Near Ragtown there is an inexhaustible supply of pure soda extending down to an unknown depth. On the surface of the ground are two or three feet of sand, but below this lies the soda, looking like a solid mass of ice. It was this soda that gave rise in early days- when the emigrants were crossing the plains- to the stories that in places on the plains there was to be found, under a few inches of sand, a solid mass of ice. The soda as dug up from the plains in sheets of 2 to 3 inches in thickness, really does look more like ice than does any other mineral formation.

Manufacturer and Builder - Volume 14, Issue 4
April 1882