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In the early 1900’s salt was still used as a preservative
for foods. The
Saline
Valley
had plenty of
salt, so a tram was built to carry the salt over the
Inyo
Mountains, to the Owens
Valley, and off to
market by rail. Work began on the tramway in 1910 and was completed
in 1913. Gondola cars carrying 800 pounds of salt, traveled at a
rate of 20 tons per hour over those mountains. A total of 30,000
tons of high grade salt was carried over the tramway on and off
through the early 1930’s.
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| The main salt
tram summit control station straddles the crest of the Inyo
Mountains. It once was totally enclosed with metal siding. |
The salt tram consisted of a series of tramways, 13.5 miles
long. A unique crossover
system allowed the gondolas to go from one tramway to the other
without stopping. Electricity was provided by the Edison Power Plant
located in Cottonwood
Canyon in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains
on the western
side of Owens
Valley.
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| Salt tram
towers seen from the Swansea Grade on the west side of the
Inyo Mountains. No two towers are exactly alike. |
Before the salt could be transported on the tramway, it had
to be harvested from the Saline
Valley
lake bed. Fresh
water was pumped from a large spring into shallow ponds that were
built on the lake bed. The hot sun baked down on the brine solution
in the ponds. As the
water evaporated, the salt crystals that remained were raked into
piles. The salt was then shoveled into wooden railway cars that were
pulled into a large storage hopper, where tramway gondolas
automatically were loaded with salt. The unique system was capable
of filling 56 gondolas per hour, or 20-24 tons per hour. As many as
40 - 60 men were employed at the salt tram, enduring summer
temperatures which could reach as high as 120 degrees.
Following it’s trek over the Inyo
Mountains,
gondolas ended up at
Owens
Lake, northwest of
Swansea.
Here the salt was dried, screened, and prepped before
railroad shipment. The first buckets of salt reached the
Owens Lake
railhead on
July 2, 1913. “The
World’s Purest Salt” was endlessly transported over the tramway
for seven years.
The high cost of the construction of the great tramway over
the Inyo
Mountains,
prevented salt mining from being a profitable venture,
unfortunately. Ownership changed hands on and off until the
depression hit and the gondolas stopped forever. The remains of the
towers can be seen here and there as you travel the Swansea Grade
today.
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| View looking
down the east side of the the control station into Daisy
Canyon and the Saline Valley salt flats. |
The
Summit Control Station and Power House can be seen at the top of
Daisy
Canyon
northwest of
Cerro Gordo
ghost town. The control operator’s house has been restored, and is a
pleasant spot for modern backcountry travelers to pause for a picnic
and ponder over the construction of the great salt tramway in the
early 1900’s.
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