Amboy, population 0 -- a Mojave Desert ghost town and Americana icon fights to survive

AMBOY, Calif. — It’s a Friday afternoon in mid-May and a Czech biker is eating an ice cream cone at the counter of a gas station along a desolate stretch of the Mojave Desert. Outside, his entourage crowds around a towering atomic-age sign for a group photo before speeding away along Route 66.

A British couple sip hot tea, though the mercury is pushing 100 degrees. A young woman in a crop top sits cross-legged in the middle of the street while a man films her, seemingly oblivious to the traffic whizzing by. On some days, small planes land on the dirt airstrip so their occupants can grab a root beer float or chili dog.

“It’s in the middle of nowhere in the desert, but you see a multitude of different types of people in Amboy,” said Kyle Okura, 31, who owns Roy’s gas station, along with the rest of the ghost town, after inheriting it from his father last year. “That’s what’s so amazing. You hear stories from all different parts of the world.”

Amboy has long served weary travelers — first as a railroad station, and later as a roadside attraction that’s especially popular with people touring the Mother Road, Route 66. But this slice of Americana has been beset by a series of crises that stretch back more than half a century. Most recently, heavy rains forced road closures that cut off traffic for weeks at a time, while international tourism faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to recover.

Still, Okura thinks he can turn it around. No less than his father’s legacy is resting on it.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-06-09/amboy-mojave-desert-ghost-town-route-66