The exploitation of this colloidal source, interbedded with high humus (lignitic silts containing enviable proportions of fulvic and humic acid), plus a broad bouquet of minerals and ions in trace amounts, has never attained but a minuscule percentage of its potential commercial capacity.

After the groundbreaking, excavation began almost immediately, but we have discovered today that such severe methods as bulldozing and employing a steam shovel, are not really necessary to dig up the soft clay.  Once loosened--it's particles can be recovered and sorted by simple screening.

Largely, the decline in use of natural composts, fertilizers and soil amendments, progressively saw their demise with the onslaught of less- expensive chemical additives and substitutes, becoming available.   Chemists found that by adding substantial amounts of factory-garnered NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, or those products containing them such as Nitrates, Phosphates and Potash), generated a quick-fix to lawns and fields withered by the summer sun.  Growth seemed impressive, and at first, so were yields, but the attendant twin problems, i.e., lack of real nutritional value / diminished tissue protein, and build-up of toxins in the soil, leading to contamination of streams and other potable water sources, signaled trouble.  Tragically, short-term profits and mere cosmetic, aesthetic appeal of produce, overshadowed nutritional and environmental concerns which were still nascent between the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts.  The death knell came when the railroad finally tore up the track between Caliente and Panaca.  This was a direct result of the traditional “lode” types of mines having played out, including for the most part zinc, lead and nickel mines in Pioche, Nevada, just twelve miles to the north.

Modern soil science--apparently just coming out of its infancy in the early 1970s-- ironically had its renaissance in California where developers were racing to smear millions of cubic yards of asphalt and concrete on top of formerly some of the finest soil in the nation.  The justification for this irreversible, wanton destruction of beautiful farm country, was that much of the land had reputably been played out by exhausting its trace mineral storehouse.  Rather than re-mineralizing, it was simply more profitable to sell.

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