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By Beau Yarbrough
beau.yarbrough@langnews.com
@LBY3 on Twitter
Homecoming weekend also featured the
other big commercial event in the Trona
calendar: the 74th annual Gem-O-Rama,
sponsored by the Searles Lake Gem and
Mineral Society.
Jim Fairfield, co-author of the book
“Around Trona and Searles Valley,” and
his wife have run the show in recent years.
“In the last probably 20 years, it’s grown
about six-fold in size and attendance,” Fair-
field said.
He estimates more than 4,000 people
attend the show, based on the number of
cars driving out onto Searles Lake during
the mine tours.
“It’s a solution mine, so there’s no open
Gem-O-Rama: Show attracts crowd from around
nation to community named for soda ash crystals
PHOTOS BY MICAH ESCAMILLA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Eliyah Ivey, 2, of Ridgecrest dances during a street dance party on a Friday earlier this month in Trona. The dance party was part of the
homecoming and alumni weekend celebration that draws a loyal crowd of fans to the High Desert community.
Homecoming
princesses
await a
coronation
event at Trona
High School
in Trona. Like
many others,
the tiny
community
has fallen onto
hard times, but
enthusiasts
see a chance
for rebirth in
tourism.
By Beau Yarbrough
beau.yarbrough@langnews.com
@LBY3 on Twitter
“Anywhere else is not Trona,” Sandy
Sprouse said. “It’s unique in every sense
of the word.”
The tiny unincorporated community
is on Death Valley’s southeastern bor-
der, about 170 miles northwest of Los
Angeles and an hour and a half north of
the tiny High Desert community of Ad-
elanto. Souvenirs sold at the Searles Val-
ley Historical Society museum in Trona
display a road sign — created to pro-
mote a local sign company — that reads
“End of the World, 10 miles; Trona, 15
miles.”
Wyatt Earp was arrested for claim-
jumping here. Captain Kirk met a being
who claimed to be God in “Star Trek V,”
filmed at the Trona Pinnacles rock for-
mations a few miles away.
There’s a faint whiff of sulphur de-
tectable much of the time, coming from
the long white chimneys of the Searles
Valley Minerals factory.
“It’s the smell of people working, pay-
ing taxes, sending their kids to college,”
said historian Russ Kaldenberg, co-au-
HIGH DESERT
FROMTHEASHES
Trona: Tiny, remote
community working to
remake itself after years
of economic decline
Inside: Look inside to see a timeline of the
area’s history. PAGE A6
Lottery.............A2 Obituaries.......A12 Perspectives.A21 Puzzles.............C7 Comics....... Inside Nation............. A16 Sports............... B1INDEX
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UC Riverside medical stu-
dents held a health fair at San
Bernardino High School on
Saturday. PAGE A3
PUBLIC HEALTH
Med students offer
up health ...
The player, coach and admin-
istrator who created the Trojan
athletic booster clubs died
Friday at the age of 99. SPORTS
OBITUARY
NickPappaswasUSC
fixturefor8decades
The new miniseries “Wicked
CIty” centers around the hunt
for a serial killer prowling the
Sunset Strip in 1982. SPOTLIGHT
TELEVISION
Something ‘Wicked’
this way comes to ABC
By Jim Steinberg
jim.steinberg@langnews.com
@JamesDSteinberg on Twitter
SANBERNARDINO>> The Santa Ana
sucker fish is going home.
The endangered fish that is
struggling to survive in a section
of the Santa Ana River between
Rialto and Riverside will be in-
troduced into three mountain
streams in the San Bernardino
Mountains, under a recently pro-
posed plan by the San Bernardino
Valley Municipal Water District.
Most of the surviving Santa
Ana sucker fish in this area are in
a 2-to-3-mile stretch of the Santa
Ana River between the Rialto
channel in Colton and the Mis-
sion Avenue Bridge in Riverside.
The fish in this lowland stretch
of the river face numerous threats,
including being eaten by non-na-
tive fish such as largemouth bass
ENVIRONMENT
How local
district is
trying to
save fish
Endangered Santa Ana
sucker to be re-introduced
to SB Mountains streams
FISH » PAGE 13
See the full weather forecast
H:
L:
H:
L:
H:
L:
88
55
86
55
86
55
TODAY MON. TUE.
>> PAGE A15
TRONA » PAGE 4
“The gem show is a
unique show in the world.
Nothing else in the world
like it.”
— Jim Fairfield, co-author of the book “Around
Torna and Searles Valley”
GEMS » PAGE 6
By Christopher Sherman
The Associated Press
PUERTOVALLARTA,MEXICO>> Only
a day after menacing Mexico as
one of history’s strongest storms,
Hurricane Patricia left surpris-
ingly little damage in its wake
Saturday and quickly dissipated
into an ordinary low-pressure sys-
tem that posed little threat be-
yond heavy rain.
The hurricane’s most powerful
punch landed on a sparsely pop-
ulated stretch of Mexico’s Pacific
Coast before the system crashed
into mountains that sapped its
potentially catastrophic force.
The popular beach city of Puerto
Vallarta and the port of Manza-
nillo were spared the brunt of the
violent weather.
Authorities were still trying
MEXICO’S
PACIFIC COAST
Megastorm
Patricia
inflicts little
damage
HURRICANE » PAGE 14
FOOTBALL
Trojans
knock off No. 3
Utes at Coliseum
Sports
DUI CHARGE
Fourdeadin
homecoming
paradecrash
Nation+World>> A16
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