Death Valley Suite California state centennial (1850-1950). The original performance was conducted by Grofe with the Hollywood Bowl Symphony on December 3, 1949 in the Desolation Canyon area of Death Valley National Monument (Now Death Valley National Park). The music was used in the background as a procession of covered wagons entered the area. Actor James Stewart narrated the pageant celebration. The 1949 pageant was attended by 65,000 people. The movements are titled: Total length of composition is 17 minutes and 11 seconds. Background information of Ferde Grofe's commissioned with the State of California and the Death Valley 49ers history, historical background, pageant
Places of interest in the Death Valley area is on is part of the Black Mountains which along with the parallel Panamint Range across the valley from what geologists call a horst and the valley that is called a graben. These structures are created when the surface of the earth is under extensional, or a pulling force. The crust responds to this force by sending a large and long roughly v-shaped block of crust down which forms the bedrock of the valley floor (see Basin and Range). Darwin Falls is a waterfall located on the western edge of Death Valley National Park near the settlement of Panamint Springs,