Lanfair Valley Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Mojave National Preserve, National Park Service

Bae, Sang

The Lanfair Valley Historic District is located in the central part of San Bernardino County in the East Mojave Desert at an altitude ranging between 3,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level. The valley is fenced by the Castle Mountains and Piute Range to the east, the New York Mountains, Mid Hills, and Providence Mountains to the west, and the Hackberry Mountains to the south. This 1,570-acre cultural landscape, located in the south-southeastern region of the valley, encompasses the National Park Service-owned parcels of land historically owned by African American homesteaders in Lanfair Valley and retains resources that reflect the homesteading experience in the desert such as remnant dwellings and outbuildings, fences, and cultivated fields from the early twentieth century. The cultural landscape boundary does not comprise the entire extent of the historic Black homesteads because much of these lands remain in private ownership. The site is accessed from the east and west via the Mojave Road and from the north and south via the Ivanpah/Lanfair Road. The Lanfair Valley Historic District is locally significant under National Register Criterion A as reflective of the determined and resilient strategies among African Americans for self emancipation and liberation from the racial prejudice and discrimination of the broader society, achieved through landownership and community under the areas of Ethnic Heritage: Black and Social History. The historic site represents the realization of the concept of an African American colony, a geographically concentrated homesteading community, in which its residents achieved social equality and freedom from discrimination. The site is also significant under Criterion D for its potential to yield historically important information that contributes to a better understanding of these themes under the area Archaeology: Historic – Non-Aboriginal. The period of significance begins in 1910 with the establishment of the first Black homestead and ends in 1930 with the close of the last farm in Lanfair Valley. This significance is conveyed through multiple cultural landscape characteristics, including natural systems and features, spatial organization, circulation, and archaeological sites. The unit retains historic integrity and effectively represents the period of the Black homesteading experience in Lanfair Valley. The general setting of the unit has not been impacted by modern developments since the close of the homestead period and retains the feeling of isolation in the desert. The major circulation corridors utilized during the period of significance remain minimally changed, and the homestead improvements remain in their historic location along these corridors. Although all standing structures have collapsed, the original building materials that remain provide insight to the construction and architectural style of the non-extant buildings.

Lanfair Valley Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Mojave National Preserve, National Park Service

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