Ivanpah is in the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, California. There are several residences in the area, but no real village. Ivanpah is located on the bajada below the northeast side of the New York Mountains overlooking the broad Ivanpah Valley. The Ivanpah Mountains lie across the valley to the northwest. Ivanpah is located at the crossing of Ivanpah Road and the Union Pacific Railroad, which was the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad until 1921 when it was bought out by Union Pacific. There was once a general store located here. It burned mysteriously in the early morning of 7 September 1944, killing the couple, Mr. and Mrs. William F. Pearce, both 40, who ran it. A Union Pacific engineer who passed through at 1:20 a.m. reported to Deputy Coroner Harry Trehearne at Nipton that the store lights were on and a car was parked outside. When he reached Nipton ten minutes later, he looked back and saw the store on fire. Railroad authorities told him to return and render aid. He did so and found the car gone, the building burned, and the bodies inside. County Coroner R. E. Williams stated on 20 September that with authorities unable to establish definite evidence of foul play as originally suspected, that he would sign out on the death of the victims “as resulting from fifth and sixth degree burns from a fire of an undetermined origin.” He said that desert officers are still investigating mysterious circumstances surrounding the fatal fire but the foul play theory will be discarded unless there are some unforeseen developments in the case. The original name for this crossing was Leastalk. The California Eastern Railway crossed the LA&SL railroad at this location. The CaliforniaEastern Railway became part of California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway, which abandoned operations in 1918, with the tracks being pulled up in 1921. Ivanpah is also the home of the largest thermal solar power facility in the world which opened officially on February 13, 2014.
