Creepy Amboy California Ghost Town

what's up guys jim here today i'm going to tell you about an awesome ghost town called Amboy California it's a little town right along route 66 with a population of only four people if you're in Southern California you should definitely check this place out it is pretty awesome Amboy is made up of about a dozen or so buildings and most are situated around a short stretch of highway nearly all of them are totally abandoned when you pull into Amboy the first thing you'll notice is the iconic sign for Roy's motel and cafe the town's most famous landmark and right next door to that is a tiny airstrip rumor has it Harrison Ford used to use it all the time when you'd fly into town and grab lunch at Roy's cafe the old motel building behind Roy's is the only part of town that's fenced off and has no trespassing signs looks like it's currently being used for storage and there's also a couple of old cars parked inside the fence further back from the highway is a little neighborhood of about four houses they've all been pretty thoroughly vandalized and torn apart by scrappers but there are a few interesting artifacts left to check out this mysterious coffin for instance and there's also a work shed full of old tools and a bunch of decaying junk the little white cottage is right along the highway are pretty much wide open and they still contain some props from the 2010 movie beneath the dark which was filmed in Amboy they're a little creepy especially if you go there around dark and it looks like nobody has really vandalized or messed with the movie props so you can check out a piece of b-movie history if you want across the highway is a little church and a rectory which have somehow remained mostly untouched by vandals and scrappers sorry about the grainy pictures here I was running out of daylight and the camera I used wasn't great at handling low-light conditions but you can see in here the church is pretty much intact the seating arrangement is a little unusual and boy also has an abandoned school which looks like something out of a horror movie which is probably why they decided to shoot one there tons of old books and furniture are scattered throughout the rooms and hallways and there's still a couple artifacts in there from the movie that was shot there a few years back if you're going to check out the school definitely bring a flashlight it's very in there which is why these pictures turned out so grainy but at least you kind of have an idea of what it looks like so a little bit of history about the place Amboy was originally settled in 1858 but didn't officially become a town until 1883 when a railroad station was built there the opening of route 66 in 1926 brought a lot of tourism and traffic to Amboy and it became a pretty important stopping point for people crossing the mojave in 1938 Roy Crowell the owner of the town open Roy's motel and cafe which did a lot of business because it was the only gas station in lodging for miles around the opening of Interstate 40 in 1973 diverted the majority of traffic away from Amboy resulting in the town's decline Amboy was bought by investors and changed hands several times over the years before Albert okura purchased it in 2005 with the intention of preserving the town and opening a museum when I pulled into town I was pretty excited to see that Roy's cafe had indeed reopened I pictured myself sitting at the lunch counter sipping on a malt and enjoying a burger and fries like so many a traveller had done during the heyday of route 66 unfortunately its new incarnation Roy's Cafe no longer has a functioning kitchen it's pretty much just a gift chap now so if you're thinking of visiting Amboy I've got a couple of tips for you first off I highly recommend starting your trip in 29 palms which is a military town about 45 minutes south of Amboy just north of Joshua Tree National Park it's about a 48 mile drive through bleak desert escape but it's definitely worth it there are an unbelievable number of abandoned houses scattered along the highway as much as I wanted to stop and explore each of them that were just way too many and I realized I'd never get to Amboy before dark so I made a couple quick stops at the most interesting ones and snap some pictures of others from the car I had to get a photo of the strange side that stood in front of what appeared to be an abandoned ranch at one point the road makes a 90-degree turn and then continues northward along Bristol dry lake which is a huge salt flat like the Salton Sea it accumulates agricultural runoff and has no outlet due to its low elevation the result is an interesting salt crusted landscape the salt is so ubiquitous it could be mistaken for frost or chunks of ice if it were in the middle of a scorching desert there also some pretty neat evaporation ponds that are definitely worth checking out if you've got time to stop well guys that's all I know about Amboy have any of you guys ever been there or are you thinking of going if so please leave me a comment down in the comment section below while you ride it you may as well subscribe hit the like button and feel free to share this video on Facebook or Twitter or tumblr whatever you want also check out my blog places that were calm to find out about even more awesome abandoned places across the US thank you guys so much for watching and until next time take it easy

Channel: Jimplicit

Views: 94,062

Rating: 4.9071493 out of 5

Keywords: urban exploration, urbex, abandoned buildings, abandoned places, Los Angeles, amboy california, amboy ca, roy's cafe, Roy's Motel And Café (Location), roy's motel, roy's amboy, amboy california ghost town, amboy ghost town, abandoned california, california ghost towns, california urbex, abandoned places in california, ghost towns in california, Amboy (City/Town/Village), Ghost Town (Periodical Subject), haunted california, haunted places, ghost town

Id: rM77zGtvdSQ

Length: 4min 59sec (299 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/fatcity]

Amboy 40 miles from nowhere.

[u/tnethacker]

Nice video, but I was waiting more video and less pictures :)