Bagdad

Bagdad was never much more than a dot on the Mojave, but it mattered in the old, practical way: water, rail, and a place to stop. Born as a railroad siding and later kept busy by Route 66 traffic between Ludlow and Amboy, the little settlement served travelers, maintenance crews, and whoever needed a phone, a meal, or shade under the famous lone tree. Then the interstate age arrived. When I-40 bypassed this stretch, Bagdad’s storefront logic collapsed and the town slipped into quiet. In 1991 the remaining structures—most notably the schoolhouse—were demolished to make room for a pipeline supply yard, erasing the last sense of streets and blocks. What’s left now is mostly absence: the rail siding, scattered debris, broken glass, and a small, lonely cemetery in the open desert under a blue sky.

It's a dry heat, a really dry heat --
Bagdad holds the record for the longest period in United States history of 767 consecutive days without rain, from October 3, 1912, to November 8, 1914

Photos - 2001

route 66 at Bagdad california