The Borax Museum at Furnace Creek

2008-03-21. On our last day in Death Valley, we had breakfast at Furnace Creek. "Old Dinah", a steam tractor, and some of the ore wagons she pulled, stood outside the compound housing a motel, restaurant, shops and the Borax Museum. The building housing the Borax Museum was constructed in 1883 by F.M. "Borax" Smith, founder of the Pacific Coast Borax Co. The oldest house in Death Valley, it stood originally inTwenty Mule Team Canyon where it was office, bunk house and ore-checking station for miners at the Monte Blanco deposits. The equipment surrounding the building was used during the mining and farming periods of Death Valley and the Furnace Creek Ranch.
One the most interesting exhibits in the museum's yard is the Baldwin locomotive used to haul ore from Ryan to the Tonopah and Tidewater railroad at Death Valley Junction.
Other photos of equipment and vehicles in the Borax Museum yard are in my flickr set: 2007-03-Trip - Death Valley - Furnace Creek