In the beginning Indians were wandering over this great portion of the Mojave Desert. The Piute, Shoshones and other tribes, of whom we have no record, may have made their home in the El Paso and Piute Mountains.

Water sprang from the ground at Cow Wells (now Garlock) and there were Mesquite, Dove Springs, Gypsy Springs, and others along with what now are dry washes of Red Rock and Jawbone Canyons. All these are gone but we do have the alfalfa capital (Cantil) with wells 1500 ft. deep and thousands of green and moist desert acres.

Father Garces, the second white man to explore this great waste, came in 1776 and made Catholics of the Indians and Mexicans. In 1884 Captain Fremont and his party surveyed the southwest. Captain John Fremont, riding the native mustang, stood on Turtle Back Mountain (now Galileo) and mapped his course.

At the turn of the century gold and silver were discovered in the El Paso, Rand and Piute Mountains. Thousands of gold seekers converged and created the towns of Randsburg, Cantil, and Garlock. The old Twenty Mule Team Road runs through California City and is a national trail.

In 1958 Nat Mendelson, a practical dreamer and visionary, stood on the site of what today is California City and envisioned a town larger than Los Angeles. Mendiburu and Conklin (Keystone Kops) were farming and raising cotton and alfalfa. They were bought out and, along with undeveloped land, a city was planned encompassing 895 square miles.

Everything was big! It was a big dream! Water was brought from New York and with appropriate ceremonies fell from a plane into California City’s little Central Park Lake. In 1985, this mighty infant called California City stretched its sturdy arms and became the ‘JEWEL OF THE DESERT’. Recreation, excellent business in the Mall, Civic Center, churches, tree studded mobile home park, and the 160-acre par 3 championship golf course have made California City unique and indeed beautiful.