Longstreet Cabin, Ash Meadows NWR, Nye County, NV

A boardwalk leads to an old stone cabin built by gunslinger, Jack Longstreet. Living amongst the Southern Paiute and Timbisha Shoshone peoples he was one of the first pioneers to live in Ash Meadows. He built the cabin made of stone in 1896, near a spring that still bears his name. Built into a mound above an underground spring the cabin is cooler than outside temps and was used for food storage by Longstreet.

www.ruralite.org/archive/2006/07/c-42%20pp%204-5%20july_2...

www.fws.gov/refuge/ash_meadows/about/history.html

Going by the name of Jack Longstreet, his real identity remains a mystery to this day. The only clues to his past were his southern drawl and ability to read and write reasonably well; unusual for most folks at that time. The top of his ear was sliced off which was a sign of a horse thief.

Longstreet made his living as a prospector, rancher, saloon keeper, trail-blazer and hired gun. The notches in his gun symbolized each man he had killed, including his brother-in-law. It has been written that this powerful broad-shouldered man with the sparkling blue eyes was feared by many but found companionship and respect with the Native American tribes.

Although he moved further north in 1891, Longstreet returned often and maintained his ownership of Ash Meadows Ranch until he sold it in 1907 for a reported sum of $10,000.

Over the years, exposure to the elements left the site desolate. By the 1980s the cabin roof was missing many of the boards, and the wall began to deteriorate rapidly as rainwater washed away the mortar. In 1991 the front wall was still standing, but the south side was beginning to collapse. The rear wall of the cabin built on the spring mound had cracked, and by 1996 all of the walls had toppled.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife team of five people, which included archeologist and historian Lou Ann Speulda, started rebuilding efforts in April 2004 and finished in May 2005. The team rebuilt the cabin to its original dimensions and used the same materials Longstreet used, which included many of the original stones for the walls.

www.desertexplorers.org/2014-trips/item/286-2014-rendezvo...

Longstreet made his way into Nevada in the late 1800s and was the kind of mysterious character that we find throughout Western lore. So what is known about Longstreet? First of all, he was a rugged individualist who apparently had a strong moral code. He was known to have a quick temper and was involved in several gunfights; as evidenced by the gun he packed a long-barreled Colt.44 favored by the old time gunfighters. It had several notches scratched into it.

But Jack was also a man of contradictions. In stark contrast to his persona, he spoke with a soft southern drawl and had a “gentlemanly, almost courtly style, and a warm brand of southern hospitality that offered every amenity to a guest and a cocked gun to the unidentified stranger.” He roamed the deserts of Nevada and Arizona engaged in a wide range of enterprises: at one time or another he was a prospector, a rancher, a saloonkeeper, a trailblazer, a stagecoach shotgun rider, a defender of Indian rights, and a thorn in the side of ranching and mining interests. For the most part he was a loner, but he found friendship amongst the Southern Paiutes, learned to speak their language and had Paiute wives. Eventually the Paiutes came to regard him as a leader.

Longstreet once lived in what is now the Ash Meadow Wildlife Refuge located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Amargosa Valley. The location must have been to Longstreet’s liking; it was remote, sat on the edge of a crystal blue spring and was a good place where he could raise horses. He squatted on the land and named it Ash Meadow Ranch. He built the cabin up against a mound, into which he dug a cave that provided natural refrigeration.

There were two other structures on the property; a wooden framed house and a shed, but they’re long gone. After a few years, he sold the place and moved to nearby Windy Canyon, where he established a ranch and a mine.

Jack Longstreet’s last days are shrouded in mystery. In 1928 he accidently shot himself in the armpit and shoulder. He went to a hospital in Tonopah, was treated, but left before he should have. Back at his Windy Canyon ranch, the wound festered and then Longstreet suffered a stroke.

After several days, when he didn’t show up for his daily visit, a friend rode over to Longstreet’s place and found him unable to move, lying alone. After suffering the stroke and without water for three days in the deadly heat, it was remarkable that Longstreet, a 94 year old, was still alive.

It remains a mystery where Fanny, his Paiute wife, was during this time. Once again Longstreet was in the hospital, but this time he would not up and leave. A car was dispatched to find and bring Fanny to the hospital, but Longstreet died before she got there. Four years later Fanny died and she was laid to rest beside him in Belmont, Nevada.

Jack Longstreet lived the life of a self-reliant man, a man on the move, a man to be feared and a man of contradictions. His early life is a mystery and his later life is the stuff of which myths are made. “In the life of Longstreet, however, the myth was also the truth”, and because of that, he is remembered as one of Nevada’s frontier characters

© All Rights Reserved

Svínafellsjökull ("Pig Mountain Glacier"), Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland

www.iceland-nh.net/plants/data/Salix-lanata/salix_lanata....

The Woolly Willow is a common low shrub which can be found in all heathers both in lowland but also in the highlands and mountains. It is a dioecious shrub. The woolly willow is sometimes difficult to tell from the blue willow ( Salix glauca ssp. callicarpaea).

In spring the different colored inflorescenses and the woolly top parts of the leaves of the woolly willow are easy characteristics. However, later on the woolly willow can lose much of the hairs on the top-side of the leaves. The dense haired twigs of the woolly willow than identifies the species.
It is a member of the willow family (Salicaceae).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcVklm7iz9M

Svínafellsjökull is a stand-in for an alien planet in Christopher Nolan's doom-laden sci-fi movie "Interstellar." Instead of spending squillions on CGI backdrops, some scenes were shot at Svínafellsjökull, an outlet glacier from Vatnajökull glacier in Southeast Iceland in 2013.

In the film astronauts played by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway plunge through a space wormhole in search of an alternative to a dying Earth.

Other movies filmed at Svínafellsjökull:
"Batman Begins" (Scene: Bruce Wayne is dropped off by the side of the road and begins to walk towards a Tibetan glacier.)

Various episodes of "Game of Thrones"

game-of-thrones-filming-locations.silk.co/page/Sv%C3%ADna...
_____________________________________________
The glacier is advancing up to 65 meters (213 feet) per year, although summer temperatures melt back two-thirds of that advance.

Friction as the massive weight of ice creeps forward over the rocks below causes new crevasses to open up and old ones to close. Higher up the hillside, where the ice began its journey about 200 years ago, it can reach depths of up to a kilometer. The size of the fissures there make the higher reaches impassable on foot.

A short and easy walk can take you to view this glacier from the side (to view its crevasses and ice polished valley sides) or, alternatively, a walk can be taken amongst the glacier’s terminal moraines.

© All Rights Reserved

© All Rights Reserved

Muhu Tasen, Quatal Canyon, Santa Barbara County, CA

Muhu Tasen (Chumash: Red Owl), a Native American camp and sweat lodge with ceremonial grounds.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa2B-uMvDUA

Muhu Tasen is supported by Sacred Indigenous Preservation, an organization focused on the protection of sites where regularly scheduled indigenous North American ceremonies (i.e., Sweat Lodges, Vision Quests and Bear Ceremonies) are conducted and where the practice of these ceremonies is threatened.

Quatal Canyon (Forest Road #9N09):
Wide, flat and smooth at the beginning, this 18 mile scenic dirt road, is well signed at Hwy 33 & mostly graded. Quatal Canyon connects Ojai’s Highway 33 to the pinyon pine forest above near Pine Mountain Club .

Quatal Canyon (possibly named after a Chumash warrior) is a giant high desert wash, ripping down from Cerro Noroeste (aka Mt Abel). Serious erosion w/ San Andreas fault lines – make it a very interesting canyon to explore on foot, horseback and is popular with mountain bikers, motorcycle dirt bikers & off-roaders.

The high desert terrain is pinyon forest, with yucca & manzanita. The eroded cliffs of red rock, white & orange hues, glow best during the clearest sunsets. You will almost think your in Utah, until you get up on a ridge & see the smog in the Central Valley of California.

© All Rights Reserved

© All Rights Reserved