Where there are mountains, there are mysteries. Tonight we visit with some old friends who've long haunted the Indians, the Spaniards and the Americans. They are called the Dark Watchers, and as usual their world is part of ours, tied up in our own recent history of desert mystics such as Aldous Huxley and the ancient culture of the Esselen. Hosted by Ken Layne, with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where there are mountains, there are mysteries. Tonight we visit with some old friends who've long haunted the Indians, the Spaniards and the Americans. They are called the Dark Watchers, and as usual their world is part of ours, tied up in our own recent history of desert mystics such as Aldous Huxley and the ancient culture of the Esselen. Hosted by Ken Layne, with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.<a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998" rel="payment">Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998</a>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

Desert Oracle Radio is a weekly road trip through the weird American desert from the publisher of Desert Oracle, the pocket-sized field guide published in Joshua Tree, California. Hear tales of mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, venomous creatures, weird history and weirder people. Hosted by editor Ken Layne and featuring a cast of intriguing mystics, oddballs, scientists and artists, Desert Oracle Radio is your soundtrack for a desert night. The program is broadcast on Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in the Mojave high desert, with field reports from around and across the desert lands, and is distributed by Public Radio Exchange (PRX).

Desert Oracle Radio

Mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, strange apparitions, magical rituals, false prophets & sinister characters. Weird tales from the wild places. This is Desert Oracle Radio, by Ken Layne, broadcasting from a Mojave mountaintop since 20&17.

Mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, strange apparitions, magical rituals, false prophets &amp; sinister characters. Weird tales from the wild places. This is Desert Oracle Radio, by Ken Layne, broadcasting from a Mojave mountaintop since 20&amp;17.

The Dark Watchers

Public-land managers in the US Southwest seem determined to drive the pinyon jay to extinction. A half-century attack on pinyon & juniper high-desert woodland has led to a 78% drop in pinyon jay populations just in the past 50 years. You can take action, and the Pinyon Juniper Alliance is a good place to start.

The pinyon jay is the steward of the pinyon forests, for which the forest feeds and houses this crucial blue crow. Of the thousands of pinyon nuts the blue crow puts away for the winter, usually working with its mate and both returning to the spot throughout the year to store or collect, the few pine nuts left behind grow into new pinyons, expanding the reach of the woodland. More woodland means more wildlife, more carbon-breathing conifers, more precious Western water stored in the ground, more wildlife corridors that connect mule deer and desert bighorn and mountain lions along mountain and valley to vast zones of wilderness.

Public-land managers in the US Southwest seem determined to drive the pinyon jay to extinction. A half-century attack on pinyon &amp; juniper high-desert woodland has led to a 78% drop in pinyon jay populations just in the past 50 years. You can take action, and the <a href="https://www.pinyonjuniperforests.org/take-action/">Pinyon Juniper Alliance is a good place to start.</a>
The pinyon jay is the steward of the pinyon forests, for which the forest feeds and houses this crucial blue crow. Of the thousands of pinyon nuts the blue crow puts away for the winter, usually working with its mate and both returning to the spot throughout the year to store or collect, the few pine nuts left behind grow into new pinyons, expanding the reach of the woodland. More woodland means more wildlife, more carbon-breathing conifers, more precious Western water stored in the ground, more wildlife corridors that connect mule deer and desert bighorn and mountain lions along mountain and valley to vast zones of wilderness.

Call of the Blue Crow

Tonight we're talking ravens, fishes & loaves, and the soul-crushing indoor indoctrination of the Empire's State Religion. Sir James George Frazer, Pliny the Elder and the Gospel Mark are all involved, whether they like it or not. (And the "Bible Friends" podcast mentioned on this episode can be found here.)

Thanks for listening to the show, and for supporting the show via our Patreon page or at our online store, DesertOracle.com.

Tonight we're talking ravens, fishes &amp; loaves, and the soul-crushing indoor indoctrination of the Empire's State Religion. Sir James George Frazer, Pliny the Elder and the Gospel Mark are all involved, whether they like it or not. (And the "Bible Friends" podcast mentioned on this episode can be <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-8-mark-8-me-and-the-bibles-had-a-long/id1734809962?i=1000654298215">found here.)</a>
Thanks for listening to the show, and for supporting the show <a href="https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle">via our Patreon page</a> or at our online store, <a href="http://DesertOracle.com">DesertOracle.com</a>.

Funeral for a Raven

Dr. John Milton Bigelow did not shy away from hard work, challenges, or adventure. At the age of 46, he signed on as surgeon and botanist for the Mexican Boundary Survey, following the U.S.-Mexican War that fulfilled the gold-hungry manifest destiny of the Americans. 

This adventure took him through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Colorado deserts, where he catalogued the great variety of desert plants along with several other botanists on the expedition — including C.C. Parry, namesake of Parry’s Nolina. The work was so pleasing to Bigelow that he readily accepted similar appointments as field botanist in some of America's wildest lands. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.

Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2022 

http://DesertOracle.com

Dr. John Milton Bigelow did not shy away from hard work, challenges, or adventure. At the age of 46, he signed on as surgeon and botanist for the Mexican Boundary Survey, following the U.S.-Mexican War that fulfilled the gold-hungry manifest destiny of the Americans. 
This adventure took him through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Colorado deserts, where he catalogued the great variety of desert plants along with several other botanists on the expedition — including C.C. Parry, namesake of Parry’s Nolina. The work was so pleasing to Bigelow that he readily accepted similar appointments as field botanist in some of America's wildest lands. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.
Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2022 http://DesertOracle.com

The Dark Watchers

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