2007-01-032022-02-032007-01-032022-02-03https://hdl.handle.net/11124/875720 mule team in Death Valley early 1900'sDate scanned: 2001-03-27.Identifier: NMHFM-213.Mounted on posterboard; text on verso.Related photograph: NMHFM-165.Held in the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum.Donor: Charles Burgess.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 ...Rights management statement available at: http://library.mines.edu/digital/rights.htmlAnimals, draftBorate mines and miningOre handling and transportationScenes, desertVehiclesStillImage