Ted Faye is a documentary filmmaker whose company, Gold Creek Films, specializes in stories of the West. Ted develops touring information, including audio CDs, signage, and brochures. He also helps communities to find and tell their stories. Ted was the historian to US Borax, and many images from this book are from the Borax collection at Death Valley National Park.

“The saga of the great mule teams and giant wagons that are today’s romantic symbol of Death Valley began long before the first muleskinner piloted his lumbering borax freighters out of the Big Sink. Its roots were in that night when Aaron and Rosie Winters crouched in their darkened camp at Furnace Creek and read their future in the green-flickering flame of burning borax. But its seed went farther back.” First published in 1955, this is a wonderful book on the mule team days in California’s Death Valley during the 19th century. It contains observations on the natural history of mules and muleskinners, and the mining of desert borax. There is also a reprint of Henry G. Hanks’ Report on Death Valley from 1883.

Death Valley, its harsh and rugged landscape established a national monument in 1933 and named a national park in 1994, has long held a fascination for visitors, even before it became tourist friendly. Shortly after the first visit of nonnative inhabitants, a party of forty-niners looking for a shortcut to the goldfields of California crossed this land with tragic results, inadvertently giving the valley its moniker. Despite the immense suffering in their midst, prospectors began exploring the area looking for mineral wealth. Boomtowns formed, prospered, and died all within a few years, most disappearing completely into the desert. Adding to Death Valley's mystique was the shameless self-promotion of Death Valley Scotty, which lasted for a period spanning more than 50 years.