The Desert Overwritten by Visions of Paradise

In the early 60s, Polynesian enthusiast Gus Raigosa created a small lake in the Mojave desert as the centerpiece of a planned tropical resort community. The lake is still there but features like the "Sail-In Restaurant," "Fabulous Water Fountain" and "Waterfall Cascades" existed mostly in renderings rather than the site's parched reality. Raigosa's dream of creating paradise in the desert ultimately succumbed to the strain of birthing the tropics singlehandedly tabula rasa.