More about Amboy

Amboy, California is a nearly empty western US small town in Californias Mojave Desert roughly sixty miles (97 km) northeast of Twentynine Palms. It was once a major stop along famous Route 66 but has been seldom visited since the opening of Interstate 40 to the north in the 1970s. Amboy is famous for a genuine Route 66 landmark as well. Roys Motel and Cafe looking east. The 1964 Mercury Monterey police car in the foreground was used for a brief time to lure tourists. Roys Motel and Cafe was and is the only gasoline, food and lodging stop for miles around that part of the eastern Mojave and was well known for both its Googie "retro-future" architecture added to one of the original buildings and even more famous sign, a 1959 addition. Both Roys and the surrounding town were once owned by Buster Burris, one of Route 66s most famous characters who purchased Roys from his father-in-law Roy Crowle - the man for whom the property is named - in 1938 and ran the town until 1995. Burris was also responsible for erecting power poles between Amboy and Barstow, using a crane mounted on a 1930s-vintage Studebaker truck. The town is now owned by investors Walt Wilson and Tim White.