Sunbelt Publications • June 9, 2026
Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles with Diana Lindsay
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A Sunbelt Spotlight with Diana Lindsay
For 17 years, Marshal South and his family lived on Ghost Mountain, a remote, waterless mountaintop in Blair Valley, now part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Their life of isolation, creativity, and survival became one of the desert’s most talked-about stories.
Life on Ghost Mountain
From 1930 to 1947, the South family lived in a handmade home on Ghost Mountain. Marshal South wrote about their primitive lifestyle in monthly articles for Desert Magazine, drawing thousands of readers into the family’s unusual desert experiment.
A Writer, Poet, and Desert Storyteller
South wrote poems, novels, essays, short stories, and more than 100 pieces for Desert Magazine. His writing celebrated the silence, beauty, natural history, and healthful qualities of the desert.
The Story Behind the Legend
Diana Lindsay, editor of Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles, shares the history behind the South family’s life, the questions surrounding their years on Ghost Mountain, and why the story continues to fascinate readers today.
About Diana Lindsay
Diana Lindsay is an award-winning author, historian, editor, and president of Sunbelt Publications. Her work has helped preserve and share the history of Anza-Borrego and the remarkable story of Marshal South..
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Learn More About Borrego Springs
A portion of the two-mile antenna array on Clark Dry Lake used to study radio emissions from outer space. Weights kept the long copper wires taut on their frames. Borrego Sun, July 15, 1961.
Please join the Civic Foundation for its annual Old Borego Days celebration No, Borrego is not misspelled in the title above. This is the way Borrego was spelled back in 1928, when the first post office opened in what is now called “Old Borego.” The site is located at 1580 Rango Way. Please join the Civic Foundation for its annual Old Borego Days celebration of the historic heart of the Borrego Valley on Sunday, November 8, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The turnoff from Rango Way will be marked with a sign. Please note that no restrooms are available. Visitors will be able to enter the old post office and general store, originally run by Eslie Wynn, and view a fascinating video from the 1950s extolling the virtues of life in Borrego Springs. One of the first homes in Borrego Springs will also be open for public viewing, offering a nostalgic look back at life in the community’s earlier years. In addition, Borrego Springs Elementary School fourth graders, who study California history, will have their essays on display. Three students will receive awards for their writing on “Borego Now and Then.” Old Borego Days Sunday, November 8, 2026 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. 1580 Rango Way, Borrego Springs
Originally published by KPBS.org on August 20, 2026.
Wing-Walking, Skydiving and Stunt Flying in Borrego Springs
A firsthand account of the Beaty family's homestead, ranching life, the original Borrego school, General Patton's desert training, and the people who helped shape the Borrego Valley.
Nearly every issue from 1958 to 2008 is now searchable online.
Originally published February 1999.
Leo Carrillo’s A Salute to Borrego Valley A Salute to Borrego Valley is a small booklet published in 1960 by actor Leo Carrillo, best known for playing Pancho on The Cisco Kid. Carrillo was a well-known supporter of Borrego Springs. He was named honorary mayor in 1949 and served as master of ceremonies for the dedication of the Borrego Springs Airport on May 1 of that year. The booklet states that Carrillo composed the verse years earlier while he and Will Rogers shared a $1-a-day room at the Summerset Hotel in New York City as they pursued careers in show business. In the poem, Carrillo contrasts crowded city life with the peace of Borrego Valley, celebrating its sagebrush, desert sand, open skies, mountains and wildlife.
From the Borrego Sun archives Gale Gordon was best known for his longtime work with Lucille Ball on The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy. He also appeared in I Love Lucy, Our Miss Brooks and Dennis the Menace. Gordon later made Borrego Springs his home, living on a Tub Canyon ranch and serving as honorary mayor. This 1969 article tells how a search for land purchased by his mother led him to the desert. ------- Originally published in the Borrego Sun on June 21, 1969. HE FOUND PEACE Lost Acreage Brought Gale Gordon To Desert It’s not difficult to find a reason for moving to Borrego Springs. But for actor Gale Gordon it was even less difficult. He came to Borrego 40 years ago to find 10 lost acres his mother, English actress Gloria Gordon, had purchased for speculation, but no one knew where they were. Gale, today the honorary mayor of Borrego Springs, couldn’t find them, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, and in subsequent trips he fell in love with the desert. “When I bought Tub Canyon,” he told the Times writer, Cecil Smith, “I brought an expert surveyor down to check my property lines, and while he was here I sent him to look for Mother’s land. He couldn’t find it. “Just a few years ago, a man wrote me asking me if he could have an easement for a road over Mother’s 10 acres to his property. I told him I’d give him the easement if he’d show it to me. Now, at last, I know where it is.” In the Times article, Smith wrote: “Some people are frightened by the desert. The solitude disturbs them. Across the mountains at Palm Springs there is glitter and clamor and neon dazzle where tourists and movie stars gambol. “Though show folk own great tracts of Borrego (among them Bing Crosby, Jascha Heifetz, Chuck Connors, Eddie Albert and Margo), there is here quiet, muted peace.” Gale obviously agrees, in his words: “When I get in my car to come here I can feel the tensions slacken, the muscles relax. By the time I’m here, I’m a different man and Hollywood seems light-years away. The desert is like the sea, an ever-changing thing that never changes. I guess I come here to find my soul."
