Pearblossom is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located in the

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and t ...

of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

, in northern Los Angeles County, California. The town has a population of 2,435. The ZIP Code is 93553 and the community is inside

area code 661 Area code 661 is a California telephone area code that covers the majority of Kern County, as well as part of Los Angeles County, Santa Barbara County, and Tulare County. It was split from area code 805 on February 13, 1999. Principal cities i ...

. According to the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance report of 2009, the ''

Palmdale Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On Aug ...

/ Lancaster''

urbanized area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...

has a population of 483,998, of which Pearblossom is a part.

Geography

Pearblossom is located about southeast of Palmdale in the

portion of southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The name Pearblossom came from the multitude of local pear farms along the southern ridge of the Antelope Valley. A few still exist today, but most of those farms are now abandoned and have returned to the desert landscape or have been overridden by small-scale housing development. Pearblossom is also a popular destination, for its annual Duck Races; convenient location for hiking in the foothills; and picturesque photo opportunities. Pearblossom is well known by Southlanders as the site of one of the most dangerous roads in the US. State Route 138 ( Pearblossom Highway) is the main street in Pearblossom and as of 2004 has been the location of numerous serious and fatal automobile accidents in its Palmdale to I-15 segment. Daily traffic on the recently expanded highway ranges from 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles, including many short & long haul freight trucks. Overuse of Pearblossom Highway is chiefly on Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, the time period many use the route to travel to

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. This section of 138's route is commonly used as a bypass of the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Metropolitan region, and as a route from the Antelope Valley to the Inland Empire. Highway 138 or Pearblossom Highway has been somewhat improved, now with three or four lanes along some segments, and some of the dips taken out of the highway in many of the most dangerous areas.

Arts

Pearblossom (in name only at present) is found in the following creative works: * ''The Crows of Pearblossom,'' authored by

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

* Aldous Huxley's home in the early 1940s was nearby in Llano and is now the filming location o
Pearblossom Picture Ranch
* ''Pearblossom Highway,'' a photographic collage assembled by

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

* The community is mentioned in ''

I Love Dick ''I Love Dick'' is a novel by American artist and author Chris Kraus. Published by Semiotext(e) in 1997, ''I Love Dick'' merges fiction and memoir formats to explore the writer's psycho-sexual obsession with the eponymous "Dick", a media theoris ...

,'' the 1997 novel by Chris Kraus ''Pearblossom Highway'' (1986) was actually photographed in the Littlerock rural vicinity; it, like Huxley's ''The Crows of Pearblossom'', is not about Pearblossom proper. In 1997, Western actor Louis R. Faust died in his Pearblossom lodgings on Hwy 138. His son, Louis R. Faust, Jr., expired here in 2010.Los Angeles County death certificate and property tax assessor records.

Notable residents

Sam Crawford Samuel Earl Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968), nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood tall and weighed . Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, he had a s ...

George Lazenby George Robert Lazenby (; born 5 September 1939) is an Australian actor. He was the second actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service' ...

George Voskovec Jiří Voskovec (), born Jiří Wachsmann and known in the United States as George Voskovec (June 19, 1905 – July 1, 1981) was a Czech actor, writer, dramatist, and director who became an American citizen in 1955. Throughout much of his career ...

References

External links

Pearblossom Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Los Angeles County, California Antelope Valley Populated places in the Mojave Desert Unincorporated communities in California