(Howard & Della Dudley, the Eaton, Keys, Randolph, McRoberts and Heddington children at Keys Ranch school house)

Photograph
ca. 1940

A series of teachers lived in a cabin at the Desert Queen Ranch and taught in the schoolhouse. Returning to the US after 33 years as missionaries in what was then Burma (now Myanmar), the school district assigned Howard and Della Dudley, depicted here, to the ranch in the fall of 1937. The number of students, who called themselves "The Desert Rats" climbed to 18 at one point. The school closed in 1942 and the Keys children continued their junior high and high school education in Twentynine Palms and Alhambra California where Mrs. Keys had family.

Joshua Tree National Park, JOTR 20575 #2526