Soda Lake Mining – Mark Hall-Patton (South County Tribune April 22,1993)

During the past Easter weekend, my family and I were able to enjoy the beautiful wildflowers on the Carrizo Plains. While floating over the plain in a hot air balloon, courtesy of South County aeronauts, Gordon and Minetta Bennett, Soda Lake was quite visibly full. During the ride Gordon and I spoke of the soda mining operations at the lake and the narrow-gauge railroad which had run from Soda Lake to the Temblor Grade. This little remembered railroad hauled soda from the lake to the grade for shipment to McKittrick and elsewhere. The lake was well known to early settlers on the plain. It was first called Salty Lake from the taste of the deposits left by the evaporating water during the summer. Myron Angel described the deposit in his 1883 history of our county. "The salt deposit of the Carrisa Plain appears like the bed of a dry lake, being five miles in length, and from half a mile to two miles in breadth. The salt covers the bed to a depth of six inches to two feet, and is sufficiently pure as to be used for many purposes. This is chiefly used for stock, being hauled away in wagons to the ranchos, 20 or more miles distant. Water intensely salty is found at a depth of two to three feet beneath the surface in the vicinity of the deposit. With cheap means of transportation the salt of this region will become a valuable commodity." Angel's prediction was to come true after the turn of the 20th century. In 1904 a new company began to produce soda and other products from the lake. This company, the Dudley Co. of San Francisco, was written about in the Paso Robles Record in December 1904. The Record noted that the company was planning to evaporate the water from the lake to get the chemicals. The soda and its by-products were to be shipped by traction engine to the nearest railroad stop at McKittrick in 50-ton loads. The company planned to ship sulphate of soda, borax, saltpeter and soda. Two years later, the Tribune noted the company was still investing in its operation. A short article in the Oct. 2, 1906, Tribune noted: "Ed Bishop ... states that the Dudley Co. of San Francisco has invested $40,000 in the new soda-works there. Soda crystals will be taken from the lake shores to McKittrick, a distance of 25 miles, by traction engines and shipped thence to market by rail." By 1908 a new company was running the operation. The Carisa Chemical Co. called for an assessment of two cents per share upon all outstanding shares of the company. The company was again based in San Francisco, though its operations were on the plain. About this time a short railroad was created on the plain to haul the soda to McKittrick. The short line never went as far as McKittrick, but it did run to the foot of the hills on the east side of the plain. This railroad is little remembered today, and apparently did not operate very long. It was out of operation by about 1919, when operations at the plant were suspended. Operations began again by 1923, when the William C. Hay Ltd. company operated the soda works. Hay was a successor to the Consolidate Chemical Co., a successor to the Carisa Chemical Co. In 1935, the operation was reported on in the Report of the State Mineralogist. His account by Herbert A. Franke noted that: "Soda Lake covers an area of 2,800 to 3,000 acres. The lake receives drainage of the Carrizo Plain and has no outlet..." "Evaporation exceeds the rainfall of the area, and the lake is dry except after heavy storms, and its surface is covered with a broad layer of white crystalline salts, ranging from a thin sheet about the margins to a deposit a few inches thick in the deeper parts. There are also some deep channels that have been filled." "... William C. Hay Ltd ... are the present owners of this deposit and plant. C.L. Burt ... is foreman. The plant was dismantled and moved from the south side of Soda Lake to the opposite side of the lake in 1934. The plant operated at its new location for a few months when it was closed down." "At the present time some experimental is being carried on. One man is employed to do this work and take care of the property. Water was pumped into a small section of the lake to dissolve the crude salts, and the brine then pumped into two new earthen settling tanks, about 80 ft. square and 40 inches deep, for solar evaporation." "... The narrow-gauge railroad tracks previously built on the lake were removed several years ago. The crude salt was crushed, washed, dried in centrifugals, sacked and hauled to McKittrick by auto trucks in the 1923-1925 operation." "Plans are to commence operating the new plant in the near future. The limited market for 'salt cake' (the trade name for anhydrous sodium sulphate) and the long haul of 28 miles over the Temblor Range to McKittrick, the nearest shipping point, makes exploitation difficult..." The last comment in Franke's account was prophetic, as the operation did not last for many years after this. Today only foundations and the railroad right-of-way remain to mark the operation. Soda Lake, though wet now, will dry quickly. The Soda which drew all these efforts will again be visible to the visitor.