Amboy, California
Amboy, California is a nearly empty small town in California's Mojave Desert roughly sixty miles (97 km) northeast of Twentynine Palms. It was once a major stop along famous Route 66 but has been almost totally bypassed since the opening of Interstate 40 to the north in the 1970s. Amboy is famous for a genuine Route 66 landmark as well. 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 the 1940s. Burris was also responsible for erecting power poles between Amboy and Barstow, using a crane mounted on a 1930s-vintage Studebaker truck. The town reverted to an investment firm in New York after Burris' death but has since changed hands yet again.
Early history
Amboy is also one of California's oldest towns, dating from 1858 and 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. Amboy Crater, an extinct, 6000-year-old cinder cone made largely of pahoehoe, rises to the west. The coming of Route 66 (now referred to as the "National Trails Highway") 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 highway opened.
From ghost town to film location
Today, Roy's is the town's only business outside of the chloride works and post office. The cabins which were once rented to Route 66 travelers stand unused. Roy's is still open for food and gasoline, but hours of operation are erratic. Gasoline is also prohibitively expensive at $3 per gallon. Still, the town beckons travelers to and from the Colorado River as well as those interested in Route 66 lore. Roy's was the setting for a recent television commercial for Qwest Communications and the two partners who own the town maintain it 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 20.