Goffs, California
| Goffs, California | |
|---|---|
| — Unincorporated community — | |
 Goffs, California
|
|
| Coordinates: 34°55′09″N 115°03′46″W / 34.91917°N 115.06278°WCoordinates: 34°55′09″N 115°03′46″W / 34.91917°N 115.06278°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | San Bernardino |
| Elevation | 2,587 ft (789 m) |
| Population (January 2009) | |
| • Total | 23 |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP codes | 92332 |
| Area code(s) | 760 |
| FIPS code | 071-30266[1] |
| GNIS feature ID | 242776[2] |
Goffs, an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California, is a nearly empty one-time railroad town at the route's high point in the Mojave Desert. Goffs was a stop along famous U.S. Route 66 prior to 1931, when a more direct route between Needles and Amboy was built. Goffs was also home to workers of the nearby Santa Fe Railroad, with Homer east, Fenner south, and Blackburn and Purdy north.
Goffs was known as Blake between 1893 and 1902. It was named for Isaac Blake, the builder of the Nevada Southern Railway (later the California Eastern Railway 1895–1923) [3] that commenced here.
An early 20th Century general store is the town's largest building (now abandoned). A historic schoolhouse, built in 1914 and almost totally deteriorated by the early 1980s, has since been renovated to its original plans by the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association (MDHCA).[4] The schoolhouse and grounds now house a museum primarily specializing in the area's mining history. Remnants of Goffs' mining days still dot the town.
Goffs is accessible off Interstate 40 at U.S. Highway 95 north. A left turn onto Goffs Road, the pre-1931 alignment of US 66, becomes a desolate forty-mile (64 km) stretch which served as home to several towns which have mostly vanished including Bannock, Ibis and the aforementioned Homer . Continuing west on Goffs Road brings motorists back to I-40 northeast of the town of Essex.
[edit] References
- ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Goffs". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:242776. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
- ^ Myrick, David F., 1963, Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California Vol. 2, (Howell-North Books: Berkeley) pp. 841-848
- ^ CSEDesign. "Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association". Mdhca.org. http://www.mdhca.org/. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
[edit] External links
- "T 730". NGS data sheet. U.S. National Geodetic Survey. http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=EU0342. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
- Brief History of Nevada Southern Railway by Alan Hensher: 2005
- Historic Goffs, California
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