A small part of the southern end of the range is in San Bernardino County.

[3] Dr. Darwin French is credited as applying the term Panamint in 1860 during his search for the fabled Gunsight Lode.

[4] The origin of the name is the Paiute or Koso word Panümünt or Pa (water) and nïwïnsti (person).

Both Mount Whitney above the Owens Valley and Badwater Basin in Death Valley are visible from certain vantage points in the Panamint Range, making it one of few places where one can simultaneously see both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States.

The ten beehive shaped masonry structures, about 25 feet (7.6 m) tall, are the best known surviving examples of such charcoal kilns in the western U.S.[9]