The Pleistocene Mojave: Fort Irwin's Prehistoric Oasis

When you look out at the Mojave Desert today, you see a landscape of sunbaked sand, rugged mountain ranges, and sparse creosote bushes.  But, 20,000 years ago the Mojave Desert was a very different place. In fact, it wasn’t a desert at all.

During the last Ice Age, known as the Pleistocene Epoch, the climate at what is now Fort Irwin was completely different.

Instead of the arid scrublands we see today, the land was marked by thriving wetlands, marshy meadows and flowing streams. Freshwater lakes such as Lake Manix and China Lake supported lush vegetation that attracted abundant wildlife.

The lower valleys were covered in a dense sagebrush, dotted with thick stands of mesquite. As you moved up the slopes of the surrounding mountains, the terrain gave way to rich woodlands. Conifers, including pinyon pines and junipers, dominated higher elevations. Down by the water's edge, reeds, marsh grasses, and aquatic plants grew thick, providing a lush grazing ground for the giants of the Ice Age.

Columbian mammoths shared these grazing lands with herds of ancient horses, giant ground sloths and the extinct western camel.

The lakes of the Mojave attracted thousands of migratory and aquatic birds. Flamingos, pelicans, swans, storks and eagles thrived in the wetland oasis.

The abundant wildlife also attracted the apex predators of the era. Sabretooth cats, packs of dire wolves, the American lion and the flat nosed bear, all roamed the Fort Irwin area looking for their next meal.

Around 15000 years ago, the climate began to change. Temperatures rose, the ice retreated and the Mojave began to give way to the relentless glare of the sun.

The lakes dried up, mammoths, sabretooth cats and dire wolves died out. The pinyon and juniper forests retreated to the highest peaks, leaving behind the desert scrub that we see today.

The Facts Behind Painted Rocks

Every morning, hundreds of Fort Irwin community members drive past the famous “Painted Rocks” that sit just outside of the installations front gate. Most people know that the distinctive unit insignia represents the units that have completed training rotations at the National Training Center. However, not everyone knows how the tradition started, and that not all the units represented there were here for NTC rotations.

Fort Irwin has been a military installation since it became the Mojave Anti-Aircraft Range in 1940. The Soldiers that trained here for World War II and the Korean War never considered painting their distinctive unit crest on the large rocks around the post. 

In the mid 1960’s Col. JC Osborne, commander of Fort Irwin, came across an old Arrastre, an ore crushing device from the days of mining in the Mojave Desert. 

The commander had the 36th Engineer Battalion move the device and rebuild it in the park across from the officers club. When the engineers were finished, they asked the commander to inspect their work. The commander commented that a donkey was used to operate the Arrastre, and asked the engineers to make a donkey statue to complete the job. 

It took a couple of tries, but the 36th finally managed to create a concrete donkey that was acceptable to the commander. They had a big dedication celebration, complete with honored guests, speeches and even an Army band. Not long after, an artillery unit departing for Vietnam decided to use the cover of darkness to repaint the donkey their branch colors. Needless to say, people were pretty surprised to find a bright red donkey in the park the next morning. The donkey was immediately repainted gray. 

Not to be outdone, every unit that departed for Vietnam found a way to repaint the donkey to show that they had been at Fort Irwin. It happened so often, it caused a shortage of gray paint on the post. When it was time for the 36th to ship out to Vietnam in 1967, instead of defacing a donkey they considered their own, they painted the Seahorse Patch of the 36th Engineers on the rocks near the front gate. 

As for the donkey, according to the commander of the 36th, he volunteered to go with the unit and showed up in a connex when they arrived in country. 

To this day, units that complete a training rotation can request to add their own distinctive patch to the Painted Rocks. If you look as you drive south on Fort Irwin Road, you can still see the Seahorse of the 36th Engineers surrounded by the patches of units of today.

The Wheeler Survey

In the 1870’s a US Army officer, Lt. George Wheeler began a 15-year long project – to map the entire Western United States at a scale of eight miles to one inch.

Officially called the US Geological Survey West of the 100^th Meridian, Wheeler’s team created the first high quality topographical maps of the American West, to include the area now occupied by the National Training Center.

One of the earliest expeditions examined Death Valley, searching for a passage across the deadly expanse and mapping vital water sources in the area. As they passed through, the team experienced night time temperatures in the Furnace Creek area of 109 degrees. 

Timothy O’Sullivan was one member of the expedition. O’Sullivan was an established photographer, having tutored under Mathew Brady prior to the Civil War. O’Sullivan and Brady would both gain fame from their gritty photographs of the aftermath of Civil War battles.

During the expedition, O’Sullivan took hundreds of photographs to document the areas covered by the expedition. Only one exists of the Death Valley part of the expedition, and no known images of what is now Fort Irwin can be found.

It is likely that O’Sullivan would have taken photographs in Death Valley and the surrounding areas, but unfortunately one of the expedition’s boats overturned in the Colorado River, and hundreds of glass plate negatives were never recovered.

The Wheeler was one of four extensive surveys being conducted simultaneously by the US Army. The US Congress felt that the surveys were duplicating efforts and combined them into one organization, the US Geological Survey.

It's unclear if Fred Loring, pictured here, ever set foot on Fort Irwin, but the expedition would have come within miles of the current installation boundary. After leaving Death Valley, they headed to Fort Mojave and Loring left the expedition near Prescott, AZ. The original caption from the Library of Congress:

"Fred W. Loring, in his campaign costume, with his mule `Evil Merodach.' Taken about 48 hours before he was brutally murdered by Yapavi Indians, while en route from Prescott, A. T. [Ariz. Terr.] to San Bernadino, Cal., by stage. Loring had been with the [Wheeler] expedition as general assistant and correspondent, and was returning to the East with a mind stored with rare adventure and scenic wonders." By Timothy H. O'Sullivan, 1871. 

To learn more about Fort Irwin, check out my book:

 https://www.amazon.com/National-Training-Center-Images-America/dp/1467127957

In the Beginning, the Story of Fort Irwin

This is the story of Fort Irwin, California.

It's not told in any particular order, it's mostly a collection of facts and pictures of the evolution of the installation from small encampment in the High Mojave Desert, to the "Crown Jewel" of US Army Training Centers.

Photograph of two Mojave braves standing along the Colorado River, taken by Timothy O'Sullivan as part of the Wheeler Expedition of 1871. The Wheeler Expedition created the first high quality topographical maps of the Fort Irwin area.  The Mojave tribe was active in the Fort Irwin area. 

To learn more about Fort Irwin, check out my book:
 https://www.amazon.com/National-Training-Center-Images-America/dp/1467127957