Quartzsite, which is near the Arizona-California state line, is a dusty little town of about 3,500 people, very few who actually live in houses.
Almost everyone here lives in a RV of one sort or another, even those who are here year round...and if you own any land, you make it into an RV park. It is the main industry here. But if you are like us, you park in the desert for free.
Quartzsite is also the home of the "world's largest swap meet." There is more stuff for sale here that you don't need than you can imagine. However, once in a while you stumble on to a treasure, which is why everybody comes.
In January every year, there is a huge RV show when the town of 3,500 swells to 600,000 to 750,000, and most of those, like us, are camped out on the desert.
We have never been here during that time. Personally, I can't image that many people in this little town!
However, at this point in time, it is the slow season of the year. All of the big shows are over, and vendors have either gone home or are getting ready to leave.
From where we parked, we can see approximately 30 rigs camping out. Pretty sparse, actually, compared to what it would be like during the busy season.
As we slave away at kicking back, we build a campfire, roast hot dogs and watch a sunset that reminds me of some of the pictures in Arizona Highways magazine.
It seems like there are no sunsets as beautiful as those on the desert.
I think this is what it must look like when God finger paints in the sky.
One of the activities going on in Quartzsite when we were there was a Gospel Bluegrass Event, a two-day concert held at one of the local churches.
The music was pretty good with a number of different groups playing and singing. We watched a couple of them perform both days.
This was the Bosh Family Singers who performed with their eight children.
Then we heard the Twisted Strings….
The Bluegrass Brethren was our favorite group.
We did do a bit of cruising around looking for points of interest. The local cemetery is called, “Hi Jolly Cemetery.”
Believe it or not, it is named after a guy who had camels on the desert and here is the verbatim story, as it was recorded on a marker in the cemetery.
“Hi Jolly
The famous camel herd with which the name of Hi Jolly is linked constitutes an interesting sidelight of Arizona history.
Jefferson Davis (afterward President of the Southern Confederacy), as Secretary of War, approved a plan to experiment with camels for freighting and communication in the arid Southwest.
Major Henry C. Wayne of the U.S. Army and Lt. D. D. Porter (later a distinguished Admiral in the Civil War) visited the Levant with the Store Ship Supply and procured 33 camels which were landed at Indianola, Texas, February 10, 1856. Forty-one were added on a second voyage.
With the first camels came, as caretaker, Haiji Ali, whose Arabic name was promptly changed to ‘Hi Jolly’ by the soldiers, and by this name he became universally known. His Greek (?) name was Philip Tedro.
On the Beale Expedition in 1857 to open a wagon road across Arizona from Fort Defiance to California, the camels under Hi Jolly’s charge, proved their worth. Nevertheless, the War Department abandoned the experiment and the camels were left on the Arizona desert to shift for themselves. Chiefly roaming this particular section, they survived for many years, creating the interest and excitement.
Officially the camel experiment was a failure, but both Lt. Beale and Major Wayne were enthusiastic in praise of the animals. A fair trial might have resulted in complete success.”
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