Borax Museum Outdoor Tour Guide

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Small Blacksmith's Forge
was used for repair and manufacture of simple and small iron items. Independent miners and homesteaders had to be able to d their own repair work due to their remote location. The accompanying power-driven blower for applying air to the forge was manufactured by the Champion blower Company.

I don't know what this is

I don't know what this is

Concord State Stagecoach
carried passengers across the Armagosa Valley east of Death Valley. The running gear was specifically modified for use in Ash Meadows. Named for its scattered ash trees, Ash Meadows is the sight of a number of perennial springs and seeps and was an ideal site for homesteaders. In 1907 Ralph Fairbanks Ash Meadows Ranch was the overnight stopping point for the Kimball Brothers stage that ran the fifty miles from the Las Vegas & Tonaopah Railroad to the booming copper camp of Greenwater.

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55 Ore Stamp Mill
was used to process gold ore at the Johnnie Mine in Nevada around 1905. This mill was probably gasoline-powered and was capable of crushing ore on a small-scale-basis. It operated in the same manner as 7. Stamp mills like this one were used across the west in single, double. and five battery units. Stamp mills were used in Europe as early as the 1500's.

56 Ore Skip
was designed to operate in an inclined shaft. I t ran on rails and was pulled upward by a cable. When it reached the top of the shaft, the rails would guide it to the ore chute where it would self-dump its load of ore. Ore cars in vertical shafts usually ran along guides, as well to prevent the car from twisting, striking the wall, or dumping some of its load while it was being hoisted.

Pack Saddle
is quite small and was probably used on a burro. The metal frame it sits upon (called pack bars) was looped over the pack saddle for carrying firewood. Large quantities of firewood were used to make charcoal in the Wild Rose Canyon kilns. Firewood was also necessary for the boilers that dissolved the borax into solution during processing at the Harmony Works.

Gold Arrastra
was introduced by Mexican miners as a means of crushing gold ore using materials readily at hand. Water power turned the central shaft and its radiating arms which were chained to large stones in the basin below. Ore that was fed into the basin was crushed by the dragging motion of the large stones. The fine ore particles were washed out of the basin by a stream of water and further processed to recover the gold. Originally, this Arrastra had a basin made of masonry with small side ports for the removal of the ore particles and water, and was used at a site in Nevada during the 1880's.

Mine Locomotive
was used in the Ryan mines around 1922. The most interesting feature of this Plymouth gasoline-powered engine is the friction clutch that operated by moving the wheel with the wooden rime sideways across the face of the larger flywheel. On one side of center, this drive would cause the locomotive to move forward, on the other side to move in reverse, and in the center to remain in neutral. The farther from the center the wheel was turned, the faster the locomotive would move.

(next) Side-Dump Ore Car
carried ore from the mine workings underground to the ore bins on the surface at Ryan. When the ore car passed over the ore bins, the latch was released and the ore spilled into the bin. In turn, the borax ore was loaded into railroad cars from the ore bins to be transported to the mill at Death Valley Junction.

(next) Conveyor
collected the ore scooped up by the mucking machine and lifted it into the ore car for transportation to the surface.

Railroad Crew Car
This was used for transporting members of section crews who did track inspection and repair on the Tonapah & Tidewater Railroad during its operation from 1904 to 1940. This was a gasoline powered model, probably used during the later years, and much more sophisticated than the hand-powered models formerly in general use.

Hand-operated Single Stamp Mill

this was used for crushing ore samples. As the hand wheel was turned, the cams lifted the vertical shaft and let it drop on the ore. Note the heavy replaceable iron show on the lower end of the vertical shaft inside the bell-shaped housing. The weight of the shoe did the crushing. This crusher operated in the same manner as the larger mechanically-powered stamp mills used extensively across the West to process hardrock ores.