Edwards is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California, located entirely within the boundaries of Edwards Air Force Base in the western Mojave Desert. Formerly known as Muroc and later as Wherry Housing, the community serves primarily as a residential area for active-duty military personnel, Department of Defense civilians, and their families. It lies about 22 miles northeast of Lancaster, 16 miles east-southeast of Mojave, and roughly 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, at an elevation of about 2,350 feet. Edwards Air Force Base is one of the nation's principal flight-test centers, and the community of Edwards is the base's housing hub. The base's operations have made this corner of the Antelope Valley synonymous with aerospace research and testing, from early flight experiments to the modern test programs that continue there. The surrounding landscape of dry lakebeds and open desert has long been suited to that mission. Education is provided by the Muroc Joint Unified School District, a K–12 system of roughly 2,000 students that serves Edwards Air Force Base along with the nearby communities of Boron and North Edwards. Branch Elementary School is located on the base itself, keeping education close to home for base families, and the district's history reaches back to an elementary school founded in 1911. The surrounding Antelope Valley is a landscape of wide-open desert, dry lakebeds, and distant mountain ranges, with clear skies that made the area well suited to flight testing. Off-base, the cities of Lancaster, Palmdale, Rosamond, and California City provide shopping, services, and additional housing. Edwards is a distinct, mission-oriented community defined by its relationship to the air base and the desert environment around it.