Death Valley

Commonly connected to the Death Valley '49ers, a group of prospectors on the way to Gold Country, see quotations.

Death Valley

1. A valley in eastern California, remarkable for being the lowest-elevated place in North America, and the hottest place on Earth during summer.
   • [1894, William Lewis Manly, chapter X, in Death Valley in '49 […] , San Jose: The Pacific Tree and Vine Co., pages 216–217:

     Just as we were ready to leave and return to camp we took off our hats, and then overlooking the scene of so much trial, suffering and death spoke the thought uppermost saying:—“Good bye Death Valley!” then faced away and made our steps toward camp. Even after this in speaking of this long and narrow valley over which we had crossed into its nearly central part, and on the edge of which the lone camp was made, for so many days, it was called Death Valley.]

2. A national park in California and Nevada that includes said valley.
   • 2023 July 17, “Death Valley approaches global heat record as US reels from extreme weather”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, reached 128F (53.3C) on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said.

   • 2023 July 20, Edward Helmore, “Man dies in Death Valley as California national park swelters in extreme heat”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Park rangers, the advisory noted, encourage people to visit Death Valley safely in the summer by sightseeing only short distances from air-conditioned cars, or hiking in the park’s cooler mountains.

3. (by extension) Any foreboding location.
   1. A nickname for Memorial Stadium, a football stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.
   2. A nickname for Tiger Stadium, a football stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

• Death Valley driver