Chambless66: Gus, Food and Lodging

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Gus, Food and Lodging

His love of the automobile and the way a sunset illuminated a Mojave Desert mountain range inspired Gus Lizalde two decades ago to invest in a piece of Route 66 history.

He bought Chambless, a wide spot at the corner of Cadiz Road and National Trails Highway, part of old Route 66. It's a far flung outpost, halfway between Barstow and Needles, that once offered gas, food and lodging to motorists headed into or out of California.

8 comments:

Unknown said...: Is Chambless still open for food and lodging?
Hope to visit you soon...; January 2, 2013 at 11:22 AM
Unknown said...: I was also wondering - is there lodging here, or anyway near here at all? I'd love to stop by soon!; June 22, 2013 at 4:54 PM
Unknown said...: this was my grandmother Lorraine Stevens and my grandfather, Erwin Stevens store... from before I was born in 1976 when, I believe my mother (who was born in 1958) was only 7, when they purchased it, and she lost it around my 21st birthday when she sold it and moved away. I would give anything to go back in time and relive those days, for only a moment!!! this was my summer get away;... my retreat,... all through growing up, and to look at it now brings me to my knees; a gut wrenching cry unleashes itself from the pit of my heart. My grandmother kept that place running for over 30 years... its sad that she is not mentioned anywhere in its history. she was the livelihood of all the towns in the neighborhooding areas, and kept the grocery store up and running and also cashed all the local grapevine workers weekly checks. Her death brought the towns death. It flourished with her, because of her... and she was infamous for her Lorraine's Lemon-meringue Pies.I love you Grandma and Grandpa,... miss you both so much!!!💙; February 7, 2017 at 10:40 PM
Unknown said...: I feel for you; June 4, 2017 at 1:37 AM
Unknown said...: Hi April, my name is Frank. I would love for you to contact me and pick your brain about a sign that was near the store on Route 66. Please contact me at 760 458 0539. I might be even able to get your grandmother some recognition. Hope to hear from you soon.; September 5, 2017 at 3:44 PM
Unknown said...: Hi April, my name is Frank. I would love for you to contact me and pick your brain about a sign that was near the store on Route 66. Please contact me at 760 458 0539. I might be even able to get your grandmother some recognition. Hope to hear from you soon.; September 5, 2017 at 3:45 PM
Unknown said...: When will Cal Trans EVER open Rt. 66 East out of Amboy?; September 23, 2018 at 2:43 PM
Anonymous said...: I will recommend anyone looking for Business loan to Le_Meridian they helped me with Four Million USD loan to startup my Quilting business and it's was fast When obtaining a loan from them it was surprising at how easy they were to work with. They can finance up to the amount of $500,000.000.00 (Five Hundred Million Dollars) in any region of the world as long as there 1.9% ROI can be guaranteed on the projects.The process was fast and secure. It was definitely a positive experience.Avoid scammers on here and contact Le_Meridian Funding Service On. lfdsloans@lemeridianfds.com / lfdsloans@outlook.com. WhatsApp...+ 19893943740. if you looking for business loan.; April 20, 2020 at 10:36 PM

Chambless Facts...

When the Santa Fe Railroad established the towns along present-day Route 66 between Barstow and Needles, they named them in alphabetical order: Amboy, Bagdad, Cadiz*, Danby, Essex, Fenner, Goff, Homer, Ibis, Java, Khartoum.

James Albert Chambless of Arkansas established a homestead at an intersection of Cadiz road with the National Trails Road in the early 1920’s. The Automobile Club of Southern California reported a store in this location in the late 1920’s, after the road was designated as part of Route 66. In 1932 the highway was realigned, and the business followed it; a gas station, motel and store were added, and by 1939 a post office, tourist cabins, and a café were operating here.
During World War II General Patton trained over two million men to survive in the desert (as they would in North Africa) in and around the 10 thousand square miles of desert near Chambless. In the end, the Second Corps swept through North Africa as if they knew their way around-with no surprises their own desert hadn't already shown them.Today the businesses have closed, but many of the buildings, including the store and tourist cabins, remain.

- The Route 66 Traveler's Guide by Tom Snyder

(*corrected information)

Route 66 - A Road to Remember
Before the Interstate highway system, there was Route 66, a principal east-west artery across the United States from Chicago to the California coast of the Pacific Ocean.
Its path was practical, traversing mainly prairie lands and temperate climates, convenient and comfortable for most travelers, whether they were tourists or truckers. Its history mirrors the nation’s troubles in the 1930s and ’40s, the Great Depression and World War II, and its emerging mobility and optimism in the Post War 1950s.
Ironically, says the National Historic Route 66 Federation, the need for rapid mobility and improved highways that made Route 66 so popular also brought about its demise. After 1956, with the federal interstate and defense highways system, highways would be divided, and they wouldn’t take a traveler through the small, medium and large communities of the nation.

Farm-to-Market Road
Route 66 was planned by Congress in 1926, intending to connect the main streets of rural and urban communities. Its diagonal path through rural communities in Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas connected the farms in the prairies to Chicago. Truckers found the westward path easier to travel than routes farther north, due to milder weather.

The California Migration on Route 66
Route 66 carried many of estimated 210,000 Americans who migrated to California in the 1930s, fleeing the despair of the Dust Bowl.

Who built Route 66? Thousands of unemployed male youths from nearly every state were put to work as laborers on road gangs to pave the final stretches of the road during the financially lean years of 1933-38. It was a monumental job, and it helped prepare the nation for mobilizing troops for World War II. Route 66 was an efficient route to the West, the ideal place for military training bases.

Servicemen Move West on Route 66
Servicemen returning from WWII frequently chose to relocate from their past home states to the West and South, and Route 66 facilitated their moves. The Route 66 federation says one of those servicemen, Bobby Troup, wrote the song with the catch phrase, “get your kicks on Route 66.” Troup was a musician who had played piano with the Tommy Dorsey band. The recording artist was Nat King Cole.

America Travels on Route 66
In the 1960s, although the interstate and defense highway system was under construction, Route 66 was still a favorite corridor. A new generation of motorists was ready to hit the road and stay in the new motor courts with swimming pools, as customers of the Route 66 restaurants, gas stations, and souvenir shops. Even if Route 66 was not outside your door, it was inside your living room on American TV. Route 66 was a popular weekly television show, starring Martin Milner and George Maharis.

Recapturing the Route 66 Mood
Today, Americans try to recapture the aura of freedom earlier generations felt when they traveled Route 66 by restoring the road itself, where possible, and preserving the 1950s and 1960s buildings that characterized the old Route 66. There are also commemorative post cards, tours, even festivals and associations formed in each state Route 66 traversed.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Gus, Food and Lodging

8 comments:

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