About one-eighth of a mile east of the cluster of buildings at Danby on National Trails Highway, old Route 66, are the remains of a tiny 'cabin', which was built of railroad ties and mostly underground except for a 2' section above ground that was lined with sheets of tin as weatherproofing.

Whether there was ever a cabin or living area on top of the structure is difficult to tell, but having a living area underground would have been prudent given how hot it can be in this part of the Mojave Desert during summer months.  

What would have been the roof of the cabin is made of wooden planks that are now falling in.  The entrance to the underground area was a small cut-out in the roof that measures about 3' x 4' with a ladder leading down.  The ladder has long since rotted away, and the living area is gradually filling with sand that has blown in over the years.

Near the cabin are several large fenced corrals made of railroad ties that may have been for burros or cattle.  

I have never been able to find out when the structure was built nor who lived there, but it seems to be very old and pre-dates the existing buildings at Danby.  A fellow who lived in Danby
as a young boy in 1955 recalls that they used to play there as kids and the structure was old and abandoned even then.

As you approach Essex on National Trails Highway the highway sign reads "population 100".  Even during its busiest period in the 1960s and 1970s the permanent population of Essex probably never exceeded 35 people.  The current population of Essex is 5.  The one-hundred population figure was put there by the highway department and was based on the number of letter boxes in the post office.

​As is the case with most of the former businesses on Old Route 66 through the Mojave Desert of California, today the small cluster of buildings that comprise Danby is just a remnant of what it once was.

​The site that exists today originated in the early 1930s when Old National Trails Road, Route 66, was paved.  Located on the road between Essex and Chambless, during the busiest period in the early 1970s Danby consisted of a garage, a service station, two or three wood framed houses and trailers, and several out-buildings, one of which served as a court house for the Justice of the Peace. 
 
There were three places in this immediate area of the desert referred to as Danby.  The first one was established in 1883 by the Southern Pacific Railway as a watering stop for the steam locomotives, about 2 miles southeast of what is today National Trails Highway.  The name Danby followed the railroad’s convention of naming stops in alphabetical order going east from Amboy – Bolo, Cadiz, Danby, Essex, etc.  
 
Initially, water was piped to the railroad via a 2-inch steel pipe from Bonanza Spring in the Clipper Mountains 5 miles northwest of the tracks. As railroad traffic increased the railroad eventually drilled several good water wells at Danby and build a large pumping station.  Danby became an important watering stop for the railroad and was home to both railroad workers and a few prospectors who worked mines in the Old Woman Mountains.  The concrete pad marking the location of the water wells can still be seen just a few feet south of the tracks, but there is no trace left of the pumping station.

​One of the miners living at Danby, Walt Zindell built his cabin out of sheets of corrugated tin but chose to live in a yellow school bus that he parked at the side of the cabin.  Although badly dilapidated, Zindell’s cabin and bits and pieces of the school bus are still there.  Another miner / prospector, Ben Benjamin built a wooden cabin at Danby that finally succumbed to the elements and collapsed in 2004.

​In 1931 the Highway Department paved what was then designated Route 66 between Needles and Barstow but shortened and straightened the road wherever possible. Consequently, the newly paved highway was relocated to its present position, about a mile and a half north of the railroad tracks and a mile north of Johnny Neilson’s “Danby Station”.  
 
Neilson moved his service station north to the new highway and was eventually joined by his brother Bill, also from Scotland.  Johnny was later elected Justice of the Peace and built a small building at Danby to serve as his courthouse.  Although badly weathered, the building is still there.  Sometime later a garage was also built at Danby to service travelers on the highway, and it went through several owners during the time it was in operation.  The garage, with the mural of a mountain man scene on the front door facing the highway is also still there but is in bad shape and likely to collapse in a few years.

​Neilson’s gas station in Danby was leased to Slim Hartzler from 1955 to 1960.  Neilson did not renew Hartzler’s lease when it came due because he wanted to rent the station to his secretary and her husband.  The Hartzler’s left and a few days later the station burned to the ground and was never rebuilt.  No trace of the service station remains today.

On July 30, 2020 firefighters from San Bernardino County Fire Department responded to  vehicles and a structure on fire on National Trail Highway in Ludlow, California.  Crews from Southern California Edison also responded to the incident as power lines were also down.  In addition to the building the fire had also extended to an adjacent pile of old tires.  Crews working on the fire were hampered by the lack of water supply but were able to extinguish the blaze utilizing water tenders and a water shuttle operation.  The cause of the fire is not yet known.

The burned building was formerly a Mobil service station in Ludlow that was run by the previous owners, Cameron and Laurel Friend.  It had originally been located about 1/8 mile east, but was moved to its present location adjacent to the Ludlow Cafe.


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Source: San Bernardino Fire Department

​Venus McNeill Pendergast and her husband Henry “Penny” moved to Ludlow from Escondido in 1939.  Venus had lived in Ludlow previously with her family because her father, Thomas McNeill worked as Roadmaster for the Santa Fe Railroad. She attended beauty school in Escondido but suffered from hay fever and soon after they were married she persuaded Penny to move back to the desert.
 
When they arrived in Ludlow they initially stayed with their friends, Jack and Vernie Sherraden.  Vernie was the Ludlow Postmaster.  The Sherradens suggested that they buy an old run-down hotel that was for sale at that time.    The hotel was originally the Mohawk Hotel in Goldfield, Nevada.  In 1921 the building and the adjacent cabins had been moved to Main Street in Ludlow and operated as the Oasis Hotel.   The Pendergasts bought it and moved it about two blocks north, facing old Route 66 and operated it as the Ludlow Motel.

The motel consisted of a main building with 6 or 8 separate small cabins all facing old Route 66 on the east end of Ludlow.  Venus and Penny lived in a small wood frame house across the street.  Penny was elected Constable of that portion of San Bernardino County and so he had his law enforcement duties as well as the hotel business.  Venus served as Penny’s deputy whenever a matron was needed for for women prisoners.
 
The hotel building is still there, but it badly dilapidated.  One of the cabins is also still there as is the small wood frame house across the road where Venus and Penny lived.

Today both the cafe and service station are boarded up and slowly deteriorating.  While The Roadrunner’s Retreat was open a small community of a dozen or so mobile homes grew up behind the diner and provided living quarters for some of the employees who worked in the restaurant and the service station, but all of those have now either been removed or are also in ruins.  

​The Roadrunner closed in 1973 when Interstate 40 was opened between Needles and Barstow and this section of the highway was bypassed. All of the roadside businesses on this stretch of Route 66 through the Mojave Desert between Essex and Ludlow died almost overnight. Businesses that depended on tourist and commercial traffic – service stations, restaurants, motels, car repair shops – were all forced to close. Duke Jr. remembers that when his father made the decision to close they were in the restaurant for most of the day and their only customer was a railroad employee who stopped in for a cup of coffee and not a single car went by on the highway.
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After the Roadrunner’s Retreat closed Dotson sold the property to the Murphy family who are still the current owners.  Mr. Murphy never intended to reopen the restaurant; his interest was more toward having a desert retreat and in maintaining the site for its historic significance on old Route 66.  Before he passed away Mr. Murphy was able to enjoy memorable weekends on the property with his family. 
 
The distinctive neon sign next to the highway that advertised the Roadrunner’s Retreat, although weather-beaten and pale, still stands and is immediately recognizable as one of those iconic symbols on this stretch of old Route 66 and there are tentative plans in place to re-light the sign although the service station and restaurant will remain closed.

​Chambless is known by several names – Chambless, Chambless Junction and Cadiz Junction, but to local residents it is just “Cadiz”.
 
Today the small settlement of Chambless stands on National Trails Highway and bears little resemblance to the busy intersection it once was.  The most prominent landmark is an abandoned service station and general store surrounded by a chain link fence and with boarded up motel cabins in the rear.  There are some homes in the area, only a few of which have permanent residents.

​In years past the BNSF railroad depot at Cadiz, 3 miles south of Chambless, also housed the Cadiz post office. In 1967 the railroad decided to close the depot so the post office was forced to find a new location. The Cadiz postmaster at the time was Andrea Limon.  By this time, passenger traffic on the railroad had dwindled to practically nothing so there was no compelling reason to keep the post office near the railroad. Therefore, for the convenience of mail deliveries Andrea moved the post office into a small trailer up on the highway across the road from the Chambless General Store. However, shortly thereafter the postal service required a more permanent building so in 1972 Andrea built a small stucco building on the property and that became the post office.

​The service station changed hands and brands many times over the years.  Originally Jim operated as a Red Crown gas station, but in later years the station was operated by Mobil Oil, Shell, and Arco.  The awning over the gas pumps was torn off during a freak tornado that rushed through the area and was never rebuilt.

Even after Interstate-40 was opened in the early 1970s the Chambless store and gas station remained open because people in The San Diego and Palm Springs area of California realized that they could get to the casinos in Laughlin easier by going through Twentynine Palms and Amboy, and via Chambless, than by using I-15 and I-40.  That continued for a few years, but eventually the Chambless store suffered the fate of all of the other businesses along old Route 66 that depended on highway travelers and was forced to close as traffic dwindled.