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.”