Trona was hit hard after KMCC sold to NACC at the end of 1990. KMCC supported the town and employees. Businesses were open - a market, liquor store, a variety store, restaurants, Western Auto, Circle K, even a Ford dealership. I always heard around 10,000 people lived in Trona when I moved there. Ridgecrest was still relatively small and didn't have much more to offer in 1987 when I came there.
But NACC came, took the money and gave it to CEOs and stockholders. They downsized to the bare minimum. People moved away, burned down their asbestos filled homes to get insurance money because no one was buying. The company wouldn't clean up the mess, neither did San Bernardino County. The county even shut down the sheriff station for a time; but issues caused by deputies living in Barstow and one in Tehachapi and at least a two hour wait for help caused so much public outcry that they reopened it. I bought a home and moved to Ridgecrest in 1992, bought my home in Big Pine two years later (but didn't move there until 2002). Business closed. The town settled to around 3,000 people. Those petitioned for annexation to Inyo County, which was popular, but Inyo could barely take care of their own, let alone Trona (even though the company did and still does pay taxes in Inyo).
When I took a voluntary buyout in 2004, I spent two weeks emptying my rented duplex that I stayed at during my work week (4-days on, 4-off, straight days) and I've never returned since. When I first came to Trona it was an active town and a good place to raise my kids for the five years I lived there. Now it's an industrial moonscape but with a small population as rugged and independent and loyal as they come.
But NACC came, took the money and gave it to CEOs and stockholders. They downsized to the bare minimum. People moved away, burned down their asbestos filled homes to get insurance money because no one was buying. The company wouldn't clean up the mess, neither did San Bernardino County. The county even shut down the sheriff station for a time; but issues caused by deputies living in Barstow and one in Tehachapi and at least a two hour wait for help caused so much public outcry that they reopened it. I bought a home and moved to Ridgecrest in 1992, bought my home in Big Pine two years later (but didn't move there until 2002). Business closed. The town settled to around 3,000 people. Those petitioned for annexation to Inyo County, which was popular, but Inyo could barely take care of their own, let alone Trona (even though the company did and still does pay taxes in Inyo).
When I took a voluntary buyout in 2004, I spent two weeks emptying my rented duplex that I stayed at during my work week (4-days on, 4-off, straight days) and I've never returned since. When I first came to Trona it was an active town and a good place to raise my kids for the five years I lived there. Now it's an industrial moonscape but with a small population as rugged and independent and loyal as they come.
DAW
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.