Bill Keys, Desert Homesteader

Early farm machinery

A water source in the desert

A chicken coupe, or maybe a sedan.

On my first full day in Joshua Tree, I reserved a spot on the ranger-led tour of the Bill Keys Ranch. It turned out to be a highlight of my visit.

In the early twentieth centurey, Bill worked the land for a Connecticut banker who never paid him. When the banker died, Bill got the ranch as payment for his two years of employment. Bill built dams, trapped what rain water there was, irrigated a plot where he had a thriving garden - tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and more! In the middle of the desert!

He met his future wife, Frances, at a high society function in Santa Barbara and won her away from her fiancé. (Bill was not only resourceful but very competitive.) Bill and Frances raised a family and homesteaded the land for over sixty years!

Bill, in his sixties, got into a dispute with a new neighbor over land access. The man ambushed Bill, but missed his shot. Bill didn't miss his, and killed the man. There were no witnesses, and the judge didn't believe Bill's account; so Bill ended up with a ten-year prison sentence. He served only five years, because a prominent writer at the time befriended him and hired lawyers to plead Bill's case. The writer was Erle Stanley Gardner.

Bill got a ranch of a couple of acres and turned it into a thousand-acre spread before he died. His sole surviving son, Willis, now in his nineties, still comes once a year to serve as a volunteer caretaker for a few weeks.

Bill and Frances Keys are buried on their ranch in the mojave desert, homesteaders for eternity.

Bill Keys' story is too large for me to tell here, but perhaps I've whetted your appetite for more information. In addition to the link above, there is a book entitled "Growing Up on the Desert Queen Ranch" by Willis Keys.

A Peek Inside the Ranch House

One of the wells on the ranch

Water still collects in a stream bed on the ranch.

Save everything, if you want to survive in the desert.