$38.50 U.S. (short discount)
No e-book has been authorized.
Softcover with gatefold flaps
472 pages with 36 maps (9 in color),
73 photographs, and 1 diagram
7.0″ x 9.0″ upright/portrait
ISBN: 978-1-938086-46-5
Published in January 2017
Distributed by University of Virginia Press
www.upress.virginia.edu
No e-book has been authorized.
Events and Exhibitions
July 11, 2017 6:30-8 p.m.
Lecture and Book Signing
Campbell House, Twentynine Palms, CA
Los Angeles Times: How a South Pasadena matron used her wits and wealth to create Joshua Tree National Park 2/2019
by Lary M. Dilsaver
The first history ever written on California’s Joshua Tree National Park, in which we witness America’s changing attitudes toward the desert as a place worthy of preservation.
National parks are different from other federal lands in the United States. Beginning in 1872 with the establishment of Yellowstone, they were largely set aside to preserve for future generations the most spectacular and inspirational features of the nation, seeking the best representative examples of major ecosystems such as Yosemite, geologic forms such as the Grand Canyon, archaeological sites such as Mesa Verde, and scenes of human events such as Gettysburg. But one type of habitat—the desert—fell short of that goal in American eyes until travel writers and the Automobile Age began to change that perception.
Soon after the National Park Service was founded in 1916, it began to explore and seek out a possible park in the deserts of Southern California during the 1920s. But many agency leaders still carried the same negative image of arid lands shared by many Americans at that time—that desert lands are hostile and largely useless. One wealthy woman—Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, from Pasadena—however, came forward, believing in the value of the desert. With vision and fortitude, she convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish a national monument that would protect the unique and iconic Joshua trees and other desert flora and fauna. Thus was Joshua Tree National Monument officially established in 1936, with the area later expanded in 1994 when it became Joshua Tree National Park.
Lary Dilsaver, in Preserving the Desert, offers the first comprehensive history of Joshua Tree National Park, from its inception to the present time, showing how a growing cadre of environmentalists and recreationalists have fought to block ongoing proposals from miners, ranchers, private landowners, and real estate developers who historically have refused to accept the idea that any desert is suitable for anything other than their consumptive activities. To their dismay, Joshua Tree, even with its often-conflicting land uses, is more popular today than ever, serving more than one million visitors per year who find the desert to be a place worthy of respect and preservation.
About
About the Author
Lary M. Dilsaver a native Californian, is Professor Emeritus of Historical Geography at the University of South Alabama and a thirty-year volunteer researcher for the National Park Service. He has written more than forty articles and book chapters on national parks and historic landscapes, and he has authored or edited six books, including Challenge of the Big Trees: The History of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, A Revised Edition, with William C. Tweed (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2016), America’s National Park System: The Critical Documents (Rowman and Littlefield, 1994; second edition, 2016), and Cumberland Island National Seashore: A History of Conservation Conflict (University of Virginia Press, in association with the Center for American Places, 2004).
Slide Show
In 1934, when Roger Toll, then Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, inspected the Joshua Tree area for the National Park Service, he was impressed by a relatively dense cover of desert biota in the higher-elevation Mojave Desert section of the future national monument. Photograph by Roger Toll, March 9, 1934. Harpers Ferry Center, Joshua Tree National Park Collection, WASO-H-703. 
Many tall Joshua trees such as this one in Queen Valley greeted National Park Service (NPS) inspectors as they visited the new monument in 1936. Neither the tree nor any record of its fate exists today. Photograph by George A. Grant, a photographer for the NPS. Harpers Ferry Center, Grant Collection, JOTR #32, National Park Service. 
The jumbled rock formations plus the botanical diversity of California’s two deserts—the Colorado and Mojave—attracted hikers and campers long before President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the monument on August 10, 1936. Today, as a national park, it hosts more than 2,000,000 visitors per year. Photograph by Ralph Anderson, December 1939. Harpers Ferry Center, Anderson Collection, JOTR #92A, National Park Service. 
Camping in Joshua Tree National Monument was haphazard before the National Park Service paved the roads and organized a pattern of campground loops. This bird’s-eye image of Hidden Valley was taken during the late 1930s. Photographer unknown. Joshua Tree National Park Photo Archives, Cat. 20575, Image 2176. 
Exploring Joshua Tree National Monument during 1939 meant finding one’s way through scores of rough dirt tracks. Here, deep ruts show the immediate popularity of Cap Rock as a destination. Photograph by Ralph Anderson, December 1939. Harpers Ferry Center, Anderson Collection, JOTR #53, National Park Service. 
Movie producers found the scenery of Joshua Tree National Monument perfect for film-making, especially Westerns. One of the better-known movies filmed in the monument was “Buck Benny Rides Again,” starring Jack Benny, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, and Ellen Drew. Released by Paramount Pictures in 1940, the site was supposed to be a Nevada ranch. Photograph by Ralph Anderson taken near Lost Horse Well on December 17, 1939. Harpers Ferry Center, JOTR Collection, National Park Service. 
The William F. and Frances Keys Ranch in 1969. The remote 160-acre homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Today, the ranch serves as the primary interpretive feature in the park. The ranch house, schoolhouse, store, and workshop still stand and the orchard replanted. The land, of course, is also littered with rusting cars, trucks, and mining equipment. Photograph by F. Ross Holland. Joshua Tree National Park Photo Archives, Cat. 20575, Image 2237. 
The Lost Horse Mine in 1967 before the headframe collapsed. From 1894 to 1931, the mine produced more than 10,000 ounces of gold and 16,000 ounces of silver. The mine has also suffered dangerous deterioration below the surface, and the park site remains unstable. Photograph by Donald Black. Joshua Tree National Park Photo Archives, Cat. 20575, Image 1370. 
The San Jacinto, Santa Rosa, San Bernardino, and San Gabriel Mountains west of Joshua Tree National Park intercept moist, westerly winds and create a rainshadow effect that reinforces the park’s desert climate. The high snow-covered peak is 10,834-foot Mount San Jacinto. Photograph by the author, January 2013. 
Skull Rock and most other exposed boulders in Joshua Tree National Park have undergone a process called exfoliation that causes onion-like layers of rock to peel away from the surface after the overburden has been removed. Here, erosion at the level of the former soil surface has formed small, cave-like indentations called tafoni, which give the boulder its striking appearance. Photograph by the author, January 2009. 
Joshua trees dominate the vegetation in the higher-elevation Mojave Desert along the road from Hidden Valley to Keys View. A few other places in California boast similar stands of the iconic species, but none can match the surrounding sculpture of the rocky mountains and outcrops. Photograph by the author, January 2014. 
Early campers used the Split Rock site before the establishment of the national monument in 1936. Today, the parking area gives easy access to those who wish to go “bouldering” or picnicking in the rugged topography. Photograph by the author, January 2013. 
Today, Cap Rock is the site of a .4-mile nature trail and is popular for informal instruction in basic rock climbing. Here, a climbing instructor demonstrates technique. Photograph by the author, January 2013. 
Cecil Doty, one of the National Park Service’s most influential architects, designed the Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP) Visitor Center, a classic example of Mission 66 architecture that was completed in 1963. The new building gave JTNP’s staff additional space, but the fact that it sat upon the Pinto Mountain Fault led the agency to study a new location outside the original Oasis of Mara tract. The author took this photograph from the nature trail through the Oasis of Mara, January 2014. 
In this view of the Pinto Basin looking east from the Cholla Cactus Garden, one sees a rich display of silver cholla cactus (genus Opuntia) and, in the distance, the surrounding mountain ranges that were removed from the monument in 1950 to placate miners. They were returned to the park in 1994 with few new mining claims. Photograph by the author, January 2013. 
Joshua Tree National Park Ranger Chad Riggin stands next to one of the largest Joshua trees in the relatively cool and better-watered Covington Flat area of the park. The vegetation here and in the wilderness areas nearby includes arboreal species such as the single-leaf pinyon (piñon) pine (Pinus monophyllia) and California juniper (Juniperus californica) as well as the park’s namesake species (Yucca brevifolia). Photograph by the author, January 2013.
Praise
“The volume begins with a series of exquisite photographs— thirty eight plates in all — showing scenes of the monument (and, later, park) between 1936 and 2015, followed by several outstanding color maps.
… what readers will find between the covers of this well- written, carefully crafted, and attractive book is an unvarnished blow-by-blow account of the making of a national park. Anyone who picks up this book and is truly interested in the origins, management, and future of America’s public lands will be richly rewarded.”
—Geoffrey L. Buckley, Ohio University (read the full review here, pdf, Volume 47 [2019] of Historical Geography)
“Dilsaver’s detailed, lushly illustrated, and insightful history uses the complicated history of Joshua Tree’s preservation and the vexing administrative challenges the park faced throughout its history to reveal larger issues of changing cultural perceptions of deserts and arid landscapes. In three sections and eight chapters, he shows as much as he says with extensive custom maps and color illustrations, including a beautiful gallery of historic and contemporary images.”
—Andrew Kirk, University of Nevada, written for the Environmental History Journal vol. 24 (January 2019) (read the full review here, pdf)
“After years of conducting meticulous research, Lary Dilsaver has successfully assembled the authoritative account of the storied and complex history of Joshua Tree National Park. Like other national-park-based conservation efforts in the California Desert, Joshua Tree’s story is filled with challenges and conflicts. He has traced the park’s tumultuous past from its establishment as a national monument in 1936, through the removal of more than 265,000 acres from the national monument during the 1950s, to its designation, expansion, and administration as a national park in 1994, and up to the present time. Preserving the Desert is a must read for all who love our national parks, enjoy the California Desert, and would like to see these lands preserved in perpetuity!”
—Mark Butler, Retired Superintendent, Joshua Tree National Park
“In Dilsaver’s third book, Preserving the Desert, the author applies a similarly rigorous scholarly approach to produce a fascinating and highly readable history of Joshua Tree National Park in California’s southern deserts. As before, the chapters are organized chronologically, but in this case the book opens with a stellar 45-page ‘visual journey’ of the park. Consisting of a series of beautifully rendered black and white and color photographs and maps, this unique introductory pulls the reader into the stunning landscape of Joshua Tree in a most powerful way.” (read the full review here, pdf)
—Randall K. Wilson, Gettysburg College, Journal of Historical Geography 64 (2019) 104-120
“This outstanding book will serve as the definitive historical geography and management history of Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree is one of the nation’s most visited yet threatened parks, and it offered author Lary Dilsaver an opportunity to explore the area’s evolution from an unwanted wasteland to an environmentally vulnerable and amenity-rich sanctuary. The fascinating story he tells also reveals how Joshua Tree is not only a window into the larger evolution of Southern California, but an outstanding example of how a blossoming affinity for an arid-lands aesthetic transformed a place once seen as devoid of beauty or utility into one of the nation’s premier desert playgrounds and preserves.”
—William Wyckoff, Professor of Geography, Montana State University, and author of How to Read the American West: A Field Guide and Creating Colorado: The Making of a Western American Landscape, 1860–1940
“This new book is a comprehensive examination of its history, development, boundary changes, conflicts, champions and detractors, and the men and women charged with its management and protection.
Dilsaver delves into current and future issues in an informed and balanced manner. The maps and photos are plentiful and excellent. And, the book’s production is handsome and first rate. Its is a rugged volume that will serve the reader well, both at home, in the office, and in the field.”
—Robert Pavlik, The Wave, California State Park Rangers Association newsletter (read the full review here, pdf)