Places That Were

Showing posts with label route 66 ghost town. Show all posts

Christmas Tree Inn in abandoned Santa Claus, Arizona

Santa Claus, Arizona is a desolate ghost town, once home to the Christmas Tree Inn, a holiday-themed amusement park that now sits abandoned and decaying.

Christmas Tree Inn Abandoned Theme Park in Santa Claus Arizona

An hour's drive from the mining town of Oatman brought me to Santa Claus, Arizona, which sits on a small plot of land along Highway 93.

Santa Claus was founded in 1937 by Nina Talbot, a real estate agent from Los Angeles. She must have had a good sense of humor because she proclaimed herself to be the "biggest real estate agent in California", not because of her success in the business, but because she weighed over 300 pounds.

Hoping to create a Christmas-themed resort town in the middle of the desert, Talbot built the Santa's Land tourist attraction and put the surrounding parcels of land up for sale. Despite her efforts, the parcels did not sell, and the town's only residents were those who worked there. Talbot ended up selling the entire place in 1949.

Santa Claus succeeded in becoming a tourist destination where kids could visit Santa year-round. Its post office was important because it received children's letters addressed to Santa, and replies were sent out with a Santa Claus postmark.

Santa Claus, Arizona received positive attention from a few major celebrities.

Duncan Hines, a prominent restaurant critic whose name is now attached to cake mixes and other food products, bolstered the town's popularity when he gave the Christmas Tree Inn a highly favorable review.

Scifi writer Robert Heinlein once ate at the Christmas Tree Inn, and enjoyed it so much that he featured the town in the 1950 short story "Cliff and the Calories (A New Puddin' Story)."

In 1954 Actress Jane Russell later threw a dinner party there.

In the 1970s the town became less popular and fell into disrepair. In 1983, owner Tony Wilcox put the town up for sale, but was unable to find a buyer at the asking price.

The last remaining business closed in 1995.

A few badly weathered buildings still remain.

And a sad little wishing well.

Also, a disturbing portrait of Mr. Claus etched in concrete.

It was a lot of fun to explore, but I have a feeling Santa would be pretty sad if he came down the chimney and saw the current state of the place.

I was glad to discover that the main building had a creepy little basement. I absolutely love basements.

I also love attics, and it had one of those too! I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.

It looked like Santa Claus threw one hell of a party before he moved out.

Full up with holiday cheer, I set out eastward toward Flagstaff, hoping to see another site or two before dark.

The increase in elevation made for a much harsher climate, a fact that really hit home when I stopped in the town of Williams for gas. It was freezing cold and the ground was covered in snow.

Urban exploration of farm in Williams, Arizona

Dark clouds looked on the horizon, and I knew I was in for a rough night.

Halfway from Williams to Flagstaff I stopped to check out a neat old farmhouse. Unfortunately it was very dark out by that time, so none of the pictures turned out very well.

Urban Exploration of abandoned farm near Flagstaff, Arizona

It started snowing as I drove the rest of the way to Flagstaff. I ventured out into the cold and grabbed a beer and a bite to eat at a local bar. On the way, a careless driver skidded through an intersection, nearly hitting a pedestrian.

I went back to the car and was about to go to sleep, when I had a nagging feeling that I should check the street signage. I'm glad I did because it said I couldn't park there between 2 and 5am. Turns out that rule applies to most of the streets in Flagstaff. It's also important to note, in case any of you have RVs and are thinking of vacationing in Flagstaff, the city has rules against parking RVs overnight pretty much anywhere. But there is a rest stop about 30 min east of the city, where you can park.

I drove around until I found a nice neighborhood. It was snowing pretty hard and most of the cars on the street were covered in snow. I figured I'd be able to sleep there without any of the neighbors noticing the presence of an unfamiliar car, since it would be covered in snow pretty quickly. Fortunately I was right. I bundled myself up in about 5 blankets and fell fast asleep.

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Amboy, California Ghost Town

Amboy Road led me through 48 miles of bleak desertscape from Twentynine Palms to the ghost town of Amboy, California. Small houses were scattered along the highway, separated by wide stretches of desert soil.

Urban exploration of abandoned Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

Several miles on, I stopped to photograph an abandoned home on the side of the road.

A few minutes later I came to another abandoned home near the corner of an unpaved side road. The neighboring lot appeared abandoned too.

It didn't take me long to realize that there were so many vacant homes along Amboy Road, if I stopped at each one I’d never get to Amboy before dark. So I made quick stops at the most interesting ones and snapped pictures of some of the others from the car.

I had to get a photo of this strange sign that stood in front of what appeared to be an abandoned ranch.

This house was on its last legs.

The road made a 90-degree turn and continued northward alongside Bristol Dry Lake, a huge salt flat. Like Salton Sea, it accumulates agricultural runoff and has no outlet due to its low elevation.

I pulled over at a soduim facility, National Chloride Co. which wasn't abandoned, but looked too interesting to pass by. The land was scarred by evaporation ponds of clear aqua beside snake-like mounds of earth.

evaporation pond near Amboy, California ghost town

salt flats near Amboy, California ghost town

The salt was so ubiquitous it could have been mistaken for frost and chunks of ice, had it not been a scorching hot day.

The iconic sign for Roy's Cafe welcomed me as I finally pulled into Amboy.

Urban exploration of abandoned Roy's Cafe in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

Adrenaline shot through my veins. I'd been meaning to explore the unique little ghost town ever since I first read about it a year earlier.

Originally settled in 1858, Amboy did not officially became a town until 1883, when a railroad station was built there. The opening of Route 66 in 1926 brought quite a bit of tourism and traffic to Amboy, which became an important stopping point for travelers across the Mojave. In 1938, Roy Crowl, the owner of the town, opened Roy's Motel and Café, which thrived as the only gas station and lodging in the area.

The opening of Interstate 40 in 1973 diverted the majority of traffic away from Amboy, resulting in the town's decline. Amboy was bought by investors and changed hands several times over the years before Albert Okura purchased it in 2005 with the intention of preserving the town and opening a museum.

I was ecstatic to find that Roy’s Cafe had indeed reopened. I pictured myself sitting at the lunch counter, sipping a vanilla malt and enjoying a burger and fries, like so many a traveler had during the heyday of Route 66. Unfortunately in its new incarnation, Roy's Cafe no longer had a functioning kitchen and served only as a gift shop.

Urban exploration of abandoned Roy's Cafe Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

The dozen or so little white buildings that comprise Amboy are situated around a short segment of the highway. Nearly all of them stand vacant.

There is even a tiny airstrip that Harrison Ford supposedly used to fly into before grabbing lunch at Roy’s.

Urban exploration of abandoned airstrip in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

The old motel rooms were the only buildings fenced off with keep out signs. Several old cars were parked in the fenced off area, and a maintenance man was working nearby. There were so many other great places to explore in the town that I didn't feel like I was missing much by not getting inside the motel.

Urban exploration of abandoned motel in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

The cottages, however, were open and still contained props from the 2010 movie "Beneath The Dark", which had been filmed there.

Urban exploration of abandoned cottages in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

Behind Roy's is a little neighborhood of 4 houses, which have been thoroughly vandalized and torn apart by scavengers in search of copper.

Urban exploration of abandoned homes in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

Urban exploration of abandoned houses in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

A work shed contained old tools and decaying junk.

Urban exploration of abandoned buildings in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

Across the highway stood a little church and rectory mostly untouched by vandals.

Urban exploration of abandoned church in Amboy CA California ghost town ruins

Daylight was waning, so I had to hurry to explore everything before sunset. I explored the school last because it was so dark inside, the precious daylight wouldn’t have made a difference. My flashlight and headlamp worked very well, but the pictures still turned out quite grainy and unevenly lit.