European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse The Gulf of California also known As the sea of Cortes separates Baja California from Mainland Mexico. This Banen Parsely populated Region has become a popular tourist destination for travellers searching for the unusual. National geographic they poked around Tor rattlesnakes before dinner. After making Camp they climbed a Boulder Loose grains of Granite crunching beneath their boots to watch the Sun cast its fading radiance Over Baja California. A later cloaked in the Light of our dying fire we listened to the creak of Cactus swaying in the wind and warmed our bellies with tequila from a tin cup Quot wrote Don Belt in a recent National geographic. A somewhere out in the boulders a Coyote wailed beneath a Spray of cold Belt s companions Veteran Baja trekker Norman Roberts 69, and his wife Gelin a a mexican a spoke for a moment in Spanish the language they were married in. A Gelin is a merciful soul and she gave me a Brief translation a writes Belt. Quot the most perfect night in the world a she said her dark eyes nights cast spells in Baja California the narrow strip of mostly Barren sparsely populated mexican territory that extends below the . Border separated from Mainland Mexico by the Gulf of California a also known As the sea of Cortes a except for Hurricane years and a be regions that get unpredictable downpours All Baja California a a desert full of thorns and Sharp rocks and Ide eyed children who have never a umbrella Quot Bell writes an despite its forbidding countenance however Baja California s Vul d Beauty h made it an increasingly popular destination for travellers searching Lor i unusual. At last count about half a Millio tourists a year visited the Southern Pari o the Peninsula. Their spending accounted for a third of All income in Baja California sur and helped give Mexico s least populated state one of the country s highest standards of living. Scientists find the nearly uninhabited islands off Baja California irresistible As natural laboratories for the study of evolution leading Pioneer scientific explorer George Lindsay to Call them a a poor Man s Galapagos. Many of them have plants and animals found nowhere else on Cabo san Lucas once a ramshackle fishing Village at Baja s Southern tip use to be frequented by people like John Wayne and Bing Crosby who flew Down in private planes and spent their Days hauling trophy size Marlin from the water around the Cape. No worries in new Mexico by Michael Taylor san Francisco chronicle in the Post office a Crossroads a new Mexico Hamlet of eight people and a score of Domestic culters postmaster Geneva Tucker considered the tact she May be living in a place where natural disaster is a term almost foreign to the Tongue you watch to and you Leel real sorry seeing what happens to other people around the country what with hurricanes and earthquakes and All Quot she said As a big potbellied stove warmed the room Quot we sure do feel pretty Safe indeed Crossroads May be one of the safest places to live in the United states weather experts called 1989 one of the worst years for natural disasters in the United states two Hundred and fourteen people lost their lives 3,565 others have been injured and More than $15 billion in damage was caused by hurricanes tornadoes and in a singularly memorable cataclysm for those who live in the san Francisco Bay area the earthquake of oct. 17, in the search for the safest place in the United states a a place where people Are least Likely to be covered with molten lava from a Volcano or crushed by a quake shattered freeway or blown through a Concrete Wall by the 150-mile-per-hour winds of a Hurricane or Tornado a much of the favourable evidence Points toward that sparsely populated Section of the country butting up against Northwest Texas. A a there a no question about this area being the safest in the United states Quot declared George Bomar. A meteorologist who is the weather and climate specialist for the Texas water commission. Bomar s area of research comprises Texas and its four Border states including new Mexico. The Southeastern Corner of new Mexico he said is when David Savageau and Richard Boyer compiled data for the places rated almanac which uses reams of government and private sector research material to determine the Best places to live they reproduced maps indicating that nearly every state is vulnerable to some kind of disaster. Normally Placid Arizona for example has a quake fault dipping in from the Northwest and also has one of the nation s largest volcanic Fields running across its top half. North Dakota appears fairly trouble free except Leo the killer blizzards that arrive with numbing Regul aril not to be forgotten is the Freak Tornado that several damaged the City of Fargo 32 years ago. West Texas which ranks High on the list of Wospil places suffered a twister two years ago that killed3 people in the town of Saragosa. Quot i done to think there s any place in the United stats that s immune to natural disasters Quot said Richard he a meteorologist who studies such matters at the National climatic data Center in Asheville. N c. Quot it s just that some natural disasters of some Typ May be More frequent in certain areas than else he but out there in that rough and Tumble Pari of the Southwest in new Mexico where Oil and ranching dominate the Economy people for the most part do worry about these things. Quot once in a while somebody la see a Tornado Sai ear Schneider the 72-year-old postmaster of Loco an Oil Field town about 50 Miles West of Hobbs by Odds of one touching Down Are pretty few and far Quot we Don t worry about those and we Don t worry about earthquakes Quot said Betty Cooper As she prepared a lunch of Steak and Gravy at her ranch h outside a Dot on the map called Monument. Quot but i sure feel sorry for those people who Are i out there in those High risk Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes wednesday Lornia s Deur Oday an International Airport serves to which is in the midst of a Slop ment Boom. Or every 10 vacationers strolling the lulled streets of Cabo it seems there of a businessman in White shoes in about with a portfolio full of Alec Rural sketches under his Arm Quot writes. Quot from these drawings Spring projects of every in splendid desolation of Baja Orma is never far from the tourist ,1sor the mansions. From the Tijuana or crossing mexican Highway one Nde Salong the Scenic Pacific coast its thin out the farther South one i Many never make it past the curio its and Cantina of Ensenada Home to the Baja 1000 off Road race and the ican tuna Fleet. There an Quot attorney for list Protection Quot is on Call to put visitors e. To the Southeast lies san Felipe a Lei fishing town on the Gulf where Denis More often need Protection from i tourists. Recently san Felipe has been overrun the party animals of Southern fornia and the scene on easter legend has turned especially ugly. Quot if pans went to san Diego and acted same Way some americans act Down be Quot one american visitor told Belt Quot we Lulden just throw them in jail a we d fee the Norman Roberts predates such wanted guests by five decades. He was Ligh school Sophomore in 1936 when he Nildo Nul glo<f0>llk. Tapped out by irrigation before it reaches the Gulf of California the Colorado River no longer flows through its own Delta. In a land where 90 percent of All rain evaporates practically on Impact water is one of Baja californians most precious assets. First bounced through Al Rosario in a 1929 Model a Ford. He now manages investments from his san Diego Home serves on the International whaling commission and writes scientific literature about the natural history of Baja California in his spare Tinnie. One night he his wife and Belt made Camp near Catarina which sits among remnants of an ancient Mountain Range reduced now to huge Granite boulders strewn across the land. Before settling Down for dinner Roberts scouted the area for rattlesnakes warning that the area is a prime habitat of the red Rattlesnake common in Baja. Later they listened to the desert sounds before the waning campfire. A a this is the stuff that keeps you coming Back to Baja Norman said quietly. A the primitive Ness the aloneness of it. My problem is i never get tired of it. It seems like my Compass always Points a m weather not experts say 1989 was one of the worst years for natural disasters. The people of Crossroads new Mexico done to have much to worry about a a a Quot Ira Vic Vilt a Nevi / veil 9 a a r t r a a a marchers say that this sparsely populated town May be one of the safest places in the United states to live the stars and stripes a a a Page 15
