THE T & T DOMAIN

The Tonopah S Tidewater Railroad Co, Ltd began with its connection with the Santa Fe at Ludlow, now on US 40, just 50 miles east of Barstow. It followed the Amargosa River for much of the way, and went for 169 miles northward into Beatty, Nevada. The operation was one used to the miseries of heat, dust, sand and wind! My interest in the T S T HR began many years ago. It was my father that introduced the operation to me. As a young Wells Fargo Commercial Agent in Los Angeles, in 1907 he was sent by rail up to Rhyolite, near Beatty, to check out the feasibility of express business to that then-new boomtown locale. His route was from LA to Ludlow, and then northerly via the very recently-finished line. Pacific Coast Borax (PCB) Company's purpose of the T S T was not only to cash in on Tonopah's and its environ's mining future, but also to tap the rich borate ores lying seven miles SW of Death Valley Jct--at a new location called Ryan--the specific mine called the Lila C.(for Wm T Coleman's daughter)--and the specific mineral, known as Colemanite. Why the Tonopah and Tidewater name? Nevada's early 20th Century mining spree was at its height and three outside rail lines sprang into action in Beatty in an 18-month period during 1906-07--the T & T being one of them. Tonopah was considered the hub of this activity. The other extreme was chosen, as PCB had its refinery(and still does!) at Wilmington, California. Its Crucero crossing at the Salt Lake Route(later Union Pacific) has long vanished, though the old right of way is very visible at today's ZZYZX(old Soda). Now, if one thinks the trip between Baker and Death Valley Jct is boring, let me try to convince you that it is not! The T & T began its days in a quasi-straight line above Baker, bisecting Silver Lake. A few later storms dictated that folly when heavy runoff waters filled Silver Lake and the road was forced to realign its path to the east and out of the lake bed. It then battled heavy grit in the Dumont Dunes area. Just a few miles on, the Amargosa River Canyon was traversed, necessitating several long wooden trestles before reaching Tecopa. Once beyond Death Valley Jct, the road was on relatively smooth, desert terrain clear into Beatty. In most of all these miles, its old grade is still very much in prominence. Ryan's mineral became depleted, as did the townsite. In 1914, young Harry Gower(yes, the Hollywood street is named after his family) graduated from USC in civil engineering, and was one of the locators of the Death Valley RR, a child of the T & T. This was created as a three-foot gauge line and went 20 miles westward from DV Jct into New Ryan, where even greater Colemanite deposits were found to exist. Today, Pyramid Peek climbers can especially see a good trace of its old path, including the site of the original Ryan. One can walk the old right of way into New Ryan, but will no doubt be told to leave the premises. Telling the tenants that you are a Sierra Club hiker will soften their tones, I have found. In the late 208, a few miles east of Mojave, a better borate mineral, a sodium tetrabocate known as Kernite, was found in profusion. This ore, being easier to reduce than the calcium tetraborate (Colemanite), caused PCB to move its operations to present-day Boron--and which today boasts

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