Desert Messenger

October 1, 2014

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16 www.DesertMessenger.com October 1, 2014 BLUE STONES FROM PAGE 15 800-656-HOPE "Q" FROM PAGE 12 Another Mill Hill activity was reserved for the Fourth of July, the Mill Hill Fireball. For days before the Fourth, Quartzsite's young people gathered and then hauled discarded tires and tread strips up to the top of the Mill Hill. At dusk on the Fourth, a wood bonfi re would be lit and as total darkness fell, tires were heaped upon the fi re. When a tire was fully engulfed in fl ames, two young people, one on each side of the bonfi re, would use long poles to carefully lift the blazing tire, set it up straight facing downhill, and then let it roll. As the rolling tire bounced from rock to rock, often it would soar a hundred feet or so giving off sparks that lit up the night sky. Folks came out of their homes and businesses to watch the fi reworks. Traffi c along U.S. Highway 60-70 pulled over to gaze at the spectacle. The driver of one car with Washington plates asked if they were watching a volcano. After the last fl aming tire was set down the hill and all was quiet again on our peace- ful desert, someone started clapping. The clapping rippled up and down the highway and was chorused with hoots, hollers, and shouts of apprecia- tion. Looking back on the lingering black smoke that some still remained the next morning, our ignorance about air pollution back in the early 1950s would become a compelling issue in the future. When school started in the fall of 1954, central Yuma County had a new high school at Salome. The small student body was mighty in spirit and the students selected a hill east of the high school to paint the traditional "S" just like their sister high school up in Parker had their "P". The Salome High School students from Quartzsite no longer had to ride a bus up to Hope in order to catch the Salome / Wen- den bus and then on up to Parker (a daily round trip of 154 miles). Now the round-trip was almost half that distance. A couple of years later the Quartzsite kids decided they wanted a "letter hill" of their own and the Mill Hill was the natural choice, being Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ DesertMessengerNews Follow on Twitter @DesertMessenger @QuartzsiteRain Desert Messenger offers FREE Classifi ed Ads! Here's the small print: Items for sale under $1000. Private Party Only. 1 per month. Yard/Garage/Craft Sales, Wanted, Give-a-ways, Free, Lost & Found, etc. (non-commercial) For more information, contact Rain at 928-916-4235 or Email: Editor@DesertMessenger.com DEADLINE : WED. OCT. 8 TH for OCT 15 TH edition Desert Messenger Email: editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 www.DesertMessenger.com almost in everyone's backyard. When laying out the "Q" on the north face of the hill, it wasn't anticipated that a dip in the terrain would make the "Q" look a little lopsided from the air. At least that was the report from the pilots in low fl ying aircraft as well as some drivers on U.S. 60-70. The subject of the lopsided "Q" came up in Mr. Wease's geometry class and he used the problem of the lopsided "Q" to teach the students how geometry could be used to straighten out the "Q". Rhae Wease later accompa- nied the students to Quartzsite to fi x the "Q". Some of those original students were Karl and Ruth Young, Helen and Jimmy Cowell, and Dan Bauer along with some of their Salome High School classmates. By 1963 the now geometrically correct "Q" was in need of a new paint job. Local busines- sowner Beulah Heisler agreed to reach out to fi nd donors for the project and one of her letters went to U. S. Senator Barry Goldwater who added his donation to the ef- fort. Almost a hundred years earlier, Senator Goldwater's grandfather and great uncle had owned a mercantile store in Ehrenberg and the Senator had a great love for the area and his many supporters in Quartzsite and Ehrenberg. Jesse and Angie Scott used the money raised by Mrs. Heisler to buy the whitewash and other materi- als needed for the project and worked right along with the kids to refurbish Quartzsite's "Q". Some of the students on the project were Frank and Vickie Scott, Janet, Norman and Carole Mc- Cauley, Orley Dollar, Bonnie Lawson, Bob Sweetland, Martha Canion, and Jerry Lincoln along with several other classmates from Salome High School. "Q" Mountain has become one of Quartzsite's most-recognized land- marks and is in full view from my bedroom window. I think about all the parents, supporters, teachers, stu- dents, and their friends who have, over the years, contributed their efforts to the "Q" and it brings back many happy memories of the pride our young people have in their own hometown, indelibly marked with a "Q". 1962 Q Mountain painting party In North America, Turquoise is found in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Central Mexico. The California and New Mexico depos- its were mined by Native Americans as far back as Pre-Columbian times. Arizona is one of the most important producers of Turquoise, followed by Nevada, however most of the Arizona Turquoise mines, like Bisbee, are inac- tive, depleted or closed, with the excep- tion of the Kingman mine which is still actively producing its world famous turquoise. RocksInMyHead carries Turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty Mine, King- man Turquoise, and Carico Lake Tur- quoise from Nevada. We also have Chrysacolla, Azurite and Malachite and really cool copper nuggets, as well as information on Chrysacolla and Turquoise, and everything you need for rockhounding, prospecting and more. RocksInMyHead is on the road this summer, and also open at our Satellite location in Kingman until October. We will be open at A37 in Rice Ranch by November 1st ,but meanwhile you can order online at RocksInMyHead.com or call 605-376-8754.

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