The center of California population monument in the Buttonwillow safety rest area on I-5 (near Bakersfield). I stopped for lunch. The plan was to eat lunch in the truck then look for the monument. I'm eating my sandwich and look outside the window to my left and there it is right next to where I parked (6th surveyor sense, I guess).
Here are some photos...
We took Route 119 to lovely Taft, California then Route 33 south to Ventura. Just a few hundred feet before Pine Mountain Summit (about 5k) in Los Padres National Forest a Bobcat crossed the highway in front of us. It happened so fast that I didn't get any pictures :-(. He is a little bit larger than a standard house cat with tabby type stripes, stubby tail and tufts on the ears.
We also got to drive through fictional Astronaut Steve Austin's hometown, Ojai, California. Steve Austin was the $6 million dollar man. My understanding is it is pronounced OH-HI.
Nice pics Dave. California looks so green this time of year. You have a great job being able to travel around California and do what you do and get paid for it!!
Pablo
> The center of California population monument in the Buttonwillow safety rest area on I-5 (near Bakersfield).
Man, this has to be an advertisement for regional planning. Imagine the luck of it all: the population of the entire State of California arranged so that the population center falls exactly in a median at a roadside rest stop! That is incredible!
Why, if just a few people were to shift around, the population center might end on on one of the porcelain thrones in the comfort station and what good would that be? It'd probably be better than just falling in the middle of some field out in the middle of nowhere, though. Then, some surveyor would have to make the untruthful representation that it fell exactly in the median at a roadside rest stop. If that chicanery were ever exposed, who would ever take important stuff like surveyors monumenting the population center seriously again? I hate to even think about that.
They admitted right on the monument that they fudged it by 7.76 km (4.82 miles) in order to put it in an easily accessible place.
Why'd they include the NAD83 epoch if the seconds are only to 1 decimal place?
> They admitted right on the monument that they fudged it by 7.76 km (4.82 miles) in order to put it in an easily accessible place.
I saw that, but had to think it was a mistake at the foundry when the marker was cast. I mean who would set a monument 4.82 miles away from some really important spot like the population center of the entire State of California and, while claiming the monument to be the work of surveyors, admit to having missed the spot by nearly 5 miles?
I may install a monument marking the common corner of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona in my back yard if the standard is that as long as you write how much you missed the spot by on the monument, everthing's to spec.
The actual center of population appears to be in a plowed field near the intersection of Palm Avenue & Imperial Street in lovely Shafter, California.
Kent
something in common with Texas...
The Kern County oil patch is just down the road from here a few miles. The State sells Chevron water from the California aquaduct for steam injection super cheap so they don't bother to clean it and reuse it (very expensive).
> The actual center of population appears to be in a plowed field near the intersection of Palm Avenue & Imperial Street in lovely Shafter, California.
>
Well, that was then. Now, after the last census, a full-scale effort needs to be mounted to monument the new population center of California and stamp the monument with its velocity. I mean from month to month that sucker has to be on the move. Heck why stop there? Why not also monument the Predicted Center of Population? This will really give the public the idea that surveyors are pros, engaging stuff that really matters a lot!
great cinnamon rolls
The Union 76 truck stop cafe sell cinnamon rolls about half the size of a dinner plate a taste pretty good as well. Buttonwillow's claim to fame other than the mon thingy...
Dave
What does Chevron water taste like? It doesn't sound very good.