08/27/2026
100 Years of Route 66 – Daggett, CA
Daggett is easy to pass on the interstate without notice because travelers are focused on getting to Barstow about eight miles west.
But little Daggett played a BIG role in California and Route 66 history.
Daggett is named after John Daggett (1833–1919) who was born in Canada but came to the U.S. during the Gold Rush.
He became a miner, businessman, and politician – the first Lt. Gov. of Calif.
In 1882, it was a small mining camp on the Mojave River when the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad arrived. (It would later become the Santa Fe RR. )
Daggett was the wild west complete with “shootouts, saloons, hangings and frontier justice.”
John Steinbeck crafted very emotional and memorable events that took place in Daggett in his book, “The Grapes of Wrath.”
DAGGETT was the railhead for the silver mines of CALICO
Daggett is where the Twenty-Mule-Team borax wagons arrived from Death Valley and transferred their cargo to the railroad.
Daggett also sold supplies to prospectors heading for Death Valley and other mines.
Because the Santa Fe Railway (formerly Atlantic & Pacific RR) was there, the famous Death Valley Scotty often stayed in Daggett “between his legendary desert journeys.”
Another very important guy was Seymour Alf.
Alf was a blacksmith who built the huge Twenty Mule Team wagons.
They had to be rugged enough to cross the untamed desert which offers brutal conditions, and strong enough to haul heavy loads of borax.
During the Twenty Mule Team era in California (circa 1883 to 1898), miners hauled borate ores from the mines in Death Valley to Daggett.
Borate ores are processed and one of the important refined products is borax which was used in soap, laundry products, glassmaking, metallurgy, and other industries.
Today, Borax continues to be a popular laundry product.
The famous Twenty Mule Team wagons were essentially heavy-duty oversized farm wagons.
_ Thick wood frames to accommodate the heavy cargo.
_ Heavy and wide wheels with strong iron parts to support the weight of borax over rough desert trails.
_ The wide wheels helped prevent the heavy wagons from sinking in soft sand.
_ They had strong brakes to control the wagons on steep downhill trails.
The design was basic so the wagons could easily be repaired on the trail. Daggett was the only repair shop.
Mule trains consisted of two large box wagons to carry the product.
At the end of the train was a large water tank which provided water for the “twenty mules” and two men.
The typical configuration was actually 18 mules and 2 horses, but Twenty Mule Team flows so much better than “Eighteen mules and Two Horses Team.”
On the wagon were a teamster (driver) and a swamper who did much of the hard manual work including manning the brake lever, hitching and unhitching, repairs, and constant maintenance.
Visitors to Daggett can see:
o The old Stone Hotel (1875) which is now the Daggett Museum.
o The Desert Market (1908) which still operates as a general store.
o Alf’s Blacksmith Shop (1890) which is on the National Register of Historic Places and still owned by the Alf family.
o Fouts Brothers Garage building which was moved to its location in 1896 by a twenty-mule team. It is a auto repair shop on the National Old Trails Highway.
o Site of the old California Inspection Station in the film of “The Grapes of Wrath.”
THE GRAPES OF WRATH – MORAL DECISIONS
Only the hardiest of you will continue to read.
This stuff is facinating.
The scene is the desolate and remote Agricultural Inspection Station depicted in “The Grapes of Wrath.”
It is the great westward migration during the Dust Bowl Era and the Great Depression.
Daggett was a mining and railroad settlement, but it also was the inspection station on Route 66 for the California Department of Agriculture.
Steinbeck highlights the tremendous suspicion and hostility that Californians had toward migrant families.
That is set against the Joad family’s dogged determination to remain together and find a better life in California.
The Joad’s sought a life where they could find relief from the pain, suffering, and desperation of having lost everything to the dust blowing across the plains of the Midwest.
The Joad family’s ragtag truck pulled into the inspection station in Daggett late at night.
The California Agricultural Inspectors were responsible for inspecting the truck for plants, seeds, fruit, and vegetables.
Ma Joad was responsible for holding her family together and reaching the relief that populated areas of California promised.
Steinbeck couches the inspection as intimidating and unsympathetic.
Granma Joad lay dying in the back of the truck. Ma Joad tells the inspectors they must quickly get Granma to a doctor.
The AG Inspectors eventually let them pass and tell them they can find a doctor in Barstow.
But Granma was already dead and Ma knew it.
Ma Joad concealed Granma’s death so the family would not be stopped or separated before reaching the job rich areas of California.
Ma Joad’s lie was a deliberate choice, choosing the family’s survival over obedience to the law and authority.
If the inspectors had discovered that Granma was dead, the Joad’s desperate journey would have been prolonged significantly, the sheriffs’ office would be called, and the family questioned.
Ma’s simple lie would prevent that.
Ma lied because she wanted to get the family, and Granma, past the inspection station and into the oasis of populated California.
The scene presents a conundrum.
It reverses the usual relationship between truth and morality.
Steinbeck presents Ma’s lie as more humane than the inspector’s official process.
_ The law demands factual disclosure.
_ Compassion demands concealment.
Ma’s deception therefore becomes a moral act: she violates a moral law in order to protect the family and preserve Granma’s dignity.
What do you think?
Give us a little love if you reached this point. 😉
SOURCES: CA Historic Route 66 Assoc; Route 66 Travel Info; The Route 66 CA; “The Grapes of Wrath;” National Parks Service; The Desert Way; Historical Marker Database; ECV Billy Holcomb; Western Mining History.
