Category Archives: Trona History

Posts relating to Trona History.

The Tufa House Not! – Is it Tufa or Volcanic Rock?

3 Replies

I recently ran across an article in the Ridgecrest News Review,  Community of Trona, the home of several museums by Laura Quezada. One of the things Laura mentions in her article was the Tufa House that was donated to the Searles Valley Historical Society by Robert Schuette.  This caught my interest because I had never heard of the Tufa House before but I have heard the name, Schuette, (pronounced “Shooty”) so I sent Bill Schuette, class of 1958, an email to ask him what he knew about the Tufa House.

Bill wrote back and told me that the house was once owned by his grandmother from 1943 to 1960 and that originally it was on homesteaded land on the other side of the Argus Range that was taken over by the Navy when they took over the airfield from the Army Air Force and expanded it into a ordinance testing area.

Henry F. W. Schuette moved the Schuette family from the Los Angeles area to Inyokern, near China Lake, sometime between 1916 and 1930. He worked on the Los Angeles aqueduct project. Henry F. W. and his wife, Johanna, were granted a homestead (by the US government) near of the railroad head known as Brown, on China Lake.  In the 1920 US Census Henry is listed as a famer with a stock ranch in Kern county. By 1930 the family had moved to Inyo to an area was described as Township 4 in the 1930 US census. In researching BLM land records I found that Henry homesteaded 160 acres of land in 1916. I will have to do more research because it is common for additional homestead land to be acquired by other family members.

Henry and Johanna had five children: George, Mildred, Henry, Emily and Frederick. Henry F. W. and his children worked the homestead together during the great depression years. He was employed by the Westend Chemical plant on Searle’s Lake, 25 miles from China Lake. Henry died from appendicitis in 1941. The family continued to improve the homestead until the US government took the property by eminent domain to build the Naval Ordinance Test Station on China Lake. This became a weapons test site for Cal Tech during and after WWII. The Rock House, built by the Schuette’s, was moved from the homestead (by the US government) to its current Argus location in Searle’s Valley.

What is made of? I’m eager to find out. Perhaps the SVHS can ask someone for the Searles Lake Gem and Mineral Society to examine it. Its appearance in the photo makes me think it is Tufa.

I have much more research to do so check back to learn what I find.

Elizabeth Richmond Colter — Class of 1946

4 Replies

Elizabeth Richmond Colter “Liz” 92, formerly of Phoenix, Prescott and Eagar, Arizona, died Wed., November 2, 2022 in Dana Point, CA. Born February 17, 1930, in Philadelphia, PA. Liz was the daughter of John O’Donnel Richmond and Emily Acker Richmond. Both her siblings, Lee Richmond Barker and Lincoln Acker Richmond predeceased her. Survivors include five children: Emily Taranta, Nancy Greene, John Harrison (Barbara) Colter, Mary Lee (Marsden) Stewart and Ann (Kyle) Matthews; 18 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. She attended the University of Arizona where she was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and Mortar Board. She was Student Body Secretary in the 1949-1950 school year and met her husband James Harrison Colter “Jim” while in college. Funeral services will be held Saturday, December 3, 2022, at 12:30 p.m. at Burnham Mortuary, Eagar, AZ.

Posted online on December 01, 2022

Published in The Arizona Republic

Elizabeth and her husband Jim were married at the China Lake Navy Base in the base chapel by a Navy Chaplin, Lieutenant Commander W. I. Wolfe in 1950. Elizabeth came to China lake in 1944 when her father, John O Richmond became commander of the Navel Ordinance Test Station at China Lake. She began school in Trona because at time there wasn’t a high school in the Indian Wells Valley.

Bakersfield, California •
Mon, Nov 6, 1950

Warriors at the Trona Sand Pit

Leave a reply

Posted July 8, 2001 by thswarriors.com

It’s the story nobody believes. The tale of the infamous Trona Sand Pit.

If you played for the Tehachapi High School Warriors or supported the Warriors anytime between 1943 and 1979, chances are pretty good you experienced The Pit first hand. But try explaining The Pit to somebody who has never heard of Trona, or been to Trona? [Continue reading]

Pioneer Point 1947

Leave a reply

Before 1946 there wasn’t much in Pioneer Point. There were some houses up by the hills. They were probably built about 1920 when I think the area was called North Trona by some people. Take a look at the pictures taken by the Gauslin Family back then and tell me what you think.

In 1946 AP&CC built a few house out of brick in Pioneer Point and then in 1947 they partnered with a contractor to build about 20 or more prefab concrete houses. The house walls and roof were put together in Trona and then moved to Pioneer Point for the final assembly.

Pan Rooms

The area in the lower right hand corner of the picture show part of the area where the walls and roofs were made for the concrete prefab houses in Pioneer Point.

 

You can see more information and photos at Pioneer Point Prefab Houses.

Later on they built some cinder block houses for the school teachers on the south side of Pioneer Point.

Trona, Bloody Trona A book review by Mike Rhodes

Leave a reply

I have meet a lot of lawyers who work on social and economic justice issues but have never met one quite like Paul Henry Abram. I look forward to his visit to Fresno on Friday, when he will appear in a benefit for listener sponsored radio station KFCF (see details below). Abram has written an extraordinary account of his experience representing the union members in ILWU local 35 who were on strike in Trona Ca in 1970. Most lawyers are more cautious (some would say conservative) than the activists they represent, but Abram gains the trust of the workers by being as militant as they are and willing to share the risks needed to win.

In the first couple of days after Abram arrives in Trona, he describes scenes that are neither conservative or nonviolent. The subtitle of the book is “A Revolution in Microcosm.” The strike against the Kerr-McGee plant in the Mohave Desert saw the workers and their legal counsel cutting electrical power to the plant, dynamiting communications systems, and “kidnapping” scab employees. I kept thinking, as I read these accounts, that it is good the statute of limitations has expired on these remarkable actions. The kidnapping charges, which Abram claims were all a big misunderstanding, were resolved in court – you will have to read the book to see what the judge and jury decided. To read the complete review go to: Trona, Bloody Trona  A book review by Mike Rhodes

Pumphouse

Pump House on Searles Lake 1917

Leave a reply

The brine from which potash was extracted in 1917 was in the middle of the lake four miles from the plant. The pumping station made of concrete and steel weighed 300 tons rested on the surface of the lake and demonstrates the resistance of the crust to pressure. There were three pumps installed capable of 500 GPM. The brine was drawn from 10 wells.

One of the gravest problems for the engineers was conducting the lukewarm brine from the pumping station four miles across the lake to the plant and to be able to maintain the brine at the same temperature. to prevent crystallization. To accomplish the the ten inch pipe was wrapped in hair and wool felt. This was encased in a steel jacket. This provided a thermal tube that delivered the brine without loss of a degree of temperature. The brine was delivered to two tanks, each with the capacity of 500,000 gallons. From the tanks the brine was pumped to the evaporation house and from there to the crystallization house where the potash was precipitated , dried and made ready for shipment.

Alfred de Ropp

Baron Alfred de Ropp

Leave a reply

Baron Alfred de Ropp was a key player in the creation of Trona.

Baron Alfred de Ropp, a Russian nobleman, graduated from the Royal Mining Academy in Germany in 1882. He came to the USA to work for the Peblo Smelting and Refinery Company in Colorado where he developed a reputation for solving difficult problems.

In 1908 Baron Alfred de Ropp  became manager of the Foreign Mines Development Company a subsidiary of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa. A biography of  the Baron in the book, Searles Lake Borax 1862-1962, credits him with supervising the creation of the town of Trona, the Trona Mercantile Company, the Hornsey plant and the American Trona Company plant. In addition he had to deal with investors and fight multiple legal challenges.

He was the president of the California Trona Company and then the American Trona Company. When he retired in 1920 both of his sons were living in Trona and working for the American Trona Company as Engineers. After his retirement the American Trona Company suffered from lack of strong leadership and reorganized to become American Potash & Chemical Corporation.

The American Potash & Chemical Corporation was incorporated with $1 million in capital in 1926. On the same date, it acquired American Trona Corporation.

The Baron’s son, Alfred, left Trona to work in AP&CC’s New York sales office. His son, Harold, went to work for DuPont. His daughter Vera married General Eric Fisher Wood who was on Eisenhower’s staff during WWII. The Baron’s grandson, Eric Wood Jr. , died during the Battle of the Bulge and was posthumously decorated.

The Baron moved to Coronado when he retired and died there in 1941. His wife died 11 years later.

The family story sounds like it could be made into a good movie. I have never heard of him until this week. He made the mistake of not naming a building after himself. If Austin Hall had been named de Ropp Hall we would all know who he was.