Activities | Camp
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Destinations | Desert
| Mojave National Preserve
kelso.depot
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Kelso Train Depot - If this huge building seems odd sitting all alone in
the Mojave Desert, you must take a glance at the history of the
state of California.
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Kelso Depot did service the small town of Kelso, which at one
time had as many as several hundred people. But the size of this
railroad station perplexes most. the Kelso Depot was far more
than a functioning depot, for here the Los Angeles and Salt Lake
Railroad (Union Pacific) combined in a building a train depot,
boarding house, and a restaurant which served for employees &
passengers. The distance between Las Vegas and the connection
with the Santa Fe line at Daggett was too far for trains without
a meal car, so Kelso also made perfect sense as a restaurant stop.
This particular building was built in 1923 to replace an earlier
depot. Along it's rail road line, the Los Angeles and Salt Lake
Railroad designed its architecture in the California mission style
to create an identity for itself. The Kelso Depot survives as
a historical marker.
The Depot finally closed in 1985, and it has been recently renovated to become the Vistor Center for the entire Mojave desert area. See more on the new construction. All this history, is part of the Mojave National
Preserve
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See also - Kelso
Sand Dunes
