Searles Valley Historical Society Museums Field Trip

Most of these museums are “appointment only” but we’re in luck! We’ve made the arrangements to visit each of them. We’ll be visiting the Fire Museum, History House, Trona Railway Museum and Caboose, Archives, and the Old Guest House Museum. Docents will be on-hand at each location to guide us through their rich history and their exhibits. Want to peruse at your own pace? You can do that as well during the time we are at each area.

Our journey will start at the Maturango Museum and we’ll drive over to Trona through Poison Canyon. By the way, did you know that the “real name” of Poison Canyon is Salt Wells Canyon?

We’ll make a brief stop at the Trona Pinnacles turn off to view two monuments; John Searles’ Freight Wagon Route Monument and the Epsom Salts Monorail Monument. If you want to learn more about the Epsom Salts Monorail, Maturango Museum has a great book on this subject as well as a great display in the Museum.

From there we’ll continue to the Fire Museum. Inside this museum are two antique fire engines, a 1924 Stutz and a 1938 Ahren-Fox. Displays in the Fire Museum include 20 photographs of major fires in Argus, Borosolvay, and Trona and other fire memorabilia.

We’ll then make a quick stop at the Trona Rest Stop to take care of business and proceed to the History House, Caboose, and Railway Museum.

The History House is one of the oldest residential houses in Trona (built around 1920) and is a treasure trove of items from yesteryear. The Trona Railway Museum displays artifacts from the Trona Railway and the Caboose will be open to those able to navigate the steep stairs to get in and out.

Be sure to bring a picnic lunch. We’ll head over to the Archives when we are done at the History House. They have tables in the Archive building where we can eat our lunch. Before or after you eat your lunch, you can peruse through the Archives. There is so much to see! If you prefer to eat at one of the local restaurants in Trona, we’ll have a “meet time” at our final stop.

After lunch we’ll head to our final stop, the Old Guest House Museum. This building was built around 1917 and is one of the oldest buildings in Searles Valley. Originally it was built as four apartments and was remodeled as a guest house with twelve rooms for visitors to Trona. The twelve rooms show events in Searles Valley from the early mining days to present plant ownership. Since this is our final stop, once you have finished viewing all the cool “stuff”, you can head back, we just ask that you let the Leader of the Field Trip know you are leaving.

9am: meet at the Maturango Museum for check in. Participants will be required to sign a liability waiver. Car caravan will be organized and for those that want to carpool, we’ll figure it out there.

The cost is $35 for adult museum members ($60 for 2 adults), $40 adult non-members ($70 for 2). No Pets. Sign up at shop.maturango.org or come to the Gift Store.

Be sure you have enough gas (less than 100 miles round trip), car and tires in good running order.

Usual dress code for field trips applies: hat, sunscreen, comfortable walking shoes, layered clothing, water, camera (although some of the buildings ask no photographs). It is better to have these items and not need them, than need them and not have them.

Bring a picnic lunch to eat while we are at the Archives.

Cancellation Policy: If the Museum cancels your trip, you will be given a full refund or you may transfer the money to a different trip. No cash refunds will be given if you cancel.