Hi-Desert Star by Jimmy Biggerstaff

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK — Anyone curious about the short but lively cultural history of Euro-Americans in the Morongo Basin would do well to pick up a copy of “Growing Up at the Desert Queen Ranch” by Art Kidwell and Willis Keys.
In the book’s introduction, the authors explain the work is a collaboration of two friends who wanted ranch visitors and Park Service rangers to have a richer understanding and deeper appreciation of what daily life was like growing up at the Desert Queen Ranch here.
Willis’ recollection of minute childhood details provides intricate and intimate word pictures of his austere yet rich youth.
Kidwell recorded 15 audio tapes of his conversations with Willis, often made while walking around the ranch or at other places in the park.
One thing this book certainly was not was hastily thrown together. It took 22 years for the co-authors to complete the literary effort. Kidwell and Keys must be proud of the finished product, which is a study in family cooperation and making do with what was available.
It is obvious from Keys’ narrative that Kidwell faithfully transcribed the pioneer’s words as Keys spoke them. He often doubles up on prepositions, with observations like, “up around,” or “ down over by” to describe a location.
It is oral history at its purest and finest, with all the warts and bark on, to mix a pair of useful metaphors.
Kidwell uses two type faces to differentiate between Willis’ words and his own observations and historical narratives. It is light reading, vignettes typically taking only a page or two to describe a specific event or place from Willis’ youth.
It also is a fun read, both for those who remember ranch or rural living as well as for those unfamiliar with but curious about how things were out here way back when.
The memoir is a family photo album full of pictures of youth participating in the wonders and the rigors of desert living, where what few neighbors there were, were miles distant.
Willis describes his matriculation at the ranch schoolhouse, where the teachers were family employees who lived and worked on the ranch and in the mines.
The ranch house had running water, Willis recalls, which consisted of his mother handing him a bucket and instructing him to run on down to the well to fill it up.
The book is available locally at the Morongo Basin Historical Society’s gift shop in Old Town Mercantile Antique Mall, at Sagebrush Press Bookstore in Yucca Valley and at the Old Schoolhouse Museum in Twentynine Palms.