ROSAMOND DRY LAKE — A 1905 photograph of the “Desert Queen” sailing on Rosamond Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. The sailing vehicle has four wheels, sails (spinnaker & mainsail) and a flag. Five passengers (three women, two men) sit on the flat skeletal platform while one man, smoking a pipe, operates the steering wheel. The vessel is headed to the left. The Desert Queen was built and used by miners to cross three miles of dry lake.
Today, the shores of the dry lake bed, which is several miles northeast of Rogers Dry Lake, are entirely within the borders of Edwards Air Force Base. The history of Edwards AFB and the military’s use of Rogers and Rosamond lakebeds goes back to the early 1930s when Army Air Corps aircraft from what is now March Air Force Base, Riverside, flew over the lakebeds for bombing and gunnery practice. During World War II, facilities were established adjacent to Rogers Dry Lake then called Muroc Dry Lake to train bomber and fighter crews for duty overseas.
More information about the miners sailing on the dry lake is online at the unofficial website of Rosamond, CA 93560. rosamondca.us/history/Dry.