Helendale or Silver Lakes is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

located in the Victor Valley of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

, within

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

. It is on historic Route 66, west of the Mojave Freeway (I-15), between Barstow and

Victorville Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. Victorville is the principal city of a Victor Valley–based urban area defined by the United States Census Bureau: ...

. The name Helendale is used by the

USPS The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

, while Silver Lakes is used by the US Census. The 2010 United States census reported Silver Lakes's population was 5,623.

History

Several Native American

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

s lived in the area, namely the Mojave and Serrano. It is believed that the first

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

man to travel through was the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

priest Francisco Garcés in 1776. He was exploring a route to the missions on the

Coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

following the Mojave River. The original name for Helendale was Point of Rocks. There were several early trails and roadways through this area of the

, including the Mojave Trail, which was used by the Indians and Father Garcés, the Spanish Trail, the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...

, the Mormon Trail, etc. After Father Garcés,

Jedediah Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartography, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western Unit ...

traveled through the Point of Rocks area in 1826 on a fur trapping expedition. In 1844, John C. Frémont and his guide, Kit Carson, traveled through heading east via the Cajon Pass. During the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, in late 1846 or early 1847, the Mormon Battalion camped at Point of Rocks on their way to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. They were released from the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

shortly afterward and part of the battalion returned to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

through Point of Rocks. The first Mormon

wagon train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western television series that aired for eight seasons, first on the NBC television network (1957–1962) and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and reached the top of the ...

traveled through in about 1851. In 1857, Edward Fitzgerald Beale and his camel driver, Hi Jolly, brought a famous caravan through on the way to Wilmington for the Camel Corps. After a few horse ridden mail conveyance companies during the 1850s went out of business, the short-lived

Pony Express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. During its 18 months of opera ...

began its service in the early 1860s and a stone station was built by the river at Point of Rocks. The

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

station at Point of Rocks was located west of where the railroad tracks were later put down. In about 1863, the station was burned by Paiute Indians of the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ), also known by the endonym Newe, are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the United States with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshon ...

branch. The Santa Fe

Railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

arrived in the 1880s and built a Point of Rocks station, which provided a watering stop for the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s then moving

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

s across the High Desert. On December 15, 1897, the name was changed to Helen in honor of Helen A. Wells (born 1885), daughter of railroad executive Arthur G. Wells (1861–1932). On September 22, 1918, the name was changed to Helendale. Route 66, or National Trails Highway, was paved and officially opened in the Helendale area in 1926. Helendale has a historical marker commemorating the old road that is located 100 yards south of the intersection of Route 66 and Vista Road. Nearby is the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Helendale Auxiliary Airfield. In 1969, construction began on two manmade lakes, North Lake and South Lake, covering approximately , and a resort community called Silver Lakes was built at Helendale that opened in the early 1970s. The ZIP Code is 92342 and the community is inside

area code 760 Area codes 760 and 442 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. These area codes serve an overlay complex that comprises much of the southeastern and southernmost portions of Califor ...

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the CDP covers an area of 5.6 square miles (14.4 km), 5.2 square miles (13.4 km) of it land, and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km) of it (7.15%) water. Helendale is located in a generally flat area in the

, between

and Barstow. It is located northeast of Los Angeles and southwest of

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

at an elevation of . The town consists primarily of the Silver Lakes resort community, which is built around two manmade lakes. Water for these lakes comes from Mojave River, which, while dry at the surface, has flow underground.

Climate

Helendale is in a

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

climate. Like most of the

, it has cool winters and hot summers and very little rainfall. It often will remain dry while nearby Victorville and Barstow are experiencing flash floods. For this reason, natives called the area "The hole in the sky."

Public Safety and Government

Law enforcement is provided by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department out of the Adelanto Station. Traffic enforcement is provided by the

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is the principal state police agency for the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary jurisdiction, including patrol and Criminal investigation, investigations, over all California Controlled-access highw ...

. The San Bernardino County Fire Department maintains a full-time station with paramedics near the Post Office on Helendale Road. Private security firms are hired by the Silverlakes Association and consistently patrol the amenities of Silver Lakes. Water, Parks, solid waste, sewer, and street lighting is provided by the Helendale Community Services District

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Silver Lakes had a population of 6,317. The population density was . The racial makeup of Silver Lakes was 63.7%

, 6.9%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.0% Native American, 4.9% Asian, 0.4%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 9.9% from other races, and 13.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26.8% of the population. The whole population lived in households. There were 2,478 households, out of which 28.2% included children under the age of 18, 54.9% were married-couple households, 5.6% were cohabiting couple households, 21.7% had a female householder with no partner present, and 17.8% had a male householder with no partner present. 24.5% of households were one person, and 13.3% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.55. There were 1,775

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(71.6% of all households). The age distribution was 22.4% under the age of 18, 6.1% aged 18 to 24, 22.1% aged 25 to 44, 26.3% aged 45 to 64, and 23.2% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 44.6years. For every 100 females, there were 100.2 males. There were 2,782 housing units at an average density of , of which 2,478 (89.1%) were occupied. Of these, 77.3% were owner-occupied, and 22.7% were occupied by renters. In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $111,857, and the

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

was $60,043. About 3.9% of families and 3.2% of the population were below the poverty line.

Places of interest

* Cottonwood Park * Silver Lakes Country Club * South Lake Park * Desert Fox airsoft field * Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch * Caroli Lake Club

Education

It is in the Helendale Elementary School District and the Victor Valley Union High School District.
Text list
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References

External links

''High Desert News''

''San Bernardino County Fire''

Silver Lakes Association
{{authority control Populated places in the Mojave Desert Census-designated places in San Bernardino County, California Unincorporated communities in San Bernardino County, California Victor Valley U.S. Route 66 in California Census-designated places in California Unincorporated communities in California