Cattle rustling and ranching were big business in the Morongo Basin from the 1800s to the mid 1900s, and some people consider rustling to be the first profitable industry in the area. In this edition of historical highlights, Ernest Figueroa has more information about rustling and ranching…
During the 1850s, a cattleman named Pauline Weaver learned about a shortcut from California into the Arizona Territory that took him right through Big Morongo Canyon to where there was water. By the 1880s, rustlers were regularly stashing their stolen cattle in Hidden Valley and Cow Camp, inside what is now known as Joshua Tree National Park. Some sources say there were more rustlers in our area at this time than there were residents.
The de Crevecoeur brothers raised first sheep, and then cattle, in Morongo Valley from 1873 to 1884, when they sold to Chuck Warren. Warren sold his ranch in 1909 to the Talmadge brothers, whose I.S. Ranch eventually covered 750,000 acres, from Antelope Valley and Big Bear, to Thousand Palms.
Another big ranch operation was owned by C.O. Barker and Will Shay. The arrival of homesteaders in the Morongo Basin was the end of the big cattle operations. The last cattle drive was in 1947 through Pioneer Pass to Yucca Valley.
https://www.z1077fm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TheRustlersAndTheRanchers.pdf
