Edited from
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/97winter/borrego.htm
In 1930 the San Diego County Board of Supervisors also authorized a Borego Judicial Township. Its boundaries included what is now Ocotillo Wells and the Tamarisk Grove area. The township officially came into existence on February 4, 1931 with Joseph Kelsey as justice of the peace and Milo Porter as constable. "Their jurisdiction covers much space and little population," the San Diego Union reported,
The key to all these projects and plans were the roads that were finally being built across the desert. The most important was the Julian-Kane Springs Road (now State Highway 78). Plans for the road had been discussed as early as 1917, and some work had been done as early as 1919. In 1922 the opening of Sentenac Canyon to automobiles began to make the route a reality. In 1925 the road was opened down past The Narrows and on into Imperial County. Still, it left a lot to be desired. "When you get down from the Narrows out toward Imperial Valley," Lelah Porter recalls, "you run into clay, you're not on sand at all, it's just old 'dobe clay, and oh, the chuckholes were worse than sand! It was just one chuckhole after the other. It was a terrible road."29
In 1928 Borego's homesteaders began to lobby both San Diego and Imperial counties to improve the road. The plan became a political football according to Porter,
In 1928 Felix Landis was running for Supervisor...and a fellow by the name of [Leroy] Aul ran against him. And he ran saying that if he got in he would macadamize the roads.... Well, of course for the people in Borego that was a big thing, because if you wanted to go to Brawley it was about a four or five hour drive the way it was. So there were 62 voters in our precinct, and Aul got 61 votes. My husband and I campaigned hard for Mr. Aul, and he knew it. We had a meeting down there, everybody came, and the women all brought food and Mr. Aul came down and talked to us. So in the election, Landis had won until the Borego votes got in, and with 61 votes coming in for Aul he was elected. So he sent me a box of candy.30
In September, 1929 the county established its first prison "Honor Farm" road camp near Yaqui Well. The site is now an Anza-Borrego Desert State Park campground, and the Tamarisk trees planted for the road camp gave it its modern name, Tamarisk Grove. Beginning with nothing but hand tools, the prisoners hacked out a roadbed along the south side of San Felipe Creek. Later more equipment was brought in and the road was extended out across the desert. It was not until 1932 that the job was finished. A year later, the state took control of the road and declared it a state highway.31
The opening of the original Julian-Kane Springs Road in 1925 probably spurred the development of the Little Borego townsite, which was laid out in 1926. Several buildings were built on the townsite, including a store, a school, and the 14-room Miracle Hotel. All around the townsite were five and ten acre "farms" offered at low down and easy payments. But the final route of the new highway by-passed the townsite by several miles, and the coming of the Depression marked the end of the project.32 By 1937 Ed Benson had opened the "Dry Lake Gas Station" along the new highway, the first step in the founding of the modern community of Ocotillo Wells. He sold out at the end of 1944, but his name survives in nearby Benson Dry Lake.33
Before the Julian-Kane Springs Road was paved, the Borego homesteaders had built another road for themselves out across the Borrego Badlands to join State Highway 99 (now Highway 86) near a little gas station called Truckhaven. As usual, Doc Beaty was the one who pushed the hardest to get the project started, and once the job began, he worked harder on it than anyone else. According to Beaty's wife, Frances, in 1929, "Mr. Beaty and Lloyd Kelsey went over the tax books and land office records [to] get the names of owners in the Valley, then they went to each one and asked for donations in either work or money, and everyone responded wonderfully. They went to the merchants of various towns and they all donated willingly. The main object was to get a road out to a town like Coachella or Indio as San Diego County had refused to help us with roads."34
Most of the residents of the valley had a hand in the construction of what they called the "Borego Road". As the work carried them further and further out of the valley, the women followed their husbands into the badlands to cook for the construction camp. Lelah Porter, pregnant with their second child, was spared cooking in the road camp, but still recalls,
This end of it was just a matter of grading, and they did a lot of it with fresnos. Doc had a couple of teams and they did a lot of it by hand. But when they got over to the Imperial County side they ran into those deep washes. Now they bridge those. Milo worked on it when they were building there and they had to go with the Fresnos down the side of those washes. You don't go straight down, you angle down, then they'd turn and angle up the other side. There were three of them. I think it took as much time to build the road through those three canyons as it did to build the rest of the road, if I remember right.35
Even when it was completed in 1930, "It was a slow road," Porter concedes. "I don't suppose you could drive over 20 miles an hour over it, if you could drive that fast."36 According to a 1930 accounting, the entire project cost about $750 (with a remaining deficit of $26.60)
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/97winter/borrego.htm
In 1930 the San Diego County Board of Supervisors also authorized a Borego Judicial Township. Its boundaries included what is now Ocotillo Wells and the Tamarisk Grove area. The township officially came into existence on February 4, 1931 with Joseph Kelsey as justice of the peace and Milo Porter as constable. "Their jurisdiction covers much space and little population," the San Diego Union reported,
The key to all these projects and plans were the roads that were finally being built across the desert. The most important was the Julian-Kane Springs Road (now State Highway 78). Plans for the road had been discussed as early as 1917, and some work had been done as early as 1919. In 1922 the opening of Sentenac Canyon to automobiles began to make the route a reality. In 1925 the road was opened down past The Narrows and on into Imperial County. Still, it left a lot to be desired. "When you get down from the Narrows out toward Imperial Valley," Lelah Porter recalls, "you run into clay, you're not on sand at all, it's just old 'dobe clay, and oh, the chuckholes were worse than sand! It was just one chuckhole after the other. It was a terrible road."29
In 1928 Borego's homesteaders began to lobby both San Diego and Imperial counties to improve the road. The plan became a political football according to Porter,
In 1928 Felix Landis was running for Supervisor...and a fellow by the name of [Leroy] Aul ran against him. And he ran saying that if he got in he would macadamize the roads.... Well, of course for the people in Borego that was a big thing, because if you wanted to go to Brawley it was about a four or five hour drive the way it was. So there were 62 voters in our precinct, and Aul got 61 votes. My husband and I campaigned hard for Mr. Aul, and he knew it. We had a meeting down there, everybody came, and the women all brought food and Mr. Aul came down and talked to us. So in the election, Landis had won until the Borego votes got in, and with 61 votes coming in for Aul he was elected. So he sent me a box of candy.30
In September, 1929 the county established its first prison "Honor Farm" road camp near Yaqui Well. The site is now an Anza-Borrego Desert State Park campground, and the Tamarisk trees planted for the road camp gave it its modern name, Tamarisk Grove. Beginning with nothing but hand tools, the prisoners hacked out a roadbed along the south side of San Felipe Creek. Later more equipment was brought in and the road was extended out across the desert. It was not until 1932 that the job was finished. A year later, the state took control of the road and declared it a state highway.31
The opening of the original Julian-Kane Springs Road in 1925 probably spurred the development of the Little Borego townsite, which was laid out in 1926. Several buildings were built on the townsite, including a store, a school, and the 14-room Miracle Hotel. All around the townsite were five and ten acre "farms" offered at low down and easy payments. But the final route of the new highway by-passed the townsite by several miles, and the coming of the Depression marked the end of the project.32 By 1937 Ed Benson had opened the "Dry Lake Gas Station" along the new highway, the first step in the founding of the modern community of Ocotillo Wells. He sold out at the end of 1944, but his name survives in nearby Benson Dry Lake.33
Before the Julian-Kane Springs Road was paved, the Borego homesteaders had built another road for themselves out across the Borrego Badlands to join State Highway 99 (now Highway 86) near a little gas station called Truckhaven. As usual, Doc Beaty was the one who pushed the hardest to get the project started, and once the job began, he worked harder on it than anyone else. According to Beaty's wife, Frances, in 1929, "Mr. Beaty and Lloyd Kelsey went over the tax books and land office records [to] get the names of owners in the Valley, then they went to each one and asked for donations in either work or money, and everyone responded wonderfully. They went to the merchants of various towns and they all donated willingly. The main object was to get a road out to a town like Coachella or Indio as San Diego County had refused to help us with roads."34
Most of the residents of the valley had a hand in the construction of what they called the "Borego Road". As the work carried them further and further out of the valley, the women followed their husbands into the badlands to cook for the construction camp. Lelah Porter, pregnant with their second child, was spared cooking in the road camp, but still recalls,
This end of it was just a matter of grading, and they did a lot of it with fresnos. Doc had a couple of teams and they did a lot of it by hand. But when they got over to the Imperial County side they ran into those deep washes. Now they bridge those. Milo worked on it when they were building there and they had to go with the Fresnos down the side of those washes. You don't go straight down, you angle down, then they'd turn and angle up the other side. There were three of them. I think it took as much time to build the road through those three canyons as it did to build the rest of the road, if I remember right.35
Even when it was completed in 1930, "It was a slow road," Porter concedes. "I don't suppose you could drive over 20 miles an hour over it, if you could drive that fast."36 According to a 1930 accounting, the entire project cost about $750 (with a remaining deficit of $26.60)
