From mining to marvel
The making of a national park
Death Valley is an intense landscape. In the summer, visitors face unbearable heat and suffocating dry air. Sand dunes stretch on endlessly. Towering peaks frame the park’s perimeter. At night, the desert sky is brimming with stars. Amidst these extremes is a place of interminable beauty that has been held in reverence by many people throughout our company’s history.
Badwater Basin is now at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level and is still the lowest point in North America. The oldest rocks are at least 1.7 billion years old.
Stephen Mather and the start of an advertising legend
In 1893, our founder, F.M. Smith, brought on a young Stephen Mather as advertising and promotion manager for the Pacific Coast Borax Company—what would eventually become U.S. Borax.
Mather was a brilliant salesman who saw enormous, untapped potential in the borax market. He persuaded Smith to open a Chicago office, where he created what would become the iconic 20 Mule Team® trademark and launched us into the world of mass marketing.
Under Mather’s marketing prowess, profits at Pacific Coast Borax skyrocketed. But after a while, he had more than mining on his mind. The successful businessman turned his sights to nature conservation.
Creating the National Park Service
Mather pitched the idea of creating a National Park Service (NPS) to then-Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane, and in 1916 it became a reality. Mather left the mining industry and from 1917 to 1929, served as its first director, co-running the agency with Assistant Director Horace Albright.
“Stephen Mather is singlehandedly the most important person behind the agency. A lot of what the national parks are today, and the agency’s purpose, is aligned with what he set up in 1916.”
Abby Wines, management assistant at Death Valley National Park
Death Valley becomes a national monument
Company leaders wanted to magnify Death Valley’s appeal and make it a tourist destination. They wanted a national park designation for Death Valley, and hoped our history with Mather would prove fruitful.
In January 1927, they met with Mather and Albright. Citing a conflict of interest, Mather was hesitant to move forward. After he retired, Albright took over as director of the NPS. In 1933, we donated land to the U.S. government, and Albright made Death Valley a national monument.
Throughout his tenure, Mather emphasized the need to protect, promote, and develop the parks, and encouraged private investment to attract tourists.
“Mather’s philosophy that we need visitors, or constituents, to protect the future of the NPS is key. Our mission is a balance between visitor enjoyment, and learning and preservation for the future. Without visitors, we won’t have the support we need to continue our mission of preservation. Without preservation, future visitors will not have these amazing landscapes to visit and love.”
Mike Reynolds, Superintendent, Death Valley National Park
Building on the legacy
Later U.S. Borax leaders worked with NPS to transfer some of our land and water rights to the government. After more collaboration, Death Valley National Park was born. In 1994, Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act, which added more than 2,000 square miles and transferred the management of the area to the NPS.
Death Valley National Park is the homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone.
The Act gained necessary momentum from the growing awareness of the fragility of desert ecosystems and a need to responsibly manage the land.
“Especially in Death Valley, we want to protect the land so future generations can enjoy it. When we do work there, we do our best to make it look like we were never on the property so it maintains its natural character.”
Nathan Francis, land manager at U.S. Borax
The work continues
2010: We donated more land to the park
2013: U.S. Borax gave the mining ghost town site of Ryan, California, to the Death Valley Conservancy
April 2015: Rio Tinto, our parent company, donated $50,000 to produce a documentary series on the park as part of the NPS’s centennial anniversary
October 2015: We paid for flood damage repair to 20 Mule Team Canyon Road
We are proud of the legacy we helped establish. We continue to build upon our responsible land stewardship and sustainable development practices in the spirit of this one-of-a-kind park.
“Through the company’s history, there will always be a connection back to the pioneering spirit of people who opened up the American West. We stand on the shoulders of giants.”
Preston Chiaro, former CEO, U.S. Borax, and president of Death Valley Conservancy