Description

The town of Mojave is located at the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert, below the Oak Creek Pass in Kern County. This small town is centrally located for abundant natural recreation opportunities. Mojave is the gateway to Inyo and Mono County ski resorts and winter wonderlands. Red Rock Canyon State Park, is just 28 miles north of Mojave on Highway 14 and has been the scenic site of hundreds of films. Mojave National Preserve encompasses 1.6 million acres of mountains, jumble rocks, desert washes, and dry lakes; outdoor enthusiasts appreciate the opportunity for solitude here not easily found at other southern California parks. Nearbye are beautiful Kern River Valley , Lake Isabella and historic Walker Pass. Then there is Desert Tortoise Natural Area, east of California City, operated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

History

The city of Mojave began as an 1876 construction camp on the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1884 to 1889, the town was also the end of the 165-mile, twenty-mule-team borax wagon route originating at Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley. It later served as headquarters for construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The name Mojave comes from the name of the Indian nation occupying the area before the arrival of European immigrants. Geographic features using the word Mojave are spelled differently from state to state. The convention is to spell it Mojave in California and Mohave in Arizona according to David Darlington's book on the Mojave. Located not very far from Edwards Air Force Base, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, and Palmdale Regional Airport, Mojave has a rich aerospace history as well. Its airport is the home of various aerospace companies and institutions such as Scaled Composites and the civilian National Test Pilot School. The airport is also the first inland spaceport in the United States, the Mojave Spaceport, which was the location of the first private spaceflight, the launch of SpaceShipOne on June 21, 2004.