Eagle Borax Works

Eagle Borax Works is the ruin of the earliest borax plant in Death Valley, set near Bennetts Well in what is now Death Valley National Monument. Isidore Daunet, a French-born prospector who noticed borate deposits after a near-fatal summer crossing in 1880, formed a partnership in 1882 and brought in equipment, using water from a nearby spring. The plant heated water in a furnace and boiler, dissolved the borax in a tank and crystallized it in vats. Output was hauled by wagon to the railhead at Daggett; by the end of 1883 the partners had shipped 260,000 pounds. Work stopped in summer, when heat prevented crystallization. After Daunet's death in 1884 the business folded, and the land later passed to U.S. Borax, Borax Consolidated, and eventually the National Park Service. Today only the furnace fire box and earth mounds remain, with tamarisks overtaking native vegetation. The site is valued as a typical marsh-type operation and an interpretive opportunity.