Zabriskie Point - LetsGoSeeIt.com

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Zabriskie Point

Furnace Creek Lake

Millions of years prior to the actual sinking and widening of Death Valley and the existence of Lake Manly, another lake covered a large portion of Death Valley including the area around Zabriskie Point. This ancient lake was here approximately nine million years ago. During several million years of the lake’s existence, sediments were collecting at the bottom in the form of saline muds, gravels from nearby mountains, and ashfalls from the then-active Black Mountain volcanic field. These sediments combined to form what we today call the Furnace Creek formation. The climate along Furnace Creek Lake was dry but not nearly as dry as today’s. Camels, mastodons, horses, carnivores, and birds left tracks in the lakeshore muds along with fossilized grass and reeds. Borates which made up a large degree of Death Valley’s historical past were concentrated in the lakebeds from hot spring waters and alteration of rhyolite in the nearby volcanic field. Weathering and alteration by thermal waters are also responsible for the variety of colors represented here.

Regional mountains building to the west influenced the climate to become more and more arid, causing the lake to dry up – creating a playa. Subsequent widening and sinking of Death Valley and the additional uplift of today’s Black Mountains tilted the area. This provided the necessary relief to accomplish the erosion that produced the badlands we see today. The dark-colored material capping the badland ridges slightly to your left is lava from eruptions that occurred three to five million years ago. This hard lava cap has retarded erosion in many places and possibly explains why Manly Beacon, the high outcrop to your right, is much higher than other portions of the badlands. Manly Beacon was named in honor of William L. Manly, who along with John Rogers, guided members of the ill-fated Forty-niners out of Death Valley during the gold rush of 1849.

Zabriskie Point

Christian Brevoort Zabriskie was born October 16, 1864, at Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory, where his father, E. B. Zabriskie was stationed. “Chris” attended various schools while growing up and at a very early age went to work as a telegrapher for the Virginia & Truckee Railroad at Carson City, Nevada. He was too restless and ambitious to stay in one place for very long and soon moved to Candelaria, Nevada, (now a site) and worked for the Esmeralda County Bank. Being an active young man, one job was not enough to keep him occupied and he soon branched out into other ventures, one of which was a partnership with a local cabinet maker to establish a mortuary. Neither of the two knew how to embalm, but it wasn’t considered necessary in a mining town – prompt burial was! Zabriskie’s life took on new meaning in 1885 when F.M. “Borax” Smith hired him to supervise several hundred Chinese laborers at the Columbus March area of the Pacific Coast Borax Company near Candelaria. This was the beginning of a life-long career in the field of Borax. He ultimately became vice president and general manager of the company and served in that capacity for thirty-six years until his retirement in 1933. During this time, the Pacific Coast Borax Company had phased out most of its borax operations in the Candelaria vicinity but had moved on to greater production in the Death Valley area.

All this occurred long before 1933, when the area became Death Valley National Monument, but Zabriskie Point remains to honor a man who devoted many years of dedicated service to the Pacific Coast Borax Company. On February 8, 1936, just three years after retirement, Christian Brevoort Zabriskie died – the end of a truly interesting, productive, and colorful life.

The view from Zabriskie Point

view west toward Death Valley

Manly Beacon

view to the east

badlands ridge to the south

Zabriskie Point is located in Death Valley on Highway 190, about 5 miles south of Furnace Creek Ranch. See map.

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