The Mojave Cross -- Mojave National Preserve, nr Cima CA
N 35° 18.887 W 115° 33.033
11S E 631760 N 3908915
The Mojave Cross was first erected in 1934 to honor all dead of all wars. In the intervening years, this simple cross saw a lot of controversy stirred up around it, has been covered up, was stolen, later recovered, and now replaced.
Waymark Code: WMQVNM
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/01/2016
Views: 1
The Mojave Cross was first erected on Sunrise Mountain in the Mojave Desert in 1934 as a memorial to all military dead of all wars.
In 1999, The Mojave Cross became the subject of an intense constitutional battle over establishment of religion that eventually went all the way to the US Supreme Court. The cross was initially declared an unconstitutional religious display on government land (2001) by a lower Federal District Court in California, which ordered the cross to be boarded up immediately, and eventually removed.
In 2002, Congress approved a land swap between the National Park Service and a local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter, giving the VFW Sunrise Mountain (and solving the issue of the cross being on public land) in exchange for other private lands in the Mojave National Preserve.
The lawsuit continued, even tough the Government believed that with Sunrise Mountain now in private hands the cross was constitutional. Eventually, the US Supreme Court agreed.
Drama over, right? Wrong.
Shortly after the US Supreme Court ruling, the 1934 cross was stolen. It remained lost until 2012, when it was found zip-tied to a fence in Northern California. The cross is now in possession of the VFW, which is safeguarding it.
A second cross was installed in 2012. It is this cross that stands on Sunrise Mountain today.
A plaque nearby, carefully installed on the VFW-side of the fence that surrounds Sunrise Mountain, reads as follows:
"THE MOJAVE CROSS
First erected in 1934,
in honor & memory of all military dead of all wars.
Rededicated in 2012.
FOR THOSE WHO GAVE ALL"
Blasters estimate that the Mojave Cross is about 15 feet tall.
Type of cross: Latin cross
Material used: Metal (steel, bronze, aluminium, ...)
Characteristics of this cross:
simple cross on Sunrise Mountain in the Mojave Desert, a war memorial at the center of a constitutional battle that went all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Describe the location:
Sunrise Mountain, on Cima Road near Cima CA
Is this cross commemorative ?: Yes
Year of manufacture: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Post at least one photograph of this cross.