History Buffs, Groups, and Sites in Victorville, Apple Valley, Hesperia, and surrounding Mojave High Desert Areas

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Groups

Group	Address	City	Phone
Daggett Historical Society	Daggett Community Center	Daggett	760-257-4763
	Thursdays 7:30-9:30 pm
Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association

Mojave Historical Society	Sterling Inn Regency Room	Victorville	760-949-2276
	4th Thursday, 7:00 pm

Sites

Historical Sites	Plaques	Nearest City
Calico Early Man Site		Barstow
Camp Cady	Historical Plaque	Barstow
Camp Iron Mountain	Historical Plaque	Desert Center
Chimney Rock	Historical Plaque	Lucerne Valley
Harvey House	Historical Plaque	Barstow
National Old Trails Monument	Historical Plaque	Needles
Santa Fe and Salt Lake Trail Monument	Historical Plaque
Town of Calico	Historical Plaque	near Yermo
Twentieth Century Folk Art Environments (Thematic)
Possum Trot, near Yermo
Von Schmidt State Boundary Monument		Needles

Tips to interviews for oral histories:
1. Bring a tape recorder with 90 minute tapes (60 is too short).
2. Never correct the person you are interviewing. They will shut down.
3. Be quiet and patient while the interviewee is trying to remember things.
4. Write down questions as they occur to you, but don't interrupt the interviewee.
5. If the interviewee rambles off the subject, allow it for a little while, then steer them back to the topic.
6. For military veterans, ask what unit they were in; where they were when the war ended; and their thoughts on nuking Hiroshima.
7. Family, school, and veterans reunions can yield a wealth of information by interviewing people separately, then as pairs.
8. Start with easy questions, to make the interviewee comfortable.
9. Duplicate your tapes and transcribe from the duplicates.
10. Bring a portable photocopier or camera to the interview. Photograph or photocopy the back, if anything is written there. Carefully number and organize the photos in the order they are discussed, so there won't be later confusion about who or what was in the picture.
11. Ask for leads and leave a card with your contact information.
(These tips were derived from the Stuart Kellogg interview of Dennis Casebier, Daily Press, May 149, 2001)

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