Deep in California’s Anza-Borrego desert wilderness — an hour from the nearest town, miles from the nearest paved road, atop the rocky crags of a mountain stippled with razor cactus — is a house. Or the remains of one, at least, built and occupied for sixteen years by a noted writer and his family, who wanted to live off the land like Native Americans. Some people think Marshal South was crazy, others consider him an inspiration; one thing everyone can agree on is that he was interesting.
People wonder why South would build a house so far from civilization, and in such an unforgiving place — that is, until they hike the steep, mile-long trail to his old home site, and discover the views he enjoyed; the thin white roads and spectral light that spills across the Blair Valley is what earned Ghost Mountain its name.
Marshal South was the pen-name of an Australian ex-pat who came to America just after the turn of the last century, and who made a career for himself writing novels about the Wild West. Finally, after writing about it for so long, South decided to live it — conducting an “experiment in primitive living” — and in 1930, he and his wife Tanya moved to the waterless ridge in the desert that became known as Ghost Mountain. Over the next 16 years they raised a family there, and became known to readers across the country through a series of articles Marshal wrote about their lives in the Saturday Evening Post and Desert Magazine.
They lived as close to the land as they could, building their home from adobe they made themselves, and fashioning an ingenious system of cisterns to catch and store rainwater. Here’s what’s left of the cisterns today:
The house as it was. You can see the cistern pictured above on the left side of the frame.
Not much remains of the house today — over the years, the adobe structure has literally melted into the desert. The door frame and an iron bed are two of the homestead’s most obvious remnants.
In the years before the cisterns were built, the only way the Souths got water was by driving it from a faraway town in their Model A Ford, then carrying it one mile up the mountain, by hand, twelve gallons at a time. Here are the Souths bringing some corrugated roofing up the side of the mountain:
They were forced to move for a short period of time during World War II, when the Army informed the Souths that their mountain was in the path of a gunnery range. Finally, in 1946, the Souths separated and divorced — though they never talked about it publicly, friends speculated that Tanya saw no future for their children in the desolate wilderness where they lived; Marshal, who was raised in the Australian outback, saw no problem with it. The house was sealed and left to the elements, and 64 years later, little more than traces remain.
Another basin for catching water:
As with any abandoned site or ghost town, there is some trash. However, because the Souths lived off the land as much as they could — hunting rabbit, eating cactus, raising bees for honey, and grinding what grain they bought by hand — there isn’t much. I found evidence, though, that the Souths enjoyed the odd canned delicacy:
It’s a beautiful spot, but not a place that made me want to plant my flag and never leave. It’s amazing that any modern people could live so primitively — and, for a time, even thrive here.
Comments (17)
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yet again more proof that you have the coolest job in the world.
posted by Pete on 3-15-2010 at 1:29 pm
Stories like this make me wonder what happened to the Souths’ children and how they turned out.
In 1949, Tanya reported that the children had made the adjustment to normal living. Later, apparently, the two younger children changed their names.
posted by Steven on 3-15-2010 at 1:31 pm
Yep coolest job ever, I am jealous, as I sit here working in a room with no windows.
posted by hockey zombie on 3-15-2010 at 1:44 pm
Very interesting post! The scenery is wonderful!
posted by Les on 3-15-2010 at 1:52 pm
I think it would have been helpful if you’d pointed out that this is in California. It didn’t take long to google it, but I was a bit confused when I tried to place the geography using the pictures alone.
posted by Sally on 3-15-2010 at 2:08 pm
Good point, Sally — done!
posted by Ransom Riggs on 3-15-2010 at 2:23 pm
Very cool article and job.
posted by Sara in Al on 3-15-2010 at 2:27 pm
I think evidence like this, which shows how humans have been able to “live so primitively, and for a time, even thrive” is proof positive that despite whatever nature does to us, or we do to ourselves, the human race will still survive.
We may have to do without plasma TVs, SUVs, and air conditioning, but we will survive.
-”BB”-
posted by Bicycle Bill on 3-15-2010 at 2:38 pm
That is pretty cool…though I will continue to enjoy the conforts of my plasma t.v., SUV and air conditioning.
posted by graham on 3-15-2010 at 4:57 pm
@Bicycle Bill- but without the internet? Could we do without that? ;)
back to what I really wanted to say- I, too, was wondering what happened to the kids.
posted by ann on 3-15-2010 at 5:11 pm
Very cool article! Let’s not forget, however, that in many places in the world, this *is* how modern people live.
posted by Rachel on 3-15-2010 at 10:27 pm
I was just in Anza-Borrego for a few days after Christmas It’s hard to imagine living there Winter or Summer without a heater or cooler, very harsh conditions. Not sure where exactly Ghost mountain is but I know some parts of that bombing range are still off limits to the public due to unexploded shells.
posted by Kevin on 3-16-2010 at 1:30 am
I have been a follower and researcher of the story of Marshal South and his experiment for several years. A friend sent me the link to this blog. Well done! A definitive book on Marshal South was published five years ago. It is called Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles, by Diana Lindsay. It can be ordered here: http://www.amazon.com/Marshal-South-Ghost-Mountain-Chronicles/dp/0932653669. Diana did an exceptional job with it; the older child, Rider, wrote a long reminiscence in the book.
All the children are still alive, though the middle child has changed his name and distanced himself from his history. The older and younger children are both doing well. The family came together in January 2005 to lay a gravestone on their father’s previously unmarked grave.
posted by David Baumann on 3-16-2010 at 11:02 am
I couldn’t imagine my husband coming up to me and saying we are going to live in the desert…
Primal style. She was a good wife for going for it as long as she did. But imagine the stories you could tell..
My ReCaptcha:
man savages
HA! what an oracle.
posted by Chrystani on 3-16-2010 at 12:57 pm
I was happy to see interest in the South family in your blog. The controversial family has drawn attention since Marshal South wrote an article about this “experiment in primitive living” for the Saturday Evening Post in 1939. If you go to the website http://www.marshalsouth.com you will find more photos and some short video clips of the family when they lived on Ghost Mountain. There is also a 15-minute film about the family that is shown regularly at the visitor center at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs, California. Information about this film and another longer version can be found at the South website.
posted by Diana Lindsay on 3-17-2010 at 9:12 pm
I clicked on this and thought it was going to be Pennsylvania’s ghost mountain. It’s pretty cool. there’s this glass house up in these woods and apparently there is this family of albinos that live in it. It’s in a book called Weird Pennsylvania and it’s definitely weird and definitely creepy.
posted by nicole on 3-21-2010 at 10:11 pm
wouldn’t it be awesome if Ransom went to Alaska next?!!!!!!!!!!
posted by mumblesquid on 8-1-2010 at 7:49 pm