Cantil (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

for "Stone Cliff") is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is in the

Fremont Valley The Fremont Valley is a valley located in the western Mojave Desert of California. It stretches from the town of Mojave approximately 70 km northeast to the foothills of the Lava Mountains and Summit Range. The valley is home to Koehn Dry ...

of the western

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

Geography

It is located on California State Route 14, between Mojave and Red Rock Canyon. It is at an elevation of , southwest of Saltdale. Its zip code is 93519, and it uses area codes 442 and 760. The Red Rock Elementary School and Red Rock Community Day School are in Cantil. Both help students who were not successful in the regular school system.

History

Cantil was founded as a station on the Nevada and California Railroad in 1908 or 1909 when the line was extended from

Owens Lake Owens Lake is a mostly dry lake in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. It is about south of Lone Pine, California. Unlike most dry lakes in the Basin and Range Province that have been dry for ...

to Mojave. The name is

for "stone cliff" or "steep rock", and is one of a series of "C" names chosen for this section of the line including Cambio, Cinco, and Ceneda. The first post office opened in 1916. Parts of scenes of

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

's 1932 horror film '' The Mummy'' were filmed here. Cantil is near the home of the Honda Proving Center of California (HPCC), a test track used for testing new car models and motorcycles. Honda closed the test facility in April 2010 and put it up for sale; on December 8, 2015, the company announced that they would renovate and expand the HPCC, with some new vehicle test road enhancements and reopen the facility in April 2016. On October 31, 2014, the

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The compan ...

SpaceShipTwo ''

VSS Enterprise VSS ''Enterprise'' ( tail number: N339SS) was the first SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane, built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic. As of 2004, it was planned to be the first of five commercial suborbital SS2 spacecraft planned by Virgin ...

'' crashed in the Mojave Desert near Cantil, killing one of the two pilots.

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Cantil has a cold desert climates, abbreviated "BWk" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Cantil, California
/ref> Average rainfall is just . The highest temperature ever recorded in Cantil was in 1972. The lowest temperature on record was , recorded in 1963. The average daily high for January is , with average lows of . High temperatures average in July with average lows of .

References

Unincorporated communities in Kern County, California Populated places in the Mojave Desert Populated places established in 1908 1908 establishments in California Unincorporated communities in California {{KernCountyCA-geo-stub