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230 W. Ridgecrest Blvd. P.O. Box 2001, Ridgecrest, CA 93556 760-375-8456Vol. 35, No. 9November 2020To see our schedule of events, visit us at hsumd.org or on Facebook at HSUMDOn Tuesday, October 13, the state of California declared that Kern County had met criteria for moving from a “purple, orwidespread” status regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, to a “red, or substantial”status, and “indoor museums” – which is the category of business operation that weare given – are allowed to open their doors to the public (but with specified safetyconstraints). Our Historic USO Building and its public operations have been closedfor almost exactly 7 months while waiting for health and safety conditions wouldallow us to reopen. We pray that Kern County and its citizens continue to keep usmoving into safer conditions, so that we can remain open.We are required to follow certain safety protocols, and have certain limitationson our operations for now (we cannot host events, nor can we rent our spaces to thepublic yet). But In the meantime, we havereopened our Historic USOBuilding and its Book Store toyou. And, if we may bepermitted to say so: YAY !!Our open hours are Thursdayand Friday, from 11:00 am to1:00 pm, and Saturdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Come on down andvisit our reconfigured Store!On Thursday, October 15, we had our first guests come in since sevenmonths ago. They were Elaine Campbell and her son, Eric Pott. Some ofyou may remember Elaine, because until she moved away fromRidgecrest some 12 years ago, she and her husband Kenneth had livedhere and raised their family. Elaine and her son Eric are both graduates ofBurroughs High School.Elaine was visiting family here and was very happy to be able to comeinto our Historic USO Building and its Store. Specifically, she was hopingto buy a copy of Liz Babcock’s book, The Historic USO: 70 Years at theHeart of Ridgecrest, California. She did find that esteemed book, andseveral more books about local history that she also bought.Elaine and Eric were very happy with their visit to our venerableHistoric USO Building, and we were very happy to see them!–Tex Hoppus

Vol. 35, No. 9November 2020November has so many important celebrations in it. Among them: my wife’s birthday, my daughter’s birthday, JohnAbbott’s birthday, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving. (The order of this list does not necessarily reflect theorder of importance. But it might.)Please allow me to reflect on November’s Thanksgiving sentiment. I am always profoundly thankfulfor my wife, my children and their families, my extensive collection of dear friends, my opportunitiesto serve my community and my country. I am thankful that I and my family have remained safe andhealthy during these stressful and dangerous times.And I have a deep and specific appreciation for what HSUMD has brought into my life. Walkinginto our Historic USO Building and seeing our volunteers — all good friends now — laughing andtalking and kidding each other, brings a smile to my face.Here are some specific things that I hope will cause you, too, to feel thankful:1. Craig and Carol Porter have, over the last several months, given much of their time and energy to us and to the community.Day after day, for hours and hours most days, they could be found at our historic Engine Houses – the Quonset huts –working to help repair and restore the buildings. If you were to go into the west Quonset and look at the north wall and entrydoor, you would be astounded! That’s all Craig’s work. If we had another massive earthquake and the whole building wasmade to fall down in a pile of rubble, that wall be still be standing! Seriously, Craig has not only put in countless hours oflabor (and materials), but he has done a magnificently wonderful job. Carol has been at his side, not only helping him butalso cleaning and reorganizing and preserving historical artifacts that are stored in the building. She has also, as you mightimagine, found time to give Craig directions on his work. (I say this with kindness and humor in my heart )2. We have had generous help from local businesses in our Engine House restoration efforts. I am especially thankful forwhat Terry Muhle and his Desert Garage Door business and employees did in repairing and installing new doors on thenorth side of the east Quonset. He should be thanked by all in the community.3. KC Martin Construction and Painting should also be thanked. Kevin, the owner of the business and citizen-extraordinaire,not only sent crews to help us restore and repaint and move a back fence and lay a concrete sidewalk to prevent furtherdamage to the south wall of our east Quonset building, but he also repaired and painted all of the exterior of our Veteransmemorial Building. A finer and more generous (and capable) man cannot be found.4. We created our online virtual celebration of the 75th Anniversary of our Historic USO Building, viewable at thehsumd.org website. The celebration includes a concert by The WAZ recordedlive in the Historic USO Building by mc2 Sound and Lighting that has beenuploaded for your listening enjoyment as part of our 75th celebration. The WAZband, a merging of the Whatevers and Antique Zephyrs, is a renowned bandfrom Ridgecrest led by Tom Rindt and Chuck Bolt that is popular along thewhole eastern Sierra. A very special thanks to The WAZ band membersincluding: Tom Rindt, Chuck Bolt, ClaireAnn Hebert, David Cheshire, RickQuinne, Paul Franco, and Rhys Rindt - as well as their “Sound Queen” AnissaRindt. And many thanks to the talented team at mc2 Sound and Lighting: Scott McEntee, Mark McCoy, Ryan Smith,and Tammy McEntee, who set up the stage, set up lighting, and recorded the video and sound for a really wonderful concertcheck it out! We also prepared a video history of our Historic USO Building that has been uploaded for your enjoymentand education as part of our 75th anniversary celebration – and that will be forever a great compilation of our history! Justgo to hsumd.org to view these videos.5. HSUMD has been so fortunate to be the recipient of thoughtful, generous, and supportive members of our communityand Society. We could not operate without them, of course, and they help us with both their generosity and their enthusiasm,their heart, and their patriotism. I am, indeed, blessed to be part of such a wonderful group of individuals, businesses andcommunity. –Tex Hoppus2

Vol. 35, No. 9November 2020We have had a busy two months even though the usual activities have not been happening. The collection andpreservation activities have continued. We are relocating some of the items to the newly refurbished Hutsallowing for better storage and access to our Object Collections and the Exhibits. KittyFerguson our accession tracker has nearly every item we have entered into the database andthe location noted. That was no easy task. This includes every item on display in our showcases and many boxes of prepared exhibits. We have the use of both upstairs east rooms, givingus easier access to items we want to display and to create new exhibits. The completion isactually in sight. I think a picture or two is needed to give an interesting view, The hutsreorganization is also looking possible. When the flooring is installed, by our own Joe De Pina,we will be moving some items to the original living quarters and finish the shelving installation.Roger Begin and his crew of “Church Boys” as he calls them were a huge help moving heavyboxes from the upstairs to the Huts and I plan to ask for help again with files cabnets. At least these won’t requiretwo flights of stairs. I am looking forward to our finished project so we can just sit back and admire the efforts.For laughs I have included a photo of the Collections the day I took over the job. There were 2 more units likethis one. –Carol Porter3

Vol. 35, No. 9November 2020Restoring Our HistoryPrior to 1946, no fire protection was provided by Kern County for Ridgecrest. Volunteers supported by the Naval Stationand Inyokern were the protectors. On December 2, 1946, the Kern County Board of Supervisors proposed the RidgecrestCounty Fire Protection District. An election was held in the“USO Hall” on January 14, 1947. This election approved theformation of a protection district.With help from the nearby Navy base, a single engine housewas built behind the “Kern County Building” on Station Streetin 1947. (The “Kern County Building” on Ridgecrest Boulevardwas the former USO Club, and is now the Historic USOBuilding.) Ridgecrest fire volunteers – the Ridgecrest CallFiremen – now were given a fire truck that was kept in the newQuonset hut Engine House, and a resident Kern County FireCaptain named Clyde Cox was assigned to lead the group ofvolunteers. The new Quonset hut Engine House had a small“living quarters” area on its south end, with a small kitchen,bathroom, and general-purpose area for its volunteers.By 1948, Kern County Supervisors determined there was aneed for a permanent fire crew and pumper in Ridgecrest. Twomore men were soon added to the crew and resided in the rearof the existing Engine House. By 1950, a second Quonset hut Engine House and a nearby Firehouse were built. There weretwo crews each working 4-day shifts, and two trucks. Working alongside the county crews were 20 volunteer, or Call,firemen.These two Quonset hut-style Engine Houses and the adjacent Firehouse were used by Ridgecrest/Kern County firemen toprovide Ridgecrest with fire protection for almost 30 years, until the Kern County Fire Station was built and opened as partof the new Kern County Civic Center on North China Lake Boulevard in 1978. Following that move by the Kern Countyfiremen, the two Quonset huts and the former firehouse were used by the City of Ridgecrest and its Parks and RecreationDepartment for almost 30 years. The Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert acquired the buildings in 2007, but thecity remained in these buildings and used them for city maintenance operations and storage until 2014.By this time, the two Quonset huts and the old firehouse had experienced many decades of dilapidation caused by timeand minimal maintenance. Their level of deterioration was disheartening, especially considering that they were a survivingpart of the civic origins of our city itself!Having restored the old Firehouse and raised our nation’s flag over it once again in a civic ceremony on September 11,2017, HSUMD turned its attention and energy toward the restoration of the two former Engine Houses this spring. We madea plea to you – our fellow citizens – for donations toward this goal of restoration of irreplaceable civic history. And wereceived not only generous and much-needed donations of money from many, but we received donations of time, materialsand help from various individuals and businesses as well.Over the last several months, we have repaired, restored and painted the north (front) walls and doors of the two Quonsethuts, repaired and painted the south (back) walls of the two buildings, repaired and painted the interior walls of the westQuonset hut’s “living quarters” and bathroom, and started repairing the floor in that area. We’ve also reorganized and“strengthened” our storage and protection of various archived materials in those buildings, under the leadership (and directinvolvement for weeks and weeks!) of Carol and Craig Porter with special thanks to Lou Albright, Bill Cope, Mike Herr,and Larry Sawyer.We still have much to do within the two Historic Engine Houses. Among other things, the interior walls and ceiling areasof both have to be repaired and repainted, electricity has to be restored and distributed within both buildings, and cooling4