Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, as well as the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. It contains Badwater Basin, the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and lowest in North America at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. More than 93% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment including creosote bush, Joshua tree, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the endangered Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.
Lupinus, commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. They are widely cultivated, both as a food source and as ornamental plants, although in the Nordic countries and New Zealand's South Island, introduced lupins are viewed as a severe environmental threat.
Lupinus arboreus, the yellow bush lupine (US) or tree lupin (UK), is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae.
The Panamint Range is a short rugged fault-block mountain range in the northern Mojave Desert, within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, eastern California. Dr. Darwin French is credited as applying the term Panamint in 1860 during his search for the fabled Gunsight Lode. The orographic identity has been liberally applied for decades to include other ranges.
Places of interest in the Death Valley area are mostly located within Death Valley National Park in eastern California.
Timbisha (Tümpisa) or Panamint is the language of the Native American people who have inhabited the region in and around Death Valley, California, and the southern Owens Valley since late prehistoric times. There are a few elderly individuals who can speak the language in California and Nevada, but none is monolingual, and all use English regularly in their daily lives. Until the late 20th century, the people called themselves and their language "Shoshone." The tribe then achieved federal recognition under the name Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California. This is an Anglicized spelling of the native name of Death Valley, tümpisa, pronounced [tɨmbiʃa], which means "rock paint" and refers to the rich sources of red ochre in the valley. Timbisha is also the language of the so-called "Shoshone" groups at Bishop, Big Pine, Darwin, Independence, and Lone Pine communities in California and the Beatty community in Nevada. It was also the language spoken at the former Indian Ranch reservation in Panamint Valley.
Panamint City is a ghost town in the Panamint Range, near Death Valley, in Inyo County, California, US. It is also known by the official Board of Geographic Names as Panamint. Panamint was a boom town founded after silver and copper were found there in 1872. By 1874, the town had a population of about 2,000. Its main street was one mile (1.6 km) long. Panamint had its own newspaper, the Panamint News. Silver was the principal product mined in the area. The town is located about three miles northwest of Sentinel Peak. According to the National Geographic Names Database, NAD27 latitude and longitude for the locale are 36°07′06″N117°05′43″W, and the feature ID number is 1661185. The elevation of this location is identified as being 6,280 feet AMSL. The similar-sounding Panamint Springs, California, is located about 25.8 miles at 306.4 degrees off true north near Panamint Junction.
The Kawaiisu are a Native Californian ethnic group in the United States who live in the Tehachapi Valley and across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains to the north, toward Lake Isabella and Walker Pass. Historically, the Kawaiisu also traveled eastward on food-gathering trips to areas in the northern Mojave Desert, to the north and northeast of the Antelope Valley, Searles Valley, as far east as the Panamint Valley, the Panamint Mountains, and the western edge of Death Valley. Today, some Kawaiisu people are enrolled in the Tule River Indian Tribe.
The Timbisha are a Native American tribe federally recognized as the Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California. They are known as the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and are located in south central California, near the Nevada border. As of the 2010 Census the population of the Village was 124. The older members still speak the ancestral language, also called Timbisha.
The Panamint Valley is a long basin located east of the Argus and Slate ranges, and west of the Panamint Range in the northeastern reach of the Mojave Desert, in eastern California, United States.
Lupinus arizonicus, the Arizona lupine, is a flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of North America, where it can be found growing in open places and sandy washes below 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) elevation. It is common around Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park in California.
Lupinus nanus, the sky lupine, field lupine, dwarf lupin, ocean-blue lupine or Douglas' annual lupine, is a species of lupine native to the western United States. It is found natively in California, Nevada, and on Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon. It tends to grow on slopes and in open or disturbed areas below 1300 meters.
Panamint Springs is private resort in Inyo County, California. It consists of a motel, cabins, RV and tent campsites, restaurant, and gas station, all operated by Cassell Enterprises, LLC. It lies at an elevation of 1926 feet.
Lupinus excubitus is a species of lupine known as the grape soda lupine. Its common name refers to its sweet scent, which is said to be very reminiscent of grape soda. This species and its variants are found in Southwestern United States, especially in California and Nevada, e.g., Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks, and northwestern Mexico.
Calochortus panamintensis is a rare North American species of flowering plants in the lily family known by the common name Panamint mariposa lily. It is native to Inyo and Kern Counties in California, plus adjacent Nye County, Nevada. It is named after the Panamint Range near Death Valley.
Enceliopsis covillei, known by the common name Panamint daisy, is a rare North American desert species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.
Lupinus flavoculatus is a species of lupine known by the common name yelloweyes, or yellow-eyed lupine.,
Lupinus kingii is a species of Lupinus, family Fabaceae, which can be found in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah. Both the leaves and the pods are hairy with the later being 10 millimetres (0.39 in) long. In Utah, it is found only at Bryce Canyon National Park.
Lake Panamint is a former lake that occupied Panamint Valley in California during the Pleistocene. It was formed mainly by water overflowing through the Owens River and which passed through Lake Searles into the Panamint Valley. At times, Lake Panamint itself overflowed into Death Valley and Lake Manly.
Fr. John J. Crowley, often referred to as the Desert Padre, was an early 20th century Catholic priest in California's large but sparsely populated Eastern Sierra. He served there from 1919 to 1940, with an interlude, mainly in Fresno, from about 1924 to 1934. He is remembered for his prodigious efforts to help improve the economic well-being of all Eastern Sierra residents whose lives had been adversely affected by the diversion of water from the Owens Valley to the rapidly growing but water-deficient Los Angeles area
