Death Valley Discovery

In 1881 borax was being mined all over the Nevada desert from Columbus Marsh to Teels Marsh to Rhodes Marsh to Fish Lake Valley. All of these places were dry lake beds where the borax was scooped off of the valley floor by Chinese laborers. Word came down from those borax fields that there was likely more places in other desert marshes. When prospector Harry Spiller met Aaron and Rosie Winters in a place called Ash Meadows the stage was set for a discovery that would make history. Though William Tell Coleman had come out to California for the Gold Rush he made his money as a businessman and distributor of goods. One of those goods was borax. When Aaron and Rosie made their borax discovery in Death Valley it was Coleman who bought the claims as he decided he'd try to go into producing borax himself. His innovative 20 Mule Team borax operation became legendary and the wagons he built were specially built for hauling through the great Mojave Desert. It took special men and mules to get the borax out of Death Valley though the route was similar to the well -worn route from the Nevada borax fields to Wadsworth, Nevada where shipments were offloaded onto the transcontinental railroad and the Central Pacific line heading for refineries in New Jersey. For Death Valley, however, the borax discovery would change the fierce and legendary Valley forever.

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Gold Creek Films
Written, Produced and Directed by Ted Faye
Nevada Humanities
Shoshone Museum
Death Valley National Park