A town dedicated to rememberence

February 21, 2014 12:25 PM

Jacques-André Istel is the father of American skydiving, Honorary Soviet Master of Sports and French Legionnaire, and the founder, mayor, and only resident (with his wife) of the desert town of Felicity, California. Felicity is a wondrous place. Inspired by a children's book he wrote, Istel managed to have the town officially designated as the Center of the World. It is also the home of the Museum of History in Granite, 431 carved panels of the history of the world, written by Istel and copy-edited by his wife with a modern Rosetta Stone to help people 4,000 years from now interpret it. Seriously, just look at the panel about the moon.
posted by blahblahblah (9 comments total)

The second (NY Times) link has a video, for those interested.
posted by blahblahblah at 12:26 PM on February 21, 2014

... and in a moment of sort of interesting coincidence, I recently got the chance to see one of the originals of the statue of Actaeon that is depicted in relief on the tablet about the moon. Until 1940 it was displayed in the little amphitheater in the garden where I work in Yonkers but after the death of the guy whose estate it was when the property was deeded to the city of Yonkers, it was sold to the Hudson River Museum. It is in storage but I was able to arrange a viewing for the people associated with the garden and it and the matching sculpture of Diana are quite nice.
posted by sciencegeek at 12:38 PM on February 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

Makes me think of The Long Now (Previously)
posted by larrybob at 12:54 PM on February 21, 2014

Is that Van Gogh's "Starry Night" sandblasted into granite? Why yes, I believe it is!
posted by R. Mutt at 12:58 PM on February 21, 2014

Man I love desert dwellers.
posted by Big_B at 1:16 PM on February 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

*packs bags, moves to Felicity, CA.*
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:21 PM on February 21, 2014

Cool stuff!

*packs bags, moves to Felicity, CA.*
*increases population by 50%*
posted by carter at 4:30 PM on February 21, 2014

Okay, so, early on the morning of his 85th birthday, he gets up, does 100 push ups, 125 squats, then swims a few laps in his pool before he goes up to have an elegant breakfast in bed.

Must be something in the water.
posted by mule98J at 7:45 PM on February 21, 2014

Great post. Thanks, blahblahblah.
posted by homunculus at 12:52 AM on February 22, 2014 [1 favorite]