California City, CA

I was inspired by this blog about California City.

There's a city in the Mojave Desert called California City, CA, incorporated in 1965. Real estate developer Nat Mendelsohn purchased 320 square kilometers* in 1958, envisioning a city that would one day rival Los Angeles. He was wrong, of course.
*The city now has a total area of 527 square km.

The city is the third largest city in CA by land area, but only has 8,000 people in it. For comparison, Rockville, MD has 60,000 people in it.

The downtown area sits around a central park with an artificial lake and looks relatively normal:

Warning: many embedded Google Maps lie beyond!



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However, following 20 Mule Team Pkwy to the northeast, you can see the vast expanse of deserted roads an no buildings. This guy built the city the way most people play Sim City. Only ALL THE ROADS ARE NAMED!


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There are plenty of pictures of all the deserted roads in the blog that inspired me.

But let's see what's around California City....

There's Edwards Air Force Base to the South, where most of the city works.

There's the California City Prison. Woo!

There's the Silver Saddle Ranch & Club, which is located right with all the deserted roads.


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There's the Mojave Air and Space Port (yes, space port) and aircraft boneyard.


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The Honda Proving Center


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The Kia Proving Grounds


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What a swell place!

Also nearby is a huge boron mine (outside of Boron, CA of course!). I've seen stuff like this from airplanes and wondered what the hell it was.


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Obviously people didn't flock to California City like the founder expected, but its population is growing.