Scenic 395 - The Official Guide 2019/2020

played critical roles in bringing the 20-Mule Team back home to Inyo County. Tanner addressed the crowd and recalled how, about 10 years ago, he contacted Howard Hol- land, the talented exhibit design- er and board member of Laws Museum, with what Tanner called “a scheme” to build replica borax wagons. And now, after years of work and even more “scheming,” the wagons and their new home at Laws are a reality. While touring the country with the wagons, Tanner said the real “eye opener” was that so many people, whether in Kansas, Ohio or Maryland, recognized the 20 mule team and wagons. Especial- ly those from farm families or those who were familiar with mules, “knew exactly what they were looking at” when they ap- proached the huge wagons. Part of the reason for the wagons’ no- toriety, he added, came from “Ron Reagan” who hosted the TV show “Death Valley Days,” spon- sored by Borax and featuring the wagons. Of course, “Ron” is also known as the former governor of California, president of the Unit- ed States and, most importantly, one-time Grand Marshall of the Mule Days Parade. While the 20-mule team can seem like “a local thing,” Tanner assured the crowd that “this is a significant deal,” and the Borax wagons and the 20-mule team is still “an American icon.” Tanner then recalled how one man had an out-sized impact on the wagon project. In 1999, Rose Parade officials contacted Borax and asked if the company could bring the famed wagons and mules to the parade. The compa- ny had marketed “20-Mule Team Borax” from 1906 to1950. But most company officers did not want to revive the wagons. But one corporate officer turned that thinking around and started the process to bring the wagons back, Tanner said as a way to introduce Preston Chiaro. He was managing the Boron mine at the time, and knew the Eastern Sierra. More important, he knew the Tanner family as the packers at Red’s Meadow. He got the wagon idea turned around in the corporate offices. Then he was able to see the proj- ect through to completion since he eventually became president of US Borax, which was owned by Rio Tinto at the time – the most recent name for the Borax Com- pany, which was known as Pacific Coast Borax when it built the first borax wagons to haul the mineral out of its Death Valley mines. “These wagons have a real power,” Chiaro told the crowd. “It’s the power of an idea, and that idea is the development of the West.” Chiaro noted that Rio Tinto put up a $150,000 challenge grant that made the fabrication of the wagons possible, along with the outpouring of support and donations from individuals and organizations. Another, even tougher obstacle was who could manage the mules and wagons. “Driving a 20-mule team was a lost art,” he said. Enter Bobby Tanner and his crew. Then came years of painstaking research fol- lowed by exacting construction and fabrication using 19th and early 20th century wagon-build- ing skills and “technology.” Once completed and rolling, Chiaro noted that a special aspect of the sight of the wagons in ac- tion is that “there is a beauty about it,” as 20 mules work in unison and respond to the com- mands of the teamsters. After watching the mules and wagons perform in parades large and small, Chiaro said it is easy to see the “magic” created by the impos- ing, vintage vehicles. “It sparks peoples’ imagination.” And now, people can visit the wagons in their new, home barn at Laws, and let their imagination run wild. 2019-2020 Scenic 395 40 Bishop Continued from Page 39 FREE CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST Refrigerators & Microwaves • DirecTV • Free Wifi Newly Remodled • All New Rooms 190 West Pine St. - Bishop, CA • 760-873-4215 SUBMITTED PHOTO Bobby Tanner and his crew bring Borax 20-Mule Team Wagons down the Mule Days Parade Route in 2017.