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Stoddard Wells Road
Hay Road
63. Stoddard Well:
Pioneered in 1867 by Lafayette Mecham of Fish Ponds (Nebo Marine Base) to Little Meadows (Victorville) . No well at the time. One hundred tons of hay cut at Little Meadows and hauled to Camp Cady. Hay cut mostly above the Upper Narrows. John Brown, Sr., brought in cattle later, and Mecham indicated (Pioneer Cabin News , June, 1966) that this turned the meadows into a desert. Sheldon Stoddard dug a well on it a few years after the route was opened. In later years, another cutoff was made between Little Meadows and Cottonwoods and from a point slightly southeast of Cottonwoods on the Hay Road to the Cottonwoods Station (Mecham Oct., 1966). Rueger Map depicts the Stoddard's Well Road and the cut-off to Cottonwood from north of Stoddard Well to the Mojave River.
Stoddard Wells Road
Stoddard Mountain
Stoddard Valley OHV Area
Sheldon Stoddard
Cultural Resources of the California Desert,1776 -1880 -- Historic Trails and Wagon Roads
Elizabeth von Till Warren & Ralph J. Roske
1981 cultural Russell L. Kaldenberg, Series Editor
Lafayette Mecham
