Believe it or not, you are not the center of the world. That title belongs to the the town of Felicity in California. Just west of Yuma in the Sonoran Desert (one of the hottest and driest places in the U.S.), Mayor Jacques-Andre Istel (seen above in the middle photo) has officially established the Center of the World. In the 1980s the now 85-year-old Istel built a town (only about 30 people live here) and named it after his wife in order to bolster his claim (although it probably is not). His declaration is based on a children’s book he wrote called Coe, the Good Dragon at the Center of the World.
Although this isn’t the real center of the world, both Imperial County and the French government recognize it. Visitors to this “town” will find a 21-foot-tall, hollow, mirror-lined, pink granite pyramid built over “the spot”, a dot in the center of a bronze disk set into the floor that officially marks the center of the world. There is also a metal 25-ft. spiral staircase salvaged from the Eiffel Tower that stands near the parking lot as well as the pointing arm from Michaelangelo’s Dawn of Creation painting from the Sistine Chapel that acts as a sundial. A windowless chapel, called the Church on the Hill at Felicity, is modeled after one that Istel likes in Brittany, France. And last year after two decades in the making nearly 500 etched granite panels were unveiled chronicling the milestones of humanity, part of Istel’s Museum of History in Granite. What is written on these panels? Well, “important” human achievements of course, like the first recorded game of polo in 600 B.C. and important advice from Julia Child: “If you are afraid of butter, use cream.”
