Route 66! Part IX: Whiting Brothers Gas Station, Newberry Springs

On the eastern edge of Newberry Springs along Route 66 was a Whiting Brothers gas station.  The Whiting Brothers had a chain of several filling stations in New Mexico and Arizona, and later on expanded into California.  The fortunes of this chain both rose and fell with 66.  In their prime they were no doubt a welcome sight to the Depression-era traveler who was in search of a better life in California as they were to those vacationers in the 50s who frequented the highway.

What's left of this station is behind a chain link fence.    Whoever owns this obviously doesn't want trespassers leaving behind graffiti and trash, and they can hardly be blamed for that.

All photos in this posting were taken 11/30/11.  We did stop on the 7/16/13 trip, but for some reason I didn't re-photograph this spot.  As a reminder, if you click on the pictures a slideshow (without captions) will emerge and you'll see them in greater detail.

 A close-up of one of the gas pumps.  It's hard to tell, but I think the price is 53 and 9/10 cents per gallon, which would have this current as of 1974.

A view of the whole station.  Years of sun have taken their toll on the painting.

Looking west.  Too bad some mogul with a lot of money doesn't buy this and restore it to its former glory.  Or is it too bad?  There's a bit of charm in this old relic in being the way it is now.

Route 66 going east parallels I-40 for the next several miles.  It is still driveable at this point, but beyond the next I-40 exit it's a frontage road which doesn't display very much evidence of being maintained.  I did see signs marking the frontage road as County Road 66 last July that I don't remember being there in 2011, so at least someone got paid to put them up.

There really isn't too much to see until the next stop, which is Ludlow.  We'll pick that up in the next post.