Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FURNACE CREEK INN
& RANCH RESORT
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The incomparable Death Valley is the setting for the Furnace Creek Inn & Ranch Resort. First
inhabited by Panamint Indians from the Shoshone Nation, Death Valley National Park holds the
title as the hottest, driest, and lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere. It offers more than 3 mil-
lion acres of breathtaking vistas across mountains, rolling hills, snow-covered peaks, beautiful sand
dunes, rugged canyons, and a valley that is mostly below sea level.
Geologic patterns full of colorful minerals and rock formations offer a detailed history of the area,
as well as the formation of the valley of salt. Geologists believe that shifting tectonic plates caused the
mountains to rise at about the same time the valley floor dropped to a low of 282 feet below sea level.
Seawater trapped in the area deposited salt that is up to 1,000 feet thick in some places.
While Telescope Peak, the park's highest point, is more than 11,000 feet above sea level, the
bedrock under the valley floor is up to 9,000 feet below sea level, covered by centuries of erosion
from surrounding hills. Death Valley is one of the best places on earth to view stream formations
known as alluvial fans. Created by even small amounts of infrequent rain rushing down the steep
canyons scouring rocks, boulders, soil, and debris, alluvial fans are the result of repeated deposits of
this sedimentary fill near the valley floor at the canyon's mouth.
The Timbisha Tribe of the Shoshone Nation occupied the area for centuries and left petro-
glyphs in several of the remote canyons in Death Valley. Settlers first discovered the area in 1849.
Pioneers heading for the gold fields attempted to find a shortcut and entered the 130-mile-long val-
ley rimmed by high mountains. Search parties eventually found a way out, but one weary woman
offered a parting comment, that she was glad to be leaving “death valley” behind. The name has
stuck ever since.
Hopes of finding great gold and silver deposits were never realized, but minor discoveries kept
prospectors looking until they discovered “white gold,” better known as borax. W. T. Coleman built
the Harmony Borax Works in 1882, and introduced the 20 mule teams that were popularized in the
1950s by the TV program
Death Valley Days
and its host, Ronald Reagan. The mule-drawn wagons
hauled borax more than 165 miles to the railroad stop in the Mojave Desert for several years until
the operation was moved to Daggett, California.
After the turn of the century, the Pacific Coast Borax Company returned to Death Valley to
resume borax mining. In 1927, the company followed the lead of the successful Palm Springs Desert
