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Interstate
8 across the Lechuguilla Desert and Mohawk Valley |
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The
historic oasis at Dateland |
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Lone
water tank at milepost 73 |
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I had to work in Yuma, so I drove from Phoenix
the night before. The romance of a road trip is intense at
night. It's you, your thoughts, maybe a companion, the dash
lights and radio, in an electromechanical bubble shooting
along alone in the dark. There are other cars and trucks,
but they exist in their world while you are alone in yours.
I've always loved driving at night.
I returned in sunlight. Eastbound Interstate
8 rises uphill as it leaves Yuma. Paralleled by the railroad
it goes over Telegraph Pass, then down across an agricultural
valley past Wellton, over another range, then past Gila Bend
to a junction with Interstate 10 at Casa Grande.
The terrain is rolling desert punctuated by mountain
ranges. On a clear day, the colors are sharp - browns, blacks,
reds, purples and blues, all contrasting with the brown and
gold shades of the mostly-dead desert grasses and the greens
of the shrubs and scrubby trees. Things are still dry from
last summer's heat. The mountains' chiseled ridgelines, domes
and spires starkly define the edge of a clear blue sky. You
can see detail on mountains 60 to 80 miles away - maybe farther.
Of course there are days when wind, dust or glare blur the
crisp visibility and the contours of distant mountains. Heat
sometimes shimmers off the desert floor in visible waves.
Drivers on this road generally blaze through all of this at
70 to 80 miles an hour or faster.
The scenery was one distraction among many. I
passed Dateland, where travelers used to jump into irrigation
pools, clothes and all, to find relief from summer heat back
when refrigeration in automobiles wasn't common. While Dateland
has always been an oasis, many travelers found it preferable
to cross this desert at night. Then and now, you can find
treats in the gift shop and café made from locally-grown
Medjool dates.
Dateland was a railroad stop in the days of steam
- the locomotives had to replenish their water supply frequently.
You can still see a water tank left over from those days at
milepost 73 -- it sits along the tracks by the south-side
frontage road. Freight trains have run this route night and
day for over 100 years, but passenger trains are mostly gone
now. A lot of WWII soldiers came this way, riding the trains
to their embarkation points. General Patton trained soldiers
nearby.
Like many interstate routes, this has always
been a highway. Interstate 8 and the railroad follow the tracks
of a stagecoach route across the southern Arizona desert.
Before that it was a wagon road and an Indian trade route.
The path followed water. The Gila River flowed year-round
before diversion dams dried it up this far downstream. Many
of the communities along the way got started as stagecoach
stations. Others sprang up as the railroad reached this area.
Near Gila Bend, you reach another island of agriculture.
You see huge tractors and crop dusters working day and night,
using floodlights to illuminate their way. I saw hayfields
with new green grass, and cotton in large bales from last
fall awaiting shipment to the mills.
Next:
Spot Road, Black Rocks and Gila Bend>
Bob
Schaller
January 29, 2007
