I grew up in Mojave and California City from around 1980 to 1992. When we lived in California City at the time they did not have a school. So people would be bussed to Mojave. The population growth was due to the California State Prison (which you showed on a map but never discussed). Some of the people I went to high school with work there. California City now has a school system of their own. We were in California because our father worked at Edwards Air Force base and Area51. We had our own airplane, so being at California City Airport or the Mojave Airport was a daily thing. At California City Airport, there used to be a restaurant called the Readyroom. Pilots would fly in just to get a bite. The number 1 burger was called the Rat Flink, this burger was as big as the plate. You had to smash the burger down just to try and get a bite. The biggest thing that made the Readyroom so great was the old memorabilia. Just like in the movie The Right Stuff, there were old memories of test pilots all over the walls. It was a place of history. This restaurant burned down. The city had a meeting to shut down the airport and invest instead in the golf course. The problem was the golf course was losing money while the airport kept the golf course running...lol Lucky they approved the new terminal and restaurant. I was there for their opening day...😞. It was one of the worst grand openings I've been to. The skydiving school has been shut down. When ever you heard an ambulance, you knew a body hit the ground. One of the families we know makes full scale aircraft for museums and movies. I help build a F-117 for the movie Executive Decision. One day a military helicopter from Edwards flying over California City Airport noticed the F-117. Called Edwards to notify about a downed F-117. We heard sirens and thought another body hit the ground. But this time, they were here for us. After all the commotion was over. We were told what a great job we did on building the F-117. A movie was made at California City Airport called "Into the Sun". During a scene in the movie they start blowing up hangers. These hangers were not real hangers. But we felt the boom all the way to our house. The movie actually sucks. If you want to watch movies being made. Going to Mojave Airport is your best bet. I was lucky enough to be there when they were filming Airwolf. I was allowed to sit inside of airwolf. I spent most of my time as a teenager going from hanger to hanger sweeping to make extra money. I do miss the desert from time to time or actually I miss the memories. In California City they hold their annual tortoise day parade. This was a family event. You had paddle boat races for the kids, cookouts and everything. Mostly paid by the companies that had you stationed there. California City it is illegal to kill a tortoise. They are or were on the endangered list. I've watched a few aircraft hit the desert floor. One day coming back from Cantill, we watched an F-16 hit the ground big fireball. It took Edwards a couple of months to clean up the mess. The homeless live in dwellings they dug out of the desert and put plywood over it. On a hot day the ground is cool. You only have enough room to crawl and sit in.

When you plan your city in Cities Skylines but forget to watch your budget

Never heard about this before. Very interesting.

Abbandoned city skylines project after messing up the roads

Failed to mention the biggest reason not to move here: This entire area is considered a floodplain - yep in the middle of the desert - and homeowners are required to pay for flood insurance ... in an area that averages less than 8 inches of rainfall. We also broke record heat levels this very summer. So there's that.

The story of a city that's not really a city. Now that, that is interesting

So this is the real life equivalent of someone expanding too quickly in SimCity.

This is where I grew up. I moved out in 1999. When I moved out there was only a small convenience/grocery store, which we usually travelled to Mojave to go grocery shopping, there was a few banks and a couple pizza places. There was an elementary school and when I entered into the 7th grade it had just opened the middle school. That was about it. For high school I had to travel to Mojave. I have recently been back there and it now has McDonald’s and dollar general and family dollar. There was even a hotel there now. It has developed more since I have moved out but I do not miss being there.

This actually happened a lot during the housing bust of the early 2000's. Developers put in roads and even traffic light but no houses. I taught my daughter how to drive on those streets. They were legal to drive on but no houses.

Someday in the future, they will think the lines were runways for spaceships and the chariots of the gods....lol

*Atlantis has left the chat*

“I'll show you a place High on the desert plain, yeah Where the streets have no name,” - U2

I remember moving to New Mexico when I joined the Air Force, and my car almost ran out of gas right around here. I took the closest exit off of 14 because I saw tons of roads on the map, only to find a damn near ghost town. There was a police officer in a beat up dusty 1980s cruiser, and that's it. He told me there was no gas station. I barely made it to the next exit where there was one. Wild trip.

Where was he planning to get water for a city that big? Hasn't that always been an issue in California?

But then they realized, what the hell are we doing building a giant city in the middle of the desert

Sad to see this city not work out

I have a friend from cal city. Homeboy literally spent his life savings on an old minivan and drove halfway across the country to Michigan, completely away from family, just to leave cal city. I cannot hold a conversation with him without cal city coming up in some negative context at least every ten minutes. Dude really hates cal city.

In the meantime we turn our best growing land into housing.

Was about to say first, but then I remembered I have a brain

California City is located not in the Antelope Valley - that lies south-southwest of the Fremont Valley, where California City is actually situated. Sincerely, a resident of the Mojave Desert.

i drove through there yesterday and was so confused when i saw no buildings

This reminds me of driving along 14, 138, 395, and seeing the 100's of "Avenues", dirt roads with maybe a small shack visible at the end. Lancaster and Palmdale have expanded since then, but I honestly never knew much about California City. Thanks for the interesting video.

When I was a teenager, my parents "won" a free weekend in California City. Of course, it was really a hard-sell attempt to get them to buy property there, which they actually resisted quite easily. Nevertheless, I remember staying in a nice mobile home and enjoying paddle-boating on the lake in Central Park.

I remember as a kid. Erik Estrada had commercials trying to sell u land there.

Very well made video! Thank you very much for such great ad placement! No ads lazily tossed into the content at random. It was a pleasure to watch your video! Thanks again.

Haha, I knew about it from Tom Scott, but nonetheless, nice to watch this video.

“Water, water, water…. There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.” -Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

I learned of this city when my car broke down and had to be towed for repair. California City was the nearest town. It was a creepy experience and I never want to return.

I used to live in Cal City back when I was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, lol.

Great video!

Gotta make a video on California ghost towns and the gold rush leftovers and interesting places like Placerville, Downeyville, Coloma, Locke. I love your videos! Dude! Great stuff!

I love these videos. Thank you for your awesome work.

I've seen this place overhead by plane many times going over the Mojave and was always perplexed by it until I saw some article about it and realized this was what I was looking at. I've also driven through the area en route to Yucca Valley. You can see them well from above but not very much from the ground which is why a lot of people don't know they're there.

I’m from California born and raised. I travel to the Mojave a lot to see my significant half. I’m so glad they didn’t build a city in the desert. The air is always crystal clear, no pollution. Driving from the desert into LA, you can see the skies go from blue to grey. Imagine how bad the pollution would be in the desert? California City would’ve ended up like LA and San Francisco. A big skyline with nice areas, filled with bad areas, homeless, high rents, & corruption. Minus the beaches. But then who knows. Maybe the town will eventually grow out into the city it was dreamed to be.

Sounds like Chinese urban "planning:" Build it, and they will come." 😂🦄

Great quality as always

Drive past the turnoff to Cal City fairly often on 58 or 395 but have never actually driven in Cal City. Believe I'll take the time and see for myself..thank you, very interesting.

Thank You! Never knew about this

My family are "proud" owners of a parcel in California City. Most people don't know where this is, but every year I have some developer call and enquire about selling this lot for pennies...this place will always entice people for whatever reason, but nothing will ever come out of it.

Holy hell this channel is underrated. I expect it to blow up within the year

*2:36** woah!* "Says channel name out loud" You're videos are great and you deserve more subs. It's crazy how LA has grown

Nope wrong Minecraft builders just forgot to finish their city world.

Nice video

I heard about California City about 10 years ago. I keep coming across videos & other materials about it every few months. I believe that it will be a very large populated city one day.

I lived there for 6 years. I bought a manufactured home for $25,000. In 2012. I upgraded it and sold it in 2019 for $144,000. Then I left the state and bought a beautiful place in another state.

Man I would love to go running/biking around on those nice dirt roads.

3:25 I can't even begin to imagine why anyone would think the super high desert would rival the perfect weather & beaches of Los Angeles 🤔

There is a worse failed development in the desert east of El Paso, Texas. Horizon City and a vast area east of that...just fading dirt roads and a scattering of homes. This was a land scheme, in which lots of people in the midwest were sold small plots, with promises of good roads and services. Now, there are thousands of plots with murky ownership records, and El Paso is hamstrung to take appropriate actions because of the land title issues. From Google satellite view it is bizarre. On the ground, it is mostly empty and depressing.

Very interesting!!!!

I had to google map this to fact check it because it seemed too crazy, and then the empty dirt roads appeared all over my google map screen. This is incredible!!!!

Brilliant, I love it when I learn something new. Really excellent vid

Could solve homeless problem in San Fran and LA...

Wow youtube finally fixed their algorithm! nice video

I like how its only 6 mins which means its not long until your straight to the point

_"...Nat Mendelson, a real estate developer....and _*_*a professor at Columbia....*_*_ "_ _"There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”_ ~George Orwell

Great story!

I love your channel man!

There's a podcast about this place. I happened stumbled upon it, so you may be able to find it if you google it. However, the podcast talked about how agents promoted to immigrants, and retirees. People who wanted to moved out here and build homes or businesses were scammed out of their savings. It's really sad to hear the story.

Sad but not too surprising. Cities grow organically sometimes over centuries. I wouldn't expect one to be designed and become popular overnight.

Interesting. Advice: your outro music is way louder than your narration. So you can probably bring up the level of your narration. The outro music can be a touch louder than the narration. Otherwise the music leaves people scrambling for the volume control.

wow, That is Interesting

The most fascinating part of California City is it IS an actual city, though very small. Equally fascinating is you can see the remnants of the planned street grid even today.

Verrrrrdy Intresding.

Imagine if does become a city

I love ghost towns and obscure places, that’s interesting, cheers.

That was new and interesting to me.

Now this is a place that I need to visit, not because of the city or history, where most people see an undeveloped city with dirt streets, I see a giant playground.

And now you know why developers are required (in most States) to build everything, including paved roads, sewer, water lines, storm sewers, etc. before they can officially plat a new development. So many blunders like this in the past, and cities have to deal with the consequences of greedy developers who want to spend the absolute minimum required by law in order to sell lots to suckers.

There is a city size area of streets but no buildings right next to El Paso TX. Looks just like what you're showing in this vid in CA. I've tried without success to get the story about the El Paso neighbor.

Growing up in Southern California, I remember the radio jingle "Buy a piece of the Golden State, and you'll be sitting pretty, in California City". My parents were given a free tour of another one of those huckster developments, "Hisperia". Fortunately they didn't buy in.

That’s so cool and crazy. Bakersfield is growing so maybe this area will too

Very interesting

Lehigh acres in Florida is a fun one too!

I lived in Cal City (early 90's).It was fun to drive around those vacant subdivisions. Red Rock canyon is not far, and obsidian fields are very close too. I taught painting under a professor at the Cerro Coso College extension. Other than the prevalence of meth, it was a fun place.

That is interesting

I'm from this city. Lived here from birth to about 10 years of age (1980-1990).

I can't help but think, if we actually invested in our own country instead of funding wars and government toys, we could and SHOULD further develop California City. We really need to start spreading out from each other. We have plenty of room to do so. We're not overpopulated, we're just packed in way too tightly anymore.

That is Interesting

Keep it up, you might be the next Paul Harvey

^_^ LOL Title of the video should be - "The City Counsel does not want to grow the city", that would be MORE apropos. A friend urged me to come out, get away from LA. This place is sooooo interesting I decided I should write an ENTIRE "Book" on this place alone!? I live here and have been here for about 6 years now. Never heard of this "Mendelson" you bring up but then the "Founders" probably removed his name. I'm pointing out that what they teach in school (here and at the Historical Society) this city was "Founded" by these (12) Families and this is when it begins to get VERY INTERESTING!? Great video, I like the back drop on the history and filling in the "______________", thanx.

I always drive past there on my way to Mammoth Mountain, the city interests me so much

This reminds me of Port Saint Lucie, FL. It was designed as a major city by General Development Corp. sometime in the '60s and '70s, I believe, but after they went bankrupt it lay as a 100 square mile maze of vacant, deteriorating roads in the woods until things boomed in the '90s and now it's one of Florida's major population centers.

There are similar setups outside of other desert cities out west. Extensive planned developments that just never happened and are now mostly dirt roads with no houses and no utilities.

I've been there. My brother in law flew us out there in a small aircraft. It's the best way to get the feel of the road layout and not much else.

I first heard of California City a couple of years ago. I learned all about it from yet another video that KZfaq recommended I watch.

Wow, I have driven thru there so many times and never noticed this, probably due to passing by in the dark...

It was a project that did not really work out. I used to live near by and it was a lot of fun to drive around the “city” in our 4x4s.

I grew up about 50 miles away and knew nothing about this area. It’s never mentioned. I asked my dad about this, he knew about it from his time in the military, but he thought it was an abandoned town. There are many of those in the desert. Water source dries up and everyone leaves.

Feels like a great place to build a Sim town, making a life sized Strangetown or Lucky Palms there would be awesome

This is Masaman with a different channel, right? Or have I lost my mind? Or both 🤣

Now that it's on the interwebs the Chinese will come to build it out.

My former father in law was “vice mayor” of Cal city back in the early 80’s.

That Is Interesting

Just a brief glimpse of the map of CA reveals that cities NOT on the coast don't fare nearly as well. Certainly not one in the middle of the desert. One could say that Phoenix is also in the middle of nowhere, but there are good reasons for Phoenix to exist where it is. CA City? No so much.

it may be a failed desert city but house prices are still higher per square foot than my midsize midwestern city. oh, California.

That is interesting.

Worked there for a number of years. Windy. The crane operators early on would complain about 30 mph winds. Later in the project, they were flying equipment in 60 mph without batting an eye. CHP would close down 58 I believe... due to high winds. The locals would drive cars, trucks, atvs, ect at breakneck speeds along the railroad into town. The Mojave Green snake, Burrowing owls, unexploded ordinance/practice ordinance....Not a place for folks who are not ready to deal with unforgiving desert climate. (much harsher than the pictures show). Personally found California City and its climate spectacular. Other worldly and unapologetic. Not for everyone, but for those who can adapt, amazing.

Maybe once the workplace goes fully online, the city will begin to fill up

Thank - you .

that is cyberspace. it is definitely there, but you can't take a bus to get there and there's no asphalt on the streets