The Pinto Wye Arrastra in Joshua Tree National Park is one of the many well-preserved artifacts of Western mining and ranching in the Park that can still be seen today.

An arrastra is a type of mill that was used to pulverize ore. Most of the ones I’ve seen follow a simple design: a circular pit lined with flat stones, and a shaft with connected drag stones on a pivot above the pit. The shaft is then spun in some way to pull the drag stones around in the pit and process the ore. Sometimes burros or human power was used, and in later times gasoline engines.

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We found this site a couple of years ago on one of our looooonnnggg jaunts in the backcountry of Joshua Tree National Park. There we were, slouching through the desert, with many pounds of camera equipment and water on our backs, since we were there to revisit our “Lonely Ledge“, “Lonely Hollow” and “Lonely Falls” discoveries and thus we were humping my full arsenal of camera equipment through the desert.

This was after we had photographed, and in one case discovered, the three sites listed above. It was late afternoon, some miles of undulating, rocky, brushy terrain laid between us and our vehicle, and the afternoon was hot. I had packed a sleeveless shirt but no sunscreen, so I was definitely a bit baked when we stumbled across this site on our way back.

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What if I told you that Joshua Tree National Park has one of the finest car washes I’ve ever been to? You’d think I’d gone a bit funny in the head from all the heat and fresh desert air, wouldn’t you?

Yet it is true. Every word of it.

Below, I submit my evidence for your consideration.

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