The America's National Parks Podcast is sponsored by L.L. Bean.

This year, L.Bine is joining up with the National Park Foundation,

the official non-profit partner of the National Park Service to help you find your happy place in an amazing system of more than 400 national parks

including historic and cultural sites,

monuments, preserves, lakeshores, and seashores

that dot the American landscape,

many of which you'll find just a short trip from home.

L.L. Bean is proud to be an official partner of the National Park Foundation.

Discover your perfect day in a park at find your park.com.

Even before the California Gold Rush of 1849, prospectors were finding gold in Southern California. As the rewards from the mines in the Sierras began to wither, miners headed toward the deserts

were hot summers, scarce water, limited wood resources, and the difficulty and high cost of transporting equipment

created a challenging mining environment.

But a few hearty adventures endured.

And about 300 mines were developed in the area now known as Joshua Tree National Park.

Few of these mines produced much, but one certainly did. Here's Abigail

Treview. Johnny Lange and his father drove their herd of cattle into the lost horse valley in

1890, having been forced to move west after his brother and six other cowboys were gunned down in New Mexico.

One night, while camped in the valley, the Lang's horses disappeared.

The next morning Johnny tracked them to the camp of a group of unsavory cattle rustlers,

the McHaney brothers at their Oasis encampment. The Oasis that now makes its home as an entrance to Joshua Tree National Park was first settled by the

Serrano people who called it Mara, meaning the place of little springs and much grass.

Legend holds they came to the oasis because a medicine man told them it was a good place

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