Searles Valley is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in the

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 ...

of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

, in northwestern

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

, United States.

Geography

Searles Valley includes the

unincorporated communities An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

of Argus, Pioneer Point, Searles Valley (town), and

Trona Trona (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate, also sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate, Na2CO3·NaHCO3·2H2O) is a non- marine evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replaced ...

. Searles Valley is located at (35.765181, -117.382803). Searles Valley CDP is at the western edge of

Searles Lake Searles Lake is an Endorheic basin, 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 ...

, a dry lakebed in the lowest part of the

. Searles Valley CDP is about 170 miles northeast of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, on State Route 178. It is southwest of

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

and the

Panamint Range The Panamint Range is a short rugged fault-block mountain range in the northern Mojave Desert, within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, eastern California. A small part of the southern end of the range is in San Bernardino County. Dr. D ...

. Ridgecrest and China Lake are to the west. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, Searles Valley has a total area of , all land. The population was 1,739 at the 2010 census. The ZIP code is 93562 and the

area code 760 Area codes 760 and 442 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. These area codes serve an overlay complex that comprises much of the southeastern and southernmost portions of Califor ...

Natural history

The

is an

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa (), is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkalin ...

formed by the evaporation of lakes during the late

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

period. It contains rich deposits of chemicals, including

borax The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.

and

rock salt Halite ( ), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pi ...

. Searles Valley is known for its isolation and desolation,David Kelly
Stark Beauty, Solitude, Squalor and Sulfur – Trona Has It All
''The Los Angeles Times'', October 4, 2006, ''Accessed December 28, 2006''. as well as the nearby

Trona Pinnacles The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water), so ...

a few miles to the south. The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual landscape of more than 500

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitation (chemistry), precipitate out of water in ambient temperature, unheated rivers or lakes. hot spring, Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less ...

spires, some as high as 140 feet, rising from the bed of the Searles Lake basin. The name Trona is derived from the mineral

trona Trona (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate, also sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate, Na2CO3·NaHCO3·2H2O) is a non- marine evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replaced ...

, abundant in the lake. The local school plays on a dirt football field because the high level of salt kills grass.

2019 earthquakes

In July 2019, Searles Valley was impacted by a series of earthquakes, the principal events (with magnitudes of 6.4, 5.4, and 7.1 ) occurring from 12 to 18 kilometers west on the

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the United States Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Instal ...

. The earthquake series started at 10:02 AM on July 4 with a Mw 4.0 earthquake 4 kilometers southwest of Searles Valley. At 10:33 AM a second and much stronger earthquake struck – a 6.4 magnitude quake 12 kilometers southwest of Searles Valley. The earthquake was felt throughout the area and Southern California, including

, and in Nevada, including

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. The earthquake was 10.5 kilometers deep. Over 100 aftershocks impacted Searles Valley and nearby

Ridgecrest, California Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in California, U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS, or China Lake) ...

. This second quake was followed by an even larger 7.1 magnitude quake, subsequently designated the main quake in the series, on July 5, 2019, at approximately 8:18 PM. The valley experienced a 3.9 magnitude quake on July 22, 2019.

Government

In the

state legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

Searles Valley is located in

California's 16th State Senate district California's 16th senatorial district is one of 40 California State Senate districts. It is currently represented by Democrat Melissa Hurtado of Bakersfield. District profile The district consists of portions of southwestern Central Valle ...

, represented by Republican Roy Ashburn, and in

California's 33rd State Assembly district California's 33rd State Assembly district is one of 80 California State Assembly districts. It is currently represented by Republican Alexandra Macedo . District profile The district, one of the largest in California, encompasses a wide ...

, represented by Republican Tim Donnelly.

Demographics

2020

The 2020 United States census reported that Searles Valley had a population of 1,565. The population density was . The racial makeup of Searles Valley was 70.8%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 5.6%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.5% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.3%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 9.5% from other races, and 11.2% from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau ...

of any race were 22.2% of the population. The whole population lived in households. There were 653 households, out of which 27.6% included children under the age of 18, 34.0% were married-couple households, 13.0% were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 29.2% had a female householder with no partner present, and 23.7% had a male householder with no partner present. 32.3% of households were one person, and 13.2% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.4. There were 374

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(57.3% of all households). The age distribution was 24.9% under the age of 18, 7.3% aged 18 to 24, 22.7% aged 25 to 44, 27.3% aged 45 to 64, and 17.8% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 39.9years. For every 100 females, there were 101.7 males. There were 890 housing units at an average density of , of which 653 (73.4%) were occupied. Of these, 59.3% were owner-occupied, and 40.7% were occupied by renters. In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $65,625, and the

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

was $28,057. About 14.9% of families and 18.1% of the population were below the poverty line.

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that Searles Valley had a population of 1,739. The population density was . The racial makeup of Searles Valley was 1,405 (80.8%)

(72.3% Non-Hispanic White), 69 (4.0%)

, 56 (3.2%) Native American, 16 (0.9%) Asian, 6 (0.3%)

, 83 (4.8%) from other races, and 104 (6.0%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 293 persons (16.8%). The Census reported that 1,739 people (100% of the population) lived in households, 0 (0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized. There were 722 households, out of which 215 (29.8%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 309 (42.8%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 92 (12.7%) had a female householder with no husband present, 52 (7.2%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 48 (6.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 3 (0.4%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 223 households (30.9%) were made up of individuals, and 80 (11.1%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41. There were 453

(62.7% of all households); the average family size was 3.01. The population was spread out, with 436 people (25.1%) under the age of 18, 171 people (9.8%) aged 18 to 24, 342 people (19.7%) aged 25 to 44, 515 people (29.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 275 people (15.8%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.4 males. There were 961 housing units at an average density of , of which 439 (60.8%) were owner-occupied, and 283 (39.2%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 8.4%. 1,041 people (59.9% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 698 people (40.1%) lived in rental housing units. According to the 2010 United States Census, Searles Valley had a median household income of $32,448, with 21.7% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

Gallery

Image:01-2007-Trona-in-Trona.jpg, Piles of lime dust sit just south of Trona on the Trona Railway. Image:Our Churches sign in Trona, California.jpg, Entrance to Trona. Image:01-2007-Trona-02.jpg, Searles Valley from the Searles Valley rest stop. Image:01-2007-SearlesLake-duststorm.jpg, A dust storm forms over the dry Searles Lake bed, taken from the Searles Valley rest stop. Image:01-2007-The-Trona-T.jpg, A Mountain Monogram "T" sits on the hills above Trona.

References

External links

The Searles Valley Historical Society
{{authority control Searles Valley Census-designated places in San Bernardino County, California Company towns in California Populated places in the Mojave Desert 1913 establishments in California Populated places established in 1913 Census-designated places in California