| Amboy, California |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT AMBOY, CALIFORNIA | |
| communities on u.s. route 66 | |
| ghost towns in california | |
| communities in the mojave desert | |
| communities in san bernardino county | |
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Mercury Monterey police car in the foreground was used for a brief time to lure tourists.]] Roy's Motel And Cafe was and is the only gasoline, food and lodging stop for miles around that part of the eastern Mojave and was well known for both its Googie "retro-future" architecture added to one of the original buildings and even more famous sign, a 1959 addition. Both Roy's and the surrounding town were once owned by Buster Burris , one of Route 66's most famous characters who purchased Roy's from his father-in-law Roy Crowle - the man for whom the property is named - in 1938 and ran the town until 1995 . Burris was also responsible for erecting power poles between Amboy and Barstow , using a crane mounted on a 1930s -vintage Studebaker truck. The town was owned by investors Walt Wilson and Tim White starting from 2000. It got repossessed and eventually sold to Albert Okura, owner of the Juan Pollo restaurant chain who's trying to preserve the town. EARLY HISTORY ]] Amboy is also one of California's oldest towns, dating from 1858 and even has a unused, unrestored one-room schoolhouse dating from the 1900s. Its growth over the years was tied to Chloride works in the dry lake beds that dot the area as well as the Santa Fe Railroad over which high-speed freight trains still run between Kingman, Arizona and Santa Fe's giant Barstow yard. The chloride works rank among the world's largest. Amboy Crater , an extinct, 6,000-year-old Cinder Cone made largely of Pahoehoe , rises to the west. The coming of Route 66 - originally named "National Trails Highway" in the 1910s and reverted to that name after the decommissioning of 66 - saw a steady growth of business, especially at Roy's. The complex was so busy during summer vacation that Burris placed classified ads in other states in an effort to bring in enough help. The coming of Interstate 40 in the early 1970s changed all that. Burris himself told an interviewer that his business dropped to zero the day the new Interstate highway opened. FROM GHOST TOWN TO FILM LOCATION Roy's was the town's only business outside of the chloride works and post office. Roy's is currently closed but the owners state they are trying to restore water and power and perhaps even sell gas. The cabins which were once rented to Route 66 travelers stand unused. Roy's used to be open for food and gasoline, but the hours of operation were erratic under the previous owners. Gasoline was also considerably more expensive than normal at roughly thirty percent above the state average. Roy's even attracted some well-known regulars. Actors . It was also used in Enrique Inglasis's music video "Hero"Owners Wilson and White maintain Amboy in weathered, unrestored condition for use as a motion picture film site. The town has a total of 10 surviving buildings and a population of far less than the advertised 20. PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION Curently the water and electricity need to be restored first and then the preservation can really start. There has been some vandalism at Amboy recently thwarting much of the effort of preserving the town. A caretaker should resolve that problem in the future. EXTERNAL LINKS
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