Dagget Nabbet

Last week I had the privilege of guest blogging for The Boron Sun. The piece I wrote was about the 1940 film 20 Mule Team, a forgetten film I had seen some years back, and that had some relevance to the town of Boron's history. In the process of doing research on the film, so I could dot all my I's and cross all my T's, I discovered the film was actually suppose to be set in the town of Dagget, CA. 

Now, being a Route 66 enthusiast and amateur historian my mind suddenly clicked in with the question, "Dagget? Isn't that a town off 66?". 30 seconds later and with the help of Google maps I had my answer, yes Dagget is off of old 66 directly East of Barstow. Then I began to see Dagget in my mind with its hodgepodge of desert abodes, and it's creepy looking experimental solar power plant with that weird tower. If you didn't know any better you would mistake Dagget for being nothing more then Barstows outskirts which in all reality it is.

 

In the process of doing my research though I actually found some information about the town that was actually somewhat astonishing. Turns out Dagget at one time was very much the place to be, and a lucrative one at that. This small now nearly forgotten town was a hub for silver and boron mining in the 1880's and believe it or not it is actually the latter element and not the former that bought the town most of its wealth. 

No considering Dagget saw its good times in the 1880's and 90's we can rule out Route 66 being part of that sort of. If we figure that 66 was preceded by a number of previous trails we could think of it that way. But it's safe to say more then likely Dagget was the hub of silver and boron mining operations do to its access to the Santa Fe Railway whose tracks ran through Dagget on the way into Barstow and Santa Fe's yards and Harvey House there. 

Calico, a town to the North of Dagget was actually where most of the silver mines where. But Calico was not serviced by and major rail links, meaning silver was transported to Dagget for rail shipment, and in the process a lot of money exchange hands in this town making it a boomtown. 

But, at the same time borates where almost as lucrative, since borates much like now days had many uses and attracted buyers. Boron of course had to be mined in bulk throughout Death Valley, and was carried into Dagget via the famous "20 Mule Team". But the 20 Mule Team where slow, and could only carry so much, and it was only a matter of time till a railway the Borate and Dagget, was established as a spur line to carry borates out of Death Valley and into Dagget as the name implies. 

The Borate and Dagget Railway became highly lucrative and spurred the creation of the Pacific Borax Corporation, later called US Borax, maker of the famed Boraxo soap product and modern miner and distributor of borates. But Pacific Borax would eventually move to Mojave, California 78 miles to the West, due to the fact that it served both Santa Fe and Southern Pacific trains and lines to San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

Dagget wouldn't decline though until after World War 2 since the towns airport would enter defense contractor service during and for briefly after the war. 

The town would also see a lot of traffic from Route 66, since Route 66 ran directly through town. This also helped associate Dagget with one of Route 66's most famous movies derived from one of its most famous literary works. The film version of Grapes of Wrath would be filmed on Route 66 in Dagget in 1940 coincidentally the same year 20 Mule Team was made about Dagget but not filmed there. 

More then likely Daggets final decline happened after I-40 moved traffic south of town. Meaning Dagget was another victim of the Route 66's decommissioning. Dagget is another town whose identity existed long before Route 66, but whose fate became intertwined with Route 66 as time wore on. 

If your following Route 66 you will pass through Dagget between Newberry Springs and Barstow. Make sure you look for it and any signs of what once was. 

Boron a Town of Ghosts & Legacy's: Part 3 - Sky-borne Odyssey

Part 3 of a series on a small Mojave Desert town that witnessed American transportation history in motion.

Authors Note: Boron's involvement in military and space avaition history is extensive. My summary here does no justice to its level of involvement, and I must keep my summery concise to stay within the content and theme of my blog. For more in depth subject matter please visit the Boron Sun blog @  http://theboronsun.blogspot.com/ .

The day was October 14th, 1947 and the long slender silver shape of a B-29 took to the clear blue sky's over Rogers Dry Lake. Today though the bottom of the Boeing masterpiece would be disrupted by the shape of an odd orange missile protruding from its bomb bay.  The B-29 climbed to 45,000 feet, and once level the orange missile known as the Bell X-1 suddenly dropped from the bottom of the B-29 at 1019 hours military local, igniting its four rocket engines. 

The rocket plane shot past its escorting P-80 Shooting Stars sent to chase and observe it. At 1024 hours military local, 10:24 AM Pacific to the rest of us, a huge boom shook the land, rattling in some accounts shattering glass in the town of Amargo, CA now known as Boron. The orange missile, or the .50 caliber bullet with wings, known as the Bell X-1 piloted by the legendary ace Chuck Yeager had broken the sound barrier in straight and level flight. 

Amargo then, known as Boron today was a hotbed of activity in the world of aviation even before Yeager's historic 1947 flight. Not far from the town was the ranch, turned bar and hotel of avaition legend Poncho Barnes. Poncho's "Happy Bottom Riding Club", had become a major destination in the world of early avaition. Aviation pioneers and celebrities alike would fly into the ranch’s private airstrip also known as the Rancho Oro Verde Fly-Inn Dude Ranch, to mingle and drink, and swim in the ranch’s unusual swimming pools. It wouldn’t have been unusual to see Howard Hughes here rubbing elbows with the likes of Randolph Scott, Myrna Loy, and other notables of the time in those days before the war. Even after the war started the celebrities still stopped in but the bar had also become a destination for pilots in training from Muroc Army Air Base (as Edwards AFB was known at the time) or one of the many other military and private aviation schools in the Antelope Valley at the time.

  

The link below is a great website known as Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields that can show you the location of many lost WW II training fields, and reserve bases in the Antelope Valley.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA.htm

 

The bar was known for its pictures of aviators that served as a memorial for many of those killed while trying to tame the sky’s, above the Antelope Valley, most of them test pilots. One of the pictures of recollection was of America’s highest scoring ace of all time Richard Bong, a P-38 pilot with 40 kills in the Pacific, killed while test piloting early versions of Lockheed’s P-80.

 

Ruins of Ponchos today. 

Eventually controversy would catch up with the club, and the “Happy Bottom” would be closed after a mysterious fire destroyed the bar in 1953. But the bar would become the stuff of legend, especially after Tom Wolfe’s 1979 novel, and 1983 film adaptation of “The Right Stuff” in which Wolfe captured Barnes personality, and the bar. Wolfe also gave notoriety to Poncho’s famous steak dinner the prize to the first man to break the sound barrier, something that dispite much of the book and films mythos actually was true and was awarded to Chuck Yeager, plus I’m sure he was bought plenty of drinks from that time on as well. Sadly though, not much remains of the bar and hotel today, and it takes special permission from Edwards AFB to access the area.

 

 

Poncho would live out the rest of life in Boron, finally passing on in 1975 from Breast Cancer. Although there are several rumors that the death had some usual and even mysterious circumstances to it, one could say Poncho even in death, was larger than life.

 

 

Today in Boron, Domingo’s Mexican Restaurant is the modern day equivalent to Poncho’s, but a little more refined and family friendly. Test pilots old and new dine here after a big flight, and shuttle Astronauts would dine here after landing at Edwards. Meaning Boron is keeping the spirit of aviation alive, even if its foremost ambassador Poncho Barnes is long gone. Once again Boron legacy’s comes to light, too bad the free steak dinner tradition isn't part of that though.

 

The Saxon Aerospace Museum in Boron is open to the public and is wonderfully family friendly. If you want to spend some time investigating Boron’s rich aviation history this is the place to do it.  The museum gives you a great look at Muroc and Edwards operations, and unlike the museum on Edwards you don’t need to request special access to visit.

Here is their website: http://www.saxonaerospacemuseum.com/Saxon/home

 

There are even more stories to tell about the sky’s above Boron, like the story of the XB-35 and XB-49 grandparents of today's B-2 Spirit bomber. The XB-49 would crash under dubious circumstances on June 5, 1948 killing test pilots Major Daniel Forbes, and Captain Glen Edwards, Muroc Air Force base would have its name changed to Edwards Air Force Base in honor of Capt. Edwards, and Forbes too would have an airbase named after him in Kansas.

 

 

There are stories here about astronauts from Mercury program all the way to the ISS. Stories of X-planes such as the fastest manned aircraft ever the X-15 blazing through the sky’s above the town. Stories of Neil Armstrong piloting the “Flying Bedstand” a terrestrial simulator for the Luner Excursion Module, that Armstrong ejected from moments before it crashed. Even now the stories still come as new and fantastic aircraft race above Boron’s sky’s, like Spaceship One, the X-43, X-48, and a wide range of UAV’s.

 

Visiting the town, all one needs to do is look around to get the feel and sense of history this town has, especially its place in aviation and the space race. On a nearby mountain southwest of the town there is “Rocket Site” a NASA rocket test stand that you can see from Boron, and occasionally you can see rockets being tested up there. To the northeast of the town on another hill is former radar facility used to track X-planes, and other experimental aircraft in the past, it was known as Boron Air Force Station. West of town you will find Desert Lake Apartments, this structure was originally built to accommodate members of the 750th Aircraft Control Squadron, but after housing was built near the radar dome the apartment complex was sold to private owners who turned it into a motel and apartment complex.

Boron has a very unique feel to it, but as the article title indicates it’s a place of ghosts and legacies. When it comes to aviation you can still sense that 1950’s and 1960’s ideal of the future to come, the optimism of the “Space Age”, this is a ghost that lingers, sometimes hit home by both relics and active aviation sites nearby. But its legacy continues on above in its sky’s.

The Santa Fe Railway at Edwards Air Force Base

 

As we now combine Route 466, Santa Fe streamliners such as the San Francisco Chief, and this deep connection to aviation history, and compare it to California 58, BNSF's Bakersfield District operations, and the X-43 zooming above it all we see Boron’s legacy and life that still streams from it. The very fact that a small relatively obscure town could become so intricately involved in key transportation routes past, present and very possibly future is almost mind boggling, and yet it happened.

 

If you are a rail fan (or Foamers in rail speak) of the Santa Fe, a Route 66 aficionado, or a military aviation buff I would definitely suggest visiting Boron for a day. For those of you chasing the Santa Fe or Route 66 Boron is only 40 miles west of Barstow a town any Santa Fe rail fan, or Route 66er will be in anyway just follow California Route 58 west out of Barstow, and  be sure to stop and see one of the last signed portions of Route 466 north of Barstow. If you’re a military aviation buff Boron can be found on the map near California Highway 58 directly northeast of Edwards AFB.

Boron a Town of Ghosts & Legacy's: Part 2 - Legacy of The Mother Road

Part 2 of a series on a small Mojave Desert town that witnessed American transportation history in motion.

Coming from Barstow you take a fork in the road on Highway 58 and brake left onto 20 Mule Team Road. It's strange for there to be a fork in the road like that on such a busy highway, but 20 Mule Team Road sees very little traffic on this part of it, and its still a ways out of town. 

The "Welcome to Boron" sign is an icon of Southern California and the Mojave Desert

20 Mule Team Road leads into the town of Boron, and as a matter of fact the East-West road is the towns main drag. But why name a road 20 Mule Team, or a town Boron. If you lived in the 50's and early 60's in the era of television westerns you would get it instantly. 

The show Death Valley Days, and sponsor Boraxo with its slogan "20 Mule Team Boraxo" and image of the silhouette of 20 mules with two wagons and a tanker on its packages, gave this road it's name. The town itself is named in honor of US Borax the towns chief employer, and the element Boron that is mined here. 

If you follow 20 Mule Team Road from end to end you will notice its totally straight, no curves, no bends, no breaking off here and rejoining there. It parallels California 58 through the town of Boron, and only curves for the first time way west of town as the road dead ends and forces you back on to 58. But even at this Western dead end beyond the markers you can see it once continued straight intersecting what are now the East bound lanes of California 58. 

You see besides its interesting name 20 Mule Team Road, has some unique history to it. Remember I mentioned in part 1 that even the road had a story to tell in Boron, and here it is. Up until 1964 this road was US Route 466, the designation tells us that this route was the 4th spur of Route 66, yes "The Route 66", US Route 66. There was a period briefly when portions of 466, where originally going to be actual Route 66, but when planning was complete sections such as this one through Boron or at that time Amargo, where designated as a spur route, and by 1935 the route would receive its 466 shield. 466 itself would extend from Las Vegas, NV to Morro Bay, CA via Barstow, and Bakersfield on what are now sections of I-15 and California 58. 

466 was,  in its heyday a busy route much as its replacement CA 58 is today. Meaning that the town of Boron saw hundreds of vehicles a day travel down this spur of The Mother Road, between Barstow and Bakersfield. One can only imagine seeing Boron in about 1958 as a steady stream of cars rolled through the town, and Santa Fe Streamliners flew down its tracks. 

Route 466 would also help contribute to the world of aviation and music as well. The route would have bought stars of early country and rock music from the East to Bakersfield to produce what would be called the "Bakersfield Sound". This new type of country sound would influence country music to this day, and even contribute to the era of Classic Rock as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Eagles and other bands overtly included the sound in their music. One could only read Merle Haggards hit song "Okie from Muskogee" as a country story of someone who left Oklahoma down the Mother Road, and 466 to come to Bakersfield, and keep their Oklahoman values. 

US Route 466 also influenced aviation as flyers, engineers and dreamers found their way down the route to Rogers Dry Lake Bed, later named Muroc, and then finally Edwards Air Force Base. One could only think that Chuck Yeager, Gus Grissom, and many other aviation and space pioneers must have traveled this route in those early days of the Jet and Space Age. But that is all a posting for later. 

One could easily argue that this little known town, with its little spur of the famous Route 66 may have played a far larger role in history then we think. You have seen its rail history and now it's road history, and I feel I have barely scratched the surface on both. But it's easy to see that this little town began to form a kind of nexus in transportation history as rail, road, and air would converge on it. 

US Route 466 would be replaced by California 58 in 1964. California 58 would bypass Boron as a freeway. California initially began to build 58 to be part of I-40 that would run between Barstow and Bakersfield using US Route 466 as a roadbed for the super highway, but the federal government later rejected the idea. This left only some portions finished with Boron being one of the few towns bypassed. Luckily for us though Boron, and 20 Mule Team Road remain as a living monument to what Route 466 was. 

  

Boron a Town of Ghosts & Legacy's: Part 1 - Legacy of The Chief

A small Mojave Desert town witnesses the legacy of American transportation history. 

40 miles West of Barstow is the town of Boron, CA. In late summer through early fall the nights are beautiful. The temps stay in about the mid-70's, the gentle desert breeze creates music in the windchimes, and there are no Mosquitos for several hundred miles. The nights are perfect for sitting outside and having a great conversation over a few glasses of wine, or just gazing at the stars. 

The only thing that interupts these quiet nights are the sounds of BNSF frieght trains pushing through town a few times an hour. After a while even that becomes part of that ambient environment, and the rumble of trains seem natural and missed  after they pass. 

From the porch of my wife's childhood home, one can look accross a 1/2 mile of desert and see the trains pass. Sometimes as you sit there, especially at night, your imagination allows you to hear what these tracks where 60 plus years before as steam locomotives made their way down these stretches. You can hear the whistles blow, and the chuffs of steam, and see the glow of the fireboxes in the still desert night. You can imagine the outline of a 2-10-4 Texas, pulling an endless stream of box cars in your minds eye. 

You see as middle of nowhere and as far from civilization and history this little desert town may seem, the town itself has many stories to tell. This little nowhere town has a history that in many ways should make it well known, yet it lies forgotten. You see in Boron, the roads, the tracks, and the sky all have a story to tell. Boron is a town of ghosts and legacy's in 20th century American history. 

The tracks running through Boron have a particularly captivating history. Currently these tracks serve a very busy BNSF route between the Barstow Yards and the Bay Area, as well as serving a lively spur to US Borax mining operations nearby. But the interesting facts about these tracks is that until 1971 these tracks saw Santa Fe passenger operations. 

Such trains as the San Francisco Chief, The Navajo, and The Grand Canyon all traveled this route on their way North through the Tehachapis and on to the San Francisco Bay Area. I can only imagine what it must have been like to pass through the tunnels and grades of thr Tehachapi mountains, and than the famous Tehachapi Loop as a passenger on one of these trains. 

Although the bulk of Santa Fe's passenger trains headed to Los Angeles, Santa Fe knew that the San Francisco market was competitive, and lucrative. Passenger service to San Francisco gave Santa Fe access to the surrounding cities of the Bay Area and Northern California beyond. The San Francisco Chief was Santa Fe's luxury answer to the City of San Francisco a luxury liner jointly opetated by the Union Pacific, Chicago Northwestern  and Southern Pacific, and the jointly operated California Zypher shared between the CB&Q, Western Pacific, and D&RG. Santa Fe was obviously hoping the brand value of The Super Chief would carry over to the name on the San Francisco Chief when the luanched the service in 1954, which obviously it did since the train discontinued service in 1971 with all other Santa Fe passenger operations.

The Navajo was meant to serve a similar role as the El Capitan did on the Los Angeles route as an all coach consist, and The Grand Canyon was to serve a mixed consist aimed at Grand Canyon tourism and the Santa Fe/Fred Harvey operations nearby. 

As in the cases of most passenger trains the town of Boron probably saw each of these trains twice a day, one Eastbound, the other Westbound. I try to imagine what it must have been like for this small town to see the Warbonnet livery, and gleaming consist of silver stainless steel passenger cars flying through the town. You have to ask what stories could be told, and if and when the trains made flag-stops to pick up town residents. 

I could only imagine what a thrill it would have been to stand on the porch of my wife's childhood home, or from the patio of Domingo's Restaurant in town and see these trains go by. To see the desert sun shining off the cars and thier windows, and watching the train disappear accross the flat desert beyond. 

To its residents of Boron the mere fact that these silver luxury liners passed through town every day must have made them feel like the center of the world at that time. Today though there are no reminders of that era, no connection to those gleaming daily visitors. What are left behind are the ghosts of Santa Fe's passenger train heydays, and the legacy of its operations in today's BNSF traffic through the town. 

But remember I said the roads and sky had a story to tell here too, and I will tell them in postings to come.