Kelso, California

06-38058

Kelso is a ghost town in San Bernardino County in southeastern California. It is located in the Mojave National Preserve, a nature reserve in the Mojave desert. In the eastern part of the protected area of the restored freight station Kelso Depot is located at the intersection of two major roads Kelbaker Park Road / Kelso Cima Road and now serves as a visitor center.

History

The city was the completion of the traffic passing through the Mojave desert railway Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (later Union Pacific Railroad ) founded in 1906 and named after John Kelso, a resident at the time warehouse workers. The construction of a freight station in the middle of a deserted desert was at that time under the background of a subsequent ascent to Cima Hill. Since then the trains running steam locomotives could not alone cope with the height difference, a train station stationed with auxiliary locomotives and capacity to fill up with water was required.

Began in 1923, the railway company to build a new station building with accommodation and washrooms for railway employees, a new telegraph office and a waiting room for passengers. When the Kaiser Steel Mill began in Fontana in 1942 with the mining of iron ore in the nearby Vulcan mine and let carry about 2,500 tons of ore from Kelso to the steel mill to Fontana, Kelso had arrived with now approximately 2,000 residents at the height of its short history. Due to the high sulfur content Fontana stopped the transports shortly after the Second World War and the now detached by diesel locomotives steam engines made ​​the goods station soon dispensed with. Kelso then experienced a rapid decline and even degenerated in the 1950s ghost town.

The freight station still remained to 1985, but was eventually closed due to lack of profitability of the Union Pacific Railroad. Local citizens, the administrators of the East Mojave National Scenic Area, and Congressman Jerry Lewis prevented after the planned demolition of the old station building. In 1992, the Bureau of Land Management acquired the goods station at the symbolic price of one dollar and started with a basic renovation of the building. Today it is the most important information center of the Mojave National Preserve.