FROM BLANK WALLS TO A DESERT LANDMARK
History of the Oasis
In 1994, a community looking for renewed pride and a stronger identity began putting its own history on the walls of Twentynine Palms. What followed became an outdoor gallery of pioneers, desert ecology, military history, local traditions, and the people who shaped the high desert.
A Community Looking for Direction
Local merchants and organizers were discussing cleanup, beautification, community pride, economic diversification, and ways to make Twentynine Palms a place visitors would deliberately come to see.
The Mural Idea Takes Hold
The historical mural program in Chemainus, British Columbia, became an important model. The idea in Twentynine Palms grew beyond decorating buildings: the walls could tell the history of the community and the fragile desert environment around it.
The First Mural
Bill and Frances Keys, painted by Dan and Peter Sawatzky of Chemainus, became Mural #1. The 14-by-80-foot work told the story of the pioneering Keys family and Desert Queen Ranch.
Action Council for 29 Palms
The mural effort began in 1994 as a grassroots community and merchants movement. Business-registry evidence indicates that Action Council for 29 Palms, Inc. was formed as a California nonprofit public benefit corporation in late 1994, while federal tax-exempt status followed in 1995. Later organizational histories often summarize that transition simply as occurring in 1995.
“Oasis of Murals” Becomes a Civic Identity
Action 29 Palms states that the success of the mural program inspired the City of Twentynine Palms to formally adopt the name Oasis of Murals in 1997. A 2018 City-produced public-art map independently identifies 1997 as the year the City “joined” the Oasis of Murals effort. The Legacy Project therefore treats 1997 as a documented City milestone while continuing to seek the original municipal record that defines exactly what action the City took.
Twenty-Six Numbered Murals
The official series ultimately documented 26 commissioned murals, from early homesteading and mining to desert wildlife, school traditions, the Marine Corps, and Joshua Tree National Park.
A Surviving Board Record
An archived Action Council page preserves the organization’s Year 2000 Board of Directors and lists Michael Collins among its Directors. The recovered record gives the Legacy Project contemporary evidence of Collins’s formal role in the organization during the mural program’s active years.
Public Art Expands
As residents caught the spirit, other murals and public art appeared across the city. In 2004 the City established an Art in Public Places program managed by a City Council-appointed Public Arts Advisory Committee. The 2021 brochure traces that broader public-art layer through Bucklin Park in 2008, the Michael Swigart Memorial and the iconic “29!” sculpture in 2009, and the growing sculpture corridor along National Park Drive beginning in 2013.
These later works are an important part of the broader story, but they are distinct from the numbered Oasis of Murals series.
History has layers.
This Legacy Project keeps documented records and firsthand recollections side by side. When an old brochure, newspaper, archived website, photograph, or personal memory disagrees with another source, the difference is preserved and investigated rather than quietly erased.
Documented History
Brochures, newspapers, archived websites, dedication records, photographs, organizational records, and other contemporary sources.
Michael Collins Remembers
Firsthand recollections from a former Action Council board member, local business owner, and participant in the story—clearly identified as memory when documentation is still being sought.