Historic Trona Monorail

An annotated photographic slideshow of a trip to the historic Trona Monorail which was used in the transportation of magnesium sulphate (epsom salt) in Southern California in the 1920s.

[@billfarismpc]

I stumbled on to an account of the first Monorail in California - years before Disneyland - in the days before internet. After learning about it, I visited the Maturango Museum to get photos for an article I eventually sold to True West magazine in the 1980s. The pictures always fascinated me - men in pith helmets and such building this remarkable and ill-fated line. It looked like something out of H.G. Wells, to my mind. The fact is that the monorail actually did run and serve its purpose for a few years before the green Douglas Fir twisted in the heat, the lack of threaded joiners (nicely noted in your video) failed to hold things together, and the seasonal flooding of the "dry lake" along with other factors made it impractical for the line to continue. Thanks for this video montage and the way it brings us back to such a remarkable chapter in Eastern California history.

[@justjay4412]

Awesome. Great job. Paused a lot to read and think. So interesting. Trona!

[@jameshudkins2210]

Thank you so much for such an interesting and beautiful film.

[@davidcomfort7292]

Totally jealous you were able to get on the Navy property and see things like Wingate Pass, Lone Willow Spring and the east end of Layton Canyon.

[@johntansley4020]

Trona was a unique place to go to high school and work. Trona had it's own money and I still have a 5 cent coin! The high school hired teachers that were mostly from the mid west and they were good. Sports was important and I played football, basketball, baseball and ran track... I went on to Chaffey College for an AA and then to Long Beach State for a B.A and eventually a Masters degree...After being drafted and serving 2 years in the army I returned to Southern California where I coached several sports high school sports and coached track for 45 years at all levels. I was the head coach at Glendale College, Long Beach State and Los Angeles State. I was fortunate to be able to do coaching seminars all over the world. My wife Sharon and I have been married for 53 years. Thanks Trona for a good start.

[@tuttle566]

tronamike, I love these old forgotten places. Very interresting enjoyed seeing your pictures thank you for sharing it.

[@mojavedesert2610]

Absolutely amazing!

[@AGNNewsChannel]

This video clip is having slow motion blur effect with good quality and background music is also good with documentary style.

[@sarjim4381]

Excellent montage and music to go with it. I explored that area back in the late 60's before it was Navy property. When did that happen? My only problem with the video is some of the titles disappeared before I had a chance to read them.

[@Troldann]

@thisnameismyusername This is John Williams's opening music to the 2000 Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot."

[@edmundholtzen8525]

All roads lead to Trona.. I was born and raised there...

[@lalady59]

Very interesting...thanks!!

[@jridge16]

Excellent shots and thanks for posting. How did you get in there? You work for/with the US Navy? And if this is all on closed Navy property who and why did someone install those signs?

[@mikegilbert8212]

Thank you- I was fortunate to have as a neighbor the archaeologist for the navy base. I was a volunteer on this run. It was a really long path around to finally arrive back almost where we started. The same man was responsible for the re-creation of the AAA signs, to help all who venture here (legal Nave personnel) have perspective.

[@josephleister9198]

Sub titles passed by so fast it made it difficult to watch...

[@charlesdell2864]

Trona is a rut.