Desert Center, California, Now A Ghost Town

Back in the summer of 1983, I took a solo road trip to the Four Corners area of the Southwest. I left home in Hawthorne, California in the evening and took Interstate 10 out of California. 

The places I visited during that trip included Grand Canyon National Park, Four Corners Monument, Durango's Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Zion National Park.

Desert Center is 19 miles east of the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit.

Above, a statue of General George S. Patton and his dog Willie at the Gen.
 Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I was driving my 1980 Toyota Pick-up that had a camper shell. I either camped out in it or stayed in motels.

My first stop that night was in Desert Center, California. I stopped at the Desert Center Cafe for some coffee and a snack.

An article has been posted by RV Life telling of a visit to Desert Center. The cafe is now closed and it is now essentially a ghost town.

The article begins with:

If you have been following my adventures through the years you know my wife and I like to visit little known forgotten places like ghost towns, stage stops, military outposts, mining camps, and other places slowly being lost to time and the elements. One such place is Desert Center, California just off Interstate 10 in the Mojave Desert. 

Desert Center had its beginnings in 1921 when founder Stephen Ragsdale built a service station and café along the route of what would eventually become Interstate 10. 

At the time the café was the only place to obtain a meal for 50 miles in any direction. The café was open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with Ragsdale stating, “We lost our keys – we can’t close!” The café finally did close in 2012 with a note left on the door stating it was closed temporarily for maintenance.

With the article are some photographs, one of which is of the Desert Center Cafe. The cafe was as I remembered it from 1983.

To read more, go here.

Trouble On Interstate 10

Above, the collapsed bridge. From YouTube video.

The unusually heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Dolores caused a bridge near Desert Center on Interstate 10 to collapse. Until the bridge is rebuilt, Interstate 10 will be a mess.

According to The Desert Sun:

A bridge collapse east of the Coachella Valley late Sunday afternoon forced the closure of Interstate 10 – the main roadway between Southern California and Phoenix – injuring one person and stranding hundreds of motorists backed up for miles. 

The Tex Wash bridge, built on the eastbound I-10 in 1967, was listed as functionally obsolete in the 2014 National Bridge Inventory. Essentially, the bridge was listed as no longer adequate for its task, though it was not listed as having known structural problems that needed to be fixed.

Thankfully, our trip today to Lake Havasu doesn't include driving on Interstate 10. We will be on Interstates 15 and 40. I checked with the CHP road conditions hotline and both interstates are problem-free (well, at least, so far).

Clear skies are forecast for Lake Havasu City during our time there. The only thing the storm is causing is some cooling. It will be around 97 degrees there.

To read more, go here.