The Borax twenty mule team is one of the most memorable icons of the American West, and of the pioneers who transformed its mineral wealth into a foundation of modern industry throughout the world.

For five years, between 1883 and 1888, they hauled loads of borax from Death Valley to Mojave, California. But the story didn’t end there. They were destined to become an American icon as the trademark of the Pacific Coast Borax Company (and later the United States Borax Company). They were made famous as the namesake of a laundry product that has been sold since 1891 and can still be purchased today.

Documentary film producer Ted Faye shared the story of Death Valley’s Twenty Mule Team with the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society last month, which included a screening of his movie, “The Twenty Mule Team of Death Valley.” A part of that story includes a discussion of the local history of the Sterling Borax Mine of Tick Canyon, which is on the northeast edge of Canyon Country. The 100-foot-long, twenty-mule team hauled borax 165 miles up and out of Death Valley, over the Panamint Mountains and across the desert to the nearest railroad junction at Mojave. Railroads that were a big part of that process ran through what was called Lang and Soledad, now called Canyon Country.

Faye’s research shows that much information out of the West at the turn of the 20th century was exaggerated in newspapers, dime novels and the newly-invented cinema. Most of what people knew of the West was invented by easterners who had never been there. And perhaps no place fell victim to such misinformation as did the valley named “Death.”

In 1896 the Baltimore Independent declared: “The deadliest occupation for men or horses is teaming in the boraxfields of Death Valley. ... Forty to sixty horses are often hitched to one of the lumbering vehicles in which the borax is slowly dragged across the sun-baked alkali plains. The average life of even the sturdiest horses used in this work is six months, for in this length of time they either become broken-winded ... or are driven crazy by the frightful heat.”

According to Faye, during this time not a single animal was lost nor did a single wagon break down.

The few details we have of the Death Valley trail are from Ed Stiles, who hauled on the Daggett route. Stiles, who lived on until the 1940s, recalled that the journey from the Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley would begin at sunrise. By noon, they would stop and feed the mules and water them as they stood in their harnesses. The trip would continue until sunset when the team would have traveled about 17 miles. Sometimes the team traveled at night or early morning to avoid the worst of the daytime heat, as Stiles recalls:

“One of my big chores was to keep a close watch on 80 hoofs. When any of them needed attention, we turned out at one o’clock in the morning and got an early start. Then, after we had covered our distance for that day, I still had three or four hours of daylight left to do some shoeing.”

A teamster would haul out of Mojave, California with food and supplies which were dropped off at camps along the desert route. The team would then arrive at Harmony in the middle of Death Valley, turn around and haul a load of borax back to Mojave. By 3:00 p.m. on the 20th day, the team would have completed a round trip journey to a remarkably precise timetable.

Five teams hauled on this schedule for five years. Far from a wild and woolly ride, the journey of the twenty mule teams, though challenging at times, was a technological achievement designed to address the needs of industry. The men who drove the teams were not heroes of epic proportions, but everyday heroes who made the wheels of wagons, trucks and commerce turn smoothly and efficiently.