Casa Del Desierto (today)

One of the Mojave Desert’s most notable sites along Route 66 is Barstow’s former Harvey House, the 1911 Casa del Desierto, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. After that massive local landmark’s life as a train station and hotel ended, it sat vacant from the building’s 1973 closure into the 1990s. The city then acquired it and undertook a major restoration; the structure now hosts office space and Amtrak service and serves as a heritage tourism destination. Inside, the recently reopened Barstow Route 66 Mother Road Museum, the Western America Railroad Museum, and the NASA Goldstone Visitor Center help pull tourists off the interstate and into Barstow.