Costco to Host Book Signing for Local Lancaster Authors

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - June 11, 2013 - PRLog -- One of the nation's fastest growing cities and a center for the aerospace and defense industries, Palmdale began in 1886 with the doomed colony of Palmenthal in a land plentiful with Joshua trees and jackrabbits but very little water. The gateway to the southern Antelope Valley, Palmdale has enjoyed a rich, diverse, and eventful history while resourceful pioneers created neighboring communities of unique character. Littlerock, a "pearadise," became the fruit basket for the Antelope Valley. Neil Armstrong, before becoming the first man to walk on the moon in 1969, resided in Juniper Hills. Pearblossom's rustic landscape was ideal for early cowboy movies. Valyermo owes its existence to the San Andreas Fault, and the Big Rock Creek area became known for Noah Beery Sr.'s Paradise Trout Club, a favorite rendezvous for many Hollywood movie stars and notables.

Author Norma H. Gurba is a longtime Palmdale resident, historian, and former City of Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery curator. Working with curator Nicholas J. West, Gurba has written and compiled this evocative pictorial narrative of Palmdale and its environs.

Known for more "first flights" and record flights than any other place, Edwards Air Force Base is legendary. Centered around an ancient dry lakebed in the Mojave Desert 90 miles north of Los Angeles, activity at Edwards has sharpened the cutting edge of aviation and aerospace since the 1940s. The complex is a strategic flight test, research, and development center for the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and civilian contractors. Since the 1950s, almost every U.S. military aircraft has been partially tested here. The skies above Edwards have been the scene of remarkable achievements, including Chuck Yeager's world-famous breaking of the sound barrier in 1947. Dramatic aerospace research continues today at Edwards, America's proving ground for the future of high tech aviation.

Author Ted Huetter is the public relations manager for The Museum of Flight in Seattle and was an aviation writer and multimedia designer at Edwards Air Force Base during the 1990s. Coauthor Christian Gelzer is the chief historian for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards.

Join the Authors for a Book Signing!
Where:  Costco
1141 West Avenue L, Lancaster CA 93534
When:  Saturday, June 15th, 2013; 12:00 —3:00 p.m

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or (888)-313-2665.  

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.

Palmdale
by Norma H. Gurba, Nicholas J. West
Images of America series
128 pages/ softcover
Published: August 16, 2010

Edwards Air Force Base
by Ted Huetter and Christian Gelzer
Images of America Series
128 pages/ softcover
Published: December 13, 2010