A man sat, perched on a stool at the dusty countertop.
In the cafe that doesn't serve food.
At the gas station that doesn't pump gas.
At the motel where nobody sleeps.
I asked the man, "How many people live in this town?"
He held up four fingers.
"Wait," said his friend, running his hand through the fur of a sleeping black dog. "What about Larry?"
"Oh yeah. Make that five," the man said.
It was just another quiet, dusty day in Amboy, Calif.
Population: Five.
Amboy is a town where you can count all the buildings on one hand. It takes a magnifying glass to see the tiny blip on the map.
You know how people joke about a place and say, "Blink and you'll miss it?"
That's Amboy.
It wasn't always that way. Once upon a time, Amboy was a bustling stop on Route 66, perfectly situated halfway between Barstow and Needles.
The place boasted Googie "retro-future" architecture, a real draw in 1959.
And it also had Roy's Motel and Cafe, the only gas, food and lodging stop for miles and miles.
Back then both Roy's and the town were owned by Buster Burris, one of the best-known characters you'd ever find on Route 66. He purchased Roy's from his father-in-law, Roy Crowl.
In those days, people were hungry for the open road. And, of course, they also needed a clean bed, fuel and burgers.
Used to be Roy's would get so busy, Burris had to advertise in surrounding states to bring in enough hands.
Then, in the 1970s, Interstate 40 entered the picture.
After the bypass was built, business shrunk to just about nothing.
Folks moved away.
Buildings were destroyed or faded in neglect.
You might recognize this scenario - Amboy was the inspiration for the town of Radiator Springs in Disney's animated movie, "Cars."
After Burris died, Amboy changed hands a couple times.
In 2003, the whole town was offered for sale on eBay at a price of $1.9 million.
The highest offer was $995,000, and the town went unsold.
In February 2005, Amboy was repossessed by Burris' widow, Bessie.
She ended up selling the place to the owner of the Juan Pollo restaurant chain, Albert Okura.
It went for $425,000 and a promise - Okura has to renovate and repopulate Amboy.
When I visited on a Saturday afternoon last month, there were signs of life, though the town still isn't out of the intensive care unit.
The cafe doors were open and a couple folks were sitting inside.
The only thing for sale, though, was bottled water for $1.
There's still some work to do to bring the place up to code. Running water, for example.
Outside, a crew worked on the gas pumps.
They're hopeful they could be selling fuel by the end of this month.
They've got someone to watch over the place, too.
A caretaker, Larry Stevens, lives on site to prevent vandalism.
This is the Larry who makes number five.
There's more
Across the street from the cafe is a church with a lopsided steeple.
Behind it, high-speed freight trains run like a ribbon through the landscape on the Santa Fe Railroad, between Barstow and Kingman, Ariz.
It's a popular spot for railroad photographers, because they can situate themselves close to the tracks with no obstacles.
The trains have also been important for the salt mines, which operate about three miles outside of Amboy.
Dry lake beds filled with chloride stretch for miles, which make the parched desert landscape almost look like it's covered in snow.
This salt is the reason Amboy is here at all.
The town was founded by miners in 1858, and the lake beds are still actively mined.
From the dry lake bed, you can see Amboy Crater, a cinder cone estimated to be more than 6,000 years old.
The crater is surrounded by waves of hardened lava flows, like black stucco on the earth-tone desert floor.
It's difficult hiking, but only for the heat and the uneven footing.
To give you an idea of the terrain, keep this in mind - the crater was the site of research about the Mars Rover.
It's rocky and dry and has an eerie outer-spaceness about it.
But, this is what makes the trip worthwhile.
www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic le?Date=20070415&...
ARTICLE APRIL 2007- The DESER SUN ( link above)
Here you'll find solitude like you've never experienced before.
It's just you and some prehistoric rock - and way out there, out on the horizon, a town that could be something.
Someday.
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