<P> During the Pleistocene ice age, which ended roughly 10,000--12,000 years ago, the Sierra Nevada was much wetter . During that time, Death Valley was filled with a huge lake, called Glacial Lake Manly, that was nearly 100 miles (160 km) long and 600 feet (180 m) deep, the end - basin in a chain of lakes that began with Mono Lake in the north and continued through multiple basins down the Owens River Valley through Searles and China Lakes and the Panamint Valley to the immediate west . Remnants of this wetter period can still be seen in the region today, including the presence of several isolated populations of pupfish . </P> <P> Death Valley is home to the Timbisha tribe of Native Americans, formerly known as the Panamint Shoshone, who have inhabited the valley for at least the past millennium . The Timbisha name for the valley, tümpisa, means "rock paint" and refers to the red ochre paint that can be made from a type of clay found in the valley . Some families still live in the valley at Furnace Creek . Another village was in Grapevine Canyon near the present site of Scotty's Castle . It was called in the Timbisha language maahunu, whose meaning is uncertain, although it is known that hunu means "canyon". </P> <P> The valley received its English name in 1849 during the California Gold Rush . It was called Death Valley by prospectors and others who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields, after 13 pioneers perished from one early expedition of wagon trains . During the 1850s, gold and silver were extracted in the valley . In the 1880s, borax was discovered and extracted by mule - drawn wagons . </P> <P> On the afternoon of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 ° F (56.7 ° C) at Greenland Ranch (now Furnace Creek) in Death Valley . This temperature stands as the highest ambient air temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth . (A report of a temperature of 58 ° C (136.4 ° F) recorded in Libya in 1922 was later determined to be inaccurate .) </P>

Where did the name death valley come from