Borax Blog 1: Turning Sterling into Gold.

We know that Stephen Mather was the author of the advertising slogan, “Twenty Mule Team Borax,” but his true business success came with a company that, quite literally, put the mules out to pasture.

In 1907, two miners exploring California’s Tick Canyon found some white crystals they sent on to experienced chemists for analysis.  The mineral was colemanite, a borate mineral.  After negotiations with various claimants, Thomas Thorkildsen, on behalf of the Thorkildsen-Mather Company emerged with the mineral rights.

By 1908, Thorkildsen and Mather held a 60% interest in the newly formed Sterling Borax Company.  Additionally, they had two refineries, one in Chicago and one in New Brighton, Pennsylvania.

Bringing technology to the borax industry, the company installed a railway to shuttle the mineral from the mines to the Southern Pacific Railroad depot located five miles away.

As reported in the Acton Rooster, October 15, 1908: F.M. Smith, the borax king, is to have serious opposition in the field of commerce over which he has so long held solitary sway. A new $1,000,000 corporation known as the Sterling Borax Company, has been formed and has acquired valuable properties in Death Valley, close to those which have yielded a fortune for Smith. It was announced that while the new company had not been organized for the express purpose of fighting Smith, it was intended as a formidable rival.

In 1911, Smith, through the Borax Consolidated Company, purchased Sterling Borax.   The agreement with the Thorkildsen and Mather Co. provided for the payment of $1,175,000 ($40M in today’s dollars) over an extended period, and there was also a contract to supply their refineries with ore.