Route 66 has lost another gem. On July 23, 2024, the Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, California, announced on their Facebook page they were closing. The museum’s webpage says that they are “closed indefinitely,” stating water repairs in another part of the building were being taken care of by the city. Route 66…
Consider the town of Goffs for a moment. You really should. You’ll feel much better. With a current population 23, plus or minus a few jackrabbits, and situated eleven miles from Interstate 40, Goffs is today a wealth of history, and ground zero for any serious study of the Mojave Desert. Originally named Blake, Goffs…
It was a daring idea in 1911. Take 10 seven-passenger Studebaker-Garford Touring cars, add 50 passengers, and follow it with another Garford, decked out as a covered wagon, that was used to carry the baggage. Next, head out from New York, bound for Los Angeles, with stops at all the amazing desert landmarks along the…
Newberry Springs, California, is known for its former private lakes where water skiing stars like Esther Williams once trained and where one of the largest population of Tricolored Blackbirds on the West Coast gather, but it has another reputation about how the Mojave River engulfed houses near its riverbed and other tales of tragedy. When…
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…
When Roy’s Hotel is not ground zero for multiple thriller film shoots or welcoming the throngs of dusty tourists getting their fair share of the Route 66 experience, the quiet of Amboy settles in all around.
The solitude is so profound it’s almost deafening. The peace of the ghost town with its long-abandoned St. Raymond Church and nearby pioneer graveyard consumes you. It invites you to explore and renew.
Give yourself time to absorb this little time capsule of a town and its cemetery just a bit east on Route 66…
Visiting Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch is an experience for the senses. Not only are you mesmerized by the colorful bottles combined with antiques in creative ways, but there are soul-pleasing sounds to accompany it too.
Elmer told us his most beloved pieces are the ones he found with his Dad during his youth. One of his favorites is a handmade pitch fork Elmer found in 1959 or 1960 in a fallen down homestead near Edwards AFB, now at the top of one of his colorful displays.
Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch is not just another roadside attraction on Route 66. It has rightfully earned it’s designation as a destination in and of itself. Come see why this quirky slice of Americana and the humble artist who created it attracts people from all over the world…
There are at least ten Bagdad’s in America. They survive in federal geological surveys and maps of California, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Virginia, New York and Tennessee. Only three have post offices.
But only one Bagdad holds the distinction of having once thrived in the often inhospitable environs of the Mojave Desert…
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.
Welcome to our second installment in our continuing series.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the Fasten Seat Belt sign.
We hope you enjoy your flight with us as we return to the magical, majestic and oftentimes mysterious past.
We’ve added a few surprises along the way. It’s a short flight so don’t expect candied peanuts.
Buckle up, buttercup. It’s going to be a heck of a ride…