A Brief Look Back in the Annals of Needles

The City of Needles, California was established in 1883 by the railroad.  It was conveniently situated on the Colorado River where the key ingredients for steam, used to power the locomotives, was plentiful.  A few miles to the north in the Arizona Territory was Fort Mojave, a military outpost that was built in 1859 to help assure the safety of the string of westward-traveling anglo immigrants. 

 

Prior to the initial influx of immigrants, the Colorado River Valley had been inhabited continuously for hundreds of years by what were called the Fort Mojave Indians (“Aha Macav”).  The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe today remains one of the most significant forces in the Tri-State Area.

 

 

The original El Garces Train Station, shown here, was built in the 1880’s.  It burned to the ground in 1906.  El Garces was rebuilt of concrete and steel, reopened in 1908, and later housed one of Fred Harvey’s “Harvey House” restaurants.  The El Garces still stands today and is currently being renovated into a heritage hotel with a 4-star restaurant.  Parts of it are scheduled to open in December 2008.

Needles became a center for the railroad, mining activities, and ranching.  The railroad  employed a large number of skilled laborers to maintain the steam locomotives and rail system that was subject to washouts in the desert.  The population of Needles has been very stable since the earliest of times, with numbers generally fluctuating between 4,500 and 6,000 residents.  Several towns around Needles popped up to accommodate the needs of the railroad and the booming mining industry.  Most of those, such as Bagdad, disappeared when steam locomotives were replaced by diesel-electric, and mining became a less than economically prudent undertaking.

 

 

The National Historic Trail closely followed the railroad west.  Prior to the birth of the automobile, the National Historic Trail served those travelling by wagons, stage coaches, horses and burros.  The trail saw no regular maintenance, but was kept passable only by those who traversed the desert and who maintained it out of need.  Later, when automobiles came on the scene, regional members of a new volunteer organization, known as the American Automobile Club, maintained the trail to a limited extent.  Given the frequency of isolated flash floods, this task was perpetual.

 

In 1926 Congress established the Federal Highway System.  Cyrus Avery,  was appointed by the Department of Agriculture a year earlier to head a board for highway designations.  In 1927, the National Historic Trail was designated by the Board as United States Route 66 .  With that designation came plans for pavement and regular maintenance.

 

Route 66, as featured in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, became the primary conduit  for westward travelers escaping the dustbowl states and a national economic depression.  All travelers seeking opportunities West, came through Needles.  

 

 

The horse-drawn ice wagon in front of the Needles Hotel, above, was a welcome sight all over town; especially during the summer months when temperatures reached 120 degrees.  The rebuilt El Garces railroad station in 1908 offered patrons one of the world’s first air conditioning  “systems”, when railroad boxcars, loaded with ice, were parked on rails over an underground vent system where air could be drawn from the boxcars, through the underground vents, and into the station.  Judging by the pictured ice wagon,  the  iced air system in the Needles Hotel was probably much less elaborate.

During World War II, the Mohave Desert became the training grounds for the Army.  Under General George Patton, tens of thousands of Army troops were trained and acclimated for foreign service in Europe and North Africa.  Remnants of several camps of these training centers are still visible today.  Today, some 65-plus years later, many of the  more heavily used camps still look as though they could have been occupied only last week .  Some of the soldiers left a more lasting impression, however, when they married local Needles girls and returned here after the war to  spend the rest of their lives

 

Needles suffered economically with the advent of the diesel locomotive, which was much more dependable and maintenance-free than the predecessing steam locomotives.  When bypassed by Interstate, 40 in the 60’s, Needles took another severe blow.   However, the city has survived, and due to its location in the Tri-State Area, it will again become the emerald of the Colorado River cities, which include Laughlin, Nevada, Bullhead City, Arizona,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and of course, Needles, California.   History will show that in 2007, Needles will have experienced a rebirth to become what other cities in the region desire to be:  An historic hometown with a heart and soul!  The Needles Downtown Business Alliance is proud to help with those efforts.

Roy’s Motel in nearby Amboy was a welcome oasis for many traveling the Route 66 across the Mohave Desert.  The town died when Interstate 40 bypassed it in the mid 60’s. Today the town of Amboy is owned primarily by an individual who is working to restore the town and make it a destination once again.

The Claypool Building, as shown here in 1930 with its art deco facade, was just weeks away from its grand opening.  It is currently being renovated to become the new home for the Palo Verde College Needles Campus which is scheduled to open in  the Fall of 2008.