Evidence of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe in the area now known as Death Valley dates back over 1,000 years, according to anthropologists. Sadly, it wasn’t until 1983 that the Timbisha Shoshone tribe received federal recognition of their native lands, and today fewer than 100 Timbisha Shoshone tribe members live in the territory.

Christian B. Zabriskie was born in Wyoming, but moved to Candelaria, Nevada, to work for the Pacific Coast Borax Company, which had mining operations in Death Valley. Zabriskie eventually rose to the rank of Vice President, and today Zabriskie Point — one of the most photographed spots in Death Valley — is named after him.

Death Valley is the largest national park found in the contiguous 48 states. The only national parks that exceed the size of Death Valley’s 3.67 million acres are found in Alaska, the largest of which is Wrangell-St. Ellis, which is more than twice Death Valley’s size.

The variety of prints and fossils found in a box canyon within Death Valley led paleontologists to give it the nickname of “the Barnyard.” The tracks show evidence of life in Death Valley that dates to the Pliocene Epoch, about 5 million years ago. Mastodons, camels, horses, and leopard-size cats all left prints within stone still found in a remote corner of the national park.

Both the Clemson Tigers and the LSU Tigers have co-opted the intimidating Death Valley nickname for their stadiums, with official signage to support their cause. The dueling nicknames have sparked a rivalry between the two Southern schools — neither of which is anywhere near the actual Death Valley.

Built in the 1870s, the 10 structures in Wildrose Canyon that look like upside-down beehives are actually charcoal kilns. The Modock Consolidated Mining Company used these to create fuel for use with their lead-silver mines, but they are believed to have only been functional from about 1877 to1879. The kilns remain in very good condition.

In a 1934 guide to Death Valley National Monument, the National Park Service quipped that “only the devil could play golf” on the rough surface of this salt pan in the Mojave Desert. That description inspired its name, and, indeed, it’s no place you’d want to tee off. Thousands of spiky halite salt deposits rise up to create a terrain that’s more reminiscent of the moon than lush greens and fairways.

While most birds migrate out of Death Valley in the summer, the roadrunner can be found speeding its way around Death Valley all 12 months of the year. Measuring just a foot tall on average, the bird is part of the cuckoo family and is a hunter that preys on lizards, insects, other small birds, and snakes. Roadrunners can be found primarily roaming around Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells.

The Eureka Dunes are found within an enclosed basin in the northwest corner of Death Valley, at an elevation of 3,000 feet. The dunes are three miles long, a mile wide, and 680 feet tall — which makes them the largest dunes in California. The dunes are enclosed by the Last Chance Mountains, which reach a height of 4,000 feet.

On July 10, 1913, the world record for highest air temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in Death Valley’s Furnace Creek. The hottest month on record in Death Valley was July 2018, when the average temperature was 108.1 degrees Fahrenheit, with daytime highs exceeding 127 degrees four days in a row.

Sitting 5,575 feet above Badwater Basin, Dante’s View is one of the most popular spots to take in the expanse of Death Valley. The name comes from author Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy,” a 14th-century epic in which the author descends into hell. Visitors can find Dante’s View by taking a detour off Highway 190.

Since the early 19th century, visitors to the Racetrack Playa lake bed in Death Valley have been puzzled by rocks that had apparently moved by themselves, leaving a trail in the dust behind them. Scientists finally solved the mystery in 2014: An almost invisible layer of moisture on the lake bed freezes at night, and when it melts in the hot desert sun, the thin layers of ice move across the ground and carry the rocks.

In 1849, a group of settlers left the Old Spanish Trail near present-day Enterprise, Utah, to follow a supposed shortcut to their California destination. That “shortcut” ended up stranding them in Death Valley and gave the group their name of “The Lost 49ers.” According to legend, as the group passed through the valley, one member said, “Goodbye, Death Valley” — and the name stuck.

The Furnace Creek Golf Course at Death Valley lays claim to the world’s lowest-sitting set of links. The 18-hole, par-70 course is located at 218 feet below sea level and was ranked by “Golf Digest” as one of America’s 50 Toughest Courses. The low elevation means that golf balls don’t carry as much as they do at sea level or above, making the course play longer than its listed 6,236 yards.

In the first “Star Wars” film ever released (1977’s “Episode IV: A New Hope”), Death Valley served as the filming location for Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s home planet of Tatooine. The Inyo Mountains feature an area known as Star Wars Canyon, where pilots train and make test runs from nearby Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.

The appropriately named Furnace Creek was the site of world records for both ground and air temperature. A record air temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit was measured here in 1913, and a record ground temperature of 201 degrees Fahrenheit was set in 1972. Ground temperatures tend to be more extreme than air temperatures in both directions, with higher highs and lower lows.

Death Valley got its name in part due to how remote it is, and the closest major city of Las Vegas is a little more than a two-hour drive away. Los Angeles is about a four-hour drive, and San Francisco is over seven hours away by car, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains cutting between the two cities.

At 282 feet below sea level, Death Valley’s Badwater Basin is the lowest point on land on the North American continent. Legend has it that the basin earned its name when a mule refused to drink from the basin’s extremely salty spring-fed pool. But despite its extreme conditions, a number of species thrive in the basin, including a kind of snail naturally found at only this location.

Death Valley National Park spans 5,270 square miles along the eastern border of California within the northern region of the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert covers more than 25,000 square miles and reaches into parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.

Death Valley is mostly found within California’s Inyo County, but about 110,000 of the national park’s 3 million acres reach into Nevada. The valley is about 140 miles long, running mostly north to south, and ranges from about five to 15 miles wide. Death Valley’s boundaries are the Panamint Mountains to the west, and the Black, Funeral, and Grapevine Mountains to the east.