{"id":10036,"date":"2020-09-15T05:14:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T12:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=10036"},"modified":"2020-09-15T05:14:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T12:14:49","slug":"chiriaco-summit-and-the-general-patton-memorial-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/09\/15\/chiriaco-summit-and-the-general-patton-memorial-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiriaco Summit and the General Patton Memorial Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The thought came to me easily: The Patton Museum. We\u2019d been housebound for weeks, sheltered in place against the virus, and like many others we were suffering from an advanced case of cabin fever.\u00a0\u00a0 Where can we go that won\u2019t require flying, is reasonably close, and won\u2019t put us in contact with too many people?\u00a0 Hey, I write travel articles for the best motorcycle magazine on the planet (that’s Motorcycle Classics<\/em>) and I know all the good destinations around here.\u00a0 The Patton Museum.\u00a0 That\u2019s the ticket.<\/p>\n

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General George S. Patton, Jr., and his faithful companion, Willie, at the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I called the Patton Museum and they were closed.\u00a0 An answering machine.\u00a0 The Pandemic. Please leave a message.\u00a0 So I did.\u00a0 And a day later I had a response from a pleasant-sounding woman.\u00a0 \u00a0She would let me know when they opened again and she hoped we would visit.\u00a0 So I called and left another message.\u00a0 Big time motojournalist here.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to do a piece on the Museum.\u00a0 You know the drill.\u00a0 The Press.\u00a0 Throwing the weight of the not-so-mainstream media around.\u00a0 Gresh and I do it all the time.<\/p>\n

Margit and I finally connected after playing telephone tag.\u00a0 Yes, the Patton Museum was closed, but I could drive out to Chiriaco Summit to get a few photos (it’s on I-10 a cool 120 miles from where I live, and 70 miles from the Arizona border).\u00a0 Margit gave me her email address, and Chiriaco was part of it (you pronounce it “shuhRAYco”).<\/p>\n

Wait a second, I thought, and I asked the question: \u201cIs your name Chiriaco, as in Chiriaco Summit, where the Museum is located?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Joe Chiriaco was my father.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was going to be good, I instantly knew.\u00a0 And it was.<\/p>\n

The story goes like this:\u00a0 Dial back the calendar nearly a century.\u00a0 In the late 1920s, the path across the Colorado, Sonoran, and Mojave Deserts from Arizona through California was just a little dirt road.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to imagine, but our mighty Interstate 10 was once a dirt road.\u00a0 A young Joe Chiriaco used it when he and a friend hitchhiked from Alabama to see a football game in California’s Rose Bowl in 1927.<\/p>\n

Chiriaco stayed in California and joined a team in the late 1920s surveying a route for the aqueduct that would carry precious agua<\/em> from the mighty Colorado River to Los Angeles.\u00a0 Chiriaco surveyed, he found natural springs in addition to a path for the aqueduct, and he recognized opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0 That dirt road (Highways 60 and 70 in those early days) would soon be carrying more people from points east to the promised land (the Los Angeles basin).\u00a0 Shaver Summit (the high point along the road in the area he was surveying, now known as Chiriaco Summit) would be a good place to sell gasoline and food.\u00a0 He and his soon-to-be wife Ruth bought land, started a business and a family, and did well.\u00a0 It was a classic case of the right people, the right time, the right place, and the right work ethic. Read on, my friends.\u00a0 This gets even better.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a decade into the late 1930s, and we were a nation preparing for war.\u00a0 A visionary US Army leader, General George S. Patton, Jr., knew from his World War I combat experience that armored vehicle warfare would define the future.\u00a0 It would start in North Africa, General Patton needed a place to train his newly-formed tank units, and the desert regions Chiriaco had surveyed were just what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n

Picture this:\u00a0 Two men who could see the future clearly.\u00a0 Joe Chiriaco and George S. Patton.\u00a0 Chiriaco was at the counter eating his lunch when someone tapped his shoulder to ask where he could find a guy named Joe Chiriaco.\u00a0 Imagine a response along the lines of \u201cWho wants to know?\u201d and when Chiriaco turned around to find out, there stood General Patton.\u00a0 Two legends, one local and one national, eyeball to eyeball, meeting for the first time.<\/p>\n

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A Sherman tank, the one Patton’s men would go to war with in North Africa and Europe, on display at the General Patton Memorial Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Patton knew that Chiriaco knew the desert and he needed his help.\u00a0 The result?\u00a0 Camp Young (where Chiriaco Summit stands today), and the 18,000-square-mile Desert Training Center – California Arizona Maneuver Area (DTC-CAMA, where over one million men would learn armored warfare).\u00a0 It formed the foundation for Patton defeating Rommel in North Africa, our winning World War II, and more.\u00a0 It would be where thousands of Italian prisoners of war spent most of their time during the war.\u00a0 It would become the largest military area in America.<\/p>\n

General Patton and Joe Chiriaco became friends and they enjoyed a mutually-beneficial relationship: Patton needed Chiriaco’s help and Chiriaco’s business provided a welcome respite for Patton’s troops.\u00a0 Patton kept Chiriaco\u2019s gas station and lunch counter accessible to the troops, Chiriaco sold beer with Patton’s blessing, and as you can guess….well, you don’t have to guess:\u00a0 We won World War II.<\/p>\n

World War II ended, the Desert Training Center closed, and then, during the Eisenhower administration, Interstate 10 followed the path of Highways 60 and 70.\u00a0 Patton’s\u00a0 troops and the POWs were gone and I-10 became the major east\/west freeway across the US.\u00a0 \u00a0We had become a nation on wheels and Chiriaco\u2019s business continued to thrive as Americans took to the road with our newfound postwar prosperity.<\/p>\n

Fast forward yet again: In the 1980s Margit (Joe and Ruth Chiriaco\u2019s daughter) and Leslie Cone (the Bureau of Land Management director who oversaw the lands that had been Patton’s desert training area) had an idea:\u00a0 Create a museum honoring General Patton and the region\u2019s contributions to World War II.\u00a0 Ronald Reagan heard about it and donated an M-47 Patton tank (the one you see in the large photo at the top of this blog), and things took off from there.<\/p>\n

I first rode my motorcycle to the General Patton Memorial Museum in 2003 with my good buddy Marty.\u00a0 It was a small museum then, but it has grown substantially.\u00a0\u00a0 When Sue and I visited a couple of weeks ago, I was shocked and surprised by what I saw.\u00a0 I can only partly convey some of it through the photos and narrative you see in this blog.\u00a0 We had a wonderful visit with Margit, who told us a bit about her family, the Museum, and Chiriaco Summit.\u00a0 On that topic of family, it was Joe and Ruth Chiriaco, Margit and her three siblings, their children, and their grandchildren. If you are keeping track, that’s four generations of Chiriacos.<\/p>\n

The Chiriaco Summit story is an amazing one and learning about it can be reasonably compared to peeling an onion.\u00a0 There are many layers, and discovering each might bring a tear or two.\u00a0 Life hasn’t always been easy for the Chiriaco family out there in the desert, but they always saw the hard times as opportunities and they instinctively knew how to use each opportunity to add to their success.\u00a0 We can’t tell the entire story here, but we’ll give you a link to a book you might consider purchasing at the end of this blog.\u00a0 Our focus is on the General Patton Memorial Museum, and having said that, let’s get to the photos.<\/p>\n

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The Patton Museum’s new Matzner Tank Pavilion. When we were there, one of the two M60 tanks you see in front was running. If you think a motorcycle engine at idle makes music, you will love listening to an M60’s air-cooled, horizontally-opposed, 1790-cubic-inch, 12-cylinder diesel engine.\u00a0 I drove an M60 once when I was in the Army.\u00a0 Yeah, I still want one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The business end of an M60’s 105mm main gun. This one has been out of service for a long time; hence the rust. Firing one of these settles disagreements quickly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The M4 Sherman, our main battle tank in World War II, on the right, with an M5 Stuart tank on the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Don’t tread on me, or so the saying goes. Everything on a tank is big. You don’t realize how big until you stand next to one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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When Patton’s men trained at the DTC-CAMA, they used mockup aggressor vehicles (jeeps fitted with frames and canvas) to simulate the bad guys.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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M60 main battle tanks parked behind the Museum. This was a shot I could not resist. If Joe Gresh was into tanks, this is what Tinfiny Ranch would undoubtedly look like.\u00a0 The Patton name was attached to the M47, M48, and M60 tank series.\u00a0 I asked Margit about these tanks, and she told me that when the Museum raises enough money, they’ll be made operational and put on display.\u00a0 \u00a0For now, Margit said, “they stand as silent ghosts with General Patton at the helm.”\u00a0 I like that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The General Patton Memorial Museum outdoor chapel.\u00a0 The chapel was built using desert rocks.\u00a0 If someone is looking for a unique wedding venue, this is it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I first visited the Patton Museum nearly 20 years ago, there were only three or four tanks on display.\u00a0 \u00a0As you can see from the above photos, the armored vehicle display has grown dramatically.<\/p>\n

Like the armored vehicle exhibits, the Museum interior has also expanded, and it has done so on a grand scale.\u00a0 In addition to the recently-built Matzner Tank Pavilion shown above, the exhibits inside are far more extensive than when I first visited.\u00a0 Sue and I had the run of the Museum, and I was able to get some great photos.\u00a0 The indoor exhibits are stunning, starting with the nearly 100-year-old topo map that dominates the entrance.<\/p>\n

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The Metropolitan Water District’s scale map of southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. MWD brought this model to the US Congress in 1927 to secure funding for the California Aqueduct, then they stored and forgot about it for decades.\u00a0 An MWD executive overhead Margit talking about the planned Patton Museum in the Chiriaco Summit coffee shop one day, he remembered the map, and one thing led to another.\u00a0 MWD donated the map to the Patton Museum in 1988. The Big Map (as it is known) covers the area used by Patton’s Desert Training Center and the California Arizona Maneuver Area.\u00a0 It’s a visually-arresting display that is truly something special.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Generals Patton and Rommel, the two key players in North Africa. If you’ve never seen the movie, Patton, you need to fix that oversight. It is a great movie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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George S. Patton: The early years. Patton attended the Virginia Military Institute and the United States Military Academy at West Point. His family was from San Marino, California.\u00a0 Patton was born into wealth and could have done whatever he wanted.\u00a0 He chose a career in the US Army.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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One of the display rooms inside the Patton Museum. I could have spent the entire day in just this room.\u00a0 That’s an A-10 Warthog model in the foreground.\u00a0 It’s the airplane we used to take out Iraq’s Republican Guard tanks in Operation Desert Storm.\u00a0 I worked for the company that manufactured the A-10’s 30mm Gatling Gun ammo and Combined Effects Munitions cluster bombs that did most of the heavy lifting in that war.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another view inside the Patton Museum. A tripod, a Nikon, a wide angle lens, and having the room to myself. It was a grand day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A model of Patton’s command vehicle. Patton lived in a trailer and moved with his troops during most of World War II, unlike other US generals who mostly stayed in hotels. Patton was an RVer before there were RVs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Patton Museum has an extensive World War II small arms display. I could have spent half a day just viewing this part of the Museum. I’ll be back.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Patton Museum’s small arms display included this beautiful Model 1917 Colt .45 ACP revolver.\u00a0 Most of the surviving specimens you see today (when you see them at all; they are not very common) have a Parkerized finish. This one has the original blued finish. I own a Colt 1917; mine has the original finish, too. There’s quite a story behind these revolvers<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A beautiful British Infantry Lee Enfield No. 4 rifle. I grabbed a photo of this one because it had an unusually attractive stock, something you don’t often see on infantry rifles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A replica of General Patton’s ivory-handled Colt Single Action Army revolver. Patton carried different sidearms during World War II, including this Colt SAA and a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum (also equipped with ivory grips). Patton’s Colt SAA had two notches carved in the left grip.\u00a0 Then Lieutenant Patton was part of the Pershing expedition that chased Pancho Villa in Mexico from Fort Bliss (my old stomping grounds). Patton personally killed two men in a gunfight during that action. There’s no doubt about it: Patton was the real deal, a genuine warrior.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to the General Patton Memorial Museum, there are several businesses the Chiriaco family operates at Chiriaco Summit, and the reach of this impressive family is four generations deep.\u00a0 As we mentioned earlier, it’s a story that can’t be told in a single article, but Margit was kind enough to give us a copy of Chiriaco Summit<\/em><\/a>, a book that tells it better than I ever could.\u00a0 You should buy a copy<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s a great read about a great family and a great place.<\/p>\n

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I enjoyed Chiriaco Summit immensely. That’s Joe Chiriaco in the lower left photo, and Ruth Chiriaco in the upper right inset. Margit Chiriaco Rusche, their daughter, is seated in the 1928 Model A.\u00a0 Fourth-generation Victor (whom we met) runs a vintage car header company at Chiriaco Summit.\u00a0 Victor is the young man standing behind Margit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there you have it:\u00a0 \u00a0The General Patton Memorial Museum<\/a> and Chiriaco Summit.\u00a0 It’s three hours east of Los Angeles on Interstate 10 and it’s a marvelous destination.\u00a0 Keep an eye on the Patton Museum<\/a> website, and when the pandemic is finally in our rear view mirrors, you’ll want to visit this magnificent California desert jewel.<\/p>\n

\n

More great Destinations<\/em> are right here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The thought came to me easily: The Patton Museum. We\u2019d been housebound for weeks, sheltered in place against the virus, and like many others we were suffering from an advanced case of cabin fever.\u00a0\u00a0 Where can we go that won\u2019t require flying, is reasonably close, and won\u2019t put us in contact with too many people?\u00a0 … Continue reading “Chiriaco Summit and the General Patton Memorial Museum”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[392,96,89],"tags":[1432,1422,1421,1424,1431,1427,1428,1430,1429,1423,1425,1426,1433],"class_list":["post-10036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-back-in-the-day","category-feel-good-stuff","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","tag-chiriaco-summit","tag-dtc-cama","tag-general-patton-memorial-museum","tag-george-s-patton","tag-m4-sherman","tag-m47","tag-m48","tag-m5","tag-m60","tag-main-battle-tanks","tag-military-small-arms","tag-pattons-guns","tag-wedding-venue"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/20200826_0032-900-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10036"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10092,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10036\/revisions\/10092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}