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Mojave Desert History - Pioneer of the Mojave
Outlaws on the Mojave

A Hotbed of Lawlessness and Disorder

Throughout this time San Bernardino had been plagued with problems other than gangs of horse thieves and hostile Indians. The town held a sizable contingent of Confederate sympathizers, many of whom were causing disruptions in the streets, plus large numbers of unprincipled and desperate men were filtering in from other parts of California and the West.

Some of the citizens had begun to express concern that the community was becoming a hotbed of lawlessness and disorder. Edwin Sherman, editor of the San Bernardino Weekly Patriot, wrote a letter dated June 3, 1861, apprising the Pacific Division commander of the situation as he saw it:
    Secret meetings continue to be held all over this lower country, and secession and disunion is boldly avowed in our streets. Shooting continues to be the order of the day, and drunken desperadoes and Southern cutthroats damn the Stars and Stripes and endeavor to create disturbances all of the time.

    We have a singular population, composed of Mormons, Mormon apostates, who are even worse, gamblers, English Jews, and the devil's own population to boot, while we only have about a dozen good respectable families right in town, who are at the mercy of these desperadoes....


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