Harmony Borax Works
San Francisco businessman William T. Coleman
built this plant in 1882 to refine the "cottonball"
borax found on the nearby salt flats. The high
cost of transportation made it necessary to
refine the borax here rather than carry both
borax and waste to the railroad, 165 miles
(265 km) across the desert.
This is how the works appeared
about 1900, twelve years after the
operation ceased.
