Columbus Marsh is a playa in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, United States. William Troup (or Troop) discovered cottonball

borax The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.

at the site in 1870 or 1871. Joseph Mosheimer and Emile K. Stevenot, who operated one of the borax concentrating plants at Columbus, hired

Francis Marion Smith Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California. He was known nationally and internationally as " ...

to cut wood for their plant on nearby Miller Mountain in the

Candelaria Hills The Candelaria Hills are a mountain range in Mineral County, Nevada. The highest peak is Miller Mountain which was the location of "Borax" Smith's board-and-batten cabin where he lived when he discovered a rich borax The BORAX Experiments we ...

. Smith subsequently discovered borax himself at

Teel's Marsh Teel's Marsh is a playa in Nevada, United States. It was the site of "Borax" Smith's first borax The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950 ...

, where he had sufficient financial success to expand and acquire the borax works at Columbus himself in 1880.Hildebrand, GH. (1982) Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith. San Diego: Howell-North Books. pp 16-21.

References

{{Nevada-stub Landforms of Mineral County, Nevada