It is also the third largest national park in the lower forty-eight states, after Death Valley and Yellowstone.
VOA: special.2010.09.21
Furnace Creek is the largest area of human activity within Death Valley National Park.
VOA: special.2009.08.26
Most of the 500 people who live in DeathValley year round are connected in one way or another to DeathValley National Park and its major concessionaire, a company called Xanterra.
The phenomenon of sedimentary layers is remarkably similar to what is seen on Earth, in California's DeathValley or in Montana's Glacier National Park, says John Grotzinger, chief scientist of the Mars Science Laboratory mission.
Down the road from the park visitor center at Furnace Creek is DeathValley Elementary school, a flat-roofed building beside a dry streambed, which blends easily into the gray-brown landscape.