Twenty mule team wagons used for hauling borax

Twenty mule team wagons used for hauling borax out of Death Valley, Barstow, California. Those twenty mule team Borax wagons, seen on the railway station platform at Barstow, California were used in the 1880s for hauling borax from Furnace Creek, Death Valley, 165 miles to the then nearest railway. The team was driven by a single jerk-line, 120 feet long. The journey required sixteen days, with summer temperatures as high as 140 degrees. Each wagon weighs 7800 pounds and carried a load of fifteen tons. The rear wheels are seven feet hight, each weighing 600 pounds. The tank wagon carried 1200 gallons, as there was one stretch of 60 miles without water

Barstow Borax Hauling Mule Wagons

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