Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/403276
AGGREGATES MANAGER November 2014 44 by Bill Langer Bill Langer is a consulting research geologist who spent 41 years with the U.S. Geological Survey before starting his own business. He can be reached at Bill_Langer@hotmail.com B efore we leave Needles, Calif., on our westward trek along old Route 66, we stop and fill up our tank. West of Needles, historic Route 66 veers away from I-40; first to the north, then to the south. We face more than 150 miles of barren des- ert road littered with relics from the past along what some call the Ghost Town section of Route 66. Riding along this crusty path of road, we eventually come to Amboy. Two extinct volcanoes are located to the west of town. One of those, Amboy Crater, is a 6,000-year-old cinder cone volcano. Once an old Route 66 tourist attraction, the crater stands silent vigil to the small town. But Amboy Crater wasn't always that way. One day, back in the 1950s, the crater spewed out a black cloud of smoke. Fearing an eruption, Route 66 and the Santa Fe railroad were shut down. A team of investigators was dispatched to investigate. To their surprise and relief, instead of billowing clouds of ash, red- hot lava, and steam, they saw a fire of burning tires and trash; a hoax perpetrated by some kids from nearby Barstow! I do not know if this story is true or an urban legend, but it tickles my fancy. We continue westward through a few more old towns. Like many towns we have passed elsewhere in our journey along Historic Route 66, many of these desert towns got their start with the railroad, boomed with mining, blossomed while servicing traffic along Route 66, and withered away following the opening of Interstate 40. So it was with Daggett, one of the next towns we come upon. Originally founded in the 1860s, the town boomed when silver was discovered in the Calico Mountains to the north. Borax was also important to Daggett's economy; for two years, Daggett was the terminal of the 20-mule team run from a borax mine near Furnace Creek in Death Valley. In 1883, the Furnace Creek mine was abandoned for a more favorable borax deposit in the Calico Mountains just east of the Sil- ver Mining District of Calico. Initially, the ore was hauled to Daggett using the 20-mule teams and wagons once used in Death Val- ley. In 1894, the operators experimented with a steam tractor locally called "Old Dinah." This experiment was a failure, and, in 1898, a narrow gauge railroad was constructed to ship ore to a calcining plant located just North of Daggett. From 1890 to 1907, these mines, with a total production valued at more than $9,000,000, were the largest producers of borax in the United States. But in 1907, the main borax operations were shifted to new mines back in the Death Valley region, causing Daggett to go into decline. Nevertheless, Daggett tenaciously survives. Before heading on down the Mother Road to Barstow, we take a side trip 7 miles north of Daggett to the historic ghost town of Calico; site of the silver and borax mines. During the late 1800s, while the country was switching from the silver standard to the gold standard, the price of silver plummeted. So did Calico's population. Just after the turn of the century, the narrow-gauge Calico railroad was dismantled, borax mining ended, and the town slowly died. By 1935, the town was entirely abandoned and left to de- cay in the Mojave Desert. In 1950, Calico was restored by Knott's Berry Farm and, subsequently, donated to the San Bernardino County Regional Parks. After catching a glimpse of life during the old mining days, we head to Barstow on our westward journey along Historic Route 66. AM From the Amboy Crater to Calico, towns rose and fell with the fates of mining. THE GHOST TOWN Se ion Daggett, Calif., served as home base for a team of 20 mules that transported borax from a mine in Death Valley. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.