Minerva: Joshua Tree's Original Influencer
Clip: Season 5 Episode 4 | 55sVideo has Closed Captions
Did you know desert influencers have been around long before music festivals?
The original desert advocate was Minerva Hoyt. She created exhibitions to show off the desert's natural beauty and commissioned photos that convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. In 1937, Desert Magazine was launched to celebrate the Mojave for decades, and from 1940 to 1960, more than 50 movies and TV shows were filmed in the High Desert.
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Earth Focus is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal
Minerva: Joshua Tree's Original Influencer
Clip: Season 5 Episode 4 | 55sVideo has Closed Captions
The original desert advocate was Minerva Hoyt. She created exhibitions to show off the desert's natural beauty and commissioned photos that convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. In 1937, Desert Magazine was launched to celebrate the Mojave for decades, and from 1940 to 1960, more than 50 movies and TV shows were filmed in the High Desert.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThe original desert influencer was an LA socialite, Minerva Hoyt.
After falling in love with Joshua Tree's, she worried they were headed for extinction as people dug up and destroyed tons of desert plants.
She created exhibitions to show off the desert's natural beauty.
She also commissioned photos that convinced FDR to create Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936.
The very next year, Randall Henderson launched Desert Magazine, which celebrated the Mojave for decades.
Hot on its heels came the golden age of the Western.
From 1940 to 1960, more than 50 movies and TV shows were filmed in the High Desert.
It was the instant camera that first allowed travelers to document and share their images in a heartbeat.
While the technology has changed, one thing hasn't, the desire for that famous desert backdrop.
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Earth Focus is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal