A deposit of Epsom salts was discovered near the old Wingate Wash Borax Road at the southern end of Death Valley in 1917, and in 1919 the claims were acquired by Los Angeles florist Thomas Wright. Although the site was close to an existing road, Wright pursued other plans to exploit the find. A proposal to dissolve the salts and send them by a 28-mile pipeline to the Trona Railroad was abandoned because of lack of water. In 1922 Wright began building a monorail at Magnesia Siding on the Trona Railroad, six miles south of Trona. The line ran eastward across the south end of Searles Lake, through the Slate Range by way of Layton Canyon, across the tip of Panamint Valley, over Wingate Pass, and on to the mine. It used a single steel rail mounted on a heavy wooden beam supported by A-frame trestles about three feet high, with locomotives and cars running on two wheels and loads balanced on each side like pack saddles on a mule. Construction took 2 years and cost about $200,000. Though simple in concept, the line never worked properly, and after several efforts to improve efficiency, the operation ended in 1927. In the late 1930s the rail and beam were salvaged, leaving only A-frames, most of which have since disappeared.