Official Center of the World

Jacques-André Istel, the mayor of Felicity, saw its barren wasteland when he was a Marine on his way to Korea. He got excited by the desert and, after the war, bought the land. Then he and his wife moved out here and began building their own town.

Pyr IconThe idea of making Felicity the Center of the World came to Jacques-André when he'd been mayor only a few months. "People have always thought I was crazy," he says, shrugging, but he somehow convinced Imperial County, CA, to recognize his claim. Soon he had convinced the Institut Geographique National of France, General Dynamics Corporation, and The People's Republic of China to recognize it as well.