Construction on California City started in 1958, and its developer hoped that it would one day be larger than L.A. or San Francisco — but more than 60 years later, its population has yet to break 15,000.
Craig Dietrich / FlickrA sign welcoming visitor to California City , the “ Land of the Sun . ”
Far out in the desert of Kern County , California , southwest of Death Valley and just north of Edwards Air Force Base , lie an odd collection of empty streets and unexploited lots that make up California City .
California City started in the fifties with the high hopes . It was originally intended to equal Los Angeles in size and universe , but lagging development and an unfavourable environment disappoint its developer — and allow for it a virtualghost towntoday .
Craig Dietrich/FlickrA sign welcoming visitors to California City, the “Land of the Sun.”
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By 1980 , the townsfolk had 10 of thousands of quarter - acre plot and 100 of miles of road that led to nothing but empty cul - de - sac . Geographically , California City is the state ’s third - largest incorporated city . However , its Brobdingnagian , never - settle streets remain firm today in mute testimony of the ambition of its father .
The Post-War Real Estate Boom Promised High Hopes For California City
California City had its origins in the state ’s post - war genuine estate boom . For several decades , a flourishing thriftiness and soar upwards population drove California ’s home Price through the roof , per theState of California Capitol Museum .
The first wave of returning World War II man , flush with VA mortgages , trigger off rapid expanding upon in Los Angeles and the Bay Area . Later , a tsunami of technical school expert founded Silicon Valley and drove cost higher than anyone could have anticipate just a few age prior .
Furthermore , large - scale in-migration from Mexico during this period added to a cosmopolitan housing dearth that boosted prices higher still .
An aerial drone shot of California City, a nearly empty 82,000-acre city that was meant to rival Los Angeles.
In this surroundings , it was almost impossible to lose money investing in real estate . All anyone had to do was to buy a few thousand acres of worthless scrubland , secure approach to the state ’s all - of import water system voucher , and deal the place in quarter - acre units to new arrivals .
Wikimedia CommonsAll of California City ’s empty roads have names , map assignment , and even mansion — but no multitude or buildings .
That was sociology prof Nat Mendelsohn ’s programme when he bought up 82,000 acres of completely inhospitable dirt in the empty Mojave Desert , perWIRED .
Mendelsohn and his kinsperson had immigrate to the United States in the 1920s from Czechoslovakia . He had always been a gifted student , and his background could scarce have been beneficial for a future Ithiel Town founder . educate in sociology , he specialized in rural res publica use of goods and services , and he practice his cognition during World War II as a political science analyst studying farm profitability .
He explicate many theme about how rural biotic community thrive , and after the war , he had the prospect to develop a small town in California called Arlanza Village . Mendelsohn made a success of this speculation by activating an desert Army industrial park and transubstantiate it into a factory to provide jobs .
That attracted new residents to the expanse , which fire the steady growth of his Ithiel Town . Arlanza Village had been a collaborative affair , with multiple investor and speculators determining how it was organize . However , the open tracts in the Mojave predict Mendelsohn something he could n’t have in over - determine orbit : total control .
Nat Mendelsohn’s Dream City Failed To Attract Prospective Residents
In 1956 , Nat Mendelsohn used the considerable cash in hand at his disposal from late farming deal to purchase up the enormous Mendiburu & Rudnick Ranch near Mojave , California . At a coup d’oeil , the website looked bright . The ranch was watered by 11 abnormally productive wells that never seemed to range wry , per theEast Kern Historical Museum Society . Irrigation from these well water battlefield full of lucerne that put up out against the dusty plain .
For two years , Mendelsohn would walk the land of his dream metropolis and sometimes summer camp on a high place he named Galileo Hill . By 1958 , Mendelsohn ’s dream city had been plat out . The web site was to be direct around an artificial lake and several Mungo Park , with scores of large suburban neighborhoods winding around the urban center core group like the layers of an onion .
By the time brochures proceed out to prospective homebuyers that year , gang were at work glade brush and carve out roads . Most of the streets in California City had name calling before the ground was broken on a single planetary house . Signage was put up , realtors were contracted , and Mendelsohn thought he only had to wait for the money and occupier to start rolling in .
Wikimedia CommonsA faded wooden sign invites fresh occupant to search what California City has to offer .
It was n’t to be , however . Unlike Mendelsohn ’s earlier projects , which had been in moderately easy - to - reach places like Riverside , California City was way out in the desert and very far away from anything anybody would desire to endure near . There was Edwards Air Force Base , but it had housing of its own for its staff and their families .
Worse , Mendelsohn ’s enthusiasm was sabotaging his task . Every mickle that was cleared for building created a large patch of exposed dirt .
When the Santa Ana winds complain up , this rubble swing through the town like a sandstorm . More than a few potential residents decide against living so far aside from civilisation if the blank space they were moving to look like a dust sports stadium . Some parts of town picked up residents , but it was only a fraction of what Mendelsohn had been hoping for . shortly , his dreams began to melt .
Despite Some Slow Growth, Mendelsohn Soon Gave Up On California City
California City celebrate several milestone before its shortcomings became clear . The townspeople ’s first C. W. Post office opened in 1960 , and soon afterward it get a ZIP codification . Incorporation follow in 1965 , when Mendelsohn was still making frequent trips to Galileo Hill to set up his telescope and gaze at the stars . ( No people meant no weak defilement . )
As an corporate city , the townspeople could set forth its own police and fervidness departments , which it did almost immediately , despite having a population of fewer than 1,000 people . Still , many possible residents steered well-defined of the queerly hopeful metropolis in the desert , and gradually Mendelsohn ’s visits became less frequent .
California City went through a shakeup in 1969 , as its universe crested 1,300 for the first time . exhaustively fed up with wasting money on a fleck of barren desert that was crowing than some federal parks , Mendelsohn sell his command ploughshare in the townspeople to a consortium that yr . For the last 15 years of his animation , Mendelsohn rarely bring up his one major failure .
Wikimedia CommonsTens of thousands of acres of still - unexploited country make up most of California City , though the roads have been lay out for X .
But the city did n’t just go away because its father gave up .
In the 1970 census , California City was recorded as give birth 1,309 residents . By 1980 , that number had double to 2,743 . The Ithiel Town doubled in size of it again in the next 10 years , with a population of 5,955 in 1990 . It seemed as if Mendelsohn ’s dream had just been a piddling ahead of its time and that California City would double its population every decade until it really was a rival of Los Angeles .
That still was n’t to be , however . As the universe grew , water from those miracle well started running out , and pee vouchers from the province got more expensive .
By 2000 , California City had only increase in size of it by 40 percent , to 8,385 resident . In 2010 , that figure was just 14,120 . And by 2020 , there were still few than 15,000 citizen . Meanwhile , Los Angeles gasconade a universe of about four million . Mendelsohn ’s gigantic dreams of his development becoming a major metropolis may have never pan out — but California City is n’t entirely abandoned .
California City’s Residents Remain Optimistic About The Future
Over the years , the people of California City have turn to be gallant of their odd little townsfolk ’s quirks , such as the sempiternal miles of slowly break down boulevards nobody has ever drive on . And so they ’ve quell .
In the 1990s , the Corrections Corporation of America open up a job - generating prison house nearby , and canny developers turned the city ’s lakefront property into a pleasant country that rival that of any American suburbia .
California City still check the enormous wasteland around its cultivated core . In any other part of California , these would have long ago been settled by technical school worker who do n’t bear in mind a three - hour commute for a chance to make unnecessary money on their mortgage . However , the extremely removed and abrasive surround of the city continues to work against it .
This " wasteland " is also where the annualWasteland Weekendevent is held , a fete with an esthetic that should be familiar to anyone who has take in aMad Maxfilm .
Facebook / Wasteland WeekendTwo attendees of Wasteland Weekend in costume .
The event touts itself as the " world ’s largest post - revelatory festival , " with attendees clothe themselves in " wasteland fashion " such as gas pedal masks , wear pieced together from corrode fight metal and plastic , and model artillery .
Though California City may be empty , and the area around it may in fact be a waste , the township ’s leaders still seems to think there ’s a chance that it could yet grow to the size of Los Angeles .
Stranger thing have happened — specially in California .
After read about the bizarre history of California City , check out the other queer California towns ofZzyzxandColma , the city of the numb .
Wikimedia CommonsAll of California City’s empty roads have names, map designations, and even signs — but no people or buildings.
Wikimedia CommonsA faded wooden sign invites new residents to explore what California City has to offer.
Wikimedia CommonsTens of thousands of acres of still-undeveloped land make up most of California City, though the roads have been laid out for decades.
Facebook/Wasteland WeekendTwo attendees of Wasteland Weekend in costume.
