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Jo Mora: The Trail Guides

Jo Mora's Carte of Los Angeles by Nancy W Grossman book cover.

A while back, an article on City Lab happened to catch my eye: “The Amazing Pictorial Map That Captured the Soul of Los Angeles.” The first couple of sentences stopped me in my proverbial tracks:

In April, 1986, the Los Angeles Public Library’s historic Central Library on Flower Street went up in flames; the catastrophic (and still unsolved) blaze consumed some 400,000 volumes and caused $22 million in damages to the 1926 building.

I had been living in LA when that fire happened. I was one of hundreds of volunteers who showed up the following day to help move hundreds of thousands of drenched books out of the building and into freezers all across the region. Eventually, they would be defrosted and restored.

But the article wasn’t about the fire. The article was about Jo Mora, and right there in the middle of it was an illustration of his Los Angeles carte – and a link to the Jo Mora Trust, from which a print of the LA carte could be ordered, most reasonably. My copy arrived promptly and went straight to the framer. Two weeks later I was hanging it on the wall. And then I started to read it.

How long this took, to read it all, I can’t begin to remember. Only a little bit of it made much sense to me. I lived in LA for a total of ten years, from 1981 to 1991, but I hadn’t actually learned all that much about the region. I grabbed a pad and started taking notes, beginning with the upper lefthand corner. “California Lancer who battled Kearney at San Pascual in 1846.” “Juan Batista de Anza.” “Pobladores.” “Neophytes,” “Arriero,” “Franciscan.” “GENTILE,” all in small caps. Gentile?

I took my list to the computer and entered “gentile los angeles history.” Much of what that brought up told me about ‘Diamond Jim’ Gentile, an American league first baseman in the 1930s. Nothing connected with the pair of native Americans under that word, one on either side of the center title information. So I tried “gentile california history.” What I found you’ll find in the book. All I can say is that by the time I’d tracked down just the information on the above references, I was hooked.

It took a few false starts before I figured out how to arrange so much seemingly random information. First I’d thought I’d just put together a mini-encyclopeia, listing towns and battles, explorers and rivers, alphabetically. Finally, I realized things had to be more organized than that. Eventually everything fell into categories and I really got to researching. The writing was a delight, and in these troubled times of COVID-19, I had more than enough time for fine-tuning.

And then I couldn’t help myself. I got a copy of the 1945 California carte. I started making more lists. I fastened my seatbelt and dove in. The research is almost done. Before I know it, I’ll be writing again and you’ll have two Trail Guides to choose from – or to pair up.

Jo Mora is famous for having fans. Artists don’t have fans – rock stars have fans, quarterbacks have fans, but yep, Jo Mora has fans. That’s the first thing they’ll say. “I’m a fan.” “My dad’s always been a fan.”

Are you a fan? But more to the point – do you suddenly realize you have a Trail Guide percolating inside you? Feel free to be in touch with me. (Use the review form on the Shop page for the purpose.)