As Clay rode into town he looked up in the August sky to see the thumbnail moon just rising over the Croaker Diggs Railroad depot. It was hot and he wiped the sweat off the back of his neck with his bandana. He thought to himself, a big cool beer is what I needed. He let his horse “Sally” mosey down main street at her own pace.
He draped Sally’s lead over the hitching post and brushed the dust off of his clothes. A couple of steps up onto the boardwalk and he stopped at the door into the Rusty Spur Saloon, to adjust his Colt Peacemaker, making sure it was loose in the holster.
He pushed through the double doors and into the light. The place was busy. He nodded to a couple of the miners he recognized sitting at a table near the door. They nodded back and then went back to arguing with each other about something indistinct and probably unimportant. He could see Jake in his usual place at the bar, kinda standin’ so’s his back wasn’t to the doors and he could eyeball the entire room, but still get to his drink. Clay stepped up next to him and told Rusty the bartender to get him a cool beer.
Now it was just a coincidence that the bartender was named Rusty in the Rusty Spur. The saloon was named after the little used railroad spur that Dexter Wiloughby followed to the site where he eventually struck it rich. He ended up winning the saloon in a poker game and appropriately named the place after the landmark where he figured his luck changed. He’s fond of saying, “If I hadn’t followed that old rusty spur up that canyon, I wouldn’t be rich”. Clay noticed Dex was at his usual table playing poker with more of the miners. Folks say that Dexter has made more gold by winning it from the miners than he ever would’ve by working his mine.
Jake offered to buy Clay’s beer when the bartender set it on the bar. Clay let him and thanked him (after all Jake owed his life to Clay on more than one occasion). Jake asked where Clay was coming from. Clay said he had ridden up into the mountainson railroad business. Jake winked and said low so no one else could hear, “Oh you were up there lookin’ for the Mather Gang’s hideout”. Clay nodded and took a long drag on his beer. They stood there for a while not saying anything. Clay pulled out his pouch and started to roll a smoke. Jake said, “When are you goin’ back up there”? “Not sure” was Clay’s answer. He struck a match on the underside of the bar and lit his smoke. Jake looked at him and thought for a moment and then said, “I want to go with you when you do”. “Okay” was all Clay said as he walked over to Dex’s table. “Mind if I join in” he said to no one in particular. Dex motioned to an empty chair next to “Smitty” Turner, the town blacksmith. Even over the smoke from his cigarette, Clay could smell the horse, iron and sweat coming from Smitty. He took another long pull on his beer and motioned to Annie to bring him another; she smiled, winked and headed for the bar.
Clay played poker well into the night, he didn’t lose much but didn’t win much either. He was OK with breakin’ even. Annie came over and sat behind and off to one side of him. She rubbed on him and whispered sweet nuthin’s into his ear while he continued to play. After awhile, Clay decided spending the rest of the night with Annie would be a lot better than playing cards.
He leaned back in his chair and gave Annie a little smile and wink; she nodded and grabbed his hand to lead him upstairs.
Clay scooped up the money with his other hand and was just tucking it into his pocket when he saw Jake nod towards the saloon entrance. Clay saw that Jake had his hand on the butt of his gun in the ready. Clay looked towards the door and saw that Mather brothers and a few of their gang had stumbled into the saloon. They were all pretty drunk; in fact it looked like Bill Mathers had to be carried in.
Clay whispered in Annie’s ear, “Sit down here, I’ll be back”. The Mather gang had taken up positions at the opposite end of the bar from Jake. Clay walked over and stopped before blocking Jake’s line of sight. He stood there waiting for the Mathers to react. It was Bill that first saw Clay, but in his drunken stupor all he could do was let out a cry that sounded like a cross between a scared baby and a wounded dog. He tried to point but that caused him to lose his hold on the bar and he fell to the floor knocking over the nearly full spittoon. His brother, Bob started to reach down to help him but stopped when he saw Bill was covered in slime. Bob and the rest of the gang started laughing at Bill’s predicament and that’s when they noticed Clay standing nearby. All of them froze and their laughing died off like when a crank phonograph winds to a stop.
Clay had his hand near his gun and held up his other and said “Just wait, don’t move”. He went on to say, “I’ve been hired by the Croaker Diggs Railroad to bring you all in for train robbery”. One of the gang, Curly started to move and Clay once again held up his free hand and said “Wait”. Curly stopped and looked towards Bob Mathers for a sign, a nod, a wink…something. When he saw that Bob was stiff as a board, Curly decided he better ease off.
Here it was six outlaws to one hired gun; it seemed a might unfair odds for Clay. Except that Clay had a reputation in these parts as being a fast gun, in fact most folks said he was the fastest. He also was known to be fair, so he was very well respected by honest folks and bad folks alike.
Clay repeated that he had been hired to bring in the Mather gang and he demanded their guns. All this time, Bill Mather had been laying at the foot of the bar in a pool of spit and who knows what else. He hadn’t moved a muscle, Clay didn’t know if he was knocked out or playin’ opossum. Off in the distance Clay heard a train whistle and thought to himself it must be the Number 12 coming back in for the night.
Clay was just about to repeat his demand for their guns when a miner came bangin’ through the door yelling that he had found it, “…he had hit a silver vein as big as his leg and four times as long”. The miner had a big chunk of silver ore raised above his head as he stormed in. Clay’s focus was diverted for just a brief second and that’s when all hell broke loose.
Bill had been faking, he was the first to go for his gun, as drunk as he was he nearly shot Clay. But the shot went wide and killed the buffalo head on the wall. Clay shot Bill right between his eyes. Bill died with a very surprised look on his face as if he was sure he had gotten the drop on Clay. Curly had been itching for a fight so he went for his gun. Jake got him in the side. The force of the bullet impact threw Curly into Bob who was just reaching for his gun, Bob pulled the trigger and shot his own big toe clean off. Bob started hoppin’ around all the while trying to get a bead on Clay. Clay got him in the chest and Bob fell next to his brother, their two pools of blood began to mix along with the muck from the overturned spittoon.
Jake got another gang member just as Clay fired at Wes Hardin, another of the gang. He missed Wes, but thumbed the hammer and hit him with a second shot. Wes was on the run so the bullet hit him in the shoulder and spun him around and he crashed into the piano with a loud crescendo of notes. Clay fired again and this time hit Wes in the chest and brought him down with a tinkle of high notes from the piano.
Jake had the last gang member, Johnny White held at bay. Clay walked over and grabbed Johnny’s gun. He told Johnny to sit on the floor. Jake came closer and held his gun on Johnny. It was all over, less than five minutes and 5 troubled souls were lost.
Clay collected the gang’s guns and checked to see if any were alive. All were dead.
He offered a few of the miners a dollar each to take the bodies over to the undertaker’s place and leave them on the back porch. Rusty had already gotten a mop and bucket full of water and began washing away the muck as each body was removed.
Jake had tied Johnny to a chair and put a gag in his mouth, one of the miners helped him carry the chair over to a wall and they turned it so Johnny’s knees were pressed hard against the wall.
Clay reached behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He motioned Jake over and said, “Now we’re even again” and handed him a full glass. Jake nodded and downed the whiskey; it calmed his nerves a little.
Got a problem, find a solution….. American Ingenuity
In the early 1900s salt was a big commodity. Refrigeration was still a few years away from being a common household convenience. Besides adding flavor to foods, salt is used to cure meat and fish so it could be stored for use later. Salt is also used as a mainstay in chemical production; the world was becoming more and more dependant on chemicals. The need for salt was great; it almost became as valuable to mine as gold or silver.
A large source of salt was found in the near Death Valley in . The Saline Valley Salt Works Company was founded to mine the salt and distribute it around the Salt from was considered the purest salt.
was very remote and the salt works management had to come up with a means to economically transport the salt from the mine to the nearest railroad line for transport. The problem, a large mountain stood between the salt works and the nearest rail head. The company had two choices; use wagons pulled by mules or find another way to get the salt over the mountain. The Saline Valley Salt Tram was devised.
Constructed between 1910 and 1913 the salt tramway carried over 30,000 tons of pure salt during operation from 1913 into early 1930’s. The tramway constructed of wood, steel and rawhide rose from the valley floor, 8000 feet to the top of the . The motors for the tramway were powered by electricity supplied by an Edison Power Plant. The total path the salt travelled in the tramway gondolas was 13.5 miles. Each gondola carried 800 pounds of salt. The tramway transported salt at a rate of 20 tons per hour.
In addition to salt, the gondolas were used to transport the workers back and forth to their stations along the tram route and to the mine. Based upon reports, it was a hair raising ride, especially if you looked down into the canyon and saw the many gondolas that had fallen from the tramway cable.
A specially built gondola was used to transport supplies from the railhead to the salt mine, this gondola was insulated and packed with ice to keep perishables fresh during the trip over the mountain.
The tramway was subject to frequent breakdowns, maintenance costs were high and became one of the reasons the tramway was shutdown after only three years of operation.
The Saline Valley Salt Works Company was never able to recoup the cost for building and maintaining the salt tram. The tramway stopped operating in 1913. It was used a few more times until 1930 as other companies took over the operation of the salt works.
Today, salt tram towers can be seen from the Swansea Grade on the west side of the . No two towers are exactly alike.
The Saline Valley Tramway is now a monument to American ingenuity… no problem is too big to solve, no matter how much it costs.
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity” – General George S. Patton
One of the roads up to the Swansea Grade is accessed from Highway 395 at Lone Pine,CA. south on Highway 136 to at Keeler, CA. Head up into the mountains. Four wheel drive is recommended but a two wheel drive pickup or other high clearance vehicle will work in good weather. Once you reach Cerro Gordo Mine head northwest along the to the Salt Tram summit station. (be sure to get a map of the area) Coordinates of the Summit Station are 36° 36' 28.42" N and 117° 51' 12.77"
Campgrounds are located all along Highway 395 and boondocking spots abound in the Keeler area.
Other sights to see nearby: Cerro Gordo Mine, Manzanar Internment Camp, Dirty Socks (hot mineral pool) off of Highway 190, (soon to be a wet lake, see my next story) and of course Death Valley.
Sources:
http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/stories3/saline_valley_salt_works.pdf
http://www.saltinstitute.org/index.html
www.cerrogordo.us/roadway.html
September 6, 2007
Written By Larry A. Kerr
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
or Mother Nature….
Sandwiched between the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and Death Valley existed a massive fresh water lake, known as . As the last glaciers of the most recent ice age subsided, the lake was formed. At that time, was 250 feet (76 m) deep and 20 by 30 mile (32 by 48 km) in size. Climate changes shrunk the lake to 30 feet (9 m) deep and reduced the size by half.
The lake was a resting stop for millions of waterfowl during yearly migration.
In 1913, the City of needed a water source to quench the thirst of a booming population. The numerous streams flowing down from the Sierra Nevada mountain snow pack, feeding , were diverted into the newly constructed Los Angeles Aqueduct system. The lake level began to drop quickly as the watershed was sent off down the aqueduct to nearly 200 miles (322 km) to the south. By 1920 the lake dried up and is now known as the .
In recent times, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) began shallow flooding portions of the dry lake bed using water diverted from the aqueduct (talk about a paradox). Approximately 15 square miles (39 square km) of the lake bed is now under about 3 feet (1 m) of water. This was done to help minimize alkali dust storms which carry away as much as four million tons (3.6 million metric tons) of dust from the lakebed each year, causing respiratory problems in nearby residents. Another 3.5 square miles (9 square km) is planted with native vegetation in an additional dust control effort. These actions are helping to buoy the lake’s ecosystem.
The LADWP is actively seeking additional water sources to quench the thirst of a still booming population…. One idea is to fill massive bags floating in the Pacific Ocean with water from the Columbia River in and then tow them down the coast to , where the water will be pumped into a reservoir. Will the state of need to commission “Columbia Dry River Bed” signs in the near future.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_Lake
http://www.acfnewsource.org/environment/mud_lake.html
http://www.epa.gov/region09/air/owens/index.html
