Re: SP 9 dumps talc at Owenyo

The transfer trestle was originally built to serve a short lived attempt to produce sugar beets in the valley.

At the 2010 Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge Historical Society convention David Good made a presentation about the Owenyo transfer trestle and building a model of it. The original SP drawings called it something like a sugar beet transfer.

I later looked at my copy of The Lost Frontier: Water Diversion in the Growth and Destruction of Owens Valley Agriculture by Robert A. Sauder (U of Arizona Press, 1994). There is a long paragraph on "Beet Culture" on page 130.

In brief, in the mid-teens there was a thought about growing beets in the valley. "The Holley Sugar Company furnished the seed and hoped to see 1,000 acres planted to beets in 1917 so that at the time of harvest 500 tons of beets a day could be shipped to its plant in Huntington Beach." Due to labor requirements etc "in 1917 only 400 to 500 acres of beets were planted ... [for a] total yield of 2,300 tons." This was not sufficient to sustain interest in the crop. "In 1920 only 13 acres were planted to sugar beets, yielding just 33 tons."

Later on other uses were found for the transfer trestle.

Brian Norden