[Clayart] Gerstly Borate - the source

[Vince Pitelka]

HI David - 
Thanks for your story about Boron. I traveled through there the first time
in 1967 on a desert studies trip from Merritt College in Oakland.  I knew
nothing of Gerstley borate at the time.  Now a 4-lane section of Highway 58
bypasses Boron, but back then you drove through town.  At that time, as you
approached Boron, a big fancy sign said, "You are Now Entering Boron,
California - Home of US Borax."  Then there was a dusty and squalid
scattering of homes and businesses stretched out over a half mile or so and
in the middle of it an intersection with a big fancy sign pointing north
saying, "US Borax Corporation."  At the east end of town another big fancy
sign said, "You are Now Leaving Boron, California - Home of US Borax."
Everything in town was funky except those signs, which lent an appropriate
surrealism.  

I went on those desert studies trips two years in a row during spring
quarter break, and then the following year in my Jeep with a few Bay Area
friends.  That sequence of trips three years in a row firmly implanted my
love of the desert. Still to this day, the sequence of small towns you pass
through on that route is magical to me - Tehachapi, Mojave, Boron, Barstow,
Daggett, Ludlow, Bagdad, Amboy, and finally Fenner, where we left Hwy-40 to
head up to the Providence Mountains and Lanfair Valley.

David, if you thought Boron was dusty, you should have seen Monolith,
California, home of the Portland Cement Company.  Everything in town was
covered with gray dust.  Monolith is located farther west on 58 near
Tehachapi, about 50 miles east of Bakersfield.  Like Boron, Monolith is now
bypassed by the freeway.  John Fahey's album "Volume 6 - Days Gone By"
includes an instrumental called "The Portland Cement Company at Monolith
California."  
- Vince

Vince Pitelka
Retired Faculty, Appalachian Center for Craft
School of Art, Craft & Design, Tennessee Tech University
Now residing Chapel Hill, NC 27516
vpitelka at dtccom.net
sites.tntech.edu/wpitelka/

-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:clayart-bounces at lists.clayartworld.com] On Behalf Of
David Hendley
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2018 6:43 PM
To: Clayart international pottery discussion forum
<clayart at lists.clayartworld.com>
Subject: [Clayart] Gerstly Borate - the source

Vince's story about the White Mountains of California reminded me of the
time I visited Boron, California.
It is close to Tehachapi, which is the first place I ever saw wind turbines,
which was quite an unusual sight 25 years ago.
Anyway, in Boron you can actually stand at the corner of Boron Street and
Gerstley Borate Drive. It is right down from the Boron Museum, where you can
learn the history of "20 Mule Team Borax" and purchase a souvenir chunk of
raw Gerstley Borate. I got a nice looking 2 pound piece.
There was a lot of dust everywhere, which I suspect was boron of one variety
or another.

What about the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy? Anyone have any first
hand knowledge?

David Hendley
david at farmpots.com
www.farmpots.com


----- Original Message ----- 
> The post about unknown glaze materials inspired me to tell this story.  
> Fred already identified one of the materials as dolomite.  There are 
> huge deposits of dolomite in the Inyo and White Mountains of 
> California across the Owens Valley east of the Sierra Nevada.

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