Wall Street Mill

/ Wall Street Mill/
Wall Street Mill

Set aside a half day the next time you're in Joshua Tree National Park and hike the Wall Street Mill trail. The round-trip distance is less than two miles, but there is a lot of history and desert gold along the way. It's an easy hike, but could end up taking you the entire day if you like to roam and explore as much as I do. I generally make sure I have plenty of water and some trail munchies, and then I don't worry about the time. I just go and wander and generally find something I haven't seen before.

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Worth Bagley

/ Wall Street Mill/
Worth Bagley

By all accounts, Bill Keys got along pretty well with most people but was not a man to let anybody run over him. He once said, "if the law won't uphold me, I'll uphold myself." And it appears that is just what he did on May 11th of 1943.

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Desert Queen Well

/ Desert Queen Well/
Desert Queen Well

The Desert Queen Well is located along the same trail that will take you past the Wonderland Ranch, Worth Bagley's stone marker, and finally to the Wall Street Mill. The well sits on land that was located and developed by William Morgan sometime between 1905 and 1908. Morgan had hopes of erecting a mill on the site, but those plans never came to be.

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Wonderland Ranch

/ Wonderland Ranch/
Wonderland Ranch

Whether you call it the Ohlson House, the Wonderland Ranch or Uncle Willie's Health Food Store, the pink ruins near the Wall Street Mill trail are certainly photogenic and definitely enigmatic. They cause me to wonder many things and take many pictures, ask many questions but find few answers. Which makes me return again and again to see what I can find. This is another of my favorite spots in J Tree.

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Hidden Valley Nature Trail

/ Hidden Valley Nature Trail/
Hidden Valley Nature Trail

Our good friend, Legend, has it that the Button brothers, Charlie and Willie, discovered the valley back in the late 1800s. At the time, there was only one narrow passage that led into the grassy, sheltered valley. Charlie had recently been released from prison, after serving 16 years for a double murder. Somewhere along the line he had become acquainted with local cattle thief, Bill McHaney. When the Buttons told McHaney about the valley, they came up with a plan to steal cattle in Arizona, bring them to Hidden Valley to be held and rebranded, and then sold to unsuspecting ranchers in California. Now, Legend doesn't always make sense, but he does tell some good stories. Odd are good that the valley was used at some point for unlawful activity.

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