Collect this amazing ornament celebrating Joshua Tree National Park. Located in southern California, the park sits where two desert ecosystems meet, the high Mojave Desert and the lower Colorado Desert, giving it an unusual mix of plants and animals found nowhere else. Read the enclosed brochure to discover more about the heritage of this incredible landscape.
Details
Designed by and exclusive to: White House Holidays
Material: Solid brass
Origin: Made in the USA
Includes: Gift box, brochure and ornament
More about the park
Long before it was a park, this land was home to the Serrano, Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, and Mojave peoples, who settled around its springs and developed deep knowledge of how to live in the desert. By the late 1800s, gold miners and cattle rustlers had moved in too, often using the rugged rock formations to hide their operations.
The park's preservation is largely credited to Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, a Pasadena resident and desert advocate who grew alarmed by cactus poachers and developers destroying the native landscape in the early 20th century. She lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area, and her efforts led to the establishment of Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. It was elevated to National Park status in 1994 under the California Desert Protection Act.
The park's namesake, the Yucca brevifolia or Joshua tree, isn't actually a tree at all but a tall species of yucca. It shares the landscape with massive monzogranite boulders, remnants of molten rock that cooled deep underground and were sculpted into rounded formations by erosion and groundwater, seen today at places like Hidden Valley and the Wonderland of Rocks.
Today the park spans nearly 800,000 acres and shelters the desert tortoise, bighorn sheep, and many other species. It draws around three million visitors a year for rock climbing and some of the darkest night skies in the continental United States, with most coming during the cooler spring months.