This is a photo of a 1958 development that never went anywhere. California City, California.
Found this in a story attached to something else that was highlighting developments in recent times that have gone bust. One picture showed a high-rise condo (26 floors maybe) in Miami that had one occupant on about the 12th floor. Another photo showed recently finished houses/condos being demolished rather than pay fines to the city when the rest of the development was no longer financially viable.
wow that is a lot of cul-de-sac.
i hate to layout cul-de-sac. this is the part where layout speed slows down.:-P
It's the ones that got built that inspired this song!
Man, I'm gettin' old. Hadn't heard that since about 1969.
I've spent quite a few years riding ATV's in Cal(ifornia) City. Some houses were built and most roads were roughed in. Lots of great dry camping sites and riding. Now the City built an MX track in the area and provides emergency support on weekends or a very reasonable fee.
That is an amazing amount of staking, from my perspective! No GPS. No EDM. Multiple square miles. Who was the engineer and surveyor on that? M&Q?
I have not spent a lot of time near Cal City.
Just did a Google Earth view. Amazing!!
JA, PLS SoCal
We have driven through the area on the way to Las Vegas and wondered why anybody would live out there in the desert?
It is no wonder that plan did not develop.
Keith
WOW!
That blows my mind. I wonder what was supposed to happen there. Pretty crazy that you can still see the layout after 50+ years.
It actually makes me sad to think of all the money wasted and dreams broken (probably a couple of surveyors got broke too).
Actually saw this recently in a area I made a proposal to do surveying. Take a look around the east side of Deming, NM. Similar deal. What I was told was the county was trying to drum up some money, so they subdivided this land and sold it around the world to get people to buy these lots and generate some land tax money.
Holy Cow.. I am one of the guilty involved in this huge land swindle. Worked on the boundary as a Party Chief, November 1957 of about 40,000 acres that Nat Mendlesson had acquired, purchased etc, believe he was one of the developers @ Apple Valley, Ca and definitely was the man @ Hesperia.
Worked for the engineering firm of McIntire & Quiros of Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles (they built a new office in Monterey Park, Ca. and later had 80 crews @ the main office.
We did topo of 4 sections which inlcude the downtown area and the designers went to work subdividing many tracts for lot sales, the downtown area construction begin immediately and streets were paved with desert mix.. lots of promotion world wide.
During the 60s, probably 10 crews worked on construction of streets, water systems and zillion of lots at Cal City.
Anyone want to contact me on email, would try and answer any questions.. It has been a long time was 25 then and 81 now, time does fly... Thanks for listening.. glen ..cairn32@msn.com
Oh, my gosh!!!!!
Cannot wrap my mind around 10 crews working on something like that and then........poof..........nothing.
I can't imagine 80 crews, let alone all of them working out of a single office.
Oh, my gosh!!!!!
Mr. Holy Cow, A correction is needed on the 80 crew statement at the new office... There were 80 crews on the payroll that summmer in the 60s, however there were numerous sub offices, project site offices through out calif, new mexico and ariz. probably a max of 10 crews from the main office in Monterey Park, Ca.
The Cal City project lasted about 15 years, with crew count as high as 10 during the 60s, believe the office was closed in the early 70s..
It was a production type of surveying, luckily i worked on projects in Tehachapi, Ca Bear Valley Springs, Golden Hills, Rancho Embarcadero, Goleta, Dodgers Ball Park, Los Angeles, ca. Edwards AFB, Rocket Site and Hi-Speed Test Track...
Thanks for listening,
glen
Found an old 1990 article in the online edition of the LA Times, gives a pretty good overview up to 1990. The 2010 census shows almost a doubling in size from 2000 with a population of 14000, still thousands of empty lots though!
I think almost every county in the western USA has sagebrush subdivisions, we have one or two here locally. A lot of dreams in the 60's never happened.
SHG
Oh, my gosh!!!!!
Glen,
Thanks for the information. Good to hear from you.
I started surveying in 1971 and worked with a couple of "old timers" from M&Q. Each had string burns across the back of their necks from the plumb bob string.
They had some very interesting war stories. Golf tournament escapades, etc.
JA, PLS SoCal
> Holy Cow.. I am one of the guilty involved in this huge land swindle. Worked on the boundary as a Party Chief, November 1957 of about 40,000 acres that Nat Mendlesson had acquired, purchased etc, believe he was one of the developers @ Apple Valley, Ca and definitely was the man @ Hesperia.
> Worked for the engineering firm of McIntire & Quiros of Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles (they built a new office in Monterey Park, Ca. and later had 80 crews @ the main office.
> We did topo of 4 sections which inlcude the downtown area and the designers went to work subdividing many tracts for lot sales, the downtown area construction begin immediately and streets were paved with desert mix.. lots of promotion world wide.
> During the 60s, probably 10 crews worked on construction of streets, water systems and zillion of lots at Cal City.
> Anyone want to contact me on email, would try and answer any questions.. It has been a long time was 25 then and 81 now, time does fly... Thanks for listening.. glen ..cairn32@msn.com
Awesome, the beauty of the World wide web
I did a survey and map in California City in the 1990s. All my research was of Mc Intire & Quiros subdivisions from 30 years earlier. All I can say is no one would every drive to Cal City by accident.
