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Establishment
Death Valley's outstanding natural beauty and scientific importance were first brought to the attention of the National Park Service in the late 20's. With the support of Stephen T. Mather, Director of the National Park Service, Death Valley's national significance was recognized, and it was proclaimed a national monument by President Hoover on February 11, 1933. With the passage of the Desert Protection Act of October 31, 1994, Death Valley grew by 1,200,000 acres and was designated a national park. Today Death Valley National Park is made up of 3,336,000 acres and contains more than 3,000,000 acres of wilderness.
Size and Visitation
Acreage - as of September 23, 2000
Federal Land - 3,317,470.67
Non-Federal Land - 50,156.21
Gross Area Acres - 3,367,626.88
Visitation - 1999
Total Recreation Visits - 1,227,583
Visitation is highest from February through mid April. The month of November is also busy. Visitation is lowest in December and January.
Geology
Death Valley, the name is foreboding and gloomy. Yet here in this valley, much of it below sea level, or in its surrounding mountains you can find spectacular wildflower displays, snow covered peaks, beautiful sand dunes, abandoned mines and industrial structures, and the hottest place in North America.
G.K. Gilbert, a geologist who worked in the area in the 1870's, noted that the rock formations were "beautifully delineated on the slopes of the distant mountains, revealing at a glance relations that in a fertile country would appear only as the results of extended and laborious investigation." The rock layers that Gilbert notices comprised a nearly complete record of the earth's past, but that record has been jumbled out of sequence. The reason is that the rock layers that form the mountains are very ancient, but only in recent geologic time have they risen.
Even as the mountains rose, erosion began to wear them down. An example of this is the formation of the alluvial fans. Intermittent streams, resulting mostly from the bursts of infrequent rains, rush down the steep canyons. It scours boulders, soil and other debris and pushes and carries the whole mass with it. It then deposits it on the valley floor at the canyon's mouth.
The Wildrose Charcoal Kilns
In 1877 George Hearst’s Modock Consolidated Mining Company completed construction of the charcoal kilns in Wildrose Canyon. The charcoal produced by the kilns was to be used as fuel for two silver-lead smelters that Hearst had built in the Argus Range 25 miles to the west. The kilns operated until the summer of 1878 when the Argus mines, due to deteriorating ore quality, closed and the furnaces shut down.
The Wildrose kilns employed about 40 woodcutters and associated workmen, and the town of Wildrose, a temporary camp located somewhere nearby, was home to about 100 people. Remi Nadeau’s Cerro Gordo Freighting Company hauled the charcoal to the smelters by pack train and wagon.
Each of the 10 kilns stands about 25 feet tall and has a circumference of approximately 30 feet. Each kiln held 42 cords of pinyon pine logs and would, after burning for a week, produce 2,000 bushels of charcoal.
Considered to be the best surviving examples of such kilns to be found in the western states, the kilns owe their longevity to fine workmanship and to the fact that they were in use for such a short time.
The Wildrose Charcoal kilns are located in Wildrose Canyon on the western side of Death Valley National Park. Access the Wildrose Canyon road from California Highway 178 between Trona and Panamint Springs. From California Highway 190, take the Emigrant Canyon road south to the turnoff up the Wildrose Canyon road to the kilns. The last 3 miles of the road are unpaved and the road is subject to storm closures.
The CCC in Death Valley
Shortly after taking office in March, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt stormed through the capital getting legislation passed to develop the Tennessee Valley Authority, repeal prohibition and get the country back on its feet from the devastating depression that held it in check. A major part of that effort was the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps which took unemployed boys from all over the country and put them to work on national lands under the direction of army reserve officers.
In October of that year two companies (400 men) entered Death Valley to start putting the infant monument in shape for the American public. In the next nine years, 12 companies (1200) worked in Death Valley. They built barracks, graded 500 miles of roads, installed water and telephone lines, and erected a total of 76 buildings for themselves and PWA and Park Service employees. They built trails in the Panamint Mountains to points of scenic interest. They erected an adobe village, laundry and trading post for Shoshone Indians. They built 5 campgrounds, restrooms and picnic facilities, developed wells and springs, constructed an airplane landing field, made signs and helped with surveying the monument.
The men were housed in 3 permanent camps at Wildrose, Funeral Range and Cow Creek and spike camps at Mesquite Springs, Emigrant Canyon, Daylight Pass and Butte Valley. They were paid $25 a month of which $20 went to the family and $5 to the men. The CCC men were among the first to be called for the war effort and by May of 1942 they were all gone from Death Valley.
Today the work of the CCC can be seen in campgrounds, roads and even a few still standing buildings. Death Valley could not have accomodated visitors in its first years without the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Death Valley Ghost Towns
As you visit these ghost towns, consider that every piece of rusting machinery and bit of wood represents a part of our past. Please treat them with the respect these "Outdoor Museums" deserve. Do not remove, burn or disturb anything.
Ballarat
1897 marked the year Ballarat came into being. The main mine was the Radcliffe which produced 15,000 tons of gold ore from 1898-1903. The town was named after an Australian gold camp and was home to 400 people in 1898. Several Death Valley legendary figures lived there. Ballarat is privately owned and the site of several adobe ruins. It is located off the Panamint Valley road west of Death Valley.
Chloride City
Chloride City became a town in 1905 when the Bullfrog strike brought people into the area to re-work old mining claims. It became a ghost town the following year. There are numerous adits and dumps in the area and one grave of a James McKay, of whom nothing is known. In addition, there are remains of 3 stamp mills. It is located off a four wheel drive road 3.5 miles east of Hell’s Gate or off the dirt road 7 miles further east at the Park boundary. Turn right after the cattle guard.
Greenwater
This town was built around a copper strike in 1905. Water had to be hauled into the town and was sold for $15 a barrel. The town grew to a population of 2,000 and was known for its lively magazine, The Death Valley Chuckwalla. By 1909 the mining had collapsed without ever showing a profit and people left for other areas. There are no ruins left in Greenwater, which is located south of Dante’s View off the Greenwater Valley gravel road.
Harrisburg
Originally this town was to be named Harrisberry after the two men who found the gold that launched it in 1905. Shorty Harris later took credit for the strike and changed the name of the town to Harrisburg after himself. Nevertheless, Pete Aguereberry, one of the original strike finders, spent 40 years working his claims in the Eureka gold mine. Harrisburg was a tent city that grew to support a population of 300. Today nothing remains of the town but Pete’s home and mine which are located to the right two miles down the dirt road to Aguereberry Point.
Leadfield
Copper and lead claims had been filed in the area as early as 1905 but it wasn’t until 1926 that the area was heavily mined. In February, Charles Julian, the flamboyant promoter became president of the town’s leading mining company, the Western Lead Mines. Julian’s promotions were responsible for bringing great numbers of people into the area and in April, 1926 the town was laid out with 1749 lots.
Two things contributed to the demise of the town by 1927. One was the financial downfall of Charles Julian and the other was the playing out of lead in one of the main mines. The area is scattered with mines, dumps, tunnels and prospect holes. There are remains of wood and tin buildings, a dugout and cement foundations of the mill. The town is located on the Titus Canyon road. This is a one way high clearance unpaved road that sometimes requires 4-wheel drive.
Panamint City
It was called the toughest, rawest, most hard-boiled little hellhole that ever passed for a civilized town. Its founders were outlaws who, while hiding from the law in the Panamint Mountains, found silver in Surprise Canyon and gave up their life of crime. In 1874 the town was at the height of its boom with a population of 2,000 citizens. By the fall of 1875 the boom was over, and in 1876 a flash flood destroyed most of the town. The chimney of the smelter is the most prominent remnant of the town's heyday. The site of Panamint City is accessible via a 5 mile hike from Chris Wicht’s Camp, which is located 6 miles northeast of the ghost town of Ballarat. Mining in the area continued on a sporadic basis up until recent times. The ruins of old Panamint City were added to Death Valley National Park in October of 1994.
Rhyolite
She was called the Queen City of Death Valley and at one time boasted a population of 10,000 people.
Her birth was brought about by Shorty Harris and E. L. Cross, who were prospecting in the area in 1904. They found quartz all over a hill, and as Shorty describes it “... the quartz was just full of free gold... it was the original bullfrog rock... this banner is a crackerjack” declared Shorty! “The district is going to be the banner camp of Nevada. I say so once and I’ll say it again.” At that time there was only one other person in the whole area: Old Man Beatty who lived in a ranch with his family five miles away. Soon the rush was on and several camps were set up including Bullfrog, the Amargosa and a settlement between them called Jumpertown. A townsite was laid out nearby and given the name Rhyolite from the silica-rich volcanic rock in the area.
There were over 2000 claims covering everything in a 30 mile area from the Bullfrog district. The most promising was the Montgomery Shoshone mine, which prompted everyone to move to the Rhyolite townsite. The town immediately boomed with buildings springing up everywhere. One building was 3 stories tall and cost $90,000 to build. A stock exchange and Board of Trade were formed. The red light district drew women from as far away as San Francisco. There were hotels, stores, a school for 250 children, an ice plant, two electric plants, foundries and machine shops and even a miner’s union hospital.
The town citizens had an active social life including baseball games, dances, basket socials, whist parties, tennis, a symphony, Sunday school picnics, basketball games, Saturday night variety shows at the opera house and pool tournaments. In 1906 Countess Morajeski opened the Alaska Glacier Ice Cream Parlor to the delight of the local citizenry. That same year an enterprising miner, Tom T. Kelly, built a Bottle House out of 50,000 beer and liquor bottles.
In April 1907 electricity came to Rhyolite, and by August of that year a mill had been constructed to handle 300 tons of ore a day at the Montgomery Shoshone mine. It consisted of a crusher, 3 giant rollers, over a dozen cyanide tanks and a reduction furnace. The Montgomery Shoshone mine had become nationally known because Bob Montgomery once boasted he could take $10,000 a day in ore from the mine. It was later owned by Charles Schwab, who purchased it in 1906 for a reported 2 to 6 million dollars.
The financial panic of 1907 took its toll on Rhyolite and was seen as the beginning of the end for the town. In the next few years mines started closing and banks failed. Newspapers went out of business, and by 1910 the production at the mill had slowed to $246,661 and there were only 611 residents in the town. On March 14, 1911 the directors voted to close down the Montgomery Shoshone mine and mill. In 1916 the light and power were finally turned off in the town.
Today you can find several remnants of Rhyolite’s glory days. Some of the walls of the 3 story bank building are still standing, as is part of the old jail. The train depot (privately owned) is one of the few complete buildings left in the town, as is the Bottle House. The Bottle House was restored by Paramount pictures in Jan, 1925. The ghost town of Rhyolite is on a mixture of federal and private land. It is not within the boundary of Death Valley National Park.
It is on BLM land and is accessible by passenger car. Rhyolite is located 4 miles west of Beatty and 35 miles from the Furnace Creek Visitor Center.
Skidoo
In January 1906 two wandering prospectors, John Ramsey and John (One-Eye) Thompson were headed towards the new gold strike at Harrisburg. Along the way a blinding fog came in and the two camped near Emigrant Spring for fear of getting lost. When the fog lifted they noticed some ledges with promising colors. They filed their claims and kept news of their strike quiet for a couple of months. Bob Montgomery purchased their group of claims entitled the Gold Eagle group. Plans were made that by Jan. 1907. a quartz mill would be installed. Water came from Emigrant Spring, five miles away by trail and seven by wagon. This couldn’t provide enough water for the operation though, so plans were made to acquire the water rights of some springs near Telescope Peak. The water was to flow by gravity pressure from Birch Spring to the mill in a long pipeline ranging from 6-10 inches in diameter. It was estimated to cost $150,000 and fall 1800 feet to generate enough force for mining and milling. It was to be strung in 20-ft. lengths, weighing 650 pounds a length with 18 miles weighing 1544 2/5 tons.
By July 4, 1906, the town seemed assured of success. Plans had already been made for an auto line from Beatty, a stage line seemed definite, application had been made for a post office and with its high altitude (5600 ft.) production could continue all summer. By the end of August 1906 a townsite had been marked out. No one will ever know exactly how the town got its name, 23 Skidoo. Possibilities include the 23 mile water line (which is actually 22 miles long), the 23 claims initially flied, the location of the claim on the 23rd of January, and the 23 men who founded the town.
The town reached a population of 700 and became famous as the site of the only hanging to take place in Death Valley. It occurred when Hootch Simpson, a saloon owner who had fallen on hard times, tried to rob the bank, was foiled in the attempt, and later went back and killed the owner of the store in which the bank was located. During the night the townspeople hanged Hootch. According to legend, he was hanged twice. The second hanging was to accommodate news photographers who missed the first hanging. No one was ever arrested for the hanging of Hootch Simpson.
By March of 1907, Skidoo boasted 400-500 citizens and had stores offering mining equipment, hardware, clothing, dry goods and groceries. There were saloons, a newspaper, restaurants, a physician, and lawyers. By April the town had 130 homes and businesses of frame, wood and iron. A phone line had been completed to Rhyolite, permitting outside communication. In November 1907, the pipeline was finally completed and water flowed into Skidoo. Final tally on the cost was $250,000. The financial panic of 1907 affected the town by reducing plans for additional businesses. By the fall of 1908 mining activity had slowed tremendously in Skidoo due to the scarcity of mills in the area.
Mining activity ebbed and flowed over the next several years and in September 1917, the rich vein was played out and the mine closed down for the last time. By 1922 several buildings were still standing along one street and an old prospector "Old Tom Adams" was the lone citizen. In 1923 Skidoo was one of the location sites for the Hollywood film, "Greed" which was the first feature film made in the Death Valley area.
Skidoo was one of the last gold mining camps in Death Valley. One of the unique features of the mining operation in Skidoo was the mining of large amounts of gold ore by going into narrow ore veins using large-scale mining efforts. The pipeline to Skidoo is considered to be a marvelous feat of engineering. It crossed from Skidoo over Harrisburg Flats and Wood, Nemo, and Wildrose Canyons to the Telescope Peak area.
Skidoo is located off the Wildrose road on a high clearance unpaved 4wd road. Nothing remains of the town except an interpretive sign.
The Harmony Borax Works
After borax was found near Furnace Creek Ranch (then called Greenland) in 1881, William Tell Coleman built the Harmony plant and began to process ore in late 1883 or early 1884. When in full operation, the Harmony Borax Works employed 40 men who produced three tons of borax daily. During the summer months, when the weather was so hot that processing water would not cool enough to permit the suspended borax to crystallize, Coleman moved his work force to the Amargosa Borax Plant near present day Tecopa, California.
Getting the finished product to market from the heart of Death Valley was a difficult task, and an efficient method had to be devised. The harmony operation became famous through the use of large mule teams and double wagons that hauled borax the long overland route to Mojave. The romantic image of the "20-mule team" persists to this day and has become the symbol of the borax industry in this country.
The Harmony plant went out of operation in 1888, after only five years of production, when Coleman’s financial empire collapsed. Acquired by Francis Marion Smith, the works never resumed the boiling of cottonball borate ore, and in time became part of the borax reserves of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and its successors. On December 31, 1974, the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
At present the Borax Works plant consists of a four-level ruin situated against a hillside. There are remains of buildings, machinery, tanks, piping, and waste tailings. In addition to the plant proper, a nearby townsite contains remnants of buildings and trash dumps relating to the company settlement. The entire complex is referred to as "Harmony Borax Works," or simply as "Harmony."
Keane Wonder Mine & Mill
In Dec. 1903, two men from Ballarat--one an out of work Irish miner named Jack Keane and his partner, a one-eyed Basque butcher named Domingo Etcharren were prospecting for silver. They had been working on a particular ledge for several months, but were unsuccessful. Jack Keane, quite by accident discovered an immense ledge of free milling gold by the work site and named the claim the Keane Wonder Mine. Since this was Keane’s first strike in 8 years of desert prospecting, it is not surprising that he named it the "Wonder" mine.
By May of 1904, the news of their strike started a gold rush to the area. The partners filed 18 claims and were immediately deluged with offers to buy the mine. Estimates at the time indicated that there were 500 prospectors working in the general area of the strike. The first man to bond the mine was Capt. J.R. Delmar. He agreed to pay the partners $10,000 in cash, and in exchange he had an option to purchase the mine for $150,000 at the end of a year and during that year he had the rights to develop the location. He brought 30 men to the property and built an Assay office, general office building, and a wagon road across the desert to within a mile of the mine. At the end of his year, he didn’t have the money to purchase the mine, so the partners took it back.
In 1906, L.L. Patrick got the bond for the mine, and he announced plans to erect a 20 stamp mill at the foot of the Funeral Range. When his bond expired, John Campbell purchased the mine for $250,000. Keane was president of the new company, Campbell was vice president and Domingo Etcharren was the secretary. Stocks were offered to the public, and the public was eager to buy. New strikes were made and the mine grew to 22 claims (240 acres of land). Only 5 of the claims had actually been explored at this point.
Campbell’s fortune was wiped out in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and within a month the mine was sold again. Homer Wilson bought the mine in June of 1906 and began an association with the mine that would last until 1916. This time the partners sold out their interest in the mine permanently. Wilson ordered a 20 stamp mill, which would crush the ore to a sand with the action of several heavy stamps. An 85 horsepower Coreless oil burning steam engine was brought in to power the mill. Surveyors also planned an aerial tramway system 4700 ft. long and operated by gravity. Loaded ore buckets would come down the mountain from the shaft and thereby pull the empty buckets back up.
The final costs for the mill were estimated at $85,000. More claims were purchased to cover the distance from the mill to the tramway, which increased the area to 450 acres or 26 claims. A boarding house was built to house the workers and by Oct. 27, 1907 the mill, with completed tram, began to operate. Twenty-one thousand board feet of lumber were required for the upper tramway terminal, 28,000 for the lower, and 25,000 were used for the intermediate towers. There were 13 towers in the tram and the longest span between them was 1200 feet. The vertical fall from top to bottom was 1500 feet. The mill produced well but not at full capacity because of an inadequate supply of water. In the summer temperatures reached 124 by noon, and even eating was difficult as silverware was too hot to handle. The water was near boiling due to the temperature, which also made mill operations difficult.
In 1908, 3 new buildings were added to the camp: a family home for the Wilsons, an office building and a cookhouse, and plans were made to put in an ice house. By 1909, 50 men were working at the mill and the mine and work had begun on a cyanide mill.
By 1911, the Keane Wonder Mine was the only mine still producing in the Bullfrog region. Although it had been plagued by financial problems since the Wall Street Panic of 1907, it continued to operate.
In August of 1912 the mine closed down and the Inyo paper announced that it had worked out its ore bodies. In 1914, after being sold, the mine was operating again, but it closed in 1916. In 1935 another attempt at revival came with a new company who reworked the old mill tailings by cyanide. In 1937 it was sold, and the old stamps were dismantled and removed. The tramway had deteriorated beyond repair. In 1938 it was sold again, and in 1940 the aerial tramway was refurbished, machinery was being repaired and plans were announced to put a new mill in. The mill was almost completed by July, but in 1942 everything but the new tramway was hauled to another site. It has been idle since that time and in the 1970s it was purchased by the National Park Service.
The total production of the mine during its operation was estimated at $1,100,000. Of that amount, $625,000-$682,000 worth of gold was taken from the mine between 1907-1911 alone. The Keane Wonder mine was one of the two largest producing gold mines in the Death Valley area (Skidoo was the other). The scope of the operation, the duration of production and the story of two incredibly lucky miners all add up to a mine that ultimately surpassed even the grandeur of the name "Keane Wonder Mine."
The Lost Pioneers of 1849
Article by Ranger Roger Brandt
In 1849, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California and people from all over the United States packed their belongings and began to travel by wagon to what they hoped would be new and better life. Since most of these pioneers began their exodus to California in 1849, they are generally referred to as 49ers. One of the supply points along the trail was Salt Lake City, where pioneers prepared for the long journey across the Great Basin desert before climbing over the High Sierra Mountains to the gold fields of California. It was important to leave Salt Lake City and cross the desert before snow began to fall on the Sierra Mountains, making them impassible. Only a couple of years before, a group of pioneers called the Donnor Party left late out of Salt Lake City and was trapped by a storm, an event that became one of the greatest human disasters of that day and age. The stories of the Donnor Party were still fresh on everyone's mind when a group of wagons arrived at Salt Lake City in October of 1849. This was much too late to try to cross the mountains safely, and it looked like these wagons were going to have to wait out the winter in Salt Lake City. It was then that they heard about the Old Spanish Trail, a route that went around the south end of the Sierras and was safe to travel in the winter. The only problems were that no pioneer wagon trains had ever tried to follow it and they could only find one person in town who knew the route and would agree to lead them. As this wagon train left Salt Lake City, some of these people would become part of a story of human suffering in a place they named Death Valley.
The first two weeks of travel on the Old Spanish Trail were easy, but the going was slower than most of the travelers wanted. The leader of the group, Captain Jefferson Hunt, would only go as fast as the slowest wagon in the group. Just as the people were about to voice their dissent, a young man rode into camp and showed some of the people a map made by John Fremont on one of his exploratory trips through the area.
The map showed a short cut across the desert to a place called Walker Pass. Everyone agreed that this would cut off 500 miles from their journey so most of the 120 wagons decided to follow this map while the other wagons continued along the Old Spanish Trail with Captain Hunt. The point where these wagons left the Old Spanish Trail is near the present day town of Enterprise, Utah where a monument (Jefferson Hunt Monument) has been constructed to commemorate this historic event. Almost as soon as these people began their journey, they found themselves confronted with the precipitous obstacle of Beaver Dam Wash, a gaping canyon on the present day Utah-Nevada state line (Beaver Dam State Park, Nevada). Most of the people became discouraged and turned back to join Jefferson Hunt, but about 20 wagons decided to continue on. It was a tedious chore getting the wagons across the canyon and took several days. In the mean time, the young man who had the map of the short cut got impatient and, under the cloak of darkness, left the group. Despite the fact that the group didn't have a map, they decided to continue on thinking that all they had to do was go west and they would eventually find the pass.
After crossing Beaver Dam Wash the group passed through the area of present day Panaca, Nevada and crossed over "Bennetts Pass" to Del Mar Valley. Here they started having difficulty finding water but eventually found their way to Crystal Springs in the Paranagat Valley. They continued over Hancock Summit into Tikaboo Valley and then on to Groom Lake in central Nevada. They had now been slowly making their way across the desert for almost a month since they had left the Old Spanish Trail . At Groom Lake they got into a dispute on which way to go. One group wanted to follow a well traveled Indian trail to the south in hopes of finding a good water source. The other group wanted to stay with the original plan of traveling west. The group eventually split and went their separate ways but they both were to have two things in common. They were both saved from dying of thirst by a snow storm and they both ended up meeting again in a place called Ash Meadows located east of Death Valley. From here they continued on through present day Death Valley Junction and along the same route followed by Highway 190. On Christmas Eve of 1849, the group arrived at Travertine Springs, located about a mile from Furnace Creek.
The lost pioneers had now been traveling across the desert for about two months since leaving the Old Spanish Trail. Their oxen were weak from lack of forage and their wagons were battered and in poor shape. They too were weary and discouraged but their worst problem was not the valley that lay before them. It was the towering mountains that stood like an impenetrable wall as far as could be seen in both directions. They decided to head toward what appeared to be a pass to the north near present day Stovepipe Wells, but after discovering this was also impassible, decided they were going to have to leave their wagons and belongings behind and walk to civilization. They slaughtered several oxen and used the wood of their wagons to cook the meat and make jerky. The place where they did this is today referred to as "Burned Wagons Camp" and is located near the sand dunes of Death Valley. From here, they began climbing toward Towne Pass and then turned south over Emigrant Pass to Wildrose Canyon. As they left Death Valley, one of the women in the group turned and said "Goodbye Death Valley" and hence the valley got its name. After crossing the mountains and dropping down into Panamint Valley, they turned south and climbed a small pass into Searles Lake Valley before making their way into Indian Wells Valley near the present day city of Ridgecrest. It was here that they finally got their first look at the Sierra Mountains. They turned south, probably following a trail and traveled close to the same route followed by Highway 14. Ironically, they walked right by Walker Pass (Highway 178 to Isabella Lake), the place they had set out to look for almost three months earlier.
From Walkers Pass, they entered into what was to become the worst part of their journey, the Mojave Desert Plateau. This is a flat, featureless land with very few water sources to be found. The only things that saved them from dying of thirst were a few puddles of water and ice from a recent storm. Eventually they found their way over a pass near Palmdale, California and, following the Santa Clarita River drainage, were finally discovered and rescued by Spanish cowboys from Rancho San Fernando, located near present day Newhall, California.
The story of these lost pioneers and their encounter with the Nevada and California deserts has been narrowed to the point that people think it only involved Death Valley and nothing else. Many tall tales and misconceptions have found their way into history books as well as text books for schools. Here are some of the myths:
Scotty's Castle - A Desert Legend is Born
Some say Death Valley Scotty paid for the Castle with gold from his secret mine. Others say his partner Chicago millionaire Albert Johnson built it. Whose castle was it really? Perhaps you can decide while strolling through the grounds on your own, or maybe while joining a park ranger on a 1939 living history tour of the mansion.
Regardless of the source of his income, Death Valley Scotty certainly remains Death Valley's greatest legend for his flamboyant and outrageous character. Born Walter Scott in 1872, he ran away as a young boy from his home in Kentucky to join his brother on a ranch in Nevada.
He worked numerous jobs in the area, including a few in Death Valley, a place he loved immediately and which would someday become his home. In 1890, a talent scout for Buffalo Bill Cody discovered Scotty and hired him to work as a cowboy with the Wild West show.
After traveling the world with the Wild West for twelve years, Scotty began a new profession that brought him even more fame and riches - gold prospecting. He convinced several wealthy businessmen that he had claim to a gold mine worth a fortune in Death Valley. Scotty agreed to split the profits, provided they first offer enough money to extract the ore.
Scotty apparently had little luck while prospecting in Death Valley over the next few years. However the desert dweller often turned up at the finest hotels and saloons of California and Nevada, and began what would become his legendary spending sprees.
Scotty's most steadfast investor was Chicago insurance magnate Albert Johnson. The two men struck quite a contrast to one another when they met soon after the turn of the century. Mr. Johnson was a well respected and religious man, whereas Scotty was a rowdy and shady character.
Convinced to invest in the mine, Mr. Johnson gave thousands of dollars to Scotty over the next several years. Unfortunately, at least according to Scotty, a number of calamities prevented delivery of the gold. Undaunted, Mr. Johnson finally decided to take a look at the gold mine on a personal tour of Death Valley.
Scotty remained cool. Using his Grapevine Canyon home as base camp, Scotty took Mr. Johnson on a grueling trek by horseback through Death Valley. He figured a few days in the desert would be too much for Johnson, whose health had suffered permanently following a near-fatal train wreck in his youth.
Surprisingly, Johnson loved Death Valley so much that he stayed nearly a month, and his health improved dramatically in the dry, sunny climate.
Although he never saw Scotty's mine, Mr. Johnson did not seem to mind. He had found riches in the desert far greater than ones that glitter. Besides, he had taken a liking to the eccentric desert rat. The two men began a lifelong friendship that would change the history of Death Valley forever.
Over the next ten winters, Albert Johnson often returned to Death Valley. His wife, the former Bessie Penniman, began to accompany him and Scotty on their desert expeditions. Mrs. Johnson suggested that they build something more comfortable for their vacations, an idea that lead to the construction of the Death Valley Ranch in the late 1920s.
Recognizing a good story, Scotty told everyone that he was building the two million dollar home with profits from his gold mine. When questioned by the droves of reporters who visited, Mr. Johnson actually agreed that Scotty owned the place, and passed himself off as Scotty's banker.
Towards the end of the Great Depression, the Johnsons retired to Hollywood and often visited the Castle, which had become a popular hotel and tourist attraction due to the fame of Death Valley Scotty. Thousands of tourists, along with reporters from around the country, flocked to the Castle each year to see what they thought to be the dwelling of one of the world's richest gold miners.
The Johnsons died in the 1940s, and having no heirs, willed the Castle to a charitable organization called the Gospel Foundation. The Foundation continued to run the Castle hotel and tours, and also took care of Scotty, who lived in the Castle the last two years of his life. He died in 1954, and was laid to rest on a hill overlooking the famous home that bears his name.
In 1970, the Gospel Foundation sold the estate to the National Park Service, whose job is to protect and preserve the Castle for present and future generations to enjoy. Perhaps Death Valley Scotty had that in mind when he proclaimed:
"The Hall of Fame is going up. We're building a Castle that will last at least a thousand years. As long as there's men on earth, likely, these walls will stand here."
| Name | Scientific Name | Habitat |
| desert shrew | Notiosorex crawfordi | Found in sagebrush; sometimes in masses of vegetation at the base of desert plants. |
| fringed myotis | Myotis thysanodes | Roosts in caves, mines, and buildings;juniper forests and desert shrub. |
| california myotis | Myotis californicus | Roosts in caves and buildings. |
| small-footed myotis | Myotis subulatus | Roosts in caves. |
| silver-haired bat | Lasionycteris noctivagans | Found around water in forested areas. |
| western pipistrelle | Pipistrellus hesperus | Roosts in rock crevices. |
| townsend's big-eared bat | Plecotus townsendii | Found in abandoned mine tunnels and shafts from 3000 to 6000 feet. |
| hoary bat | Lasiurus cinereus | Roosts in trees; found around well watered areas. |
| pallid bat | Antrozous pallidus | Roosts in crevices and caves. |
| brazilian free-tailed bat | Tadarida brasiliensis | Roosts in caves, crevices, and buildings. |
| nuttall's cottontail | Sylvilagus nuttalli | Surrounding mountains. |
| desert cottontail | Sylvilagus audobonii | Mesquite thickets on valley floor. |
| black-tailed jackrabbit | Lepus californicus | Near valley floor and in mountains. |
| panamint chipmunk | Eutamius panamintinus | Pinyon-juniper belt of Panamint and Grapevine Mountains. |
| white-tailed antelope ground squirrel | Ammospermophilus leucurus | Mesquite hummocks of valley floor to over 6000 feet in mountains; common along roadsides. |
| california ground squirrel | Spermophilus beecheyi | Hunter Mountain area of Cottonwood Mountains. |
| round-tailed ground squirrel | Spermophilus tereticaudus | Low desert; mesquite thickets near Furnace Creek; common along roadsides. |
| mojave ground squirrel | Spermophilus mohavensis | Inhabits gentle slopes in Wingate Wash area. |
| panamint pocket gopher | Thomymus umbrinus scapterus | Panamint and Grapevine Mountains. |
| pygmy pocket gopher | Thomymus umbrinus oreocus | Higher elevations in surrounding mountains;up to 10,000 feet on Telescope Peak. |
| great basin pocket mouse | Perognathus parvus | Grapevine Mountains. |
| little pocket mouse | Perognathus longimembris | Sage habitat at Harrisburg Flat. |
| long-tailed pocket mouse | Perognathus formosus mohavensis | Grapevine Mountains. |
| desert pocket mouse | Perognathus penicillatus | Mesquite Flat. |
| chisel-toothed kangaroo rat | Dipodomys microps | Harrisburg Flat in dry, sandy soil with sparse vegetation. |
| panamint kangaroo rat | Dipodomys panamintinus | Northern Panamint Mountains between 6000 and 7000 feet. |
| merriam's kangaroo rat | Dipodomys merriami | Dry, sandy soil on the valley floor. |
| desert kangaroo rat | Dipodomys deserti | Dry locations on valley, especially around mesquite. |
| western harvest mouse | Reithrodontomys megalotis | Well watered areas; Salt Creek, Furnace Creek, Hanaupah Canyon, Wildrose. |
| cactus mouse | Peromyscus eremicus | Higher elevations in Grapevine and Cottonwood Mountains. |
| deer mouse | Peromyscus maniculatis | Valley floor and mountains. |
| canyon mouse | Peromyscus crinitus | Mountains and rocky canyons. |
| brush mouse | Peromyscus boylii | Northern Panamint Mountains. |
| pinon mouse | Peromyscus truei | Rocky areas in pinyon-juniper belt. |
| southern grasshopper mouse | Onychomys torridus | Throughout Death Vally below 5500 feet. |
| desert woodrat | Neotoma lepida | From salt marshes into surrounding mountains. |
| bushy-tailed woodrat | Neotoma cinerea | Pinyon-juniper area of northern Panamint Mountains. |
| house mouse | Mus musculus | In and around human dwellings. |
| porcupine | Erethizon dorsatum | Grapevine, Panamint, and Cottonwood Mountains. |
| coyote | Canis latrans | From salt flats into mountains; common around mesquite thickets. |
| kit fox | Vulpes velox | Nocturnal; common throughout most of Death Valley; Sand Dunes and Furnace Creek. |
| gray fox | Urocyon cinereoargenteus | East side of Grapevine Mountains. |
| ringtail | Bassariscus astutus | Nocturnal; rocky terrain in arid brush and tree areas. |
| badger | Taxidea taxus | Low desert into mountains; Daylight Pass. |
| spotted skunk | Spilogale putorius | Mountains surrounding Death Valley. |
| mountain lion | Felis concolor | Surrounding mountains |
| bobcat | Lynx rufus | From sea level into mountains. |
| burro | Equus assinus | Introduced in the 1880's; Panamint, Cottonwood, and Grapevine Mountains. |
| horse | Equus caballus | Introduced; Hunter Mountain, Cottonwood Basin, Pinto Peak, Grapevine Mountains. |
| mule deer | Odocoileus hemionus | Along eastern and western boundaries of the park in Panamint, Cottonwood, and Grapevine Mountains. |
| desert bighorn sheep | Ovis canadensis nelsoni | Throughout Death Valley at all elevations; inaccessable ridges and canyons, usually near water. |
Flower Guide
Will the flowers be good this year?
Where can we go to see them?
What kinds/colors will there be?
When will the peak bloom be?
These questions are often asked by people planning spring visits to Death Valley. Although there are many variables involved in the desert wildflower shows, there are a few guidelines you can use to find answers to these questions.
Some years the desert is spectacular with wildflowers; other years the blossoms are almost nonexistent (but never totally absent). A good wildflower year depends on at least three things:
The best time to see a spring floral display is in years when rainfall has been several times the Death Valley annual average of about 1.9 inches. In general, heavy rains in late October with no more rain through the winter months, will not bring out the flowers as well as rains that are evenly-spaced throughout the winter and into the spring.
Peak Blooming Periods for Death Valley are usually...
Mid February - Mid April at lower elevations (valley floor and alluvial fans)
Best Areas: Jubilee Pass, Highway 190 near the Furnace Creek Inn, base of Daylight Pass Dominant species: desert star, blazing star, desert gold, mimulus, encelia, poppies, verbena, evening primrose, phacelia, and various species of cacti (usually above the valley floor).
Early April - Early May at 2,000 to 4,000 ft. elevations
Best areas: Panamint Mountains Dominant species: paintbrush, Mojave desert rue, lupine, Joshua tree, bear poppy, cacti and Panamint daisies.
Late April - Early June above 4,000 ft. elevations
Best areas: High Panamints Dominant species: Mojave wildrose, rabbitbrush, Panamint daisies, mariposa lilies and lupine.
Please remember, you are in a National Park. Regulations prohibit picking of wildflowers so that they may be enjoyed by everyone.
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| Name | Scientific Name | Name | Scientific Name |
| Bear Poppy | Arctemecon merriamii | Brown-eyed evening-primrose | Camissonia claviformis |
| Desert chicory | Rafinesqia neomexicana | Desert star | Monoptilon bellioides |
| Desert tobacco | Nicotiana obtusifolia | Desert windflower | Anemone tuberosa |
| Eureka Dunes evening primrose | Oenothera californica ssp. eurekensis | Fremont pincushion | Chaenactis fremontii |
| Gravel Ghost | Atrichoseris platyphylla | Humble gilia | Linanthus demissus |
| Joshua tree | Yucca brevifolia | Narrow-leaved evening-primrose | Camissonia refracta |
| Pebble pincushion | Chaenactis carphoclinia | Pinyon forget-me-not | Cryptantha tumulosa |
| Prickly phlox | Leptodactylon pungens | Rock daisy | Perityle emoryi |
| Rosemary eriogonum | Eriogonum fasiculatum var. polifolium | Round-leaf phacelia | Phacelia rotundifolia |
| Sacred Datura | Datura wrightii | Scented Cryptantha | Cryptantha utahensis |
| Shredding evening-primrose | Camissonia boothii | Silky dalea | Dalea mollisima |
| Silver prickle poppy | Argemone munita ssp. argenta | Tufted evening primrose | Oneothera caespitosa ssp. marginata |
| Whitemargin spurge | Chamaesyce albomarginata | White tackstem | Calycoseris wrightii |
| Name | Scientific Name | Name | Scientific Name |
| Desert mariposa lily | Calochortus kennedyi var. munzi | Globemallow | Sphaeralcea ambigua |
| Indian paintbrush | Castilleja applegatei ssp. martinii | Scarlet locoweed | Astragulus coccineus |
| Name | Scientific Name | Name | Scientific Name |
| Acton's encelia | Encelia actoni | Bigelow's coreopsis | Coreopsis bigelovii |
| Brittlebush | Encelia farinosa | Checker fiddleneck | Amsinckia tessellata |
| Creosote bush | Larrea tridentata | Death Valley goldeneye | Viguiera reticulata |
| Death Valley blazing star | Mentzelia reflexa | Death Valley mojavea | Mohavea breviflora |
| Desert dandelion | Malacathrix glabrata | Desert gold | Gerea canescens |
| Desert gold poppy | Eschscholzia glytosperma | Desert senna | Senna armata |
| Desert trumpet | Eriogonum inflatum | Frost evening primrose | Camissonia walkeri ssp. tortilis |
| Ghost Flower | Mohavea confertiflora | Goldcarpet | Gilmania luteola |
| Golden cryptantha | Cryptantha confertiflora | Golden evening-primrose | Camissonia brevipes |
| Ground-cherry | Physalis crassifolia | Heart-leaved evening primrose | Camissonia cardiophylla |
| Honey mesquite | Prosopis glandulosa ssp. torreyana | Little gold poppy | Eschscholzia minutiflora |
| Little trumpet | Eriogonum trichopes | Mojave spurge | Euphorbia incisa |
| Mojave sun cup | Camissonia campestris | Pale yellow evening-primrose | Camossonia brevipes ssp. pallidula |
| Panamint daisy | Enceliopsis colvillei | Princes's plume | Stanleyea pinnata |
| Rock nettle | Eucnide urens | Snakes's head | Malacathrix coulteri |
| Sprucebush | Peucephyllum schottii | Sweetbush | Bebbia juncea var.aspera |
| Turtleback | Psathyrotes ramosissima | Twining snapdragon | Antirrhinum filipes |
| Whitestem blazing star | Mentzelia albicaulis | Yellow comets | Mentzelia affinis |
| Yellow desert evening primrose | Oenothera primiveris ssp. bufonis | Yellow peppergrass | Lepidium flavum |
| Yellow tackstem | Calycoseris parryi | Whispering Bells | Emmenathe penduloflora |
| Name | Scientific Name | Name | Scientific Name |
| Beavertail cactus | Opuntia basilaris | Bigelow monkeyflower | Mimulus bigelovii |
| Bristly gilia | Langloisia setosissima ssp. setosissima | Broad-leaved gilia | Gilia latifolia |
| Broad-flowered gilia | Gilia cana ssp. triceps | Death Valley monkeyflower | Mimulus rupicola |
| Death Valley penstemon | Penstemon frutiformis | Desert five-spot | Eremalche rotundifolia |
| Desert peach | Prunus andersonii | Desert sandverbena | Abronia villosa |
| Lilac sunbonnet | Langloisia setosissima ssp.punctata | Mojave aster | Xylorhiza tortifolia |
| Pink phlox | Phlox stansburyi | Purple mat | Nama demissum |
| Panamint live-forever | Dudleya saxosa ssp. saxosa | Spanish needles | Palifoxia arida |
| Weakstem Mariposa | Lily Calochortus flexuosus | Wetleaf spiderling | Anulocaulis annulatus |
| Windmills | Allonia incarnata ssp. nudata |
| Name | Scientific Name | Name | Scientific Name |
| Arizona Lupine | Lupinus arizonicus | Blue dicks | Dichelostemma capitatum |
| Broomrape | Orobanche sp. | Caltha-leaf phacelia | Phacelia calthifolia |
| Chia | Salvia columbariae | Death Valley phacelia | Phacelia vallis-mortae |
| Death Valley sage | Salvia funera | Desert larkspur | Delphinium parishii |
| Fremont phacelia | Phacelia fremontii | Indigo bush | Psorothamnus arborescens var. minutifolius |
| Layne locoweed | Astragulus layneae | Mojave desert-rue | Thamnosma montana |
| Notch-leaf phacelia | Phacelia crenulata | Purple sage | Salvia dorrii |
| Smooth-stemmed fagonia | Fagonia chilensis laevis | Specter phacelia | Phacelia pedicellata |
| Name | Scientific Name | Name | Scientific Name |
| Desert Sandwort | Arenaria macadenia | Rambling milkweed | Sarcostemma hirtellum |
| Stawtop cholla | Opuntia echinocarpa | Stream Orchid | Epipactis gigantea |
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