Dry Lake
Salt has been extracted from the dry lake bed since 1909, and continues to be mined today. The surface layer on much of the lake, which is three to seven feet thick, is removed in order to get at the salt, and is dumped in long rows of conical piles along the trenches. The Cargill Salt Company, the...
El Mirage is probably the closest dry lake to downtown Los Angeles, and is therefore one of the most heavily visited. It is now regularly used for car racing, land sailing, model aircraft, amateur rocketeers, and film productions. It has been used by numerous known and unknown artists as well....
Jean Dry Lake, south of Las Vegas, has totally absorbed Michael Heizer's "Rift 1", a zig-zag trench dug into the lake surface in 1968, as the first of his Nine Nevada Depressions artwork. This series of pieces was located primarily on dry lakes throughout the state, comprising a 520 mile earthwork.
The sediment of this dry lake bed, located in the isolated southern end of Panamint Valley, is said to contain traces of nearly all known elements, and has been mined for several decades by local industries. The IMC Chemical company is the current operator of the mining and processing complexes...