Featured image credit: Tedder
Don’t call it a ghost town. Although, admittedly, California City is a ghost of what its creators intended. If we’re looking at it purely from the perspective of land area, it’s the third-largest city in California (bigger than San Francisco and Sacramento) and the 43rd biggest city in the country, measuring in at just under 204 square miles. So, why have you never heard of it? Because fewer than 15,000 people live there. So, yeah, not a ghost town. But there’s also never a very long wait at the McDonald’s drive-thru.
Building Cities from Dust
You’ll find California City about 100 miles north of Los Angeles in the Antelope Valley, not too far from Lancaster. But that still puts it pretty far from virtually anything else. Who would think it would be a good idea to try to build a thriving metropolis from scratch in the middle of the Mojave Desert? To understand that, you must first understand the time when California City was first pitched.
When World War II ended in 1945, soldiers were returning in droves, reuniting with partners, finding new partners, starting families, and generally needing places to live. An urgent need for housing was gripping the country, but Los Angeles really felt that desperation. And Nat Mendelsohn was betting big that they couldn’t accommodate it.
From the Mind of Nat Mendelsohn
Mendelsohn was an eccentric property developer well-versed in sociology and supported by a track record of success. During the war, the U.S. government contracted him to research farming profitability due to his extensive knowledge of rural land utilization. He’d raised his profile with his Arlanza Village venture, repurposing a military complex to serve as a factory providing numerous employment opportunities at the center of a new housing development.
Riding high on this victory and in a market where it seemed a challenge to lose money on property investments, Mendelsohn confidently purchased 82,000 acres of Kern County desert under the banner of his California City Development Company in 1958. The Mendiburu & Rudnick Ranch had owned much of that land, which boasted 11 wells that, despite the arid climate, never ran dry. As if to illustrate this, flowing fields of alfalfa hydrated by a robust irrigation system conspicuously punctuated the desert.
Mendelsohn envisioned California City as the antidote to everything wrong with Los Angeles. And he felt the best way to address these shortcomings, especially the notorious LA traffic, which was already a thing in 1958, was to develop the entirety of the city at once instead of piecemeal. Therefore, he approached California City like the world’s largest-scale planned community.
Planning California City
Looking back on these early days of development, it’s hard not to feel that a fully-assembled cart was being placed in front of a team of horses that may never exist. But Mendelsohn seemed to have unshakeable confidence. And though the name California City didn’t exactly scream creativity, the developer was rarely short on ideas. The original plan for the city would accommodate roughly 400,000 residents, with up to a quarter of those living in a downtown city center. The rest would live in a series of six suburbs circling the downtown core.
Mendelsohn’s planning was so meticulous that he’d named the majority of the city’s streets before a single structure was in sight. Visit California City today, and you’ll still find eroded street signs positioned at unpaved intersections, providing direction where none will ever be needed. At least not anytime soon.
Of course, 11 wells were never going to be enough to satisfy the third-largest city in California, so Mendelsohn’s early focus was securing water. Millions of dollars went to finding a reliable source. Ultimately, the aquifer was located beneath the western side of California City… the opposite of where Mendelsohn had planned. Therefore, the city center had to pivot to the west side. Today, you’ll find the lion’s share of California City’s development to the west, while the east side is little removed from its desert surroundings.
Successes and Failures (Dressed Up as Successes)
Not all of California City’s plans ended in disaster. Perhaps its most successful display of ambition (or audacity) was its verdant 26-acre central park. Comprised of a fabricated lake complete with a waterfall, it was the last vision you’d expect to see gracing the Mojave. To commemorate the park, Mendelsohn did a helicopter passover, dumping 10 gallons of water from New York’s Central Park into the lake. The iconic park had been a direct inspiration for Mendelsohn’s plans for California City’s natural sanctuary.
In 1965, with a population of about 600 residents, California City
was officially incorporated. To celebrate the momentous event,
Mendelsohn led the community in gathering in the newly constructed
(but
still unused) elementary school for a soiree. But behind the scenes,
Mendelsohn was worried about the lack of interest in his housing
venture.
Incorporation felt like a step forward, but it was actually the developer’s emergency escape route. It meant that Mendelsohn was no longer on the hook for the city’s infrastructural upkeep and financial future. That would now fall squarely onto the city’s government. And by that point, California City had already lost $7.5 million.
Scrutinizing California City
Mendelsohn quickly dumped a controlling amount of his interest in the floundering California City Development Company with Great Western United president William “Billy” White, Jr. promptly seizing the opportunity. He wasted no time showing Mendelsohn the door and dissolving the California City Development Company. Shortly afterward, those 11 magical wells that never dried up? They began to dry up.
By 1969, California City had attracted the unwanted attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) amidst a steadily developing photograph of the cities division of Great Western United as a money pit. Ralph Nader published his Power and Land in California in 1971, devoting an entire chapter to the catastrophic California City, going so far as to label it a fraud.
But the criticism that must have really stung Mendelsohn, even as he left his most ambitious project fading away in his rearview mirror, was Nader’s assertion that the project had been “a particularly stark study of government failure.” While potentially absolving Mendelsohn of blame by placing it on the shoulders of the government hastily assembled in his wake, the text simultaneously highlighted a bizarre oversight for the clearly talented developer.
California City had no independent economy of note. When establishing Arlanza Village, Mendelsohn had planted a brand new factory right in the middle of it all. But during his work with California City, the only notable job provider near the development was Edwards Air Force Base. And they already provided housing for their employees and their families.
A City Abandoned
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As disgruntled residents began to sue, claiming they’d been deceived into buying property with inflated value, White resigned from his position at Great Western United. The FTC sided with the residents and Great Western was ordered to return approximately $4 million to over 14,000 customers, though this included residents in other Great Western developments outside of California. It may not sound like much today, but in the early 1970s, it was the largest refund ever ordered by the FTC.
Taking advantage of the pandemonium, the Hunt brothers, who would be best remembered for their failed attempt to corner the silver market, conducted a hostile takeover of the California City Development Company. Its offices immediately closed as the Hunts aggressively sacked the company accounts, leaving behind a useless husk. And just like that, the Hunt brothers were in the wind, leaving behind nothing but dust to settle on the residents remaining in California City. The outside world seemed to have forgotten all about California’s third-largest city.
Life Goes On in California City
While it seemed virtually everyone had given up on the idea of California City, some residents held onto their land, considering the not-quite-an-oasis “home”. And it’s because of these people that we’re writing about California City as anything other than a dust-buried dream. The city hasn’t exactly grown in leaps and bounds. But it’s also no ghost town. The 2000 census revealed that the seemingly forgotten city supported 8,835 residents. By 2010, that number had increased to 14,120. But growth slowed even more, with only 14,973 reporting in the 2020 census.
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Admittedly, life in California City isn’t for everyone. On your way into California City, you’ll see little to disturb the natural landscape other than the telephone poles and the occasional dilapidated and decaying sign; remnants from the aggressive advertising campaigns of the city’s more hopeful beginnings. The central park is still there, but the grass is sun-scorched and faded. Overlooking a stagnating lagoon choked with algae, the waterfall gathers dust nearby. The majority of the city is still a slowly fading insinuation. Street signs stand sentinel, declaring nonsense to no one. Dirt-on-dirt pathways culminate in sandy cul-de-sacs like a sentence that abruptly ends without a point.
California City’s Economy
Across town, structures collect above the aquifer. Their residents find work at the nearby Edwards Air Force Base or possibly the Mojave Air & Space Port. The California City Correctional Facility, once a major employer in the area, closed in March 2024, likely further slowing any future growth in the all-but-abandoned desert “metropolis.” A valiant attempt to capitalize on the state’s legalization of cannabis was quickly nipped in the bud (the 420 crowd got that one) when the town’s water supplies couldn’t sustain it.
However, every September, California City miraculously manages to generate tourist dollars. And the best part? They don’t have to change a thing. That’s because the festivalgoers of the annual Wasteland Weekend want exactly what California City offers: a remote, barren landscape that moves ever onward even as everything around it seems to fade to dust.
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That’s because Wasteland Weekend is a festival that caters to those who want to fast forward through the apocalypse and get right to the good stuff: the post-apocalypse. They were into the end of the world before it was cool. But hey, if a guy wants to spend four nights in California City running around spending his disposable income while sporting nothing but a horse hair mohican helmet, chaps, and a smile, who are we to judge?
If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now
When you visit California City (which, if we’re being honest, will probably never happen), it’s hard to think of much coming over that arid horizon. While we might anxiously watch those horizons, we get the feeling that this simple sense of seclusion doesn’t bother the majority of its 14,000 or so residents. After all, they’ve made a habit of figuring it out for themselves.
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