,
destroying natural assets, not paying his grazing fees and flipping the bird at
federal officials as they ride by his ranch.
So much for the rule of law.
We cross the Virgin River and pick up Interstate 15,
southbound and turn onto Route 169 to Overton, on the west side of
Lake Mead.
We drive south along North Shore Road through the Lake Mead National
Recreation Area with the Lake to the east. More splendid desert scenery. Dry, dry, dry! Very
little traffic. Along this drive one finds several natural springs. We stopped
at one and have lunch.
Rare Desert Spring. Don't Drink the Water. Loaded with Brain Eating Protozoans. |
Lakeshore Road intersects with route 93 that takes us to the
monstrous Hoover Dam.
Looking Down Hoover Dam's 726 Foot Face |
Hoover backs up the Colorado, Muddy and Virgin Rivers in
Black Canyon and Boulder Canyon to form Lake Meade, the largest man-made
impoundment in the US, when its full, which it rarely is. The Bureau of
Reclamation built the dam in 1931 through 1936. Contractors paid thousands of
workers a few dollars a day to labor on the dam. Over a hundred of them died in
the effort. The contractors would not hire Chinese workers and allowed about thirty black folk on the job, paying them lower wages than the whites. The
boss man issued separate water buckets to the blacks so as not to contaminate
white worker’s water.
Massive Spillway
|
You could drive a locomotive through that spillway. Its never been used, which ought to tell you something. That is, it rarely rains out here.
It was tough times in America. Dust Bowl days. All those dirt
farmers in the Midwest who had dutifully plowed their land because they believed
if they did the rains would come, which of course they didn’t. Not surprising
since they were plowing a desert. The
poor dirt farmers and their families sadly watched their newly plowed fragile top soil turn
into dust and blow away in the hot dry Midwestern winds. With no recourse and no prospect for employment at
home, between 10,000 and 20,000 desperate people converged on Boulder City
seeking employment on the dam. Squatter settlements grew up at the dam site and
the whiskey flowed copiously. The flimflam artists and prostitutes showed up in
force. Party time.
Boulder Canyon Upstream from the Dam. |
Standing on top of the Dam Looking Down 1000 Feet to the Colorado River |
Hover Dam is 726 feet high, 660 feet wide at the base and 1,244 feet across at the top. It weighs 6.6 million tons and contains four and one-half million cubic yards of concrete. Its super high capacity generators supply power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona and California.
Ironically, Hoover is generating less electricity than in the past because of falling water
levels in the lake which decreased hydraulic head which reduces power generation.
After all this is a desert.
If the
water falls far enough electrical generation will stop all together. Never fear. As we speak engineers
are installing new, more efficient turbines at different pool levels to take up the slack. How low can you go?
The impounded water goes to nearby Boulder City and Las
Vegas.
After our Hoover visit we drove to Boulder City Nevada and
check into a best Western Motel for much-needed showers and laundry.
Oh my, those underwear!
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