The Ventura Gem & Mineral Society, Inc. (VGMS)

Earth Sciences 1998 Archive.

Table of Contents.

1. APRIL - "CFMS EARTH SCIENCE STUDIES KNOWN AS ZZYZX";
2. APRIL - "THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEARLES LAKE".

APRIL.

"CFMS EARTH SCIENCE STUDIES KNOWN AS ZZYZX".
     Attending were a total of 86 individuals, including staff and instructors. The weather, which can be unpredictable this time of year, was picture perfect, with beautiful sunrises every morning. The meals, provided by caterers who also cater on movie sets were out of this world. Field trips to areas recently opened to collecting were attended by a total of 91 persons, some going several times. Programs on Gem collecting in Columbia, Russian Treasures, and minerals by Bob Jones, editor of Rock and Gem magazine, printed in Ventura, were attended by almost every one. Bob has a rare and delightful story-telling ability that is very entertaining. "Fun Night" on Friday was so much fun, no one wanted it to end. At graduation on Saturday, we all saw literally hundreds of beautiful carvings, sets of beads, rings, pendants, cabochons, silver work, etc. It was a great week.
          Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer.

Table of Contents.

"THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEARLES LAKE".
     Lured by the Gold Rush of 1849, John W. Searles and his brother Dennis, sailed from New York to California in search of precious metals. Like most prospectors, they found plenty of hardship and very little gold. Unlike most other prospectors, they found treasure of another kind.
     While searching for gold near the Panamint Mountains in 1862, John Searles came across a crusty, dry lake bed. Noticing crystals shimmering in the sunlight, he scooped up a handful and tucked them in his ore sack, unaware that he had discovered one of the world's richest deposits of chemicals. Ten years passed. Then, in Nevada, Searles saw Francis "Borax" Smith recovering borax from similar crystals. Suddenly recognizing the value of the dry lake he had found in California, Searles back tracked. His find was worth far more than the gold that had been eluding him.
     Searles and his associates staked claim to 640 acres and formed the San Bernardino Borax Mining Company. In 1874, its first year of operation, the company produced 1 million pounds of borax worth an estimated $200,000. In the late 1870s, two other operations attempted to produce borax from the lake. About the same time borax prices fell from 30 cents a pound to 10 cents, and the newcomers closed their operations. They were the first of many to fail. Searles sold his San Bernardino Borax Mining Company in 1895 to "Borax" Smith's Pacific Coast Borax Company, which sought to corner the borax market. The new owners shut down Searles' plant.
     In the early 1900s, dozens of promoters and miners tried unsuccessfully to recover soda ash from the lake's surface. The California Trona Company borrowed nearly $2 million to build two experimental plants to recover soda ash, potash, borax and sodium sulfate from the lake. Deep in debt, the company was placed into receivership before the facilities were completed. Serving as receiver for the failed business, S. W. Austin began building roads onto the lake and drilling exploratory wells. The valley's earliest operators had, quite literally, scratched only the surface of the lake's mineral wealth. Early operations recovered borax by scraping crystals from the lake's surface crust. Austin discovered abundant mineral-rich brines and salt beds starting about 30 feet beneath the surface. Operators have concentrated on extracting that brine and recovering chemicals from it since that time.
     In 1913, the newly formed American Trona Corporation acquired the California Trona Company's assets. Flush with money from the British firm of Consolidated Gold Fields, American Trona finished building the 31-mile Trona Railway, established the company town of Trona and completed the experimental recovery plants. But the new plants were a bust! Two years and another $1 million later, American Trona developed a way to use steam to evaporate brine and potash production began. The company produced 250 tons of potash in 1915.
     A German embargo of potash fertilizer during World War I sharply raised potash prices, creating a rush of activity at Searles Lake - the only known American source of potash at the time. Pacific Coast Borax Company and the Solvay Process Company hastily joined forces and opened the Borosolvay plant, with Pacific Coast selling the borax and Solvay selling the potash. Potash production at Searles Lake jumped to 36,000 tons in 1916.
     Borosolvay closed its doors in 1921 when potash prices plunged. American Trona, on the other hand, established a research and development department at Trona and improved its recovery operations.
     The '20s ushered in a period of relative stability at Searles Lake. A new group of investors formed the American Potash & Chemical Corporation in 1926 and purchased the American Trona Corporation, which had finally become profitable. The investors enlarged and expanded the Trona Plant several times during the next 20 years and added facilities to produce a wider range of chemicals.
     "Borax" Smith, who had once controlled the Pacific Coast Borax Company, returned to Searles Lake in 1920 and formed the West End Chemical Company. He built a townsite at Westend and a wood-stave pipeline to bring brine to the plant he built. Skeletal remains of the pipeline can still be found on the lake near Westend.
     By 1925, Searles Lake had been under development for 52 years. Investors had sunk millions of dollars into the lake, and hundreds of prospectors had staked their claims. Testifying to the toil and crumbled dreams, only two companies remained - American Potash & Chemical Corporation and the West End Chemical Company. West End merged with Stauffer Chemical in 1956. Kerr-McGee acquired American Potash in 1967 and then the Westend Plant from Stauffer in 1974 resulting in just a single operator on Searles Lake.
     In 1969 Kerr-McGee began a multimillion-dollar study to explore the lake, develop new extraction methods and examine market opportunities. This lead to the investment of $175 million to build the Argus soda ash plant which started operating in 1978.
     In 1990 all of the Searles Valley assets of Kerr-McGee were purchased by D. George Harris and Associates which formed the North American Chemical Company. Today, North American annually sells 2 million tons of products derived from Searles Lake.
          Author Unknown,
          Contributed by Steve Mulqueen.

Table of Contents.

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