We’re Moving, Y’all! Adios California
Keeping an eye on our local booming house prices in our sleepy southern California desert town spearheaded us in the right direction…
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Golden State vs. Lone Star State: We’re Home!
Texas. Oh, Texas. As Californian originals, we certainly packed a whole lot of living in the short duration we were there before family obligations called us back home. Bandera seemed like a natural fit. Many thanks to Bandera for opening your arms to us like you did, even if you did frequently remind us “Don’t…
Llano Del Rio: A Vision in Ruins
Driving along Pearblossom Highway (Hwy 138), it’s just you and maybe a few hundred cars and trucks passing by in both directions. Perhaps lost in thought, or just concentrating on surviving the drive, you look ahead and the roadway becomes a beacon to place unknown to most people, even though they may pass it every day. You’re approaching the ruins. Soon, you will know what others don’t. The history of a failed dream. Welcome to the Socialist community of Llano Del Rio…
Bagdad Cafe: Calling You to Route 66
For us and countless others, Jevetta Steele’s haunting lyrics from the song, “Calling You,” from the 1987 indie cult classic “Bagdad Cafe” will forever evoke the particularities of a small desert town on Route 66 contrasted with the vastness of the Mojave Desert. However, Bagdad Cafe was not actually shot in Bagdad. Not Bagdad, California, and not Baghdad, Iraq. The award-winning German film, directed by Percy Adlon, was filmed in Newberry Springs at the former Sidewinder Cafe, which decided to let the name “Bagdad Cafe” live on, drawing throngs of international tourists.
Dry Guillotine to Dry Desert: René Belbenoît
How many have driven by this older building with a bright green extraterrestrial on its door, located on Old Woman Springs Road in Lucerne Valley without knowing the startling history of the former mild-mannered owner with a French accent? Do they know an author of five books sat in the corner of the store, then…
Marl Spring: Vital Watering Hole on the Mojave Road
Originally, this path was an ancient Native American trade route that eventually led to the Pacific Ocean. In 1776, a Spanish Franciscan Friar, Francisco Garcés, traveled the same trail as he explored the desert on behalf of the Pope and the Spanish crown. By the time of the Civil War, the trail had evolved into what we now know as the Mojave Road…
Doble, California: The Boom Town That Refused to Live
Take a short walk on this quiet mountain trail, surrounded by pines and open spaces, and you see it up ahead. White crosses in a semi-circle, around the gnarled truck of a tree. So, what have you stumbled into here? Well, give us a minute or two and we’ll tell you about the mountain town that refused to live.
Here, just above the highway, are about 25 marked graves in the little cemetery that served the town mining town known as Doble…
Lake Dolores Waterpark Still Makes a Splash
There’s nothing quite like an abandoned amusement park. Forlorn, seemingly forgotten and graffiti’d to the hilt, the place still imbues a whimsical peek into better times when it was filled with throngs of sunscreen slathered fun-seeking families and teens…
The Day Sammy Met Helen: Destiny on Route 66
It’s a cool desert evening on November 18, 1954, and the day’s show is over at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the emerging Las Vegas Strip. Still, the show must always go on. The young entertainer, along with his valet, Charles Head, are getting ready for an all-night drive to Studio City, near…
Desert Center: Where Desert Steve Wore Many Hats
In 1915, Stephen “Desert Steve” Albert Ragsdale, originally from Coffeyville, Kansas, rattled his way west, coaxing an early‑model automobile across the Mojave as if stubbornness alone could substitute for horsepower. He was bound for a business conference in Los Angeles, because apparently the best route to professional success was straight through a sun‑scorched nowhere, but…