Mojave Desert Archives

The MDHCA dedicated the Dennis G. Casebier Library in October 2008 during the 29th Annual Mojave Road Rendezvous. The dedication included the unveiling of a bronze plaque, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and tours of the new building. The crowd was addressed by San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt and Mojave National Preserve Superintendent Dennis Schramm, among other dignitaries.

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Take a virtual tour of the Mojave Desert Archives.

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The Mojave Desert Archives is the largest single collection of archival materials covering the American history of the Mojave Desert—a history rich in the stories of western migration and pioneering spirit. This unique collection, formed by desert historian Dennis G. Casebier over more than fifty years, consists of more than 100,000 historical photographs, 6,000 volumes of published works, tens of thousands of pages of news clip files, 5,000 maps of the region dating from earliest times, 2,000 loose subject files pertaining to specific individuals and cultural sites, more than 1,000 oral histories, an extensive collection of old area newspapers, periodicals and pamphlets, and materials culled from federal records in the National Archives.

 

A $500,000 grant from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment (CCHE) made possible the construction of the library that is a reincarnation of the historic Goffs Depot (1902-1956) built by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. The library stands on the grounds of the 75-acre Goffs Cultural Center. The new building is a state-of-the-art, climate controlled repository designed to process, protect, and make available to the research community a unique, extensive and ever-increasing volume of gathered materials pertaining to Mojave Desert history, the Mojave Desert Archives.