Borax Twenty Mule Team: Those of the more senior of us :sm13: may remember the Death Valley Days TV show from the mid-50's with Ronald Regan as the teamster of the 20 Mule Team in the...

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

Those of the more senior of us

may remember the Death Valley Days TV show from the mid-50's with Ronald Regan as the teamster of the 20 Mule Team in the Borax advertisements.

The Borax 20 mule team and freight wagons go back to the early 1883, and were used to haul unrefined borax across Death Valley in CA. to the rail-head at Mojave, CA, 165 miles one way that took about ten days. The mules could stand the heat and whereas horses and oxen could not; they were originally bred in the arid regions of Europe. The mules also are more sure-footed than horses due to their smaller and flatter hooves.

Originally the Borax operation had five sets of the wagons, but today only one of the originals exists at the original Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley. The last time a team had been on the east coast was for Inauguration parade of Pres. William McKinley in 1917; that was a restored original wagon train. In the late 1990s the Borax Company built two replica wagon teams. Their first public unveiling of the replica wagons was for the 2017 Rose Bowl Parade, and this year they were part of the Fourth of July parade in DC. Until last week neither no Borax team had been on the East Coast for 100 years. They were hosted here by an MD Eastern Shore farm that also raises and trains mules. The farm owners also donated the wood for the new wagons from timber growing on their land here on the Eastern Shore.

The statistics for the wagons are astounding. The new wagons are almost exact replicas of the original; each wagon box is 16 feet long by 4 feet wide, and I estimate about 6 feet deep. They each weigh about seven tons (empty) and the wheels are 8 inches wide by about 7' (front) & 8' (rear) diameter with a steel tire around the circumference to minimize wear. The wheels alone are 1000 lbs each. The complete rig consisting of the two loaded wagons and the water wagon weighed about 73,000 lbs. (36.5 tons). Two men were used to operate the rig; the driver (or teamster) drove; the second man (the swamper) rode the second wagon and manned the brakes. Just the 20 mule team stretched out for about 120 feet ahead of the wagons.

I've attached some pictures of the team and wagons. The photos have been cropped, but not otherwise edited. Because of the crowds it was impossible to get a shot of the full 20 mule team and the wagons; the last photo is the best I could do.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

That's a lot of animals to control and to feed and water! And mules aren't always even tempered. Must have taken a strong person to get them across to Mohave and a grueling run. Your images show the team well. Thanks for the background information.

Rickyb

Thanks for the fotos and the update rememberance. Those were the good old days.

StaneeRae Loc: Lincroft, NJ USA

Cool photos! You can still buy 20 Mule Team Borax. Great laundry additive for removing odors, especially if you ever have anything musty.

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

Enjoyed your photos and the history very much...great series, thanks for sharing!

phlash46 Loc: Westchester County, New York

Great story in words and pictures!

Drip Dry McFleye

Great story and photos! I can still remember the TV ads from when I was a kid!

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

suntouched wrote:

That's a lot of animals to control and to feed and water! And mules aren't always even tempered. Must have taken a strong person to get them across to Mohave and a grueling run. Your images show the team well. Thanks for the background information.

Thanks for looking, Suntouched, and I'm glad you enjoyed them. I'll post some more as I get time to review them.

That stubbornness is what I'd always been told too, but at the event they said they are quite intelligent, easily trained and good riding animals. They put on a show of basic dressage and another using the a mule, Miss Junebug, Reserve All Around World Champion Mule demonstrating a western discipline doing cutting, and reigning and western pleasure riding. I certainly agree with the water required. When I was in the Service we had 500 gal water trailers; I guess the one they had was at least twice as big, and possibly 1500 or more gallons, and it wasn't new so may have been one of the original pieces.

In the program they had a few quotes from famous people who had mule experience for example:
Quote: My favorite animal is the mule. He has more horse sense than a horse. He knows when to stop eating, and he knows when to stop working! President Harry Truman who grew up with mules in Missouri.

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

Drip Dry McFleye wrote:

Great story and photos! I can still remember the TV ads from when I was a kid!

Glad you enjoyed them Drip Dry! You and I must be of a similar era--I remember the ads, but not so much the shows' story lines.

repleo Loc: Boston

JCam wrote:

Glad you enjoyed them Drip Dry! You and I must be of a similar era--I remember the ads, but not so much the shows' story lines.

Me too!!! Didn't know Ronald Reagan was in the adds.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

JCam wrote:

Those of the more senior of us

may remember the Death Valley Days TV show from the mid-50's with Ronald Regan as the teamster of the 20 Mule Team in the Borax advertisements.

The Borax 20 mule team and freight wagons go back to the early 1883, and were used to haul unrefined borax across Death Valley in CA. to the rail-head at Mojave, CA, 165 miles one way that took about ten days. The mules could stand the heat and whereas horses and oxen could not; they were originally bred in the arid regions of Europe. The mules also are more sure-footed than horses due to their smaller and flatter hooves.

Originally the Borax operation had five sets of the wagons, but today only one of the originals exists at the original Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley. The last time a team had been on the east coast was for Inauguration parade of Pres. William McKinley in 1917; that was a restored original wagon train. In the late 1990s the Borax Company built two replica wagon teams. Their first public unveiling of the replica wagons was for the 2017 Rose Bowl Parade, and this year they were part of the Fourth of July parade in DC. Until last week neither no Borax team had been on the East Coast for 100 years. They were hosted here by an MD Eastern Shore farm that also raises and trains mules. The farm owners also donated the wood for the new wagons from timber growing on their land here on the Eastern Shore.

The statistics for the wagons are astounding. The new wagons are almost exact replicas of the original; each wagon box is 16 feet long by 4 feet wide, and I estimate about 6 feet deep. They each weigh about seven tons (empty) and the wheels are 8 inches wide by about 7' (front) & 8' (rear) diameter with a steel tire around the circumference to minimize wear. The wheels alone are 1000 lbs each. The complete rig consisting of the two loaded wagons and the water wagon weighed about 73,000 lbs. (36.5 tons). Two men were used to operate the rig; the driver (or teamster) drove; the second man (the swamper) rode the second wagon and manned the brakes. Just the 20 mule team stretched out for about 120 feet ahead of the wagons.

I've attached some pictures of the team and wagons. The photos have been cropped, but not otherwise edited. Because of the crowds it was impossible to get a shot of the full 20 mule team and the wagons; the last photo is the best I could do.

Those of the more senior of us img src="https://s... (show quote)

Actually these wagons were not made by Borax, they were built by a custom wagon builder in Joliet, Montana to the original specs and are now in the Borax museum for display in Bishop, CA.

Beowulf Loc: Aquidneck Island, RI

Full credit for the TV hosts: Death Valley Days premiered on TV in 1952 with Stanley Andrews playing the Old Ranger who hosted until 1964 (296 episodes). Ronald Reagan hosted from 1964 to 1966 (52 episodes), then Robert Taylor hosted from 1966 to 1969 (78 episodes). Finally, Dale Robertson hosted the final 26 episodes from 1969 to 1970.

The Death Valley Days episodes can currently be seen on GRIT TV afternoons on the east coast.

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

JCam wrote:

Those of the more senior of us

may remember the Death Valley Days TV show from the mid-50's with Ronald Regan as the teamster of the 20 Mule Team in the Borax advertisements.

The Borax 20 mule team and freight wagons go back to the early 1883, and were used to haul unrefined borax across Death Valley in CA. to the rail-head at Mojave, CA, 165 miles one way that took about ten days. The mules could stand the heat and whereas horses and oxen could not; they were originally bred in the arid regions of Europe. The mules also are more sure-footed than horses due to their smaller and flatter hooves.

Originally the Borax operation had five sets of the wagons, but today only one of the originals exists at the original Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley. The last time a team had been on the east coast was for Inauguration parade of Pres. William McKinley in 1917; that was a restored original wagon train. In the late 1990s the Borax Company built two replica wagon teams. Their first public unveiling of the replica wagons was for the 2017 Rose Bowl Parade, and this year they were part of the Fourth of July parade in DC. Until last week neither no Borax team had been on the East Coast for 100 years. They were hosted here by an MD Eastern Shore farm that also raises and trains mules. The farm owners also donated the wood for the new wagons from timber growing on their land here on the Eastern Shore.

The statistics for the wagons are astounding. The new wagons are almost exact replicas of the original; each wagon box is 16 feet long by 4 feet wide, and I estimate about 6 feet deep. They each weigh about seven tons (empty) and the wheels are 8 inches wide by about 7' (front) & 8' (rear) diameter with a steel tire around the circumference to minimize wear. The wheels alone are 1000 lbs each. The complete rig consisting of the two loaded wagons and the water wagon weighed about 73,000 lbs. (36.5 tons). Two men were used to operate the rig; the driver (or teamster) drove; the second man (the swamper) rode the second wagon and manned the brakes. Just the 20 mule team stretched out for about 120 feet ahead of the wagons.

I've attached some pictures of the team and wagons. The photos have been cropped, but not otherwise edited. Because of the crowds it was impossible to get a shot of the full 20 mule team and the wagons; the last photo is the best I could do.

Those of the more senior of us img src="https://s... (show quote)

Treepusher Loc: Kingston, Massachusetts

Great job on these. Remember the tv show well. Life was harder, but somehow they got it done, didn't they?

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

I remember watching the show when I was a kid, in the early '60's. Other than "Boraxo" which was a hand soap that I think sponsored the show, what is borax used for? I use it to rid the house of ants, in the spring, but there has to be a lot more uses if it was cost-effective to mine it and use this setup to haul it across the desert.