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Borax Twenty Mule Team in Death Valley
Colorado Digitization Project National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum
Colorado Digitization Project
National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum
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1887?-1907?
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Abstract
Photograph (probably taken in 1907) showing one of the Borax Twenty Mule Teams traveling across Death Valley. Between 1883 and 1889 twenty mule teams hauled borax ore from the Harmony Borax Works near Furnace Creek in Death Valley to Mojave. The teams actually consisted of two horses and eighteen mules; the horses were used as wheelers because they had the weight to handle the wagon tongue on quick turns. There were nine teams, and each hauled a 500 gallon water wagon and two custom-made ore wagons. The wagons weighed nearly four tons each and could hold over ten tons of borax. Altogether the water wagon and the two wagons loaded with borax weighed over thirty tons. It took about ten days for the team to make the 165 mile trip with only an overnight stay before returning to Furnace Creek. A loaded team left the borax works every four days and they were constantly on the road except during the summer months when temperatures were as high as 136 degrees in the desert. Harmony ...
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