Within the Badwater Basin, the area called Devil’s Golf Course sits slightly higher than the lowest point at Badwater, so the saltpan stays dry, allowing the wind and weather to wear the mineral deposits into jagged shapes. The name Devil's Golf Course comes from a 1934 guide to the park that said “only the devil could play golf” here. In the early 1900s, before the area became protected by the National Park Service, the Pacific Coast Borax Company drilled holes here, finding that mineral deposits extend up to 1000 feet below ground.