The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

company founded in 1890 by the American

borax Borax is a salt ( ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular for ...

magnate Francis Smith, the "Borax King".

History

The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in

Mineral County, Nevada Mineral County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,554, making it the fourth-least populous county in Nevada. Its county seat is Hawthorne. History Mineral County was carved out of Es ...

, east of

Mono Lake Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water a ...

, where Smith, while contracting to provide firewood to a small borax operation at nearby Columbus Marsh, spotted Teels Marsh while looking westward from 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 A borate is any of several boron oxyanions, negative ions consisting of boron and oxygen, such as orthoborate , metaborate , or tetraborate ; or any salt with such anions, such as sodium metaborate, and disodium tetraborate . The name also re ...

. 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 the family home in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, 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 the name) was acquired by Smith. Frank Smith also developed holdings with his business associate

William Tell Coleman William Tell Coleman (1824–1893) was an American pioneer in the settlement of California. Early life William Tell Coleman was born in Cynthiana in Harrison County, Kentucky on February 29, 1824. He was educated at St. Louis University in Mis ...

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 the new company name in 1890.

Death Valley

The Harmony Borax Works were part of what 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 Ryan (formerly known as Devar ("Devair" as a misprint)) is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. A former mining community and company town, Ryan is situated at an elevation of in the Amargosa Range, northeast of Dante's Vi ...

, to

Death Valley Junction, California Death Valley Junction, more commonly known as Amargosa ( Spanish for "Bitter"), is a tiny Mojave Desert unincorporated community in Inyo County, California, at the intersection of SR 190 and SR 127, in the Amargosa Valley and just east of Deat ...

. It then transferred to the narrow gauge Death Valley Railroad to meet up with the

Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad was a former class II railroad that served eastern California and southwestern Nevada. The railroad was built mainly to haul borax from Francis Marion Smith's Pacific Coast Borax Company mines located just eas ...

(T&T) which ran from the

Amargosa Valley The Amargosa Valley is the valley through which the Amargosa River flows south, in Nye County, southwestern Nevada and Inyo County in the state of California. The south end is alternately called the "Amargosa River Valley'" or the "Tecopa Valley. ...

south to the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

railhead in Ludlow, California. Th
Borax Museum
located in Death Valley National Park, has a locomotive on display from the Death Valley Railroad.

Other mines

As Death Valley mining ran down, Smith developed new mines in the Calico Mountains near

Yermo, California Yermo (Spanish for "wilderness") is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California. It is east of Barstow on Interstate 15, just south of the Calico Mountains. Its population was an estimated 1,750 in 20 ...

, and built the

Borate and Daggett Railroad The Borate and Daggett Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad built to carry borax in the Mojave Desert. The railroad ran about from Daggett, California, US, to the mining camp of Borate, to the east of Calico. History In 1883, prospectors disc ...

to haul product to the railhead in

Daggett, California Daggett is an unincorporated community located in San Bernardino County, California in the United States. The town is located on Interstate 40 ten miles (16 km) east of Barstow. The town has a population of about 200. The ZIP code is 92 ...

. Later, the company developed methods to process material from

Searles Lake Searles Lake is an endorheic dry lake in the Searles Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northwestern San Bernardino County, California. The lake in the past was also called Slate Range Lake and Borax Lake. The mining community of Trona is on i ...

in the

Searles Valley Searles Valley is a valley in the northern Mojave Desert of California, with the northern half in Inyo County and the southern half in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Searles Valley is located between the Argus Range to the wes ...

, building the company town of Westend and a siding on the

Trona Railway The Trona Railway is a short-line railroad owned by Searles Valley Minerals. The TRC interchanges with the Lone Pine Subdivision of the Union Pacific Railroad (former Southern Pacific Transportation Company) at Searles, California. History The ...

for shipping to the railhead at Searles, California. One of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings constructed in the United States was the Pacific Coast Borax Company's refinery in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for " tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda Island, but also spans Bay Farm Island and Coast Guard Island, as we ...

, designed by Ernest L. Ransome and built in 1893. It was the first to use ribbed floor construction as well as concrete columns. Christian Brevoort Zabriskie joined the company in 1885, became its vice president and stayed until 1933.

Zabriskie Point Zabriskie Point is a part of the Amargosa Range located east of Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in California, United States, noted for its erosional landscape. It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 mi ...

above Death Valley is named in his honor. 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 the Furnace Creek springs in the foothills of the

Funeral Mountains The Funeral Mountains are a short, arid mountain range in the United States along the California-Nevada border approximately 100 mi (160 km) west of Las Vegas. The mountains are considered a subrange of the Amargosa Range that form the ...

overlooking Death Valley. The Furnace Creek Inn opened in February 1927, with transport via the motor-coach from the Ryan station of the

20 Mule Team Borax

The company established and aggressively developed and marketed the ''

20 Mule Team Borax 20 Mule Team Borax is a brand of cleaner manufactured in the United States by The Dial Corporation, a subsidiary of Henkel.Hildebrand, G. H. (1982) "Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith." San Diego: Howell-North Books. The product primarily co ...

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

in order to promote the sale of its product. The name derived from the 20-mule teams that were used to transport borax out of

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...

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 ''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...

'' was hosted at one point by "Borateem-pitchman" and future

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Ronald Reagan.

Corkill Hall - Amargosa Opera House

In Death Valley Junction, California in 1923–24, the Pacific Coast Borax Company constructed their Civic Center at a cost of $300,000 ($ in dollars ). Designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloh, the U-shaped complex of 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 the northeast end of the complex was Corkill Hall, a recreation hall used as a community center for dances, church services, movies, funerals and town meetings. Remodeled in 1927, the Civic Center became the Amargosa Hotel. In 1967, Corkhill Hall became Marta Becket's renowned Amargosa Opera House.

U.S. Borax

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 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

Boraxo 20 Mule Team Borax is a brand of cleaner manufactured in the United States by The Dial Corporation, a subsidiary of Henkel.Hildebrand, G. H. (1982) "Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith." San Diego: Howell-North Books. The product primarily co ...

, Borateem and 20 Mule Team product lines to

Dial Corporation Henkel Corporation, doing business as Henkel North American Consumer Goods, and formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products, and is ...

in 1988.Rio Tinto Borax: About Borax : History
It continues to operate the Rio Tinto Borax Mine, which is the largest

open-pit mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

next to the company town of Boron, in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

east of

Mojave, California Mojave (formerly Mohave) is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California, United States. Mojave is located east of Bakersfield, and north of Los Angeles, at an elevation of . The town is located in the western region of the Mojave D ...

. The Trona operation later became part of

Searles Valley Minerals Searles Valley Minerals Inc. is a raw materials mining and production company with corporate offices in Overland Park, Kansas. It is owned by the Indian company Nirma. It has major operations in the Searles Valley and in Trona, California where ...

Notes

References

* * http://www.boraxminers.com - ILWU - Borax Miners. (''2010'')

External links

Views of the Borax Industry, ca. 1898-ca. 1915

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

{{Authority control Defunct mining companies of the United States Chemical companies of the United States Mining in California Death Valley History of the Mojave Desert region History of mining in the United States History of Inyo County, California Searles Valley Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad Companies based in Inyo County, California Companies based in Kern County, California Companies based in Oakland, California Chemical companies established in 1890 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1890 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1956 1890 establishments in California 1956 disestablishments in California Defunct companies based in California Former Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries Mojave Desert Borax mines