Rice, California

Concrete pads littered with shell casings and blasted debris is nearly all that remains of the World War Two training base at the remote desert town of Rice. The rest of the town has been abandoned, and vandalized into nonexistence by passers-by, mostly weekend warriors on the road between L.A. and the popular recreation areas of Lake Havasu. Rice was the site of one of the largest of General Patton's network of temporary training camps set up over thousands of square miles of the Mojave, with a large tent encampment and a landing field.