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I noted with interest your advice: "The oldest and most universally used [name] by area locals is 'Devil's Fire' dating back to the first settlers in the area." This admonishment is well taken. However, each of the locals--in Mesquite--that I spoke to prior to my visit there last fall referred to the place as Hobgoblins Playground. I also ran into an individual, an elderly gentleman, in nearby Valley of Fire, who claims to have discovered and named the place . . . again, Hobgoblins Playground. I regret that I was engaged in photography in rapidly changing light and didn't take the time to write down his name.
The individuals in Mesquite and the gentleman seemed perturbed by the new nomenclature, Little Finland. Moreover, I think that the onus is on you to justify your claim that the name, Devil's Fire, is more correct.
But . . . thanks for the suggestion!
Best,
Jim Dunaway
jimdunaway0225@gmail.com
Thanks Jim... I do realize that some locals (but more non-locals) call it Hobgoblins. Frankly, look at the internet and see that there "used to be" a lot more internet traffic talking about "little Finland." Like you, I am just a johnnie come lately to the "discussion," however I know that it was called "Devil's Fire" many years before any currently living person stumbled upon it and, not having heard of an "earlier stumbler's" name, called it what it looked like to him.
I'll try and fit the story as I pieced it together in the space alloted here. I too was confused by actually THREE different names for a "location" I was trying to find: Oasis, Hobgoblins and Little Finland, and seeming different discriptions for them. Mainly interested in discovering Native American Rock Writing, I was in contact with an archaeologist in St. George who has done academic research on the site. He related what he knew about the name, stating that he also knew one of the "discoverers."
What he claims is that one of them "found" it (were talking in the last 50 or so years) and named it one thing. Then he took another person, a photographer, to the site who, feeling the name was completely off base, henceforth and from then on called it the other name. My contact told me that the "arguement" over whose name was more descriptive and who had seen it "first" still raged on to this day.
Discouraged, I merely began writing using the "double-name," until trying to find photographs one day at the Historical Museum in Mesquite. The "index" system not being the most complete (or accurate) at the center - I needed to merely sit and puruse stacks of papers in folders, newspapers and "diaries" or "journal entries."
In a journal, obviously written possibly a hundred or so years ago, I ran across an entry which could be nothing except the site, hand-written in a very "flowery" or "old-english" style of description. It said (as I could remember to write that evening about it) basically that: she had been traveling down by the river with some companions and of necessity took rest by a seep which proved to be the most refreshing for not only her "body but her soul as well." She described it has having water the "most fresh" of any in the area and "neath" cliffs of "curious form." No wonder, she said, that natives frequented the area and considered it a sacred place. She voiced the opinion that the rock formations, even back then, looked to her eyes like the "Devil's own flames of fire."
At the time, even though I knew of the current day arguements, I didn't anticipate needing to defend what I had found so put the pages back into their folder. Then, the following year, (three years ago) I went back to defend what I had seen and found almost nothing in the same place as it had been. I've spent many hours trying to "re-find" the folder to no avail - but keep looking.
Although she didn't mention palm trees (actually a point in her favor as I understand they are non-native species) there is no question in my mind that she is speaking of the same location. There are ancient petroglyphs on the rocks, which would have made the area sacred to native americans and the rocks, forgive me, look to my eyes supurbly more like the "Devil's own flames of fire" [Devil's Fire] than any so-called Hobgoblin or Little Finland.
I know from a scientific standpoint this is not definitive - and one can still choose to believe what he wants to believe - but I just thought that I might convince you to join me in my obsessive tendency to bring order to the universe.
[Parenthetically - if one goes by the first published "map" that the name appears on - well that would be my map which I published about 5 years ago now]
Comments (2)
I noted with interest your advice: "The oldest and most universally used [name] by area locals is 'Devil's Fire' dating back to the first settlers in the area." This admonishment is well taken. However, each of the locals--in Mesquite--that I spoke to prior to my visit there last fall referred to the place as Hobgoblins Playground. I also ran into an individual, an elderly gentleman, in nearby Valley of Fire, who claims to have discovered and named the place . . . again, Hobgoblins Playground. I regret that I was engaged in photography in rapidly changing light and didn't take the time to write down his name. The individuals in Mesquite and the gentleman seemed perturbed by the new nomenclature, Little Finland. Moreover, I think that the onus is on you to justify your claim that the name, Devil's Fire, is more correct. But . . . thanks for the suggestion! Best, Jim Dunaway jimdunaway0225@gmail.com
Thanks Jim... I do realize that some locals (but more non-locals) call it Hobgoblins. Frankly, look at the internet and see that there "used to be" a lot more internet traffic talking about "little Finland." Like you, I am just a johnnie come lately to the "discussion," however I know that it was called "Devil's Fire" many years before any currently living person stumbled upon it and, not having heard of an "earlier stumbler's" name, called it what it looked like to him.
I'll try and fit the story as I pieced it together in the space alloted here. I too was confused by actually THREE different names for a "location" I was trying to find: Oasis, Hobgoblins and Little Finland, and seeming different discriptions for them. Mainly interested in discovering Native American Rock Writing, I was in contact with an archaeologist in St. George who has done academic research on the site. He related what he knew about the name, stating that he also knew one of the "discoverers."
What he claims is that one of them "found" it (were talking in the last 50 or so years) and named it one thing. Then he took another person, a photographer, to the site who, feeling the name was completely off base, henceforth and from then on called it the other name. My contact told me that the "arguement" over whose name was more descriptive and who had seen it "first" still raged on to this day.
Discouraged, I merely began writing using the "double-name," until trying to find photographs one day at the Historical Museum in Mesquite. The "index" system not being the most complete (or accurate) at the center - I needed to merely sit and puruse stacks of papers in folders, newspapers and "diaries" or "journal entries."
In a journal, obviously written possibly a hundred or so years ago, I ran across an entry which could be nothing except the site, hand-written in a very "flowery" or "old-english" style of description. It said (as I could remember to write that evening about it) basically that: she had been traveling down by the river with some companions and of necessity took rest by a seep which proved to be the most refreshing for not only her "body but her soul as well." She described it has having water the "most fresh" of any in the area and "neath" cliffs of "curious form." No wonder, she said, that natives frequented the area and considered it a sacred place. She voiced the opinion that the rock formations, even back then, looked to her eyes like the "Devil's own flames of fire."
At the time, even though I knew of the current day arguements, I didn't anticipate needing to defend what I had found so put the pages back into their folder. Then, the following year, (three years ago) I went back to defend what I had seen and found almost nothing in the same place as it had been. I've spent many hours trying to "re-find" the folder to no avail - but keep looking.
Although she didn't mention palm trees (actually a point in her favor as I understand they are non-native species) there is no question in my mind that she is speaking of the same location. There are ancient petroglyphs on the rocks, which would have made the area sacred to native americans and the rocks, forgive me, look to my eyes supurbly more like the "Devil's own flames of fire" [Devil's Fire] than any so-called Hobgoblin or Little Finland.
I know from a scientific standpoint this is not definitive - and one can still choose to believe what he wants to believe - but I just thought that I might convince you to join me in my obsessive tendency to bring order to the universe.
[Parenthetically - if one goes by the first published "map" that the name appears on - well that would be my map which I published about 5 years ago now]