This place truly exceeded my expectations. It is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The Mojave has lots of places that fit that description. So when I made the drive to the visitor center I was blown away by the nice, friendly, informative setup. There is a large parking area right next to the 24/7 operating borax strip mine. It has a really nice visitor center with museum style exhibits, photos, historical information, and a theater which shows an educational film. There are friendly, knowledgeable volunteers and a nice little gift shop with lots of free pamphlets too. The top of the visitor center is a large observation deck from which you can view the huge operation. Nice photo ops here. Not a short drive but really glad I came. read more

This is a very interesting spot especially if you're a Baby Boomer. Remember Borax and the 20 mule team from the Death Valley t.v. show? This working Borax mine is located near Boron, CA. We dropped in on the way home after a Vegas getaway. There's a huge overlook of the pit where mining operations are ongoing 365 days a year 24x7. We walked around taking pictures. Then went inside the visitor center where we were greeted by Jim a volunteer. He suggested we watch a 15 minute video which we agreed to. Afterwards Jim continued answering any questions we had. He's a retired employee hired in 1962. He had plenty of knowledge of the mine which started underground but now is a humongous pit. Located in the parking lot is an original 20 Mule team wagon set that was used in Death Valley hauling borax out. Very neat. The visitor center has a gift shop and restrooms are located outside. Before we got out of the car I suggested to hubby we spend no more than 10-15 minutes but we actually spent 80 minutes total time. If time permits on your road-trip, swing by. read more

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This was a fun little place to stop. Our kids really enjoyed it too. Worth a visit if you're in the area.

Very professional and nice. Just enough to enjoy but not too much to be bored. Steven greeted us and answered all our questions. He was polite and professional. I was prepared for the approximately one mile dirt road to the top. Very well maintained and any car could do it. read more

This place is an awesome stop if your coming through the area it's a great educational place to learn about this long running borax mine and the look down into the mine from the visitor center is pretty awesome. The HUGE dump trucks look like little toys down there and then they have one right there in front of you and you realize just how massive they are! Jim in the visitor center is a retired employee and was very informative and answered our questions and was full of information. The staff is super friendly and we were so happy we came up to see this place! read more

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Cool that the company that operates the mine (Rio Tinto) decided to put a visitor center for travelers to stop and learn about operations and how boron is processed and its usages in our everyday lives. Education is a powerful tool, so I quite approve. The museum isn't very big but there's some cool photographs, diagrams, and models to check out. The fella inside was a former worker at the mine so he was very knowledgeable and eager to share. You can watch a 15-minute video to learn more too, as well as walk on top to gaze down at the open-pit mine and refinery. Since it's on top of a big pile, you'll get a good view. Additionally there's a gift shop with some fun trinkets and knickknacks. Toilets are outside but clean. Sit in the massive tire for a fun photo op! The drive up is on a well-packed dirt road. Drive safely! read more

US Borax Visitor Center - View from the top! - Visitor Centers Near Me - Boron, California

Why visit the Borax Visitor Center? Why not? First of all, it's free. Second of all, don't you want to know where that weird stuff your mother used to put in the laundry comes from? Third of all, you might actually learn something about local history, laundry additivies, chemistry, geology, environmental impact of industry, and mule trains. Plus Erin Brockovich movie locations. Lastly, every guest also receives free samples of Colemanite, Ulexite, Kernite and, of course, Borax. Plus, you get an awesome view of the Borax extraction process from the roof of the Visitor Center. Definitly a photo opp! read more

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Borax is a company who mines, processes, and distributes borates. They are best known for selling the borate called borax in particular. The Rio Tinto Borax Mine Visitor Center is a good place to learn things about this mine and borax. Borax can be found all over your home, from soaps to fiberglass, from play dough to laundry detergent, and so much more. Borates are collected at this mine and not only a few but almost half of the supply in the world. This is also California's largest open pit mine which has consistently been getting larger since the 1920s. Having supported the local community with employment and offering the entire world their supplies. A place that everyone should see at least once in their life if they live near it or are passing by. read more

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We'll worth a stop! Took about an hour to visit. Staff was very friendly. Enjoyed the gift shop as well. read more

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Wow!! What a little gem of a place. Stopped here on our way to Thousand Island Lakes for a backpack trip. We needed a picnic area to eat our lunch. They have a wonderful picnic area and nice flush toilets. After eating, went into the large museum and the doscins were soo nice and very knowledgeable. I had no idea there has been a borax mine in California for 90 years which produces 30% of the world's supply. Definitely stop by when driving on the 395 freeway. It's just off of the 58 freeway. They also have a gift shop with lots of gems, tshirts, and other cool items. Highly recommend! read more

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Best Restroom in Borox. Nice view of the mine as well. Great little educational video on borox , the mine and such ! but really I just come here to use the bathroom did I mention it's a fabulous bathroom ? air conditioning clean running water definitely worth the stop. But don't tell anyone , this is our little secret . read more

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Randomly stopped in and was pleasantly surprised. Super friendly people! My mom uses this stuff constantly so I bought her a Borax puzzle.

Really super cool stop & stretch @ this place the view is spectacular & read up on it as you climb the hill in your vehicle super cool picture spot too! Rock Hounds this is your stop read more

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This place is pretty amazing. It's the publicly accessible part of the Rio Tinto Borax (formerly US Borax) operation and are located only a few miles north of the freeway as you drive between Las Vegas and Bakersfield. Bring your kids (ages from the second grade to junior high school,methinks) to help give them a sense of what boric acid does in our lives, and what you have to get it out of the ground. As you enter their property, you'll immediately notice the speed limit signs. 37-1/2 MPH. At the guard shack, pay the $3.00 vehicle fee, then drive up the hill on the right. There is no per person charge at the center itself, by the way. They have some neat displays, including a giant samples of the minerals recovered during the mining. If you watch the little 8-10 minute propaganda movie, they open the curtains at the back of the conference room and you can gaze out at the mine. The docent will answer all your questions. He's probably a guy that retired from working the property, so pretty competent. They are all friendly. You can also go outside and "on top" of the visitor center for a more fascinating view. Highly recommended - especially if your kids like to build things ! read more

US Borax Visitor Center - Visitor Centers Near Me - Boron, California

If you're driving on Hwy 58, perhaps on a Las Vegas - Los Angeles route or similar, this is worth a stop. Borax is an awesome and useful product, whether it be for cleaning your house, conditioning your swimming pool, fertilizing your lawn, or any of the other many products that have borates. When me and my guy saw the sign on the highway for this place as we were driving by, we knew we had to stop in and pay respect to the mighty Borax. Okay, fine, we also really like unusual tourist attractions. The weirder, the better. Depending on your interest level and speed, it will take you 30 min. to a little over an hour to visit the Borax Visitor Center. Cars are $3, no matter how many are in your vehicle, paid at the gate. You go up a hill on a dirt road to get to the Visitor Center, which was a remarkably nice, new, and comfortable building. Everyone was super nice and friendly. When you come in, you get a piece of boron to keep as a souvenir. A huge piece of boron rock is also the first thing you see. You can view a 9 min. propaganda/sales video if you like, which I recommend. The museum is small but generally interesting and informative. I think it would be at least a little interesting to pretty much everyone of any age, but especially if you are a history buff. Before you leave, be sure to walk up the trail behind the building so you can get a great view of the building and mining pits. I wish they had some telescopes or binoculars set up so you could see it better. What I would have liked to know more about, is the science of how boron works in some of the products it goes into. Without giving away proprietary company secrets, they could tell us more about how it was discovered that boron could be used for various applications, why you would want to use boron instead of something else, things like that. They did a little intro in that, but they could go into more detail. read more

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Yes, you gotta stop by this place! It is more than what I expected and what the signs say. When you stop and make it in you will be greeted, welcomed and offered a short 8 minute video. I recommend watching it. Much history, science, ecology and if you are into heavy equipment, they have one there to see. The staff were the friendliest and knowledgeable people about the area/topics/company. Place is small but I'm glad I stopped, they also have a gift shop. They hand you a souvenir as well read more

US Borax Visitor Center - Visitor Centers Near Me - Boron, California

We were brought here by a sign on the side of the road that said "open every day 9-5 (excluding major holidays)". first when we were driving past all the electrical equipment I started to wonder if we were in the right place. Then we saw the sign that said the speed limit was 37.5. It did make us feel a bit better, but we were still concerned that we were in the wrong place. We then went on a dirt road up a hill. We turned and were amazed there were other cars here and yes, this was an actual visitors center with a museum and gift shop. They closed at 4:00 today because they were blasting. It was a nice stop. Very informational. Lots of cool rocks and picture opportunities. read more

I am all about random roadside attractions so when I recently went to California City I had to stop and check out the Borax Visitor Center. It's not too far off the freeway so you aren't really going out of your way. The off half speed limits on the property are kinda funny and you start worrying that you are in the wrong place but just keep driving up the hill and you will arrive in the huge parking lot. The museum is small but teaches you quite a bit. There is also a free movie that will explain the history to you. I think it was like 10 minutes or so long. After the movie the employees open the curtain and you can look out the window down into the pit. You can also go outside and walk up to the top of the building and have a panoramic view of the pit. Out front they also have a replica of the mules and a giant tire that allows for a fun photo op. They also have piles of the different elements outside for you to harvest (?? not sure what else to call it ??) your own. read more

US Borax Visitor Center - Visitor Centers Near Me - Boron, California

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Fascinating. Terrific experience that was very educational. Well worth the hour we spent there. The open pit is indeed impressive. Rio Tinto has done a remarkable job at opening to the community and public in general. It is a 5-Star experience, however I'm only giving it four because I really want to go down into the pit!!! read more

Parking lot is a little too dark for my taste at night but the restrooms are clean and they had alot of options in the vending machines. read more

US Borax Visitor Center - Visitor Centers Near Me - Boron, California

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This one started out great but then it started to feel like a big PR ad for the company instead of focusing on the history of the product and the area. The displays are good, very technical for those that like that kind of thing, but the "movie" felt like something to show shareholders about how great the company is and how it's going to increase the company value by doing XYZ. read more

The Borax Visitor Center is a couple miles off Highway 58 is Boron. It is a gravel road as you pass up the hill to the visitor center and the overlook of the mine. The speed limit signs on the way in are all odd numbers that you will see nowhere else. A good industrial technique to keep safety on the workers and travelers mind, in the subtlest way. Good Thinking indeed. When you enter the large visitor center lot there is a full sized statue(s) of the 20 Mule team that was originally used to haul borax from the mine to civilization. The displays in the visitor center focus on the uses of Borax in today's world. For sure I had no idea that Borax was used in so many industries. It is much more than just a soap. Plastics, cleaning, gold extraction, and many things I can't remember. The movie promo, tells a bit of history and a bit of how things are used. The guides who work in the Visitor Center, are typically retired workers from the mine and plant. The know so much about the industry and the site. Get them talking and the encyclopedia borax just keep coming. Next you can go on to the roof of the Visitor center and get a view of the open pit mine. There is sure a lot of digging going on here! As an industrial tour, this is a good one to take on one of your drives between LA and Vegas. read more

Don't get me wrong, I would not plan a trip to go to this museum but it is definitely worth a visit if you are on highway 58 anyway. I never realized just how many uses Borax has and the mining operation is impressive. The introduction video, though more of a propaganda sales video, was still interesting and the small museum fun. You won't spend more than an hour there, but still an hour worth while. There is also a 190 ton tire and a full scale model of a 20 mule wagon train and it is free to boot (and has clean bathrooms) read more

BORAX VISITOR'S CENTER is a museum relating to geology and the borax industry. The visitor's center is located on Route 58 in the town of Boron, CA. More generally, the visitor's center is located about half way in between Barstow, CA and Bakersfield, CA. To reach the center, you need to drive for a couple of minutes through the desert to the vicinity of the borax mine. Management very carefully chose the location of the visitor's center, and it is situated so that a huge window reveals a panoramic view of the mine (humongous pit in the ground). I have only seen one mine that was deeper, and this is the Rio Tinto Kennecott Utah Copper mine. It is interesting to point out that the mine at Boron, CA is owned by the same company as the Kennecott copper mine in Utah. Upon entering the museum, the tour guide gives you a free color post card, having a color photo of a crane in the process of dumping ore into a truck. Samples of boron ore, about the size of a cherry, are glued to the colored photo. There are four samples, and these are Kernite, Borax, Ulexite, and Colemanite. Inside the the museum, are larger samples of these, and other, boron ores. These larger samples of boron ore are about the size of a stereo amplifier. I paused to make quick ink sketches of each of the ores on display, and to take notes. The sample of colemanite takes the form of glittery globules, with about equal amounts of amorphous non-glittery material. The sample of Kernite is pure white and all crystalline, with lines resembling lines in a cut wooden board. The sample of datolite ore took the form of a broken sphere, where inside are olive green shell-like layers. The sample of travertine is pinkish-orangish and non-glittery, with purple layers sandwiched inside. The purple layer has glittery facets like mica. The probertite ore is crystalline and has a feathery appearance. Tourists with a slight interest in chemistry will be impressed by the fact that each of these ores has a different hydration state, for example, where the boron compound is associated with four, five, eight, or ten molecules of water. The visitor center has many gifts, as well as a display relating to the television show, Death Valley Days, and photographs of some of the actors who acted in this show. I mentioned to one of the tour guides that many of the episodes in Death Valley Days were situated in locations very far away from Death Valley. However, the tour guide was not interested in this fact. Visitors will be treated to a short movie about the borax industry. The movie discloses uses in agriculture, computer circuits, ceramics, detergents, glass, insulation, fiberglass, and so on. The gift shop does not carry any in-depth information on chemical engineering or on geology, as it applies to boron. This is unfortunate. But there does exist one in-depth book about the geology and business ventures of the southern California borax industry. about borax mining industry. This book is THE TINCAL TRAIL: A HISTORY OF BORAX by Travis and Cook. My Amazon review of THE TINCAL TRAIL includes this info: THE TINCAL TRAIL is a 311-page book printed on off-white paper. The paper is sturdy and of thicker stock than that used on most books. About 20 pages contain black and white photographs, which are on glossy paper. The photos include a 20-mule team trudging on a dirt road near the Calico Mountains, and advertisements for borax dating from the 1890s. This is an excerpt from an account of mining in the Calico area, located just east of Death Valley. "The first shaft at Borate was sunk at High Point, where the finest ore lay, and was at an angle of 45 degrees, eventually reaching a depth of 350 feet. Gas engines hoisted the ore up the shaft in a 50-gallon whisky barrel. The men below were supposed to break the rock into small chunks before loading it into the barrel, but often it was easier to dump in a large boulder intact, which was hard on the man at the top." (page 63). This is an excerpt of business writing: "Following the merger of Redwood's and Pacific Coast Borax in 1896, Britain did not become a mere overseas colony of Smith's borax empire. I gained, because of its choice as the official and legal headquarters of the new Borax Consolidated, an enhanced importance, particularly in financial matters. English company law in 1899 had not yet even reached the stage of the Companies Act of 1907, but it was stricter than American practice. This restricted Smith's [Francis M. Smith] ambitions to raise further capital on the London market, through Borax Consolidated, in order to finance the more daring enterprises on which he embarked." read more

5 stars for Milo! If you're thinking about taking a trip to the visitor center to see its gem, Milo Powell, he is no longer there. He was fired by Shelia, for being to nice and too loved by its visitors. Shelia could not stand that people came from all over the area to see Milo and talk to him about Borax. Students that visited the center would even bring their parents back to see Milo! Milo put life into the center. He lived Borax for 37 years as a heavy equipment operator and had stories that drew people in. Milo was so knowledgeable in the operations about Borax, its visitors left with more excitement about the center than just watching a video could do. The students loved him as well as the teachers. However, Shelia could not take that more and more people were being drawn to the center; she is a bully. She intentionally sought out Milo to harass him every chance she could find and used her grandson Cash to instigate situations. She continuously scolded him like a child and would reprimand him for going outside to take a requested photo with the students and teachers that came to visit the center.Milo loves people and loved sharing his life at Borax with them. It is an absolute shame that the center will eventually lose visitors as they learn that Milo is no longer there. Shelia should be ashamed of herself for her unprofessional conduct towards her coworkers. Milo is mentioned all over Tripadvisor.com. The center needed the boost in business and Milo brought that in. Shelia will soon see the devastating drop in visitors due to her actions. read more

An amazing facility. Staff are exceptionally knowledgeable and very kind. The entire facility, from the museum and visitor information center to the actual extraction and mining site are superb. The staff do not try to overwhelm you with information, they answer your questions and elaborate if you ask them to. Wish I had more time, but this is now on my list to make the time to go back. read more

Wow this place is amazing. Great place to stretch your legs and the AC is wonderful. There is a lot of history in this museum and our tour guide Mr. Valentine was very informative. Highly recommended. read more