Early day today--Answer
Tom got the man right, and by extension pretty much the trivia question for the day. John had me going with the desert, but veered off with the beer. From my early television experience one of the first shows I remember was �Death Valley Days� with the Old Ranger (Stanley Andrews).
The Borax twenty mule team is one of the most memorable icons of the American West.
California Borax, �discovered� by Daunet (a story), and later Aaron and Rosie Winters, true desert rats (a different story), and sponsored by William �Old Vigilante� Coleman (which is a terrific story in itself) and later by William �Borax� Smith (yet another). Both men are credited with starting the borax rush that swept the California/Nevada desert in the late 19th Century. Smith founded the Pacific Coast Borax Company, predecessor to U.S. Borax.
The borax load had to be hauled 165 miles up and out of Death Valley, over the steep Panamint Mountains and across the desert to the nearest railroad junction at Mojave. The 20-day round trip traveled from 190 feet below sea level and climbed to an elevation of 2,000 feet, some on narrow mountain trails coming and going before it was over. A different wagon train started out every four days.
Built in Mojave for $900 each, the wagons' design balanced strength and capacity to carry the heavy load of borax ore. Each wood oak wagon was to carry ten tons � about one-tenth the capacity of a modern railroad freight car. But instead of rolling on steel rails over a smooth roadbed, these wagons had to grind through 6� high salt pillars (Chinese laborers used sledge hammers to knock some of them down), sand, and gravel and hold together up and down steep mountain grades. Iron tires � eight inches wide and one inch thick � encased the seven-foot-high rear wheels and five-foot front wheels. The split oak spokes measured five and one-half inches wide at the hub. Solid steel bars, three and one-half inches square, acted as the axle-trees. The wagon beds were 16 feet long, four feet wide and six feet deep. Empty, each wagon weighed 7,800 pounds. Two loaded wagons plus the iron water tank (wood tanks fell apart when in the dry air and empty) made a total load of 73,200 pounds or 36 1/2 tons.
Swinging the team around a curve in a mountain pass tested both driver and team: one mistake could spell death for all. As the team started around a sharp curve, the chain tended to be pulled into a straight line between the lead mules and the wagon. To keep the chain going around the curve and not pull the team straight over the edge, some of the mules were ordered to leap the chain and pull at an angle away from the curve. These mules � the pointers, sixes and eights � would step along sideways until the corner had been turned. Swinging a curve successfully was a demonstration of training and teamwork. Stoppingthe trains wagons was the hard part when loaded and downgrade as if the brakes failed there was no relief for the rear mules (wheelers) and the possibility of a cascading disaster was real. In all that time never a man or mule was lost. These muleskinners and swampers (and mules) were good. Did two wagons going in opposite directions ever have to pass one another while on the mountain trails I wonder?
Borates today for wood use is as a flame retardant, mold deterent, insect repellent, furtilizer. It is also used as a flux, in ceramics, as a cleaner, eye wash, mouth wash, heat resistant cookware, film, and nuclear control rods.
"Twenty mule team" will get you information. Kenneth Alexander �Death Valley U.S.A.� will get other information. Death Valley National Park takes time to discover and care must be taken, but if you can stand heat,dust,and flies, and pay for the gas, it is a wish list gem. Good summary for today: www.desertusa.com/mag05/jul/borax.html
Without a map. Here�s a quick question. Where is Death Valley? Is Death Valley closer to: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Las Vegas? In what direction is it from those cities? It sprawls across 3.4 million acres, pretty close to 150 miles long, making Death Valley the largest national park in the contiguous United States, almost five times larger than its glamorous California neighbor, Yosemite.
Answer: Los Angeles, 173 miles, North; San Francisco, 303 miles, South east; San Diego, 251 miles, North; Las Vegas, 111 miles West.
Have a good holiday everyone. I�ll be absent next Monday on travel (airline cutbacks (huge fares) and all that) I�ll catch up next week on a day when no one posts.