50 Fun Facts About Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park lies about 130 miles east of which big city?

It straddles Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Indio among the nearest towns.

The park straddles which two deserts?

Elevation is the dividing line: the higher, cooler desert grows the namesake trees while the lower one below 3,000 feet is creosote, ocotillo and cholla country.

The Joshua tree is actually what kind of plant?

It is a monocot with no annual rings, so its age is hard to judge; the tallest reach about 49 feet.

Which group is commonly credited with naming the Joshua tree after a biblical figure?

The story says the shape recalled Joshua raising his hands toward Canaan, though no contemporary record of the naming survives and the tale fits Moses better.

Which insect pollinates the Joshua tree, laying its eggs in the flowers as it does so?

The larvae eat some seeds but leave enough to grow, and the tree can abort ovaries that carry too many eggs.

Who first formally described the Joshua tree for science in 1871, during the Wheeler Survey?

The Cahuilla call the tree hunuvat chiy'a; the Spanish name izote de desierto means desert dagger.

Which president proclaimed Joshua Tree National Monument in August 1936?

He used the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect about 825,000 acres; in 1950 some 290,000 acres were cut out to allow more mining.

Which Pasadena socialite and desert-plant campaigner is credited with winning protection for Joshua Tree?

She shipped seven freight cars of rocks, plants and sand to a New York garden show in 1928; a park peak and an asteroid now carry her name.

Which 1994 law turned the monument into Joshua Tree National Park?

It also added 234,000 acres to the park.

At about 795,000 acres, the park is slightly larger than which US state?

Roughly 430,000 of those acres are designated wilderness, where bikes are banned but permitted horses may go.

The park's famous piles of rounded boulders are made of what rock?

Groundwater seeping along rectangular joints rounded the blocks underground, then flash floods stripped the soil to leave the piles, called inselbergs.

How old are the park's oldest rocks, such as the Pinto Gneiss?

They surface in the Cottonwood, Pinto and Eagle mountains, far older than the granite that later pushed up among them.

Which famous fault runs just southwest of the park, with related faults like the Blue Cut crossing inside it?

The compression along it lifted the park's Transverse Ranges, and it can be seen from the park's southern lookout.

Which lookout in the park's south takes in the Coachella Valley, the Salton Sea and Palm Springs?

It also looks straight along a great fault line to the Santa Rosa Mountains.

Washingtonia filifera, found in five oases in the park, holds what distinction?

Water flows year-round at these rare spots and wildlife crowds in; the town of Twentynine Palms is named for palms planted around one such oasis.

Which spring at Twentynine Palms was a village site for the Cahuilla and Chemehuevi peoples?

The Chemehuevi called it Mar-rah, and the palms planted around it gave the town its name.

The park's earliest known residents, whose spear points were found in a basin in the 1930s, are called what?

They hunted and gathered there between about 8000 and 4000 BCE; the basin and a mountain range in the park carry the same name.

Which Spanish officer led the party that made the first European sighting of Joshua trees in 1772?

They were chasing Native converts who had fled a mission in San Diego; Jedediah Smith's trappers passed nearby in 1826.

The McHaney brothers, who moved in near Twentynine Palms in 1888, ran what kind of gang?

They hid stolen stock in a box canyon at Cow Camp; Jim McHaney later muscled in on the Desert Queen Mine.

What was the most successful of the roughly 300 mines worked in the park area?

It produced gold and silver worth about $5 million in today's money; Johnny Lang bought the claim after losing his horses in the valley that now bears the name.

Between 1894 and 1931 the park's most successful mine produced roughly how much gold?

It also yielded 16,000 ounces of silver, and the hunt for fuel to run steam pumps stripped the surrounding hills of trees.

Who was the rancher-miner whose Desert Queen Ranch is the best-preserved early homestead in the park?

He arrived in 1910, took over rustler Jim McHaney's property, improved Barker Dam and hauled in the Wall Street Mill to crush ore.

The rancher who built the Desert Queen Ranch was sent to San Quentin for what?

He killed Worth Bagley in a quarrel over the Wall Street Mill, was paroled in 1950 and pardoned in 1956.

Which famous author helped win the jailed Desert Queen rancher a pardon in 1956?

Keys had educated himself in the prison library; his ranch buildings date from 1910 to his death in 1969.

Which miner-cattleman built the original dam at a rainwater tank in 1900 and gave it his name?

Ranchers dug wells and built such tanks across the region; grazing continued in the park until 1945 and the dam joined the National Register in 1975.

Why did the park close at least 17 sites, including a historic dam and Rattlesnake Canyon, to the public?

Officials blamed a surge in vandalism on social media; a graffiti artist known as André was convicted in 2015 after posting photos of his boulder painting.

Joshua Tree originally became popular with rock climbers for what reason?

The quartz monzonite is rough because no ice ever polished it, and thousands of short routes are a short walk from the road.

The park's climbing rocks are rarely taller than about how many feet?

Some routes such as the Schwarzenegger Wall and Zombie Woof Rock are permanently closed; others shut seasonally for wildlife.

In which year did the International Dark-Sky Association designate Joshua Tree a Dark Sky Park?

It is a favourite stargazing spot for Southern Californians, far from the glow of the coastal cities.

Which threatened reptile of the park's creosote flats gets most of its water from the plants it eats?

Its numbers have fallen with habitat loss and climate change; the chuckwalla shares its taste for creosote.

Studies comparing 1908-68 with 2013-16 found the park's bird species had declined by roughly what share?

More than 250 bird species still use the park, which sits on an inland stretch of the Pacific Flyway.

Under a high-emissions scenario, how much warmer is the park forecast to be by 2099?

That would make most of the park unsuitable for its namesake trees; even the low scenario could cost 80 percent of their habitat.

Between 1895 and 2016 the park's annual precipitation dropped by roughly what share?

Temperatures rose 3 degrees F over the same span, and invasive cheatgrass and red brome now feed hotter wildfires.

Which musician's friends stole his corpse from LAX in 1973 and set it alight near Cap Rock in the park?

Road manager Phil Kaufman was honouring Parsons' wish to be cremated at Joshua Tree; they poured gasoline into the open coffin in the Cap Rock parking lot.

How far from the park did the lone tree photographed for U2's The Joshua Tree actually stand?

The band shot the album art around Death Valley; the front cover was taken at Zabriskie Point.

Ryan Mountain, a popular strenuous hike, is named after J.D. Ryan, who was what?

The trail climbs 1,050 feet in 1.5 miles to panoramas of Pinto Basin and three valleys; Ryan replaced the two-stamp mill at the park's biggest mine with a ten-stamp one.

How many established campgrounds does the park have?

A 35-mile section of a state riding and hiking trail winds through the western side of the park.

Which nonprofit has sold the Park Service more acquired private acreage than any similar group?

It has conserved about 10,290 acres of former inholdings within the park.

Under which 2019 act did the park expand by 4,518 acres?

It followed the 1994 upgrade that added 234,000 acres.

Which mountains line the park's southwest edge?

Five of the park's six ranges are Transverse Ranges running east-west; only the Coxcombs on the east belong to the Basin and Range.

A dense stand of which spiny plant forms the park's famous cactus garden in its lower eastern section?

Cylindropuntia bigelovii grows thickly enough in places to look like a planted garden; ocotillo and creosote share the low desert.

Joshua trees usually do not branch until after what event?

They need a winter freeze and well-timed rain to flower, and they do not bloom every year.

How fast do young Joshua trees grow in their first ten years?

Growth slows to about an inch and a half a year after that, and a tree can live several hundred years.

Which large arthropods in the park can grow more than four inches long?

Nearly 1,000 invertebrate species are known from the park, along with 50 mammals and 40 reptiles and amphibians.

The town of Twentynine Palms is named for palms planted by which people?

Colonel Henry Washington made the first recorded exploration there and found Chemehuevi living around the spring.

Which fourth Native group used the park's resources while travelling between the Colorado River and the coast?

The Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians, descended from the Chemehuevi, still hold a reservation beside the park.

Why was the national monument shrunk by about 290,000 acres in 1950?

Roosevelt's 1936 proclamation had protected about 825,000 acres; the park regained ground when it was redesignated in 1994.

How many rangers were on duty at the park during the 2018-19 federal government shutdown?

Vandalism spiked, with reports of Joshua trees felled for firewood, illegal campfires and spray-painted rocks.

How far does the California Riding and Hiking Trail run through the park's western side?

Many of the park's other trails connect directly to its campgrounds.

Where did the McHaney brothers' gang hide the cattle they stole near the Oasis of Mara?

The rustlers arrived in 1888, less than two decades after settlers first grazed cattle on the park's tall grasses.