A History of Barker Ranch

In 2005 the National Park Service completed a Cultural Landscapes Inventory on the Thomason/Barker Ranch (known better generally as just Barker Ranch) as part of a continuing effort of cataloging the cultural resources of the Death Valley area. The resulting 77-page report included chapters on the chronology and physical history of the ranch, geographic information, an analysis and evaluation of the ranch's integrity, and ended with a determination that the ranch should be preserved and maintained and that it was eligible for listing on the National Register.

Portions of the report of interest to readers of this blog have been reprinted below. 

The front page of the report

National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory 2005

Thomason/Barker Ranch

Death Valley National Park

"The 1930s witnessed an unprecedented migration of people desiring to escape urban life in order to experience a simpler and less restrictive existence in the remote desert. Others moved to the desert at this time in order to escape the consequences of the Depression by trying to eke out a living on the land rather than face urban soup lines. Since the 1930s the California deserts have provided a sanctuary for those seeking to escape from mainstream society. People have often been attracted to the secluded and wild environment that the desert provided because it created a feeling of isolation and freedom among those who were avoiding the law, those who wished to live away from other people, or for those who simply did not want to conform to conventional society. The desert attracted people who held to the belief that it was one of the last American Frontiers -- offering the maximum amount of freedom from social order and legal constraints. People of this mindset have settled in or drifted in and out of the Goler Wash vicinity over the past 70 years.

"It was during this initial era of escape to the desert that the Thomason/Barker Ranch was first settled. In 1937, Bluch and Helen Thomason, a retired couple from Los Angeles, moved to Goler Wash after filing a claim with Inyo County for a five acre mill site. This was the land on which they subsequently built their retirement retreat. As required under the General Mining Act of 1872, the development and use of residences on Government Law Office (GLO) managed lands depended on the owners' ability to show proof of their active use of the land for mining activities. The Thomasons' primary reason for moving to Goler Wash was to retire in the desert, and they used the provisions of the Mining Act of 1872 as a means to this end. For the same reason, the Barkers, who acquired mining rights to the ranch in 1956, moved to the area because of their attraction to the desert and their desire to retire in a secluded environment. They also used their mining claims as a means to legally occupy the government-owned land. This was substantiated by the testimony of Emmett Harder, a local resident and prospector who knew the Barkers during the period they lived in Goler Wash. 

"The Thomasons and the Barkers were not the only families who used mining claims as the basis for developing recreational ranches in this area. Four other families maintained retreats in the Goler Wash area, and a similar number developed retreats in nearby Butte Valley in the 1930s and 1940s. Like the Thomason/Barker Ranch, these residences were located on GLO-administered lands and were also legally occupied due to the owners' association with small-scale mining.

"In 1968, the Barkers ceased living on their ranch, and by 1971 they had completely abandoned the site. Many of the other family retreats in the area had been abandoned by this time as well. The exception was the Myers Ranch, which had been successfully patented under the General Mining Act of 1872 a decade earlier. Today, the Myers property has been completely reconstructed following a devastating fire, and its physical structures retain no historic integrity. It is, however, the only residential complex in the area that remains a family-controlled retreat.

"The Thomason/Barker Ranch reverted to BLM [Bureau of Land Management] management in 1971. Since that time, tourists and outdoor enthusiasts have used the area as an overnight destination. Despite decades of benign neglect, most of the buildings and structures remain intact but are in poor condition. As such, the Thomason/Barker Ranch serves as the only remaining example of a primitive recreational ranch and retirement retreat in Death Valley National Park."

Above: the site plan of the Barker Ranch

Below: a chronological history of the ranch

Besides covering the entire history of the ranch the report also has a lengthy summary of the activities of Charles Manson and his associates during their time in the area:

Charles Manson Family (1968-1969)

"The fall of 1968, the peaceful history of Thomason/Barker Ranch was forever changed when Charles Manson obtained permission from Arlene Barker to indefinitely occupy the ranch with his "Family." During this era, many of those labeled by the media as hippies and others associated with the counter culture were seeking solace and escape from the pressures of modern society. For these individuals, the secluded environs of Death Valley, like other remote areas, represented an alluring sanctuary far removed from the repressive trappings of the urban "establishment." In the eyes of many long-time Death Valley residents accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of prospectors and desert rats, the Manson Family appeared on the surface no more unconventional than other newcomers who frequented the desert byways and canyons.

"Favorable descriptions of Goler Wash were provided to Manson by 17-year-old Cathy Gillies, a recently inducted Family member and grandchild of Barbara Myers. Agreeing that the location would likely meet their needs, the Manson Family began a phased move to Goler Wash. The first of many forays to Goler Wash consisted of seventeen adults and two babies, journeying from Los Angeles in a reconditioned school bus. They hiked the arduous last five miles from the mouth of the canyon to the Myers Ranch, their original destination. Their school bus would later be driven to the Thomason/Barker Ranch by way of the eastern route over Mengel Pass, an equally challenging and (for the bus at any rate) debilitating accomplishment. Manson eventually selected Thomason/ Barker Ranch rather than the Myers Ranch as the Family's base of operations. He went so far as to seek Arlene Barker's permission to stay at the ranch, deluding her that he was the composer/arranger for the Beach Boys musical group and only intended to stay there a short while with a few others. He later offered to buy the improvements from her, but his inability to demonstrate his financial wherewithal quickly brought an end to the negotiations.

"Charles "Tex" Watson, a member of the Manson Family currently serving a life-term in prison for the Tate-LaBianca murders, described his initial perception of Goler Wash and the Barker and Myers Ranches when the family first arrived in 1968:

"The wash, even by day…. was unbelievably rugged. It could take a good half a day to work your way up on foot, and even the toughest jeep would have a hard time against the boulders and narrow turns. The ranches themselves were about a quarter of a mile apart. Myers Ranch was in very bad condition, rundown and vandalized, but Thomason/Barker Ranch had a solid little stone ranch house and a swimming pool, even sheets on the beds. Later the the place would be described as derelict and dilapidated, but we had less exacting standards." (*)

"The secluded desert setting was conductive to Manson's ultimate objectives of inculcating his followers with his bizarre messianic prophecies of "Helter Skelter," the notion that an imminent race war between blacks and whites would consume the nation. According to his beliefs, he and the Family, as the chosen elite, would weather the violence in a subterranean world in the desert. They would consequently emerge and take control of the black population whom he considered inferior but who would be the initial victors of the race war.

"It was while they were living at Thomason/Barker Ranch that members of the Manson Family made a foray back to Los Angeles and murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four of her house guests. Then, in the same night, they entered another home and killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. The Tate-LaBianca murders would cause mass fear and paranoia among Los Angeles residents who could not begin to predict when the next murder might occur or who the next victims would be. 

"In September 1969, about one month after the still unsolved Tate-LaBianca murders, members of the Manson Family were apprehended by a team of California Highway Patrol, Inyo County, and NPS law enforcement personnel at Thomason/Barker Ranch on suspicion of theft and arson, ending their year-long occupation of the ranch. It wasn't until the Manson Family was incarcerated that the magnitude and horror of their violent acts were fully revealed. 

"During the Manson Family occupation of the ranch, the entry roundabout area was expanded to the west to create more parking space for the bus and the dozens of other vehicles that the group had acquired. Because they were only at the ranch for a short period of time, the physical character of the site did not differ greatly from when the Barkers inhabited it. There are accounts that the Manson Family used the swimming pool as a giant makeshift washing machine and that they vandalized and left extensive debris throughout the site when they were incarcerated, but other than the expanded parking area, no permanent change to the character of the site occurred."

(* Watson is clearly confusing the two ranches here.  GS)

*      *      *

The main buildings of the Barker Ranch were destroyed by a fire accidentally ignited by a careless visitor in May of 2009. Not only did the ranch itself go up in smoke, but so did the tens of thousands of dollars that the National Park Service had spent restoring the ranch to a condition suitable to its historical significance. Today, all that remains of the structures are the bunkhouse, the chicken coop, and the stone walls of the main house and its outbuildings. 

Above: the ruins of the Barker Ranch house, April 25, 2015

Below: a National Park Service sign at Barker Ranch

Emmett Harder

As you saw on the 2015 MansonBlog Tour, we met up with Emmett Harder at Goler Wash. Here are two videos featuring this gem of a man who spent his life in the California desert. The first is a promotional video for his book, "These Canyons are Full of Ghosts". The second is a CBS2 news piece reporting on the possibility of doing digs at Barker Ranch in search of additional bodies.

Mr Harder's book is "These Canyons Are Full of Ghosts: The Last of the Death Valley Prospectors" and is available on amazon.com

Manson Tour 2015: Goler Wash

We were joined for the trip by a legend, Emmett C. Harder. He's the mining prospector that befriended the Family surrounding the times they frequented Barker Ranch. He is still quite energetic and full of spirit. When we took this pic we were at Newman Cabin in Goler Wash. As this particular story went, he - with the use of a shotgun -  and a mining partner had captured a desert thief who had been burglarizing Goler Wash mining camps. The capture took place here at Newman.

Newman Cabin

Emmett Harder is about 82 years old now but as sharp as a tack.  He drove the entire way up Goler Wash with ease, talking the whole time about various people who had mined or been an accessory to the process.  It seemed as if there wasn't anything he didn't know about the goings on in the area.

As we left the store at Ballarat the first bit of local color he told us about was Post Office Springs.  Post Office Springs was a tree in a wide spot in the road where people would leave messages for each other, having no other way to communicate.  Even today there is no way to contact one another within the area because there is no cell service, no landlines, no electricity. It is just the same way it was 45 years ago and the decades before.

On the way to the road up to Goler Wash we learned a little about the mining process, which we won't get into except to say there is an active mining operation going on now which was to our benefit because the roads had been graded for the truck traffic to the site where the leeching process was taking place. The road to the wash was in great shape with no washboard effect.

We finally began the assent to Barker. The wash "road" had recently been fixed up, none of the waterfalls which usually pose the biggest challenge to the trip up the wash were a problem. We never had to get out of the vehicles to move boulders.  Emmett's running commentary was priceless. We learned about the different rocks, the flora and the fauna of the area. All was interspersed by stories about the locals, aside from stories about The Family. What rugged people!

The road was narrow at times and there were many side roads, if we hadn't had a guide we could see where one could easily get lost. It's amazing that many of the Family members walked up and down the wash barefoot. And that it is so remote it's hard to imagine why they decided to hunker down there with very little in the way of resources for survival.

Very shortly after we first arrived at Barker Ranch, we heard the loud braying of a wild burro. He was standing on the opposite butte from the front of the ranch. There are two springs between Barker and Myers where they like to go for a drink. When he saw that there were about 14 humans there he attempted to intimidate the group. He stayed up there for hours.

Speaking of wild creatures, this Gopher Snake passed by near the front steps at the ranch. 

They are not dangerous to people.

Some shots of Barker Ranch

The main house

The infamous cabinet space in the bathroom where Manson 

spent his last moments as a free man in 1969.

John Aes-Nihil at the entrance to the ranch

 What's left of a mattress next to Sadie's Bunker

This is what's left of the dug-out bunker where Sadie was hiding when the raid began. 

It is of course filled in from earth that has run downhill over the decades from rain and wind.

Just slightly downhill from the bunker (maybe 8-10 feet) is the tin 

roofing that Sadie used to cover the bunker.

Here is myself and St. Circumstance on the butte opposite the ranch near the bunker. 

The burro was just uphill from us standing his ground.

From the spot by the bunker you can see Myers Ranch

George Stimson and Emmett Harder in front of the cabin beside the main house.

Above the main house, looking down at the pool

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Meyers Ranch

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Back down in Ballarat. From left to right are Deb, Emmett, Matt, Patty, George, 

Stoner, St. Circumstance (with Rocky Navak behind him) and John Aes-Nihil.

By the way, be sure to pronounce Ballarat correctly or George won't let you graduate.

Emmett Harder

When Charlie and the others were arrested for the Tate LaBianca murders Emmett Harder was one of the few people who went on record at length to say that he had a hard time believing that Charlie was involved.  By the time Harder wrote These Canyons Are Full Of Ghosts, with three chapters devoted to the Family, he had backed away from the views expressed in this article.

Here are Harder's first impressions upon learning of the charges against Charles Manson and his Family.

San Bernardino County Sun Sunday December 7, 1969

Friend Finds It Hard To Accept 'Killer' Tag

Different View Of Manson, 'Family'

by David L. Otis
Sun Telegraph Staff Writer

Charles Miller Manson, 35, called "God" and "Jesus" by his followers, incarcerated, accused......

Is he a bearded leader of a hippie "black magic cult" which savagely killed Sharon Tate and six others?  Or is Charles Manson the patriarch of a lost tribe of young people looking for their own society away from it all?

Emmett Harder, 37, s geologist and prospector since he was 9, knows Charles Manson.  He hired Manson and his "family" to work around his Death Valley mine near Barker Ranch, home of the "family" for several months.  He invited Charlie to dinner at his Devore home.

"I find it hard to accept the fact that Manson had anything to do with those brutal slayings," Harder said yesterday.  "I found Charlie to be an intelligent, hard-working person dedicated to taking care of the young people camping with him.  I never once heard Manson called anything but Charlie.  No one called him Jesus or God.  And he was clean shaven with medium length hair, too."

Harder said he remembered only first names (with the exception of Manson) of those in the group.  But he said he recognized the faces of the four already in custody for the Tate murders.

"There were a couple of Chuck's (Charles Watson) and a T.J. and a girl who appeared to be a bit retarded or at least abnormally naïve (Susan Atkins)."

Harder admits it has been a year since he last saw the man now accused of using "hypnotic power" to order the ritualistic slayings of seven persons in Los Angeles last summer.

But his description of Manson and his followers is in direct and striking contrast to reports circulated by news media about the hippie band.

Harder said he first met Manson in June 1968 at his tungsten mine seven miles from the Barker Ranch.  He said Manson and five or six young men walked into the camp to ask for jobs. 

"They were very interested in prospecting for profit.  They asked me if they could help.  I gave them a burro and a week.  When I visited the Barker Ranch at that time, I found they had collected over 1,000 pounds of ore for me."

Harder said he developed a respect for the young band "because I know what physical effort is and those young people were not afraid of physical effort."

Harder said Manson asked him to speak to the group on prospecting.  He said he took the young men on several field trips to acquaint them with rocks and formations.

The prospector voiced concerns over newspaper stories and pictures which gave the impression the group lived in squalor.  "The Barker Ranch was never neater than when Charlie was there.  He was a father-figure, organizing, directing, assigning duties.  I think a lot of the mess shown in the photographs was a result of the raid- or- perhaps it was made by another group.  The ranch was always open to anyone who wanted to use it."

Harder described the "family" as young people who appeared lost and hurt, as if society had slapped them in the face and turned them out alone.

"They didn't feel that they were lost.  They said they were trying to hide from society, trying to run away from its problems...."

Harder told of one of the many times he visited them.  He said they were sitting around a fire, drinking coffee and remembered being impressed that they were familiar with passages from the bible.

"We were talking about how lucky we all were.... sitting in the desert darkness alone but together.  Out there we felt closer to God and country, Charlie said "That shows you how true the bible is."

Manson and his followers ran into a unique prejudice at Barker's Ranch which apparently followed them from their beginning in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco.  "It was the word 'hippie'," Harder explained.  "The prospectors most assumed hippies were bad people.  The local people were a bit afraid of Charlie and his group.  Charlie said he didn't like the stigma and moved out of the Haight-Ashbury because of it."

The last time Harder saw Manson a chilly night in November 1968 after the Harder's had spent a peaceful dinner with the suspected killer.

Manson and three of his followers had ridden to Harder's house in Devore for dinner before catching a ride into Los Angeles.  "He talked about his music a lot.  He said he has written some for the Beach Boys, a popular rock group, and an album was due for release."

Said Mrs. Ruth Harder: "I remember he played the guitar and sang.  The girl who was with them walked in the garden with me, discussing rocks and flowers.  She was pretty and clean.  They reminded me of the kids who used to visit the house when my daughter was going to school."

Commenting on the picture of Manson circulated by the press last week, Mrs. Harder said Manson looked "frightened, puzzled by it all.  He had a trapped look...."

Gerald Harder,15, held up a mounted gold record he said he received through Manson.  The album was awarded the Beach Boys by Capitol Records indicating a million-seller.  The record was "All Summer Long."

"I got it from a man who once loaned Charlie a four-wheeled drive vehicle."  Gerald said.  "Charlie gave the gold record as sort of a payment for the help he received."

Harder said he and his son have thought about going up to Independence where Manson is being held to talk to him.  "I'd like to find out what it's all about," Harder explained.  But we don't want to go up there with all the newsman.  We'd like to see him alone.  Maybe when he is moved to more permanent confinement, we'll see him and he can tell us what all this is about." 

The article goes on to describe the victims and speculates about the suspects and the charges.

A press photo of the gold record that Gerald Harder speaks of, which accompanied this article, was a post of its own HERE a while back.

Mine owner spent time with Charles Manson

Emmett Harder and his wife, Ruth, on their 61st anniversary.

BY MARK MUCKENFUSS 

September 20, 2013; 05:34 PM

Sometimes when you go looking for gold, you find it.

I was tracking down information the other day on the Amargosa Mine, also known as the Salt Springs Mine, which is between Baker and Shoshone, just off the road to Death Valley.

I’ve written about the mine in the past. Gold was discovered on the spot in 1849 by members of an early Mormon expedition. It was one of the first, if not the first, non-native gold strikes in Southern California.

I ran across information from 1993 that said Emmett Harder was the current owner. He lived in Devore. Twenty years later, he’s still in Devore and still owns the mine.

But that’s not what this column is about.

This column is about the fact that notorious killer Charles Manson is back in the news. A new biography on Manson by Jeff Guinn recently hit the shelves.

What does that have to do with Harder?

Well, after a lengthy discussion about his lifelong love of prospecting, his sporadic work at the Salt Springs Mine and his fascination with stories of lost rich deposits of gold, Harder mentioned that he also owns a mine in the Panamint Mountains near Death Valley.

The mine is near Barker Ranch, where the Manson Family lived just before and during the infamous Tate and LaBianca murders. Mansion was captured at the ranch, hiding in a small closet.

Harder, 81, said he spent time with Manson and his followers. News stories and other writings over the years bear out his account.

A Life magazine story that ran during the time of the Manson trial featured photos from the ranch.

“One of the pictures is my partner in the gold mine, standing with Charlie,” Harder said. “I’m standing right beside them but I didn’t get in the picture, unfortunately.”

He said he also was just out of the frame in a photo showing some of the young women in Manson’s group making breakfast in the ranch house.

“They were making hotcakes and we were dipping them in syrup,” he said.

At the same time, Manson was in an argument with a man named Carl Rona.

“Charlie took offense when Carl said, ‘You hippies,’” Harder recalled. “Charlie said, ‘By God, we’re not hippies. We’ve escaped from Haight Ashbury and we came down here to get away from the troubles of the world.’”

At one point, Harder said, he brought Manson to San Bernardino.

“I brought Charlie and (Charles “Tex”) Watson and a bunch of the people down from the mine with me,” he said. “They had dinner here at my house. Charlie played the guitar for my wife.”

Harder said he was close to some of the women in the group. One in particular came from a San Bernardino family he knew. Catherine “Cappy” Gilles was the granddaughter of Billy Meyers. The Meyers family owned a ranch adjacent to Barker Ranch and Gilles’ mention of the ranch is reportedly what initially drew Manson to the desert.

Gilles, Harden said, had run away from home at 14.

“I was concerned with her being with these hippies,” he said. “I tried to get her to reunite with her family.”

He’s remained in touch with some of the women over the years, including Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who was imprisoned for an assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford in 1975.

“I saw them in a whole different light,” Harder said. “These girls were all misfits of one kind or another and they were all trapped by Charlie.”

To Harder, Manson seemed inconsequential.

“He wasn’t an impressive fellow for us but he certainly impressed (the women in the Family) in a horrible way.”

Reach Mark Muckenfuss at 951-368-9595 or mmuckenfuss@pe.com

Mark Muckenfuss

Original story HERE

Thank you, Max Frost!

Emmett Harder's Gold Record

The caption reads:  Devore, Calif. - 12/6/69 - A GIFT FROM CHARLES MANSON - Gerald Harder, 15, and his father, Emmett, of Devore, hold Beach Boys' golden record they say they received through Charles Manson, alleged leader of hippie band charged with the murder of Sharon Tate and six others.  Harder said Manson family worked for him at his Death Valley mine during the latter part of '68.  AP Wirephoto

The title of this gold record is "All Summer Long" and is not the same gold record that was given to Mrs. Arlene Barker.  According to Bugliosi, 1994, page 180, her record was "The Beach Boys Today".

Hate

While Reading "These Canyons are Full of Ghosts" last night by Emmett Harder, Patty ran across this interesting observation by Emmett about his time being acquainted with The Family in Death Valley:

"I have been condemned for saying anything kind about this episode, but some of the condemners scare me worse than Charlie did. I think I can see behind their super sanctimonious mask, an ugly, black shrouded character, viciously moaning, 'Hate, hate.'"

Uh huh. Patty has seen that dude too. And he can be as hypnotizing as ole JC himself. She will just have to be more vigiliant of his seductive ways. ;)