Death Valley - From Mining to Tourism.

Old Dinah - Steam Tractor, Borax Museum, Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley

The first day exploring this vast National Park was fantastic! There is so much to see and experience. Visiting any place will not be complete without understanding the rich history - each National Park tells a part of the American story.

The Death Valley region was considered dangerous early in the history of Western exploration. With little knowledge of the valley's springs or the desert's food sources, early visitors saw only a dry, barren, and deadly landscape. Further ill repute came with the bandits and thieves who drove large herds of stolen horses along the Old Spanish Trail. Where this trail skirted Death Valley to the south, it was nicknamed jornada del muerto (Route of the Dead Man) and was littered with bones of spent horses.

Furnace Creek is a spring-fed stream flowing into Death Valley. Native Americans lived here centuries before it was discovered by the lost Forty-Niners, a group of pioneers who got lost in Death Valley while attempting a shortcut to the California Gold Country in 1849. Latecomers to the 1849 gold rush gave Death Valley its morbid name. Veering south to get around the snow-covered Sierra Nevada, some of them stumbled into the desert where they lost animals, wagons, each other, and sometimes their own lives. As the ill-fated Benett-Arcan Party was finally led out over the Panamint Mountains by their rescuers John H. Roger and William Lewis Manly, one of them turned back and said, "Goodbye, Death Valley."

The lakebed deposits of the Furnace Creek Formation are rich layers of Colemanite and Uluxite - minerals often referred to as borax. Although borax was first discovered in a recrystallized form on the salt flats, these original minerals proved more profitable to mine. Starting in 1882, numerous mining claims were established near Ryan, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, and Gower Gulch below Zabriskie Point.

In 1881, Aaron Winters found borax nearby and sold his claims and water rights to William Tell Coleman. Greenland Ranch was constructed at this site to support the borax workmen and twenty-mule teams. Francis Marion Smith acquired the site for his company, which became U.S. Borax, and renamed it Furnace Creek Ranch. They produced borax in the valley until 1927. The Ranch was opened to guests in 1932. The borax museum was set up by Harry Gower and Ann Rosener in 1954 in the oldest structure in the valley, which was built around 1883. Fred Havey Company purchased the Death Valley Properties from US Borax in 1969.

It was quite interesting to know how the borax was transported out of the valley by what was called a 20-mule team. Eighteen mules and two horses were hitched together by single and double trees to form the twenty-mule team. They were then latched to an 80-foot chain running the entire length of the team, which was fastened directly onto the lead wagon. A long rope ran through the collar ring of each left-hand mule up to the lead mules. This rope was called the "jerk line" and was the primary method the driver had for controlling the team. The jerk line's steady and hard pull turned the mule team to the left. A series of jerks turned the team to the right. The twenty-mule team hauled more than 20 million pounds of borax out of Death Valley to Daggett, 165 miles - 10 days, between 1883 and 1889. The borax weighed 24 tons. The entire weight totaled 36.5 tons. The "Old Dinah" was purchased in 1894 to replace the 20-mule teams. Old Dinah required constant maintenance and had significant problems with sand and steep grades. After a one-year trial, mules proved to be more productive and reliable. Later, a narrow-gauge railroad was established in 1898.

Mining comes and goes with fluctuating demand for minerals, but the draw of the desert is eternal. By 1890, several companies mining borax were consolidated into the Pacific Coast Borax Company. Borax mining activity had slowed in the 1920s, and the Pacific Coast Borax Company began looking for other uses for its holdings in Death Valley. The elegant Furnace Creek Inn first opened for business in 1927 with great success. In a move to preserve the frontier nature of the desert land and to attract more guests to the inn, the borax company initiated the move to protect Death Valley. It became a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994. The transition from mining to tourism proved to be the saving grace for the mining company and Death Valley. Christian B. Zabriskie (1864-1936) was vice president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company. He oversaw the operations in Death Valley during the transition from mining to tourism.

The blog on Death Valley NP will continue.