Rice, California

Rice, California is a vacant town site in the southern tip of the Mojave Desert in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, United States.

The town, located on present-day State Route 62 approximately midway between Twentynine Palms and the Arizona state line, sprang up around a Santa Fe Railroad subdivision and siding. The subdivision and siding are still in use, but have since changed hands and currently belong to the Arizona-California Railway, a short line serving southeastern California from Rice to Cadiz, California and southwestern Arizona at Parker.

Rice gained some minor notoriety in recent years because of the Rice Shoe Tree, a lone tamarisk on a turnout just south of the highway. For reasons unknown, it became customary for travelers on Highway 62 (also known as Rice Road) to and from the Colorado River to hang an old shoe on the tree's branches. The tree was even featured on "California's Gold", a PBS program hosted by Huell Howser. The Rice Shoe Tree burned to the ground in 2003 in a fire of suspicious origin. Though the tree is gone, travelers still stop to spell their names on the railroad with the multi-colored volcanic rock used as ballast. Hand-assembled graffiti lines the railroad for the entire distance that it parallels Highway 62.

There are no habitable buildings and no residents in Rice at present. A hand-painted sign on the western outskirts of the town once announced that the townsite was for sale, but that sign has since been removed.

Rice is in ZIP Code 93004 and area code 760.

Rice Army Airfield / Rice Airport

The Rice Municipal Airport was acquired by the United States Army's 4th Air Support Command in 1942 as a sub-base of [http://www.militarymuseum.org/ThermalAAF.html Thermal Army Airfield] , and was operational by the end of the year. While the airfield's actual date of construction is unknown, it was not depicted on a 1932 Los Angeles Airways Chart, indicating construction sometime in the ten years between 1932 and 1942. The airfield consisted of 2 paved 5,000' runways and numerous dispersal pads extending beyond the runways to the south. In 1944, the airfield was transferred away from Thermal Army Airfield as a sub-base and assigned to March Field. Operations at Rice Field were ended by August 1944, and the field was declared surplus in late October of that same year. [ [http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanBernardino_SE.htm#rice Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: California: Southeastern San Bernardino County ] ]

At some point in the 4 years following the airfield's removal from active Army service, Rice Army Airfield was renamed Rice Airport and began operations as a public civilian airport, housing a small flight school for missionaries. Between the years of 1952 to 1955, Rice Airport was changed to a private field, and later abandoned before 1960 for reasons unknown. As of 2007, no standing structures remain and little evidence exists of the airport's former existence. [ [http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanBernardino_SE.htm#rice Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: California: Southeastern San Bernardino County ] ]

References

External links

History of Midland, Calif (nearby ghost town) [http://www.blythegpaa.org/midland_calif.htm]