Welcome to the beautiful Community of Copper Mountain Mesa, one of the most remote and pristine areas of the Morongo Basin. The way our elders tell the story: folks started homesteading up here in the fifties. Slowly but surely, families began to move to the Mesa, excited about the healthful air and panoramic views. Roads were cut, cabins were built and electricity wired up. Phone service didn’t reach us until the 1960s. Water was not piped in until the late nineties.

I crawled my way up to this Mesa in 1993, broken-hearted and disillusioned. I was a published author, but my book series “Kenya Cowgirl” tanked and when all the money was gone, my husband divorced me. I was decidedly unstable and, quite honestly, I simply wanted to fall off the planet! When I moved here, I had no money, no job, no phone, and no running water. I hauled my own water from the Surprise Valley Well four miles away. Any vehicle I owned soon broke down and there were long periods where I had no transportation, except hitchhiking with the neighbors!

My son was 5 years old when we came to live on the Mesa: previously, we lived in the luxurious Palm. I was drawn to this remote, high desert neighborhood because it reminded me of Kenya in East Africa, where I was born and raised. I loved the feeling of wilderness and I felt safe.

My new neighbors were a motley crew and ranged from: leathered homesteaders with their shotguns behind the front door; single mothers like me; people escaping from screaming reality (like me!); along with ex-cons; bikers; methamphetamine “cooks”, “tweakers” and honest folks with families just trying to make a living, all liberally scattered about!

When I first played my African drum outside in the moonlight one evening, my nearest neighbor fired shots at me: so close I could hear them zinging overhead! Other neighbors also tried to terrorize me, but I persisted in my quirky native ways and over the years I have been accepted and welcomed; even though some people still call me the “Juju Lady”!

I first became involved with the Community Center in 2007, when I was asked to write the quarterly Community Newsletter. I have been on the Board of the Copper Mountain Mesa Community Association since November 2007 and have been both vice-president and madame president too! I also write the weekly Copper Mountain Mesa Column in our local, Yucca Valley “Hi-Desert Star” Newspaper. (Go to www.coppermountainmesa.com to read the latest columns and visit ‘archives’ if you want to read every column ever written!)

I raised my Son and several foster children these past twenty years and I have come to love this desert lifestyle dearly. I have found dear friends and even romance along the way! I write, draw, think, feel, photograph, love and live my life with as much truth and courage as my heart can bear and I am so very happy to meet You. Stay well!

65336 Winters Rd, Joshua Tree, CA 92252

cmmcommunitycenter.org