California City, Desert municipality in Antelope Valley, United States
California City is a desert municipality in the Antelope Valley of California, covering more than 200 square miles (520 square kilometers) of Mojave Desert terrain. The town sits in Kern County, roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, and consists mostly of undeveloped land with a smaller inhabited center.
Real estate developers began purchasing roughly 82,000 acres (33,000 hectares) of desert land in 1958 to create a new major city north of Los Angeles. The project never reached its planned size, and the community was officially incorporated as a city in 1965.
The sprawling, often empty street grid tells the story of an original plan that expected far more residents than actually arrived. Many lots remain vacant while daily life concentrates in a smaller core where shops and restaurants serve the few thousand inhabitants.
Desert temperatures swing widely, with hot summer days and cool nights, so plan accordingly. Most facilities lie along Central Boulevard and California City Boulevard, where gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants can be found.
The town was designed for a population of several hundred thousand people, yet today only around 15,000 live here. Large sections of paved streets lead nowhere and end abruptly in the desert, giving the whole place an almost ghostly feel.
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