Old Harmony Borax Works

The Harmony Borax Works are located in Death Valley at Furnace Creek Springs, then called Greenland. They are now within Death Valley National Park... more

by Roderick Bley

Title

Old Harmony Borax Works

Artist

Roderick Bley

Medium

Photograph - Digital Image

Description

The Harmony Borax Works are located in Death Valley at Furnace Creek Springs, then called Greenland. They are now within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, California. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

After discovery of Borax deposits here in 1881, William Tell Coleman developed the works which opened the way for "large-scale" borax mining in Death Valley and other Mojave Desert locations in the Calico Mountains and at Searles Lake. The Harmony operation became famous through the use, from 1883 to 1889, of large Twenty-mule teams and double wagons which hauled borax the long overland route to the closest railroad in Mojave, California.

During the summer months, when it was too hot to crystallize borax in Death Valley, a smaller borax mining operation shifted to his Amargosa Borax Plant in Amargosa, near the present community of Tecopa, California. The Harmony Works remained under Coleman's operation until 1888, when his business collapsed

Uploaded

November 27th, 2014