Located on the central coast of California, Vandenburg occupies a large area around Point Conception — the point where the California coast turns North which is roughly considered the geographic and climatological division between Northern and Southern California.
Location of many missile tests, commercial rocket launches, and some space shuttle launches.
While trying to convince Jacques Vallee that he had archived alien landing footage in his possession, Air Force General Glenn Miller told Vallee that his last UFO sighting was at Vandenburg in 1984 (Revelations, 35).
The base was founded as Camp Cook on 5 October 1941.
It was named after Major General Phillip St. George Cooke, a cavalry officer whose military career spanned almost half a century. He participated in the Mexican War, the Indian Wars, and the Civil War. A native of Virginia, General Cooke remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.
As a colonel during the Mexican War, he led the Mormon Battalion from Missouri to California. The route led by Colonel Cooke in 1846 opened the first wagon route to California, and the railroads follow much of the early wagon trails.