Sewell "Pop" Lofinck

A funeral service for Sewell "Pop" Lofinck, desert writer and retired security officer at the China Lake Naval Weapons 
Center, was conducted November 17 at the Lyons Mortuary in Ridgecrest.

Mr. Lofinck died in his sleep November 13 at Furnace Creek Ranch, where Aaron C. Jones, former China Lake assistant 
police chief had taken him to attend the '49er Death Valley Encampment.

For about a year prior to his death he was a patient at Lasky's Convalescent hospital in Lone Pine where he was 
visited frequently by Mr. Jones, who now lives in Cartago.

Mr. Lofinck was best known in the Lone Pine area as the author of "Mojave Desert Ramblings," a book containing the 
best of the many columns he wrote for the NWC newspaper, the Rocketeer, under the title "The Desert Philosopher."

He was born 81 years ago in Manhattan, Kan., and had an adventurous boyhood.  He climbed Pikes Peak at the age of 12, 
by 14 was a self-supporting fur trapper and in 1912 joined a Department of Interior exploration party that brought 
him to Brawley and the desert.  The party's mission was to authenticate Mexican landmarks in the Imperial Valley.  
Later he was a prospector for gold and industrial metals and a real estate broker.

In 1944 he joined the NWC and soon was assigned as range officer at Junction Ranch.  For 15 years he patrolled an 
area larger that the state of Rhode Island to keep out prospectors, hunters, rock hounds and other trespassers.  In 
1962 he began writing his column for the Rocketeer.  He also wrote historical sketches of Ballarat, Cerro Gordo, 
Coso Village, Millspaugh and Darwin.  In November, 1966, directors of the Maurango Museum at China Lake arranged to 
publish selected Lofinck writings in book form.

The Inyo Register, Bishop, Inyo County, California
Thursday, December 2, 1971 - Page Fifteen
Transcribed by Denise S. Flynn