Picture of the week

Salt tram view to Owens Valley

View from an old wooden tramway crossover station on the top ridgeline of the Inyo Mountain range east of the Owens Lake bed. This tram system was constructed about 100 years ago for the purpose of hauling salt from the Saline Valley adjacent to Death Valley over the Inyo mountain range down into Owens Valley. This station is up at about 8500 feet while Saline Valley is down about 1000 feet above sea level. Upon viewing this infrastructure, I was amazed at its sophistication and the elevation climb of 7500 feet from the Death Valley side. It is a remarkable engineering and construction feat, even to have accomplished in this day given the remoteness and rugged terrain. When comparing this to the chair lifts at the ski resorts at Lake Tahoe, it does not appear to be fundamentally that different in design including a detachable ore bucket capability at the crossover station.

This Salt Tram provided a significant improvement in getting this precious mineral (at the time) out of the difficult to reach Saline Valley. Trucks in the day were not capable of crossing this mountain range, and thus the alternative would be a mule team. Due to the extremely dry conditions, the wood of this salt tram transfer station and other towers are in remarkably well preserved. 

Getting up to this location was difficult, requiring a high clearance 4wd vehicle from Cerro Gordo with some very steep and narrow roads.  Most of the towers of the trams path are still intact, although the cable has fallen or missing in some places.  On this particular trip we also traveled down to the Saline Valley basin where the tram terminates on the east side. The complex there has since been deprecated with the exception of three smaller towers at the Saline lake basins edge.  You can find more historical pictures of this tram system here.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2013.  Last updated: 4/28/2013   ()