T)eath ^Valley NATIONAL MONUMENT CALIFORNIA NEVADA UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Douglas McKay, Secretary NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • Conrad L. Wirth, Director Contents DEATH VALLEY CLOUD FLAMES (Photo by FLOYD B. EVANS, A.P.S.A.) Cover BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 3 NATIONAL MONUMENT THE HISTORICAL DRAMA 4 TALES WRITTEN IN ROCK AND LANDSCAPE 5 Open all year • Regular season, October 15 to May 15 DESERT WILDLIFE 10 DESERT PLANT LIFE 11 INTERPRETIVE SERVICES 12 WHAT TO SEE AND DO WHILE IN THE MONUMENT 12 DEATH VALLEY National Monument, The maximum air temperature of 134° F. embracing nearly 2 million acres of primi­ HOW TO REACH DEATH VALLEY 13 in the shade recorded in Death Valley was tive unspoiled desert country, was estab­ a world record until 1922 when 136.4° F. MONUMENT SEASON 14 lished by Presidential proclamation on was reported from Azizia, Tripoli. Tempera­ WHAT TO WEAR 14 February 11, 1933. Famed as a scene of tures near Badwater have probably been suffering in the gold-rush drama of 1849, even hotter. These extreme temperatures ACCOMMODATIONS 14 Death Valley has long been known to are known only during the summer ADMINISTRATION 15 scientist and layman alike as a region rich months. PLEASE HELP PROTECT THIS MONUMENT 15 in scientific and human interest. Its dis­ Through the winter season, from late tinctive types of scenery, its geological October until May, the climate is usually phenomena, flora, fauna, and climate are ideal. The days are generally warm and Historic Events unique. sunny and nights are cool and invigorating. The monument is situated in the rugged 1844 Fremont party, following old Spanish 1871 Further explorations for Government by The valley is famous for its consistently Trail, camped within sight of south end of Wheeler and Lyle. desert region lying east of the Sierra Nevada fair weather, minimum rainfall, and ex­ Death Valley. 1872 Panamint mines discovered. Panamint in eastern California and southwestern tremely low relative humidity. The average 1849 Jayhawkers, Georgians, Bennett-Arcane booms in 1874. Nevada. The valley itself is about 140 number of clear days in a calendar year is party, and others entered the valley through 1873 First borax discovered in Death Valley. Furnace Creek on Christmas Day. miles long, with the forbidding Panamint 283, although in 1 year 351 clear days were 1875 Further exploration by Lt. Rogers Birnie. Range forming the western wall and the 1856 First General Land Office survey of Death recorded. The average annual precipitation Valley. 1880 Aaron Winters sold borax claims for precipitous slopes of the Amargosa Range at headquarters during the past 15 years is $20,000. Borax industry in Death Valley bounding it on the east. Running in a gen­ 1860 Darwin French and S. G. George prospect­ started. 2.03 inches. ing parties explored Panamints and parts eral northwesterly direction, the valley is 1891 Biological expedition by Merriam, Palmer, of the valley, giving many place names still narrow in comparison to its length, ranging in use. Coville, and others. Before the White Man Came 1904 Goldfield mining boom, resulting in mining in width from 4 to 16 miles. Nearly 550 1861 Lieutenant Ives explored region for Cali­ to camps such as Rhyolite, Skidoo, and Green- fornia Boundary Commission, using camels square miles of the valley floor are below For centuries, the Death Valley region has 1908 water. as pack animals. Prospecting parties sea level. The area in the vicinity of been inhabired by the Panamint Indians, a active. 1926 Stove Pipe Wells Hotel and Furnace Creek Badwater is 282 feet below sea level—the to Inn established. Eichbaum toll road small offshoot of the Shoshone Nation. 1864 Jacob Breyfogle lost the famed Breyfogle 1927 built from Darwin. Beginning of tourist lowest land in the Western Hemisphere. Driven from their homes in the North mine. traffic to the valley. Telescope Peak towers 11,331 feet above the many generations ago, these Indians mi­ 1870 Bellerin Tex Bennett started Furnace Creek 1933 Death Valley National Monument estab­ lowest point. Ranch. lished. grated to Death Valley where they were 2 3 least subject to molestation by their more starved. William Lewis Manly and John water Railroad was built to the edge of the portion of its exhibits cataloged. Although warlike brothers. Capable of great endur­ Rogers were sent ahead in a desperate valley to carry out colemanite borate, but studies have been made, it will probably be ance, ingenious in the utilization of every attempt to find a way to civilization and to was abandoned when a richer deposit of many years before more than a superficial edible or otherwise useful plant, eating any bring aid if possible. After a trip of terrific borax (kernite) was discovered on the understanding of its complex geology can animal they could catch, following the hardship, they finally returned and led their Mojave Desert. Death Valley was also be obtained. Enough is known, however, seasons in incessant migration from valley group to safety. Pausing on the crest of the brought to the attention of the public to show that a remarkable story of its floor to mountain crest, they managed to Panamint Range, the weary emigrants through the exploits of Walter Scott, ex- origin can eventually be told. persist. They called Death Valley "Tome- looked back across the valley—the tre­ cowboy of Buffalo Bill fame, who became A tremendous span of geological time is sha," which means "ground afire." Since mendous barrier that had caused so much known as Death Valley Scotty. In time, indicated in the exposed rocks in the the coming of the white man, their num­ privation and suffering—and cried, "Good- adventurous visitors drove their cars into monument. All of the great divisions of bers have greatly diminished and their old by, Death Valley." While many lives were the valley, cursed its then abominable geological time, called eras, and nearly all customs and arts have been largely lost. A lost along the trail, a "Captain" Culverwell roads, but came again. With better roads, of their subdivisions, or periods, are rep­ few of these Indians still live in a small was the only emigrant of 1849 to die within and all America on wheels, it was inevita­ resented. If the layers of rocks were pieced village on a reservation in the Furnace Death Valley. ble that Death Valley would come into its together and restored to their proper Creek neighborhood. Their baskets are sold In the next few years some of the "Forty- own as a national playground. sequence, their total thickness would at Furnace Creek Inn and Ranch. niners," undaunted, returned as guides or probably exceed 12 miles. However, the on their own to prospect and search for the Tales Written in Rock and strata have been so greatly distorted, broken, and jumbled that the story is far The Historical Drama Lost Gunsight silver lode. Gradually the Landscape country became better known. Panamint from.being complete and is difficult to There is no record that the early Spaniards, City and later Skidoo, Greenwater, Rhyo- Death Valley has often been described as a read. Much of the mixed record has been or John Charles Fremont, who probably lite, and Chloride City lived their short vast geological museum, with only a small buried beneath lava flows and under rain- saw the southern end of Death Valley in lives and died, leaving only tumbled shacks, 1844, entered and explored the region. The weathered timbers, and broken bottles to first scene in the recorded drama of the mark their sites. valley was written in 1849. Occasionally, the prospectors struck it 20-Mule Team. Frasher's Photos, Pomona, Calif. It remained for a band of half-starved rich in the rugged peaks and barren canyons emigrants, pushing westward on a sup­ which isolated the valley from the sur­ posed shortcut to the newly discovered rounding, less-forbidding desert. Itinerant gold fields, actually to enter Death Valley prospectors prodded their burros from one in the winter of that year. They were lost waterhole to the next, following Indian in the wilderness, hungry and tired, and trails or beating out new tracks, and crossed the wide salt floor of the valley, with the and recrossed the ranges from one end of towering Panamints beyond, was the last the valley to the other. Some of them were blow to their morale. Losing all semblance careless or unacquainted with the country— of order, the train separated into seven they missed springs, lost their burros, or groups, each seeking its own escape. One lingered too long on the floor of the valley group, known as the Jayhawker party, in summer. Their remains, dried and picked abandoned almost all of its equipment, clean by kit fox and raven, were eventually made its exit through a canyon later named found and buried beside the trail. Jayhawker Canyon, and crossed Panamint Borax was finally responsible for the Valley and the Mojave Desert. After suffer­ partial taming of the valley. In the 1880's, ing tremendous hardships, they finally "cottonball" borax (ulexite) was refined at reached Sutter's Fort. the Harmony Borax Works and freighted Another group, the Bennett-Arcane over agonizing miles of desert in huge party, crossed the salt flats. They camped high-wheeled wagons drawn by 20-mule for 26 days at Tule Spring and nearly teams. In 1907, the Tonopah and Tide­ 4 washed mud, sand, and gravel, called sedi­ to visitors until they can be given proper The climate of the world during the Ice force of recrystallizing salt; wind-driven ments. Much of the story told concerns protection.