General Patton Museum, California

This memorial museum to General Patton is located off the interstate in a remote part of the Mojave. The museum is located at the site of Camp Young, one of 11 WWII training camps that were part of the 18,000 square-mile Desert Training Center (DTC). From 1942-1943 Patton commanded the DTC, also called the California-Arizona Maneuvers Area (CAMA), where over a million US troops trained for combat during its brief history. Tanks were a primary fighting tool used at the DTC, the largest training area ever in the USA, and tank tracks still mark much of the landscape. Remnants from many of the 11 camps remain, mostly rock mosaics, altars and road alignments. The BLM has made an effort to protect these camps, and monuments and protective fences are slowly appearing in these areas. The General Patton Museum contains mostly WWII memorabilia and artifacts recovered from the DTC, such as bomb casings. An interesting relief map of the Mojave is located in the museum, built as part of the planning stage of the Colorado River Aqueduct, which flows nearby.