Eagle Borax Works

Last updated
Eagle Borax Works
EagleBoraxWorksCA.jpg
Site of the Eagle Borax Works
USA California location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationDeath Valley National Park, Furnace Creek, California
Coordinates 36°12′02.5″N116°52′01.38″W / 36.200694°N 116.8670500°W / 36.200694; -116.8670500 Coordinates: 36°12′02.5″N116°52′01.38″W / 36.200694°N 116.8670500°W / 36.200694; -116.8670500
Area54 acres (22 ha)
Built1883
NRHP reference No. 74000338 [1]
Added to NRHPDecember 31, 1974

The Eagle Borax Works in Death Valley, California was established near Bennetts Well in 1882 by Isidore Daunet, J.M. McDonald, M. Harmon and C.C. Blanch to mine the borate deposits that Daunet discovered there in 1880. The partnership established the first borax works in the valley. Partly refined borax was hauled to Daggett, California through the Panamint Valley using 12-mule teams hauling two wagons. The extraction business operated until 1884 when problems mounted and Daunet killed himself. The property eventually passed to the U.S. Borax Company, which kept it as a mining reserve, then to Borax Consolidated, Ltd. in 1922. The property was sold to the Death Valley Hotel Company in 1956, and finally to the National Park Service. [2]

Contents

Little remains of the structures but ruins. The works originally included a boiler, a tank for dissolved borax, and open tanks for crystallization of the borax. A stone building stood nearby to house the workers. The boiler fire box remains, along with an earth mound at the site of the building. [2]

Isidore Daunet

Isidore Daunet (1850–1884) was a French emigrant to the United States, who arrived at the age of ten, coming to San Francisco and becoming a prospector at the age of 13. Daunet discovered the borax deposit during a disastrous 1880 crossing of Death Valley, in which three of his companions died, and Daunet survived only by killing one of the party's animals and drinking its blood. After establishing the borax company in 1882, he fell into business trouble. His wife gave notice of her intention to divorce him, and Daunet was swindled out of $11,000. He committed suicide in May 1884. [2]

The site of the borax works was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 1974. [1] The site is within Death Valley National Park.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death Valley National Park</span> National park in California and Nevada, United States

Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, as well as the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. It contains Badwater Basin, the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and lowest in North America at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. More than 93% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment including creosote bush, Joshua tree, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the endangered Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daggett, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

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 92327 and the community is inside area code 760.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twenty-mule team</span> Historic site in Mojave, California

Twenty-mule teams were teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1889. They traveled from mines across the Mojave Desert to the nearest railroad spur, 165 miles (266 km) away in Mojave. The routes were from the Harmony and Amargosa Borax Works to Daggett, California, and later Mojave, California. After Harmony and Amargosa shut down in 1888, the mule team's route was moved to the mines at Borate, 3 miles (5 km) east of Calico, back to Daggett. There they worked from 1891 until 1898 when they were replaced by the Borate and Daggett Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Marion Smith</span> American Mining businessman

Francis Marion Smith was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Coast Borax Company</span> United States mining company founded in 1890

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death Valley Railroad</span>

The Death Valley Railroad (DVRR) was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad that operated in California's Death Valley to carry borax with the route running from Ryan, California and the mines at Lila C, both located just east of Death Valley National Park, to Death Valley Junction, a distance of approximately 20 miles (32 km).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbus, Nevada</span> Ghost town in Nevada, United States

Columbus was a borax mining boom town in Esmeralda County. Its remnants are located on the edge of the Columbus Salt Marsh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borax Lake Site</span> Archaeological site in California, United States

The Borax Lake Site, also known as the Borax Lake—Hodges Archaeological Site and designated by the Smithsonian trinomial CA-LAK-36, is a prehistoric archaeological site near Clearlake, California. The site, a deeply stratified former lakeshore, contains evidence of the earliest known period of human habitation in what is now California, dating back 12,000 years. A portion of the site, designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, is owned and preserved by the Archaeological Conservancy.

Marietta, Nevada, was a town in Mineral County, Nevada. It is now a ghost town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harmony Borax Works</span> Former borax refinery in Death Valley, California, United States

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

Reilly is a former settlement in Inyo County, California. It was located on the west side of the Panamint Valley, at an elevation of 2582 feet. Reilly was a silver mining community in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calumet Historic District</span> Historic district in Michigan, United States

The Calumet Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District that encompasses most of the village of Calumet, Michigan. The district was designated in 1989 for the community's importance in the history of the region's copper mining industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memorial Park Site</span> United States historic place

The Memorial Park Site is an archaeological site located near the confluence of Bald Eagle Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lock Haven in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Research projects conducted at the site since 1979 have found prehistoric cultural deposits that collectively span 8,000 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amargosa Opera House and Hotel</span>

Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is a historic building and cultural center located in Death Valley Junction, in eastern Inyo County, California near Death Valley National Park. Resident artist Marta Becket staged dance and mime shows there from the late 1960s until her final show in February 2012. The Death Valley Junction Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by the nonprofit established by Becket for the preservation of the property.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double Butte Cemetery</span> Historic cemetery in Maricopa County, Arizona

The Double Butte Cemetery is the official name given to a historic cemetery in Tempe, Arizona. The cemetery was founded in 1888 on the baseline of the Double Butte Mountain for which it is named. It is the final resting place of various notable pioneers of the City of Tempe. The cemetery, which is located at 2505 W. Broadway Rd., is listed in the Tempe Historic Property Register Designation #46. The pioneer section of the cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 2013, reference #13000020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mill Point Settlement Site</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Mill Point Settlement Site is a heritage-listed former settlement at Elanda Point at Lake Cootharaba in Como, Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. It was built from c. 1869 to the 1940s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 April 2005.

SS <i>Australasia</i> Defunct wooden-hulled American Great Lakes freighter

The Australasia was a wooden-hulled American Great Lakes freighter that served on the Great Lakes of North America between her construction in 1884 to her burning and sinking in 1896. On October 18, 1896, while loaded with coal, the Australasia sank in Lake Michigan near the town of Sevastopol, Door County, Wisconsin, United States, after burning off Cana Island. On July 3, 2013, the wreck of the Australasia was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potash wars (California)</span> Conflict over potash deposits in the Searles Valley of California between 1910 and 1915

The Potash wars were a series of events that took place from 1910 to 1915 in the Searles Valley near Searles Lake, a dry lake, near the current town of Trona in the San Bernardino County of California. The Potash wars gained national and international news at the time due to the involvement of famous lawman Wyatt Earp and the importance of the valley's supply of potash at the time. Potash is an important crop fertilizer and the Searles Valley was a major supplier in the 1910s.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 Holland, F. Ross (June 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Eagle Borax Works". National Park Service. Retrieved 6 November 2011.