'Buttonwillow Bivouac' – Buttonwillow, California - Atlas Obscura

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'Buttonwillow Bivouac'

Buttonwillow, California

In the country around Buttonwillow, California, a marker commemorates a revealing moment in the story of a water colony from the fictional Kcymaerxthaere that sought independence. 

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Kcymaerxthaere is an art project created by Eames Demetrios. A series of plaques and other markers around the world honor events that have taken place in a parallel universe that, according to Demetrios, “co-exists to some degree with ours.” Most of these installations are bronze or stone plaques inscribed with stories but some are larger, even entire buildings. As of 2021, there are more than 140 sites spread across six continents and 30 countries.

This is one of the trickier markers to find, based on the number of people who have told us they need to look twice. Partly it is because the sign is often missing for Morongo Road (it is unclear if the road is named for the Bishop Morongo who played such a role in the Krblin Jihn Kabin site). But when you go down Morongo Road, look for the complex of pipes depicted here. Then walk a couple of dozen yards down the road and then, to your left, some distance into the scrub, you will see the marker.

Though this is scarcely the most important of the many locations associated with the legendary conflict between Alleigh and its water colony, one sees two important things in particular: first, the way our language remains influenced by these xthaereal conflicts and second, that the Tehachapi were quite successful in insisting that their roads not be used for military purposes. More about the fighting can be seen in the memoir of Cyrus Hawkes, Feudal California Boyhood, popularized in the now suppressed film, Wartime California, whose script has been been recently published.

Know Before You Go

Best way to get there is to get to 7th Standard Road. North on I-5 it is the exit just north of the main Buttonwillow Exit; South, take exit 263. Anyway, you go East on 7th Standard Road from I5. Take a right (going south) on Morongo--the sign is often missing. (Tracy Road is before Morongo and Brandt Road is East of Morongo. Also--just to make life interesting, it is called MorAngo Road on Google Maps; which is silly because it was named for the Bishop Morongo in Notgeon). Eventually you'll see a sign for Morongo and Popet, it is south east of that on the left about 50 yards or so.

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June 16, 2013

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