Goffs School House |
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Goffs is a town on old Route 66 at the eastern end of the Mojave Desert in California. The town is at the top of the hill going west out of Needles Arizona. Because of it's location the Sante Fe Railroad put enough of it's employees there with their children that a school house was built. It was built in 1914 and was used as a school house until 1937. This photo is the Goffs Schoolhouse. We highly recommend a stop here is you are traveling the I40 or old Route 66 in the Eastern Mojave of California. |
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The structure was restored in the 1990's. We had a tour from Jo Ann Casebier who was nice enough to open the building and grounds for us even though it wasn't open the day we were there. So we received a wonderful tour and history of the building, grounds and the area. |
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They called this area the Flywheel cafe. We sat down and had our picnic lunch. It was a wonderful day in the desert. They refer to the area as the Goffs Schoolhouse and Cultural Center. All around they have wonderful displays of history to the area. |
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This is a photo of the reconstruction of the Stotts Mill. The loading ramp was made to simulate the side of the mountain. There is a lot more work to be done but is an example of the fine displays on the grounds. |
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This is a 1921 Buick. Each item in the Schoolhouse and on the grounds was numbered or lettered and a booklet was provided that gave information on the item. Looking at this Buick for the first time I saw how the solid tires were constructed. They were not really solid rubber but had a metal core. The spokes were wooden. |
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This building fascinated me. It was an AT&T Underground
Telephone Cable Shed. In the early 1960's, during the cold war, the US
government had an underground communications cable installed from the east
coast to the west coast so that in
the event of a nuclear war we could still communicate. Every four miles a
shed like this was needed to regenerate the signal and provide access to
the cable for maintenance. This shed was moved here from a nearby location
in the Mojave Desert.
We spent a few hours wandering the grounds and would have stayed longer except me were on our way to Laughlin. I had pennies just waiting for the slot machines.<grin> |