I remember when Palmdale was a real quiet little desert town, two blocks long was the business part of town and that was only on one side of the street, the railroad station on the other. I remember when the people watered their lawn by flooding them with irrigation water.

   I remember when the depot agent, Bob Davis and wife Gladys, lived up over the depot.

   I remember when you could take a back road (cross cattle guards) past the Wallace Ranch thru the old City Ranch to get to the Elizabeth Lake road to go out to Pine Canyon.

   I remember when the Lake View Dairy was owned by my brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Johnson, was the only dairy in this part of the Antelope Valley.

   I remember when there was only one school in Palmdale and the milk for the children's lunch was supplied by the Lake View dairy.

   I remember when there were only four homes in Anna Verde Valley--you Mr. Gordon live in one of them, your daughter and family lives in one, the old Egan home was torn down and the other one is where the dairy was, ours was the fifth home.

   I remember when the first fire was in our Valley by 10 a.m. that day, we were all out wetting our places down. Our home wasn't even finished as yet -- Joe was on the roof with a hose and I was at the pump house. The fire swept up and down past all the buildings from Egans to our place that included all the buildings at the dairy. The fire was so close to me at the pump house, I had to turn the water hose on myself to keep my hair from catching on fire, but the Lord was with us, as we lost no buildings and it burned down to the lake.

   I remember a short time after the fire when we had a big wind and everything was covered with burnt ash. I awakened that a.m. and realized what was happening, we hurried, dressed and started covering everything with newspaper and in less than an hour, you couldn't read the print. We went to Mrs. Johnsons and they were tr ing to get everything under cover and by lunch time, the only clean spot was their inner kitchen as it was surrounded by other rooms. What a mess we had to clean up when the winds died down.

   I remember when we got electricty put in and when the dairy got electricity also when we got a phone.

   I remember when Ave. S was a dirt road and when we'd get stuck in the mud and have to get a tractor to pull us out.

   I remember our Antelope Valley Fair when the concession, pitching pennies and etc. were all run by organizations and people from our own Valley. When we could turn the children lose and not worry about them.

   I remember being awakened one morning about 2 o'clock to the sound of sheep and getting up to face a thousand of them, what a mess things were in after we got them out. We lost 80 Arizona Cypress, we had just planted a hundred of them a few weeks before. We had to work to save our small fruit trees, our place looked like a dust bowl. I think I cried and watered and cleaned for weeks, trying to get it back in shape. We had cleared our two acres by hand with a grub ax and leveled the ground for our house with a shovel and a wheelbarrow, in order to keep the ground from being all lo-osened up, that was to keep down the dust when the wind blew. Our place was all fenced but we didn't have our gate built but had a place 2 x 4 across to keep out cattle, never thought of sheep, because up to that time, no sheep had ever been allowed thru Ana Verde Valley.

   I remember when Mr. Word and Mr. Mullet first built a garage and had a trailer and they burnt out.

   I remember when Jim and Dorothy Harris came to Palmdale and put in the first nursery.

   I remember when Dr. Al Shuman arrived and opened his pet hospital the first in Palmdale.

   I remember when Clyde and Lorna Wallace opened the first men's ready to wear shop on Sierra Hwy. in Palmdale.

   I remember when Santa arrived by helicopter at the old depot.

   I remember our first Lilac Show when the lilacs were on dish play in tin cans at Gil Morse's store.

   I remember when our first Bank of America opened in Palmdale, the one and only.

   I remember Lari's store on the south end of town (Sierra Hwy. and Av.e R) where you could get fresh home grown fruit and bege-tables and sometimes fresh fish.

   I remember when we only had two churches -- the Community Presbyterian and St. Marys Catholic -- and when the adult S.S. class was held in the Pearland Hotel.

   I remember when we stood ankle deep in snow at the Easter Sunrise Service and when the snow was knee deep and snowed in for three days. I tried to buy a snow shovel, never carried them so they said, and I asked, "Why don't you admit it snows in Calif. and get in snow shovels." Snow isn't so hard to move with one of them, I know, I come from Iowa.

   I remember when fire swept thru our Valley for the second time, and again the Lord answered pray -- no homes were lost, but we had a few anxious hours when Glen Johnson and my son Buddy were trapped by the fire.

   I remember when the Lake was dry and some said we'd never see water in it again. I can sit in our living room and in our front patio and look out across that beautiful body of water.

   I remember when Palmdale had only one hospital and one doctor, Dr. Snook.

   I remember when Dr. Cummings came to town and that was our first dentist.

   I remember when our park was started as my husband was with it from the time the first small bldg. was built, and the beautiful snap dragons and double petunias he raised right around the bldg.

   I remember the first Coronet Store, the first move our Post Office made from Sierra Hwy, and our first addition to the old drug store on Sierra Hwy.

   I remember trying to get my sister-in-law to display her paintings at the fair and in stores, she didn't feel they were that good, but I think she captures the real true colors in her landscapes, more perfect and real than any other artist I have ever seen. Her flowers are beautiful also her figures. We have a long line of artist in our family.

   I remember our first inflow of people and how unhappy we were because we realized then we were losing our sleepy little desert town to progress, but now we are all excited about our airport.

Sincerely,
A Real Mule Train



Mule teams were used in the early days to haul materials for the Owens River aqueduct. Some local residents have said that the townsite was named by Moses L. Wicks after his birthplace, Lancaster Pa. but Wicks happened to be born at Aberdeen, Miss. A Southern Pacific worker gave Lancaster its name.