There are reasons to doubt her story, yet it is only one of many about sightings of the desert ship. By the time
Myrtle and her husband had set out to explore, amid the blooming poppies and evening primrose, the story of
the lost desert ship was already about 60 years old. By the time I heard it,
while working on a story about desert conservation, it had been nearly a century and a half since explorer
Albert S. Evans had published the first account. Traveling to San Bernardino, Evans came into a valley that
was “the grim and silent ghost of a dead sea,” presumably Lake Cahuilla. “The moon threw a track of
shimmering light,” he wrote, directly upon “the wreck of a gallant ship, which may have gone down there
centuries ago.”
Myrtle and her husband had set out to explore, amid the blooming poppies and evening primrose, the story of
the lost desert ship was already about 60 years old. By the time I heard it,
while working on a story about desert conservation, it had been nearly a century and a half since explorer
Albert S. Evans had published the first account. Traveling to San Bernardino, Evans came into a valley that
was “the grim and silent ghost of a dead sea,” presumably Lake Cahuilla. “The moon threw a track of
shimmering light,” he wrote, directly upon “the wreck of a gallant ship, which may have gone down there
centuries ago.”
The route Evans took came nowhere near Canebrake Canyon, and the ship Evans claimed to see was
Spanish, not Norse. Others have also seen this vessel, but much farther south, in Baja California, Mexico.
Like all great legends, the desert ship is immune to its contradictions: It is fake news for the romantic soul,
offering passage into some ancient American dreamtime when blood and gold were the main currencies of
civic life.
Spanish, not Norse. Others have also seen this vessel, but much farther south, in Baja California, Mexico.
Like all great legends, the desert ship is immune to its contradictions: It is fake news for the romantic soul,
offering passage into some ancient American dreamtime when blood and gold were the main currencies of
civic life.
The legend does seem, prima facie, bonkers: a craft loaded with untold riches, sailed by early-European
explorers into a vast lake that once stretched over much of inland Southern California, then run aground,
abandoned by its crew and covered over by centuries of sand and rock and creosote bush as that lake
dried out…and now it lies a few feet below the surface, in sight of the chicken-wire fence at the back of
the Desert Dunes motel, $58 a night and HBO in most rooms.
explorers into a vast lake that once stretched over much of inland Southern California, then run aground,
abandoned by its crew and covered over by centuries of sand and rock and creosote bush as that lake
dried out…and now it lies a few feet below the surface, in sight of the chicken-wire fence at the back of
the Desert Dunes motel, $58 a night and HBO in most rooms.
Totally insane, right? Let us slink back to our cubicles and never speak of the desert ship again. Let us
only believe that which is shared with us on Facebook. Let us banish forever all traces of wonder from
our lives.Yet there are believers who insist that, using recent advances in archaeology, the ship can
be found. They point, for example, to a wooden sloop from the 1770s unearthed during excavations
at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, or the more than 40 ships, dating back perhaps
800 years, discovered in the Black Sea earlier this year.
only believe that which is shared with us on Facebook. Let us banish forever all traces of wonder from
our lives.Yet there are believers who insist that, using recent advances in archaeology, the ship can
be found. They point, for example, to a wooden sloop from the 1770s unearthed during excavations
at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, or the more than 40 ships, dating back perhaps
800 years, discovered in the Black Sea earlier this year.
If there, they say, why not here?
No comments:
Post a Comment