Death Valley '49ers Death Valley '49ers The Death Valley '49ers were a group of pioneers from the Eastern United States that endured a long and difficult journey during the late 1840s California Gold Rush to prospect in the Sutter's Fort area of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada in California. Their route from Utah went through the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, and Death Valley and the Mojave Desert in Southern California, in attempting to reach the Gold Country. On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall and his crew found gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. This discovery would lure tens of
Death Valley low. As recently as July 12, 2012, the low temperature at Death Valley dropped to just after a high of on the previous day. The only other location which matches Death Valley's overnight low temperature of 107 °F in recent years is Khasab Airport in Oman, which also recorded a low of on June 27, 2012, and later one of on June 21, 2017. Also on July 12, 2012, the mean 24-hour temperature recorded at Death Valley was , which makes it the world's warmest 24-hour temperature on record. The average annual precipitation in Death Valley is , while the