Research Paper on:
Overview of Death Valley National Park

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debate that they are not unique environments in which some of the worlds heartiest species live. Californias Death Valley is no exception. But the reason it was named "Death Valley"  was because a party of 30 attempted to cross it in 1849 thinking it could be a shortcut to the goldfields. Nearly half of them died in the attempt. The  encyclopedic statistics related to Death Valley (taken from Encarta) explain why it is so forbidding: "Much of the valley is below sea level, and near Badwater at 282  feet below sea level, is the lowest point in the western hemisphere. Death Valley National Monument (established 1933) has an area of 3230.9 square miles and incorporates the valley and  surrounding mountains. ...The summer temperatures in Death Valley ... exceed 125? F in the shade and rarely fall below 70? F" (PG). The well-known landscape photographer, David  Muench (2000), describes the area by writing: "The Mojave and Great Basin desert regions collide in sublime beauty where salt beds, caked dry flats, and a cracked earth provide a  stark bare-boned environment" (pp. 24). Landscape of Death Valley National Park As already noted, Death Valley was recognized for its uniqueness in the early decades of the 20th century  and was officially proclaimed as a national park by President Herbert Hoover (Internet source). Information at the parks website (2003) also explains that: "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" (Internet source). Just one of the parks truly remarkable features in terms of the landmass that it encompasses is its enormous differences in elevation