Muroc, California

USA / California / North Edwards /
 ghost town, historic ruins
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Muroc began in 1882 as a whistle stop on the Southern Pacific rail line between Mojave and Barstow. However, settlement in the area did not flourish until 1909, when the Corum family claimed a homestead. The Corums acted as "locaters" and persuaded friends and acquaintances to homestead in the Muroc area. The Corums previously lived in the Los Angeles basin and had an office in the Hellman building, where they recruited potential homesteaders to move to the Muroc area. A large majority of the homesteaders recruited by the Corums also previously lived in the Los Angeles basin, primarily in the cities of Compton and Long Beach. Migrants were often guided by friends or family as well as hired locaters.

Many of the settlers into the Muroc area were oil field workers from Signal Hill in Long Beach who lived in the neighboring community of Compton. The Mertzs, Economus, and Corums each came from this area and later settled the Muroc area. These people aspired to be commercial farmers and sought inexpensive land. They aspired to become one's own proprietor on one's own farm, a preoccupation that they shared with a large segment of the American public. However these hopes were dashed by the impracticality of alfalfa farming in the high desert on land that was difficult at best to irrigate. Furthermore, the later establishment of the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range in 1935 permanently changed the identity of the area. The last residents left Muroc in the early 1950s.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qsbO8GDsw

www.scahome.org/publications/proceedings/Proceedings.09...
eafb.mojavedata.gov/Public%20Documents/Report%20to%20St...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muroc,_California
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Coordinates:   34°55'27"N   117°52'26"W

Comments

  • The name 'Muroc' is the founding family's name 'Corum' spelled backwards!
This article was last modified 4 years ago