Boron, a welcoming town

John R Beyer welcomes you to Boron

I was working on my second Street Taco, when Patricia, the owner of Lola’s Diner in Boron, came over to our table.

“How are the tacos?”

Laureen smiled, “Some of the best I’ve ever had.”

“I like the salsa,” I mentioned. “Not too spicy but with enough kick to let you know it is salsa.”

“Our own recipe,” Patricia replied.

We had been driving along Highway 58, after visiting the Rio Tinto open pit borate mine and decided it was time for a bite.

Just a small section of the Rio Tinto borate mine

Lunch and then some wandering around this small berg to see what it had to offer.

Turns out, Boron has a lot to offer, and the folks we spoke to say the town in Kern County, has some truly big plans.

Docent Debi, of the Twenty Mule Team Museum, in Boron, told us that the museum is getting a whole new make-over.

New carpet, new display cases, new this and new that. We thought it was a pretty good museum as is, with all sorts of things to interest any tourist. The entire history of Boron, including nearby mining operations, was there methodically laid out through the large building.

The town has something for everyone

“Everyone who volunteers here takes pride in this place and want each visitor to leave knowing the history of our town.”

There is no way a person could leave without understanding each development in Boron’s history. The museum is broken up into three separate, but equally informative sections. There’s one room which is the entry and gift shop, but with displays of the different ore specimens found in the area. The second room details the people and effort it took to conquer this part of the Mojave Desert and set up their homes and businesses there. And the last room explains the danger and benefits of such mining that surrounds the town of Boron. There are videos dedicated to the history of Boron, a working model of a Twenty Mule Team wagon, including moving mules and a driver snapping a whip. 

A model of a team at the local mine

A closeup painting of a pretty mule

And of course, there is information concerning some of the movies filmed there, such as Erin Brockovich (2000), Dragon Day (2013), and my favorite Apocalypse According to Doris (2011), just to name a few.

With Hollywood only a hundred and nineteen miles southwest of Boron, the town is a perfect backdrop for all sorts of movies.

“We’re getting a lot of tourists coming in now, and we know that in spring and summer this place will be seeing a lot more each and every day.”

As of now, the museum is still averaging fifty or more tourists per week. Not bad for a place that does not advertise itself, but that is about to change.

“We’re going to redo the signage near Highway 58, inviting travelers to the historic part of town,” said Jerry, who was busy building new shelving for the museum. “This town has a lot of draws, but it will have more once everything is in place.”

Jerry seems a determined man. As he explained how the museum’s exterior park, filled with all sorts of old mining equipment, picnic tables, walkways, and an actual outdoor stage, is also getting a face-lift.

“We want the town to come alive again,” he said. “We want people to feel welcome and enjoy their time here in Boron.”

Main St., Boron

Exiting the museum grounds, we noticed an old railway depot standing just to the west. It was in mint condition – as if it had been recently painted, just waiting for train passengers.

Turns out the depot, built in 1896 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway company, served rail customers in nearby Kramer, now Kramer Junction, until 1941 when it was moved to Boron as a freight depot.

“Makes you wonder how many people stood outside that depot waiting for their tickets to so many varied destinations,” Laureen mused.

“Two hundred and thirty-three thousand,” I replied, believing it was a good guess.

Laureen simply rolled her eyes.

Boron rose from the dusty desert landscape in 1913 when a water well was being drilled and Borate evaporites in the form of colemanite were discovered. This was the beginning of a mining boom. The claims were purchased by the Pacific Coast Borax Company and more mining and exploring for further valuable sites was begun. In 1925 commercial mining began in the area, and as the old saying goes, the rest is history.

Boron became a major dot on the map in this part of the Mojave Desert. 

In 1938, the federal government knew the community was growing with all the new mining operations and opened a post office there. 

“Ma, we got us a post office,” it is rumored that little Tommy squealed in delight.

“Yes, son – we are in the big leagues now,” his mother replied. “And soon, probably a Starbucks too.”

Today, the largest employer for Boron is the nearby Rio Tinto mining company. Of its eight hundred employees, many live in the nearby town. And five miles to the east, just across the San Bernardino County line is one of the world’s largest solar power production facilities, with some of their employees also residing in Boron.

“One of the largest, in the little old Mojave Desert,” a stranger once hmphed.

Yes, doubtful stranger, that is true. In fact, the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) is so big, that it is rumored that the plant can supply power to every human on Earth, twenty-four seven.

That's a lot of panels

“And if they do not treat us correctly, we will simply switch the power off and plunge the world into darkness,” one of the SEGS managers reportedly said, with an evil laugh and wringing of his hands.

No wait, that was Mr. Burns from an old Simpsons episode. My apologies to SEGS.

The solar plant covers over sixteen hundred acres and can supply power to nearly two-hundred and fifty thousand homes during peak outlay and displace nearly three-thousand eight hundred tons of pollution each year.

There are also over nine hundred thousand mirrors pointing sunward at the plant. That is a lot of mirrors, may not be enough for some Hollywood celebrities, but for the common person – that is a heck of a lot of mirrors.

But this column is not about solar energy collectors or big pits in the ground to mine borates. It is about a small but charming town by the name of Boron.

After visiting the train depot, we sauntered over to the Saxon Aerospace Museum, which was named after Colonel Vernon P. Saxon Jr., a former Vice-Commander at the Air Force Test Flight Center at Edwards Air Force Base. There we met up with Alison, who seemed to know everything we did not about this flight museum.

The museum has a place set for one's no longer with us

“The museum needs some work,” Alison said, as we signed the guest book at the entry. “It’s been closed for a couple of years, and it needs some dusting off, but we are making great progress toward that goal.”

To state the museum had a lot of artifacts, would be an understatement. The building is literally filled to the rafters with every sort of aeronautical thingy-bob one could only imagine.

The motto of the museum is simple, but to the point – ‘To collect, interpret, preserve, and display aeronautics and aerospace materials relevant to flight research performed over the skies of Boron and the surrounding Aerospace Valley.”

Just one of many aircraft on display

That is one large mission statement, but as Alison showed us around the museum, the statement became increasingly true.

Since the opening of the museum in 1997, the collection of exhibits has grown so much that a larger building could be in order. She explained that there are so many donations, the entire volunteer staff are currently busy trying to figure out who donated what and if they want to leave the item in the museum.

“We just don’t know,” she said. “A lot of these items are extremely valuable, and I just want to make sure the families want to keep sharing them with the general public.”

There are cockpit control panels, landing gear, plane engines, flight trainer simulator, parachutes, photographs depicting the entire advent of human flight, mannequins dressed up as pilots, mannequins dressed up as various military personnel, and mannequins dressed up as mannequins.

So much to see and according to Alison, the museum wants visitors to take their time and look at each display as long as they would like.

Sounds good, if that visitor had a few extra months to spare, since there is so much to experience.

Our favorite item, I’m speaking for Laureen and myself here, was the wooden ski sleds that Admiral Richard Byrd used during his famous exploration to the south pole.

Admiral Byrd's skis

We were staring at history – and it was cool.

So, a slight jog off Highway 58 had found us in the small but inviting town of Boron. 

As we drove east toward Kramer Junction, I looked over at my darling wife and said, “That was really a pleasant stop.”

“Yes, a lot more then I expected,” she replied. 

And that what traveling is all about – not to expect too much but then to be pleasantly surprised when you find so much more.

For more information: https://www.facebook.com/BoronChamber/