Was the Long-Running Western ‘Death Valley Days’ Really Created to Promote Borax?

DEATH VALLEY DAYS, Ronald Reagan (left), (Season 14), 1952-1975 — Everette Collection

For 18 seasons, Death Valley Days brought stories of miners, pioneers, and other figures from the Old West to television. Unlike many Westerns of its time, the anthology series featured a new group of characters and a different story in each episode. However, longtime viewers may also remember the frequent mentions of 20 Mule Team Borax and Boraxo.

That connection was no coincidence. Death Valley Days was originally created as a way to advertise borax, a naturally occurring mineral compound that has long been used as a household cleaner and laundry booster. However, the show’s carefully researched stories helped it become much more than a long commercial.

DEATH VALLEY DAYS, from left, Wallace Ford, Karen Sharpe, Irene Barton, 'The Captive,' episode aired October 2, 1958

Everett Collection

Death Valley Days began on the radio

It all began in 1930, when the Pacific Coast Borax Company approached its advertising agency, McCann Erickson, with the idea of producing a Western radio drama that the company would sponsor. The agency selected copywriter Ruth Woodman to develop and write the program. They wanted the stories to feel authentic and required the writer to have firsthand knowledge of the Death Valley region. Woodman began making annual summer trips to the area, where she interviewed longtime residents and searched old mining-camp newspapers for material. She continued those research trips for 14 years.

Death Valley Days premiered on the radio on Sept. 30, 1930. The program dramatized stories from Death Valley and other parts of the West while commercials promoted the sponsor’s household products. Borax was even worked into the storylines of some episodes. The original radio series became Death Valley Sheriff in 1944, then The Sheriff in 1945, and continued through 1951.

What did the 20 Mule Team have to do with it?

Historic 20 mule team borax wagon train as it freighted supplies into, and borax out, of Death Valley in the 1880's to the Mojave Railway

Public Domain

The show’s setting gave Pacific Coast Borax an easy way to connect its products to an exciting piece of Western history. During the 1880s, teams hauled enormous wagons filled with borax from Harmony Borax Works near Furnace Creek to the railroad in Mojave. The difficult 165-mile journey took about 10 days.

The teams only operated in Death Valley from 1883 to 1889, but the company turned them into the symbol of its 20 Mule Team Borax brand. Advertising campaigns and Death Valley Days helped keep the image alive long after the wagons stopped rolling across the desert.

The Western moved to television in 1952

DEATH VALLEY DAYS: Pioneer Circus, Stanley Andrews [The Old Ranger], 1952-1975

Everett Collection

Seven years after the radio series ended, Pacific Coast Borax asked Woodman to adapt Death Valley Days for television. She developed the new version and wrote every teleplay during its first five years. When other writers joined the series, Woodman remained its story editor and continued contributing scripts. The television version debuted in 1952 and eventually produced more than 450 episodes. New installments continued through 1970, while repackaged reruns kept the program on television until 1975.

Stanley Andrews introduced hundreds of episodes as the Old Ranger. He was followed by Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor and Dale Robertson. Hosting and appearing on Death Valley Days became Reagan’s final professional acting job before his political career.

Borax products continued to appear in commercials connected to the show. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library even preserves a copy of the episode “Tribute to a Dog” with Borax commercials featuring Reagan and his daughter Patti.

Did you ever realize that Borax sponsored the show?