Giant Rock
Boulder in the Mojave Desert, California, USA
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Key Takeaways
- Giant Rock is a large freestanding boulder in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms located at DD coordinates 34.
- Giant Rock is the largest freestanding boulder in North America and is purported to be the largest free standing boulder in the world.
- Inspired by desert tortoises that dig holes in which to cool themselves, Critzer dug out a home on the north side of the rock using dynamite.
- The underground home was reportedly never hotter than 80 °F (27 °C) and never cooler than 55 °F (13 °C).
- Critzer perished in a self-detonated dynamite explosion in his underground rooms on July 24, 1942, while being investigated by local police.
Giant Rock is a large freestanding boulder in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms located at DD coordinates 34.33287, -116.38875 covering 5,800 square feet (540 m2) of ground. Giant Rock is the largest freestanding boulder in North America and is purported to be the largest free standing boulder in the world.
In the 1930s, Frank Critzer moved to Giant Rock. Inspired by desert tortoises that dig holes in which to cool themselves, Critzer dug out a home on the north side of the rock using dynamite. He engineered a rainwater collection system and a tunnel for ventilation. The underground home was reportedly never hotter than 80 °F (27 °C) and never cooler than 55 °F (13 °C). Critzer built an airstrip on the nearby ancient lakebed, which averaged a plane per day by 1941. Critzer perished in a self-detonated dynamite explosion in his underground rooms on July 24, 1942, while being investigated by local police.
In the 1950s, Giant Rock was a gathering point for UFO believers. It is located on land which was at that time leased by George Van Tassel, a friend of Critzer's, a purported flying-saucer contactee and organizer of UFO conventions. In 1947, Van Tassel, a former aircraft inspector, leased the property from the Bureau of Land Management and left Los Angeles and moved to Giant Rock with his wife and three children. During the early 1950s, Van Tassel began hosting Friday night "meditation" sessions in Critzer’s former underground home, where he claimed to receive telepathic communications from "compassionate Venusian extraterrestrials." Van Tassel also built the nearby Integratron and a cafe, store, gas station, and the Giant Rock Airport, which he operated from 1947 to 1975.
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