Death Valley Junction, California

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Amargosa Opera House

Death Valley Junction is a tiny Mojave Desert community in Inyo County, California, at the intersection of CA-190 and CA-127, just east of Death Valley National Park. The zip code is 92328, the elevation is 2041 ft., and the population less than 20. The community is located at NAD27 coordinates 36°18′08″N, 116°24′46″W. The U.S. Geological Survey lists a historic variant name of Amargosa for the community which is shown as the primary name on an official State of Nevada map from 1971. Its existence and name are official with a USGS feature ID of 1656477. The default format for wired phone numbers in this community is (760) 852-xxxx.

Death Valley Junction is home to the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, where resident Marta Becket has put on a dance and mime show since the late 1960s.

The hotel is operating and the shows continue at the opera house, but beyond these maintained areas the town is in a state of disrepair. There are no restaurants and no gas stations. The opera house also runs the small Amargosa Airport that is located 1 mile west of the town.

The community's location on the east side of Death Valley is south of Nevada's Amargosa Valley and near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. South on SR127 is the town of Shoshone, California. The closest straight-line distance to the Nevada state line is roughly five miles northeast.

Government documents show an effort by the Timbisha Shoshone tribal government to acquire about 7,200 acres in the area during 1999 to 2000. This includes areas for residences and the official federal sanction to use some government lands for traditional ceremonies. It's unclear if these efforts, which were documented in the Congressional Record, succeeded.

[edit] History

In 1914 the Death Valley Railroad started operating between Ryan and Death Valley Junction. It carried borax until 1928, when operations ceased.

From 1923 to 1925 the Pacific Coast Borax Company constructed buildings in the town.

In 1980 the town was included in the National Register of Historic Places as the "Death Valley Junction Historic District."

[edit] Telephony history

Number detail on instruction card says, "619+Death Valley Junction #2."

Local wired telephones were manual telephone service until the 1980s. To reach a phone here when the area was under manual service, you would dial the operator and ask for Death Valley Junction, California, Toll Station (and the one-digit number). To place an outbound call, you would lift the receiver and wait for an operator. The operator who answered was in Los Angeles. The area is now in area code 760.

At right is the bottom instruction card of Death Valley Junction #2, a non-dial Western Electric 1A1 coin collector located at the Amagosa Opera House. Picture was taken in the late 1970s.