 Borax plants were running continuously day and night, during eight months during the year.The town had a post office and local newspaper, "The Borax Miner", an adobe school, an iron foundry.Stage express offered daily service to Fish Lake Valley, Candelaria, and after 1876, Wadsworth

Columbus declined after 1875 when the Pacific Borax Company built a larger plant at Fish Lake, 30 miles south of town.