This is an (extremely) abandoned gas station in Desert Center, an abandoned town on Interstate 10 about halfway between Indio and Blythe. I'm not sure what the history is here, but I suspect that a better question than "why was it abandoned?" is "why was it ever built in the first place?"
In any case, this is the turnoff that gets me to my favorite desert astrophotography spot. I haven't resumed my astrophotography yet, but it isn't because I'm not yet strong enough to haul everything out and set it up. I've just been very tired and sleepy lately and I'm not sure I can safely manage the 3-hour drive. Maybe in another month or so.
Huh. Looking at a map, I see that Desert Center is at a junction and an I-10 off ramp. This is a place where a gas station might do well. But I guess nobody is in either the mood, or the need, to stop.
Or maybe the gas station did ok, and then the owner decided they didn't want to live there or make the commute.
100 miles from Indio to Blythe. In the not all that long ago a car had a range on the order of 200 miles.
Thanks to more stringent mileage requirements, my vehicle has a range more like 400 miles. A newer car could do much better!
Sorry about the unneeded brag... I tend to be mileage obsessed.
My 2007 Chevy HR has a range of 445 miles. It has a 2.4 L 4 cylinder engine. My precious car, a 1994 Geo Prism had a 450 mile range.
And my family’s ‘72 LeSabre had a 200-odd mile range.
Good to know. They really knew how to build boats back then, not that long ago, just 50 years.
I miss the 10lbs dates for $1 kiosks near Indio on the old highway before the I10 was completed.
Best wishes for the recovery!
Wasn't this place in Twin Peaks: The Return?
No telling what could happen if you stopped there.
https: // en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Center,_California
Yikes! Thanks for the link. Quite the storied place. Seems like a very SoCal sorta story. And the founding of Kaiser!! Wow!!
"I've just been very tired and sleepy lately and I'm not sure I can safely manage the 3-hour drive."
Very responsible of you, Kevin. I've not always been that smart.
You and I are about the same age and, last year, after staying up all day and most of the night, I decided to make the hour-and-a-half drive home. A mile away from the city exit ramp (almost there), I fell asleep. I don't even remember being all that tired.
The car went straight but the road curved. The car bounced off the guard rail at 75 MPH and when it stopped spinning and came to rest, it was sitting in the middle of the interstate, facing toward oncoming traffic. Fortunately, there was no one else on the road at that particular time.
I'm not trying that again. Better safe than sorry.
Glad you survived & hope that damage to the car was minimal - & that KD was wise enough not to risk it.
Maybe you could take a dose of the evil dex before heading out to your astrophotography site.
I have been through Desert Center many times, though not this century. I used to live in Twentynine Palms. This was the route to drive to Phoenix, swinging around the east side of Joshua Tree National Park, which was a national monument back then.
I question the characterization of the town as abandoned. Based on Google satellite view, it looks to be about the same as it was back then. The mistake may be assuming that surely there used to be more to it. Nope. What you see is what it has been right along, at least within my memory.
As for its reason to exist, its function as a waystation on I-40 or its predecessor is obvious. Modern cars are more reliable with longer range than back in the day, so this function is reduced. In practice, the waystation function is mostly taken by Chiriaco Summit, about fifteen or twenty miles to the west. The "summit" part of the name is legit. It is at the top of a long, agonizing grade designed to test your car's cooling system. Hence the ample repair facilities. Also the Patton museum, George Patton having trained his armored forces in this area: worth a stop, for those who enjoy such things.
For a real abandoned town, look about ten miles north of Desert Center, at Eagle Mountain.