Februarch 2017 Joshua Tree Tortoise Telegraph

poetry – with a point C

In this issue: origins of the campbell house: A love story

holla Needles, a new hi-desert-based poetry magazine, has published its first issue this past week. The publication began soliciting poems the first week of January, and the magazine said poems began arriving almost immediately.

The poets whose work appears in the first issue are Elluisa Vargas, Dennis Price, Evelyn Christensen, Cameron Hendricks, Debra Walworth, Steve Braff, Ruth Nolan, Cynthia Anderson, Michael Dwayne Smith, and Noreen Lawlor.

The magazine is available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and is also available locally at the Rainbow Stew in Yucca Valley. R Soos, the editor, is currently soliciting poems for the second issue. Send your poems for consideration to chollaneedles@ gmail.com.

R Soos is the author of over 20 collections of poetry, and was editor of Seven Stars Magazine from 1973-1994. He has visited the hi-desert yearly since the late 1970’s, and in 2017 moved here permanently. His passion is to give local poets a magazine to showcase their poetry, and will also publish books by individual poets.

artist snake jagger continues his true life story in the sixth installment of becoming snake jagger

Todd Rutherford aims to create beauty and nobility

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odd Rutherford, co-founder of the extremely popular Joshua Tree-based band Gram Rabbit, is set to start work on his first solo record this month. Gram Rabbit has released six acclaimed records, played some of the world’s biggest festivals (including Coachella, SXSW, London’s Wireless, San Diego Street Scene, and San Francisco’s Pride), and racked up over 30 song placements in television, film, and national advertising campaigns, as they have estabished themselves firmly as one of the most successful and influential bands of the hi-desert.

Fans of Gram Rabbit have come to know Rutherford’s sound as lush and expansive. Swirling guitars mixed with driving beats and haunting melodies. Tracks such as Wheels in Motion, New Energy, Angel’s Song, and

They’re Watching (recently featured on a Fox TV series) have won him critical praise. Don’t expect his solo work to stray too far from the tracks that he conceived for Gram Rabbit.

Rutherford arrived in Joshua Tree for the first time in the early 2000.

“Upon arriving in Joshua Tree for the first time, I got out of my car and found the energy to be so intense, I had to get back in and gather myself for a moment,” Rutherford explained. “It was unlike any other place I had ever been. And it spoke to me in a deep way.”

“A friend with whom I played with in a band from San Francisco, decided to rent a house in north Joshua tree and invited musicians from different cities to move in and start a band,” he continued. “Jesika von Rabbit was one of these musicians who relocated from L.A.

“After relating musically with Jesika and hearing her sing during my first visit, I was compelled to relocate as well. I moved down from San Francisco to give the project a go. We spent six months together in that ...continued on Page 5

Todd Rutherford - gram rabbit co-founder aims to create beauty and nobility with his music remembering Dr. lou gerhardt march events to read about while you’re stuck in line waiting to get into the national park Keep it real: help stop vandalism and theft in our national parks - put the NPS tipline# in your cell phone: 888-653-0009

Stay in touch with the Tortoise! www.jttortoisetelegraph.com 1

Tales from the tortoise

origins of the campbell house a love story, by paul smith

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t was 1917 in Philadelphia, and Elizabeth Crozier started on her way to Pasadena, California to help a good friend in her wedding party. Elizabeth was born in high wealth and culture in 1893. Her father John Crozier was a significant business figure in the textiles industry on the East Coast and Elizabeth was raised with governesses and a history of international travel, including Egypt, with its pyramids and artifacts of early humans.

Bill Campbell was born in 1895. His parents died and he was now an orphan living in Los Angeles. He had a gifted intellect and capacity to enjoy and work in the outdoor wild areas of California. Bill was considered poor, but he thrived on it. He was also in the Pasadena wedding party. Bill was handsome and in uniform—about to go to Italy as a soldier fighting for America in World War I. Bill and Elizabeth immediately fell in love. It was an unlikely romance of a rich girl and a pauper! When her family found out they were not excited about this wartime romance.

It had little chance of success.

But Elizabeth courageously defied her family’s objections and stood by her man as he went to Italy in the service of America. Elizabeth did not hear from him for many months and was scared. Shortly before the armistice in 1918 Bill suffered a life-threatening injury to his lungs from mustard gas poisoning in the heat of battle.

When Bill returned, Elizabeth devoted her energy to seeking a cure for his injury.

Despite their adversity, they were still deeply in love, and finally married in 1920.

The Crozier family was disappointed in their marriage. They cut her off from the family fortune. The doctors on the East Coast told Bill and Elizabeth that he would die if he did move to a warm dry climate. They went to Pasadena in the hopes of him getting better.

But it didn’t work. So, they found themselves in Pasadena; poor and struggling to survive.

Bill was too sick to work and they took small odd jobs with friends and acquaintances to get by.

Then they found a new doctor. Pasadena physician Dr. William Luckie had searched throughout the West for the ideal place to send seriously injured respiratory victims from the War. He met with Bill and Elizabeth and told them if Bill was to survive, he should go to the California high desert at Twentynine Palms.

In December 1924, they traveled to their future desert home with the hope that Bill’s health would return in the high and dry desert air and he could live a long and fruitful life. They owned an old touring car where they could sleep at night, and a tent to store their few supplies. Elizabeth did not know how to boil water but was not afraid of the difficulties they faced. How would they get money, food, firewood, water, and the other necessities of life?

They set up a camp by a spring at the Oasis of Mara in Twentynine Palms. Bill taught Elizabeth how to cook over a campfire, chop wood, shoot a rifle and pistol, and scare off cattle and wild burros which threatened their water supply at the spring. This was a land populated by bootleggers, outlaws, cattle thieves, prospectors, and miners. There were less than 10 homes in the entire Morongo Valley. Elizabeth the Pennsylvania socialite became a proud cook over the campfire and was quite accurate with a rifle if she needed to be.

They met and became good friends with prospector Bill MacHaney. MacHaney had come to the desert in the 1870’s and knew the local Native Americans who lived there at the time. He told Bill and Elizabeth where they could find Indian artifacts such as clay pottery, spirit sticks, carving tools, grinding stones, and spear and arrow points. In the caves and rock shelters in what is now known as Joshua Tree National Park.

A little over a month after they arrived at the Oasis Bill received a surprise. It was a check with a notice that he would be receiving a monthly pension of $95 from the government for his service in the War. Elizabeth and Bill were ecstatic. They now saw how to survive in this desert wilderness which they had come to love.

In the spring of 1925, they acquired a homestead of over 150 acres and began to build the Campbell house. It was nothing fancy, a simple house and of course a well where they could get water free from pollution caused by wandering cattle and burros.

Bill could not seek full-time work due to his injury, but they both commenced exploring the surrounding desert for artifacts from early Native Americans. While they were on these archaeological adventures they collected beautiful stonework for the home they eventually hoped to build.

In 1926 Elizabeth’s father was gravely ill. The family talked extensively of the courage of their daughter and how her wartime romance had now achieved long-term success.

Their earlier fears proved wrong. They were proud of Elizabeth and when her father passed away in 1926 Elizabeth became the beneficiary of a multi-million-dollar trust

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The Campbells, by Chuck Caplinger.

fund. Their lives were about to change.

The Campbell’s became very serious about building their large new home. While they did much of the work themselves, they also hired skilled laborers to help construct the equivalent of an 11 room New England mansion with beautiful rock covered walls, chimneys, fine hardwood polished floors, cabinets, and furnishings. Their gracious home was completed in 1929.

Bill and Elizabeth remained seriously interested in the archaeology of the early Indians. They sought advice from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. And they established a close relationship with the Southwest Indian Museum in Los Angeles which became very interested in their discoveries.

After completing their large residence, the Campbell’s built a smaller building to house their collection of Indian artifacts. This became the desert branch of the Southwest Indian Museum.

The Southwest Museum provided manpower and expertise for their work. It was successful and Elizabeth soon published through the Museum a monograph on the archaeology found in the Twentynine Palms area.

In 1933 Bill and Elizabeth began exploring the large valley and dry Lake now known as the Pinto Basin in Joshua Tree National Park. Around the edges of the dry Lake and some

of the large watercourses they found many ancient campsites with very old artifacts strewn in the area. They now knew that there was a large population of early Native Americans who had lived there.

This was a major new early-human discovery in North America. In order to establish the dates of habitation for large numbers of early Indians in the Pinto basin they sought the help of geologists and paleontologists from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. This brilliant use of scientists from other fields of scientific research enabled them to make major breakthroughs in the dating of early cultures in the California Desert.

The Campbells established that these early inhabitants lived in the Pinto Basin 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.

With their finances secure the Campbells were able to use their newfound expertise to study early peoples throughout the California desert and eventually in the Great Basin.

CAMPBELL HOUSE 74744 Joe Davis Drive, Twentynine Palms www.CampbellHouse29Palms.com

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hen Jan and Gary Peters retired from running Roughley Manor—for their second and final time (it’s a long story), the good folks of the 29 Palms Inn, an iconic historic desert property itself, stepped up to take on this stunningly beautiful and unique desert lodging facility. This ensured the legacy of this property would not be in question, and that it would continue to serve desert travelers in proper hi-desert fashion, long into the future.

I’ve enjoyed the Campbell House for many years now. The Sun Runner has hosted an event or two there, I’ve performed music there, attended a number of community events there, and, of course, put the baby owls that were hatched there on the magazine’s cover (they were too cute to resist).

To say this is one of the more unique locations one can choose to spend some time in the desert is to do a disservice to the Campbell House. This immaculate English manor style home is set among a large garden of palms and shade, letting you almost forget you’re in the desert. It is its own oasis, and there are guest accommodations to suit just about anyone and everyone.

There are two suites on the second floor of the main house, and four private cottages with five guest suites on the surrounding property. Excluding the two suites in the main house, all accommodations include full kitchenettes, modern bathrooms, and private outdoor patio spaces. The accommodations are elegantly presented, and spacious.

Guests of the Campbell House are provided with a gourmet breakfast, served in the grand dining room of the historic main house. The quiet, secluded property offers numerous outdoor areas where guests can relax, unwind, and take in all the beauty that is the Mojave.

The Campbell House is also pet friendly, and for those looking for a more pampered stay, guests can enjoy a variety of massages and facial treatments, either from the comfort and privacy of their room, or in the spa room located on the second floor of the main house.

The spa is open to the public, and locals can book a massage or spa treatment as well.

With the beauty of the Mojave Desert as the backdrop, combined with its the rich history and stunning architecture, the Campbell House offers a tranquil and unique setting for intimate private events and retreats. The dining room in the main house, known as the Great Room, is a beautiful space for small private parties and gatherings, accommodating up to 20 guests.

For larger parties, retreats or conferences, the Gathering Room offers a great setting.

This is a large, versatile event space with modern amenities including a kitchenette, private bathroom and high speed internet. These facilities are welcome additions to the inventory of event spaces available in the hi-desert, which helps accommodate the growing number of weddings and special gatherings happily being held in the hi-desert.

– Steve Brown

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Tales from the tortoise

becoming snake jagger By Snake Jagger

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by way of introduction

he desert produces some fascinating creative spirits, and often, they have stories as interesting and varied as themselves and their work. Whenever possible, we like to share those stories with our readers to give you a deeper look down the tortoise hole, into the minds and souls of our friends and hi-desert neighbors.

I’ve known Snake Jagger for quite a few years now, and his artwork has been featured on the cover of our sister publication, The Sun Runner. He’s featured in our Morongo Valley episode of our TV series, Southwest Stories, doing lip-ups and talking about Frank Sinatra and his Dad, lip synching competively, and being a pirate, something we share (it’s a long story).

Snake is a uniquely talented desert artist with a penchant for creating desert scenes of orderly, sometimes raked, desert landscapes, with the occasional UFO, doorway, or even a rake, included. It’s what he calls whimsical surrealism, and the name fits. He has a playful painting style that is a perfect match for his personality.

But don’t just listen to me. Read Snake’s story in his own words. I’ve done minimal editing because I like to let people tell their story their way. He’s working on a book, so the Tortoise Telegraph is serializing his story in this, and upcoming, issues. It’s a great way to get to know Snake, and it’s a hell of a ride.

You can also peruse Snake’s online gallery and shop online at www. snakejagger.com. And yes, that’s one of his works in our masthead. – Steve Brown

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Chapter 6: jerry's house

iving at Jerry’s house was good for me. I was finally feeling my independence, and learning more about healthy living. Jerry had a garden and a large compost pile that he would water and turn once in a while. I learned how the food scraps, straw and leaves would cook down into a dark rich mulch that would have his zucchini plants growing giant vegetables that we would cook and share with the others on the compound.

I had heard about this place called the “Vines” from various people around town. I think the first time I heard of it was at a little health food restaurant that some friends of Jerry, and my dad were running. I can’t remember the name of it but it was run by guy named Howard and his wife Bonnie. It was where the restaurant Mykonos used to be. Back then they were selling a bowl of awesome vegetable soup for 10 cents, so that anyone could afford to eat a healthy meal. I had my very first avocado sandwich there, and I was hooked on this organic fare, with all the sprouts and tomatoes and grainy wheat bread.

At some point during our time at Zeus Juice, our friend Peter from England had somehow gotten permission from Culver Nichols, the man who owned the property below the Palm Springs tram that was known as the Vines, to move there. I’m not sure how this went exactly but I believe Howard and Bonnie also had a little trailer in the vines, which they eventually gave to Wally. So both Wally and Peter now had places in the little piece of paradise known as the Vines.

It was Culver Nichol’s plan that he would allow a certain number of vegetarian hippies to have little travel trailers up there that would have to be hidden from the road, and they would be responsible for keeping the fire roads cleared and growing a giant vegetable garden, and to keep people, basically the general public, out. He didn’t want it to become what Tahquitz eventually became, a haven for bums and idiots who would leave trash and possibly burn the place down being careless.

The Vines had its own fresh water source and the most coveted hot mineral springs in Palm Springs. Back when I first learned about the Vines, there were only the two warm pools, one was like a well, made of bricks, small and round.

Just big enough for two people to squeeze in. And the cement pool that could accommodate a group of people. Wally had somehow discovered the hottest pool that was close to the road. He dug it out and that one became the primary pool to bathe in. It was around 110 degrees and smelled like rotten eggs.

It was English Peter that talked to Mr. Nichols and arranged a meeting

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between him and me. I was interviewed and accepted to be one of the lucky few that would be able to move up to the Vines and be one of the caretakers there. It seemed my life just kept getting better and better. This was like being accepted into paradise on earth. There was no better place for a vegetarian hippy, naked sunbather to live.

At the time, a neighbor of Jerry’s had a small trailer he wanted to sell to get out of his driveway. It needed some work to make it comfortable and was a classic old 1950’s trailer, so I begged my father to help me out with, because I didn’t have the $75 to buy it. $75! Can you believe that? Nowadays a trailer like that would fetch well over a thousand dollars. Or more!

So I bought the trailer and proceeded to fix it up and make it ready for us to sneak it through all the backstreets from Cathedral City, to get it up to the Vines. It wasn’t exactly legal for the road—no tags or license.

I was now moving out of the hippy commune at Jerry’s house and into another adventure. I pulled my trailer into my personal space allocated for me

by Peter. I was not underneath the cottonwood trees but just outside the shaded canopy. That was OK. This was the first place I could call my own, my very first home. I was in heaven.

I’ll never forget being there when we got a good foot of snow in the Vines. My trailer looked so awesome sitting there, with a foot of snow on the curved roof. I gotta say, that was one cold winter, with no real heat to warm me up I would hunker down under a ton of blankets. But I didn’t mind. This was my place. And I loved it. Besides that I was 18 years old and nothing having to do with the weather bothered me. I could handle it.

My job at the Vines was the same as the other people who were there at the time, so I helped till the soil, plant the seeds, harvest the crops, of which there were plenty for all of us. I think there were around five people living in the Vines at that time. We all would sit around in the evenings enjoying our giant vegetable salads that we grew. Then we would all go have a soak in the hot bath by the road.

Putting mud on our faces and bodies to extract toxins from within, we would sit in the hot water for about 30 minutes then get out and walk over to the ice cold stream that flowed nearby, to dunk ourselves in to cool down. Then it was back to the hot water.

When you approached the hot bath, there would be frogs a’croakin’ all around, and they would stop as we approached. Almost daily we had to extract a dead frog or two that had mistakenly jumped into the hot water and instantly become cooked.

When it snowed in the Vines, it was magical to go to the hot bath during a full moon. The snow would be glowing all around the pool, and the steam was rising so thick it almost blotted out the city lights that shown down below in the city. We lived like Adams and Eves, walking around naked or with some kind of loin cloth, soaking up the golden rays of the sun, never thinking we might be doing damage to our skin that might come back to haunt us later in life.

It soon became evident to me that I needed to find myself a real job to provide me with some kind of income so I could eat or buy things I might need. The vegetable garden was great, but there are other things that a person needs to make life comfortable. Like incense and Colman stoves, and beans and rice. We were not paid for the work we did in the Vines, so I eventually got a job at Art Hendershot’s health food store on Indian Avenue. I made the avocado sandwiches this time, as well as the vegetarian chili and fresh carrot juice. I would walk every morning down the hill from the Vines, about five miles into town, to get to the health food store. Then if I didn’t get a ride, I would walk back and up that hill to get to my trailer. I was in pretty good shape in those days!

After living like this for a year or so, there was an incident that happened. A guy named Van who had visited us in the Vines and had a thing for Ina, Peter’s girlfriend.

He wanted to take her out but she wasn’t into it and she said no. He decided he didn’t like that answer, and started a fire in the Vines that destroyed a few of the trailers, including mine. That’s when my official permission to live there had ended. Mr. Nichols was scaling down and having a few less people stay up there. So I found myself in limbo.

It was time for another adventure in my life.

Todd Rutherford,

cont. from page1

“Unexplainable synchronicities were a daily occurrence.”

house. We converted the two car detached garage into a rehearsal space and played late every night. Jesika and I bonded during this period and left the house to start what would become Gram Rabbit. It was a very special time. Unexplainable synchronicities were a daily occurrence. The vastness and cosmic energies of the desert gave us the freedom to explore the deepest reaches of our creative minds.

We had no interest in writing within the confining structure of a particular music genre.

We would chase any original idea that came to us. It’s such a satisfying way to write. And one of the big reasons that I will most likely never leave.”

But has Todd’s songwriting style changed over the years, especially now as he goes solo?

“Ideas come to me the same way they always have. I think my new stuff is just a bit more evolved. Both musically and lyrically. I’m really quite excited to finally be making a full-length of all my own material. I feel like all that I have gone though, accomplished, and learned through my musical career has happened to prepare me for this moment. An entire album gives me the opportunity to present a clearer and more complete vision. My goal with every song I write is to really move the listener either consciously or subconsciously. The truth is universal. If you stay true to the universe and yourself, what you create will naturally be relatable to others. We are entering uncertain times. Supporting and nurturing our artists will be a vital part of moving forward.”

What motivates Todd musically?

“I felt drawn to bands that I perceived having a purpose behind their music and lyrics. Over the years it seems that popular music has lost it’s way and become product based. I’m not in this to create a product. I want to inspire listeners in the same way that I have been inspired by my favorite groups. But most importantly, I want to create something beautiful. I feel the most noble thing a human being can do with their life is to create beauty.”

Remembering the early years of Gram Rabbit gives Todd a great vantage point to look back on the evolution of the music scene in the hi-desert.

“The biggest change in the music scene in the hi-desert is that now JT is on the map,” Todd explained. “When I moved to Joshua Tree there were just a handful of active musicians compared to now. The idea that Paul McCartney would one day play at Pappy’s would have sounded preposterous. And the scene was much more weird back then. It was a very experimental time. Many artists were hesitant to move out here in the early days because there wasn’t as much going on. So it was just us weirdos who chose to call it home. But it was also a place that drove creative ideas and was inexpensive to live. A place where we could make music the centerpiece of our lives. A tough order when living in the city.

“Now everyone knows about it. Pappy’s has become a hip destination for touring and local bands and there’s great festivals to be a part of. The scene has been growing fast with an eclectic mix of musicians and artists who see the potential and magic in the hi-desert experience. We have a magic community here, and it’s been special to watch it continue to bloom.”

As he embarks on his first full-length solo project, he hopes it will have a universal appeal.

“More than anything I just want people to give it a good listen. I feel like anyone who does that is going to be moved by it. Maybe in a good way, maybe not. But I’m confident that every listener will feel something and that is my ultimate goal.”

To get more into Todd’s world, visit www.toddrutherfordmusic.com to hear music and to support his upcoming solo album.

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Tales from the tortoise

remembering Dr. Lou

by rebecca unger

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ouis “Dr. Lou” Gerhardt, passed away at his home in Twentynine Palms, February 13, at the age of 91.

A child of the Great Depression, Lou only remembered the love and joy of his large extended and nurturing family growing up in Washington’s Snohomish County.

“I really believe that the core unit of society, the basic integer, is the family,” Gerhardt once said. “My mom and dad weren’t what you call religious people. They didn’t go to church, never talked much about religion, they just tried to live it. And if you grow up in a home that exudes caring for other people, then you tend to care for other people, you don’t even know another way.”

Lou’s sweet and cheerful personality was well known since his childhood, and while at Aberdeen High School was known as “Smilin’ Lou.” During high school, Lou and his family helped a foreign student from China and a Jewish student from Nazi Germany.

The Chinese student grew up to be a member of the Board of Regents at the University of Washington and the German student became a facilitator in Oregon for the major visits that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made there.

Lou’s parents signed for him to join the Army when he graduated high school in 1943 at 17. Lou never talked much about his military service, but remembered the happier times, like a makeshift Christmas dinner with his unit in 1944 in a barn in France, eating a boiled chicken and singing hymns accompanied by a small field organ.

After the war, Lou used his GI bill for college and also became an ordained Congregationalist minister. He later went to seminary in Berkeley, California, and took classes in public speaking and reading. While in school, the seminary placed him with a congregation in Port Chicago near Concord. He was already showing his passion for civil and equal rights, protesting brutal fraternity initiations and racial discrimination in school and in the community.

While serving as minister in Port Chicago he met his first wife, Grace, and her two daughters Marjorie and Nancy, in 1955. One day in 1958, a family came to Lou’s church and the husband told Lou about an opportunity to head a church in a fishing village on the island Indian reservation of Metlakatla, Alaska.

“If you think that prejudice and bigotry was bad in Alabama and Georgia in the 1960’s, the Indian people had it bad, too. They couldn’t go into just any restaurant, and they had to sit on the “Indian” side of the theater,” Lou recalled.

Lou was there when Alaska became the 49th state in 1959. The treaties that gave the indigenous people fishing rights were dissolved with the statehood act, and Lou took up their fight in the Alaska Supreme Court. He lost in a two-one decision there, but he and an attorney friend took it to the U.S, Supreme Court. They again lost, five-four.

“This happened in every state where the Indian people appealed state changes, they lost to states’ rights over the treaties,” Lou stated. “They were shafted.”

Soon the Gerhardts were back with a large church in Seattle, at the time when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was becoming well known. Some of the congregation’s young people were going to march with civil rights champions in Alabama. In 1961, Dr. King came to Seattle to speak at a rally in a theater, address Dr. Lou’s congregation, then give a professional address at a sit-down dinner. Lou said he’d never heard a man speak like that.

“He was a man on a mission, and he knew where he was going and what he was doing,” Lou said. “He always reminded me of Jesus, he always seemed to know his destiny.”

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The peripatetic Gerhardts next went to Terra Haute, Indiana, where Lou had a congregation and popular television show that followed the evening news. One night a guest talked about providing good homes for children taken from bad ones. Since Grace’s daughters had grown and married, the Gerhardts adopted a boy taken from a home with dirt floors and no running water on Christmas Day, 1965.

In 1968 the Gerhardts moved to Salt Lake City. Lou noted that the Mormon church wouldn’t allow African Americans full membership at this time, but he was there when that got changed.

“I knew the president of the church when he got the revelation that black people were equal to white people,” Lou recalled.

Lou had a television show for their church’s services early Sunday mornings, and people came in their ski clothes. He noted that they’d get a sermon, have coffee and doughnuts, and then take off for the Park City ski lifts.

“The Mormon church didn’t approve of this because it wasn’t honoring the Sabbath Day, but that didn’t stop them from owning the ski lifts in Park City,” Lou quipped.

In 1969, the Gerhardts would take a church in Detroit, and another TV show after the evening news, where guests included Michigan Governor George Romney and fried chicken guru Col. Sanders. During this time, the husband of a woman in Dr. Lou’s congregation had hijacked a passenger plane from Detroit, used a gun and went to prison for life in Atlanta. The woman asked Dr. Lou to go help him because he was suicidal. He sent the chaplain of the penitentiary some materials he had written about positive living, and the chaplain asked him to come give a positive living seminar to the inmates. Some of those inmates came to see Lou after they were released and he found jobs for them, even got one a job as a radio announcer.

During this time Lou’s church was targeted by white supremacist groups that were angry about the stand for racial equality taken by Lou and his congregation. Dr. Lou was also criticized by a deacon of another church who said he didn’t want to see racial integration into his wealthy community, a deacon who proclaimed he was a bigot and proud of it. But when Lou left Detroit in 1974 for a church in Beloit, he said that deacon came up to him “with tears rolling down his face,” and told him he was the best minister that church ever had.

By 1978, Dr. Lou was national leader of the Congregationalist church and editor of the denomination’s national magazine. He was sent to the wealthy downtown Los Angeles church to bring a fractious congregation together. In addition to personality clashes and power struggles, many of the members and leaders of the church were homosexual. The church itself, however, was being administered by conservative, rightwing people.

“I came to help them be bigger than that, to see the big picture and be a leading church in that area,” Lou said. “This church became home base for the nationally-known Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and the very diverse performance choral group, Vox Femina of Los Angeles.”

From 1980 to 1988, Lou was at The Cross Church in Fresno.

“This church was very orthodox, and I was unorthodox,” Lou admitted. “I was a square peg in a round hole. I was fighting, and I do mean fighting, for the rights of gay people and against capital punishment and other things I felt very strongly about. But here I was with people who felt just the opposite, and I had to deal with that.”

The gay community had a newspaper and Lou ran an ad in there saying he would conduct weddings. At a church meeting one of the members got up, waving the gay newspapers around with Dr. Lou’s picture in it, claiming he was destroying the church by being against everything the church stood for. Dr. Lou resigned The Cross in 1988, and took a large portion of the congregation with him, including Patty, the church’s youth director and treasurer.

In time, Dr. Lou and his many followers started a new church. Lou described themselves as “theologically liberal thinkers,” in non-liberal Fresno. Of course, there was opposition, and once local skinheads vandalized his church.

In 1994, Dr. Lou’s wife, Grace passed away, and Lou remembers it as a “cataclysmic event” in his life and the lives of family members and friends. But one of the congregants who followed him to his new church was Patty.

In 1995 Dr. Lou heard about an opening for a church in Twentynine Palms. All he knew about the city was that his adopted son had been stationed briefly as a Marine at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in the early 1980s. He was willing to go but first he had something to do first.

“How would you like to get married and we’ll go to Twentynine Palms?” Lou asked Patty. “She never heard of Twentynine Palms, but said she’d call the school district and see if they needed anybody.”

Patty had been a special education teacher for speech therapy and language for 20 years. So when she called the Morongo Unified School District they were excited that a speech education specialist would want come to Twentynine Palms and she had a job lined up waiting for her.

Lou and Patty were married by a friend at the Cedar Lanes Bowling Alley in Fresno, the day before they came down to Twentynine Palms.

Now, this is the part where all you folks in the hi-desert are free to tell your “Dr. Lou” stories, where all of you who read Dr. Lou’s weekly “Tough-Minded Optimist” newspaper column and attended his weekly better living inspirational seminars at Yucca Valley’s St. Joseph of Arimathea Church can share the years of blessing he has brought into your lives.

The best thing you can say about anyone is that they made the world a better place by being in it; Dr. Lou did that, in a well-lived life. Yes, he will be missed, but he will also be remembered with love and affection and gratitude.

Dr. Lou’s one last hope was that the Morongo Basin would someday have a homeless shelter. That’s not too much for a community of tough-minded optimists to accomplish.

–Dr. Lou had a column on positive living in The Sun Runner magazine for a time. He was a welcome and enlightening member of our community, and we are all the better for his time with us here in the hi-desert.

Tortoise picks Theatres Theatre 29 Mary Poppins, The Broadway Musical, March 3-26.

73637 Sullivan Road, Twentynine Palms Tickets and information are available at www.theatre29.org, or (760)361-4151.

Hi-Desert Cultural Center Premiere of Steve Stajich’s The Goldfish Letters. March 10-12.

61231 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree. www.hidesertculturalcenter.org or (760)366-3777.

Art & Culture 29 Palms Inn Desert artists on exhibit in the restaurant.

73950 Inn Avenue, Twentynine Palms (760)367-3505, www.29palmsinn.com Beatnik Lounge Revelations from the Edge: Discoveries, Lessons, and Gifts from the Mojave Desert. March 11-April 2. Opening reception: March 11, 6-8 p.m. Poetry/spoken word event, March 21, 7 p.m.

61597 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree. (760)475-4860, www.jtcpc.org BoxoProjects/BoxoHOUSE Open house for Gosia Wlodarczak, artist-in-residence, March 4, 2-5 p.m. Gosia was the first artist in residence at BoxoHOUSE and has returned for a 5th anniversary appearance. For this residency, Gosia has undertaken two projects: California Tunics and Modernist Conversation.

Wlodarczak was born in Poland and graduated Master of Fine Arts with Distinction from Poznan Academy of Fine Arts, Poland. She lives and works in Australia and internationally. 62372 Sullivan Road, Joshua Tree, (917)669-6098 Music 29 Palms Inn 73950 Inn Avenue, Twentynine Palms (760)367-3505, www.29palmsinn.com Live music nightly. Usually scheduled: Beverly Derby & Bill Church, Saturdays; Bob Garcia, Sundays; The Luminators, Mondays; Daniel Horn, Wednesdays; Bobby Furgo and company, Thursdays.

Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown Palace 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown (760)365-5956, www.pappyandharriets.com Upcoming: Jesika von Rabbit & Yip Yops, March 4; The Kills, March 17; Desert Rhythm Project, March 31. Regularly scheduled: Open mic Mondays, The Shadow Mountain Band opening for other acts most Saturdays, The Sunday Band, most Sundays,. For complete calendar: www.pappyandharriets.com.

Beatnik Lounge Songwriters in the Round, March 12, 5 p.m. Two Nashville songwriters, Lynn Langham, who won a Grammy in 2014, and Doug Gill, nominated for a Grammy in 2013, joined by host Rags&Bones. $5.

61597 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree. (760)475-4860, www.jtcpc.org Joshua Treenial Performances Alien Chamber Music by film score composer Rolfe Kent, and The Sirens, by Kyle Simon, inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey. March 31, 6 or 7:30 p.m. Showtimes, $35. The Integratron, 2477 Belfield Blvd., Landers. www.integratron.com Hi-Desert Living English Renaissance Faire North Joshua Tree Ren Faire for JT. March 12, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free entry, parking, vendor spaces, entertainment, family friendly games, and complimentary mini-meal and beverage at 2 p.m. for the first 100 guests. Bring own chairs, ice chests and pets welcome. 362 Sunview Road, Joshua Tree. Info: artland1969@yahoo.com Old Schoolhouse Museum Second Friday Lecture Series: Marshal South Rides Again, Diana Lindsay. 7 p.m., March 10. $5.

6760 National Park Drive, 29 Palms. (7600367-2366, www.29palmshistorical.org Joshua Tree Retreat Center/Institute of Mentalphysics 59700 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree, (760)365-8371 Intro to Tibetan Spiritual Breath. Tuesdays, 6:30-8 p.m., Lotus Meditation Building. Donation: $5. Improves subtle energies of the body by understanding breath and the natural relationship to healing.

Joshua Tree National Park Association/Desert Institute Desert Institute classes: Flora of Joshua Tree National Park, March 10-12, Kurt Leuschner; Photographing Joshua Tree By Sun and Moon, March 11, Craig Fucile; Desert Invertebrates A Marco Photography and Microscopy Primer, March 11-12, Paul DeLey; and Joshua Tree Through the Lens, March 12, Craig Fucile.

(760)367-5539, www.joshuatree.org Rainbow Stew 55509 29 Palms Hwy., Old Town Yucca Valley For event schedule, see: www.rainbowstew4u.com Want to be included in our event listings? Send your event info to us at: publisher@sunrunnersw.com.

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Editor/Publisher/telegraph operator: Steve Brown editorial contributors: Paul Smith, Rebecca unger Assistant to the editor: Juliett, the cat Photos by: Steve Brown, chris brewster Distribution: eventually by tortoise, of coursus Submit story ideas, photos for consideration, dining/shopping/lodging/favorite places and event photos to: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com advertising inquiries: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com or 760-820-1222 (voice or text) see the advertising page at www.jttortoisetelegraph.com for pricing and specs. remember – support your local independent media and it can support your community! distribution inquiries: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com join the tortoise telegraph online at: www.jttortoisetelegraph.com, on facebook at: www.facebook.com/jttortoisetelegraph on instagram at: www.instagram.com/jttortoisetelegraph join the sun runner, the journal of the real desert, online at: www.sunrunnersw.com on facebook at: www.facebook.com/TheSunRunner join southwest stories with steve brown online at: www.southweststories.us on facebook at: www.facebook.com/RealDesert

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