If you have been following my adventures through the years you know my wife and I like to visit little known forgotten places like ghost towns, stage stops, military outposts, mining camps, and other places slowly being lost to time and the elements. One such place is Desert Center, California just off Interstate 10 in the Mojave Desert.
Desert Center had its beginnings in 1921 when founder Stephen Ragsdale built a service station and café along the route of what would eventually become Interstate 10.
At the time the café was the only place to obtain a meal for 50 miles in any direction. The café was open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with Ragsdale stating, “We lost our keys – we can’t close!” The café finally did close in 2012 with a note left on the door stating it was closed temporarily for maintenance.
The cafe – All photos by author
My wife and I stumbled across the site in the fall of 2016 when we were lured off I-10 by the nearby modern-day ghost town of Eagle Mountain just north of Desert Center. While Eagle Mountain turned out to be a bust (we took the wrong road and the town is on private property under the watchful eye of security personnel), Desert Center proved to be a special treat.
During our visit, the café was just as it was when the door was closed and locked on its last day of business in 2012. Peering through the windows we could see salt & pepper shakers still sitting on the tables along with sugar dispensers, vacant chairs awaiting customers in position at the tables, and inverted coffee cups were set next to the coffee maker ready to be filled.
A peek inside the cafe
Walking around town we explored an old railroad caboose, antique vehicles that had been baking in the sun for years, old gasoline pumps on the island of the service station which hadn’t dispensed gas in decades, and viewed many other neat old relics.
Despite the traffic whizzing by on adjacent I-10, we had the whole place to ourselves and you could just feel the ghosts of yesteryear welcoming us to their haunts.
The caboose sold for over $4,000
Sadly, I recently read that contents of the entire town had been auctioned off online by a descendant of Ragsdale’s. The old gas pumps sold for $3,300, the old neon sign for the café fetched $7,400, the wooden phone booths located in the back of the café brought in $1,500 and a Los Angeles Times newspaper rack went for $270.
Author with gas pumps
While the physical items may have been sold and carted off, the ghosts still remain and I am sure would appreciate you taking the time to exit I-10 for a short visit when you travel through the area. You will find Desert Center just north of Exit 192 on I-10 with plenty of space for RV parking.
Exploring the ghostly days of a bygone era, just another adventure in RVing!
If you have memories of Desert Center during its operating days, please share.
Thanks for sharing this! I had never heard of Desert Center before, I wish I’d known about it before the stuff was auctioned. I would have driven up from San Diego just to see it, and my wife would have wondered why I would drive that far just to see an abandoned town lol
Your article makes me feel really Old when my old stomping grounds are described as an “abandoned ghost town”. I attended Eagle Mt. High School and graduated in 1966 with my class of about 33 students. I worked for the senior Ragsdales all thru high school and the younger generation were my classmates.
I pumped 1000’s of gallons of gasoline and repaired many tires working in the two gas stations.
The area was never any better looking than it looks now but it was a fun place to grow up.
In the 90s we flew to the Desert Center Airport several times to camp under our wing and watch the dark night sky with our telescope. There was still a Mexican food cafe we walked to near the highway. Last year we spent the night at the Lake Tamarask Desert Resort in our RV. It was a great spot with friendly full-timers and travellers. You can access the desert with an ATV if you have one. – Margy
Thanks, Margy, for letting us know about Tamarask Desert Resort at Desert Center in Southern CA just off
I-10. We are planning a trip that will put us just about
there at the end of a “driving day”. Had wondered if
that might be a good rv park for a night or two, and
thanks to you, I now have an answer !!
Thanks for showing the pictures and talking about this special place. I love to look at old towns & sites from our history since many of these sites will be gone in years to come. Great article.
You didn’t mention the general Patton used to go and have dinner there make his telephone calls during World War II . It is the birthplace of Kaiser Permanente
In 2012 my wife and I were on our way back from Laughlin, NV and were hungry when we reached Desert Center. We saw the cafe and when wee pulled up to the front, we noticed a “B” rating in the window from the health department. We considered how hungry we were and that Palm Springs was 50 miles away and decided to take our chance. The food was very good and the servers were very friendly. After eating we walked around and enjoyed the antiques that were all around the property. Then in 2013, another trip brought us back to Desert Center and wanted to eat at the cafe again, it was closed with a note saying “temporarily closed”. So again in 2014 we tried again and no change to the closed cafe. Now we hear that pieces of it has been sold off, sad day for us but we have great memories of how Desert Center was!
I remember stopping there in the spring/summer of 1974. We got there after midnight, it was 112F and even the gas pump handle was warm. I was glad there was a fuel station there and we got some snacks.
Life was sure different then. I had a 1954 Chevy pickup(no a/c) and a home made camper. We made it to the Colorado River and all the way back home to L.A. County – I would never enter that desert without a/c these days.
We used to go from Anaheim to Phoenix every December, and generally stop in Desert Center. To us kids, being in the desert with nothing else around for 50 miles seemed like such an dangerous and exciting adventure. It was a 2-lane road most of the way to Phoenix, back then.