Remembering Desert Magazine & Randall Henderson

You can see the full PDF archive of Desert here.

Desert is the brainchild of Randall Henderson born of a camping trip set in Santa back in 1936. in The magazine survived in print to 1985 – longer than most magazines could dream to reach. Across 534 issues, the magazine wandered across the United States desert lands exploring everything from folklore to rock hunting and survival skills. The magazine had a cult-like following. How could you not fall in love when Henderson’s inaugural salvo for the magazine spoke the desert in such passionate tones:

“One is a grim desolate wasteland. It is the home of venomous reptiles and stinging insects, of vicious thorn-covered plants and trees, and unbearable heat. This is the desert seen by the stranger speeding along the highway, impatient to be out of “this damnable country…” The other desert — the real desert — is not for the eyes of the superficial observer, or the fearful soul or the cynic. It is a land, the character of which is hidden except to those we come with friendliness and understanding.”

Henderson did more then write about the desert. He championed it. He was instrumental in the creation of Joshua Tree National Monument and protected hundreds of miles of other desert lands.

The entire archive is worth paging through. If not for the covers, then for the articles on treasure hunting in the Turtle Mountains, ghost hunting in abandoned Nevada towns or musings on Shiprock, an ancient volcano in the New Mexico desert. …

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