Three names, two sites, one mission
If you’ve ever driven on Interstate 8 to or from San Diego, you might have seen a towering, human-shaped figure made out of metal. This sculpture, named the “Spirit of the Desert,” has welcomed thousands of visitors into Imperial County each year since 1994 and is located on the property of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum (IVDM). The figure resembles a noteworthy geoglyph made by the Quechan people near the Colorado River. It, along with IVDM’s other desert art, such as our large mosaic tortoise or giant purple cactus, serve as a reminder of the vast and seemingly unending size of the desert. The massive scale of the desert demands equally large art. These works also serve to bring alive the Valley’s long and storied history, particularly to those unfamiliar with our region.
Ultimately, that has always been the goal of IVDM–inspired by its predecessors and founders–to share, preserve, and celebrate the peoples who have called this desert home, as well as the role its extreme climate and geography has played in shaping their cultures. The abridged story of how that mission to create a place for visitors to discover and appreciate what the desert has to offer came to fruition in Ocotillo is one that stretches from El Centro to the boardroom of Imperial Valley College (IVC), the halls of Congress, and even to the Oval Office.
IT TOOK AN EARTHQUAKE
IVDM can trace its roots back to the Imperial Valley College Desert Museum at Main Street in El Centro, which housed collections from IVC’s anthropology department that was established in 1969. This first building was donated by the H.P. Meyers Foundation in 1972. After chief curator Michael Barker’s death in early 1979, his last name was added to the name of the museum to commemorate his contributions, especially in the field of carbon dating.
Later that year, on October 15, a powerful earthquake would endanger the museum’s existence. The Main Street building was condemned and its collections had to be moved into temporary storage. According to a 1982 report by Building Systems Development, Inc. under a grant from the National Science Foundation, conducted to study the damage sustained by the nearby Imperial County Administration Center, located mere blocks away, the
earthquake was between a 6.4 and 6.6 on the Richter scale and lasted between 6 to 8 seconds. Despite these setbacks, the hunt for a new and better location for the museum was on.
IT TOOK AN ACT OF CONGRESS
The land that most of IVDM’s facilities sit on today was originally given to the Imperial Valley College Barker Museum, our predecessor,
through an Act of Congress numbered H.R. 990. It passed the House of Representatives and the Senate by an unrecorded voice vote, which is commonly done for uncontroversial bills, and was signed into law by then-President Ronald Reagan on October 28, 1988. According to the House report accompanying the bill, the land was once “an ancient village, carbon dated at 13,000 years ago.”
Special legislation was needed to authorize the Department of the Interior to transfer it for free because of a technicality about how the land came into the hands of the Federal Government. However, it should be noted that these 23 acres are located within the traditional territory of the Kumeyaay who’ve been here, as they say, ‘since the beginning.’
H.R. 990 is a relatively brief law, however, one of its sections imposed a perpetual requirement upon those who sought to develop the land. It stipulated that the land’s ownership would revert back to the United States if it was used for any other purpose than operating a park, museum, or recreation. In 1995, work began on the Ocotillo site. Due to the fiscal conditions brought about by the recession, in 2010, IVC and the museum began the process of becoming separate entities. It took nearly two decades to fully fund, design, build, fill, and staff the museum grounds, which opened to the public under its current name in 2012.
THE LAND TODAY
The full extent of IVDM’s land holdings has greatly expanded over the years beyond those original 23 acres entrusted to us by Congress. Today, IVDM manages its land with the long-term preservation of the desert environment and history as its key priority. The land under our care is managed similar to wilderness areas. We do not allow driving on undeveloped areas under our control and we monitor archaeologically sensitive areas.
It was the understanding of the House committee that recommended H.R. 990’s passage that, specifically, the land would eventually serve as an information center on the “dangers and pleasures of the desert,” house exhibits, native plants, and a tortoise enclosure, among other amenities. While it took many decades of hard work and planning for those ambitious goals to become a reality, it is fair to say that today’s IVDM has met and continues to exceed those bare minimum expectations set by Congress. And, thankfully, is in no danger of having the carpet pulled out from underneath it anytime soon!
The Imperial Valley Desert Museum is located in Ocotillo, California. It is open Wednesdays through Sundays 10am4pm.