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Almeda Mudget Frakes (1839 – 1934) was an early Antelope Valley pioneer, originally settling in the Del Sur area in the 1860s. She was born and raised in Texas until she was 10 years old. In 1849, Almeda and her family began their journey west, leaving Texas for California by way of the wagon train. The only education she ever received was informal and was provided to her from a fellow female traveler that was also along on the wagon train journey. This journey proved challenging for the Mudgets, with both of her parents passing away due to accidents. Her mother’s health deteriorated along the way, and her father died of a grizzly bear attack. Orphaned, she and her three siblings were taken in by a family they had met while traveling west. At age 16 in 1854, Almeda married local cattleman Samuel H.T. Frakes, who was responsible for hauling lumber used to build the neighboring Fort Tejon. They sold their Central California home and set out for Arizona via Elizabeth Lake. Their original plans were curtailed after hearing of the escapades and dangerous raids of Chief Geronimo, and they decided to settle in Del Sur instead. When a severe drought hit, the Frakes moved and homesteaded in Elizabeth Lake with their nephew, Frank Frakes. Due to Almeda’s own lack of education, she vowed that if she were to have children, they would fare better and would be formally educated. When she and Samuel did have children, she remembered her childhood vow and set out to provide the best opportunities for her kids. In 1869, Almeda and Samuel donated land and established the area’s first school with the help of neighbors. This first school was an adobe structure and acted as the only school between Newhall and Bakersfield. The Frakes ranch would host three different schools over time. During the Mudget’s initial journey westward in 1849, they brought with them a pump organ, carried by a covered wagon. This pump organ is still housed in the Western Hotel Museum and has been in the Antelope Valley since 1856 – before the development of Lancaster itself as a settlement. "Gurba, Norma H. Legendary Locals of the Antelope Valley. Arcadia, 2013. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

Many Japanese immigrants settled in the Antelope Valley during the early 1890s and 1900s-1910s, contributing to the construction of the local railroad lines and developing many of the early local farms. Yoshio Ekimoto’s family first came to Lancaster in the 1910s, with his first-generation Issei (Japanese immigrant) parents purchasing 40-acres of land in 1912. Their property was located on Avenue D, between Seventieth and Eightieth Streets West. At the same time, several other Japanese families were arriving and settling in Lancaster, prompting the formation of the local Japanese Farmers Association. Soon after, a community hall was constructed which would serve as a cultural center, Japanese language school, and church. Ekimoto, as a young farmer, traveled to Japan and married young Japanese-American Kiyoko. Kiyoko had been born in California, later returning to Japan where she met Ekimoto. The couple lived peacefully until World War II, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In response to this, Ekimoto offered his support to the United States, joining in the Air Raid Wardens and the Auxiliary Police force while also farming to aid the war efforts. Soon after this, all Antelope Valley Japanese residents were forced to evacuate the area, including Ekimoto and his family. In May 1942, Yoshio and his family were transported to an internment camp in Poston, Arizona, along with 85 other local Japanese families. They were finally released in 1945. Upon their return, Ekimoto found that most of their valuable possessions had been stolen. His farm had become so deteriorated that the only viable option was to sell the land. Yoshio estimated his losses to be in the thousands of dollars, though from a humanistic perspective the overall distress and losses of himself and his family are immeasurable in monetary terms. Despite the hardships his family faced, Yoshio did not leave the Antelope Valley. He and his family stayed, with Ekimoto working for the Palmdale Air Force Plant 42 and NASA at Edwards for 23 years. "Gurba, Norma H. Legendary Locals of the Antelope Valley. Arcadia, 2013. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

Alfred Jones (1859-1931) came to Palmdale on a real-estate excursion, looking to buy some land. He instantly liked the area around Center Street (present-day Palmdale Boulevard), between Ninth and Tenth Streets East. Before committing to this purchase, he wanted to conduct a “test”, digging a hole to check for any hardpan. He didn’t find any hardpan, so he made the purchase, buying 6 acres. Due to this event, he became known locally as “Hardpan” Jones. He and his son, Alfred Earl, built the family home, where they lived with Hardpan’s wife Venora (1872-1967). She remained living in this home until her death. The Jones’ made a living through a variety of endeavors, including selling pears from their orchard, hauling sand from Little Rock Creek, railroad grading, and pulling cars out of creeks. Hardpan was also considered the father of the Palmdale Baseball Club, founded in 1916, and Venora was one of Palmdale’s first librarians. Five generations of the Jones family attended and graduated from Antelope Valley Joint Union High School. Hardpan’s son Alfred eventually married Ruth Pickett, who settled in the Antelope Valley in 1913. Ruth lived to be 107 years old, making her one of Palmdale’s oldest ever residents. "Gurba, Norma H. Legendary Locals of the Antelope Valley. Arcadia, 2013. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

One of the most intriguing residents of Lancaster was Hugh Banks Badgley (1886 – 1982). Hugh spent some time working as a farmer but switched professions in 1930 to become a barber. He opened up his own barbershop, Hugh’s Barber Shop, at 1025 Beech Street in Lancaster. He quickly found success and became known as “Lancaster’s Barefoot Barber” because he tended to go barefoot. He reportedly found wearing shoes uncomfortable and opted against them. After a visit from a state inspector, he was told that his practice was “unsanitary” and that his barber license would be revoked unless he started wearing shoes to work. Badgley gave in and started wearing floppy, unlaced shoes or sandals without socks to work. Hugh tragically died in 1982 at the age of 96 when he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bike on Lancaster Boulevard. "Gurba, Norma H. Legendary Locals of the Antelope Valley. Arcadia, 2013. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

Although it was once relatively straightforward, the relationship between what we refer to as “Nature” and its inverted mirror-image “Culture” has become complicated and problematic. Indeed, the “default position” in the argument as to their reciprocal relationship is now defined by the idea that there is effectively no longer any such thing as “Nature” since, conceptually, any attempt at a definition must itself already be a cultural construct; while, physically, there is no longer any place on Earth where unadulterated Nature has not been overwritten by traces of human cultural activity. Some of the implications of this situation are explored by the artists represented in “The Forest for the Trees,” currently on view at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster. Timothy Robert Smith. Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Although working from different conceptual premises, the idea that the world is something to be experienced in terms of movement through a fragmentary geography ties together the work of Timothy Robert Smith and Greg Rose. Smith’s multi-media, interactive installation takes the participant on a simulated rapid transit ride across a terrain that is defined by cultural activity; indeed, we are literally embedded in a constructed or a “cultured” world, out of which “Nature” erupts like an explosion of pigeons off a city street. Greg Rose. Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Rose, on the other hand, uses methods like mapping and “portraiture” to evoke the “historical” fiction constituted by his experience of individual trees over the course of repeated traverses of the San Gabriel Mountains. His chronicle of change and perceived interrelationships across an eight-year span can thus be seen as both an explicitly cultural artifact (like a novel) and a carefully crafted archive or (natural) history. Constance Mallinson. Installation view. Courtesy of the artists and Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Although likewise radically dissimilar in appearance, both Constance Mallinson’s enormous and meticulously detailed still-life paintings and the augmented photo-installation from Osceola Refetoff and Chris Langley focus resonantly on the bits and pieces of material culture inevitably cast off on our transits across the natural world. That leaves only Sant Khalsa’s Prana: Life with Trees, to my mind the high-point of the exhibition and in effect a mini-retrospective covering four decades of photographic and installation work, all bound up with the exploration of that deep Vedic energy binding us and those other living beings that we call “trees” together in a natural and spiritual eco-system. This is the hopeful heart of “Forest.” It is not without an acute awareness of the danger that we all face; but it also posits a strategy for transcending the anthropogenic “death of Nature” in favor of a new and reciprocally vivifying life within it. Robert Dunahay. Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Sant Khalsa, Constance Mallinson, Greg Rose, Timothy Robert Smith; High & Dry (Osceola Refetoff and Christopher Langely; Robert Dunahay, “The Forest for the Trees,” May 12 – July 15, 2018, at Lancaster Museum of Art and History, 665 W. Lancaster Boulevard, Lancaster, CA 93534. www.lancastermoah.org https://artillerymag.com/lancaster-moah-the-forest-for-the-trees/

The Fourth of July has always been a festive event in Lancaster. To celebrate this year’s Fourth of July, we are taking a look back in time to some of the various Fourth of July celebrations hosted throughout Lancaster’s history. Some of the featured attractions of Lancaster’s Fourth of July events have included children’s games, local bands playing patriotic songs, community picnics, baseball games, wrestling matches, and horse races. As the day came to an end, the celebration would conclude with a large community dance. People would come from afar to celebrate with local residents, traveling up to 50-miles just to participate in the events. The Fourth of July horse races were always one of the most popular attractions. Riders would race bareback for a quarter-mile stretch along Tenth Street (present-day Lancaster Boulevard), heading westward starting on Antelope Avenue (present-day Sierra Highway) to Date Avenue and back. "Gurba, Norma H. Lancaster. Arcadia, 2005. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

Charles Waldemar Dodenhoff (1854-1948) emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1872. He originally settled in New York but moved to Pennsylvania in 1878, soon marrying Lina Zirkel. They moved to Oregon with their children in 1886, where Lina contracted tuberculosis two years later. At the advice of her doctor, they planned to move to a drier climate. In 1888, Charles decided on Old Palmdale, which was a settlement called Palmenthal at the time. He purchased some land, returning home to gather his wife and their belongings to make the move to Palmdale. Unfortunately, Lina’s condition worsened and she passed away soon after. Following Lina’s death, he married Hulda Lavina Kimsey and moved to Palmdale along with the three children from his first marriage. Dodenhoff is often credited with bringing several German families from the East coast to settle in Palmdale, self-proclaimed as “father of the region” in his personal diaries. He lived in Palmdale for 15 years. During his time in Palmdale, he worked in many professions, including real-estate agent, lumber dealer, secretary and board member of the Palmdale Irrigation District, a community news reporter for the Los Angeles Herald, census taker, notary public, justice of the peace, deputy assessor, and voting inspector. Dodenhoff fathered 13 children in total, 6 born in Palmdale. One of his sons passed away in infancy and was buried on the family property in Old Palmdale. One of his daughters, Una Helene (1895-1966), was likely the inspiration behind the Palmdale-Harold Una sag pond namesake. Dodenhoff ultimately decided to leave Palmdale with his family during the devastating drought that hit the Antelope Valley communities at the end of the century. They moved to San Bernardino in the early 1900s, eventually returning to Oregon where he would stay. "Gurba, Norma H. Legendary Locals of the Antelope Valley. Arcadia, 2013. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

During the early years of Lancaster, many hotels served visitors and more permanent residents alike. The Western Hotel is the only remaining structure of these original relics of Lancaster history, built-in 1888. It was originally called the Gilwyn Hotel, with its name being changed in the early 1900s. Despite it being the only remaining of these structures, it had multiple competitors during its years of operation. One of its primary competitors was the Lancaster Hotel. This hotel was built before the Western Hotel, in 1886 by a man named William Story. B.E. Hannah would become its proprietor. Typical rates to stay here ran at $1.00 and $1.25 a day to $6.00 per week. It was advertised as being the “largest and most convenient hotel in the Antelope Valley”, with “reading, bath rooms and parlors in connection”. Advertisements include the captions that “transient patronage” was a specialty. In 1904, the Lancaster Hotel had a new proprietor, Ed. H. Smith. Advertisements from this time include the phrase “The best of Everything is the Motto lived up to”, still claiming to be the “most convenient” hotel in Lancaster. Stays here also included a pick up from the nearby train drop-off. At one point, George and Myrtie Webber (long time owners of the Western Hotel) began to manage the Lancaster Hotel. However, during a devastating fire in 1919, the Lancaster Hotel was unfortunately destroyed. "Gurba, Norma H. Lancaster. Arcadia, 2005. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

In 1884, school classes were held in the Fuller apartment buildings. The first official school building was opened in the fall of 1885, located in a small house near the northwest corner of Antelope Avenue (present-day Sierra Highway) and Eleventh Street (present-day Milling Street). At this time, the school hosted 14 pupils. The first teacher was Miss Maria Parmalee. In 1890, the second grammar school was built on Tenth Street (present-day Lancaster Boulevard), just across the road from The Gilwyn Hotel (later the Western Hotel). This brick building was constructed using locally-burned brick, made in a kiln not far from the town. The total cost of the construction is reportedly $3,950, built by a local construction worker and brick-maker O.B. Allen. One of the first teachers at this new location was Miss Ford. After sustaining damage from a major earthquake in 1933, the town demolished the school building in 1934. With the community constantly growing, the small brick school constructed in 1890 could barely accommodate everyone. By 1911, there were reportedly four teachers and roughly 100 students. This prompted the planning for the construction of a larger grammar school. In 1913, local residents voted for the construction of a new grammar school building which was to be built on Cedar Avenue. This building would become host to many of Lancaster’s early cultural events, held in the third-floor auditorium. The third Lancaster grammar school was completed in 1914. This building was torn down in the 1950s, aside from the north wing and auditorium "Gurba, Norma H. Lancaster. Arcadia, 2005. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

Los Angeles, CA – Dave Pressler, the most prolific “robot artist” in the world, is exhibiting a full retrospective of his 20+ year career at Lancaster’s Museum of Art History (MOAH), from August 4 to September 30, 2018. The opening reception will be Saturday, August 4, 2018 from 4pm – 6pm. The self-described “Blue Collar Artist” has been working for over two decades in every medium, including drawing, painting, sculpting, character design, stop-motion animation, animatronics, and even co-creating the Emmy-nominated Nickelodeon show “Robot And Monster.” Titled “Idea to Object,” the exhibit will map out the narrative of Pressler’s career, divided into sections focusing on each different medium he’s worked in and how he made his ideas a reality. “I don’t look at this exhibit as just a retrospective on all the work I’ve done,” says Pressler. “What I really want it to do is de-mystify the creative process and demonstrate to people that art is just doing the work to take the ideas in your head and bring them into the physical world. There is a way for you to create them for a living.” “Pressler’s work appeals to audiences of all ages,” says Andi Campognone, Director of MOAH. “His work is a great example of the combination of strong contemporary concepts and expert craft, and we are so excited to exhibit his work for both the Lancaster and Greater LA communities.” “Idea to Object” will be on view from August 4 to September 30, 2018, with an opening reception on Saturday, August 4 from 4pm – 6pm. The Lancaster Museum of Art History is located at 665 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster, CA 93534. MUSEUM OF ART HISTORY LANCASTER presents DAVE PRESSLER “IDEA TO OBJECT” CAREER RETROSPECTIVE OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, August 4, 2018 | 4pm – 6pm ON VIEW August 4, 2018 – September 30, 2018 MUSEUM OF ART HISTORY LANCASTER 665 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster, CA 93534 About Dave Pressler Dave Pressler, the “blue collar artist,” is an Emmy nominated television producer, character designer, animator, illustrator, sculptor and painter, all skills he combines to make him one of the most prolific (and foremost) “robot artists” in the world. Over the past 20 years he has designed characters and IPs for a variety of kids entertainment companies, as well as co-created the Emmy-nominated Robot and Monster for Nickelodeon, and the stop-motion animated series How to Do Everything With Garrick and Marvin for DreamWorksTV. All the while, he’s been making designer toys, sculptures and paintings that have sold in galleries all over the globe. Most recently he has added book illustration to the list of achievements. Dave is based out of his studio in Los Angeles, where he is committed to making at least one robot a day. www.DavePresslerArt.com @davepressler

Early Lancaster had several general stores through the years, including the Cram General Merchandise Store, the Leo Harris General Merchandise Store, the Beckwith and Lucas General Store, Cammer’s General Merchandise Store, and the Paul Bachert General Merchandise Store, each serving the community well by providing residents with the necessities of daily life. In 1885, personal accounts by Mr. Savage indicate that one of the first general stores was owned by Frank Glencross. A fire that started in Glencross’s store ultimately destroyed a block of buildings in 1886. The next would be Scherer’s General Store and Bar, offering “dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, and general merchandise, farming implements, and machinery”. Another early store, Pierce’s Corner Grocery Store, was the first site in Lancaster to be equipped with a telephone in 1902. The Beckwith and Lucas General Store was one of the popular general stores of early Lancaster. It was located on the Southwest corner of Tenth Street (present-day Lancaster Boulevard) and Antelope Avenue (present-day Sierra Highway), nearby the Lancaster Gazette office. This storefront often served as a primary locality during town events, such as the annual Fourth of July celebrations. The Cram General Merchandise Store was highly successful during its years of operation, open from 1904 to 1912. Local homesteader Charles Cram (1863-1924) owned and operated the store until it was destroyed by the devastating fire of 1912, which spread after Henry Sprecht’s saloon on the northeast corner of Tenth Street and Antelope Avenue caught fire. After this disaster, the family made the decision not to reopen the store and instead moved to Los Angeles. Another successful early general store was the Leo Harris General Merchandise Store, located on the Southwest corner of Antelope Avenue and Tenth Street. In 1914, this storefront also became the operating area for the Lancaster Post Office. Harris was well-known in the community as being a successful businessman, a popular merchant, and an important civic leader for the community. He was also one of the first prominent Jewish residents of Lancaster. "Gurba, Norma H. Lancaster. Arcadia, 2005. Photo courtesy of MOAH Collections"

Pioneer Eliza Lillian Taylor (1878 – 1967) immigrated from England at the age of 28 to settle in Mojave. Her aunt, Sarah Faulkner, was the owner of the Los Angeles Rooming House in Mojave and invited Eliza to come and stay with her. When Eliza arrived in Mojave, however, she received the tragic news that her aunt passed away. Willed the property by her aunt, Eliza became the new owner of the Los Angeles Rooming House. Soon after settling in Mojave, Eliza met Daniel McDonald (1870 – 1923). Daniel was previously a Boston shipyard worker who had come to Mojave to seek employment in the local mines. He was working at the Exposed Treasure and Queen Esther Mines when they married in 1907. Together they worked as a team, with Eliza managing their hotel and restaurant and Daniel managing their saloon. As increasing development came to the area, they expanded the hotel to accommodate the large crews that came in to work on the local railroad, mines, and aqueduct. Daniel operated his saloon until it was shut down by Prohibition in 1919, with him being the last saloonkeeper in Mojave to close his doors. Eliza was considered to be kind but tough, a hard-working woman that always had something to get done. She became known locally as “Ma” McDonald, with a widespread appreciation for her persimmon cookies. She operated her rooming house for over 60 years. This photo shows Daniel McDonald with his and Eliza's two sons, Joseph (left) and Donald, along with their family dog.