Columbus Marsh is a playa

Sink (geography)

A geographic sink is a depression within an endorheic basin where water collects with no visible outlet. Instead of discharging, the collected water is lost due to evaporation and/or penetration...

 in Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, USA. William Troup (or Troop) discovered cottonball 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...

 at the site in 1870 or 1871. Joseph Mosheimer and Emile K. Stevenot who operated one of the borax concentrating plants at Columbus

Columbus, Nevada

Columbus was a borax mining boom town in Esmeralda County. Its remnants are located on the edge of the Columbus Salt Marsh.-History:Settlement came to the Columbus Salt Marsh in 1865 with the raising of a quartz mill. Columbus was the ideal location for a mill, as it was the only stop for several...

 hired Francis Marion 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,...

 to cut wood for their plant on nearby Miller Mountain in the Candelaria Hills

Candelaria Hills

The Candelaria Hills are a mountain range in Mineral County, Nevada.. The highest peak is Miller Mountain . Miller Mountain was the location of "Borax" Smith's board-and-batten cabin where he lived when he discovered a rich borax deposit at nearby Teel's Marsh....

. Smith subsequently discovered borax himself at Teel's Marsh

Teel's Marsh

Teel's Marsh is a playa in Nevada, USA. It was the site of "Borax" Smith's first borax works at Marietta, Nevada in 1872, and became the start of his operations that soon became the largest borax operation in the world....

, where he had sufficient financial success to expand and acquire the borax works at Columbus himself in 1880.