Death Valley Days

[W. Gray]

Another of the good 1950s TV programs was Death Valley Days. The Old Ranger was the emcee to begin with and then Ronald Reagan took over when his movie career sputtered. I think Dale Robertson was the last emcee.

The sole sponsor of the program was the Twenty Mule Team Borax laundry and cleaning product. The subject of some of the programs was the twenty-mule teams pulling borax freight wagons out of Death Valley. However, this was somewhat of a misnomer since the actual 1880s teams had only eighteen mules. Two of the pullers were draft horses. The draft horses were the rear most animals and were somehow supposed to provide the bulk of the pulling power to get the load rolling so the mules could take over the heavy pulling.

In the twenty-mule team era, these teams were only used over a five-year period until the railroad "came to town."

At the time, borax was a valuable mineral found only in the United States and China. Since then, deposits in Turkey and South America have been found.

Behind the twenty-mule team were two mineral hauling wagons and a huge 500-gallon rolling iron tank serving as a water wagon. The animals had to pull their 37-ton gross load from 200 feet below sea level to 2,000 feet above sea level over a distance of 170 miles.

Only two men were assigned to each train and they were some of the highest paid in the Union making $120 monthly.

The oak ore wagons were some of the largest ever constructed weighing four tons each and capable of carrying ten tons. They cost a mind boggling $900 per. The wagons had thick steel bar axles and the seven-foot and five-foot oak wheels had iron tires that were eight inches wide and one inch thick.

The teamster driving the team used only a single rope snaking through a ring on each of the left hand animals' harnesses to the left lead mule. The teamster jerked on the rope to send a signal to that mule, who would interpret the pull as a stop, go, left, or right.

The lead wagon had a tongue between the two horses. A chain attached to the lead wagon went between all the animals to the lead mules. Each mule was hooked to the chain. The mules could pull the wagons around a ninety-degree turn by jumping over the chain and walking sideways around their portion of the turn. That maneuver kept the wagon going straight into the turn even when the mules further ahead were going in another direction.

In the heat of Death Valley, there was never a mule lost. No wagon was lost. Somehow, I cannot imagine a runaway team. Only two men working on the trains died. One was killed during a robbery and someone got irate at another, killing him.

A couple years ago, we drove the 140-mile length of Death Valley, twice, and saw one of the three-wagons consist, without the mules, parked at the old borax mine. It was mid-October, the temperature was 96, and there was not a soul around.

[Diane Amberg]

That is fascinating. I remember the show and seeing the borax teams, but I didn't know much else.