The Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel or Kelso Depot, now also the Mojave National Preserve Visitors Center, is located in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

within the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

Mojave National Preserve Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, US, between Interstate 15 in California, Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, ...

, on Kelso Cima Road at the junction of

Kelbaker Road Kelbaker Road is a paved road in San Bernardino County, California, that serves as the primary and busiest route through the Mojave National Preserve. It also connects the communities of Kelso and Baker. Its southern terminus is at County Rou ...

Kelso, California Kelso is a ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a gh ...

, between

Baker A baker is a tradesperson who baking, bakes and sometimes Sales, sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient histo ...

and

Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway in the Western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexican border in San Diego County and stretches north to Alberta, Ca ...

to the north and

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...

to the south. accessed 7/11/2010 It was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, and along with the adjacent

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

of Kelso, was declared a United States Historic District in 2000. The district was increased by a boundary increase approved by the National Park Service in 2019, with reference number 100003401.

History

Early years

The first depot, by the

Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities (Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, California), via Las ...

, opened in 1905. In early 1923 the railroad began construction of the new "Kelso Clubhouse & Restaurant" which opened the next year. The Kelso Depot was built to provide services to passengers and railroad employees, and a water stop for the

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s. It is an example of a surviving mid-1920s era

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

and

Spanish Colonial Revival architecture The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. Thes ...

Styled

railroad depot A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such an ...

with a hotel, restaurant, and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. It was designed by the firm of

John and Donald Parkinson John and Donald Parkinson were a father-and-son architectural firm operating in the Los Angeles area in the early 20th century. They designed and built many of the city's iconic buildings, including Grand Central Market, the Memorial Colise ...

. The facility served interstate passenger and shipping traffic and the transport of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

from local mines, especially the Vulcan Mine. It was an essential element of the 1920s modernization of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

stations to compete with the

Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Railroad classes, Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight tra ...

and its

Harvey House The Fred Harvey Company was the owner of the Harvey House chain of restaurants, hotels and other hospitality industry businesses alongside railroads in the Western United States. It was founded in 1876 by Fred Harvey (entrepreneur), Fred Harve ...

s such as " Casa del Desierto". The

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment landscape design Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garde ...

and overall style and character of this remote station made it a popular gathering place for Union Pacific employees, passengers and local residents. The original

s with shade from Fremont cottonwoods (''Populus fremontii''),

Chinese elm ''Ulmus parvifolia'', commonly known as the Chinese elm or lacebark elm, is a species native to eastern Asia, including China, India, Japan, Korea, Vietnam,Fu, L., Xin, Y. & Whittemore, A. (2002)Ulmaceae in Wu, Z. & Raven, P. (eds) ''Flora of Chi ...

s (''Ulmus parvifolia''), and manicured geometric

lawn A lawn () is an area of soil-covered land planted with Poaceae, grasses and other durable plants such as clover lawn, clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawn mower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic an ...

s lingered, but did not survive the desert conditions between depot closure and the park's Visitor Center restoration. Only

date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet #Fruits, fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across North Africa, northern A ...

s (''Phoenix dactylifera'') survived.

Mid-20th century

The Kelso Depot served as a significant element in the Union Pacific's contributions to the American war effort during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The end of World War II marked the beginning of a long decline in the depot's utility. The sharp decline in the volume of freight traffic and

diesel engines The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the die ...

replacing steam caused a reduction in services and the need for fewer employees. The Vulcan Mine closed early in 1947, further reducing freight and passenger traffic. A surge of activity occurred with the outbreak of the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

in the early 1950s, resulting in a renewal of high traffic levels on the Union Pacific line for several years. In 1953 and 1957, attempts were made to market the low-grade iron ore stockpiled at the Vulcan Mine. However, higher horse power, second generation diesel-electric locomotives of the 1960s resulted in the further decline in Union Pacific personnel needed at Kelso. This technological change eliminated the need for helper locomotives entirely in 1959. Coupled with the closing of the station agency and cessation of

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...

service to Kelso on August 14, 1964, this development spelled the end of the depot's principal function with the exception of the Lunch Room which remained serving until 1985.

Restoration and Visitor Center

The Union Pacific proposed the demolition of the then unused depot in 1985. Efforts to preserve the building culminated in its 1992 transfer to the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

and its East Mojave National Scenic Area. In 1994 the

was established, and the depot was transferred to the

. A historical restoration and adaptive reuse project followed in 2002. The Kelso Depot now serves, since 2005, as the main Visitor Center of the Mojave National Preserve.

References

External links