Katarzyna Nowocin-Kowalczyk
January, 2024
story from the book Secrets of California Deserts
Desert cities often have their own secrets and a short, albeit interesting and turbulent history. One of them is located in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, a city with a graceful, if somewhat intriguing, name, Twentynine Palms. Why twenty-nine and not, for example, thirty or twenty-five? Where does this number come from? To solve this mystery, we have to go back 200 years, to the middle of the 19th century.
At that time, but also in the early twentieth century, the climate in the Mojave Desert was wetter. There were many oases on it, which were used by the indigenous inhabitants of the area, the Serrano, Chemehuevi and Cahuilla Indians. Where the town of 29 Palms is now located, there was a spring they called 'Mar-rah,' which means 'land of little water.' Some also explain it as a place of 'small springs and a lot of grass.' The presence of water enabled the Indians to grow corn, beans, pumpkin, and squash.
When new settlers, prospectors and cattle ranchers began to arrive in the area in the 19th century, they called this desert paradise the Oasis of Mara.
great story, well written, it's a good read