Western Railroad Discussion > The Stein monument at Ash Hill, BNSF Needles Sub.

After the passing of Richard Steinheimer, someone built a rock carin in his honor beside the cut just east of Ash Hill on the BNSF Needles Sub.  The monument goes with his words:

Don’t bury me in Forest Lawn, or Eternal Acres.
Toss my ashes out into the desert around Ash Hill.
Let the wind behind the Santa Fe’s eastbound hotshots
pull me off toward Amboy and Cadiz.
Let me take one hundred years to know this desert.

Over the years since, I've kept an eye on the place when I've been out there and occasionally added a rock to the pile.  I happened to be out there yesterday with a friend and noticed that someone had raided the pile for rocks for a fire ring built a few feet away.  My friend and I rebuilt the monument taller than before, and figured we needed to publisize it so that folks that go out there to watch trains don't inadvertantly disturb it.  I've also been thinking that it would be worth while for anyone who visits out there to add a rock to the pile in the man's memory.  It would also be cool if any enterprising souls might want to add rocks to it from other places he used to love, like Donner Summit.

Attached photo shows the monument as we left it yesterday.

Regards,

Kit Courter

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

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Nice..might be good to have a small identification stick in the rocks so people would at least realize it was a special place. Not thinking of a cross or other large thing.
Good idea to bring rocks from other places.
Roger Beckett

I met the man who piled those and many other rocks in piles through out the needles sub. They are not a monument to Steinheimer.  The man works in San Francisco, and came out to the desert to decompress. He stacked those rocks to show whomever came along that he had been there, that he was alive, had lived, and in a small way, his life mattered.   They would never know who did this, but he knew, and as he pointed out, I knew.  He was unmarried, no family, and from what he told me, very lonely. His life had turned into a dull, mindless routine, of going to work, coming home to an empty apt, no friends. The desert gave him a reprieve, for a little while anyway.
 

I have always treated cairns with respect. I was taught that the Native Americans used them to mark important trails and routes through the deserts and mountains. Only the elders were allowed to touch them. I learned this as a young man and never touch them. Unmolested they can stand far longer than the man who builds them.
 I have just the rock to add to this one. It came from the Cady Mountains near one of my favorite overlooks.
-Bill-
edit: Excellent picture as usual Kit. Speaks volumes.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/16 06:18 by crazybill.

needles_sub Wrote:   > I met the man who piled those and many other rocks in piles through out the needles sub.

Interesting.  Well, if indeed that is how it started, I know I'm not the only one that has treated it as a monument to Stein and has added rocks to it over time.  There is a photo floating around (I have a copy but I don't have permission to post it) showing its dedication five years ago.

The desert is indeed a good place for decompression as well as reflection.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/16 11:58 by CimaScrambler.

About 60 years ago, on a desert trip to Nev. 
My Dad opended up a cairn rock pile to show us a mining claim in Prince Albert can.
He then put everything back. He told us that was for education, don't do it again.

needles_sub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I met the man who piled those and many other rocks
> in piles through out the needles sub. They are not
> a monument to Steinheimer.  The man works in San
> Francisco, and came out to the desert to
> decompress. He stacked those rocks to show
> whomever came along that he had been there, that
> he was alive, had lived, and in a small way, his
> life mattered.   They would never know who did
> this, but he knew, and as he pointed out, I knew.
>  He was unmarried, no family, and from what he
> told me, very lonely. His life had turned into a
> dull, mindless routine, of going to work, coming
> home to an empty apt, no friends. The desert gave
> him a reprieve, for a little while anyway.
>  

When did this happen? Were you at the cut and he was there?

The location is fantastic. I remember a cross inside Tehachapi loop dedicated to an engineer of atsf that died in a train derail somewhere. Railfans could do a monument to the crew of the bnsf trains that crashed in Texas panhandle, specially to the woman never found.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/16 15:29 by pedrop.