Harmony Borax Works

Death Valley National Park, California, USA. The raw ore (containing ulexite, a calcium-sodium borate; a.k.a. "cottonball," from a common habit) was dissolved in hot water in these pans, and borax (a pure sodium borate) was precipitated. Sometimes soda ash (Na2CO3, sodium carbonate) was added if there wasn't enough Na in the solution already. The water would have been heated in the boiler visible at upper right. It presumably was fired by wood gathered from the forests in the Panamint Mountains on the west side of the valley.