How the Wild West became a park

YUCCA VALLEY — The author of a recently published book highlighting the history of Joshua Tree National Park presented a slide show and lecture Oct. 14 at the Hi-Desert Nature Museum.

Joe Zarki, a 39-year park service veteran, explained how he collected about 1,000 historic images and ended up with about 200 black and white photographs and illustrations.Answering a question from the attentive audience, Zarki said the large Joshua tree depicted in a 1936 photo on the cover of the book is “almost certainly not still alive.”

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