MUSEUM REVIEW
Twenty Mule Team Museum
Saxon Aerospace Museum
26922 Twenty Mule Team Road
Boron, CA. 93516
(YELP PROFILE)
I am stone cold sucker for a local museum. These two bad-bwoys are on the road between Bakersfield and Barstow, in a little town called Boron, so called because of it's proximity to the world's largest(?) Borax mine- which you can also tour- making for a trifecta of local attractions that are literally the only things to do for a hundred miles on the 58 freeway.
Both museums are one room and free to enter, and about two blocks from the freeway (head south off of exit 199.) First off, you've got the Saxon Aerospace Museum. Vernon Saxon was an aerospace entrepreneur who was involved in early jet propulsion technology and making parts for various space missions. His company, called Saxon Aerospace. It's actually an interesting museum because there is not a lot of info about Saxon Aerospace and it's role in the jet propulsion/space exploration world. I'm assuming that is because all this stuff was classified during the cold war, and because Saxon Aerospace was likely never publicly traded.
Highlights include an early, hand assembled yet, and a significant part of an Apollo moon rocket. Plus: Tons of cool NASA patches.
Next door you've got the Twenty Mule Team Museum- which actually has a web site. Most of the development in this other wise god forsaken area came as the result of the Borax mine nearby. Borax is some kind of a mineral (WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON BORAX) that was only found in Tibet before it was discovered in death valley.
The name of the museum memorializes the fact that twenty mule teams were used- replacing "Chinamen" to haul the Borax out of Death Valley. The mine is now owned by Spanish mining giant Rio Tinto- and I can't wait to go back and see the mining tour.
Twenty Mule Team Museum
26922 Twenty Mule Team Road
Boron, CA. 93516
(WEB SITE)
Saxon Aerospace Museum
26922 Twenty Mule Team Road
Boron, CA. 93516
(YELP PROFILE)
I am stone cold sucker for a local museum. These two bad-bwoys are on the road between Bakersfield and Barstow, in a little town called Boron, so called because of it's proximity to the world's largest(?) Borax mine- which you can also tour- making for a trifecta of local attractions that are literally the only things to do for a hundred miles on the 58 freeway.
Both museums are one room and free to enter, and about two blocks from the freeway (head south off of exit 199.) First off, you've got the Saxon Aerospace Museum. Vernon Saxon was an aerospace entrepreneur who was involved in early jet propulsion technology and making parts for various space missions. His company, called Saxon Aerospace. It's actually an interesting museum because there is not a lot of info about Saxon Aerospace and it's role in the jet propulsion/space exploration world. I'm assuming that is because all this stuff was classified during the cold war, and because Saxon Aerospace was likely never publicly traded.
Highlights include an early, hand assembled yet, and a significant part of an Apollo moon rocket. Plus: Tons of cool NASA patches.
Next door you've got the Twenty Mule Team Museum- which actually has a web site. Most of the development in this other wise god forsaken area came as the result of the Borax mine nearby. Borax is some kind of a mineral (WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON BORAX) that was only found in Tibet before it was discovered in death valley.
The name of the museum memorializes the fact that twenty mule teams were used- replacing "Chinamen" to haul the Borax out of Death Valley. The mine is now owned by Spanish mining giant Rio Tinto- and I can't wait to go back and see the mining tour.
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