I continue to research for my next publication, an historical fiction work about a unique character named Steve.
Steve was a preacher turned cotton farmer, but when the prices of cotton dropped during World War I, he could not pay the taxes. So he turned the farm over to the collector, packed his family into a truck, and headed out into the desert to found a small town to assist travelers along the route.
At that time, the “route” was merely ruts in the Colorado desert—a hundred mile stretch of nothing halfway between Phoenix and Los Angeles. He set up a café, a repair garage, and a gas station. Later, he added places to stay, a post office, a general store, and even a pool for traveller to cool off during their long journey.
As owner of the entire town for decades, he ran it his way—and he was quite a character. “No drunks or dogs—and we prefer dogs!” was posted on the café door. “The only town with a 100-mile Main Street!” he boasted.
It is a story of grit, determination, and a testament to the incredible ingenuity and staying power of those humans who chose to make their home in the middle of a desert in the early 1900s. It is also a story of bad poetry, goats who eat schoolhouses, love, betrayal, General Patton, the start of Kaiser Permanente and health plans, rattlesnakes, skin cancer, and much, more more.
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Coming in 2024
Desert. Sun. Sand. And no roads or human settlements within 50 miles in any direction. The perfect place to found a town?
That’s what Steve Ragsdale believed. So he and his wife bundled up their four kids in their 1915 Ford Model T, bought a local prospector’s shack and well, and built a fuel station (a 50-gallon drum), a repair garage, and café. He advertised “Free food on days the sun doesn’t shine” and “No drunks, no dogs—we prefer dogs.” He was the mayor, sheriff, rockhound, author, naturalist, desert guide, and Santa Claus at Christmastime. He became one of the local “Desert Rats” and earned the moniker “Desert Steve.” Along the way, he became part of history: the construction of the first State and National highways, the invention of prepaid healthcare, General Patton and World War II, the largest iron mine in the United States, flying saucer sightings, and much more.
Based on a true story, this is the tale of a quirky, clever, and bold man who pursued a dream, wrote bad poetry, and found ways to survive when many would have perished or packed it in.
