Trona would totally kick Yermo's ass though.
Stark Beauty, Solitude, Squalor and Sulfur -- Trona Has It All
By David Kelly, Times Staff Writer
October 4, 2006
TRONA, Calif. — Fed up with the crime, congestion and cost of Orange County, Fred Hermon went looking for a place where he could be alone, a place so remote, so unappealing that few would ever want to live there.
His strategy was simple: Locate the popular, pricey towns on a map and move steadily outward. That's where he found Trona.
When he searched the Internet for information, the word "hell" kept popping up — 'Is Trona Anywhere Near Hell?," "Where the Hell Is Trona?," "Long, Lonely Ride Through Hell."
Hermon didn't actually expect to find perdition as he descended through Poison Canyon into Trona three years ago, but the smell of sulfur, the blast-furnace heat and barren landscape made it feel uncomfortably close.
A real estate agent showed him a neighborhood with block after block of burned-out homes.
"I said, 'Oh my God, no,' " he recalled. "Another area looked like Los Angeles after the riots. I love the desert, but this was pushing it."
Nevertheless, he found a house for $24,000, installed an enormous swamp cooler and now spends his days digging for old artifacts while caring for nine cats, an inquisitive packrat and two desert tortoises, Speedy and Kid.
Hermon, 60, has already spent $2,600 on a chain-link fence and rarely leaves home for fear of being burglarized. On his first night in town, someone swiped his $15 garden hose. He stays for the solitude but wonders how Trona came to this.
"Something must have been going on for a long time to bring the town to this level of devastation," he said.
Over the years, Trona, once a thriving community of 6,000 on the ragged edge of Death Valley, has shriveled to just 1,800. Drug dealers looking for cheap housing have moved in. Parolees abound. Arsonists have torched dozens of vacant homes, leaving charred skeletons behind. Business owners, unable to make a profit, have simply locked up and walked away.
The result is blight on an industrial scale. San Bernardino County has torn down a handful of houses, but officials say it's too costly to demolish entire blocks of dilapidated, asbestos-riddled buildings.
...
"A lot of people are leaving town," said Ruth Soto, the high school guidance counselor. "Closing the school has been talked about."
Many who stay love Trona for the friendships they've made, memories of better times and the desert's stark beauty. Others are simply stuck, unable to afford a house elsewhere.
Homes here are among the cheapest in California, with a median price of $40,000, according to DataQuick, which tracks real estate sales.
Even die-hard Trona boosters agree that it has seen better days. They concede that streets lined with torched houses, combined with the pungent odor from the chemical plant, add up to a poor first impression.
Pastor Larry Cox of the First Baptist Church said his first words on entering Trona were "People live here?"
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department has offered deputies willing to work in Trona free housing and less jail duty. Most prefer jail.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 20 November 2006 23:22 (nineteen years ago)
http://www.interment.net/data/us/ca/sanbern/otis/yermo.jpgOtis Cemetery
Roesbery, Charles, b. 02 Oct 1861, d. 10 Jun 1937
Williams, Barbara A., b. 23 Nov 1870, Kent, Eng, d. 03 Mar 1926, s/w Harry A. Williams
Williams, Harry A., b. 1914, d. 1996, s/w Barbara A. Williams
Williams, Thomas O. MD, b. 05 Feb 1871, d. 06 Jul 1945
Wilson, John J., b. 22 Feb 1868, d. 02 Feb 1940, "Husband and Father"
― if you ain't got the yolk, you can't emulsify the hollandaise (fauxhemian), Tuesday, 21 November 2006 01:09 (nineteen years ago)
nineteen years pass...