Community News
Pahrump Valley Gazette, Thursday, September 11, 1997 23
i I I I
The Great Dumont Lizard Chase and rain dance
It never ever rains at the Dumont sand dunes located at
the south end of Death Valley. Dumont is desert. That is
inscribed in stone and it doesn't ever rain. Never...I
should have never made
i
fun of those dune buggy . ,N ",,. _ , r,. ,
.... In IRe lnermometer s ;anaaow
guys m uregon WhO nave .
windshields and wipers on by Mike Dougherty
their buggies. -
We were to make a television commercial for a .
department store chain in Boston. It was to be a simple
chore of taking a few pictures of various items of .... " ..........
merchandise against a desert background. And then
• ' there were clouds. Big nasty grey son of a gun clouds. The
F
producer asked me if the clouds were moving towards us.
I replied that if the mountain disappeared the cloud was
coming our way. The cloud devoured the mountain and
kept on coming on.
The sun was swallowed
by the bleak blackness of
the clouds rolling out on
Death Valley and over the
Avwatz Mountain. The air
chilled and the intermittent
wind swirled from all di-
rections kicking up little
whirl winds of sand. Light-
ning streaked across the sky
and the dunes brightened
in the flashing strobes of
the dancing bolts of sky
fire. The sands of Dumont
are full of iron and the light-
ening does have a taste for
the ferrous attraction of the black streaked sands.
Rain. No sprinkle, no shower, no passing squall. Rain.
Awesome driving clouds of monster rain drops verging
on the edge of becoming hail. Wind driven rain that soaks
clothing, blasts through shelters, and sh-ings as it strikes
with slashing force. (I wonder if the dune buggy can
float.) Large black tarps whip in the blasting rain as the
crew struggles to'cover the props, which consist of small
furniture and clothing items that do not do well in rain.
The buggies race from the back slope of the dunes
carrying clients and agency people back to the motor
homes. The crew follows in a soaking charge through the
blinding storm seeking the shelter of the base camp. Wet
does not begin to describe the buggies and drivers. The
seats are inches deep in cold water and the drivers are
using their hands to sweep the streaming rain from their
gogglers.
There are pools of water forming on the flat areas of
the dunes. Streams of water are pouring down the sides of
the dunes leaving mini-rivers in their wake. The dune
buggies return again and again bringing crew out of the
storm; One man and a buggy are left on location. The man
crawls under the flapping tarp to
seek shelter while our favorite
buggy driver figures he can't get
any wetter and stays mounted in
the buggy.
The next day is hot and hu-
mid. The dunes are still wet but
the sky is clear and the air is
warm and sultry. The crews re-
turn to the dunes and began once again their filming of the
department store commercial. Lots of rain means a fine
hatch of horse flies. The New England Merchants meet
the Tecopa Bombers, The hungry black bombers descend
in a feeding frenzy on the
unsuspecting crew. A brief
break is taken to reduce the
horse fly population and the
crew goes back to work.
It's time for the lizard.
A lizard was needed for
a picture. A certain curly
haired fellow at Zzyzx was
contacted and he provided
a couple of large dirty green
chuckwalla lizards and
trained a young production
assistant in how to handle
the fierce looking reptiles.
I knew it was going to hap-
pen. It had to happen. Re-
member those greased pig chases at the county fairs?
That's what it looked like. The lizard did just fine in front
of the camera. The young assistant handled him just fine.
In fact it went so well, the lizard should hire an agent.
Naturally others on the
crew wanted to handle the
Jurassic looking creature.
The lizard twitched, a
woman screamed and
grown men shouted.
It was the Great Dumont
Lizard Chase. Granted,
chuckwallas aren't really
very fast. Being a creature
of a rocky environment, the
lizard didn't know how to
handle the dunes and could
only flee. An instant mob
of "Lizard Vigilantes" was
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in full cry and on the trail of the escaping chuckwalla
flying down the dunes in his high speed waddle. Men
jumped over chairs and charged through tents. Women
shouted encouragement as the men threw themselves
under and over the parked buggies in hot pursuit of the
renegade reptile. The lizard was not that hard to catch,
many pursuers drew near but lacked a firm desire to touch
a large reptile• All that was missing was guns and horses
as the sand dune posse tumbled and leaped and ran after
the confused chuckwalla.
Eventually the young production assistant came to the
head of the hysterical mob and with a deft sweep of his
arm, recaptured the tired and breathless reptile. Once
again ensconced in his personal cooled ice chest, the
lizard regained his lizardly chuckwalla composure and
the crew went on with whatever it is a lizard posse does
when it's not chasing lizards.
It was in interesting week at the Dumont Dunes.
Call Mrs, Clean
Commercial
• Seal Grout
• Clean -up &
cleaning
Residential
• Carpet Cleaning
• Windows and
MNOreo...
- Senior Discount
I I Illlll Illll I I I I Illl Ill II I
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AUCTION
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