[1] It was located 6.25 miles (10 km) southwest of Death Valley Junction, at an elevation of 2562 feet (781 m).

[1][2] The settlement was connected by rail to the Lila C mine, which produced Colemanite for the Pacific Coast Borax Company, from which it got its name.

[2] The property was named by its owner William Tell Coleman, for his daughter, Lila C.

[2] Francis Marion Smith subsequently obtained the property and started the first borax operations there in 1906.

Production began several months before the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad had reached the mine, and mule teams were used to cover the remaining distance until the railroad arrived.