Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1895 — Soap Mines. [ARTICLE]

Soap Mines.

The natural soap mines at Owen's Lake, California, are accounted for by a scientist who advances this theory, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer: The water in the lake contains, he says, a strong solution of both borax and soda. In the water a curious specimen of grub breeds by millions. These grubs go through their various transformations and finally emerge as shortwinged, heavy-bodied flies, very fat and oily. They live but a few days, dying and falling into the lake in such numbers as to be frequently washed ashore in layers more than a foot thick. The oily substance of the dead files blends with the alkali of the borax and soda and the result is a layer of pure soup, corresponding in thickness to the drift strata of the dead flies, a foot deep of flies making a layer of soap nearly an inch thick. These strata, repeated year after year, have formed the celebrated “Soap Banks of Owen’s Lake," where for a number of years past a large body of men have been regularly at work.