INSIDE METRO: News, people and events in Los Angeles County’s communities.

Its population is a mix of rattlesnakes and astronauts, convicts and cowboys. Lancaster is a boom town still trying to find its way after a roller-coaster ride of development.

But the boom is sonic rather than economic. Dubbed “Aerospace Valley” by locals because of its proximity to Edwards Air Force Base, this town of 94 square miles surrounded by Joshua trees and sagebrush sits in Los Angeles’ back yard on the edge of the Mojave Desert.

The economic boom of the late 1980s that made Lancaster the fastest-growing city in the nation thundered across the desert, fueled by a high-flying defense budget. Then military cutbacks and recession transformed the hot housing market into a glut of unsold homes.

There were other disappointments. Local residents fought for several years to stop the state from building a prison within the city limits, but it finally opened in 1993.

But Lancaster still has unlimited skies for test pilots and Edwards offers a landing site for the space shuttle.

The U.S. military came to the area in the 1930s, drawn by its isolation, clear flying weather and vast dry lake beds. The area was used for gunnery practice during World War II and an Army airfield was established in 1946, the predecessor of Edwards.

The heart of Edwards is the Flight Test Center, where cheat-the-devil test pilots immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff” pushed experimental jets and rocket planes to their limits.

Its where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. Where Neil Armstrong restarted the engines on a flamed-out X-15 just before it hit the ground.

Until the mid-1950s, the jet jockeys retreated after a hard day to the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a raucous bar owned by Florence (Pancho) Barnes, a former Hollywood stunt pilot, gun runner and rum smuggler known for her foul mouth and fondness for good times. Yeager recalled a man kiddingly asking Barnes to get him a “good-looking gal on toast.” She did just that, delivering a waitress on an unhinged door--naked and lying on five loaves of toast.

Another big Lancaster attraction is its poppy fields, which provide a blazing announcement of spring.

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Lancaster Inside Out

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: The Joshua trees that dot the desert around Lancaster were given their name by a group of Mormons returning to Utah from California in 1857. The group, summoned by Brigham Young, saw the strange shape of some trees as reminiscent of the Old Testament prophet Joshua, leading them into the Promised Land.

But not everyone feels the Joshuas’ spiritual quality.

A century ago, when Army Capt. John C. Fremont first saw the Joshuas, he branded them “the most repulsive trees in the vegetable kingdom.”

Bite your tongue, John.

The Lancaster City Council adopted an ordinance 12 years ago restricting the removal of Joshua trees and other desert flora.

MONSTROUS TALE: A Times story from Aug. 1, 1886, headlined “A Holy Terror: The Fiery Dragon of Elizabeth Lake,” recounted how a traveler named Peter B. Simpson said that west of Lancaster he had encountered a creature “about 30 feet long . . . of warm reddish color with a long snout and jagged yellow teeth . . . enormous wings, ribbed like those of a bat, evidently, long hind legs and a long tail.” Simpson said he fired his rifle at the beast, which then flew off, plopping down into Lake Elizabeth. POPULAR NATIVES: Lancaster’s poppies crown the Antelope Valley with gold in a 1,750-acre poppy preserve. In 1903, the Legislature named the poppy the official state flower because its color symbolized California’s two big attractions--gold and sunshine.

CELEBRITIES: Frances Gumm hated growing up in Lancaster; she described her years there as “miserable” and the residents as “barren and harsh.” So who cares about Frances Gumm’s feelings? Thousands did when she became famous as Judy Garland. John Wayne, then Marion Morrison, also attended Lancaster Grammar School for a short time. And the late rock legend Frank Zappa played the drums in Antelope Valley High School’s marching band before getting kicked out for smoking in uniform.

FAMED FLYBOYS: Granite monuments pay tribute to Edwards Air Force Base test pilots at the Aerospace Walk of Honor on Lancaster Boulevard. Since the walk was established five years ago, more than 25 pilots have been inducted, including Neil Armstrong, Chuck Yeager, Tony LeVier, Pete Knight and Fred W. Haise Jr., best known as the lunar module pilot in the true-life drama that inspired the movie “Apollo 13.”

GLORY DAYS: Almost camouflaged in the barren hills overlooking Lancaster is a historic gold mine. On the Kern County line, the Tropico mine saw its heyday in the 1890s. Its mill became the largest in the Southland, processing ore from 400 mines. After it shut down in 1956, the buildings were left to decay in the sun.

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By The Numbers

City Business

Date founded: Nov. 22, 1977

Area in square miles: 94

Number of parks: 8

Number of city employees: 325

1995-96 budget: $33.6 million

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People

Population: 97,291

Households: 33,112

Average household size: 2.80

Median age: 29.6

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Ethnic Breakdown

Asian: 4%

Black: 7%

Latino: 15%

White: 73%

Other: 1%

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Money and Work Median household income: $38,388

Median household income / L.A. County: $34,965

Median home value: $133,800

Employed workers (16 and older): 43,285

Percentage of women employed: 54.4%

Percentage of men employed: 77.7%

Self-employed: 2,654

Car- poolers: 8,558

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Number of Cars Per Household

One: 30%

Two: 43%

Three or more: 22%

None: 5%

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Retail Stores

Number of stores: 729

Number of employees: 6,918

Annual sales: $814 million

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Ages

65 and older: 8%

50- 64: 11%

35-49: 19%

18- 34: 32%

17 and younger: 30%

Source: Claritas Inc. Household expenses are averages for 1994. All other figures are for 1990. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.