The most hidden town in California has less than 30 inhabitants: it is disappearing into a salt lake
Saltdale was an important salt extraction center in the early 20th century.
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In the arid Mojave desert, about 20 miles north of California City, you can find Saltdale. This former mining town, which once thrived thanks to salt extraction, is now fighting against its own disappearance.
The salt, which was once the reason for its existence, is now the cause of its destruction. As time goes by, Saltdale is slowly sinking into Lake Koehn, a dry lake bed that, over the years, has been reclaiming what was once its own.
A past of boom and mining exploitation
During the 1910s, Saltdale became an important center for salt extraction. In its heyday, it produced tens of thousands of tons per year, supplying various chemical industries and even the local trade. The community that formed around the mine included a post office, a school, and a company store, providing its inhabitants with the basic services necessary for life in the desert.
Despite not being an incorporated town, mining activity kept Saltdale alive for several decades. In 1914, the Consolidated Salt Company took control of most of the operations and built a four-story mill, which allowed for jobs for between 30 and 65 people. However, the boom didn't last forever.
The decline and slow disappearance of Saltdale
Like many mining towns in the West, Saltdale suffered the consequences of environmental and economic changes. By the late 1940s, a prolonged drought affected the natural salt regeneration cycle in Lake Koehn.
With less water filtering into the basin, salt production drastically decreased. By 1949, there were barely three employees left at the plant, and in 1950, the post office closed its doors. One year later, the school was also dissolved, marking the end of the community.
Although the mine continued operating with imported salt for a few more decades, the town was already doomed. In the 1970s, the processing plant closed for good, and the remaining structures began to crumble. Today, the remnants of Saltdale, where fewer than 30 people live, blend with the landscape of rusted ruins covered in salt.
A unique fate among ghost towns
What sets Saltdale apart from other abandoned mining towns is not only its history of boom and bust but how nature has taken control. Instead of remaining a relic of the past, the town is physically disappearing, consumed by the same mineral that made it possible.
The wooden and metal structures that once formed the mine and the town are slowly corroding. The salt rises from the dry lake, destroying what little remains standing. Some buildings, like a small corrugated metal structure, are already leaning and sinking into the saline mud. The train tracks that once carried tons of salt are now almost unrecognizable, covered by a thin, brittle white layer.
Saltdale, a town devoured by salt
Today, the most astonishing aspect of Saltdale is not its ruined structures, but the surrounding landscape. Lake Koehn, with its crystalline and whitish surface, reflects the sunlight as if it were covered in snow. However, beneath that tranquil appearance lies treacherous terrain: the salt crust may seem solid, but it is actually fragile and hides a quicksand-like base.
Saltdale is a ghost town unlike the others. While other abandoned communities become mere debris in the desert, this settlement is disintegrating, becoming part of the environment it once exploited.
*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence
