Remember that popular lyric telling of travelers crossing America and passing through
the Mojave Desert? Cities such as Barstow and San Bernardino were lionized with that song.
In 1984, the last remaining part of the old Route 66 that crossed the nation through
Williams, Arizona, was changed to Interstate 40. This ended what author John Steinbeck in
his 'dust bowl' and depression era stories called "The Mother Road".
Winding some 2,200 miles from Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue in Chicago,
Steinbeck depicted this long concrete and asphalt path as "waving gently up and down
on the map, from the Mississippi River to Bakersfield, California". Actually,
Steinbeck like others was confused about Route 66 extending to Bakersfield. At Barstow,
this road turned south toward San Bernardino via Cajon Pass and passed through Los
Angeles, expiring (or beginning) in Santa Monica at the ocean's edge, near Santa Monica
Boulevard and Ocean Avenue. The highway turning west from Barstow to Bakersfield was the
Old Route 466, mistaken by exhausted, travel weary immigrants as the true 66. What
mattered to those travelers in 1930 was just to settle anywhere in California, the Golden
State, and begin reaping all that whispered wealth.
Today's travelers, cruising along Interstate 40. 132 miles between Needles and Barstow,
find little of what the Joad family, in the 'Grapes of Wrath', experienced while
traversing this part of the now much sought after Mojave County. Stops on the road, where
gasoline and tire patches could be purchased, no longer dot the landscape. Nature has
reclaimed most of what half a century ago was called 'The National Old Trails Road'.
In 1927, prior to his presidency of the USA, Harry S. Truman was president of an
association which pushed for a route from ocean to ocean through the heart of the nation;
passing near Grand Canyon and open for traffic 365 days a year. Six states east and six
states west of the Mississippi River are shown on the association's 1924 map of the road,
depicting every city, town and hamlet throughout its entire length.
A National Old Trails Road map, printed in l9l3, called 'The Sunset Route', refers to
California as "the promised land" where glowing fields with visions of alfalfa,
prunes and citrus trees, green, fat pastures with contented cattle were waiting for
everyone. (no water problem, then? Ed.) In 1913, after crossing the Colorado River at
Needles, those entering the 'Promised Land' would motor through Klinefelter, Goffs, Piute,
Fenner, Essex, Arimo, Danby, Siam, Cadiz, Altura, Bengal, Amboy, Bagdad, Nome, Siberia,
Ludlow, Argos, Lavic, Troy, Newberry, Minneola, Daggett and Barstow. A stone's throw away
from Route 66, travelers would see Santa Fe Railroad tracks and sidings, with water tanks
for steam engines. Non highway stops were known to railroaders as Java, Homer, Ash Hill,
Klondike, Pisgah, Hector and Nebo. By 1924, three more spots along Old 66 were added to
handle the needs of travelers: Bannock, Staggs and Water.
In the September/October 1984 issue of 'The American West', Thomas W. Pew, Jr. wrote
"Route 66 isn't just a part of America, it is America. It is the ultimate symbol of
the essence of a restless country that's never settled down".
Like Old 66, the region encompassing (a much needed and well planned) Mojave County
continues being restless. The growing population and new commercial development are
destined to flow over and fill vast new sections of land. Fat pastures, indeed, for the
rulers from the San Bernardino Valley.
The desert is locked into an old system, dating back to the 1850s and ruled by outside
interests that is uncaring to our unique requirements. We must pursue attention to our
distinctive local needs, and form a tailor made form of government, accountable to those
who settled here.
Tire patches, water tanks and old steam engines are a thing of the past. So should be
San Bernardino Co.'s sovereignty. May it rest in peace -soon!
The author owns a vast library of Route 66 memorabilia. In our forthcoming issue he
will tell history lovers about the 1932 towns, hamlets and way stations along Old 66 as it
drops down from Barstow to San Bernardino, including garages, lodgings, Ma and Pa
restaurants, services and other operations. "No Green Stamps back then", he
quips, and no credit cards".
