| A Death Valley visitor stands amidst the desert vegetation at Towne Pass. The view is east from State Route 190 at Towne Pass to the abundantly fossiliferous Lower Mississippian Tin Mountain Limestone--the hill (about three-quarters of a mile from SR 190) composed of dark bluish limestones at the upper right of the image. Prior to December of 1994, when the Desert Protection Act became law of the land (creating Death Valley National Park), this classic fossil site could be found just outside the boundary of then Death Valley National Monument. The locality bears plentiful well preserved corals, brachiopods, bryozoans and crinoids, primarily. |