Barstow Visitor Information Center

The Casa del Desierto Harvey House was built in 1911 by the Santa Fe Railway and the Fred Harvey Company as one of the chain of railroad hotels and restaurants that served transcontinental passengers across the Southwest. Designed by Mary Colter — the legendary architect of the Grand Canyon's Bright Angel Lodge, Hopi House, and Hermit's Rest — the building combined Spanish Renaissance Revival and Mission Revival elements in a substantial multi-story structure with arcaded ground floor and broad red-tile roof.

After the Harvey House operations closed in the 1970s, the building sat largely vacant and was severely damaged by the 1992 Landers earthquake. A multi-decade restoration by the City of Barstow returned the structure to museum-quality condition, with the ground floor now housing three institutions: the Barstow Visitor Information Center, the Route 66 Mother Road Museum, and the Western America Railroad Museum. The upper floors house City of Barstow offices and meeting spaces.

The visitor center occupies a substantial ground-floor space with reception desk, brochure displays, maps and pamphlets covering Barstow and the surrounding region, gift items (Route 66 merchandise, local history publications, postcards), and the seating areas where travelers can pause, plan, and consult with staff. The space is comfortable and welcoming — air-conditioned in the desert heat, well-lit, accessible, and operated to the standards of a serious tourist-information facility.

Route 66 travel planning is the visitor center's most-requested service. Staff have detailed knowledge of the historic Route 66 alignment through California — the Barstow corridor, the eastward stretch through Daggett and Newberry Springs to Ludlow and Amboy, the westward stretch through Victorville to Cajon Pass and the San Bernardino Valley. They can recommend specific stops, advise on road conditions (some surface stretches of the original alignment are rough or require high-clearance vehicles), provide hours and current status of attractions, and offer the kind of practical advice that Google searches don't always reveal.

Local attraction information covers the Barstow area thoroughly. Beyond the Casa del Desierto's museums, staff can advise on the Calico Ghost Town (12 miles north), the Rainbow Basin Natural Area (geological wonderland 8 miles north), the Solar One historic site, the Mojave River Valley Museum, the various Route 66 motels and restaurants in the downtown corridor, and the seasonal events that bring substantial visitor activity throughout the year (Calico Days, the Marine Corps Logistics Base open houses, the desert motorsports calendar).

Practical logistics — restaurant recommendations, hotel availability, gas station locations, vehicle service options, road and weather conditions, and the kind of local knowledge that turns a navigation question into a useful answer — are part of the staff's daily work. The visitor center maintains current maps, both printed and digital, and can produce custom information packages for travelers with specific interests or unusual planning requirements. The Chamber of Commerce's broader network gives the staff access to information across the regional tourism ecosystem.

The visitor center is open Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm; closed Sundays. Admission is free. The Mother Road Museum next door is open Friday through Sunday 10am to 4pm; the Western America Railroad Museum has overlapping but slightly different hours. The combination of weekday visitor-center access and weekend museum access means that travelers can usefully visit the Casa del Desierto on most days of the week, with different parts of the building available depending on the day.

The most productive Barstow visit combines all three Casa del Desierto institutions — visitor center for orientation and planning, Mother Road Museum for Route 66 history and California desert context, and Western America Railroad Museum for the broader transportation history of the corridor. Plan two to three hours for the combined experience; pair with lunch in downtown Barstow or at one of the historic Route 66 restaurants in the immediate area.

For Route 66 travelers specifically, the visitor center stop should ideally come early in the Barstow visit — before driving the historic alignments, before exploring the downtown corridor, before the Calico or Bagdad Cafe day trips. The orientation, the maps, and the staff's recommendations meaningfully improve everything that follows. The center also handles practical issues (lost items, navigation confusion, mid-trip emergencies) and is the right point of contact for travelers whose plans need adjustment.