We have driven back and forth through Quartzsite several times now. It’s right on I-10 in the middle of the desert. We keep meaning to stop, but we never have. On 11 February we drove the 120 miles or so just to see the town. So, what’s in Quartzsite to see? Well, not much, actually. The “big” thing to see there is the grave of Hi Jolly. Philip Tedro was of Syrian and Greek ancestry and took the name Hadji Ali when he converted to Islam and undertook The Hajj. Later he worked for the French in Algiers and from there connected with Americans looking to use camels as military pack animals in the American Southwest. Ali signed on. He, seven other camel drivers and 100 camels arrived in the U.S. between 1856 and 1857. Here Ali picked up the nick-name “Hi Jolly” and it is by this name that (for better or worse) he is chiefly remembered today. After marching the camel train from Texas to California and back the Army concluded that camels could be used to transport supplies in the west. Not much came of the decision, however, as the country was bending toward civil war. Hi Jolly, the rest of the drivers, and the camels themselves were all allowed to go their own ways. Hi Jolly scraped out a living for himself in the wild west. He become a prospector and guide and occasionally even worked with “his” camels again. Near the end of his life he moved to Tyson’s Well and was buried there in 1902. In 1934 a large marker (still the largest in the cemetery) was erected over his grave from various native stones. The “last camp” of Hi Jolly remains an obligatory tourist stop. 
Of course by then Tyson’s Well had been re-named Quartzsite. When it got started Tyson’s Well wasn’t much. It was just a well in the desert and a boarding house which served as a stop on the stage route from Arizona to California. The original stage station remains (somewhat renovated) and serves as the Tyson’s Well Stage Station Museum. The museum is simply chock-full of old maps, family photographs from 150 years, artifacts of pioneer life and WWII memorabilia. Like many of the other small-town museums we have visited, it does a great job of showcasing what makes Quartzsite different from all other little frontier and mining communities.
Not too far away from Quartzsite is the Bouse Fishman, another old Indian geoglyph. It was a little hard to find so here we present the most complete directions to the Bouse Fishman available on-line: Head north out of Quartzsite on Melton Ave/Highway 95. After about 6 miles you’ll come to Polmosa Road. Turn right onto Polmosa. You’ll pass through a RV camp ground. Past mile marker 7 but before you come to marker 8 on Polmosa there will be a gravel turn-out on the left. That’s the parking area for the Bouse Fishman. There is no sign for the geoglyph, just a generic “scenic lookout” type of sign. This confused us and we missed it the first time.
We ended up stopping at a second turn-out close to mile marker 11. We got out and walked around a little bit. The “shattered” rocks that make up so much of the hills and mountains in Arizona were very clear. It’s that kind of rugged look that we are totally in love with. We also so one of the tallest ocotillo plants we have yet seen. When we got back to the car, we noticed a sign telling us what this second turn-out was. The road crosses the smallish mountain range at Quinn Pass. It’s called Quinn Pass because a Thomas Quinn had his house on the site and a small mine nearby. The house is long gone but the cistern he dug is still around and apparently it has served many-a-thirsty traveler over the years. We decided not to have a drink.
Back at the correct turn-out we hiked the short distance up to the fence the surrounds the Bouse Fisherman. There was a plaque on the other side of the fence but we couldn’t see the geoglyph. After a few minutes of hemming and hawing we noticed that the fence had a make-shift gate in it. Basically a piece of that green sign post material with barbed wire tied to it was roughly bound to one of the main wooden posts with a simple wire loop. Slip the loop off and the sign-post-gate swings free. The geoglyph was surrounded by a smaller fence further inside the main one.
It turned out to be not much to look at. It’s much smaller than those we saw near Blythe, maybe 50 feet tall at most. There are some interesting other elements to the figure: a spear, water beneath, a sun above; but it was all fairly hard to make out. It’s not as dramatic and none of the pictures we took convey it at all well. Matt was wondering just the other day while looking up at the stars if the Bouse Fisherman is a representation of the figure we call Orion. In spring at this latitude Orion is leaning to the right and his left leg is noticeably raised. Red Betelgeuse could become the sun above and to the right of the fisherman. It’s possible. In any case, it is neat to have seen yet another ancient geoglyph. Next year in Nazca!
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