04.06.2019
Today, I traveled CA 94, along the Mexico boarder, between Potrero and Campo, looking for roadside memorials. I found a few, but that’s a dangerous road, no shoulder and fast company. The memorials were modest and I didn’t want mine to compete with them, so I pushed through to Campo. I had seen a train museum there and wanted to check it out. Great shutter fodder, I thought. But that morning hour found the shutter fodder shuttered. However, in the distance stood a tall corrugated metal building. It was easy to find and I’m glad I did. It’s a Motor Transport Museum. They have several acres of great hulks, old trucks, cranes and busses. And they were open.
I met Bryan Butler, who showed me around the building and gave its history. Apparently, there is a sizable feldspar deposit nearby and a mining boom befell Campo in the 1920’s. This building housed the mill where the mined feldspar was pulverized into the fine particulate used in porcelain and occasionally silicosis, a nodular pulmonary fibrosis (feldspar contains aluminosilicates of potassium, sodium, and calcium). Advancing industry safety regulations and liability drove the owners to divest and move operations. This mill had killed all but three of its employees during its operation.
Alas, a memorial indeed.
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