Death Valley National Park guide · 1 min read
Harmony Borax Works and the 20 Mule Teams
Harmony Borax Works sits about one mile west of Furnace Creek on Highway 190. Its paved loop runs 0.4 mile, and the round trip takes around 30 minutes, which makes it an easy stop.
Along the way, you pass the ruins of the plant and the townsite, an original twenty-mule team wagon, and interpretive panels that explain borax processing, the story of the Mule Skinner, and life in Harmony. The site also helped draw visitors to Death Valley in the late 1800s.
Borax was found near the place then called Greenland in 1881 by Rosie and Aaron Winters. William Tell Coleman built the Harmony Borax Works, which processed ore from late 1883 or early 1884 until 1888. The mineral went into soap and industrial products. Finished borax was then hauled 165 miles to the Mojave railhead.
The haul was done by wagons that carried up to 10 tons each, pulled by teams of 18 mules and two horses. The name twenty-mule team stuck, even though each team had that mix of animals. The teams averaged two miles an hour, and a round trip took about 30 days.
Francis Marion Smith's Pacific Coast Borax Company later established the trade name 20-Mule Team Borax. When mining prospects faded, the company lobbied for federal protection of the valley so it could develop tourism.
Twenty Mule Team Canyon is a separate stop, a one-way road of about 3 miles through yellow and white mudstone hills where borax was once mined. About two-thirds of the way along, a small turnout gives access to short trails into the hills. The road is on Highway 190, one mile south of Zabriskie Point, and the drive with the short hike takes 30 to 45 minutes.
