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Stovepipe Wells is a small way-station in the northern part of Death Valley, in unincorporated Inyo County, California.

Stovepipe Wells is located at 36°36′22″N 117°08′47″W and is US Geological Survey (USGS) feature ID 235564. It is entirely inside Death Valley National Park and along State Route 190 (SR190) at less than 10 feet (3.0 m) above sea level. West on SR190 is Towne Pass at about 4,950 feet (1,510 m) above sea level. Eventually, the road meets State Route 178 (SR178) at Panamint Junction in the Panamint Valley. East on SR190 the road leads to Furnace Creek and Death Valley Junction.
Variant names listed for the Inyo County location by USGS include Stove Pipe Wells Hotel and Stovepipe Wells Hotel. The US Postal Service ZIP Code is 92328, and the locale name is spelled Stove Pipe Wells in some postal renditions. It is commonly referred to as Stovepipe Wells Village.

Stovepipe Wells has a motel with swimming pool, a gas station, a general store, a gift shop, a ranger station and a restaurant/bar.
The default format for wired telephone numbers in the community is in the Death Valley exchange: (760) 786-xxxx. The community had manual telephone service until the late 1980s.
The community is contained within the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District.

(by Wikipedia)

Calico is a ghost town and former mining town in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Calico Mountains of the Mojave Desert region of Southern California, it was founded in 1881 as a silver mining town, and today has been converted into a county park. Located off Interstate 15, it lies 3 miles (4.8 km) from Barstow. Giant letters spelling CALICO can be seen on the Calico Peaks behind the ghost town from the freeway.

History:
At its height, shortly after it was founded, Calico had a population of 1,200 people and over 500 silver mines. Besides the usual assortment of bars, brothels, gambling halls and a few churches, Calico also supported a newspaper, the Calico Print. In the mid 1890s the price of silver dropped and Calico's silver mines were no longer economically viable. With the end of borax mining in the region in 1907 the town was completely abandoned. The last original inhabitant of Calico before it was abandoned, Mrs. Lucy Bell Lane, died in the 1960s. Her house remains as the main museum in town.
In 1951, Walter Knott, founder of Knott's Berry Farm, purchased the town and began restoring it to its original condition referencing old photographs. In the late 1950s, a western garbed man with Custer whiskers known as Calico Fred was a local fixture. Though five of the original town buildings exist today, many others were recreated as replicas of their originals on preexisting foundations. In 1966, Knott donated the town to San Bernardino County, and Calico became a county regional park.
Today, the park operates mine tours, gunfight stunt shows, gold panning, a restaurant, the Calico & Odessa Railroad and a number of general merchandise stores. It is open daily, and requires an entrance fee. Calico is a registered California historic monument and the "official state silver rush ghost town" of California.

In popular culture:
The town was the basis for the Kenny Rogers and the First Edition album The Ballad of Calico.
On their 2009 album Gutter Anthems Celtic Fusion band Enter the Haggis has a song about the ghost town called "Ghosts of Calico."

(by Wikipedia)

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The area features many of the city's major arts institutions and sports facilities, sightseeing opportunities, a variety of skyscrapers and associated large multinational corporations and an array of public art and unique shopping opportunities. Downtown is the hub of the city's freeway network and growing Metro rapid transit system.
Though Downtown is generally thought to be bounded by the Los Angeles River on the east, the Hollywood (101) Freeway to the north, the Santa Monica (10) Freeway on the south and the Harbor (110) Freeway on the west, some sources, including the Los Angeles Downtown News and Los Angeles Times, extend the area past the traditional boundary to include University Park and Exposition Park (encompassing the University of Southern California (USC) and Central City West neighborhoods.

Civic Center
Los Angeles's Civic Center is the government center of the city and is home to several federal, state, county and municipal administrative buildings. The main office of the Los Angeles Times is located in the district. The neighborhood is accessible via the Metro Red/Purple Line Civic Center Station.
The new Los Angeles Police Department Police Administration Building, designed by DMJM Architects, replaced the aging Parker Center, which is slated for demolition. A public park is located on the Second Street side of the building.
As part of the Caltrans District 7 Headquarters project, a public art project was placed in the entrance plaza. The large-scale artwork uses a series of neon tubes to mimic the flow of traffic on a freeway.
The Los Angeles Mall (park) stretches between City Hall on the east and the Los Angeles Music Center on adjoining Bunker Hill. Plans call for a 16-acre (65,000 m2) replacement park designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios. The plan includes a large community gathering space at the foot of City Hall, new gardens and green space between the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration and the court houses, and an overhaul of an existing fountain.
An observation deck on the 27th floor of City Hall is open to the public on weekdays.

(by Wikipedia)

Lucia is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California. It is located 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Lopez Point, at an elevation of 354 feet (108 m). Lucia is one of the three small settlements of gas stations, restaurants, and motels located along State Route 1 on the Big Sur coast. The ZIP Code is 93920, but mail sent to Lucia must be addressed "Big Sur", and the community is inside area code 831.
A post office operated at Lucia from 1900 to 1933, moving in 1906, and from 1936 to 1938. The name honors the first postmaster that was Violet Lucia Dani (1878-1947).

Lucia Lodge (the place where this photo was taken) is an historic cliff-side resort located in the heart of the Big Sur coast.

The lodge was constructed on a secluded stretch of Coast Highway One in the 1930’s by the Harlan family, which settled the area in the latter half of the 19th century. Today Lucia Lodge is run by the 5th generation of the Harlan clan and enjoys the same level of peace and solitude prevalent from the beginning.

Lucia Lodge is located adjacent to highway one in the village of Lucia, 50 miles south of Carmel, California, and 40 miles north of San Simeon / Cambria, California (home to Hearst Castle).

Beatty (pronounced BAY-dee) is a census-designated place (CDP) along the Amargosa River in Nye County in the U.S. state of Nevada. U.S. Route 95 runs through the CDP, which lies between Tonopah, about 90 miles (140 km) to the north, and Las Vegas, about 120 miles (190 km) to the southeast. State Route 374 connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park, about 8 miles (13 km) to the west. The population was 1,154 at the 2000 census.

Before the arrival of non-indigenous people in the 19th century, the region was home to groups of Western Shoshone. Established in 1905, the community was named after Montillus (Montillion) Murray "Old Man" Beatty, who settled on a ranch in the Oasis Valley in 1896 and became Beatty's first postmaster. With the arrival of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad in 1905, the CDP became a railway center for the Bullfrog Mining District, including mining towns such as nearby Rhyolite. Starting in the 1940s, Nellis Air Force Base and other federal installations contributed to the town's economy as did tourism related to Death Valley National Park and the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment center.

Beatty is home to the Beatty Museum and Historical Society and to businesses catering to tourist travel. The ghost town of Rhyolite and the Goldwell Open Air Museum (a sculpture park), are both about 4 miles (6 km) to the west, and Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site are about 18 miles (29 km) to the east.

(by Wikipedia)