Chiriaco Summit

This desert outpost has a long and interesting history beginning in the 1920s. It was named for Joe Chiriaco, an Alabama native who made California his permanent home. He set up a service station with a general store which was very popular among the soldiers that the legendary George S. Patton was training at that time. Because of Patton's deep connection with Chiriaco Summit, a memorial to him was erected after his untimely death in 1945. Joe Chiriaco and his wife passed in the 1990s but the town and its businesses are still maintained and managed by their children.

(Submitted by Guillermo Arce)