Borax - Death Valley's most famous mineral Death Valley has been visited by humans for about 10,000 years. Four distinct American Indian cultural stages have been identified. The first "white" explorers in Death Valley were two groups in 1849. They were looking for a shortcut to California and found instead a Death Valley much like you see today. Imagine two months on this desert. Legend says one of the "49rs" fashioned a gun sight out of a piece of rubble from the valley floor - the rubble was a chunk of silver and Death Valley experienced its first mining boom. These booms came and went but the one we probably recognize most readily is the boom of Borax mining. Here are two of the sites we saw. They reminded us of those by-gone days of 20-mule team wagons and illustrated just what it took to mine in a place where the average annual rainfall is 2 inches and summer temperatures are often above 120 degrees for days on end. Click on a thumbnail to load the full image.

Harmony Borax Works	Transportation for the processed borax	Only ruins left	Borax museum - Native People's artifacts
Mining Artifacts Wall	Outside the Museum	Faithful "Iron Horse"	Super big wheel

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