Fighting Crime in Remote Desert Reaches

Barry Nelson stands atop a hillside bluff and studies a vast expanse of emptiness that belies the challenges of his job.

Up over there are rocky hillsides, and down below are hundreds of miles of wind-swept creosote bushes, and a lot of dirt roads connecting it all like a network to nowhere.

These are some of the 3.2-million acres of Southern California desert that Nelson and seven other Barstow-based rangers protect on behalf of the federal Bureau of Land Management.

The area’s serenity camouflages the kind of diverse crime that can occur, from the illicit, drug-stoked “rave” parties and occasional murder to the more routine problems of people illegally shooting guns or driving off-road in prohibited areas.

Nelson takes it all in stride, talking simply of his job to “protect the natural resources of America’s public lands and the people who use it.”

But granted, most days for a federal ranger are relatively quiet, and on this particular day in the High Desert between Victorville and Barstow, Nelson’s log will reflect only three activities.

First, there was the property owner who had blocked access to a popular artesian spring beneath the San Bernardino Mountains. The landowner wanted to funnel visitors past a toll shack so he could charge $3 per person for the right to pass.

But rangers needed easier access to the site so they could clean up the trash left by squatters. Nelson eventually persuaded the owner to allow a trash truck to pass through.

Then there was the long patrol through the scrubby flatlands near Adelanto, on the off chance he would come across a methamphetamine lab or illegal shooters or off-road vehicle enthusiasts. There was none of that, but plenty of garbage dumped illegally by people too cheap to have it hauled to a landfill.

The 48-year-old ranger stopped at one heap of rubbish, its papers not yet yellowed by the sun. “Envelopes,” he said almost gleefully because of the clues they would hold. He grabbed a handful that all showed the name of the same person--and a nearby address. The culprit?

But the current occupants of the house said the person Nelson was looking for had moved the week before, and gave Nelson a lead to the person’s whereabouts.

Nelson makes a point of stopping to chat with people, and on this day he met a man sitting alongside a dirt road east of Apple Valley. The man said he was waiting for a ride, and didn’t balk when Nelson asked if he could pat him down for weapons.

The two chatted for a few minutes about other nearby characters--who was living where, what they were up to. Any of them doing drugs? Nelson asked pointedly. Can you give any names?

“I don’t ask and I don’t know and if I did, I probably wouldn’t tell you,” the man said. “I’d just end up getting shot and buried out here. You know about that.”

Indeed Nelson does. Last summer, a body turned up not far from here, and Nelson is still trying to identify the killer. But such violent crime is relatively rare on the government land that the BLM oversees for grazing, mining and recreational uses.

Although the land is virtually devoid of year-round residents, it is a popular weekend destination. Presidents Day weekend, Nelson said, was just short of crazy, with some 5,000 off-roaders congregating at Dumont Dunes between Baker and Death Valley. Rangers arrested four people for possession of drugs and weapons. Two people were so badly injured they had to be airlifted to hospitals.

Nelson talked, too, of how he recently happened across a man wanted for murder in Missouri, and of the stolen cars he has found dumped in the desert, and of coming across drug labs and people shooting guns where they’re not allowed, and of the tons of garbage that pock the landscape.

His biggest source of satisfaction, Nelson said, is thwarting rave parties--open-air drug fests, he calls them--promoted through an underground culture that attracts thousands of young people who pay about $20 each for their ticket and a map to the secret location. Over the past year, at least two people have died at these overnight desert parties.

When law enforcement’s intelligence is on the mark, Nelson and members of a rave task force are able to find the illegal party locations before the crowds arrive and shut them down.

He admits to frustration that he can’t stop all the parties, or catch all the dumpers or shooters or off-roaders trampling the desert.

“I’m no different than the CHP wanting to catch every speeder or a cop in the city wanting to catch every burglar or drug dealer,” he said. “But we can’t stop trying.”