1949 Map of Searles Lake

About this map

Industrial mineral extraction and military testing define this high-desert landscape in the late 1940s. The eastern shore of the dry lake bed is clustered with worker settlements and processing facilities, including Argus, Bordsolvay, South Trona, and Westend. This industrial corridor was once supported by the now Dismantled R R that tracks north-south along the basin. To the west, the Argus Range rises sharply, while the southern reaches contain striking geological formations like The Pinnacles. Much of the eastern portion of the map is occupied by the Naval Ordnance Test Station Inyokern (China Lake), showing the post-war expansion of military research in the San Bernardino desert. Smaller outlying locales like Spangler and The Y mark remote junctions along the roads leading toward Salt Wells Valley, where scattered inactive mines and Prospects speak to the area's earlier prospecting history.