A Desert Hike Through Ruins, A Murder Marker, And A Stamp Mill

I hike the Wall Street Mill Trail in Joshua Tree National Park, exploring homestead ruins, old vehicles, and the mining operation that shaped the area. I then head to the Barker Dam Trail to look at desert ecology, water in a dry landscape, and petroglyphs, ending with a few reminders about protecting what we come to see. 
• hiking toward Wall Street Mill from the park trails 
• Worth Bagley’s house ruins and what remains today 
• the old truck and the well site that supported life here 
• the Keys and Bagley gunfight story and the vandalized marker replica 
• how the Wall Street Stamp Mill processed ore by size and weight 
• switching to Barker Dam Trail and noticing the changing landscape 
• oaks, acorns, and galls as signs of desert adaptation 
• Barker Dam’s ranching purpose and construction details 
• petroglyph viewing and why touching or marking them harms authenticity 
• creosote bush and manzanita survival strategies in drought 
If you liked it, hit the thumbs up. Think about subscribing to the channel if you want to see more content. If you have any questions or comments about the park or anything that I've seen out here, make sure to leave those in the comments below. If you're listening on the podcast, click on that link to send us a message. Let us know what you're up to, what you're thinking. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So

Setting Out For Wall Street Mill

SPEAKER_00 0:01

for my second hike, I guess my series of hikes here, I'm going to Wall Street Mill. So I'm hiking on the mill trail, the Wall Street Mill Trail, here in the park in Joshua Tree. I parked over at the Barker Dam with intention to hike that afterwards. We'll see how I feel. But it should be fine. Mr. Keys, he was an arch rival of this guy that had this property over here, Worth Bagley. And supposedly after he shot the man and did prison time, he first thing he did when he got out was he put a tombstone up. So this is where Worth Bagley died. So we're gonna go see that. And we're gonna go see the ruins of an old house as well. Also, we're gonna go see a truck and see how that looks. Alright. I guess I should say welcome to my channel. I am Craig the Natural Medic hiking towards the Wall Street Mill site, Joshua Tree National Park.

Bagley’s House Ruins Up Close

SPEAKER_00 1:15

So not too unlike the Ryan Ranch site. Here are some ruins of an old home. Assuming it's to be Worth Bagley's house. We're gonna step inside it. Alright. And there's the old fireplace and one of the walls. And some more walls. How neat is that? Let's just walk around for a minute. And then we will continue on. Not much left these days. Lots of rubble and bricks. And just that outside wall right there. But even though a harsh place, harsh environment, certainly a interesting place to live. And beauty in its own unique way. Well,

The Old Truck And Well Site

SPEAKER_00 2:14

this is an old truck here. But you can still see the numbers on top of the truck. 525-151-1 on top of the engine block. And if I can see the remnants of the of the truck. Pretty crazy. The old stick shifter is still in place, but the rest of it is in decent shape, but not great. The old seats all messed up. The old stick shifter and gas tank. I guess you sat on top of the gas tank whenever you drove this guy. Pretty crazy. This is Mr. Mr. Man's truck. So this is an old well site. Used to be a windmill. You can see the veins have sheared off a long time ago. And this is how they got water back in the day out of the ground and pumped it up. So we've already seen Mr. Merth Bagley's house and probably his truck and his well site.

The Gunfight And Tombstone Story

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Right here, supposedly, is where Mr. Keys and Mr. Bagley had a gunfight and ended up in Mr. Bagley dying. He pleaded self-defense, crime his innocence, Mr. Keyes that is. And he said, I'll turn myself into the authorities because I was in self-defense. But he ended up doing time in San Quentin. And that was in 1948, and he returned to his home. And he had a carved stone marker, which I suppose it was the first thing that he did. The marker's been vandalized multiple times, so we have this replica of this that's in the Parks Museum for safekeeping. And it says, here is where Wirth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W. F. Keys, May 11th, 1943. It said here is where Worth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W. F. Keys May 11, 1943. We've already seen Mr. Worth Bagley's house and probably his truck and his well site. Right here, supposedly, is where Mr. Keys and Mr. Bagley had a gunfight and ended up in Mr. Bagley dying. He pleaded self-defense, proclaimed his innocence, Mr. Keyes, that is. And he said, I turned myself into the authorities because I was in self-defense. We ended up doing time in San Quentin. And that was in 1948, and he returned to his home. And he had a carved stone marker, which I suppose it was the first thing that he did. The marker's been vandalized multiple times, and they have this replica of this. It's in the Parks Museum for safekeeping. And it says there's where Worth Bagley does at the hand of W. F. Keys, May 11th, 1943.

How The Stamp Mill Worked

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Hard to see it from this angle, but this kind of explains how it worked. Mr. Keys operated the mill here called the Wall Street Stamp Mill, periodically from 1930 to 1966, processing ores from different mines in the area. The diagram there kind of gives you an idea of how everything works. So from the top you had miners putting their ore down the chute here, and then it went through a thing called the Grizzly, which separated ore sizes. Larger pieces were brought to the top here to crush. And then you had mill workers down here at the bottom going through, separated by weight. So pretty interesting situation. I think down here we might be able to get a better look at it. Let's see. So right here is where the aura carts would roll on to this trackway right here. The bigger stuff, of course, went in through the hopper, which you can't see from here. And other stuff went in to get separated by size, and then they hand sorted it at the bottom by weight. I'll try to get you around to there so you can see that as well. Alright, from here you can see it was water powered. So you had several cisterns of water there. Of course, the water was pumped in from a long distance, I believe. Big stuff went in the top there, smaller stuff went in the bottom, and then down here in that little shed there is where things were sorted out by weight. So pretty interesting operation. Like I said, I guess Mr. Keys operated this as a profit and processed everybody's ore. Pretty crazy. Here's an old broken down truck. I'm sure it was involved in the operation somehow. But it's been sitting here for a while. Okay, so that was the Wall Street Mill

Switching To Barker Dam Trail

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Trail. Now I'm gonna go over here to the Barker Dam Trail and do that one. That'll probably my last trail in the park proper for this trip. Alright, now I'm on the Barker Dam Trail. Headed out, see it. So come along. So certainly

Oaks, Galls, And Desert Change

SPEAKER_00 7:37

the climate around here has changed. You have oak trees, such as the one behind me here, the turbanella oak, and it evolved with a series of animals to survive. Those were good with the squirrels, of course, to bury the nuts, the acorns, which helps propagate them throughout the area. You also have little swellings, and I don't see any offhand, but those are called galls and insects, wasps in particular, on oak trees, will lay an egg inside of the branch and will allow it to keep going. I'm still marveling at all the cool rock piles out here in the park. It's just a whole wonderland of rocks throughout the whole park. So cool. Again, more cool rocks. The scene from this trail so far. It's been really nice. So

Barker Dam And Its Ranching History

SPEAKER_00 8:46

this is the famous Larker Dam. And you have a little lake over here. Not a big one, but it is holding water in the desert and changes things for the life that already lives here. And brings in a new life perhaps. There is a deal right here that says built. Says big Bighorn Dam, I believe. Built by William Keyes, William J. Keyes, Phyllis John Key, 1949-1950. So it was built by cattle ranchers in an effort to offer them something for cattle to have water. Doesn't appear to have a spillway like a traditional dam, but you can see pieces of rebar sticking up. Concrete at the top, rock at the bottom. Pretty cool. And what a view over there of that big mountainside behind. This is a creosote bush. They're normally found in the Colorado Desert, which is the other part of the park. But they have really deep seeking roots that go down to seek water, so they're definitely desert survivors. Look at all these beautiful rocks out here. They're gorgeous. Just beautiful rocks everywhere you look.

Petroglyphs And Leave No Trace

SPEAKER_00 10:15

So right here at the apex of the Barker Dam Trail, there are some petroglyphs. I don't know how good we're gonna be able to see them on camera, but I'm gonna try. Looks like there's some kind of maybe deer ones back there or sheep, snakes, fish, perhaps lizards. Pretty neat. Now, unfortunately, somebody in the past put paint on these to see them better, and that's you know, betraying what they would are supposed to look like. You know, and their actuality and authenticity, so they don't want you to go up there, so don't harm those or touch those.

Desert Survivors And Final Goodbye

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One thing you do notice about the different species around here is starting to preserve their integrity by having waxy coatings in their leaves or spines and other things to save water. Then you have trees like this, you have the manzanita, which means Spanish, it means little apple. And they adapt by dropping their leaves back if there is a drought. But their bark is very distinctly brownish, and their fruits are little apple-like fruits. Now back to the video. Alright, we're nearing the end of exploring Wall Street Mill and Barker. And sadly, this is gonna be my last group of hikes in Joshua Tree. So if you liked it, hit the thumbs up. Think about subscribing to the channel if you want to see more content. If you have any questions or comments about the park or anything that I've seen out here, make sure to leave those in the comments below. If you're listening on the podcast, click on that link to send us a message. Let us know what you're up to, what you're thinking. Okay, have a great day. We'll see you on the trail. Bye bye.