Cow Creek Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Death Valley National Park, National Park Service

Provencher, Shaun; Luellen, Mark

The Cow Creek Historic District is a designed landscape covering approximately two acres in Death Valley National Park. Located in California, four miles north Furnace Creek Ranch, Cow Creek contains administrative, maintenance, and recreational facilities built by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1933 and 1942. The developed areas are situated below sea level along a wash descending from the hills into Death Valley. The complex is comparatively lush in contrast with the surrounding Mojave Desert landscape. One of the reasons the site was chosen for development as a CCC camp was because of its close proximity to water. This access to water was essential to the subsequent landscaping of the area. At Cow Creek, the CCC constructed a park headquarters, a utility (maintenance) area, barracks, water tanks, a swimming pool, and housing in the adjacent Park Village development before the CCC program was phased out and the country moved into World War II. The period of significance for the district, 1933 to 1942, is based on the work accomplished by CCC at Cow Creek during that nine-year period. As a whole, the cultural landscape in the Cow Creek Historic District is in fair condition. The most pressing need is for repair and maintenance of the adobe structures, a project which is currently under design review at the park. It is anticipated that the proposed rehabilitation of the adobe wall and buildings within the utility area will restore these structures to a good condition. Other landscape features include the trees related to the CCC period around the Administration Building and parking area, many of which are declining and in poor health from neglect and lack of water. The trees around the pool complex appear to be in better health. Although numerous changes have occurred within the historic district since the period of significance, most have been associated with the ongoing use of the site as both an administrative and maintenance area. Although these changes have impacted the historic setting, they have not irreparably altered it and substantial work associated with the CCC period is still evident. Individual landscape characteristics which retain integrity include natural systems and features, spatial organization, land use, topography, vegetation, circulation, buildings and structures, cluster arrangement and constructed water features. Only small-scale features have been altered to such a degree that they no longer contribute to the integrity of the district as a whole. Accordingly, the designed landscape at Cow Creek retains integrity and contributes to the significance of the historic district.

Cow Creek Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Death Valley National Park, National Park Service

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