Needles

Needles sits on the California bank of the Colorado, the first town Route 66 reaches after crossing out of Arizona, down the old grade through Oatman, and, for westbound travelers, the gate into the true Mojave. The 'Aha Makhav, the Mojave, the People by the River, farmed this floodplain for centuries before the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe's Atlantic and Pacific line met here in 1883; the town took its name from the Needles, the sharp peaks downriver. Its landmark is El Garces, the Santa Fe depot and Fred Harvey House that opened in 1908 after fire destroyed the original wooden station. Built of concrete in the shape of a Greek temple and once called the crown jewel of the Harvey chain, it was raised largely by Mojave workers, who climbed the scaffolding to pour its walls by hand. Harvey Girls served rail passengers in its dining rooms until 1949; the Santa Fe kept offices inside until 1988, after which the building sat empty and close to demolition. The city bought it in 1999, and a long restoration reopened it in 2014 as an intermodal station. Amtrak's Southwest Chief still stops here, and the colonnades still shade the platform. Needles is also, reliably, one of the hottest towns in the country, and the Dust Bowl families in The Grapes of Wrath dreaded this crossing above all others, timing it for the cool of night. Fuel and water are easy here. West of town the road empties out fast toward Goffs and Amboy, and the next dependable services are a long way on.