The area in which we are staying (east of the Death Valley National Park) is Mojave Desert surrounded by mountains (one of my favorite arrangements). Today we climbed up above the park and the town of Shoshone (the park is below and to the right of the water towers and the town is about where you see the white roof). The plaque below explains a little about the town. The entire town is still owned by some kind of legal entity that has kept it in the Brown family and is run by a granddaughter of Charles and Stella Brown.