The “Death Valley Conservancy” (DVC) was incorporated on February 11, 2008 (the 74th anniversary of President Hoover’s designation of Death Valley as a “National Monument”) and is now the largest nonprofit in the region.

Death Valley is of legend… an otherworldly, special place that holds its own place among America’s stunning, treasured landscapes. It is a study in extremes – lowest, tallest, hottest, and driest are just a few of the adjectives used to describe this region. But it is also a region rich in human history. Before the arrival of pioneers from the east in the 1800’s, numerous Indian tribes used this region for hunting and gathering.

The first modern use of the park was for mining, and many abandoned mining camps and towns dot the landscape today. Its transition and use as a tourist destination and recreation area began less than 100 years ago, and the development of the Death Valley region was intimately tied to the creation of the US National Park Service as borax miner and philanthropist Stephen Mather worked with Death Valley area local, Horace Albright, in Washington DC to promote and create the National Park Service via the “Organic Act of 1916” – often using his personal funds to do so!