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27-544: When mining operations at the Lila C. Mine were declining around 1914, Pacific Coast Borax Company began scouting the land outside Furnace Creek for richer borax deposits. Once they found some a bit west of the present mines, plans were put forward to build a narrow-gauge railroad from the new mines to connect with the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad at Death Valley Junction to ship the borax away for processing and packaging. The line

54-659: A devastating fire. Pacific Coast Borax Company The Pacific Coast Borax Company ( PCB ) was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Smith , the "Borax King". The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in Mineral County, Nevada , east of Mono Lake , where Smith, while contracting to provide firewood to a small borax operation at nearby Columbus Marsh, spotted Teels Marsh while looking westward from

81-693: A locomotive on display from the Death Valley Railroad . As Death Valley mining ran down, Smith developed new mines in the Calico Mountains near Yermo, California , and built the Borate and Daggett Railroad to haul product to the railhead in Daggett, California . Later, the company developed methods to process material from Searles Lake in the Searles Valley , building the company town of Westend and

108-481: A siding on the Trona Railway for shipping to the railhead at Searles, California . Christian Brevoort Zabriskie joined the company in 1885, became its vice president and stayed until 1933. Zabriskie Point above Death Valley is named in his honor. The company established and aggressively developed and marketed the 20 Mule Team Borax trademark in order to promote the sale of its product. The name derived from

135-515: A wholly owned subsidiary , the company now is called Rio Tinto Borax and continues to supply nearly half the world's borates. U.S. Borax sold its flagship consumer product lines ( Boraxo , Borateem and 20 Mule Team) to Dial Corporation in 1988. It continues to operate the Rio Tinto Borax Mine , which is the largest open-pit mine in California next to the company town of Boron , in

162-500: The 20-mule teams that were used to transport borax out of Death Valley in the 1880s from Harmony Borax Works near Furnace Creek Ranch , owned by William Tell Coleman at that time and sold to Smith in 1890. They also produced Boraxo hand soap. The radio version of Death Valley Days ran from 1930 to 1951. The TV series Death Valley Days was hosted at one point by "Borateem-pitchman" and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan . In Death Valley Junction, California in 1923–24,

189-692: The Borate and Daggett Railroad , saw some years of service on the DVRR after construction was completed, that is until the arrival of Baldwin #2 in 1916. At that time the Heisler was sold off to the Nevada Short Line Railway , and ultimately saw use in the timber fields working for the Terry Lumber Company (later Red River Lumber). It was scrapped around 1925 after the closure of the Terry lumber mill following

216-646: The Furnace Creek springs in the foothills of the Funeral Mountains overlooking Death Valley. The Furnace Creek Inn opened in February 1927, with transport via the motor-coach from the Ryan station of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad . In 1956, the Pacific Coast Borax Company merged with United States Potash Corporation to form U.S. Borax , which itself was acquired by Rio Tinto Minerals ( Rio Tinto Group ) in 1967. As

243-514: The Mojave Desert east of Mojave, California . The Trona operation later became part of Searles Valley Minerals . Nevada Short Line Railway The Nevada Short Line Railway ( Silver Belt Railroad ) was a 12.6 mi (20.3 km), 3 ft ( 914 mm ) narrow gauge railroad that ran east from Oreana (also known as Nenzel) to the silver mining area of Rochester, Nevada . The railway terminated near, but did not connect with,

270-503: The United States Potash Railroad turned over their operations to diesel locomotives in the 1950s, the two ex-Death Valley Railroad engines were both singled out for preservation. No. 1 was sent to Carlsbad, New Mexico and put on display in between Park Drive and E. Riverside Drive and sports the bold lettering of "U.S. Potash" on the sides of her tender. No. 2 also worked for the United States Potash Railroad , but she

297-407: The Pacific Coast Borax Company constructed, at a cost of $ 300,000 ($ 5,333,592 in 2023 dollars ), a U-shaped Civic Center complex, around three sides of a town square, designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloh. The Spanish Colonial Style adobe buildings included company offices, a store, an employee dorm, a 23-room hotel, dining room, lobby, gymnasium, billiard room and ice cream parlor. At

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324-626: The Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in Oreana due to the Nevada Short Line being 3 ft ( 914 mm ) gauge and the SP being a standard gauge mainline. The railway intended to eventually transition to standard gauge, but this never happened. The railroad started in 1913 as a sole proprietorship and was incorporated on April 24, 1914. The line only operated for four years. In June 1918,

351-551: The closure of the mines, the railroad closed in 1931. Much of the railroad ran parallel to what is today State Route 190 . After this railroad ceased operations, the United States Potash Company bought the equipment, track and rolling stock to construct their own line located near Loving, New Mexico , which became the United States Potash Railroad . All the rails from the Death Valley Railroad were used on

378-551: The family home in Wisconsin , and financial support from the two Storey brothers, operations began in 1872 under the name, Smith and Storey Brothers Borax Co. When the Storey brothers' interests were subsequently acquired in 1873, the name was shortened to Smith Brothers Borax Co. A few years later (circa 1884) it was changed again to Teel's Marsh Borax Co. In 1880, the separate and previously existing Pacific Borax Company (with no "Coast" in

405-419: The line and Francis was sold off. One train ran per day bringing food and water to the workers at the Ryan mine, and bought ore back late in the afternoon. After better deposits of borax were discovered at Boron , the Death Valley Railroad tried to resort to tourist operations by bringing in a Brill railcar to transport tourists to the old mines. Due to a lack of profit from tourists and freight trains and

432-603: The line was damaged by flooding and the line was abandoned on December 31, 1920. The railway operated from Oreana (Nenzel) which was located along the east bank of the Humboldt River at an elevation of 4,158 ft (1,267 m) above sea level. The railroad continued east through the desert where it had to cross the western edge of the Humboldt Range near Limerick Canyon. The railway had to climb to an altitude of 7,200 ft (2,200 m) at Rochester. The steep terrain

459-660: The name) was acquired by Smith. Frank Smith also developed holdings with his business associate William Tell Coleman at the Harmony Borax Works as well as the Meridian Borax Company, which were subsequently combined to form the Pacific Borax, Salt & Soda Company in 1888. The Pacific Coast Borax Co. name was not adopted until Smith acquired all of Coleman's borax interests in central Nevada and California, after Coleman's bankruptcy, and incorporated them all under

486-526: The necessitated the need for a switchback and a 6% grade. The Nevada Short Line had two locomotives. Nevada Short Line No. 1 - Baldwin -built 3 ft ( 914 mm ) 2-6-0 (Mogul Type) built in 1879 is on static display with a few cars and rests above all other trains on an elevated track at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento . The last time the locomotive was run

513-610: The new company name in 1890. There were processing plants in Alameda, California and in Bayonne, New Jersey . One of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings constructed in the United States was the Pacific Coast Borax Company's refinery in Alameda, California , designed by Ernest L. Ransome and built in 1893. It was the first to use ribbed floor construction as well as concrete columns. The Harmony Borax Works were part of what

540-512: The new line until about 1941 when they were replaced by heavier-pound rails from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad . The line was used until 1967 when better potash deposits were discovered in Saskatchewan and Pacific Coast Borax Company merged with U.S. Potash and became U.S. Borax & Chemical Cooperation. All three engines that were on the Death Valley Railroad are preserved. After

567-607: The northeast corner of the complex, was Corkill Hall, used for dances, church services, movies, funerals and town meetings, and became the Amargosa Opera House , in 1967. Remodeled in 1927, in 1967, the west side of the complex became the Amargosa Hotel . In 1926, the Pacific Coast Borax Company created a subsidiary called the Death Valley Hotel Company to construct a Mission Revival style -luxury hotel near

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594-438: The upper slopes of Miller Mountain where the only nearby trees were growing. Eventually, to satisfy his curiosity, Smith and two assistants visited Teels Marsh and collected samples, that proved to assay higher than any known sources for borate . Returning to Teels Marsh, Smith and his helpers staked claims and laid the foundation for his career as a borax miner. With the help of his older brother, Julius, who came west from

621-685: Was acquired from Coleman by Smith in 1890. The borax was shipped via the Death Valley Railroad that the company built to the east, from Ryan, California , to Death Valley Junction, California . It then transferred to the narrow gauge Death Valley Railroad to meet up with the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad (T&T) which ran from the Amargosa Valley south to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway railhead in Ludlow, California . The Borax Museum, located in Death Valley National Park , has

648-483: Was bought by the Death Valley National Park and is now currently at the Borax Museum at Furnace Creek . A railcar was bought in the later years of the line in 1928, when Pacific Coast Borax attempted to save their dying railroads, DVRR included, from the scrapheap by promoting them as tourist attractions. It too, was bought by the United States Potash Railroad to transport workers to the potash mines. By 1967, it

675-480: Was built by a separate company from Pacific Coast Borax Company, because they were struggling with financial issues at the time. Equipment and Heisler locomotive #2 "Francis" from the Pacific Coast Borax Company's old Borate and Daggett Railroad were used to build the Death Valley Railroad. After the line was completed, two 2-8-0 steam locomotives were bought from the Baldwin Locomotive Works to work

702-645: Was in 1939-40 for the Golden Gate International Exposition on daily re-enactments of the 1869 Golden Spike ceremony. The locomotive was originally built for the Hobart Mills Company and was sold to the Nevada Short Line in August 1913. The second engine "Francis," was a 2-truck Heisler locomotive built in 1899 for the Borate and Daggett Railroad and was acquired by the NSL in 1916. It was sold to

729-629: Was worn out, but the Laws Rail Museum of Bishop, California managed to step in just in time to save it from scrap. After several years of extensive restoration, it now runs on the museum's 3 ft ( 914 mm ) narrow-gauge track. The bogey trucks of some of the old DVRR ore cars are said to still exist at Laws, whilst the old caboose (#100) still exists on the property of the old potash refinery site at Loving, New Mexico. The tankcar bodies (also ex-DVRR) are also located just outside Carlsbad. The old Heisler locomotive "Francis" formerly from

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