America's Main Street, Route 66, was officially paved and opened in the Helendale area
in 1926. The National Old Trails Road Association, whose President was Harry S. Truman in
1925-26, devised a program to create a national highway system that would follow the
"old national trails" developed by Indians and wagon trains of the 1800's.
Prior to its paving and numbering, the "Mother Road", Route 66, was
officially known as the Santa Fe-Grand Canyon-Needles National Highway. Nicknamed the
"Trail of the Padres", this highway lasted until 1914 and serviced passengers
between Los Angeles and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Before this, several early trails and roadways passed through the Helendale area
linking remote desert outposts to the Pueblo de Los Angeles via the Cajon Pass. Some of
these included the Mojave Trail used by Indians and Father Garces (1776), the Old Spanish
Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, the Mormon trail, and the Sanford Freight Road.
Some of the early residents of this community recall traveling this early highway when
their parents moved to the desert area during the 1920's and 1930's. Countless of
"dust-bowlers" used this very roadway in their search for better opportunity in
California. These travelers were immortalized by John Steinbeck in his epic "Grapes
of Wrath".
A Route 66 marker was placed on National Trails Hwy. near Vista Rd. on September 25,
1993 by the Helendale School District in cooperation with the Mojave Historical Society
and the Community of Helendale.
