Death Valley

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7000 BC, most recently the Timbisha around 1000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European-Americans, lost in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave this valley its grim name, even though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994. The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. The valley is actually a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. The subduction uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes. Later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly. The park is home to many species of plants and animals which have adapted to the harsh desert environment including creosote bush, Joshua tree, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the endangered Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons and mountains.

Reader's Guide

Death Valley National Park is the fifth-largest American national park and the largest in the contiguous United States. It is also larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and nearly as large as Puerto Rico. At 282 feet (86 m) below sea level at its lowest point, Badwater Basin on Death Valley's floor is the second-lowest depression in the Western Hemisphere (behind Laguna del Carbón in Argentina), while Mount Whitney, only 85 miles (137 km) to the west, rises to 14,505 feet (4,421 m) and is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States. This topographic relief is the greatest elevation gradient in the contiguous United States and is the terminus point of the Great Basin's southwestern drainage. The salt pans in Death Valley are among the largest in the world and are rich in minerals, such as borax and various salts and hydrates. The largest salt pan in the park extends 40 miles (64 km) from the Ashford Mill Site to the Salt Creek Hills, covering some 200 square miles (520 km2) of the valley floor. The best known playa in the park is the Racetrack, known for its moving rocks. Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in North America. On the afternoon of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Greenland Ranch (now Furnace Creek) in Death Valley. This temperature stands as the highest ambient air temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth. Daily summer temperatures of 120 °F (48.9 °C) or greater are common, as well as below freezing nightly temperatures in the winter. The exaggerated rain shadow effect for the Death Valley area makes it North America's driest spot, receiving about 1.5 inches (38.1 mm) of rainfall annually at Badwater, and some years fail to register any measurable rainfall. The hot, dry climate makes it difficult for soil to form. Mass wasting, the down-slope movement of loose rock, is therefore the dominant erosive force in mountainous areas, resulting in "skeletonized" ranges. The highest dunes in the park, and some of the highest in North America, are located in the Eureka Valley about 50 miles (80 km) to the north of Stovepipe Wells. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984. In 2013, Death Valley National Park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association.

Did You Know?

• Badwater Basin is the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Laguna del Carbón in Argentina.
• The highest ambient air temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth, 134 °F (56.7 °C), was recorded at Furnace Creek (then Greenland Ranch) on July 10, 1913.
• More than 93% of the park is a designated wilderness area.
• The park is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and nearly as large as Puerto Rico.
• The only long-term profitable ore mined in Death Valley was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams.

Common Misconceptions (Editorial)

Some people think Death Valley was named because many pioneers died there, but in fact only one member of the lost 1849 group perished. Others assume its lowest point, Badwater Basin, is the lowest in the entire Western Hemisphere, but it is actually the second-lowest, behind Laguna del Carbón in Argentina. Another common misconception is that Death Valley is a small desert area, when in reality it is the largest national park in the contiguous United States—larger than Rhode Island and nearly as large as Puerto Rico.

Why It Matters (Editorial)

Death Valley matters not only for its superlatives—hottest, driest, lowest—but as a living laboratory of resilience. Its extreme conditions, from salt flats to pupfish survivors, test the limits of life and human ingenuity, while its history of boomtowns, borax mining, and Native American adaptation reminds us that even the harshest landscapes have long sustained both people and purpose.