Not heavily forested but covered by a lake and vegetation very different from current one with many juniper trees see for instance ihttps://www.jstor.org/stable

Not heavily forested but covered by a lake and vegetation very different from current one with many juniper trees see for instance ihttps://www.jstor.org/stable/41424512?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents https://www.jstor.org/stable/41424512?seq=1#page_scan_tab_co... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Manly https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Manly. Do you believe it have always been a very arid desert? I have never been to death valey, and i live far enough from it to make traveling there not worth the time. But with the invention of books, images, and videos one doesn't have to be at a place to know about it. You seem to have a very strong emotional attachment to the place, but i would argue that it only adds bias to your judgement.