i’ve been lucky enough to have spent considerable chunks of time working around the plant, hauling dirt, not the ore. starting back before security measures tightened things up. there were gates to go through was about it. nearly a free for all in the extreme climate, 120 degree sweltering summer days with snow capped san gabriels in the views far off. one couldn’t risk leaving blizzard condition clothes home until after june or july, as any day cold be cold winds that’d make 12 hrs kind of a long. it was crazy, loose, and a lot of fun, met some really cool people out there. found an old vice buried deep in the spoils that surround the mine, a simplex with a long slide, it’d been corroded, stuck, it was huge, one of the jaws were broken off from somebody hammering on the tops, with the pins still there mounted to the lower half of the mount, so i cut a hard wooden jaw to match the other side to give me an idea of where to fill to welding the cast iron. i’ve had it for 30 or 40 yrs. someday, maybe, i’ll fix it.
I make the drive several times a year, Central Valley to Inland Empire, Family trips since ’81. Always mean to stop and sight see Boron, Now I have to. Had a Vocational instructor who worked in the plant, maybe the ’70s. Told us the story of an unpopular Strawboss. Boss finds a baby Rattlesnake one day, puts it in a jar in his car to take home, don’t ask why. He goes back to work, another feller waits, turns the snake loose outside the car, then breaks the jar in the car. Strawboss spent a long, long time searching his car. Don’t know if it’s true, but it is a good story.
A trip to the town on Boron, California and the open pit Borax mine.
Hey I live in Boron and work at the mine
i’ve been lucky enough to have spent considerable chunks of time working around the plant, hauling dirt, not the ore. starting back before security measures tightened things up. there were gates to go through was about it. nearly a free for all in the extreme climate, 120 degree sweltering summer days with snow capped san gabriels in the views far off. one couldn’t risk leaving blizzard condition clothes home until after june or july, as any day cold be cold winds that’d make 12 hrs kind of a long. it was crazy, loose, and a lot of fun, met some really cool people out there. found an old vice buried deep in the spoils that surround the mine, a simplex with a long slide, it’d been corroded, stuck, it was huge, one of the jaws were broken off from somebody hammering on the tops, with the pins still there mounted to the lower half of the mount, so i cut a hard wooden jaw to match the other side to give me an idea of where to fill to welding the cast iron. i’ve had it for 30 or 40 yrs. someday, maybe, i’ll fix it.
I make the drive several times a year, Central Valley to Inland Empire, Family trips since ’81. Always mean to stop and sight see Boron, Now I have to. Had a Vocational instructor who worked in the plant, maybe the ’70s. Told us the story of an unpopular Strawboss. Boss finds a baby Rattlesnake one day, puts it in a jar in his car to take home, don’t ask why. He goes back to work, another feller waits, turns the snake loose outside the car, then breaks the jar in the car. Strawboss spent a long, long time searching his car. Don’t know if it’s true, but it is a good story.
my home
Thank you for posting this video. I am not able to travel so this is a real treat for me.