Frozen in time. Abandoned cafe and gas station in Desert Center, California. Still in good shape inside (I think the locals keep an eye out for vandals).

Although are no services these days (no food, no gas, no lodging), many truckers still stop here.

The birthplace of Kaiser Permanente health insurance.

Desert Center is a census designated place in the Colorado Desert in Riverside County, California. It is in southern California, between the cities of Indio and Blythe at the junction of Interstate 10 and State Route 177 (Desert Center-Rice Road), about halfway between Phoenix and Los Angeles.

The town was founded in 1921 by Stephen A. Ragsdale, also known as "Desert Steve", and his wife, Lydia. Ragsdale was an itinerant preacher and cotton farmer, originally from Arkansas. In 1915, he left his farm in the Palo Verde Valley along the Colorado River to attend to some business in Los Angeles. The road between Phoenix and Los Angeles was mostly sand, and Ragsdale's vehicle broke down near a place called Gruendyke's Well. This featured a hand-dug well and was inhabited by a prospector named Bill Gruendyke. Gruendyke rescued Ragsdale and gave him food, shelter, and water until his vehicle was repaired and he could resume his journey to Los Angeles.

In the early 1930s, Dr. Sidney R. Garfield, who had just graduated from University of Southern California, went to visit a former classmate with a practice in Indio. The practice was thriving to capacity, while Garfield was nearly without business in Depression-era Los Angeles. Garfield's friend explained that he was the closest doctor (50 miles) to 5,000 men digging the Colorado River Aqueduct under direction of The Seven Companies, Inc. The project site's headquarters was just southeast of Desert Center. Garfield borrowed money from his father and constructed a 4-bed clinic near the construction site. The clinic was cooled by an ammonia air-conditioning system and at the time was the only air-conditioned building between Riverside and Phoenix. Garfield would treat the men, who would promise to pay on payday, but who would usually go to Blythe or Indio and drink their paychecks. Within a year, Garfield was broke and announced that he would pull up stakes.

Hearing this, Henry J. Kaiser, whose division of the Six Companies, Inc. was building the stretch of the Colorado River Aqueduct through the Desert Center vicinity, visited Garfield at his clinic. His idea was to take a nickel a day out of each man's paycheck to prepay for that man's future medical treatments, should an injury occur while he was working. If the man wanted to be covered for the remainder of the day, after work hours, another nickel would be deducted. If the man had a wife and/or children he wanted to cover, this would cost another nickel. Within a short time, Garfield had a steady income stream and things improved for him immensely. When the aqueduct project was finished, Kaiser's next venture was the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, and he took Garfield with him to manage the workers' health care, but this time there were 50,000 men, not just 5000.

Garfield's Contractors General Hospital evolved into Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed health care system in the world, but its origins are in Desert Center. In 1992 a roadside historical marker at the site was unveiled by Garfield's sister next to the grocery honoring Desert Center as the birthplace of Kaiser Permanente.

The site of Kaiser Steel Eagle Mountain Mine, one of the largest open-pit iron mining operations in the world, is located about 13 miles (21 km) north of Desert Center. The rich iron ore deposit was discovered by geologists employed by Henry J. Kaiser during construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct in the early 1930s. The Eagle Mountain Mine operated at capacity from World War II until Kaiser closed the mine and the town of Eagle Mountain in early 1982.

Today, though showing its age, the town barely survives. The United States Post Office is the only remaining business, serving both locals and travelers crossing the vast expanse of desert between the Colorado River and Indio. The nearest gasoline and fast food are at Chiriaco Summit. Desert Center is home to agricultural farms, two mobile home parks frequented by "snowbirds", and the Lake Tamarisk community, which includes a golf course and that was founded by the Kaiser Steel Corporation for mine management.