Most people who close their eyes and think of Route 66 imagine a scene a lot like the long stretches of wide-open, big-sky road cutting through this California community of 3,000 deep in the Mojave Desert.

There aren’t a lot of stopping points in this town—one eatery, a famed movie site, a gas station—but this is a community that’s drawn travelers for more than a century and has a way of getting under your skin in all the right ways.

As Route 66 stops go, Newberry Springs is sticky—many locals didn’t expect to stay for good. Local Rose Beardshear, for instance, was in shock at first when her family moved here when she was in eighth grade, but now she can’t imagine living anywhere else. She even works at the local chamber of commerce. “I just fell in love with the desert. It’s an opportunity to see rural life the way the first 66 travelers would have seen it.”

The Main Hub in Town

The Route 66 Centennial Monument stands directly in front of The Barn, which functions as the town’s social center, a desert crossroads where locals and road-trippers mingle over cold drinks, live music, karaoke nights, and—unexpectedly—some of the most talked-about pizza in the Mojave.

“I married an Italian guy, and we really have amazing pizza,” says owner Renee Kaminski, formerly a registered nurse living in Orange County. “We’ve had people drive nine hours to eat it. We make it all fresh.”

Originally opened in 1957 as a gas station, The Barn evolved into a somewhat rowdy roadhouse—with bras and underwear hanging everywhere—before slipping into decline. When Kaminski and her husband purchased it in 2019, her connection was immediate.

“When I saw that The Platters played here, I just fell in love with the place,” she says. “I told my husband, ‘We have to buy this place,’ and he said, ‘Are you insane?’”

She laughs.

“But it kept calling me. So, I texted an offer.”

Through quarantine, Renee cleaned up the space, which includes a dance area in back. “It was just dying before,” she says. “We just gave it a shot of adrenaline.”

In addition to pizza and beer, the family-friendly Barn now hosts karaoke and live music every weekend and is open Tuesday through Sunday. The Barn hosts a music festival to raise money for breast cancer the first weekend in October and the Newberry Springs Pistachio Festival on the first weekend in November.

The Barn, 760-447-6117, 44560 National Trails Highway

Route 66 History

Long before Route 66 earned its Mother Road mythology, Newberry Springs stirred to life because of something more practical: water.

Natural springs bubbling up through layers of volcanic rock made this pocket of the Mojave Desert, twenty miles east of Barstow, habitable in an otherwise unforgiving landscape. This tradition has thousands of years of history, with Vanyumé and other Mojave River people occupying the area. In the 19th century, numbers surged with the railroad, bringing surveyors and ranchers. By the 1910s, the corridor became part of the National Old Trails Road, an antecedent to Route 66, which arrived here in 1926 when the community was simply known as “Water.”

Today it’s Route 66 that fills local and visitors’ imaginations.

“To me, it’s like experiencing life back when the road was created,” says Rose Beardshear. “It’s an opportunity to see rural life and experience the way the first Route 66 travelers would have seen it: the weather, the landscape, the fresh air, the stars.”

She now intentionally takes Route 66 to Barstow, particularly when she’s riding with her granddaughter who saw the “66” sign and immediately made the connection to the movie Cars. 

Rose laughs, recalling the moment.

“I didn’t even know what the movie was about, and when I saw it, I cried. This is so Newberry!”

 

 

German Cult Film Site

In 1987, Newberry Springs welcomed perhaps its least-suspected visitors, a German film crew making Bagdad Cafe, which over the years has become a cult-movie favorite —even Roger Ebert was a big fan. It’s certainly a favorite around here. Set in a fictional desert town much like Newberry Springs, Bagdad Cafe eventually transformed an otherwise modest roadside diner into something of an international pilgrimage site for road trippers.

 

 

For decades, Bagdad Cafe owner Andrea Pruett welcomed them all.

“I don’t think I ever saw her not smile,” Rose recalls. “She was so happy being at the Bagdad, being the hostess. It’s what she loved most.”

Even as the café weathered age and repairs, visitors continued arriving.

“International travelers didn’t care,” Rose says. “They poured in.”

Andrea sadly passed away in 2026—but not before celebrating her 85th birthday onsite — and the café’s future remains uncertain. Many road trippers stop for a photo of the iconic sign. Check the website for information on preservation efforts.

https://bagdad-cafe-usa.com/

Exploring the Desert Wonderland

Any local will tell you: the character of the town springs from the landscape surrounding it. With wheels, and strategic timing to avoid the worst heat, Newberry Springs is a key jumping off point to experience some of the Mother Road’s richest geologic experiences, evident in volcanic rock formations, lava flows, and winding canyons.

Just south of the town, Newberry Mountains Wilderness is one starting point, and more opportunities for adventure lie east in the Mojave Trails National Monument, a vast protected landscape of volcanic formations first designated in 2016.

Its standout destination, about 60 miles from town (“a little drive,” as Rose says), is Amboy Crater, a dormant cinder cone rising dramatically from lava flows; the rim can be reached on a short, fully exposed hike offering wide-open views across the open Mojave terrain. A couple of destinations closer to Newberry Springs include Lava Lake volcanic field, about 10 miles east, and Pilot Rock, about 35 miles east.

Closer to town, an oddity worth a detour is a rather unusual driveway.

When construction of I-40 threatened to sever her connection to town in the 1960s, local resident Bessie Orcutt wasn’t having it. Refusing to accept Mojave isolation, she insisted that a fully paved private “driveway” be built to preserve access. Thus was born the four-mile curiosity now known as Mrs. Orcutt’s Driveway—a smooth strip of pavement running eastward along the north side of I-40 near the Newberry Springs exit, designated today as Memorial Drive. Orcutt’s house no longer stands intact, but its scattered remains linger at the road’s end.

For more details on scenic drives and activities in the area, check out the chamber’s incredibly detailed DiscoverNewberrySprings.com.

More Information

There are no hotels in Newberry Springs (you can find a few Airbnb listings and hotels 40 miles west in Barstow). Try to plan your visit for some of the yearly celebrations. The 27th annual Pistachio Festival, held the first weekend in November, is like a “pop-up town hall,” as one local put it; it regularly attracts 4,000 visitors for live music, art, old-time games and 95 vendors.

On March 22, The Barn hosts a fundraiser to help Smokes’ Equine Oasis horse rescue, as participants will try to make a world record for blind horse barrel racing. In early May, The Route 66 Big Birthday Bash features a car, motorcycle, and vintage trailer show, plus two stages for live acts. The first weekend in October, The Barn hosts a breast cancer fundraiser (“I’m all about fundraisers,” Renee says) featuring YouTuber and huge Newberry Springs fan, Wonderhussy (Watch her video of Andrea Pruett’s 85th birthday party at Bagdad Cafe in 2025: https://youtu.be/2ag6-sncdyU?si=rljGKvDJZiDuzoT-.).

Check out DiscoverNewberrySprings.com for more travel planning.