From Wagon Trails to Motorways
In the late 1800s, crossing the Mojave Desert meant bumping along uneven wagon ruts, hoping your team didn’t get stuck in deep sand or thrown off course by a flash flood. Early roads weren’t really “roads” at all—they were trails worn into the landscape by repeated travel, especially by miners, freighters, soldiers, and settlers. These rough paths linked desert mining camps like Calico, Panamint City, and Rhyolite to supply towns like San Bernardino, Barstow, and Los Angeles.
One of the most famous freight routes was blazed by Remi Nadeau, who used massive mule teams to haul silver and borax across the desert. Roads like the Bullion Trail were cleared by hand, just wide enough for wagons. The Mojave Road, first a Native trade route, became a military supply line after the U.S. Army established outposts like Fort Mojave.
Things changed with the invention of the Fresno Scraper in the 1880s. Before this tool, road grading was done with picks, shovels, and slip scrapers that barely moved enough earth. The Fresno Scraper, pulled by horses or mules, could scoop, carry, and deposit dirt efficiently—perfect for building up roadbeds and ditches in loose desert soil. It sped up construction and allowed workers to crown roads for better drainage, a critical improvement in a region prone to flash floods.
Railroads arrived in the desert by the late 1800s, including the Atlantic & Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Tonopah & Tidewater. While they made long-distance freight travel easier, they also created the need for short feeder roads to mining districts. These connections were often built with Fresno scrapers and early gasoline-powered graders by the 1910s.
As automobiles grew popular in the early 1900s, so did the need for better roads. The desert’s deep sand, sharp rocks, and dry washes were a nightmare for early drivers. Clubs like the AAA and promoters of the Arrowhead Trail began improving routes and placing signs to guide travelers across the Mojave. Oil-treated surfaces helped suppress dust, and wider grading made roads more durable.
Private entrepreneurs also took up the task. In 1925–26, Harry Eichbaum built a toll road over the Panamint Range to attract tourists to Death Valley. This road, carved through steep canyons and over rocky passes, later became part of State Route 190.
With federal aid laws passed in 1916 and 1921, California began standardizing desert highways like US 66, US 91, and US 395. Road building shifted from makeshift efforts to organized public works, supported by surveying, culverts, and modern grading machines.
What began as a harsh and unreliable network of trails evolved into a web of graded, signed, and—eventually—paved highways, making the Mojave Desert more accessible to settlers, travelers, and dreamers. The scars of early roads can still be seen today, fading into the sand alongside the remains of the towns they once served.