Death Valley
Death Valley--well, the name is certainly appropriate since
not much life thrives there, but it’s not devoid of life, either. I’ve always
wondered about Death Valley and what secrets it may hold.
Here
are a few general facts about Death Valley:
Death Valley is located in California and Nevada and is 3.4
million acres which makes it the largest national park (established October 31,
1994) south of Alaska. It is North America’s hottest and driest place with a
record heat of 134°F and less than two inches of annual
rainfall. It is the lowest place on the American continent at 282 feet below
sea level.
Though the name Death Valley certainly befits the place,
it got the name in 1849 when emigrants headed for California’s gold fields
happen to stray into the 120 mile long basin. It took them two months of
endurance to forebear the hunger, thirst, and “awful silence.” One of the last
to leave peered down from a mountain at the valley and said, “Goodbye, Death
Valley.”
An Arial View of Death Valley and the Highway that runs through it
Death Valley is actually a “graben” which is a geological
term for a sunken fragment of the Earth’s crust. Believe it or not, there is
beauty to be seen in Death Valley. There are rocks sculpted by erosion,
colorfully tinted mudstone hills and canyons, shimmering sand dunes, thriving
oases, and a 200 square mile salt pan surrounded by mountains that compose one
of America’s greatest vertical rises. Once in a rare while spring rains come to
Death Valley and trigger wildflower blooms from over a thousand varieties of
plants. That must be an amazing sight to see.
More human activity than you might imagine has occurred in
Death Valley. Native Americans comprised of Shoshone mostly, found ways to
adapt to the challenging desert conditions. In fact, there remains rock art and
artifacts that indicate a human presence as far back as 9,000 years.
You might remember the name of a laundry product “Twenty
Mule Team Borax” that sponsored the old TV program, “Death Valley Days” way
back when. It got its name from the time from 1883 to 1889 when wagon teams
used to haul the powdery white borax from mines which have now fallen into
ruin.
The Beatty Rental House in the middle of nothing and nowhere in Death Valley
Death Valley possesses stunning landscapes, crystalline air,
and deep solitude. Wildlife, though illusive, resides in Death Valley. Bobcats,
kit foxes, and rodents come out after nightfall. Desert bighorn sheep forage in
the Joshua trees, juniper shrubs, and pines that live on the steep slopes of
the mountains. Hawks cruise on the thermals in the clear blue skies.
Now
for some fascinatin’ facts:
The
Sailing Stones of Death Valley—mysterious stones
that move on their own unrelated to gravitational cause. The “sailing stones” of
Racetrack Playa near the California border of Death Valley, vary in size from a
few ounces to hundreds of pounds. No one has actually seen them move, but the
trails they leave and the changes in their location make it clear they DO move.
The rocks are composed of dolomite and synite, the same composition of the
surrounding mountains. Due to erosion, they break off and tumble down to the
smooth, dry ground below leaving their tracks along their path.
Many of these trails are as long as 1,500 feet. That’s a
mighty long way from the mountains. Scientists have noted that the Rough
bottomed rocks tend to move in a straight line, whereas the smooth bottomed
rocks tend to just wander. The sailing stones have been observed and studied
since the early 1900s and several theories have been developed to explain how
they mysteriously move.
It wasn’t until 2014 when scientists used time-lapse
photography that scientists were able to observe the movement of the stones for
the very first time prove the 1966 theory about how the movement took place. In
the winter of 2014, rain formed a small pond that froze overnight and thawed
the next day which created a big sheet of ice that, by midday, was reduced to
only a few millimeters in thickness. Driven by a light wind, the ice sheet
broke up and accumulated behind the stones pushing them forward. Mystery
solved…maybe.
If you would like to see the sailing stones, drive 2 miles
south of Grandstand parking area. The location of the sailing stones is always
changing, of course, but they can be viewed by walking a half mile toward the
southeast corner of the playa.
It’s important to remember not to disturb the rocks or their
tracks. If it has been raining leaving the playa muddy, be very careful to
avoid approaching the rocks or leaving your footprints. Driving off established
roads is prohibited.
Death Valley Pup Fish
Feel Like Goin’ Fishin’?
Fish actually live in Death
Valley. They are pupfish that are endangered because they only live in two
small locations, Salt Creek and Cottonball Marsh. They are thought to be the
remainders of a large ecosystem of fish species that lived in Lake Manly which
dried up at the end of the last Ice Age.
View of Death Valley From the Summit of Telescope Peak
The highest mountain in the
park, 11,049-foot Telescope Peak,
lies only 15 miles from Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the U.S. The
vertical drop from the peak to Badwater Basin is twice the depth of the Grand
Canyon.
Named by gold prospectors
struggling through the area in 1849, Death Valley has been inhabited by
Timbisha Shoshone Native Americans; gold prospectors, including slaves; Chinese
immigrants mining for silver and borax; Basque immigrants who settled here at
the turn of the 20th century; and Japanese Americans temporarily interned here
during World War II.
A Lone Hiker in Death Valley--You Better Know What You're Doing
Deaths
and strange disappearances:
Sprawled out over a large swath of Eastern California, in
the United States is a vast expanse of arid desert wasteland covering around
3,000 sq mi (7,800 km2), known rather fittingly as Death Valley,
located mostly within Inyo County, California. This is an unforgiving,
desolate land, which is a stranger to rain and known as one of the hottest
places in the world, with some the highest temperature ever recorded on earth,
at 134 °F (56.7 °C), recorded on July 10, 1913. It is as deadly,
inhospitable a place as you are likely to find, that may as well be the surface
of some scorching, barren alien planet, yet it has drawn more than its fair
share of visitors who flock here to see the bleak, sun blazed vistas or merely
out of pure curiosity. Yet for as many people that come here to visit, there
are also those who never return, and this is a deadly, ominous place that has
earned a rather sinister reputation for mysterious vanishings and deaths.
(1) One
of the earlier unexplained disappearances of Death Valley happened in 1958,
when 26-year-old Army pilot First Lieut. Paul Byron Whipkey vanished under
strange circumstances from Fort Ord, California. On July 10, 1958, Lieutenant
Whipkey casually told his fellow officers that he was heading out to get a
quick drink in the nearby town, and he would bizarrely be next seen a few hours
later and hundreds of miles away in Mojave, California, where he allegedly
checked into a motel for no known reason. The next day, he purportedly bought
14 gallons of gasoline and then proceeded to vanish off the face of the earth.
The only clue would come 5 weeks later, when Whipkey’s abandoned vehicle was found
by California fish and game officers in a remote, forbidding region of Death
Valley, 15 miles away from the main road and 400 miles from where he had begun
his odd journey in Fort Ord. Whipkey’s dog tags, suitcase, and other personal
belongings were found within, but there was no sign of where he had gone.
The Army was quick to dismiss this all as a case of
simple desertion, and would later claim that he had died after wandering away
into the desert from his car, but there is no evidence at all of what really
happened, and Whipkey’s brother, Carl Whipkey, would be deeply skeptical of
this assertion, saying that right off the bat the government was being
suspicious about it all. He would claim that from the day after his brother’s
disappearance the Army had said they were packing up his belongings, of which
Carl would say, “Super hyper Super quick. When you catch them packing up your
brother’s clothes one day after he disappeared, you get super hyper super quick.”
Whipkey’s family has never accepted the Army’s official explanation, and feel
that there is something more going on here, perhaps even a cover-up, which is
especially believable considering that when Carl Whipkey requested information
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Freedom of Information Act,
he was told that all of the files had been destroyed in 1977 for reasons
unknown. Carl has said of the strange case: “The government knows what happened
to my brother. There are many questions still unanswered. I would be satisfied
even if the Army would say they can’t tell us for security reasons. But until
then, we can’t rule anything out.”
In the meantime all sorts of theories have popped up,
with ideas such as that he was really a secret agent who saw something he was
not supposed to or was silenced, that he was a test subject for some military
experiment, a victim of nerve gas or atomic tests who was covertly swept under
the carpet, or even abducted by aliens. Interestingly, it has been found that
shortly before his strange disappearance, Whipkey had developed inexplicable
black moles and warts all over his body and had frequently complained of not
feeling well, as well as displaying personality changes, appearing “nervous and
uptight.” He also apparently had had many of his teeth pulled out and replaced
with dentures. What does any of this mean, if anything? What happened to Paul
Byron Whipkey? Whatever the answer to that may be is lost to us, as no sign of
him has ever been found and all records on the case seemingly lost.
(2) Probably
the most well-publicized vanishings connected to Death Valley occurred in July
of 1996, when four tourists from Dresden, Germany journeyed here to take in the
sights. Cornelia Meyer, 27, her 4-year-old son Max, boyfriend Egbert Rimkus,
34, and his 10-year-old son, Georg Weber, were touring Las Vegas and the
surrounding region in a rented Plymouth van. It was probably not the best time
to be visiting, as at the time Death Valley was in the midst of a scorching,
record-breaking heat wave which saw the already relentlessly, oppressively hot
temperatures here soar up to 120 degrees and up. Regardless, they set out from
their hotel in Las Vegas on July 22, and headed to Death Valley, where they
stopped at a visitor’s center to purchase a book on the valley and a map before
heading out to explore the heat blasted landscape. This would be the last time
anyone would ever see them again.
On July 29, the family failed to board their scheduled
flight home, and when a preliminary investigation was launched there was found
to be an odd entry written in a guestbook perched on a metal pole at an
abandoned mining ghost town in Warm Springs Canyon, which held the cryptic
words “We are going through the pass,” written in German and signed “Conny
Egbert Georg Max.” Although it was unclear just what they meant by “the pass,”
authorities surmised that they must have meant Mengel Pass, a rather rugged and
remote, poorly maintained dirt road that passed through a lifeless barren
moonscape on the park’s southwestern border.
The Mini-Van of the Missing German Tourists
No other sign of the missing group of tourists was turned
up until months later, when on October 23rd, the abandoned mini-van was
discovered by a drug surveillance plane, in an isolated sandy ravine far from
any road and well off the beaten path for tourists. The doors of the dust
encrusted vehicle were found to be locked, and inside were found to be photo
film, empty water bottles, sleeping bags, an information booklet, and a
carefully folded American flag most likely bought as a souvenir, as well as a
single child’s shoe. Other personal belongings such as wallets, passports,
keys, or purses were not found, and oddly no tracks were found around the van
either. It was as if they had just vanished into thin air. A beer bottle was
found lying on the ground not far away, but it was unclear if this had belonged
to the missing group or not.
In the wake of this baffling discovery, over 200 law
enforcement officers from both Nevada and California methodically scoured the
area on foot, horseback, and from the air, but no further clues were found. For
decades the fate of these tourists remained a complete mystery, and theories
swirled as to what had happened to them, such as that they had run across
nefarious drug dealers and been killed or kidnapped, as well as the ideas that they
had staged their own vanishing or that they had simply wandered off into the
wilderness and fallen victim to the scathing, inhospitable conditions, but no
one knew for sure and there was not a single trace of them or clue to their
fate.
(3) In 2009, two hikers were traveling the dangerous and bleak
terrain of a remote area of Mojave Desert park when they came across the
gruesome discovery of human bones mired in the sand and brush. The remains,
which turned out to be of an adult male and female, were speculated to be those
of the missing tourists, especially since Cornelia Meyer’s identification was
reportedly found lying nearby. However, this is not known for certain and the
bones were too damaged by the sun for a successful DNA analysis. Despite this gruesome
discovery, the remains have not been positively identified, it still remains a
mystery as to what happened to them, and the remains of the two children have
never been found.
The case has remained perplexing and widely discussed to
this day. What happened to these people? Did they meet with foul play? Were
they killed or kidnapped, and if so, who did it and why? Perhaps they just
succumbed to the elements in their foolhardy adventure. Why did they drive
their vehicle off road out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a
merciless heat wave, with no provisions and an inadequate water supply? Were
they just very adventurous, foolish, or is there some other inscrutable reason?
Were those remains of the missing adults, and even if they are what happened to
the kids? These are questions for which it seems the answers have remained
evasive.
(4) Though the case of the missing Germans is the most
widely circulated and oft-debated disappearance to have occurred in Death
Valley, it is certainly not the only one and it isn’t even the weirdest.
Just 2 years later, in the spring of 1998, five women
vanished without a trace in the Los Angeles area against a backdrop of assorted
other bizarreness. The women were most notable for being part of a sort of New Age
cult headed by the enigmatic Peruvian born New Age writer and philosopher
Carlos Castaneda, a graduate student in anthropology at UCLA who gathered quite
a reputation for his outlandish esoteric theories and eccentric lifestyle. He
was an extremely successful non-fiction writer of New Age books on supposed
ancient, mystical knowledge of Native Americans in the 1970s and early 80s,
selling millions of copies of his books with titles like The Teachings
of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, Journey
to Ixtlan, and Tales of Power, which continue to sell well
even now despite having received a good amount of scathing skepticism and
criticism over the years.
Almost as well known as his books was his reclusive ways
and the cult-like movement he formed in 1973, which was based on supposed
shamanic secrets he called Tensegrity, which actually proved to be quite
popular, spawning countless workshops, seminars, and instructional videos. One
of the strangest aspects of the movement was an extremely secretive group of
women Castaneda kept close by, a harem of sorts, which were referred to as “the
witches.” Very little was known about the witches, what exactly their purpose
was, or even how many of them there were, and they typically used aliases and
absolutely refused to be photographed, all of which just added to Castaneda’s
mystique. It is known that they were frequent users of peyote and engaged in
all manner of shamanic mysticism and metaphysics, such as vision quests,
speaking with animals, and various rituals.
Shortly after Castaneda wasted away and died of liver
cancer in 1998, five of these witches, Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar,
Amalia Marquez, Kylie Lundahl, and Patricia Lee Partin, all completely vanished
in quick succession. The only clue found at the time was Partin’s vehicle,
which had been abandoned at Death Valley’s Panamint Dunes. In 2003, some hikers
would find a desiccated corpse half-buried in sand out in the desert wearing
shredded clothes. When the remains were finally properly analyzed they were
found to be those of Patricia Lee Partin, although the cause of death nor why
she had been out in such a remote area of Death Valley could not be determined.
One former follower of Castaneda has come forward with his own theory on the
matter, saying: “Castaneda once told her (Partin), ‘If you ever need to rise to
infinity, take your little red car and drive it as fast as you can into the
desert and you will ascend’—and that’s exactly what she did. She drove her
little red car into the desert, but she did not ascend. Instead, she got out,
wandered around, and fainted from dehydration.
None of the remains of the other women have ever been
found. It is suspected they most likely committed suicide, a theory bolstered
by Castaneda’s alleged frequent praise for the virtues of suicide. Some of his
witches were allegedly tasked with finding locations in Death Valley such as
caves and abandoned mines that could be used as suitable suicide sites. One of
these sites was spookily located not far from where Partin was found.
Did all of these women commit suicide out in the
wastelands of Death Valley, or are the others still alive out there, as some
believe? There are no answers. No one knows, and it remains a mystery.
(5) Another macabre disappearance and death in Death
Valley happened in July of 2103, when Ryan Singleton, a 24-year-old former
model and aspiring actor from Atlanta, Georgia, went out for a short vacation
to Los Angeles. He decided to rent a car and drive out to Las Vegas. On July 9,
Singleton left Las Vegas to return back to Los Angeles, taking a route that
passed right through the unforgiving Mojave Desert. At some point, his car
broke down near the small town of Baker. He got out and walked towards the town
along the highway. Supposedly, a highway patrolman picked him up and gave him a
ride into town. Once in town, Singleton made a call to his friend from a gas
station and then sat down in the oppressive heat to wait for his friend to come
pick him up. When his friend arrived, Singleton was nowhere to be seen.
Searches for the missing man began immediately but there
was not a trace of Singleton anywhere. 74 days later his body as found sprawled
out in the desert just 2 miles from the gas station, in an area that had
already been extensively searched. Spookily, the body was found to be missing
nearly all of its internal organs, a very strange detail that authorities would
be quick to dismiss as the work of scavengers, even though the rest of the
body, including common targets of scavengers were found relatively intact. The
cause of death itself could not be determined and was listed as unknown. Even
more mysterious is the fact that authorities were very slow and they were unable
or unwilling to provide further details or information—not even to Singleton’s
family.
Ryan Singleton and Investigation Scene
There has been much speculation that Singleton met up
with foul play of some sort, especially since he was not only African American,
but also openly gay, but why would they kill him and take his organs? Indeed,
there has been much attention placed on the state of the body, with its missing
organs, and suspicion over the official statement that it was scavengers as
well. The missing organs have rather been blamed on perhaps illegal organ
thieves, or that it was the MO of some sadistic serial killer, but the real
reason remains a rather bizarre detail that hasn’t been satisfactorily
explained.
In fact, nothing about the case has really been explained
to any meaningful degree, and it is shrouded in secrecy and unanswered
questions. Why would he wander away from the safety of the gas station when he
knew his friend was on his way to pick him up, and how could he have gotten
lost and died just 2 miles away? If he was targeted by nefarious individuals then
what was their motive? And what about those missing organs? Was that done
intentionally or was it the work of scavengers, as authorities seem to think or
at least want us to think? What happened to Ryan Singleton will likely continue
to be another mystery of Death Valley.
Death Valley seems to be a forsaken place that certainly
lives up to its name and filled with mysteries.
Tourists in the Death Valley Park
If you plan on visiting Death Valley
there are some safety things you may want to keep in mind.
Drink plenty of water: Drink at least one gallon (4 liters) of water per day
to replace loss from sweat, more if you are active. Be aware of balancing fluid
and electroyte levels.
Avoid hiking in the
heat: Do not hike in the low
elevations when temperatures are hot. The mountains are cooler in summer, but
can have snow and ice in winter.
Travel prepared to
survive: Stay on paved roads in
summer. If your car breaks down, stay with it until help comes. Carry extra
drinking water in your car in case of emergency.
Watch for signs of
trouble: If you feel dizzy,
nauseous, or a headache, get out of the sun immediately and drink water or
sports drinks. Dampen clothing to lower body temperature. Be alert for symptoms
in others.
The main cause of
death in Death Valley: More
people die in single-car accidents than by any other means. To avoid an
accident, follow the speed limits, shift to a lower gear on steep downhill
grades, and wear your seatbelt.
Dangerous Animals: Never place your hands or feet where you cannot see
first. Rattlesnakes, scorpions, or black widow spiders may be sheltered there.
Hantavirus--a potentially
fatal respiratory disease--is spread through contact with infected rodents or
their urine and droppings. Although no cases have been reported in Death
Valley, the virus has been found in deer mice and cactus mice here. Use caution
in rodent infested locations such as cabins and mine structures.
Flash Floods: Avoid canyons during rain storms and be prepared to
move to higher ground. While driving, be alert for water running in washes and
across road dips.
Mine Hazards: Do
not enter mine tunnels or shafts. Mines may be unstable, have hidden shafts,
pockets of bad air and poisonous gas.
Backcountry Travel: Hikers, backpackers and four-wheelers need to be self
reliant and well prepared. Always plan ahead, carry detailed maps and let
someone know your plans. Backpackers should obtain a free backcountry permit
from any visitor center.
Illegal Marijuana
Cultivation Sites have been
found in remote backcountry areas of Death Valley National Park. Learn to
recognize and avoid these potentially dangerous areas. If you find signs of
cultivation:
- Get out immediately! Do not linger to take photos or
coordinates.
- Go back the way you came. You've already established
that the route is safe.
- Make as little noise as possible. If the garden is
occupied, they may not be aware of you.
- Get to a safe location. Run, walk, crawl or hide...
just make yourself safe.
- Notify FICC Dispatch (numbers below).
- Be prepared to provide your exact location. Coordinates
are great but a physical description will do.
- Get to your vehicle if possible. If you can, drive
away.
In Case of Emergency: Dial 911 from any telephone or cell phone. Cell phones
may not work in many parts of the park. Do not depend on them.
I am going to admit right now that I have no desire to go to Death Valley. After researching for this article I believe I will steer clear of that desolate place.
Have you ever visited Death Valley? If so, what was your experience there?
Diverse
stories filled with heart
