Eagle Borax Works | |
Location | Death Valley National Park, Furnace Creek, California |
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Coordinates | 36°12′02.5″N116°52′01.38″W / 36.200694°N 116.8670500°W |
Area | 54 acres (22 ha) |
Built | 1883 |
NRHP reference No. | 74000338 [1] |
Added to NRHP | December 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]
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 (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.
Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States 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.
Daggett is an unincorporated town located in San Bernardino County, California, in the United States. The town is located on Interstate 40, ten miles (16 km) east of Barstow, at an elevation of approximately 2,000 feet (610 m). The town has a population of about 200. The ZIP code is 92327 and the community is inside area code 760.
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Francis Marion Smith was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California. He was known nationally and internationally as "Borax Smith" and "The Borax King", as his company produced the popular 20-Mule-Team Borax brand of household cleaner.
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