ON A HILL: THE STORY OF DESERT CHRIST PARK©, is a true story. Located in Yucca Valley, CA, the park was started just after World War II by two men, profoundly different, and profoundly affected by this recent conflict that shed so much blood and treasure. Though they did not know each other, they both wanted to do something to heal the land. This pledge to bind the wounds of war would converge on a sleepy desert community in southern California, embodied in the souls of a lanky soft-spoken family man from Los Angeles with a bent for preaching and a slight unassuming aerospace engineer from Inglewood with a bent for sculpting.
This book, and subsequently, the story of Desert Christ Park is woven splendidly amidst the backdrop of the wild west and the settling of the harsh, arid Mojave Desert. A place where the Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert collide. A place where miners panned for gold, ranchers lingered their cattle on rich grass, and homesteaders took advantage of cheap government land. Just a stone’s throw from the glitz and glamor of Hollywood’s playground, Palm Springs, it’s shaggy, untamed landscape was the perfect set for wild wooly westerns and dustbowl sagas. Here the last great manhunt took place in 1909 - the posse chase of all posse chases – where a local ‘steader named Charlie Reche teamed with the constable Ben deCreveour and Sheriff Cooper to bring the murderer Willie Boy to justice. The shotgun posse chased him all over the hi-desert, up and over the Big Morongo Canyon to the Oasis of Mara (place of little springs and much grass) in 29 Palms – and around again. Willie Boy would run a 600-mile goose chase only to die on Ruby Mountain, not far from where the Greek-like white washed statues of Christ would one day pierce the sky. The movie version was filmed here in 1969.
And who could forget the unique history of the Morongo Inn and her infamous guest, Mafia boss All Capone, during the 1930’s. He hung his hat there while building the Two Bunch Palms Resort in Desert Hot Springs. Laughter, liquor, and smoky rooms reverberated off the walls of this still standing Inn. Boy, if only the walls could talk!
The story of Desert Christ Park has a rich heritage – along the lines of the great California missions or the luscious wineries fermenting in the California sun – as this land gave up its loneliness and mingled with the clapboard ranch houses and Indian adobes – a collision of cultures emerged and into this mix of friendly pioneers came the explorers, the artists, and the early Hollywood types, all seeking their piece of this new frontier for a dream and a song. Yes, it was a divine appointment, an answer to prayer, the light on a hill – but more tangible to the reader, it was the fulfillment of a preachers calling and a sculptor’s dream – and only time would reveal the splendor, the majesty, the mystery – and the true story that is Desert Christ Park.
© ON A HILL: THE STORY OF DESERT CHRIST PARK by Julie Thixton
