The Imperial Valley, located in the southeastern corner of California, was the setting for the book, The Winning of Barbara Worth, and was Wright's home from 1907 to 1914.   In my Collectibles book I stated that Harold Bell Wright lived in El Centro, now the county seat of Imperial County, but that is not precisely correct.  He lived just to the east of  El Centro in a little area he named Meloland.  Quentin Burke, Harold Bell Wright Society president, adds that Wright's Tecolote Rancho at Meloland was on the outskirts of the town of Holtville, which is where Wright received his mail, shopped, and sent his children to school.  

     Today, the road next to cultivated land where his house, studio, and horse stables once stood is named Barbara Worth Road.  Nearby is the Barbara Worth Resort Country Club -- which was there in the early 1930's, but not during Wright's residency in the Imperial Valley."

     The famous Barbara Worth Hotel, built in downtown El Centro in 1915,  burned to the ground January 21, 1962, and all you can see today is the vacant lot in the middle of town.  

     But the Imperial County Historical Society has recently built next to the community college a delightful historical museum that is worth traveling to see.  Harold Bell Wright's son, Norman, and his children, recently transported to the museum the items that were formerly displayed near his burial site in San Diego (cemetery staff had moved them to a warehouse earlier).  Included in the display is the entire original manuscript of  The Winning of Barbara Worth, along with many personal items and family photos. 

Here you can see many of Wright's books, plus a delightful collection of flatware, dishes, and other items from the hotel. The museum has recently increased the space for the Harold Bell Wright materials and Quentin Burke and others have added many items, such as copies of movie posters, produce labels, and even a stack of paper cups marked, "The Barbara Worth Hotel," recently discovered, still in the dispenser, in an old building in town.  While you are there, ask the museum curators about the palm trees which Wright planted around his house and which have been transplanted to the campus next door to the museum. The following photos of items in the Harold Bell Wright display were taken by Dave Hadsell, who is plainly visible in the fourth photo from the left, top row.)

     A California Registered Historical Landmark was installed and dedicated near the Holtville home of Harold Bell Wright on April 27, 2002.  Click here for details and a fascinating story by Milford Wayne Donaldson.

     The Imperial County Historical Society has also installed a large plaque in front of the Barbara Worth Resort Country Club.  It notes that Wright lived near that location and comments on his importance to valley history.

     See recent issues of the Harold Bell Wright Gazette for complete details.  And do visit the museum if you are anywhere near the Imperial Valley.  Several very high quality editions of "The Winning of Barbara Worth" have been published in the Imperial Valley in recent years and some are still available.  Click here for details.

VOL. 39, NO. 6    THE NATIVE SON - APRIL-MAY 2000                          PAGE 6

Grand President Jim Riley dedicates a monument to Harold Bell Wright, who lived 1/2 mile west of the site of this plaque in the Imperial Valley.

The plaque reads: "Harold Bell Wright--Preacher-Writer-Outdoorsman, May 4, 1872-May 24, 1944. Harold Bell Wright rose from poverty to become 'America's favorite author' for the first three decades of the 20th Century. Many of his 19 books were best sellers and made into both silent and later 'talkies'. They include 'The Winning of Barbara Worth,' a novel set in the pioneering days of the reclamation project which turned the desert into the fertile Imperial Valley. Self supporting from the age of 12, Harold Wright lived and wrote on a ranch he named 'El Tecolote,' a half mile west of this spot, from 1907 to 1915."
The dedication occurred on February 5, 2000. Standing at right is JrPGP Richard Hoffmann. 

From the web site of Native Sons of the Golden West.