Exhibit: Erle Stanley Gardner's Baja

The museum's annual Erle Stanley Gardner exhibit will display photographs of one of Uncle Erle’s favorite places to visit.  Exhibit opens Nov. 5.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s love affair with Baja California began early.  In grammar school, he saw a map of the sea coast of Lower California with the vast interior of the peninsula marked as “unexplored”.  Although not accurate, as the Spanish had been there and built missions a hundred and fifty years before the map was made, it fired his imagination.  Once he moved to Temecula in 1937, already in his late 40’s, the proximity of Mexico to his ranch also contributed to his fondness for making trips there.   Gardner would write seven books about his adventures in Baja.  The first “Land of the Shorter Shadows” was written in 1947, and the last “Host With the Big Hat” was published just months before his death in 1970. 

On November 19^th there will be a 6:00 PM reception at the museum with a short theatrical presentation of a Perry Mason mystery by the Temecula Valley Players, and at 7:00 PM a Gallery Talk by Steve Williamson entitled “Perry Mason:  The Case of the Murdered Miner”.    The Temecula Valley Museum is located in Sam Hicks Monument Park at 28314 Mercedes Street, Temecula, CA. 

For more information and to RSVP, please call the Temecula Valley Museum at (951) 694-6450.  A donation of $2 per person is requested.