Goffs

Goffs is a near-ghost on the oldest surviving stretch of the road. Until 1931 the National Old Trails Road, Route 66's direct ancestor, swung north through Goffs between Needles and the west; the 1931 realignment straightened the route south through Essex and Amboy and left Goffs stranded off the highway, a fate Interstate 40 later sealed for good. What remains is one of the most complete early-desert townsites anywhere. Its centerpiece is the Goffs Schoolhouse, a Mission-style one-room school the county built in 1914 for the children of railroad and ranch families scattered across a thousand square miles. For twenty-three years it doubled as the community's hall and library branch, hosting dances under its bell, until it closed in 1937 when a new school opened at Essex. During World War II the building served as a canteen for Camp Goffs, part of the vast Desert Training Center where the Army rehearsed for North Africa; Goffs was a railhead and supply point, and for a few months in 1942 the headquarters of the 7th Infantry Division. After the war the schoolhouse decayed toward ruin. Dennis and Jo Ann Casebier bought the property in 1990, founded the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association, and restored the school to its 1914 form entirely on private donations; it reached the National Register in 2001. The grounds now hold a working stamp mill, a century-old boxcar, and the Casebier archive, the deepest collection of Mojave history gathered in one place.