Brian, Alan and Greg at Saline Valley

Friends of the SALINE VALLEY SALT TRAM

www.SaltTram.blogspot.com   SalineValleySaltTram@gmail.com
Salt Tram history is rapidly disappearing, and we are striving to rediscover the efforts of our forefathers in order to give proper recognition to their hopes, dreams and abundant sweat from an era that is rapidly fading from our memories. We are actively seeking out information about the mining of Salt in Saline Valley between 1903 and the 1950's, including: documents, photos, articles, stories, artifacts, etc. If you can help us out, please email us at the address above - Thank-you! --Tim and Brian Waag, the Waag brothers (aka E. Clampus Waagus).

Caution (PLEASE READ): Climbing around on the tramway is dangerous because its really old and defnitely unsafe, so don't even think about it. Shoot, just getting to it requires some perilous hiking, and if you don't believe me, just take a look at the Zig Zag Access Trail (or what's left of it). Plus, climbing on it weakens it and endangers your life. Also, the Saline Valley Salt Tram is on the National Register of Historic Places and should be treated with the respect that it deserves. What little remains is of great historic value, and should not be disturbed in any way. Heck, its probably against the law to move parts of the tram around, and certainly a crime to take home some of the few bits of it that remain (though you'd have to ask your friendly local BLM agent for details). So please treat it with the respect it deserves, so that future generations can enjoy whats left, without you messing it up. Really. Please. You can see its listing on the National Register of Historic Places at these web links:
National Register of Historic Places 1          National Register of Historic Places 2

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December, 2009: Brian, Greg and Alan recently spent a quick weekend out at Saline Valley doing Salt Tram Research. I couldn't go because of foot surgery on 12/3 that'll take about 2 months before fully healed and ready to hike. Initially, they were going to head up to the Summit Station at 8,600 feet, but BWebb's report of Inyo snow out his front window put an end to that idea. The alternative was to head out to Saline Valley to meet some objectives for our research, as follows:

OBJECTIVE (1) Examine Control Station 1 to determine exactly how it makes it's huge 33 degree change of direction, as we've never looked at it that closely, and its the only tram station that makes such a huge direction correction. Click on the topo map to see the location of direction change.

OBJECTIVE (2) Find the tent sites shown in our recently acquired photo of Control Station 1, apparently right after construction. Examine artifacts around the site to acquire more research documentation.

OBJECTIVE (3) See if he could hike out to the large structure out in the middle of the lake, that is known to be high and dry during the fall, but surrounded by lake water the rest of the time.






















Here's how they did:

Let's explain a few photos, vis-a-vis the 3 stated objectives (note that these were only the MAIN objectives - they had plenty of other stuff to research as well).

RESEARCH RESULTS (1) I've included a Topo Map showing the change of direction station, determined by looking at the dashed line route of the Salt Tram. Note that the map also incudes 2 colored lines identifying the location of the 2 sections of the tramway where the buckets are highest off the ground. Despite what has been published, the highest they get off the ground is about 700 feet, not 1,000 feet (which was probably just an estimate). As expected, the change of direction is accomplished by a bending of the overhead rails on which the carrier hangers run through the station. Brian took photos of this part of the construction that I will get in the mail from him later.

 




















RESEARCH RESULTS (2) The side-by-side comparison of the area to the South of Control Station 1 (the Change of Direction Station) shows 9 tent cabins and 1 wood cabin in the historical photo. The modern photo was taken last weekend by Brian. Please click on it to show the full detail. Brian and gang were able to find all of the tent cabin sites, and reviewed some of the artifacts and dump down the side of the hill (more of a cliff, actually). In fact, that leads us to the photo of Greg with his face in the business end of the outhouse from Control Station 1 (CS 1) - a great and unexpected find! However, the historical photo does NOT show a wooden outhouse anywhere that we can see, so we'll need to extrapolate up the hillside to search for the outhouse site. In addition, Brian and company found another tent cabin site on the other side of the ridge and out of the view of the historical photo. Brian reports that no artifacts whatsoever were found at the tent cabin sites. There are 2 potential reasons for this: 1) they were hauled away when the Salt Tram shut down for good, and 2) the nasty weather blew away any last remnats of the tent cabins, and seeing as (it is likely) that they were built without foundations, there was nothing to hold the lightweight wood and tent material to the site; I would, however, expect some heavier metal artifacts to remain at the tent cabin sites, but apparently, that has not been the case. One photo shows Greg standing at one of the rock walls of a Tent Cabin site (not sure which one).

RESEARCH RESULTS (3) There was a Salt Tram loading device used at some point during the Salt Tram collecting operations, and 2 of them are still out on the lake, though hard to get to. The photo show the taller of the 2 devices, obviously surrounded by water. At other times of the year, probably late summer and fall, you can walk out on the salt lake on solid salt right up to the device. Another blog post will deal with these metal Salt loading devices, along with its accompanying monorail (!).

















Great work Brian, Greg and Alan!

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