Hike to Ghost Mountain and the Marshal South homestead

Marshal South was a poet, novelist and nudist. An Aquarian before the hippie generation who grew his hair long, wore a headband, and walked around barefooted. A worshipper of the "Great Spirit", he chose to live close to nature and shun western ways altogether. He would succeed in creating his Yaquitepec on a solitary desert hilltop he christened Ghost Mountain. Remnants of that homestead remain in what is now Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. It’s a popular hike where place is matched with the backdrop of a story.

The story of Marshal South starts with his real name, Roy Bennett Richards, born in Adelaide, Australia on February 24, 1889. Marshal South was his nom de plume. South would author eight Western novels and over 100 articles in Desert Magazine. It was in his column in Desert Magazine that he chronicled life on Ghost Mountain with his wife Tanya and their three children. Marshal was a gifted writer and held readers in awe of his "experiment in primitive living."

He convincingly portrayed that the family’s exodus from mainstream American society was a complete success. Desert Magazine readers were surprised when the experiment and column came to an end in 1947.

Tanya and Marshal were married in 1923; it was Marshal’s second marriage. They met in Oceanside, California at the Rosicrucian Fellowship. She was "wise in the way of God", Marshal wrote.

In the early 1930’s they drove their Model T Ford three miles into Blair Valley, which was maintained by the Bureau of Land Management in the years before it became the Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

Kumeyaay Indians had long inhabited this desert region but wisely lived near springs, especially the Aqua Caliente area where water is plentiful. Ghost Mountain on the other hand, as beautiful and awe-inspiring as it may be, is completely exposed to the elements: sun, wind, rain, and lightening. Only the most adapted plants and animals can survive in this environment.

Every piece of material that went into the building of the homestead had to be hauled up from the valley to the ridge, a distance of about one mile. The finished product was remarkable and included a 600 square foot home with two-foot thick adobe walls, glass windows, shades, tin roof, and a porch. Nearby was the cistern to capture water, a cabana, and a cement pond. Inside the home was a fireplace with chimney and a cooking range equipped with iron doors made from the tops of drums.

They had pets both wild and domesticated and the three children, born to them in the first ten years, were home schooled.

All this activity was detailed in articles published in Desert Magazine. To readers the South's lived an idyllic life, away from the stresses of society. They were idolized. For the readership of Desert Magazine, the South's embodied a dream lifestyle. Generally speaking, the South family went about naked and except for the small amount of money earned from Tanya’s poetry and Marshal’s column, they weren’t burdened to make money to survive.

The homestead they named Yaquitepec. The first part "yaqui" is from the Indians of that name. The last part "tepec" means hill. The actual home sits on a crest or saddle in the mountain. On either side are expansive views of the desert floor.

They lived and ate much like the Indians of an earlier day. A primary staple was the mescal plant; also named century plant or desert agave. Occasionally they would head into the town of Julian and buy beans and ingredients for bread in bulk.

There would be times when they didn't see another soul for months. The pictures of Marshal at the time show him with long gray hair, a striped bandana, skirt, bare chested, and bare footed. The two boys sported long hair and also wore a leather loincloth. Tanya was the modest one and put on a dress when they entertained company which was not uncommon.

As the story goes, Tanya became increasingly bitter at Marshal for not providing a consistent means of income. She was also concerned about the children not being prepared for greater society. Marshal may have overestimated her willingness to separate from society completely. The two began to fight.

All the while, Desert Magazine readers heard of a blissful marriage. Marshal and Tanya were elevated as counterculture heroes. In October 1946, while Marshal was in Julian painting a frieze on the wall of the library which remains to this day, Tanya took the children and walked three miles to the main road and hailed a car. She then filed for divorce, which was granted with full custody of the children.

Later in life Tanya looked back bitterly at the whole 17 year episode. And when others wanted to create a memorial, she wrote in 1983 at the age of 85, "the idea of establishing a cultural preserve to 'honor' the stark, miserable existence that Yaquitepec represented is quite absurd to me. Marshal has glorified our existence on the mountaintop in his articles in the Desert Magazine. He was a superb fiction writer."

Marshal South died on October 22, 1948 and buried in an unmarked grave in El Cajon.

Locating the trailhead is not difficult and the hike is moderately strenuous if that. From the Scissors Crossing on Highway 78, head south six miles and look for the Blair Valley sign and enter the dirt road. It’s another 3.2 miles on the dirt road to the trailhead marked by a stone monument to Yaquitepec.

Reference:

Lindsay, Diane, Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles An Experiment in Primitive Living. Sunbelt Publications, Inc. 2005.

For more info:
http://www.ghostmountainmovie.com/