Quartzsite

Quartzsite is a desert town, founded in 1867 after Quartz was discovered in the surrounding hills and mountains.  If you notice the spelling of the town name is actually quartzsite with an “S”.  The post office added the extra letter as presumably it felt people would get confused trying to mail something to a rock.  Or perhaps the more logical explanation is they just wanted people to think of it as Quartz Site.

Prior to that it was named Tyson’s Wells after the man who built a fort in the area to protect his water supply from Indian raids.  With the existence of the fort and supply of fresh water it became a stop for the stage coach bringing passengers, mail and goods from points East and West.

The town really began to boom when gold was discovered in the surrounding hills.  From then on it has become a centre for rock hounds and collectors of minerals of all sorts.  We will get to see some of the vendors when the big RV show starts up in January.  They are here year round, but apparently really ramp things up for that show.  We have already met someone in the RV park here that goes out regularly looking for gold and minerals.

I am not sure when the RV show started but it has become a huge draw for the area and arguably the event most people probably come here to see.  From what we have been told there will be hundreds of thousands of people that come from all around to see the show.  It is for RV’s, outdoor sports enthusiasts and the like.  We are looking forward to the show and what it brings to town.

From what I have seen there are not many hotels around as this is a seasonal event and when it is not running I don’t think there is enough tourist traffic to support them.  But people come in all manner of recreational vehicles, from bicyclists with tents and supplies on their back, to homemade van conversions, and RV’s of all sorts.  They can stay in one of the RV parks like the one we are in that dot the town.  By my count there are in the neighbourhood of about 30 or so of these types of parks and they likely each hold 100-200 RV’s.

Or people can stay in the desert areas that surround the town and just boondock.  No power, no water and no sewer so you need to be self reliant.  However, two areas in the desert have become so popular they have set up dump stations and water stations to support those campers.  I will post something shortly about these areas, but save it to say, the vast majority of people who come here spend days, weeks or even months out there.

Today is Thanksgiving in the US so it is very quiet in town.  We are going to join with our good friends Bill and Pat and attend a potluck dinner this afternoon to celebrate with our new American friends.  US Thanksgiving is a lot bigger deal than in Canada for some reason and everything shuts down.  It is too close to Christmas I think as we are now less than a month to that, but it is what it is so we will enjoy the time.