Poison Canyon

Share information or ask questions about the history of Searles Valley and nearby locations.

Poison Canyon

Postby mrfish » Tue Jun 25, 2013 8:22 am

Not everyone knows the story about Big Burley's Curve and I think it was alluded to in the thread about Fish Rocks. As it turns out, there's a few salt cedars about 1.3 miles on the Ridgecrest side of Fish Rocks and just beyond it is Big Burley's Curve. Many old timers have a habit of honking their horn when they go around this curve. According to legend an old Indian is buried near the curve and he wakes up when vehicles pass by. The tradition is to honk when driving around the curve to ask the old Indian for good luck. It seems to me that the Indian would give them bad luck for waking him up, but maybe he's lonely and appreciates the social gesture.
:blah:
I have lots more info to share about Poison Canyon and I'll post more when I get around to it!
:diablo:
User avatar
mrfish
Ancient Bristlecone
 
Posts: 805
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:50 am
Location: Poison Canyon

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby James Sel » Wed Jun 26, 2013 12:32 am

mrfish wrote:I have lots more info to share about Poison Canyon and I'll post more when I get around to it!

:thumb:
User avatar
James Sel
Cantankerous Mule
 
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 7:47 pm

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby tronagirl » Wed Jun 26, 2013 7:58 am

A few years ago I visited a small cave that's just east of the highway near where those trees are. Does anyone know anything about the cave? I went there with some friends and it was at night so I don't remember too much about the cave other than that it was up a small canyon east of the higway in Poison Canyon.
:shrug:
tronagirl
Ancient Bristlecone
 
Posts: 853
Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2012 8:55 am

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby surfsteve » Thu Jun 27, 2013 5:32 am

I seen some caves off the highway but they aren't very deep. None of the ones I explored went back more than a few feet.
Make Trona great again!
surfsteve
Prehistoric Fossil
 
Posts: 2339
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:57 am
Location: everywhere

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby tronagirl » Thu Jun 27, 2013 1:15 pm

surfsteve wrote:I seen some caves off the highway but they aren't very deep. None of the ones I explored went back more than a few feet.

The cave isn't visible from the highway. It's up a small canyon probably 200 yards from the highway. My memory is unclear, but it's probably 30 or 40 feet deep and about the size of a large room. In fact, I think someone told me that someone actually lived in it at one time.
tronagirl
Ancient Bristlecone
 
Posts: 853
Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2012 8:55 am

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby James Sel » Thu Jun 27, 2013 2:53 pm

tronagirl wrote:
surfsteve wrote:I seen some caves off the highway but they aren't very deep. None of the ones I explored went back more than a few feet.

The cave isn't visible from the highway. It's up a small canyon probably 200 yards from the highway. My memory is unclear, but it's probably 30 or 40 feet deep and about the size of a large room. In fact, I think someone told me that someone actually lived in it at one time.


:prof: I nominate Black Turtle to take a camera out there.

I'll have to remember about Big Burley's Curve when on the road.
User avatar
James Sel
Cantankerous Mule
 
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 7:47 pm

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby mrfish » Thu Jul 04, 2013 8:33 am

tronagirl wrote:A few years ago I visited a small cave that's just east of the highway near where those trees are. Does anyone know anything about the cave? I went there with some friends and it was at night so I don't remember too much about the cave other than that it was up a small canyon east of the higway in Poison Canyon.
:shrug:

I haven't visited this location for quite a few years, but no it's not a cave. It's more of a tunnel and it has an interesting story behind it. The canyon takes off to the south as Poison Canyon runs east-west, not north-south. Back in the 1930's this dugout was inhabited by a Myrtle Seaborn and she had a son named Clayton who lived with her. There were a number of other people who also lived in this cave at one time or another way back before WWII. Last time I was out there you could drive right up to the dugout. The road that goes up the little canyon is not obvious as you drive by. You have to slow down and look for it. But like I said I haven't been up there for a while and so it could have washed out in recent years.
User avatar
mrfish
Ancient Bristlecone
 
Posts: 805
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:50 am
Location: Poison Canyon

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby whiskeypete » Wed May 14, 2014 7:54 am

Not to be morbid or anything like that, but does anyone know if there are publicly available statistics for traffic accidents that have happened in Poison Canyon. It seems that there are news articles about them at least a couple times a year. It would seem that the numbers would add up after a while!
User avatar
whiskeypete
Fleabitten Varmint
 
Posts: 132
Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:36 am
Location: Under The Influence

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby CoolChick » Thu May 15, 2014 7:47 am

There's nothing morbid about the statistics. Now if you were asking for gory details, now that would be a different story, but stats are just numbers and mostly they just indicate what parts of a highway are where accidents occur most often and I think we all know that Poison Canyon is a hot spot for accidents!
User avatar
CoolChick
Cantankerous Mule
 
Posts: 323
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:09 am
Location: The Chicken Ranch

Re: Poison Canyon

Postby sandman » Fri May 16, 2014 9:10 am

I can list a few people that I have known who have died on that stretch of road. I can't say that I knew any of them very well, but I knew who they were and had talked with them a couple times. But I can't think of any other stretch of road where so many accidents have happened. Those curves will get ya if you're not paying attention or if you put too much pressure on your tires. by trying to go around the curves to quickly.
User avatar
sandman
Backcountry Hiker
 
Posts: 746
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:31 pm
Location: NEVER NEVER LAND

Next

Return to Local History

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 50 guests

cron