Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park is a state park of California, USA, protecting a stand of Joshua trees and junipers in the Antelope Valley. The park is located in northern Los Angeles County, 20 miles (32 km) west of downtown Lancaster and about 5 miles (8.0 km) from the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.
The site was donated to the state by Arthur "Archie" Ripley, and preserves a remnant of Joshua/juniper woodland which once grew in great abundance throughout the valley. Today only remnant parcels of this woodland community remain in the valley, much of the rest having been cleared for farming, housing, and some rather esoteric uses — directions for nighttime automobile travelers in the first half of the 20th century and even pulp for newspaper usage. The 566-acre (229 ha) property was officially acquired in 1993.
The Joshua tree played an important part in the cultural history of the Antelope Valley, providing a vital source of food and fiber materials for the Native Americans that inhabited the region.
Famous quotes containing the words arthur, desert, woodland, state and/or park:
“Men may die, but the fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken.”
—Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886)
“The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“I already, and for weeks afterward, felt my nature the coarser for this part of my woodland experience, and was reminded that our life should be lived as tenderly and daintily as one would pluck a flower.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
—Bible: New Testament St. Paul, in Philippians, 4:11.
“Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his “comb” and “spare shirt,” “leathern breeches” and “gauze cap to keep off gnats,” with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)