Hey there! So it seems that we have one last post from our Arizona trip! It's the craziest, creepiest one of them all! The area this weird community was in, is called Desert Center. On our way home, before we reached Desert Center, we stopped by the "shoe tree" and left some shoes in our name :). We also found a few other cool things. Many miles later, we finally reached Desert Center. We didn't exactly know what we were going to find here, but we knew it was a deserted town. I have passed it many times, and always wanted to stop and check things out! We stopped at the Cafe, along the highway, and soon found an entire abandoned community near it! We took a dirt road and eventually came upon what we found to be the creepiest "town" we'd ever been in. The dirt road led us to pass a huge warehouse, drive-up loading docks, sheds, over 65 "houses", many more abandoned buildings, a barn, a big building and a few trailers. We also came across a pool and tons of strange cement basin-type things. This place was so unexplainable, not even the photos do it justice! We drove all the way to the end, and worked our way to the exit. Surprisingly, this entire "community" was mostly untouched! It was incredible to finally come across something abandoned, without it being completely tagged and vandalized. The inside of this building was super dark and eerie. We used the built-in flash on my Canon to take the pictures. Is it weird that I expected to look back at these pictures and see a dead body or a ghost or something?? We couldn't see anything, so I didn't really know what the inside looked like, until I looked back at the pictures later. The first small building we came across was one with barred windows and a single chair inside. We called this "the punishment room". Seemed appropriate. We then moved along to the 65-some "houses" that were beyond strange to us. I still, to this day, feel creeped out by them. What in the world were these odd structures for? We think someone had stacked all the beds in one house and then all the rest of the items from each house into another. So for literally the last 10 days I have been researching this area and could not find anything!!! I was getting so frustrated and was about to give up, when I finally figured something out. I decided to drop a pin on one of the buildings, via cell phone. I searched the address and nothing but real estate websites came up. Most of them said this, "Flat 318.95 acre parcel. Great location -flat parcel with great potential. Easily farm crops and fish - previously used to farm asparagus, jojoba, grapefruit and tilapia. Utilities and facilities in place. Gas, electrical, phone and septic system on property. Water provided by well and easily distributed to irrigation system (over 22 miles), faucets and hydrants throughout property, in addition to the 27 concrete, in-ground fish tanks and 3 levee ponds. Commercial scale packing and shipping operation possible with sizeable covered packing area and large walk-in refrigerator with drive-up loading docks. Easy freeway access, minutes from I-10. Property includes single-family residence. Potential uses: nurseries, orchards field crops, grazing farm animals, packaging plants, guest ranches, tennis clubs, golf courses, relay towers, distribution center, etc." This place is still extremely strange to me, and I want to know more! What are those 65+ "houses" used for? What large materials were they bringing in to the loading area? I found that it may have been called FBI Farms, or Jatropha Plantation. I believe it closed around 2009. I also found that the Jatropha seeds were used to produce biodiesel. The large cement basins were part of their aquaponic system. Water was pumped from their well into the fish tanks. From there, the water went into the nursery field and then into the dirt ponds. From the dirt ponds, it stayed until they needed it in the main fields. The system allowed them to make an organic fertilizer. I just want to know more!! Some things may forever remain unanswered. Oh well. Want to see our jumpy pics? My picture of the day is one that I feel explains this bizarre place. It just gives the vibe of how strange it was to see nearly 70 "houses" lined up. These houses were tiny, too! Thanks for reading! Until next time, Ciao
1 Comment
Shanda
7/23/2016 02:23:59 pm
The small buildings were for the workers. Which were probably & mostly illegals.
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AuthorA passionate lover of food, adventure, traveling, and enjoying life! Archives
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