Route 66 is celebrating its 100th year anniversary this year–and what a fun kick-off Amboy gave it on March 7, 2026. Town manager, Kenneth Large, explained Roy’s Motel and Cafe in Amboy, California, owned by the Okura family, always wanted to have a car show. Last year, Amboy finally got to see a dream take…
The Kelso Depot, formerly the Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel, and now home to the Mojave National Preserve Visitor Center, sits in the heart of the Mojave Desert within the National Park Service’s Mojave National Preserve. Kelso Depot is one of the Mojave National Preserve’s star attractions—it played a major role in shaping the…
The Bristol Mountains rise between Ludlow and Kelbaker Road like a long, sun‑scorched barricade, the kind of range that looks less formed than forged. On one side, Route 66 snakes past in its slow, nostalgic way, carrying the ghosts of road‑trippers and the last stubborn believers in Americana. On the other side of that big…
Chambless, California, located about ten miles east of Amboy, is a ghost town now. But travel a mere mile and a half west of where the settlement used to be, and you would have found the Road Runner’s Retreat, a true desert landmark on Route 66. Dominating the landscape was a massive 30-foot-wide sign, its…
Now, if you’re thinking this might be a story about the storied ‘Highwaymen’ of years long passed, you might want to read on and become elucidated a bit on southwest lore. Because this, dear friends, is a story about those desert dwellers who built and maintained the roads between Needles, California, and all points west…
Not quite the desert, but Cucamonga was on the border. At the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, Route 66 was still the way to or from the great Mojave, from where I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. I remember many trips to Cucamonga to explore the abandoned stone houses of early…
The town of Oro Grande, dates back to 1852 with the founding of a trading post along the Mojave River. Gold mining operations began shortly after. First known as “Upper Crossing,” and then “Halleck,” Oro Grande was later named after the first mine found nearby. The name literally means “big gold” in Spanish. The history …
You may be familiar with the large marble Chinese Guardian Lion statues between Route 66 and Kelbaker Road but did you know Amboy may have once had its very own living African lion? “Old Man Miller,” as he was known in the Amboy area, was the first person to spot a large African lion near…
We originally referenced 100 of our favorite desert books five years ago. We still enjoy browsing museum gift shops and used book stores for nuggets of gold in the form of guidebooks, nature guides and history books. Discovering obscure out-of-print books is extra fun. Many new books have been published recently that also deserve our…
We recently went to a historic mural and monument reveal at Roy’s Motel and Cafe on Route 66 in Amboy in honor of Amboy owner and Juan Pollo creator, Albert Okura, who passed away last year. It had everything an honorable tribute should have, live music, raffles and and delicious food, in this case, complimentary…