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Lunchtime Photo

This is the Iron Mountain Chapel, about 50 miles east of Twentynine Palms off Highway 62. It was built back when Gen. George Patton was training tank troops at the Desert Training Center he founded in California during World War II.

There were actually two chapels at Camp Iron Mountain, one Catholic and one Protestant. This is the Catholic one. The General Patton Memorial Museum is nearby at Chiriaco Summit off Interstate 10.

July 20, 2024 — Riverside County, California

9 thoughts on “Lunchtime Photo

    1. rick_jones

      At the time, the other likely religion would have been Judaism. And some web searching suggests that an open air synagogue wouldn’t be a thing except perhaps among the Reformed.

  1. Steve_OH

    I'm not sure exactly what it is about this photo (and also the BLM photos linked to by @mooreej above), but they remind me very much of the little town of Pofadder, in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Something about the combination of aridity and the colors, I think.

  2. pjcamp1905

    Where I grew up, there was a circular road around the parade grounds that was the home of the 6th Cavalry. It was built right after the Civil War, part of the army of occupation, right on the edge of Chickamauga Battlefield. The ring of houses around that road all dated from then. For a long time, only old people would live in them but they're quite fashionable now. There was a women's army corp base about a mile away, actually on the battlefield, but only the concrete slabs remain. And of course there were a lot of things around that always follow the military. I never laughed so hard as when I learned that the original church building that my parents made me go to was a former whorehouse.

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