# Why Death Valley ..... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 13, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177 "2010-08-13T18:01:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![clover66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@clover66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clover66)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177/1 "2010-08-13T18:01:20Z")
Dearest Cecil: It seems churlish to chide Stephen L. from Chicago, who wrote in 1982, about Death Valley becoming a national park in 1994. Just saying… ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177/2 "2010-08-13T22:35:13Z")
Link to column: [Why is Death Valley a national monument rather than a national park? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/357/why-is-death-valley-a-national-monument-rather-than-a-national-park) I’m not sure what happened here, but the dating on columns gets screwey sometimes: columns get revised for publication in the books, for example, and the books don’t carry the date of the original column. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Buford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Big\_Buford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Buford)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177/3 "2010-08-17T23:45:36Z")
For an even more intersesting example of presidential politics in regard to national monuments and national parks, look up the history of Bill Clinton’s designation of the 1.9 million acre Grand Escalante National Monument in 1996. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177/4 "2010-08-17T23:55:57Z")
I wonder what Steven L. thinks of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, designated by President George W. Bush in 2006. > [@papahanaumokuakea.gov](#): > > The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the single largest conservation area under the U.S. flag, and one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world. It encompasses 139,797 square miles of the Pacific Ocean (105,564 square nautical miles) - an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Buford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Big\_Buford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Buford)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177/5 "2010-08-18T18:34:03Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I wonder what Steven L. thinks of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, designated by President George W. Bush in 2006. > > > [@papahanaumokuakea.gov](#): > > > > The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the single largest conservation area under the U.S. flag, and one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world. It encompasses 139,797 square miles of the Pacific Ocean (105,564 square nautical miles) - an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined. Wow – that’s over 89 million acres. Makes the Grand Escalante seem like not such a big deal. I thought Bush was against this sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177/6 "2010-08-18T19:56:54Z")
> [@Big\_Buford](#): > > Wow – that’s over 89 million acres. Makes the Grand Escalante seem like not such a big deal. I thought Bush was against this sort of thing. Whatever else I may think of his administration’s legacy, I count this as both a noble gesture on his part and a genuinely valuable conservation measure. Check out some of the [pictures](http://papahanaumokuakea.gov/imagery/photos.html) of the underwater environments within the Monument. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-death-valley/550177/7 "2010-08-19T00:38:13Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Check out some of the [pictures](http://papahanaumokuakea.gov/imagery/photos.html) of the underwater environments within the Monument. I find the name of the photographer supremely [ironic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Watt).