Owens Valley

EPISODE #183: THE LOST TREASURE OF OWENS DRY LAKE

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Tulare Lake, 1875

During these many months of heavy rain & thick snowdrifts, we look around the southwest and notice all those playas, those alkaline dry lakes, blessed with a sheen of fresh water . . . and we remember this used to be a land of lakes, not so long ago.

As the last Ice Age came to a close, some 12,000 years ago, immense freshwater lakes covered much of what we now call California and Nevada. What a paradise it must’ve been, with people living in pleasant villages on the shorelines, lots of big game for food and fur and leather, everybody zipping around in tule boats made of our famous marshy bullrushes. This is EPISODE #183: THE LOST TREASURE OF OWENS DRY LAKE. Thanks for supporting this program via Patreon.com/DesertOracle.

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Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written & hosted by Ken Layne, and broadcasting tonight at 10 in Joshua Tree on KCDZ 107.7 FM. Saturdays at 9 p.m. on KZMU FM in Moab, Utah. Sundays at 8 on Valley 103.9 in Carnation, Washington.

EPISODE #145: RUN FOR THE DESERT HILLS

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Like the beaver, we can change parts of our environment. Like the birds, we can move to other lands or at least try. And sometimes those Other Lands are the arid lands, the American Desert. It’s Episode #145, with guest Kendra Atleework, author of the wonderful book about the Owens Valley/Eastern Sierra called Miracle Country. She joins us for the second half of the program. AND: New eerie soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.

Tickets now on sale for our Desert Oracle Radio Live tour: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, (Memphis) Tennessee & (New Orleans) Louisiana.

Listen on the radio:
Tonight on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree and the Mojave High Desert, 10-11 p.m.
Saturday at 9 p.m. on KZMU FM Moab/Castle Valley, Utah
Sunday at 8 p.m. on Valley 104.9 FM Snoqualmie Valley, Washington.
Wednesday at 3 p.m. on KPFA FM, Pacifica Radio in Fresno, California.

PS — Desert Oracle Radio is now available on your Audible audiobook player.

EPISODE #125: ACCIDENTAL MIRACLE (AT OWENS VALLEY)

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It’s our fifth season, our Five-Year Plan, tonight at 10 p.m. PST on Z 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree and across the Great Mojave Wilderness. EPISODE #125: OWENS VALLEY & THE ACCIDENTAL MIRACLE. What made the Owens Valley the way it is, in our time? An accident of history, of water grabs, of one group of humans using easy money to buy out another group of humans, that’s what preserved the most beautiful place in the world from the fate of the Central Valley. The same sort of accidental miracle that saved so much of the American southwest’s mountains and deserts from wide-scale development, agriculture, housing booms, industrialization, speculation.

A heretical prayer, is what we offer you tonight. With new (and classic) tracks from RedBlueBlackSilver. Find out more about our book, our periodical, and all the other desert creations we make for you on our home page, DesertOracle.com.

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Listen on Joshua Tree’s own KCDZ 107.7 FM, from Amboy to Zzyzx, or streaming from Z1077FM.com and Tune In. To hear Desert Oracle Radio on your community and/or public radio station, contact radio@desertoracle.com or get the show via PRX, Public Radio Exchange.