20 Mules and 20,000 Pounds of Borax

April 5, 2018 12:29 PM

Have you ever seen "20 Mule Team Borax" and wondered about the origin of the name? Or are you curious about how exact reproductions of the wagons were constructed, and then pulled by the requisite mules, in the 2017 Washington D.C. 4th of July parade?

From 1883 until 1889 borax, useful in laundry soap and a multitude of other products, was hauled from mines in Death Valley to the nearest railroad via enormous wagons (total weight: 73,000 pounds) pulled by 20 mules (actually, 18 mules and 2 horses).

Engels Coach Shop in Joliet, Montana built the new wagons as exact reproductions of the originals. You can watch them being crafted in a series of videos (YouTube playlist):

1. Hub Blanks
2. Forging Standards
3. Hubs, Finish Turning
4. Mortising Hubs
5. Front Axle
6. Front Axle, Part 2
7. Forge Welding Horn & Bumper
8. Rear Axles
9. Forge Welding the Borax Brake Rod Ends
10. Boxes, Part 1
11. Box to Gear Assembly
12. 1,080 lb Wood Wheels
13. Wood Wheels Finally Roll
14. 20 Mule Team Hitched to New Borax Wagons
15. Death Valley 20 Mule Team Visits Queen Anne's County

Engels' YouTube channel is a time-sink if you enjoy watching master craftspeople ply their trade. Carpentry, steam-bending, blacksmithing, metal-working and upholstery are among the skills demonstrated.

posted by maxwelton (16 comments total)

(Of course, 20 tons of borax is 40,000 pounds. There is a reason they didn't ask me to build the wagons...)
posted by maxwelton at 12:31 PM on April 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

We drove from SF to Vegas and back for spring break and got the borax story. I feel strongly that 20 Mule Team Road should be renamed 18 Mule and 2 Morse team Road for increased accuracy.
posted by feckless at 12:48 PM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I became inexplicably enchanted with the words "20 Mule Team" when I went to Death Valley a few years ago. Didn't really know what to do with that enthusiasm. It's the "cellar door" of the desert, I guess.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 1:04 PM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

If you're ever in Boron, CA, it's worth going to the Borax museum, if only for the moment at the end of their informational video where they raise the screen and open the blinds, showing the enormous mine spreading out in front of you for what seems like miles. That and the little pieces of ulexite crystal that they give you which act kind of like natural fiber optics.
posted by zsazsa at 2:06 PM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I used to have a nice piece of borax in my mostly-lost rock and mineral collection.
posted by lagomorphius at 2:28 PM on April 5, 2018

I was actually in the laundry aisle at a supermarket yesterday debating whether to buy a box--my usual store didn't carry it so I thought I'd check another, which did. I only need a tablespoon though, I'm making cold cream using the recipe for 1947 Ponds found online. I guess I need to read up on using it when washing clothes.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:38 PM on April 5, 2018

There was a TV drama serial, Death Valley Days, sponsored by 20 Mule Team Borax (a laundry detergent), and hosted by The Old Ranger (Ronald Reagan, among others).
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:21 PM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

(from Wikipedia) Stephen Mather, son of J. W. Mather, the administrator of the company's New York office, persuaded Smith to add the name 20 Mule Team Borax to accompany the famous sketch of the mule team already on the box.

And that is the same Stephen Mather who fought for the creation of the National Park Service and who became its first director. And in every National Park there is a plaque dedicated to Stephen Mather that ends with -- " There will never come an end to the good that he has done." *



*Assuming Pruitt and Zinke are fired/run out of town before they succeed in destroying all our water, air, animals, etc. Sorry for the slight derail, please continue, it's all so fascinating!
posted by pjsky at 3:51 PM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Once F.M. "Borax" Smith made his fortune from 20 Mule Team Borax he settled in Oakland and expanded into real estate, developing the Key System which connected suburbs of the East Bay with Downtown Oakland and San Francisco via rail and ferry. His mansion was torn down, but some of the charitable housing he built for orphaned girls (The Home Club) still exists along Home place just off Park boulevard.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:54 PM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

We also have a park with three (concrete?) mules and a wagon, left over from a time when there were twenty mules and a wild west town.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:56 PM on April 5, 2018

borax is also really good for some basic animal part taxidermy...
i've used it for wings and claws. dries out and keeps insects away.
posted by danjo at 4:29 PM on April 5, 2018

oh yeah...
you better borax yo self, or mule be sorry?
posted by danjo at 4:31 PM on April 5, 2018

It's great for scrubbing the sink, tiles and the tub in the bathroom - it removes soap scum really well. I sprinkle a tablespoon or two on the sink and scrub with a wet sponge, then rinse. If the stains are tough you can mix it into a paste with castile soap or liquid dish detergent.
posted by Lycaste at 5:55 PM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's an original wagon in front of the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley. Some good old photos in the visitor center there.

And you can still travel (on dirt road) some of the old Mule Team roads out there too.

Just don't go in summer without a big hat and cool long sleeve clothing and LOTS of water....
posted by CrowGoat at 6:56 PM on April 5, 2018

I’m holding out for Old Dinah brand borax personally.
posted by q*ben at 7:17 PM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Borax is also great for making your own homemade slime.
posted by briank at 6:46 AM on April 6, 2018