Current location:	Los Angeles County
Current mood:	artistic
Entry tags:	abandoned places, commercial, photography, route 66, southern california

Abandoned Places – California Route 66 Wander
(Cross-posted to: abandonedplaces, desert_vision, & socal_abandoned)

One of the defining concepts of the Southern California driving culture was US Route 66. Known as “the Mother Road” by many driving enthusiasts, this was the principal route from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles from the 1920’s to the early 1970’s. The highway was gradually replaced from the 1950’s to 1970’s by the US Interstate Highway system. In some cases, the Interstate literally was built alongside or over the top of Route 66. In many cases, remnants of the original road or roads (there were actually several routes) were merely decommissioned, returned to the state they lay in or were by passed.

What makes this road special? It wasn’t the longest US highway. The longest highway distinction belongs to US Route 6 which stretched from Provincetown, Mass, to Los Angeles, CA (and passes through Lancaster, CA where I live). Route 66 was immortalized in books, movies and television as “the route” to the magical route to southern California and the good life. It was on this route that many “Okies” traveled west in the dust bowl and depression. It was this route in which many visitors made their first journeys to Southern California and the attractions here (such as Disneyland). The state of California (after much prodding) recognized the historical significance of the road and designated it the “National Trails Highway” and “Historic Route 66” in order to foster nostalgia, development, and preserve a bit of the history. Out in the desert, history is fading away though as time and the elements wear down the remains of the homes and businesses that once lined California Route 66.

The Snack Shack Oro Grande area




Back in February, my kids and drove the stretch of old Route 66 between Adelanto, CA and Barstow, CA. This wasn’t a long section of the old route, but it lies in an idea where growth and development is starting to eat away at the historical structures, signs and such. One of the first buildings we found was what we called the “Snack Shack.”


Photo by Brenna
The name of this small mom and pop road side snack bar may be known, but we couldn’t make it out or find any past photos of it.





From here we drove up the road towards Helendale. As we neared the town, we came upon Popotav’s Service Station. This place was known for its liberal repair policy, it was well known for fixing traveler’s vehicles even they couldn’t pay. In cases like these, Popotov would merely ask for a ‘security deposit in the form of a non-critical part of the vehicle, which he’d hold onto until the owner would come back and pay him the difference for the repairs. Call it a vehicular pawn shop.



More Popotov’s Service Station coming soon!