Rice, California: More Than Abandoned Shoes – The Desert Way with Jaylyn and John

Once there was a town.

Rice, California, formerly named Blythe Junction, west of the Colorado River, between Twentynine Palms and the Arizona state line.

Now the place is just a lonely train siding with the tattered remains of a few buildings, an ubiquitous “shoe tree” and an abandoned airfield watching cars race by at 90 miles an hour on Highway 62 on their way to somewhere, from some place else.

Wild Rice, and the Minute Man gas station. I’ll get your shoes in a minute, man! Courtesy John Earl, 2019.

There are no residents in Rice or remaining buildings.

The town of Rice used to be a destination though. In the early years of WW II, it was an Army airfield supporting Patton’s Desert Training Center and, in 1945, it was a contender for a more notorious title.

You see, had things not worked out in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first nuclear bomb would have been tested right here in the Mojave, near this spot.

In a now quiet place in the desert, once there was a man and his Army. Patton’s Desert Training Center. Here, Rice AAF. Composite photo by John Earl.

Rice Army Airfield pre-dated World War II. It began as a municipal airport for the community of Rice, California, constructed after 1932.

Rice Army Airfield was acquired on September 29, 1942 by the USAAF as a sub-base for Thermal Army Airfield.

Like everything else at the former Rice AAF barracks, all that remains are memories.

The base housed over 3,000 officers and enlisted men, and had barracks, latrines, showers, mess halls, and operations buildings.

The base had two 5,000 foot long V-shaped runways.

LA Sectional Charts from 1932 through April 1942 did not depict Rice Airfield.

A decade later, the airport was acquired by the 4th Air Support command and was in military use by October 26, 1942.

Our Jeep on the Rice AAF parking apron/ramp, March 2025. Not a warplane in sight.

As part of the combat training, the Army Air Force and the Army Service Force were included, serving as support to Army Ground Forces.

Rice Railroad Siding, 2019.

Rice AAF was part of the Desert Training Center. The mission of the DTC was to prepare United States Army ground forces in preparation for Operation Torch– the invasion of North Africa.

The center was commanded by General George S. Patton.

The parking apron where the P-39’s and P-40’s were tied down. Photo, 2016.

Originally Rice Army Airfield had proposal plans to have six runways, although only two were created during it’s lifetime before the airfield was abandoned.

Every servicemember knows the military teaches you two important things: how to fight and how to drink.

Not oft mentioned in current literature was the fact Rice AAF featured an enormous 180 foot long bar, supposedly the longest one in the USA, which could only be used when on multiple days leave.

It had a huge desert-type cooler mounted 50 feet from the end of the bar on a tower, with a large pipe to carry cool air directly down to the length of the bar.

General George S. Patton, training his troops in the Desert Training Center, before they left for North Africa, wearing the I Armored Corps patch on his chest at the Desert Warfare Training Center – early 1942. Courtesy General Patton Memorial Museum.

Now a little more about that atomic bomb test. Rice Army Airfield was a contender for the location of the first atomic bomb test, called Trinity, but it was called off.

The Army office responsible for choosing the test site had a prior disagreement with General Patton, who commanded Rice, and wanted to avoid further contact with him.

The Sacramento Union, 18 Aug 1945

General Patton saved the day for the Californian desert. New Mexico, not so much.

The Trinity test, which was the first successful detonation of a nuclear weapon, took place at Alamogordo Army Air Station in New Mexico in 1945.

Hundreds of local New Mexicans were harmed by radioactive fallout.

Here, you can easily see half of the improved parking apron/ramp next to the original. March, 2025.

The federal Surplus Property Disposal Act of 1944 (ch. 479, 58 Stat. 765, 50A U.S.C. § 1611 et seq., enacted October 3, 1944) of the United States Congress provided for the disposal of surplus government property to “a State, political subdivision of a State, or tax-supported organization.”

Many of its provisions were repealed on July 1, 1949. In the meantime, Rice AAF landed on the chopping block. They weren’t the only one.

Santa Barbara News-Press 21 Nov 1945

Under the Surplus Property Disposal Act of 1944, Rice Army Airfield was accepting bids after November 26, 1946 until February 26, 1947.

An ad ran in January 20, 1947 edition of The Palo Verde Times and other newspapers from the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.

Two parcels of land equaling 3,344.6 acres were withdrawn from public domain.

Google earth shows Rice AAF’s former 5,000 foot runways. The rectangle at the top center of the photo is the parking apron.

The ad said the property featured two improved runways of field mix surfacing, taxiways, disposal area, spur track and approximately 37 buildings.

Also included was sewer, water, drainage, and gas fueling systems, and various items of personal property.

Water rights were not for sale. The property was classified as grazing land and needed to be sold as one unit.

Private planes still occasionally land on the Rice AAF ramp. 34.07, -114.82 (East of Los Angeles, CA) When we last visited in March 2025, it was still in surprisingly good shape. All but one of the shrubs growing out of the expansion joints were gone. Photo from 2016.

In 1949 the War Assets Administration turned the military airfield to civil control, and was reused as a civilian airport.

Rice was an active public airfield on the March 1952 San Diego Sectional Chart but was abandoned between 1955 and 1958.

The ruins of a former Rice AAF structure near the parking apron, March 2025.

An overhead shot of the ’65 Mercury abandoned on Rice AAF’s ramp. Speaking of shots, it has been used as target practice for decades. Photo, 2025.

In the early 1970s, a hand-painted sign on the western outskirts of the town once announced that the townsite was for sale.

Someone still living at the gas station confirmed it was not a joke. Apparently, there were no takers.

Postcard from Rice, California, c. early 1940s.

After all the people left, the desert slowly reclaimed the town of Rice and it reverted back to its natural state.

Rice may have been abandoned but it was not forgotten.

A historical monument was erected on May 5, 2024 at the entrance to Rice Army Airfield by the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus.

ECV is a fraternal organization dedicated to the preservation of the heritage of the American West.

Many thanks to Billy Holcomb Chapter 1069 for all you do to preserve the history of the desert.

John studies the Rice AAF monument with its extensive history. Thank you, Clampers!

Now more about those shoes. When Rice’s shoe tree burned down, likely due to arson, the tradition of chucking ones old kicks in the middle of nowhere didn’t.

It has now morphed into a shoe fence and spread to abandoned gas pumps just down the road like The Blob, devouring everything in its path.

You can literally smell the funk wafting in the breeze when you’re near the tangled mess of undulating shoes, we kid you not.

If your thing is retifism, no doubt you will delighted. If you don’t know what that means, consider yourself normal.

Yet, the origin of Rice, California was really never about kitsch. Do strange things with weird people, but leave no trace.

The past needs no embellishment.

Early stages of the gas station shoes. Photo courtesy of John Earl, 2016.

Thank you Route Magazine for sharing our photo in May, 2023.

Now that you know about its past, what lies in Rice’s future?

An extensive solar project was proposed by Rice Solar Energy Project in 2013, encompassing 1,410 acres.

The federal act that funded the first couple of rounds of solar development across the nation was ARARA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) has since been shortened to ARRA.

SolarReserve was a unique player in the industry because they owned the rights of using no molten salt to turn their turbines, which stayed hot much longer and could continue providing power into the evening.

Two Bureau of Land Management’s archeaolgists advised they did not want the project to go forward because they wanted to protect Camp Rice and the airbase.

The archaeologists suggested the project would likely require cleanup from everything from UXO ( military munitions that have been fired, dropped, launched, or otherwise placed in a way that they constitute a hazard, but which remain unexploded due to malfunction, design, or other causes) to jet fuel.

The company argued the property was already disturbed, was not in critical tortoise habitat and was close enough to So Cal solar developers who would purchase their technology.

After SolarReserve bought the land it didn’t take them long to realize the archaeologists were dead on.

The costs of remediating the military contamination would make the operation enormously expensive.

The project underwent extensive environmental review and had proposed mitigations for environmental impacts from its construction and operation.

SolarReserve agreed to buy and improve an additional 1,522 acres (616 ha) to compensate for impacts to desert tortoise habitat on private and public land.

The project was certified by CEC (California Energy Commission, the governmental agency responsible for energy policy and planning in California, including regulations and incentives for solar installations) on December 15, 2010.

Spoiler alert. It was never built.

On October 3, 2014, The Desert Sun reported the Rice solar project had been abandoned due to insufficient financing because of a continued dwindling of investment tax credit.

On May 31, 2019, the project owner filed a petition with the CEC requesting permanent termination of the license of the facility (TN 228433).

On February 16, 2022, the CEC approved a petition (TN 241586) to terminate CEC certification of the Rice Solar Energy Project.

As radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, now for the rest of the story. SolarReserve bought a huge chunk of land in Nevada.

SolarReserve invested a big bunch of their ARRA funds into the upper two floors of the Mitzpah Hotel in Tonopah for visitors and staff and began building the Crescent Dunes Solar Project.

Problems ensued.

These initially reduced generation and then shut it down in 2020, bankrupting SolarReserve, and ending its pipeline of developed projects in other countries, namely Australia, South America and Chile.

SolarReserve basically ran out of money after laying a lot of concrete when President Obama discontinued ARRA funds and loan guarantees.

Will a proposed solar project ever return to Rice?

That may be determined by the environmental impact of President Trump’s energy shift back to coal, oil and gas, if acid rain returns.

WAPA ( Western Area Power Administration, which is a federal agency under the Department of Energy) is currently courting another firm to make the same mistake to buy the property to generate power to be carried down their lines into Blythe, just as SolarReserve was supposed to do.

Solar thermal is dumb technology in the desert.

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station and its eyes or MODOR (this company specializes in industry research and provides reports and analysis on various markets, including solar energy) will soon become only one heliostat.

The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, established with over $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy under former President Barack Obama, is essentially being shut down.

In January 2025, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced its decision to terminate its contract with Ivanpah, citing cost-savings.

Many thanks to BLM archaeologist Chris Dalu for the above solar energy information.

Solar belongs on rooftops, not the desert.

Top Photo: Courtesy of Jaylyn Earl. 1965 Mercury on the Rice AAF ramp, 2016.

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