There is, no doubt, some good and sufficient natural cause for this peculiar construction. Some unalterable law of nature is probably being followed in the shaping of these sand-heaps, but thus far no one has been able to offer an explanation for this remarkable freak of the winds.
[Illustration: IMPERIAL CHURCH--FIRST WOODEN BUILDING IN LOWER COLORADO DESERT]
[Footnote 1: "Pegleg" Smith was a brother of the famous trapper, Jedediah Smith.]
The printing-press has sought many strange corners in the universe. It has, in these modern times, led rather than followed civilization. In the new West it usually is, first the printing-press, then the town.
One of the most peculiar phases of journalism is found in the desert region of California. There are, in the two great deserts of the State, four weekly papers, two in each desert. In the Mojave Desert are the _Randsburg Miner_, published in the gold-mining town of Randsburg, in the northern part of the desert, and the _Needles' Eye_, issued from the town of Needles on the eastern confines of the sandy waste.
The Needles is the metropolis of the upper desert country, and the _Needles' Eye_ is the larger of the two papers published in this desert. The town has a peculiar history, inasmuch as in the first fifteen years of its existence it stood upon borrowed ground. In size the township is one and a half times as large as the State of Vermont. The village of Needles is about eight miles west of the Colorado River on the line of the Santa Fé Railroad. The main part of the village is situated upon Section 29 of the township, which is one of the sections included in the railway grant to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. The town grew naturally about the station, which was established at the time of the building of the Santa Fé road, and little thought was given to titles at that time.
In time the town grew to the dignity of brick blocks, and still the titles remained with the railway company. Some ineffectual efforts were made on one or two occasions to secure titles to the lands from the railway people, but it was not until 1903 that a deal was made whereby the townsmen, in consideration of $43,000, secured deeds to the lands upon which stand their homes and business blocks.