Located in San Bernardino County, Barstow was founded along the Mormon Corridor in the late 1840s. Much of Barstow’s history is closely related to railroad activity in the region. Some of the earliest activity in this city resulted from railroad lines being built through the town in order to connect miners to nearby silver deposit sites. Later lines would be built by the Southern Pacific to connect Needles to Mojave, California by way of Barstow. These lines were transferred to Santa Fe Railroad owner William Barstow Strong in 1884. It was from this compromise that Barstow garnered its name. Today, Barstow continues to act as a major transportation junction in California. Several major highways meet at Barstow and freight rail lines owned by BNSF Railway court trains by both BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad. Barstow is also home to the fast-food restaurant chain, Del Taco, where the original facility still stands..
Woke up at about 7.00am – the room included breakfast so we had a quick breakfast and then checked out quite early. First stop Route 66 Museum, which was at Barstow station. Here we saw all route 66 memorabilia and learnt a bit of the history behind the building of route 66.
Some more history:The Amtrak stop at Barstow is the platform located at the Casa del Desierto train depot. Better known as the Harvey House Railroad Depot because of its origins as a Harvey House restaurant, the current facility opened on February 22, 1911, replacing an earlier Harvey House depot from 1885 that burned in 1908.
The building was rehabilitated by the city in 1993 and Amtrak entered into a lease with the city to have the new station lobby opened at night by the security guard. This arrangement remained in effect until 2004.
The station currently houses the Western American Railroad Museum, the Barstow Route 66 "Mother Road" Museum, the Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau and a real estate development sales office.
As with many of the Harvey House restaurants, this facility followed designs laid out by architect Mary Colter, who we would hear a lot about at the Grand Canyon. Her unique design fused a Spanish and Mediterranean style. Majestic columns and archways line the exterior of the depot, separating looming towers capped with pointed roofs or painted domes. A simple interior is furnished with wooden benches and home-style chandelier lighting.
I couldn't resist taking a shot of a native flower . We also bumped into a couple from Melbourne who took a photo of us both.
Some history taken from this website
We left here about midday and next stop was Calico ghost town. The town had been brought back to life by Knotsbury – some of the mines are open such as the Maggie Mine. Many art and craft shops, and old bar where we both had a beer. It was a lot hotter than we thought it would – later we found out that California is experiencing hotter than average temps. We rode the old train which use to carry the silver ore out of the mine.
We went do
wn into an old mine which was quite interesting.
We were quite hot and exhausted when we finally left for the drive to Kingham. We took a detour and stopped at Kelso Station.
We made it to Kingham about 6.00pm and checked into a hotel 6. Again it was a railroad town so we had an idea the trains were going to be a problem again. We went to a restarant next door to the motel and then went back to our room at about 7.30. I tried to say a
wake longer and watched CSI and Ian crashed.
