Francis "Borax" Smith

Francis Marion Smith
Francis Marion "Borax" Smith
Born	(1846-02-02)February 2, 1846 Richmond, Wisconsin
Died	August 27, 1931(1931-08-27) (aged 85) Oakland, California

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

Frank Smith created the extensive interurban public transit Key System in Oakland, the East Bay, and San Francisco.

Francis Marion Smith was born in Richmond, Wisconsin in 1846. He went to the public schools and graduated from Milton College. At the age of 21, he left Wisconsin to prospect for mineral wealth in the American West, starting in Nevada.

In 1872, while working as a woodcutter, he discovered a rich supply of Ulexite at Teel's Marsh, near the town he would found ten years later, Marietta, Nevada. He staked a claim, started a company with his brother Julius Smith, and established a borax works at the edge of the marsh to concentrate the borax crystals and separate them from dirt and other impurities.

In 1877, Scientific American reported that the Smith Brothers shipped their product in a 30-ton load using two large wagons with a third wagon for food and water drawn by a 24-mule team for 160 miles (260 km) across the Great Basin Desert from Marietta to Wadsworth, Nevada where the nearest Central Pacific Railroad siding was.