Twenty Mule Canyon in Death Valley, CA
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- April 1977
- Location
- Death Valley, California
- License
- This photograph copyright ©1977. All Rights Reserved
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Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for arid, badlands, Badwater Basin, borax, California, Death Valley, Death Valley National Park, deserts, dry, erosion, Harmony Borax Works, lowest point, mines, mining, Mojave, mountains, national parks, rain, rainstorm, salt, salt flats, sedimentary, Twenty Mule Team, and volcanic.
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The badlands of Twenty Mule Canyon in Death Valley, California. The craggy canyon is named for the Twenty Mule Teams used between 1883 and 1889 to haul borax through the valley for 165 miles over primitive roads from Harmony Borax Works to the railhead near Mojave. The borax was used to make soap, and the teams became an important promotion symbol for 20-Mule-Team Borax Soap.
Death Valley National Park is located east of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It is home to the lowest point in North America at Badwater, which is 282 feet below sea level, but it also encompasses parts of several mountain ranges. Its highest point is Telescope Peak, at 11,049 feet. Located in an rainshadow exaggerated by the presence of four major mountain ranges between it and the ocean, Death Valley receives less than two inches of rainfall a year and is famous as one of the hottest and driest places in North America. Summer temperatures often hover around 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
