Metropolitan marvels, just like relationships, are occasionally not fated to be. Sometimes it’s for the better. Other times, we can only wish that things had worked out.
This article appears in Issue 24 of Alta Journal.
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AN INDIGENOUS UNIVERSITY
After United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island was shuttered in 1963, Indigenous people engaged in three occupations of the island, the last one occurring in 1969. They cited the Treaty of Fort Laramie, which reallocated the land of the Black Hills back to the Oceti Sakowin tribes. One of the group’s proposals for the island was to build a university for Indigenous students. Although the tribal confederation was eventually removed, it raised awareness about Indigenous rights.
JEWEL OF THE MOJAVE
Upon its conception in the late 1950s, California City was supposed to rival the state’s largest municipalities, and in terms of land area (just over 200 square miles in the Mojave Desert), it does. But today, its many vacant lots mostly collect dust owing to rumors of land speculation that deterred growth from the start, and its population clocks in at around 15,000.
BURBANK DISNEYLAND
Walt Disney initially thought that Disneyland should be built across the street from his studio in Burbank. Had researchers not suggested Anaheim instead in 1953, the San Fernando Valley would look much different today.
AUBURN DAM
The fourth-tallest bridge in the United States is the Foresthill Bridge near Sacramento. Rising 730 feet above the American River, it was built in anticipation of the Auburn Dam, which was planned for construction on the river. The dam was never built, in part because had it failed, Sacramentans’ homes would be underwater.
PHARAOH’S KINGDOM LAS VEGAS
In 1988, one mile of Las Vegas Boulevard was set aside for Pharaoh’s Kingdom, which would have been, at the time, the world’s largest resort. The discovery of developer Anthony Silano’s crimes (he had hacked into the overseas bank account of the president of the Philippines) shut down the project and paved the way for a different pyramid-themed resort, the now-iconic Luxor Hotel, which rose in 1993.•
