California - Death Valley National Park

The impressive scenery of this geological multiform desert (maximum temperature 56.7°C), with its wondrous rocky wastes and sand-dunes, conceals numerous streams and a rich animal and plant life including succulents of all kinds. Twenty-one species of plants and trees found here are unique to the valley.

Rock-drawings, hearths and supply trails have all been found, providing evidence of pre-historic settlements in almost all parts of Death Valley.

History

Origin

Death Valley is a harsh wilderness, with high mountain peaks and deep valleys, sand dunes like those in the Sahara, oases where date-palms grow, water courses below sea level, and a rich flora, especially in spring, which belies the name given to the whole region. Death Valley is also of great geological interest. Many years ago it was an inland lake; the mountains were formed as the result of mighty land eruptions, and the water evaporated under the merciless sun. The formation of the mountains was accompanied by a lowering of the valley bottom; the valley came into being not through erosion, as most did, but as a result of a shift in the earth's crust. Thus Telescope Peak was raised from 280ft/86m below sea level to 11,050ft/3,368m above. What we see in many parts today is a world of rock in every color imaginable which never fails to amaze the visitor.

When discovered

This wonder of nature was discovered more or less by chance in 1849 when some adventurers, wanting to find their way as quickly as possible to the land of the gold-rush to the west, wandered into the inhospitable desert from which they escaped again only after considerable hardship and difficulty. They had to abandon their wagons and eat the oxen which pulled them in order not to starve - they also gave the area its present name. A few years later they were followed by men who believed they would find gold and silver. It is true that they found a few veins of these valuable metals but their labors were scarcely worthwhile and they soon moved on to pastures new.

"White gold" (borax)

Then, however, "white gold" was discovered in the desert - borax, an important chemical used in many branches of industry. At the start teams of two horses and eighteen mules (not just mules, as the legendary description of 20-mule teams would have us believe) had to pull their load over a distance of 165mi/264km to Mojave which took them ten days. Eventually, a railway was built. In 1881 Harmony Borax Works (near Furnace Creek), which is now partly restored and open to visitors, came into operation; others followed and the quantities of borax, which is still mined to some extent in Death Valley today, increased within a few years to hundreds of thousands of tons. Today borax is used mainly in the production of glass and glass-fibbers, as well as in the soap industry.

Although Death Valley has been a "National Monument" since 1933, borax can still be mined within its boundaries, but only underground. There are also still optimists who climb around in the deep canyons of Death Valley in the mostly vain hope of stumbling upon a vein of gold. However, the many thousands who come to Death Valley year after year (in the season, there are sometimes as many as 10,000 in one day) do so because of the unique scenery.