Sunrise at Dantes View, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
If you go looking for dry desert landscapes beneath an unrelenting sun at Death Valley National Park, you’ll find them. If you go looking for lusher landscapes, believe it or not, you’ll find those, too, in this national park that is a contrast and a wonder. This month’s quiz and trivia piece is all about those wonders. Test your knowledge before looking at the answers provided at the bottom of this page. You might know more than you think and you might also learn something new!
1. As you gaze across the expanse of Death Valley at Dantes View toward the mountains of the Panamint Range on the other side, you’ll notice numerous huge alluvial fans, some of which coalesce to create a feature known as a / an ___.
a) Alluvial backwash
b) Bajada
c) Delta
d) Inselberg
Rows of date plams at the Inn at Death Valley, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
2. A visit to the Inn at Death Valley brings you in contact with rows of neatly-spaced date palms. You’ll also see these same trees near springs and seeps. True or False: date palms are native to Death Valley.
a) True
b) False
Harvestman on the rocks (no, not a drink), Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
3. While visiting Father Crowley Vista Point near Panamint Springs along the western border of the park, you might notice an interesting eight-legged arachnid like the one in the image above making its way over the ground, minding its own business, and trying to stay out of trouble. This creature is known as a harvestman. True or False: harvestmen are spiders.
a) True
b) False
White lined sphinx moth, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
4. While wandering the landscape of Death Valley, you might come across a large, beautiful moth with white lines on its wings called the white-lined sphinx moth. Sphinx moths are one of the largest flying insects of the desert, according to www.desertusa.com. Sphinx moths are also often called ___.
a) Hummingbird moths
b) Luna moths
c) Polyphemus moths
d) Underwing moths
Sunrise over Manly Beacon at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
5. If you’ve visited Zabriskie Point, one of the most prominent features you’ll have noticed is a pointy mountain called Manly Beacon, named after one of the first 49ers. A 49er was ___
a) A football player
b) A gold rush pioneer
c) The average age of a man who pioneered out there
d) A pioneer who took 49 days to pass over Death Valley and make it out alive
What remains of Harmony Borax Works, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
6. One of the earliest successful mining operations was the Harmony Borax Works, which was active from 1883 to 1888. True or False: This operation was famous for its ore deposits.
a) True
b) False
7. True or False: A muleskinner actually skinned mules during the times when food was scarce or non-existent out in Death Valley.
a) True
b) False
The bright white of a Badwater Basin salt flat, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
8. The salt flats in Badwater Basin cover nearly ___ miles.
a) 100
b) 200
c) 300
d) 400
9. Let’s stick with the salt flats a little longer. “The source of Badwater’s salts is Death Valley’s drainage system of ___ square miles.”
a) 1,000
b) 3,000
c) 7,000
d) 9,000
10. True or False: Dantes View got its name from the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who wrote about a man who visits Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
a) True
b) False
Trivia
Devils Cornfield, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
Prior to reaching the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes from the Furnace Creek side of CA-190, you’ll notice an interesting feature on either side of the road. This is the Devil’s Cornfield. During the early days of Death Valley National Park, promoters gave interesting landmarks and features unusual names. This particular sight was “thought to resemble bundled corn left to dry in rows at harvest time.” What you are looking at is arrowweed, the root system of which “binds the soil around each plant … Arrowweed does well in soils that are only slightly salty and is an indicator of a shallow water table. As the name suggests, Native Americans used the ridged stems of the arrowweed as arrow shafts.” Note, the NPS does not use an apostrophe with Devils.
A hot, mid-May day at Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
Why does Death Valley get so hot? According to the NPS, “The depth and shape of Death Valley influence its summer temperatures. The valley is a long, narrow basin 282 feet (86 m) below sea level, yet is walled by high, steep mountain ranges. The clear, dry air and sparse plant cover allow sunlight to heat the desert surface. Heat radiates back from the rocks and soil, then becomes trapped in the valley's depths. Summer nights provide little relief as overnight lows may only dip into the 85°F to 95°F (30°C to 35°C) range. Heated air rises, cools before it can rise over the valley's mountain walls, and is recycled back down to the valley floor. These pockets of descending air are only slightly cooler than the surrounding hot air. As they descend, they are compressed and heated even more by the low elevation air pressure. These moving masses of super-heated air blow through the valley, creating extreme high temperatures … The hottest air temperature ever recorded in Death Valley (Furnace Creek) was 134°F (57°C) on July 10, 1913. During the heat wave that peaked with that record, five consecutive days reached 129° F (54°C) or above. Death Valley holds the record for the hottest place on earth … Oddly enough, 1913 was also the year that saw Death Valley's coldest temperature. On January 8, the temperature dropped to 15°F (-10°C) at Furnace Creek.” How’s that for a land of extremes?
The curvy beauty of Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park / Rebecca Latson
“Sand, wind, and entrapping mountains are the perfect combination to create a dune field. While sand exists throughout the park, there are very few locations where large dune fields are created. In order to create sand dunes, there must be a source of sand (in this case, the eroding mountains to the north), wind to move that sand, and a barrier to prevent the sand from being blown farther (the mountains to the south). The conditions at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are perfect for the creation of dunes, and while individual grains move, and ripples form, the dune field remains. These dunes are named for the mesquite tree which grows in abundance in the area. The trees must twist and grow to avoid being buried, and leafless brown trunks are often exposed by the shifting sands.”
Quiz Answers
1b
A bajada (bah-haw-duh) is the term used for coalescing alluvial fans of which you can see numerous examples at Death Valley.
2b False
Date palms are non-native and were planted in Death Valley as ornamental and agricultural trees, according to the National Park Service.
3b False
Harvestmen and spiders are arachnids, but harvestmen are not spiders. Harvestmen belong to the order Opiliones. To learn more about this order, click here.
4a
Sphinx moths are also called hummingbird moths because, from a distance, they look like a hummingbird with its swift flight patterns moving and then hovering over the flowers. These moths are examples of “non-bee pollinators.”
5b
The term 49er was bestowed upon the gold rush pioneers who made their way to prospect for California gold in 1849. To learn more about this, click here.
6b False
The Harmony Borax Works “was famous for the 20 mule team wagons used to transport the partially refined borax. A very memorable advertising campaign used the wagons’ image to promote the company’s Boraxo soap and the Death Valley Days radio and television programs.”
7b False
According to a Hubbard Construction blog post (hubbard.com): mule skinners were “professional mule drivers, whose job it was to keep the mules hauling materials to and from jobsites. The term ‘skinner’ was common slang during the time for someone who could ‘skin,’ or outsmart, the mules into behaving in the way that was needed.” So, muleskinners drove the Harmony Borax 20 mule teams to transport that borax.
8b
“The salt flats in Badwater Basin cover nearly 200 square miles, the largest protected salt flats in the world.”
9d
“The source of Badwater’s salts is Death Valley’s drainage system of 9,000 square miles—an area larger than New Hampshire. Rain falling on distant peaks creates floods that rush ever lower. Along the way, minerals dissolve from rocks and join the flood. Here, at the lowest elevation, floods come to rest, forming temporary lakes. As the water evaporates, minerals concentrate until only the salts remain. After thousands of years, enough salts have washed in to produce layer upon layer of salt crust.”
10b True
According to lonelyplanet.com, “the overlook got its name from visiting members of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, who thought it evoked the Italian poet’s vision of nine circles of hell in the Divine Comedy. Indeed, the Borax industrialists hoped the vivid moniker would help establish Dante’s View as the best view in the area for visiting tourists.” Note: the NPS does not use an apostrophe in “Dantes.”
References Used In Addition To NPS Information
https://insectlab.russell.wisc.edu/2018/08/31/sphinx-moths-hovering-at-a-flower-near-you/
https://www.desertusa.com/insects/sphinx-moths.html
https://hubbard.com/muleskinner-blues-a-short-history-of-hubbards-origin...
