Perceptions of Trona

News pertaining directly to Trona, Death Valley, the northern Mojave Desert, Inyo County, and adjacent areas.

Perceptions of Trona

Postby panamint_patty » Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:27 pm

Encylopedia of Forlorn Places
I always find it odd how outsiders often have negative things to say about Trona. To me Trona looks a lot like parts of Ridgecrest, Barstow, Tonopah, Yucca Valley, Pahrump, Keeler, and Morongo Valley. All of them have their rundown sections and their more nicely maintained sections and so I don't see anything unusual about Trona compared to your typical desert town. But in any case Trona made it onto some guy's list which he calls the Encyclopedia of Forlorn Places.
:roll2:
Trona is a strange and uniquely desolate place. The Trona Pinnacles are 12 miles south of Trona. Ballarat, Ruth Mine, Randsburg, Death Valley and Owens Lake/Keeler are all near by putting Trona in the heart of the strangest and bleakest part of the Mojave.

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LINK: http://eofp.net/trona.html
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby tronagirl » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:15 am

Trona, armpit of America
And then there's this from a website called Satan's Laundromat. A lot of negativity, but not much substance. I'm not sure how Trona got selected by this person since there are thousands of places which are far worse than Trona. But I guess as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder or in this case ugliness is in the eye of the beholder.
:shrug:
The whole town has a rancid chemical odor from the chemical plant that's pretty much the only employer in town, and the two older residential districts are half-abandoned, with many burned-out houses. (The newest residential district is not yet decaying, but give it time; land is so cheap that houses are more or less disposable. And once the newest district is abandoned, Trona is pretty much SOL, as that one is right up against the county line.)

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LINK: http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/archives/000181.html
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby sandshark » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:55 am

I drove through Trona during early March of 2012 and actually found the town quite charming. There was a rustic beauty to the old houses along the highway. They were rundown, but they had character. Seen a lot worse out here in Texas as far as dingy and dirty neighborhoods. Some of our ghettos make Trona look like paradise. And speaking of ghettos, try driving through Detroit some time. That's a thousand times worse than anything you'll see in Trona! We also got off the highway on our way through town and saw lots of houses and yards which were very neat and well-maintained. Some people have a lot of pride and it's a pity that some people have to put Trona down, but my experience tells me that people who accentuate the negative have mental issues and so it's best to ignore those kind of people!
:thumb:
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby surfsteve » Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:41 am

I recall reading in the wiki on Trona a few years ago that Trona actually had an arm pit festival after that armpit of America article came out. I never heard that from anyone that has lived here. I'm just guessing but did somebody make it up? I just checked the wiki and all references to arm pits and the arm pit festival have been removed. I even googled it and there's nothing anymore about it. I guess it was just a rumor that somebody made up. Does anyone know how it got started? Probably by someone as a practical joke that someone else actually believed.
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby mrgreen » Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:05 pm

surfsteve wrote:I recall reading in the wiki on Trona a few years ago that Trona actually had an arm pit festival after that armpit of America article came out. I never heard that from anyone that has lived here. I'm just guessing but did somebody make it up? I just checked the wiki and all references to arm pits and the arm pit festival have been removed. I even googled it and there's nothing anymore about it. I guess it was just a rumor that somebody made up. Does anyone know how it got started? Probably by someone as a practical joke that someone else actually believed.

Arm Pit Festival? I never even heard anything about anything like that! But I did find this:
Armpit Festival: Old Spice sponsored-event draws big crowd
It sounds like whoever posted on the wiki you read, got Trona confused with Battle Mountain, Nevada! It's a mistake anyone could make!??
:up2:
The people of Battle Mountain quite obviously have the ability to poke fun at themselves and, in the true spirit of American free enterprise, know an opportunity to turn a buck or two when they see one. Labeled with the rather dubious distinction of being the "Armpit of America" by Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten in December 2001, this dusty mining town of about 3,000 located an hour's drive west of Elko got mad and then got even.

LINK: http://elkodaily.com/news/local/armpit-festival-old-spice-sponsored-event-draws-big-crowd/article_ea8bf13f-5da8-5b04-b490-e3cd426ed8fd.html
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby desertrat » Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:48 am

Mojave Desert town Trona stars in indie horror film 'Lost Lake'
I just don't get it. I feel this way about San Bernardino or Barstow or Bakersfield or Victorville, but not Trona. Heck, Los Angeles is an incredibly creepy place as far as I'm concerned. Much rather live in Trona than any of the places I've listed. I like the small town atmosphere and the wide open desert. Just not seeing things from this guy's point of view I guess!
:roll2:
Surrounded by salt flats, the town of Trona, off California 178 in the Searles Valley, was once a thriving Borax mining community that had been devastated after decades of layoffs. Stores were boarded up, windows smashed in and empty houses were littered with garbage. “It was truly a scary and disturbing place with a post-apocalyptic feel to it,’’ recalled Clair, who was so inspired by the bleak town he decided to make it the setting for his first feature film.

LINK: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/16/entertainment/la-et-ct-onlocation-20121016
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby BallaratBob » Mon Jun 24, 2013 8:49 am

desertrat wrote:Mojave Desert town Trona stars in indie horror film 'Lost Lake'
I just don't get it. I feel this way about San Bernardino or Barstow or Bakersfield or Victorville, but not Trona. Heck, Los Angeles is an incredibly creepy place as far as I'm concerned. Much rather live in Trona than any of the places I've listed. I like the small town atmosphere and the wide open desert. Just not seeing things from this guy's point of view I guess!
:roll2:
Surrounded by salt flats, the town of Trona, off California 178 in the Searles Valley, was once a thriving Borax mining community that had been devastated after decades of layoffs. Stores were boarded up, windows smashed in and empty houses were littered with garbage. “It was truly a scary and disturbing place with a post-apocalyptic feel to it,’’ recalled Clair, who was so inspired by the bleak town he decided to make it the setting for his first feature film.

LINK: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/16/entertainment/la-et-ct-onlocation-20121016

I think it's just that some people start feeling insecure when they're more than 5 miles from the nearest Starbucks. It's all doom and gloom when they're not surrounded by convenience stores and gas stations. They start feeling nervous and jittery. It's like they're addicted to the sights and the sounds of the modern city or something!
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby panamint_patty » Sat Aug 03, 2013 12:12 pm

Creepy Book Portrays Trona Negatively
The Daily Insufficient is promoting a book that presents Trona in an unreasonably negative manner. The authors supposedly lived here at one time, but not any longer. I read excerpts from the book at Amazon.com and the authors continuously take jabs at Trona. Here's a full paragraph that does nothing but gratuitously denigrate this town:
Of course, no one had grass. This was Trona, California, an isolated mining town halfway between Death Valley and nowhere. Cammy had been born and raised here, but still, she longed for greenery. Neither grass nor anything else she wanted in a yard would grow here. While there was an abundance of poisonous oleanders and salt cedars with stringy, dark needles instead of leaves, both were imports and only added to the feeling of barren desolation. Occasionally, Cammy saw a miserable looking tree with real leaves barely hanging on for life, or a small, bleak cactus garden. But that was all the green she could find in Trona.

This is an over-the-top negative portrayal of Trona. We do not have much of what you'd call lush landscaping, but this paragraph presents an extremely negative caricature of what the town is like. My guess is that the healthy tree count could be somewhere in excess of 1000 trees (not counting salt cedars) and there are lots of healthy shrubs (other than oleanders) all over the place.
LINK: http://www.ridgecrestca.com/article/20130802/NEWS/130809932/1001/NEWS
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby cactuspete » Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:26 pm

re: Creepy Book
It sounds like the brothers who wrote the book are pandering to a specific audience. They wrote a book with a "strong female lead" because that's "what's selling" and not because they had something important to say in the book. They just wanted to sell books and so they use Trona as the backdrop for their creepy story. They sound like a couple of opportunistic ass clowns if you ask me! Not to be overly harsh, but why set the book in Trona if all you're going to do is run down the town?
The inspiration for a young adult novel with a strong female protagonist was an idea the two got from a writers’ seminar in New York City. Andy explained that publishers at the seminar said the genre and strong female lead are what's selling.
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Re: Perceptions of Trona

Postby tronagirl » Sun Aug 04, 2013 8:21 am

re: Creepy Book
Leave it to the Daily Insufficient to promote a book that puts down Trona. It's kind of like a backhanded compliment. I read a bit from the book and I agree with panamint_patty. On top of that they invent a haunted house that they call the Searles Mansion. How corny!!! What's the point of calling the town in the book Trona? Why not just make up a fictitious name instead of slandering a real town where real people live? The brothers who wrote the book supposedly lived in Trona for a while. I wonder if they have fond memories or if something bad happened to them or what...
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