January 8, 1856
On this day a not-too-spectacular deposit of borate was discovered at Tuscan Springs California. But it was a prelude to one of most enduring symbols of the American West, 20 Mule Team Borax.
Surgeon, surveyor and amateur mineralogist John Vetch (left) made the modest discovery while mapping a lake bed near San Francisco. He’d come from Texas to seek his fortune but the borate wasn’t it. The deposit he found was apparently not large enough to make commercial mining feasible.
It wasn’t exactly a “eureka” moment even in 1856. Borax was first found in Tibet in the 8th century and made its way to Europe on the Silk Road. Even in the mid-19th century, it took another two decades before the naturally occurring American borax became a money-maker.
It was 1872 before Francis Marian Smith (below) discovered a whole lot of the glittery mineral ulexite while cutting timber in Nevada. It’s not clear if Smith had a 
background in mineralogy but he and his brother, Julius, knew enough to cash in. They set up a borax works on the edge of Teel’s Marsh and began concentrating borax crystals from the ulexite.
By 1877, “Scientific American” took note of the “Borax brothers,” reporting that the pair shipped their product 160 miles across the Great Basin Desert to the rail head in Wadsworth using a team of 24 mules. The 20-mule team didn’t come along until 1890. Marian 
Smith bought out a competitor, William Tell Coleman, (right) founder of Harmony Borax Works and was crowned the “Borax King”
The famous ten-team hitch was developed by two Harmony employees, the company’s superintendent J.W.S. Perry and mule skinner Ed Stiles, elevating mule skinning to an art form. Smith adopted the Harmony hitch, subtracted four of the mules, ignored the fact the last two on the hitch were actually horses, and registered it as the company’s trademark in 1894.
The Harmony 165-mile trek across Death Valley was even more daunting than Smith’s Great Basin route. It included summertime temperatures of 130 degrees and crossing the rugged Panamint Mountains with 73,000 pounds of cargo.
The famous 10-team hitch
The mules were actually trained to “jump the chain” while making tight turns on steep descents to keep their load from plunging off the edge. Remarkably, in the seven years between 1883 and 1889, Coleman’s company hauled 20 million pounds of borax across the desert and over the mountains without ever losing a wagon or a single mule.
The mules were finally furloughed when the Borax and Daggett Railway was completed in 1898. The colorful mule-team era lasted less than 20 years, but like the Pony Express, it captured the public’s imagination and became a durable symbol of the Old West.
Its longevity was helped along by the radio and television series, “Death Valley Days.” Airing on the radio from 1930 to 1945, the program was revived and syndicated for television from 1952 to 1975 and famously hosted in 1964 and 1965 by the future president, Ronald Reagan.
Early TV version in the 1950sT.
The importance of borates is not, however, a thing of the past. Forms of the “miracle mineral” are used in glass and ceramics manufacturing, aeronautics, electronics, building materials and agriculture.
As for Smith, he moved from borax to real estate and transportation, making a fortune on both in San Francisco’s East Bay. He and his partner, Frank C. Havens. founded a major urban commuter system in 1895 by combining train, ferry and street car services. He died in 1931 at age 85 and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
William Tell Coleman may have redeemed himself from an unsavory past with the advent of his Harmony Borax Works. A founder of San Francisco’s notorious Committee on Vigilance in the 1850s, the organization was known to have hung at least four men and deported numerous others.
After serving as president of the Society of California Pioneers for a time, he was nominated for President of the U.S. in 1884 and headed the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. The Harmony site is now part of Death Valley National Park and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places December 31, 1974.
Historic Harmony Borax Works, Death Valley National Park
Borate discoverer John Veatch, while he never got rich on borate, must have had a bit of a nose for sniffing out hidden treasure. Property he once owned at Sour Lake and Spindletop, Texas, became some of the most valuable property in history a half century later with the discovery of oil there. 
The Twenty Mule Team Museum, 26962 Twenty Mule Team Road, Boron, California, is located 40 miles west of Barstow and features the history of the mule teams as well as that of the Boron Region. The museum’s unique gift shop offers a variety of gifts, posters and jewelry. Open seven days a week, 10 to 4, its closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. 
In addition, Boron has been the location for a number of movies and television shows, including the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich,” the 1964 film,“The Carpetbaggers,” and numerous episodes of Death Valley Days. For more information go to 20muleteammuseum.com, e-mail chamber@20muleteammuseum.com, call 760) 762-5810 or write Twenty Mule Team Museum, 26962 Twenty Mule Team Road, Boron, CA 93516.
© Text Only – 2018 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.
*Head On West strives for historic accuracy and uses a number of sources considered reliable. When research differs on significant facts, the various points of view will be cited.