Essex is a small

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the ...

. Essex lies on Old National Trails Highway – part of the old

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

– just south of

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

History

Essex, a former

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

along historic ''Route 66'' in California, was allegedly founded when a motorist suffered a flat tire only to discover there were no garages for miles.http://digital-desert.com/route-66/essex/ Digital Desert: Ghost Towns It also lies along the former

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

(now the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

). In Essex's heyday, there were a number of important buildings utilized by motorists and local patrons, including: * Bell's Towing * The Wayside Cafe * Essex Post Office * Essex Elementary School * Essex Shell Tire Shop Essex was notable along Route 66 for providing free water to travelers, thanks to a well installed by the

Automobile Club of Southern California The Automobile Club of Southern California is the Southern California affiliate of the American Automobile Association (AAA) federation of motor clubs. The Auto Club was founded on December 13, 1900, in Los Angeles as one of the nation's first mo ...

. California Route 66 Preservation Foundation Over a dozen homes also serviced the small community. The town of Essex had no television reception until 1977. The signal from Los Angeles, 150 miles west, was too weak, and the signal from Las Vegas, 110 miles north, was blocked by hills. A device called a translator, costing several thousand dollars, could have solved this problem, but the town voted against spending the money.

Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Pr ...

found the town's lack of television interesting, and invited the entire town's population (about 50 people at the time) to attend the taping of the March 25, 1977 episode of ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

''. He talked to 5 different townspeople about what it was like and whether they missed having television. All but one said they preferred it that way. Shortly after the Tonight Show appearance, executives at Electronics, Missiles and Communications (Emcee), which makes television transmitters, provided the town with a translator at no cost.
Nashua Telegraph
', May 11, 1977

Today

With an estimated population of just 89 people in 2005
Essex Community Profile (down from 111 in 2000
Essex, California 92332 ), Essex is on the verge of becoming one of many

ghost towns Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by Alle ...

scattered throughout the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

displaced by the creation of

. Essex Elementary school (founded 1937), which once served the educational needs of both Essex and its neighbor Goffs,http://www.desertusa.com/mnp/mnp_goff.html Desert USA: Goffs School has closed. It was once taught by a single teacher.
Local School Directory: California Its location remote even with today's technological capabilities, Essex lacks many comforts of modern-day life, and was unable to receive

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

service until the end of 1977.http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=491794 NBC News from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive Many of the homes and buildings in Essex have completely disappeared, almost 50 lie in abandonment, and of what was once a bustling roadside hub, only the post office,http://www.priss.org/99/day6.htm Touring the Mojave Desert

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

maintenance yard, school house, and outdoor telephone are still operational. There are no facilities in town. By 2013, the population had declined to 8-10 people. Essex has only one close neighbor, the equally abandoned Goffs, located to the north, just across

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

. Three miles northeast of Essex, just north of the Goffs Road Junction with National Old Trails Highway, the remains of Camp Essex Army Airfield are still visible. This uniquely configured airfield has two parallel runways and twelve "hardstands," where aircraft could be parked.

References

{{authority control Populated places in the Mojave Desert Ghost towns on U.S. Route 66 Ghost towns in California Unincorporated communities in San Bernardino County, California Oases of California Unincorporated communities in California

History

Today

See also

References