Giant Desert Figures

Long ago the native peoples along the Colorado River Valley made quite a few large geoglyphs. A geoglyph is any human-made shape, figure or drawing produced in the earth itself. They are usually made by either stacking up stones in lines or removing surface material to reveal a different coloured material underneath. The most famous geoglyphs are the Nazca Lines. Of course, the Colorado River is a lot closer to us than the Nazca Desert! The most famous of the geoglyphs along the Colorado River are the Blythe Intaglios. We first learned about these at the Arizona Museum of Natural History. Matt has really wanted to go see them ever since. Blythe is on I-10 between Phoenix and Los Angeles. We’ve already passed right through the city several times. From there it is only 15 more miles north of Blythe to the intaglios. On 14 December we headed over to California to see them.

The Blythe Intaglios are certifiably in the middle of nowhere. They were not even known to anybody until 1923 when a pilot spotted them on a flight between Blythe and Las Vegas. They are so far out, the land is not owned by anybody. It’s Bureau of Land Management land meaning it’s “held in trust” by the government for all Americans. Despite their being out there in the real back forty of the country, they aren’t that hard to find. The intaglios are very close to US Route 95. Just take 95 north from Blythe. Just under 16 miles from 1-10 on 95 you will find a turn-out on the right side of the road. There is a Division of Highways sign there describing the giant desert figures. Across from this marker is the access road to the figures marked with a BLM sign. The BLM webpage on the Blythe Intaglios says that the trails are “unimproved natural gravels.” That is certainly true. Even in a Rav4 we felt we had to be very cautious going up the hill. The whole area is roped off so that no one can drive over the figures. In addition to this outer roped off area the figures are surrounded by fences so no one can walk over them either. The access road leads to two of the three groups of figures. There are small parking areas and gaps in the outer fence that allow foot access to the intaglios.

There isn’t much to see there other than then the figures themselves. The first group we came to has a human figure, an animal and a spiral. We’ll call this the “east group” since it is the east- most. There is a sign at each of the figures that gives a simple description, the dimensions and speculates about possible meanings. The consensus opinion (one that is by no means proven) is that the human figure is Mastamho, the Creator, and the animal is Hatakulva, a mountain lion that assisted in the creation. These names come from the oral traditions of the Mohave people. This is the smallest human figure at a “mere” 102 feet. There was originally a very large circle that cut through the middle of the figure. Looking around at the surrounding hills Matt could imagine a ceremony that involved walking in a circle around the figure. Alternatively, since the figures are made by removing the darkly-coloured surface rocks to reveal the lighter coloured dirt beneath, they couldn’t have been walked over too many times or they would have been destroyed. For example, there are very clear paths from the parking areas to the signs. It makes since that the place was not used regularly, but only once during the creation on the figures. That could be why there are three humans (two accompanied by animals) in such close proximity. The significance in them may be only in their creation. Maybe a ritual telling of the story of creation which involved the making of figures was performed periodically. This is not an idea that we have seen on the internets. It’s Matt’s own idea. Not that that makes it any less likely since most of the sources of the creator myth idea mention that no one knows much for certain.
The second stop was at the best-preserved of the human figures. Call it the "west figure." It’s slightly taller that the first at 105 feet. There is no animal figure at this location. At least, not one that has been preserved. The figures are all very easy to see from certain directions and very hard to make out from others. The patina that covers the rocks is very reflective when you are looking toward the sun. The glare almost completely hides the intaglio. With the sun at your back, however, the difference between the dark patina and the lighter dirt is very easy to see. The arms of the west figure stretch 91 feet. These obvious human shapes out in such an isolated spot are kind of eerie. There is a kind of silent power to both the isolation and presence of a giant effigy.
We did not see the third set of figures (the "south group") up close. We could see the fences over on the next hill, but there was no obvious way to get to them. No separate access road that we saw, no trail head and no sign. It’s the figure Matt most wanted to see because it is by far the biggest. The human figure is 171 feet tall! From the photos you can see that it is much more substantial of a figure. As we were leaving we noticed a second turn-out just to the south of the one with the sign. Across from this turn-out there may have been a trail head that would have led us up to the south group. There was no way to be sure, however and night was coming on. Even looking at a satellite photo from Google Earth (33°47'53" N, 114°32'09" W), the path to the south group remains unclear. The access road and the other trails are clear, but not that south trail.
We had originally intended to stop in Quartzsite too. There isn’t a lot there, but there is the grave of one Hadji Ali. He was a Syrian/Greek camel driver that came to America in the 1850s as part of the U.S. Army’s experiments with using camels as military pack animals in the southwest. There is another geoglyph north of Quartzsite too. That would be the Bouse Fisherman. We decided not to stop and leave those adventures for another day. As isolated as Quartzsite is, there is nothing for miles and miles in either direction. It seems a little strange that we have now driven through this completely empty area six times. It’s too desolate a stretch of desert for us to have traveled it that many times.

Local (Mesa) History

The day after the Memorial Plaza, still wanting to take it easy, we went to the Mesa Historical Museum. It’s not very far away, isn’t very big, and isn’t very expensive. All these are good things.

It seems that all of the little towns around here have their own history museum. It’s hard to remember that this valley used to have lots of little farming communities. Phoenix has spread out to consume them all and the urban area is contiguous now. But it didn’t used to be that way and these museums keep alive the memory of the days when Mesa was Mesa, Tempe was Tempe, Phoenix was Phoenix and they were all hours apart by carriage.

Mesa was first settled by a few dozen Mormon families sent to the area by Brigham Young himself. The name of the town was originally Lehi. The farming families refurbished on the old canals and set up an agricultural community. It was interesting to see pictures of the people who left their names on the streets we know well. The Salt River used to run all year. There used to be a ferry. We saw the pictures of all this. The building itself used to be the Lehi School. The school was closed in the 1970s but the cost to demolish the building was more than the value of the land so they just left it empty. Eventually the museum came to inhabit it.

The main export of Mesa’s big agriculture days was citrus. There was a whole room in the museum devoted to all the citrus industry stuff. Lots of tools and changing over-all styles. Machines for aerating, separating, boxing… There was also a sign from some kind of machine shop that demanded, “No Loafing!” We found this particularly amusing in light of certain e-mails Strong Bad has responded to.
The last room we visited was a changing exhibit room. The current exhibit was about the Wallace and Ladmo Show, also known as (this is for real) It’s Wallace? This was ridiculously long-running local children’s show. It was on every weekday for 35 years! That’s a lot of yuk, yuk, yuk! Watching it is described as “synonymous with growing up in Arizona.” These two guys did crazy skits and told jokes, then cut to a cartoon short, then were back for more hilarity. They also played games and winners went home with a “Ladmo Bag” full of prizes. As watchers of The Simpsons, we can recognize this Wallace and Ladmo show is the kind of thing that Krusty the Clown is a parody of. There was a tonne of memorabilia on display plus lots of informational panels about the history of the show and the vast cast of characters that appeared on the show. They also had a TV set up with a few excerpts of the show showing. They were funny bits. Real zany stuff. They had a DVD of episodes on sale and we were mildly tempted to get it although we never watched the show, and aren’t kids anymore. We resisted, but only just.