Whether you arrived to Oasis Palms by train or by automobile the first structure greeting visitors was the Oasis Palms Train Station. The Oasis Palms train station is one of the older buildings in town. Built in 1898, to serve the Santa Fe Mojave Limited passenger train service it later served the Midnight Limited and the El Capitan.
The Oasis Palms welcome sign on Barco Road was erected in 1945 to promote tourist traffic visiting Oasis Palms from nearby route 66. Tourists were directed from billboards at Amboy and Cadiz to take the 10-minute detour down Barco Road to visit Oasis Palms. The sign was fashioned after the sign was installed at the end of Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles in 1941. In reality, the detour to Oasis Palms was more like a 30-minute drive but most tourists were not disappointed with their visit to the Barco Plataue.
The Oasis Palms train station was later expanded to include a second passenger platform where visitors would arrive on the nightly Santa Fe Midnight Limited trains bringing thirsty visitors from Los Angeles. Years later, after WWII the Santa Fe El Capitan service would stop each day on its way from Los Angeles to Chicago.
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