|
Pacific Coast Borax Company
The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Smith, the "Borax King". History The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in Mineral County, Nevada, east of Mono Lake, where Smith, while contracting to provide firewood to a small borax operation at nearby Columbus Marsh, spotted Teels Marsh while looking westward from the upper slopes of Miller Mountain where the only nearby trees were growing. Eventually, to satisfy his curiosity, Smith and two assistants visited Teels Marsh and collected samples, that proved to assay higher than any known sources for borate. Returning to Teels Marsh, Smith and his helpers staked claims and laid the foundation for his career as a borax miner. With the help of his older brother, Julius, who came west from the family home in Wisconsin, and financial support from the two Storey brothers, operations began in 1872 under the name, Smith and Storey Brothers Bora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amargosa Valley
The Amargosa Valley is the valley through which the Amargosa River flows south, in Nye County, southwestern Nevada and Inyo County in the state of California. The south end is alternately called the "Amargosa River Valley'" or the "Tecopa Valley." Its northernmost point is around Beatty, Nevada and southernmost is Tecopa, California, where the Amargosa River enters into the Amargosa Canyon. Geography The Amargosa Valley ("the Valley") is located within the Basin and Range Province ("the Province") which is characterized by abrupt changes in elevation, alternating between narrow faulted mountain chains and flat arid valleys or basins. As is typical of the Province, the Valley is long from north to south and narrow from east to west. It lies to the east of Death Valley, separated from it by the Amargosa Range and Funeral Mountains. The Valley lies within the Mohave Desert region of the Province. The more narrowly bounded Amargosa Desert forms the eastern portion of the Valley. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reinforced Concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ductility. The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel bars ( rebar) and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets. However, post-tensioning is also employed as a technique to reinforce the concrete. In terms of volume used annually, it is one of the most common engineering materials. In corrosion engineering terms, when designed correctly, the alkalinity of the concrete protects the steel rebar from corrosion. Description Reinforcing schemes are generally designed to resist tensile stresses in particular regions of the concrete that might cause unacceptable cracking and/or structural failure. Modern reinforced concrete can contain varied reinforcing materials made of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Searles Valley, California
Searles Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Searles Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northwestern San Bernardino County, California. Geography Searles Valley includes the unincorporated communities of Argus, Pioneer Point, Searles Valley (town), and Trona. Searles Valley is located at (35.765181, -117.382803). Searles Valley CDP is at the western edge of Searles Lake, a dry lakebed in the lowest part of the Searles Valley. Searles Valley CDP is about 170 miles northeast of Los Angeles, on State Route 178. It is southwest of Death Valley and the Panamint Range. Ridgecrest and China Lake are to the west. According to the United States Census Bureau, Searles Valley has a total area of 27.2 km2 (10.5 mi2), all land. The population was 1,739 at the 2010 census. The ZIP code is 93562 and the area code 760. Natural history The Searles Lake is an endorheic dry lake formed by the evaporation of lakes during the late Quaternary period. It contains rich dep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trona Railway
The Trona Railway is a short-line railroad owned by Searles Valley Minerals. The TRC interchanges with the Lone Pine Subdivision of the Union Pacific Railroad (former Southern Pacific Transportation Company) at Searles, California. History The railroad was built by the American Trona Company in 1914, to serve the mining company's potash shipping to an interchange with the Southern Pacific Railroad. The company and its Trona Railway has had various subsequent owners, including American Potash & Chemical Corporation, Kerr-McGee Corporation, IMC Global, Sun Capital, LLC, before the current ownership of Searles Valley Minerals, Inc. On Dec. 27 2007, Karnavati Holdings, a subsidiary of Nirma Limited, acquired all of Searles Valley Minerals, Inc. In the 1920s, the Epsom Salts Monorail delivered epsomite to the Trona Railway at Magnesium Siding, about south of Trona. This unique system extended eastwards into the Owlshead Mountains, was in use from 1924 to 1926, and was dismantle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Company Town
A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and recreation facilities. They are usually bigger than a model village ("model" in the sense of an ideal to be emulated). Some company towns have had high ideals, but many have been regarded as controlling and/or exploitative. Others developed more or less in unplanned fashion, such as Summit Hill, Pennsylvania, United States, one of the oldest, which began as a Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company mining camp and mine site nine miles (14.5 km) from the nearest outside road. Overview Traditional settings for company towns were where extractive industries – coal, metal mines, lumber – had established a monopoly franchise. Dam sites and war-industry camps founded other company towns. Since company stores often had a monopoly in company t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Searles Valley
Searles Valley is a valley in the northern Mojave Desert of California, with the northern half in Inyo County and the southern half in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Searles Valley is located between the Argus Range to the west and the Slate Range to the east. Death Valley is to the northeast. The valley contains the landform features of Searles Lake and the Trona Pinnacles. Named after John Wemple Searles. Settlements The Searles Valley Minerals company town of Trona is the primary settlement. Other towns in the Searles Valley include: Westend, Argus, Pioneer Point, Homewood Canyon, and Searles Valley. Sometimes Argus, Westend, Pioneer Point, and Trona are collectively referred to as Trona. See also *Trona Railway *Panamint Valley *Indian Wells Valley Indian Wells Valley is an arid north-south basin in east-central California. In the geologic sense, it is a southern extension of Owens Valley to the north, with the recent volcanics of the Coso Range b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Searles Lake
Searles Lake is an endorheic dry lake in the Searles Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northwestern San Bernardino County, California. The lake in the past was also called Slate Range Lake and Borax Lake. The mining community of Trona is on its western shore. The evaporite basin is approximately long and at its widest point, yielding 1.7 million tons annually of industrial minerals within the basin to the Searles Valley Minerals mining operations. Searles Lake is bounded by the Argus and Slate Mountains. Named after John Wemple Searles. Geology The stratigraphic record at Searles Lake shows that it once held brackish water as deep as . Fluctuations in lake levels correspond to the advances and retreats of glaciers in the Sierra Nevada Range. Thirty major lake levels occurred during the last 150,000 years, represented by a sequence of salt and mud beds. The precipitation of minerals occurred during long periods of lake evaporation. The lake is home to the Trona Pinnacle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daggett, California
Daggett is an unincorporated community located in San Bernardino County, California in the United States. The town is located on Interstate 40 ten miles (16 km) east of Barstow. The town has a population of about 200. The ZIP code is 92327 and the community is inside area code 760. History The town was founded in the 1880s just after the discovery of silver in the mines near Calico to the north. In 1882, the Southern Pacific Railroad with the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad (Later Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, BNSF) from Mojave was being completed in the area and it was thought that a good name for the town would be Calico Junction. But this name would be too confusing since it was right next to Calico, where silver was discovered. It was decided to name the city after then Lieutenant Governor of California, John Daggett, during the Spring of 1883. There were plans to make Daggett the main station of the area and to have a rail yard there to handle the heavy tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borate And Daggett Railroad
The Borate and Daggett Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad built to carry borax in the Mojave Desert. The railroad ran about from Daggett, California, US, to the mining camp of Borate, to the east of Calico. History In 1883, prospectors discovered a rich vein of colemanite borax in the Calico Mountains 4 miles east from the silver mining town of Calico. The claim was bought by mining tycoon William Tell Coleman, who owned and worked several borax mines in Death Valley, including the Harmony Borax Works, famous for the Twenty-mule teams which were used to haul borax to the railroads at Mojave, California. In 1890, Coleman went bankrupt and his business associate Francis Marion Smith bought up all of his former borax mining enterprises to form the Pacific Coast Borax Company. Smith was interested in using the borax deposits at Calico, now called "Borate," as his new company's main source of income. By 1899, Borate had become the largest borax mine in the world, outputting of b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yermo, California
Yermo (Spanish for "wilderness") is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California. It is east of Barstow on Interstate 15, just south of the Calico Mountains. Its population was an estimated 1,750 in 2009. Founded in 1902 and originally named Otis, Yermo is situated at a division point of the Union Pacific Railroad line. A post office was established three years later with William J. Flavin serving as Yermo's first postmaster. It later developed around serving motorists traveling the Arrowhead Trail (later U.S. Route 91), which ran through the community. Today, Yermo is governed by an elected five-member board of directors comprising the Community Services District authorized by the County of San Bernardino. The board, which meets monthly, oversees the community's volunteer fire department, the Yermo/Calico VFD, as well as its street lighting, parks and water system. Yermo's ZIP Code is 92398, and it is in telephone area codes 442 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calico Mountains (California)
The Calico Mountains of California are a mountain range located in the Mojave Desert. The range spans San Bernardino and Inyo counties in California. Geography The Calico Mountains are geologically colorful range that lie in a northwest-southeast direction, and are located just north of Barstow and Yermo, and of Interstate 15. Historic Pickhandle Pass and Jackhammer Gap lie at the northern end of the mountains on Fort Irwin Road, with the Fort Irwin Military Reservation nearby. The Calico Mountains have been active in California mining history. Peaks Calico Peak, the highest point, is in elevation, in the San Bernardino County portion of the range (N 34.995259 and W -116.838369). Features The Rainbow Basin geologic feature, in the Bureau of Land Management manageRainbow Basin Natural Area is just north of Barstow. Calico Ghost Town is located in the Yermo Hills (Calico Hills) at the western edge of the Calico Mountains, north of Yermo. The Calico Early Man Site is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
