Nostalgia & History > A Glimpse of the former Tonopah and Tidewater

I had the pleasure of attending this year's California Desert Symposium in Zzyzx, California, last weekend. This event typically consists of two days of talks on the geology, biology and anthropology of the Mojave Desert region, followed by a two day field trip, much of it on the dirt and four-wheel-drive roads in the area. The place it happens is the old "hot springs spa" that was formerly the siding of Soda Springs on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, so there is a little industrial archeology to be had there as well. Since Serpico's book on the T&T came out a few years ago, I had that excellent reference along to share with other attendees.
Here are a few photos I took of relics of the T&T while I was in the area.
1) The telephone poles south of Zzyzx are still in place for a mile or so. A hundred ten years of weathering in the blistering heat of Soda Lake Basin doesn't seem to have done them much harm other than to increase their scenic potential.
2) The road bed south of Zzyzx became a graded road some time ago, leading to the place where the four-wheel-drive Old Government Road comes off the west end of its crossing of Soda Lake playa. There are numerous old ties tossed off the side of the road through here, each tie well soaked with salt from the playa.
3) Looking off toward the north from the hill above the campus** at Zzyzx, the old T&T grade crosses the west edge of Soda Lake playa heading for yesterday's Silver Lake and today's Baker. If there were ever a town appropriately named, it is Baker.

more to follow . . .

** campus of the Desert Studies Consortium, operated cooperatively by several Cal State Universities, though mostly Fullerton. The grounds are open to the public - well worth the short drive off I-15 to visit the place. The water there is treated by reverse osmosis and so tastes a lot better than anything I've ever had out of a tap in Baker.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/17 11:13 by CimaScrambler.

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Nice shots

The field trip we had on the third day of the symposium took us from north of Baker across Soda Lake Basin to Crucero and then over the Mesquite Hills and Bristol Mountains to Broadwell Lake near Ludlow, mostly following the old T&T Grade.

4) This image is actually from nearly ten years ago, and shows the T&T grade climbing out of the Soda Lake Basin through the Mesquite Hills on its climb to the divide into Broadwell Valley. You can see a UP train on the LA&SL line between Basin and Crucero in the background. I had hoped to have time to grab a shot or two at Crucero as we passed through, however the field trip didn't stop there, moving on to the bottom of the grade shown here for lunch.

5) The T&T Grade crossing Broadwell Dry Lake, looking toward north. The grade there has not been taken over by a dirt road, and so has a few ties embedded in it still. North of the pass in the background, there are even more old ties embedded in the grade.

At this point the field trip took off toward the east along a power line road to Kelso and stopped following the T&T grade.

6) This is the view east across Soda Lake from Zzyzx, looking through a derelict picture window behind the old soda water pool across Soda Lake toward the Cow Hole Mountains. The Old Government Road crossing the playa is out there somewhere.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief view of the Eastern Mojave.

Be safe out there -

- Kit

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/17 11:17 by CimaScrambler.

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Great stuff, Boron pretty much killed the T&T when the borax business moved, not much in
Beatty to support a railroad. For years there was a boxcar next to the ROW in Baker which
ended up I believe at OERM. Turns out the car wasn't even T&T.

Out

Great shots! Nice piece of history surviving.

It's been many years since I was in the area, but I recall that the ROW was visible along US 95 in Nevada.

One of my best chefs for private car "TIOGA PASS" is Victor, who works part of the time as the chef at Zzzyx. I have been there for lunch several times. A really strange place with a fascinating history. The T&T connection makes it even more interesrting.


Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

That is all pretty cool stuff. That is the type of archeology that I like to track down, but the T&T is just a little too far away.


Gary

Some really good shots Kit, thanks for sharing. I really like the contrast of the dry lake bed and the palm trees. Also, nice composition in that last shot.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Great thread! Thanks for posting these photos and providing the commentary.

Based on your brief description, the symposium was of interest to me. I did a little searching around to find a preview (342 pages!) of the symposium proceedings which I downloaded and saved to read at a later time.

Back in the mid-1960s, I delivered the Los Angeles Times in the Duarte area. While driving on my route, I'd listen to a country & western radio station that was one of the few on the air at that hour. This was where I learned about "The Wreck of Old 97". At 5:30 AM the station would broadcast the programs of "Doctor" Curtis Springer, who would invite his listeners to visit "Zzyzx Mineral Springs in the heart of the beautiful Mojave Desert. We want you to come when you can and enjoy the finest of foods in abundance..." I've been told that for those who didn't want to drive to Zzyzx, he had a second-hand Twin Coach bus that would pick up passengers in the LA area and take them to his "resort". Eventually the Bureau of Land Management found that he occupied the Zzyzx area under an old mining claim that was no longer valid, and he was evicted. His "resort" became what is now the research center.

aronco Wrote:
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> One of my best chefs for private car "TIOGA PASS"
> is Victor, who works part of the time as the chef
> at Zzzyx. I have been there for lunch several
> times. A really strange place with a fascinating
> history. The T&T connection makes it even more
> interesrting.

The kitchen staff supporting the symposium didn't wear name tags (unlike everyone else!) so I'm not sure if your friend Victor was the one in charge of things. However, I can say the food they served was a highlight of the event! We even got big sack lunches with sandwiches, chips, fruit, and big jugs of lemonade to take along for lunch on the field trip.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Based on your brief description, the symposium was
> of interest to me. I did a little searching
> around to find a preview (342 pages!) of the
> symposium proceedings which I downloaded and saved
> to read at a later time.

If anyone is interested, the proceedings from each of the last many symposia are available as down-loadable PDF files from the website (scroll down to the bottom of the page):
http://nsm.fullerton.edu/dsc/desert-studies-center-additional-information

These are large files (usually 125-200 page color pdf files), so be prepared for it to take awhile if you have a slow internet connection. The proceedings are also very weighted toward geology, with much of it written by active academic or USGS researchers, so the reading can be pretty dense if you aren't familiar with the jargon.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/17 17:01 by CimaScrambler.

DynamicBrake Wrote:
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> Some really good shots Kit, thanks for sharing. I
> really like the contrast of the dry lake bed and
> the palm trees. Also, nice composition in that
> last shot.
>
> Kent in CArmel Valley


Yes! A really beautiful photo.