Ĭalifornia City had a population of 3,200 in 1985 and over 14,000 in 2018, clustered around the west end. The sales company was also required to invest $16 million in long-promised infrastructure in various cities. The Federal Trade Commission filed a cease and desist against the home seller for misleading advertising about the city, and in 1977, over 14,000 landowners receiving partial refunds from a $4 million pool, the largest FTC settlement to date. Part of the book focused on California City, calling it a fraud and 'a particularly stark study of government failure.' By the 1970s, over 50,000 lots had been sold and the market declined. The Federal Trade Commission began inspecting the development company in 1969, and Ralph Nader's 25-person California task force (part of 'Nader's Raiders') published 'Power and Land in California' in 1971. Unbuilt neighborhoods in California Cityīy 1965, population growth was less than the developer's projection, and by 1969 only about 1,300 people lived in the city. Ī post office opened in 1960, and the city incorporated in 1965, when it had 158 square miles (410 km 2) of land, 5,900 landowners, 817 residents, and 232 homes. The city was originally designed to hold 400,000 people, with a downtown center capable of holding 80,000-100,000 people and satellite suburbs housing the rest. There were conflicting reports that the city was built over a large aquifer. Mendelsohn was president of a corporation called the California City Development Company. The master plan was prepared by Smith and Williams and Garrett Eckbo architects, at the behest of Nat Mendelsohn, a real estate developer and sociology professor, and it included a central park with a 26-acre (11 ha) artificial lake, two golf courses, and a Holiday Inn hotel. The city was designed to be a planned community. Instead of being built piecemeal, the whole city would be developed simultaneously. Developers pitched the city as an alternative to Los Angeles, which the developers argued could not handle the post-war population boom and needed other communities to share the increase. The city was created in 1958, when developers purchased 82,000 acres (33,000 ha) of Mojave Desert. The largest fuzed and unexploded bombs found were two 100-pound general purpose bombs.

Site surveys beginning in 1999 found MK 23 3-pound practice bombs with unfired signal cartridges, 20-millimeter Target Practice projectiles, 2.25, 2.75, and 5-inch practice rockets, high explosive bombs, and small arms ammunition from. Unexploded ordnance and toxic waste are associated with the site, and the Army Corps of Engineers began surveying the site in 1999, and by 2001 the range was described as containing 20,908 acres (8,461 ha) southwest of the California City center. It was also used for pilotless aircraft just after World War II. It included bomb targets and strafing targets such as a vehicle convoy. The Mojave Gunnery Range 'C' was used from August 1944 until January 1959, when it became part of the California City land.

In the late 19th century, the Twenty-Mule Team Trail, which carried loads of borax to the railhead in Mojave from Harmony Borax Works mines in the east, ran through the California City area. Padre Francisco Garcés, a Franciscan missionary, camped at Castle Butte in what is now California City in 1776 during the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition of Alta California. California City has a park, a PGA golf course, and a municipal airport. Other major sources of employment include California City Correctional Center ( California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) Mojave Air and Space Port and its flight test operations and the Hyundai/Kia Proving Grounds located in the rural southwestern part of the city. Much of the workforce of Edwards Air Force Base, which is located 18 miles (29 km) southeast of the city, is made up of city residents. Covering 203.63 square miles (527.4 km 2), California City has the third-largest land area of any city in the state of California, and is the largest city by land area in California that is not a county seat. It is 100 miles (160 km) north of the city of Los Angeles, and the population was 14,973 at the 2020 census. California City is a city located in northern Antelope Valley in Kern County, California, United States.

California on map