California Historical Landmarks in Kern County

California Historical Landmark 652
Mojave 20-Mule Team Borax Terminus
16246 Sierra Highway (Highway 14)
Mojave

California Historical Landmark #652: Mojave 20-Mule Team Borax Terminus
California Historical Landmark #652: Mojave 20-Mule Team Borax Terminus
California Historical Landmark #652: Mojave 20-Mule Team Borax Terminus
18 June 2006
(Click Photo to Zoom)
Mojave 20-Mule-Team Borax Terminus

Just west of this point was the Southern Pacific terminus for the twenty-mule-team borax wagons that operated between Death Valley and Mojave from 1884 to 1889. The route ran from the Harmony Borax Mining Company works, later acquired by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, to the railroad loading dock in Mojave over 165 miles of mountain and desert trail. A round trip required 20 days. The ore wagons hauled a payload of twenty four tons. They were designed by J. W. S. Perry, Borax Company superintendent in Death Valley, and were built in Mojave at a cost of $300 each. New borax discoveries near Barstow ended the Mojave shipments in 1889.

California Registered Historical Landmark No. 652

Plaque Placed by the California State Park Commission in Cooperation with the Kern County Historical Society, El Tejon Parlor No. 239, Native Daughters of the Golden West, and Kern County Museum, October 19, 1958.

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