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THE SHOSHONEANS GO AROUND RELIGIOUSLY DESTROYING BUILDINGS.  LOTS OF BUILDINGS.  MOST OF THEM ABANDONED IN REMOTE PLACES.

 

 

 

 

 

THEY LEAVE MOST OF THEIR OFFERINGS AT ABANDONED BUILDINGS WHERE THEY'VE SYSTEMATICALLY KNOCK THE BUILDINGS TO PIECES

Above:  Historic gas station along old US route 66 at Cadiz Summit.  Most of that breakage was done by Shoshonean religious acts not vandalism as your first impression tells you.

 

Same site ca 1940

 

 

 

 

I believe this building knock over process has been going on long before the white man ever got to California when the Shoshoneans were just living out of brush huts.

 

Above --- The Martin ranch first visit Jan 1998.

The exact same view 5 years later, Jan, 2004.

Now 7 years later -March, 18 2011  I thought they had quit the site.  I was wrong.

 

 

 

 

First they start with the easy stuff by knocking a few holes in the walls including the outside walls even if they are made of concrete block.  Then they knock out all the wallboard and pull out all the insulation .  Then the windows and mirrors and then, seemingly with great relish, break all the toilets and mirrors but not after first filling the doomed toilets with substantial amounts of their own fecal matter (this is not something I've seen only once or twice.  It's universal).

 

 

MORE MARTIN RANCH OCTOBER 2002

 Offerings Chaco Canyon style (Bud light and a plush rabbit). 

 

With each offering a prayer is left (I think).

 

 

 

 

I have discovered that the minute a building in the Southern desert is abandoned it won't be long before the Shoshoneans find it and begin the process of breaking and burning it.

 

THE MARTIN RANCH AGAIN.  DECEMBER 2005

SAME POLE AS ABOVE THREE YEARS LATER BUT NOW A BROKEN CAR DOOR AND MICROWAVE OVEN APPEAR AT THE SAME POLE WHERE THE PLUSH RABBIT AND BUD LIGHT WERE ONCE SEEN AS OFFERINGS.

 

 

OFFERINGS CYCLE IN AND OUT CONTINUOUSLY.

 

 

 

The Shoshoneans just keep going inch by inch, tearing the building apart until there's nothing left but a bunch of rubble and then they usually burn all that rubble

 

THE MARTIN RANCH AGAIN.  DATE SOMETIME BETWEEN 2,000 AND 2,002 

Offering:  Huge, Huge clothing pile.  It's all fresh clothing.  You can see for yourself that it's all fresh clothing. 

Those are religious offerings were placed there just before photo.

 

 

Same view 8 years later, March, 18 2011.  the Shoshoneans work remarkably slowly.

 

 

 

 

At each return to the ruins they leave more offerings and thus the offerings, including the automobiles begin to really pile up around the house.  The heaps then become part of giant trash heap monument connecting all the roads and railroads to the mines and wells.

 

 

THE MARTIN RANCH AGAIN.  DECEMBER 2005

Don't ask me to explain why the Shoshoneans break the toilet offerings into so many tiny little pieces but they seem to relish doing it.  There are about seven or eight recent fragments on that table.

 

Those fragments were introduced.  The original toilet base is still bolted down inside the ruins.

 

That's an offering folks

 

 

 

 

 

WHOLE GHOST TOWNS, ABANDONED MINING TOWNS AND FARMING COMMUNITIES AND EVEN SOME CALIFORNIA MISSIONS HAVE COMPLETELY  EVAPORATED FROM THE LANDSCAPE THIS WAY.

 

 

Above.  Mill building (newly abandoned) --- First visit --- June 1998.  At this point a small amount of damage has occurred inside the building but the exterior was as yet unmarked.

 

 

 

Above:  Same Mill building --- 4 years later --- Sept. 2002.  Inside of building entirely gutted while religious holes have deliberately been made all around the outside with a combination of shotguns and tin snips to make sure the siding does not get collected by Hispanic scavengers

 

Above:   Same mill two years later, Sept 2004.  Building is now nearly completely gone.  You can still see the shotgun holes.

 

February 2005

 

 

 

In the past, many places in the desert had many many buildings in them but today look completely empty all resulting from this very ancient religious activity.

 

BELOW - MARCH 1997 

Above:  Ruins with offerings (gas station).  Site name to be withheld out of religious sensitivity.  An abandoned railroad siding along Ariz. and Calif. RR.  Note the blue car.

BELOW

SAME BLDG. 10 YEARS AFTER FIRST VISIT --- OCT 2006

 

 

Two cars have come and gone.  All offerings have changed several times over.  The building has been continuously chipped at.  The funny thing about this is this site lies along one of the loneliest stretch of highway in the California desert --- the closest habitation site is over 40 miles in any direction --- 60 miles to the west --- 40 miles to the north and south --- 35 miles to the east.

 

 

IT'S HARD TO SAY HOW MANY BUILDINGS THE SHOSHONEANS HAVE DESTROYED IN THIS WAY BUT IT MUST BE IN THE THOUSANDS

 

 

 

ALL BELOW - SAME BUILDING - 3 YEARS LATER - MARCH 2009

 

Two new chairs --- special design

 

Two new dishwasher tubs --- special design

 

Foreground --- two new toilets shattered and placed together --- special design.

 

Detail of two fragmented toilets placed together

THIS IS NOT A DUMP SITE.

 

DIRT BIKERS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.