Filmmaker shooting A.V.'s roots
Documentary being created by students at the Lewis Center, local historians and volunteersBy NIKKI COBB/Staff Writer
APPLE VALLEY — Long before Newton T. Bass, long before Bud Westlund, long before Roy Rogers and Dale Evans ever dreamed of a town called Apple Valley, the desert was governed by the rules of the West — by might reckoned in terms of bone axes and obsidian-bladed spears.
In a film documentary being created by students at the Lewis Center in collaboration with local historians and volunteers, the rich history of Apple Valley comes to life.
The filmmakers hope to capture the heritage of the area and compile for the first time the accumulated research from widely disparate sources to preserve memories for coming generations.
The documentary will incorporate fading sepia-toned photographs and static-riddled silent films with re-creations of events such as those shot Saturday at the Mojave Narrows.
"It would be a terrible, terrible shame to lose the memory of the rich and colorful tapestry of apple orchards, cowboys, ranchers and cattle that was Apple Valley," said historian Kate O'Rourke, who contributed to the project.
Saturday's filming was of a re-enactment of the massacre of a settlement of Serrano Indians, whose slaughter by the Mojave Indians likely occurred near the film site in the Mojave Narrows.
The 1819 massacre was never avenged, despite the efforts of the Spanish missionaries who had previously led the Serranos to convert to Catholicism. In a cruel twist of irony, the River of the Spirits, named by the Spanish in memory of the Serrano, was renamed the Mojave River, and the desert they had loved was also given the name of their killers.
"When I began this project I was a little naive. I had no idea about Apple Valley's history," said film director Cristi Lamb, who has lived most of her 18 years in the town. "There's never been anything like this done to bring it all together before."
To make every detail of the documentary historically accurate, Lamb, with the direction of her film teacher Steve Orsinelli and backed by Lewis Center CEO Rick Piercy, assembled researchers, Western specialty actors, student makeup artists and history buffs.
"I spent a lot of time in the library," said Butch Shimer, who meticulously designed the period costumes for the film. "It's important to be accurate in the details."
"For example, the Mojave Indians were warlike and travelers. They had tattoos on their faces, and used shells they collected on trips to the coast," he continued. "The Serrano were more plain, no jewelry or anything."
Jack McClure of the Desert Fox Mountain Men, a historical re-enactment group from Apple Valley, said the currency of the era was beaver pelts, trapped and stretched on willow hoops to be traded for salt, rifles, bullets and whiskey.
"That was how people got by until the 1840s," McClure explained. "After other materials became available the trappers became guides, scouts and mapmakers."
The beavers are mostly gone from the Narrows now, but O'Rourke said she hopes the student film will ensure bygone eras aren't forgotten.
She credits Leo Lyman, a history professor at Victor Valley Community College, and historian Richard Thompson as among the most important scholars whose research drives the film.
"Historians have written extensively about these events," she said. "It's been a community effort to gather their works and tie it all together."
Used with persmission, Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2003.