Talk:Trona Railway

SEARLES VALLEY TIMELINE

from a cached website no longer available

• 1862 - While prospecting for gold and silver in the Slate Range mountains with three partners, John W. Searles finds tincal (borax) efflorescence on the dry barren surface of what is now Searles Lake. The find goes unrecognized.
• 1872 - Watching Francis "Borax" Smith recover tincal from Teel's Marsh, Nevada, Searles realizes the value of the dry lake he found in California.
• 1873 - Searles stakes claim to 640 acres of the lake and forms the San Bernardino Borax Mining Company. He uses mules to haul borax in wagons to San Pedro.
• 1876 - The Southern Pacific Railroad extends its tracks 120 miles from Los Angeles to Mojave. Now Searles, in the first ever use of 20-mule teams, only has a four day trip to the railhead.
• 1897 - Soon after John Searles' death, the San Bernardino Borax Mining Company. is sold to the Pacific Coast Borax Company (owned by "Borax" Smith), which shuts down the Searles Lake operations.
• 1898 - California Borax Company organizes and plans to process Searles Lake salts for borax, soda ash, and potash. The company never begins production.
• 1908 - California Trona Company forms and begins recovering soda ash and potash from lake brines. The company borrows extensively and is placed into receivership.
• 1910 - S. W. Austin, receiver for the California Trona Company, builds roads onto the lake and drills test wells. He is accused of claim jumping but is later vindicated.
• 1913 - Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, a British - owned company, forms the American Trona Corporation, which in turn acquires the California Trona Company.
• 1914 - The Trona Railway Company completes 31 miles of track to Trona from the Searles Station junction with the Southern Pacific Railroad. American Trona Corporation establishes the company-owned town of Trona.
• 1915 - Potash production begins and totals 250 tons for the year.
• 1916 - The Solvay Process Company and Pacific Borax Company form the Borosolvay operation and boost the lake's potash output to 36,000 tons for the year.
• 1919 - American Trona Corporation introduces the Three Elephant brand name for borax. The name indicates strength relative to the competing 20 - Mule Team brand.
• 1920 - Consolidated Gold Fields sells its interests in the American Trona Corporation to a Dutch syndicate for $12 million. "Borax" Smith forms the West End Chemical Company and begins developing a process to recover borax and soda ash.
• 1921 - Potash prices fall, and the Borosolvay plant ceases operations.
• 1926 - American Trona becomes American Potash & Chemical Corporation. Borax production begins at the West End Chemical plant.
• 1927 - West End Chemical Company begins soda ash production at their plant.
• 1932 - Exploratory drilling on Searles Lake indicates the existence of a lower salt bed filled with brine, greatly increasing the lake's known reserves.
• 1934 - American Potash & Chemical Corporation doubles the production of potash and borax and

begins producing soda ash and sodium sulfate.

• 1948 - American Potash & Chemical Corporation develops a new operation which expands soda ash and borax production.
• 1955 - West End Chemical Company begins sodium sulfate production.
• 1956 - The West End Chemical Company merges with the Stauffer Chemical Company.
• 1961 - American Potash & Chemical Corporation again doubles the production of potash and borax.
• 1962 - American Potash & Chemical Corporation develops a novel solvent extraction process to recover boric acid and potassium sulfate from weak brines. They receive national recognition and an award for their innovative process.
• 1965 - American Potash & Chemical Corporation begins using solar evaporation in large ponds to seasonally increase the strength of brines.
• 1967 - American Potash & Chemical Corporation is acquired by Kerr-McGee Corporation.
• 1969 - American Potash & Chemical Corporation is renamed Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation.
• 1970 / 1972 - Searles Lake Chemical Company, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, attempts to develop a process to recover chemicals from lake brines using solar ponds and physical separations. The attempt fails.
• 1974 - Stauffer Chemical Company's holdings on Searles Lake are acquired by Kerr - McGee Chemical Corporation.
• 1977 - Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation begins operation of its new Argus power plant. This is the first large industrial boiler in California fired by coal.
• 1978 - Kerr - McGee Chemical Corporation begins production in the Argus Plant, its large new soda ash operation.
• 1980 - Kerr - McGee Chemical Corporation improves the borax process at Westend, increasing borax production by fifty percent. In the Trona Plant, Kerr-McGee ends soda ash production, reduces borax production and expands sodium sulfate production.
• 1982 - In the Trona Plant Kerr - McGee Chemical Corporation shuts down half the potash, half the borax, and all of the sodium sulfate production, as well as all of the gas fired boilers.
• 1988 - Kerr - McGee Chemical Corporation transfers Westend's soda ash production to the more efficient Argus Facility while expanding Westend borax production by thirty percent. The soda ash transfer also ends operation of the lime kiln at the Westend Plant.
• 1989 - ACE Company begins electric power generation and power sales to Southern California Edison Company. The ACE coal fired boiler uses a novel fluid bed for cleanly burning coal.
• 1990 - D. George Harris and Associates acquires the Soda Products Division of the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation and forms the North American Chemical Company.
• 1994 - North American Chemical Company begins using fluid bed technology to make soda ash production more efficient.
• 1996 - North American Chemical Company improves borax mining on Searles Lake and uses this to almost double borax production at the Westend Plant. They also increase soda ash production at the Argus Plant. Finally, they shut down all potash and borax production at the Trona Plant, bringing to an end the eighty one year history of recovering potash from Searles Lake brines.
• 1998 - IMC Global Incorporation acquired Trona's North American Chemical Company. The North American Chemical Company facilities at Trona and Westend were renamed IMC Chemicals Incorporated to match the name of their parent corporation.

Searles Valley Timeline comment

Stauffer Chemical Company tank cars were on the railroad tracks in Trona when I passed through there often in the mid-1960s on the way to Panamint Valley and Death Valley. About fifty years ago as well, I was doing research on the history of the ownership of the Searles Lake mineral deposits, and read in one book that the ownership of Searles Lake was held by the U.S. government foreign property custodian at one point because of suspected ties to Germany. Specifically what period, I don't remember. In August of 1970, a friend and I stopped for lunch at Panamint Springs Resort for lunch, and talked to the man running the cafe, and found he had lived in the area for a long time. Six months later in February of 1971, we were doing a college paper on the history of nearby Darwin, and interviewed the same man whose nickname was "Tex", and found he had recently retired as a janitor in a chemical lab at Trona, starting in 1940. He was interesting to talk to, and despite being a "colorful character", he knew with some accuracy the local history beginning when he had arrived in the surrounding area during the latter part of the Great Depression, including the Trona Railway. The man's name was Raymond Brothers, and he passed away between late February and Easter of 1971, shortly after we interviewed him. His death is recorded with Inyo County, California, and he was interred in the Darwin, California, graveyard, next to two of his friends' graves.

As a barely-related historical aside, in late 1969, Raymond "Tex" Brothers had given a ride to Charles "Tex" Watson, one of Charles Manson's key family members. Watson was suffering from thirst and starvation, and grateful for the ride out of the searing, deadly, conditions around Searles Lake. Manson and his family had lived not very far, relatively speaking in such a desolate area, from Trona at the Barker Ranch. Some years afterward when Charles "Tex" Watson and prison chaplain Ray Hoekstra wrote the book regarding the Manson Family "Will You Die For Me?", Watson briefly mentions his ride with the kindly man nicknamed "Tex". ("Will You Die For Me?", Fleming H. Revell Company, 223pgs, released 1978). The Searles Lake area has indeed had an interesting history, but difficult to adequately document. Linstrum (talk) 03:50, 17 June 2019 (UTC)