Cadiz Summit

Cadiz Summit - Burton Frasher Cadiz began as a railroad water stop named in 1883 by civil engineer and surveyor Lewis Kingman while he was mapping a route for what became the second transcontinental railroad. It fit the famous alphabetical chain of Mojave stops—Amboy, Bristol, Cadiz, Danby, Essex, Fenner, Goffs, and onward—built to keep trains moving across a thirsty country. In 1931, when Route 66 was realigned, George and Minnie Tienken shifted their business from Cadiz to Cadiz Summit, a mountain gap roughly halfway between Amboy and Essex. By the 1940s the summit offered the classic comforts: a gas station, garage, cabins, and café—an all-services breather for desert travelers. In 1972 I-40 bypassed the old road, and Cadiz Summit was abandoned, leaving crumbling, vandalized concrete ruins.