{"nrhp_refnum":"74000339","name":"Harmony Borax Works","other_names":["Hs-2"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Death Valley National Monument","address_restricted":false,"city":"Stovepipe Wells","county":"Inyo County","state":"CA","lat":35.487602001000056,"lon":-116.8747686901653,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-12-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A ruined 1880s borax processing works at the mouth of Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Monument, Inyo County, California, set up by W.T. Coleman. The nominated district covers 185 acres.","why_significant":"It was the birthplace, indirectly, of the 20-mule team symbol and a good example of a typical marsh borax operation. It also holds the best preserved remains of a borax operation within the National Park Service.","narrative":"Harmony Borax Works is a 185-acre district of ruins at the mouth of Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California. Borax was found nearby in 1881, and San Francisco businessman W.T. Coleman began production around 1883 or 1884. Chinese laborers gathered the raw cottonball ore, and local Indians and some whites collected mesquite for fuel. The processing plant included a water system fed from Texas Spring, a boiler, a furnace, dissolving tanks and many cooling vats. Crystallized borax was sacked and hauled by mule-drawn wagons to the railhead at Mojave. The works closed in 1888 when Coleman's finances collapsed, and it later became part of the borax reserves of Pacific Coast Borax Company. The site is linked to the 20-mule team image, later used by Stephen T. Mather in sales promotion. Today only parts of the furnace, boiler, tanks and two adobe structures remain, forming the best preserved borax remains within the National Park Service.","period_of_significance":"1883-1888","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Ruins, unaltered, on its original site; only part of the furnace, boiler, dissolving tanks, an adobe-walled structure and some wooden supports survive, along with parts of two adobe housing walls.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.620692-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/74000339.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000339/971094b373-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000339/971094b373-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Paul Hermans","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Furnace_Creek_Harmony_Borax_Works_8-10-2012_9-07-04.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Hermans</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Furnace_Creek_Harmony_Borax_Works_8-10-2012_9-07-04.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858826","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Borax_Works","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q129335"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/inyo-county/harmony-borax-works-74000339/"}