The Main Street of America — In the City That Kept the Name

Route 66 earned many nicknames across its 2,448-mile length from Chicago to the Pacific: the Mother Road, the Will Rogers Highway, the Will Rogers Memorial Highway, the Main Street of America. Most cities where Route 66 ran have long since renamed their old alignment segments, absorbed them into numbered avenues and commercial boulevards, or buried them under the footprints of Interstate on-ramps and big-box retail developments. But in Barstow, California, the original Route 66 alignment still runs through the heart of the city on a street called Main Street — making Barstow, as the California Historic Route 66 Association notes, “the only city that retained the main street name from the early nickname of Route 66 — ‘The Main Street of America.'”

That is not Barstow’s only claim to significance on California’s Route 66 corridor. The city is the geographic and logistical heart of California’s desert Route 66 segment — the point where the old highway emerges from the eastern Mojave, where the National Trails Highway (Route 66 east of Barstow) meets the Mojave River Valley, where four major modern highways converge (Interstates 15 and 40, Highways 58 and 247), and where the legacy of three overlapping transportation eras — the railroad, the highway, and the Interstate — is preserved in a single compact downtown district that a motivated visitor can cover in a half-day. More than 60 million travelers pass through Barstow annually, making it one of the most-transited desert cities in North America — and one of the most underappreciated.

Barstow’s Route 66 heritage is anchored by its “Crossroads of Opportunity” identity: the convergence of transportation modes that built the city, sustained it through the mid-century Route 66 boom, and continues to define it today. At the center of that identity is Main Street — the original Route 66 alignment through downtown — and the constellation of landmarks, museums, murals, and historic buildings that line it. This guide covers everything a Route 66 traveler needs to know about Barstow: how to navigate the alignment, what to see, how long to budget, and where to connect Barstow’s story to the broader arc of Route 66’s 2,448-mile journey across eight states.

Where Is Barstow on Route 66?

Barstow sits at 34°54’N, 117°01’W in the Mojave River Valley in San Bernardino County, California, at an elevation of approximately 2,106 feet above sea level. It is located approximately 140 miles northeast of Los Angeles via I-15, 150 miles southwest of Las Vegas via I-15, and midway between Needles and San Bernardino on the old Route 66 alignment — a position that has defined its role as a desert crossroads for more than a century.

On the Route 66 alignment, travelers arriving from the east (from Needles, Amboy, Ludlow, Newberry Springs, and Daggett) reach Barstow via the National Trails Highway as it joins East Main Street from the east, crossing Interstate 15 and proceeding west through downtown. Travelers arriving from the west (from Victorville, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles) reach Barstow via the Cajon Pass descent and the continuation of Route 66 north through Victorville, joining West Main Street from the southwest. Either direction, Route 66 through Barstow is Main Street — the same street it has always been, running directly through the core of the city.

Barstow’s History: From Waterman Junction to Crossroads of the West

Native American Trade Routes and the Mojave River

Long before the railroad, before Route 66, and before the automobile, the Mojave River was the first artery that brought human activity to the area that became Barstow. For thousands of years, Native American peoples — including the Serrano and Mojave — used the river valley as a trade and travel corridor, connecting the Pacific coast with the interior desert. The Old Spanish Trail, designated a National Historic Trail in 2002, passed through the Barstow area as early as the 1820s, carrying pack mule trains between New Mexico and California on what explorer John C. Fremont called “the longest, crookedest, most arduous pack mule route in the history of America.” The Mormon Trail through the Mojave also passed through the region, and Barstow’s Main Street murals commemorate both routes.

Silver, the Railroad, and Waterman Junction: 1880s

Modern Barstow was born in a collision of two 19th-century forces: silver and steel. In 1881, silver was discovered in the Calico Mountains approximately 10 miles northeast of the future city site, triggering one of the largest silver strikes in California history. The Southern Pacific Railroad extended its line to the area in 1882, establishing a siding called “Waterman Junction” after Robert W. Waterman, a mine owner (and future California governor) whose Waterman Mine was located 4 miles to the north. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (later absorbed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe) arrived the same year, crossing the Colorado River at Needles and pushing west through the Mojave. Barstow became the junction point where these competing railroad lines met.

The city was formally named Barstow in honor of William Barstow Strong, president of the Santa Fe Railroad, when the post office changed its name on January 15, 1886. The railroad created Barstow’s first economic reason to exist: the steam locomotives of the era required enormous quantities of water and coal and constant mechanical attention, and Barstow’s position as a division point on the mainline meant that it hosted crews, roundhouses, repair facilities, and all the commercial services that railroad workers and travelers required. The famous 20-mule teams of the Mojave Desert era — hitched together to haul ore and borax across the desert — operated out of Daggett, the community 5 miles downriver from Barstow that predated it.

Route 66 Arrives: 1926

When U.S. Route 66 was commissioned on November 11, 1926, it followed the old National Old Trails Highway alignment through Barstow, placing the city’s main commercial street directly on the federal highway. Barstow’s position as a major railroad junction made it the logical fulcrum of the highway’s California desert crossing as well: the railroad’s infrastructure — water, fuel, food, services — was already in place, and the automobile travelers of the Route 66 era simply required the highway version of what the railroad era had already built.

In the 1930s, Barstow’s businesses migrated from their original locations near the railroad tracks to the new highway, clustering along Main Street to capture the flow of Route 66 traffic. The Great Depression’s Dust Bowl migration — the westward movement of displaced farm families from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri that John Steinbeck documented in The Grapes of Wrath — brought enormous traffic volumes through Barstow on Route 66. The junction of Route 66 and U.S. 91 in Barstow became, during the mid-century peak years, one of the busiest highway intersections in the United States, with local gas stations reportedly dispensing more than 800 gallons of gasoline per day. Every automobile traveler on Route 66 between Chicago and the California coast passed through Barstow.

The Interstate Era and the Crossroads of Opportunity: 1973–Present

Barstow’s response to the Interstate Highway System was different from that of most Route 66 cities. Where smaller desert towns — Amboy, Bagdad, Ludlow, Goffs — were effectively ended by the opening of Interstate 40 in 1973, Barstow’s status as a major intersection point actually grew. Interstate 40, Interstate 15, State Highway 58, and State Highway 247 all converge at Barstow, making it not just a point on a single highway but the hub of multiple major transportation corridors. The city’s own slogan — “Crossroads of Opportunity” — captures this accurately. The Route 66 traffic that once defined Main Street was replaced by a larger aggregate of Interstate travelers, and Barstow evolved from a Route 66 town into a regional transportation hub without losing its Route 66 identity.

The city today is home to approximately 25,000 residents and anchors a desert service economy supported by Fort Irwin National Training Center (the U.S. Army’s largest active-duty training installation), the Marine Corps Logistics Base, NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network Complex, and the BNSF Railway’s massive classification yard — one of the largest rail operations in the western United States, and the foundation of BNSF’s planned Barstow International Gateway, a $1.5 billion rail and intermodal hub expected to create 20,000 jobs.

Driving Route 66 Through Barstow: Main Street

The Route 66 alignment through Barstow runs along Main Street for approximately 1.2 miles through the historic downtown core, from East Main Street’s intersection with the old Daggett Road alignment on the east to the Western junctions with the Cajon Pass alignment (Route 66 south toward Victorville) on the west. The street is a genuine working commercial main street — not a preserved tourist zone — with a mix of surviving historic buildings, vacant lots, murals, motels, diners, and the ordinary commerce of a Mojave Desert city.

East Main Street: Entering from Daggett

Travelers arriving on the Route 66 alignment from the east enter Barstow via East Main Street after passing through Daggett — the small community 5 miles downriver that predates Barstow and retains several pre-Route 66 buildings including the celebrated Daggett Garage (originally a locomotive repair roundhouse from the 1880s that was moved twice and eventually became an auto repair shop serving Route 66 travelers) and the Desert Market Store, a stone building dating to the early 1900s. From Daggett, Route 66 continues west into Barstow on East Main Street, passing under Interstate 15 before entering the downtown district.

On East Main Street, notable surviving landmarks include the Route 66 Motel at 195 West Main Street — a retro 1922 motel best recognized by its classic neon sign and offering budget accommodation with round beds in some rooms, antique cars for photo opportunities, and a Route 66-themed aesthetic that makes it a popular overnight stop for Mother Road travelers. The remains of the El Rancho Motel — whose building burned to the ground but whose large neon sign survives — are another East Main Street landmark. The El Rancho was built from railroad ties from the defunct Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, a historical detail that connected two generations of desert transportation in a single structure.

The 200 Block: The Village Hotel Neon Sign

In the 200 block of East Main Street, one of Barstow’s most evocative surviving neon artifacts clings to the side of a building: the faded neon sign reading “The Village, Hotel, Air Conditioned, Cafe, Chop Suey” — a layered history of successive business uses in a single sign, its lettering dimmed by decades of desert sun. The sign captures the Route 66 era’s commercial culture — the air conditioning a major selling point for desert travelers, the Chinese American cafe a reminder of the demographic diversity that Route 66 supported — and is one of the most photographed surviving neon artifacts in the Barstow downtown corridor.

Downtown Core and the Beacon Tavern Site

The 300–400 blocks of East Main Street represent the historic commercial core of Barstow. On the north side of the 700 block stood the Beacon Tavern (later the Beacon Motor Inn Hotel), one of Barstow’s most celebrated mid-century Route 66 establishments. The tavern began as a project of the Richfield Oil Company and Highway Communities Inc., which joined forces in 1928 to build a chain of hotels with service stations and restaurants every 50 miles along the California coast — from Mexico to the north. The Barstow facility was to have featured a 125-foot steel tower resembling an oil derrick, with the Richfield name written on it in 10-foot-tall letters and serving as a navigation aid for aircraft. The Great Depression ended the ambitious chain project before it fully launched — the Barstow Beacon was the first and last complete unit to be built in the chain. Over the following decades, Hollywood stars including Clark Gable stayed at the Beacon while traveling between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, until Interstate 15’s completion in 1957 made the stop unnecessary. The building was demolished in 1970; the site is now a gap in the Main Street streetscape.

The Harvey House Complex: Barstow’s Most Important Route 66 Destination

The single most significant Route 66 destination in Barstow is the Casa del Desierto Harvey House — the magnificent 1911 Fred Harvey Company railroad hotel and Santa Fe Railway depot at 681 North First Avenue, reached by turning north off Main Street onto First Avenue and crossing the bridge over the BNSF rail yards. The building — a National Historic Landmark, California Historical Landmark No. 892, and one of the finest surviving depot-hotels in the United States — currently houses four distinct visitor destinations, all free to enter:

Route 66 Mother Road Museum — Dedicated on July 4, 2000, the museum presents the history of Route 66 and the Mojave Desert communities through classic cars (including a 1958 Edsel, 1923 Model T Doctor’s Coupe, and 1929 Ford Model A), vintage highway signs, motel postcards, roadside diner artifacts, and an extensive historic photograph collection. After closing in June 2024 due to flood damage, the museum reopened under new management on March 22, 2025, just in time for the Route 66 Centennial in 2026. Open Monday–Saturday 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. and Sunday 12:00–3:00 p.m. Free.

Western America Railroad Museum — In the east wing of the Harvey House, this museum presents the history of railroads in the American West through photographs, artifacts, Harvey Girl memorabilia, and an outdoor collection of retired rolling stock displayed beside the active BNSF Southern Transcon mainline. Open Friday–Sunday 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Free.

NASA Goldstone Visitor Center — On the second floor of the Harvey House, the NASA Goldstone Visitor Center presents the story of the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Complex, located 35 miles north of Barstow in the Mojave Desert. Since 1958, the Goldstone antennas — including a 230-foot dish nicknamed “Mars” — have tracked spacecraft and communicated with probes across the solar system. Free; no reservations required for individuals.

Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau — The city’s visitor information center operates from within the Harvey House lobby, providing current maps, guides, and local recommendations. The best starting point for any Barstow visit.

Amtrak Southwest Chief Station — The Casa del Desierto is an active Amtrak station on the Chicago–Los Angeles Southwest Chief route, continuing its 114-year function as a railroad passenger facility. Travelers combining a Route 66 road trip with an Amtrak journey can begin or end in Barstow.

Plan a minimum of two to three hours for a complete Harvey House complex visit. The outdoor railroad collection alone can occupy a rail enthusiast for an hour; the combination of all four attractions fills a productive half-day.

Main Street Murals: Route 66’s Outdoor History Gallery

Running for 1.2 miles along Main Street, Barstow’s Main Street Murals constitute one of the most ambitious public art and Route 66 heritage programs in California. The project was founded by Juliette Tison as a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing tourism and economic revitalization to downtown Barstow through a walking tour of large-format murals painted on building facades. The first mural — depicting Route 66 and the Old National Trails Highway that preceded it — was painted in 1998 with Jim Savoy, an art instructor at Barstow Community College, as the principal artist. Since then, many local artists have contributed to additional works.

There are currently 16 large-format murals up to 40 feet tall, collectively covering approximately 12,000 square feet of building surfaces along Main Street. Painted in special acrylic formulations capable of withstanding the Mojave Desert’s temperature extremes, the murals depict:

Route 66 and the National Trails Highway — The first mural, at 513 E. Main Street, showing the progression from Native American trails to the automobile highway of the 1920s.

Camels on the Survey Road — Depicting General Edward Beale’s famous 1850s U.S. Army Camel Corps experiment, in which camels were used to survey a road from New Mexico to California through the Mojave.

William Barstow Strong — A portrait of the city’s namesake, the Santa Fe Railroad president who gave Barstow its name in 1886.

The Historic Harvey House — The 1911 Casa del Desierto depicted at its architectural finest.

The Mormon Trail — A map and scene panels depicting the Mormon migration route through the Mojave.

Mining in the Mojave: Silver and Gold — Multiple murals in the series depicting the Calico silver rush of 1881 and the subsequent Mojave gold mining era.

Portraits of the Mojave Explorers — A series of six portraits depicting the early explorers of the Mojave Desert region.

The murals are publicly accessible at all times — no admission, no hours. The complete Main Street Murals walking tour takes approximately one hour at a comfortable pace and is best done in the morning or early evening when the desert light is most photogenic. A self-guided tour map is available at the Barstow Chamber of Commerce in the Harvey House. The murals also serve as photogenic backdrops for Route 66 photography — several have become standard compositions on the California leg of the Mother Road.

The Mojave River Valley Museum

Located at 270 East Virginia Way in Barstow (about half a mile from Main Street), the Mojave River Valley Museum is one of the Mojave Desert’s finest regional history institutions. The museum houses a series of displays and exhibits that portray the history of the Mojave River Valley from the arrival of Father Francisco Garcés in 1776 through the pathfinder, pioneer, mining, and railroad eras and into the modern period. The museum’s archive of local area newspapers dates back to 1911, and its photograph collection contains more than 20,000 images — an extraordinary visual record of Barstow and the Mojave Desert across more than a century.

Among the museum’s notable holdings is the Old Woman Meteorite — the second-largest space rock ever found in the United States, weighing nearly 6,070 pounds. The meteorite was discovered in 1976 in the Mojave Desert, sent to the Smithsonian Institution for study in 1976, and returned to permanent display in Barstow in 1980, where it remains at the Desert Discovery Center (Barstow Community College, 831 Barstow Rd.) — a short drive from Main Street. The Mojave River Valley Museum also holds more than 500 old photographs, documents, and real equipment from the Calico mines, displayed in the open desert air of the museum’s outdoor exhibit area.

Calico Ghost Town: The Silver Rush Legacy 10 Miles from Main Street

No visit to Route 66 in Barstow is complete without a side trip to Calico Ghost Town — California’s official Silver Rush ghost town as designated by state legislation in July 2005, located approximately 10 miles northeast of Barstow on the road to the Calico Mountains. Calico was established in 1881 following one of the largest silver strikes in California history, with at least 46 mines including the Waterloo, Bismarck, Oriental, Garfield, and Burning Moscow operating in the surrounding hills. The mines produced an estimated $13 to $20 million worth of silver between 1881 and 1896, when falling silver prices shut them down.

Calico was purchased by Walter Knott of Knott’s Berry Farm in 1951 and partially restored before being donated to San Bernardino County in 1966. Today, the ghost town operates as Calico Ghost Town Regional Park, with approximately one-third of the original buildings surviving and the remainder carefully reconstructed to recreate the spirit of the 1880s mining camp. Visitors can explore on foot, take guided walking tours with Calico’s historian, ride the narrow-gauge railroad that operates within town limits, descend into a hard rock silver mine for underground exploration, and visit the assay office, the general store, and the other buildings of the original camp. The history of the town’s most famous resident, “Dorsey the Mail-Carrying Dog” — who carried the mail from Calico to the nearby Bismarck mine in little pouches strapped to his back — is told at the town’s small historical museum.

Calico is not on the Route 66 alignment but is universally included in Route 66 itineraries through Barstow because of its proximity, its historical importance to the city’s founding, and its exceptional preservation as a genuine piece of Mojave Desert history. Plan for two to three hours for a complete Calico visit.

Daggett: Route 66 History 5 Miles East of Barstow

The small community of Daggett, 5 miles east of Barstow on Route 66 (the National Trails Highway), is one of the oldest Route 66-area settlements in the California Mojave and holds several historically significant stops:

The Daggett Garage — One of the most historically layered buildings on California’s Route 66 corridor. Originally built in the 1880s as a locomotive repair roundhouse for the narrow-gauge Daggett Railroad at the borax town of Marion, the building was moved twice by blacksmith Seymour Alf before landing at its current Daggett location around 1912, where it served first as an automobile repair shop on the National Old Trails Highway and then as a U.S. Army mess hall during World War I when troops guarded local railroad bridges. The Fouts Brothers operated it as an automotive repair and machine shop from 1946 through the mid-1980s. Today it is operated by the Golden Mining and Trucking Company. Arguably no other building on California’s Route 66 corridor has seen more transportation eras.

The Desert Market Store — A stone building dating to the early 20th century, one of the handful of pre-Route 66 structures surviving on this section of the highway.

The Solar Electric Generating System (SEGS) — The massive solar power plant visible on the desert just south of Daggett, operated by SunRay Energy Inc. The Daggett facility was the first of three solar installations within 40 miles of Barstow that together form the SEGS, generating up to 354 megawatts of power for the Southern California Edison grid. The scale of the solar arrays visible from Route 66 through Daggett is extraordinary — a visual reminder that the Mojave Desert that challenged Route 66 travelers for a century is now generating the energy that powers modern California.

Rainbow Basin and the Natural Landscape North of Route 66

Eight miles north of Barstow on Fossil Bed Road (well-marked from Main Street), Rainbow Basin Natural Area is one of the Mojave Desert’s most spectacular geological formations. The Calico Peaks range‘s twisted walls of limestone, mudrock, and sandstone rise 300 feet above the desert floor in vivid bands of color — rust, ochre, white, grey, and green — that give the formation its name. These layers represent 25 million years of geological history, laid down during the Miocene period when a lake occupied this desert valley.

Rainbow Basin holds some of the Mojave Desert’s richest fossil beds, with scientists documenting at least 17 fossil species unique to this area — including bones from ancient camels, three-toed horses, tapirs, and saber-toothed cats that lived here 15 million years ago. A 7.5-mile driving loop winds through the canyon, passing the most dramatic color formations. The adjacent Owl Canyon Campground provides a developed overnight option for travelers exploring this section of the Mojave. No entrance fee; a high-clearance vehicle is recommended for portions of the loop.

The Skyline Drive-In Theatre

One of the most persistently popular attractions in Barstow for both locals and Route 66 travelers is the Skyline Drive-In Theatre — one of the surviving drive-in cinemas that defined the roadside entertainment culture of the Route 66 era. Showing current releases on two screens, with audio delivered through an FM radio station, the Skyline Drive-In connects travelers to the mid-century automotive culture that Route 66 represents in its most popular form. The drive-in season typically runs spring through fall; check current showtimes before planning an evening visit.

Practical Information for Your Barstow Route 66 Visit

Getting to Barstow

From Los Angeles (west): I-15 north from the LA metro area, approximately 140 miles to the Barstow Road/Highway 247 exit. Or take the historic Route 66 alignment northeast from San Bernardino via Cajon Pass and Victorville (about 165 miles via Route 66).

From Las Vegas (northeast): I-15 south approximately 150 miles to Barstow.

From the East (Arizona, Needles): I-40 west to the Barstow Road exit (Highway 247), or the historic Route 66 alignment west along the National Trails Highway from Needles — the most scenic and historically authentic approach, passing through Goffs, Amboy, Ludlow, Newberry Springs, and Daggett.

How Long to Spend

A thorough Barstow Route 66 visit — Main Street driving tour, Harvey House complex (all four attractions), Main Street Murals walk, and Daggett side trip — requires a full half-day to a full day. Adding Calico Ghost Town extends the visit to a comfortable full day. Rainbow Basin adds another half-day for geologically interested visitors. Barstow is well-positioned as an overnight base for exploring the broader California desert Route 66 corridor.

Climate and Best Time to Visit

Barstow is in the Mojave Desert at approximately 2,100 feet elevation. Summer temperatures (June–September) regularly exceed 100°F and can reach 115°F. The Harvey House complex is air-conditioned; outdoor activities are best done in early morning or after 5 p.m. in summer. The optimal visiting seasons are October through May, with spring (February–April) particularly appealing when desert wildflowers bloom in the surrounding hills and canyons.

Where to Stay

Barstow offers a full range of accommodation options on Main Street and along the Interstate corridors. The Route 66 Motel at 195 West Main Street is the most characterful Route 66-specific option, with its vintage neon sign and classic motel aesthetic. National chain hotels (Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, Rodeway Inn, Hampton Inn) are concentrated near the I-15/I-40 interchange. RV parks and campgrounds include the Owl Canyon Campground near Rainbow Basin (8 miles north) and the Calico Ghost Town Campground (10 miles east), both well-positioned for extended Barstow area exploration.

Where to Eat on Route 66 in Barstow

Barstow’s Main Street dining scene reflects its role as a working desert city rather than a tourism showplace. Reliable local options include Rosita’s Mexican Restaurant (a longtime Barstow institution), Peggy Sue’s 1950s Diner in Yermo (10 miles east, a theme diner in a converted service station), and the Del Taco at 401 N. First Street — which the chain itself acknowledges as one of its oldest operating locations. The Barstow Station outlet mall on Main Street at Lenwood Road offers a cluster of national fast food options in a converted railroad car setting. For a full-service sit-down experience, the Harvey House ballroom is available for private events and occasional public dining — check motherroadmuseum.com for current offerings.

The Route 66 Alignment Through Barstow: At a Glance

Entering from the East (from Daggett/Needles direction): National Trails Highway becomes East Main Street. Cross under I-15 at Exit 2. Continue west on Main Street through the downtown corridor.

Downtown Barstow: Main Street from approximately Montara Road (east) to First Avenue (north turnoff for the Harvey House). The heart of Route 66 Barstow — murals, historic buildings, the Route 66 Motel, and the Main Street streetscape.

Harvey House Detour (Essential): Turn north on First Avenue. Cross the railroad bridge. Harvey House complex on the right. Return to Main Street via First Avenue.

Exiting West (toward Victorville/San Bernardino): From downtown, Route 66 continues west on Main Street, crossing the Mojave River and heading south toward the Cajon Pass descent. Follow Main Street west to Lenwood Road and continue southwest toward Victorville.

Nearby Route 66 Highlights: East and West of Barstow

Barstow Harvey House — Casa del Desierto (Complete Guide) — The full history and visitor guide to the magnificent 1911 National Historic Landmark that anchors the Route 66 experience in Barstow.

Route 66 Mother Road Museum, Barstow — The complete guide to the free Route 66 museum inside the Harvey House, including its 2025 reopening story, exhibits, events calendar, and private rental information.

Bagdad Café, Newberry Springs — About 30 miles east of Barstow on Route 66 (National Trails Highway), the filming location for the 1987 cult classic film, drawing international pilgrims by the busload. One of the most unusual stops on California’s Mother Road.

Amboy Crater — About 66 miles east of Barstow on Route 66, the only volcano on the Mother Road — a free National Natural Landmark and one of the most dramatic hikes in the Mojave Desert.

Roy’s Motel and Café, Amboy — About 80 miles east, the most photographed landmark on California’s Route 66 corridor. The 50-foot restored Googie neon sign is the quintessential California desert Route 66 image.

California Route 66 Museum, Victorville — About 35 miles south via I-15, a free Route 66 museum in Old Town Victorville’s historic Red Rooster Café building — a complementary stop to the Barstow museums.

The Wigwam Motel, San Bernardino — About 60 miles south via I-15, the iconic teepee-shaped motel has offered Route 66 travelers an unforgettable overnight experience since 1950.

Route 66 in California — Complete Guide — The full overview of all 314 miles of California’s Route 66, from Needles on the Arizona border through Barstow, Victorville, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.

Route 66 Centennial 2026 — The 100th anniversary of Route 66 is November 11, 2026 — and Barstow, as the California desert’s most historically significant Route 66 city, is at the center of the centennial celebrations. Check this page for California events.

Route 66 — Complete Guide — The definitive guide to all 2,448 miles of America’s Main Street, from the Begin sign in Chicago to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.