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VOICE ONE:
This is Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English programExplorations. Today we visit one of America’s great national parks.It is a place of strange and silent beauty. As beautiful as thisplace is, its name provides evidence of very real danger. Come withus as we visit Death Valley.
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VOICE ONE:
Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. Thereare mountains that reach more than three-thousand meters into thesky. There is a place called Badwater that is the lowest area ofland in the Western Hemisphere. If there were water there, it wouldbe eighty-six meters below the level of the ocean.
Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months.Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor ofthe Valley.
The air temperature during the summer has been as high asfifty-seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that thetemperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy-fourdegrees Celsius.
The extreme heat of Death Valley has killed people in the past.It will continue to kill those who do not honor this extremeclimate. Death Valley does not forgive those who are not careful.
VOICE TWO:
Death Valley is a good example of the violence of nature. Itcontains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused hugeexplosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe(U-BE-HE-BE) Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the groundalmost a kilometer and a half wide.
In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the groundhas been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. Thismovement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some arered. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black.
Other areas of rock look as if some huge creature violently brokeand twisted the Earth to create unusual, sometimes frighteningshapes.
In other parts of Death Valley there are lines in the rock thatshow clearly that this area was deep under an ocean for manythousands of years. Much of the Valley is flat and extremely dry. Infact, scientists believe it is the driest place in the UnitedStates. In some areas the ground is nothing but salt. Nothing growsin this salted ground.
VOICE ONE:
However, it would be wrong to think that nothing lives in DeathValley. The Valley is full of life. Wild flowers grow very quicklyafter a little rain. Some desert plants can send their roots downmore than eighteen meters to reach water deep in the ground.
Many kinds of birds live in Death Valley. So do mammals andreptiles. You might see the small dog-like animal called the coyoteor wild sheep called bighorns. Other animals include the desertjackrabbit, the desert tortoise or turtle and a large reptile calleda chuckwalla. Many kinds of snakes live in the Valley, including onecalled the sidewinder rattlesnake. It is an extremely poisonoussnake with long sharp teeth called fangs.
Death Valley is a huge place. It extends more thantwo-hundred-twenty-five kilometers across the southern part of thestate of California, and across the border with the state of Nevada.Death Valley is part of the Great Mojave Desert.
VOICE TWO:
The area was named by a woman in eighteen-forty-nine. That wasthe year after [correct] gold was discovered in California.Thousands of people from other parts of the country traveled to thegold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get therebefore other people did.
Many people were not careful. They made bad choices or wrongdecisions. One group trying to reach California decided to take apath called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reachedDeath Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat ofsummer, but there was still an extreme lack of water. There were fewplants for their work animals to eat.
The people could not find a pass through the tall mountains tothe west of the Valley. Slowly, they began to suffer from a lack offood.To survive, they killed their work animals for food and beganto walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back andsaid, “Good-bye, Death Valley.” The name has never been changed.
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VOICE ONE:
Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge housecalled Scotty’s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with highthick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat. The mainbuilding is very large. It was built in nineteen-twenty-nine in oneof the few areas of the Valley that has water.
The castle is named for Walter Scott, called Scotty by hisfriends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built thehouse with money he made from his gold mine. Many people believedhim. But it was not really the truth. Scotty was not a very honestman. Some years earlier, he had asked several people to invest in agold mine he had in Death Valley. One of the men he asked to investwas a businessman from Chicago, Illinois named Albert Johnson.
Mister Johnson invested in Scotty’s mine. In nineteen-oh-five, hetraveled to Death Valley to see the mine. Scotty put Mister Johnsonon a horse and took him far into the mountains. Many people believethat while they were on this trip, Scotty told Mister Johnson thetruth: There was no mine. There was no gold.
VOICE TWO:
Albert Johnson suffered from extremely poor health. He had beenin a severe accident a few years before. Doctors did not believe hewould live much longer. However, something happened on his trip withScotty. When Albert Johnson returned from the mountains, he feltbetter than he had in several years. Perhaps he felt better becauseof the clean mountain air. Perhaps it was the good food Scottycooked. Or it may have been the funny stories Scotty told thatimproved Mister Johnson’s health.
Whatever it was, Albert Johnson fell in love with Death Valley.He and Scotty became lifelong friends. Soon after, Albert Johnsonbegan building a home on the western edge of Death Valley. He didnot live there all the time. But Scotty did. And, he told everyonethe huge house was his — bought and paid for with the money fromhis gold mine. Scotty told everyone that Albert Johnson, his friendfrom Chicago, came to visit sometimes. Mister Johnson never toldanyone it was just a story made up by Death Valley Scotty.
VOICE ONE:
Albert Johnson lived another thirty years — many more years thanthe doctors thought he would. Some years before he died, innineteen-forty-eight, Albert Johnson signed documents that saidWalter Scott could live in the house until he died. Scotty died innineteen-fifty-four. He is buried on a small hill near the house.
In nineteen-seventy, the National Park Service bought Scotty’sCastle. It has since become one of the most popular areas to visitin Death Valley National Park.
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VOICE TWO:
More than seven-hundred-thousand people visit Death Valley eachyear. Many people come for just a day. Buses bring visitors from thefamous city of Las Vegas, Nevada. They ride around the park in theirbus, visit several places and are back in their Las Vegas hotel bynight. However, many other visitors stay in the park. The mostpopular area to stay in is Furnace Creek.
Furnace Creek is the largest area of human activity within DeathValley National Park. There is a hotel. There are also camping areaswhere people put up temporary cloth homes, called tents. Visitorswho arrive in huge motor homes can also find a place to park theirvehicles.
VOICE ONE:
The famous Furnace Creek Inn is a beautiful hotel that was builtof stone more than seventy-five years ago. The inn is built on a lowhill. The main public room in the hotel has large windows that lookfar out over Death Valley. Hotel guests gather near these largewindows in the evening to watch the sun make long shadows on thefloor of the Valley and on the far mountains.
This beautiful image seems to change each minute. The sun slowlyturns the Valley a gold color that deepens to a soft brown, thenchanges to a dark red. As night comes, the mountains turn a darkpurple color, then black.
Usually, visitors are very quiet when this event takes place. Afew try to photograph it. But the Valley is too huge to capture in aphotograph. Most visitors watch this natural beauty and leave withonly the memory of sunset at beautiful Death Valley National Park.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by CatyWeaver. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week forExplorations, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.