Spirit of the Desert
The founding of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum
This sculpture, “Spirit of the Desert,” has welcomed thousands of visitors into Imperial County each year as they drive along Interstate 8 since 1994. This work of large desert art predates IVDM's current building, as it was one of the first improvements erected on this land. Largely due to its material and sturdy design, it has withstood the test of time and the extreme environment of the Yuha Desert.
It took an earthquake
IVDM can trace its roots back to the Imperial Valley College (IVC) Desert Museum at Main Street in El Centro, which housed collections from IVC’s anthropology department, 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 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.
1) Original IVC Desert Museum building in El Centrol; 2) Head Curator Michael Barker poses for a photo; 3) The sign at IVDM's current location before the word "College" was dropped from our name and cut off the sign!
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
It was the understanding of the House committee which recommended H.R. 990’s passage, specifically, that 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. IVDM pays tribute to its founders, including Jay von Werlhof, who largely spearheaded the planning and funding for the present day Ocotillo site.
Werlhof did not live to see his project fully realized, as he died in 2009, years before the Museum proper opened. A storied man—including a WWII veteran, anthropologist, archeologist, and artist—you can read more here about his life's story from his obituary published in the Imperial Valley Press.
1) Jay von Wherlhof out in the Imperial Valley desert; 2) Wherlhof meets with the early Board of Directors for the Museum; 3) Wherlhof in his later years