The Ghost Towns of Old Route 66 litter the Desert like Scenes from the Twilight Zone

Today, most people cross the desert on Interstate 40 all the way from Barstow to the Arizona border.....But I can remember a time, when i was much younger and my mom and dad made it a point to take a two week vacation every summer after school let, that these towns were thriving, and anything but dead.....But the coming of the freeways killed off many of the small towns that once dotted the landscape, where you could stop at a gas station, go next door for a burger fries and a malt and rest your hot weary bones.....Truckers made the small towns live.....But the building of the 40 freeway across the deserts took that traffic away as well, for ever sealing the fate of these reminders of the early life on the desert.....From Goffs near Needles, all the way to Ludlow, almost 100 miles, where the Route 66 picks back up with I-40, the desert is littered with relics from the past and little more.

While driving this dry, barren stretch of battered highway, one can only imagine how difficult it would have been to have traveled it as a fleeing dust bowler in the 1930s.....With dreams of "beautiful California" and its golden opportunities dancing in their heads, what a let down it must have been to arrive in this sweltering bit of desert.....I can remember some summers stopping at Ludow, it would be 120 degrees, and the wind was blowing so hard, that the heat felt like a gas furnace when it hit your face.

If you are a ghost town enthusiast, like my I and my dad, this old stretch of the road is a dream come true with its countless little bits of crumbling buildings and photo opportunities......Some of the things we came back with still are in our backyard to this day.....But if you're looking for quaint stopping points, curio stands, or open gas stations, restaurants or motels, you won't find it on this abandoned piece of pavement.
Exiting off of I-40 at US 95 North, not more than 2 miles from the famed Colorado River, you will turn left onto Goffs Road, which will lead you down a forty mile stretch of near nothingness.....This pre 1931 alignment of Route 66 was once home to several towns, nothing of which can be seen today, including Ibis, Bannock, and Homer, before reaching what is left of Goffs.

Goffs has a few interesting remnants still standing all of these years later, including an old General Store and a 1914 schoolhouse that has been renovated by the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association, and now houses a museum.....The association maintains a collection of historical materials inside the schoolhouse and dozens of artifacts outside, including vehicles and mining equipment....Aside from the Museum, The rest of the town is a lonely sight with nary a soul around and littered with junk and falling down relics of the former mining industry.

Next we head for Fenner.....Old Route 66 crosses under I-40 and continues on to Essex, where you can see the post office and the remains of an old gas station, out in the middle of nowhere.....Beyond Essex, were once the towns of Danby and Summit, of which nothing remains today.....Summit is a bit famous again.....Remember the movies "Tremors" and its sequels....they were all shot in this valley.....It is not uncommon to see snow falling in summit which is above 4,000 feet in elevation, while down in the valley there is nothing.....No rain falls in these valleys, it seems ever.

The next stop on your westward trip down old route 66 is Chambless, where only a couple of buildings continue to stand....Then its on to Amboy, Ludlow and Daggett.
Chambless, used to have a gas station, a cafe and several cabins.....These buildings are still intact behind a tall wired fence.....This one time oasis in the desert was a popular spot for the long ago travelers of the Route 66, as it was one of the few places with trees, and the gas station/market once sported a wide covered porch to shade the weary travelers.....You might remember another movie that was shot out here.....1941, a quite Steven Spielberg Movie that made many actors famous, and used many famous actors.

About a mile and a half west of Chambless you will see what's left of the Road Runner's Retreat, which once provided a welcome respite during the long hot drive across the Mojave Desert.
As you move on towards Amboy, you'll begin to notice that the bank on the north side of the highway is filled with rock-strewn graffiti of the many people who pass this way......Amboy is an intact town of ten buildings and supposedly twenty residents.....However, when we were there it was totally deserted and Roy's Cafe was closed.....Which is too bad....Roys was a great place to stop if you hadn't stopped earlier on.....The town was originally owned by Roy and Velma Crawl in the 1930s and the cafe, motel, and service station were built somewhere around 1938.

Over the years the station, motel and cafe served thousands of customers who would rave about Roy's burgers and the service that they received along that desolate stretch of Route 66......In those days, Amboy was an oasis in the desert where hot and tired travelers could stop for food, a cool drink, mechanical services, and gas, while a big smile and a kind voice awaited them at Roy's Cafe and Motel.

In the very early days, Roy Crowl had a small plane that he kept in a hangar behind the Cafe and used it once to rescue a woman who had fallen down into Amboy Crater......He also used it to fly his grandchildren around, taking in the view of the desert when they came to visit......Roy was also an entrepreneur, as he owned additional real estate in Sedona, Arizona and Cherry Valley.

When Roy passed away, His kids Buster and Betty continued to run the services with the same excellent service until the late 1970s when Betty died of cancer.....Later, Buster would remarry a woman named Bessie, and the two continued the tradition of exceptional care of travelers through the years.....During this time, Buster was known to open his doors clearly marked "Closed for Thanksgiving" to weary tourists out of gas or stranded.....The cafe was renowned for its burgers, chili and other homemade delights as travelers stopped for a welcome respite on the long, hot, desert stretch of road......Buster continued to change tires on trucks and busses right up until the day he retired, at more than 80 years old.
Buster finally sold the town in 1995 and moved to Twenty-Nine Palms where he passed away in the year 2000. The two guys who bought the town primarily used the site to host movie companies and photo shoots.....Though the restaurant was still open at times, the hours were sporadic.
Two and a half miles west of Amboy, the Amboy Crater rises above the desert floor......This volcano that erupted some 10,000 years ago was once an active Route 66 tourist attraction.....Today it sits silently in the desert reminiscing of better days, along with the scattered remnants of the rest of the road.

Six miles west of Amboy once stood the town of Bagdad, which has been totally obliterated today.....You will also pass by the old sites of Siberia and Klondike, which, like Bagdad, are nothing more than names on an old map......At last, you reach Ludlow, where you finally see some signs of life.

Though Ludlow is a virtual ghost town, you will see a few open businesses due to its proximity to I-40.....Founded in 1882 as a water stop for the Central Pacific Railroad, the water was hauled from Newberry Springs in tank cars.....Before long, gold was discovered in the area and Ludlow began to grow until the mining petered out in the early 1900s.....Declining for the first time, Ludlow saw a revival when Route 66 came through, becoming a busy rest stop along the new highway.....Ludlow died a second death when I-40 replaced the Route 66......Though there are still a few people living in the area, supporting the service businesses along the interstate, the town is mostly littered with the decaying buildings of its former past.
On the other side of the railroad tracks behind the old settlement of Ludlow is an interesting cemetery surrounded by a rusty wire fence......Here, nameless graves are marked by a couple of dozen wooden crosses, leaving no testament to those who died here many years before......My dad took me out to see this cemetery in the 70's shortly before he died....He was always finding old deserted Cemeteries, that no one knew anything about.

Route 66 dies beyond Ludlow, as it once traveled to the south side of I-40.....However, by joining the north frontage road, you will soon be riding on the real thing again in about two miles.

About thirty miles beyond Ludlow, you will come to Newberry Springs, which has long been a source of water in the dry Mojave Desert......Though the town wasn't founded until 1911, the wagon trains heading to California on the old Mormon Trail in the mid 1800s made this place a regular stopping point along their travels.....Located on an ancient lake, Newberry Springs has a large basin of underground water, the first water point for wagon trains west of the Colorado River.....A note of interest to my family, is that my Uncle Al Smith bought several thousand acres of land from the US government after the WWII ended for mere pennies on the dollar....In the late 1990's after he died, his sons and daughters sold the land that hey had owned for all of these years to land developers, for a reported $30 Million....Today, New housing and a several Golf courses are being built on the land my uncle once owned.....As true to its nature, the Mojave River still flows underground to Newberry Springs.....sometimes the water level is so close to the surface all you have to do to get water is stick a straw in the ground.
Continuing to travel another 12 miles or so, you will reach Daggett, a town rich in history......Originally founded in the 1860s, the town boomed when silver was discovered in the Calico Mountains north of Daggett in the early 1860's.....Just a few years later, borax was also discovered and began to be actively mined.....Daggett soon became the mining supply and support center for the many mines in the area......By 1902, Daggett was supported by three borax mines, had three saloons, two restaurants, a lumber yard, several stores and the old Stone Hotel.
There are several vintage in buildings in Daggett including Alf's Blacksmith Shop, which has been standing since 1894; the Stone Hotel, built in the 1870s, said to have hosted the likes of Governor John Daggett, Tom Mix, and Wyatt Earp; and a one time Visitors Information Center that opened in 1926.....Now, a private residence, this building once invited newcomers to California as well as housing a cafe and service station.
Its been nearly 12 years since our last road trip out old route 66, but it was fun to see how the everything had changed....50 years ago, it was very different and a lot more refreshing just to stop at some of those old Restaurants, and watch the traffic drive on by....Now all that's left, is sage brush, burnt asphalt and rundown buildings, most of which dont even exist any more.....But it is fun to think back and remember.

Gary Hall the ghostpainter