Giant Rock, a massive freestanding boulder near Landers in the Mojave Desert, is widely regarded as North America’s largest of its kind. It became famous in the 1930s when Frank Critzer created an underground home beneath it, complete with dug-out rooms, water collection, ventilation, and a nearby airstrip, before dying there in 1942. After 1947, George Van Tassel turned the area into an unusual desert center with meditation sessions, a cafe, store, gas station, the Integratron, and an airport. In the 1950s it became a prominent gathering place for UFO believers, while the airport also served practical aviation and atmospheric research uses. The rock split in 2000 but remains a distinctive Mojave landmark.