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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- TRONA, CA
Searles Lake Minerals
Covering more than 40 square miles of northwestern San Bernardino County and a small part of Inyo County, Searles Lake contains half the natural elements known to man. This mineral treasure chest was not recognized as such by the emigrants who camped on its shore and tasted of its brackish waters while escaping from Death Valley in 1850. They had already found and left behind a rich silver deposit. Drinkable water to them was much more valuable than any silver or brine. Nevertheless, it was the emigrant's lost silver deposit, the famed Lost Gunsight Mine that first lured Dennis Searles into this area and put him in a position to discover and develop the lake that now bears his name.
Dennis Searles was among those searching for the Lost Gunsight Mine with Dr. S. G. George in 1860. Two years later, Dennis and his brother John were mining gold in the Slate Range. While there, they noticed that a large dry lake nearby contained borax. They went back to mining their gold, as borax wasn't quite the moneymaker as gold is, but by 1866 Indians had chased them all away from the Slate Range.
In the 1870s the Searles brothers were in Nevada, where they saw F. M. Smith successfully mining borax from a marsh. Dennis and John ran back to their lake, staked claims, and formed the San Bernardino Borax Mining Company in 1873. That year they scraped together a million pounds of borax and sold it for $200,000.
Mining law regarding placer deposits limited the Searles brothers to 160 acres, but they were able to control the entire lake by discovering and monopolizing the closest source of water, some seven miles from their plant. Most of their competitors were required to sell out sooner or later and the Searles brothers' early profits were largely the results of harvesting the borax already gathered into piles by their competition. The San Bernardino Borax Mining Company operated until 1897 when John Searles died. In 1898 Francis Smith bought the 100 ton a month plant and closed it. The equipment was moved for use at Smith's richer Daggett and Borate deposits.
In 1913 the California Trona Company became the American Trona Corporation. Raymond Ashton began building a railroad from Searles Station to the lake, the line (the Trona Railroad) being completed in March of 1914. A huge, heavily financed refinery was completed in October, 1916.
Baron Alfred de Ropp since 1908 had managed to make the Searles Lake operations pay. As manager of the Goldfields American Development Company, de Ropp was the man responsible for investing a million dollars to erect a refinery capable of extracting potash at a profit. His vision had paid off, but when he resigned in 1920, a lack of leadership was felt.
Current production is 1800 tons each day of sodium, potash, boron, lithium, bromine, liquid bromine and boric acid. The American Potash and Chemical Company operations at Trona are the only source of potash currently being mined in California. The Trona plant is a 32 million dollar investment employing 1 ,500 people. Patented claims cover 2,560 acres of Searles Lake with 3,400 additional acres being leased from the federal government.
A rival plant to the American Potash and Chemical Company operated briefly for a four year period from 1916 until 1920. The Borosolvay Plant was operated by the Solvay Process Company of New York. Located 2 1/2 miles south of Trona at Borosolvay, while in operation the plant produced 200 tons of potash a month. In addition to the aforementioned minerals, sodium carbonate is also recovered from Searles Lake by the American Potash and Chemical Company and the West End Chemical Company. The West End Chemical Company originally mined borax with poor results when the company was organized by Francis Smith in 1920. Three years later the refinery was rebuilt to recover soda ash in addition to the borax, and it has been successful ever since. The process used to recover soda ash and borax involves injecting the lake brine with carbon dioxide gas, obtained by burning limestone from a nearby deposit. The bicarbonate produced is dried and heated in furnaces where it becomes a fluffy brown soda ash. In its coarse state this is used in the manufacture of glass.
Searles Lake's estimated mineral production potential is staggering. Thirty-two square miles of the lake are considered worth commercial interest. Each of these 32 square miles contain an estimated 100 million tons of alkali salts. This supply is expected to last for several generations.
Sources of information:
Fairchild, James L. and Robinson, David T. - John W. Searles "California Mining Pioneer" Searles Valley Historical Society 2018
United States Library of Congress
Special collections and archives - University of Nevada Reno and Las Vegas
Newspaper Archives institutional version
California State Library
In the 80's I worked on the GE gas turbine at Kerr McGee. What an odd town. In the 1990's I belonged to a motorcycle club called the ICOA where people from all over the West would ride their Honda CBX 6 cylinder bikes and we would meet up at Ridgecrest. The next day we would pass the fish rocks (we called them snake rocks), drive through Trona, then head to Death Valley for a few days. The thing that I always remembered was the Trona VFW building with a pair of 1950's 75mm recoilless rifles out in the front yard. I live in the San Francisco East Bay on a steep dead end street in a wooded canyon full of wildlife. I have been here for 40 years and this was a great video to remind me that I prefer deer, foxes, wild turkeys, and trees and will never be shopping for land in Trona.
Thanks for sharing your story
Been there many times on my way to Death Valley-Trona has alway perplexed me!
You did a great job explaining the history of Trona. I grew up in Ridgecrest and moved back in 2012. There used to be 3 plants around the lake but one is completely gone now.
Thanks so much
There still is Westend, Argus, and Trona! Wake up.
Why did you move back ? It’s a dump !
3 Plates Tommy is from Ridgecrest.
@@stevec5576 my parents lived here. I moved back to take care of them. Also, I have severe arthritis and have a lot less flares since moving back here. The dry hot weather has been good for me. But I would rather live somewhere else that isn’t quit so hot.
Much has changed over the decades. I recall Trona having a Ford dealership in the late 70's
Thanks for the aerial views of Trona. I worked at Death Valley's Furnace Creek Inn several seasons and made a couple trips over to Trona to photograph the railroad. Wish I'd had a drone then!
You did a pretty good job with your video.
I was a San Bernardino County Landfill Operations Inspector from 2004 to 2022 and we have a closed site landfill and a Trainsfer Station out there now ran by the Athens Corporation, I would be scheduled to go out there from one to ten times a month from 2004 up until 2000, all of the waste from the town of Trona gets loaded into 90 yard end dumps and trucked off to the Barstow Sanitary Landfill.
I met and worked with a lot of good hard working people from out there at the TTS that were from the area or had been born and raised out there in Trona.
Back in the 1920’s the company had put in a big swimming pond about 100 feet wide by 300 feet long with a slide that looked to be at least 40 feet tall from the pictures, filled with a combination of waste waters from the plant. I met several women who were in there 90’s at the time at the town museum who had swam in the water feature which was shut down when OSHA was first formed in 1973 as I was told. They sold post cards in the Trona museum of the swimming pool and two of the ladies showed me where they were at as little girls in the photo from the 1920’s. I sent many of the post cards out from the former Free Masons building that is the post office with a Trona stamping on them to a very special girl that I was deeply in love with and still am, but she is a very sad story just like the degradation of the town.
There are many abandoned mines out there in the area like most every where due to the banning of private mining during World War Two.
There is a trailer park there in town that you didn’t cover that up until the automation of the plant in the 80’s or 90’s was completely full with trailers and mobile homes of the plant workers, with a line of cars/ trucks and trailers waiting in line for someone to get fired or quit from the plant to get a spot in the park.
There used to only be a few people in the park while I was going out there and most of them worked for Mr. ???? I can’t remember his name right now, but he ran the Trona landfill and then Transfer Station from the 1950’s up until like 2018 when he was in his 80’s and fell off of the top of one of the 90 yard end dump trailers while tarpping down a loads of trash and broke his leg. He was a real man, / cowboy and good equipment operator, so with a broken leg he crawled over to the diesel truck tractor, climbed up into the cab, shut down the engine and got his keys, locked it up and then drug / crawled himself over to his triple nickel/ Ford 555 loader / backhoe, climbed up on it and drove himself over to a area of the perimeter fencing where he knew that there were some survey lathes / thin 1/2” by 1” x 3’ long survey markers and some barb wire. So he drove the triple nickel over there, shut it down and climbed down, got the lathes, broke them in half wrapped the barb wire around his boot ankle through a fence post and back to his hands and pulled on the wire until his compound fractured femur bone went back inside of his leg and into place. Then wrapped the wire around the broken off lathes to make a split and wrapped the barb wire around the lathes to split his leg. Drug himself back to the triple nickel drove it over to his pick up truck and then drove the over 100 miles to Saint Marries Medical Center in VictorVille or Apple Valley and then drug himself into the emergency room.
After that he decided that it was time to retire and I believe that he moved off to Arizona and passed away in 2020 pre Covid.
I still have nothing but the upmost respect for him.
I also meet and change some loader tires with him and Tom Jones , Trona’s main heavy equipment mechanic when it was like a hundred and twenty degrees out there.
Any which way the only other cool thing out there at the west end of Trona that I actually got a picture of is the white powder volcano that erupts and souses the white powdery dust that is at the West end about 300’ straight up in the air like the Old Faithful Gasser at YellowStone.
It’s one of those legend things, people that had worked out there for many years have never seen it in person, but they all really appreciated my pictures of it that I handed out to the friends that I had out there.
Any way thank you very much for the video, your doing a fine job, keep up the good work.
Great story David. Thanks for sharing this wonderful information and thanks for watching the video.
Made a few trips there myself, my uncle owned and operated Argus Appliance on the south end of town, On one of my early trips to Trona, we ventured out to Valley Wells about a mile north of town which was at the time a huge swimming pool and lots of people enjoying the water activities. My cousin married a guy named Bill Roberson who operated a grader out on the salt flats for Kerr McKee , lived just up the hill from appliance store (now gone) in a house he built for his family.
Keep trying with the lady David, been there…
Truly enjoyed the history. Those homes have so much potential. Maybe one day I can be out there to help bring the town back to light🥰
This was a great video, informative and interesting. I really enjoyed the accompaniment music. A+
Glad you enjoyed it!
I love the history you give us. Well done!
Thanks so much. I am glad you like the channel content.
Thanks! I really enjoyed the video 😊 I appreciated all the research you did on the history of the town. Kind of sad seeing all those abandoned houses, but it goes with the ups and downs of mines of course. California resident here, so I really enjoy learning about towns like this. Thanks for your hard work in putting the videos together! 🌟👍 I'll be ready for your next adventure!
I appreciate you recognize the level of effort in the research. The history research is a labor of love. Glad you enjoy the videos.
@@GhostTownWonders A labor of love. Yes, that's what comes through to me. I appreciate that. I especially love ghost towns and the history behind them. Needless to say, here in California we have plenty!
Great tour. ❤Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it
I was born and raised in Trona before the many economic collapses that drove most of the people away. I haven't been there in a long time. Thanks for sharing.
great tour you can really get the feel of this place and its history
Thanks so much.
If you don't mind, I'll add my memories about Trona. I was in Trona just last week while on my way to Ballarat. I worked for Xerox Corporation in 1968 based out of Ridgecrest. One of my biggest customers was American Potash. I'm pretty sure that is what it was called back then. I serviced 25 Xerox copy machines in that plant for years. I traveled out there almost every day for work.
You showed a photo of the Fish head rocks. But that was not the original location for them. Originally there was only one a little closer to Ridgecrest but still well within the canyon. It was a much larger rock on the north side of the road with a shark mouth painted on it. I don't know when it was painted, but it was there in 1968. It is gone now.
Two very famous people died in Trona. George P. Putnam who was married to Amelia Earhart in 1937 when she disappeared died of Kidney failure in the local hospital on January 4, 1950, at 62 years of age. He was living in Stove Pipe Wells at the time when he became sick.
Also, Charles Ferge, known as Seldom Seen Slim who lived for decades in Ballarat walked into Trona one day seeking medical attention for Cancer. He died there in 1968 and is buried in Ballarat.
I have traveled through Trona hundreds of times over the last 55 years. Driving through the town now I almost feel my breath being sucked out of me from the desolation and condition of the town. It truly takes my breath away and puts a feeling of foreboding in the pit of my stomach.
Thanks for sharing your story and information.
My father worked there and it was stauffer chemical 1964-66. After that he was working at China lake.
Ben there alot i lived in Ridgecrest hot in summertime nice seeing it again lol😅😅
I enjoyed this presentation immensely. I lived as a kid on base at China Lake (Naval Ordinance Test Station back then) and my dad was a radar technician working for the Department of Defense on ways to increase the sensitivity of radar. He was part of a team to first develop a radar that could track a 12" shell downrange, no small feat in the days of tube radar. I camped out at the Trona Pinnacles in 1965 or '66 with Boy Scout Troop #35 from China Lake. My dad took me often over to Trona, and I remember one time where we listened to a presentation by a geologist (?) who worked at the plant on desert vegetation, edible and poisonous. It was in the Trona Rec Hall with the steps leading up to it out front. About 25 people were in attendance besides me and my dad. Trona in the 1960s was a thriving town filled with families whose dads worked at the plant. I was last in Trona about 20 years ago on my way to an interview just south of Ballarat to an open pit gold mine, which has since closed. Didn't get the job (I'm a mining engineer, now retired), but it was sad to see the state of both Trona and Pioneer Point. Apparently for a number of years tweakers have made living there problematic. A good fun movie made there a number of years ago starring Danny DeVito is titled "Just Add Water." I was planning to take my kids to their Trona Gem Rendezvous or whatever it's called back in 2021, and then they cancelled it because of the earthquake. I don't know that it ever started up again since.
Thanks for sharing your story. Glad you enjoyed the video
I live in Ridgecrest now, used to live in Trona. My dad worked at the West End plant.
Also, I remember the smell. It was not pleasant.
@@garymeyers3461Westend
@@garymeyers3461 Kind of a sulphur-like smell as I recall it. It never bothered me, there were many interesting things there to see. I visited from Apple Valley, a friend & family in Trona. Place was a trip to me.
I would so love to see California and not just places that are on the top of everyone’s list. Trona is right up there on my imaginary wishlist. Lots of love to all out there :-) frontier mentality rocks. BIG TIME
Please do pay a visit. It's worth it. I wish I grew up in a town like Trona in its glory days.
My Birthplace!!!
Definitely unique!
I was born and raised there I was born in Ridgecrest in 1966 we lived in Trona in the Argus area. The town was really prosperous at one time it was a great place to grow up.
Thanks for sharing your story.
I remember driving through and stopping for breakfast there in the early 70's on our way to Death Valley.
I’m a ECV Clamper and I really like your video about Trona. I also have hauled by semi truck soda ash pot ash and salt to many locations around California and as far as Texas. I love America mining history I hope you keep making videos like this.
Thanks for sharing
Very well researched history of this area.
Another great, informative video of a place I've seen on maps for years, but was so far off the well-traveled routes, I never sought to venture. Very well done. BTW, the price of gas @ 21:20 is not much more than on the coast. - 230 miles away.
Great video!!! Thanks
Glad you enjoyed the video
I want to give you thanks for making that video it was very interesting to see some of the history you gave out about trona having my family of sixth generations live in there and working at the plant and majority of them still live there and work there although some have moved to Ridgecrest and because of the earthquake some have moved out of there but majority of my family members still work and live there in trona and the swimming pool that they're talking about that was an awesome place to go but what a lot of people don't know is across the street in the desert from the pool there's an oasis where there's a really nice waterfall and natural spring that the locals know about and go and hang out but have bonfires barbecue and swim in the waterfall okay maybe not swim but get wet in the waterfall which was awesome to do during the summer till this day most of my family members still live there and some of them are actually in management and working there at the plant so it was awesome to see someone do a little documentary video about trona once again you did a great job
Thanks so much for watching and sharing your story. Glad you liked the video.
Great Falls and Indian Joe Spring. I love Trona
A very excellent and informative presentation. Thank you! I'm a native of the San Joaquin Valley and have driven through Trona once in 1966. I've always wondered about the place.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent video! I passed through Trona several times in the 1980's. Your history and photography were great!
Glad you enjoyed it!
We have been traveling through Trona since 1985 on our yearly visit to Death Valley. We never knew much about the town or history, thank you very much. You did a very good interpretation of Hugh Howser 👍
Thanks for watching
Great work. I’ve ridden my moto through there for the last 15 years and got to know the story of the family who owned the Shell station. Not a happy story with a son in need of a transplant, earthquake took out their tanks. Some great eateries though.
I always wondered who owned that. I remember it was open pre earthquake?
I've been to both Trona and Ridgecrest, back when my late husband Karl and I lived at the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley National Monument, back in 1979. A lot has changed since then, my husband passed away in 1984. Death Valley became a national park in 1994, and the Borax mine closed in Death Valley in 1996. I want to move to either Trona, Ridgecrest, the Owens Valley or Lancaster, California to be closer to my brother Eric in West Covina California.
You can still get a decent home in Trona and Ridgrecrest
@@macalvarezLA that would be great. A rent to own arrangement would be nice.
@@diane1390 Are you looking to rent one?
@@macalvarezLA I am disabled and my sister and I would need a lot of help to move. Life should be so grand.
I wish they Would bring back Gem O Rama!!!!!
Great video, makes ya sad to see towns dying across America.
I was all geared up for this~
Til you flashed a McD's cup.
BYE.
At first, I was going to get defensive. But you are correct. I have been making these videos for almost 3 years and I have normally opened up with my McD's coffee. I could see how you could think that I am being compensated by them. I assure you I am not sponsored by McDs. I will take your advice and no longer open up with McDs coffee cup. However, I will still be drinking coffee for the road, just not showing a McD cup. Thanks for your point of view.
Yes please do. i was just a bit dissapointed, We do plan on visiting Trona this year. Please continue, My criticism was not inteneded to discourage. My apologies,
Nice video...thanks! I started with Kerr-McGee in November 1987 in Employee Relations at Westend. When D. George Harris took over, many of us were let go one day in early 1991. While I was devastated at the time, it was the best thing that could have happened to me and that's when my acting career begin. I now live in Florida. On a trip back west a few years ago, I drove through Death Valley from Las Vegas to get to Ridgecrest. Sad to see how Trona has fallen over the years.
Thanks for watching and sharing your experience.
Loved the video pretty informative 😅😅 i was a truck driver before retirement 😅😅
Glad you enjoyed it
I truly enjoy these types or videos. It’s cool that some buildings there were made by your dad! Very detailed. Never even knew this city existed here in California! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Worked for kerr mcgee as a plant operator for 8.1/2 years. then worked building the ace power plant as a electrician.
Some people found they could not work in trona in the summer because of the heat.
i never lived in Trona i lived in Ridgecrest all the time i worked in Trona. many of the homes in trona were bought from the company years ago and are now empty as the employees retired and moved to cooler climates.
the homes were so old and damaged by the chemicals they were worth little and no one would buy them.
very few homes in Trona ever had air conditioning as the chemicals in the air would destroy them in about a year.only swamp coolers would survive about 5 years before rusting out.
What's in the air?
Thx for the history tour...very interesting place.
Glad you enjoyed it
Fantastic job! I have been to Trona 3 times, So great to learn the history of this amazing place! We appreciate your efforts to school us on the history of this fantastic valley. Thank you sir!!
Glad you enjoyed the video Bill
I share your love of the Mohave,even though I live in WA.state.Driving truck I got to see some of it.Good job on the videos.I like watching them alot.Id like to get out of the snow and explore more of the area.Great stuff
Awesome! Thank you!
15:45 Many of these houses were badly damaged and abandoned after the earthquakes of July 2019. Sad to see so much dereliction here, it kinda reminds me of Eagle Mountain.
thanks, nice tour with the history of Trona.
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent tour. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you and good job. The town doesn't look so well. I would think the water situation would be the resin Snow birder, don't come for fun in the sun. I have looked at real estate prices here, bargains, but you can see why. I also noticed no big power lines coming in, must burn coal for power and steam. I watch a railroad channel on the tracks to Trona Mark Mcgown out. And most of all how do you make Pot Ash. stay safe ALL
Glad you like the video Dave
I lived in Trona as a very little kid - have not been back since the 80's
I can send some pictures. I frequent the area.
Cool video I would like to visit there
I thoroughly enjoyed your documentary of Trona. I've camped out at the Pinnacles a handful of times. Was always interested in Searles dry lakebed and Trona. Felt like i was at the Ridgecrest vistor center watching a video on the history of the area.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Sir-Major Thank You.
Will add more soon.
The few existing "trees" are in the Tamaricaceae "salt cedar" family. They were introduced and are incredibly drought and salt tolerant. Some members of the family are considered to be invasive species in some states as they can outcompete native flora by sucking water from deep soil. In Trona it is impressive that they can survive on their own at all.
They will tap into anything they can for water! Sewer lines etc.
My friend just bought a home with at least 4 Tamarisk trees. I'm surprised they lasted without being watered. We had a good rain year last year and it was so green.
Before I finish watching this,,I used to play miner league baseball in Mojave in 72-74 and we traveled to Trona. In the dirt. Because grass don’t grow there then
Used to travel through Trona regularly on my way to Ballarat & ultimately Briggs camp up in the Panamint mountains. 20 years ago, you could buy a single family home in Trona for $2000. With inflation the way it is, I bet that same home would cost $2050 today. 😊
We got one for 5k. Needs work but it's paid off
I bought my property in the Argus section of Trona days before the earthquake in 2019. A new roof. Swamp cooler. Flooring, all for $15,500.
I visited Trona once every 6 weeks for 3 yrs from 1971 - 74. From then on, only when there was a need up until 1080.. As my brother in law had worked out there as a boiler welder for a good 8 yrs. And what a strange place Trona was. The smell alone reminds me of a story from a place of fire and brimstone with burning sulfur. Leaving trona was always the best moments of visiting trona. I'll be able to breathe a again in a few more miles down the road. By the time you reached red mountain your sense of smell was showing promising signs of recovery.
But in escaping Trona now there were military flares that would Turn Night into day. Lighting up the desert sky drowning out the Milky Way.. Or were they really UFO's. There were always secret Gov installations all over that area. Some called them DUMB's. Where it was dumbfounding to see a bunch of cars appear from nowhere. Driving out of the desert all clean & shinny without any dust on them. From parking lots where there had been no cars. Within the perimeters of the secured wired up enclosures. That doted the desert landscape of secret Gov projects.
Yep the best part was always leaving trona in the rear view mirror.
We've seen orbs that hover and disappear, but reappeared right on top of us. After that, blacked out government looking SUV was roaming the area. This was in 2018. We were puzzled by what was happening late that night.
I worked a shutdown at the soda ash plant kin the late 80's . Rough looking area it nice people .
I remember driving around a curve on edge of town someone had climbed up and spray painted welcome to the Trona Zone . You could see across the valley it was all White
good work .
Thank you
I enjoyed it. Very well thought out video !!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Trona had at one time the best education system in California, it drew the ire of Los Angeles school districts because the teachers were better paid than in LA.
Nice El camino in that one yard.
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
I remember coming out to Trona in the early 70's with the lawyer who represented the striking workers-one of whom got shot in the arm at the front gate, though not serious, it was inches away from being deadly. There have been violent strikes there in the past, one during ww2 I believe. What great and tough people I met that weekend.
I worked at Westend and it is still there.
Very well done! Drove through there on our way back to OC from Death Valley with my sons. Perplexing, haunting town for all of us. We drove around a bit, saw the same economic symptoms you showed. Trona suffered two pretty major earthquakes that really did their toll on the town that was already barely clinging to life. Keep up the great work.
Thanks for watching Tom.
Yes that was cool Peace out
Awesome video very informative.
Glad you liked it
What about the community swimming pool was there many time's as a kid
The New Co. Closed it! It was great. People from Ridgecrest would drive out to have fun at Valley Wells. Had a game room, snack bar and a giant pool!
You are correct. I did drive by that pool and it was completely dry. I chose to edit that out due to the length of the video.
We came from randsburg
Yes I'll agree I worked there in late 70s unloading coke trains hell of a job you missed the swimming pool and the bar 😂❤
I did see the pool. However, for some reason I chose not to include it in the video. 🫣
Thanks for the video! I lived at China Lake 1947-1952 as a little kid. My Dad worked for the Navy as an optician building bomb sight optics for military use. He used to take us on hot summer days to "Trona Lake" where I learned how to swim! nobody has ever shown where that is on youtube and I don't remember how we got there. Wondering if anybody Knows!!@ Mike.
Mike it is just north of the town of Trona. I drove to the site and of course the pool was empty and closed
Interesting history, thanks for showing ! But Trona isnt a real beauty today.....
The entire Trona High School football field is dirt.
Yes, I saw that and it is very interesting. I reluctantly chose to edit that out due to length of the video.
I attended Trona High School. I played on that and the baseball field which was also sand.
Nice choice of moody, mournful music, which is respectful of the sadness of the abandoned part of Trona.
Thanks for the kind words Susan. It is definitely something I try to get right with my videos. Sometimes it works and sometimes I miss the mark. Thanks for watching.
Looks like my Florida neighborhood after the last hurricane blew through.
Yes, this place is quite unique.
Hard living in that desert.
The Ridgecrest Earthquake of 2019 hurt commerce in the town of Trona. The fuel tanks at the Shell service station were compromised, causing its closure. No more weekend barbecued food and biker gathering place. The Dollar Store and bar are long gone. I have never seen a soul at the high school. I'm not sure if it remains open. There are several churches, however.
Thanks for sharing your story
I accidently had to drive through there a year or so ago. I thought of a found the end of civilization. What a depressing town I. The middle of nowhere.
It certainly is unique
So San Bernardino county makes it impossible to build anything out there until we gave up a long time ago that you can buy a lot for $5,000 but you got asbestos abatement sewer water it just becomes so expensive nobody will ever move out there
we played them in football on their sand field.
The town today looks like a sad, run down and blighted shell of it's former self.
There goes the neighborhood……
The earthquakes in 2021 didn't help things there. Interesting, Trona is the starting place for one of the worst disasters in the city of San Bernardino. Potash from Trona was mis weighted in Mojave, then with defective locomotives going down Cajon pass, crashed in the western part of SB.
My step father's ex wife worked as a stripper in Trona
No one there has green yard's because of the soil and the drinking water is piped over from Ridgecrest
Man it’s NOT Borox! It’s borax come on man
I stand corrected
Calm down buddy
Boraxo
Should not be labeld Ghost Town Wonders when speaker admits that it isnt a Ghost Town. Interesting story however about Borax and Twenty mule team
Very Observant Randy. The name of my RUclips channel is "Ghost Town Wonders" and some of my videos are of places that have current residences. So, the channel name is not meant to be taken literally and I will continue to make videos that may be with exception. I created a video of Trona because of the long and interesting history I believe to be worthy of sharing. Thanks for watching!
Years
Don't care, not interested, not your land.
Sorry .. I don't watch vids made by people who patronize mcdonalds ...
And yet still compelled to comment. Freaking hater.
Why? Do you consider them too uppity for your sorry ass?
Wow. Your entire segment on the borax history has me blown away. I've been a fan of the mule teams since childhood and even as an adult. I've obsessed over the wagons and the lore. Been to the museum in Boron more times than I can count, have the souvenir map of the routes and even wanted to retrace their various paths. There isn't a trip through Mojave where I'm not looking for Pilot Knob.
For some reason your video is the first time I've really heard about the San Bernardino Borax Mining Company. It seems to be nearly forgotten. One aspect that has always bugged me: there were supposedly five sets of DV wagons. From the story, they were all designed and made at the same time. That never explained the set at the Cal City Police station, nor the set in front of Furnace creek. Both are much smaller than the Harmony or Boron sets. The dates in everything I have said the Pacific Borax wagons were used for five years and that was almost at the end of the century. You came along here with an explanation for those other wagons, perhaps predating the legendary teams by 10-20 years.
Glad you enjoyed the video
Great video. Thanks!
Glad you liked it!