California

Places in this region

LA-88 Nike Missile Base

Abandoned anti-ballistic missile base

LA-88 was one of the few dozen Nike missile bases located around LA to protect the civilian population and military industrial sites from Soviet attack and was in operation from 1957-1974. In... »

Architectural Oddities, Incredible Ruins, Obscura Day Location | Edited by dittlelifferent, A Facebook user and 2 others

Wildrose Charcoal Kilns

Ten 25-foot high beehive-shaped kilns abandoned in Death Valley

In 1875, lead ore was discovered in California’s Argus Range. Shortly after its discovery, George Hearst (future Senator and father of William Randolph Hearst) purchased the land and formed the... »

Architectural Oddities, Incredible Ruins | Edited by leiris and Nicholas Jackson

Methuselah Tree

The oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah was germinated before the Egyptian Pyramids were built

An ancient 4,800-year-old Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, the Methuselah Tree grows high in the White Mountains of eastern California. Named, obviously, after the Biblical figure that lived for... »

Natural Wonders, Geological Oddities, Extraordinary Flora | Edited by Nicholas Jackson, Dylan and others

Anza Borrego Desert View Tower

The Desert View Tower looks out onto the curious carvings of an unemployed engineer

In the mid 1920s, Bert Vaughn, a hotel owner in nearby Jacumba, built a four story tall tower in the empty Anza Borrego desert to "commemorate the pioneers and road and railroad builders who... »

Follies and Grottoes, Outsider Architecture | Edited by re_nakaba and Dylan

California City: The Unbuilt Suburb

The "3rd largest" city in California is an empty mirage of suburbia in the middle of nowhere

Nat Mendelsohn had a dream. A city that was going to rival Los Angeles, in three hundred and twenty square kilometers of Mojave desert paradise, centered around a beautiful -- though not native to... »

Ghost Towns, Obscura Day Location | Edited by Annetta and Dylan

Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia

A comprehensive collection of Pez dispensers

When Viennese confectioner Eduard Haas III began marketing his Pfefferminz, peppermint candies in small altoid like tins, and later in a cigarette lighter shaped dispenser (the "regular" designed... »

Unique Collections | Edited by

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Where the alchemists dream of transmuting base metal into gold was actually achieved

The philosophers stone also known as "the great work" was the search not so much for eternal life, or to turn lead into gold, but the search for perfection, for God. Turning a human into an... »

Inspired Inventions, Instruments of Science, Repositories of Knowledge | Edited by

Electronics Flea Market

If you are looking for a used Russian battery, Chinese Ham Radio or other electronic oddities this Flea Market is a good place to start

We live in a largely disposable world, where objects are not made with service in mind. When your coffee grinder breaks, must people throw it out and get a new one for $15. For the most part, we... »

Electrical Oddities, Purveyors of Curiosities | Edited by M Rebekah Otto and Rachel

Slab City California

During winter months, abandoned navy base becomes off-grid home and alternative living community for thousands of retirees

Slab City, or The Slabs, is a free campsite and alternative living community located near an active bombing range in the desert city of Niland, California. Previously an old WWII base, Marine... »

Watery Wonders, Geological Oddities, Outsider Art, Strange Statues, Disaster Areas, Cultures and Civilizations , Eccentric Homes, Outsider Architecture | Edited by anhie, chasterus and 2 others

Civic Musical Road

Finale of "William Tell Overture" can be heard as drivers pass over grooves in the road

Originally created for a Honda commercial in September 2008, the Civic Musical Road consists of strategically placed grooves that, when driven over, produce the musical notes to the finale of... »

Musical Wonders | Edited by anhie