The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 company founded in 1890 by the American borax

Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.Borax has a wide variety of uses...

 magnate Francis "Borax" Smith

Francis Marion Smith

Francis Marion Smith 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,...

, the "Borax King".
The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in Mineral County, Nevada

Mineral County, Nevada

Mineral County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 5,071. In 2009, it was estimated to have dropped to 4,662. Its county seat is Hawthorne.-History:...

, east of Mono Lake

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean...

, where Smith, while contracting to provide firewood to a small borax operation at nearby Columbus Marsh, spotted Teels Marsh while looking westward from the upper slopes of Miller Mountain where the only nearby trees were growing.