"Mojave" Music Video Ft 20 Mule Team

From 1883-1888 giant wagons pulled by teams of 20 mules (or sometimes 18 mules and 2 horses) hauled the mineral borax from the heart of Death Valley to the railhead at Mojave 165 miles away. While they weren't famous during their time in Death Valley, a young Stephen Mather working for Pacific Coast Borax in New York came up with a great marketing scheme to sell soap in 1891. What if the soap product made from borax was associated with the 20 mule teams hauling borax out of Death Valley? A brand was born: 20 Mule Team Borax. And even though borax mining in Death Valley had ended years earlier the company knew the fame and notoriety of the Valley would help sell soap. Over the years through radio and television the program "Death Valley Days" would forever link 20 Mule Teams, Borax and Death Valley in the popular imagination.

Ken Graydon's song "Mojave" celebrates the original 165 mile, 10 day trip from Death Valley to Mojave. Only two men worked the wagons and mules taking the borax to the railroad. Each wagon carried 11 tons with a 1200 gallon water tank sometimes carried along. The outfit fully loaded weighed 73,000 pounds or 36.5 tons. The driver of the team was called a teamster and the assistant who worked the brakes on the rear wagon was called a swamper. The company often bragged that not a wagon or mule was lost. The same couldn't be said of teamsters and swampers but those stories are for another time!

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Gold Creek Films
Written, Produced and Directed by Ted Faye
US Borax