Death Valley, California

The famous 20 Mule Team hauled borax ore from near Furnace Creek to the railhead at Mojave, California.
The product is still marketed as 20 Mule Team Borax--Boraxo.

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The old Harmony Borax Works' boiler. All that remains of this plant established in 1883 by William T. Coleman. It is near the site where Aaron Winters first found borax chrystals two years earlier.

It is now within the State Park and there is a fine state-run museum, not far, on the way towards the Furnace Creek Ranch. Furnace Creek Ranch in Death valley is the most visited site in America by foreign tourists. More foreigners go to Death Valley than to Washington, D.C.

The radio program, Death Valley Days, with the "Old Ranger" were sponsored by the Boraxo Company, makers of "Twenty Mule Team Boraxo".
This was our favorite radio program in the 40's.
It, later, became a TV series with Ronald Reagan, as the replacement for the "Old Ranger", Stanley Andrews.
Andrews was the perennial Old Ranger until 1965, when the future California Governor and, later, U.S.President took over. The TV series ran some 600 half hour episodes, from 1952 to 1975. Many Californians believe it made Reagan a shoe-in for the Governorship of the State.

The stories told many of the real life dramas of the early days of Death Valley. Many touched on Death Valley Scotty, who was a famous denizen of the Valley.

Scotty's "castle" in the northern part of the Valley, not for from Beatty, NV, is an awesome example--exhibition-- of Depression era wealth.
Scotty was rumored to have a fabulous gold cache somewhere in the Valley. He ran a-foul of the IRS and during his trial, copped a plea, with a story that the money was from a friend of his in the insurance business, Chicago millionaire, Albert M. Johnson.
Death Valley history buffs know that Scotty didn't meet Johnson, until after Scotty had rented the Southern Pacific train, for the record-setting run to Chicago in the late twenties.

He paid for that rental, in Los Angeles, with raw gold in sacks.

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