Quartzsite, AZ, A Different Kind of Paradise

Quartzsite is a tiny town off of Interstate 10 in the middle of the desert in Arizona. In past years, we have blown by it on a regular basis as we worked our way south and I have always had to pick my jaw up off my lap at the infestation of RV’s in evidence. Every winter, MILLIONS of people come here with their motorhomes to boondock (camp) in the desert. 

Just a small cadre of Boondockers

This year, because there was a Ham Radio event taking place that Chris wanted to attend, we stopped and stayed for 3 days. To say that this has been an “unusual” experience is an understatement in the extreme.

 

Some RV Parks will only allow newer vehicles. This one did not!

And right after the above RV came in, this one arrived!

We do NOT “boondock” (parking with no amenities) so I made a reservation in an RV park that, while pretty basic, is nice enough. The spaces are quite large and level and the staff is very nice. The park is right on one of the main roads so all day long vehicles (more often than not RV’s) are roaring into and out of town. There is no TV (cable or antenna) but that’s not a huge loss for us since we are big on reading and we can get MSNBC on Sirius Radio. We have our own hotspot so it doesn’t matter that the WiFi is impossibly slow (as reported by others who tried to use it).

As soon as we exited I-10 we were overwhelmed by the traffic…3/4 of which are bus sized vehicles zooming from place to place. With few traffic lights and a speed limit of 45mph through town getting to the RV park was a bit of a white-knuckle experience. Once we were parked and driving around in the car, we quickly discovered that when the traffic isn’t racing, it’s mostly at a stand-still and creeping forward one car length at a time.

 

The Gem Show set up as seen from a traffic backup on the overpass.

Apparently set up to exacerbate the visitor problem, there are numerous very large activities scheduled during the winter months. While we were there, there was a huge, week-long RV show taking place (as if there weren’t already enough RV’s in residence), a 2-month long gem show and a swap meet that went from one end of town to the other. Oh…and the Ham Radio Fest. Turns out we had just missed a Pow Wow and a hot air balloon event.

 

Hi Jolly's burial place.

One of the highlights in Quartzsite is the burial place of a guy named Hadji Ali. Seems the locals had trouble pronouncing his name so they called him Hi Jolly. Hi Jolly was an Ottoman citizen who, in 1856, was hired to be a camel driver in a U.S. Army experiment that failed partly because the burros, horses & mules that were also used by the Army were afraid of the camels and partly because the congress declined to continue funding the project (sound familiar?). 

THE LAST CAMP
OF
HI JOLLY
BORN SOMEWHERE IN SYRIA
ABOUT 1828
DIED AT QUARTZITE
DECEMBER 16, 1902
CAME TO THIS COUNTRY
FEBRUARY 10, 1856
CAMELDRIVER - PACKER
SCOUT - OVER THIRTY
YEARS A FAITHFUL AID
TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
ARIZONA
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
1935

The animals were auctioned off in California and there are none left in Arizona tho’ in my opinion they would have no trouble surviving here. So, old Hi Jolly is buried in Quartzsite and is now a tourist attraction.

 

One of the fancier graves in the Hi Jolly Cemetery. Note the lantern...in case the spirit is afraid of the dark.

Another big attraction is the Reader’s Oasis Bookstore. Its claim to fame is the owner, who is a nudist, and is “on display” along with the books. We love bookstores in general but this one sounded exceptionally interesting (at least to me) so we made sure to stop in for some “browsing”. Unfortunately, the store was closed because the owner & his wife were home with the flu. We were in luck, though, A couple of local authors were set up on the front veranda selling their books. In the spirit of supporting local “talent” we purchased one book from each. Rising Sun, The Giant Warrior by Buddy Hanna, billed as the first in a continuing series. This book is in large print for the 60+ crowd. Humor Around Horses is by Stu Campbell and he assured us that these short stories are all true…and are the perfect length for reading in the bathroom.

 

The Bookmobile (home?) of the bookstore's owner.

The bookstore was closed but local authors were set up in front to sell their tomes.

Time was short so we didn’t make it to the Stetler tungsten mine or to Joanne's Gum Museum with its “large collection of gum wrappers from around the world”. Since we have decided that Quartzsite was an interesting stop neither of us is driven to return those will be filed in the “opportunities missed” box.

From Quartzsite we have moved on to Phoenix…a different kind of madness.