![]() ![]() After the war, the military relinquished the land to the Department of the Interior, and today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the approximately 1.4 million acres of public land including what is now known as the Valley of the Names. Passing through today, there’s little evidence that this desert was once home to the world’s largest military installation, with its boundaries spreading like tentacles across Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. It was there that he prepared soldiers for battle as part of the North Africa campaigns of World War II, gearing them up for desert warfare. Patton set up Camp Young, the headquarters for the Desert Training Center, in the early 1940s. No one knows for sure how the markings began, although a common theory is that it all started when General George S. Perhaps it’s a way for visitors to prove they survived the 100-plus-degree temps and rugged terrain that define the region. Across the bone-dry hills are hundreds of examples of rock graffiti-black stones laid out to form names, dates and other details. The sheer isolation of the region could begin to explain why so many people over the years have left their marks there. In other words, the Valley of the Names isn’t merely a place you stumble upon. The nearest cities are Yuma, Arizona, 15 miles to the south, and El Centro, California, about 70 miles to the west. Located on a swath of the Sonoran Desert in the southeastern reaches of California, it takes a four-wheel-drive vehicle just to gain access to this sandy expanse. ![]() ![]() Remote doesn’t even begin to describe the land encompassing the Valley of the Names. ![]()
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