Attention Honorable Mayor of Palmdale and Honorable Council Body of the City of Palmdale!

    A voice from a pioneer Palmdale citizen who is asleep in the next room, the late William G. Ritter, is calling. Bill, as he was called by his many friends, with his wonderful wife, Mina, who is holding down the Ritter home at 810 East Ave. Q-9 in Palmdale, spent many years in building up the most authentic and historic animal museum ever put together in the west.

   Since the passing of Bill Ritter, his widow, Mina, suggests that the City of Palmdale have a building erected and take over, free of charge, this wonderful and historic museum. Too, it is the wish, and I know, because when Bill was with us, he and I had many tete-a- tetes about this desert museum and he wanted the city to have it, when he left, to fall asleep in the next room.

    With Palmdale gaining prominence daily and, to gain greater prominence when the Palmdale Intercontinental takes live action, it is only reasonable to ask the City of Palmdale to acquire a building or build a new one, to preserve this wonderful and historic museum for our youth to see and learn about the old rugged desert, the original denizens of the desert, the original wild life and for posterity. It is, too, a most interesting museum for adults. Also, an authentic reminder to the world of the western part of the United States of America. A real interesting and thrilling museum.

   Speaking of pioneers, Bill and Mina Ritter, have had one mailing address from October 19, 1892 to October 15, 1970, the day Bill passed away, Palmdale Post Office. Mina's address now, still. The Ritters purchased their home site and where the museum stands in 1912. Bill built the home in 1927 with his own hands. That was in the old Palmdale days, and, quite historic at that time, too.

   Even long before the late Bill Ritter, began building his home at its present location around the corner of this newspaper, he began to collect old relics and had corraled some real prizes in wild and domestic animals.

   Having been graduated from Northwestern School of Taxidermy in Omaha, Nebraska on November 1, 1910, Bill was quite a scientist and expert in taxidermy. He became a taxidermist with the A.J. Root firm of Los Angeles. He was constantly exercising his knowledge of taxidermy and hunting, therefore, his museum today. And, that, his widow, Mina, wishes the City of Palmdale would take as the property of the City for the world to see.

    Many of the trophies are of animals now extinct or taboo for hunters or collectors. The Snowy Owl captured by Bill near Mt. Baldy is a very rare specimen and, a gift, never known to be found before or since south of the Rockies. This find and capture was written up in the National Geographic Magazine and other major magazines in 1917. Another most valuable find and capture among Bill's unusual trophies is a Sneaker Mount of a Blacktail Deer which carried a 36 inch spread of horns with eight points on one side and five on the other. The deer dressed out to 236 pounds. The largest one ever taken out of these High Sierras. Had Bill paid the entry fee and registered the animal, he would have received $10,000 prize money.

   To give you the beauty and the importance of this fine museum, Bill entered two entries in the 1915-18 World's Fair in San Francisco and won two first prizes on his Desert Fox and two baby Bobcats.

   In the collection in the museum there are many ancient souvenirs and antiques from other desert areas and the entire Mojave Desert. Valuables in local Indian rocks, relics and other valuable Indian relics from old Indian grounds.

   To acquaint you a little more with this treasure and the Ritter family, I must take you to old Palmdale at 27th St. East and Ave. R. where John G. Ritter, the Grandparents, settled in the early 1880's. A thriving community of fine people and early pioneers, a community of 60 families.

   A view upon the old rugged west when men were men and women were home-bodies is depicted here, when Palmdale was at the old location. School, Church, saloon, stores, blacksmith shop and a complete shopping center. That was Palmdale, fellow citizens.

   The grandfather Ritter, is buried in that old Palmdale cemetery.

   Bill's father and mother arrived in Palmdale in 1892 and settled on a homestead at the end of Leona Valley, the present home now, of "Butch" and Nel Messer.

   To write the Ritter story and one, as pioneers of the west and the Antelope Valley, would be a saga of a 500-page book, or more, yet, the importance of this column, is to deliver this message to the council members of the City of Palmdale. And, to instill into the honorable body of the council, not to miss this great opportunity, a treasure in learning and history that could never, again be found.

    What a gift for posterity. A treasure by a pioneer of Palmdale. A treasure that took many years and the expert knowledge of an expert in taxidermy to build. A treasure most valuable to the prestige of Palmdale and to the success and growth of Palmdale. It would blend beautifully with the current feeling of, "Be American".

   Honorable members of the City Council of the City of Palmdale, it is your next move.

Trailing Along
by
John Hall