The story
Amboy started as a railroad siding on the Atlantic and Pacific in 1883, out on the salt flats of the Mojave near the cinder cone of Amboy Crater. For most of the 20th century, though, it lived on the road. When US Route 66 came through, Amboy became a classic desert waystation, and Roy's Motel and Cafe — with its boomerang-shaped Googie sign — grew into a full service stop of gas, food, cabins, and a garage, supporting a few hundred people at its peak.
Interstate 40 killed it in 1973 by bypassing this stretch of 66 to the north; the through traffic disappeared almost overnight and Amboy nearly died with it. The whole town was bought as a single property in 2005 by Albert Okura, founder of the Juan Pollo chain, who reopened Roy's as a gas-and-souvenir stop and relit the famous sign in 2019. A handful of caretakers keep it running as a Route 66 landmark.
What remains today
Roy's Motel and Cafe with its restored neon sign, the school, church, and post office, and Amboy Crater in the lava field just west of town.
Questions from the field
- Is Roy's Motel in Amboy open?
- Roy's operates as a gas station, gift shop, and Route 66 photo stop, and its landmark neon sign was restored and relit in 2019. The motel rooms and cafe are not in normal operation, but the site is a working stop for travelers.
- What is Amboy Crater?
- A young volcanic cinder cone in the lava field just west of Amboy, part of a BLM natural area with a hiking trail to the rim. It's the natural counterpart to the town's Route 66 landmarks.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Amboy — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Amboy's permanent record.
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Primary sources for this record
- — USGS GNIS feature 238579
- — Bureau of Land Management — Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark
- — National Park Service — Route 66 corridor, Amboy