Tarantula in Ward Valley, October 2010

In all of the years I have been traveling back roads in the desert I have only seen two rattlesnakes, one in Ward Valley, and this one in Carbonate Gulch. 

One weekend while camped in the Mojave Desert at an abandoned mine on the side of a low hill – it was at one of my favorite spots because the tailings from the mine provide a nice flat space to park my Jeep and set up a tent.  The mine faces east, is high enough on the hill to provide a nice view of the desert, and the morning sun strikes the camp early.  

The Ludlow Café, on the east end of Ludlow, California and facing old Route 66, has unfortunately finally succumbed.

One of the many abandoned and relatively undiscovered cabins in the Mojave Desert.  This one was constructed using railroad ties and is well over 100 years old.  

The Desert Inn Cafe and Hotel formerly stood on Main Street in Ludlow, California facing the railroad tracks that were on the opposite side of the street.  The owner of the hotel, Yim Lee immigrated to Ludlow from China and is the man on the second story balcony wearing the dark pants.  His wife Gin Shee Yim is on the far left.  The man with his hands on his hips is not identified.  

The Ludlow Motel

The current population of Essex is 5.  

This cabin was one of several small cabins in the area that I discovered that overlooked a dry wash.

When I first discovered this cabin in the late 1990s the roof was still relatively in tact, but it has since collapsed.

As with most of these places, I do not have any information about who built this cabin. There was a propane-powered Servel refrigerator and a gas stove in the room that once served as the kitchen, but what was once a porch on the east side of the cabin has completely collapsed.

As I understand it, the cabin was originally occupied by an Indian woman named Dove who had lived there since childbirth.

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.

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.

The Ludlow Mercantile store on Main Street in Ludlow dates from the about 1907. 

Desert Engineering

Milligan is on the Parker Branch of the railroad leading from Cadiz, California to Parker, Arizona and dates from 1910 when the spur line was built.