GOFFS, CALIFORNIA

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'Goffs', located in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, is a nearly empty one-time railroad town at the route's high point in the Mojave Desert. Goffs was a stop along famous Route 66 prior to 1931, when a more direct route between Needles and Amboy was built. Goffs was also home to workers of the nearby Santa Fe Railroad, with Homer east, Fenner south, and Blackburn and Purdy north.
Goffs was known as 'Blake' between 1893 and 1902. It was named for Issac Blake, the builder of the Nevada Southern Railway (later the California Eastern Railway 1895–1923) ^[1] that commenced here.
An early 20th Century general store is the town's largest building (now abandoned). A historic schoolhouse, built in 1914 and almost totally deteriorated by the early 1980s, has since been renovated to its original plans by the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association (MDHCA). The schoolhouse and grounds now house a museum primarily specializing in the area's mining history. Remnants of Goffs' mining days still dot the town.
Goffs is accessible off Interstate 40 at U.S. Highway 95 north. A left turn onto Goffs Road, the pre-1931 alignment of US 66, becomes a desolate forty-mile (64 km) stretch which served as home to several towns which have mostly vanished including Ibis, Bannock and Homer. Continuing west on Goffs Road brings motorists back to I-40 at the town of Essex.

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References

1. Myrick, David F., 1963, Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California Vol. 2, (Howell-North Books: Berkeley) pp. 841-848

External Links

★ Brief History of Nevada Southern Railway by Alan Hensher: 2005

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