Daggett Garage

The Daggett Garage began life in the 1880s at the borax town of Marion, located on the northeast shore of Calico Dry Lake, as a locomotive repair roundhouse for the narrow-gauge Borate and Daggett Railroad. Daggett blacksmith Seymour Alf used a twenty-mule team to move the building to the Waterloo Mill and mine, southwest of Calico, circa 1896, where it served a similar purpose for a silver ore narrow-gauge railroad. Walter Alf, Seymour Alf’s son, moved the building to its current location in Daggett circa 1912.

The building was an auto repair shop on the National Old Trails Highway until World War II, when it became a mess hall for United States Army troops guarding the local railroad bridges. The Fouts brothers bought the building in 1946 and operated an automotive garage and machine shop in the building until the mid-1980s. The building is currently owned and operated by the Golden Mining and Trucking Company.

This plaque (located in Daggett, California) was dedicated May 4, 2003, by the Billy Holcomb chapter of E Clampus Vitus and the Daggett Historical Society, Inc.

This community long served as a supply point and railhead for the mines of Death Valley and Calico. In the early 1880’s the first borax produced in Death Valley was hauled by mule team to the Atlantic & Pacific R.R. (later the Santa Fe) at Daggett. The station formerly Calico, was established in 1882 to service the silver mines, but was soon renamed for Lt. Gov. John Daggett. In 1888 it was connected to Calico by the narrow gauge Calico R.R. Silver prices dropped in the early 1890’s and the mines closed. At this time rich borax deposits were being worked at nearby Borate. 20 mule teams hauled the borax to Daggett for rail shipment. An era ended in 1898 when the famous teams were replaced by the Borate & Daggett R.R. By 1907 borax mining had ceased in favor of richer deposits near Death Valley.

This plaque (located in Daggett, California) was placed by the Billy Holcomb chapter of the ancient and honorable order of E Clampus Vitus, in cooperation with the Daggett Historical Society on Oct. 15, 1995.