1905 - 1916 -- The Soda Works

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad

Tracks of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, called the T&T, were laid by Francis "Borax" Smith to carry ore, cargo and passengers on a north/south alignment through the desert, reached Soda Springs in November of 1905. This line connected the rich mining districts of Goldfield and Bullfrog ... and towns like Shoshone, Tecopa, Death Valley Junction, and Beatty ... with the outside world. It carried minerals, freight, mining equipment, and passengers between the east-west rail lines at Ludlow and mines scattered along the Amargosa River, and Death Valley.

Just What is Soda?

Included in the loose term "soda" are several chemical compounds: washing soda (sodium carbonate), baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and caustic soda (sodium hydrate) are only a few.

The Soda Works

To extract chemicals from sub-surface lake brine, spring water was channeled through ditches and trapped in shallow ponds where it was evaporated by the sun. The resulting "trona" sludge was scraped from the ponds, spread for further drying, and shipped on the T&T for final processing.

The operation, owned by The Pacific Salt and Soda Company, was never financially successful. By 1912, the cost of refining solar-dried sludge into separate, usabale chemicals forced the company to abandon the project.

In 1914, another attempt at mining the playa began, but in 1916, flood waters inundated the dry lake for two years, forcing the miners to "pull up stakes." Soda Springs slowly crumbled back into the desolate desert from which it came.

Ditches and dikes from the Soda Works can still be seen on the dry lake bed, but the narrow-guage rails, mine cars and buildings that were once here are now only memories.