1972 / 1974 U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Map of Death Valley National Park

This is a 1972/1974 U.S. Geological Survey topographic map of Death Valley National Monument at the border of California and Nevada.

A Closer Look

Depicting from Scottys Junction and the Nellis Air Force Range in the north to the Fort Irwin Military reservation in the south, contour lines present the region's forbidding topography in detail. Mountains throughout are identified, and their elevations given. The region's scant, intermittent lakes, streams, and rivers are indicated, including Badwater Basin, the lowest elevation in the United States. Towns and villages are also labeled, and dashed lines illustrate county and reservation borders, while the boundary of the National Monument is prominently indicated. Settlements along the few roads spanning the monument are marked along with wells and hotels along the routes.

Roads include CA SR 190, formerly the Eichbaum Toll Road - the first established road to cross Death Valley. In the area surrounding the park are many mines - borate, lead, gold, silver, copper, and lead. Many features have colorful names, such as the 'Devil's Golf Course,' which is not a golf course but a desolate field of jagged little hills made of salt that have been eroded over centuries to look like a landscape from an alien world.

Death Valley National Park

On February 11, 1933, President Herbert Hoover created a nearly two-million-acre national monument in Death Valley. The Civilian Conservation Corps was responsible for the earliest improvements to the park, grading 500 miles of roads, installing telegraph and water lines, and constructing seventy-six buildings. Designated a biosphere reserve in 1994, Death Valley National Monument was expanded by 1.3 million acres on October 31, 1994, and redesignated as Death Valley National Park - the largest national park in the contiguous United States (larger than Rhode Island or Delaware and almost as large as Connecticut).

Publication History and Census

This map was published by the U.S. Geological Survey. It was compiled in 1972 and revised in 1974. It is well represented in institutional collections, though the frequent updating of the map in the 1970s has led to somewhat confused cataloging of the various editions.