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Death Valley's name fits it well. The valley is the hottest, driest spot in North America. The valley is part of a larger desert called the Mojave.

Very little rain falls each year. Some years there is no rain at all. Temperatures may rise above 49 Celsius (120 Fahrenheit). Yet people have lived here for thousands of years. Let's learn their stories.

Death Valley was not always a desert. It was once a lake. When people first arrived, it was still a lake. That was about 10,000 years ago. About 1,000 years ago, the ancestors of today's Timbisha people came to the valley.

Over time, the valley changed. It got hotter. Less rain fell. The lake dried up. Still, the Timbisha stayed. They learned how to live in the desert.

The Timbisha hunted desert animals and harvested plants for food. They moved near freshwater springs. They built homes from desert shrubs.

In the hottest months, they moved into the cooler mountains. They lived this life for centuries. Then, in 1849, pioneers arrived from the East.

The first pioneers to cross Death Valley were lost. They were trying to find a shorter way to the California gold fields. Their wagons were breaking. They were starving. They were thirsty. Then, on Christmas Eve, they found water in Timbisha territory.

The pioneers rested and talked about what to do. "We all felt pretty much downhearted," one of the men wrote. "Our provisions were getting so scarce that all must be saved for the women and children. The men must get along on ox meat alone."

The pioneers split into groups. Each group had its own plan. One group headed toward the far mountains.

The journey grew harder. The oxen had little to eat. They became too weak to pull the wagons. The pioneers had to leave their wagons behind. They killed the oxen for food. Luckily, it was winter. They could drink water from melted snow and ice.

Finally, the pioneers crossed over the mountains and out of the desert. The tough trip did not scare other people away. New pioneers followed. They, too, were searching for gold.

Valuable ores lay hidden under Death Valley. Fields of gold and silver were scattered around the area. Early California miners came for the gold. Many of them settled in Death Valley.

First came the prospectors. They searched for the gold fields. When they made a strike, the word got out: Gold! Gold! Miners rushed to the area. They set up mining camps. The camps grew into towns. The towns grew into cities.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, mining towns sprouted up everywhere. But when the gold mines dried up, the miners left. The cities died and became ghost towns.

Miners came for more than gold. Some came to mine a kind of salt that was made into borax. Borax was used to make glass and cleaning products.

In the 1880s, William T. Coleman had a borax factory in Death Valley. He used 20-mule teams to carry huge loads of borax to the railroads. Each team pulled two full wagons, plus a water tank, across the desert.

The route ran 265 kilometers (165 miles) out of Death Valley. The journey was hard. It took courage. One bad step, and the mule team could run the wagons off a cliff.

The driver cracked a whip to get the mules' attention. But mostly, he used just his voice to guide them. When the driver spoke, "the mules knew he wasn't fooling and obeyed."

Today, Death Valley is a national park. Tourists come to see natural sites such as Badwater Basin and the sandy Eureka Dunes. They also come to see the colored clay at Artists Palette.

The mining days are long gone. Ghost towns are all that remain. Through it all, the Timbisha stayed. This valley is still their home. For them, it is a valley of life.

Article by Shirleyann Costigan. Top-of-page photograph © Khaled Kassem/Alamy. "Death Valley Days" appears on page 8 of the Nov.-Dec. 2008 issue.