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About Twentynine Palms
The city of Twentynine Palms sits in the Yucca Valley on the north side of the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The boundaries of Joshua Tree National Park extend to the city limits along the south side. The Yucca Valley extends for miles to the east, west and north, dotted with a scattering of houses. The communities of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley lie further west, and the Marine Corps Air Combat Center occupies a vast area to the north. The desert vegetation surrounding the city is very sparse, dominated by creosote bushes.
Twentynine Palms is named after the palm trees at the Oasis of Mara. When gold miners settled the area in the late 1800s, there were 29 palm trees growing at the oasis. The oasis was a rest stop on the Utah Trail for decades, the town finally being established in the 1920s. The headquarters of Joshua Tree National Park now occupies the Oasis of Mara, and most of the original palm trees are still standing there.
The Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base was established in 1952, and has been the core of the area's economy.
State Highway 62 passes east-west through Twentynine Palms, being the main street of the town and called the Twentynine Palms Highway. Adobe Road is the main north-south route, and it leads straight north to the entrance to the military base. The core of the town is at the intersection of these two roads. Further out, the town becomes scattered, with patches of empty desert separating the subdivisions. Numerous other main road criss-cross the area on a one-mile grid. Amboy Road leaves town on the northeast and connects to Historic Route 66 to the north.
For More Information:
See Twentynine Palms' official site at www.ci.twentynine-palms.ca.us, and the Wikipedia page on Twentynine Palms.