The Poste Homestead Site
/Visit Date: March 14, 2016
Mining and freighting activity has been going on in this part of the Mojave since at least the 1880s and possibly earlier. Freighters traveling from the railhead at Amboy to the Dale mining district often stopped at a place known as Lyon's Well, aka Freighters Dale. It was one of the few, if not the only, reliable source of water between those two points.
Fast forward a bit to the early 1920s when David and Anna Poste arrived in the area, to lease and work the Virginia Dale mine. That venture ran into some trouble, so they headed to Tonopah to try their luck there. They eventually returned to the Twentynine Palms area in 1930 and homesteaded a small parcel of land, that had a well on it called Lyon's Well. They built a home and Anna planted the first Athel trees ever planted in the area, which are still there today.
The adobe home they built saw much use over the years, by the Postes, later their son Jim, and then later by miners and other folk the Postes leased the house to.
I don't know when the house was abandoned, at some point it probably became unsafe to live in. Adobe buildings need constant care and upkeep. Weather and time are not kind to adobe. And adobe ruins do not stand up well against off-road vehicles.
The Poste Homestead is just a short distance off Hwy 62. The sand road gets a bit deep-sandy in some spots; it will take a 4WD to get to the parking area.
It's quite a pretty spot, the Athel trees provide nice shady areas.
Sadly, those two small dirt mounds are all that is left of the adobe Poste homestead. The history of the area, however, is fascinating. The Postes played their part and their story is well worth a closer look. Click HERE for a more in-depth history of this spot.
As with all my posts, feel free to download and use any of my pictures that catch your eye.
