San Bernardino County history

A Barstow Narrative

Barstow, California, from the 1870s through the present, with all key details preserved and arranged chronologically:

Barstow stands today at the center of the Mojave Desert’s long story of ranching, mining, railroads, and highways. Its history reflects the layered development of the Mojave River corridor, where water, transportation, and enterprise have drawn people across the desert for more than a century and a half.

Mojave River

In the years following the Civil War, the upper Mojave River region supported a few scattered cattle ranches and wagon stations. Before Barstow existed, the country between Oro Grande and Daggett was known for its open range and desert pastures. Herds were grazed along the Mojave River, using its shallow pools, seeps, and hand-dug wells. During the 1870s and 1880s, ranchers moved stock between the high country of the San Bernardino Mountains and the desert valleys, following trails that paralleled the river. Stations at places such as Lane’s Crossing and Fish Ponds served as watering points for stock and travelers. As the Santa Fe Railroad advanced across the desert, freight access to distant markets encouraged limited agriculture along the riverbanks. By the early 1900s, alfalfa, grain, and small orchards appeared in Victor Valley, and a few experimental plots extended downstream toward Barstow. The Arrowhead Reservoir and Power Company began purchasing riparian tracts between Victorville and Barstow to secure water rights, recognizing that the Mojave River would control the future of settlement. Though the arid climate limited cultivation, these early ranches and farms laid the foundation for the region’s first lasting economy before industry and highway travel arrived.

Fish Ponds

Barstow’s founding dates to the early 1880s, when the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, later part of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe system, pushed its line westward from Needles toward Mojave. In 1883, the mainline was completed across the desert, and a division point was established to centralize maintenance, crew changes, and fueling. This camp, called initially Waterman Junction, became the nucleus of Barstow. The town was renamed in 1884 for William Barstow Strong, president of the Santa Fe, and quickly became the railroad’s desert headquarters. Roundhouses, repair shops, and supply depots were built to serve the trains moving freight and passengers across the Mojave.

Santa Fe

While Barstow developed as a railroad town, the nearby community of Daggett became the milling and shipping center for the Calico silver mines. The Calico district boomed in the early 1880s, with more than a hundred mines producing ore that was hauled to Daggett for reduction and shipment east. In 1898, a short branch line was built from Daggett to Calico to carry ore directly to the Santa Fe main line. This small spur improved mining transport but did not found Barstow; the town was already well established as a division headquarters long before. Barstow’s location on the main transcontinental line—roughly midway between San Bernardino and Needles—gave it strategic importance that would outlast the mining booms around it.

Daggett, CA

As the 1890s ended and silver prices dropped, mining declined, but the railroad presence ensured Barstow’s survival. The town expanded with railroad housing, stores, and services for workers and travelers. The Mojave River valley became a modest agricultural district, producing hay, fruit, and dairy products for local use. By 1910, Barstow had schools, churches, and small businesses serving both rail employees and the surrounding ranch country.

Casa del Desierto, Harvey House

In 1911, the Fred Harvey Company constructed the Casa del Desierto, a grand Mission Revival depot and Harvey House that brought elegance and permanence to the desert town. The building served as a hotel, restaurant, and railroad office, offering travelers comfort along the route between Los Angeles and the Colorado River. It quickly became Barstow’s social center and symbol of progress. The Santa Fe expanded its shops, roundhouse, and yards, reinforcing the town’s position as a key maintenance and operating base.

El Garces, Harvey House

At the same time, the automobile age arrived. The National Old Trails Highway followed the corridor of the railroad, and by the 1920s, U.S. Route 66 brought a steady stream of motorists through town. Gas stations, garages, and cafes appeared along the main street, which paralleled the railroad tracks. Barstow became a vital service stop for travelers crossing the Mojave Desert, bridging two eras of transportation—steam and motor—and transforming from a company town into a crossroads community.

Route 66

The Great Depression slowed new growth, but Barstow endured. The flow of automobiles along Route 66 kept the economy alive, while the railroad continued to carry freight and passengers across the desert. By the late 1930s, the town’s main street was lined with motor courts, diners, and filling stations.

Yermo, CA

World War II brought another surge of activity. Barstow’s location on both the Santa Fe main line and Route 66 made it ideal for military supply and logistics. The Marine Corps established the Nebo Depot just west of town, handling ordnance and supplies for the Pacific war effort. Additional facilities at Daggett and Yermo supported troop movements and desert training exercises. Troop trains, fuel convoys, and war freight filled the region, and the population grew rapidly as railroad workers, servicemen, and civilian contractors arrived.

Calico Ghost Town

By the late 1940s, Barstow had become the true hub of the Mojave. Mining had faded, but rail, highway, and military operations kept the town busy. Route 66 was in its prime, bringing travelers east and west through a landscape alive with neon lights and the constant hum of engines. Barstow’s economy rested on three pillars: the Santa Fe Railroad, the Marine base, and the steady flow of cross-country traffic.

After the war, the new interstate system reshaped the desert. The Marine Corps Logistics Base at Nebo expanded during the 1950s, and the Yermo Annex was developed for vehicle storage and repair. Together, they became major employers for the region. Barstow’s population grew as families settled near the base, supported by trucking companies, service stations, and small industries. Route 66 reached its height during this period, and Barstow’s main street glittered with motels, diners, and bright neon signs welcoming motorists.

Interstate 15 Freeway

By the late 1960s, however, the new Interstate 15 and Interstate 40 began to bypass the older downtown route. Travel patterns shifted, and many classic roadside businesses declined. Still, the same geography that had favored Barstow from the start—its place at the meeting of routes—kept it alive. The Santa Fe Railroad remained one of the town’s largest employers, operating extensive classification yards. The Marine bases continued their vital supply missions, and long-haul trucking replaced some of the lost highway trade.

Harvey Girls

Through the 1970s, Barstow adapted to the new interstate era. Truck stops and logistics centers replaced many of the old motor courts. Route 66, though decommissioned later, remained a nostalgic symbol of the town’s mid-century heyday. The Casa del Desierto depot closed in 1973 when passenger rail service declined, but the building survived. Preservation efforts during the 1980s and 1990s restored it as a civic landmark housing the Western America Railroad Museum and the Route 66 Museum offices. The restored depot reopened to the public, honoring the legacy of the Harvey Girls and the long railroad heritage that gave the town its start.

Forks in the Road

Today, Barstow continues to serve as the crossroads of the Mojave Desert. It stands at the junction of Interstates 15 and 40, serving travelers, truckers, and freight moving between Southern California and the interior West. The BNSF Railway, successor to the Santa Fe, operates one of its largest freight classification yards in town, handling thousands of cars daily. The Marine Corps Logistics Base remains a major employer, linking Barstow to the modern defense and transportation economy.

Though much has changed, the pattern remains the same. The Mojave River still winds below the town, the rails still hum with freight, and the highways still carry travelers across the vast desert plain. Barstow’s story—from cattle ranching and mining to railroads and freeways—reflects the larger history of the Mojave itself: a land shaped by endurance, movement, and the constant meeting of past and present at the desert’s enduring crossroads.

Barstow, CA.

References and Supporting Sources

Brown, John. History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Los Angeles: Western Historical Association, 1922.
- Primary descriptions of Mojave River water rights, Daggett and Calico mining activity, and railroad development through Barstow.
Myrick, David F. Railroads of Arizona, Volume I: The Southern Roads. Howell-North Books, 1975.
- Detailed coverage of the Atlantic & Pacific (Santa Fe) construction, Waterman Junction establishment, and early Barstow operations.
Worman, C. Frank. Santa Fe’s Desert Division. Santa Fe Railway Historical Society Bulletin, 1949.
- Background on Barstow’s role as a division point, maintenance hub, and Harvey House center.
Thompson, David. Route 66: Across the Mojave Desert. Mojave River Valley Museum Press, 1987.
- Documentation of the highway’s alignment through Barstow, roadside commerce, and mid-century travel culture.
Mojave River Valley Museum Archives. Barstow Historical Collection.
- Local materials on ranching, early settlement, and photographs of the Casa del Desierto and Route 66 period.
Marine Corps Logistics Base, Barstow. Historical Overview and Command Chronology. U.S. Marine Corps Archives.
- Details on Nebo Depot and Yermo Annex development during and after World War II.
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. Interstate System in California: Desert Corridors Report, 1974.
- Analysis of Interstate 15 and 40 construction and their impact on Barstow’s highway economy.
Mojave Desert Archives, Digital Desert Project. Barstow: Rail, River, and Road Chronology.
- Synthesized regional materials integrating historical, geographical, and transportation data for Barstow and the surrounding Mojave River corridor.

The Stoddard Boys

Of all the brother acts operating in and around San Bernardino County during the Mormon period, Few accomplished more for the ultimate benefit of the area than the Stoddard boys, Arvin and Sheldon.

Neither cut an imposing figure. Arvin, the quiet one, was only 5’5″ tall and weighed 135 pounds soaking wet, while Sheldon wasn’t much larger. But what they lacked in height, they more than made up in spirit.

Arvin, however, had an imposing ally in his wife Caroline. She was 6 feet tall and weighed well over 200 pounds — a formidable Amazon and an extremely vocal one too. One is tempted to ask if she carried him across the threshold on their wedding night.

She became Arvin’s mouthpiece and did not hesitate to make her opinions known, particularly when the chips were down. As their grandson, R. Jackson Stoddard wrote in the March 1970 issue of the LA Westerners Branding Iron, “For although she followed the will of her husband, in many cases the will of her husband was truly only a reflection of her own wants and desires.”

Today, a stretch of the Mojave Desert between Victorville and Daggett is blanketed with sites bearing the Stoddard’s names. They include the Stoddard Mountains, Stoddard Hills, Stoddard gulch, Stoddard Valley, Stoddard Well and Stoddard Wells Road — all directly attributable to Arvin’s work in the area during the 1850s and 60s.

Flag of the Mormon Battailion (note spelling)

There were four Stoddard Brothers at the beginning; Rufus, Albert, Arvin and Sheldon, who were all born in Canada. When their father died in 1838, mother Jane gathered them all up and crossed the United States border, first to Ohio in then to Warsaw, Illinois, where she became hooked on the Mormon religion. When the church made it’s great trek to Salt Lake City in 1847, she and her boys were in the initial contingent.

Rufus was the first of the boys to reach California, arriving in San Diego as a member of the Mormon Battalion. After his group was disbanded in Los Angeles, he remained in the area for almost a year before he rejoining his family at Salt Lake City in 1849.

Sheldon was the next to go. Leaving Salt Lake in 1848, along with 30 other men found for the placer diggings near hang town, they traveled as far as Mountain Meadows with a larger company who hired Capt. Jefferson Hunt to guide them to Los Angeles over the Old Spanish Trail.

At the Meadows they left Hunt’s party and turned west to take what they thought was a shortcut to the gold fields and for the next 17 days blindly followed a false trail without a guide, compass or map to go by.

On the 18th day, hopelessly lost in facing death without water their lives were spared when a sudden rain squall drenched the area. As Sheldon later wrote, “We caught the water by spreading out our rubber blankets on the ground and drank it with a spoon.”

They then turned east on the Muddy River, followed at South until they fortunately encountered Capt. Hunt’s company again and accompanied it up the Mojave River, through Cajon Pass and down to the Chino Ranch.

Tragically enough, on the same trip another group of would-be minors left Hunt’s command at Provo, Utah, insisting they also knew a shorter route to the gold fields, only to blunder into Death Valley, where five died before the survivors made it to Los Angeles.

From Chino the party went on to Mariposa, where they broke up to mine, while Stoddard ran a trading post in nearby Carson Valley for a few months before returning to Salt Lake with a herd of horses and mules.

in March 1851 Sheldon married Jane Hunt, daughter of Capt. Hunt, and the following month they accompanied the first group of Mormon colonizers to the San Bernardino Valley, making temporary camp at Sycamore Grove.

After the Mormons purchased the San Bernardino Rancho that September, and moved down into the valley, Sheldon built the first log cabin in the settlement on First Street,, west of I Street. His cabin was later moved to and made part of the Westside of this stockade constructed on the present courthouse site as protection against hostile Indians.

For the next 14 years Sheldon Stoddard was engaged in freighting and carrying mail between San Bernardino and Salt Lake City, crossing the Mojave 24 times in all. In 1865 he made one trip to Nevada in Montana with a mule team which covered over 1300 miles, and took six months to complete.

Arvin Stoddard and his wife also came to San Bernardino with the first Mormon train and lived in the stockade for three years before receiving an urgent message from Mormon leader Brigham Young, authorizing him to investigate a gold strike in the Calico Hills to see if he could ” obtain as much gold as possible to help finance the founding and furtherance of the faith,” keeping only enough to live on during the venture.

Arvin and Caroline, ardent church devotees, packed their wagon and with their poor young children in tow, headed for the hills without hesitation.

But before looking for gold, Arvin searched for water to raise crops to feed his family and stock and to flush through sluice boxes used to separate flakes of gold from the desert sand.

One of his more successful wells, known as Stoddard Well, is still flowing today and besides furnishing the family with ample water, also provided an impetus for others to break out a new road on almost a straight line from Lane’s Crossing, near today’s Oro Grande, to Fish Ponds Station between present-day Barstow and Daggett, thereby saving many miles compared with the old route, which followed the westward band of the Mojave River.

Although it took him almost 8 years of prospecting, Arvin finally struck a rich claim and extracted a sum that Caroline estimated at $60,000 before calling it quits and lighting out for Salt Lake City to hand to Brigham Young.

But before they reach the Mormon Temple, they were held up by Indians and robbed of all their hard-earned loot, except for a few thousand dollars hidden in Caroline’s underwear.

As her grandson related, “The Indians were neither red nor brown. they were more white than any Indian she (Caroline) had ever seen.” Caroline deduced they were renegade Mormons, acting on behalf of the church, and although her suspicions were never resolved, her once benevolent attitude toward the Mormon hierarchy changed overnight and led to her eventual break with the church.

In 1869 the Arvin Stoddards move to Milford, Utah, where they build a hotel called, naturally, “The Stoddard House,” where they lived until Caroline died in 1904.

Sheldon Stoddard remained in San Bernardino for the rest of his life, Rev. and honored by all who knew him for his contributions to the county and state.

After serving as president of the pioneer society, he spent his final years surrounded by old friends like John Brown and Billy Holcomb. They camped and fished together in their mountain retreats and dedicated monuments to the pioneers in Cajon Pass. he was active up to the day of his death in 1919 at the age of 89.

From:

Heritage Tales 1988
by Fred Holladay
published by the City of San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society