Three Railroads, One Mother Road, and the Ghost Town That Keeps Surviving

The 1939 WPA Guide to the Golden State described Ludlow with the kind of backhanded compliment that Mojave Desert towns receive from writers who have just crossed miles of absolutely nothing: “In comparison with neighboring ‘towns,’ Ludlow, 115.5 m. (1,782 alt., 150 pop.), is a metropolis.” That comparison is more revealing than the writers may have intended. Ludlow was a metropolis. For a period in the early 20th century, it was the junction of three railroads — the main line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad running north into Death Valley and Nevada, and the Ludlow and Southern Railway running south to the copper and gold mines at Steadman — and it was a genuine boomtown with hotels, saloons, a pool hall, stores, and one of the most colorful characters on the entire Mojave Desert: a businesswoman known as “Mother Preston”, who owned several buildings in town, ran a notorious poker game, and upon selling her interests to the Murphy Brothers, retired to France.

Today, Route 66 through Ludlow is the story of a town that has died and been revived twice — once when the railroads moved on and the mines closed, and once when Interstate 40 bypassed what Route 66 had rebuilt. What survives is genuinely significant: the Ludlow Café (built of lumber salvaged from the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad); the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad historical marker and the Project Carryall marker (commemorating one of the most extraordinary transportation proposals in American history — a plan to use atomic bombs to cut a new highway and railroad alignment through the mountains near Ludlow); the ruins of the Murphy Brothers store and the Ludlow Motel; and the surrounding landscape of one of the most remote and geologically spectacular stretches of California’s Route 66 corridor.

As a practical matter, Ludlow serves a function today that it has served since 1882: a stopping place where travelers can get fuel, food, and water before continuing across the desert. That function — unchanged across 140 years of American transportation history — is the most durable thing about Ludlow. The railroads needed it; Route 66 needed it; Interstate 40 still needs it.

Where Is Ludlow on Route 66?

Ludlow is located on the National Trails Highway — the original Route 66 alignment — at the junction with Interstate 40 (I-40 Exit 50) in San Bernardino County, California. The town sits 53 miles east of Barstow and approximately 27 miles west of Amboy, in the high Mojave Desert at an elevation of 1,782 feet above sea level. Interstate 40 runs directly through and past Ludlow, and the interchange at Exit 50 provides the main access point for travelers coming off the Interstate.

Ludlow is also the western gateway to the Route 66 loop that runs east through Amboy to Roy’s Motel and Café and the Amboy Crater, eventually rejoining I-40 near Needles — a 75-mile stretch of old Route 66 that passes through some of the most remote and visually spectacular desert in California. Route 66 travelers heading east should leave I-40 at Exit 50 in Ludlow and follow the National Trails Highway eastward; travelers coming from the east should turn south at Exit 50 and follow the National Trails Highway through Ludlow and west toward Newberry Springs and Daggett.

From Barstow (west): Take I-40 east approximately 53 miles to Exit 50. From Needles / I-40 (east): Travel west on I-40 approximately 78 miles to Exit 50 at Ludlow. Ludlow is the last services stop before the long stretch to Amboy and the remote eastern desert; fuel up and carry water before continuing east on Route 66.

Ludlow’s History: From Water Stop to Three-Railroad Junction

Named for a Master Car Repairer: 1882–1883

Ludlow’s story begins with the same force that created most of the Mojave Desert’s settled communities: the railroad. In 1882, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (later absorbed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) was being built westward across the Mojave from Needles toward California. Like every steam railroad crossing the desert, it required regular water stops for its locomotives — and Ludlow’s location, with underground water accessible in the otherwise arid terrain, made it a natural station site. The California Historic Route 66 Association records: “Like many other Mojave Desert communities, Ludlow began in 1883 as a water stop for the railroad. It was named for William B. Ludlow, a master car repairer for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.”

The naming of towns after railroad employees — particularly craftsmen whose work was essential to the functioning of the railroad machinery — was common in the frontier railroad era. William B. Ludlow’s title as “master car repairer” identifies him as a skilled tradesman responsible for the maintenance and repair of the railroad cars that made the transcontinental crossing possible. A Mojave Desert water stop bearing his name is, in its way, a fitting memorial: the desert town and the railway car repairer both existed to keep things moving across the hardest terrain.

The Mining Boom: Silver, Copper, Gold, and a “Dry Town” Next Door

Ore discoveries in the surrounding Mojave Desert transformed Ludlow from a simple water stop into a genuine boomtown. The process followed the familiar pattern of Western mining development: ore was discovered, miners arrived, a supply town developed at the nearest railroad access point, and for a period the combination of mining money and railroad access sustained a full commercial ecosystem in what would otherwise be empty desert.

The most significant mines served by Ludlow were the Bagdad-Chase mines — copper and gold deposits discovered in 1898 approximately 10 miles south of Ludlow. The Chase Bank of New York purchased the mine in 1900, and the mining camp that grew around it was called “Camp Rochester” (after the Rochester, New York hometown of the New York bankers who owned it), later changed to “Steadman” (after one of the bankers). The Steadman camp was operated as a “dry town” — no women, no alcohol — which gave Ludlow entrepreneurs an unexpected commercial advantage. As the Digging History account records: “Steadman was a ‘dry town’ so the miners went to Ludlow for their booze. This led to the growth of Ludlow.” Saturday night in Ludlow was, by implication, considerably livelier than the rest of the week.

Mother Preston: The Most Remarkable Business Owner on the Mojave

Among the entrepreneurs who built commercial establishments in boom-era Ludlow, one stands out for the breadth of her operations and the color of her legend: the businesswoman known as “Mother Preston.” The Digging History account of Ludlow records that she “owned several buildings in town, including a store, hotel, boarding house, saloon, café, pool hall and three homes. She was known to be a good businesswoman and an expert poker player — when she sold out to the Murphy Brothers, she retired to France.” Mother Preston’s commercial empire in a Mojave Desert mining supply town — covering retail, hospitality, food service, entertainment, and real estate simultaneously — was an extraordinary achievement for any businessperson of the early 20th century, and remarkable beyond measure for a woman in an era and place where women were a rarity. That she concluded her Ludlow career by cashing out to the Murphy Brothers and retiring to France is one of the better endings in Mojave Desert history.

The Murphy Brothers and the Mercantile Empire

After purchasing Mother Preston’s holdings, the Murphy Brothers consolidated their position as the dominant commercial force in Ludlow. Their store — the Murphy Brothers Mercantile, originally Mother Preston’s and later expanded — became the commercial anchor of the town. Most of the town of Ludlow was, at various points, under Murphy Brothers ownership. The building still stands today — described by theroute-66.com as “badly damaged nowadays” but recognizable as a reminder of Ludlow’s former commercial significance. The Murphy Brothers store, the ruins of the Ludlow Motel, and the Ludlow Café building (built of lumber salvaged from the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad) constitute the surviving physical evidence of what was once a genuine Mojave Desert commercial center.

Three Railroads at Ludlow: The Tonopah and Tidewater, the Ludlow and Southern, and the Santa Fe

Ludlow’s most significant period of prosperity and strategic importance was the era when three railroads converged at its station — a junction complexity that was remarkable for any desert community, let alone one with a population of a few hundred people in the middle of the Mojave. The convergence of these three lines made Ludlow what it was during the early 20th century’s mining boom: a genuine transportation hub.

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad (1906–1940): Borax King’s 169-Mile Desert Line

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad (T&T) was the creation of Francis Marion “Borax” Smith — the same Borax King whose operations had previously dominated Daggett. After political conflicts with Senator William A. Clark (who controlled the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad) made a Las Vegas terminus impossible, Smith negotiated with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to use Ludlow as the T&T’s southern terminus. Construction of the T&T began at Ludlow in August 1905 and proceeded quickly across Broadwell Dry Lake just north of Ludlow.

The line was originally planned to run from Tonopah, Nevada to San Diego, California — hence its name, connecting the mining town to the tidewater. It never reached either endpoint on its own tracks. Instead, it terminated at Beatty, Nevada in October 1907 after reaching its northern extent, spanning approximately 169 miles of desert and mountain terrain. The T&T’s primary purpose was to carry borax from Francis Marion Smith’s Pacific Coast Borax Company mines on the east side of Death Valley to the Santa Fe’s main line at Ludlow, from which it was shipped to processing facilities and national markets. The line also carried lead, clay, feldspar, passengers, and general freight.

The T&T’s shops and headquarters were located at Ludlow — making the town not merely a terminus but an operational center for locomotive and rolling stock maintenance. The Billy Holcomb Chapter of E Clampus Vitus erected a historical marker in 2007 at the intersection of the National Trails Highway and Crucero Road (in front of the Ludlow Coffee Shop) commemorating the T&T shops. The marker notes: “The shops and headquarters of the T&T were located here at Ludlow, just south of this marker. Little remains of the facilities that for 18 years serviced the locomotives and rolling stock of the Nevada Shortline.”

The T&T operated until 1933 on its southern section (Ludlow to Crucero), with the full line ceasing operations in June 1940 — its rails torn up between Beatty and Ludlow from 1942 to 1946, though the sleepers and railroad bed were left in the desert where they can still be traced today. The T&T’s broader legacy is more durable than the railroad itself: Francis Marion Smith’s experience building the T&T directly inspired him to plan the Tonopah and Tidewater’s successor systems, and rights-of-way established by Smith’s various railroad ventures were eventually incorporated into the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Ludlow and Southern Railway (1903–1931): South to the Mines

The second branch railroad at Ludlow ran in the opposite direction from the T&T: south, not north. The Ludlow and Southern Railway (L&S) was constructed between 1903 and 1905 specifically to transport copper and gold ore from the Bagdad-Chase mines and the Steadman mining camp to the Santa Fe main line at Ludlow. The L&S ran for approximately 10 miles southward from Ludlow station — a relatively modest line but one whose existence was essential to the commercial rationale for both the Steadman mining operation and Ludlow’s own economic boom. Without the L&S, ore from the Bagdad-Chase mines would have required expensive wagon transport across desert terrain to reach the railroad. With it, copper ore could flow directly to the Santa Fe at Ludlow and from there west to the Barstow smelter.

The L&S closed in 1916 when mining operations in the area declined. Its tracks were lifted in 1935. The Steadman camp — the “dry town” that had sent its thirsty miners north to Ludlow on Saturday nights — had already lost its reason for existence. The chain of commercial dependencies that had sustained Ludlow’s prosperity (Steadman needed supplies, Steadman miners wanted entertainment, Ludlow supplied both) was broken.

The Main Line and the Town’s Decline

With the L&S closed in 1916, the Borax mines north of Daggett moving operations back to Death Valley in 1907, and the Great Depression forcing the T&T’s final decline in the 1930s, Ludlow lost the three-railroad junction status that had been its commercial rationale. The closure of the T&T in 1933–1940 removed the last major mining connection, and the town that the 1939 WPA Guide had called a “metropolis” in comparison with its neighbors began its first ghost-town phase.

Route 66 and Ludlow’s Second Life: 1926–1960s

The National Old Trails Highway — the precursor to Route 66 — had already passed through Ludlow before the first railroad branch closed, giving the town a second commercial identity alongside its mining supply function. When U.S. Route 66 was commissioned on November 11, 1926, the National Old Trails Highway alignment through Ludlow became Route 66 — and the town pivoted with remarkable speed from railroad-and-mining service to highway-traveler service. The California Historic Route 66 Association captures the pivot: “With the decline of the mines and the coming of the automobile, Main Street in Ludlow was moved from the railroad to align with the Mother Road and business moved with it.”

The Route 66 era gave Ludlow a genuine second life. Travel guides from the period noted that Ludlow had “Hotel — gas — oil” — the essential triad of Route 66 desert services. The town developed the commercial infrastructure that Route 66 travelers needed: the Ludlow Café, the Ludlow Hotel / Ludlow Motel (the former Oasis Hotel from 1921, moved to face Route 66 in 1939 by Henry and Venus Pendergrast), a gasoline-service garage, and the motor court with bungalow cabins that Wikipedia describes as defining Ludlow’s Route 66 service offer. The California Historic Route 66 Association notes that Ludlow provided travelers with “a Motor Court with bungalow cabins, the streamline moderne Ludlow Cafe, a gasoline-service garage, and shade” — with that final word, “shade,” carrying more weight in the Mojave Desert than any other single amenity.

The Ludlow Café: Built from Railroad Lumber

The surviving commercial building most associated with Ludlow’s Route 66 era is the Ludlow Café — a plain box-like structure that was notable from the beginning for what it was built of: lumber salvaged from the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad. When the T&T was abandoning its infrastructure in the 1930s and 1940s, the building materials of the railroad’s structures found their way into the construction of Ludlow’s Route 66-era establishments — a direct physical connection between the mining-railroad era and the highway-traveler era. The Ludlow Café was owned in the 1960s by Earl and Lillian Warnix before being sold to Laurel and Cameron Friend. The building withstood two fires before eventually being reduced to rubble by 2015. Two vintage trucks — one a water tanker from the “Ludlow Fire District” that has stood since the 1970s — sit beside the café under a flat canopy and provide one of the most photographed Route 66 subjects in Ludlow.

The Ludlow Motel and the Pendergrast Legacy

The Ludlow Motel has a history that captures perfectly how Route 66-era establishments evolved from railroad-era predecessors. The original Oasis Hotel operated from 1921 on Main Street facing the railroad tracks. In 1939, Henry Elmond “Penny” Pendergrast (c.1892–1967) and his wife Venus Elizabeth “Lucy” McNeil Pendergrast (1894–1989) purchased the building and moved it to face Route 66, renaming it the “Ludlow Motel” — physically repositioning the building to serve the highway rather than the railroad as Ludlow’s commercial center of gravity shifted. The motel’s last surviving cabin stands in ruins on the eastern side of the former motel site, and the ruins of the former Ludlow Mercantile Company / Pendergrass Hotel — where original electrical conduit still dangles from the ceiling of its long empty hallway — are visible from the Route 66 alignment.

The WPA’s Description: Sleeping Beauty and Ludlow Dry Lake

The 1939 WPA Guide’s description of Ludlow includes one of the more picturesque geographical observations in the entire California Guide: “Here two narrow-gauge railroads of the Tonopah & Tidewater connect with the Santa Fe. The SLEEPING BEAUTY, a formation resembling a dormant, smiling human face is outlined by the crest of the CADY MOUNTAINS, northwestward. Directly north appears the yellowish blotch of LUDLOW DRY LAKE, where experiments have been made in processing the lake bed’s fine ‘flour’ gold.” The Sleeping Beauty — the geological formation in the Cady Mountains visible from Route 66 at Ludlow that resembles a human face in profile — is a navigational and aesthetic landmark that travelers have noted since the earliest motor-road accounts of this section of the Mojave.

Project Carryall: The Plan to Blast a Highway Through the Mountains with Atomic Bombs

Of all the historical markers on the Route 66 alignment in California, one of the most extraordinary stands in front of the Ludlow Coffee Shop at the intersection of the National Trails Highway and Crucero Road: the Project Carryall marker. The project it commemorates is one of the most audacious — and ultimately abandoned — transportation infrastructure proposals in American history: a plan to use nuclear explosions to excavate a new railroad and highway alignment through a mountain range near Ludlow, shortening the route between Ludlow and the Colorado River by eliminating the existing curves through the difficult terrain.

The proposal was part of the broader Plowshare Program — the Atomic Energy Commission’s initiative (launched 1961) to find peaceful civilian applications for nuclear explosives. Project Carryall was specifically a California Division of Highways and Santa Fe Railway joint proposal to use a series of nuclear detonations to cut a pass through the Bristol Mountains near Ludlow, carrying both a four-lane highway (which would become Interstate 40) and the Santa Fe Railroad through a new alignment shorter and straighter than the existing route. The project was scheduled to begin in 1967 and the nuclear cut would carry both railroad and highway.

The project’s demise was not primarily safety-driven but legal: in 1963, the United States signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibiting any nuclear tests that produced debris crossing international borders. The California Division of Public Works calculated that fallout from the Project Carryall detonations might reach Mexico — a treaty violation. The Division of Public Works dropped out in 1966 and built Interstate 40 through the mountains using conventional excavation methods. Route 66 travelers who pause at the Project Carryall marker in Ludlow are standing at the spot where the modern Interstate highway alignment was almost created by nuclear explosion — a counterfactual of American transportation history that is genuinely breathtaking to contemplate.

The Gateway to Afton Canyon: The Grand Canyon of the Mojave

Ludlow is the jumping-off point for one of the most spectacular natural destinations accessible from the Route 66 corridor in California’s Mojave Desert: Afton Canyon — described by the California Historic Route 66 Association as “The Grand Canyon of the Mojave.” From Ludlow, follow Crucero Road north into the desert to reach Afton Canyon — a steep-walled, colorful canyon carved by the Mojave River approximately 18,000 years ago during the last great flooding event of the Pleistocene ice age, when the enormous prehistoric lake complex to the east drained catastrophically westward. The Mojave River continues to carve the canyon today at a much slower pace.

Afton Canyon features some of the most dramatic and unexpected scenery in the California desert: the perpendicular walls exposing millions of years of geological history, the Mojave River running at the canyon floor (one of the few places where the Mojave River appears on the desert surface rather than flowing underground), and a BLM campground within the canyon that provides a base for exploration. The canyon is also a critical wildlife habitat — the riparian zone along the river supports cottonwood and willow vegetation and is an important bird migration corridor in the otherwise arid Mojave. For Route 66 travelers who want to combine the historic highway with genuinely extraordinary natural scenery, the Ludlow-to-Afton-Canyon combination is one of the most rewarding detours on the entire California corridor.

Practical Information for Your Ludlow Route 66 Visit

Getting to Ludlow

From Barstow (west): Take I-40 east approximately 53 miles to Exit 50 (Ludlow). Follow the National Trails Highway (old Route 66) into the town center.

From Needles / Arizona border (east): Take I-40 west approximately 78 miles to Exit 50 at Ludlow.

From Amboy (east via Route 66): Follow the National Trails Highway west from Amboy approximately 27 miles to Ludlow. This is the recommended approach for travelers driving the full Route 66 loop from Needles through Amboy to Ludlow — one of the most remote and rewarding stretches of the entire Mother Road in California.

Services at Ludlow

Ludlow has a Chevron station, a Subway, a motel, and the Ludlow Coffee Shop — the surviving Route 66-era dining establishment. These services represent the current commercial core of a town that once had five times the establishments. Fuel up here before continuing east on Route 66 toward Amboy and the long desert stretch to Needles; there are no services for approximately 27 miles to the east (Amboy) and very limited services between Amboy and Needles.

The Historical Markers

Two important Route 66 historical markers stand in front of the Ludlow Coffee Shop at the intersection of the National Trails Highway and Crucero Road: the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad Shops marker (erected 2007 by the Billy Holcomb Chapter of E Clampus Vitus) and the Project Carryall marker. Both are accessible from the parking area of the coffee shop and are worth reading in full. The addresses of the markers are approximately 68315 National Trails Highway, Ludlow CA 92338.

Afton Canyon Access

Follow Crucero Road north from the Ludlow I-40 interchange to reach Afton Canyon. The road is unpaved but typically passable by standard vehicles in good weather; verify conditions before visiting. The BLM Afton Canyon campground is within the canyon. Carry substantial water; this is remote desert terrain with no services. Check BLM.gov for current road and campground conditions before visiting.

The Route 66 Loop East of Ludlow

Ludlow is the western gateway to the most dramatic and remote section of Route 66 in California — the loop east through Amboy to Roy’s Motel and Café and the Amboy Crater, with the ghost towns of Bagdad and Siberia along the way. The round trip from Ludlow to Amboy and back (or continuing through to I-40 near Needles) covers approximately 75 miles of old Route 66 with virtually no traffic and extraordinary Mojave Desert scenery. This section of Route 66 has 150 timber trestle bridges across desert washes and retains much of its original alignment character because I-40 bypassed it entirely.

Desert Safety

Ludlow is in the Mojave Desert with summer highs regularly exceeding 104°F (40°C). Winter nights drop to near freezing. Carry at least one gallon of water per person per day and ensure your vehicle is in good mechanical condition before leaving Ludlow. The Route 66 loop through Amboy is extremely remote — cell service is minimal or absent for most of the distance. Tell someone your plans before driving the eastern desert section.

Nearby Route 66 Highlights in the Mojave Desert

Roy’s Motel and Café, Amboy — About 27 miles east on Route 66 (National Trails Highway), Roy’s Motel and Café in the ghost town of Amboy is the iconic Googie-style Route 66 landmark with a restored neon sign, motel cabins, and the nearby Amboy Crater — the eastern anchor of the Route 66 desert loop that begins at Ludlow.

Amboy Crater — About 28 miles east on Route 66, the Amboy Crater is a National Natural Landmark volcanic cinder cone with a maintained hiking trail across the lava field to the crater rim — 250 feet high, 1,500 feet in diameter, and formed approximately 10,000 years ago.

Bagdad Café, Newberry Springs — About 35 miles west on Route 66 (National Trails Highway), the world-famous filming location of Percy Adlon’s 1987 cult classic — one of the most internationally celebrated landmarks on the entire California corridor, drawing European pilgrims by the busload.

Route 66 in Daggett, California — About 45 miles west on Route 66, Daggett — one of the oldest towns in the Mojave Desert — has the 1875 Stone Hotel, the first fireproof building in the Mojave Desert, Alf’s Blacksmith Shop (National Register 2025), and the Fouts Brothers Garage moved by a twenty-mule team. Francis Marion Smith’s borax operations connected Daggett and Ludlow through the same Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad that served both towns.

Route 66 Mother Road Museum, Barstow — About 53 miles west, the Harvey House railroad depot in Barstow houses the Route 66 “Mother Road” Museum — one of two dedicated Route 66 museums in California, covering the highway’s role in the Mojave Desert corridor.

Barstow Harvey House — Casa del Desierto — The full story of Barstow’s 1911 Harvey House station — the Casa del Desierto — including its Route 66 history and its current function as the Route 66 Mother Road Museum and Western American Railroad Museum.

Route 66 in California — Complete Guide — The full overview of all 314 miles of California’s Route 66 from Needles through the Mojave Desert, Ludlow, Newberry Springs, Daggett, Barstow, Cajon Pass, and the San Gabriel Valley 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. Ludlow — where Route 66 revived a ghost town abandoned by three railroads, and where a proposed atomic highway survived to become a monument to the most extraordinary transportation proposal in California history — holds a singular place in the Centennial story.

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