The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1918-03-27

Win the prospect OF an immense
potash industry in the Dixie Valley
in the near future, Fallon people
will be especially interested in an
article appearing in the April issue
of the Sunset Magazine by Victor
Willard.
Mr.. Willard calls it the Romance
of Potash and his descriptive account
of the development of Searles Lake.
literally illustrated. makes an inter-
esting and fascinating story.
Those who read it will have bet
ter idea than before of the immense
possibilities of the potash develop
ment in the Dixie Valley where the
surface showings are fully as good
or better than at Searles Lake and
the brine underneath should be
much richer.
Mr.. Willard tells of the failure of
the first plant which was erected at
the lake and which cost a million
dollars. The process of extracting
potash from brine was entirely un-
known and the first plant was
failure. Instead of becoming dis
couraged the company thought only
of the great value of the potash
brine, and after months of expert
mentation it built new plant. AZ
ter telling OF the installation of this
second plant and the evaporation of
the first tanks of brine, Mr.. Willard
says:
1T was an exciting day when the
plugs were to be pulled, the tanks
emptied of the brine and the con-
tents---or the lack of them revealed.
Everybody was on tiptoe, oozing
suspense out of every pore, every
body except the chemical engineer
who had devised the process, built
the plant and started 1t running. He
was not even at the lake. Two hun
dred miles away he was busy at San
Pedro, designing the refinery that
was to take the product of the tanks,
continue the process and turn out
potash almost chemically pure. s"""
At last they pulled the plugs in the
first tank. Gradually the liquid
sank, barring the sides. The crowd
pushed closer; held its breath. An
inch was exposed. II glistened
white. Another inch. The mass of
crystals on the tank walls grew
steadily as the liquid receded. ss'@"
The bottom itself was covered with
a two-inch layer of really truly Pot
ash. Hurrah. The fight was won.
The suspense was over s"+*.
From that day to this the pumps
have been busy. the motors have
whirred and the boilers have hum
med day and night, almost without
cessation, stopping only when IT was
necessary to clean up or make re-
placements. With potash at $4,000
to $4,000 a ton according to grade,
time was money. Every hour that
the plant stood still meant a loss of
nearly a thousand dollars, fifteen
dollars the minute. -*+++ Four ad-
ditional units are being designed by
Grimwood along new lines, based on
his experience with the present
plant. When these units are COM
pleted the capacity will have been
increased to perhaps thousand tons
day, three hundred thousand tons
a year, not counting the by-products
of borax and soda. Even at the pre-
war price of forty dollars ton, this
potential potash output will repre-
sent a value of twelve million dol
lars per annum, a sum far greater
than the yield of all the mines dur
ing the height of the silver boom in
Hell's ante-room."
The formation of the Dixie Valley
field is almost Identical with that of
Searles Lake, and the surface tests
are higher. II the indications stand
for anything the Dixie valley field
may prove to be Nevada's greatest
producer of mineral wealth.