Sterling Borax Mine
Looking south down Tick Canyon at the Sterling Borax Mine, c. 1914-1918, from "The Story of the Sterling Borax Company", by A.B. Perkins, Part II, Newhall Signal, October 12, 1961
The story of the Sterling Borax Company is a little more complicated then the standard "Shepherd and Ebbenger sold their claim to Thorkildsen and Mather". In fact, they didn't sell their claim to Thorkildsen and Mather. And their names are Henry C. Shepard and Lewis Ebinger. At least those are the names used on their mining claims in Los Angeles County Recorder's Office records.
The main source for the following short account is "Lang The Sterling Borax Company" by Ruth Woodman. The other sources are "The Tincal Trail - A History of Borax" by N.J. Travis and E.J. Cocks, "Happenings" by W.P. Bartlett, and the Los Angeles Times of November 17, 1907. Travis and Cocks used the archives of the US Borax Company as their source. Bartlett's source was William Washington ("Wash") Cahill of the Pacific Coast Borax Company (owned by Francis Marion "Borax" Smith). The source for LA Times story was Henry Blumenberg, manager of the American Borax Company (owned by E.L. Dawes and W.A. Myler).
In August of 1907, prospectors Shepard and Ebinger (although no story actually mentions Ebinger, his name is on the recorded mining claims) were working a gold mine in the upper reaches of Tick Canyon about 12 miles northeast of Newhall, California, north of Lang Station. Below the mine (to the south), they found some white crystals and sent samples to chemist Henry Blumenberg (American Borax Company), to Wash Cahill (Pacific Coast Borax Company), and to the Stauffer Chemical Company (a refiner of borax and owner of the Frazier Mountain colemanite deposits). Due to the number of worthless samples being sent by miners, the samples were ignored by all three. It took Blumenberg four days before he decided to look at his sample, the first of the three. He immediately recognized the best colemanite (a calcium borate mineral and ore of borax named after William Coleman owner of the Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley) he had ever seen.
Blumenberg jumped on the next train to Los Angeles in hopes of beating out the others. At the station, he met "Wash" Cahill who had not yet looked at his sample and was actually travelling with his family. Panicking, and missing the train to Lang, Blumenberg found a driver to take him directly to the claim by car.
Blumenberg got there first and bought out Shepard and Ebinger. Lode claims were staked out. Lode claims include veins or lodes having well-defined boundaries, which is what this deposit had. However, by congressional acts and judicial interpretations, many nonmetallic layered deposits, like borax, are also considered placer deposits. Placer claims include deposits of unconsolidated materials, like sand and gravel, containing free minerals.
In "The Mineral Resources of the United States for the Calendar Year 1906" for Los Angeles County:
"Another deposit of importance found since the close of 1906 is that acquired by Mr. Henry Blumenberg, of the American Borax Company, near Lang, in the Soledad canyon, Los Angeles County. It is a vein of colemanite about 10 feet thick near the surface, but sufficient development has not been made on the property to prove its exact extent. The deposit is near a railroad line."
In the Los Angeles Evening Express of September 9, 1907, Blumenberg said that "such good prospects for a practically unlimited deposit of borax have been uncovered by his people that the price of the price of that commodity must inevitable go down. Only forty-two miles from Los Angeles, and only five miles from the Southern Pacific railroad we have surface out-croppings traceable for more than 5,000 feet, and already development work has been begun."
In Ebinger's biography from 1915, it says:
"In addition he developed a borax mine at Lang's Station which he sold to the Stallings [Sterling] Borax Company. The mine produces an average of two hundred tons daily and runs as high as sixty-eight per cent. It is the intention of Mr. Ebinger to ultimately develop other borax property which he still owns."
Thomas Thorkildsen (of the Thorkildsen & Mather Company, a disgruntled ex-employee of "Borax" Smith) also happened to be in Los Angeles and read about the new colemanite discovery from the Los Angeles Times article. He visited the claim and discovered earlier placer claims of two other prospectors named Cook and Hopkins. Blumenberg had overlooked these claims. Thorkildsen then bought Cook and Hopkins claims. Now there was a cloud over Blumenberg's lode claims.
This story is confirmed in a 1914 memorandum from the U.S. Borax Borax Collection (Catalog Number DEVA 53644, National Park Service, Death Valley National Park):
"July 2nd, 1914.
Memorandum,
The mines belonging to the Sterling Borax Co. situated at Lang, were first taken up as placer claims. After colemanite was discovered, they were taken up by other parties [Ebinger & Shepard] as lode claims. These lode claims were sold to Henry Blumenberg, representing Dawes & Myler of Pittsburg, who were the owners of the American Borax Co. at Daggett. Thorkildsen afterwards bought the placer rights from the original locators and claimed that he owned the colemanite deposits through this placer location. Each side had their own lawyers and had several conferences, and each threatened the other with a law suit. They were both afraid to take the case to court, as each side was afraid the other side would win. Therefore, both Thorkildsen and Dawes & Myler compromised and formed a new company called the Sterling Boras Co. which comprised the mines at Lang and the mines in Ventura County, which were owned by the Stauffer Chemical Co."
On January 15, 1908, the Sterling Borax Company was formed. Incorporation papers were filed on February 17, 1908 in Nevada and incorporation happened on October 12, 1908. The ownership was 40% for Stauffer Chemical Company (a refiner of borax used by Thorkildsen and owner of the Frazier Mountain colemanite deposits), 40% for the American Borax Company (Dawes & Myler and Blumenberg), and 20% for the Thorkildsen & Mather Company (Thomas Thorkildsen and Steve Mather). The Pacific Coast Borax Company of "Borax" Smith had missed out. In fact, if Blumenberg had keep quiet and not talked to the Los Angeles Times, Thorkildsen probably would not have heard about the discovery until it was too late.
Thorkildsen was elected president and general manager in charge of the mine. In October of 1908, Dawes & Myler sold their 40% interest to Thorkildsen and Mather, giving them a 60% ownership. Sterling Borax had become a serious threat to Smith's larger Pacific Coast Borax Company, the U.S. division of Borax Consolidated, Limited, which was also owned by Smith.
In late 1909 and maybe into early 1910, the narrow gauge railroad from Lang station to the mine was constructed.
By 1910, output reached 12,500 tons a year of colemanite, which represented 30% of the American borax market. An active mining camp, called Sterling, grew up beneath the mine in Tick Canyon with as many as a hundred miners at its peak.
The borax market dropped in 1910, and at the end of 1911 both Stauffer Chemical and Thorkildsen & Mather sold out to Borax Consolidated (Smith). Thorkildsen remained the president of Sterling Borax, which remained a company.
From the Needles (California) Desert Star of August 3, 1915: "Two grades of ore are mined and are roasted to remove impurities. On calcination the colemanite content of the ore is dehydrated and becomes a fine powder."
The Newhall Signal of February 7, 1919, reported that there are "working full time, three sets of miners working eight hours each, consequently the mine never stops working. Forty-five men are now employed and the town has an air of industry. The men are all loyal and devoted to their Superintendent, Mr. Stewart. They all look prosperous and contented."
The Sterling Borax Company remained as a company until 1920, when it was disincorporated by Borax Consolidated. Meanwhile, better borax sources were being discovered elsewhere and the ore was giving out. The last year of actual production was reported to be 1921.
The Newhall Signal of September 1, 1922, reported that the "Pacific Borax Co., is moving its entire Sterling outfit to Death Valley." However, on December 29, 1922, the Signal said that "What is proving to be one of the biggest and most substantial Christmax gifts to the community is the re-opening of the Pacific Coast Borax Mine at Sterling. Much of the machinery at the mine has been torn down and removed to Death Valley, as at present it is not needed here, for the ore will be shipped mostly in its raw state." Signal, February 23, 1923: The water pumps (water tended to flood the mine) "have been sent back to Sterling, and they will again be installed upon arrival." Signal, March 9, 1923: "The electric pumps are installed and in operation at the Pacific Coast Borax Mine. Work at the is progressing nicely." Signal, March 30, 1923: "The prospect for Sterling is very bright, and no doubt before many moons there will be a number of improvements made."
Finally, on October 26, 1923, the Signal reported that:
"it was decided to close down the plant operating at Sterling, and centralize their [Pacific Coast Borax] energies at the Death Valley mine. Once before this wonderful producing mine shut down, and operations ceased for a period extending over a year. It is to be hoped that the management will change their mind, as all great men do, and reconsider their plans, for it is an acknowledged fact, that the plant at Sterling produces the highest grade borax in the world, and can be operated with less expense than their plant at Death Valley. Then why, we wonder, that they dismantle such working possibility, and money maker, and carry on the work in such a remote district as Death Valley? Some things are hard to fathom, unless it is some person or persons' benefit individually by the change. In the first place such a benefieient enterprise as the Pacific Coast Borax plant at Sterling, where it employs many men, should not be allowed to discontinue, after being turned over to an English syndicate, but continue the work, and thus enable men and their families to earn a livelihood, and create a stabilty in the immediate neighborhood. It is not as though the lack of ore or grade demanded the change, for it is still of the highest class and enough blocked out and almost in sight, to run a life time or longer."
The Signal of September 3, 1925: "Owing to the pulling of a switch, the electricity was shut off at the Borax Mine last Friday, presumably for all time. Coal oil lamps now supply the needed light." Signal of February 18, 1926: "O.T. Hayhurst, the last man to leave Sterling, that is employed by the Pacific Coast Borax Co., moved his household effects last Wednesday and shipped to Ryan [near Death Valley]."
In 1926, the plant was dismantled (Ver Planck, 1956). The Signal of March 11, 1926, dramatically reported:
The workers who have been razing the Borax plant at Sterling have completed their job and moved out last week. Even the 'Dinky' engine that labored long, but not how well, took its last ride down the canyon and loaded on an S.P. car, and 'billed out.' So ends the chapter of the once prosperous Sterling Borax Co., that later was bought and owned by a Foreign syndicate, changing its proud name to Pacific Coast Borax Co., whose operators, when under control, choose to shut down a plant that was rich with the 'white dust,' perhaps the richest in the world, thus depriving hundreds of men of the work upon which was necessary for the very existence of life. Every thing is all gone now, at least for Sterling. Nothing left but water filled tunnels, piles of clinkers that were taken from the red hot furnaces, railless and tieless road beds, shrubs and trees that are leafless caused by the killing dust of the borax, houseless foundations, in fact everything is gone that is worth while."
Total production for the life of the mine was estimated at 100,000 tons at a value of $3 million (Gay and Hoffman, 1954).
In 1956, Pacific Coast Borax merged with US Potash to become US Borax & Chemical Co. In 1968, Rio Tinto acquired US Borax & Chemical, US Borax becoming a subsidiary. In 2006, US Borax sold the land containing the Sterling Borax mine to developer Monterey Homes LLC. Their planned development never happened. In February of 2022, the City of Santa Clarita received $1 million in grant funding for the future purchase of what will apparently be called the Borax Mine Open Space. However, it is now 2025 and I don't think that the city has purchased the land yet.