 This unique system extended eastwards into the Owlshead Mountains, was in use from 1924 to 1926, and was dismantled in the late 1930s.The idea of building a standard gauge railroad to replace mule-drawn wagons came from Stafford W. Austin, the receiver of the American Trona Corporation.The railroad would connect Searles Valley with a lower cost connection to the markets within the United States and to ocean ports for exports.