The aspiring Park Junkie will want to have his or her hands on a number of Joshua Tree facts that will be worthy of a mic drop when among friends on the desert trails of Southern Cali. With this in mind, the following fun facts have been compiled to assure that you preserve your esteemed stature among your traveling companions.
Guide to Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree Fun Facts
fact 1: The Joshua Tree is not a tree.
Nope, these are not trees. Joshua Trees are known scientifically known as the Yucca brevifolia and belong to the genus Yucca, a type of cactus. These things are actually the largest members of the Yucca family.
The name Joshua Tree was given to the strange looking cactus by the Mormons, who upon encountering them observed that they resembled the Biblical Prophet Joshua, with his arms outstretched to the heavens…. probably praying for water out here…
Not everyone considered the trees as heavenly as the Mormons however. Western explorer John C. Fremont once referred to these adorable cactus as “the most repulsive tree in the vegetable kingdom”…
C’mon John… have you ever stepped on the fallen branch of an angry crab apple tree?
fact 2: The survival of the entire Joshua Tree species is dependent on a single type of moth.
This may not bode well for the tree, and evolutionary progress usually attempts to pad the reproductive possibilities a bit more, but the poor old Joshua Tree can only be pollinated by the female Pronuba Moth. Luckily for the Joshua Tree, this moth prefers to lay her eggs inside this particular species of Yucca… So it is likely she’ll be back year after year.
fact 3: A lot of people have died in Joshua Tree…
Yeah, this place is tough. Over the course of history, numerous unfortunate souls have departed this world from the deserts of Joshua Tree. Many were gold miners, and others were simple ruffians, but one was a rock star who used the desert (along with alcohol and a fair amount of psychedelics and barbiturates) to escape the stress of fame and the road.
Back in the late 1960s, Gram Parsons was a guitarist and vocalist for a famous band known as the Byrds. After a fallout with the Byrds due to his excessive partying, he and fellow Byrd Chris Hillman subsequently formed the Flying Burrito Brothers. After a few short years, this arrangement fell apart too, as Parsons spent far more time partying with his new buddies, the Rolling Stones, than in the recording studio. Finally, in 1970, Parsons began to colaborate with Emmylou Harris as a duet partner during his last years on stage.
During his musical career in Los Angeles, Parsons began to spend a lot of time in Joshua Tree, which was a National Monument at this point.
During a park visit in September of 1973, Parsons overdosed on morphine in Room #8 of the Joshua Tree Inn, which still hosts guests today in the small gateway town of Joshua Tree. Parsons was pronounced dead upon arrival at a local hospital just after midnight on September 19, 1973. Sad, I know… but hey, the story doesn’t end there.
Prior to his passing, Parsons had relayed to his buddies that upon his death, he wished to be cremated at Joshua Tree and for his ashes to be spread over Cap Rock, a popular rock feature located at the beginning of the Keys View Road.
It seems his family was unsympathetic to the musician’s reported late desires, and made arrangements to transport the body back to New Orleans. History holds that his homies would have nothing of this nonsense.
Two of his good friends, Phil Kaufman and Michael Martin, “borrowed” a hearse, posed as mortuary workers, and actually stole his body from LAX. Once their deceased companion was in the hearse, they headed out to Joshua Tree.
In the Cap Rock parking lot, the bereaved rockers opened Parsons’ coffin, poured 5 gallons of gasoline onto his deceased body, and lit a match. This method of cremation proved unsuccessful, and some 35 lbs of his charred remains were left in solid form (sort of). These remains were subsequently sent back to his family in New Orleans, and were buried in Garden of Memories Cemetery in Metairie, Louisiana.
His friends were arrested. But with no law on the books at that time for stealing a dead body, they were charged with the misdemeanor crime of stealing a casket… This crime held a penalty of $300 each, combined with $750 to replace the coffin. In a speckled twist of fate, the court date was November 5, 1973, Parsons’ 27th birthday…
Joshua Tree Stat Sheet
established: October 31, 1994 as Joshua Tree National Park
monument: August 10, 1936 as Joshua Tree National Monument
rank of admission: 54
size: 789,745 acres
rank in size: 15
annual visitation: 2018 – 2,942,382
rank in visitation: 11
time zone: Pacific Time
park phone: 760 367 5500
park website: https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm
Guide to Joshua Tree
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