Death Valley
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Death Valley. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an alkaline valley in a desert region in California, on the Arizona border. It occupies a depression 276 feet below the level of the sea. It is the lowest depression in the United States . Mount Whitney, 14,500 feet high, one of the highest elevations in the United States, is only seventy-five miles away. The valley is seventy miles long and is ten to twenty miles long and is ten to twenty miles in width from foothills to foothills. Of a party of thirty explorers who entered the valley in 1849, looking for gold, all but twelve perished; whence the name. In summer it is said to be one of the driest, hottest places on the face of the globe. The thermometer reaches 130 in the shade. The nights are too hot for sleep. The valley is surrounded by volcanic mountains that shut out moisture. Terrific whirlwinds cross the plain. They are gyratory columns of sand dust-sand augers, they are called-thousands of feet in height, reaching to the clouds, we might say, only there are no clouds in the pitiless sky. Tourists may enter the valley late in autumn, but must carry water for man and beast. The one bitter alkaline stream that enters the valley is soon swallowed up in the sand. Springs are far apart. Visitors to the region find a sandy, gray waste, barren save for the stunted cacti and dwarf greasewood. A few crows, starved jackrabbits, slinking coyotes, rattlesnakes, buzzards, and horned toads manage to pick up a living. The surrounding mountain ranges are rich in minerals, but the mines are difficult to work for want of water. The Death Valley is the lowest of a series of old lake beds found in the vicinity. A salt marsh or sump follows the center of the valley almost from end to end. This sump is seemingly bottomless. The longest poles are swallowed up. A stone is said to have carried a line down two hundred feet without stopping. The sump is about half as wide as the valley. Near the middle it contracts to two miles in width and is shallow. Here a wagon road was constructed for the "20-mule borax teams," once engaged in hauling borax from the valley. There are a few footpaths also, but many men and beasts have lost their lives in trying to cross the swamp. See Borax
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a narrow valley between the Panamint and Funeral Mountains, in California. It is traversed by the Amargosa river, which is usually a dry channel, though probably it was formerly full of water. The level of the valley is covered with salt, supposed to have been brought by the torrents from the surrounding desert and left on the evaporation of the water. Death Valley is considered to be the hottest and dryest place in the United States. A temperature of 122° F. has been observed here. In 1849 a party of emigrants perished here; hence the name. The region is rich in borax, and extensive works have been established to prepare it for the market. Gold quartz is also found in considerable quantities.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts underplay the heat: on 10 July 1913 a reading of 134°F was taken at Furnace Creek, and it is still recognised as the highest air temperature ever officially recorded on earth, well above the 130° Aiton's reported in 1910 and the 122° Collier's allowed in 1921. The depth of the basin has been resurveyed at 282 feet below sea level at Badwater, and Aiton's "seemingly bottomless" sump that swallowed the longest poles is in fact a hard, crusted salt pan you can walk on. The borax works Collier's described as "extensive" had already passed their peak, and the valley's value became scenic instead: it was made a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994, the largest in the contiguous United States, drawing over a million visitors a year to roads Aiton's readers were told to enter only in late autumn with their own water. Historians also dispute the death toll behind the name — of the 1849 emigrant parties, only about one man is thought to have died in the valley itself, not the wholesale slaughter Aiton's reports.
Written for this edition, 2026.