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==Josie Bishop

Josephine Stevens Whitehill, known as Josie was born in Silver City, New Mexico on June 18, 1875. Her parents were Harvey Howard Whitehill and Harriet Margaret Stevens. Josie married Herbert Hall Bishop in Silver City, New Mexico on 4 Mar 1896. Shortly after the wedding Herbert and Josie moved to Bisbee, Arizona where their first child, Herbert Fairfax Bishop was born on 16 Nov 1896. A short time later the Bishop family moved back to Silver City where their second child, William Moreland Bishop, Sr. was born on September 7, 1898.

World Wide Fame as Radium Queen of the Mojave
In the August 9, 1937 issue of Time magazine on page 22 under the heading SCIENCE-RADIUM, was the first world-wide publication of Josie Bishop's rich radium find on her mining claims in the Mojave Desert. the article stated that as a result of testing by the Institut de Radium in Paris, France. The article stated that "Mes. Josie Bishop owns an extremely rich deposit of radium-bearing ore, one of the richest, in proportion of radium to the ton, ever discovered".

Later in the same month in the August 30, 1937 issue of Life Magazine was a two page article on pages 28 and 29 titled JOSIE BISHOP STRIKES IT RICH, FINDS RADIUM, HELIUM, GOLD AND SILVER. This article includes five photographs of Josie in her desert environment. Page 28 is a full page photo of Josie titled, "Radium Queen Tramps the Desert". This picture shows Josie trudging through the Mojave desert with her mining pick in her right hand and her canteen over her left shoulder in front of a big Joshua Tree.

On may 2, 1994 the Kern County Board of Supervisors voted to authorize Chairman, ______ to sign the California Point of Historical Interest Application per the request submitted by Josie's Grandson William M. Bishop.

On November 4, 1994 the State of California Historical Resources Commission recommended that Josie's mining claim be registered as a California Point of historical Interest. The site would be known as KER-010 JOSIE BISHOP MINING CLAIM SITE. On March 28, 1995 a letter was written by the Department of Parks and Recreation, State Historical Resources Commission notifying the family of Josie Bishop of that event. ==