As my nephew and I drove through Yucca Valley, he pointed out of the truck’s window and asked, “Why is there a saber-toothed tiger statue over there?”
Having worked on exhibits at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, I couldn’t help but correct him, and I went into pedantic auntie mode. “It’s a saber-toothed cat,” I said. “AKA Smilodon fatalis.” But his question stuck with me. Why is there a statue of a Pleistocene predator in the middle of Yucca?
It turns out the statue in Remembrance Park (at the corner of Apache Trail and Highway 62) was sculpted by Frank (Antone) Martin, the same artist who created the famous Desert Christ Park. He perhaps hoped it would skulk by the Lake Pit next to what is now the Tar Pits museum and LACMA but instead gave the statue to Yucca Valley in 1952. Today, it stands as a guardian for the Veterans Memorial Circle, a fierce protector of those we remember. But it also serves as a reminder that this desert used to be a very different place.