As a kid I watched westerns on the television in black and white. And at least one of those shows, maybe more was sponsored by 20 Mule Team Borax. I am not too sure if I ever knew what borax was or where it came from but I knew it took 20 mules to get it. I even built a plastic model of a team pulling a couple of wagons. In Death Valley National Park all that comes together for it was here that it was mined and, indeed, the heavy wagons were pulled miles by teams of mules out of the valley. Today’s photo is of a wagon set up that would require the strength of 20 mules to drag the borax to the nearest railroads. Plus a lot of water. Note the iron banded wheels and the number and size of the spokes. One of the very neat things we did at Death Valley was drive about 2 or 3 miles on an old road used by the mule teams to scale the mountains surrounding the valley.
