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| Original Post Office in Essex, CA - officially closed in 2011 |
It was just nipping at a hundred and six degrees when I drove into the tiny outpost known as Essex.
“It’s gonna be a hot one,” I could hear the slight breeze whispering, as I got out of my truck and snapped a few photos.
Snapping photos is a thing we photojournalists do. Freeze a moment in time forever, and then go home and write about it. It’s the perfect synergy – words and photos.
I was in Essex for two reasons. One, I hadn’t been there in decades. Two, readers have written to ask when Route 66 and the National Trails Highway would be open all the way to Needles.
The first reason to be in Essex was fulfilled. I was back, and the town appeared completely deserted – I mean completely.
Of course, there is the well-maintained Caltrans maintenance yard, and a small United States Post Office made of rock walls. That’s about it, really.
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| The Caltrans maintenance facility in Essex, CA |
According to longtime resident and font of knowledge about Essex's history, John Bentley, the current population of the town is around 6 people.
“Most people have moved on,” Bentley stated. “With Route 66 closed, along with National Trails Highway, there’s no one who comes through here.”
The legend of Essex is that a driver had a flat tire, but there was nothing there. Nothing but a long drive – especially on a dud of a tire – no place to find assistance. But soon, an entrepreneur opened Bell’s Towing. Then, the Wayside Café was built to serve up tasty meals for road-weary travelers making their way across the Mojave Desert. A United States post office opened for the convenience of more and more people moving to this remote stretch of the highway, and the Essex Elementary School was founded in 1937.
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| Remains of the Essex market and gas station in Essex, CA |
The population never amounted to a great deal in numbers, but again, in that strong sense of pioneerism, people lived and thrived here.
Turns out that Jim Craig, Bentley’s great-grandfather, had come into the area from Texas over a hundred years ago. He was a miner, working the mines in the local mountains and desert. He had traveled with his brother to seek their fortunes and then branched out into desert ranching.
One thing Bentley didn’t tell me is the story that Jim Craig may have been making moonshine during Prohibition while living near Sunflower Springs. Not sure if this is a true story, but according to the blogger, Darthjenni, Jim Craig moved to the area with his family of 5 children around 1914. He worked for the Rock Springs Land and Cattle Company. During the federally mandated drought on alcohol in the United States, they decided to be a little creative with liquor manufacturing.
Again, I am not certain if this is true, but it makes a great story.
As Bentley himself said, “People tell a lot of stories about what happened in the early days out here. Some accurate and some not so much.”
But around the 1930’s, Jim Craig did start his own ranch, and brought in the cattle which could graze on little more than small desert plants.
“They used desert cattle that had been here for centuries,” Bentley told me. “They are well used to surviving out here. Crazy, isn’t it?”
Standing there in the hot, now noon-day sun, I had to admit it sounded a bit crazy.
But what is desert ranching? Looking across the millions of acres of brown, arid soil, I didn’t see where anything could be ranched. Perhaps some jack rabbits and lizards, but the market for that sort of cuisine is probably limited.
Turns out, again, this is what a sharp researcher’s mind can learn: the cattle are called Criollo. A cattle breed brought to America by Columbus and then to the southwest by Spanish conquistadors. A cow that can thrive in the desert.
What will those conquistadors think of next?
And thrive they did, but it turns out these cattle need a lot of space – a lot of space, to roam and nibble on sparse vegetation. And as they did this, desert tortoises suffered greatly, so by the early 2000’s, cattle ranching virtually disappeared from the Mojave Desert. Outdoor groups and the Bureau of Land Management found the grazing to be too dangerous for the endangered tortoise, and a move was made to limit or discourage ranching altogether.
Though – this is just what I have observed traveling remote areas of the Mojave - there are still ranches out in the desert lands – I’ve viewed a lot of cattle, the Criollo, walking here and there looking for something to munch on.
More research is needed on this subject. I’ll have to ask one of the cows what’s up the next time I encounter them. Of course, some of these cattle have pretty big and pointy horns. This is when social distancing takes on a whole new meaning.
But, with the traffic on both Route 66 and National Trails Highway, the town of Essex thrived – just like those Criollos.
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| Essex is advertising for hotel rooms in Laughlin, Nevada |
Tourists on the way west or east stopped by for gas, tires, a repair, or just something to eat, and things were going swimmingly for the townsfolk. And then – yep, Highway 40 was built just about six miles north of Essex. That’s all it took to make a small town even smaller.
On an interesting side note, in 1977, the town of Essex received television for the first time. In fact, when the late-night television host, Johnny Carson, heard the news, he had the entire town driven in for a taping of The Tonight Show.
Ed McMahan exclaimed, “Heeerrrreee’s Johnny and the whole town of Essex!”
Maybe not quite like that, but the whole town was invited and attended the taping of the Tonight Show.
The population began to dwindle with less and less traffic, and by 2005, the population was a mere 89 people, and continues to dwindle.
“There’s no business here,” Bentley stated. “We’ve stuck it out because we love the solitude but pretty much everyone is thinking of leaving eventually.”
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| One of the few remaining houses in Essex, CA |
I asked him about the Caltrans signs stating the road is closed to through traffic just as soon as a traveler exited the Essex Road off-ramp. Actually, the signs are clearly marked that Route 66 and National Trails Highway are closed east and west of Essex. The road to Essex is fine with no issues – except those darn highway signs stretched across the roadway.
“That’s the problem. We’d still have some sort of business, but people see those signs and just get back on the freeway.”
Well, this guy didn’t. In fact, I even drove east on National Trails Highway, around the road closure signs, to see why this path to Needles has been closed for nearly a decade. What could take Caltrans that long to fix a road? Is there another Area 51 out there? What was the government hiding? Were Martians marching around demanding we stop sending rovers to their world? Really – that could be annoying.
As I’ve mentioned in other articles, I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, but I just love a good conspiracy.
Turns out, that a few miles east of Essex on the National Trails Highway, an entire bridge was destroyed from some pretty nasty flooding years back. Not passable.
I returned to Essex, dejected at not finding out anything but the truth: the roadways are not drivable.
There’s not much to see in Essex today. The buildings are deserted, falling, and dangerous to wander through.
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| A lot of small deserted homes in Essex, CA |
But if you listen to the wind, I believe you could still hear distant, happy voices in this small desert town when it was alive and thriving.
John can be contacted at: beyersbyways@gmail.com
