California City: the 3rd largest in California
There is a ghost city that never was in the desert of California. Pretty incredible story this (text from jalopnik and wikipedia):
California City had its origins in 1958 when real estate developer and sociology professor Nat Mendelsohn purchased 80,000 acres (320 km2) of Mojave Desert land with the aim of master-planning California's next great city. He designed his model city, which he hoped would one day rival Los Angeles in size, around a Central Park with a 26 acre artificial lake. Growth did not happen anywhere close to what he expected. To this day a vast grid of crumbling paved roads, scarring vast stretches of the Mojave desert, intended to lay out residential blocks, extends well beyond the developed area of the city. A single look at satellite photos shows the extent of the scarred desert and how it stakes its claim to being California's 3rd largest geographic city, 34th largest in the US. California City was incorporated in 1965.
California City came about as part land speculation, part ambitious dream. In the 60's the population boom was coming to fruiting and was fueling enormous need for additional housing. Nathan Mendelsohn was the man with a dream of building an entire new city north of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, a planned metropolis which offered an escape from the problems of Los Angeles. After developing his ambitious plans, securing funding and purchasing 186.5 square miles of desert, he brought in city planners who laid out streets, parks, neighborhoods and industrial districts. The planned roads were cut into the desert and the city was incorporated in 1965. Lots were sold cheap, as low as $990, and industrial plots were sold for $1 an acre in order to encourage business to move in. It was going swimmingly for a while, the land speculation frenzy meant everyone wanted to be in on the ground floor of the next big thing, so people were buying, but they weren't building.
After years of planning, the effort ran out of steam. Without a reason for the city to be there, people didn't have a reason to move in. Mendelsohn sold the property and moved on to other endeavors. To this day there are only 8,385 living in the western corner of the huge city. Hyundai actually took advantage of the cheap land and built their desert testing facility to the west of town. The vast and empty network of roads remain though, a testament to the huge dream and optimism of the plan. It's kind of spooky looking through the city that never was.
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California City had its origins in 1958 when real estate developer and sociology professor Nat Mendelsohn purchased 80,000 acres (320 km2) of Mojave Desert land with the aim of master-planning California's next great city. He designed his model city, which he hoped would one day rival Los Angeles in size, around a Central Park with a 26 acre artificial lake. Growth did not happen anywhere close to what he expected. To this day a vast grid of crumbling paved roads, scarring vast stretches of the Mojave desert, intended to lay out residential blocks, extends well beyond the developed area of the city. A single look at satellite photos shows the extent of the scarred desert and how it stakes its claim to being California's 3rd largest geographic city, 34th largest in the US. California City was incorporated in 1965.
California City came about as part land speculation, part ambitious dream. In the 60's the population boom was coming to fruiting and was fueling enormous need for additional housing. Nathan Mendelsohn was the man with a dream of building an entire new city north of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, a planned metropolis which offered an escape from the problems of Los Angeles. After developing his ambitious plans, securing funding and purchasing 186.5 square miles of desert, he brought in city planners who laid out streets, parks, neighborhoods and industrial districts. The planned roads were cut into the desert and the city was incorporated in 1965. Lots were sold cheap, as low as $990, and industrial plots were sold for $1 an acre in order to encourage business to move in. It was going swimmingly for a while, the land speculation frenzy meant everyone wanted to be in on the ground floor of the next big thing, so people were buying, but they weren't building.
After years of planning, the effort ran out of steam. Without a reason for the city to be there, people didn't have a reason to move in. Mendelsohn sold the property and moved on to other endeavors. To this day there are only 8,385 living in the western corner of the huge city. Hyundai actually took advantage of the cheap land and built their desert testing facility to the west of town. The vast and empty network of roads remain though, a testament to the huge dream and optimism of the plan. It's kind of spooky looking through the city that never was.
View Larger Map
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