Diomita Maurer’s Blog

Saturday, October 26th, I visited Huntington Beach. I got the landmark once again by following scoop.it SL Destinations. The landmark description is a cross reference to Huntington Beach in the physical world: “Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located 35 miles southeast of Downtown Los Angeles“. It further contains the link to timeline article with pictures “Photos: Dark beauty in the oil fields of old Southern California“. This article and the pictures in it inspired Jade Koltai to create Huntington Beach in Second Life.

source: https://timeline.com/photos-dark-beauty-in-the-oil-fields-of-old-southern-california-f8aea365d38d

Huntington Beach is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population is about 200,000. It is known for its long 9.5-mile (15.3 km) stretch of sandy beach, mild climate, excellent surfing, and beach culture (source wikipedia)
I have been in Huntington Beach in the early 1990’s and I remember seeing long wide beaches, surfers and many overground powerlines (in Europe powerlines are mostly subterrestrial) disturbing the view. I knew that California not only had a gold rush but also large oil occurrences that were depleted during the 20th century. But I was not aware how the California beach looked like in the 1920’s and 1930’s. If you look up the above mentioned timeline article you will get an idea!

Some impressions of Huntington Beach, CA

Jade Koltai, the owner of Huntington Beach, created a sim that gives us an idea about how Huntington Beach might have looked like in the 1950’s. In the virtual world of Second Life we’re able to travel the world and to travel in time.

Huntington Beach in Second Life – overiew

Huntington Beach is a (moderate) homestead consisting of four main parts: the pier, the beach, the town and the field of oil derricks. The landing point is at the pier, which is quite famous in Huntington Beach. The original Huntington Beach Pier was built in 1904. With it’s length of 1,850 feet (560 m) it is one of the longest public piers on the West Coast. The pier in Second Life is way shorter and just offers a snack bar and some opportunities to sit. I met Jade Koltai there and we had a short chat.

Impressions of Huntington Beach (1) – at the landing point

The town right next to the pier offers a motel with a pool and a tennis court and quite some shops: a pet shop, a barber shop, a toys shop, a butchery, a clothes shop, a donut shop, a cheese shop and a confectionery. All of them are furnished and it is fun to have a look inside of them.

Impressions of Huntington Beach (2) – the motel and the shops

There’s also a large gas station and an abandoned drive in movie theatre. Next to the gas station is a quite large red building with on open court. It could be a restaurant as there’re some tables and chairs in the court but for sure you can dance in the court (there’re couple animations for dancing available). Last but not least there’s a trailer park at one end of the town.
The whole town has a little bit morbid charme as you can sense how flourishing it was in the 1950’s and that it is in decline.

Impressions of Huntington Beach (3) – the trailer park, the shops, the abandoned drive in movie theatre and the event area

Directly adjacent to the town is the field of oil derricks. Because there’re so many they are really scaring. You get an idea that it was not at all environmentally beneficial. I walked a along the derricks and made quite some pictures also using another windlight setting to get a more threatening atmosphere.

Impressions of Huntington Beach (4) – the field of oil derricks

Finally I visited the beach. Here you get an impression of how beach life was with the derricks in the background. Intriguing!

Impressions of Huntington Beach (5) – the oil derricks and the beach

I enjoyed my visit to Huntington Beach. The sim offers a lot of opportunities to sit and cuddle, to explore, to take pictures and to enjoy yourself. And for me it also was quite instructional in addition. It made me read about the oil rush in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Thank you Jade for creating Huntington Beach in Second Life and for sharing it with the public.

Landmark to Huntington Beach
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Prohibition/89/215/26
Flickr group
https://www.flickr.com/groups/huntingtonrigs/
Huntington Beach in Wkipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntington_Beach,_California
Timeline article “Photos: Dark beauty in the oil fields of old Southern California”
https://timeline.com/photos-dark-beauty-in-the-oil-fields-of-old-southern-california-f8aea365d38d