Borax Visitor Center

Visiting the Borax Visitor Center

Start your visit to this Boron, California attraction with a 10-minute introductory film in the Center’s theater, explaining the process of borax mining, processing and distribution. Exhibitions examine just how important borates are, the minerals that are essential to the manufacture of dozens of familiar products, from detergents to fertilizers, heatproof glass to enamelware, ceramics to computer circuitry. The Borax Visitor Center also houses a gift shop featuring Borax and California souvenirs.

Exhibits

Borax at Home

Borax at Home examines the geology, manufacturing and varied uses of borax and showcases artifacts made from borax. One display within the exhibit features shelves filled with consumer goods that contain borax including: cookware, toys, personal hygiene products, home insulation and laundry detergent. Additional displays in the exhibit include a giant borax crystal in a sealed hydration unit. The specimen was found in 2001 submerged in water in an underground passage shored up with timbers, which infused the normally colorless-to-white borax with a brown tint. It is thought that the specimen formed over a period of 50 years.

Heritage Exhibit

Explore the past in the Heritage Exhibit featuring the Center’s holdings from the historical Death Valley Days TV Series. At the center of the exhibit, a display explores Ronald Reagan as a company spokesperson and show host on Death Valley Days from 1965 to 1966, while a TV monitor plays episodes of the television series. An additional display looks at the three cast members from the original Star Trek TV series who appeared on Death Valley Days.

20 Mule Team

Outside is an original 20 mule team wagon. Learn about the 20 mule teams, teams of 18 mules and two horses, attached to large wagons that ferried borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1889. After the mules retired from hauling borax in the 20th century, they became the focus of borax marketing, appearing at sales events across the country, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and the 1915 Panama Exposition in San Diego.

Shopping in the Gift Shop

Be sure to stop by the Borax Visitor Center’s Gift Shop. Minerals found in Boron and the surrounding area, mineral education materials, and borax and 20 mule team logoed gifts and keepsakes are available to purchase.

Travel Tip

- Do not forget your camera. From the spectacular views of the mine the Visitor Center offers to the original 20 mule team wagon, there will be exciting photo opportunities you will not want to miss.