Editing Barstow, California (section)

==History==
[[File:California Limited Santa Fe 1926.JPG|thumb|left|[[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway|Santa Fe]] train arriving at the [[Barstow Harvey House|Casa del Desierto]] in 1926.]]
[[File:Barstow Harvey House California Historical Landmark No. 892 - panoramio (3).jpg|thumb|left|The historic [[Barstow Harvey House|Casa del Desierto]] today.]]

Prehistoric Native American tribes inhabited the region as long as 3,000 years ago. The Native Americans hunted, fished and gathered turquoise. The indigenous people left hardly any discernible footprints along faint pathways as they traveled up to the Mexican territory to trade goods. The written history of the Mojave Valley dates back to the 1700s and the missionary excursions of Spanish Franciscan friar [[Francisco Garcés]]. Garcés followed the earliest faint footpaths to the Mojave River Valley and from there across the desert around Barstow on his way to Spanish missions beyond the mountains of California.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdsHCwAAQBAJ&q=barstow+images+of+america|title=Barstow (Images of America)|year=2015|isbn=9781439654293 |last1=Toppenberg |first1=Christine |last2=Atkinson |first2=Donald |publisher=Arcadia }}</ref>

The settlement of Barstow began in the late 1840s in the [[Mormon Corridor]]. Every fall and winter, as the weather cooled, the rain produced new grass growth and replenished the water sources in the [[Mojave Desert]]. People, goods, and animal herds would move from [[New Mexico]] and later [[Utah]] to Los Angeles, along the [[Old Spanish Trail (trade route)|Old Spanish Trail]] from [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]], or after 1848, on the [[Mormon Road]] from [[Salt Lake City]]. Trains of freight wagons traveled back to Salt Lake City and other points in the interior. These travelers followed the course of the Mojave River, watering and camping at [[Fish Ponds]] on its south bank (west of [[Nebo Center, California|Nebo Center]]) or 3.625 miles up river on the north bank, at a riverside grove of willows and cottonwoods, festooned with wild grapes, called '''Grapevines''' (later the site of North Barstow). In 1859, the [[Mojave Road]] followed a route that was established from Los Angeles to [[Fort Mojave]] through Grapevines that linked eastward with the [[Edward Fitzgerald Beale#The Beale Wagon Road and Camel Corps|Beale Wagon Road]] across northern [[New Mexico Territory]] to Santa Fe.

Troubles with the [[Southern Paiute|Paiute]], [[Mojave people|Mojave]], and [[Chemehuevi]] tribes followed, and from 1860 [[Camp Cady]], a [[U.S. Army]] post {{convert|20|mi|km}} east of Barstow, was occupied sporadically until 1864, then permanently, by soldiers occupying other posts on the Mojave Road or patrolling in the region until 1871.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.militarymuseum.org/CpCady.html |title=The California State Military Museum; Historic California Posts: Camp Cady |publisher=Militarymuseum.org |access-date=January 6, 2012}}</ref>  Trading posts were established at Grapevines and Fish Ponds that supplied travelers on the roads and increasingly the miners that came into the Mojave Desert after the end of hostilities with the native people.<ref name=landuse>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoflanduse00west|title=A History of land use in the California Desert Conservation Area|first1=|last1=Westec Services|first2=Richard L.|last2=Carrico|first3=Frank|last3=Norris|last4=United States. Bureau of Land Management|date=September 22, 1978|publisher=Riverside, Calif. : Bureau of Land Management, California Desert District Office|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

Barstow's roots also lie in the rich mining history of the [[Mojave Desert]] following the discovery of gold and silver in the [[Owens Valley]] and in mountains to the east in the 1860s and 1870s. Due to the influx of miners arriving in [[Calico, San Bernardino County, California|Calico]] and [[Daggett, California|Daggett]], railroads were constructed to transport goods and people. The Southern Pacific built a line from [[Mojave, California]] through Barstow to [[Needles, California|Needles]] in 1883. In 1884, ownership of the line from Needles to Mojave was transferred to the [[Santa Fe Railroad]].

Paving the major highways through Barstow led to further development of the city. Much of its economy depends on transportation. Before the advent of the interstate highway system, Barstow was an important stop on both Routes [[U.S. Route 66|66]] and [[U.S. Route 91#History|91]]. The two routes met in downtown Barstow and continued west together to Los Angeles. The intersection of U.S. Route 91 and [[U.S. Route 466]] was among the busiest intersections in the country—with about 800 gallons of gasoline being pumped per day nearby, during the year before [[U.S. Route 40]] was extended to bypass Barstow.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Glen|last1=Duncan|title=Route 66 in California|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Charleston, South Carolina|isbn=9780738530376|chapter= High Desert Communities through the Mountains|page=34|year=2005|quote=This intersection with U.S. 91 and 466 was one of the busiest intersections in the country in the 1950s. To illustrate the economic impact of the interstate, the Standard station at the lower right pumped about 800 gallons of gas per day the year before Route 40 bypassed downtown Barstow.}}</ref> By the end of the 20th century, U.S. Routes 40, 91, and 466 were renamed or truncated as to no longer cover California and Nevada—with Interstates [[Interstate 15|15]] and [[Interstate 40|40]] now being the main interstate highways going in and out of Barstow.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.barstowca.org/residents/about-barstow|website=About Barstow|title=Location|date=2013|publisher=City of Barstow|access-date=June 19, 2024|quote=With Interstates 15 and 40, and highways 58 and 247 all converging in Barstow, the city is a major transportation corridor with more than 60 million people in 19 million vehicles traveling through Barstow each year.}}</ref>

Barstow is named after [[William Barstow Strong]], former president of the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ukMKAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA6 |title=The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and Auxiliary Companies – Annual Meetings, and Directors and Officers; January 1, 1902 |access-date=January 6, 2012|publisher=Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company |year=1902 }}</ref> Some early Barstow names were Camp Sugarloaf, Grapevine, Waterman Junction and Fishpond.<ref>{{cite web|title=Route 66 Barstow Where the Trails Meet|url=http://www.cart66pf.org/Map/66inland2.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030309062243/http://www.cart66pf.org/Map/66inland2.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 9, 2003|access-date=August 22, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Philip |last=Varney |title=Southern California's Best Ghost Towns |year=1990 |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |isbn=978-0-8061-2252-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/southerncaliforn00varn/page/51 51] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/southerncaliforn00varn/page/51 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bright|first=William|author-link=William Bright|date=1998|title=1500 California Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning|location=[[Berkeley, CA]]|publisher=[[University of California Press]]}}</ref>