Searles Valley Historical Society Museums Field Trip

Searles Valley Historical Society Museums Field Trip Saturday, March 23

Have you ever driven through Trona on your way to someplace else, passing all the wonderful museums and wished you could stop and take a look? I know I have thought about it, but it can sometimes be hard to do spur of the moment since several of the museum buildings are open by appointment only. Guess what? We’ve made those appointments for this trip.

Come with us to the Searles Valley Historical Society Museums. We’ll be visiting the Fire Museum, History House, Trona Railway Museum and Caboose, 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. Oh by the way, did you know that the “real name” of Poison Canyon is Salt Wells Canyon? I didn’t. I’ve already learned something.

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.

  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.

 We will then return to the Trona Rest Stop for lunch. The kiosk at the Rest Stop was a joint project of the BLM Ridgecrest Office and the Searles Valley Historical Society. There

are 16 panels that have information about the local area, local mining, local history, sightseeing and recreational opportunities, and desert safety.

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 the present plant ownership. Since this is our final stop, once you have finished viewing all the cool “stuff”, you can head home, we just ask that you let the Field Trip leader 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 $25 for museum members ($40 for 2 adult members), $30 for nonmembers ($50 for 2 adults). Pets are not allowed. Buy tickets below or come to the Maturango Museum 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, and camera (although some of the buildings ask for 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 Trona Rest Stop.