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Death Valley Photos - Furnace Creek Area

Harmony Borax Works

In the Furnace Creek area, borates were deposited in the remains of old lakebeds. Later, partial alteration and solution of these veins by groundwater moved some of the borates to the Death Valley floor where evaporation has left a mixed crust of salt, borates, and alkalies. Aaron Winters found borax on the Death Valley saltpan in 1881. He soon sold his claims to William T. Coleman, builder of the Harmony Borax Works, where borate-bearing muds were refined until 1889.

GLOSSARY > alkali, borax

Harmony Borax Works was the central feature in the opening of Death Valley and the subsequent popularity of the Furnace Creek area. The plant and associated townsite played an important role in Death Valley history.

After borax was found near Furnace Creek Ranch (then called Greenland) in 1881, William T. Coleman built the Harmony plant and began to process ore in late 1883 or early 1884. When in full operation, the Harmony Borax Works employed 40 men who produced three tons of borax daily. During the summer months, when the weather was so hot that processing water would not cool enough to permit the suspended borax to crystallize, Coleman moved his work force to the Amargosa Borax Plant near present day Tecopa, California.

Getting the finished product to market from the heart of Death Valley was a difficult task, and an efficient method had to be devised. The Harmony operation became famous through the use of large mule teams and double wagons which hauled borax the long overland route to Mojave. The romantic image of the “20-mule team” persists to this day and has become the symbol of the borax industry in this country.

The Harmony plant went out of operation in 1888, after only five years of production, when Coleman’s financial empire collapsed. Aquired by Francis Marion Smith, the works never resumed the boiling of cottonball borate ore, and in time became part of the borax reserves of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and it successors. On December 31, 1974, the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Source - NPS

Harmony Borax site - Death Valley National Park

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Clickable Map of Furnace Creek Area

Zoom out to the Map of Death Valley

History of Harmony Borax Works

Geology of Harmony

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