Haderly 99 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Decided at the last minute on Friday to head to Trona, California for the Gem-o-Rama at Searles Lake. Had a great time but 48 hours with no sleep is beyond a crazy trip. Found a bunch of hanksite, sulfohalite and borax crystals but cleanup will have to wait for a couple weeks.Left Glendale, AZ at 10:30pm on Friday and rolled into Trona at about 6:30am on SaturdayGot in line and signed up for the field tripsTrona from the Mud TripA lot of people digging for crystals in the mud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Haderly 99 Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 A few Hanksite fresh out of the mudA pink Halite that someone found at the Mud TripBlow Hole collecting Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Uncle Ron 1,491 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Thanks for the cool pix of my home town, Trona! Spent my youth roaming all over those mountains in the back ground ... Cheers, Unc Quote Link to post Share on other sites
heybeerman 29 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 WOW!I never new you could find gems there. Spent about a year working there. Played in those hills myself for many years. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
oredigger62 17 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Very nice and nice pics as well. I thought i was the only goof that went that long without sleep. Just glad to know i am not alone. bet it was nice just to get out of the valley for a bit and get some nice specimens too. Thanks for posting the pics !!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mrbinion 2 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Very cool Casey and nice speciments. It looks like you were preping the place for the Redneck Olympics. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Uncle Ron 1,491 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 WOW!I never new you could find gems there. Spent about a year working there. Played in those hills myself for many years.Hey Blake .. did you ever find gold there? I knew a bunch of old gold miners, like Seldom Seen Slim, Mr. Trinsdale, etc., but gold was $32/ozt, and the whole town thought they we re all crazed ... They walked around, pants hangin' down, cause of pockets full o' nuggets... Daymn.... Cheers, Yer Unc in the Dubyah Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rimshot 181 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Haderly,In the 1st pic. What kind of mine is that?And the 3rd pic. Is that like a salt flat?Thanks!Rim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hoser John 1,240 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 WOW Trona still looks like a god forsaken LL hole to me,crank capitol of the county and nasty place to be.Rocks,gems,minerals cool,Trona no John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rimshot 181 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 I'm not gona ask where the mud came from... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
adam 3,127 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Great pics ! Thats pretty hard core making a last minute trip like that ...... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nugget Shooter 4,614 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Thanks for the great photos and looks like a ton of fun! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Uncle Ron 1,491 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 WOW Trona still looks like a god forsaken LL hole to me,crank capitol of the county and nasty place to be.Rocks,gems,minerals cool,Trona no JohnYes, John ... It's a horror-show there now ... San Bernardino County started sending all their welfare scum and parolees there because you can rent a ramshackle dump for like $200/mo. ... However, it was a wonderful place to grow up and was a real town full of respectable hard working people back in the day until the Japanese bought the two chemical plants ... Then they cut down all the trees and fired all the higher paid engineers ... The school was the richest school district in the US because the Potash plant paid huge royalties ... The teachers (my Dad being one of them) were the highest paid in the US and the school district brought in the most innovative and advanced teaching practices and programs available ... I, like 2/3's of my classmates, could read at more than 2,500 words per minute with 98% retention by the 9th grade ... Most of the people in my graduating class went on to gain 4-year college degrees and professional careers ... Now it's a horrid dump ... An arsonist went through the town a few years back and burnt down dozens of homes ... Then the county in its infinite wisdom said folks can only remove the destroyed shells of homes and rebuild if they pay huge county fees ... So 95% of the decent people just pulled up and left ... But a funny thing, every five years, the school homecoming draws thousands of former graduates and we all go out in the desert and party for a couple days and forget the utter destruction county bureaucrats and foreign plant ownership have wreaked on what used to be the best place in the world to grow up ... Sad ... Cheers, Unc Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cochetopa 15 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Hey Blake .. did you ever find gold there? I knew a bunch of old gold miners, like Seldom Seen Slim, Mr. Trinsdale, etc., but gold was $32/ozt, and the whole town thought they we re all crazed ... They walked around, pants hangin' down, cause of pockets full o' nuggets... Daymn.... Cheers, Yer Unc in the DubyahUnc,I always thought you were a pretty cool guy from reading your posts, but now you've been elevated to demi-god status. You knew Seldom Seen Slim? I grew up in LA 'burbs and occasionally read/heard news about this elusive guy. SSS became one of my heros, along with John Wayne, Jim Arness, et. al. I wanted to become those icons when I grew up. Well, "What happened?", you ask? I studied diligently and became a computer geek. Sort of lost sight of my goal somewhere along the way. Cochetopa/Jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Uncle Ron 1,491 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Jim, I knew Slim quite well ... When I was 12 I had a summer job in a lumber yard and used to eat lunch at a nearby little restaurant ... Slim took a liking to me and used to wait for me every day to eat burger, fries and a malt with me ... He told me all kinds of stories as the chomped chow flew all over ... He had a strange accent and was very hard to understand, but he was very animated in his telling ... I've got a few good stories about Slim ... Cheers, Unc Quote Link to post Share on other sites
heybeerman 29 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I guess about 20 some years ago I was there working on the RR tracks that serve Trona and NACC (stiil owned by them??)Was not into finding gold them days. Beer Bars and .........well I was young.... :-)But prior to that as a kid, I started raceing desert races out there in the Spangler Hills on my 1972 Yamaha 125. It was 11 years old and about 20 years behind the times. But it was mine! I got it for changing the clutch in my neihgbors pick up. And it only took me a couple days to get it running. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hoser John 1,240 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Yes went to and through many times as a kid with the Palos Verde Gem and Mineral club on club hunts. Some friends bought property for next to nuttn' a few years back and went to see...OMG the greedy bureauratz and such destroyed a decent little mining town. Leave it to greedy and politicians to ruin anything anywhere....glad to hear you still have them memories as nice to coveth the way things were...John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
heybeerman 29 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Don't forget the nearby Pinnacles...You know "Danger Will Robinson!" Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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