Outcast Earth: Mojave Mysteries

After enjoying the urban sights and sounds of Los Angeles, the OCE team departed for the hot and barren landscape of the Mojave Desert. Their intent was to track down a supposedly haunted location known as “Sossaman Acres,” but this task proved exceedingly difficult in the huge expanse of the desert. Along the way, however, the team was fortunate to stumble upon some unexpected treasures, including:

CALICO, CALIFORNIA: The town of Calico is a legitimate old west mining community. According to the good folks at wikipedia.com, it was founded in 1881 and was purchased by Walter Knott (the founder of Knott's Berry Farm) in 1951. Knott did a lot to restore the town to its original frontier appearance, but he also intended to turn it into a tourist attraction. Today it is a municipal park no longer run by the Knotts Corporation, but it still has lots of those theme park elements including staged gun fights, gold-panning and a choo-choo train that runs along a nearby ridge. There's also plenty of opportunities to spend money here as the place is filled with quaint shops tended by employees dressed in long cotton skirts and sun bonnets. According to the staff, there is supposed to be a haunting of the town's theater by a woman named Esmeralda. The OCE team didn't stay around long enough to look into this rumor, however. After their Queen Mary experience, all of them were a little soured on the concept of hauntings-as-tourist-attractions.

NEWBERRY SPRINGS AND THE NEW BAGDAD CAFE: Yes, THAT Bagdad Cafe! Polaris and Rune were the only two people who had seen the movie of the same title. It's not a movie for everyone, but if you enjoy quirky art house films, than this one will fit the bill. The story of the BAGDAD CAFE is about a German housewife named Jasmine who is abandoned by her abusive husband in the middle of the Mojave and happens to stumble upon the restaurant. Having no prospects and no real talents, this portly hausfrau strikes up an uneasy partnership with the cafe's owner and in the process reinvents herself. It is a very uplifting, often very sad movie. Rune wrote lovingly about the place in her journal entry of July 3, 2007:

...I insisted everyone stop and have lunch there. The food was pretty good for “truck stop fare” – big portions, greasy but tasty, you get the picture. The staff was very friendly and they gave us a nice history on the Bagdad Cafe itself. Turns out this cafe is not the original Bagdad Cafe. The original one, if you can believe it, was located in a town called Bagdad about 50 miles down the road. The place where we ate today was the movie location, but the real Bagdad ceased to be about 15 years ago. [Webmasters Note: The original name of the Bagdad Cafe in Newberry Springs was the Sidewinder Cafe. The owner changed the name after the movie was released to cash in on its popularity.] It was amusing because as we're sitting there a whole mess of German tourists come ambling through the doors and have a boisterous good time in two of the corner booths. Apparently the “new” Bagdad Cafe is some kind of mecca for Europeans and Japanese as the movie is a cult classic in those countries! Meridian and I helped take pictures of them in front of the building or in front of the memorabilia-strewn walls. It was a lot of fun!

THE “ORIGINAL” BAGDAD CAFE: After lunch, the team made a bee-line for the old Bagdad township site. Bagdad was one of a string of communities set up alongside the railroad during the height of the California Gold Rush. Established in 1883, the town was a major shipping point for the treasures discovered in the nearby Orange Blossom and Lady Lou mines. Gold, coal and water were regularly hauled out of the community. At its peak, Bagdad was home to nearly six hundred people, but like so many other Gold Rush towns, its prosperity was to be both volcanic and short-lived.

The mines closed in the 1940s, but the introduction of Route 66 and widespread automobile travel helped to keep the town alive. Instead of exporting its wealth, Bagdad now relied on the wealth of hot, weary travelers who were exploring "America's Main Street" between Los Angeles and Chicago. The Bagdad Cafe, which was owned and operated by a woman named Alice Lawrence, was renowned as the only real hospitality spot for miles. Both travelers and residents would flock to the Bagdad Cafe and enjoy its food, jukebox and dance floor. The cafe eventually became the stuff of legends and ultimately inspired the 1988 award-winning movie and a short-lived television sitcom. (The movie was filmed in Newberry Springs, located fifty miles to the west.)

Legend could not save the Bagdad Cafe, however. The restaurant officially closed its doors in 1972, a victim to the more convenient I-40 which had just opened to the north. The townsite was used as natural gas depot for the next two decades, but in 1991 the entire area was bulldozed clean. Today, there is virtually no sign that the town (or the cafe) ever existed. There's one tree in the middle of this wasteland, which legend has it stood next to the original Bagdad Cafe and is the only landmark in the area.

AMBOY, CALIFORNIA: Amboy was probably one of the most famous roadside destinations for those traveling the old National Trails Highway. Its history is like so many other towns along the route... one of explosive growth and prosperity followed by overnight failure and a slow erosion into history. And like many other stops the OCE team encountered just in this area, Amboy was created almost entirely for automobile travelers. At its height during the late 1940s through the 1960s, it was a desert oasis that contained cafes, garages, motels and other accommodations. Today, not much is left. Ironically, the destruction of most of the buildings here was intentional. The man who owned the town apparently demolished most of the town after Interstate 40 opened in the early 1970s in order to avoid tax liability. What's left is a single cafe (the famous Roy's Cafe), a garage and motel. (The C. Thomas Howell - Rutger Hauer film THE HITCHER was filmed in the cafe.) The fenced-off remains of the Amboy School are nearby along with some private residences and other miscellaneous structures. Amboy is probably one of the best preserved of the Route 66 destinations. Even the architecture – kind of a neo-futuristic style with lots of sharp angles and glass – echoes a bygone era that you now only see in the movies.

CADIZ SUMMIT STATION, CALIFORNIA: There is very little left of this the Cadiz Summit Station because it burned down or was destroyed by vandals. It used to have some cabins for weary travelers. There was also a restaurant and a gas station. When the team was there they found an old rock wall which may have been part of the original restaurant. Nearby was the burned out remains of a automobile garage.

The Cadiz Summit Service Station is different from the town of Cadiz. The buildings here were originally constructed in the little town of Cadiz in the 1920s which is located to the south of the Summit Station. When the location of Route 66 changed in 1931 it completely bypassed Cadiz. The people who lived in the town were very inventive, however, so they moved all the accommodations piece by piece to the Summit Station site.

ESSEX, CALIFORNIA: On July 9, 2007, OCE visited the last of the Route 66 ghost towns, Essex. Rumor is that the town was founded by a man who was traveling cross-country when his car broke down. He survived the experience and decided to use his misfortune to make a few bucks. He built some tourist accommodations like those we saw along other parts of Route 66 but added a towing service. When people broke down, he had a complete monopoly on both towing and mechanical repairs for miles and miles around. Naturally there was a restaurant in Essex too, which was called appropriately the Wayside Cafe. In the cafe, the town’s founder would apparently charge people 10 cents for a glass of water which was an outrageous fee during that time. The state of California got so many complaints about this “highway robbery,” so they installed a free drinking fountain is Essex just south of the road. You can still see it today but it doesn't work anymore. The town was in relatively good shape when compared to places like Cadiz Summit and Bagdad. There were quite a few houses and the team encountered a handful of residents. There is also a functioning post office right next to what is now the abandoned remains of the Wayside Cafe.

Sossaman Acres photos SOSSAMAN ACRES, CALIFORNIA: Despite the novelty of seeing all the old Route 66 locations, the team seemed no closer to finding the elusive Sossaman Acres and their phantom horse. According to their source in Los Angeles, the haunting was attached to an abandoned restaurant and rodeo grounds. Then, on July 22, the team drove into the desert city of Twentynine Palms and did some extensive research in the historical society. Meridian described their results:

...We toured that museum and then hobnobbed a little with the volunteers there. Like a lot of historical societies, this one had a collection of old phone books which they view as being historical documents. (The rest of us view them as clutter usually...) We started with the 2006 edition and headed backwards. We were glad we did because we found a listing in the 1998 edition for a place called Boojum Kate's Cantina and Rodeo Grounds, which was located somewhere to the west of Twentynine Palms but not in the city itself. Now obviously this listing fit the restaurant and horse requirements, but there was no reference to a place called Sossaman Acres. Then Trespass found a similar ad for the same cantina in the 1995 phone book and it listed the owner as being Katherine Sossaman. Ta-da!

So, what we're assuming is that Boojum Kate's Cantina and Rodeo Grounds sits on a piece of property informally known as “Sossaman Acres” because the lady who owns it is named Sossaman. If that's not the case then it's an incredible coincidence. Regardless, we'll find out tomorrow because we are going to head over there at first light!

After much aimless wandering through the desert, the team finally found their oasis when the “camels” rolled into the weed-strewn parking lot of Boojum Kate's Cantina. The restaurant and rodeo grounds are about 20 miles sound of Cadiz off of what's known as Skeleton Pass Road. It was difficult to find because there are no signs along the road for it and the entire establishment sits down a dirt side-road. The restaurant was a tan stucco building with green trim. It looked like it had started out as a much smaller place and over time had rooms tacked on. The team couldn't get inside the building itself because all the doors and windows were boarded up, but they were able to walk around the entire periphery. Interestingly, it looked like the place shut down overnight because so much supplies and everyday items were scattered around, either rusting or bleaching out in the strong desert sun. The team found office supplies, kitchen supplies... even a ride-on lawn mower (no lawn anywhere to be seen!) sitting in the thick weeds outside. On the west side of the building was a covered patio that was being rapidly overgrown with cactus. Ash found a perfectly preserved bottle of Heinz ketchup lying on the Astroturf floor. Other than it was covered in dust, it looked like it could have fallen there yesterday. Based on the condition of the place, the overgrowth of the weeds and withered landscaping, and the weathering on the multiple items we found dumped outside, the members had to guess that the restaurant has been closed for at least five years.

Rodeo ground photos Down the hill were the rodeo grounds. This was an anomalous site for everyone. There's nothing around this place for miles and miles. There was a large but only partially completed arena in the center of the area, but with no seating or other accommodations for spectators. To the south of the arena the members found some uninstalled bleachers for spectators but they were facing the wrong way and about 500 feet away from the arena. The members assumed they had never been set up as they looked unused... no graffiti or obvious wear-and-tear from people. Close by they found what appeared to be prefab public toilets and a large septic tank. Again unused, as though they were delivered but never installed.

To the east of the arena were piles of uninstalled stadium lights, expensive equipment that would probably still be usable if anyone cared to salvage it all. Nearby were several abandoned concession trailers. They still had partially empty boxes of drink cups, hot dog plates and paper napkins all in place. They even had their health certificates mounted on the walls, covered in such a thick layer of dust they were hard to read. All of them dated to the year 2000 or 1999.

The team spent several days exploring the area and setting up monitoring equipment in the hopes of capturing some evidence of the phantom horse. There were several occasions on which the members thought they heard a horse whinny in the dark, but the sound was not captured on tape. A more profound mystery materialized when Cipher began to see a mysterious woman watching the team members from the hills:

Rune wrote that I found some footprints the other day, so ever since then I have been scouting around looking for who made them. This afternoon I think I found who it was. I was to the east of the rodeo grounds when I saw someone in a blue shirt and wide-brimmed hat watching me from the top of a nearby hill. It looked like a lady but I'm not 100% sure about that [because] she was so far away. I started throwing some rocks at her to chase her off, which seemed to work [because] she took off quickly. I chased after her, but when I got to the top of the hill she was gone. I think it was probably Boojum Kate.

In fact, the visitor turned out to be a local resident named Tate who resided on an adjacent property. Although the first meeting between Tate and the team was tense at best, she quickly demonstrated her interest in the team’s work and was able to provide some helpful insight. She and Rune quickly struck up a friendship and worked together on researching the haunting legend. In time, the pair became romantically involved, much to the chagrin of Trespass who had been carrying a torch for Rune since their trip together to Louisiana. The relationship between Tate and Rune created a tremendous amount of tension among the team for months to come.

Meridian also returned to Twentynine Palms to conduct more archival research:

...The [research] was slow and ponderous as almost everything they have is [on] old microfiche and you have to use the hand-cranked viewers to sort through it. We found several more articles on Boojum Kate's, although most were community interest pieces about different rodeos or other events being held at the arena, including a “gun and Americana show” and several country-western music concerts featuring local artists. Apparently the place did have a heigh day, despite its seemingly inconvenient location. It would be silly to expect to find any articles on a phantom ghost, I guess, but we did find one article from 1999 which said that a young man named Artie Scotts died in a local hospital after being injured by a horse at Boojum Kate's. The article seemed to be an update to an earlier piece, but try and we might we were not able to find the earlier news story. As a result, we came away with very few details about the death other than Scotts [was] a 29-year old rodeo cowboy and apparently died from a head injury sustained by a bucking horse. No details on what happened to the horse for even how such a tragedy came about in the first place... [Click here to see a copy of the microfiche article.]

Over the next few weeks, with Tate’s help, the team was able to uncover a variety of strange events and deaths that occurred at Sossaman Acres between 1999 and 2000. Based on their research, the team was able to construct the following timeline of events that led up to the phantom horse legend:
1985:	The original Long Mile Tavern is established by Robert U. Sossaman, the father of Katherine Sossaman, on the site that would later become Boojum Kate's Cantina and Rodeo Grounds. Robert buys a tremendous amount of land in the area – much more than is needed for a simple tavern – apparently with the idea of developing it. The large parcel becomes generally known as “the Sossaman's acres.”
1990:	Robert dies and his daughter Kate inherits the property.
1991:	Kate reopens the Long Mile Tavern after expanding the structure to include a restaurant and two outdoor patios. She changes the name to Boojum Kate's Cantina.
1991-1995:	During these years, Kate continues to develop the Sossaman Acres, envisioning it as a tourist destination and local nightspot. Sometime during this period, she enters into a business partnership with a man named David Velasco and they begin developing the rodeo grounds. We were able to find a 1995 newspaper article describing a barrel racing competition here, so the rodeo grounds must have been at least partially completed by that date.
1996-1999:	The cantina and rodeo grounds appear to have some degree of prosperity as events are regularly held there and the facilities continue to improve and expand.
1999:	Twenty-seven year old rodeo cowboy Arthur “Artie” Scotts received a serious head injury in a corral at the Boojum Kate's rodeo grounds, presumably by a bucking horse named “Champion” whom he tried to ride earlier in the day during the bronco busting competition. Scotts is hospitalized in Arizona for his injuries, but dies less than two months later. The night after Scotts is injured, his father Lester Scotts and three other men sneak into the corral after-hours and shoot six horses to death. “Champion” is one of the victims.
2000:	The four shooters plea bargain to animal cruelty charges and are sentenced to jail time, restitution and probation. But the spirit of “Champion” is allegedly unmoved by these tepid acts of justice and the “phantom horse” begins appearing to visitors at Boojum Kate's. [NOTE: Unfortunately, we were not able to find any person who claimed to have personally seen the horse's ghost. Although the locals have spoken about the haunting for years, like many urban legends this story lacks specific witnesses.]
2000-2001:	In the months following the death of Artie Scotts and the horse killings, additional bad luck seems to plague Boojum Kate's. In November 2000, Kate's business partner, David Velasco, is found dead among the rocks in the hills to the east of the rodeo grounds. Rumors start that the phantom horse chased Velasco into the hills and off a cliff. The official cause of death, however, is a skull fracture. According to the sheriff's report and newspaper articles, Velasco was intoxicated at the time of his death and apparently (for reasons unknown) went stumbling off into the hills. He lost his footing and fell, cracking his head open on some rocks below. Katherine (“Boojum Kate”) Sossaman dies three months later. Her body is found by some of her employees in the rodeo arena. Although foul play is suspected at first, the coroner's report lists her cause of death as a coronary. With both owners suddenly dead, the bank forecloses on Boojum Kate's. Some of the staff ransack the place for valuables (which may explain why we found parts of it in such disarray) and everything else is simply abandoned.
2001-PRESENT:	The property continues to sit abandoned. Although officially listed for sale, there is apparently little interest in the large, rurally-located parcel. Over time, the phantom horse legend grows... especially as people tend to forget the facts behind the three deaths on the property.
CONCLUSION:	In the team's opinion, there is no evidence for a haunting of any kind on the Sossaman Acres. Although Cipher and Polaris heard a horse whinny one evening, they were unable to capture the sound on any of our recording devices and prove its authenticity.

Tate's car wreck The disappointment over the haunting investigation was compounded on September 19, 2007, when tragedy struck. The night before the team was to leave the Mojave Desert, Rune and Tate spent the night together at the latter’s house. The team was scheduled to meet the pair at a rest stop along Skeleton Pass Road. The Skeleton Pass Road is a rural highway with little traffic. Rune had just stepped out of Tate's car and was walking over to meet the rest of the team when a white utility truck just smashed into the side of Tate's car. It happened so fast that everyone was shell-shocked.

The impact of the truck pushed Tate's car off the side of the road and through a bunch of bushes nearby. The entire driver's side of the car was caved in and the windshield was shattered. The concussion knocked Rune down and the flying debris hit Ash in the face and chest, knocking him to the ground too. The EMTs took him to the hospital, but his injuries turned out to be minor. Rune was also amazingly lucky. If she had been about six feet closer to the car it would have smashed right into her!

The California Highway Patrol arrived more quickly, and it was one of the CHP officers who told the team that Tate was dead. Rune handled it as well as could be expected.

Polaris wrote the following tribute to Tate on September 27, 2007:

...If the accident [that took Tate’s life] seems senseless, it is in so many different ways. Senseless in that her death was so sudden, so inexplicable, so wasteful of a good human life. Senseless in that it has left us all numb, baffled by how the circumstances even lined up in the first place to make such a thing happen. The road was empty. Tate was parked on the shoulder and not blocking any traffic. None of us, and presumably this includes Tate, ever saw the utility van until it plowed into her car. According to the police, the driver of the van had no explanation for what happened, other than his vehicle went "out of control." He was not drunk or under the influence of drugs. He had been an employee of that company for eight years and had an excellent driving record. He walked away from the accident with some minor lacerations to his head and face and a case of whiplash. He will suffer in having to carry the memory of what happened on September 19 at the edge of Skeleton Pass Road for the rest of his life. The police are conducting an investigation to see if mechanical failure on the van lead to the accident...

The death of Tate again raised the specter of the “Outcast Earth curse theory.” The team took an extended vacation after Tate’s funeral in order to recover and reassess their mission.

NEXT EXPEDITION: Into the Wilderness