A truck driver died Tuesday when a tractor-trailer rig ran off the road and into a building in Death Valley National Park, officials said on Wednesday.
The single-vehicle crash scattered debris and left diesel fuel on CA-190 between Stovepipe Wells and Towne Pass, closing the main road through the park for about 22 hours. The road reopened Wednesday morning.
The crash was likely caused by a brake malfunction, officials said.
CA-190 has long, steep grades on both sides of Towne Pass, and truck fires have been a problem recently. An electrical contractor truck burned after descending Towne Pass on April 9. Six commercial trucks and one fifth-wheel RV caught on fire below Towne Pass in 2024.
The truck collided with the historic stone Emigrant Ranger Station, built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It hit the building’s porch, destroying two stone columns, damaging the roof, and breaking windows, park officials said.
Stan Jones wrote the song “Ghost Riders in the Sky” while living in the building and working as a park ranger in 1947, officials said. The building hasn’t been used for several decades.
A hazmat team worked overnight to clean up the spill. The truck was carrying a load from a mine in the Searles Valley.