Exploring Death Valley
Friday began at the Harmony Borax Works. Remember the old TV series, "Death Valley Days" (1952-1970)? Well, this is where it originated (sort of). According to the National Park Service website:
After borax was found near Furnace Creek Ranch (then called Greenland) in 1881, William T. Coleman built the Harmony plant and began to process ore in late 1883 or early 1884. When in full operation, the Harmony Borax Works employed 40 men, who produced three tons of borax daily. What little evidence remains indicates that the bulk of this labor force was composed of Chinese workers. The Chinese laborers gathered the impure chunks of mineral from the valley floor and loaded them into one-horse carts for transport to the borax plant.
Getting the finished product to market from the heart of Death Valley was a difficult task, and an efficient method had to be devised. The Harmony operation became famous through the use of large mule teams and double wagons which hauled borax the long overland route to Mojave.
There wasn't a lot to see here, other than the vastness, just a few foundations, a couple of small cabin remains where the workers would have lived, and the preserved wagon with boiler (which would have held water for drinking). It's hard to imagine how anyone could have lived in this setting, even the mules.
After walking around the area, we headed back to the reliable Jeep and proceeded in the opposite direction, toward Badwater Basin.
As we were driving towards Badwater Basin, we passed several interesting areas. The first was Gold Canyon Trailhead,with brilliantly colored rock walls leading to an area called Red Cathedral, a 3-mile out-and-back trip. We lasted about 15 minutes in the heat! It was truly brutal.
So we got back in the car and continued the drive, past the colorful hills of the Artist's Palette.
