- Out and About -
CALIFORNIA REGION #11
THE Deserts

American veterans of WWII, and students of America’s ongoing fight for freedom are among the thousands who annually visit the General George S. Patton Memorial Museum in …well, actually not “in” anywhere. “In between,” would be a better location description. As in …in between Palm Springs and the Arizona border.

But don’t museums rely heavily on admission fees and corporate donations? And so don’t they have to be built where there are already large numbers of potential visitors? Yes. And, yes. All of that makes sense…and dollars.

So…what’s a museum doing 30 sand-filled miles from the nearest large city? Smack dab in the middle of the Southwest desert? It’s certainly not your usual museum location. True, it isn’t. But then the Patton Memorial Museum isn’t your usual depository of well-organized displays and climate-controlled exhibits, either.

Due to its arid and isolated location in the poor-man’s Sahara, to visit the Patton Museum is to experience the environment endured by the one million US troops who trained in that area under Patton during WWII. The museum was opened in 1988 to mark the entrance to Camp Young, what was once the headquarters entrance to the largest warfare training facility in world history: 18,000 square miles. All desert. All cactus. All snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, sand storms. All parts of the Desert Training Center that was to become known as the California-Arizona Maneuver Area.

Shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, it became evident that Nazi forces were preparing to cross North Africa en route to Egypt and the Suez Canal. Control the Canal, figured Mein Fuhrer, and you control life-sustaining shipping lanes for civilian and military populations in the region. American forces had to defeat the German armies as they crossed that vast expanse of desert. But America’s experience in desert warfare was, to put it politely, approximately zero. America hadn’t fought in a desert since the Union blue battered their buns astride camels on the lookout for Confederate gray along the Colorado River. America’s armed forces needed desert training. And they needed it fast.

Enter three-star general Lesley J. McNair, who orders two-star general George Smith Patton Jr. to train his tank forces to fight and survive in the most extreme desert conditions imaginable. Patton immediately logs some major air miles, surveying locations in the Southwest desert along the California-Arizona border. The most promising areas get a closer, second look on the ground by Gen. Patton atop a military-issue horse.

Patton settles on locations for eleven training camps – each thousands of acres across – in an area 350-miles wide by 250-miles deep and straddling the borders of California, Arizona and Nevada. Camp Young is designated as his headquarters as it is the only one of the training camps to be located on a main traffic thoroughfare, Highway 60-70. Don’t bother looking for 60-70 on a modern map; it’s been renamed. You might know it as Interstate 10. Due to their immense sizes, the camps could accommodate staggering numbers of military personnel. As an example: in July of 1943 – not the best time of the year to be in the desert – the camps housed 191,620 trainees, instructors and support staff.

The hardships that these trainees faced – not enough water, way too much sand, blistering summers and freezing winters – and the details of Patton’s military career comprise much of the museum’s colorful exhibits. Other displays consist of artifacts, including weapons and uniforms, from America’s far too many wars.

A 26-minute video details Patton’s military service and the creation of the Desert Training Center. Metropolitan Water District, which provided Pattosn with much of his desert real estate, has loaned the museum a five-ton topographical map created in the 1920s. This huge map and related natural science exhibits illustrate the building of the Colorado Aqueduct which brings life-giving water from the Colorado River to Southern California.

A fenced area outside of the museum houses armored and tracked vehicles Patton utilized to train his troops, as well as from more recent wars. At the entrance to the museum is a large black granite wall that carries the names of Viet Nam-era veterans. A fundraiser for the museum, the Wall is constantly updated to accommodate newly arriving names. A gift shop also assists in supporting the museum. It offers books on Patton, t-shirts, hats, mugs, coins, toys, magnets, military-type patches and pins.

The museum is open daily except Christmas Day and Thanksgiving, 9:30am to 4:30pm. Admission is $4 for visitors 12 years old to 61 years, $3.50 for seniors. There is no charge for military personnel in uniform. Parking is free, with ample room for RVs. The museum is at the Chiriaco Summit exit of I-10, 30 miles east of Indio.
For additional information call
760-227-3483

PALM SPRINGS – Palm Springs Art Museum events:
Colors of the West: The Paintings of Birger Sandzén, through Sep 12. Artist Birger Sandzén (1871-1954) created vibrant and dynamic paintings of prairie and western landscapes from Kansas to the California coast using bold colors and expressionist techniques, earning him the nickname “the American Van Gogh.” This exhibition showcases more than 60 paintings, watercolors and prints from the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery and loans from private collections.

Global Lens 2010 film series, Thursdays May 13-Sep 9. This summer the Palm Springs Art Museum will screen 18 weeks of free films, every Thursday night starting at 5:30pm in the museum’s Annenberg Theater. Global Lens 2010 features a compelling series of foreign films from countries including Vietnam, Serbia, Algeria, India and China. Following this Global Lens 2010 series, the museum will screen a four-week “mini-series” showcasing classic films from directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut and Federico Fellini.

The Palm Springs Art Museum offers free admission every Thursday from 4pm-8pm. Location: 101 Museum Drive.
760-322-4800
www.psmuseum.org

Colorado | Idaho
- NEVADA REGIONS -
Reno Tahoe Territory | Cowboy Country | Pony Express Territory
Silver Trails Territory | Las Vegas Territory

New Mexico | Oregon | Utah | Washington

Home | Table of Contents | Out & About | Features | Departments | Free Camping | Subscribe Now | About Us | Questions/Comments | Site Map