ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Pacific Coast Borax Company

Okay kiddo, let's talk about the Pacific Coast Borax Company. Do you know what borax is? It's a kind of mineral that people use for lots of things like washing clothes, making glass and ceramics, and even preserving dead animals!

The Pacific Coast Borax Company was a big company that mined lots of borax in California and shipped it all over the world. They started mining in the 1870s and became very successful. They had a special way of mining borax called "boraxo" which was a mix of borax and water that was pumped out of the ground and dried in big flat pans.

The company even had a special train called the "20 Mule Team" that would carry huge wagons of borax across the desert to the railroad. It was called the 20 Mule Team because it took 20 mules to pull all those wagons!

The company became so famous that people started calling borax "Pacific Coast Borax" even if it didn't come from that company! But eventually, the company was bought by another company and isn't around anymore. But borax is still very important and lots of people use it today.