Samuelson's Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park

By Steve Brown

My wife and I have hiked Joshua Tree National Park for years, and one of the great things about this wonderful park (practically in our own backyard) is that you never run out of things to discover and new places to explore.

Today, we drove into the park (I don't call it "the monument" like a lot of the current LA crowd who keep trying to sound like they've been out here in the desert for years - the place has been a national park for more than a decade now) with no specific destination in mind. Frequently, we drive into the park and when we see some place that looks inviting or interesting that we haven't been to before, or if we remember a location that we wanted to explore further, we stop, and hike.

Today, we were enjoying the stunning display of wildflowers in the park, when I spied a far off canyon we hadn't explored before on the western end of Lost Horse Valley. We found a dirt pull-out to park the car, and hiked westward from the road (Note: To me, it seems that the NPS management of JTNP wants to curb the roads of the park, not so much to protect the roads from erosion, but rather to control where you can park your vehicle, and thus limit access to areas of the park. More and more, I find myself driving the "improved" roads through the park, looking at some place I'd like to hike, but with no place to pull off the road, I can't stop.).

We walked roughly southwest along the tracks of a long abandoned dirt road, encountering well over a dozen varieties of wildflowers in bloom, and a beautiful female Leopard Lizard, complete with orange stripes, indicating baby lizards are in her future.

When we intersected a broad wash, we turned to follow it, more directly westward, wandering a little north sometimes too. After a time, some old fencework came in view, along with a small hill with a lot of larger rocks, to the southwest. From a distance, I noticed what appeared to be writing on one of the rocks, and we wandered over to investigate.

"The Rock of Faiht. And Truht. Nature.is.God. The Key To Life. Is. Contact. Evolution. is. The Mother And Father of Mankind. Without Them. We. Be. Nothing."

It was signed, "John Samuelson."

There was a modest bench to the right of the rock where we sat, gazed out at the fields of wildflowers, and drank a bit of water. There were bed springs on top of the little hill, and seven more rocks where Samuelson had etched his political, economic, and religious philosophy, poorly spelled, but quite interesting, nonetheless. It appeared that he had likely been immortalizing his thoughts on things during the Great Depression, from the tenor of some of his rocks. The view from the top of the little hill was delightful, with yellow and white flowers blooming as far as the eye could see.

As it turns out, Samuelson, a Swede, showed up at Bill Keys' ranch in the area in 1926, looking for work (The park's own website, http://www.nps.gov/jotr/historyculture/samrocks.htm, gives you the story). Keys hired him to help with the Hidden Gold Mine, and Samuelson, along with his wife Margaret, decided to homestead the land, and they erected a shack on top of this little hill.

But when Samuelson filed for his homestead in 1928, his claim was denied, as he was not an American citizen. He sold his claim and moved to the LA area.

In an incident that I definitely want to learn more about, Samuelson went to a dance in Compton the next year, got into an argument, and killed two men.

Erle Stanley Gardner found that Samuelson was never tried for the murders, but was sent off to a mental hospital, having been judged to be insane. He later escaped in 1930, and wound up in the state of Washington, where years later he was mortally injured in a logging accident.

We were so fascinated by this little hill with its philosophical etchings from a man who took the time to carve his thoughts into the rock in a place where few were likely to ever see them, that we circled the hill, finding all eight of his rocks. We wandered the corral nearby, and noted what seemed to possibly be some diggings on the hillside to the north (Samuelson's little hill had abundant quartz).

I highly recommend paying Samuelson's Rocks a visit if you're in the mood for a hike in Lost Horse Valley with its expanses of Joshua tree forests, and (right now, anyway), desert meadows of yellow, white, purple, and red wildflowers. I know this is one hike we'll take again.