AMBOY, Calif. — Water is the key to the future of Roy’s Motel & Cafe, the lone survivor in a Route 66 town that, at its peak, boasted 200 residents, three gas stations, three motels, two cafes, a post office, a school and a church.
Then Interstate 40 came a half-century ago and offered travelers a faster way through this remote stretch of the Mojave Desert in eastern California.
“It was like they turned off the cars,” said Roy’s manager, Ken Large. “Everybody just left.”
Access to potable water would mean Roy’s wouldn’t need to rely on existing well water that, Large estimates, is about 10 times saltier than the ocean. Potable water means the cafe portion could serve food. It means people could brush their teeth, which means the motel’s six original motor court cabins could be restored to once again welcome overnight guests.
And that would mark a significant step toward fulfilling the dream of the man who bought Amboy 20 years ago with the goal of reviving it.
As Route 66 leaves Santa Monica and heads, ultimately, toward Chicago, it carves a path east through a dramatically changing landscape. First comes Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, East Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park. Then Pasadena. Then it cuts across towns that seem to either show no acknowledgment of its existence, or they plaster the Route 66 shield on nearly everything: A Route 66 business center. A Route 66 notary public. A Route 66 plaza with a dentist and nail salon and pizza chain.
Eventually it heads north from San Bernardino through Victorville and Barstow, where it continues east in the shadow of the interstate that replaced it, through a desolate expanse dotted with ghost towns.
All that remains of the town of Bagdad, 8 miles east of Amboy, is a railroad sign that bears its name, a cemetery with two dozen graves demarcated by stones and wooden crosses, and a lone tree with a small plaque that reads:
This tree is the last fragile remnant of the town of Bagdad. Please help us to protect it by leaving it undisturbed. Thank you!
If not for Albert Okura, it’s possible Amboy could have met a similar end. The town started as a mining settlement in the late 1850s. In 1938, Roy Crowl opened a service station in town. His daughter, Betty and son-in-law, Herman “Buster” Burris, eventually added the motel and cafe.
In 2005, Okura purchased the town from Buster’s widow.
A Los Angeles native, Okura started a chain of fast-food chicken restaurants in southern California called Juan Pollo. He bought the site of the first McDonald’s — before Ray Kroc came along and opened the first of his franchise empire in Des Plaines — in San Bernardino and turned it into a museum.
“There is a whole revival happening around Route 66,” Okura said in a 2007 New York Times interview. “I’m the baby boomer generation, and we want to be young and live in the past. But you need somewhere to go, so they follow Route 66. But progress is disjointed. The more I looked into Amboy, the more I realized, there’s no other place like this.”
Okura died in 2023 in the middle of restoration efforts. He was 71. His family continues his mission. Two gas pumps from the 1960s have been returned to working order. An extensive sewer upgrade allowed them to renovate the bathrooms near the pumps, which, upon a final building inspection, could spell the end for the portable toilets.
The motel office has been restored. Same for the cafe, which currently serves as a gift shop with snacks and cold beverages. Eventually, Large said, the gift shop portion could move across Route 66 to the post office once the cafe is up and running.
Large said they’ve had conversations with a company that owns water rights and is willing to sell enough for the town. But it first needs county approval, then a water purification system and new water pipes. He’s hopeful that all could be done in time for next year’s Route 66, but realistically, given the slow gears of government and the inherent challenges of reviving a ghost town in the desert, he thinks it could take longer.
One such challenge was evident Monday night. A small group of visitors stood photographing Roy’s most striking attraction, a towering neon sign with its Atomic Age design, against a dramatic sunset. Cellphone weather alerts warned of potential flash floods. The wind blew with enough force to topple one of the portable toilets.
We left for our next stop, Needles, California, about two hours west on the banks of the Colorado River at the Arizona border. Given the worsening weather, we opted to forego Route 66 and headed north on Kelbaker Road toward I-40.
A few miles up Kelbaker, a torrent of water suddenly appeared in front of us. Our rental car skidded to a stop. Lightning flashes showed small boulders strewn in our path and what looked to be a small geyser erupting feet from our hood.
We turned around, shaken but otherwise fine, and backtracked on Route 66 to another I-40 entrance, driving past Roy’s and its neon sign still illuminated.
