The Shoshone Museum will sponsor a three-day conference with former museum President Lauren Wright and accomplished photographer Marli Miller April 17-19 at the Shoshone Museum.

Wright and Miller have co-authored a book on the geology of the Death Valley area, Wright providing the text and Miller the photography.

There will be an evening of background information and two days of driving tours.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday with a photographic media presentation of Amargosa Valley and Death Valley geology.

Saturday, the conference starts at 9 a.m. with a driving tour centered on the oldest rocks in the Death Valley region. According to the museum, some of the most ancient rocks visible on the Earth's surface are located in the vicinity of the War Eagle Mine at the southern end of the Nopah Range.

A dinner honoring another former Shoshone Museum president, the late John D. Cooper, will start at 6 p.m. Saturday evening in the Crow Bar Café next to the museum.

Dinner is a special menu of either prime rib or pasta primavera, dessert and a beverage.

Cooper was an international leader in the field of sequence stratigraphy and documented the transition of eastern California, which according to his observations, was once a marine environment and not part of the continental mass.

Reading the striations in the rock formations is similar to reading tree rings on a cut log to determine age and external environmental factors.

Cooper was president of the Shoshone Museum from 2003 to 2005.

Along with dinner, there will be a jazz quartet on the patio beside the restaurant. Reservations for dinner are limited and must be pre-paid. However, it is open to the public.

On Sunday, the tour group leaves at 9 a.m. for a trip to the Tecopa lake beds and ash hills, the Black Mountains and the Greenwater Range to observe tertiary and quarternary features.

The event is limited to 25 people and the requested donation is $100 for all three days.

Remember to wear comfortable shoes and bring water and a snack for the driving tour.

Carpooling arrangements can be made.

The reception dinner is an additional $25 and reservations are a must.

Call Susan Sorrells at 760-852-4224 or 702-596-2924, or e-mail sesorrells@earthlink.net or more information and to make reservations.