Category Archives: Trona History

Posts relating to Trona History.

Trona 1940 US Census

This week I spent some time looking at the 1940 census for Trona. It was quite interesting and I think it would be worth my time to study it in more detail. Here are some interesting examples:

The population in 1940 was 2014.
My father’s salary was $1800 a year as a laborer.
My father paid $12 a month for rent.
A chemical engineer made $3000 a year.
The barber, butcher, dentist, bartender, deputy sheriff and the priest all worked for AP&CC.
Not everyone in Trona came from Oklahoma, Arkansas or Missouri.
Harvey Eastman Sr. was born in Cuba.
There were 21 single women and 1394 males including married men and children.
There were 780 men living in bunkhouse or tents.
There were 32 women living bunkhouses.
There were 1160 people that had lived in Trona since 1935.

In 1920 the population of trona was about 700 and in 1930 it was about 1000.

To look at the 1940 census for free I recommend using the LDS Family Search site. As far as I know it is the only free site that is indexed and searchable by name.

https://familysearch.org/

Trona to Austin: How Life Snuck Up on Me

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Some of you may remember Paul “Butch” MacLean, especially if you you were in the class of 1959. I don’t remember him at all but I do remember the places and the people that he wrote about in his chapters about Trona. Paul didn’t write this book in hopes that it would be a bestseller. He wrote it so that his children and grandchildren could read about and know about his life.

If like me you grew up in Trona about the same time Paul did you should enjoy this book. If you grew up as an ordinary child and became an ordinary man like most of us you will be able to relate to Paul and the story of his life.

I’m glad that he decided to share his story with the rest of us by using a self publishing service. The book is a fun read. I can recommend it.

The Trona Branch Library

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The Trona Branch of the San Bernardino County Library was and still is an important part of the Trona Community. In 1918 there was a note in the San Bernardino County records about the county library in Borosolvay being closed due to the Borosolvay plant being closed. It indicated that the books were to be sent to the Trona Branch of the county library.

The July 9, 1938 edition of The Trona Potash, a weekly paper, had a notice that read:

Library Hours
Austin Hall
From 2 to 5 P.M., from 6 to 9
P.M. weekdays. From 2 to 10 P.M.
Sundays and holidays.

I had a hard time remembering the library being in Austin Hall between the pool hall and the men’s restroom on the corner. After my brother Joel jogged my memory I do remember at least one time when mother parked the car in front of it long enough for Joel to run in and return a book.

I don’t know if I was ever inside. I do remember very well the Library being moved to the Trona Club House about 1948/1950..It seems like it was there for a long time but Joel reminded me that was there for less than a year while the new library building was being built.

I’m guessing that this was at the time that all sorts of remodeling was going on in Austin Hall. The barber shop that was on the Main Street side was moved to Bunkhouse Number 8. I am sure my first haircut took place while it was still in Austin Hall. The space vacated by the barber shop was used to expand the post office and add more mailboxes. That way fewer people had to share mailboxes. We still shared ours with Uncle John. Even when the new post office was built he still had his mail sent to our mailbox.

The General Mercantile Office was moved into the space where the library was. The space it vacated in it’s old location was used to expand the grocery store. If you have a better memory of this than me me feel feel free to correct me.

The library moving to the clubhouse was a big deal for me. The clubhouse was just across the street from us and the librarian told me that if I could sign my name I could get a library card and check out books.

I had my mother write my name on a piece of paper for me and I kept writing over and over trying to memorize all the letters and the order they were in until I thought I had it right. Then I would take it to my sister or my mother over and over again until the finally told me it right. At least it was right enough to pass the librarians inspection. My sister pointed out to me that both my first and last name had a “V’ in the middle and that both my first and last name began and ended with the same letter. It’s no wonder I wrote in mirror images until I was about ten.

I became the libraries most frequent customer. I was a big help to the librarian. Every day I would go over and sort the children’s books according to size and every day I would go back and they would be messed up again. Finally the librarian had to ask me to cut it out and tried to explain to me the basics of the Dewey Decimal System.

Enough to Make a Poor Woman Cry

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Linda (Cunningham) Monroe wrote the following about arriving at their new home in Argus about 1945:

I remember when we arrived at that ‘”little house” – my Mom cried. I was four. It was the first time I had seen my mother cry. Now I understand why. It was a shack. Literally! I’ve a picture of the my sisters and I standing in front of the shack with the outhouse in the background.

The inside of the house was covered with cardboard and the roof was a tin roof. My Dad eventually bought the property – with 3 houses (?) on the lot for $500. I have that deed somewhere. He took down two of the houses, expanded our home, adding a bathroom (yea!), kitchen and living room. It was probably very hard on my Mom. But they provided a good home for us.

I’m quite sure that Linda’s mother wasn’t the first or the last woman to cry on their first day in Trona. My guess is that more than half of them did. Here is a quote from a book called The Seven States of California: A Natural and Human History:

The 250-square-mile valley took getting used to. In 1946 an English war bride traveled to Los Angeles, where her husband met her and drove her home to Trona. She wrote:

“California was sunny and green, and beautiful along the coast. After two days spent in sight-seeing, we set out across the desert for Trona. The scenery became gradually bleaker until finally we reached Poison Canyon and the view of Searles Lake. My husband then asked me if I had ever seen anything like this before, and I answered, “only in pictures of the moon”

I know there were many time my mother felt homesick for her red dirt farm in Habersham County Georgia.

When I was stationed at Amarillo AFB in Amarillo Texas in 1962 the boys from the East Coast could do nothing but complain about how harsh Amarillo was. I had to tell them that compared to where I was born and raised the Texas panhandle town of Amarillo was a Garden of Eden.

The description of Linda’s house reminds me of houses I visited on the Seneca Indian reservation in upstate New York in 1963. There we natural gas wells on the reservation but the royalties were not distributed equally among the tribe.

To learn more about Trona women crying visit : To Trona, California residents, that awful smell spells $$$

The Railway Fish Pond

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The Trona Railway office used to have a rectangular lily pond by it’s front door. When I was about twelve. the decided to fill it in. Maybe they decided it was a hazard or maybe they decided that it was too expensive to maintain or maybe they didn’t like the traffic of all the kids that were attracted to it.

Anyway, in the weeks before they drained it one of the railway employees decided that a good way to get rid of the goldfish in the pond was too allow kids to fish for them. The idea was us to catch them and take them home to live out their lives in a fish bowel. It started off with just a few kids but word spread fast and there were more and more. The railway had lent it’s net to the first kids but soon we were resorting to hooks made from pins and lines from sewing thread.

The railway staff couldn’t have imagined that fishing in that pond would become so popular. They had to put an end to it. I don’t know if I remember this right but I think they ended up catching fish for kids that brought a fish bowl to put them in and promised to take care of them. I know that I ended up with two that I did my best to care for.

If You Lived in Trona You Have a Story to Tell

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A few weeks ago Linda Cunningham Monroe send me a story written by Leon Emo, It was called the The Sites and Smells of Trona. Leon gave me permission to reprint his story on Trona on the Web. It is based on his impressions of Trona while driving through on his way to Death Valley over the years and from an interview with Pam Gorden Sanders who lived in Trona until she was in the eighth grade. She is not listed in the Alumni Registry so I don’t know how old she is but I’m guessing that she moved about 1955.

Leon’s story is a pretty accurate picture of the way I remember Trona. There are some differences, I know Joe Bangwin’s name. This is something Leon didn’t know until this week. I know that grass will grow in Trona if you can afford to waste the water. Even here in Minnesota, The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, people are starting to rethink the wisdom of the stress it puts on water sources to keep lawns green.

AP&CC had a lawn in front of the plant for a while and they watered the oleander bushes around Austin Hall and the Club House with fresh water to keep them healthy. David Pillot grew what he called devil’s grass while they lived in Trona and I know he also grew grass in their yard out at Valley Wells. There were always roses in the circle in front of the school auditorium.

For a desert town Trona actually had a lot of trees. Many of the old salt cedar trees are gone now but there are still enough of them left to give Trona a distinctive look. They were watered with the salt water from Valley Wells. Now someone has discovered that palm trees can be grown very in Trona. I’d like to know what the requirements of their care are.The executive quarters had a large assortment of plants in it’s garden to be enjoyed by guests and out of town executives.

Leon mentioned that the population of Trona is now about 2,500. Considering that from the 1930 to 1960s the official population was about 2,000 the 2,500 number doesn’t seem so bad. 150 high school students doesn’t seem that bad either when you consider that during the 1950’s there were only 200.

This site is the way I try to tell my Trona stories. Doug Polly told it with with his Upinflames web site that I have preserved. Jess Dominguez tell his stories with his art. Some people tell their stories by way of donations to the Trona Museum or by volunteering to work there. Others are on alumni committees. Some people do it by asking me question or sending me pictures and stories of Trona that I add to this site. My sister does it by preserving our family history.

I’m sure George Pipkin probably holds the record and has written more stories about Trona and the surrounding area than anyone who ever lived. You cannot live in Trona without having a story to tell.

Things I Do Not Remember About Trona

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I was talking to my brother Joel today about Trona. He remembers it much better than I do. I am sure that is because he lived there longer than me and worked in both the Trona and Westend Plant before he moved in 1975. He reminded me that bunkhouse 17 that was on the west side of the clubhouse burned down. He also reminded me that the quonset huts shown near the bottom of the picture above were once used by the village maintenance crews that were part of Trona when AP&CC owned all the houses. I had even forgotten the gas station that was near the fire station.

And in my head I was getting Ted Langs gas station in Argus, where Joel once worked, mixed up with Joe Brangwin’s station in Trona. I’ve asked him to help put captions on the photos that he knows about. If you can help out add a comment to any that you know about. Joel also told me that he worked with Larry Fox at the Westend Plant for nine years and new him very well.

I still don’t quite remember exactly where the old Catholic Church was located. Joel told me that at one time it was an automatic three bases if a batter hit it. Does anyone remember the barn and stables down about where Zimmerman’s lumber was? I seem to remember one of the barn building being moved to the other side of Trona Road and being used by the NRA for a target range. Joel says I’m wrong. But he was wrong about how old Larry Fox was too.

Joel also mentioned a place called Silver City that was built on the east side of Trona Road. He said it was an expansion to Tent City and that all the structures were painted silver to reflect the heat. He described it as a place that didn’t have trees and didn’t have a chance of ever getting any.

And then there was the Federal Housing Project that was between Trona and Argus. I remember that very well. I can remember being at the opening festivities with my mother.

I think I remember that part of the project was on the west side of Trona Road but was torn down way before the rest of it was.

Now, if I can get my sister to tell me where the Hog Ranch was again.

Captions for Pictures

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I spent today working on upgrading the way pictures are displayed on some of the pages. I also tried to add captions as best I could. If I could only guess I guessed. If you have nothing better to do and have the time to help identify some of the photographs and the people in them I would appreciate it. If you have ever worked in the plant please tell me what some of those things I guess at really are.

The Other Side of the Tracks

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Sometimes I think I remember everything. Maybe I do but even if I do I don’t always remember things the way they really were. What I do remember was the Mexican village in back of the railway yards. It was almost hidden away and almost as if it were on Trona Railway property. Maybe it was built to house railroad workers families but the effect, deliberate or not was a segregated Mexican American ghetto. My brother, Joel had friends there. The one I remember the best was Ernesto Dominguez. Ernesto was nicknamed “Head”.

As I remember that little village there wasn’t more than six houses and it seemed like there wasn’t a real street, just a lot that all the houses faced. Joel would go there and play baseball in the lot with his friends. I would follow him there to watch. What a pain I must have been. The problem was that Joel would always get in trouble when I followed him. My mother didn’t think it was a place that I should be and any time I was anywhere with Joel around I became his resposibility. No one ever likes a little brother tagging along anyway, especially one that could report bad behavior.

Eventually the Trona Railway moved all the houses. I’d like to think it was because it was just plan wrong to have them there.

The following is a quote from Laura Quezada’s research on the 1941 Strike:

“Discrimination was a key issue for many Mexicans employed at AP&CC. Mexicans were only allowed to do the lowest form of physical labor in the Shipping Department. Mexicans were paid five cents an hour less than the men with whom they worked. They worked 12 hour shifts with only 15 minutes for lunch. There was no chance for advancement. Mexicans could only live in one isolated area of town and there were “No Mexicans Allowed” signs posted in some Trona establishments.

A fundraising pamphlet distributed by the Union states: ‘Another AP&CC tactic has been that of discriminating against Mexican workers. They are kept at the lowest pay rates, do the most menial tasks, are not eligible for advancement, and must occupy quarters that are only seen in substandard slums. Until recently they have been refused privileges afforded other workers, such as the use of the Trona Club to dance, skate, bowl or play billiards. Against this form of Jim Crowism the Union has fought unceasingly. The Mexicans have responded by 100% Union membership.'”

If you remember the other side of the tracks better than I do I’d like to hear your story about it.

I have recently been told by Jess Dominguez that the name of the street was Mojave Street. He told me that there were sixteen houses and three bunkhouses deliberately put in a location where the Mexicans would be segregated from us white folks. When I hear that now it makes me want to cry. Actually it makes me cry. I can only remember being on Mojave Street a few times. That is why I don’t remember it well. That and 50 plus years. I know we were told that it was a place we were not supposed to go.

The way I look at it maybe I could have learned about Mexican food that much sooner and it wouldn’t have been limited to the fifteen cent Tacos from the Taco Tia in Barstow or the tamale pie recipe my mother found on the back the Kraft American cheese package. Actually I still like canned tamales like the ones we used to buy in the Trona grocery store. I think they were Van Camp brand. I sound so white.

My brother Joel told me that he can still name each of the sixteen families that lived on Mojave Street. He also told me about a dog named Rags that he got from Ernesto. He said that when he got it it didn’t understand English. The concept is hard for me to wrap my head around but I know that what he said is true. We had a family friend that had a ranch in Idaho. His sheep dog came from a Basque sheepherder. It was very good at controlling sheep and cattle but it only understood commands in Spanish.

I don’t remember Rags at all but right now I have this picture in my head of Joel calling his dog, Rags, and being ignored.

1920 Photos

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The following is from Dr. Jim Kennedy Dover, NJ:

In the 1919 and 1920 my father worked for the American Borax and Potash Company. He and two other young men, each independently, took pack horses and armed with Winchester ’94 carbines and for months at a time on horseback rode the perimeter and internal areas of the company’s land. My father’s name was James Davis Kennedy (1902 – 1996). He worked for for about two years. He was originally from San Francisco.

I have pictures of him in Trona (on the company railroad) and in Ballarat. Also a place I believe was called “Indian Joe’s Wells. I would very much like to find out more about that time in Trona or to find anyone who might have knowledge of my dad. Perhaps employee records or other co-workers.